Google has offered buyouts to staff in several divisions in a fresh round of cost cutting, according to a company statement and reports from several news outlets.
It's not clear how many employees are affected, but the offers were made to staff in Google's search, advertising, research and engineering units, according to The Wall Street Journal.

At least seven people have died in flooding in South Africa after a weather front bringing heavy rain and snow hit eastern and southern provinces, officials said Tuesday.
A bus carrying high school students was swept away in the floods in the Eastern Cape province and an unknown number of children were missing, the provincial government said in a statement. Three children were rescued after they clung onto trees, according to the South African National Taxi Council, which said the bus was operated by one of its members.

The 2026 World Cup will have a record 48 teams in the tournament to be co-hosted the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Five-time champion Brazil qualified Tuesday with a 1-0 win over Paraguay. Carlo Ancelotti's team remains the only team to play in all editions of the tournament. Ecuador also qualifed from South America after its 0-0 draw with Peru.

It's one of the most impactful climate decisions we make, and we make it multiple times a day.
The U.N. estimates about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, the main driver of climate change, come from food. That pollution can come from several links in the food supply chain: how farmland is treated, how crops are grown, how food is processed and how it's ultimately transported.

The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto "The Simpsons."
Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery.

Pope Leo XIV made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the Vatican's 2018 agreement with Beijing, signalling he is continuing one of Pope Francis' most controversial foreign policy decisions.
The Vatican expressed satisfaction that Leo's June 5 nomination of Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou was recognized Wednesday by Chinese authorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government faces a major test on Wednesday after the opposition submitted a bill to dissolve the government, with his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners threatening to support the measure and force early elections.
The ultra-Orthodox parties are furious that the government has failed to pass a law exempting their community from mandatory military service, an issue that has bitterly divided the Israeli public during the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian death toll from the 20-month Israel-Hamas war has climbed past 55,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said Wednesday.
The ministry doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead.

President Donald Trump is looking to cancel $9.4 billion in spending already approved by Congress. That's just a sliver of the $1.7 trillion that lawmakers OK'd for the budget year ending Sept. 30.
The package of 21 budget rescissions will have to be approved by both chambers of Congress for the cuts to take place, beginning with a House vote expected Thursday. Otherwise, the spending remains in place.

Russian forces launched a new drone assault across Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding 64 others, Ukrainian officials said.
One of the hardest-hit areas was the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, where 17 attack drones struck two residential districts, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Emergency crews, municipal workers and volunteers worked through the night to extinguish fires, rescue residents from burning homes, and restore gas, electricity and water services.
