Russia is in the process of equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, the head of Russia’s largest shipbuilder has said. “Multi-purpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will ... be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis,” Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA. “Work in this direction is already underway.” Yasen-class submarines, also known as Project 885M, are nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines, built to replace Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines as part of a programme to modernise the army and fleet. The sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles have a range of 900 km (560 miles) and can travel at several times the speed of sound, making it difficult to defend against them. It comes at least three people were wounded in two waves of Russian drone and missile attacks overnight on the port city of Odesa. On Sunday, seven people were killed following Russian strikes on Kherson, including a 22-day-old baby. Read More Newborn girl killed alongside parents and brother as Putin’s troops bombard Kherson village Russia fires warning shots at ‘Ukraine-bound’ international cargo ship in Black Sea Russia vows retaliation after Ukraine launches attack on key Crimea bridge What are the ‘safe and legal routes’ the government says refugees must take to Britain?

Niger’s mutinous soldiers say they will prosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security, hours after they said they were open to dialogue with West African nations to resolve the mounting regional crisis. The announcement on state television on Sunday night, by spokesman Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said the military regime had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute before competent national and international authorities the ousted president and his local and foreign accomplices for high treason and for undermining the internal and external security of Niger.” Bazoum, Niger’s democratically elected president, was ousted by members of his presidential guard on July 26 and has since been under house arrest with his wife and son in the presidential compound in the capital, Niamey. People close to the president as well as those in his ruling party say their electricity and water have been cut off and they’re running out of food. The junta dismissed these reports Sunday night and accused West African politicians and international partners of fueling a disinformation campaign to discredit the junta. International pressure is growing on the junta to release and reinstate Bazoum. Immediately after the coup, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS gave the regime seven days to return him to power or threatened military force, but that deadline came and went with no action from either side. Last week, ECOWAS ordered the deployment of a “standby” force, but it’s still unclear when or if it would enter the country.

After US Attorney General Merrick Garland designated a special counsel to oversee investigations into Hunter Biden, his attorney is “confident” that the federal prosecutor will draw the same conclusions that the US Department of Justice reached earlier this year. If newly appointed Justice Department special counsel David Weiss continues the five years of work that led to initial charges against President Joe Biden’s son, “then the only conclusion can be what the conclusion was on July 26,” attorney Abbe Lowell told CBS Face the Nation on 13 August. There is “no new evidence to be found” following the two misdemeanor tax and gun charges that Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to last month, Mr Lowell said. “I don’t know the possibility exists after this kind of painstaking investigation for them to be, ‘Oh, my gosh, there’s a new piece of evidence,’” he added. His remarks follow heightened Republican scrutiny into the president and his son, as a parallel congressional probe appears to come apart and Donald Trump’s allies attempt to bolster their defence of the former president against a mountain of federal charges by deflecting to allegations of rampant corruption and criminality under the current administration. Less than a year ago, Senate Republicans – eager to persecute the Biden family – urged Mr Garland to designate David Weiss as special counsel. When he did, those same Republicans spent the days that followed railing against it. They claim that a “sweetheart” plea deal compromised the investigation. Hunter Biden was set to plead guilty to misdemeanour tax charges and enter a diversion agreement related to a felony gun charge in July, but the agreement appeared to hit a snag during a federal court hearing, and the judge presiding over the case ultimately rejected the arrangement. “One, they wrote something and weren’t clear what they meant; two, they knew what they meant and misstated it to counsel; or, third, they changed their view as they were standing in court in Delaware,” Mr Lowell said on Face the Nation of the prosecutors involved with the case. “One of the possibilities is the prosecutor stood up and decided for lots of reasons that might be apparent to the viewer, they didn’t like what people were saying about the deal they approved,” he added. Mr Weiss, who has served as the US attorney for