News
Hard Numbers: Dutch riot, Israel's COVID balancing act, Estonia's new PM, Germans heart Biden
Protests during the Dutch lockdown in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
Pro Shots/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
10: Violent protests against new coronavirus restrictions have erupted in at least 10 regions in the Netherlands, which recently imposed the country's first nationwide curfew since World War Two. Protesters clashed with police and looted stores — and police say that a far-right anti-immigrant group has taken advantage of the discontent to exacerbate tensions.
1: Estonia's parliament has approved the nomination of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of the centre-right Reform party, making her the country's first-ever female head of government. Kallas takes the reins after Estonia's government was recently thrown into chaos amid a corruption scandal and will now oversee the country's post-COVID recovery.
40: Despite rolling out the most successful vaccine drive in the world, Israel's vaccination rate cannot keep pace with the spread of disease as Israelis continue to flout social distancing rules. The country will now close its airport to all international travel for at least a week to try and stop the spread of new COVID variants, with the British strain now accounting for around 40 percent of all new infections in the country.
79: After a tumultuous few years under the Trump presidency, Germans are feeling good about Joe Biden: 79 percent of them say they have confidence in Biden's approach to global affairs, compared to just 10 percent who said the same about President Trump last fall.
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.