designer491/Getty Images 2025-06-05T08:27:25Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Scott Edinburgh is still advising international students to apply for MBAs this year. US MBA programs can offer more networking and job opportunities than their European counterparts, he said. Sitting on the decision to apply for too long may hurt a candidate's acceptance chances. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Scott Edinburgh, a Boston-based MBA admissions consultant. It has been edited for length and clarity.I launched an admissions consulting business in 2008 — it's a family business that I run with my sister.We get a lot of international students, and they sometimes make up half our clients for the year. Our reach matches what many schools are seeing. There is a lot of interest from India and China, as well as growing numbers in Europe, the Middle East, and some countries in Africa. For MBA programs, most students are in their mid- to late 20s and have some years of work experience.We offer guidance for universities in Europe and some other places, but there are still some unique features about pursuing an MBA in the US. An MBA as a course is more popular in the US than Europe and it opens up more networking opportunities, and the degree holds a bit more value. US programs are also stronger from a recruiting and job standpoint. It also comes down to where you want to establish yourself. If you want to live in the US, there's no better way to do it than to study here.Given the uncertainty surrounding US immigration policies, we've been getting questions about studying and working in the US and seeing some students apply to European schools instead. Still, there are a couple of reasons tons of students are still keen on pursuing an MBA in the US and why I recommend they apply now.Schools are working hard to keep international studentsI'm getting questions about the US being open to accepting international students and the risks of studying here.There are over 1.1 million international students in the US right now, and they're not all being kicked out and told to leave. There's a lot of hesitation among some international students about their ability to show up on campus.But what we're seeing from talking with deans and councils is that schools are doing a lot so that they can have their international students. These students make up a large percentage of the class at top business schools. Their legal teams are quite strong, and we've seen a lot of court interventions to uphold the rights and opportunities for international students.While it seems like there's an issue now, it's probably going to work itself out. People hesitating means there are fewer applicants, which means you're more likely to get in.You're not entering the job market nowPeople are worried about the job market not being great, and they're reading jobs reports that are coming out from these schools. We tell them you're not applying to apply for a job now. Things are cyclical. If you're applying to business school in 2025 and graduating in 2028, that's three years from now. The chances are that the job market will not be in the same place three years from now.Right now is the absolute best time to apply. This will be the best round in the span of many rounds that I've seen as far as acceptance rates go. The market is not great job-wise wise and you can spend that time educating yourself. You won't be missing out on huge promotions, huge raises, and new jobs. By the time you graduate, things may start to improve.MBAs are time-boundThe job market and political situation add an element of risk, but those who are looking to get ahead will find a way to succeed.Students often forget that the MBA is a time-bound program, and waiting too long to apply while the situation clears up might make it too difficult to get in.Universities prefer those in their mid- to late 20s because they are easier to place into jobs and because they want cohorts to mesh well. The median number of years of experience is five, and as you go further down the bell curve, there are just fewer and fewer spots that are available.Unless you are in your early 20s, you could be shooting yourself in the foot by delaying by one or two years. The fear of what might happen from a policy standpoint becomes irrelevant if you don't get into a program in a future year.Do you have a story to share about international graduate students in the US? Contact this reporter at sgoel@businessinsider.com.

Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) dean joined Alan Garber, the university’s president, in condemning the federal government earlier this week after it moved to block the university from being able to admit international students. GSD has a higher proportion of international students compared to the rest of the University’s student body, and Dean Sarah M. Whiting said international students are an integral part of the school. “I join President Garber in condemning the government’s illegal action against our school, and in affirming the immense value our international students bring to the GSD community,” Dean Sarah M. Whiting said in a note shared online Saturday. Whiting, who’s also a Josep Lluis Sert professor of architecture, said GSD is “one of the most international schools at Harvard” and that the school’s international makeup “goes back to the founding of the GSD.” Nearly a third of Harvard GSD students are international, which is higher than the 14% of international students who make up of the general student body at large, according to Peterson’s, an educational services company. Six of the school’s eight class of 2025 commencement marshals who represent their disciples at graduation are from outside the U.S. Whiting added that its international student body “is part of our DNA—our student body, our faculty, our staff, and the discipline and practice of design all thrive on this internationalism. The extraordinary breadth of experience and perspectives that the international members of our community provide is essential to who we are.” The school offers programs through its departments of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning and design, design studies, and design engineering. A spokesperson from the school declined to comment for this piece. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from rescinding Harvard’s ability to admit international students on Friday after the Department of Homeland Security revoked its Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification for admitting foreign students. Now, Trump is attempting to go after the university in other ways, including calls to redirect grants from the university to trade schools and no longer scheduling student visa appointments. Trump said Wednesday Harvard should have a cap of about 15% on international students and accused the university of being antisemitic and a “disaster.” Garber, the university president, told NPR Wednesday that Harvard should “stand firm” to its “commitment to the good of the nation” in the face of Trump’s retaliation over the private university’s policies around admissions, DEI programs, hiring, and international students.

