HILVERSUM (ANP) - Muziekconcern Universal Music Group (UMG) verwerpt het ongevraagde overnamebod van de Amerikaanse miljardair Bill Ackman. UMG, met bekende artiesten als Taylor Swift en Harry Styles, zegt dat het bod van Ackman van 56 miljard euro veel te laag is en geen "superieure waardecreatie" levert. Het bedrijf stelt ook dat er sterke consensus is in het bestuur bij het besluit om het bod te verwerpen.

UMG kreeg vorige maand een ongevraagd overnamebod van Ackmans investeringsmaatschappij Pershing Square Capital Management. Pershing Square bezit momenteel 4,5 procent van de aandelen van UMG.

De grootste aandeelhouder van UMG, het Franse Bolloré, zei deze week ook al dat het bod te laag is. Bolloré is het bedrijf van de Franse miljardair Vincent Bolloré en zijn familie en bezit ruim 18 procent van UMG. Topman Cyrille Bolloré zei tijdens een beleggersdag dat hij ook problemen heeft met de opzet van het overnamebod. Ackman zou te veel controle krijgen, zonder dat hij het meeste geld in de deal steekt.

Belang

Volgens het grootste muziekbedrijf ter wereld is het bod niet in het beste belang van UMG, de aandeelhouders, artiesten, songwriters, werknemers en andere belanghebbenden. Het bod dat op 7 april bekend werd gemaakt, is volgens UMG nauwkeurig bestudeerd met hulp van financiële en juridische adviseurs. Voorzitter Sherry Lansing van UMG zegt dat het bestuur volledig vertrouwen heeft in het vermogen van topman Lucian Grainge en zijn team om duurzame groei te leveren en voor aanhoudende waardecreatie te zorgen.

Het voorstel van Ackman behelst een deal waarbij UMG fuseert met een investeringsvehikel van Pershing Square. Het bod bestaat uit 9,4 miljard euro in contanten en aandelen in het nieuwe fusiebedrijf. Ackman staat bekend als een activistische belegger en hij vindt de beurswaarde van het in de AEX genoteerde UMG te laag. Het hoofdkantoor van UMG staat in Hilversum.

LONDEN (ANP) - Unilever gaat 270 miljoen dollar investeren in de ontwikkeling van een nieuw innovatiecentrum in de Verenigde Staten. In dat centrum in de stad New Haven in de Amerikaanse staat Connecticut gaat het bedrijf onder meer onderzoek doen naar producten voor persoonlijke verzorging, geurstoffen en ook verpakkingen.

Het nieuwe centrum moet in het voorjaar van 2029 openen en werk gaan bieden aan ongeveer driehonderd werknemers. Het nieuwe onderzoeks- en ontwikkelingscentrum wordt de opvolger van het bestaande centrum van Unilever in Trumbull in Connecticut dat sinds 1972 actief is. Volgens Unilever is dit het "volgende hoofdstuk" in de lange samenwerking met Connecticut en diens wetenschappelijke gemeenschap. In New Haven zijn ook veel andere bedrijven actief met onderzoek en ontwikkeling. Ook zijn er universiteiten.

Volgens Unilever zal onder meer AI worden gebruikt bij de ontwikkeling van nieuwe producten. Het bedrijf zegt over de afgelopen tien jaar bijna 15 miljard dollar te hebben geïnvesteerd in de VS in overnames en kapitaalprojecten.

Naast handhaving van het verbod op seks tussen twee mensen van hetzelfde geslacht, omvat de wet strafbaarstelling van het ‘promoten, steunen of financieren’ van lhbtqi+-activiteiten.

