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Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly affordable, but that's not necessarily the case in the United States.

Everything announced at Google's mid-year software event at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.

The company already pulled the game from the iOS and Android mobile stores.

Israel has begun a new ground operation in Gaza in which it says it plans to take territory and hold it. Palestinians are fleeing the intense bombardment. At the same time, Israel and Hamas are holding peace talks. And Israel says it will start allowing food and medicine into Gaza after a nearly three month blockade to pressure Hamas to release hostages. We hear the latest in the new offensive and an interview with a resident in northern Gaza to hear what life has been like.

Joe Biden has stage four metastatic prostate cancer.

The former president made that announcement Sunday afternoon. It came just days before the publication of "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again."

An explosive book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. Original Sin chronicles what the authors say was Biden's steep physical and cognitive decline.

Joe Biden repeatedly insisted he was capable of serving a second term. "Original Sin" argues his advisors and his family went to great lengths to hide that he wasn't.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

(Image credit: (Photo by Chip Somodevilla)

In the wake of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization, the agency is holding its first major meeting. How will that affect WHO — and the United States?

(Image credit: Fabrice Coffrini//AFP via Getty Images)

Microsoft Copilot now supports photorealistic image generation and allows you to customize and edit the visuals it creates.

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 239, for May 20.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 443 for May 20.

Hints and answers for Connections for May 20, #709.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle No. 1,431 for May 20.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled the USIP president and board members were unlawfully fired by President Trump and should be reinstated.

(Image credit: Anna Moneymaker)

• The US has expressed concerns about Apple's AI deal with Alibaba in China
• Around one in five of Apple's sales are in China – its second-largest market
• Apple has also been slammed for manufacturing in India, not the US

The Trump administration and Congress are concerned about Apple's deal with Alibaba to power some of the AI features on iPhones in China, noting potential privacy concerns (via The New York Times).

Worries about data sharing and national security implications have been raised, with the potential legal requirements for Apple and Alibaba to adhere to Chinese regulator rules central to the discussion.

Moreover, only Alibaba has publicly confirmed the agreement, with Apple remaining silent – this could indicate potential uncertainty or an unfinished deal, or it could just be a typical Apple move of keeping developments under tight wraps until the final moment.

US worried about Apple's deal with Alibaba for AI tools

The deal is being scrutinized amid ongoing US-China tensions, with concerns about aiding China's AI development and improving Chinese military AI capabilities both noted.

"Alibaba is a poster child for the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civil fusion strategy, and why Apple would choose to work with them on A.I. is anyone’s guess," Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois proclaimed.

Apple has already dropped a deal with Chinese chipmaker YMTC over pressure from the US, and the Cupertino tech giant is also facing challenges from the trade war-induced tariffs and supply chain shifts out of China, with industry experts warning of sharp price hikes for consumers partaking in the next refresh cycle.

However, China is the company's second-largest market, accounting for around one-fifth of its sales, highlighting the importance of a deal so as not to miss out against local smartphone makers.

The US administration has considered restricting US companies from doing business with the likes of Alibaba and other Chinese firms, but no details have been confirmed.

Although the company has sought to diversify its supply chain, President Trump has criticized Tim Cook for increasing production in India, urging domestic US manufacturing instead – one of the President's ultimate goals.

Ultimately, Apple risks issues whichever way the deal swings, either missing out on millions of Chinese sales or potentially serious implications within the US. Apple had a 13% smartphone market share in China during the first three months of 2025 (via Canalys), putting it several paces behind Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and vivo.

"The US smartphone market is expected to experience considerable volatility over the next two to three quarters, impacted by inventory corrections and weakening consumer confidence," Canalys Research Manager Le Xuan Chiew explained.

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• "AI is the new electricity", Michael Dell declares
• Opening Dell Technologies World 2025, he highlights importance of AI innovation
• "AI isn’t your product, but AI can power your purpose" Dell says

The founder and CEO of Dell Technologies has urged businesses of all sizes to fully embrace the potential offered by AI in order to stay competitive and thrive ahead of the competition.

Delivering the opening keynote at Dell Technologies World 2025, Michael Dell warned how, "the real danger is staying still,” as he highlighted several ways AI can benefit firms.

"AI is the new electricity - and Dell is the grid powering this transformation," he declared.

Making AI easier

During the keynote, the founder guided us along “Dell Technologies Way”, where the company’s services and systems power a wide range of businesses, industries and individuals alike.

“Our street is alive with your energy, and yes - your creativity and your data,” he declared, “whether you’re developing cancer treatments, or growing a business, data is at the center of everything, everywhere, all of the time.”

This included the company’s “AI Factory” platform, which saw its second generation unveiled as part of a long-standing partnership with Nvidia.

“For most of us…AI isn’t your product, but AI can power your purpose,” Dell added, “you don’t need your own Colossus, but you do need AI, and we’re taking all the learnings from these massive systems to make AI easier for you.”

“From AI PCs to small, domain-specific models running on the edge to the planetary scale AI data centers, we’ve got you covered.”

(Image credit: Future / Mike Moore)

Dell noted how over 75% of enterprise data will soon be created and processed at the edge - “and AI will follow the data - not the other way around.”

"The future of AI will be decentralized, low-latency and hyper-efficiency - and that's why Dell is pioneering the edge AI revolution, bringing real-time intelligence to wherever the data lives.”

"Here at Dell, we love data,” he added, “we store it, we protect it, we organize it, and we transform it into actions and insights that drive human progress - and turbocharged by AI, that engine of progress is going faster than ever before," he added.

“The pace of innovation is at Mach 3 - we’re creating the future.”

