diff --git a/src/components/Explore.tsx b/src/components/Explore.tsx
index c34fc825..77d7e8da 100644
--- a/src/components/Explore.tsx
+++ b/src/components/Explore.tsx
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ const Explore: React.FC<ExploreProps> = ({ relayPool, eventStore, settings, acti
         }
         return classifiedHighlights.length === 0 ? (
           <div className="explore-loading" style={{ gridColumn: '1/-1', display: 'flex', justifyContent: 'center', alignItems: 'center', padding: '4rem', color: 'var(--text-secondary)' }}>
-            <FontAwesomeIcon icon={faSpinner} spin size="2x" />
+            <span>No highlights to show for the selected scope.</span>
           </div>
         ) : (
           <div className="explore-grid">
diff --git a/src/services/nostrverseService.ts b/src/services/nostrverseService.ts
index 2f96942d..4374e9cf 100644
--- a/src/services/nostrverseService.ts
+++ b/src/services/nostrverseService.ts
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ export const fetchNostrverseHighlights = async (
     console.log('[NOSTRVERSE] 💡 Fetching highlights (kind 9802), limit:', limit)
 
     const seenIds = new Set<string>()
+    // Collect but do not block callers awaiting network completion
+    const collected: NostrEvent[] = []
     const rawEvents = await queryEvents(
       relayPool,
       { kinds: [9802], limit },
@@ -118,6 +120,7 @@ export const fetchNostrverseHighlights = async (
           if (eventStore) {
             eventStore.add(event)
           }
+          collected.push(event)
         }
       }
     )
@@ -127,7 +130,7 @@ export const fetchNostrverseHighlights = async (
       rawEvents.forEach(evt => eventStore.add(evt))
     }
 
-    const uniqueEvents = dedupeHighlights(rawEvents)
+    const uniqueEvents = dedupeHighlights([...collected, ...rawEvents])
     const highlights = uniqueEvents.map(eventToHighlight)
     
     console.log('[NOSTRVERSE] 💡 Processed', highlights.length, 'unique highlights')