Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Uber to buy 20,000 self-driving taxis
Uber is to start rolling out self-driving taxis next year after striking a deal to buy 20,000 vehicles to operate as a fleet of robotaxis.
The Lucid Gravity SUVs, which use technology from robotics company Nuro, will be deployed over a six-year period, starting in a major US city next year.
As part of the deal, Uber will take a $300m stake in Lucid, becoming the California-based company’s second-largest investor behind Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Uber will also make an investment in robotics company Nuro worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Tech chief caught in ‘affair’ with HR director on Coldplay kiss cam
The chief executive of a US tech company has been caught in a suspected affair with a colleague after the “kiss cam” at a Coldplay concert broadcast them embracing to a crowd of thousands.
Footage shared on social media appeared to show Andy Byron, who runs the New York-based company Astronomer, with his arms draped around the company’s HR director, Kristin Cabot, during the band’s concert in Boston, Massachusetts.
When footage of the pair was beamed around the arena, Mr Byron quickly moved out of sight of the camera, while Ms Cabot turned around and hid her face.
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Police Scotland deletes more than 100,000 recorded calls
About 115,000 recorded calls to Police Scotland's non-emergency 101 line have been deleted due to a technical fault.
It is understood a month's worth of calls to the line were recorded and retained for four weeks but then not archived.
Police Scotland says the fault was quickly rectified and did not impact the ability to answer 101 calls or affect 999 emergency calls.
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Drone attacks take Kurdistan oil offline amid Iran suspicion
A number of facilities in Kurdistan have come under drone attack. As a result, operators – including London-listed Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) – have shut in production.
Suspicion has fallen on Iran, which has a history of involvement in Iraq and has extensive drone capacity.
The first attack too place on 14 July, in Erbil. According to Kurdistan’s counterterrorism force, a drone near the Erbil airport was also shot down that day.
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Trump diagnosed with vein condition
Donald Trump is suffering from a chronic vein condition, the White House announced on Thursday, after days of speculation regarding photographs showing bruising on the US president's hand.
After recently experiencing swelling in his legs, Trump underwent a "comprehensive exam" including vascular testing, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt said Trump's bruised hand was consistent with "tissue damage from frequent handshaking" while taking aspirin, which she said is "part of a standard cardio-vascular prevention regimen".
Trump, 79, has regularly touted his good health and once described himself as "the healthiest president that's ever lived".
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UK's most powerful supercomputer comes online
A supercomputer that is the most powerful in the UK has been made fully operational in Bristol.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle "flicked the switch" on the Isambard-AI machine as the government unveiled fresh artificial intelligence plans.
The computer will become part of the UK's public AI computing capacity along with a machine in Cambridge called Dawn.
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British spies and SAS named in Afghan data breach
The identities of more than 100 British officials, including members of the special forces and MI6, were compromised in a data breach that also put thousands of Afghans at risk of reprisal.
The latest fallout from the breach was kept secret by an injunction until Thursday, when the order was lifted in part by a High Court judge.
That allowed media organisations to reveal that detailed case notes in the database contained secret personal data of special forces and spies.
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