The demand for extended reality (XR) talent is increasing rapidly, opening countless new doors for the next generation of metaverse creators. To adequately prepare tomorrow’s real-time 3D workforce, educators and schools need to be teaching these desirable skill sets to their students today. In pursuit of this goal, Unity Social Impact and Meta Immersive Learning have partnered to increase access to AR/VR hardware, high-quality educational content, and other resources that will help educators create or enhance innovative XR programs.The Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant is one of the core components of this partnership, providing over $1 million in awards to higher-education institutions leveraging real-time 3D and immersive technology to make advances in teaching and learning, XR creation, and workforce development.Grantees were selected based on their proposals’ attention to inclusion, impact, viability, and innovation. Special consideration was given to institutions and programs that cater to or design innovative educational content for underserved learners.Today, we’re thrilled to introduce the eight recipients of the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant. A team of over 60 judges from Unity and Meta selected the winners from among 276 submissions.“Now, more than ever, we have a responsibility to equip young people with the skills necessary for future jobs – providing them with learning that translates to earning,” says Jessica Lindl, vice president of social impact at Unity. “I’m thrilled with the winners of the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant and am confident that these institutions will continue to provide equitable access to education and workforce opportunities.”Read on to learn how these forward-thinking projects are increasing access to quality real-time 3D education.Arizona State University’s Center for Narrative and Emerging Media (NEM) in Los Angeles will open as a best-in-class teaching and research facility, focused on diversifying who can create and distribute narratives using emerging media technologies in the areas of arts, culture, and nonfiction.NEM will train and support storytellers, artists, journalists, entrepreneurs, and engineers who will build the stories, technologies, and policies of the future. This fall, ASU launched their flagship MA Narrative and Emerging Media program, a collaborative effort between the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication centered around the development of a creative practice and critical understanding of emerging storytelling and immersive content creation. Funding from the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant will support student production, virtual production, staff training, and research.Country: United States of AmericaThe vision of California Community Colleges is to ensure students from all backgrounds succeed in reaching their education and career goals, with emphasis on improving families’ incomes and communities’ workforces. To achieve this, California Community Colleges aim to provide educational programs that highlight inclusivity, diversity, and equity while minimizing logistical and financial barriers to success.Cañada College will partner with various employers and California Community College districts to enhance XR apprenticeship programs, K–14 curriculum development, and XR job training programs designed for dislocated workers, workforce board clients, and underemployed individuals. Funds from the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant will aid Cañada College in designing and sharing workforce readiness models for county education offices, community colleges and universities, and workforce training entities in California and throughout the U.S.Country: United States of AmericaThe Clarkson University Psychology Department plans to use their grant funding to develop a novel instructional tool that leverages both VR for accurate neuroanatomical renderings and modern pedagogical principles (such as social interaction and embodiment) to build an innovative and engaging neuroscience learning experience.By using this tool to enhance their psychology program’s neuroscience instruction and open-sourcing the tool for use at other institutions, Clarkson University hopes to positively impact psychology students – especially those from underrepresented backgrounds. And, since student training is integrated throughout the project, the development process will involve students from multiple departments, providing them with opportunities to work in VR, engage in usability testing, and learn about neuroscience.Country: United States of AmericaThe LED (Digital Experience Lab) at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Design (DAUD) aims to be a place for students and professors to explore new digital technologies and develop innovative solutions for real-world problems.The LED plans to use their Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant funding to outfit eight digital studios with hardware for running prototyping experiments in