Pentagon whistleblowers shared explosive claims of alien technology defying laws of physics and pushback from military leadership against those reporting such sightings. The House Oversight Committee held a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency” on Wednesday. Three witnesses took part in the hearing – David Grusch, a former intelligence official and whistleblower who said last month that the US has “intact and partially intact” alien vehicles, David Fravor, an ex-Navy commander who reported spotting seeing an object flying across the sky during a 2004 training mission, and Ryan Graves, a retired Navy pilot who appeared on CBS’s 60 Minutes in 2021 saying that he had spotted unidentified aerial phenomena off the Atlantic coast “every day for at least a couple years”. Mr Grousch claimed that individuals have been injured while working on reverse engineering UFOs, but he said he couldn’t get into specifics of how that happened, adding that that “non-human biologics” were found along with recovered crafts. Mr Graves said that he estimates that 95 per cent of UFO sightings by pilots go unreported, citing fear of repercussions. Read More Republican lawmaker claims US is ‘hiding evidence’ of UFOs which ‘defy physics as we know it’ Why a Harvard professor thinks he may have found fragments of an alien spacecraft An Area 51 blogger was raided at gunpoint by federal agents. He says the US Government is trying to silence him Congressman asks UFO whistleblower if anyone has been ‘murdered’ to maintain alleged coverup Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing 'multi-decade' program that captures UFOs

Vladimir Putin’s troops are being pushed back by Kyiv’s forces in eastern and southern Ukraine, where 1,700 drones will be sent to the frontline to help their counteroffensive “All of [the drones] are now going to the front to protect the lives of our soldiers, to make our artillery even more accurate, to destroy the enemy,” Mykhailo Fedorov, a deputy prime minister, said. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, reported advances towards the southern occupied cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk which is on the Sea of Azov. She said Kyiv’s troops were also successfully attacking in the east on the flanks of occupied Bakhmut – a city that has gained symbolic importance to both Kyiv and Moscow after months of bloody clashes. While “successes” in the southeast, she added, include an area near the village of Staromayorske which is located by a cluster of hamlets recaptured by Ukraine in the Donetsk region this summer. “Battles continue near Staromayorske, our defenders have successes, they were gaining a foothold on the reached frontiers,” Ms Maliar added. Read More Putin ‘looked paralyzed and unable to act’ as Wagner coup unfolded African leaders arrive in Russia for summit with Putin, as Kremlin seeks allies in Ukraine war China and Russia to join North Korea’s Korean War celebrations in a first after pandemic ‘Our own front line’: Ukrainian surgeons see wave of wounded soldiers since counteroffensive began

Firefighters and civilians battling the nine-day wildfires ravaging Rhodes are contending with continuous flare-ups fuelled by unpredictable winds, as temperatures neared a scorching 40C. Greece’s civil protection agency extended the state of emergency across the entirety of Rhodes on Wednesday, which will remain in place for six months, “to deal with emergencies and manage the consequences of catastrophic forestry fire”. In the town of Malonas, which was evacuated on Saturday, The Independent watched on alongside exhausted volunteers as a section of the charred forest nearby reignited. The handful of volunteers gathered outside St George’s Church stood up to watch as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dousing the flames in water – as smoke continued to rise skywards. They expected to venture out again alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other civilians on Wednesday night to do what they could to keep the fires at bay – having fought back the flames as they encroached on the sleepy inland town just the night before. “We have no energy, we have no power – not enough to stop this ... We are waiting for the wind to calm down to try again tonight to finish the job, but it is very difficult because after 10 days everyone is very tired,” a volunteer named Panos said, adding: “I’m going to sleep now for one hour.” He spoke as firefighters were mobilised to the nearby village of Apollona, while fires also burned further south in Vati and Gennadi. “The fires have started again,” a fire service official told The Independent. “A little wind and the fire returns … That’s the problem.” Having been told to evacuate both Malonas and nearby Kalathos at the weekend, Miles and Tristan, both in their 50s and originally from England, returned to Tristan’s house in Malonas on Wednesday to bring his four cats home. After receiving the “stressful” emergency alert telling them to leave Kalathos for either Kallithea – which they felt at the time was unsafe – or Lindos, where locals had already been told it was safe to return and where they knew a hotel manager who could put them up for the night. “Even if we’re just camping down on sofas in the hotel reception, it’s shelter, whereas if we went to Kallithea we would literally be on the street,” said Tristan. Speaking in the entrance to Tristan’s home as a firefighting plane flew overhead, dropping water a short distance away, the pair said they now planned to stay put. “We’re fed up with it now,” said Miles, an artist who has