Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law banning firearms advertising that officials determine produces a public safety threat or appeals to children, militants or others who might later use the weapons illegally

The New Zealand firm that managed a volcanic island which erupted killing 22 people in 2019, was on Tuesday found guilty of...

A British aid worker detained for nine months in Afghanistan speaks about his ordeal.

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday he discussed with U.S. President Joe Biden efforts

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed Sunday to stamp out anti-Semitism at the opening of a new synagogue, amid a spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the...

Sue Bird is going back to international basketball

Charlottesville City Council decided to have Robert Lee's statue removed in 2021 after calling an emergency meeting within 20 minutes' notice

A White House official who testified to the Justice Department regarding both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials told the agency that the 45th president understood the process for correctly declassifying those papers, according to CNN. CNN reports that the official, whose name was not published, told prosecutors about a 2018 instance in which Mr Trump directed his team to go through the correct process for declassifying a document, a memo relating to the Russia investigation. That experience could undercut any potential arguments from Mr Trump’s lawyers insisting that their client did not know or care about learning the correct procedure; so far, Mr Trump has insisted that he had issued an order to automatically declassify any documents taken from the White House — an explanation rejected by former Trump White House staff. His attorneys have claimed that the classified documents were taken inadvertantly. In general, the former president has raged against the DoJ’s multiple investigations into his activities, which include his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and actions on January 6. He has consistently argued that the lack of scrutiny into Joe Biden’s handling of classified materials is evidence of a double standard, though notably Mr Biden’s team is reported to have been much more forthcoming once they discovered documents at their client’s residence and office at a DC-based think tank. Mr Trump’s team has been engaged in a dispute with the federal government over the full return of documents retained from the White House for months; just recently, the DoJ subpoenaed the Trump team for any documents regarding potential plans for an invasion of Iran. The sheer extent of Mr Trump’s trove and his continued insistance to be its rightful owner has proved to be a headache for the ex-president’s legal team as the DoJ’s special counsel overseeing the probe, Jack Smith, nears a decision on whether to file charges. The former president was first reported by The Independent this week to have received a letter indicating that he was the target of the investigation, and would likely soon be charged. That set off another wave of condemnations from the Mar-a-Lago monarch on Truth Social, as he rages that the investigations are a supposed attempt to block his return to power. “Wow, this is turning out to be the greatest & most vicious instance of ELECTION INTERFERENCE in the history of our Country. Remember, I’m leading DeSanctimonious BIG in the Polls but, more importantly, I’m leading Biden by a lot. Also, & perhaps most importantly, they are launching all of the many Fake Investigations against me RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CAMPAIGN, something which is unheard of & not supposed to happen. DOJ, FBI, NEW YORK A.G., NEW YORK D.A., ATLANTA D.A. FASCISTS ALL!” wrote Mr Trump on Wednesday. Read More Republicans abruptly drop plans to level contempt charges against FBI chief Christopher Wray Pence calls on DoJ not to indict Trump but stops short of saying he’d pardon him if elected in 2024 Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon subpoenaed by Jack Smith’s Jan 6 probe, says report

North Korea appears to have deployed soldiers and weapons to guard posts near the border that were shut

