The Latest Breaking News from The Independent

On the main road to Russia, the combat vehicles – some of them British – trundle forward. In the Russian town of Sudzha, Ukrainian troops dig in and prepare for a counterattack. Askold Krushelnycky reports from Kursk

Harris team says they won’t take polling surge for granted as they enter race’s home stretch

After criticism that Reform UK’s election contract with the people was ‘Liz Truss on steroids’, new Reform UK chairman has admitted that the party is working on a new set of policies as well as drawing up rules enabling the party’s leader to be sacked

A wave of Israel-Palestine protests across cities and college campuses has triggered a series of mask ban laws. Backers say they’re about public safety, but those on the ground argue they’re coded attempts to stifle one side of the debate. Isaac Lozano and Josh Marcus report

The Republican party and its presidential nominee now have a tool that allows them to visualise the hypothetical realities that they are peddling to their supporters, who are receptive to such visual hyperbole – so-called ‘AI slop’, writes Mike Bedigan

Content aimed at sad men is getting millions of views on social media. Is this a new form of therapy? asks Richard Hall

Melissa Wolfenbarger, a 21-year-old married mother-of-two, had been missing for four years before her remains were finally identified. But decades passed and the identity of her killer remained a mystery – until now. Crime Scene Investigator Sheryl ‘Mac’ McCollum tells Andrea Cavallier how her podcast, with help from experts, the…

Figures obtained by The Independent showed dog attacks rose by nine per cent in the first five months since the ban was brought in on XL bully dogs

Ilyas Habibi, 17, suffered a fatal knife wound outside Sutton train station last December

As the Grenfell inquiry prepares to publish its final report into the 2017 tower block fire that killed 72, Nadine White speaks to those still grappling with its tragic legacy

Exclusive: Sources now say the barrister’s review has found the watchdog could have acted earlier after her arrest