Dutch centrist D66 party confirmed as election winner, ANP says
Dutch centrist party D66 won the most votes in Wednesday's general election, news agency ANP said on Friday, putting its 38-year-old leader Rob Jetten...
Microsoft has dismissed four employees for protesting against its ties to Israel, including two who staged a sit-in at the office of company president Brad Smith this week.
The protest group No Azure for Apartheid said on Wednesday that Anna Hattle and Riki Fameli received voicemails informing them they had been fired. It added a day later that Nisreen Jaradat and Julius Shan were also dismissed after joining demonstrations and encampments at Microsoft headquarters.
Microsoft said the terminations followed “serious breaches of company policies,” adding that recent on-site demonstrations had “created significant safety concerns.”
Hattle accused the company of complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza.
“We are here because Microsoft continues to provide Israel with the tools it needs to commit genocide while gaslighting and misdirecting its own workers about this reality,” she said in a statement.
Hattle and Fameli were among seven protesters arrested on Tuesday after occupying Smith’s office. The other five were ex-employees or people unaffiliated with the firm.
Smith has insisted that Microsoft supports freedom of expression “as long as they do it lawfully.”
A recent investigation by the Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call, revealed that Israel’s military surveillance agency was using Microsoft’s Azure software to store vast amounts of Palestinians’ phone call recordings from the West Bank and Gaza. In response, Microsoft said it had asked law firm Covington & Burling LLP to conduct a review.
The latest firings come after other Microsoft staff protested earlier this year. In April, two employees were dismissed after interrupting AI chief Mustafa Suleyman’s remarks at the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Microsoft joins a growing list of firms and universities facing internal dissent and protests over ties to Israel as global outrage mounts over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Israel’s offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, displaced Gaza's entire population and left many facing hunger, according to humanitarian groups. Israel launched the campaign after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and seized around 250 hostages in its 7 October 2023 assault.
Reliable sources have confirmed to AnewZ that the United States has asked Azerbaijan to join a Stabilisation Force in Gaza, as part of a proposed international mission to secure the territory.
Centrist liberal party D66, led by 38-year-old Rob Jetten, has made sweeping gains in the Dutch election, emerging neck and neck with Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV) in early results — a stunning reversal just two years after D66 ranked sixth.
Tanzanian police fired tear gas and live rounds on Thursday to disperse protesters in Dar es Salaam and other cities, a day after a disputed election marked by violence and claims of political repression, witnesses said.
U.S. President Donald Trump agreed with President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing cracking down on the illicit fentanyl trade, Trump said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that the most difficult situation on the front line remains the eastern city of Pokrovsk, where fighting continues to be most intense due to a strong concentration of Russian forces.
Dutch centrist party D66 won the most votes in Wednesday's general election, news agency ANP said on Friday, putting its 38-year-old leader Rob Jetten on course to become the youngest-ever prime minister in the Netherlands.
Families gathered at a morgue in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday to identify loved ones killed in what has become Brazil’s deadliest police operation, while funerals were held for four officers who died during the raids.
Torrential rain battered New York on Thursday, leaving two people dead, Mayor Eric Adams confirmed, as severe storms disrupted flights and prompted flood warnings across parts of the city.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced plans to introduce a pension top-up as part of a wider pre-election spending drive ahead of the 2026 national vote.
The United States’ participation at this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea has been “very strong and robust,” a senior U.S. official said on Friday, after President Donald Trump left before the start of the leaders’ meeting.
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