If you thought US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s widespread use of face recognition apps was a privacy violation, you’re about to get eye-rate over a new $25 million contract. According to a largely unreported contract summary published last week by ICE parent agency the Department of Homeland Security, US immigration cops have doled out about $25.1 million to a company called Bi2 Technologies for 1,570 biometric recognition devices able to identify people through fingerprints, iris scans, and facial recognition. Additional procurement data indicates that the devices can be used in the field in both mobile and stationary configurations, and they provide ICE agents with access to Bi2’s Inmate Recognition and Identification System (IRIS), which matches biometrics to a database of more than five million booking, arrest, and incarceration records from 47 US states. The Bi2 system is also able to access driver’s license and vehicle plate info. The deal was made without seeking any competing bids, and ICE justified the sole-source acquisition by pointing not only to Bi2’s capabilities being “unmatched by any competitor,” but also to a contract from last year in which it paid the company $4.6 million for what now appears to have been a one-year trial run of its technology on a much smaller scale. Per the FY 2025 contract, which expires at the end of this coming September, ICE got similar access to the IRIS database and mobile/stationary biometric scanning technology as this year’s award, but only 200 devices were deployed across the US. With the addition of this contract, 1,770 of the devices could now be on American streets by the end of May 2027. While the Bi2 contracts have yet to cause a stir on the level of other ICE biometric surveillance technologies, the widespread deployment of eyeball scanners linked to law enforcement databases and other forms of government documentation could end up stirring up more controversy. Senate Democrats have been railing against ICE’s use of biometric identification technology like Mobile Fortify, an app reportedly used by DHS under the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement push to identify people suspected of immigration violations and, potentially, protesters. In a letter last September, senators demanded ICE immediately cease using Mobile Fortify over concerns that the app could be inaccurate, biased, and might have a chilling effect on the legal expression of protected civil rights in the US. Neither ICE nor DHS responded to questions for this story. ®

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Basel, Switzerland, 2016

• Djokovic had stormed into 2-0 lead on Philippe-Chatrier

• Brazilian 19-year-old wins 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5

As Novak Djokovic limped back to his chair four hours into a tennis match that had descended into hell, the 24-times grand slam winner did not have much more to give. A two-set lead had unravelled and his 39-year-old body had hit a wall against a shining opponent 20 years his junior. Having reached the umpire’s chair, Djokovic vomited into the red dust.

Still, nobody has mastered the art of finding victory from a miserable position quite like Djokovic, so everybody inside Court Philippe-Chatrier knew he could conjure a path through. It took the most courageous, headstrong performance from Joao Fonseca to refuse his legendary opponent a way back. The 19-year-old Brazilian held on for a career-defining victory, closing out an astounding 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 win after 4hr 53min.

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Russian strikes in Kyiv, the Ebola outbreak, Eid al-Adha in Gaza and Sinner at the French Open – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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Judge rules that Washington DC performing arts venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress

A judge on Friday ordered the removal of Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling that the prestigious Washington DC venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress.

US district judge Christopher Cooper in Washington directed the Trump administration to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and to eliminate any references to a “Trump Kennedy Center” from official materials within 14 days.

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Mikel Arteta must find the balance between newfound freedom and tried-and-tested solidity against Luis Enrique’s attacking machine

Welcome to Budapest: city of stew, city of pavement squares, city of men in cotton smocks offering brisk muscular relaxation in geothermally heated cubicles. Eleven days on from the profound emotional release of winning the Premier League title it seems fitting Arsenal will approach their season’s endgame in a city that is basically perfect for a restorative summer city break.

Saturday afternoon at the Puskas Arena already looks like a twin-track event for Mikel Arteta’s team, an occasion that changes shape according to the angle from which you see it. On one hand, victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final would represent the greatest day in Arsenal’s history. On the other, this is an occasion that feels strangely light, fun, celebratory, a free-hit kind of final.

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Trial suggests patients with a low test score could be treated with hormone therapy alone with near-identical outcomes

• ‘Like Christmas’: woman’s relief after test finds she can skip chemotherapy

Millions of women with breast cancer could be spared chemotherapy with a groundbreaking genomic test, according to the results of a trial that could transform healthcare guidelines worldwide.

Treatment for breast cancer, the world’s most prevalent form of the disease, involves surgery to remove tumours. Chemotherapy is then usually recommended when doctors believe there is a risk the disease will return.

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Voor taxichauffeur Emre* was het een melding als alle andere tijdens zijn nachtdiensten. Zes personen wilden met zijn taxibus naar het centrum van Rotterdam. Toch bleek bij aankomst dat er iets mis was: de zes mannen hadden met bierflesjes naar de Mevlana Moskee in Rotterdam-Delfshaven gegooid: “Als ik wist wat ze allemaal hadden gedaan, had ik ze naar het politiebureau gereden.”

De spreidingswet, het woningtekort en de verdeling van de schaarse ruimte: Zuid-Holland staat voor flinke uitdagingen. Over de aanpak verschillen Het Rijk, de provincie en de gemeenten nog wel eens van mening. Toch moeten ze samenwerken om het land te besturen. Hoe werkt dat precies? De Commissaris van de Koning van de provincie Zuid-Holland, Wouter Kolff, legt het uit in een nieuwe In Gesprek Met.

