Two Texas Congressmen are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to reject their state’s effort to oversee underground carbon

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Microsoft has made a major change to its proposed takeover of the developer of Call of Duty, in yet another attempt to get it completed. The company is hoping to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, or £54 billion, in what would be one of the biggest sales ever. But it has faced intense regulatory scrutiny, including by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which has looked to block the deal. Now it has said that it has sent a fresh proposal for how the takeover would work in an attempt to convince the CMA that the deal should go ahead. But it has stressed that there is still no “green light” for the deal. It came as the regulator confirmed on Tuesday that Microsoft‘s original plan to buy the computer games company “cannot proceed”. Under the new proposal, Microsoft would sell off its rights to offer games via the cloud for new or existing Activision PC or console games for the next 15 years outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It will instead sell those rights to Ubisoft, a rival developer known for the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games series. This is designed to ensure that gamers have access to Activision Blizzard’s games, even on consoles and computers not made by Microsoft. The CMA will now launch a new probe into this deal, a so-called Phase 1 investigation. CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said: “The CMA has today confirmed that Microsoft‘s acquisition of Activision, as originally proposed, cannot proceed. “Separately, Microsoft has notified a new and restructured deal, which is substantially different from what was put on the table previously “This is not a green light. We will carefully and objectively assess the details of the restructured deal and its impact on competition, including in light of third-party comments.” Microsoft president Brad Smith said: “Under the restructured transaction, Microsoft will not be in a position either to release Activision Blizzard games exclusively on its own cloud streaming service, Xbox Cloud Gaming, or to exclusively control the licensing terms of Activision Blizzard games for rival services.” It marks a new twist in the case, the biggest fight the CMA has taken on since gaining new post-Brexit powers. At one point the case looked like as though it would only end after a court battle. In January 2022 Microsoft announced that it planned to buy Activision Blizzard, the company behind the Call Of Duty and World Of Warcraft games, for an eye-watering sum. When the UK was still an EU member, a deal of that size would have been assessed by regulators in Brussels. But after Brexit the CMA now has the power to investigate such deals itself. Although both companies are American, both have significant businesses in the UK so their tie-up could have a significant impact on competition here. Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick said: “For us, nothing substantially changes with the addition of this divestiture: our merger agreement with Microsoft, closing deadline, and the cash consideration to be paid for each Activision Blizzard share at closing remain the same. “We will continue to work closely with Microsoft and the CMA throughout the remaining review process, and we are committed to help Microsoft clear any final hurdles as quickly as possible. “This has been a longer journey than expected, and I am very proud of how focused everyone has remained on delivering great games.” Additional reporting by agencies Read More Meta could finally launch Threads feature everyone is waiting for Japanese scientists hoping for a message from alien life imminently iPhone 15 could bring two major changes to fix battery life Meta could finally launch Threads feature everyone is waiting for Japanese scientists hoping for a message from alien life imminently iPhone 15 could bring two major changes to fix battery life

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YouTube has suspended the monetisation of Russell Brand’s channel for “violating” its “creator responsibility policy”. In a statement to the PA news agency, a spokesperson for the Google-owned company said: “If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.” The news comes after the remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said it had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations about the comedian and actor. Brand’s YouTube account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended from YouTube’s partner account “following serious allegations against the creator”, meaning the channel is no longer able to make money from advertising on the platform. The statement added: “This decision applies to all channels that may be owned or operated by Russell Brand.” The 48-year-old actor has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame and working for the BBC, Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films, following a joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches. He has strongly denied the allegations, which also include claims of controlling, abusive and predatory behaviour. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Thousands of Twitter users reported problems with the social media platform this weekend, with many receiving a message saying “rate-limit exceeded” on their personal feed page meant for curated content. Many users complained of several issues over the weekend, such as disappearing timelines, an inability to retrieve or send out their own tweets or even send a direct message. Users could scroll only a limited number of times on their curated “For You” personal feed pages before hitting limits. Twitter owner and chief technology officer Elon Musk explained on Saturday that the platform was issuing temporary reading limits with verified accounts being restricted to reading 6,000 posts a day. Mr Musk said the new restriction was applied “to address extreme levels of data scraping and system manipulation”. The Tesla chief then later added that the “rate limits” were increasing to “8,000 for verified, 800 for unverified and 400 for new unverified”. He then followed it with another update, raising the limits to 10,000, 1,000 and 500 respectively. It remains unclear for how long the new restrictions will be in place as many users continue to face the “Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a few moments then try again” message. Mr Musk has been attempting to generate more revenue for Twitter by making changes to the platform’s policy regarding the use of its API – the system used to communicate with other services. The Tesla and SpaceX chief has previously expressed displeasure with third-party clients, including artificial intelligence firms, using Twitter’s data to train their AI models. The company has been cutting its free API support, which has effectively killed off third-party services that rely on it. Commenting on the outage, Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the UK’s professional IT body, said while data scraping may be “part of the reason”, there are likely to be “underlying technical problems” on the platform. “The alleged data scraping could well be caused by Twitter now charging exorbitant fees for API access, which may have led to a secondary market for tweet data,” he said. Mr Musk retweeted an Elon Musk parody account that said “we are all Twitter addicts and need to go outside”. “I’m doing a good deed for the world here. Also, that’s another view you just used,” the tweet read. Read More Jack Dorsey calls for ‘open internet’ as Musk imposes new reading limits on Twitter Twitter limits number of tweets people can read in a day, Elon Musk announces Is Twitter down? Thousands of users complain of issues with social media website and app Jack Dorsey calls for ‘open internet’ as Musk imposes new reading limits on Twitter Twitter limits number of tweets people can read in a day Twitter applies temporary reading limits amid ongoing problems with platform

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 6, 2023--

A slimmer refinement of its Omen 16 gaming laptop, HP's Omen 16 Transcend (starts at