The airline has been embroiled in several scandals related to its business practices during the pandemic.

By Howard Schneider (Reuters) -U.S. central bankers have signaled they are likely to raise interest rates at their July 25-26

Chris Christie is punching back at Donald Trump after the former president responded to his campaign announcement with a juvenile video edit making fun of Mr Christie’s weight. The former New Jersey governor appeared on CNN on Wednesday after launching his campaign with a town hall event at St Anselm College a night earlier in Manchester, New Hampshire. “It’s so juvenile. He is such a spoiled baby,” Mr Christie said. This is the second time Mr Christie has made a bid for the White House, the first being in 2016 when he lost to former president Donald Trump. Though Mr Christie lent his support to Mr Trump in 2016 when he dropped out of the race, he has since changed his opinion of the former president and become a vocal critic. That was evident on Tuesday, as he denounced his former ally as a corrupt narcissist and vowed to draw blood in his quest for the Republican nomination. He did so several times during the town hall event, notably by tearing into the former president’s family for “breathtaking” levels of corruption and “grift”, which he said had followed them through the White House and beyond. Read More Trump ridicules Chris Christie’s weight in edited 2024 campaign launch video Chris Christie gave Trump legitimacy. Now he can’t stop Trump in 2024 Fox News host apologises for ‘milkshake’ Chris Christie comment The Republican presidential field is largely set. Here are takeaways on where the contest stands. Chris Christie hits back at Trump’s mockery over his weight: ‘He’s such a spoiled baby’

Louisiana voters will return to the polls to decide runoff elections in which no candidate received a majority of the vote in the October primary

Many college students who are struggling with hunger are facing the potential loss of food stamp benefits that were boosted in the pandemic

One person compared Gwen Stefani's recent outfit during The Voice's Battle Round to that of the 'Seinfeld' episode titled 'The Puffy Shirt'

By Tom Westbrook SINGAPORE Stocks were struggling to advance in Asia and the dollar was firm on Wednesday

OTTAWA A Canadian Supreme Court judge being probed for alleged involvement in a drunken fight resigned on Monday,

The prime minister had been set to leave on Sunday after a tense meeting with India's Narendra Modi.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, is reported to have been killed in a plane crash northwest of Moscow - exactly two months after leading a short-lived and unsuccessful mutiny against president Vladimir Putin. The plane crash which happened near the village of Kuzhenkino, northwest of Moscow, during a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg on Wednesday evening. Western intelligence agencies believe that Putin may have had a hand in downing the aircraft. The Wagner Group has become best known for its involvement in Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, but the private army, which Prigozhin claimed had 25,000 soldiers at the beginning of the war, has been around since 2014 and has been involved in several other conflicts. Here, The Independent takes a look at Wagner’s involvement in other countries, when it got involved in Ukraine and the events surrounding Prigozhin’s failed mutiny back in June, which sent shockwaves through Russia. 2014 - Wager group is founded by Prigozhin Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman known as Putin’s chef because he provided catering services to the Kremlin, said he founded the group back in 2014 and it was involved in Russia’s invasion and annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine. Wagner forces have been involved in Syria’s civil war since 2015, supporting pro-government forces and oil fields. The group has had a growing presence in Africa in recent years and has been detected in Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Mail. 28 March 2022 - mercenaries are deployed to Ukraine Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) first reported that Wagner had been deployed in Ukraine on 28 March 2022, just a month into the Kremlin’s invasion – after Russian losses had already begun to hamper the pace of the initial assault. But some reports suggest they had been involved since the beginning of the invasion on 24 February. Military consultant Nicholas Drummond told The Independent: “Wagner was involved from the start but the group started to become a key player when the initial assault ran into difficulty. “By the end of March, it was very evident that the invasion had gone wrong. Putin used Prigozhin as a troubleshooter and Wagner was there to fill the gaps.” 14 April - Prigozhin calls for end to war Prigozhin urges Putin to end the war and to tell the Russian people that the country had achieved the aims of its “special military operation. He claimed that Russia had taken a “fat chunk” of Ukrainian territory, and that the most strategic route for its armed forces - who have suffered severe losses - would be to defend existing gains. His comments, which came in a rambling statement posted online, marked the first time a senior figure in the war publicly called for the Kremlin to stop the war. Over the next few months - and up until the weeks before his reported death - he would go on to repeatedly criticise the Kremlin’s strategy in the war and complain about the number of troops he was losing. 4 May - Prigozhin rages at top military brass Prigozhin launches blistering attack on Russia top military brass after suffering heavy losses on Bakhmut. In an expletive-ridden video, recorded in a field littered with corpses, blamed the Kremlin for the deaths. “These are Wagner lads who died today. The blood is still fresh,” he says, pointing to roughly three dozen bodies he says are Wagner fighters. “They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can sit like fat cats in your luxury offices.” 20 May - Wager claims it has taken Bakhmut Wagner claims that its forces have taken control of the city of Bakhmut after the longest and most grinding battle of the Russia-Ukraine war, but Ukrainian defense officials dismiss claims as false. In a video posted on Telegram, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said the city came under complete Russian control at about midday Saturday. He spoke flanked by about half a dozen fighters, with ruined buildings in the background and explosions heard in the distance. However, after the video appeared, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said heavy fighting was continuing. 25 May - Wagner troops leave Bakhmut Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has started withdrawing its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and transferring its positions there to regular Russian troops, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published on Thursday. "We are withdrawing the units from Bakhmut. From today at five in the morning, May 25 until June 1, most of the units will rebase to camps in the rear. We are handing our positions to the military," he said. 23/24June - Prigozhin leads rebellion against Kremlin Prigozhin leads rebellion against the Kremlin and demands the sacking of defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who he blames for Russia’s faltering campaign in Ukraine Thousands of Wagner fighters move rapidly from Russia’s south towards the capital in a "march for justice", reportedly making it to within 120 miles from the city before Priogozhin calls off their advance. 27 June - Belarus president claims he convinced Prigozhin to call off mutiny Alexander Lukashenko says that he convinced Prigozhin in an emotional, expletive-laden phone call to end the mutiny. Under a deal brokered by Lukashenko, an old friend, Prigozhin abandoned what a "march for justice" by thousands of his men on Moscow in exchange for safe passage to exile in Belarus. 6 July - Prigozhin ‘free’ man in St Petersburg Lukashenko says Prigozhin is in St Petersburg and a "free" man - despite staging rebellion weeks earlier. The Belarusian leader said then "maybe he went to Moscow, maybe somewhere else, but he is not on the territory of Belarus". 18 July - Prigozhin welcomes troops to Belarus Wagner chief appears in video allegedly showing him welcoming his troops to Belarus. 27 July - Images suggest Wagner chief attended meeting in St Petersburg Images posted online appear to show Prigozhin attending a meeting in St Petersburg, where Putin was also in attendance for the Russia-Africa summit. 22 August - Prigozhin posts final video before reported death In the video, Mr Prigozhin was seen toting an assault rifle and wearing military fatigues, with his comments suggesting the clip was shot in an unnamed African country. The Wagner boss said during the clip that he is recruiting “strongmen” and said the group will “fulfil the tasks that were set” by the Russian government. The video was shared on Telegram channels affiliated with the Wagner group, as Mr Prigozhin said the mercenary group was “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free”. 23 August - Prigozhin reportedly killed in plane crash Prigozhin is presumed dead after being named among passengers on a private jet that crashed into a field near Moscow with no survivors. Kremlin stays silent on plane crash throughout the following day. Read More If the Wagner mercenary chief is dead, he got the death he deserved Minister warns against jumping to conclusions over Wagner chief’s reported death The downed Russian jet carried Wagner's hierarchy, from Prigozhin's No. 2 to his bodyguards The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Sarah Silverman mourned the loss of her 'best pal', her father, who died on May 11

