One of the longest-running sagas in recent US political history has come to an end, with Republican George Santos finally being expelled from the US House of Representatives. The embattled Santos was ousted 311-114 in a bipartisan vote on the "overwhelming evidence" that he misused campaign donations. Remarkably, this is only the sixth time a Congressperson has been expelled from the House since it was formed in 1789. The 35-year-old, who has been accused of lying about numerous bizarre claims he has made, said after the vote was confirmed: "The people of the Third District of New York sent me here. If they want me out, you're going to have to go silence those people and go take the hard vote." In almost the immediate aftermath of Santos's expulsion memes about the disgraced politician began circulating across social media with many bidding farewell to the 'messy drama queen' who had a propensity for outlandish statements. Here are some of our favourites. It remains to be seen what Santos will do next but there is no doubt that we haven't heard the last of him. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

Robert De Niro has been devastated by the untimely death of his 19-year-old grandson Leandro De Niro Rodriguez

The head of Britain's foreign intelligence service used a rare speech Wednesday to issue a plea to disaffected Russians to spy for the UK.

Authorities say Lisa Marie Presley died from the effects of a small bowel obstruction

Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh has accused a South Carolina court clerk of tampering with the jury at his high-profile double murder trial – because she was driven by fame and a desire to secure a book deal. The disgraced legal scion and double murderer filed a motion on Tuesday requesting a new trial on the basis that Walterboro Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill allegedly pressured jurors on the case. In the motion, Murdaugh’s attorneys Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin claim that Ms Hill “tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh’s testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict, and even misrepresenting critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense”. Specifically, they claim that the clerk instructed jurors not to be “misled” by evidence presented by the defence and told jurors not to be “fooled by” his testimony. The motion also claims that Ms Hill had frequent private conversations with the jury foreperson – with the pair often disappearing to private rooms for five to 10 minutes at a time. “During the trial, Ms Hill asked jurors for their opinions about Mr. Murdaugh’s guilt or innocence,” the motion reads. “Ms Hill invented a story about a Facebook post to remove a juror she believed might not vote guilty. “Ms Hill pressured the jurors to reach a quick verdict, telling them from the outset of their deliberations that it ‘shouldn’t take them long.’” Murdaugh’s attorneys claim that she “betrayed her oath of office for money and fame” and, off the back of her work on the case, secured a deal for a book titled “Behind the Doors of Justice”. “She did these things to secure for herself a book deal and media appearances that would not happen in the event of a mistrial,” the motion claims. Just hours after they returned a guilty verdict, his attorneys allege Ms Hill flew with jurors to New York as some of the panellists waived their anonymity to appear on NBC’s Today show. In conclusion, they claim that the court clerk’s actions violated “Murdaugh’s constitutional right to a fair and impartial jury”. Further details are expected to be shared by Murdaugh’s attorneys at a press conference on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in Columbia at 2.30pm local time on Tuesday afternoon. The duo – who are longtime friends of the killer and represented him at his high-profile murder trial – had announced on Monday that new evidence had come to light since his March conviction over the brutal 7 June 2021 slayings. Murdaugh is currently behind bars at the McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina where he is serving two life sentences for his wife and son’s murders. Last week, it emerged that Murdaugh had lost some of his prison privileges after he fed information to a Fox Nation documentary without permission. South Carolina Corrections Department officials said on Wednesday that, during a jailhouse phone call on 10 June, Mr Griffin had recorded him reading aloud entries from the journal he had kept during his double murder trial. Mr Griffin had then handed over the recordings to producers working on the new Fox Nation documentary about his high-profile case titled “The Fall of the House of Murdaugh”. Prison policy prohibits inmates from talking to the media without permission because the agency “believes that victims of crime should not have to see or hear the person who victimized them or their family member on the news,” state prisons spokesperson Chrysti Shain said in a statement. The media interview violation, along with another violation for using a different inmate’s password to make a telephone call, are prison discipline issues and not a crime, Ms Shain said. As a result, the disgraced legal scion has had his phone privileges revoked and his prison tablet computer confiscated. Murdaugh also lost his ability to buy items in the prison canteen for a month. He will now have to get permission from prison officials to get another tablet, which can be used to make monitored phone calls, watch approved entertainment, read books or take video classes, the prison spokesperson said. Mr Griffin was also issued a warning from prison officials that if he knowingly or unknowingly helps Murdaugh violate rules again, he could lose his ability to talk to his client. Phone calls between lawyers and prisoners are not recorded or reviewed because their conversations are considered confidential. But prison officials said they began investigating Murdaugh after a warden reviewing other phone calls heard Murdaugh’s voice on a call made in a different inmate’s account. Murdaugh claimed that his phone password had not been working. He also told the prison investigators about the recorded journal entries, according to prison records. Murdaugh’s use of a jailhouse tablet previously hit headlines when selfie images he took on the device were obtained in a Freedom of Information request by FITS News. In many of the images, the convicted family killer appeared topless. South Carolina prison officials later clarified that the photos are automatically taken as an inmate uses their tablet that is individually assigned to them – as part of inmate monitoring. Now, Murdaugh has lost the use of his tablet indefinitely due to his unauthorised communication with the documentarymakers – which marks his first media interview of sorts since his conviction. His eldest – and now only surviving – son Buster Murdaugh also broke his silence speaking out in his first TV interview as part of the three-part series. In the interview, Buster insisted that he still believes his father is innocent of the murders of his mother and brother – but admitted that he may be a psychopath. 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. Beyond the murder charges, Murdaugh, 55, is also facing a slew of financial fraud charges for stealing millions of dollars from his law firm clients and his dead housekeeper’s family. He is expected to plead guilty on 21 September to federal charges – marking the first time he has pleaded guilty to a crime in court. Murdaugh is also facing around 100 financial charges in state court as well as charges over a botched hitman plot where he claims he paid an accomplice to shoot him dead. Murdaugh’s high-profile conviction also shone a spotlight on some other mystery deaths tied to the South Carolina legal dynasty. Following Maggie and Paul’s murders, investigations were reopened into the 2018 death of the Murdaugh’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield and the 2015 homicide of gay teenager Stephen Smith. Meanwhile, at the time of his murder, Paul was also awaiting trial for the 2019 boat crash death of Mallory Beach. Read More Alex Murdaugh’s attorneys to unveil ‘mystery evidence’ as he demands new murder trial – live updates Buster Murdaugh breaks silence on Stephen Smith killing – and calls father Alex a ‘psychopath’ Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh loses prison privileges over recorded phone call for documentary

