CANONSBURG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 9, 2023--

Jessel Taank and Pavit Randhawa, a banker, met at a Lower East Side pub after being introduced to each other by a mutual friend

Ron DeSantis is officially running for president, having filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. The long-awaited move by the Florida governor follows a campaign announcement video released a day earlier by his wife, Casey, on Twitter. His filing was first reported by The Associated Press. Mr DeSantis is expected to address voters in his first appearance as a candidate for president later Wednesday evening in a Twitter space hosted by Elon Musk ally David Sacks. He will then appear on Fox News for an interview immediately afterwards with Bret Baier. The rising Republican star is in his second term as governor of the trending-red Sunshine State, having won reelection by double digits just last year. He previously won election to office in 2018 by a fraction of a percentage point. He enters the race with one key label tied to his campaign already: The second-place challenger, thanks to months of polling that have shown him firmly behind Mr Trump in a Republican primary matchup. That same polling has shown him consistently in the double digits, however, which is more than can be said for his other Republican rivals — Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson and others. Mr DeSantis’s official launch also signals a likely shift in strategy. Whereas for months the governor has sought to avoid a direct confrontation with Mr Trump, that now is unavoidable, even without the near-constant barrage of attacks that his now-official rival has been lobbing his way. That strategic shift has been hinted at for some time now, with a DeSantis-aligned PAC even swiping directly at the former president following his CNN town hall earlier this month. It isn’t clear whether the Jacksonville native, 44, will be successful in his bid to oust Mr Trump as de facto leader of the GOP. But he heads into the 2024 race with all the structural advantages he could possibly hope for: A sympathetic if not outright supportive GOP establishment, a national voter base that has indicated time and time again it does not wish for Mr Trump (or, for that matter, Mr Biden) to run again, and a political pedigree that seems almost lab-generated for a presidential run. He previously served in the House of Representatives as a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, and before that was a lawyer for the US military. During his service, Mr DeSantis was stationed at Guantanamo Bay before later being part of the 2007 Iraq troop surge which saw him playing legal adviser to a US commander in Fallujah. More follows... Read More Can Ron DeSantis beat Donald Trump? These Florida political veterans aren’t so sure The War on Terror turned Ron DeSantis into Florida’s anti-woke warrior. Can it win him the White House? Everything we know about Ron DeSantis’ policies as he launches 2024 campaign

Ukraine's forces have pushed back Russian troops in areas of the country's south and east as Kyiv pushes on with its counteroffensive – with President Volodymyr Zelensky also claiming that his country has developed a new long-range weapon. The pronouncement by Mr Zelensky that the unnamed weapon reached a target of more than 400 miles (700 kilometres) away comes a day after a wave of drone strikes across six regions in Russian. Those strikes included an assault that caused a huge fire at a military air base in Pskov in northern Russia, damaging several giant military transport planes on the tarmac. That air base is roughly 400 miles from the Ukrainian border. Whether Mr Zelensky's remarks are part of the information war with Russia over Moscow's 18-month invasion – he did not give details on the new weapon other than the fact it was produced by Ukraine's Ministry of Strategic Industries but gave no other details – it is certainly the clearest suggestion that Kyiv was behind the attack. Ukraine has upped the number of drones attacks on Russian territory in recent weeks, but rarely officially claims them. Western allies of Kyiv are wary of such attacks, although Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said that his nation has the right to hit military targets. Russia reported overnight drone attacks in its Bryansk region on Thursday and said it had shot down a missile fired on occupied Crimea. On the ground in Ukraine, Kyiv's troops have secured some new “successes” in the south and east. Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said this week that recent gains on the southern front could enable open the door to the recapture of the annexed Crimean peninsula. He told critics of the pace of its three-month-old counteroffensive to "shut up" – the sharpest signal yet of Kyiv's frustration suggestions from some Western officials, quoted in US media reports, that Kyiv's troops are moving too slowly. "Criticising the slow pace of (the) counteroffensive equals ... spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometre of Ukrainian soil after another," Mr Kuleba said. "I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimetre by themselves," he said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Spain. After months of fighting their way through heavy minefields, Ukraine's forces have finally reached the main Russian defensive lines in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Robotyne is located, in recent days. If troops can find a way past anti-tank defences and other Russian traps, a further advance there would provide the first test of Russia's deeper defences, which Ukraine hopes will be more vulnerable and less heavily mined than the areas its troops have traversed so far. Elsewhere, the Foreign Office confirmed the death of a British man whose family said he was fighting in Ukraine. Samuel Newey, 22, was "killed in action" on Wednesday in eastern Ukraine, his brother, Daniel Newey, said in a social media post. Meanwhile, BAE Systems said it had established a local entity in Ukraine and signed deals with the Ukrainian government to help ramp up the supply of weapons, equipment and training to the country. Britain is a key defence supplier for Ukraine and BAE, as the UK's biggest defence contractor, has manufactured a significant amount of the hardware provided to Kyiv. The new agreements will facilitate BAE's future support by helping it better understand Ukraine's capability requirements, and they will also allow the company to work directly with Ukrainian partners with a plan to produce 105mm Light Guns there. Reuters contributed to this report Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Putin orders Wagner fighters to sign oath of allegiance after Prigozhin death What could a GOP presidency mean for Ukraine? The first debate gave us the answer Minister warns against jumping to conclusions over Wagner chief’s reported death

What happens to the body when a human gets heatstroke? How can we protect ourselves in a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, Arizona researchers have deployed a robot...

Match report & player ratings from Greuther 4-4 Liverpool.

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Lawyers for an accused Russian money launderer in US custody are lobbying for their client to be included in any potential US-Russia prisoner swap for detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, according to new court filing.

New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley has a sprained right ankle and his status for Thursday night’s game against the San Francisco 49ers is uncertain

Dalton Knecht scored 17 points and Josiah-Jordan James and Jonas Aidoo each recorded a double-double to lead No. 7 Tennessee to a 73-56 win over Syracuse in the opening round of the Maui Invitational

Officials say they seized and destroyed the scales in a stand against illegal wildlife trafficking.