Tech giant now world's most valuable company, beating out Apple and Amazon; growth spurred by cloud computing and business services

US district judge shoots down regulation requiring contractors to certify that they don't support BDS, saying boycotts are protected free speech

Family says nine-year-old killed in a kidnapping and ransom attempt; all suspects are also of Palestinian origin

'Liberation Heroes' profiles US soldiers who liberated concentration camps; 'Last Witness' features stories of British-raised survivors

In a meeting with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in Ramallah on Tuesday, newly appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh blamed the Trump administration for “punishing” and “blackmailing” the Palestinians. He emphasized its recent cutting of U.S. aid to the Palestinians, recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory and the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem last spring as reasons for Palestinian fury. He may also have been referring to the much-anticipated Mideast peace plan expected to be revealed in June, after the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
The Palestinians have already made it clear that they will not accept it, sight unseen.

The organizers of the 2020 World Expo in Dubai announced the 192 participating countries, including Israel, which the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) said was invited by the United Arab Emirates.
“We have invited all countries of the world without exception, in line with our commitment to make Expo 2020 Dubai a truly international event and platform for all of humanity,” an official spokesman in Dubai said in a statement.
Expo 2020 Dubai will be “the most inclusive and international exhibition ever organized,” he said, recalling that for more than 170 years the World Expos are “apolitical” events.
Read more at i24NEWS.
{Matzav.com}

The National Security Agency is recommending that the White House officially end the agency’s mass collection of U.S. phone data, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sources told the Journal that the NSA has concluded that the program, which gathered metadata on domestic text messages and phone calls, is too burdensome to maintain.
The White House has final jurisdiction over the matter, and will ultimately decide whether to push for legislation to renew the program’s legal authority, often referred to as Section 215. Sources told the Journal that the White House has not decided what it will do.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Iran’s top diplomat said Wednesday President Donald Trump’s aim “is to bring us to our knees to talk” — but national security adviser John Bolton and key U.S. allies in the Mideast want “regime change at the very least” and the “disintegration of Iran.”
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he doubts Trump wants conflict because the president ran on a campaign promise “not to waste another $7 trillion in our region in order to make the situation only worse.”

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas hurried to condemn the horrific terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka on April 14, Easter Sunday, in which more than 300 people were murdered and nearly 500 injured in suicide attacks apparently carried out by an Islamic terrorist group. Abbas’s condemnation doesn’t come as a surprise, as it is his habit to condemn terrorism when it takes place abroad, as opposed to his lack of condemnation of terrorism against Israelis.
Following the tragedy in Sri Lanka, which he called “criminal and gruesome,” Abbas called on the world to combat terrorism together: