A senior US defence official says savage assault by Hamas on Israel was unprecedented in scale.

Mike Pence, the ex-Indiana governor who spent four years as then-president Donald Trump’s loyal vice President until he became persona non grata in MAGA circles for certifying their defeat in the 2020 election, has officially declared himself a candidate for the GOP nomination in next year’s Republican presidential primary. Mr Pence on Monday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to register his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, capping months of speculation over whether Mr Trump’s former right-hand man would challenge his old running mate, who is seeking to reclaim his former place at the head of the executive branch amid multiple criminal probes into his conduct. The former vice president has for months hinted that he would put himself forward in a bid to lead his party as he and his fellow Republicans look to recover from a string of losses and disappointing results in the three general elections that have taken place since he and Mr Trump won a shocking victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Yet despite his former stature in the GOP, Mr Pence will face an uphill climb as he looks to convince voters that he — not Mr Trump — is the best choice to take on President Joe Biden next November. The ex-vice president’s standing among the Republican faithful took a significant hit on 6 January 2021, the day he was forced to take refuge in an underground parking area beneath the Capitol as a riotous mob of Trump-Pence supporters rampaged through the House and Senate wings of the building in hopes of stopping him from presiding over certification of his and Mr Trump’s loss to Mr Biden and then-senator Kamala Harris. Mr Trump, who is under criminal investigation for his part in inciting the riot, has maintained that his former vice president had the power to unilaterally reject electoral votes from swing states won by Mr Biden and Ms Harris. Mr Pence, who along with nearly all reputable legal scholars has rejected that view, pushed for certification to resume that day after police and National Guard troops secured the building and cleared it of the insurrectionist mob. While he has steadfastly declined to criticise the twice-impeached ex-president over the matter other than to describe it as a disagreement and say his former boss was “wrong” that day, he has said GOP voters will have “better choices” than Mr Trump this time. Read More Trump news – live: Attorneys for ex-president spotted at DoJ as backlash over Kim Jong-un quip continues Showtime pulls Vice episode probing Ron Desantis’s Guantanamo record despite campaign trail questions Former Vice President Pence filing paperwork launching 2024 presidential bid in challenge to Trump

Paul McCartney's missing bass guitar, which he purchased for $37 in 1961, may now be worth more than $12 million

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a series of taunts against Romania on Saturday, deepening a dispute over

Iraq’s top court has ruled that the speaker and a rival lawmaker should be ousted from the country’s Parliament, following a high-profile feud between the two men

It is a terminally violent twist – perhaps to have been expected, but staggering nevertheless – to one of the most astonishing episodes in recent history. Yevgeny Prigozhin, who attempted a coup against Vladimir Putin, is reported to have been killed in a plane crash in Russia. If the chief of the mercenary group, Wagner, was indeed among the ten passengers said to have died when the private jet went down in the Tver oblast near Moscow, then the immediate suspicion would be that this was assassination by the Kremlin. In the course of 24 hours of armed mutiny, two months to the day ago, Putin had accused Prigozhin of treachery and then pardoned him. The two men even had tea together soon afterwards. Now, it seems, retribution may have come in the form of a dish served cold. According to Rosavista, the Russian aviation authority, Prigozhin was one of the names on passenger manifest of the Embraer jet RA-02795. According to some reports, Dmitry Utkin, one of the founder members of the group whose call sign, Wagner, became its name, is also among the dead. Officials in Moscow say that all the passengers, as well as the crew of three, have perished. A number of Wagner-linked social media channels claimed the jet had been shot down by the national air defence system. Others claimed there was a bomb on board. The destruction of the plane took place 24 hours after the news came that General Sergei Surovoki, who had previously been in charge of the Ukraine mission, had been fired from his post as the head of country’s aerospace forces. Surovokin, who earned the sobriquet "General Armageddon" for his brutal methods in the Syria conflict, was known to have good relations with Prigozhin and shared his antipathy towards some senior figures in the security hierarchy, including defence minister Sergei Shoigu, over the conduct of the Ukraine war. There were claims following the Wagner mutiny that Surovikin had been detained for questioning about his possible complicity. The Kremlin denied this, maintaining the general was merely “ resting”. A video had been posted of Prigozhin earlier in the week purporting to be of him in Africa declaring that Wagner was hard at work there and that made “Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free.” Africa, where Wagner has long acted as the Kremlin’s private army and established extensive lucrative networks, seemed to have been one place where the group and the Russian government could work together. Prigozhin had also appeared on the sidelines of a summit hosted for African leaders by Putin in St Petersburg. It was the first sighting of the Wagner boss since the mutiny. It had been assumed that Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus in the deal brokered by the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, to end Wagner’s march on Moscow, and his presence at the meeting was seen by some Kremlin watchers to indicate that he was too powerful to be sidelined. If Prigozhin has been killed, then it would appear that was an image his enemies were prepared to publicise while plotting to remove him from the scene permanently. Wagner had been heavily engaged in Ukraine, capturing the city of Bakhmut, more a symbolic than a strategic prize, after bloody siege and assaults lasting months, Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted regarding Prigozhin’s possible demise “…we have to wait for the fog of war to clear. However, it is clear that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own beastly fear - the very one that nullified him in June 2023 – and was waiting for the moment.” Ukrainian forces are taking part in a prolonged counteroffensive to reclaim territory, including Bakhmut, in the Donbas. An infantry captain – talking about Prigozhin’s fate and a spate of recent Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russia – during a break in the town of Druzhkivka, mused: “Perhaps Russian air defence mistook his private plane for a large enemy drone. That would be a wonderful end for such a man, wouldn’t it?” Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Wigs, gold bars and pictures of severed heads: Inside Wagner boss’s lavish mansion UK Government closely monitoring reports of Wagner chief’s death in plane crash Joe Biden reacts to Wagner boss Prigozhin’s reported death in plane crash

By Munsif Vengattil and Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI Tesla Inc is "serious" about its plans to establish a

As the probe into whether former President Donald Trump or his advisers broke the law in their retention of documents including some potentially classified material from the White House nears its end, Mr Trump’s legal team is said to be fearing disloyalty. The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that the former president’s attorneys supposedly worry that some among them may decide to start talking to the Department of Justice, becoming witnesses in the case, as the attention of the agency turns to the actions of the legal team themselves. The probe into Mr Trump’s handling of presidential records, including classified documents, exploded into the public eye last year when FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s home and resort in Florida. In addition, one of Mr Trump’s attorneys said he was “waved off” from searching the former president’s office for classified documents in the weeks before the FBI court-authorised search. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was asked on Monday whether he would ever consider a pardon for the former president — as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he would having announced his 2024 campaign for the presidency. Mr Biden laughed off the notion. Read More Donald Trump’s legal team and Manhattan prosecutors spar over where he will stand trial Trump White House official Peter Navarro to go on trial in September in Jan 6 contempt case Trump still dominates in first 2024 GOP poll since DeSantis announcement

By Omar Younis and Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES Striking Hollywood actors vowed to hold firm on Thursday in

Mexico's president is asking why, if a woman criticizes him, he isn’t considered victim of gender violence

Videos circulating on TikTok showcase individuals partaking in the trend by jumping off the back of swiftly moving boats into turbulent white water

The leaders of South Korea and Germany have pledged more cooperation in building stable supply chains and addressing the challenges posed by nuclear-armed North Korea