Delaware since 2018, has led federal investigations into Hunter Biden since 2019 under Mr Trump’s administration, and while his title changed this past week, “he’s the same person he’s been for the last five years,” Mr Lowell said. “He’s a Republican US attorney appointed by a Republican president and attorney general who had career prosecutors working this case for five years looking at every transaction that Hunter was involved in,” he added. “If anything changes from his conclusion … the question should be asked, what infected the process that was not the facts in the law?” Mr Lowell also was critical of right-wing media for its coverage of the case, as pundits devote significant airtime to allegations and spurious congressional probes to his client while trying to connect President Biden to his son’s alleged crimes. Several House Republicans have threatened to file articles of impeachment against the president invoking those claims; US Rep Greg Steube filed an impeachment resolution on 11 August “for high crimes and misdemeanours” based on accusations of fraud, obstruction of justice and bribery. “The facts and the evidence that have been pursued by however many members of Congress and their staffs and media, looking for any possible connection has shown time and time again – it doesn’t exist,” Mr Lowell said. If President Biden calls his son on speakerphone and “says hello to the people in the room, that is not an offence,” he said. “That is nothing other than a loving father.” Democratic US Rep Dan Goldman said Hunter Biden should face criminal charges if prosecutors find that he has committed crimes. “I’m a Democrat saying that,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “You don’t hear any currently elected Republican saying that if Donald Trump committed crimes, he should be charged with them and held accountable. And that’s a critical distinction that the public needs to understand.” Read More Ted Cruz rails against Hunter Biden special counsel appointment that he requested Prosecutor in Hunter Biden case is given special counsel status by attorney general Trump and Hunter Biden legal blockbusters rock Washington – but offer a contrast

Chris Christie was on ABC this weekend bashing Donald Trump as the former New Jersey governor charts a path to the GOP nomination which he believes necessitates a direct showdown with the ex-president. Mr Christie, who previously served as a federal prosecutor, told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday that his opponent needs to choose his words carefully going forward to escape further criminal liability. "Trump needs to be smart and careful about this, if that's at all possible. Which is [to say] that he is a criminal defendant," he said. It was advice that is unlikely to be followed. Mr Trump has pursued an aggressive campaign of indignation and charges of political weaponisation against prosecutors in New York and Washington DC who have charged him with more than 70 criminal counts in three matters: His alleged hush payments to Stormy Daniels, his efforts to change the results of the 2020 election, and his allegedly illegal retention of classified materials from the White House. Mr Trump has even personally targeted the Department of Justice’s special counsel, Jack Smith, and warned that anyone who participated in the investigations against him will face his wrath. The agency has, as a result, sought to chill his speech on social media and elsewhere regarding the open criminal case against him. Mr Christie holds a unique position as a 2024 contender and rival to ex-President Trump: He was known to have been in the running to serve as Mr Trump’s attorney general in the wake of the 2016 election. He also helped Mr Trump prepare for debates against Joe Biden in 2020. Now, he battles his former ally for the GOP nomination, arguing that Mr Trump’s actions in the wake of his defeat are roundly disqualifying. “This guy has been a one-man crime wave,” Mr Christie previously said of Mr Trump’s numerous indictments during an April interview with Pod Save America. “Look, he’s earned every one of them. If you look at it, every one of these is self-inflicted. And that’s why, you know, do I think that prosecutors exercise prosecutorial judgment in discretion in some respects that are questionable? Yeah – and they always have. But what I say to people all the time is whether you agree or disagree with the prosecutors, look at the underlying conduct.” Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing in all the criminal cases against him. Despite this, his legal team is said to be expecting further criminal charges in the coming days, filed this time by prosecutors in Georgia investigating the Trump campaign’s efforts to pressure local officials into throwing out the state’s lawful 2020 election results for months after the election took place. Read More New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver lies in state in the capitol rotunda Meet the 2024 Republican and Democrat presidential candidates Trump says he won't sign Republican loyalty pledge, flouting debate requirement Georgia elections official rails against Trump making himself a ‘martyr’ amid indictments Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links Trump team to voting system breach - latest Ron DeSantis faces ‘pudding fingers’ chant and other protests during Iowa campaign stop

