Trump’s veterans affairs chief defends ‘extraordinarily difficult’ plans to cut 80,000 staff – US politics live | Trump administration

VA secretary defends ‘extraordinarily difficult’ layoff plans Veterans affairs secretary Doug Collins confirmed plans to reduce staff by about 15%, or around 80,000 people, and argued the cuts were necessary to make the department more efficient. “We regret anyone who loses their job, and it’s extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and…

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This cat got its bite back

The first time you make anything, it probably won’t come out perfect, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when struggled out of the gate. And that’s before you consider the unorthodox choice to go with an Intel chip instead of one from AMD like practically all of its rivals. However, MSI didn’t give up, and…

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Starmer highlights UK’s war record in implicit rebuke to Vance as Lib Dems mock Badenoch for defending him – as it happened | Politics

Afternoon summary Keir Starmer has delivered an implicit rebuke to JD Vance at PMQs, by highlighting the sacrifice made by the 642 Britons who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – a day after the US vice president appeared to disparage the value of the British military. (See 12.04pm.) Around a dozen Labour MPs have…

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Human ancestors made the oldest known bone tools 1.5 million years ago

Ancient human relatives crafted sharp-edged tools out of animal bones around 1.5 million years ago, researchers say. Discoveries at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, a famous East African fossil location, represent the oldest known evidence of systematic bone tool production by hominids, according to archaeologist Ignacio de la Torre of CSIC-Spanish National Research Council in Madrid and…

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