Dominic Raab has surprised EU officials and diplomats by optimistically claiming the Brexit talks are “closing in” on a solution to the Irish border problem, following a 30-minute telephone conversation with Michel Barnier.

In an an article on Thursday, in which he had threatened to withhold the UK’s £39bn divorce bill, the British cabinet minister had told how he was looking forward to continuing negotiations with Barnier the following day. In reality, the two men had a call that lasted about 30 minutes on Friday, sources said. EU diplomats in Brussels also expressed astonishment at the sunny outlook offered by the British cabinet minister over the state of the negotiations.

In a statement issued after the call, Raab said: “This morning, I had an extended phone call with Michel Barnier. We discussed the latest progress our teams have made on the withdrawal agreement and the framework for the future relationship.“While there remain some substantive differences we need to resolve, it is clear our teams are closing in on workable solutions to the outstanding issues in the withdrawal agreement, and are having productive discussions in the right spirit on the future relationship.”(theguardian)…[+]

The Klondike region of Canada is famous for its gold, but now other remarkable ancient treasures have been unearthed from the melting permafrost. Two mummified ice age mammals – a wolf pup and a caribou calf – were discovered by gold miners in the area in 2016 and unveiled on Thursday at a ceremony in Dawson in Yukon territory.

It is extremely rare for fur, skin and muscle tissues to be preserved in the fossil record, but all three are present on these specimens, which have been radiocarbon-dated to more than 50,000 years old. The wolf pup is preserved in its entirety, including exceptional details of the head, tail, paws, skin and hair. The caribou calf is partially preserved, with head, torso and two front limbs intact.

“To our knowledge, this is the only mummified ice age wolf ever found in the world,” said Grant Zazula, a local palaeontologist working with the Yukon government, who also emphasised the support of the local gold miners and mining community for palaeontology research. Julie Meachen, a carnivore morphologist who works with ice age mammals at Des Moines University and will soon be doing research on the wolf pup, said: “When Grant sent me the pictures and asked me to participate I was really, really excited. I was sort of beside myself.(theguardian)…[+]

The Dutch government expelled two alleged Russian spies this year after they were accused of planning to hack into a Swiss chemicals laboratory where novichok nerve agent samples from the Salisbury attack were analysed, it has emerged. The men were arrested in The Hague this spring as part of an operation involving British, Swiss and Dutch intelligence agencies.

The Swiss daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported that the men were carrying equipment that could be used to break into the Spiez laboratory’s IT network when they were seized. Isabelle Graber, the head of communications at the Swiss intelligence service, the FIS, said in a statement issued to the Guardian: “The Swiss authorities are aware of the case of Russian spies discovered in The Hague and expelled from the same place.

“The Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) participated actively in this operation together with its Dutch and British partners. The FIS has thus contributed to the prevention of illegal actions against a critical Swiss infrastructure.”(theguardian)…[+]