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WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden called Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday to convey that he signed a

The massive drone attack across multiple regions of Russia into Wednesday marked Ukraine's largest attack on Russian soil since the start of Vladimir Putin's invasion 18 months ago. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said it is one of 25 such attacks on Russia during August as Kyiv increases its attempts to "bring the war home" to Russia and destroy equipment that would be used on the frontline in Ukraine. The MoD believes that Russian air defences are likely having difficulty detecting and destroying the drones, given the number of drones hitting their targets. For Ukraine, their own mission to down drones coming from Russia, a constant menace throughout the war, is being added by the US-made 'Vampire' rocket system. The Vampire consists of a laser-guided-missile launcher that houses four rockets and can quickly be installed in a military – or even civilian – truck with a flat bed. It can fire BAE Systems’ Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System rockets outfitted with fuses designed to detonate near a drone. The Vampire, which stands for Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletised ISR Rocket Equipment, has one major aim. As the Pentagon's undersecretary of defense for policy Colin Kahl, put it, the launcher “uses small missiles, essentially, to shoot [drones] out of the sky.” The laser-guided element allows it to be very accurate, without being as hi-tech as other systems being sent by Western allies. There are other advantages to the system too. The cost per missile is about $27,000 (£21,000), which is expensive for a single munition but relatively cheap for guided missile. The fact that it can be added to most flatbed trucks is useful, with Ukraine's ground forces having proved resourceful in adapting a number of vehicles to house the weapons they need. Air defence systems like the Vampire give Ukrainian forces the option to swiftly – and relatively cheaply – combat Russia's kamikaze drones, offering them the ability to keep their most advanced anti-aircraft systems for areas where they are most important. With many air defence systems built to take down airplanes, helicopters and missiles, small drones can prove a costly problem. While there is scope for advanced technology drones to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to produce, but smaller ones can cost thousands or even hundreds of pounds. Missiles used to shoot them down can also cost hundreds of thousands, making the four-barrel Vampire rocket launcher system a relative steal. The Pentagon has confirmed that the Vampire, which is also able to strike ground units, is now being used by Ukrainian forces. “Initial Vampire systems have been delivered and are in operation by Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the Pentagon’s Acquisition and Sustainment Office said in statement. The company that makes the counter-drone system, L3Harris Technologies Inc have said that four of the 14 systems that make up a $40m contract signed in January, arrived in Ukraine in the middle of the year. The contract calls for the other 10 to be delivered by the end of 2023. While the bulk of US military support to Ukraine comes from existing stock, the contact for the Vampires comes directly under the billions of dollars set forth as part of Washington's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It is the first time the system has been deployed in a combat zone – and it will prove extremely useful to Ukraine in a conflict where drones are playing an increasingly important role. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House on Thursday asked Congress to pass a short-term government funding extension to avoid an Oct.

Two of Donald Trump’s codefendants in his Georgia election subversion case have asked the judge to sever their trials from the rest of the accused – including the former president. Lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have both requested speedy trials in the case. On Wednesday, they each formally requested that their cases be separated from the wider indictment, something that – if granted – would prevent Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from holding one trial for all 19 defendants at once. DA Willis previously revealed her plans to hold one trial for all the accused this October. In requesting speedy trials, Georgia state law now requires Ms Powell and Mr Chesebro’s trials to begin before early November. Judge Scott McAfee has already ordered Mr Chesebro’s trial to start on 23 October, while Ms Powell’s request is pending. Mr Trump is against such a hasty timeline, employing his longtime legal tactic of attempting to slow things down and drag out the process until after the 2024 election. But now, if the cases are severed, this could lead to delays in a wider trial for the remaining defendants, including Mr Trump. The requests from Ms Powell and Mr Chesebro mark the first attempts from the defendants to try to break up the massive case into smaller individual trials. Their respective motions were filed on Wednesday as the defendants and the prosecution work to set the framework for the process. Mr Trump’s lawyers have also said that they want the former president’s case to be severed from the rest of the defendants, but they haven’t yet filed a motion to do so. Ms Powell and Mr Chesebro both deny all wrongdoing in the case. In her filing, lawyers for Ms Powell said that she “did not represent President Trump or the Trump campaign” in connection to the 2020 election and didn’t have an “engagement agreement” with Mr Trump or his campaign. “She appears on no pleadings for Trump or the Campaign,” the lawyers wrote. “She appeared in no courtrooms or hearings for Trump or the Campaign. She had no contact with most of her purported conspirators and rarely agreed with those she knew or spoke with.” Her insistence comes despite Mr Trump saying in the middle of November 2020, shortly after he lost the election, that he had “added” Ms Powell to his “great team” of attorneys working on legal challenges to the election results. When Ms Powell subsequently shared bizarre conspiracy theories that millions of votes had been flipped in an international plot to take down Mr Trump, his campaign removed her from the legal team and announced that she was “practising law on her own”. Now, her lawyers have also tried to distance herself from the other attorneys charged in the Georgia case, saying that she “went her own way” following the 2020 election and that “many of her purported coconspirators publicly shunned and disparaged Ms Powell beginning in November 2020”. The filing also argued that her legal career had shown her adherence to “integrity” and “the rule of law” while pushing the baseless claim amplified by many on the right that retired General Michael Flynn was the subject of “charges completely concocted against him by a politicized FBI”. Also on Wednesday, Mr Chesebro’s lawyers requested that the judge push Ms Willis to “disclose” the names of the 30 unindicted co-conspirators included in the indictment. Mr Chesebro was behind Mr Trump’s plan to put forward fake electors to win the electoral college and he argued that he needs the identities of the individuals in order to prepare his defence in the case. On Wednesday morning, Ms Willis filed a motion requesting that Judge McAfee advise the defendants in the case of the consequences of requesting a speedy trial, noting the demands on their procedural and evidentiary rights. “By filing their speedy trial demands in this case, the Defendants have personally, willfully and deliberately narrowed numerous options that would otherwise be available to them under Georgia law,” the filing states. Read More Trump threatens to ‘lock up’ rivals if he wins 2024 race as he’s accused of inflating wealth by $2bn – live Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2bn, New York attorney general says Trump posts a staggering 31 videos ranting at political opponents in one day

Many blocks in inner-city Johannesburg, the scene of a deadly fire, are deemed unfit to live in.

