WEESP (ANP) - Het explosief dat woensdagmiddag bij graafwerkzaamheden op de Lange Muiderweg in Weesp werd gevonden, is een 500-ponder, een vliegtuigbom uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Dat meldt een woordvoerder van de Explosieven Opruimingsdienst Defensie (EOD). Het gebied eromheen is afgezet en wordt naar verwachting rond 17.15 uur weer vrijgegeven.

De EOD kan de bom veilig vervoeren, meldt de woordvoerder. De bom wordt daarna op een andere locatie tot ontploffing gebracht. De vrachtwagen die de bom moet ophalen is onderweg.

Het treinverkeer rond Weesp en Naarden-Bussum is stilgelegd. Volgens de NS komt het om 17.45 uur weer op gang.

Austrian capital mulls expanding tram network and park-and-ride car parks in effort to reduce private vehicle use

When Leonore Gewessler hops on the underground trains and street-level trams that run like clockwork across the breadth of Vienna, she appreciates the ease, affordability and time she “gets as a present” instead of idling in traffic. But Austria’s former climate and transport minister is also aware that cars still dominate the capital’s streets. She says good public transport is just the “precondition” to changing how people move around the city.

Vienna’s network of trains, trams and buses have long been the envy of other European cities – let alone car-centric North American ones – but automobiles are still used for a quarter of journeys. In other capitals famed for world-class public transport, such as London, Paris and Prague, even higher use of cars has frustrated doctors and campaigners demanding cleaner air and safer streets.

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The composer himself never matched the joy, optimism and boldness of his first teenage symphony, as the chill of Stalinism settled on his music

This week we mark two extraordinary centenaries. Sir David Attenborough’s, of course, but only four days after the birth of the bona fide national treasure, Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony also first saw the light of day – premiered in Leningrad on 12 May 1926. The 19-year-old’s composition was played by the Leningrad Philharmonic, conducted by Nicolai Malko.

The symphony’s four-movement structure is just about the only conventional feature it has. The teenage Shostakovich had imbibed all the lessons he could about what orchestral music should sound like and how it should behave, and was bold enough to subvert all those ideas and send them up. There is no forelock-tugging to earlier generations of Russian symphonists and orchestral pioneers; instead, Shostakovich’s First resounds with a self-confidence that’s both optimistic and deliciously sardonic.

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1 Mei-demonstraties, daar stonden wij niet zelden met ons microfoontje aan de Dag van de Arbeid-vierderts te vragen of ze niet aan het werk moesten, maar tegenwoordig staat daar Bob van Left Laser die aan VOLKERT VAN DER GRAAF vraagt of-ie niet moet werken. Want Volkert loopt kennelijk bij dat soort bijeenkomsten rond. Er was natuurlijk al een Left Laser-video met en over Volkert, waarin Bob de Pim-moordenaar trof tijdens het fietsen en hem vroeg of hij EIGENLIJK WEL LINKS is. Nu een waardig deel II, met een glansrol voor kersvers FNV-kapitein Hans Spekman. Kijk0n!

Bosses betting on AI to slash headcount and boost margins are discovering an uncomfortable truth: the strategy isn't working. New research from Gartner lays out the problem in stark terms. The analyst firm surveyed 350 global businesses - all with annual revenues above $1 billion, all piloting or deploying intelligent automation - and found that around 80 percent had cut staff as a result. The returns? Elusive. Companies that reduced their workforces were just as likely to see negative outcomes or marginal gains as they were to generate any meaningful return on investment (ROI). The conclusion? Layoffs don't create returns, they just create vacancies. "Many CEOs turn to layoffs to demonstrate quick AI returns; however, this disposition is misplaced," said distinguished VP analyst Helen Poitevin and lead researcher on the study. "Workforce reductions may create budget room, but they do not create return. Organizations that improve ROI are not those that eliminate the need for people, but those that amplify them," she added. The organizations actually seeing results are doing the opposite of cutting, they're investing aggressively in new skills, new roles, and operating models built around humans guiding and scaling autonomous systems. The message to the slash-and-replace crowd is you're not just being cruel, you're being strategically wrong. Gartner defines "autonomous business" as one powered by self-improving, adaptable technologies - agentic AI, robotics, advanced automation - designed, eventually, to run themselves. That future, we're told, is arriving faster than most firms are ready for, and those scrambling to get ahead of it by gutting their workforces are, according to this research, making themselves weaker. If Reg readers are wondering where people fit into a completely automated business, don’t worry: Gartner says you won’t be going away - rather, it means “human-amplified business,” apparently. That’s just as well, as an earlier study from Gartner found that AI agents get office tasks wrong about 70 percent of the time. It predicted many of these projects will collapse by the end of 2027 due to rising costs, murky business value, and inadequate risk controls Despite these apparent failings, the analyst biz still expects agentic AI software spending to grow from $86.4 billion in 2025 to $206.5 billion this year and $376.3 billion in 2027. Gartner's longer-term view is, oddly, optimistic. It forecasts that autonomous businesses will start creating jobs by 2028 or 2029, as new categories of work emerge that AI simply cannot do. Researchers from Imperial College London and Microsoft earlier warned that AI adoption may paradoxically increase workplace burdens, as workers find themselves having to babysit multiple AI agents and correct their errors. A separate report last month painted an even starker picture: AI isn't killing jobs outright, it's hollowing them out, steadily absorbing discrete tasks, narrowing roles, and compressing wages. Those whose work depends on judgment, context, and accountability may find a useful collaborator in AI. Everyone else may find themselves doing less, earning less, and wondering how it happened. ®

Donald Pols verraste dinsdag met de mededeling dat hij verantwoordelijk wordt voor de verduurzaming van Tata Steel, een van de grootste CO2-uitstoters van Nederland.

Wat gebeurt er met je als je helemaal niet meer kunt slapen en niets helpt? Samantha Harvey trekt met Het vormeloze ongemak de lezer mee in haar eigen, overvolle associatieve denkwereld.