Our daily journey around the world

🇺🇦 President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia is progressing ​​"slower than desired." Ukraine’s military has reportedly recaptured eight villages since launching a counterattack roughly two weeks ago – but progress has been slow due to nearly 80,000 square miles of Ukrainian territory having been mined by Russian forces. Military analysts have consistently maintained that it’ll take a number of weeks or months to gauge the success of Ukraine’s spring offensive, and have also warned the fight would be long and bloody.

📰🤖 Europe’s best-selling newspaper is cutting ~20% of its jobs in favor of AI. Germany’s Bild tabloid, which is owned by publishing giant Axel Springer and has ~1 million daily readers, sent an email on Tuesday saying employees “who have tasks that in the digital world are performed by AI and/or automated processes” would be let go. The move follows a February announcement from Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner saying the publisher plans to be a “purely digital media company” going forward.

🇬🇧 UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7% in May. Last month’s rate came in 0.3 percentage-points higher than economists predicted, while core UK inflation – which is typically a better gauge of price trends – rose to its highest level since 1992 (+7.2%). The latest data means the Bank of England is all-but-guaranteed to hike interest rates for a 13th consecutive time today. The UK stands out from other advanced economies, including the US and the 20 countries that use the euro, where core inflation has started to ease in recent months.