Press secretary gives update on flurry of drones spotted in east coast skies in December

The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the mysterious drones that were spotted in skies around New Jersey and the east coast at the end of last year were “authorized to be flown by the FAA”.

In the first press briefing of Donald Trump’s second administration, Leavitt said that she had “news directly from the president of the United States that was just shared with me in the Oval Office”.

The newspaper’s presentation of their interview with the referee undeniably brings in clicks. But who else does it help?

“I didn’t want to stand out from the crowd. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself.” Fair points, there, from David Coote. Or as he must now apparently be described, cocaine ref David Coote, shamed ref David Coote, sacked ref David Coote and, because some kind of equivalence is being drawn, gay ref David Coote.

At the same time these statements from Coote’s interview with the Sun newspaper raise some equally important questions. First, given this, why did David Coote decide to do an interview with the Sun newspaper that serves no obvious purpose other to out himself as a gay man?

Steven Adler expresses concern industry taking ‘very risky gamble’ and raises doubts about future of humanity

A former safety researcher at OpenAI said he is “pretty terrified” about the pace of development in artificial intelligence, warning the industry is taking a “very risky gamble” on the technology.

Steven Adler expressed concerns about companies seeking to rapidly develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), a theoretical term referring to systems that match or exceed humans at any intellectual task.

The networking and events business struggled with ‘rising rents’ and the aftermath of the pandemic

AllBright, the women-only members’ club with a five-storey townhouse in Mayfair, London, has entered administration, the Guardian can reveal.

The networking and events business – which was co-founded by the Telegraph Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Jones, and the co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, Debbie Wosskow – emailed members last week to say it was closing the doors of its building just off Regent Street.

Union describe reductions as ‘cruel’ as university says it will run out of money without changes

Cardiff University has announced plans to shed 400 academic staff – almost 10% – and cut subjects including nursing, music and modern languages, saying it will run out of money in four years if no changes are made.

Academics, union representatives and students expressed shock and dismay at the scale of the cuts, which were announced at staff meetings at the Russell Group university on Tuesday.

A reduction of academic headcount by about 400 FTE (7% of total workforce), using compulsory redundancy only if absolutely necessary. ​

Ceasing subjects and programmes in ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology.

Increasing student-to-staff ratios across the university.

Bringing “complementary” disciplines together through school mergers. For example, the creation of the school of natural sciences (merging chemistry, Earth sciences and physics) and school of global humanities (merging English, communication and philosophy, Welsh, and remaining elements of history archaeology and religion and modern languages).

Scathing letter warns senators about danger her relative poses if elected as health secretary

Caroline Kennedy, cousin to the current pick for Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, penned a scathing letter warning senators about the danger her relative poses if elected to power and calls him a “predator”.

“I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” she wrote, before going on to say that his victims have included family members and the parents of sick children.

Palestinians are returning to the north – but the US president’s desire to ‘just clean out’ the strip, however unrealistic, is deeply concerning

Palestinians are returning home to northern Gaza, though few of their homes still stand. Their hospitals, schools and other basic infrastructure are destroyed. For some there are tearful reunions; others search for the bodies of their loved ones. They seek hope amid the rubble of their former lives.

Yet new threats loom. Israel and the United Nations are in a standoff over the future of Unwra, the relief agency for Palestinians. An Israeli law ending all cooperation with the agency is due to come into force on Thursday – just as desperately needed aid is finally surging into Gaza. Aid experts say no other entity has the capacity to provide its residents with the long-term support needed.

Financial struggles dating back to the pandemic are imperilling the future of a bastion of soft power. The government should find a way to help

As geopolitics takes an increasingly ominous turn in the age of Trump, the government has been focusing on what has been seen as a traditional British diplomatic strength. Earlier this month, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, announced the creation of a “soft power council”, aimed at boosting the UK’s reach and reputation abroad.

At a time of growing global insecurity and mistrust, it makes sense to mobilise influential figures from industries such as sport and music to help deepen relationships and forge partnerships abroad. Far more difficult to understand is the simultaneous neglect of an institution that has been a world leader in the soft power game for nine decades . Set up to promote understanding of Britain through cultural and educational cooperation with countries all over the world, the British Council has doubled as a powerful ambassador for liberal and democratic values. Yet at a time when these are under renewed threat globally, its depth of expertise and range of connections risk being squandered.

Commission finds democratic institutions ‘robust in the face of foreign interference’ but some MPs behaved ‘naively’

Canada’s democratic institutions are “robust in the face of foreign interference” attempts and there is “no evidence of ‘traitors’” in the country’s parliament, a landmark report into election meddling has found.

But the commission’s lead said on Tuesday that the federal government should take steps to better safeguard democratic institutions and better inform the public of foreign interference threats.