By Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

(CNN) — Microsoft is offering about 7% of its US workforce the option to retire early, the latest attempt by a major tech firm to downsize while ramping up artificial intelligence investments.

The one-time retirement program, a company first, will be available to employees whose age and years of service total 70 or higher, Microsoft said.

CNBC and Bloomberg first reported the voluntary buyouts, which the company confirmed to CNN.

Those at the senior director level and below will be able to participate, and Microsoft plans to notify eligible employees on May 7.

Microsoft shares (MSFT) fell nearly 4% on Thursday, the day the company informed employees about the program.

Tech giants have made sweeping staff cuts over the past year in response to the impact of AI on both the workforce and the broader tech industry. Meta on Thursday said it would cut 10% of its workers, or roughly 8,000 jobs, to operate more efficiently and offset other investments. Amazon eliminated 30,000 jobs across two rounds of layoffs in January and October. And fintech company Block slashed a staggering 40% of its staff earlier this year because “a significantly smaller team” can “do more and do it better” with AI tools.

Microsoft, like other tech companies, has been investing heavily in AI infrastructure and tools. It spent $37.5 billion on expenses related to data centers and infrastructure in the quarter that ended in December.

Some tech leaders have claimed that AI has enabled them to accomplish more with smaller teams, thanks in part to AI’s proficiency in writing code. Microsoft is among the many companies offering developers coding agents that can work on their behalf.

The voluntary buyouts come after Microsoft laid off around 9,000 workers last summer, its largest cuts since 2023.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company’s three business priorities are security, quality and AI transformation in a memo addressing the July layoffs last year.

“This platform shift is reshaping not only the products we build and the business models we operate under, but also how we are structured and how we work together every day,” he wrote. “It might feel messy at times, but transformation always is.”

CNN’s John Towfighi contributed to this report.

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Análisis de Aaron Blake, CNN

Por primera vez, vemos que se exige responsabilidad legal por la oleada de operaciones especulativas sospechosamente oportunas en mercados de predicción, justo antes de importantes decisiones de la administración Trump.

El Departamento de Justicia ha imputado a un soldado de las fuerzas especiales estadounidenses que presuntamente utilizó información clasificada para ganar US% 400.000 en Polymarket aprovechando la operación estadounidense de enero para derrocar al presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro.

Las acusaciones parecen confirmar la preocupación generalizada sobre la posibilidad de que funcionarios gubernamentales participen en lo que se podría considerar uso de información privilegiada.

Pero el presidente Donald Trump, quien suele restar importancia a las malas acciones de sus aliados y ha indultado a varios estafadores de alto perfil, no parece demasiado preocupado por todo el asunto.

Cuando se le preguntó a Trump el jueves sobre la imputación del sargento mayor Gannon Ken Van Dyke, preguntó si Van Dyke había apostado a favor o en contra del derrocamiento de Maduro.

Cuando le informaron que el soldado había predicho la destitución de Maduro, Trump lo comparó con la apuesta del jugador de béisbol Pete Rose a que su equipo ganaría.

Rose fue expulsado de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol en 1989 después de que una investigación revelara que había apostado en partidos mientras dirigía a los Rojos de Cincinnati. Los defensores de Rose argumentaron que apostar a que su equipo ganaría atenuó la gravedad de sus infracciones relacionadas con las apuestas.

“Es como si Pete Rose apostara por su propio equipo”, dijo Trump, y agregó: “Ahora bien, si hubiera apostado en contra de su equipo, eso no sería válido. Pero apostó por su propio equipo”.

“Lo investigaré”, concluyó.

Luego, le preguntaron a Trump sobre una serie de apuestas ganadoras sospechosamente oportunas sobre la guerra con Irán. En un caso, según informó Marshall Cohen de CNN el mes pasado, el corredor de bolsa ganó el 93% de sus apuestas —una tasa de éxito extremadamente improbable— y obtuvo casi un millón de dólares.

