The Know Daily - Wednesday 17 June 2026

_{Read in 4m 09s ∙ Listening to Jelly Roll ∙}

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir has shared mesmerising footage of the Southern Lights ‘snaking’ beneath a spacecraft in orbit, creating a spectacular light show above Antarctica. Some sights really are out of this world!

💍 Are wedding bells a brand killer?

By Holly Beddingfield. You might remember Holly as The Know’s original co-founder. She is now building Capsule, a newsletter with thoughtful takes on pop culture, fashion and modern life. Subscribe to Capsule for free here. 

I’m here to tell you about a growing trend you might not have noticed yet: influencers losing followers once they announce big milestones, like getting engaged. This phenomenon is hitting everyone from macro-creators like Poppy O’Toole (@poppy_cooks) to smaller accounts, who all report massive follower drops right after sharing their happy news.

Wow. Why does that happen?
Analytics tools within social platforms track follower counts in real time, so influencers can see the exact moment their numbers plummet. Some of them share when this happens to raise awareness and offer thoughts on what’s happening. 

But back to the why. There are many reasons we could speculate, but the answer is already there in the comments section: 

Okay, so there are a few things at play. 
Exactly. This issue of “relatability” is the main culprit: some people feel betrayed when an influencer’s content no longer reflects their own daily life or singlehood. And then there are the more cutting comments, arguing that reaching a milestone like marriage and shifting to all-consuming wedding planning makes content boring.

Right.
Suddenly the issue doesn’t feel so trivial; it becomes a microcosm of how society treats women. These “departure announcements” remind us that it is hard to do right as a woman sometimes – you must be relatable, you must appeal to everyone, and you must not evolve faster than other people are ready for. Social media heightens it all, and this unfollowing trend reminds us of the complicated nature of parasocial relationships. It’s unlikely that you’d dump a friend in real life for getting engaged, but when it comes to the internet, anything goes. 

So what’s the verdict? 
It’s completely fine to unfollow anyone, at any time, for any reason. We all have the right to curate our feeds to match our changing tastes or protect our peace around triggering topics. But the “departure announcements” might be better left behind. Comments under posts calling a person boring or unrelatable do very little to improve our digital spaces, and can actually serve to reinforce harmful stereotypes about women. 

🗳️ Polls will open tomorrow for the Makerfield by-election in a closely watched contest that could carry wider political consequences.

• The bigger story: The seat was vacated to make way for Andy Burnham, the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, who faces 13 other candidates in what promises to be a closely watched race. A win for Burnham is widely expected to trigger a Labour leadership contest, raising the stakes considerably. There’s also keen interest in how Reform fares – with Makerfield seen as a test of whether Labour can continue to hold its traditional heartland seats.

🎭 An iconic West End theatre is set to be renamed in honour of a British actor (and national treasure). 

📱 The Met Police and Apple are working together to make stolen phones "unusable" in efforts to curb thefts.  

🫸 Hungary’s parliament has backed a change to the constitution that would limit a prime minister's term in office to eight years, delivering on a promise by Péter Magyar to stop Viktor Orbán becoming prime minister again after being in power for 16 years.

🦈 A great white shark has been spotted by divers in the Mediterranean Sea – and they’ve got a video to prove the rare sighting!

🛌 Disturbed sleep is reported more frequently by women than men, but men appear to overestimate their sleep quality, a new study has found.

🛬 The most beautiful airports in the world have been unveiled, with just one in Europe making the cut.

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Trivia answer: C) The most watched TV show across all platforms averaged more than 30 million viewers.

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