By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON The deal to end the United States' debt limit standoff was classic Joe Biden

Sudan’s warring factions have agreed to a new short-term ceasefire after several previous attempts to broker a truce that holds have failed

'Mission: Impossible 7 Dead Reckoning Part One', which has a staggering $290 million budget, is set to hit US theaters on July 12

The victims were sorority sisters at a Christian university in the LA suburb of Malibu.

Investigators have been spotted digging up the backyard of Rex Heuermann’s home amid reports that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect may have killed at least one victim inside a sound-proofed room in his basement. Search teams carried out what was described as a “major excavation” on Sunday at the one-storey home in Massapequa Park, Long Island, where the 59-year-old architect lived with his wife and two adult children. Cadaver dogs and a ground-penetrating radar machine were brought in to scour the ground before excavators were seen digging up the earth with a backhoe. At one point, a huge wooden deck was dismantled and a blue tent was erected to shield the search from view. A neighbour told The New York Post on Sunday that authorities had found a sound-proofed room in the basement of the home and that Mr Heuermann is believed to have killed at least one of his victims down there. “He’s got a soundproof room in his basement,” Robert Musto, a 64-year-old longtime neighbour said he had been told by law enforcement on the scene. “What do you think that was for? They’re saying there’s evidence he killed at least one of the girls down there. “The cops are going to dig all that out. Said they’re focused on the soundproof room in the basement but they’re going to look at everything.”A former coworker confirmed the existence of a soundproof basement room to the paper, claiming that the accused serial killer once took time off work in order to carry out the bizarre construction of the vault in his family home. The individual, who was not named, recalled Mr Heuermann building the concrete-lined vault which is around two to three feet thick. “it’s not just a hidden room – it’s a serious vault,” they said. “It had a huge heavy-duty safe door. He went and poured new concrete walls, massive amount of concrete to encase this room. It was maybe 2 or 3 feet thick.” New York officials have not confirmed the existence of the sound-proofed basement room or publicly said that they believe Mr Heuermann may have killed one or more victims in the room. However, officials are probing the possibility that the accused serial killer killed the victims inside his family home. His wife and two children were out of town at the time of each of the three murders he is charged with. Law enforcement sources previously told CNN that a vault of some sort had been located in the basement of the Massapequa Park home – and that a trove of up to 300 firearms had been found inside. The married father-of-two had 92 legal gun permits and was a keen hunter, according to police. In the 11 days since Mr Heuermann was arrested in connection to the infamous serial killer case, investigators have been searching for evidence tying him to the murders including any trophies taken from the victims. As well as extensively searching his home, officials are probing other locations connected to the accused murderer including storage units two miles away in Amityville. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies are also looking into unsolved murders and missing persons cases all across America including in Las Vegas, South Carolina and Atlantic City. Over in South Carolina, Chester County Sheriff’s Office said that they were looking for evidence to assist New York officials. “The Chester County Sheriff’s Office was requested by the Gilgo Beach Task Force to assist in gathering evidence in Chester County relevant to their investigation,” the department tweeted. Mr Heuermann owns a property in Chester next to his brother Craig. The pickup at the centre of the murder investigation was seized from his brother’s home last week. Mr Heuermann was arrested on the night of 13 July when a team of officers swooped as he left his office in Midtown Manhattan where he ran an architecture business. He was charged with three counts of murder in the first degree and three in the second degree over the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello. He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes – who together with the three is known as the “Gilgo Beach Four” and was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City. The four women were found within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap – their bodies dumped along Gilgo Beach. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is being held without bond. Court records show that Mr Heuermann was linked to the killings through a pimp’s tip about his pickup truck, a stash of burner phones, “sadistic” online searches, phone calls taunting victims’ families, his wife’s hair found on the victims’ bodies – and a pizza crust. The first piece of the puzzle came when a witness in the Amber Costello case revealed details about a vehicle that a client was driving when she was last seen alive. Costello, who worked as a sex worker, was seen alive on the evening of 2 September 2010 when she left her home in West Babylon. A witness said she had gone to meet a client who was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche. Last year, a registration search showed that local man Mr Heuermann owned a first-generation model of the truck at the time of Costello’s disappearance. He also matched the witness’ description of the man believed to be the killer: a large, white “ogre”-like male in his mid-40s, around 6’4’ to 6’6” tall, with “dark bushy hair,” and “big oval style 1970’s type eyeglasses”. The discovery of the car led investigators to hone in on Mr Heuermann including executing 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence to determine his potential involvement in the killings. Among this was Mr Heuermann’s alleged use of burner phones, with prosecutors saying that he used burner phones to contact the three women and arrange to meet them at the time when they went missing. He also allegedly took two of the victims’ cellphones – and used one to make taunting phone calls to one of their families where he boasted about her murder, court documents state. Mr Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wife’s hairs were found on three of the four women he is connected to. His arrest comes after the horrific serial killer case has captured the nation’s attention for more than a decade. The Gilgo Beach murders had long stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway. The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot near Gilgo Beach. She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again. During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman. Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by. By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler. Police have long thought that it could be the work of one or more serial killers. Gilbert’s body was then found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the client’s home. However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered. Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers while some are yet to be identified. Read More More families await answers in Gilgo Beach killings – and the names of other victims Pizza crust, burner phones and his wife’s hair: How Long Island police tied Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders BTK killer makes chilling comparisons between himself and Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann

Pennsylvania authorities are searching for a "dangerous" inmate with survivalist skills who they say escaped Warren County Prison by elevating himself on exercise equipment and exiting the jail yard through a metal gated roof, a county spokesperson said Friday during a news conference.

President Joe Biden on Monday said his grief for his late son Beau Biden gives him insight into pain felt by parents and family of deceased US service members, as he commemorated the nation’s honoured dead the day before the eighth anniversary of his son’s death from brain cancer. Speaking at Arlington National Cemetery just feet from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where unidentified servicemen from the Korean War and both the First and Second World War are guarded by US Army sentries, Mr Biden urged Americans to “never forget the price that was paid to protect our democracy” by “those who died so our nation might live”. He noted that each of the “flags, flowers, and marble markers” at Arlington represents “a mother, a father, a son a daughter, a sister, a spouse, a friend” and “an American” whose loss may still be grieved by loved ones, even many years later. “Every year we remember and every year it never gets easier,” he said. Addressing America’s Gold Star families — those who’ve lost a family member in military service — Mr Biden said he knows how painful Memorial Day can be for them each year because it “can reopen ... that black hole in the centre of your chest”. “You feel like you're just sinking ... bringing you back to that exact moment you heard that knock on the door or the telephone ring, the exact moment you had to tell your children that mom or dad would not be coming home,” he said. “The hurt is still real — it's still raw”. The president noted that tomorrow, 30 May, will mark eight years since Beau Biden — his late firstborn son who served as Delaware’s attorney general as well as a Judge Advocate in the National Guard — passed away from brain cancer. Mr Biden, who has often been criticised for suggesting that his son’s death stemmed from his service in Iraq despite the fact that Beau Biden’s time overseas saw him exposed to toxic burn pits which medical experts say can cause cancer, took care this time to say that his late son “did not perish on the battlefield”. While he told attendees at the Arlington ceremony that Beau’s death and those of soldiers who lost their lives in combat were “not the same,” he said the pain of his loss is still “particularly sharp” on Memorial Day each year. He also said his late son, who held the rank of Major in the Delaware Army National Guard, lived by the same code as “all those you lost lived by”. “It’s the creed that millions of service members have followed, from the fields of Yorktown, to the shores of Normandy, to the rice paddies of Khe Sanh, to the valleys of Kandahar”. “Throughout history these women and men laid down their lives. Not for a place or a person or a president, but for an idea unlike any other idea in all of human history — the idea of the United States of America,” he said. He said the “sanctuary” of Arlington “honours that sacrifice and tells their stories, and in turn tells our story, the American story ... a story of the patriots who died to deliver a nation where everyone is entitled to certain unalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness”. “Each of them is a link in a chain of honour that stretches back to our founding fathers,” he added. Read More Diverse Republican presidential primary field sees an opening in 2024 with voters of color Biden, GOP reach debt-ceiling deal, now Congress must approve it to prevent calamitous default Why Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment fight isn't finished yet Mechanical sails? Batteries? Shippers forming 'green corridors' to fast-track cleaner technologies Minnesota governor vetoes higher pay for Lyft, Uber drivers On 3rd anniversary of George Floyd's death, Biden stops GOP-led effort to block DC police reform law

Robert Philip Hanssen, who received payments of $1.4 million in cash and diamonds for the information he gave the Soviet Union and Russia, has died, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced Monday.

