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• President Donald Trump criticized "leakers" following reports that the United States has depleted its stockpiles of precision missiles during the ongoing conflict with Iran. • During an Oval Office briefing, Trump expressed confidence in U.S. superiority, stating he does not believe Iran "can go much longer" in the confrontation.

Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institutionOne of the most important collections of UK Jurassic fossils ever compiled has been sold to a museum in Abu Dhabi, the Guardian can reveal, in what British experts have described as a loss for the nation.The collection, which was amassed by a private fossil collector, consisted of 318 specimens, including ichthyosaurs, fish and crustaceans among other creatures, some of which could be new species. Continue reading...

Joe Biden’s prostate cancer is reportedly ‘debilitating’, even as ex-president continues to speak out on public issuesFormer US president Joe Biden ’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview.In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch. Continue reading...

Scotland’s former first minister says she will not visit Murrell in prison, where he is serving five-year sentence for embezzling SNP fundsNicola Surgeon has said she will not visit her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, in prison, has stopped speaking to him and views herself as a “mug” for worrying about his wellbeing and mental health earlier this year.During a podcast recording at the Edinburgh festival fringe, Scotland’s former first minister said Murrell had lied to her until the day he pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party. Continue reading...

State’s attorney general says scammers have made off with more than $100m in past two yearsScammers in New York have been using gold bars to steal money from victims, primarily seniors, and made off with more than $100m over the past two years, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday.The scheme starts with victims receiving a fake pop-up message that states their computer or financial account has been compromised, the press release stated. The message includes a phone number to call, and when they do, the scammers convince the victims to provide remote access to their computers, which allows them to access their financial information or online bank accounts. Continue reading...

Four-year-old Taras, who now resides at a Minnesota sanctuary, was diagnosed with an often fatal infectionA lion that escaped the war in Ukraine after being found as a four-month-old cub inside a duffel bag at Odesa railway station is facing an even greater battle for survival in his new home in Minnesota from a rare and often fatal fungal disease.Taras, his two sisters Lesya and Stefania, and an unrelated, slightly older cub from Kyiv named Prada, were brought to the US in November 2022 by the Wildcat Sanctuary, a secluded private reserve near Sandstone, Minnesota, that arranged their rescue with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Continue reading...

Bill must still be approved by House but would keep government running at current funding levelsThe US Senate on Friday passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections, though it still must be approved by the House of Representatives.The continuing resolution (CR) passed by a 90-6 vote will keep the government running at its current funding levels until 11 December, more than a month past the midterms in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency. Continue reading...

Observers express concern that the division has lost its independence and commercial reality has taken overWhen Sir Demis Hassabis said AI had brought the world to a “pivotal moment in human history” last month, he knew another big change was imminent.This shift was closer to home. The Nobel prize-winning head of Google DeepMind, Google’s AI unit, announced this week he was relinquishing his day-to-day duties as chief executive and becoming chair. He is also taking on the role of chief scientist at DeepMind’s parent, Alphabet. Continue reading...

New York mayor’s policy set to generate revenue and address housing crisis despite outcry in some quarters New York City’s introduction of a pied-à-terre tax has provided fodder for Zohran Mamdani’s critics, who accuse the democratic socialist mayor of attacking the rich – even as others welcome it as a much-needed effort to tax the wealthy in a city known for its yawning inequality and cost-of-living crisis.The tax, aimed at closing the city’s budget gap, covers people who own but do not live full-time in a house worth more than $5m or a condominium or cooperative unit worth at least $1m. Continue reading...

Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage.Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team. Continue reading...

Britain’s spooks take quiet satisfaction from survey ranking Secret Intelligence Service Europe’s top espionage agency MI6 has the swagger of James Bond; its French equivalent, DGSE, the complexities of the television drama Le Bureau. The film and TV shows may be fictional, but a survey run by a French magazine that placed the British spy agency above the French as No 1 across all of Europe this week is not.L’Express, a news weekly, conducted a Eurovision-style poll of 60 current and former spies from across the continent, plus the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. Each was asked to rank their top five foreign intelligence agencies, in secret, naturally enough. MI6 was first with 251 points ahead of DGSE on 169, with other agencies trailing behind. Continue reading...