Mooi nieuws voor Donald Pols, hierboven nog in actie als directeur van Milieudefensie met een of andere gare actie tegen Shell. Die heeft gisteren in de krant gelezen dat het allemaal reuze meevalt met de klimaatverandering en om dat te vieren stapt hij over naar... Tata Steel. Toch een beetje alsof je van BIJ1 overstapt naar het Commissariaat voor de Media, of van de Bond Tegen Vloeken naar het Kankerfonds. "De actiegroep zegt "geen begrip voor deze keuze" te hebben, en heeft daarom per direct afscheid genomen van zijn directeur." Wij snappen het dan weer wel. Bij Milieudefensie verdiende Pols 135.898 euro per jaar, ruim onder de limiet volgens de Wet Normering Topinkomens. Tata Steel hoeft zich niet aan die wet te houden. Of, zoals Pols het zelf schrijft in een persverklaring, hij is namelijk ook hoofd communicatie, over "een logische volgende stap": "Ik heb jarenlang van buiten de druk opgevoerd op bedrijven om klimaatambities om te zetten in concrete actie - ook via de rechter. Die ervaring neem ik mee naar binnen. Bij Tata Steel heb ik de kans om te laten zien dat industriële verduurzaming niet alleen afdwingbaar is, maar ook van binnenuit kan worden aangedreven." Nou gefeliciteerd makker.
TEHERAN (ANP/AFP) - De gevangengenomen Iraanse Nobelprijswinnares Narges Mohammadi vecht voor haar leven, zeggen haar aanhangers. Ze ligt al vijf dagen met een hartaandoening in het ziekenhuis.
"We vechten nu niet alleen voor de vrijheid van Narges, we vechten ook zodat haar hart kan blijven kloppen", zei haar advocaat in Parijs, Chirinne Ardakani, op een persconferentie. Ze zei dat Mohammadi, die al langere tijd met een slechte gezondheid kampt, nu "tussen leven en dood" verkeert.
Mohammadi won in 2023 de Nobelprijs voor de Vrede voor haar strijd tegen de onderdrukking van vrouwen in Iran en voor haar inzet voor mensenrechten. Ze werd meermaals veroordeeld. In februari kreeg ze celstraffen opgelegd voor samenzwering en medeplichtigheid aan het plegen van misdrijven en voor propagandistische activiteiten.
ABU DHABI (ANP/AFP) - De Verenigde Arabische Emiraten hebben melding gemaakt van nieuwe Iraanse aanvallen. De luchtafweer komt in actie om raketten en drones uit te schakelen, zeggen de autoriteiten in de Golfstaat.
Milieudefensie-directeur Donald Pols gaat aan de slag bij Tata Steel Nederland. Hij moet daarom per direct stoppen bij de milieclub.
Pols wordt per 1 juni directeur duurzaamheid bij de staalfabrikant en krijgt tevens de leiding over de communicatieafdeling, heeft Tata Steel in een verklaring laten weten. Het bedrijf zegt ook dat Pols' eerdere kritiek op Tata Steel heeft geholpen bij het aanscherpen van zijn plannen voor groen staal.
Milieudefensie reageert verbolgen. "Wij zijn verrast door het vertrek van Donald Pols en zeer teleurgesteld in zijn keuze om naar Tata Steel te gaan, een van de grootste vervuilers van Nederland", zegt voorzitter van de Raad van Toezicht Marty Smits.
De in 1972 in Zuid-Afrika geboren Pols was sinds 2015 directeur van Milieudefensie. Zelf verklaart hij dat hij zijn ervaring bij Milieudefensie meeneemt "naar binnen". "Bij Tata Steel heb ik de kans om te laten zien dat industriële verduurzaming niet alleen afdwingbaar is, maar ook van binnenuit kan worden aangedreven."
A British crew member who became ill after a suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean is to be medically evacuated, officials have said.
The crew member is being prepared for medical evacuation from the MV Hondius along with a Dutch colleague, with Dutch authorities overseeing the operation. The two crew members needed “urgent medical care” after experiencing respiratory symptoms, the tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions said.