lived in Rhodes for 17 years. Tristan added: “Also, now [the authorities] are willing to allow everyone to help [keep flare-ups at bay], whereas before they just didn’t want the complications of it – non-Greek speakers being where they are [with] no skills, no car. I haven’t even got boots. They said ‘what are you going to do: walk over the ground in trainers? They’re just going to melt.” Describing a “pattern” of flare-ups each afternoon, Tristan said: “It’s been almost identical for three days, it’s really weird.” Miles added: “Clear in the morning. By the afternoon, the sky’s gone dark ... there’s smoke everywhere, and you can see it for miles.” However, the skies remained clear as they spoke – prior to the individual flare-up witnessed by The Independent some 15 minutes later. “That’s why the helicopters are flying over now, they’re damping down near the edges to try and make sure it doesn’t come back,” said Miles. Read More Infernos, black skies and fleeing tourists: Greece wildfires in pictures as blazes ravage Corfu and Rhodes Summer holidays to fire-hit Rhodes on sale for just £295 – half the usual price Tragic 'last words' of hero pilots who died in plane crash fighting Greek wildfires Tourists flying into Greece inferno reveal why they refuse to cancel holiday

The tragic last words of two heroic pilots who died fighting wildfires in Greece have been revealed, as blazes continue to rage across Europe. Commander Christos Moulas, 34, and co-pilot Pericles Stefanidis, 27, were killed just before 3pm on Tuesday when their plane, which had been dropping water, crashed near the town of Karystos on the island of Evia near Athens. A firefighter on the ground is believed to be the last person to speak with the pair, telling Greek broadcaster OPEN: “I still can’t believe that three minutes ago I was talking to them and after exactly 10 minutes I learned that the plane had crashed. “We had contact with them,” he continued. “They did not report any problems with the aircraft. They told us, ‘We are ready to try. We go for a last supply and we leave.’ Have you been affected by this story? Email tara.cobham@independent.co.uk “A few minutes after we spoke, we learned over the radio that the aircraft had crashed,” he added. Footage showed the bright yellow CL-215 aircraft releasing its load of water before its wingtip apparently snagged on a tree branch. Moments later it disappeared into a deep fold in the ground from which a fireball erupted. The pilots, who were both said to be passionate about flying, died at the scene, with investigations into the tragedy ongoing, according to the Greek Fire Brigade. Greek City Times said Commander Moulas’ wife is believed to be three months pregnant with their first child. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said of the tragedy on Tuesday: “Today, we Greeks mourn the tragic loss of our pilots Christos Moulas and Pericles Stefanidis in Evia. “They gave their lives saving lives, proving how risky their daily firefighting missions are,” he continued. “The state respectfully stands by the families of the two heroes. They are two children, two brothers of all of us.” A three-day period of mourning in the Armed Forces was announced by the defence ministry to honour the pair. Mr Mitsotakis continued: “Words are poor to describe the national mourning for their loss... So, we grit our teeth and turn our silence into strength. In their memory, we continue the war against the destructive forces of nature.” The prime minister has warned of tough days ahead as Greece is bracing for at least another 48 hours of scorching wildfires and soaring temperatures, until conditions possibly improve after Thursday. He told ministers: “All of us are standing guard. In the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defence mechanism.” The Greek Fire Brigade has already been battling more than 500 fires for almost two weeks, while the high temperatures of the recent new heatwave are set to peak throughout Europe on Wednesday, exceeding 44C in some areas of Greece. A blaze in Rhodes prompted “the biggest evacuation in Greek history”, with over 20,000 people forced to flee homes and hotels over the weekend, while around 2,500 people have already been evacuated from Corfu, which has been enduring dozens of blazes. Croatia, Portugal, Turkey, Italy and France are among the other European countries that have been battling wildfires in recent days, while the extreme weather conditions on the continent are being mirrored globally, from the US to Asia and Africa. Italy suffered a twin pounding from the elements when severe storms battered the north, killing a woman and a 16-year-old girl scout, while southern regions sweltered. In the south, a bedridden 98-year-old man died when fire swept through his home. The charred bodies of a couple in their 70s were found in their burnt-out home on the outskirts of Palermo, the regional capital of Sicily, according to Italian media reports. Another woman in her late 80s died in the Palermo province after an ambulance was unable to reach her home due to fires in the area. In north Africa, Algeria was fighting to contain devastating forest fires along its Mediterranean coast in a blaze, which has already killed at least 34 people. Read More Greece fires – live: Rhodes and Corfu brace for another 48 hours of wildfire hell as temperatures rise When will heatwave in Europe end? New forecast shows relief in sight Watch: Rhodes wildfire burns for seventh day as temperatures rise on Greek island How to tell if you have Covid or heatstroke Why do heatwaves in the UK feel hotter than abroad?