A Republican official charged with overseeing elections in the state of Georgia, where Donald Trump tried and failed to change the results of his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, lamented on Sunday that the ex-president was able to make himself out as a “martyr” to his supporters as he continues to face deepening legal problems. Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer to Georgia’s secretary of state, watched his boss Brad Raffensperger survive a Trump-backed primary challenge in 2022 after Mr Raffensperger refused to go along with Mr Trump’s attempts to change the lawful election results. He has long said that the former president’s efforts after the 2020 election were inappropriate, including an early January 2021 phone call between Mr Raffensperger and the president during which Mr Trump asked the Georgia elections chief to “find” him 11,000 votes. That phone call and the effort by Mr Trump to change the results in Georgia are expected to result in a criminal indictment filed by Fulton County prosecutors within the next week or so; Fani Willis’s office is currently presenting evidence against the ex-president and his legal team to a grand jury. A “special purpose” grand jury – unique under Georgia law – had previously been called in the matter, but that body did not have the final authority to approve or reject criminal indictments. On Sunday, Mr Sterling spoke to ABC’s This Week about what he said was a troubling sign; that Republicans were flocking to Mr Trump as further consequences for his long-alleged criminal behaviour unfold. "This has been giving oxygen to his campaign," Mr Sterling said. "This is raising tons of money, and a lot of that money ... is being used to pay for his lawyers.” "He's making himself a martyr, and a lot of the American people are going behind him because they feel like some of these things are a little bit of a stretch," he said. Complicating the narrative regarding Mr Trump’s criminal indictments is the very first of the actions taken against him by prosecutors: The charging of Mr Trump more than 30 times by officials in Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office over the Stormy Daniels affair which is alleged to have played out as far back as 2016. Mr Trump is charged with falsifying business documents to hide hush payments to Ms Daniels, an issue which some have said is being prosecuted far too late and as a result detracting from the credibility of the unrelated investigations into both Mr Trump’s efforts to change the 2020 election results and the discovery of classified defence materials at his properties. Mr Trump remains the far-and-away leader of the 2024 GOP primary field, and has actively campaigned on the issue of his criminal charges, which he has portrayed as a weaponisation of the US justice system by Democrats. He continues to deny wrongdoing in all matters, including his embrace of conspiracies that led to thousands of his supporters attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Read More Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links Trump team to voting system breach - latest Georgia prosecutors have text messages linking Trump team to voting system breach, report says Georgia grand jury to hear Trump election subversion case next week Ron DeSantis faces ‘pudding fingers’ chant and other protests during Iowa campaign stop

An entire family including a newborn baby girl and her 12-year-old brother were among seven people killed during intense Russian shelling in a village in southern Kherson on Sunday. Russian shells hit the village of Shiroka Balka, on the banks of the Dnieper River, and killed a family that included a husband, wife, 12-year-old boy and 23-day-old baby girl, Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry said. Another resident was also killed, as well as two men in the neighbouring village of Stanislav. Ukraine’s interior minister Igor Klymenko said the shells hit the family’s home in Shiroka Balka, adding: "Terrorists must be stopped. They must be stopped by force. They don't understand anything else." A photo shared by Mr Klymenko on Telegram showed plumes of smoke rising from the family's home in the aftermath of the attack. Kherson was one of four regions in Ukraine that Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed last year. But the Ukrainian forces are said to be making gains against the Russian invaders. Ukrainian military officials this weekend claimed that Kyiv's forces had made progress in the south, with some success near a key village in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and capturing other unspecified territories. Meanwhile, Kyiv’s forces are trying to pierce Russian lines in the western parts of the Donetsk region, where waves of Ukrainian fighters were used to gain a foothold to the east of the town of Staromaiorske, according to a Russian-installed official in parts of Zaporizhzhia controlled by Moscow. The official, Vladimir Rogov, also claimed there had been intense fighting south of Velyka Novosilka as Ukrainian troops try to pierce Russian lines to push down to the coast on the Sea of Azov. Mr Rogov said: "The enemy managed to enter and gain a foothold in the northern part of Urozhaine after two weeks of the heaviest and bloodiest battles for this settlement." He added that Russian soldiers still controlled the southern part of Urozhaine and that Ukrainian forces were clearly aiming to take control of the town of Staromlynivka further south. Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in June, attempting to retake swathes of territory captured by Russia in the south and east of the country. It has so far recaptured several villages in the south and some territory around the ruined city of Bakhmut in the east. Meanwhile, a Russian warship on Sunday fired warning shots at a cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea as it made its way northwards. This is the first time Russia has fired on merchant shipping beyond Ukraine since exiting a landmark UN-brokered grain deal last month. Russia in July halted participation in the Black Sea grain deal that allowed Ukraine to export agricultural produce via the Black Sea and Moscow cautioned that it deemed all ships heading to Ukrainian waters to be potentially carrying weapons. Russia said in a statement that its Vasily Bykov patrol ship had fired automatic weapons on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan vessel after the ship's captain failed to respond to a request to halt for an inspection. Russia said the vessel was making its way towards the Ukrainian port of Izmail. Refinitiv shipping data showed the ship was currently near the coast of Bulgaria and heading towards the Romanian port of Sulina. "To forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons," the Russian defence ministry said, adding that its forces boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter. "After the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail," the defence ministry said. A Turkish defence ministry official said he had heard an incident had taken place involving a ship heading for Romania. A spokesman for Ukraine's defence ministry said officials had no details about the incident yet but that it was "clearly another hostile act" by Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine's General Staff claimed that panic is growing among the Russian forces amid a growing number of desertions, the Kyiv Post reported. It claimed Moscow military officials conducting house-to-house searches for deserters in Hornostaivka in the Kherson region. Drinking and drug use among newly-conscripted troops has also increased with individuals leaving their positions and hiding in abandoned buildings, it said. Read More Russia fires warning shots at ‘Ukraine-bound’ international cargo ship in Black Sea 7 killed in Ukraine's Kherson region, including a 23-day-old baby girl Yes, inflation is down. No, the Inflation Reduction Act doesn't deserve the credit The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Joe Biden continues to face prominent calls to step aside from voices in his own party, as the 80-year-old president vows that he will win reelection in 2024. In a normal election year, any incumbent president would coast to victory in their party’s nominating contests, and next year is likely to be no exception. But Mr Biden is facing more criticism than most as many Democrats openly fret whether the oldest-ever president to be sworn into office will be able to be an effective standard-bearer for his party next year. One of those Democrats sounding the alarm bells is Rep Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota who has been the only elected member of his party in the House or Senate to openly call for Mr Biden to face a serious primary challenge. As of now, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is not planning to host debates for the 2024 primary season, meaning that the president will never face any of his challengers onstage. Mr Phillips pointed out, in a Sunday interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, that while Mr Biden is generally leading nationally against opponents like Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, he trails those same candidates or ties them statistically in some polling of key swing states, such as Arizona and Michigan. The “majority” of Americans, he said, want Mr Biden to “pass the torch” and let other Democrats have a real competition for the 2024 primary — even as he attempted to back away from the idea that he himself would mount a bid. The congressman suggested that the candidate to take on Republicans next year should be a governor from the midwest or the Rust Belt, nodding as Mr Todd named Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and his own home state’s Tim Walz. He also named JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois. “Some people have asked me that I not use their names, because of this institutional fear that it might impact you down the road,” he noted. “[But] this is the time to meet the moment.” The mention of Mr Pritzker as a potential candidate by Mr Phillips is significant, given that the governor has been spotted in early primary states and is viewed by many Democrats and political analysts alike as a politician with both national aspirations and the credibility to mount a real bid. The billionaire governor has won many fans in the party with his record in the state and has the financial means to bankroll a national bid, which would put him at an immediate advantage over possible