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The White House on Monday condemned anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s claim that the virus which causes Covid-19 was somehow engineered to target white and Black people while sparing Asians and Jews of Eastern European descent as an example of antisemitism that puts Americans at risk. During a press event in New York City on 11 July, Mr Kennedy baselessly stated that “there is an argument to be made” that the disease is “ethnically targeted” and claimed that the Sars-CoV-2 virus was “targeted to attack Cucasians and Black people” even as “those who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese”. Mr Kennedy later falsely claimed that he had made the remarks at an off-the-record event and attacked the New York Post who had reported on his offensive comments, accusing him of trying to “to discredit [him] as a crank — and by association, to discredit revelations of genuine corruption and collusion.” His comments were widely condemned by numerous Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League, which called them “deeply offensive” pointed out that they “feed into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories”. Speaking at the White House daily press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to respond to Mr Kennedy directly, citing his status as a 2024 presidential candidate. But Ms Jean-Pierre said the anti-vaccine activist’s comments were insensitive to the “countless” American families with empty seats at the dinner table because they’ve lost people to the virus since it began spreading across the globe in March 2020. Continuing, Ms Jean-Pierre said the claims Mr Kennedy made on a tape which was published by The New York Post were “false” as well as “vile,” and said they “put our fellow Americans in danger”. “if you think about the racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories that come out of saying those types of things, it’s an attack on our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans and so it is important that we ... speak out when we hear those claims made more broadly,” she said. “This President and this whole administration is going to stand against ... those false claims against ... Asian Americans, against Jewish Americans,” she said. “We’re going to continue to speak out and we believe ... it’s important to protect the dignity of our fellow Americans”. Read More RFK Jr revives antisemitic conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to spare Jewish people RFK Jr press dinner screaming match over climate crisis ends with columnist launching his own natural gas Robert F Kennedy Jr calls interviewer ‘unfair’ for spelling out his laundry list of conspiracy theories Editor apologises for publishing RFK Jr anti-vaxx screed: ‘I should have been fired’

The family of a teenager killed in a crash involving a boat owned by the prominent South Carolina Murdaugh family has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the convenience store that Paul Murdaugh, then 19, purchased alcohol from the night of the crash.

By David Shepardson and Stephen Nellis WASHINGTON Senior U.S. chip company executives are holding meetings with Biden administration

Former White House resident Donald Trump Jr has weighed in after the Secret Service closed its investigation into the discovery of cocaine in the building - suggesting he would not have “gotten away with that”. The eldest son of former president Donald Trump made the comments at the Turning Point Action Conference on Sunday, when he assured the crowd that snorting cocaine was not his “thing”. “My guys who I stayed in touch with — many of them just dear friends — they’re like, ‘Hey dude, there’s no way you would’ve gotten away with that,’” he animatedly told the crowd. “I go, ‘I know!’ Luckily, I don’t snort, er, cocaine! It’s just not my thing.” Mr Trump has previously denied being a drug user. On his Triggered podcast earlier this year, he described to former Trump White House official Kash Patel the price of his getting involved in politics, in the process making a series of unsubstantiated claims about President Biden’s son Hunter. “I look at what they called me: a traitor,” Mr Trump said. “Adam Schiff wanted to try me for treason, a crime punishable by death, but Hunter Biden can take a billion from China, work for Ukraine oligarchs, work for Russian oligarchs, money launder, be paid in diamonds off the books, not declare anything in taxes, drop guns in dumpsters across from high schools, and it’s like, ‘He’s an upstanding human being. And then I give an impassioned speech, and it’s ‘Don Jr is on coke.’” A small amount of cocaine (around .007oz – enough for a misdemeanour charge) – was discovered in the White House, but the Secret Service said their investigation would have involved 500 people, not a short enough list of suspects to draw any concrete conclusions. However the lack of investigation has lef to criticisms levelled at President Joe Biden for not doing enough to find the culprit, as well as at White House staff in general. Conservative pundits have speculated – without evidence – that the drug may have belonged to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who is a recovering drug addict. Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social: “Despite all of the cameras pointing directly at the ‘scene of the crime,’ and the greatest forensics anywhere in the World, they just can’t figure it out? They know the answer, and so does everyone else!” He subsequently took to calling President Biden a “crackhead”. Read More ‘Don Jr is on coke’: Trump’s son mocks accusations of drug use over his ‘impassioned’ speeches Trump finally reveals how he thinks he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in a day Judge in Trump documents case under the spotlight after case intensifies following controversial ruling Rudy Giuliani sparks backlash with bizarre appearance at Gilgo Beach murder suspect’s home Donald Trump brands US a ‘third-world hellhole’ run by ‘perverts’ and ‘thugs’ ‘Stoned’ DeSantis canvasser’s lewd rant caught on doorbell camera as 2024 campaign rushes to cut costs

Microsoft Corp.’s once seemingly doomed $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard Inc. gained more momentum on Monday after

