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Nearly two dozen cattle died in Nebraska, more than 100 Missouri nursing home residents were evacuated and an ice cream shop in Iowa was forced to close as record-shattering heat engulfs more than 20 states.

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

The Basketball World Cup starts Friday, spread out across three countries for the first two rounds before all the biggest games get played in Manila to decide which nation will go home with gold medals and the Naismith Trophy on Sept. 10

A 7-year-old boy was attacked by a bear in the backyard of his Westchester County, New York, home and taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries Tuesday morning, police said.

A Delaware judge on Wednesday rejected Newsmax's attempt to throw out part of a defamation case brought by the election technology company Smartmatic against the right-wing network.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead after a plane he was meant to be on crashed.

Authorities say the BTK serial killer is the “prime suspect” in at least two unsolved cases, including one in Oklahoma that led authorities to dig this week near his former Kansas property in Park City

The woman who fatally shoved an 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach in New York pleaded guilty to a first-degree manslaughter charge, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced Wednesday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told a federal court that it should not interfere in any efforts to arrest Mark Meadows if the former White House chief of staff fails to surrender by Friday's deadline to turn himself in.

U.S. government officials on Wednesday started cracking down on co-founders of the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, just days after a federal judge decided that the government had the authority to sanction them

The New York Giants say tight end Tommy Sweeney is stable and alert after collapsing during practice and being carted away from the field

Hundreds of people have been charged with the theft of more than $830 million in COVID-19 emergency aid following a nationwide operation conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday