The White House says President Joe Biden will thank Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for Spain’s recent commitment to collaborate with the United States “to expand safe, humane and regular migration pathways” for people from Latin America

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican reportedly days away from launching a campaign for president, was called a “swamp monster” by an irate Donald Trump supporter outside the courthouse where the former president is set to be arraigned on federal charges today. Mr Suarez, 45, has been critical of Mr Trump in the past and reportedly did not vote for him for president in 2020. That presumably did not endear him to supporters of the former president, who has pleaded not guilty to a plethora of charges regarding his handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency and alleged attempts to impede the government’s attempts to get the documents back. “We’ve got a Deep State corrupt mayor!” a Trump supporter screamed at Mr Suarez as he made his way towards the courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve got a Deep State swamp monster! We’ve got a swamp monster folks! We’ve got a big swamp monster! Swamp’s getting rounded up, baby! Time’s coming, baby! The swamp’s getting taken down, and you’re getting taken down, brother.” The indictment of Mr Trump over his handling of classified documents has once again inflamed the passions of his most ardent supporters, who are arguing that the prosecution of the former president amounts to a political witch-hunt against him as he campaigns to reclaim the White House next year. That is not, however, a view shared by everyone who served with him in his first presidential administration. William Barr, the former attorney general, called the notion that Mr Trump is a victim in the situation “ridiculous,” and Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, said that, if the allegations against the former president are true, his behaviour was “wrong.” Mr Trump is the first former president ever charged with federal crimes — with his indictment in Florida coming just months after his indictment in New York for his alleged role in a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Mr Suarez has no connection to the case, except that it is playing out in the town where he is mayor. The timing, however, is interesting: Mr Suarez suggested to a reporter on Tuesday morning that he will formally kick off his bid for the White House with a speech on Thursday. When Mr Suarez enters the race, his most formidable opponent will be Mr Trump. He will also have to contend with the presence of his state’s governor Ron DeSantis, who has staunchly defended Mr Trump in the documents case even as Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked him since the beginning of the year. Read More Trump indictment - live: Trump greets fans with free food after arrest, not guilty plea at Miami arraignment Trump has jubilant supporters pray over him and sing him ‘Happy Birthday’ after arrest

Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca “Becky” Hill has not yet responded to allegations of jury tampering in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial - but her co-author is staunchly defending the clerk he describes as someone of integrity and genuine character. Neil R Gordon appeared on Court TV Tuesday night just hours after Murdaugh’s defence attorneys filed a motion requesting a new trial for the convicted killer on the basis that Ms Hill tampered with the jury because she was driven by fame and a desire to secure a book deal. Mr Gordon and Ms Hill worked together for months after the trial on a tell-all book titled Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders, which was released on 1 August. Mr Gordon told Court TV’s Vinnie Politan on Tuesday that he was shocked when he heard about the allegations and what Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin believed to be Ms Hill’s alleged motivation. “I was pretty upset at what Harpootlian said was the motivation Becky had,” Mr Gordon said. “Last time I checked, Simon and Schuster did not send us a check for $200,000.” Mr Gordon explained that his family and Ms Hill’s family together forked over their own money, about $30,000, to self-publish the book. “We put up our own money because we thought it was an interesting story to tell,” he added. “We felt like it was a story that should be told,” adding that he doesn’t believe there would be another trial like this one in our lifetime. After six weeks of harrowing testimony back in March, the jury took just three hours to convict Murdaugh in the June 2021 murders of his wife Maggie and son Paul. It was Ms Hill who read the verdict. Now, months later, the defence team has accused the court clerk of telling jurors not to trust him when he testified in his own defence, having private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressuring jurors to come to a quick verdict. The request filed by Murdaugh’s lawyers on Tuesday also accuses Ms Hill of giving jury members business cards from reporters during the trial. After the verdict, she traveled to New York City with three of the jurors to do interviews. Ms Hill has not released an official statement, except for a brief comment to Court TV, in which she told the outlet the allegations are “untrue.” Mr Gordon said he has spoken with her, and said the “allegations are so deep” that the court clerk has hired legal counsel and they are planning to put out a statement in the “near future.” “What I do know is that she will answer each and every one of these allegations truthfully.” When asked about any possible conversations Ms Hill might have had with the jury, Mr Gordon said his friend, who he described as a “very spiritual person”, is known to pray with her staff. And knowing the jury to also be very prayerful, he said he asked her if she ever prayed with them. She responded to him, “Oh no no no. No legal entity is allowed to have prayer with the jury,” Mr Gordon said. “It was very clear that there was a line there,” he added. Mr Gordon and Ms Hill met through his wife, photographer Melissa Brinson Gordon, who, like many in the area, attended the jury proceedings of the trial that had gripped the nation. She had requested to take a selfie with Ms Hill which eventually led to friendship and talk of a mutual desire to capture the trial in Ms Hill’s words and Melissa’s photos. In the motion filed on Tuesday citing allegations against Ms Hill, Murdaugh’s attorney Mr Harpootlian, a state senator and lawyer for 50 years, said trial court clerks “aren’t someone who should even talk to them about the case. I’ve never heard of that.” The motion claims that when Murdaugh took the stand, Ms Hill instructed the jury to “watch him closely,” to “look at his actions,” and to “look at his movements” on the stand – something at least one juror said they understood to mean that Murdaugh was guilty. When the defence presented evidence, they were allegedly urged not “to be fooled”. The motion also claims that Ms Hill had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson and repeatedly asked jurors for their opinions about Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson released a brief statement on the motion, saying only that “we are currently reviewing the defense’s latest motion and will respond through the legal process at the appropriate time”. Maggie and Paul were found shot dead on the family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate back on 7 June 2021. Alex Murdaugh had called 911 claiming to have found their bodies. During his high-profile murder trial, jurors heard how Paul was shot twice with a 12-gauge shotgun while he stood in the feed room of the dog kennels on the affluent family’s 1,700-acre Moselle estate. The second shot to his head blew his brain almost entirely out of his skull. After killing Paul, prosecutors said Murdaugh then grabbed a .300 Blackout semiautomatic rifle and opened fire on Maggie as she tried to flee from her husband. During the dramatic six-week trial, Murdaugh confessed to lying about his alibi on the night of the murders but continued to claim his innocence of the killings. The jury didn’t agree and the disgraced legal scion was convicted in March of the brutal murders. Read More Alex Murdaugh juror back in spotlight as killer accuses clerk of court of tampering in trial – latest Alex Murdaugh accuses ‘fame seeking’ court clerk of jury tampering at his murder trial Alex Murdaugh has a new victim story. We should be paying attention

A new documentary out Friday, “Invisible Beauty,” offers a unique take on the fashion industry through the life and work of trailblazer Bethann Hardison

By Ankur Banerjee SINGAPORE Asian stocks nudged higher on Tuesday as soft U.S. economic data reinforced expectations that

