Switzerland is set to vote in a referendum Sunday on limiting its population size – a proposal driven by divisions over immigration that could, if approved, set the country on a collision course with the European Union. The Swiss electorate will be asked a simple question: Should Switzerland’s population be capped at 10 million? If a majority vote yes, it would be the first nation in Europe to set a population limit. The current population is a shade over 9 million – up from 8.3 million a decade ago. More than a quarter of its residents are foreign-born, according to government figures.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/13/europe/switzerland-population-cap-referendum-intl-cmd
The US fertility rate has been trending down for decades, leaving researchers and policymakers searching for causes that may help pinpoint solutions. There have been all kinds of theories, including soaring costs of childcare, the rise of birth control and even the role of car seat regulations. A new paper offers a provocative culprit in a succinct package: the smartphone. But some other researchers are skeptical that this single factor could play such an outsized role in a much longer-term trend. 2007 marked a particularly significant “inflection point” in the US fertility rate, said Caitlin Myers, an economist with Middlebury College and the National Bureau of Economic Research, who is the lead author on the new paper.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/12/health/fertility-decline-smartphone-study
Siri is finally getting the big AI upgrade Wall Street has been waiting for. But it’s just the beginning. Apple on Monday announced Siri AI, a major revamp the company hopes will thrust its roughly 15-year-old digital assistant into the spotlight alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. The new assistant, which will launch in beta later this year, will help operate apps, analyze an iPhone’s screen to answer questions and incorporate personal context into responses, the company said. After falling behind in the AI race, Apple has been under pressure over the past couple of years to prove it has a plan to catch up. The company will soon have to prove it can leverage its AI assistant to drive iPhone upgrades, boost services revenue and power new types of products. But perhaps the most important question for investors is: Can Apple, a company known for turning nascent technologies into blockbuster products, convince people to pay for AI?
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/13/tech/apple-siri-ai-update
In email after email, modeling scouts on the global hunt for talent shared updates with an unexpected correspondent: Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender with no official role in the industry. One scout boasted of a modeling prospect as a “cute French girl” who would be “happy to meet you,” and described how a group of 16- and 17-year-old potential models from Scandinavia “will be ready for next year.” Another recruiter touted a 19-year-old Russian who was “ready to travel,” while another extolled a young model as the “best girl.” “She’s a gift that I had been planning on giving you,” the recruiter wrote.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/13/us/epstein-victims-model-scouts-fashion-invs-vis
Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates are again reckoning with the Microsoft co-founder’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, with Gates testifying this week to Congress about their past interactions and his ex-wife newly opening up about her “visceral reaction” to the late convicted sex offender. In an interview with the Guardian published Saturday, Melinda French Gates, a philanthropist who divorced Gates in 2021, said she had nightmares after once meeting Epstein and grew so upset talking to the reporter about her impressions of the man that she almost ended the interview. “Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?” French Gates reflected to the Guardian about her initial impressions of Epstein. She told the interviewer at the time that her heart was “racing,” according to the report.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/13/politics/melinda-french-gates-epstein-interview