Pope Francis told a young transgender person that “God loves us as we are”, comments that are being seen as his latest outreach to members of the LGBT+ community. The pope’s comment was in response to Giona, a young Italian individual “torn by the dichotomy between (their Catholic) faith and transgender identity”. The pope was responding to audio messages from young people in a podcast organized ahead of a Catholic youth festival in Portugal, which he is set to attend next week. The pontiff said “the Lord always walks with us.... Even if we are sinners, he draws near to help us. The Lord loves us as we are. This is God’s crazy love.” Pope Francis’s position on the LGBTQ community and gay marriage has been a subject of interest and discussion since he became the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. While the pope has emphasised the importance of treating LGBTQ individuals with respect, dignity, and love, he upholds the traditional Catholic teaching that marriage is a sacred between a man and a woman. He garnered praise from the LGBTQ community in 2013 when he was asked about a gay priest in 2013 and he replied, “Who am I to judge?” During the course of his pontificate, he has met individually and in groups with transgender people. But at the same time, he has strongly opposed the so-called “gender theory” and upheld the teachings that hold that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered”. In 2021, Pope Francis authorized the release of a Vatican document asserting that the Catholic Church is unable to bless same-sex unions because it is believed that "God cannot bless sin". In an interview with Associated Press, he declared that laws criminalising homosexuality were “unjust” and that “being homosexual is not a crime”. He later clarified that he was merely referring to official Catholic moral teaching that teaches that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin. In a note in Spanish, Francis reaffirmed that homosexuality “is not a crime,” adding that he spoke out “in order to stress that criminalisation is neither good nor just.” “When I said it is a sin, I was simply referring to Catholic moral teaching, which says that every sexual act outside of marriage is a sin,” he said. Read More Vatican abuse investigators begin their audit of secretive Peru-based Catholic society The pope's Ukraine peace envoy heads to Washington with the plight of children top of his agenda Pope says he knows what non-binary means, welcomes LGBT people to church: ‘All persons are children of God’ Vatican abuse investigators begin their audit of secretive Peru-based Catholic society Jesuits confirm expulsion of priest artist and lament Vatican norms preclude further sanction Vatican is moving ahead with plan to reunite Ukrainian children taken to Russia with their families

A former Greek defence minister has urged the Greek government to seek help from Russia to fight the devastating wildfires. Panos Kamennos claims it is impossible to cope with the fires without the support of the Russian Be-200 amphibious aircraft. “Without Beriev, nothing happens. Let’s bow out heads and ask for help now. We will be given...” he said in a social media post. Read our live coverage of the Greece wildfires Russian aircraft manufacturer Beirev specialises in amphibious aircrafts that can take off and land on both solid ground and water. Its giant planes have proved to be a devisive weapon in extinguishing flames during the Greek fire season. In particular, the Beriev Be-200 Altair is said to be designed for such a task as well as search and rescue, cargo, maritime patrol and passenger transportation. The plane can also scoop up 12 tonnes of water in just 14 seconds and its tanks can also be filled on the ground. Its enormous potential will be missed from Greece’s arsenal of fire fighting services. Dangerous wildfires have been ravaging the country for almost two weeks, spread by high winds. Thousands of tourists, including 10,000 UK holidaymakers, have been evacuated from the country and its islands. Rhodes and Corfu are bracing for at least another 48 hours of inferno as forecasters predict temperatures in southern Europe will not peak until Wednesday. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of tough days ahead, with conditions possibly improving after Thursday. “All of us are standing guard. In the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defence mechanism,” he said. Other areas affected by wildfires include Evia and the Peloponnese region. Russia’s Beriev Be-200 can empty its water tanks over an area engulfed by flames in 0.8 to 1.0 seconds when flying above the minimum drop speed of 140mph. The aircraft was used in Greece to fight the forest fires of 2007 and again during the summer of 2021. This summer, the Greek Fire Brigade has been battling more than 500 fires countrywide without the use of the aircraft. Weather maps show the latest heatwave to hit Europe is set to peak on Wednesday when temperatures will surpass 44C in some parts of Greece. Last weekend, the island of Rhodes saw the biggest evacuation in Greek history, with more than 20,000 people forece to flee homes and hotels. In Corfu, 2,500 people have already been evacuated in the face of dozens of blazes on the island. France, Portugal, Turkey and Croatia are among other European countries that have been battling wildfires in recent days. Extreme weather conditions on the continent are being mirror worldwide, from the US to Asia. Read More Wildfires: Is it safe to travel to Greece right now? Evacuation from Rhodes was ‘hell’, say family from Northern Ireland Are Greece wildfires caused by climate change? The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The UK Treasury should review hundreds of billions of pounds worth of tax breaks, according to a report

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called on Republican donors to force candidates who have little to no chance to win the Republican nomination for president out of the race to prevent Donald Trump from winning. The 2012 Republican presidential nominee-turned-chief critic of the former president within the GOP wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that any candidate had a shot of beating Mr Trump if the contest became a two-person race. “For that to happen, Republican megadonors and influencers – large and small – are going to have to do something they didn’t do in 2016: get candidates they support to agree to withdraw if and when their paths to the nomination are effectively closed,” he said. Mr Romney set the deadline of 26 February, which would be after the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, the Nevada caucus and the South Carolina primary. He said plenty of Republican candidates with no chance of winning benefit greatly from their candidacies. “Left to their own inclinations, expect several of the contenders to stay in the race for a long time,” Mr Romney noted. “They will split the non-Trump vote, giving him the prize. A plurality is all that is needed for winner-take-all primaries.” Mr Romney also cited the presidential candidacy of his father, the late George Romney, when he ran in 1968 and how many moderate Republicans got behind him before the elder Romney dropped out and they pledged their support to Nelson Rockefeller to stop Richard Nixon. But Mr Romney said such circumstances don’t exist today because of the rise of super PACs, which allow for unlimited fundraising. “A few billionaires have already committed tens of millions of dollars,” he said. “They have a responsibility to give their funds with clear eyes about their candidate’s prospects.” Mr Romney is the only Republican Senator who voted to convict Mr Trump for both of the former president’s impeachments in 2020 and 2021. The former Massachusetts governor said donors who back a candidate with a slim chance should receive a hard pledge that they will drop out and back the candidate with the best chance of beating Mr Trump by 26 February. “Donors may think that party leaders can narrow the field,” he wrote. “Not so. Candidates don’t listen to party officials, because voters don’t listen to them either. And the last people who would ever encourage a candidate to withdraw are the campaign staff and consultants who want to keep their jobs for as long as possible.” Polling in early states showed Mr Trump continues to hold a commanding lead in many of the early states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “Our party and our country need a nominee with character, driven by something greater than revenge and ego, preferably from the next generation,” he said. “Family, friends and campaign donors are the only people who can get a lost-cause candidate to exit the race. After Feb. 26, they should start doing just that.” Read More Trump news – live: Trump shares QAnon post on Truth Social as ex-NYPD boss hands evidence to Jan 6 probe Watch: Jill Biden meets France’s first lady to celebrate US rejoining Unesco Hunter Biden's guilty plea is on the horizon, and so are a fresh set of challenges Judge vacates desertion conviction for former US soldier captured in Afghanistan Putting a floating barrier in the Rio Grande to stop migrants is new. The idea isn't.

Croatia is battling wildfires as thousands of tourists have fled Rhodes and Corfu amid blazes ravaging Greece. A firefighting plane is dropping water on a mountainside in Župa Dubrovačka in Croatia after a wildfire broke out last night. Almost 100 firefighters are on the scene and several vehicles, according to reports. It comes as 20,000 people had to leave homes and hotels in Rhodes over the weekend as the inferno that began a week ago spread, while over 2,000 holidaymakers returned home by plane on Monday. After the blaze in Rhodes prompted “the biggest evacuation” in Greek history, civil protection authorities warned of “extreme risk” of wildfires on the island of Crete, while around 2,500 people have already been evacuated from Corfu, which has been enduring dozens of blazes. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament on Monday the country was “at war” and said on Tuesday the next days would be difficult, with conditions possibly improving after Thursday. Read More Are Greece wildfires caused by climate change? Wildfires: Is it safe to travel to Greece right now? Britons tell of ‘terrifying’ and ‘traumatic’ experiences amid Rhodes wildfires Firefighters killed in Greece plane crash as yet more record temperatures are forecast

Last month’s visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the nation’s capital has highlighted an ugly mess of Maryland Democrats’ intra-party squabbles that threatens to blunt the political ambitions of the state’s popular first-term governor. Over two months, The Independent spoke to more than two dozen individuals engaged in Democratic politics in the state, largely concentrated in Montgomery County — the wealthiest county in the state. Many were involved in the 2018 race to represent the state’s 6th congressional district, and described the primary for that seat as an all-out brawl where party insiders traded favours while treating their opponents with such toxicity that many felt strongly discouraged from further participation in the process — if they weren’t frozen out of it entirely. To be clear, foul play isn’t exactly a new concept in Maryland. There’s still well-known bad blood between two of the state’s sitting members of the House over a 2016 primary which was the most expensive in the nation’s history and resulted in the election of Democrat star Rep Jamie Raskin. His opponent, now-Congressman David Trone, was meanwhile forced to fire three staffers who posed surreptitiously as members of Mr Raskin’s campaign. But many of the more recent concerning allegations centre around Aruna Miller – the 58-year-old lieutenant governor who became the highest-ranking South Asian statewide elected official in the United States when she took office in January. She did