Our bellies have always been the target of derision and ire. Long have they been poked and prodded. Sighed at and sucked in. Reprimanded and insulted. But ever since social media became the new WebMD for chronic self-diagnosers, it’s been open season on every little bodily function. Every involuntary twitch, skin bump and mood shift has been analysed to death – but none more so than the dreaded bloat. Stomach bloating can happen for all sorts of reasons. Often the main culprit is a big meal. It’s that feeling of being uncomfortably full and needing to undo the top button of your jeans, as if you’ve just had a particularly heavy Sunday roast. Unless you have real food intolerances or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or the symptom is caused by hormonal changes, bloating is the body’s normal reaction to eating a little too much. It usually subsides after a few hours. But this is 2023. A bit of bloating is no longer something you can just wait a few hours to get rid of – social media dictates that it needs to be gone immediately, and if it doesn’t then there must be something wrong with you. And not to stop there, either. You should also be cutting 10 different types of foods out of your life, doing five simple exercises 200 times a day and taking an assortment of supplements and pills because God forbid your stomach be round for the next two hours. According to Dr Tamara Alireza, a functional medicine specialist at Skinfluencer London, bloating should be taken seriously if it doesn’t come and go with food. If it becomes a chronic problem, or is accompanied by other symptoms such as persistent stomach and pelvic pain, changes to bowel habits, unexpected weight loss, fatigue and fever, vomiting, or bleeding, it may be something different entirely. “Excess bloating can be linked to IBS, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and coeliac disease, but also to more serious conditions,” she says. But we are a society obsessed with quick fixes, and anti-bloating pills have become a popular “cure” for the woes of a distended belly. Last month, fitness influencer Sam Cutler took it to new heights when she provided the pills for her wedding guests during the meal. Some viewers of her TikTok video – which sparked so much horror that it rapidly went viral – claimed that the pills were essentially “laxatives”. The glut of brands that have emerged in recent years would disagree, though. Many claim to use all-natural ingredients to “speed up digestion” and reduce gas without a laxative effect. Admittedly, curiosity got the better of me. I am lucky enough not to suffer from any particularly gut-churning conditions, but I do have eyes bigger than my stomach. It means I regularly end up regretting wearing trousers to a meal, cursing myself as my belly strains against the waistband. Could these pills really make me feel more comfortable after a big dinner, or would they just lead to some unfortunate toilet habits? I am kindly sent a couple of packs by Wild Dose, which lists extracts of ginger, liquorice, fennel seed, turmeric, peppermint leaf and dandelion root alongside a “proprietary enzyme complex” and a probiotic blend in each brown pill. They smell very herbal and are a rather unappealing greenish-brown colour – it initially makes me wonder if it’s an omen for what my guts are about to experience. After two weeks of taking them daily, I found that they did make a slight difference in my post-meal stupor and I feel comfortable quicker than before. However, the change has been marginal and, if anything, they made me more gassy, to the chagrin of my significant other. The medical community is reluctant to support the efficacy of similar supplements, as there remains little clinical research to back up their claims. Dr Alireza describes anti-bloat pills as a “Band-Aid on a fire hydrant” for people who have genuine problems with their gut. “I generally would not recommend taking any pills to counteract the bloating,” she says, “rather I would be keen to first determine the source of the issue.” She points to her practice, which aims to determine the root cause of symptoms and treat it – instead of providing temporary fixes. But I think the real reason behind social media’s obsession with bloating has nothing to do with #guthealth. Instead, it is our inherent fatphobia and fear of fatness that fuel this battle against the bloat. Are we so afraid of looking fat for even a couple of hours that we flock to pills and exercises with such abandon? Given the way people have fallen over themselves to get their hands on Ozempic, a drug intended to help diabetes patients but which has made a name for itself as a weight-loss miracle, it appears the answer is yes. It’s no mistake, either, that women are the primary targets for anti-bloating content online. Studies show that women are twice as likely to experience it as men, particularly during menstruation and menopause because of hormonal fluctuations. But the expectation for women to maintain at least the illusion of thinness at all times is also much higher. Many of us learned at an early age how to suck in our stomachs and – even as adults – keep them sucked in pretty much all day. As I write this, I realise that I’ve been subconsciously engaging my core muscles despite sitting behind a desk. No wonder the promise of no more bloating is so appealing, if it makes looking mildly smaller less of a chore. Joanna Dase, fitness expert and operations director of female-focused health clubs Curves, says that any medical conditions should be diagnosed by qualified professionals rather than social media. She acknowledges that while bloating can affect body image, no one should worry about your normal, natural responses to digestion. “If you have a professional opinion and there is no health problem related to it, then you just need to have an actual understanding of your body and its natural functions, and being OK with yourself. It’s just how your body breaks down food.” Read More Wellness gurus claim your hormones are out to get you – but is it just another scam? ‘Thanks Pfizer’: The weird world of shakes, health anxiety and illness online A One Direction fan claimed she had a brain tumour. 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Brian Dowling reportedly works at a high school in Clinton Hill and is known to frequent the area of Commodore Barry Park in Fort Greene

Trucking company Yellow Corp. has shut down operations and is headed for a bankruptcy filing, according to the Teamsters Union and multiple media reports

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey addressed the Irish Senate on Tuesday to help commemorate the 30th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ireland

China’s home prices dropped for the first time this year in June, underscoring mounting challenges to prop up

By Ismail Shakil OTTAWA (Reuters) -The aborted mutiny in Russia is an internal issue for Moscow and speculation over it

Brooke Shields opened up about her experience as a child actress and model, and credited her 'mama bear' for her survival as a newbie