Schools and the stock market are closed in Hong Kong as Typhoon Talim sweeps south of the city

Ron DeSantis has not ruled out enacting a national abortion “ban” if elected president, after the Florida governor implemented state restrictions on abortion access at 15 weeks and six weeks of pregnancy within the last two years. But he suggested that there is no “consensus” in the US for members of Congress to implement a national ban, as abortion restrictions and the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade remain overwhelmingly unpopular. Asked by NBC’s Dasha Burns whether he would “veto any sort of federal bill” that would institute a nationwide ban, Mr DeSantis replied: “We will be a pro-life president and we will support pro-life policies.” In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke a constitutional right to abortion care last year, Republican officials have repeatedly stated that the ruling merely left it up to individual states to decide. But anti-abortion lawmakers at the state level and in Congress continue to push for national restrictions that would also strike down state laws that protect and expand abortion access. Congressional Republicans have already passed several anti-abortion measures with national implications and have signalled the GOP’s readiness to ban abortion at certain gestational limits. President Joe Biden has promised to veto any such legislation, if it made it through Congress. In media appearances throughout his campaign, the governor has not directly answered whether he would support or veto legislation that would enact national abortion restrictions, suggesting that the issue should come from the “bottom up” with individual states determining policy. His statements have drawn criticism from influential anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, which called the governor’s position “unacceptable” to anti-abortion voters. Meanwhile, his campaign’s top donor has threatened to stop funding the candidate over his “extreme” position on abortion. And Donald Trump, who has taken credit for the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has suggested that his rival for the 2024 Republican nomination for president has gone too far with a state law that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, signed into law just one year after a 15-week limit was put in place. “Dobbs returned it to the political branches. I think the reality is that that basically means the states are going to have primary control over it,” Mr DeSantis told NBC. “You know, I do think the federal government would have an interest in, say, preventing post-birth abortions or things that are really horrific, but I don’t think that there’s enough consensus in the country to see a lot of mileage in Congress,” he added. There is no such thing as a “post-birth” abortion; killing an infant after birth is illegal in all states, and pregnancies resulting in the death of the fetus in the third trimester are exceedingly rare, and largely involve fetal anomalies and life-threatening medical emergencies. The vast majority of abortions take place within the first trimester, while roughly 1 per cent occur after 21 weeks, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The governor also suggested that Democratic officials support “infanticide”, echoing his remarks in a recent CNN interview claiming that “liberal state” allow “post-birth” abortion. “I would not allow what a lot of the left wants to do, which is to override pro-life protections throughout the country all the way up really to the moment of birth in some instances, which I think is infanticide,” he told NBC News. Ms Burns interrupted Mr DeSantis: “That’s a misrepresentation of what’s happening.” The governor also said that he does not support penalties for people who seek abortions. “Not at all,” he told Ms Burns. “No, I don’t think this is an issue about the woman. I think a lot of these women, you know, are in very difficult circumstances. They don’t get any support from a lot of the fathers. And a lot of them, the number one reason why women choose to have an abortion is because they’re not getting support and they feel abandoned. Now, in Florida we’ve provided support and we’ve put our money where our mouth is, but at the end of the day, you know, I would not support any penalties on a woman.” Mr DeSantis also told NBC that he does not support limits on contraception access. “And I think it should be available over-the-counter, and I think people should be able to have access to it,” he added. Read More Texas judge sides with women after harrowing testimony over anti-abortion law Alabama health care providers sue over threat of prosecution for abortion help ‘Walmart Melania’, ‘America’s Karen’ or ‘Tacky Onassis’: Why Casey DeSantis matters to the 2024 race Senator who once worked at a Planned Parenthood warns that Republicans are planning a national abortion ban

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said that he he warned the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to "watch out" for threats to his life before the plane crash said to have killed him. Mr Lukashenko helped broker a deal between Mr Prigozhin and the Kremlin that ended an attempted mutiny by Wagner forces against Moscow in June – an uprising that marked the most significant challenge to Mr Putin's authority in more than two decades in power. Two months to the day after that revolt was halted, with fighters 125 miles from the Russian capital, a plane believed to be carrying Mr Prigozhin and a number of other members of Wagner's senior leadership crashed on Wednesday evening. Mr Putin had called the Wagner mutiny treason, and had initially vowed to crush it, and a number of world leaders have suggested that he would not let the embarrassment of that incident stand. Mr Lukashenko said on Friday that Mr Prigozhin had twice dismissed concerns raised by the Belarusian leader about possible threats to his life. Mr Lukashenko said that during the mutiny he had warned Mr Prigozhin that he would "die" if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Mr Prigozhin had answered: "'To hell with it - I will die'." Then, Mr Lukashenko said, when Mr Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, who was also listed as a passenger on the plane which crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them both: "Lads – you watch out". Mr Lukashenko said that the Wagner leader had never asked him for security guarantees. "I don't have to ensure Prigozhin's safety... the conversation was never in that vein." It was not exactly clear from Mr Lukashenko’s words, which were reported by state news agency BELTA, when that conversation took place, Reuters reports. Mr Lukashenko has previously claimed that he persuaded Mr Putin not to "wipe out" the Wagner leader. US officials, speaking to American media, have suggested that a preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed by an intentional explosion. One of the US and Western officials who described the assessment to the Associated Press said it determined that Mr Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.” The Kremlin rejected that assessment on Friday, falling back on a regular refrain for Moscow that it is the West that are the root of the problem. “Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a conference call with journalists. “Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie,” he claimed. On Thursday, Mr Putin appeared to eulogise Mr Prigozhin, calling him a “great businessman”. But he also said that the the Wagner leader had made “serious mistakes” in his life and had a “complicated fate”. A close ally of Mr Putin, the Belarusian president said that he believed the plane crash was “just too rough and unprofessional a job” for the Russian leader to be involved. “I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Lukashenko said. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame.” The jet crashed soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Mr Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to Russia's civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Mr Prigozhin was dead. As part of the deal to end June's mutiny, Mr Prigozhin was due to set up in Belarus, with any Wagner fighters that wanted to join him. While the mercenary leader appeared to be able to travel freely, thousands have his fighters have travelled to Belarus, and have been training Belarusian soldiers near the border with Nato-member Poland. Warsaw has moved thousands of its own troops to its border in response. Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Friday that it was "highly likely" Mr Prigozhin was dead and that his death "would almost certainly have a deeply destabilising effect" on Wagner, with the reported deaths of Mr Utkin and logistics chief Valery Chekalov compounding a "leadership vacuum", Mr Lukashenko said Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus. "Wager lived, Wagner is living and Wagner will live in Belarus," the president said. "The core remains here." "As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us," he said. Elsewhere, on the battlefield in Ukraine – which has been subject to Russian invasion for 18 months – there was a significant attack on Russian-occupied Crimea involving dozens of drones. Russia's Defence Ministry said that 42 drones had been shot down over Crimea and 73 as a whole across across the last 24 hours. The attacks were the latest in a surge of similar incidents in recent weeks. Ukraine has said that destroying Russia's military infrastructure helps a counteroffensive than Kyiv began in June. President Volodymyr Zelensky told an international conference this week that Kyiv would "de-occupy" Crimea. Ukrainian military intelligence said it had assisted the navy this week in a "special operation" in which they landed units on the western tip of Crimea, had a firefight with Russian forces and raised a Ukrainian flag. Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary What next for the Wagner Group in Russia? Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? Wagner chief presumed dead in plane crash What is the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin?

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