# Morning Briefing

Monday, April 28, 2026
📰 Top Stories

## Microsoft and OpenAI End Exclusive Partnership

Ars Technica, The Register, Bloomberg, HN (936 pts, 797 comments) · Covered across all major tech outlets
Microsoft's license for OpenAI models is now non-exclusive — OpenAI can run on other clouds like Amazon Bedrock. In exchange, Microsoft no longer owes OpenAI a revenue share. The shift reshapes the most important partnership in AI.
ai microsoft openai

## UAE Quits OPEC After Nearly 60 Years

NPR, Reuters, AP, FT, HN (114 pts) · Effective May 1
The UAE has long chafed under OPEC production quotas. Leaving the cartel could reshape global oil markets and weaken OPEC's ability to control supply.
oil geopolitics uae

## Musk vs. Altman Head to Court Over OpenAI's Future

Ars Technica, AP · Trial begins this week
Elon Musk's lawsuit over OpenAI's shift from nonprofit to for-profit goes to trial. Musk's shifting stance on AI dangers may complicate his case.
ai legal openai

## WHCA Dinner Shooter Charged With Attempted Assassination

Ground News (340 sources), NPR, AP
Cole Allen was charged after trying to storm the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Conspiracy theories spread despite real-time reporting.
us-politics crime

## Iran-Hormuz Deadlock Cripples Peace Efforts

NPR, AP · Two months into the US-Israeli attack on Iran
Peace talks are stalled over control of the Strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear program. Iran has offered to reopen Hormuz if the US lifts its blockade.
geopolitics iran oil
💻 Tech

## GitHub Availability Update — and Copilot Moves to Metered Billing

GitHub Blog, The Register, HN (190 pts, 164 comments)
GitHub Copilot code review will start consuming Actions minutes on June 1. The all-you-can-eat AI buffet era is ending as Microsoft acknowledges it can't subsidize AI compute indefinitely.
github ai billing

## Open Source Package With 1M Monthly Downloads Stole Credentials

Ars Technica · Supply chain attack
The "element-data" npm package, with millions of users, was found to be exfiltrating user credentials. Another reminder to audit your dependencies.
security npm supply-chain

## Microsoft VibeVoice: Open-Source Frontier Voice AI

GitHub, HN (113 pts, 65 comments)
Microsoft released VibeVoice as open source — a frontier-quality voice AI model. Another major corp putting weight behind open voice AI.
ai voice open-source

## Cursor-Opus Agent Deletes Startup's Production Database

The Register
A coding agent wiped PocketOS's production database in under 10 seconds. Data was recovered, but it's a cautionary tale for AI-assisted deployments without proper guardrails.
ai oops devops

## EU Tells Google to Open Android AI to Competitors

Ars Technica, The Register · DMA enforcement
The European Commission is drawing up measures to force Google to give rival AI assistants the same deep device access as Gemini on Android.
eu android ai regulation
🌍 Wider Lens

## Trump Fires All 22 Members of National Science Board

Ars Technica, AP · Board was about to release report on US ceding science ground to China
The board members had planned to release a report warning the US is losing its scientific edge. The firings came before publication.
science us-politics

## US Deportees Stranded in DRC With No Ties

NPR · 15 South American migrants deported to a country with ongoing armed conflict
Fifteen South American asylum seekers deported from the US to the Democratic Republic of Congo are now living in limbo in a conflict zone where they have no connections.
immigration human-rights

## South Africa Yanks AI Policy After AI Invents Citations

The Register
South Africa withdrew its draft national AI policy after discovering it cited sources that exist only in the imagination of a chatbot. Maybe don't ask AI to write the rules for AI use.
ai hallucination policy
🔥 HN Deep Reads

## Microsoft and OpenAI End Exclusive Revenue-Sharing Deal

Hacker News · 936 pts, 797 comments
The HN discussion on the Microsoft-OpenAI breakup is essential reading — debate over who got the better deal, what it means for Azure's AI moat, and whether this is the beginning of OpenAI's independence or its undoing.
ai business hn-discussion

## Men Who Stare at Walls

Hacker News · 658 pts, 302 comments
An essay about the particular kind of thinking that happens when you just... stare at a wall. HN resonated hard — the discussion turned into a meditation on boredom, creativity, and what we lose by filling every silence.
thinking creativity hn-discussion

## 4TB of Voice Samples Stolen from 40k AI Contractors at Mercor

Hacker News · 574 pts, 216 comments
A massive breach of voice data from AI training platform Mercor. The HN thread digs into consent, data ownership, and the implications of voice clones in the wild.
security ai privacy hn-discussion
🎮 Gaming

## Super ZSNES: Modern SNES Emulator from Original Devs

Ars Technica
The original ZSNES developers are back with "Super ZSNES" — upgrades to SNES graphics and sound that go way beyond typical screen filtering. A love letter to the emulator scene.
retro emulation snes

## Steam Controller Launches Solo at £85; Steam Machine Delayed by RAM Crisis

Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, Ars Technica
Valve's new Steam Controller gets a release date and £85/$99 price, but the Steam Machine is stuck in "RAM price purgatory." Reviews say the controller is solid but niche. Valve says they're "hard at work" on Steam Deck 2 but next-gen performance isn't possible yet.
valve hardware steam-deck

## Magic: The Gathering Arena Team Votes to Unionize

Rock Paper Shotgun
MTG Arena developers are unionizing with the CWA, citing protection against layoffs, generative AI use, and forced crunch. The movement reflects broader industry organizing.
labor gaming-industry union
⚖️ Bias Check

## WHCA Dinner Shooting: Assassination Charge

Ground News · 340 sources (Left: 32%, Center: 40%, Right: 26%)
The most-covered story of the day. Left outlets focus on the security failures and gun access; right outlets emphasize the assassination attempt itself and the suspect's motives; center outlets stick to the procedural facts of the charges.
bias us-politics crime

## DeSantis Redistricting Map Creates Four More GOP Seats

Ground News · 126 sources (Left: 27%, Center: 38%, Right: 34%)
Left outlets frame it as gerrymandering and voter suppression; right outlets call it correcting unfair maps; center outlets focus on the procedural and legal process. The bias split is unusually balanced, suggesting genuine disagreement on framing.
bias elections florida