Nick Vaiman, director ejecutivo de Bubblemaps, la empresa de análisis que descubrió las operaciones, lo calificó como una “fuerte señal de actividad privilegiada”.

Al preguntársele si le preocupaba, Trump habló en términos generales sobre su descontento con los mercados de predicción. Dijo que “no estaba contento con nada de eso”.

Pero también añadió: “Es lo que hay”.

Esto distaba mucho de ser una advertencia contundente contra ese tipo de actividad. De hecho, la comparación con Pete Rose llevó a algunos a preguntarse si Trump podría indultar al soldado, dado su apoyo a Rose.

Al menos un par de aliados prominentes de Trump ya han dicho que debería indultar al soldado.

Pero la comparación con Rose no es apropiada.

Si bien es cierto que el soldado supuestamente apostó a que Maduro sería derrocado, no fue lo único en lo que apostó. Y las operaciones fueron lucrativas porque el soldado conocía la operación clasificada que intentaría derrocar a Maduro, mientras que otros apostadores la desconocían.

Esto le permitió al soldado ganar aproximadamente doce veces los US$ 34.000 que apostó, según la acusación.

La comparación tendría más sentido si la incursión para derrocar a Maduro hubiera sido un evento premeditado del que todos supieran que iba a ocurrir, y si se pudiera apostar sobre su éxito o fracaso. Pero no fue así; era información clasificada.

La acusación alega que Van Dyke “se apropió indebidamente de información clasificada y no pública del Gobierno de EE.UU. sobre u

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By Zeena Saifi, Allegra Goodwin, Rayhana Zaiter, Farida Elsebai, CNN

(CNN) — When Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel on March 2, two days after Israel and the United States launched a war on Iran, the resulting Israeli operation to destroy the group quickly became a mission to flatten swathes of southern Lebanon.

As Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes across the country, soldiers seized more territory in the south. Ground operations began to take on the appearance of those seen in Gaza: bulldozers tearing down buildings and demolitions razing whole villages to the ground.

Even after last week’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, those ground operations have continued.

A CNN review of satellite imagery reveals the scale of the destruction.

Hundreds of buildings – most of which appear to be homes – have been either completely flattened or rendered uninhabitable.

Satellite imagery and videos from after the April 16 ceasefire announcement show demolitions continuing apace, with excavators and armored vehicles clearly visible.

Rights groups have sounded the alarm, warning that Israel’s military offensive is mirroring tactics used in Gaza – from heavy strikes on critical infrastructure and healthcare facilities, to the targeting of journalists and psychological warfare.

Israeli officials have outlined plans for a long-term “security zone” inside the border – though the preferred terminology now is a “forward defense line area” – with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his forces will expand their positions 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep inside Lebanon.

Following the ‘Rafah model’

Senior Israeli government figures have been clear about what that means.

Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to destroy all homes in villages near the border, in line with what he called “the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model.”

Rafah and Beit Hanoun are cities at, respectively, the southern and northern ends of Gaza, which have been laid to waste by Israeli forces over the last two and a half years.

After the ceasefire was announced last week, Katz doubled down, saying the “destruction of houses in the Lebanese contact-line villages” will continue, describing them as “terrorist outposts.”

The Israeli military says it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure across the country in response to the launch of thousands of rockets, drones and anti-tank missiles towards Israel since 2023.

It says Hezbollah embeds and stores weapons in civilian homes, releasing images of arms and ammunition it says its soldiers have uncovered during searches, as well as what it said was an underground command center hidden under a clothes shop.

Senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials say Israel will impose what it calls a “yellow line” in Lebanon, barring residents from returning to areas occupied by the Israeli military.

It is a tactic lifted straight from Israel’s renewed occupation of Gaza’s territory.

There, it started out as a temporary yellow line on a map – demarcating an area occupied by the Israeli military following the Trump-brokered ceasefire last October.

But after a few weeks, concrete blocks painted yellow started appearing on the ground, lending it a sense of permanence, which has only deepened. Crossing the line remains forbidden to residents, hundreds of whom have been sh