rivals. One figure that Mr Phillips is notably not putting his support behind is Senator Joe Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat who is rumoured to be considering exiting the Democratic Party entirely, following the footsteps (or coattails) of Sen Kyrsten Sinema. Mr Manchin is also known to be considering launching an independent bid for the presidency should he make the jump to leave the party, and would likely do so with the backing of No Labels, a group of rabblerousing centrists that have been threatening to support a third-party challenger for months. Mr Biden’s polling woes in key swing states have worried some Democrats who see a repeat of 2016 on the horizon; for months, Hillary Clinton led Donald Trump in national polling only to be undone in key swing states where her campaign had spent little to no effort to be competitive. Numerous surveys of the 2024 field have indicated that a slight majority of Democrats want Mr Biden to step aside and open up the field for younger competitors. But those same polls also indicate that he holds a massive lead over the only Democrats who have announced bids so far, author Marianne Williamson and Robert F Kennedy, known for his activism against medical authorities. Read More Ted Cruz rails against Hunter Biden special counsel appointment that he requested Biden and House Democrats hope to make curbing 'junk fees' a winning issue in 2024 ‘You know the answer’: Trump mocked for sarcastic response to 2020 election interference question

A lawyer for Hunter Biden said he’s committed to avoiding a trial for the US president’s son, whose

The wife of Rex Heuermann, the man charged with killing at least three women and burying their bodies on a beach beside a remote coastal highway, may sue police for leaving her home in a “shambles” in their search for evidence. Asa Ellerup is living in a “waking surreal nightmare,” her attorney said on Friday. She is also struggling to pay for cancer treatment while living in a house that she claims was trashed by investigators searching for possible evidence of her husband’s alleged crimes. At a press conference on Long Island, attorneys for Ms Ellerup, Mr Heuermann’s estranged wife, and his two adult children, announced the family planned to follow a notice of claim, a move that would allow them to eventually sue police for “leaving their home in shambles”. “Their valuables were shattered, their places were destroyed, the place they laid their heads no longer exists,” said Vess Mitev, an attorney who is also representing Mr Heuermann’s daughter, Victoria, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan. “They’re going through a horrific emotional time that none of us can imagine,” he added, previously describing their experience as that of a “surreal, walking horror show”. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has said police followed standard procedure during their 12-day search of the house. Ms Ellerup is currently scrambling to find a way to pay for her skin and breast cancer treatment, attorneys said. Her current medical insurance, which is tied to her husband’s employment, runs out later this year. She has spoken to her husband by phone but has not visited him and filed for divorce from Mr Heuermann last month just days after the bombshell arrest of the architect in a case that has baffled authorities for over a decade. The family has raised more than $40,000 through a GoFundMe started by Melissa Moore, the daughter of serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, known as the “Happy Face Killer”. That crowd-funding campaign has generated some controversy. John Ray, an attorney for Shannon Gilbert, a woman found dead on a coastal marsh near Mr Heuermann’s alleged victims, urged the public against donating to the family, describing them as suspects in the case, rather than victims. Suffolk Police have concluded that Gilbert drowned accidentally — a finding her family has not accepted, believing she was also killed. Mr Heuermann was charged last month in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman. Their remains were found on Gilgo Beach just off Long Island. He is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. All four of the women were believed to be engaged in sex work prior to their disappearance. Other remains were also found in the vicinity but no connection has been made to Mr Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Bob Macedonio, an attorney for Ms Ellerup, said Mr Heuermann was living a “complete double life,” with his wife and children totally in the dark about his alleged crimes. The lawyers said there has been no contact between the authorities and any family members. Mr Heuermann is due back in court on 27 September. With reporting by the Associated Press Read More Ten deaths, two arrests and a person of interest: Multiple potential serial killers identified in one week How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard Rex Heuermann’s wife had bizarre response to Gilgo Beach murders arrest as divorce filing revealed Rex Heuermann’s ‘disturbing’ online behaviour days before Gilgo Beach arrest revealed Gilgo Beach murders suspect must submit DNA sample, judge rules Manhattan architect, family man and accused serial killer: Who is Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann?

