The filthy corridors inside the headquarters of the general intelligence service lay dark and empty. Towering piles of boxes and plastic sit near the steps leading up to the imposing building, as well as torn posters of the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. On the road outside, hastily abandoned cars with smashed windscreens and bullet…
Thousands of rainbow lorikeets and hundreds of flying foxes have been hospitalised in Queensland in the past year with a mysterious paralysis that can affect the animals’ ability to fly, swallow and even breathe. Lorikeet paralysis syndrome has struck birds in Queensland and New South Wales since at least 2012, and a similar syndrome was…
Sellers in England and Wales made less than £100,000 profit on the sale of their home last year, or just over 40% – the lowest return in a decade – according to the estate agent Hamptons. It was the second annual fall in a row in terms of cash profit after the market hit a…
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is ready to assist those affected by the devastating wildfires in California, with 150 Ukrainian firefighters ready to go. The offer by the Ukrainian president comes three days after Donald Trump Jr, son of US president-elect Donald Trump, responded to the Los Angeles wildfires by appearing to blame Ukraine on…
Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced, with a multibillion-pound investment in the UK’s computing capacity despite widespread public fear about the technology’s effects. Keir Starmer will launch a sweeping action plan to increase 20-fold the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030 and deploy…
The UK should back Donald Trump’s expected maximum economic sanctions against Iran as part of an effort to encourage nationals to end their support for the current regime in Tehran, Mark Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary, argues in a report published on Monday. He writes: “It is not for the west, let alone the UK,…