so alongside Wes Moore, the first Black governor of Maryland. Ms Miller, who immigrated from India at the age of seven, has found herself accused of wide-reaching ties to donors affiliated with Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the broader Hindutva movement — a Hindu nationalist ideology regarded by its critics as being on the extreme far-right. Ms Miller has worked to distance herself from the political baggage of those ties. The Moore-Miller campaign dedicated a page on their campaign website specifically to countering claims that Ms Miller was a supporter of Hindu nationalist ideologies, and more recently the lieutenant governor tweeted a statement in support of a letter drafted by Maryland Sen Chris Van Hollen to the president urging him to press Mr Modi on the issue of human rights during the Indian politician’s visit. Contacted by The Independent about the specific allegations detailed in this report, the lieutenant governor’s office dismissed them as hearsay and claimed that critics of her fundraising ties were attempting to mischaracterise her political record. “This unfounded gossip is completely false and beneath the Lieutenant Governor’s role in service to the people of Maryland. Throughout her entire career, Lt Gov Miller has taken the high road — she’s always advocated for freedom, inclusion, and respect across all faiths, races and identities, and would never condone anything else. Attempts to mischaracterise her character and her record are misguided at best, and sexist and discriminatory at worst,” spokeswoman Madeline Pawlak said in a statement. A Mercedes in the mirror When Andrew Messick climbed into his car last June in the parking lot of Kentlands Market Square in Gaithersburg, his mind wasn’t focused on the conversation he had just had with the woman who would make history later that year with her ascension to the state’s executive branch. Mr Messick, a grad student and military veteran, was working for a local county councilman’s re-election bid, and was around that time also set to join up as a volunteer with the campaign to reelect Congressman David Trone. He was undecided in his choice for the state’s gubernatorial primary, at that time in full swing, when he says he ran into then-Delegate Aruna Miller and her husband David at the annual Kentlands Under the Lights event. Striking up a conversation, he questioned the pair about fundraising reports filed with the state board of elections tying her to Americans associated with the Overseas Friends of the BJP (OFBJP) in the States. Mr Messick’s new boss, a self-funded candidate, had beaten Ms Miller four years prior in her bid for Congress. “I just on the fly kind of decided to ask, and she immediately went from … the fake, bubbly persona to immediately pissed,” Mr Messick recalled. But he thought little of the talk, even, he says, after Ms Miller “started lecturing me basically … put a finger in my face, that whole thing.” Mr Messick says that changed a few minutes later, when after leaving he noticed a white Mercedes with one functional headlight appear to change lanes to follow closely behind him as he drove down a multi-lane highway through the suburbs. His military training kicking in, Mr Messick described as the car appeared to get close behind him at one point, almost like a police officer just before pulling someone over. “Every time I would change lanes, he would change lanes,” said Mr Messick. The car, with its one shining front light, would follow Mr Messick to a parking lot a short distance away from his actual residence. There, he says, it came to a halt — right behind him. In his rearview mirror, much to Mr Messick’s surprise, his follower came into view. “I pulled off and parked and I sat there. And he pulled in right behind me and stared right at my car,” recalled Mr Messick. Explaining that he wasn’t thinking clearly, Mr Messick said he called a friend — wishing later that he had instead contacted the police. “David Miller followed me home!” he exclaimed on the call. “And so at this point, I am sitting there, I’m on the phone with [a friend]. I should have called the police. I should have taken a picture. But I didn’t,” Mr Messick said, explaining that he relayed the details of the incident as it transpired to his friend. The Independent was provided contact info for the friend who Mr Messick called as the incident supposedly transpired. That individual verified the events as recounted by Mr Messick, and was independently able to provide the date on which the conversation took place — though they wished to remain unnamed. The friend also instructed Mr Messick at the time to recount his story, in detail, in a lengthy series of text messages to a group chat with colleagues from work, which Mr Messick’s friend provided to The Independent in an interview. Mr Messick, who also detailed his experience that same June to a nonprofit news blog called Two Circles, said that this incident supposedly ended without serious escalation: After about 10 minutes, he claims, the lieutenant governor’s husband “blinks his lights at me. Kind of points at me and then drives away”. But the incident as a whole left him shocked and in disbelief at the conduct of Ms Miller’s inner circle. David Miller, through his wife’s office, issued a blanket denial of the incident as described by Mr Messick when contacted by The Independent. The lieutenant governor’s office also provided images and documentation proving that the Millers own a black Mercedes sedan, and claimed that the couple have never owned a white Mercedes. Mr Messick, in a second interview, maintained that he had seen a white Mercedes sedan during the incident, as the text messages sent immediately after his experience had originally described. Run out of the state completely For some, the cost of brushing up against the state political machine allegedly meant constant harassment from an army of online trolls whose actions had real-life consequences. That was the description given by