The alleged conflict between the pair began on a film set and has been disastrous for everyone involved. Apart from the lawyers, naturally
Ladies, gentlemen, cineastes: our long nightmare is over. The It Ends With Us legal drama has finally Ended With Us. In a first-person-plural statement on behalf of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, snuck out as a horde of nippled breastplates swarmed up the Met Gala carpet, our pair of ferociously feuding actors were forced to remind the wider public that, actually, their insanely costly legal binfire had always been about two creatives graciously shining their combined lights on the issue of domestic violence. “The end product – the movie It Ends With Us – is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” ran yesterday’s formal epilogue on a case even Pyrrhus would have settled 12 months ago. “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic-violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind.”
Note that gorgeously magnanimous “and all survivors” – so if you survived a plane crash, or Glastonbury, or even your best friend’s hen weekend, then this one was for you too. You’re welcome, victims! And if it took up to eight figures in legal fees to get here, and if that would have bought a lot of women’s shelters, then yeah – no doubt Blake and Justin are sorry for simply caring too much. It’s a cross to bear.
Marina Hyde’s new book, What a Time to be Alive!, is out in September (Guardian Faber Publishing, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
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Microshifting. “From a creativity standpoint, it’s good to take breaks. When you stop thinking about a task is when your best ideas come to you.” This is how I’ve worked for the past decade+…bursts of work throughout the day & week.
Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub and other major porn sites, announced today that in the UK, iPhone and iPad users will be able to access its sites again, ending an over three month ban that Aylo initially enacted because of the region’s age verification law.
As of Tuesday, following the iOS 26.4 rollout in the UK, users on the new operating system can visit Pornhub and Aylo’s other sites from their iPhones.
On April 29, Apple announced that it would start requiring mobile users to confirm ages on their devices to check if they’re 18 or older: “You can confirm your age with a credit card that belongs to you, or by scanning your passport, driving licence, or one of the following PASS-accredited Proof of Age cards: CitizenCard, My ID Card, TOTUM ID card or Young Scot National Entitlement Card. Debit cards and gift cards aren't supported,” according to Apple. Web content filters and communication safety tools are turned on automatically for children, as well as adults who haven’t confirmed their age, Apple wrote.
In January, Aylo announced that starting February 2 it would restrict people visiting the site from the UK. Leadership at Aylo and Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), which acquired Aylo in 2023, said at the time that the UK’s Online Safety Act was a failure. Before January, UK-based visitors to Aylo sites—which include RedTube, YouPorn, Brazzers, and many more—had to verify their ages by entering a credit card or uploading a government ID or other identification to an age estimation system called All Pass Trust. After February, anyone in the UK not already verified was locked out of those sites.
Experts say site-based age verification is both ineffective at stopping minors from viewing harmful content as it drives them from lawful sites to harmful, unregulated ones, and also chills adults’ abilities to work online as adult performers and consume legal adult entertainment online. The adult industry has been lobbying for device-based verification and parental controls, which often already exists as an optional feature on most devices children might have access to, as an alternative. Device-level age verification remains controversial among free speech and internet access groups.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act, which went into effect in 2025, requires sites to implement age verification or face millions of dollars in fines and jail—or up to 10 percent of global revenues, whichever is higher. In the US, more than half of states have strict age verification laws in place, and in many of those states, Aylo blocks access and directs users to contact their representatives.
This is the first time Aylo has come back to a market after restricting access to its sites in response to age verification laws.
“As of about 30 minutes ago, we're now live again in the UK, accessible to Apple users who have updated to the most recent version of the iOS,” Alex Kekesi, VP Brand and Community at Aylo, said in a 9:30 a.m. EST call on Tuesday.
Visitors to the sites who are using a Windows PC, Android device, or other non-iPhone or other mobile Apple devices such as iPads that use iOS in the UK will still not have access.
“We have been reaching out to the operating system providers to emphasize the need for a highly effective device based solution, that includes Google, that includes Microsoft and Apple,” Solomon Friedman, partner and vice president of compliance at ECP, said on the call. “And on behalf of ownership, we're obviously delighted to see that Apple has instituted UK wide, effective device based age assurance.”
In November 2025, Pornhub’s parent company Aylo sent letters to Apple, Google, and Microsoft urging them to support device-based age verification in their app stores and operating systems.
