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Yesterday — 26 October 2026Main stream

Microsoft offers to buy out a quarter of its workforce

26 October 2026 at 22:36

On Monday, Microsoft said it will offer voluntary buyouts to eligible employees in select parts of the company. CNBC reports that the buyouts will be offered to roughly 60,000 employees, or about a quarter of its global workforce. The company describes the offer as an opportunity for employees who may have already been considering career moves outside Microsoft. While Microsoft did not give a direct reason for the buyout package, it comes as the company has spent the last several years managing costs amid investment in AI infrastructure and data-center buildout.

Microsoft will extend the voluntary exit offer (VEO) to qualifying employees in the United States, India, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Microsoft employees at level 70 or below will be eligible for the buyout program. The company's employee rankings are internal, but according to the salary and career database Levels.fyi, levels 65–67 correspond to principal positions, and 68–70 are at the partner/distinguished level. According to Chief People Officer Amy Coleman, eligible organizations were selected "based on each business’s priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs."

The effort is the second time Microsoft has run a voluntary workforce reduction in 2026. In April, the company offered its first voluntary retirement package to 8,750 US employees. In July, the Xbox division laid off 3,200 employees, or about 20 percent of its entire gaming division. As reported by CNBC, about 30 percent of eligible employees accepted the retirement offer, lessening the impact of the planned layoffs, according to Coleman. While the offer in April went out to long-tenured employees who might be nearing the end of their career, the VEO expands the effort to a much larger potential pool.

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© Drew Angerer | Getty Images

France Makes Concessions to Students, but Not Enough to Halt Protests

26 October 2026 at 22:22
The government promised to phase out an unpopular university admissions system by 2028. Student groups are pushing for more.

© Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Student representatives after a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu in Paris.

France Makes Concessions to Students, but Not Enough to Halt Protests

26 October 2026 at 22:22
The government promised to phase out an unpopular university admissions system by 2028. Student groups are pushing for more.

© Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Student representatives after a meeting on Monday with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu in Paris.

Brazil’s Vote Is a Victory for the Amazon, Environmentalists Say

26 October 2026 at 22:13
The re-election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to lead to continued rainforest protections. His opponent wanted to make it easier to clear land.

© Bruno Kelly/Reuters

A deforested area of the Amazon burned by wildfire in Brazil earlier this month. As president, Mr. Lula has pledged to protect the region.

Samsung’s Switch 2-ready MicroSD Express card is on sale for less than $50

26 October 2026 at 21:56
Samsung's P9 microSD Express card next to an Android phone with a controller attached.

Running out of space on your Nintendo Switch 2? Thankfully, Samsung’s P9 MicroSD Express card is discounted at multiple retailers, with the 256GB version going for $47.99 (Amazon, B&H Photo) and the 512GB version $99 (Amazon, B&H Photo). The smaller card typically sells for around $80, and the larger option usually sells between $150 and $200, though both are higher than their original launch prices, likely because of the ongoing memory shortage.

Samsung P9 microSD Express Card

The P9 is great if you need more storage for your Nintendo Switch 2. The microSD Express card offers sequential read speeds of up to 800MB/s, but only gadgets with a microSD Express card slot can take full advantage of the highest speeds. That includes certain cameras, tablets, and drones with a microSD USH-I slot.

Where to Buy:

First-party Switch 2 games generally run between 10 and 30 gigabytes each — the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is 27GB, for example — while third-party games can take up even more space (Cyberpunk 2077 is 60GB). Until recently, the Switch 2 was one of the few devices that could take advantage of the faster MicroSD Express standard, but this year’s Asus ROG Ally X20 also added support for MicroSD Express. While expensive, the latter is an impressive gaming handheld that runs Windows 11, giving it a versatility that’s hard to find elsewhere.

How Lula’s Social Media Campaign Helped Him Win Brazil’s Election

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won another term on Sunday, with the help of a seismic social media campaign that convinced Brazilians to reject his rival.

© Rodrigo Paiva/Getty Images

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s army of supporters, mobilized over a WhatsApp chat group, delivered an unexpected victory over Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing challenger.

Anthropic is burning gas to feed the AI boom

26 October 2026 at 21:45
Anthropic logo on an orange and gray background.

As it prepares to go public, Anthropic's S-1 filing makes generative AI's methane dependency glaringly obvious.

"Competition for access to electrical supply and data center locations with adequate power availability is intense."

In documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Monday, Anthropic acknowledges that data centers are becoming increasingly reliant on "natural gas" - the fossil fuel industry's marketing term for what is primarily methane - leaving the company's AI data center buildout vulnerable to rising fuel costs and existing supply chain constraints. And in a possible catch-22, Anthropic admits that rising gl …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Netanyahu Pushed for Attack on Iran Ahead of Israeli Election, Officials Say

Israel’s military chief resisted the prime minister, who then pressed in recent days for a separate action, short of an overt strike, according to an official and a person briefed on the matter.

© Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A campaign billboard in Tel Aviv depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump on Monday, the eve of Israel’s national election.
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