The FBI participated in a flawed effort to stop Russian disinformation at the behest of a Ukrainian intelligence agency that instead ensnared authentic American accounts -- even a verified Russian-language US State Department account, the House Judiciary Committee alleges in a new report obtained first by CNN.

Amidst his stint in a Romanian prison, a video emerged online, capturing Andrew Tate playing with his young daughter in a swimming pool

Lina E's conviction has angered Germany's far left, but the right is furious she is free pending appeal.

A judge has ruled that former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial

North Korea said it scrambled warplanes to ward off a US spy plane in its exclusive economic zone

Rex Heuermann’s arrest came as a shock to nearly everyone in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach – but not for a man who came face to face with the alleged murderer and had reported him to law enforcement. For more than a decade, residents anxiously awaited new developments on a trail of murders that had gone cold, despite overwhelming evidence the slayings were the work of a serial killer. Most of the victims were sex workers in their 20s who went missing in 2009 and 2010 before their bodies were discovered wrapped in burlap along the stretch of a roadway. The Suffolk County police department led an unsuccessful 13-year investigation into the case amid a litany of internal scandals, before announcing earlier this month that Mr Heuermann was in custody. Police commissioner Rodney Harrison touted the work of a revamped task force as the reason behind the arrest, but largely glossed over the fact that the very detail that cracked the case was handed to authorities in the early stages of the probe. Dave Schaller told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview that, by the time Mr Heuermann’s mugshot was plastered on every local and national news channel on 13 July, he was very familiar with the Frankenstein-like figure with an “empty gaze” he had long ago described to investigators. In the winter of 2010, Mr Schaller told police that he had seen the man fleeing the house he shared with Amber Costello, whose body was among those found in Gilgo Beach. “When they told me she was dead, he was the first person who jumped in my head,” Mr Schaller told the AP. “I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years.” Mr Heuermann met with homicide detectives on multiple occasions during the initial years of the investigation. Two years after the bodies were found, Mr Schaller said he picked Mr Heuermann’s first-generation Chrysler Avalanche out of a line-up of photographs provided by the detectives. “I gave them the exact description of the truck and the dude,” Mr Schaller, who said he was angered by the delay in investigating his tip, told the AP. “I mean come on, why didn’t they use that?” Suffolk County district attorney Ray Tierney, who inherited the investigation when he took office in 2022, said the key to unravelling the case was the description of the truck, rediscovered by a state investigator after the launch of the new task force that took a fresh look at the evidence. Mr Tierney told the AP he did not know why police had not run a search earlier, but suggested the tip may have been “lost within a sea of other tips and information”. He stressed there were other elements that ultimately helped investigators arrest Heuermann, including new technology that helped match samples of DNA to the suspect. “This was a dark cloud over the community,” former police commissioner Tim Sini, who later became the county’s district attorney. “When you have the police department and the district attorney’s office blocking the FBI, that does not engender trust in law enforcement.” The arrest, Sini said, was the result of painstaking detective work that spanned multiple administrations and relied on a wide range of evidence. “[However,] I wouldn’t call it a major success. The case should’ve been solved earlier,” he said. “This was crucial information, and I don’t know why they didn’t share it,” Rob Trotta, a county legislator who worked as a Suffolk County police detective until 2013, also told the AP. “They made some serious blunders here.” Two high-ranking officials who worked closely on the case and attended briefings between 2011 and 2013 told the AP they never heard Mr Schaller’s witness statement. Mr Heuermann bought the pickup at a Chevrolet dealer on Long Island in 2002 and transferred ownership to his brother Craig in South Carolina in 2012. Authorities seized the vehicle last week. A search warrant stated investigators were looking for other clues in the vehicle or at property the brothers owned in Chester County, such as DNA, fluids, fingerprints, phones and what they described as possible “trophies” that may have belonged to the victims. Mr Heuermann is charged with the murders of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. He is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. As law enforcement closed in on Mr Heuermann, they served more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants that uncovered cellphone records for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the “Gilgo Four” victims before they went missing. Further analysis also allegedly linked Mr Heuermann to taunting calls made to family members of the victims, according to investigators. The calls were made from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the offices of Mr Heuerman’s architecture business are located. Among the evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the murders was a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Waterman’s corpse, according to court documents. DNA analysis had not been possible in the early stages of the investigation, but new technology allowed testing. A team surveilling Mr Heuermann collected a discarded pizza box that then confirmed a DNA match with the suspect on 12 June. Records also showed several online accounts under fictitious names linked to Mr Heuermann were used for illegal activities. Mr Heuermann allegedly used those accounts and burner phones to contact women for prostitution services, as well as making chilling online searches. The searches included sadistic, torture-related pornography, child pornography and disturbing content. Mr Heuermann is also accused of searching “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer,” “why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught” and “new phone technology may be key to break in case”. Mr Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Authorities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Las Vegas and South Carolina are looking into possible links between Mr Heuermann and unsolved cases. The Associated Press contributed to this report Read More Missing paddle boarder’s body pulled from Martha’s Vineyard pond next to Obama mansion Manhattan architect, family man and accused serial killer: Who is Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann? How the Gilgo Beach serial killer turned the Long Island shore into a graveyard

