Alibaba Cloud launched a cloud region in France featuring two availability zones in Paris as part of a plan to launch a suite of enterprise-grade agentic AI services in European markets later this year.

The move marks the Chinese giant’s third European hub following infrastructure builds in Germany and the UK.

The fully operational region brings enterprise-grade cloud services to European customers spanning computing, storage, containerisation, networking, security, databases, and developer tools.

The launch extends Alibaba Cloud’s global network to 105 availability zones across 32 regions.

The France deployment builds on European countries seeking to host their own data centres and cloud regions instead of relying on US companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

Built with data sovereignty in mind, Alibaba Cloud stated the Paris infrastructure is designed to comply with European regulatory frameworks covering data privacy, cybersecurity and resilience.

Alibaba Cloud noted the new region in France comes as European demand accelerates across sectors including retail, software development, AI-powered creative platforms and sports tech.

The company’s suite of agentic AI services includes AgentRun, a one-stop development platform for AI agents; STAROps, an intelligent operations platform; and ACS Agent Sandbox, which provides hardware-level security isolation while reducing operational costs.

The company is also bringing Agent Security Centre, AI Security Guardrails 2.0, and Agentic SOC to the region. Together, the portfolio is designed to cover the full agent lifecycle from development and debugging through deployment and security.

“This expansion, alongside the introduction of our agentic AI services to Europe, aligns with our broader strategy to bring our full-stack AI+Cloud ecosystem to global customers as we enter the agentic era,” stated Alibaba Cloud CTO and president of international business Dr. Feifei Li.

Last year, Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu committed to building “full stack technology capabilities” across AI chip design, infrastructure, cloud services and model development.

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Verizon unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its consumer offerings, scrapping activation and upgrade fees alongside launching two new plans designed to cut through what the US operator described as years of industry complexity and friction.

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman stated the industry has for too long burdened customers with complex plans and forced upgrades when announcing the new offerings and loyalty programme.

“We’re fundamentally reshaping Verizon inside and out to put the customer at the centre of everything we do,” he stated. “We’re listening, designing for them, and moving faster than we ever have before.”

The $40 activation fee, which Verizon raised from $35 as recently as last August, and the $40 upgrade fee charged when switching to a new device are both being eliminated.

However, customers will need to sign up for Verizon’s new free loyalty programme to benefit from the fee removal. The programme draws obvious comparisons to T-Mobile Tuesdays, which has been in operation for a decade.

The loyalty programme, which is rolling out this week, has two components. Verizon Dollars kicks back 3% of a customer’s bill in a currency redeemable for devices, accessories or partner rewards including Sephora, Hilton, Marriott and Starbucks.

The second element, Verizon Shine, offers weekly prize draws for experiences including tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final with David Beckham and a trip to Australia for the NFL’s first game there, alongside daily drops of lower-value benefits such as free Starbucks coffee and Amazon gift cards.

Verizon simplicity
The centrepiece of the announcement is Verizon Simplicity, priced at $45 per line with a promotional rate of $30 for switchers. Every Simplicity customer receives full access to Verizon’s 5G network with no upcharge, along with 10GB of mobile hotspot, roaming in Canada and Mexico and satellite texting.

Customers can add optional bundles and two upgrade tiers, Simplicity Plus at $35 extra per month and Simplicity Pro at $50, though the plan excludes multiple-line discounts and customers with remaining device trade-in credits would forfeit them by switching.

Also launching is Verizon One, a combined home and mobile plan priced at $70 a month with taxes and fees included, aimed at new customers only. The bundle pairs either a 500 Mb/s Fios fibre connection or 5G Home fixed wireless service with an unlimited 5G wireless plan, though hotspot use is not included.

The US operator is promoting the changes through an ad campaign featuring Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers films. In a video, Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil proposes to further confuse consumers through his “menace mobile” plans, which are shot down by members of his team in favour of Verizon’s new offerings.

The moves come after Verizon reported its first increase in post-paid subscriptions since 2013 in Q1 with 55,000 net additions.

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Meta Platforms’ Threads app has reached 500 million monthly active users, marking a significant milestone for the platform as it moves to deepen engagement through a suite of new community tools and personalised feed controls.

The social media giant stated the growth has been driven largely by communities, which are groups of users sharing interests spanning books, basketball, parenting, and music.

To mark the milestone, Meta is graduating its communities feature out of beta and launching a series of updates aimed at making those groups more visible and easier to navigate.

The communities hub is being added to the main menu to the left of the feed, making it easier for users to find and switch between groups.

Communities will also get their own distinct icons to make them more recognisable across the platform, alongside a progress indicator showing users how close a topic is to achieving full community status and what they can do to help it get there.

