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• Het onderzoek volgde op een Guardian-onderzoek waaruit bleek dat Israël technologie van het bedrijf gebruikte om massale surveillance van Palestijnse telefoongesprekken te ondersteunen • Het hoofd van de Israëlische dochteronderneming van Microsoft zal aftreden naar aanleiding van een onderzoek waarin de zakelijke banden met het Israëlische leger kritisch zijn bekeken • Microsoft gaf het onderzoek vorig jaar opdracht na een onthulling van The Guardian dat het leger technologie van het bedrijf had gebruikt om een krachtig surveillancesysteem te exploiteren waarmee op grote schaal telefoongesprekken van Palestijnse burgers werden verzameld.

• Een vastberaden zittend New Yorks lid kampt met lage peilingen en een verdeelde achterban, maar weigert toe te geven aan een andere centristische uitdager tegenover de progressieve Zohran Mamdani in de komende race. • De kandidaat houdt vast aan zijn standpunt ondanks interne partijdruk, waarbij hij wijst op sterke kiezersloyaliteit in belangrijke districten. • De beslissing zou de gematigde steun kunnen versplinteren, wat de kansen van Mamdani vergroot en wijst op bredere interne strijd binnen de Democratische partij.

Dertig jaar nadat de eerste overdracht van mens op mens werd gedocumenteerd in Patagonië, stellen wetenschappers dat wereldwijde opwarming de blootstelling wereldwijd zou kunnen vergroten. • Een uitbraak in landelijke gemeenschappen 30 jaar geleden in het Patagonië-gebied van Argentinië leidde ertoe dat wetenschappers voor het eerst de overdracht van het hantavirus van mens op mens documenteerden, wat tot die tijd alleen bekend was als een verspreiding via contact met knaagdieren. • Bijna een decennium geleden leverde een andere uitbraak, ook in Patagonië, gedetailleerd bewijs van intermenselijke overdracht toen een besmette 68-jarige landarbeider een verjaardagsfeest bijwoonde in een klein dorp. De infectie verspreidde zich en resulteerde in 11 doden. Lees verder...

• NBA-ster Steph Curry en zijn echtgenote Ayesha, die 15 jaar getrouwd zijn, maakten een ongemakkelijk moment mee tijdens een openbare date-avond, waarbij de acties van Curry de speciale avond van zijn vrouw overschaduwden. • De zichtbare reactie van Ayesha op het incident trok de aandacht van omstanders, waarbij waarnemers haar scherpe terechtwijzing opmerkten. • Het dynamische moment van het stel werd een gespreksonderwerp op sociale media, wat de balans tussen publieke verschijningen en persoonlijke relaties benadrukte.

David Hinton blijft in functie totdat er een opvolger is gevonden, aldus het nutsbedrijf, een week nadat de voorzitter van de groep aftrad.

• 'Bachelorette'-alumnae DeAnna Pappas heeft een rechtszaak aangespannen tegen haar ex-man Stephen Stagliano, waarbij zij $109.000 plus rente eist vanwege de vermeende schending van de voorwaarden van hun scheidingsregeling uit 2024. • De juridische actie betreft een geschil na de scheiding over financiële verplichtingen die in hun vaststellingsovereenkomst waren vastgelegd. • De zaak onderstreept de aanhoudende conflicten tussen het voormalige echtpaar na de definitieve scheiding in 2024.

Plan promotes ‘deprescribing’ as psychiatrists warn crisis stems from lack of access to care, not overuseThe federal health department will begin a series of steps intended to curb antidepressant use in the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr announced this week.Antidepressants, specifically selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have long been a target for Kennedy, the Trump administration’s health secretary, who talked about the plans at an event Monday hosted by the Make America Healthy Again Institute, an organization focused on advancing the MAHA agenda. He has claimed without evidence that the drugs are linked to a rise in school shootings and has expressed concerns about weaning off the medications and withdrawal symptoms. Continue reading...

Letter coordinated by Survivors Against Terror, which includes bereaved relatives, after spate of attacks on Jewish communityDozens of survivors and bereaved relatives of 19 separate terror attacks have written an open letter of solidarity to the Jewish community, saying: “Standing together in the face of hatred is not just the right thing to do – it’s the most effective way of defeating terrorism.”The letter was coordinated by the group Survivors Against Terror (SAT), after terror attacks on two Jewish men in north London earlier this week, in what was the latest in a series of attacks on the community in the UK. Continue reading...