Ted Cruz was among more than 30 senators urging US Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint Davis Weiss as special counsel to lead investigations into Hunter Biden. That was 19 September 2022. Less than a year later, on 11 August, Mr Garland announced that Mr Weiss would receive special counsel status. But the Republican senator from Texas is now calling the appointment of the same person he was urgently recommending a “wildly inappropriate” pick to lead the investigation. “This appointment is camouflage and it’s cover-up. I think it’s disgraceful,” he told Fox News on 13 August. Mr Weiss, who has served as the US Attorney for Delaware since 2018, has led federal investigations into President Joe Biden’s son since 2019. Last month, Hunter Biden was reportedly prepared to enter a plea deal following charges stemming from unpaid taxes and a federal application for a firearm. That deal appeared to fall apart, and Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to two of the charges after a federal judge questioned whether the deal would prohibit other potential prosecutions. IRS whistleblowers speaking to Republican members of Congress who are eager to prosecute the president’s son have claimed that it was necessary that Mr Weiss be designated special counsel powers because he could not pursue prosecutions in other jurisdictions outside of Delaware, as the US attorney for that state. Whistleblowers also testified that US Department of Justice officials had prevented Mr Weiss from seeking felony tax evasion charges in California and Washington DC. Mr Cruz is now accusing Mr Weiss of either being an “active participant” in covering up “criminality” and obstructing justice by “protecting” the president, or “he was just complicit.” “He was so weak that he couldn’t stop the partisans in main justice from turning it into a political effort to protect Joe Biden,” Mr Cruz said. But in their letter to Mr Garland last year, Mr Cruz and 32 other senators said it is “important” that Mr Weiss receive special counsel status to “allow him to investigate an appropriate scope of potentially criminal conduct, avoid the appearance of impropriety, and provide additional assurances to the American people that the Hunter Biden is free from political influence.” Mr Cruz now accuses Mr Weiss of spending “the last five years covering it up”. The senator has also been requesting information from Mr Weiss this month, sending a letter with a list of questions surrounding whistleblower testimony, none of which accuse Mr Weiss of wrongdoing. The Independent has requested comment from his office. His apparent about-face follows other objections from GOP officials who had also previously called for Mr Weiss to step in as special counsel. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, another senator who signed last year’s letter, claimed that Mr Garland only appointed Mr Weiss because “he knows Weiss will protect Hunter Biden.” In her appearance on Fox News, she called Mr Weiss “a collaborator”. “The sweetheart deal that he had cooked up for Hunter Biden, now they’re going to give him a sweetheart deal with a special counsel and run out the plot,” she said. “Merrick Garland, he owes the American people better than to do something like this.” South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham – another signatory – told NewsNation that the appointment “poured gasoline on a political fire.” He told Fox News that he believes Mr Weiss has been “compromised” after a “sweetheart” plea deal fell apart. And Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley – who acknowledged signing the letter during an appearance on Fox News – said that Mr Weiss has “pulled punches” and “didn’t investigate as he should’ve.” Read More Matt Gaetz suggests he wants to be America’s next attorney general: ‘A boy can dream’ Trump and Hunter Biden legal blockbusters rock Washington – but offer a contrast House Democrats call for investigation into Clarence Thomas over corruption claims Georgia prosecutors have text messages linking Trump team to voting system breach, report says

A group of women tailed Ron DeSantis to several campaign events this past week, causing disruptions and distractions as the second-place Republican candidate seeks to pick up traction in the early caucus state. The group, B****es Get Stuff Done, showed up to at least two of the Florida governor’s events where they deployed various tactics aimed at preventing him from speaking to Republican primary voters. A website for the group states that its members are progressive Democratic women who, apparently in addition to trolling Republicans, provide resources to Democratic candidates. Among the activists from the group who participated in the demonstrations this week was the group’s founder and CEO, Heather Ryan. Chants of “pudding fingers” erupted at one DeSantis campaign event where Ms Ryan and another member of the group arrived with megaphones. At one point at the same event, a DeSantis supporter can be seen attempting to snatch a megaphone out of Heather’s hands. The governor addressed the women briefly as they carried on, but according to Politico the event (a discussion with military veterans) seemed hurried along as the protesters attempted to drown him out. “People like that are what’s holding this country back,” Mr DeSantis said at one point, according