WASHINGTON (AP) — Health advisers on Friday unanimously backed the full approval of a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug, a key step toward opening insurance coverage to U.S. seniors with early stages of the brain-robbing disease.

The drug, Leqembi, received conditional approval from the Food and Drug Administration in January based on early results suggesting it could slow Alzheimer’s progression by several months. The FDA now is reviewing more definitive results to decide whether the drug should receive the agency’s full endorsement.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that counteroffensive and defensive actions are underway against Russian forces, asserting that his top commanders are in a “positive” mindset as their troops engaged in intense fighting along the front line.

The Ukrainian leader, at a Kyiv news conference alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responded to a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comment a day earlier that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had started — and Ukrainian forces were taking “significant losses.”

FUERTH, Germany (AP) — The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord.

The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.

FORT LIBERTY, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden traveled to the recently renamed Fort Liberty in North Carolina on Friday to sign an executive order that aims to bolster job opportunities for military and veteran spouses whose careers are often disrupted by their loved ones’ deployments.

Less than 100 miles away at the state’s Republican Party convention, GOP presidential contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, vowed to restore the former name of the base that until last week was called Fort Bragg in honor of a Confederate general, if voters elect him president.

10 June 2023; MEMO: American and Iranian officials held indirect talks in Oman last month, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported to American news website Axios on Friday.

Ravid reported from three sources saying that the two sides sat in separate rooms and exchanged messages through Omani officials.

PARIS, June 10 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron warned Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday about the consequences of delivering drones to Russia, Macron's office said on Saturday.

In a phone call, Macron urged Iran to "immediately cease" the support it is giving Russia in the war against Ukraine.

Macron also expressed concerns about the trajectory of the Iranian nuclear programme, the statement said.

09 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appointed a former Wall Street banker, Hafize Gaye Erkan, as the country's new Central Bank Governor – another move that could potentially mark a policy pivot away from economic unorthodoxy, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Erkan, Turkiye's first female Central Bank chief, was a former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and co-CEO at First Republic Bank.

LONDON (AP) — Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson left chaos in his wake Saturday after quitting Parliament with a blast at fellow lawmakers he accused of ousting him in a “witch hunt.”

As opponents jeered, the Conservative government absorbed the shock of yet another Johnson earthquake, while a band of loyal supporters insisted Britain’s divisive ex-leader could still make a comeback. Two Johnson allies joined him in quitting the House of Commons, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

June 10 (Reuters) - German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The investigators have reconstructed the two-week voyage of the "Andromeda", a 50-foot (15-metre) yacht suspected of being involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, the newspaper said.

OTTAWA, June 10. /TASS/: The Canadian authorities have decided to impose sanctions on 24 individuals and 17 entities that, in Ottawa’s version, "are contributing to the theft and destruction of cultural objects and Ukrainian culture," Global Affairs Canada said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday.

Among the blacklisted individuals are former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, blogger Yury Podolyaka, former DPR First Deputy Information Minister Daniil Bezsonov, and Culture Minister of the Kherson Region Alexander Kuzmenko.

SANAA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni government forces shot down two Houthi drones in the central province of Marib on Saturday, according to Yemen TV.

The drones were intercepted and shot down while flying towards army positions in the western part of the province, the national public television said, citing a statement from the army.

The Houthi group has yet to comment on the incident.

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/: The suspension of Russian athletes from the International Skating Union (ISU) events has resulted in financial losses for the union, the ISU said in a financial report published on its official website.

According to the report, the absence of Russian skaters in ISU events "resulted in basically no advertising and media rights fee incomes from Russia." The expected ISU losses may come to about one million Swiss francs (about $1.1 million) in 2023.