virtual environments. They’ll also acquire peripherals for interacting with AR and MR experiences, including projectors for SAR (spatial AR), Kinect sensors, and motion trackers, with the goal of exploring ways that XR technology can improve design education and project solutions. Finally, their team will drive development of LEDed, a free platform for sharing educational content and experiences in XR within the department’s community and beyond.Country: BrazilNorQuest College is Alberta’s largest community college, serving more than 21,000 students annually. Housed within the Research Office at NorQuest College, Autism CanTech! (ACT!)’s vision is to remove barriers that hinder meaningful and sustainable employment within the digital economy for individuals on the Autism spectrum.Through job-specific training in technical skills, employability skills, career coaching, and Work Integrated Learning (WIL) opportunities, ACT! works to fill industry gaps. ACT! also offers participants additional support through new assistive technology which allows users, career coaches, and supervisors to manage tasks, schedule work-related activities, and live chat. Funds from the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant will support the development of a road map and team to adapt educator resources and XR courses for a neurodiverse audience.Country: CanadaEthọ́s Lab is a Black-led, nonprofit innovation academy for teens based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and accessible from anywhere in the world. To build toward a more inclusive future, Ethọ́s Lab takes a holistic, community-based approach to teaching S.T.E.A.M. that is partnered and has a long-term vision. The organization provides pathways to applied learning, mentorship, and access to emerging tech through weekly collaborative workshops, creative projects, and events. As participants, youth develop core skills for post-secondary admissions, future careers, and being the leaders of innovation.Centre for Digital Media (CDM) was established in 2007 through a ground-breaking partnership between the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Anchored by the flagship, multidisciplinary Master of Digital Media program, CDM is a mixed-use campus, home to Canada’s first Metastage studio as well as game studios and innovative startups in the healthcare and cloud-computing sectors.With the support of the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant, Ethọ́s Lab and CDM aim to increase the representation of Black youth and girls in XR-based digital futures through development of an XR Media Lab program. The funding will enable the program to serve 300+ underrepresented youth and 190+ high school educators over five years.Country: CanadaUniversidad de los Andes was founded in 1948 as an autonomous and innovative institution pursuing pluralism, tolerance, and respect. It strives to raise consciousness about students’ social and civic responsibilities as well as their relationship to and stewardship of the environment.The XR Incubator Program (named “Vivero Virtual” in Spanish) is a two-year program focused on both workforce development and education innovation in XR. With Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant funding, Universidad de los Andes will launch three Massive, Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Spanish to promote learning throughout Ibero-America. Funds will also help implement a week-long XR Camp offering Colombian educators access to a variety of XR technologies, and an XR Mobile Lab that will allow those educators to show XR technologies to the public at their own institutions.Country: ColombiaThe University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS) aspire to design an innovative, immersive tool that addresses challenges faced by teachers in underrepresented communities. With Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant funding, their multinational team will develop and test a VR prototype for pre-service teachers (student teachers working towards their teacher certification) in South Africa.The tool will allow future teachers to have authentic teaching experiences in a safe environment, aided by learning analytics that provide opportunities to reflect on their lesson delivery and prepare them for actual teaching. The University also intends the tool to help mitigate language barriers for students whose first language is not English. Broadly, the project will empower pre-service teachers to be agents in transforming science teaching, leveraging the potential of immersive technologies and preparing students from marginalized communities with 21st-century digital skills.Country: South AfricaOn behalf of Unity Social Impact and Meta Immersive Learning, congratulations to all of our grant recipients and thank you to everyone who applied for the Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant. Learn more about educator resources and tools for propelling real-time 3D in the classroom and Meta’s $150 million investment to transform the way we learn through Meta Immersive Learning.