The French government will expand obligations for profit-sharing to include large companies conducting share buybacks, in a move

Flight data shows the path taken by the plane reported to have been carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin before it crashed, killing all those on board. Russia’s civil aviation authority said that Mr Prigozhin, who led a failed coup against the Kremlin two months ago, was one of 10 people on board when the aircraft came down near the village of Kuzhenkino, northwest of the capital, Moscow on Wednesday. Flight data shows the plane was first tracked northwest of Moscow at an altitude of 12,275ft. It continued travelling northwest and was last tracked northwest of the Tver region at 28,000. The plane, an Embraer Legacy 600, registration number 02795, then crashed some time later near the village of Kuzhenkino, northwest of Moscow, during a flight from the capital to St Petersburg. There was no official comment from the Kremlin or the Russian defence ministry on the fate of Mr Prigozhin, a self-declared enemy of the army’s leadership over what he argued was its incompetent prosecution of Russia’s war in Ukraine. A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, Grey Zone, pronounced him dead and hailed him as a hero and a patriot. It said he died at the hands of unidentified people it called "traitors to Russia." Body bags were seen being carried away from the crash site early on Thursday morning and Russian state media said all those onboard had been recovered. Part of the plane’s tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area where forensic investigators had erected a tent. Mourners left flowers and lit candles near Wagner’s offices in St Petersburg early on Thursday. Amid fevered speculation and an absence of verifiable facts, some of Mr Prigozhin’s supporters pointed the finger of blame at the Russian state, others at Ukraine which was due to mark its Independence Day on Thursday. Whoever or whatever was behind the crash, his death would rid Putin of someone who had mounted the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999. Read More Plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary chief seen as Kremlin's revenge What was Vladimir Putin doing as Wagner chief rival ‘killed’ in plane crash? Prigozhin has made plenty of enemies – including Putin. This is the result The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Major League Cricket got underway in Texas on Thursday, and the most serious attempt yet to establish a domestic competition in the United States provided all the...

A state of emergency has been imposed in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine's Kherson region following the destruction of

A nearly two-week manhunt for a dangerous murder convict Danelo Cavalcante came to an end on Wednesday as he was captured in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania State Police are set to hold a press conference on the capture at 9.30am. For 14 days, Cavalcante managed to elude hundreds of law enforcement officers, including tactical teams in full combat gear, tracking dogs, cops on horseback and on aircraft. Pennsylvania State Police Lt Col George Bivens had credited Cavalcante’s upbringing in rural Brazil for his ability to hide in the vast wooded terrains in Chester County. The jailbreak on 31 August sparked fear among residents of the county’s suburbs, who were urged to keep their homes secure following a series of break-ins believed to be linked to Cavalcante. On 11 September, fears reached a fever pitch as Cavalcante stole a gun from a garage. Cavalcante managed to get ahold of clothing, food, and even stole a van that he used to drive more than 25 miles from his original hiding spot in Longwood Gardens. He was spotted multiple times throughout the 14-day ordeal and the sightings repeatedly forced law enforcement to expand their search perimeter and prompted three school districts and a popular botanical garden to close. Throughout his escape, Cavalcante showed up at the home of two former associates. Cavalcante escaped from Chester County Prison while awaiting a transfer to state prison. Last month, he was sentenced to life for murdering his ex-girlfriend. Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan previously said that Cavalcante would not be returning to the county prison once he was captured. Cavalcante began his escape at around 8.50am on 31 August while other inmates in the exercise yard played basketball. He stretched his body to fit the length of a hallway and “crab-walked” onto the roof. He then climbed over razor wire and jumped from the roof. It was only nearly an hour later that correction officers realised an inmate was missing during a head count. The prison was locked at 9.50am and the 911 centre was notified of the escape 10 minutes later. Chester County Prison acting warden Howard Holland said that Cavalcante’s jailbreak was similar to another inmate’s escape back in May. During that incident, a tower officer immediately reported the situation to prison staff and the inmate was apprehended within minutes. The officer tasked with surveilling the area during Cavalcante’s escape did not report the incident. He has been placed on administrative leave and his performance is being investigated by the state attorney’s office. Cavalcante killed his ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandao in front of her children in 2021. Prosecutors say Cavalcante killed Brandao to prevent her from telling police that he was wanted in a 2017 killing back in Brazil. Authorities believe he was trying to return to Brazil after Brandao’s murder before he was captured in Virginia. Read More Danelo Cavalcante - update: Prison officer on leave after escape video released as manhunt in ninth day Pennsylvania prison officer who failed to report Danelo Cavalcante’s escape is placed on leave

Three retired military veterans are testifying Wednesday at a House hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena -- commonly known as UFOs -- warning that the sightings are a national security problem and that the government has been too secretive about them.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who is running to be Houston’s next mayor, is expressing regret and saying “everyone deserves to be treated with dignity” following the release of an unverified audio recording purported to be of the longtime Democratic lawmaker allegedly berating staff members with a barrage of expletives