14 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Mia Sato

Mia Sato

Features Writer, The Verge

Features Writer, The Verge

    More From Mia Sato

    Mia Sato
    Mia Sato
    The Honey exposé fallout continues.

    Six months after the coupon hunting extension Honey was accused of cheating shoppers and influencers, it appears the PayPal-owned tool is still losing users. According to 9to5Google, the number of Chrome extension users continues to drop — at one point 20 million people used the extension. Now, that number is down to 15 million.

    Mia Sato
    Mia Sato
    The brewing fight at Politico over AI.

    Unionized workers at Politico allege the company violated its contract by using AI-generated content in a live blog — and are escalating their complaint to arbitration this summer. The union says the AI-generated summaries contained factual errors and language that’s off-limits for writers. The result of arbitration could set an important precedent for an industry that’s seen countless AI disputes in recent years.

    Mia Sato
    Mia Sato
    Big box retailers are hiking prices.

    In the midst of Donald Trump’s tariff chaos, prices are rising at retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Home Depot, according to data provided to The Verge by Bright Data, which tracks prices week over week. As of May 11th, for example, 21.5 percent of the 1.5 million tracked Amazon products had increased in price. Check out an interactive chart here.

    A chart showing the % of products from retailers that increased in price week over week. Retailers analyzed include Amazon, Home Depot, and Walmart. The percentage of products that increased in price jumped for all retailers in the data.
    Image: Bright Data
    Mia Sato
    Mia Sato
    Instagram ponies up (again).

    The company is paying a group of creators to refer people to Instagram, Business Insider reports. Influencers can earn $100 for every new user or 1,000 visits to the Instagram app, with a $20,000 limit.

    Instagram regularly tests monetization bonuses in an effort to juice engagement: they’ve paid people to post Reels and ditch TikTok, for example. But the Reels bonuses were touch and go for creators, with Instagram killing the program in 2023.