Author: Gulf News Week

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two bumpy years running Elon Musk’s social media platform. Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok. She did not say why she is leaving. Musk responded to Yaccarino’s announcement with his own 5-word statement on X: “Thank you for your contributions.”“The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner,” said Forrester…

The U.S. Senate’s health committee on Wednesday approved Susan Monarez to be President Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, taking her one step closer to confirmation.The committee voted 12-11 for advancing her nomination to the full Senate. The vote went along party lines, with Democrats in opposition.Monarez, 50, is poised to become the first CDC director to pass through Senate confirmation following a 2023 law. She was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon. She holds a doctorate in…

Trump administration says it is targeting Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC war crime prosecution against Israel’s Netanyahu.Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians during its war on Gaza. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”. Albanese, who serves as UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a leading global voice in calling for action to end…

WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs.The justices overrode lower court orders that temporarily froze the cuts, which have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency.The court said in an unsigned order that no specific cuts were in front of the justices, only an executive order issued by Trump and an administration directive for agencies to undertake job reductions.Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson…

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company said Wednesday that it’s taking down “inappropriate posts” made by its Grok chatbot, which appeared to include antisemitic comments that praised Adolf Hitler. Grok was developed by Musk’s xAI and pitched as alternative to “woke AI” interactions from rival chatbots like Google’s Gemini, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Musk said Friday that Grok has been improved significantly, and users “should notice a difference.” Since then, Grok has shared several antisemitic posts, including the trope that Jews run Hollywood, and denied that such a stance could be described as Nazism. “Labeling truths as hate speech stifles discussion,” Grok…

LONDON (news agencies) — Iga Swiatek reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over 19th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova that went from a stroll to a bit of a struggle in the late stages Wednesday.“Even though I’m in the middle of the tournament, I already got goosebumps after this win,” said Swiatek, who will face unseeded Belinda Bencic on Thursday for a spot in the final. “I’m super happy and super proud of myself.”Bencic beat No. 7 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal since the 2019 U.S. Open. The…

The official waived safeguards to fast-track a $30m award to the highly criticised Gaza aid group.A top US Department of State official waived nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to rush a $30m award last month to a controversial Gaza aid group backed by the Trump administration and Israel, according to an internal memorandum. Jeremy Lewin, a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) associate, signed off on the award despite an assessment in the memorandum that the GHF funding plan failed to meet required “minimum technical or budgetary standards”. The June 24 action memorandum to Lewin was sent by Kenneth…

The U.S. is having its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with a total of 1,288 cases nationally and another six months to go in 2025.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that the national case count surpassed 2019, when there were 1,274 cases for the year and the country almost lost its status of having eliminated the vaccine-preventable illness. That could happen this year if the virus has nonstop spread for 12 months. This year’s outbreaks, some of them interconnected, started five months ago in undervaccinated communities in West Texas. Three people…

Trump is hosting leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal on Wednesday for with discussions to focus on business opportunities.United States President Donald Trump is meeting with leaders from five African nations as he escalates a trade war that could impact developing countries reliant on commerce with the US. On Wednesday, Trump hosted leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal at the White House for talks and a working lunch, with discussions expected to centre on business opportunities, according to a White House official. During the lunch, Trump said they hail from “very vibrant places with very valuable…

SEOUL, South Korea (news agencies) — A South Korean court has approved the arrest of former President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges related to his brief imposition of martial law in December, accepting a special prosecutor’s claim that he poses a risk of destroying evidence.Yoon, who was ousted in April after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment, is heading back to a detention center near Seoul after four months. He had been released from that facility in March after the Seoul Central District Court overturned his January arrest, allowing him to stand trial for rebellion without being held in custody.Yoon’s…