Authorities believe handguns found in forest near Berlin were ⁠to be used ⁠to ​carry out assassinations for Russian intelligence, Sueddeutsche reports

German security authorities discovered handguns stashed in ⁠a forest near Berlin last year that they believe were ⁠to be used ⁠to ​carry out assassinations on behalf of Russian intelligence, Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on ⁠Friday.

The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ⁠newspaper’s report, published jointly with the broadcasters NDR and ​WDR on Friday, ‌cited unspecified ‌sources as saying that one suspect had been ‌arrested in Romania and may have been responsible for setting up the weapons storage.

Americans continue to drink less alcohol than ever before, according to a new Gallup poll.

Only 54% of U.S. adults surveyed by the analytics firm in July said they ever drink alcohol—the same share as last year and the lowest recorded since Gallup began surveying Americans on this topic in 1939, says Lydia Saad, Gallup’s director of U.S. social research.

“We saw a significant decline in people’s use of alcohol last year, but whether that was a one-time reaction or a trend, we had to wait and see,” Saad says. “This year’s result tells us that whatever is happening out there is a sustained change. Drinking has gone down across all age groups.”

More public awareness of alcohol’s health risks could be prompting Americans to drink less, the poll results suggest. A little more than half of Americans surveyed this year said that alcohol is “bad for health,” compared to the less than 30% of people who said that a decade ago; and 86% of people polled said they had heard of recent studies about the long-term health effects of alcohol—a 7% increase from 2024. Drinking alcohol has been linked to several forms of cancer, as well as higher risks of liver and heart disease, among other health effects.

Not sure about grabbing that beer? You're not alone. Americans are reaching for alcohol at record lows, according to a new Gallup survey.

The survey, out Aug. 20, found the number of Americans who say they drink alcohol sits at 54% for the second consecutive year − and health concerns appear to be a major factor.

"Fifty-one percent of U.S. adults now believe drinking one or two alcoholic beverages a day is bad for one’s health," the survey results noted. "The figure is essentially unchanged from last year’s record-high 53%."

In 2001, only 27% considered moderate drinking bad for one’s health, according to Gallup.

Donald Trump’s director of legislative affairs is expected to depart the White House in the coming weeks, a Trump administration official told CNN on Wednesday.

James Braid has served as the president’s top liaison between the West Wing and Capitol Hill throughout Trump’s second term. His plans to leave the role less than three months before the midterm elections could complicate any final legislating the White House has planned.

The official told CNN Braid is expected to take on a new role in the private sector.

Braid has been crucial to the White House’s lobbying efforts in Congress, specifically in wrangling lawmakers to get behind Trump’s more controversial legislative agenda items.

The United States has demanded that Cuba open up to private investment, and Cuba has passed sweeping reforms to encourage just that. So Cuba’s U.N. ambassador says he wants to know why Washington keeps piling on sanctions that stymie the very economic opening it has sought for decades.

Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, in an interview this week with The Associated Press, directed his question to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the main architect of the Trump administration’s Cuba policy:

“What are you afraid of? If you are so convinced that the Cuban government is an incompetent government, why do you need to implement almost every two weeks new sanctions?”

Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as “Believe,” “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay,” gathered Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children.

Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy’s story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy’s lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill.

Department of Justice plan raises questions over its ability to recruit so many people – and what they would do

Former officials and voting rights experts have expressed skepticism over a pledge by the Trump administration to dispatch 1,000 monitors across the country to scrutinize November’s US midterm elections.

While the Department of Justice (DoJ) has expressed hope that the operation will be the largest in its history, its plan raised questions over its ability to recruit so many people – and what they would do.

The US president has repeatedly denied the results of election defeats, including his 2020 loss in the presidential election to Joe Biden, and in recent months has escalated concerns that he will seek to meddle in November’s elections.

Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are pointing to a stunning upset in a special election for a deep-red state House district as proof that the party has momentum while campaigning this fall for a trifecta in Harrisburg.

Butler County Democrat Brandon Dukes said his apparent victory over Republican Scott Timko, by fewer than 100 votes as of Wednesday afternoon, was thanks to his focus on local issues, such as a major corridor perennially under construction to the frustration of residents.

“We kept it local, we kept it practical, and we kept it common sense,” Dukes said in an interview.

The 12th Pennsylvania House District, just north of Pittsburgh, went for Donald Trump by more than 18 percentage points just two years ago and had been held by Republicans since 1999.

An Army unit based in Europe that was specializing in drone warfare has been directed to end its efforts to learn and use the battlefield technology and return to being a traditional infantry battalion, officials said Thursday.

For more nearly a year, soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade have been experimenting and building their own drones, as well as participating in drills on waging unmanned warfare after Ukraine pioneered such tactics in its yearslong conflict with Russia. Last November, 600 soldiers formed a battalion that specialized in drone warfare and was set up to be used as a dedicated unit that could deploy anywhere drones were required.

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff, has ordered the battalion to refocus on its core mission of being an airborne infantry unit, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal Army deliberations. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the change.

Omaha police agreed this week to stop carrying gloves that can deliver electric shocks to students in the halls of Nebraska’s largest public school district.

The decision affecting most Omaha middle and high schools came after The Associated Press first revealed Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers the gloves, which are known as G.L.O.V.E.s or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitters. The devices have also been used in recent years by some jails.

Omaha Superintendent Matthew Ray requested that police working in the schools, known as school resource officers, stop using the gloves. Omaha Police agreed.

The premier of a Canadian province launched a blistering attack on U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him a “bad person” and “not to be trusted” and urging Canada to keep fighting rather than rush to make concessions in trade talks with Washington.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said Canada has leverage in the talks even as his province weighs restoring U.S. alcohol sales at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s urging to help secure a deal that would avert threatened 50% U.S. tariffs.

“Everybody knows the American president by now, he’s erratic, he’s irresponsible, and he’s not to be trusted. And this is the person that we were supposed to make a deal with, and we’re going to make additional concessions for it. That’s why I say you can’t make a good deal with a bad person, because who’s to say it’s not going to be undone?” Kinew said.

Meta chief executive paid roughly €20m for gothic-style mansion built in 1830 and its surroundings

It stretches the definition of pied-à-terre but Mark Zuckerberg now has a pad in Ireland: Strancally castle.

The Meta chief executive and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have bought the gothic-style mansion and its 178-hectare (440-acre) estate in county Waterford to use as a base during visits to Ireland.

“Mark and his family are excited to continue caring for this historic home and look forward to spending time in Ireland, where Meta maintains its international headquarters,” a spokesperson said on Thursday.

The price paid in the off-market deal is not known but the Irish Times, which first reported the sale, estimated a value between €20m (£17m) and €30m: approximately 10% of the cost of his 387ft superyacht.