We were doing some light reading last night. You know, just catching up on the 178-page 2026 Reuters Institute Digital News Report . And we stumbled on an interesting stat: 10% of folks globally — or 17% among the 18-24 cohort —now use AI chatbots for news!
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23 June
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VENEZUELA
A rare ‘doublet’ earthquake of 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude has rocked the capital of Caracas plus its key nearby port of La Guaira overnight, leaving entire blocks collapsed and swathes of the country without power. The US Geological Survey is already flagging a possible death toll into the tens of thousands. (Independent)
JAPAN
Shares in KIOXIA (Toshiba’s former memory arm) soared as much as 15% after America’s Micron memory chipmaker crushed its latest earnings. Capitalising on the AI boom, KIOXIA has also announced plans to offer US depositary shares next year. (Bloomberg $)
GERMANY
Shares in local defence giant Rheinmetall have plunged as much as 19% after Berlin cancelled Germany’s troubled F126 program, which would’ve delivered six of the world’s largest naval frigates in history. The defence minister (Pistorius) says the Germans are instead pivoting to eight smaller, proven frigates from ThyssenKrupp. (Naval News)
CHINA
China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba has filed suit in California, objecting to the Pentagon’s “arbitrary and capricious” blacklisting of Jack Ma’s firm over alleged PLA links. (Al Jazeera)
UNITED STATES
Reminding everyone why the former Dutch leader is dubbed The Trump Whisperer, NATO boss Mark Rutte has appeared in the White House armed with novelty-sized charts and posters to highlight $1.2T in extra European defence spending since 2017, supporting a reported 200k US jobs. The US president still voiced disappointment over a lack of support on Iran. (EuroNews)
BELARUS
After Ukraine's Zelensky gave the Belarusian dictator (Lukashenko) a week to deactivate the drone relay stations Putin uses to attack Ukraine, those Russian outposts are reportedly now silent. Meanwhile in Moscow, a top Putin propagandist (Solovyov) has used his primetime slot to warn "there's no money" for defensive barriers, asking "how is this possible?" (Kyiv Post)
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