Private credit funds, backed by some major global investors, are venturing where Australian banks increasingly fear to tread:

Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the campaign trail Saturday, traveling to Georgia and North Carolina for speeches at a pair of state Republican conventions as news of his federal indictment roils the party's 2024 presidential race.

Ron DeSantis has made clear what he believes the purpose of his 2024 candidacy to be: The utter destruction of the Democratic Party and its ideology. The Florida governor spoke on Fox & Friends on Monday and made the bold claim that not only would he win the general election should Republican voters nominate him in the primary, but added that he would “destroy leftism in this country” if allowed to serve in the White House. It was a claim that outlined exactly how far to the right the GOP continues to slide; while Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi have made headlines for asserting that they want a “strong” Republican Party that is reclaimed from Trumpism, Mr DeSantis and his fellow lawmakers on the right have embraced a desire for the total destruction of their political foes and the effective establishment of a one-party system. “I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history. At the end of the day, I’ve shown in Florida an ability to win huge swaths of voters that Republicans typically can’t win — while also delivering the boldest agenda anywhere in the country,” said Mr DeSantis. “I pledge to Republican voters if you nominate me, I will be taking the oath of office on January 20, 2025, on the west side of the Capitol. No excuses, no more excuses about why we can’t get it done. We need to get it done, and I will get it done,” he continued. The Florida governor is currently polling in second place in surveys of the 2024 Republican field; he has consistently been the only Republican other than former President Donald Trump, the undisputed leader of the pack, to register double-digit percentages in polls of voters’ choice for the party’s nominee. His claim to have pursued the “boldest agenda” in the nation holds water thanks to the hard-right conservative agenda he has pursued in Florida. His administration banned so-called “critical race theory” — or any lessons that infer that racism is deeply embedded in American history or society — from classrooms, and has signed a host of other bills into law that have thrilled conservatives while drawing intense criticism from organisations like the NAACP and Human Rights Watch. The governor has also leaned heavily into a growing backlash on the right against any visibility of LGBT+ Americans in society, with Pride-themed items in stores and in media facing the most intense vitriol. In that vein, he has all but declared war on the Disney corporation, accusing it of pushing “woke” ideologies on children. That battle has now cost Florida millions in a cancelled business development in Orlando once planned by the company, which is also suing Mr DeSantis’s administration for his campaign against it. Read More Donald Trump Jr shares doctored Office clip showing Ron DeSantis wearing a woman’s suit Queer parents need everyone’s support, not people calling us ‘breeders’ LGBTQ people are fleeing Florida in ‘mass migration’ with some fundraising via GoFundMe Member of Ron DeSantis’ Disney governing board quits role Ted Cruz faces bipartisan fire for criticising Uganda’s new anti-LGBT+ law Trump loyalist floats ‘gross’ theory that Casey DeSantis is ‘exaggerating’ cancer story

Lewis Spivey, 39, confessed to the brutal stabbing deaths of Monica Rollins, 23, and her six-year-old son, Dalton Rollins, in their Heflin home

Authorities in Davenport, Iowa, are carrying out search and rescue operations after a six-story apartment building partially collapsed on Sunday, leading officials to find gas and water leaks amid the wreckage.

Steve Rosenberg looks at how discussion of the use of nuclear weapons has crept into Russian media.

A third of hospitals have already shut, the UN says, amid fears of fuel running out within hours.

Tens of thousands of Hollywood actors on Wednesday anxiously awaited their union's decision on whether to strike, as last-ditch talks with the likes of Disney and Netflix appeared to sour...

Tristan Tate said, 'They still have 700,000 dollars of my money and have not returned it or given me a reason'

We don’t want to alarm anyone, but the sun is broken. A section of the sun has left the surface and begun circulating around the top of the star as if it were a huge polar vortex, and it’s not exactly clear why it’s happened. The observation was made possible thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, and its no surprise that it piqued the interests of scientists everywhere. Tamitha Skov is a space weather physicist who regularly shares updates on social media, and she seemed incredibly excited about the latest developments. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Talk about Polar Vortex! Material from a northern prominence just broke away from the main filament & is now circulating in a massive polar vortex around the north pole of our Star,” she wrote. “Implications for understanding the Sun's atmospheric dynamics above 55° here cannot be overstated!” Solar prominences consist of hydrogen and helium, and they extrude from the sun’s service releasing plasma. While there’s confusion around the cause of the phenomenon, it could be related to the reversal of the sun’s magnetic field, as well as the fact that something expected has been known to happen when the sun reaches a 55 degree latitude in every 11-year solar cycle. Solar physicist Scott McIntosh, who is the deputy director at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado told Space.com: "Once every solar cycle, it forms at the 55 degree latitude and it starts to march up to the solar poles. “It's very curious. There is a big 'why' question around it. Why does it only move toward the pole one time and then disappears and then comes back, magically, three or four years later in exactly the same region?" Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Previously unseen home video footage shows a younger, untidy and awkward-looking Vladimir Putin socialising and playing table tennis during a visit to Finland around three decades ago. The rare clip, obtained by Finnish outlet Yle, shows the future Russian president dressed in a shellsuit playing darts and eating with other guests at a hospitality venue near Helsinki. According to sources spoken to by Yle, the Finnish broadcasting company, the video was shot around a May Day holiday in the early 90s. At the time Putin, then around age 40 and becoming a major player in the St Petersburg political scene, was working as a KGB officer and had become an adviser to Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of the Black Sea city. Mr Sobchak is also seen in the clip along with his bodyguards and the party later goes fishing together. On their return, a man can be heard shouting from the boat: “I cannot hear you - we have so much fish. We have so much fish that I cannot hear you.” Putin is seen facing away from the camera with the hood of his coat up. The other men in the boat are facing in the direction of the filmer. Throughout the video, Putin appears to be aware that he is being filmed but on occasion tries to turn his face away from the camera. After the boat returns to shore, a woman is seen scaling the catch on a jetty next to the lake where the men had been fishing. An eyewitness told Yle the woman was Putin’s then-wife Lyudmila. The outlet said it was unable to corroborate the account but confirmed that the Putin’s and their children - Maria and Katerina - were present. Yle said the video was a far cry from the “macho, dictatorial image that Putin has since hewn for himself”. ”This is pre-rich Putin, Putin in a bad shell suit, with a bad haircut, bad vest, doing everyday dad stuff,” said Luke Harding, Russia expert and former Moscow correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian. ”The most striking thing is he is smiling. He looks human, rather than the ghoul he has become,” says Mr Harding when shown excerpts of the video by Yle. Read More Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks Russia unleashes hypersonic missiles on Odesa port in overnight attack Russian oil supplies continue to spike despite G7 price cap sanctions, data shows Putin wants Ukrainian counteroffensive halted before early October, report says South Korea's Yoon calls for a strong military amid deepening North Korean-Russian ties Ukraine launches new missile attack near Putin’s military airfield in Sevastopol

State investigators repeatedly identified fire and safety hazards at a leased storage space under an elevated Los Angeles freeway before it burned in an arson fire last weekend