A 19-year-old Michigan man accused of threatening a mass attack on a synagogue will make his second appearance in court this week after the FBI arrested him on Friday and discovered a cache of weapons at his home. Seann Patrick Pietila, of Pickford on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, was charged with one count of interstate communication of threats after posting antisemitic content on social media, prosecutors said. He appeared in court on Friday and a detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday. According to prosecutors, Mr Pietila seemed inspired by mass shootings that included the 15 March 2019 mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand which left 51 dead and 40 injured, The Detroit News reported. Court documents outlined how authorities found makeshift plans for Mr Pietila’s own event on the tragedy’s five year anniversary – 15 March 2024 – possibly targeting the Shaarey Zedek congregation in East Lansing, according to the AP. “The investigation began with a tip earlier this week that someone was making threats on Instagram to commit a mass killing, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court,” the AP reported. Officials said that a note was found in Pietila’s phone mentioning Shaarey Zedek and the date of 15 March 2024, the Lansing State Journal reported. The note continued: “Me and Limey, Equipment: hand-made pipe bombs, molotovs, Two Stag-15s, 12 guage shotgun and two back up Glock 18s AND a Akm full auto conversion,” the paper reported. On the same day the teenager was arrested, another man was found guilty by a federal jury of attacking.a synagogue 350 miles away in Pittsburgh in 2018. Robert Bowers was found guilty on all 63 counts he faced, which included hate crimes resulting in death and the obstruction of the free exercise of religion resulting in death. The ruling came more than four years after he killed 11 people during the Tree of Life synagogue attack. On 18 October 2018, Bowers walked into the synagogue with an AR-15 and other guns and began firing at the congregants. The attack would become the worst anti-Semitic attack in US history. In addition to the 11 people he killed, Bowers injured seven people, including five police officers who engaged him in a shootout. In Michigan, Rabbi Amy Bigman of Shaarey Zedek told The Detroit News the synagogue had notified its congregation of 220 families after learning on Friday afternoon about the Pietila investigation from FBI agents, and that an arrest had been made and that person had been charged, the AP reported. “We wanted our congregation to know that federal, state and local authorities are aware of the situation that didn’t happen because our law enforcement was on top of things, which we are thankful for,” Bigman said. If convicted, Mr Pietila faces up to five years in federal prison. The Independent has reached out to his lawyer. US Attorney Mark Totten said on Friday that Mr Pietila was “alleged to have communicated with others on social media and “evinced a neo-Nazi ideology, antisemitism, glorification of past mass shooters, and a desire and intent to mimic past mass shooters or mass casualty events,” according to the State Journal. Mr Totten said he was “incredibly grateful to the FBI for their swift action to identify and arrest Pietila,” the AP reported. “Antisemitic threats and violence against our Jewish communities — or any other group for that matter — will not be tolerated in the Western District of Michigan,” he said. “Today and every day, we take all credible threats seriously.” Read More Synagogue shooter found guilty in deadliest attack on Jewish community in US history Synagogue massacre survivor cried 'Mommy' as her 97-year-old mother was shot and killed by her side Rabbi recounts fear and heroism during deadliest antisemitic attack in US history US weighs in on Roger Waters antisemitism debate, says artist has long history of denigrating Jews Kanye West sparks controversy after serving sushi on nude women during 46th birthday party