Privacy and digital rights advocates are raising alarms over a law that many would expect them to cheer: a federal crackdown on revenge porn and AI-generated deepfakes.  The newly signed Take It Down Act makes it illegal to publish nonconsensual explicit images — real or AI-generated — and gives platforms just 48 hours to comply with a victim’s takedown request or face liability. While widely praised as a long-overdue win for victims, experts have also warned its vague language, lax standards for verifying claims, and tight compliance window could pave the way for overreach, censorship of legitimate content, and even surveillance.  “Content moderation at scale is widely problematic and always ends up with important and necessary speech being censored,” India McKinney, director of federal affairs at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, told TechCrunch. Online platforms have one year to establish a process for removing nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII). While the law requires takedown requests come from victims or their representatives, it only asks for a physical or electronic signature — no photo ID or other form of verification is needed. That likely aims to reduce barriers for victims, but it could create an opportunity for abuse. “I really want to be wrong about this, but I think there are going to be more requests to take down images depicting queer and trans people in relationships, and even more than that, I think it’s gonna be consensual porn,” McKinney said.  Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a co-sponsor of the Take It Down Act, also sponsored the Kids Online Safety Act which puts the onus on platforms to protect children from harmful content online. Blackburn has said she believes content related to transgender people is harmful to kids. Similarly, the Heritage Foundation — the conservative think tank behind Project 2025 — has also said that “keeping trans content away from children is protecting kids.”  Because of the liability that platforms face if they don’t take down an image within 48 hours of receiving a request, “the default is going to be that they just take it down without doing any investigation to see if this actually is NCII or if it’s another type of protected speech, or if it’s even relevant to the person who’s making the request,” said McKinney. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Snapchat and Meta have both said they are supportive of the law, but neither responded to TechCrunch’s requests for more information about how they’ll verify whether the person requesting a takedown is a victim.  Mastodon, a decentralized platform that hosts its own flagship server that others can join, told TechCrunch it would lean towards removal if it was too difficult to verify the victim.  Mastodon and other decentralized platforms like Bluesky or Pixelfed may be especially vulnerable to the chilling effect of the 48-hour takedown rule. These networks rely on independently operated servers, often run by nonprofits or individuals. Under the law, the FTC can treat any platform that doesn’t “reasonably comply” with takedown demands as committing an “unfair or deceptive act or practice” – even if the host isn’t a commercial entity. “This is troubling on its face, but it is particularly so at a moment when the chair of the FTC has taken unprecedented steps to politicize the agency and has explicitly promised to use the power of the agency to punish platforms and services on an ideological, as opposed to principled, basis,” the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to ending revenge porn, said in a statement.  Proactive monitoring McKinney predicts that platforms will start moderating content before it’s disseminated so they have fewer problematic posts to take down in the future.  Platforms are already using AI to monitor for harmful content. Kevin Guo, CEO and co-founder of AI-generated content detection startup Hive, said his company works with online platforms to detect deepfakes and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Some of Hive’s customers include Reddit, Giphy, Vevo, Bluesky, and BeReal.  “We were actually one of the tech companies that endorsed that bill,” Guo told TechCrunch. “It’ll help solve some pretty important problems and compel these platforms to adopt solutions more proactively.”  Hive’s model is a software-as-a-service, so the startup doesn’t control how platforms use its product to flag or remove content. But Guo said many clients insert Hive’s API at the point of upload to monitor before anything is sent out to the community.  A Reddit spokesperson told TechCrunch the platform uses “sophisticated internal tools, processes, and teams to address and remove” NCII. Reddit also partners with nonprofit SWGfl to deploy its StopNCII tool, which scans live traffic for matches against a database of known NCII and removes accurate matches. The company did not share how it would ensure the person requesting the takedown is the victim.  McKinney warns this kind of monitoring could extend into encrypted messages in the future. While the law focuses on public or semi-public dissemination, it also requires platforms to “remove and make reasonable efforts to prevent the reupload” of nonconsensual intimate images. She argues this could incentivize proactive scanning of all content, even in encrypted spaces. The law doesn’t include any carve outs for end-to-end encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp, Signal, or iMessage.  Meta, Signal, and Apple have not responded to TechCrunch’s request for more information on their plans for encrypted messaging. Broader free speech implications On March 4, Trump delivered a joint address to Congress in which he praised the Take It Down Act and said he looked forward to signing it into law.  “And I’m going to use that bill for myself, too, if you don’t mind,” he added. “There’s nobody who gets treated worse than I do online.”  While the audience laughed at the comment, not everyone took it as a joke. Trump hasn’t been shy about suppressing or retaliating against unfavorable speech, whether that’s labeling mainstream media outlets “enemies of the people,” barring The Associated Press from the Oval Office despite a court order, or pulling funding from NPR and PBS. On Thursday, the Trump administration barred Harvard University from accepting foreign student admissions, escalating a conflict that began after Harvard refused to adhere to Trump’s demands that it make changes to its curriculum and eliminate DEI-related content, among other things. In retaliation, Trump has frozen federal funding to Harvard and threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.   “At a time when we’re already seeing school boards try to ban books and we’re seeing certain politicians be very explicitly about the types of content they don’t want people to ever see, whether it’s critical race theory or abortion information or information about climate change…it is deeply uncomfortable for us with our past work on content moderation to see members of both parties openly advocating for content moderation at this scale,” McKinney said.