Barnaby Yeh, a Maryland-born activist of Taiwanese descent who told The Independent that his founding of a group that questioned Ms Miller about her BJP ties provoked a wave of backlash on social media that cost him and others their jobs and personal livelihoods. “We asked her in a press release to clarify her stance [on Mr Modi’s party],” Mr Yeh, now living in Taiwan, said in an interview. This “unleashed a massive following of political insiders”, according to Mr Yeh, which saw activists’ social media pages flooded with negative comments. “I lost my job, as did another one of my fellow activists. One activist was barred from local political events,” said Mr Yeh. “Another was suddenly stripped of being a party precinct official. Two others believed that they had to leave politics altogether because of how many people harassed them regularly on social media. As for myself, I was out of a stable job for years, driving me to move abroad.” Only a fraction of Mr Yeh’s social media presence remains, but what does depicts both his longtime pro-Taiwanese activism as well as his participation in progressive Montgomery County politics throughout the 2018 race. The individual he claimed to have been “barred from local political events” confirmed Mr Yeh’s account of what they faced, speaking in an interview. A shadow of the backlash remains as well: A post from the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) from 2018 notes that Mr Yeh’s organisation was “unchartered” and linked to a statement on the MCDCC website that accused the group of pushing unfounded allegations about Ms Miller during her candidacy for Congress. In that same press release, the MCDCC disavowed the group formally and the central committee’s then-chair accused Mr Yeh and his group of “masquerade[ing] as legitimate Democratic organizations in order to inappropriately influence our elections.” Facebook posts from other critics remain, including one from a former state delegate complaining about the group’s “Trumpian” denouncement of Ms Miller’s ties to BJP-aligned figures. The Independent was also provided with a curt email to Mr Yeh from George Neighbors, a former MCDCC member and a current group vice president at Warner Bros, which simply read, “You’re a fraud”. Contacted about the email, Mr Neighbors denied sending it but refused to further comment when provided with a screenshot. The path to Annapolis Once a month, members of the central committee meet in an office building in Rockville, Maryland — the same building that houses the county executive’s office. In long evening sessions, typically attended by a dozen or so members of the public at most, members of the central committee plot the futures of the state’s power players, thanks to an oddity of Maryland’s constitution that puts the power to recommend appointments to the state legislature in the committee’s hands. The MCDCC (which is allowed, controversially, to nominate its own members for seats in the House of Delegates and state Senate that become vacant) was Ms Miller’s path to the legislature, a position she attained in late 2010 after winning an election to succeed a Democrat who had decided to run instead for the county council. Today, the council is led by Saman Ahmad, described by some sources familiar with the two Democratic politicians to be a close ally of Ms Miller’s — though that characterisation is contested by others. Under Ms Ahmad’s chairmanship, those who attend regularly describe the council as developing a toxic atmosphere where those who do not play along with the state party are threatened with political reprisal. Nathan Feldman, a current member of the central committee, alleged to The Independent that he had felt intimidated and as if he had been bullied by Ms Ahmad into voting against a local activist, Susan Kerin, for a seat on the MCDCC after the vote took place this February. Ms Kerin is an active member of Peace Action Montgomery, a local antiwar group, and had vocally criticised Ms Miller’s ties to the BJP. Mr Feldman explained how in a conversation that took place in February of this year, Ms Ahmad had claimed that “she had spoken with Lt Gov Aruna Miller, who opposed the nomination of Susan Kerin to the open seat” and further warned him that “Miller would be ‘taking names’ of individuals who voted for Susan Kerin to fill the seat”. “In politics, people have long memories,” Mr Feldman claims he was told directly. “She framed her threats in a manner such that they appeared to come directly from the lieutenant governor herself.” If unseemly back-room behaviour seems out of place for such an organisation, one only needs to attend one of the central committee’s monthly meetings. At the group’s May gathering, The Independent witnessed baffling scenes of disarray for several hours as council members debated a fairly toothless resolution in support of a local teachers union’s bargaining efforts, leading to one council member screaming that another member was “bullying” her during the open session and others openly trading insults and taunts across the floor, in full view of a bemused audience. Another committee member, Liza Smith, corroborated Mr Feldman’s general characterisation of Ms Ahmad’s leadership and agreed that the toxicity was being encouraged from the chair. “When the press doesn’t show up, you know, that’s when Saman goes power-hungry,” claimed Ms Smith. “She becomes a dictator.” Ms Ahmad did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The toxicity at the central committee is far from Ms Ahmad’s only concern, as well. MCDCC has separately been reported to owe thousands to the IRS in unpaid taxes, thanks to the committee apparently spending money it was supposed to withhold as payroll taxes in 2018. The committee owes $14,000 to the IRS, according to local news blog Moderately MoCo, a hefty sum compared to MCDCC’s reported $15,000 cash-on-hand. A meet-and-greet turns into a shouting match For Ms Kerin, the door was shut on her candidacy before it even