The Energy Department will announce Friday a $325 million investment in new battery types that can help turn solar and wind energy into 24-hour power

The Biden administration is giving temporary legal status to Afghan migrants who have already been living in the country for a little over a year

The UK has formally banned Russia's mercenary Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation weeks after the death of its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. The government order, approved on Friday, makes it a criminal offence to be a member or a supporter of the paramilitary group in the UK. “The Russian mercenary organisation, Wagner Group, has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation today after an order was laid in Parliament on Wednesday September 6,” the Home Office said in a statement. Apart from joining the group or showing support, arranging meetings for the group and displacing Wagner's flag or logo will also be considered a criminal offence. Those found guilty of violating the order will face a potential prison sentence of up to 14 years, which can be handed down alongside or in place of a fine, it added. The move puts Wagner in the same category as the Islamic State group, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Boko Haram in Africa and Northern Ireland paramilitaries among others. The Wagner Group is a private military company that was under the control of Prigozhin until his reported death in a plane crash on 23 August. It has been a key part of Moscow’s fighting force in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Home secretary Suella Braverman proposing the ban last week said Wagner has been "involved in looting, torture and barbarous murders". Calling the group a "threat to national security", Ms Braverman added:"They are terrorists, plain and simple - and this proscription order makes that clear in UK law." The ban will allow UK authorities to seize the organisation’s assets in a symbolic move as Wagner is not known to operate in Britain. Wagner cut its teeth in deployments to Crimea – illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 – and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region in the aftermath of that act and has since dispatched troops to several conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, including the Syrian Civil War. The ban came into force following a recommendation by the parliament’s influential Foreign Affairs Committee in July that Wagner be outlawed. The committee said British authorities had “underplayed and underestimated” the threat posed by the mercenary group. The committee said Wagner’s future was uncertain after Prigozhin’s short-lived armed mutiny against Russia’s top military leaders in June. The lawmakers said Britain should take advantage of the confused situation to “disrupt” Wagner. Several other allies of Ukraine have sanctioned Wagner's leaders, and earlier this year, the Lithuanian and Estonian legislatures passed resolutions declaring it a terrorist organisation. The US has designated the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organisation. Read More With its leader dead, can the Wagner group rise and ride again? What next for the Wagner Group as leader presumed dead in plane crash? Ukraine-Russia war – live: ‘Significant losses’ for Putin’s forces as Kyiv retakes village and attacks ships The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden on Tuesday offered to testify publicly to a House Republican

In another era, a Republican frontrunner facing his second indictment in three months would mean that primary voters would actively be shopping for other candidates to put up against a president as unpopular as President Joe Biden. Instead, former president Donald Trump’s indictment, which he announced on Thursday evening and which was unsealed on Friday, calcified his support among Republican voters at the North Carolina Republican Convention in Greensboro. If anything, the 37-charge indictment accusing Mr Trump of showing highly classified information to unauthorised persons on two separate occasions made Republicans in the Tar Heel State more likely to support him. “After yesterday?” Beverly Atwell of Forsyth County asked in response to a question from The Independent about who she was leaning towards. “Trump.” Ms Atwell said what happened to Mr Trump was “terrible.” “Everybody needs to support him,” she said. “What Joe Biden has done, only somebody like Trump can fight.” Terry Stafford, an attendee, said the indictment would not affect his vote either way. “I know they’re just making s*** up,” he told The Independent. “If they wanted to show us how true they were, Biden would have been arrested for his crimes.” Friday should have been all about Mr Trump’s main rival for the Republican nomination, Florida Gov Ron DeSantis. Mr DeSantis addressed a packed house for the Old North State Dinner at the Koury Convention Center. The super PAC that supports Mr DeSantis called Never Back Down had a booth on the third floor of the building. One campaign button being sold showed Mr DeSantis telling Mr Trump, “hold my beer.” The convention is meant to be a cattle call for the top Republican presidents. Former vice president Mike Pence will speak there on Saturday afternoon during a luncheon and Mr Trump will deliver one of his first speeches since his indictment in the evening after he speaks at the Georgia GOP’s state convention earlier in the day. Alan Pugh of Randolph County told The Independent that the GOP had a wide array of qualified candidates, citing not just Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis but also Sen Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov Doug Burgum of North Dakota. But he said that Mr DeSantis had received much of the talk. “I think the reason is, simply the fact that his record in Florida,” he said, noting how Mr DeSantis went from narrowly winning his first race to winning re-election by almost twenty per cent and carrying the Hispanic vote. “People like whoever you want to, but we’ve got to win. And DeSantis is a winner.” But Mr Trump dominated the discussion. Even Mr DeSantis spoke about the Department of Justice “weaponising” itself against conservatives, though he didn’t mention the former president by name. “Our Founding Fathers would have absolutely predicted the weaponisation of these agencies, particularly Justice and the FBI, because if we don’t have constitutional accountability, human nature is such that they will abuse their power,” he said. He also criticised the Justice Department for not indicting former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for using a private email server during her tenure as secretary. “Is there a different standard for a Democrat secretary of state versus a former Republican president,” he said. “I think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country.” Republican presidential candidates find themselves in a bind in that they now have to simultaneously show their support for the twice-impeached and now twice-indicted former president and make the case that they are a more optimal choice. Even Mr Pugh, who praised Mr DeSantis, said that even though he was not committed to any candidate, the charges helped Mr Trump “because he’s being attacked by our own government.” “Our own Justice Department,” he said. “That infuriates me as a lawyer.” Republicans will likely continue to feel pressure to show solidarity with Mr Trump. Charlie Kirk, the chief executive of Turning Point USA, tweeted that every Republican should suspend their campaign and go down to Miami to show support for Mr Trump. “Either we have an opposition party or we don't,” he said. “GO to Miami Tuesday, and show solidarty or we will mark you as part of the oppsition [sic].” The predicament many Republicans face is personified by one poster in one of the booths at the convention centre which featured a quote from Ronald Reagan showing his 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Read More DeSantis pledges to restore name of notorious Confederate general Braxton Bragg to Fort Liberty Florida man: Why prosecutors charged Trump in the Sunshine State, and what it means for the judge and jury Trump indictment: Ex-president kept nuclear and military papers and showed some to unauthorised people Hiding documents from the FBI and foreign nuclear plans: Key allegations in Trump’s unsealed indictment Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

'We are grieving. We need the time and space to grieve as a family,' Rachel Morin's mother wrote

Olivia Knighton was reportedly the only one hurt out of 12 people on a boat when it was rocked by a large wake left by another boat

This color-coded earthquake risk map can help you determine your chances of feeling seismic activity in your area.

The great films of the 1970s have long loomed in the imagination of filmmakers raised during one of the most fertile periods of American movies

Thousands of people have rallied for a fifth time in a month after two mass shootings in Serbia that shook the nation, even as the country’s populist president rejected any responsibility and ignored their demands to step down

The Reserve Bank of India intensified its operations to remove cash from the banking system, showing it wants

Pakistani mountaineer Shehroze Kashif faces sub-zero temperatures and biting winds in his race to scale the world's highest peaks, but his biggest...