Hurricane Hilary strengthened into a major Category 3 hurricane after sustaining winds of 120 mph and even stronger gusts on Thursday, August 17

A federal appeals panel on Tuesday declined to issue a broad order blocking special counsel Jack Smith's team from accessing data from Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry's cell phone that was seized by the FBI, and sent the case back to a lower court for further litigation over what material investigators can examine.

A man whose wife disappeared in 1998 has died by suicide just as the cold case was getting renewed attention. Jim Sweeten, 79, called police in Texas to say that he was going to take his own life. Law enforcement found him dead at his home at an RV park in Welasco, about five miles from the border with Mexico on Wednesday, according to Fox 23. The authorities said he was found in a shed with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The discovery was made just two days after the disappearance of his wife, 25 years ago, was once again in the news as police found a barrel in a body of water close to the home in Oklahoma where they had lived until she disappeared. Peggy Sweeten, a special education teacher, was 52 when she vanished. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma wrote on Facebook that “Law enforcement returned to the former Sweeten home Monday this week to conduct an underwater search and retrieve a metal barrel that was discovered a few weeks ago and could possibly have been a burn barrel that was noticed to be missing around the same time as Peggy’s disappearance. No human remains were located. This is a cold case that has been under active investigation”. When she vanished, Mr Sweeten claimed that she had left with a lover, but no evidence was found to support this theory, and he shortly stopped cooperating with the investigation. He rejected efforts to conduct a property search or take part in a polygraph test. When questioned in 2011, Mr Sweeten told officials that he thought “he should consult an attorney,” according to Valley Central. A detective wrote in an application for a search warrant that Mr Sweeten “appeared to be deceptive and evasive” and he “appeared to be attempting to find out how far the investigation had progressed and what [the investigator] knows and what direction the investigation was headed”. Police assumed that Ms Sweeten was dead as the years passed following her disappearance. She was last seen on 13 January 1998. Police shared the worry with local media that, as the investigation progressed, Mr Sweeten might kill himself or flee to Mexico, according to Fox 23. Mr Sweeten was a former Kansas superintendent who had been having an affair with a teacher from another district, according to the 2011 warrant. He filed for divorce just weeks after Ms Sweeten’s disappearance. He claimed to police that when he got back from a conference, Ms Sweeten had left him a note to say that she was leaving him, but all her belongings, including her car, clothes, and personal mementos, were left behind. There was nothing indicating that she was planning to leave. Mr Sweeten told law enforcement that his wife had met a man online, but she never used email and didn’t have an email address. Read More Thirty tonnes of explosive chemicals go missing in the Mojave Desert Oklahoma lures Enel solar panel manufacturing facility with $180M incentive package More women sue Texas, asking court to put emergency block on state's abortion law

Russia has likely been forced to move several air defence systems from its Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea coast to the frontline in Ukraine amid the losses it has suffered there, according to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). Vladimir Putin appears to have been left with no choice but to weaken the defences of Kaliningrad, an outpost bordered by Nato members on three sides and considered one of Moscow’s most strategically sensitive regions. “Exceptional Russian air transport movements through November 2023 suggest that Russia has likely moved strategic air defence systems from its Baltic coast enclave of Kaliningrad, to backfill recent losses on the Ukraine front,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update on Sunday. Putin’s forces suffered particularly high losses to its SA-21 air defence systems in Russian-occupied Ukraine in late October 2023, it said. Ukrainian attacks most likely destroyed at least four Russian surface-to-air missile systems that were located in occupied territories in a span of a single week, the MoD said in an earlier update on 2 November. “The fact that the Russian MoD appears willing to accept additional risk here highlights the overstretch the war has caused for some of Russia’s key, modern capabilities,” the MoD said. Sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on Nato’s eastern flank, Kaliningrad is geographically completely separated from the country’s main territory. The isolated oblast is only accessible to Russia through a contentious strip of land, the Suwalki gap, that links Russian ally Belarus to Kaliningrad. Moscow places significant strategic importance on Kaliningrad because it houses the Russian Baltic Fleet in the port of Baltiysk, and it stands out as one of Russia’s few ice-free European ports. In May, Poland said it was reverting the name of Kaliningrad to its historical name Krolewiec on maps, prompting a furious reaction from the Kremlin. The region was formerly called Koenigsberg when it was ceded from Germany to the Soviet Union after the Second World War. In 1946 the Soviets renamed it Kaliningrad, after Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution. Read More Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch on Dublin riots: This is always under the surface Iceland’s new #1 selfie spot may have emerged out of ground despite volcano threat Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch on Dublin riots: This is always under the surface Iceland’s new #1 selfie spot may have emerged out of ground despite volcano threat Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have clashed with police at a municipal building as they tried to take over one of the local communes where ethnic Albanian mayors entered last week with the help of authorities

The 'Last Week Tonight' host had criticized the US for its support of Israel and the subsequent 'suffering' it has caused in Gaza

China’s credit markets are closing out the week trying to digest the implications of new probes that a

The governing party called it a ceremonial passing of the baton. But the opposition lambasted it as a "passing of the scepter."

A federal judge on Wednesday declined to approve a proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit prompted by a surge in Hyundai and Kia vehicle thefts, saying it fails to provide “fair and adequate” relief to vehicle owners

Supermodel Linda Evangelista has claimed she was abused by her ex-husband, French former modelling agent Gerald Marie. Evangelista, 58, was married to Marie from 1987 until 1993, during his time as head of the European division of Elite Models. In an interview for a new Apple TV+ documentary, The Super Models, Evangelista described her five-year marriage to Marie as an “abusive relationship”. “It’s easier said than done to leave an abusive relationship,” she said in the programme released on Wednesday 20 September. “I understand that concept, because I lived it. If it was just a matter of saying, ‘I want a divorce, see ya’... it doesn’t work that way.” She added: “He knew not to touch my face, not to touch the money-maker, you know?” The Independent has contacted representatives of Marie for comment. In a statement provided to Apple TV+, and obtained by The Telegraph, the 73-year-old denied the abuse allegations, and said he “has never committed the slightest act of violence”. Marie was accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women during the 1980s and 1990s. He denied all of the allegations. In 2021, French prosecutors decided to close their investigation since the allegations exceeded the country’s statute of limitations for reporting sex crimes. Read More ‘I had to endure the abuse in order to continue working’: Ex-model Carré Sutton accuses former agency boss of sexual assault Former model ‘raped by Linda Evangelista’s ex’ says fashion industry ‘complicit’ in widespread abuse Cindy Crawford calls out Oprah Winfrey for treating her like ‘chattel’ in old interview: ‘Seen and not heard’

By Ankika Biswas and Shristi Achar A (Reuters) -Wall Street futures gained on Monday as Tesla shares rose, while investors

Democrats in Michigan who've enjoyed control of the governor’s office and slim majorities in both chambers of the Legislature for the past year will soon temporarily lose their majority in the House of Representatives