began. Describing the episode that first earned her a spot on Ms Miller’s radar, Ms Kerin explained that she knew even as she first jumped into activism against Hindutva and the BJP last year that it would get ugly. Rumours of the 2018 race had spread far and wide, and in particular, Ms Kerin said she expected pressure from Ms Miller’s camp. “We knew that going into this, that there was [going to be] intimidation, specifically by Aruna,” Ms Kerin explained of Peace Action’s efforts during the 2022 gubernatorial primary. “We walked into this knowing that people who had been in it longer than us had been intimidated and they wanted someone like us to be on the frontlines and take the hits.” The conflict materialised during an early primary candidate meet-and-greet last year, hosted by a local mosque in Montgomery County. Ms Kerin and another Peace Action volunteer, Gayatri Girirajan, showed up at the mosque with flyers in hand urging Ms Miller to return any and all donations from BJP-affiliated groups or donors. That led to what they both described as several Miller staffers crowding around them in the mosque, at least one growing visibly angry, and demanding that they cease their activities. A photo taken by an activist at the event shows the pair speaking with Ms Miller and two campaign aides, one of whom is staring directly at the photographer as the image was captured. At least one staffer was accused of attempting to have the pair thrown out of the mosque, an ask that was firmly rejected by their hosts. Ms Kerin describes walking inside the community centre and seeing Ms Miller and her team standing around her fellow volunteer, “and were yelling and screaming at her”. “I was pretty alarmed,” said Ms Kerin. The two aides with Ms Miller allegedly went on to threaten the Peace Action volunteers with lawsuits for supposedly not specifying the funding for their pamphlets on the documents themselves — which, as a non-campaign entity, Peace Action was not required to do. Ms Girirajan told The Independent that while she never felt endangered during the episode, the aides were “certainly very aggressive” towards her. That same characterisation of aggressive behaviour has been lobbed at the small group of Peace Action activists by the Moore-Miller team, which highlighted repeated emails to Moore campaign staff from another Peace Action activist that the lieutenant governor’s office argued depicted an obsession or fixation on Ms Miller personally. The emails, reviewed by The Independent, did not contain any threats or explicit language but did forcefully and incessantly press the recipients to disavow Hindutva ideology and encourage the lieutenant governor to do so as well. During the meet-and-greet, Ms Girirajan added, one member of Ms Miller’s team supposedly accused the pair of “singling [Aruna] out because of her ethnicity” with the criticism of her OFBJP donor ties. “I’m Aruna’s ethnicity as well, and also was raised Hindu. So that argument didn’t really hold water [with me],” Ms Girirajan noted. A former member of the Moore-Miller campaign who was present for that campaign event said that they couldn’t speak to the tone of the conversation between Ms Miller, Ms Girirajan and Ms Kerin, but recounted a separate moment during the same event wherein another Moore-Miller campaign staffer began a heated conversation with another Peace Action volunteer about the criticisms they were raising. Icing out her own future — and Wes Moore’s? The mayhem long rumoured to have followed Ms Miller’s career has now officially had a blunting effect on both the political futures of the lieutenant governor and, possibly more troubling, for the governor: Wes Moore. Mr Moore, 44, is an author, nonprofit executive and TV producer who swept into office easily this past year over a Trumpian challenger who beat out a likely more-challenging opponent for Mr Moore in the GOP primary. Now virtually every Maryland politico sees the upward-bound Moore as running his governorship as a jumping-off point for a presidential run, potentially as soon as 2028. But that puts his running mate, Ms Miller, in a precarious position where her baggage can affect not just one but two promising careers in politics. And that baggage is already beginning to weigh on Mr Moore’s political future. The Independent can report, based on two sources familiar with the event’s planning call, that Mr Moore and Ms Miller were both excluded from the guest list of a gathering of prominent Maryland progressives at Democratic mega-donor Frank Islam’s White House-replica mansion in Potomac just one month ago. The guest of honour at the event was none other than Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s largest opposition party and subsequently Mr Modi’s greatest rival, who visited Washington shortly ahead of the prime minister’s arrival. A request for comment from Mr Islam went unanswered. Mr Moore’s team also did not offer a separate comment regarding this invitation. While not a fundraising event specifically, the value lost from missing out on a networking opportunity with some of Maryland’s most generous Democratic supporters can hardly be overstated. That isn’t to say that either Mr Moore or Ms Miller’s political future look bleak in any way. Last month, the lieutenant governor attended a White House state dinner in honour of Mr Modi’s visit, a guest of the president and first lady. And she has active in touting her support for religious freedom and democratic norms, especially in the leadup to the prime minister’s visit — and as rumours of this article were said to have spread among her team. She also maintains powerful and valuable alliances in the statehouse. Delegate Joseline Peña-Melnyk, who worked in close proximity with Ms Miller for years when the two were office neighbours in the House of Delegates, described her friend as a rising blue-state star with an unimpeachable record in the legislature and a warm presence in person — though the two had never had the experience