Nigeriens awoke to a divided country after mutinous soldiers claimed to have ousted the president

Americans across the country are observing the relatively new Juneteenth federal holiday with festivals, parades, cookouts and other gatherings

Police say the suspect in a Lewiston, Maine shooting, where 18 people were killed, has been found dead.

California Governor Gavin Newsom pushed back when Fox News host Sean Hannity repeatedly questioned whether President Joe Biden was up to the task of leading the US and whether the governor himself has been urged to run in 2024. “Do you think he’s cognitively strong enough to be president?” Hannity asked the California governor, in a preview of the Fox News host’s exclusive interview airing next week. Mr Newsom said he had no qualms about Mr Biden’s cognitive faculties. “I have conversations with him all the time. Yes,” Mr Newsom said, adding: “And I’ll tell you what. I’m dead serious about that. I’ve talked to him when he’s been overseas, I’ve been in Air Force One, Marine One, I’ve been in the limo with him. I’ve spent time with him privately and publicly.” Hannity kept trying, though. “How many times does your phone ping a day, people saying, ‘You need to get in this race’ because they agree with me that he’s not up to the job?” the Fox host asked once again. “I see where you’re going with that, Sean,” Mr Newsom said. “I’m asking,” Hannity said. “I’m not answering,” the California governor responded. Mr Biden, 80, is the oldest president in US history. Republicans have long sought to make hay out of the president’s advanced age, arguing that he is senile and confused during public events. Mr Biden’s doctor, however, has said the president remains in good health and fit for duty. “The President remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations,” Dr Kevn O’Connor said in a statement on 16 February. Read More California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes constitutional amendment to tighten access to guns ‘Small, pathetic man’: Inside the bitter rivalry between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom Gavin Newsom suggests kidnap charges over Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights

Kyle Schwarber hit two of Philadelphia’s three solo homers off Merrill Kelly, and the sweet-swinging Phillies pounded the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-0 for a 2-0 lead in the NL Championship Series

Prisha Mosley said, 'I decided to file a lawsuit because more needs to be done, people who do harm need to be held accountable, I want justice'

A Mississippi grand jury has indicted three former Jackson police officers in the death of Keith Murriel, a man who died shortly after a confrontation with the officers in a hotel parking lot on New Year's Eve.

Russia was actively preparing to steal grain supplies and starve the Ukrainian population of food for months before Vladimir Putin ordered last year’s invasion, according to new evidence compiled by human rights experts. When Russian tanks did roll across the border on 24 February 2022 they deliberately targeted grain-rich areas and food production infrastructure first, the new report by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance found. GRC found that Russia’s defence contractor began purchasing trucks to transport grain, as well as three new 170-metre bulk carrier cargo ships, as early as December 2021, evidence of advance planning for the pillage of Ukrainian food resources “on an unprecedented scale”. Russia began commandeering Ukrainian farms within less than a week of its invasion, and at its peak was exporting 12,000 tonnes of grain per day from across occupied territories. The evidence of a “highly coordinated level of pre-planning” will be provided by to the International Criminal Court and GRC hopes it will lead to a first international prosecution against Mr Putin for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare. It is “highly likely” Russia will be found guilty, Catriona Murdoch, a partner at Global Rights Compliance, and if so Mr Putin could face another ICC arrest warrant to go with the one issued in March this year for the unlawful deportation of children from occupied Ukrainian territories. “Russia not only deployed a multi-pronged approach by besieging civilian populations, destroying critical infrastructure, but it also pre-planned the seizure and pillage of agricultural commodities in an insidious plan. Moscow has sparked a global food crisis and attacked Ukraine’s agriculture sector as a warfare tactic,” Ms Murdoch told The Independent. The grain pillaged from Ukraine so far has an estimated market value of $1bn per year. Multiple private Ukrainian grain companies were forcibly incorporated into Russia’s state operator, the GRC said. Beyond its impact on Ukrainian citizens, Russia’s invasion has affected millions around the world by increasing global food insecurity – Ukraine was the world’s largest wheat producer prior to the conflict. A farmer in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine said his grain farm was taken over by Russian forces five days after the full-scale invasion began. “Multiple convoys of vehicles were seen carrying grain in the direction of the Crimean Peninsula in the following weeks, and GPS trackers on farmers’ stolen trucks show them driving through Crimea and into Russia,” the GRC said. Satellite images shared with The Independent by the GRC showed grain trucks at a facility in Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia bearing licence plate numbers registered in occupied Crimea. Other images show train carriages labelled “grain” leaving Beridansk train station in Zaporizhzhia. And another image from March this year shows a newly constructed storage building in Melitopol with grain visible throughout the compound. GRC said that despite the apparent planning that went into Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain, job adverts seen in Russia suggest the government was unable to recruit truck drivers quickly enough to transport the vast quantities of stolen food. The investigation into grain theft ran up to August this year. GRC said that while Russia has not captured any more grain-rich territory since then, it still controls all of the Crimean peninsula – one of the main regions from which grain is transported by sea to Russia and abroad. Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at GRC, called Russia’s weaponisation of Ukraine’s grain industry “unprecedented in modern history”. Russia is now appealing to the UN and other global powers to ease war-related sanctions so it can resume grain exports from occupied territory to developing countries hit hardest by the food crisis. The offer of grain to friendly third countries was also part of Mr Putin’s failed charm offensive to get back onto the UN Human Rights Council. “Russia is doing this to represent itself as the legitimate authority of Ukrainian territory, in turn also weakening Ukraine’s national economy,” Mr Khan said.

Israel said it was entering the “next stage” of the six-week-old war with Hamas, turning its attention to

Angels left-hander Reid Detmers took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and two-way star Shohei Ohtani hit his 42nd home run as Los Angeles beat the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 2-0

Adin Ross served as the host for the bout, and while no official winner was declared, Zherka claims he was shortchanged

Turkey’s parliament is set to hold a debate this week over Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military