The US Postal Service (USPS) said it's drawing up plans to radically crack down on mail voting, Democracy Docket reported. In a proposed rule, the agency said it would only send ballots to voters who are on lists created and controlled by the federal government. The proposed rule comes a day after a federal judge dismissed one of multiple lawsuits against Trump's order - saying the lawsuit was premature because the administration hadn't begun implementing the order. It now appears to have done so.

Related: Report Details Trump Effort to Quietly Lay Groundwork to 'Steal Future Elections' - Common Dreams "Clerks in several of Missouri's counties said that most of the individuals flagged in the federal screenings were US citizens who'd been naturalized. Clinton Jenkins, the Republican clerk for Miller County, said none of the names of people identified by the review had voted illegally. Rather, he suggested that federal authorities were targeting people who seemed to be of Hispanic and Latino heritage. "It looks like if you have too many vowels in your name, you show up on a list," Jenkins said. "They are doing this through DHS, which it's clear by now this administration views as its own personal police force," Marcetic said. "It seems one of the ways this effort will take shape is, as with DHS's deportation efforts, to racially profile voters and try to invalidate their votes by pretending they're not citizens," he added. SAVE tool keeps mistakenly flagging voters as noncitizens - the Texas Tribune. In Missouri, state officials acted on SAVE's findings before attempting to confirm them, directing county election administrators to make voters flagged as potential noncitizens temporarily unable to vote. But in hundreds of cases, the tool's determinations were wrong, our review found. Lennon was among dozens of clerks statewide who raised alarms about the system's errors. "I really find no merit in any of this," said Bobby Gonzalez, the elections administrator in Duval County in South Texas, where SAVE flagged three voters, all of whom turned out to be citizens. While 27 states have agreed to use SAVE, others have hesitated, concerned not only about inaccuracies, but also about privacy and the data's potential to be used in immigration enforcement. Indeed, speaking at a recent conference, Broderick said that when SAVE flags voters as noncitizens, they are also referred to DHS for possible criminal investigation. (It is a crime to falsely claim citizenship when registering to vote.)

Inside the $200 Billion Mormon Empire. (full documentary) (Johnny Harris, YouTube, 2h10m; also on Nebula) in which filmmaker and former Mormon Johnny Harris covers the origins, development and present influence of the church he grew up in.

Harris: "I've been on a years-long journey to understand the Mormon Church I grew up in. This compilation begins with the organization's origins in upstate New York, explains the wild story of how the Mormons created Utah, and ends with how the church became an almost $300 billion global empire. This is the story of both a unique religious institution, and of my own experience being shaped by that system and wrestling with its teachings."

David Rush is accused of:

• Lying on his background check forms;
• Time-card fraud;
• Oh yeah, and also stealing $40M worth of gold bars.

Rush, a former senior executive service-level CIA employee in Virginia, was arrested on May 19:

FBI agents searching his home seized more than 300 1-kilogram gold bars valued at more than $40 million. [...]

The CIA says it informed the FBI of its suspicions about Rush, who apparently fell under scrutiny after he began asking for gold bars last November. That's when he began making "several requests ... to obtain a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses," according to the affidavit. [...]

A review of a storage space Rush used at the CIA found that only part of the cash was there. The agency's inquiry into the matter is ongoing, but it has not yet found any record of why Rush said he needed the massive amount of money.

The FBI affidavit accuses Rush of taking gold bars and currency, making false statements to the agency and on national security background forms, and filing fraudulent timecards.

It is journalistic malpractice that there are no photos of the gold bars in question. Stock photos are insufficient here.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Eh, ja, we hadden hier nog geen occulte, feministische, links-activistische pagan black metal gehad toch? Toch? Gelukkig! Kan ik ook weer eens wat nieuws laten horen! Witch Club Satan (what’s in a name?) is een relatief jonge (2022) black metal band uit Noorwegen (uiteraard). You Wildflower was hun eerste single.

Nieuwsgierig naar later werk? Dan als bonus hieronder The Kids Will Kill Us. Nee, vrolijk klinkt het allemaal niet (en ziet het er ook niet uit), maar dat hoort bij het genre hè? Het is wel mooi, en qua boodschap ook fijn als tegenwicht tegen de extreemrechtse black metal die ook wordt gemaakt (helaas).

De franchise dacht: kom we richten ons eens op een regio die letterijk uitsterft!