Investigation found Botstein – who had claimed he wasn’t friends with Epstein – made 25 visits to his townhouseLeon Botstein has announced he is stepping down from the helm of Bard College, after an independent review of his contacts with Jeffrey Epstein found the college president’s frequent interactions with the convicted sex offender “could have alerted” him to the possibility that he and Bard would be facilitating Epstein’s abuse of women.An investigation by the WilmerHale law firm, which had been commissioned by Bard’s board of trustees earlier this year to review Botstein’s interactions with Epstein, found the Bard president – who had previously claimed he was not friends with Epstein – made about 25 visits to Epstein’s townhouse, a two-day visit to Epstein’s Little St James Island, and that there were two visits by Epstein to Bard. These visits, WilmerHale reported, included “multiple women” who have since been identified as victims of Epstein. Continue reading...

Company reported $111.2bn in revenue in first earnings report after announcement of Cook’s pending departureApple blew past Wall Street expectations in its first earnings report since it announced CEO Tim Cook would be stepping down.Cook reported Apple’s “best March quarter ever” and “double-digit growth across every geographic segment”. He also noted “extraordinary demand for the iPhone17 lineup”. Continue reading...

Actor and presenter broke his hip, right leg, pelvis and ribs when he gave a talk at CogX festival at O2 Arena in 2023Stephen Fry is suing two companies that organised a tech conference where he was injured in 2023 after falling off the stage, high court documents show.The actor and presenter broke his hip and had multiple breaks in his right leg, pelvis and ribs when he attended the CogX festival at the O2 Arena, where he delivered a talk on artificial intelligence on 14 September 2023. Continue reading...

• Maurice 'Mopreme' Shakur, Tupac's stepbrother, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against Duane 'Keffe D' Davis and unnamed defendants involved in the 1996 murder. • The suit claims 'for the first time in nearly 30 years, threads are starting to come together' amid new developments as Davis's first-degree murder trial approaches. • Tupac was fatally shot four times on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas when a white Cadillac pulled alongside his BMW near MGM Grand and Caesars Palace.

John Edwards, the data privacy watchdog, says he is fully cooperating with ICO’s independent report into ‘HR matters’The UK’s information commissioner has stepped back from his job after the data protection regulator launched an independent workplace investigation into unspecified “HR matters”.John Edwards, the national watchdog for information rights, data privacy and transparency among public bodies, said he was cooperating with the investigation in a post on his LinkedIn account. Continue reading...

Millionaire funded operation called ‘pure animal cruelty’ after environment minister sent threats on social mediaFinal preparations are reportedly under way for a millionaire fundedplan to tow a sickly humpback whale into the North Sea.The 12-tonne whale, nicknamed Timmy, has been stranded on the Baltic Sea coastline for almost a month. A barge resembling a giant steel aquarium will attempt to transport Timmy 400km (248 miles) towards the North Sea, and then hopefully back to the Atlantic Ocean from where it is believed to have arrived. Continue reading...

Extra social media checks brought in amid growing threat to politicians from extremistsThe security company that provides bodyguards for MPs has tightened its vetting processes after it sent a bodyguard with far-right links to protect a politician who was under threat from extremists.Mitie, which has a £31m contract for the work, is updating its CPO (Close Protection Operative) vetting processes to include regular social media checks. There will also be random checks on the social media activity of those already taken on. Continue reading...

Former US ambassador and Labour peer joins a long line of people who have gone out to meet awaiting paparazzi head-onFor a man at the centre of a storm that has rocked the political establishment, Peter Mandelson has spent the week looking remarkably relaxed. Day after day, as MPs have grilled civil servants over who knew what when about the former US ambassador’s security vetting, and police continue to investigate serious allegations over his own conduct, Mandelson has stepped out of his Regent’s Park mansion and pottered across the road to take his dog for a walk.Smart-casually dressed in jeans and a jumper and holding in front of him a plastic ball-thrower, he has set off for the park like a weekending solicitor on his way to an egg and spoon race. There have been occasional small smiles for the photographers at his gate, but no comment. The message appears to be: I am insouciant, normal. Not in prison. Continue reading...

Move creates conflict between state and administration as Trump seeks federal framework over states handling issueSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US justice department said on Friday it had intervened in a lawsuit by Elon Musk’s xAI challenging a Colorado law aimed at regulating artificial intelligence systems.In its intervention, the justice department said the law violates the 14th amendment’s equal protection guarantee by requiring companies to guard against unintended discriminatory effects while allowing some discrimination aimed at promoting diversity. Continue reading...

Judge’s repeal of Trump ban on gender-affirming care for children ‘a meaningful win for patients’, experts sayA federal judge overturned the Trump administration’s ban on gender-affirming care for children on Saturday, decrying Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “wanton disregard” for the law that “causes very real harm to very real people”.It’s another loss for Kennedy’s agenda as secretary for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the second Trump administration – an agenda that has focused on restricting healthcare, including vaccines, abortion and gender-affirming care. Continue reading...

Cook, who will assume the role of executive chair, will be succeeded by John Ternus as CEO on 1 SeptemberApple announced on Monday that it had named a replacement for Tim Cook as CEO, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus to succeed him. Cook will stay at the company in the role of executive chair.“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in a press release. Continue reading...

Trump administration to launch online portal on Monday after supreme court struck down tariff policy earlier this yearDonald Trump said US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday, and he again threatened to destroy its power plants and bridges if no deal is reached.Trump did not say who would lead the delegation, but a White House official said it was vice-president JD Vance. Continue reading...

Ahead of a showdown with MPs, prime minister looks like a man who is not really in controlKeir Starmer has spent much of the last 24 hours working on a plan for what senior government figures are already describing as his “judgment day”: his showdown with MPs on Monday over the latest Peter Mandelson revelations.That the prime minister was apparently not told of Mandelson’s vetting failure has provoked incredulity across Westminster and accusations he sacked a senior civil servant to save his premiership. Continue reading...

Purple state which recently elected a Democratic governor will now choose whether to replace existing voting maps with ones that favor DemocratsNearly three months to the day after his term as Virginia’s governor ended, Republican Glenn Youngkin stood in an unshaded corner of an office parking lot to warn dozens of conservative activists that they were in the midst of “the most important election” in the commonwealth’s 237-year history.The question before the voters casting ballots at an early voting precinct a few yards away in the city of Leesburg ahead of Tuesday’s special election was whether to temporarily set aside Virginia’s congressional maps intended to advantage neither party and replace them with a new version that could allow Democrats to win all but one seat in the 11-member delegation in the November midterm elections. Continue reading...

Lyons, who led agency since March 2025, to resign after turbulent year carrying out Trump’s immigration agendaTodd Lyons, the acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is stepping down after a turbulent year carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.Lyons, who has been leading the agency since March 2025, will resign at the end of May and move to the private sector, Markwayne ​Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on Thursday. Continue reading...

Chair’s decision to not seek re-election in June ‘not as a result of any disagreement’, company says in SEC filingNetflix chair Reed Hastings is leaving the streaming service he co-founded 29 years ago as the company regains its footing after it lost its $72bn deal for Warner Bros Discovery.In a letter to investors released on Thursday, Netflix said Hastings will not stand for re-election at its annual meeting in June and plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Continue reading...

UK chancellor tells US audience she is ‘not convinced that this conflict has made the world a safer place’Middle East crisis – live updatesBusiness live – latest updatesRachel Reeves has stepped up her criticism of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, describing it as a “mistake” that has destabilised the global economy and damaged living standards around the world.In a marked fraying of the transatlantic relationship, the UK chancellor said Trump breaking off from diplomatic talks with Iran and launching airstrikes had not made the world a safer place. Continue reading...

Push for states to assign presidential electors to winner of popular vote gains momentum in bid to reach 270 thresholdA national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger signed the National Popular Vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors. Continue reading...

Kepner’s body was found concealed under bed in a room she shared with two teens, including 16-year-old stepbrotherSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the 6 November death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival cruise ship, the US justice department said Monday.Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on 10 March. But the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted Friday, weeks after US district judge Beth Bloom in Miami said he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government.Guardian staff contributed Continue reading...

Gonzales, who admitted affair with aide who later died by suicide, says he will file retirement from office on TuesdayRepresentative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, announced on Monday he was stepping down from Congress after acknowledging an extramarital affair with a staffer.Gonzales, who was facing a growing threat of expulsion by his colleagues, admitted last month that he had an affair with an aide who later died by suicide. Continue reading...