Apple now requires Education Store shoppers in the U.S. and several other countries to verify their student, educator, parent, or homeschool-teacher status through UNiDAYS, ending the previous honor-system approach. 9to5Mac reports: Starting today, Apple requires shoppers in the United States to complete verification when making a purchase via the Education Store. This change also applies to Australia, Hong Kong, Turkey, Canada, and Chile. In many other markets around the world, such as the UK, Apple already required verification. As a refresher, people eligible for Apple's Education Store include current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers across all grade levels.

Apple is teaming up with UNiDAYS to handle the verification process. Students and educators will be asked to create a UNiDAYS ID and then verify their academic status by logging in to their school's academic portal. Alternatively, users can upload a photo of their student or faculty IDs. Homeschool teachers, meanwhile, will need to provide an identity document such as a driver's license, state ID card, or passport. They'll also need to provide one homeschool document, such as a Letter of Intent (LOI) or Letter of Acknowledgment. Most customers will be verified instantly, and those requiring manual verification should hear back within 24 hours. The same verification process applies both in-store and online for Apple Education Store shoppers. Meanwhile, Apple has added Apple Watch to the Education Store for the first time, offering discounts on the Series 11, SE 3, and Ultra 3.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Secret Handshake:

Three "fully functional" arcade games were installed Monday at the District of Columbia War Memorial. According to the group, the game features "furious tweet battles against Iranian schoolgirls, low-flow shower heads, and other threats to American freedom like DEI and The Pope, and an opportunity to collect several Trump style peace trophies."

"Just to save you time, the only way you can lose is by trying to hold Melania's hand. But it's The Middle East, so you also can't win either," the group said in a statement shared with HuffPost.

A plaque next to the machines states: "The Trump administration knows that the best way to sell combat is by making it a video game, that's why they've been pumping out the 'sickest' Iran War video game hype reels. But why stop at clips when you could go full throttle? Introducing Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell, a high-octane, flag-waving, boots-on-the-ground simulator where freedom isn't debated, it's deployed. No briefings, no hesitation; just pure pixelated patriotism. Strap in and play hard, because this game may never end."

The arcade games are expected to stay at the D.C. War Memorial, located near the reflecting pool in West Potomac Park, for a few days. The group also made the game available online. [currently not working.]

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UTRECHT (ANP) - Op dag twee van de landelijke eindexamens voor middelbare scholieren staat de klachtenteller over die toetsen op iets minder dan 95.000. Dat is "best veel", stelt Inass Jagour, bestuurslid en woordvoerder van het Landelijk Aktie Komitee Scholieren (LAKS). "Vorig jaar werd er gedurende de hele examenperiode 240.000 keer geklaagd."

De eindexamenperiode loopt tot woensdag 27 mei. Sinds 1988 kunnen leerlingen klachten indienen over de gemaakte examens via de eindexamenklachtenlijn van LAKS. Vrijdag en in het weekend werd volop geklaagd over de eerste toetsen: maandagochtend stond de teller op ongeveer 60.000 klachten.

Maandag werd het meest geklaagd over het vwo-eindexamen natuurkunde, dat om 13.30 uur begon. Kandidaten klaagden 11.438 keer over de toets, voornamelijk over de complexiteit en onduidelijkheid van de vraagstelling. Ook vonden leerlingen dat het examen te lang was en niet goed aansloot op de lesstof. Een leerling omschreef de toets als "een absolute depressie".

SANTA CLARA (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - Socialemediaconcern Meta Platforms, het bedrijf achter Facebook en Instagram, is aangeklaagd door Santa Clara County. De autoriteiten van de county in Californië beschuldigen het bedrijf van "het bewust faciliteren en profiteren" van een groot aantal oplichtingsadvertenties op zijn sociale netwerken.

Hierdoor zouden ouderen en gezinnen zijn misleid met frauduleuze advertenties. Volgens Tony Lopresti, de juridische vertegenwoordiger van Santa Clara County, haalt Meta jaarlijks ongeveer 7 miljard dollar aan inkomsten uit dit soort advertenties.

Hij eist een rechterlijk verbod op de praktijken, boetes en compensatie voor het geld dat door deze advertenties verloren is gegaan. Meta heeft nog niet inhoudelijk gereageerd.

Santa Clara County ligt in het hart van Silicon Valley, waar veel medewerkers van Meta wonen. Ook de topman van het concern Mark Zuckerberg woont daar.

GRANADILLA DE ABONA (ANP) - De Hondius is rond 20.00 uur Nederlandse tijd vertrokken uit de haven van Granadilla op Tenerife, ziet ANP ter plaatse.