One survivor tells of his escape, another says she was powerless with her children trapped inside.

The family of Samuel Newey say he died fighting alongside Ukrainian forces on Wednesday.

Queen Latifah is calling for more inclusive medical care for people with obesity. In a new interview as part of her work with It’s Bigger Than Me, a US-based campaign by healthcare company Novo Nordisk, the actor and rapper recounted how many people with obesity experience weight discrimination from medical staff. Sharing her personal connection to the issue, the Girls Trip star – whose real name Dana Owens – toldPeople: “I saw my cousin have to deal with this issue – she was morbidly obese and she went in and out of the hospital. “There were so many things she had to face. And for a doctor to just say, ‘Oh, you need to lose some weight.’ Well, it’s not that easy. Everyone’s bodies are not the same. We all deserve specific individual care.” Latifah, 53, backed the campaign’s call for “inclusive obesity care” ensuring everyone can feel “welcome and respected” when they visit the doctors. “Imagine how good it must feel when a patient walks through that door and sees the appropriate chairs or office set-up, that someone has considered them, has taken the time to think about what their needs are,” the Hairspray star said. “There’s a sense of, ‘I’m respected here. I’m welcome here’... If you’re discouraged to get into your doctor’s office, then that’s not a good thing.” When a person is defined as obese, this means that they are overweight “with a lot of body fat”, the NHS says. The World Health Organisation (WHO) explains that the terms “overweight” and “obesity” are used to refer to “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health”. It is estimated 64 per cent of adults in the UK are obese or overweight. Last summer, a British study found that obese patients were being “weight-shamed by doctors and nurses”, with weight stigmatisation pushing patients to skip appointments. The stigmatisation leads to patients avoiding appointments, feeling depressed or anxious and being more likely to put on weight, scientists said. The British researchers said there needed to be better education for medics over “weight stigma” to avoid this spilling into healthcare. The scientists looked at more than 3,000 research articles on the topic to identify strategies to tackle negative biases towards overweight and obese patients. In doing so, this could help to tackle the UK’s obesity crisis, as negative biases over weight limit access to healthcare services and treatment. Read More Joe Wicks defends decision to pull five-year-old daughter out of school Woman adopts husband’s ex-wife’s son after growing up in foster care herself Man who went to Turkey to make himself taller says pain was ‘worth it’ As Simon Cowell shares positive therapy experience, how can it help even if you aren’t in crisis? Man who went to Turkey to make himself taller says pain was ‘worth it’ Terminally ill mum prepares for worst after numb hand turns out to be deadly disease

The fallout from Dylan Mulvaney's Bud Light collaboration is still ongoing but the influencer has gone about her business nevertheless

'I think sleep is the most important thing in the world,' Erling Haaland said

Convicted killer Alex Murdaugh has lost some of his prison privileges after he fed information to a Fox Nation documentary without the permission of South Carolina prison officials. South Carolina Corrections Department officials said on Wednesday that, during a jailhouse phone call back on 10 June, Murdaugh’s lawyer Jim 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”, released today. 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 has also broken his silence speaking out in his first TV interview in 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. Following the dramatic six-week trial – in which Murdaugh confessed to lying about his alibi on the night of the murders – the disgraced legal scion was convicted in March of the brutal murders. When Buster was asked in the documentary if he ever thought it possible that his father might have killed their loved ones, he insisted no. “No, because I think that I hold a very unique perspective that nobody else in that courtroom ever held. And I know the love that I have witnessed,” he said. The 29-year-old went on to say that he thinks there are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about the murders. “My biggest thing that I want people to realise, that there are always two sides of the story. Now, they can pick which one they want to believe,” he said. “But I think there’s a heck of a lot that still needs to be answered about what happened on June the 7th.” He said that prosecutors presented a “crappy motive” and that the case was not “fair”. “I do not believe it was fair,” he said. “I was there for six weeks studying it, and I think it was a tilted table from the beginning. “And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given in that room.” Now, with his father behind bars, he said he fears that the real killer is still walking free. “I think I set myself up to be safe but yes, when I go to bed at night, I have a fear that there is somebody that is still out there,” Buster added. Throughout the high-profile murder trial, Buster stood by his father, attending each day of the court’s proceedings with his family members. Buster also testified in his father’s defence saying that Murdaugh had been “destroyed” and “heartbroken” in the aftermath of the deaths of his mother and brother. But despite continuing to insist his father’s innocence even now, Buster did not deny that his father may be a psychopath. “I’m not prepared to sit here and say that it encompasses him as a whole, but I certainly think there are characteristics where you look at the manipulation and the lies and the carrying out of that such, and I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said. Murdaugh, 55, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders and is serving his time in the maximum security facility McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina. He 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. The Associated Press contributed to this report Read More Buster Murdaugh breaks silence on Stephen Smith killing – and calls father Alex a ‘psychopath’ Alex Murdaugh planned a birthday party for his son Paul from jail 10 months after killing him, book claims Alex Murdaugh co-conspirator sentenced to seven years and $3.5m fine for financial fraud