The House descended into chaos on Wednesday afternoon as the chamber voted along party lines to punish a Democrat over the long-shuttered Trump-Russia investigation. Democrats booed and heckled Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday as the GOP voted to censure California representative Adam Schiff for his efforts to investigate the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. On cameras of the House floor, Democrats could be seen rallying near the lectern and chanting, “Shame!” as the Speaker announced the result of the vote, which he said was punishment for “misleading the American public.” On Wednesday, the House voted 213-to-209 largely on party lines to censure Mr Schiff. Republicans have claimed that Mr Schiff had misled the American public about the Trump-Russia investigation, which ended without proof that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia but found that Russia’s actions had been taken to benefit the former president’s campaign and harm Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House. Republicans argue that Mr Schiff lied when he argued that there was evidence to support the idea of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. He was previously removed from the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the same reason. A previous version of the censure, which had included a $16m fine, was voted down with some Republican opposition. In a speech from the floor, the California Democrat remained defiant, saying he was being punished for pursuing the truth by a party that’s attached itself to conspiratorial thinking about the election. “You who are the authors of the big lie about the last election must condemn the truth tellers and I stand proudly before you,” Mr Schiff said. “No matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me, you but indict yourselves,” he added. “As Liz Cheney said, there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone. But your dishonor will remain.” New York Democrat Dan Goldman agreed, calling the censure vote a “phony ploy to punish Adam Schiff for speaking truth to power” in a floor speech of his own. “One of my colleagues says, ‘We will hold members accountable.’ You are the party of George Santos. Who are you holding accountable?” he added. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi laid into them as well: "Today we are on the floor of the House where the other side has turned this chamber—where slavery was abolished, where Medicare and Social Security and everything were instituted—they’ve turned it into a puppet show." “They’ve turned it into a puppet show and you know what? The puppeteer, Donald Trump, is shining a light on the strings. You look miserable,” she added. You look miserable.” Mr Schiff’s enemies, meanwhile, accused him of supporting a narrative that supposedly caused a great divide between members of families all across the country. Anna Paulina Luna, the GOP lawmaker leading the resolution, personally accused him of having “permanently destroying family relationships”. “By repeatedly telling these falsehoods, Representative Schiff purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people,” the resolution read. Previously, Schiff had said the censure resolution “would accuse me of omnipotence, the leader of some a vast Deep State conspiracy, and of course, it is nonsense.” Beyond the Trump-Russia investigation, Mr Schiff also became a target of the Republican caucus due to his prosecution of Mr Trump during his first impeachment trial, when he was accused of improperly pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching a criminal investigation into Joe Biden — at the time, apparently, with the hopes of politically damaging the Democratic candidate ahead of the 2020 election. That investigation was never launched but Rudy Giuliani, who was a central figure in trying to make it happen, would later go on to become Mr Trump’s legal counsel in his bid to overturn the election following his defeat. The toothless censure of Mr Schiff is likely to be little more than a consolation prize for Republicans who had originally wanted an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe to uncover a vast “Deep State” conspiracy against Mr Trump, which never materialised. The leader of that investigation, John Durham, appeared on Capitol Hill for a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee separately on Wednesday where Mr Schiff grilled him over whether he had been concerned about efforts by a group of Russians to reach out to the Trump campaign and offer damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Republicans, meanwhile, voiced their displeasure over how Mr Durham’s investigation had fizzled without any major victories in the effort to prove a long-reaching shadowy conspiracy against Mr Trump. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary AOC implores Greene and Boebert to not waste time with Biden impeachment: ‘We should actually be working’ Dianne Feinstein expressed confusion over Kamala Harris presiding over Senate, report claims Marjorie Taylor Greene faces waves of mocking laughter after asking House to follow ‘decorum’

Slovak premier Robert Fico said Friday that the Ukraine war risks lasting until 2030 if peace...

Alex Murdaugh, disgraced South Carolina attorney, received a double life sentence for murdering his wife Maggie and son Paul on March 2

Millions of people from the Midwest to the Northeast and down to the mid-Atlantic are looking at an unhealthy smoky haze slowly drifting down from Canada. Schools and activities are being canceled in an effort to protect those most at risk. And there's not much anyone can do about it.