Kort voor vertrek van het Nederlandse cruiseschip was het nog spannend of die streeftijd zou worden gehaald. Door plotselinge wind konden de resterende opvarenden van de Hondius enige tijd niet worden geëvacueerd. Nadat het schip vanwege de wind had aangelegd, kon vaart worden gemaakt.

Volgens rederij Oceanwide duurt de reis naar Rotterdam circa vijf dagen. Daar zal het schip, evenals de achtergebleven bagage, worden schoongemaakt.

Fabio Bruna posted a photo:

Hoogbouw in Loosduinen, Den Haag.

Fabio Bruna posted a photo:

De weg naar Kijkduin.

Peter Kernwein posted a photo:

Peter Kernwein posted a photo:

Peter Kernwein posted a photo:

Peter Kernwein posted a photo:

Peter Kernwein posted a photo:

OpenAI can’t have inexperienced consultants derailing the AI hype train, so it’s launching a consultancy of its own to help enterprises find the value in its models necessary to justify the spending, revenue that Sam Altman's company desperately needs to cover its infrastructure costs. To support the endeavor, OpenAI has agreed to acquire UK-based AI consulting firm Tomoro. The terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. Tomoro will form the backbone of the OpenAI Deployment Company, which will operate as a standalone business unit tasked with helping enterprises find the value that they've been missing from the AI flag bearer's models. But don’t worry, McKinsey. OpenAI’s new Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) are only there to make sure you don’t sour enterprises on AI by dragging them down an expensive rabbit hole that fails to deliver value. The new company is backed by the usual assortment of AI-crazed venture capitalists and private equity firms, but several consultancies, including Capgemini, Bain, and yep, McKinsey, have agreed to plow billions into the venture. OpenAI says that its AI consultancy will launch with more than $4 billion of investments. Presumably, these consultancies will call in OpenAI’s FDEs when they need help proving AI can boost productivity and/or cut payroll. According to OpenAI, a typical enterprise engagement will look a bit like this: OpenAI’s FDEs will launch a diagnostic to determine where AI can create the most value, then carry out a select set of PoCs. If successful, the FDEs will then design, build, and deploy production systems that tie into enterprises' existing customer data and tools. The experience gained from these integrations will no doubt be used to improve OpenAI’s models and services. The acquisition of Tomoro would bring approximately 150 FDEs and deployment specialists into OpenAI’s new consultancy unit. The deal is expected to close in the coming months, subject to regulatory approvals. Whether enterprises should hitch their saddle to OpenAI’s success at a time when inference providers and model devs are already jacking prices in an effort to get their infrastructure costs under control is another matter entirely. As we reported last week, with the launch of GPT-5.5, OpenAI once again increased its API pricing. For one million tokens, GPT-5.5 is priced at $5 (input), $0.50 (cached input), and $30 (output), double that of its predecessor. But don’t worry, OpenAI says the model might be more frugal about how it uses those tokens. ®

Katy Perry and Calvin Harris will perform in Baku over the 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

"By all accounts men across the country are lining up to submit to the needle. A lot of men, it turns out, so dislike their bodies that they are ready to spend a fortune to change them." For Slate, Nathaniel Moore reports on the growth of the penis enlargement industry and its hard-sell tactics. (Archived link)

⚽️ Championship playoff updates from 8pm BST
⚽️ First leg match report | Mail Daniel

Naturally, I’m entirely impartial. But if I weren’t, I’d be finding it hard to root for perhaps the worst chant in football – and it’s a crowded field.

So, why the change? My sense is that Jakirovic wants to make it harder for Millwall to penetrate the centre, hence a three at the back with the intention of forcing them to go around the outside, while the two men in behind McBurnie should be harder to pick up now their roles are freer.

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Violence in Guerrero state has driven as many as 1,000 households from their homes, rights group says

Hundreds of Indigenous families have been forced to flee their homes in the mountains of central Mexico by intense attacks from a local criminal group, including drone bombings, an Indigenous rights organisation said on Monday.

A gang known as Los Ardillos has been carrying out attacks in Guerrero state for years, but they started to intensify last week. Villages were subjected to eight hours of bombings on Saturday, the National Indigenous Congress said, forcing between 800 to 1,000 families to flee to other towns.

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US president says he is considering restarting naval escorts in strait of Hormuz in attempt to end Iranian blockade

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has said the ceasefire with Iran is on “life support” and that he is considering restarting US navy military escorts of ships through the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to end the Iranian blockade of the vital waterway.

The US president dismissed Iran’s peace proposals as stupid, and denied he was under any domestic pressure to reach a deal.

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