The notorious Delphi murders case has taken another shocking twist as accused killer Richard Allen made a bombshell claim about the killings of teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams. In court documents released on Monday, the 50-year-old local man maintained his innocence of the 2017 killings and instead claimed that the murders were carried out by a pagan cult hijacked by white nationalists. “Members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, hijacked by white nationalists, ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German,” his attorneys write in the documents seen by The Independent. Mr Allen’s attorneys said that “possible Odinism signatures” were left behind by the killers at the crime scene with the victims’ bodies staged by trees with branches and sticks laid across their bodies in the shape of pagan symbols. While Mr Allen has no known connection to any pagan cult, his defence attorneys also took the extraordinary step of naming four individuals they say are involved in Odinism as potential suspects. None of these individuals have ever been named by law enforcement as suspects or persons of interest in the case. What is Odinism? Odinism is a pagan Norse religion with origins in ancient Viking and Nordic beliefs and pre-Christian European culture. Sometimes referred to as Wotanism, it is seen as a “racist variant” of the pagan religious sect Asatru, according to the Anti-Defamation League. While Asatru itself is not racist, over the years Odinism has become increasingly tied to white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs in the US. Many followers – known as Odinites – are now said to exist among the white supremacist prison population. “The religion, which revives a pre-Christian pantheon of Norse gods, is appealing to white supremacists because it mythologizes the virtues of early northern European whites – seen as wandering barbarians, deeply involved in a mystical relationship with nature, struggling heroically against the elements,” the Southern Poverty Law Center explains. “It sings the virtues of the tribe, or folk, strongly emphasizing genetic closeness. And it credits whites with building civilization and an ethic of individual responsibility, even as they boldly slew wild boars, fought for their tribes and explored the far reaches of the known world.” Were Libby and Abby killed by Odinites? The murders of Libby and Abby have never been publicly linked to Odinism before now. But, according to Mr Allen’s attorneys, law enforcement officials did explore the cult’s possible involvement early on in the investigation – as far back as February 2018. On 13 February 2017, Libby and Abby disappeared after set off on a walk along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown of Delphi. During the walk, Libby posted a photo of her best friend on Snapchat as they walked along the Monon High Bridge. Minutes later, Libby captured a video of a man – known as “bridge guy” – dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and a cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge. In the footage – found on Libby’s phone following their murders – the man tells the two girls: “Guys, down the hill.” The next day – Valentine’s Day 2017 – the girls’ bodies were discovered in a wooded area less than half a mile off the trail along the side of Deer Creek. In the court documents, Mr Allen’s attorneys claim that there were “possible Odinism signatures left behind at the crime scene” including the staging of the bodies and branches displayed on the victims to create pagan symbols and shapes. Describing the scene as “ghoulish”, the documents also reveal never-before-known details about how Libby and Abby died. The teenage best friends both had their necks slashed, the documents reveal. Libby was found at the base of a tree with “four tree branches of varying sizes intentionally placed in a very specific and arranged pattern on her naked body” and blood spots and drippings all over her body. Abby meanwhile was fully clothed, including in Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans, the documents state. There was no blood on her clothing, indicating that she was likely murdered while naked and then dressed after she was killed. Tree branches and sticks had also been arranged on her body, the documents state. Both victims appeared to have been moved after they were murdered and positioned. According to Mr Allen’s attorneys, police on the case did investigate a link to Odinism but, after speaking to an expert, the theory was quickly “abandoned”. Several officials continued to believe an Odinist cult was behind the murders but the information was withheld from the defence, his attorneys claim. Now, the defence is seeking a Franks hearing in the case and to have Mr Allen moved to another facility. Read More Delphi murders suspect makes bombshell claim that victims were ‘sacrificed’ by white nationalist cult What we know about the Delphi murders of Abigail Williams and Libby German Delphi murders: What we know about suspect Richard Allen