of coming down on opposite sides of an issue or candidate. Most who spoke to The Independent about their various years of experience running against the lieutenant governor characterised the behaviour of the lieutenant governor and her team as extraordinary in terms of the lasting impressions they made on their political rivals. In the end, the lieutenant governor may simply pick one statewide grudge too many. That seems to be the prediction of those who experienced what it was like to run against her, and learned that for Ms Miller and her team, the primary never seems to end — there’s no Kumbaya moment under the balloons onstage, just a procession of still-smouldering bridges. The campaign manager for David Trone’s campaign for US Senate, launched this spring with the news of Ben Cardin’s retirement, claimed that the two have a positive relationship despite their bruising primary battle. “Congressman Trone and Lieutenant Governor Miller have both worked to deliver results for working families across Maryland and look forward to continuing that work. Any implication to the contrary is inaccurate and grossly mischaracterizes their relationship,” said Dan Morrocco. But a top official with his 2018 campaign said that relationship, if now mended, represented a significant improvement from the aftermath of their race. “After he won the primary she did not endorse him, did not call him, did not stand behind them,” one senior Trone 2018 staffer noted of Ms Miller’s response to losing the primary that year. “She has enemies because she’s kind of like, very, very self-serving in a way that when you do this job when you’re a politician, you gotta play the game. And I don’t mean that in a negative connotation. I mean, like, you have to support other people. You have to support the party. When you lose, you have to not burn bridges,” they mused. “You’ve just got to, like, kind of be a good person.” Read More India's Parliament rocked by protests for a third day over ethnic violence in remote state Sri Lankan president's visit to India signals growing economic and energy ties Opposition parties disrupt India's Parliament for 2nd day to protest ethnic violence in northeast 11-year-old daughter of top Kashmiri rebel leader issues rare appeal to visit father jailed in India As another cheetah dies in India, authorities try to get ambitious conservation project on track India sets sights on home-mined minerals to boost its clean energy plans

A campaign staffer for Ron DeSantis who shared an online video using Nazi imagery with the Florida governor’s face has been fired. Nate Hochman, a 25-year-old campaign communications staff member who has written for The National Review and The New York Times, shared a video over the weekend to an anonymous pro-DeSantis Twitter account featuring a meme template that has been adopted by far-right and neo-fascist creators. The video shows a “wojack” character, unhappy with news footage of Donald Trump, watching the Florida seal turn into the Nazi-appropriated Sonnenrad symbol. Mr DeSantis is then seen superimposed on the icon in front of soldiers marching in formation. That video was then retweeted by Mr Hochman before it was deleted, according to posts reviewed by The Independent. Mr Hochman appears to have retweeted posts from the anonymous account at least six other times. “Nate Hochman is no longer with the campaign,” a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign said in a statement to NBC News. “And we will not be commenting on him further.” Another clip on the anonymous account included audio of a man calling Mr DeSantis a “fascist” and cut together footage of the Florida governor alongside clips of Nazis and Benito Mussolini. The account also has been retweeted by the DeSantis campaign’s War Room account and the DeSantis-linked Never Back Down super PAC account. His departure also follows another video promoted by the DeSantis campaign that relies on the familiar aesthetics of far-right and neo-fascist memes to celebrate Mr DeSantis’s “draconian” anti-LGBT+ agenda and threat to “trans existence”. That video also was created by a campaign staffer but was made to appear as if it was produced externally, according to The New York Times. The videos have underscored the growing influence of fringe far-right online communities within mainstream Republican spaces, from the emergence of explicitly violent authoritarian “dark MAGA” memes to the dominance of “fashwave” aesthetics on social media platforms. The DeSantis campaign has fired more than 40 per cent of its original staff since launching his bid for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. At least 38 staffers have been laid off since the campaign’s launch in May, including at least 26 people on 25 July. Read More Ron DeSantis is caught in a death spiral of his own making DeSantis lays off a third of his campaign staff as presidential bid sputters Four cars in Ron DeSantis motorcade crash into each other on way to Tennessee fundraisers

Ron DeSantis was in a car crash while on his way to a fundraiser in Tennessee. The Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate was uninjured in the Tuesday morning incident. “We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail,” spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement. Mr DeSantis was set to attend fundraisers in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville on Tuesday as his campaign is reported to be floundering both in terms of funding and poll numbers. Meanwhile, the governor’s presidential campaign continues to suffer internal turmoil. A staffer was recently fired for posting a video using Nazi imagery superimposed on Mr DeSantis’s face. Read More Ron DeSantis in car crash as he heads to Tennessee campaign event DeSantis campaign fires aide behind neo-Nazi meme video Ron DeSantis is caught in a death spiral of his own making Ron DeSantis has already blown 40 per cent of his campaign donations – on private jets and fancy campaign dinners