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• 817 Microsoft software engineers lost their jobs in Washington state alone
• The redundancies were believed to be targeting inefficient management layers
• Around a third of Microsoft's code is AI-written, Google and Meta are also in a similar place

Microsoft recently confirmed around 6,000 to 7,000 job cuts globally, including an estimated 2,000 redundancies in its home state of Washington.

It's now come to light that over 40% of the Washington layoffs were related to software engineering (817 roles) (via Bloomberg), with the company previously stating that the layoffs were part of a broader cost cutting effort and a shift in investments into AI.

Together with software engineers, the heaviest affected roles in Washington were product management (373 roles) and technical program management (218 roles), with business program management (55 roles), customer experience program management (44 roles) and product design (31 roles) also on the table.

Over 800 Microsoft software engineers laid off in Washington state

Despite the clear and ongoing need for software engineers in an increasingly software-defined world, it has become apparent that Microsoft deer appropriate to replace human workers with artificial intelligence. CEO Satya Nadella recently confirmed that AI now writes around one third of some projects' code, with the recent layoffs raising concerns about AI's effects on human workers and software developers.

More broadly, this is a trend that we are seeing from other tech companies including Salesforce and Workday. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg have also noted how much of their code is now written by AI.

However, Microsoft has been criticized for mixed messaging. The company stated that the recent layoffs were primarily designed to reduce inefficiencies in middle management by removing unnecessary layers, and while 17% of the Washington redundancies did relate to managers, the loss of hundreds of software engineers raises alarm bells.

Microsoft Principal Software Engineering Manager Mike Droettboom suggested in a LinkedIn post that Python and open-source remain important roles even though companies are enacting major shifts: "Looking around the room, I saw so many faces – some I have known for almost 25 years – coming together again with the same shared purpose, even as the company names on our badges change."

"My heart goes out to the majority of the team that was laid off," Droettboom added.

TechRadar Pro has asked Microsoft for further transparency into the roles affected by its redundancies.

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The meeting appeared part of an effort to reset relations with the Vatican after Pope Francis repeatedly criticized President Trump's migration policy. Vance also gave Pope Leo a Chicago Bears jersey.

(Image credit: Simone Risoluti)

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Millions of people in central and eastern Oklahoma, as well as far northwest Arkansas, are in the path of numerous severe thunderstorms expected on Monday.

(Image credit: NOAA's National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center)

Authorities say they believe their prime suspect in the bombing was also the sole fatality of the attack.

(Image credit: Gabriel Osorio)

• Amazon's rollout of Alexa+ lacks much public evidence
• Technical issues may be delaying a wider release
• Amazon claims Alexa+ is in use by hundreds of thousands of homes

Amazon unveiled Alexa+ with great fanfare more than six weeks ago, but there hasn't been much of a conversation among AI and voice assistant users about it since. My informal check of more than a dozen heavy Alexa users around the U.S. found none with access to it, and a report from Reuters suggests it's far from the explosive event Amazon hyped it up to be at the debut presentation.

Alexa+ is supposed to be Amazon's infusion of AI into the eleven-year-old voice assistant. Using generative AI as a glow-up tool makes Alexa smarter, more useful, better at conversation, and just more intuitive as an assistant. Alexa+ is supposed to give the voice assistant many new and enhanced abilities to carry out your requests, such as processing multiple prompts at once and adapting to personalize its services. For instance, it should remember your dietary preferences while helping you order food.

Invites for early access were meant to start going out in late March. Anecdotally, none have arrived, and a look around social media doesn't reveal any buzz either. Here at TechRadar, Alexa has, for weeks, been telling Editor at Large Lance Ulanoff that he's "on the early access list," but there's still no sign of Alexa+.

Even a Reddit post covered by TechRadar has since been removed from the website. Amazon begs to differ about that conclusion. The company is expressing confidence over the current and future release of Alexa+.

"Early Access to Alexa+ is ramping up. It’s already open to hundreds of thousands of customers, and we expect it to roll out to millions over the coming month," an Amazon spokesperson told TechRadar. "This is no different than other invite programs we’ve run – we scale as we learn."

Alexa+ plans

As Amazon insists there is no slow-walking of Alexa+, the reasons behind an apparent delay aren't official either. That said, the Reuters report cited possible technical issues around the speed and accuracy of the revamped Alexa, as well as higher-than-preferred costs to run the new models. There's a bit of déjà vu here since Amazon made a lot of noise around an AI-enhanced Alexa in the fall of 2023, with an early preview promised in the weeks ahead that never actually happened.

It's a far cry from the 2014 reveal of the original Amazon Echo, which started shipping just a few weeks after it appeared on a stage. Amazon might feel the stakes are too high to prioritize timing over performance this time. If Alexa+ fumbles at launch, it could undercut Amazon’s entire smart home strategy. Worse, it might reinforce the idea that Alexa is more of a talking timer than a true digital assistant.

Amazon also recently made it so Alexa interactions are processed only in the cloud, removing the option for local processing. This change may boost Alexa+’s brainpower, but it also raises privacy flags that may need to be dealt with before a wide release.

So, Alexa+ technically exists, and Amazon swears it’s being used. But you'll have to wait for a review of Alexa+ from someone's home. Until then, Alexa+ is more ghost than AI ghost in the machine.

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60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens and two of the show's correspondents, Cecilia Vega and Scott Pelley, at the CBS fall schedule celebration held at Paramount Studios in May 2024.'/>

CBS News President Wendy McMahon says she's resigning because "the company and I do not agree on the path forward." CBS' parent company is trying to settle a lawsuit with President Trump.

(Image credit: Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty Images)