Friday, April 24, 2026
The European Union has formally approved a 90 billion euro loan package for Ukraine, paired with a fresh round of sanctions on Russia. President Zelenskyy welcomed the deal and pressed Brussels to release the first tranche by May or June.
A US Army master sergeant has been arrested for allegedly using classified knowledge of the January operation to capture Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to place winning bets on prediction market Polymarket — the first criminal case of its kind in the country. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, faces up to 60 years in prison after prosecutors say he pocketed more than $400,000 on trades he placed while actively involved in planning the mission.
Meta is laying off roughly 8,000 workers — about 10% of its workforce — while Microsoft is simultaneously offering voluntary buyouts to 8,750 employees, a first for the Windows maker. Both moves arrive as the companies race to redirect spending toward AI infrastructure after a bruising stretch of legal losses and market pressure for Meta.
Donald Trump has warned he will impose sweeping tariffs on the UK unless it scraps its 2% digital services tax on US tech giants, accusing Britain of trying to "make an easy buck" off American companies. The threat lands weeks after Trump signalled the existing UK-US trade framework could be renegotiated, raising fresh uncertainty over a deal both sides had been quietly pursuing.
The FDA has cleared the first gene therapy designed to treat hereditary deafness, developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. The approval targets a rare genetic form of the condition, but the milestone opens the door to gene-based treatments for a much wider range of hearing disorders.
