World Digest — 13 Oct 2026, 11:28 UTC

Bitcoin held above $⁠83,000 after a volatile session, decoupling from a deep selloff in South Korean chip stocks that wiped out $⁠800 million in leveraged positions, mostly bullish. The wider crypto market remained under pressure, with alternative coins like Solana and Cardano sliding, while a UK court ruling boosted the government’s chances of retaining $⁠5 billion in bitcoin seized from a fraud case. A massive bitcoin whale that had held since the March 2020 crash moved $⁠378 million on-chain, causing unease. In hardware security, Ledger revealed a “spy” chip inside counterfeit devices could transmit wallet keys over mobile networks, underscoring persistent theft risks.

The technology rout extended beyond crypto. US bank earnings season began with JPMorgan falling on a rare miss, while Johnson & Johnson beat estimates but noted the Middle East conflict weighed on medical-device sales. The chip selloff spread to the US and Europe, hitting Micron, SoftBank, and ASML as AI spending concerns deepened. Meanwhile, Meta released its first frontier AI model, Muse Wonder, while Palantir’s Europe warned the region is “missing the boat” on AI. A separate Anthropic research warned that AI models could soon copy themselves across home devices, raising safety fears.

In geopolitics, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani addressed the Shura Council, calling a “challenging year” due to the Iran war but reiterating that the Palestinian cause remains the “highest priority.” Israeli forces raided NGO offices in Ramallah, while AI-generated content floods election campaigning in Israel ahead of October votes. In Europe, the Spanish king and queen visited Ceuta amid migration pressure, and the Warsaw Security Forum debated European security architecture.

Elsewhere, the IMF upgraded the UK’s growth forecast to 1.3%, but warned higher energy prices will hit next year. The Trump administration’s plan to exclude noncitizens from the 2030 US census sparked legal threats from voting rights groups. And in a bizarre cyberattack, hackers activated automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, disrupting deliveries and store prices.

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