The collapse of the Black Sea export corridor, which allowed the export of more than 32 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain over the past year, should have little immediate impact but over the medium term...

Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin described the harrowing video of the suffering of their son and their ordeals as the parents of a war hostage

The Indianapolis Colts don't how much time, if any, Anthony Richardson might miss after leaving Sunday’s game with an injured right shoulder

Norway has approved 19 oil and gas projects on the Norwegian continental shelf, saying the total investments are worth over $19 billion

Fears were growing of a humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh Tuesday as a senior US official warned of malnutrition among the thousands attempting to flee the breakaway region for Armenia.

A man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 is seeking an insanity defense as he seeks to avoid the death penalty

Heidi Klum wore a sheer dress with a white bra and miniskirt-style panels, adorned with a captivating dripping rhinestone design

BERLIN (Reuters) -The German economy contracted slightly in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the previous three months, thereby

At least 930 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, Kyiv’s officials claimed. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its battlefield update on Thursday morning also claimed Vladimir Putin has lost approximately 302,420 military personnel since the invasion began on 24 February last year. The Independent has not been able to verify claims of the battlefield casualties. Kyiv claimed that in addition to the casualties, 43 armoured vehicles, 42 artillery systems, 18 of Russia’s tanks and one aircraft had also been damaged in the same period. Russia has not confirmed the total personnel losses it has suffered in Ukraine. Similarly, Ukraine has also not confirmed its own military personnel losses in the continuing war. This comes as Ukraine attacked Russian positions over the Black Sea and Crimea in an early morning attack on Thursday. The Russian ministry of defence said its air defence shot down six aircraft-type drones over the region, of which five were shot down over Crimea. The fighting has intensified on five fronts of the battlefield in the past day, Ukrainian military officials said. Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian positions on the Kupiansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtarsk fronts in Donetsk but failed to make any success, the General Staff said. It added that a total of 57 combat clashes took place on the war frontline, including 5 missiles and 75 air strikes. Russia also fired 56 rocket strikes using Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) at the Ukrainian positions and other settlements. The Russian troops have also targeted residential buildings and civilian settlements, it said. Accounts from the Russian ministry of defence and its active military bloggers claimed its forces shot down two Su-27 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force and also targeted two Leopard tanks. The war frontline, despite surges in fighting on multiple occasions on several fronts this year, has largely remained static. While the Ukrainian counteroffensive successfully restored some of Kyiv’s territory back from Russian control, the region has seen concentration of fighting along multiple axes with no major gains. The war is now “gradually moving into a positional form”, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told The Economist in an interview. He said there was a stalemate on the battlefield similar to that seen during the First World War, owing to technological and tactical parity between Russian and Ukrainian forces. To break this stalemate, Ukraine will need to gain air superiority, breach Russia’s mine barriers in depth, increase Kyiv’s effectiveness of counterbattery combat, create and train necessary reserves, and build up electronic warfare capabilities.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to announce his run for the Republican presidential nomination this week, putting him in direct competition with Donald Trump. As US president, Mr Trump campaigned for Mr DeSantis’s election in 2018 but the men have since become enemies, with the former regularly attacking his rival with childish nicknames on social media and at rallies. Mr DeSantis rose to prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic through his opposition to social restrictions and has since marketed himself as a younger, less complicated party figurehead than Mr Trump, winning admirers on the right with his regressive policies on LGBT+ rights in Florida’s schools. The men will fight for the GOP nomination against the likes of Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy and Larry Elder, with Mr Trump’s ex-vice president Mike Pence also likely to enter the race. As Mr DeSantis prepares to take the national stage, interest will inevitably turn towards his personal life and that of his wife, Casey DeSantis, as prospective US first lady. Jill Casey Black was born on 26 June 1980 in Zanesville, Ohio, the daughter of Robert Black and Jeanne Caponigro. Her father is an optometrist and ex-US Air Force officer, and her mother is a speech pathologist and the daughter of a Sicilian immigrant. She graduated from the historic College of Charleston in South Carolina, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in French and competed on the equestrian team. After graduating, she went on to become a television host, initially on the Golf Channel programmes On The Tee and PGA Tour Today. She first met Mr DeSantis on a golf course – he serving as an officer in the US Navy at the time – and the couple married in September 2009, their wedding taking place at Walt Disney World Resort, which the groom admits is now “kind of ironic” given his bitter disputes with the Walt Disney Corporation as governor. While her husband entered the political arena, Ms DeSantis continued her media career by becoming a local news anchor with WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida, working in various roles including as a morning presenter and crime reporter. From there, she hosted the roundtable discussion show The Chat on Jacksonville stations WTLV and WJXX. Other lifestyle programmes she has presented include First Coast Living and The American Dream and she is also known as the producer of The JT Townsend Story, an award-winning documentary about the high school football star. Ron and Casey DeSantis have three small children together: five-year-old Madison, four-year-old Mason and two-year-old Mamie, the latter said to be the first baby to be born in the Florida governor’s mansion in more than half a century. As the state’s first lady, Ms DeSantis has been involved in such projects as the Hope Florida initiative – promoting economic self-sufficiency – and Resiliency Florida, a scheme to tackle the stigma surrounding mental health in professional sport. In October 2021, it was announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, although she confirmed the following March that treatment had been successful and that she was now cancer-free. She has since dedicated herself to raising awareness of the disease. According to a recent profile of Ms DeSantis published by Politico – and since angrily denounced as a “hit piece” by The Nation – the couple are said to be so close as to be known collectively as “The DeSanti”, with the first lady taking it upon herself to “humanise the robot” (Mr DeSantis has a reputation for being something of an awkward communicator) and to influence her husband’s policy positions. “She is both his biggest asset and his biggest liability,” donor Dan Eberhart told the publication. “And I say biggest asset in that I think she does make him warmer, softer.” “But he needs to be surrounded with professional people, not just her. I’ve heard from staffers frustrated that they think the governor’s made a decision, he talks to her, comes back, the decision is the opposite or different.” He added: “The sad part is I think she’s very smart. I think she’s very talented. But she also needs to realise if they want to play on this stage, they need serious help.” Read More DeSantis asks that judge be disqualified from Disney's free speech lawsuit DeSantis super PAC tackles tricky task of organizing support for him in Iowa without the candidate DeSantis meets New Hampshire lawmakers, greets voters ahead of expected 2024 announcement

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis is turning up the heat on frontrunner Donald Trump and defending his own trailing campaign, warning that the former president will deliver the 2024 election to Democrats because he energizes his critics

Irish police say they observed 865 drivers speeding over the course of 24-hours.