As the U.S. government built its latest stretch of border wall, Mexico made a statement of its own by laying remains of the Berlin Wall a few steps away. The 3-ton pockmarked, gray concrete slab sits between a bullring, a lighthouse and the border wall, which extends into the Pacific Ocean. “May this be a lesson to build a society that knocks down walls and builds bridges,” reads the inscription below the towering Cold War relic, attributed to Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero and titled, “A World Without Walls.” For Caballero, like many of Tijuana's 2 million residents, the U.S. wall is personal and political, a part of the city's fabric and a fact of life. She considers herself a migrant, having moved from the southern Mexico city of Oaxaca when she was 2 with her mother, who fled "the vicious cycle of poverty, physical abuse and illiteracy.” The installation opened Aug. 13 at a ceremony with Caballero and Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s former foreign secretary who is now a leading presidential candidate. Caballero, 41, is married to an Iranian man who became a U.S. citizen and lives in the United States. She and their 9-year-old son used to cross the border between Tijuana and San Diego. Since June, Caballero has lived in a military barracks in Tijuana, saying she acted on credible threats against her brought to her attention by U.S. intelligence officials and a recommendation by Mexico's federal government. Weeks earlier, her bodyguard survived an assassination attempt. Caballero said that she doesn't know who wants to kill her but suspects payback for having seized arms from violent criminals who plague her city. "Someone is probably upset with me,” she said in her spacious City Hall office. Shards of the Berlin Wall scattered worldwide after it crumbled in 1989, with collectors putting them in hotels, schools, transit stations and parks. Marcos Cline, who makes commercials and other digital productions in Los Angeles, needed a home for his artifact and found an ally in Tijuana's mayor. “Why in Tijuana?" Caballero said. “How many families have shed blood, labor and their lives to get past the wall? The social and political conflict is different than the Berlin Wall, but it's a wall at the end of the day. And a wall is always a sphinx that divides and bloodies nations.” President Joe Biden issued an executive order his first day in office to halt wall construction, ending a signature effort by his predecessor, Donald Trump. But his administration has moved ahead with small, already-contracted projects, including replacing a two-layered wall in San Diego standing 18 feet (5.5 meters) high with one rising 30 feet (9.1 meters) and stretching 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) to the ocean. The wall slices through Friendship Park, a cross-border site inaugurated by then-U.S. first lady Pat Nixon in 1971 to symbolize binational ties. For decades, families separated by immigration status met through barbed wire and, later, a chain-link fence. It is a cherished, festive destination for tourists and residents in Mexico. At an arts festival in 2005, David “The Human Cannonball” Smith Jr. flashed his passport in Tijuana as he lowered himself into a barrel and was shot over the wall, landing on a net on the beach with U.S. border agents nearby. In 2019, artist Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana covered the Tijuana side of the wall with paintings of adults who moved to the U.S. illegally as young children and were deported. Visitors who held up their phones to bar codes were taken to a website that voiced their first-person narratives. Cline said he was turned away at the White House when he tried delivering the Berlin Wall relic to Trump and then trucked it across the country to find a suitable home. He said the piece has found “its second life” at the Tijuana park alongside the colorful paintings on the border wall that express views on politics and immigration. The U.S. government has gradually restricted park access from San Diego over the last 15 years in a state park that once allowed cross-border yoga classes, religious services and music festivals. After lengthy consideration, the Biden administration agreed to keep the wall at 18 feet for a small section where some access will be allowed. Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, which advocates for cross-border park access, said the 60-foot (18.3-meter) section that will remain at the lower height is only a token gesture. “The park on the Mexican side has become sort of a one-sided party,” he said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that it anticipates replacing the “deteriorated” two-layer barrier by November and that the higher one under construction ”will provide much needed improvements." The Berlin Wall installation has gotten rave reviews from visitors. Sandra Flores, 55, who vacationed from the Mexican port city of Mazatlan, drew parallels between the Berlin slab and the U.S.-built wall. “It's a little less severe here than it was in Germany but it's a wall that divides nations, lives, social and economic lives and everything related to the United States,” she said. Lydia Vanasse, who works in the financial sector in San Diego and lives in Tijuana, said the relic took her back to her 20s when the Soviet empire fell and Germans were suddenly allowed to move freely. “San Diego and Tijuana are sister cities," she said. “The wall separates us, but we are united in many ways. It would be better if there wasn't a wall.” Direct criticism of any U.S. president or policy has been rare. Tijuana's mayor said she understands the need for the U.S. to enforce borders and she has warm relations with U.S officials, including Ken Salazar, the ambassador to Mexico. She said Salazar asked her to evict migrants who camped with hopes of getting asylum in the U.S. and blocked access to a U.S. border crossing in 2022. She heeded his recommendation. Any failures at the border are a collective responsibility of governing nations, the mayor said. “We are against violence, we are against family separation, we are against division, and that's what the wall represents,” she said. ___ Associated Press video journalist Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles contributated to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide AI project imagines adult faces of children who disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship Tribe getting piece of Minnesota back more than a century after ancestors died there Students criticize the University of North Carolina's response to an active shooter emergency

Kosovo’s government has decided to reduce by one-fourth the number of special police officers and also hold new mayoral elections in four Serb-majority municipalities