Greetings! Happy National Cat Day to those celebrating.

Let’s get into today’s top stories.

🇧🇷 Rio de Janeiro raid death toll climbs to 119. Security forces reported 119 deaths after a large operation targeting a gang in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Authorities described the raids as a response to organized crime, while residents reported heavy gunfire and armored vehicles in narrow streets. Rights groups called for independent investigations into use of force, identification procedures, and medical access during the sweep. Officials said weapons and vehicles were seized, though full inventories were not immediately released. Hospitals near the operation recorded surges in trauma cases that stressed emergency capacity. Local businesses shuttered and transit routes were disrupted across multiple neighborhoods. The casualty count positions the raid among the deadliest urban actions in recent memory for the city.

🇸🇩 Witnesses say hundreds killed in Darfur hospital sweep. Residents in El-Fasher reported that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces entered medical facilities and killed patients and civilians after taking parts of the city. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned of severe threats to health workers and the integrity of remaining clinics. Humanitarian corridors remain unreliable, with fuel shortages and roadblocks limiting evacuations from contested districts. Aid groups said looting and shelling have crippled supply chains for food, antibiotics, and surgical equipment. Diplomats urged parties to respect international humanitarian law, including protections for hospitals and ambulances. Communication blackouts continue to complicate casualty verification. Regional spillover risks grow as displaced families move toward strained border towns.

☁️ Microsoft Azure outage disrupts services and apps. Microsoft ($MSFT) confirmed a service disruption that affected the Azure status portal and multiple workloads as third-party trackers logged spikes in failure reports. Enterprises described login errors, API timeouts, and delayed job queues that cascaded to dependent applications. The event highlighted fragility in identity, Domain Name System (DNS), and Content Delivery Network (CDN) layers that underpin cloud architectures. Some customers rerouted to secondary regions, though not all workloads were designed for quick failover. Incident communications emphasized mitigation while root-cause analysis proceeded. Regulators and large clients continue to press for clearer service-level guarantees and cross-cloud contingency planning. Outages look brief on dashboards but long in payrolls and lost sessions.

🎬 Paramount plans about 2,000 layoffs after Skydance deal. In a memo to employees, Paramount Global ($PARA) CEO David Ellison said roughly 2,000 roles will be eliminated, aligning cost structure to its post-merger footprint with Skydance. Management framed the reductions as necessary to streamline overlapping units across film, television, and streaming. Employees in marketing, distribution, and back-office functions are bracing for notifications over the coming weeks. Analysts expect more consolidation on the content slate, with fewer greenlights and longer franchise cycles. Debt reduction and direct-to-consumer unit economics remain investor focus points. Local governments and unions will monitor severance standards and rehiring timelines. The cuts underline how scale and margins define the new studio math.

⚖️ Lawyers challenge commentator Sami Hamdi’s detention. Attorneys for British analyst Sami Hamdi petitioned a federal court to review his immigration detention, arguing due-process violations and retaliatory motives. Filings seek clarity on the charges, the evidence basis, and any speech-related factors. Civil-liberties groups are tracking the case for precedent on journalists and political commentators. Government lawyers typically argue standard enforcement, citing statutory discretion and flight-risk assessments. The court could order a bond hearing or release while merits proceed. International observers note the chilling effect when border actions intersect with public commentary. The docket will set the pace, not press statements.

📚 Elon Musk unveils Grokipedia to rival Wikipedia. The new project aims to build a crowd-sourced reference tied to Musk’s xAI Grok platform, promising faster updates and broader contributor tools. Product details emphasize moderation systems and provenance tags for controversial topics. Early adoption will hinge on community governance and edit-war resolution. Search engine indexing and third-party API access could determine reach beyond the core app. Brand comparisons to Wikipedia present both opportunity and scrutiny for accuracy. For publishers, another knowledge graph means another source to vet. The wiki race will be decided by trust, not page views.

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That’s all for today!

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See you tomorrow!