US & Canada
Hard Numbers: Blinken leads migration summit, Rohingya tragedy in Malaysia, East Timor votes, South African leftists join Eswatini protests
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
Brendan Smialowski/REUTERS
6: Six Rohingya refugees were killed crossing a highway while trying to flee a detention center in northwest Malaysia. The country was once a safe haven for Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar, but in recent years, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment have led to many refugees being held in unsanitary and oft-dangerous detention centers.
60: With 60% of the vote counted Wednesday, Jose Ramos-Horta looks set to win the presidential runoff in East Timor, Asia’s youngest democracy. Ramos-Horta, an independence fighter during Indonesia’s long occupation of the country and a Nobel laureate, served as president from 2007-2012. He’s vowed to tackle enduring poverty, corruption, and political instability.
36: South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters – the country’s third-largest political party with Marxist affiliations – joined protests on the border with Eswatini against King Mswati III, who has led that country’s absolute monarchy with an iron fist for 36 years. Eswatini has been plagued by anti-government protests since an extrajudicial killing by the king’s police last May.Israel used AI in Gaza in a way that felt "potentially uncomfortable for the US military tradition" says Bloomberg reporter Katrina Manson.
Microsoft recently published its latest Global AI Diffusion Report, showing continued growth in AI usage worldwide. In the first quarter of 2026, global usage increased from 16.3% to 17.8%, with 26 economies now exceeding 30% adoption. As adoption expands, regional gaps are also becoming clearer. The report highlights faster growth in parts of Asia and a widening divide between the Global North and South. It also points to advances like multilingual AI and coding capabilities, driving increased usage and software development globally. Read the full blog here.
AI is now embedded across the US military's targeting process, from identifying objects to speeding up strike decisions. Bloomberg defense tech reporter Katrina Manson on what that looks like from the inside.
For decades, Beijing has successfully pushed countries to cut diplomatic ties with Taipei.