Snap is laying off about 1,000 employees, or 16% of its workforce, while closing 300 open roles as it tries to cut costs and push toward profitability with more AI-driven efficiency. "While these changes are necessary to realize Snap's long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers," CEO Evan Spiegel wrote in a memo, which was included in the company's 8-K filing (PDF). "We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives." The Verge reports: The changes are expected to save Snap $500 million by the second half of 2026. Snap had about 5,261 full-time employees as of December 2025, and now joins the growing list of tech companies that have already announced significant layoffs this year, including Meta, Amazon, Oracle, GoPro, and Jack Dorsey's Block. "Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth," Spiegel wrote. "Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Officials say charity fundraiser that flooded New York with drunk people in Santa costumes every Christmas was a con

A SantaCon charity fundraiser that floods New York City with inebriated young people in red and white Santa costumes every holiday season was true to its name: a con, federal authorities said as they arrested its organizer.

Stefan Pildes, 50, of Hewitt, New Jersey, was arrested on Wednesday and awaited an appearance in Manhattan federal court, where an indictment charging him with wire fraud was unsealed.

Officials say charity fundraiser that flooded New York with drunk people in Santa costumes every Christmas was a con

A SantaCon charity fundraiser that floods New York City with inebriated young people in red and white Santa costumes every holiday season was true to its name: a con, federal authorities said as they arrested its organizer.

Stefan Pildes, 50, of Hewitt, New Jersey, was arrested on Wednesday and awaited an appearance in Manhattan federal court, where an indictment charging him with wire fraud was unsealed.

Guardian democracy reporters George Chidi and Sam Levine answered your questions about the dramatic implications of the Save America Act for US voters

The latest version of the Save America Act could, if it is passed, upend voting for all Americans in the middle of a federal midterm election year and create costly, chaotic changes for elections workers. George Chidi, the Guardian’s politics and democracy correspondent and Sam Levine, who has spent years focusing on voting rights in the US, including for our ongoing series The fight for democracy, answered your questions about Save’s implications on everything from the midterms to overseas voting.

George: I think the Kansas example is instructive. Kansas enacted a law in 2013 requiring voters to prove their citizenship when registering. Evidence presented in a federal lawsuit challenging the law showed that 18,000 people were blocked from registering – about 8 per cent of people trying to register. That statistic only covers motor voter registrations; another study showed the overall number was closer to one in eight voters. Only about a quarter of those who were initially blocked ended up registering. (And no, these were not non-citizens - they were by and large born Americans who couldn’t lay hands on their birth certificates.) The blocked registrants were disproportionately young people with no party affiliation. The federal court struck down the law in 2018.

Arizona enacted a similar law in 2005, with similar results. Elections officials attributed the large number of blocked registrants to people whose married names didn’t match their birth certificates, or people who couldn’t get their birth certificate. In 2024, the US supreme court blocked the use of documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections in the Arizona case.

George: The hard part here is making an argument that will be heard by people who believe the “mainstream media” exists to lie to conservatives. I think the best answer is to show examples of people who look and sound – and perhaps believe the same things – as the people demanding high levels of documentation to vote. One of the less-spoken corollaries to voting registration changes as proposed is that it will disproportionately affect voters with a propensity to vote for Republicans. Married women. Rural voters. People who have never drawn a passport and don’t have easy access to a county clerk who can send them a new birth certificate.

Attempt by independent senator set to test Democratic support for longtime US ally amid Trump’s war on Iran

An attempt set for Wednesday by senator Bernie Sanders to block sales to Israel of bombs and bulldozers will serve as the latest litmus test of support for the longtime US ally among Democrats.

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, plans to call up for a vote a resolution halting a $151.8m sale of 12,000 1,000lb bombs to Israel’s military, as well as a second resolution that would prevent the sale of $295m in bulldozers.

Guardian democracy reporters George Chidi and Sam Levine answered your questions about the dramatic implications of the Save America Act for US voters

The latest version of the Save America Act could, if it is passed, upend voting for all Americans in the middle of a federal midterm election year and create costly, chaotic changes for elections workers. As this explainer by Rachel Leingang sets out: “this year’s version [of Save] includes expansive documentary proof of citizenship requirements and criminal liability for election officials from the initial Save act, in addition to a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security.”

George Chidi is the Guardian’s politics and democracy correspondent. His recent reporting has included looking at the states bringing in strict proof-0f-citizenship requirements to register to vote and covering efforts by the FBI to investigate Fulton county in Georgia over the 2020 election, the results of which are still challenged by Donald Trump’s supporters.

George: I think the Kansas example is instructive. Kansas enacted a law in 2013 requiring voters to prove their citizenship when registering. Evidence presented in a federal lawsuit challenging the law showed that 18,000 people were blocked from registering – about 8 per cent of people trying to register. That statistic only covers motor voter registrations; another study showed the overall number was closer to one in eight voters. Only about a quarter of those who were initially blocked ended up registering. (And no, these were not non-citizens - they were by and large born Americans who couldn’t lay hands on their birth certificates.) The blocked registrants were disproportionately young people with no party affiliation. The federal court struck down the law in 2018.

Arizona enacted a similar law in 2005, with similar results. Elections officials attributed the large number of blocked registrants to people whose married names didn’t match their birth certificates, or people who couldn’t get their birth certificate. In 2024, the US supreme court blocked the use of documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections in the Arizona case.

George: The hard part here is making an argument that will be heard by people who believe the “mainstream media” exists to lie to conservatives. I think the best answer is to show examples of people who look and sound – and perhaps believe the same things – as the people demanding high levels of documentation to vote. One of the less-spoken corollaries to voting registration changes as proposed is that it will disproportionately affect voters with a propensity to vote for Republicans. Married women. Rural voters. People who have never drawn a passport and don’t have easy access to a county clerk who can send them a new birth certificate.

Prof Michael Krawczak says the required molecular genetic testing comes at a cost, but should not be ruled out as it was in a recent court case

I read with great astonishment your article regarding the court of appeal’s decision on proving paternity in the case of a child whose father could be either one of a pair of monozygotic twins (Court of appeal says it cannot rule on which identical twin fathered a child, 30 April). I was particularly surprised by the court’s statement that it was “not possible” to say which twin fathered the child. This is definitely not true. The germ cells of monozygotic twins differ with sufficient probability and to a sufficient degree to allow their respective children to be clearly assigned to either of them using molecular genetic techniques.

I and my colleagues first presented the idea for this approach back in 2012, and clearly demonstrated its practical feasibility in 2018. Of course, the required molecular genetic testing entails considerable costs (currently in the five-figure range). However, whether such costs would be so “very significant” (the court’s words) as to preclude genetic testing seems highly questionable, given the potential consequences of inaction for those involved.
Prof Michael Krawczak
Kiel University, Germany