Champion recognition is being expanded to more users across communities, with local communities launching in Japan, Korea and Taiwan with native-language tags.

Meta stated Live Chats will expand to more communities in the coming weeks, with co-hosting and the ability to quote moments directly to a user’s feed.

Your Algo
Alongside the community updates, Meta is introducing Your Algo, a new personal feed setting which builds on the Dear Algo feature launched in February.

While Dear Algo allowed users to tell the Threads algorithm what they wanted to see more or less of, Your Algo adds a private layer of control, letting users filter specific topics from their feed and set how long a request lasts across one, three or seven days. Both tools will be manageable from a single hub.

Your Algo rolled out in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Meta stated the updates are the beginning of continued investment in the platform based on user feedback.

It launched Threads in July 2023 in a bid to compete against Elon Musk-owned X.

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Nokia highlighted a major expansion of its advanced test and packaging operations in the US state of Pennsylvania, in a move designed to scale production of optical networking technologies which underpin AI infrastructure.

The Finnish vendor stated the investment will increase the facility’s production capacity by up to 10 times its current level, with the extended capability expected to be commercially available by the end of Q3.

Nokia said the expansion in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is expected to nearly double the workforce there to more than 500 across engineering, manufacturing and R&D, with a projected economic impact of more than $500 million over the next five years.

It noted the Allentown site is one of only a few facilities in the US providing advanced test and packaging of photonic chips into optical modules for use in AI and telecoms infrastructure.

Nokia stated less than 2% of global semiconductor advanced test and packaging currently takes place in the US, making domestic capacity a strategic priority. The company claimed its optical technologies can reduce energy usage in AI communications by as much as 75%.

The expansion is part of Nokia’s multi-year plan to invest $4 billion in research and manufacturing in the US for AI-ready network connectivity.

The Allentown project involves approximately $30 million in total investment, including around $4 million in assistance from the state of Pennsylvania and approximately $10 million in federal CHIPS and Science Act tax credit.

Nokia CEO Justin Hotard said the “AI supercycle” is fundamentally reshaping network and infrastructure requirements and noted the Allentown expansion was a direct investment in that future.

“It also reflects the strong partnership between Nokia, the United States, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support advanced manufacturing, create jobs, and strengthen US technology leadership and global competitiveness,” he said.

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Google started rolling out Android 17 on its Pixel devices, though some of its headline AI features will not arrive for another few months.

The initial version of Android 17 became available yesterday (16 June) on its devices, with other hardware brands to follow throughout 2026.

A new feature available in the launch is Bubbles, a multitasking tool which lets users collapse any app into a floating window which stays visible on screen, Google stated in a blog post.

Bubbles can be stacked, dragged to position and resized as required. On large-screen and foldable devices, bubbles are docked in a dedicated bar at the bottom of the display.

Google positions the feature as useful for referencing maps, writing notes during a call or keeping texts visible without opening the app switcher.

Screen recording has been updated with a new toolbar and feature called Screen Reactions, which lets users record themselves via the selfie camera while simultaneously capturing what’s on their phone screens.

Bloomberg reported the tool is Google’s response to the growing popularity of reaction-style video across social media, building the format directly into Android to reduce reliance on third-party apps such as CapCut and Instagram Edits.

For foldable device owners, Android 17 introduces a dedicated gaming mode with an optimised 50/50 layout placing a game view on top and a dynamic gamepad below.

Google has also reduced frame drops and improved memory cleanup for high-definition gaming, with native controller remapping available for external controllers.

Security
On the security and privacy front, users can now grant apps one-time location access rather than making a permanent decision and share only specific contacts rather than their full address book.

Lost Mode has been tightened to require biometric authentication alongside a PIN, making it harder for thieves to access a missing device even if they know the passcode.

Live Threat Detection has also been improved to block a greater range of suspicious apps and scams, and enhanced Advanced Protection mode helps keep users safe from sophisticated threats.

To stop bad actors trying to guess their way into users’ phones, Google reduced the number of times someone can guess a PIN and added longer wait times between failed attempts.

Many of Android 17’s more advanced features will follow later this year. Gemini Intelligence, redesigned emoji, smarter voice dictation and vibe-coded widgets will arrive soon, coming first to the Pixel 11 series and upcoming Samsung devices.

Google is also updating Wear OS 7 with longer battery life, better interoperability with connected devices including smart glasses, and Gemini Intelligence features including multi-step app automations.

The Android updates came a week after Apple unveiled a long list of AI and Siri improvements due in the coming months, highlighting the intensifying rivalry between the two mobile platforms.

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