Ukraine will be armed with depleted uranium anti-tank rounds that can aid its troops in piercing Russian tanks, said the Pentagon. The controversial 120mm anti-tanks shells will be used to boost the performance of 31 M1A1 Abram tanks the US will give Ukraine in the fall. The US is looking to aid Kyiv in dismantling Russian lines in eastern, northeastern and southern regions amid a simmering counteroffensive by the Ukrainians. The rounds, developed by the US during the Cold War, have previously destroyed Soviet tanks, including the decades old T-72 tanks dispatched by Moscow in the continuing war. The 46th drawdown of military equipment from the Department of Defence includes additional air defence equipment, artillery rounds and anti-tank weapons, and was announced shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Ukrainian counterpart and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday. “We want to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs not only to succeed in the counteroffensive but has what it needs for the long term to make sure that it has a strong deterrent, strong defence capacity so that, in the future, aggressions like this don’t happen again,” Mr Blinken said in a statement before the two leaders met. The UK had also announced in March that it would give depleted uranium rounds to Ukraine, leaving Russia fuming and falsely claiming they had provided nuclear components. On Thursday, Russia snapped at Washington and called the latest military aid of depleted uranium a “criminal act” beyond just escalation. “It is a reflection of Washington’s outrageous disregard for the environmental consequences of using this kind of ammunition in a combat zone. This is, in fact, a criminal act, I cannot give any other assessment,” said Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov. He also reiterated previous warnings by Russia about the risk of a nuclear war, because of what he called Western “pressure” on Moscow. “Now this pressure is dangerously balancing on the brink of direct armed conflict between nuclear powers,” he said. Russia has deployed hypersonic missiles to thermobaric weapons on civilian targets in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine which has continued for more than 20 months now. Officials in Moscow have never taken responsibility for explaining using ballistic Kinzhal missiles, a barrage of which was fired on Ukraine in March this year. The missile has a range of up to 2,000km (about 1,250 miles) and flies at 10 times the speed of sound, making it hard to intercept. In April this year, the British defence ministry said Russia is likely handing over thermobaric multiple launch rocket systems to its elite airborne forces, suggesting its use in the continuing war. Thermobaric weapons, fired using the multiple launch rocket systems, are considered to be some of the most brutal war weapons in existence. “The highly destructive TOS-1A, which Russia designates as a ‘heavy flamethrower’, is typically operated by Russia’s specialist Chemical, Biological and Radiological Protection Troops in Ukraine, and has not previously been formally associated with the VDV,” the ministry had said. Russia had admitted to using the flamethrower weapon in March last year. Also known as vacuum bombs, they suck in oxygen and generate a powerful explosion that can have a devastating impact on victims – especially in an enclosed space. In another attack, Russia used cluster bombs which killed a child and two adults hiding in a pre-school in northeastern Ukraine. While the depleted uranium rounds retain some radioactive properties, they can’t generate a nuclear reaction like a nuclear weapon would, RAND nuclear expert and policy researcher Edward Geist said. The Pentagon has defended the use of the munitions. The US military “has procured, stored, and used depleted uranium rounds for several decades, since these are a longstanding element of some conventional munitions,” Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Lt Col Garron Garn said in a statement in March. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary UN nuclear watchdog report seen by AP says Iran slows its enrichment of near-weapons-grade uranium Ukraine war: US send depleted uranium to Kyiv after blast near Russia military base Greek shipper pleads guilty to smuggling Iranian crude oil and will pay $2.4 million fine

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By Luc Cohen NEW YORK -A former director of Venezuelan military intelligence pleaded not guilty on Thursday to U.S. drug

An attacker opened fire at a home before storming into a medical centre, Dutch police say.