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration opened a new front in its war against Harvard this week, attempting to block all international students from attending the university — and swiftly getting slapped down by a federal judge.What did the Trump administration do? On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, alleging that the university is “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment” and “employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies.” The move put Harvard’s nearly 7,000 international students at risk of losing their visas.What’s the latest? Harvard swiftly sued the administration, and a federal judge this morning issued a temporary restraining order, which means the university will be allowed to continue admitting foreign students, who make up more than a quarter of its student body. What else has the administration done to attack Harvard? Trump has attempted to seize control of Harvard’s curriculum and admissions policy, and slashed nearly $4 billion in federal grants; the New York Times has tracked at least eight separate investigations by six federal agencies targeting the school, and Trump has floated revoking the university’s tax-exempt status.Why is the Trump administration going after Harvard? The Trump administration has accused Harvard and other elite universities of perpetuating antisemitism on campus, but its attacks have quickly grown in scope. As my colleague Andrew Prokop has reported, Trump’s particular focus on universities is part of a broader ideological campaign to break what the right perceives as liberal institutions. But Harvard has pushed back — in addition to Friday’s lawsuit, it sued the administration last month over funding cuts.What’s next? Harvard’s international students are protected for now, and its lawsuits against the Trump administration will work their way through the court system. But Trump’s latest salvo is a reminder that the administration’s efforts to go after its perceived enemies show little sign of abating.And with that, it’s time to log off…University of Maryland graduates attended their “Kermencement” ceremony on Thursday — like a normal graduation, but with Kermit the Frog as the commencement speaker (his creator, Jim Henson, was a UMD graduate). Kermit urged students to stay connected to their friends and loved ones, and to their dreams, “no matter how big” — good advice for us all. Thanks for reading, have a great long weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday! You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More:

A Microsoft employee has managed to circumvent a block instituted earlier this week that limited mentions of “Palestine,” “Gaza,” and “Genocide” in email subject lines or in the body of a message. Nisreen Jaradat, a senior tech support engineer at Microsoft, emailed thousands of employees on May 23rd with the subject line: “You can’t get rid of us.”“As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company,” the note, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, reads. “I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees.”It’s not immediately clear how Jaradat got around the block. The email calls on Microsoft employees to sign a petition by the No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) group, which urges Microsoft to end its contracts with the Israeli government. NOAA is behind several high-profile protest actions in recent weeks, and Jaradat, a member, also encourages colleagues to join the group in different capacities. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw directed The Verge to a previous statement it shared when the block was initially reported, saying that mass emailing colleagues “about any topic not related to work is not appropriate,” and that the company has “taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.”NOAA organizer Hossam Nasr called Microsoft’s decision to block words “particularly egregious.”“Microsoft keeps telling its workers to go through the appropriate channels, and yet time and time again, those who speak up in ‘appropriate channels’ from viva engage posts to HR tickets are silenced or ignored,” Nasr said in a statement. “What Microsoft is really telling us is: make it convenient for us to ignore you. Nisreen’s email summarizes it: they cannot get rid of us. We will continue protesting in all ways big and small until our demands are met.”Microsoft put this email block into place the same week as its Build developer conference, during which current and former Microsoft employees, as well as hundreds of others, have been protesting against the company’s contracts with the Israeli government. Microsoft employee Joe Lopez disrupted Build’s opening keynote on May 19th and then sent an email to thousands of Microsoft employees. The company fired him the same day.A Palestinian tech worker then disrupted Microsoft’s CoreAI head during his presentation at Build on May 20th. The next day, two former Microsoft employees disrupted a Build session, and a Microsoft executive inadvertently revealed internal messages regarding Walmart’s use of AI moments later. There were also protests outside the conference venue on multiple days this week.This week’s protests and emails come just days after Microsoft acknowledged its cloud and AI contracts with Israel, but it claimed that an internal and external review had found “no evidence” that its tools were used to “target or harm people” in Gaza.Read the full email below:Yesterday, Microsoft chose to utterly and completely discriminate against an entire nation, an entire people, and an entire community by blocking all employees from sending any outbound email containing the words “Palestine”, “Gaza”, “genocide”, or “apartheid”. Microsoft leaders justified this blatant censorship by saying it was to prevent you from receiving emails like the email that you are reading right now. Even though Microsoft SLT are aware that this “short term solution” is easily bypassable, as this email clearly proves, Microsoft still doubled down, insisted