to Politico. At an event held at the week-long phenomenon that is the Iowa State Fair, the Florida governor found himself met by the women once more. There, he was joined by Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds onstage only to be drowned out by members of the group who blew whistles over the two Republicans as they spoke. Overhead, a chartered prop plane flew a banner urging the candidate to be “likable”. Mr DeSantis has put much of his campaign’s focus into the state of Iowa, where he hopes for an upset victory over Donald Trump. The former president’s campaign has been combatting that effort with mockery and derision, even though Mr Trump himself lost the Iowa caucuses in 2016 to Ted Cruz. The Florida governor has formed a close alliance with Ms Reynolds, Iowa’s popular GOP executive, but in polling has continued to trail Mr Trump by significant margins even as other Republicans close in on him from lower down in the standings. Read More Trump's Iowa state fair spectacle clouds DeSantis as former president is joined by Florida officials How Vivek Ramaswamy is pushing — delicately — to win over Trump supporters Pence signals debate plan to attack Trump and DeSantis for not pushing national abortion ban NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week Trump and Biden tied in hypothetical 2024 rematch: poll DeSantis is resetting his campaign again. Some Republicans worry his message is getting in the way

Georgia prosecutors have reportedly obtained text messages linking a breach of voting machines to members of Donald Trump’s team as a grand jury prepares to hear evidence in a case surrounding the former president’s attempts to overturn 2020 election results in the state. That state investigation – separate from a federal probe and indictment charging Mr Trump with three criminal conspiracies and obstruction in connection with 2020 election subversion – appears to connect Trump-linked attorneys and operatives to a breach of voting machines in Coffee County. As Mr Trump and his allies hunted for evidence of fraud to undermine Joe Biden’s definitive victory, a local elections official allegedly sent a “written invitation” to attorneys working for then-President Trump, according to text messages reportedly obtained by CNN. Last year, a former Trump official told the House select committee investigating January 6 and attempts to overturn election results said that White House officials had discussed plans to access voting machines in the state during an Oval Office meeting on 18 December 2020. While much of the attention surrounding the Georgia case has involved Mr Trump’s call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes to ensure his victory, investigators have scrutinised the actions in Coffee County, and prosecutors appear prepared to argue that attempts to infiltrate sensitive voting machine software were a top-down effort from the former president. Mr Trump won the rural county in a landslide with 70 per cent of the vote. Katherine Friess, an attorney working with Trump-allied attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, among others, had shared the “invitation” to examine the county’s Dominion Voting Systems software on 1 January 2021, days before the breach, according to CNN. One month earlier, Ms Powell – who amplified false claims and conspiracy theories about Dominion that were central to a landmark defamation settlement between the company and Fox News – had previously enlisted forensics company Sullivan Strickler for $26,000 to investigate Michigan machines. Ms Friess also sent a “Letter of invitation to Coffee County, Georgia” to former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was working with Mr Giuliani to bolster spurious claims of voter fraud, according to court documents in a civil case. Her texts reportedly show that she told operatives who ultimately performed the breach that Mr Trump’s team had secured written permission, CNN reported. “Just landed back in DC with the Mayor huge things starting to come together!” an employee with Sullivan Strickler reportedly wrote in a group chat on 1 January 2021. “Most immediately, we were just granted access – by written invitation! – to Coffee County’s systems. Yay!” the text reads, according to CNN. Data obtained from the Dominion Voting Systems software was uploaded to a password-protected website that could be accessed by election deniers across the country. Robert Costello, Mr Giuliani’s attorney, said that the former New York City mayor “had nothing to do with this”. “You can’t attach Rudy Giuliani to Sidney Powell’s crackpot idea,” he told CNN. A case led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation over the last two years following the former president’s pressure campaign targeting state officials to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state. Her office has notified at least two witnesses to appear next week before a grand jury, the strongest indication yet that prosecutors are preparing to issue indictments in the coming days. She has previously indicated that a grand jury would vote on indictments by the end of August. Read More Trump steps up attacks on Fani Willis as Georgia probe links Trump team to voting system breach - latest Georgia grand jury to hear Trump election subversion case next week Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump