No news whatsoever as Keir bores everyone to death. He’s a natural | John Crace

The liaison super-committee has an unavoidable tri-annual encounter with the prime minister

An afternoon with Keir Starmer isn’t necessarily many people’s idea of fun. A period of time when every minute feels like five.

Sadly, for the select committee chairs who make up the liaison super-committee, they didn’t have the option of saying no. This was one of their unavoidable tri-annual encounters with the prime minister. Still, at least they all had the Xmas recess to look forward to at the end of the week. They would need a long lie down.

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Dozens killed in Morocco flash floods

At least 70 homes have been inundated in Safi's old city centre, officials say.

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Pilot narrowly avoids ‘midair collision’ with US air force plane near Venezuela

JetBlue pilot calls incident ‘outrageous’ and says US military refueling tanker didn’t have transponder turned on

A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a US air force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

“We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path ... They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”

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Manchin urges lawmakers to stop acting in ‘attack mode’ amid political violence

Former senator’s comments echo recent call from Erika Kirk that ‘everyone has responsibility’ to tone down hatred

Politicians should “calm down” and stop approaching one another in “attack mode” amid the US’s climate of political violence, former US senator Joe Manchin said on Sunday.

The West Virginia independent who generally caucused with Senate Democrats echoed similar comments made at a town hall Saturday by Erika Kirk, the widow of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot to death in September.

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BBC captures celebrations as Belarus frees political prisoners

Southern & Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford reports from Lithuania, where some of the released prisoners were taken.

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Washington state flood waters receding after days of rescues and evacuations

No fatalities reported in flooding, which prompted Trump to approve emergency declaration request from governor

Record-breaking flood waters in Washington state have started slowly retreating after days of devastation that saw neighborhoods inundated, emergency rescues from cars and rooftops, and widespread evacuations.

“This is not just a one- or two-day crisis,” Washington’s governor, Bob Ferguson, said during a press briefing. “These water levels have been historic, and they’re going to remain very high for an extended period of time.”

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Taylor Swift shown breaking down in tears after she met UK attack families

Backstage footage shows the singer in tears after meeting survivors of the attack during her world tour.

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Ghanaian influencer charged over $8m scam targeting elderly Americans

He is accused of using romance scams to defraud $8m, with the profits flaunted on Instagram.

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Disappointing Oracle results knock $80bn off value amid AI bubble fears

Weaker-than-forecast quarterly data for Larry Ellison’s tech company shows slowdown in revenue growth and big rise in spending

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Oracle’s shares tumbled 15% on Thursday in response to the company’s quarterly financial results, disclosed the day before.

Roughly $80bn vanish from the value of the business software company co-founded by Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison, falling from $630bn (£470bn) to $550bn and fuelling fears of a bubble in artificial intelligence-related stocks. Shares in the chipmaker Nvidia, seen as a bellwether for the AI boom, fell after Oracle’s.

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Brad Lander to challenge Dan Goldman for New York congressional seat

Outgoing comptroller and progressive ally of Zohran Mamdani launches primary bid for Congress

Brad Lander, the outgoing comptroller of New York City and a former candidate for mayor, announced on Wednesday that he is running for the US Congress in a challenge from the left to fellow Democrat and representative, Dan Goldman – with the backing of the city’s progressive mayor-elect.

Lander will run in the Democratic primary contest next year for a liberal district in lower Manhattan and north-west Brooklyn.

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