Adam Sandler recently joked that he missed out on a 'Friends' role next to Jennifer Aniston because of David Schwimmer's height

Scientists in Mexico have given their verdict on the supposed 'aliens' that were presented to the country's congress last week. Much controversy existed around the aliens who were presented by a man named Jaime Maussan who has previously been accused of using the mummified beings, apparently found in Peru, as part of an elaborate hoax. Despite spawning dozens of memes, the aliens are apparently being treated seriously enough that they have now been studied by scientists who have said that the figures are ‘single skeletons’ and also have 'eggs' inside of them. The two aliens have been named Clara and Mauricio and have reportedly been studied in a lab at the Noor Clinic in Mexico. Lead researcher Dr Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, a former navy forensics doctor, who added that as well as being "a single skeleton" the aliens are also a "complete organic being." He also denied that the aliens were part of a hoax and even said that Clara was "alive, was intact, was biological and was in gestation." However, much like the alien bodies themselves, the research has been clouded in controversy and scepticism as the research has yet to be officially verified, with Nasa scientist Dr David Spergel questioning why the findings haven't been made public, as per the BBC. Spergel said: "He said: "If you have something strange, make samples available to the world scientific community and we'll see what's there." Benitez did add in his address at the press conference: "We are facing the paradigm of describing a new species or given the opportunity to accept that there has been contact with other beings, non-humans, that were drawn and marked in the past by diverse cultures throughout the world." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Daphne Psaledakis WASHINGTON The U.S. on Thursday said Russian mercenary force Wagner Group may be working through

The American presidency is vested with many overt powers, but one of the most important powers of the office is implicit, and that's the power of rhetoric

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

'Dancing With the Stars' pros Daniella Karagach and Pasha Pashkova announced the arrival of their baby girl named Nikita and fans are buzzing with excitement over the name

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis ventured where US Justice Department Special Counsel John “Jack” Smith chose not

Slow-moving storms that have left at least one dead in Orange County, New York, are dumping heavy rainfall at intense rates over parts of the Northeast, forcing road closures, water rescues and urgent warnings about life-threatening flash floods.

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Sources claimed that Britney Spears and Sam Asghari split because due to allegations that she was unfaithful to him

By Dawn Chmielewski and Danielle Broadway An estimated 20.3 million people watched U.S. President Joe Biden's Thursday night