Three Federal Reserve officials on Monday said policymakers will need to raise interest rates further this year to

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin released new audio on Monday claiming that two factors played into his decision to turn around his march on Moscow.

Apple has unveiled the new iPhone 15 Pro, with an entirely new material. The new device will be made out of titanium, and rely on a host of new manufacturing processes. Its new material and design allows it to be the lightest Pro phone Apple has made, and includes the thinnest edges around the display. As well as the titanium, the new phone has the toughest glass-based material in the industry and an aluminium structure inside the phone, with the two materials joined in a new way that should make the phone extra strong, Apple said. The glass is now much easier to replace, Apple said. The iPhone 15 Pro comes at the same price as the previous pro model, at $999. The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be slightly more, starting at $1,199, though Apple stressed the price increase comes with more storage. :: Follow our coverage of the Apple event here. It comes in two sizes, 6.1-inches and 6.7-inches. And it comes in four new colours: black, white, blue and a natural titanium. The titanium itself is a “grade five” alloy, Apple said, the same material used on the Mars rover. The new material also brings a new look, with a brushed texture on the side of the phone. As well as the new material, the iPhone 15 Pro brings a new customisable “action button” on the side of the phone, and an improved “A17 Pro” chip inside it. The action button replaces the mute switch on the side of the phone, and does the same job by default. But it can be changed to start voice memos, open the camera – or to start complex processes, by using Apple’s Shortcuts app. The new chip has “next-level performance”, Apple said, with improvements including dramatically improved graphics performance. Apple claimed the device is a “new chapter in iPhone performance”, and it focused particularly on the gaming performance that the new chip will allow. The iPhone 15 Pro has “the equivalent of seven camera lenses”, Apple said, even though it retains the three visible lenses on the back of the phone. That is partly because the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a 5x optical zoom, by using the extra space in the bigger device as well as a “tetra prism” design that bounces light around in the phone. The new camera also has a new coating to reduce lens flare, and better performance in low light. Like the normal iPhone 15, it has a 48 megapixel camera but offers the option to merge that down into a 24 megapixel image, which Apple said should allow for better quality and high resolution images. The iPhone 15 Pro is also able to stitch together images from two of the lenses to capture spatial video, which can later be viewed in the Vision Pro headset. At the time of the release of that headset, some had expressed concern that people would be forced to put those headsets on to take the new kinds of videos. Like its cheaper iPhone 15 sibling, the 15 Pro will also be the first phone to switch to a USB-C charging port to charge. In the Pro model, that allows for USB 3 speeds, Apple said. Read More Apple to stop using leather in all new products Apple is changing the plug on the bottom of your iPhone Here’s the new iPhone Pro, made out of an entirely new material Apple reveals when huge new iPhone update is coming Everything Apple just announced at its huge ‘Wonderlust’ event Here is the iPhone 15

The FBI in Louisiana has been asked to assist the Baton Rouge Police Department in its criminal and internal investigation after attorneys filed a second federal lawsuit against the department, several officers and the city in connection with an alleged torture warehouse dubbed the "Brave Cave," according to a complaint.

French police are investigating the suspected poisoning of a Russian state TV journalist who denounced Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine live on air and later fell suddenly ill. Marina Ovsyannikova, who escaped Russia after her on-air protest and settled in France, reported feeling suddenly ill as she left her Paris apartment and was hospitalised after she called emergency services. She said she suspected she was poisoned, the Paris prosecutor’s office said, adding that they were examining her apartment and an investigation was underway. Ovsyannikova, who worked for Russian state television’s Channel One before the war began, drew international headlines in March 2022 when she appeared on screen in the background of a live broadcast by another news anchor and flashed a sign that said: "Stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here." She was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) for her protest but continued her opposition to the war. During a subsequent solo protest in Moscow, she held up a poster which read: “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists.” She was then arrested and put under house arrest in August before she fled along with her daughter in the dark of the night. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which assisted Ovsyannikova in her efforts to escape a lengthy trial in Moscow and potentially a prison sentence, helped her settle in Paris. Christophe Deloire, director general of RSF, said he met Ovsyannikova after her malaise outside her Paris apartment. Deloire, writing on X, said the possibility Ovsyannikova had been poisoned had not been ruled out, though she was feeling better since the incident. “We have opened an investigation,” a spokesperson for the Paris tribunal prosecutor’s office said by telephone,” he said. “She said she had a malaise.” “All we have for the moment is what she said.” RSF said its team has been ‘’at her side" since she sought medical attention, though they have not disclosed any further details regarding the incident. Earlier this month, a Moscow court sentenced Ovsyannikova in absentia to eight and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military. Her sentencing was the latest example of Russia’s crackdown on dissenting voices in the country, which has intensified since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine around 20 months ago. Russia has called its attack on Ukraine a “special military operation” and banned organisations or the media from referring to it as a war or invasion. Read More FA slammed over decision not to light up Wembley in Israel flag colours Russian state TV journalist who spoke out against war live on air recounts daring escape from country Could Putin be arrested? President to leave Russia for first time since international arrest warrant issued

Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2023 is “authentic.”

America's top diplomat on Friday insisted that a strong Ukraine in control of its own territory was a prerequisite for talks with Russia, warning against a "Potemkin"...

Jake Koehler said that his dive was postponed due to poor weather and communication issues with the mother ship

Since his entry onto the American political stage in 2015, former president Donald Trump has managed to avoid serious consequences from most investigations into his conduct through the loyalty of his close associates and by deploying the power of the office he held from 2017 to 2021. Even as he faces four criminal cases against him, Mr Trump’s continued campaigning for the presidency in next year’s general election has allowed his confidantes to credibly hold out the possibility that a win over President Joe Biden next year would allow him to deep-six at least the two cases currently being prosecuted against him by Special Counsel Jack Smith. And in the case pending against him in a New York court, he managed to avoid charges more serious than those he faces for allegedly falsifying business records thanks to the loyalty of his company’s executives, including a longtime aide who served a jail sentence rather than give evidence against him. But many legal experts believe the 40-count indictment brought against Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis will push his co-defendants, some who have been among his closest allies, beyond their breaking points and force them to turn on the ex-president rather than face the wrath of a Georgia jury. The list of targets who Ms Willis is now prosecuting includes some of the twice-impeached, indicted-four-times-over ex-president’s most high-profile confederates, including his former personal attorney, ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who faces 12 separate felony charges as a result of his work to help Mr Trump push to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. Mr Giuliani, a former prosecutor who made a name for himself by bringing Racketeering Influenced and Criminal Organisation (Rico) prosecutions against the Italian-American mob in the 1980s, is now being prosecuted under a state version of the anti-organised crime law alongside John Eastman, the ex-law professor with whom he appeared at the 6 January 2021 rally which preceded that day’s attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Mr Trump’s supporters. They will also be joined in the dock by three ex-Trump administration officials: Mr Trump’s last White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, ex-Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark, and a Trump White House aide turned campaign official, Michael Roman, each of whom is understood to have been described in a federal indictment of Mr Trump as anonymised co-conspirators. Also charged alongside the ex-president are former Trump campaign lawyers Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell. In addition, Ms Willis successfully sought charges against a slew of other defendants associated with Mr Trump’s allegedly illicit efforts, including an alleged plan to submit forged electoral college certificates for counting by then-vice president Mike Pence. These other co-defendants include Georgia GOP officials, including ex-Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, ex-Coffee County, Georgia elections director Misty Hampton, and other GOP activists who signed the forced electoral certificates. According to legal experts, the sheer number of co-defendants, plus the harshness of the charges against them, will push at least some of them to flip on Mr Trump in hopes of a better deal. These experts say the particulars of Georgia’s criminal law, under which a friendly Republican governor could not issue a pardon for these offences, will also push many of the people named in the indictment to cooperate with prosecutors. Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant US attorney in Washington, DC who prosecuted several racketeering trials in the 1990s, told The Independent that Ms Willis appears to have already secured significant help from numerous individuals based on the number of unindicted co-conspirators described in the indictment. While Mr Kirschner suggested the “best” deals — including full immunity from prosecution — had most likely been handed out before Ms Willis brought her case to a grand jury, he also said the number of defendants who were ultimately indicted will necessitate more dealmaking if Ms Willis wants to take the case to trial. “There’s no way 19 are going to trial,” he said. The former federal prosecutor said his practice as an assistant US attorney was to “identify potentially valuable defendants that I wanted to develop into cooperating witnesses”. “Sometimes I succeeded, often I didn’t. But what I did find was that when you talk to them before they were indicted, the whole prospect of them being criminally indicted was a little theoretical, hadn’t quite hit home,” he said. “And then once they see their name on the wrong side of the ‘v,’ it tends to get their attention. And often, that’s when they would want to begin negotiating again. And we would develop a fair number of cooperating witnesses after they were indicted.” Mr Kirschner added that in his experience, the mechanics of holding trials would also limit the number of defendants who are tried and will give Ms Willis incentives to cut deals when possible. His suggestion that there has already been significant cooperation by people involved in the case was echoed by John Dean, the former White House counsel under Richard Nixon who testified against the disgraced president during the Watergate scandal. Mr Dean, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and turned state’s evidence for federal prosecutors, told CNN on Monday that he believes it’s “very likely” that Mr Trump’s co-defendants will “flip” now that charges have been filed. “They just wanted to see the indictment, and they’ve seen it now, and it’s not pretty,” he said, adding that he thinks Mr Meadows will “probably find a solution to get out of the Georgia case, too”. Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who worked for House Democrats during Mr Trump’s first impeachment trial, also told The Independent that he thinks co-defendants who cooperate now will be far worse off than they could have been had they turned on the ex-president earlier. “The best deals were already handed out. It’s like you know, it’s like getting a season ticket —the earlier you buy, the better the value,” he said. “The good deals were there for the fake collectors, many of whom got immunity without having to agree to any jail time.” Mr Eisen also noted that Ms Willis has a history of pleading out Rico defendants, “sometimes on very generous terms,” in exchange for cooperation. “So I think we may see some of these individuals turn on the former president and the remaining co-conspirators,” he said. But another attorney who spoke to The Independent, Georgia-based defence lawyer Andrew Flesichman, expressed significant doubts that any of the 18 co-defendants not named Trump would turn on the ex-president, citing the relatively tame penalties they could face if convicted and the lack of leverage which state prosecutors have compared to their federal counterparts. Mr Fleischman pointed out that the federal experts who have been opining on the case in the press aren’t taking into account how the federal system forces defendants into deals because of the lack of parole for convicted defendants who are sentenced to jail or prison. “The sentencing exposure for most of these people is not even that bad,” he said. “All these offences, you can get straight probation on them, and all these people are first-time offenders and this won’t count as a felony on their record, so I don’t think the state has as much pressure to turn people as some people are saying.” Mr Fleischman said it’s more likely that the people who were going to flip on Mr Trump have already done so. He also suggested that those co-defendants who were fake electors have a credible defence by claiming they were lied to by other co-defendants. “If you stick with Donald Trump, you can still raise your defence that you were lied to, which is a pretty good defence for these false electors, and then their sentencing exposure is not that bad,” he said. “I could understand if they want to take it to trial on some kind of principle.” The Independent has reached out to Mr Trump’s representatives for comment. Read More Fulton County DA Fani Willis proposes March 2024 date for Trump Georgia trial Trump judge makes barbed comment about Elon Musk as contents of Jack Smith’s Twitter warrant revealed Mark Meadows pushing to move Georgia charges to federal court Rudy Giuliani is furious about being charged with same mob law he claims he pioneered Will the Georgia gang of 18 turn on Trump? Trumpworld hanging by a thread Jenna Ellis forced to crowdfund Georgia lawyer fund after cutting ties with Trump Lindsay Shiver argues with estranged husband outside home in police bodycam footage

MrBeast is widely recognized for his extraordinary and grand challenges

Erika Jayne has been accused of taking Ozempic ever since she shared her photos with slimmer figure

A federal judge has blocked key agencies within President Joe Biden’s administration from communicating with social media companies about certain online speech in an extraordinary ruling as part of an ongoing case that could have profound impacts on the First Amendment. The preliminary injunction granted by Donald Trump-appointed US District Judge Terry A Doughty in Louisiana on 4 July prohibits the FBI and the US Department of Health and Human Services from speaking with platforms for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The ruling – which could obstruct the administration’s attempts to combat false and potentially dangerous claims about vaccines and elections – is a victory for Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri who have alleged that the federal government was overreaching in its attempts to combat Covid-19 disinformation and baseless election fraud narratives. Judge Doughty, who has yet to issue a final ruling, stated in his injunction that the Republican plaintiffs “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.” He did make some exceptions that would allow the government to warn platforms about national security threats, criminal activity or voter suppression. This is a developing story Read More Suspicious powder found at the White House when Biden was gone was cocaine, AP sources say Biden renews call for assault weapons ban after spate of July 4 shootings Watch live: Joe Biden addresses National Education Association