on not rolling back the policy, and decided to continue targeting and repressing their Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied workers. They refused to revoke this censorship tactic, despite its potential illegality, dozens of employees expressing how racist of a decision it was, and even leaders admitting they see how it can be perceived as discriminatory and targeted. This further proves how little Microsoft values Palestinian lives and Palestinian suffering.As a Palestinian worker, I am fed up with the way our people have been treated by this company. I am sending this email as a message to Microsoft leaders: the cost of trying to silence all voices that dare to humanize Palestinians is far higher than simply listening to the concerns of your employees. Had this useless and discriminatory policy been revoked, as I tried to request numerous times through so-called “proper channels”[1][2], I would not be sending you all this email.Despite claiming to have “heard concerns from our employees and the public regarding Microsoft technologies used by the Israeli military to target civilians or cause harm in the conflict in Gaza” in a statement riddled with lies, admissions, and absurd justifications, Microsoft has shown that they are utterly uninterested in hearing what we have to say.Microsoft claims that they “provide many avenues for all voices to be heard”. However, whenever we try to discuss anything substantial about divesting from genocide in the “approved channels”, workers are retaliated against, doxxed, or silenced. Microsoft has deleted relevant employee questions in AMAs with executives and shut down Viva Engage posts in dedicated channels for asking SLT questions. Managers have warned outspoken directs to stay quiet and have even openly retaliated against them. When my community tries to flag issues and concerns to HR/GER/WIT, we have been met with racist outcomes with double standards. Throughout all this, Microsoft has sent a clear message to their employees: There are no proper channels at Microsoft to express your concerns, disagreements, or even questions about how Microsoft is using your labor to kill Palestinian babies.Over this past week, Microsoft has shown their true face, brutalizing, detaining, firing, pepper spraying, threatening and insulting workers and former workers protesting at Microsoft Build. This email censorship is simply the latest example in a long list of recent extreme and outrageous escalations by Microsoft against my community. Enough is enough.It has become clear that Microsoft will not listen to us out of the goodness of their hearts.Microsoft will not change their stance just because it is the moral or even legal thing to do. Microsoft will only divest from genocide once it becomes more expensive for them to kill Palestinians than not. Right now, Microsoft makes a lot of money from genocide-profiteering, so we must make support for genocide even more expensive.The situation in Palestine is more urgent by the minute. More and more Palestinians are being killed of starvation under the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)‘s bombing campaign, invasion, and siege that has martyred an estimated 400,000 Palestinians. The IOF have kidnapped over 16,000 Palestinians and placed them in torture and rape camps. 1.93 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, and over 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank.While a hostile work environment is difficult, it cannot compare to the horrors taking place in Palestine - horrors that we as Microsoft employees are complicit in. These futile attempts to silence our community, while painful at times, are evidence that the pressure we are applying is working. This is not the time for baby steps or gradual progress. Starving infants cannot wait any longer. We, as a company of over 200,000 employees, are providing the technological backbone for Israel’s genocidal war machine in Palestinian. We, as employees of this company, have a responsibility to end our employer’s complicity in this AI-assisted genocide! Now is the time to escalate against Microsoft and end this Microsoft-powered genocide!I am calling on every employee of conscience to:Sign No Azure for Apartheid’s petition calling for a termination of all Microsoft contracts with the Israeli military and government: https://noaa.cc/petitionStrongly consider whether you want to stay in the company and fight for change from within, or if you want to leave and stop contributing labor to genocide.If you choose to leave Microsoft to no longer be complicit in genocide, do not go quietly. The No Azure for Apartheid campaign is ready to help you make an impact on your way out for Palestine, and we will also do our best to provide you support before leaving. Reach out to us expressing your interest to leave here.If you choose to stay, continue to fight from the inside to end Microsoft’s, and your own, complicity in war crimes, join the No Azure for Apartheid campaign. If you are worried about being public with your affiliation, rest assured that as a worker-led grassroots movement, we have members with all levels of anonymity and risk level. Some of our members are publicly visible and will even publicly confront our war-criminal executives, such as Satya Nadella, Mustafa Suleyman, and Jay Parikh at major Microsoft events like the 50th Anniversary celebration and Microsoft Build. Other members choose to stay completely anonymous and still contribute to the critical work of the campaign. There is room for everyone: https://noaa.cc/joinWhile I do understand that as Microsoft employees, we cannot fully boycott Microsoft, most of us can focus on the priority targets set by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which recently set Microsoft as a priority target. The main target of the boycott is Microsoft Gaming, especially X-Box. We can also encourage our friends and family to boycott Microsoft where possible.To Microsoft Senior Leadership team specifically:You cannot silence Palestine.You cannot silence Gaza.You cannot hide your involvement in genocide and apartheid.Fre e PalestineNisreen JaradatSee More:

The Trump administration is working to limit access to covid booster shots by creating more regulatory hoops for companies developing vaccines for “healthy persons.” The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it’s only prioritizing covid vaccine approvals for adults older than 65 and others over the age of 6 months who have at least one “risk factor” for a severe case of covid-19. “The FDA will approve vaccines for high-risk persons and, at the same time, demand robust, gold-standard data on persons at low risk,” FDA officials write in commentary laying out their plans in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The move comes as notorious antivax crusader Robert F. Kennedy reshapes the US Department of Health and Human Services, recently pushing out the FDA’s top vaccine official and thousands of other federal health workers. Some public health experts are already voicing skepticism over whether the FDA’s new guidance for covid boosters will reap any benefits. “This is overly restrictive and will deny many people who want to be vaccinated a vaccine.”“This is overly restrictive and will deny many people who want to be vaccinated a vaccine,” Anna Durbin, director of the Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins University, said in an email to the New York Times.“The only thing that can come of this will make vaccines less insurable and less available,” Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist, virologist, and professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told The Associated Press.The FDA says it will require more data from additional clinical trials before approvals can be granted for covid-19 vaccines being developed for people not considered to be at heightened risk from severe sickness. It says 100 to 200 million Americans will still have annual access to covid vaccines after its policy change. That would be less than 60 percent of the US population. Last week, the agency approved the Novavax covid-19 vaccine for only older adults and people at higher risk from the disease.“We simply don’t know whether a healthy 52-year-old woman with a normal BMI who has had Covid-19 three times and has received six previous doses of a Covid-19 vaccine will benefit from the seventh dose,” the NEJM commentary says. But previous CDC studies have shown that getting a booster can help prevent mild to moderate cases of covid up to six months after getting the shot regardless of whether a person is at higher risk or not, Offit tells The Associated Press. And even if someone does get sick, being vaccinated can make the illness shorter and less severe and reduce the risk of developing long covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The rate of covid-19-associated hospitalizations was 71.2 per 100,000 people during the 2024–25 season, according to the CDC — although hospitals haven’t been required to report covid-related hospital admissions to HHS since May of last year. Vaccines are an important safeguard for people with a weakened immune system. The FDA’s new directive raises questions about whether people considered healthy will be able to get vaccinated if they want to protect someone close to them who’s at greater risk.In the NEJM article, the FDA notes that covid booster uptake has been low in the US, with less than a quarter of people getting the shot each year. “There may even be a ripple effect: public trust in vaccination in general has declined,” it says.RelatedDeath is the policyKennedy, meanwhile, has a long history of spreading disinformation about vaccines, advocacy for which he has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and profited from during the covid pandemic. “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Peter Marks, former director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) that regulates vaccines, wrote in a resignation letter in March.See More:

Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are moldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S. government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut global aid programs, according to three people who previously worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and two sources from other aid organizations. Some stocks that are due to expire as early as July are likely to be destroyed, either by incineration, using them as animal feed, or disposing of them in other ways, two of the sources said. The warehouses, which are run by USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), contain between 60,000 to 66,000 metric tons of food, sourced from American farmers and manufacturers, the five people said. An undated inventory list for the warehouses—which are located in Djibouti, South Africa, Dubai, and Houston—stated that they contained more than 66,000 tons of commodities, including high-energy biscuits, vegetable oil, and fortified grains. Those supplies are valued at over $98 million, according to the document reviewed by Reuters, which was shared by an aid official and verified by a U.S. government source as up to date. That food could feed over a million people for three months, or the entire population of Gaza for a month and a half, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from the World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian agency. The U.N. body says that one ton of food—typically including cereals, pulses, and oil—can meet the daily need of approximately 1,660 people. The dismantling of USAID and cuts to humanitarian aid spending by President Donald Trump come as global hunger levels are rising due to conflict and climate change, which are driving more people toward famine, undoing decades of progress. According to the World Food Programme, 343 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine. Most of them are in Gaza and Sudan, but also in pockets of South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali. A spokesperson for the State Department, which oversees USAID, said in response to detailed questions about the food stocks that it was working to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of aid programs and their transfer by July as part of the USAID decommissioning process. “USAID is continuously consulting with partners on where to best distribute commodities at USAID pre-positioning warehouses for use in emergency programs ahead of their expiration dates,” the spokesperson said. Some food likely to be destroyed Although the Trump administration has issued waivers for some humanitarian programs—including in Gaza and Sudan—the cancellation of contracts and freezing of funds needed to pay suppliers, shippers, and contractors has left food stocks stuck in the four warehouses, the sources said. A proposal to hand the stocks to aid organizations that can distribute them is on hold, according to the U.S. source and two former USAID sources briefed on the proposal. The plan is awaiting approval from the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance, the two former USAID sources said. The office is headed by Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old former operative of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, who is now overseeing the decommissioning of USAID. The Office of Foreign Assistance, DOGE, and Lewin himself did not respond to requests for comment. Nearly 500 tons of high-energy biscuits stored at a USAID warehouse in Dubai are due to expire in July, according to a former USAID official and an aid official familiar with the inventories. The biscuits could feed at least 27,000 acutely malnourished children for a month, according to Reuters calculations. The biscuits are now likely to be destroyed or turned into animal feed, the former USAID official said, adding that in a typical year, only around 20 tons of food might be disposed of in this way because of damage in transit or storage. Some of those stocks were previously intended for Gaza and famine-stricken Sudan, the former official said. The State Department spokesperson did not directly respond to questions on how much of the food aid in storage was close to expiry and whether this would be destroyed. USAID plans to fire almost all of its staff in two rounds on July 1 and Sept. 2, as it prepares to shut down, according to a notification submitted to Congress in March. The two former USAID sources said many of the critical staff needed to manage the warehouses or move the supplies will depart in July. Children dying The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data. U.S. food aid includes ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) such as high-energy biscuits and Plumpy’Nut, a peanut-based paste. Navyn Salem, the founder of Edesia, a U.S.-based manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, said termination of transportation contracts by USAID had created a massive backlog that had forced the firm to hire an additional warehouse to store its own production. The resulting stockpile of 5,000 tons, worth $13 million, could feed more than 484,000 children, she said. Salem said that email exchanges with Lewin have left her “hopeful” that a way will be found soon to get her product to the desperate children who need it. The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned in late March that RUTF stocks were running short in 17 countries due to funding cuts, potentially forcing 2.4 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition to go without these crucial supplies for the rest of the year. The four USAID warehouses contain the majority of the agency’s pre-positioned food stockpiles. In normal times, these could be rapidly deployed to places like Sudan, where 25 million people—half the country’s population—face acute hunger. Jeanette Bailey, director of nutrition at the International Rescue Committee, which receives much of its funding from the U.S., said it was scaling back its programs following the cuts. She said the impact of global shortages of therapeutic foods due to the disruption to U.S. aid flows is difficult to measure, particularly in places where aid programs no longer operate. “What we do know, though, is that if a child is in an inpatient stabilization center and they’re no longer able to access treatment, more than 60% of those children are at risk of dying very quickly,” she said. Action Against Hunger, a nonprofit that relied on the United States for over 30% of its global budget, said last month that the U.S. cuts had already led to the deaths of at least six children at its programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after it was forced to suspend admissions. Cuts causing chaos The Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, which coordinates the U.S. government’s aid efforts overseas, was plunged into chaos by the Trump administration’s cutbacks, the five sources said. The bureau’s staff were among thousands of USAID employees put on administrative leave pending their terminations. While some staff were brought back to work until their severance dates, aid administration has not recovered. Three sources told Reuters that the contract to maintain USAID warehouses in the South African port city of Durban had been canceled, raising questions about future aid distribution. Reuters was unable to confirm that independently. Two former USAID officials said that the Djibouti and Dubai facilities would be handed over to a team at the State Department that has yet to be formed. The State Department did not comment. A spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which relies heavily on U.S. funding, declined to comment on the stranded food stocks. Asked if it was engaged in discussions to release them, the spokesperson said: “We greatly appreciate the support from all our donors, including the U.S., and we will continue to work with partners to advocate for the needs of the most vulnerable in urgent need of life-saving assistance”. —Jessica Donati, Emma Farge, Ammu Kannampilly, and Jonathan Landay, Reuters. Writing by Ammu Kannampilly.