The former number two official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has offered a dire prediction about America’s future should Donald Trump or another like-minded Republican succeed in winning next year’s presidential election, according to a new book by a former Trump administration homeland security aide. In Blowback, author Miles Taylor recounts an October 2020 conversation he had with Sue Gordon, a 25-year US intelligence community veteran who served as the Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence from 2017 to 2019, shortly after news broke that the FBI had disrupted a plot by Michigan-based right-wing extremists to kidnap Wolverine State governor Gretchen Whitmer. According to a copy of the book obtained by The Independent ahead of its Tuesday release, Taylor recalls how the news of the kidnapping plot prompted him to telephone Ms Gordon, who he says spent “decades” at the CIA monitoring foreign governments for signs of instability, and ask the former deputy DNI how America’s “democratic stability” would be impacted by a second term in the White House for Mr Trump or a “Maga successor”. Taylor said Ms Gordon’s reply came “in the language of a seasoned intelligence analyst” who speaks “based on data from sources in the field and the uncertainty level of information they don’t have”. He added that she told him how she would “assess with ‘low confidence’ that the United States reaches its three hundredth birthday” — the projected 2076 tricentennial anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence from Great Britain — in “any recognisable form”. “People don’t trust government institutions anymore or each other, and when the world gets tumultuous, they’re more open to authoritarianism,” she said. Continuing, Taylor writes that Ms Gordon told him her reason for pessimism about the long-term viability of the US as a functioning democracy stems from the follow-on effects of four more years of Donald Trump — or someone acting with the same malevolence towards governmental institutions — atop the US executive branch. He said she told him that she does not believe a “Next Trump” would successfully smash through “every democratic guardrail,” but would “stoke unprecedented division and set off a slow turn towards despotism” in the US by “attempting” to further erode democratic norms and bring nominally independent institutions under his or her thumb. “That process can take decades to unfold. If history is any guide, though, it might come suddenly to a head, with the literal pull of a trigger — and the odds of that happening in the not-too-distant future are historically high,” he wrote. Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security for the first three years of Mr Trump’s administration but is better known as the formerly anonymous author of a New York Times op-ed about “resistance” to the then-president inside his own government, told The Independent in a phone interview that he fears a repeat of the January 6 attack on the Capitol — but worse — should Mr Trump lose next year’s presidential election. Echoing Ms Gordon’s prediction of a long-term breakdown of the American democratic system, Taylor said the possibility of “low-level civil conflict” touched off by Mr Trump or another Republican is “higher now than it even was in that post election period in 2020”. “The muscle memory for those extremist movements has now been solidified. The networks are closer. And ... since that time, many more people, otherwise kind of normal people in small town America, have really taken the stolen election lies, QAnon, and great replacement theory as gospel, and the polling shows that a majority of your everyday Republicans believe those lies,” he said. “Add to that the fact that the country is more armed now than at any point in its history ... it is a powder keg.” Taylor added that his fears of violence go beyond a repeat of what happened in Washington nearly three years ago, pointing to the aborted plot against Ms Whitmer, the Michigan governor, as an example of what could be in store for the future. He told The Independent that he feels “the conditions are very ripe” in the US for “that sort of low-level conflict” in many parts of the country. “This is not just a Washington, DC thing — I really think we could see something a good deal worse, and part of that could also happen if a Trump or a savvier successor is reelected. And that misuse of the justice system could foment that even more,” he said. Read More Man arrested near Obama home threatened other prominent lawmakers, officials say Three men jailed for at least seven years over plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer DoJ dragged feet over including Trump in Jan 6 probe over fears of appearing biased, report says Oath Keepers leader issues warning to Trump amid ex-president’s legal woes White House blasts Marjorie Taylor Greene’s criticism of efforts to aid US families GOP presidential hopeful lists conservative pool of Supreme Court picks Trump finally reveals how he thinks he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in a day

After an ongoing feud between Republican Reps Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, a Republican lawmaker said the standoff between the two Congress members could result in a fistfight. “A fistfight could break out at any moment,” Republican Tennessee Rep Tim Burchett told The Daily Beast. Mr Burchett told the publication that he was serious, and added he was enjoying the Republicans’ rivalry as a “professional wrestling fan.” He told the outlet, “I am friends with both of them. It’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that.” The Tennessee Republican isn’t alone in his stance. Another GOP lawmaker close to both Reps Greene and Boebert, who spoke anonymously, told the outlet: “You can’t have too many of these rifts for too long.” Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar called the battle a “two-way sword” to The Daily Beast. He continued, “I just think that whatever is there, could be utilized both ways,” he said, adding that “people make decisions that they have to work and live by, and you kind of hate being in their shoes.” The conflict between the congresswomen came to a head recently when Ms Greene was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus after she called Ms Boebert “a little b****.” The Georgia Republican claimed last week that she didn’t know why she was booted from the Freedom Caucus. She dismissed the move, saying that she didn’t “have time for the drama club.” Read More Marjorie Taylor Greene says she didn’t know she was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus The Freedom Caucus booting Marjorie Taylor Greene looks worse for them than it does for her Marjorie Taylor Greene ousted from House Freedom Caucus following fight with Lauren Boebert

South Africa’s state power utility’s former chief operating officer and now adviser, Jan Oberholzer will leave Eskom Holdings

One woman reportedly suffered severe burns and was airlifted to hospital amid the brush fires.

By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW In the run-up to Monday's attack on Russia's road and rail bridge to Crimea,

Cremations in one of China’s most populous provinces surged by 72.7% year-on-year in the first quarter, local media

By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) -This week's visit by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to China after