The Yankees fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson but that's just the first scapegoat to fall. Others should be on the chopping block.New York went into the All-Star break unsatisfied with the first half of the season. So they made a change.The Yankees fired hitting coach Dillon Lawson on S...

A man has barricaded himself inside the famous Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning, claiming he is armed. Vegas police said the man pulled a woman into his room “by force” and that she remains inside. “She is still in the room at this time,” a police spokesman said on Tuesday during a press update. “The female has been heard from and is still OK.” The officer added that no shots have been fired and no weapons have been seen. SWAT teams and crisis negotiators are on site. A bystander told The Independent a broken window could be seen on the outside of the building, and someone inside was throwing objects out. Read More Armed man barricades himself in room at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas as SWAT teams descend

Percy Jackson is getting a jolt of new energy. The popular franchise "Percy Jackson & the Olympians," following the half-man, half-god son of Poseidon and based on a fantasy YA series of books by Rick Riordan, is about to receive lavish new treatment in a Disney+ series that was teased on Friday.

A small amount of white powder which authorities now believe is cocaine was found in the White House on Sunday, according to multiple media reports. The US Secret Service began an investigation after the substance was discovered Sunday evening. A source familiar told the newspaper that preliminary testing revealed the powder to be cocaine. Separately, The Daily Mail reported that the powder had been found in the library of the White House — an area frequented by many staffers as well as some tours. A source with knowledge of the situation characterised the area where it was found as a work area of the West Wing. Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s chief spokesman, told The Independent on Monday that agents were beginning “an investigation into the cause and manner” of how the powder entered the White House. He added that it was discovered during a routine sweep of the room. “On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area. The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” said Mr Guglielmi said. The president was not in the residence at the time of the investigation, according to the spokesman. Mr Biden spent the weekend at the Camp David residence, returning to Washington on Monday for an event with the National Education Association. Read More Watch live: Joe Biden addresses teachers and representatives of National Education Association Trump marks Independence Day by sharing vulgar attack on Biden and ominous 2024 warning Rudy Giuliani grilled by prosecutors about 'shouting match' in fight to overturn election

The NBA's Utah Jazz obtained forward John Collins from the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for swingman Rudy Gay and a future NBA Draft pick, according...

Thailand’s de facto legalization of marijuana last year has brought a wave of tourists from around Asia intrigued by the lure of the forbidden leaf

Adin Ross left a generous $5,000 tip for a waitress during a meal in Las Vegas, highlighting his kind-heartedness and receiving praise from fans

By David Lawder SAN FRANCISCO U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said a ministers meeting on Tuesday had completed

Holden Armenta was accused of racism by a reporter after he saw a picture that displayed only the black-painted half of the child's face

Twitter has received an unlikely endorsement from a Taliban leader amid woes as the number of users of the Elon Musk-owned platform is “tanking” following the release of Meta’s rival app Threads. Taliban leader Anas Haqqani tweeted his approval of Twitter over other social media platforms, highlighting what he thought were some advantages of the Musk-owned site. “Twitter has two important advantages over other social media platforms,” Mr Haqqani tweeted. “The first privilege is the freedom of speech. The second privilege is the public nature & credibility of Twitter. Twitter doesn’t have an intolerant policy like Meta. Other platforms cannot replace it,” he said. Twitter has been facing major hurdles since the Tesla and SpaceX chief took over the company last year with further hardship after Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg launched the Threads app. It appears that the number of Twitter users may also be “tanking” following the release of Threads, according to Cloudflare’s chief executive Matthew Prince. Mr Prince showed a graph last week highlighting an apparent decline in Twitter’s popularity since Mr Musk’s takeover of the company, along with a steep drop after the launch of Threads. A record number of users have flocked to Mr Zuckerberg’s Twitter-clone with the app gaining over 100 million sign ups within days of its launch. “That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been five days!” the Meta boss said. While Twitter appears to have fallen out of favour with many users, The Taliban, however, still seems to prefer it over Threads. After “free-speech absolutist” Mr Musk took over Twitter and fired over three-fourths of the company’s workforce, including entire teams behind content moderation, social media experts expressed dissatisfaction over the rise of hate speech on the platform and advertisers as well as regular users have exited the site. But according to Mr Haqqani, a Taliban thought-leader, the biggest draw of Twitter – where the militant group continues to post updates – is the site’s flexible moderation policy. This is in contrast to Meta’s Facebook which views the Taliban as a terrorist organisation and disallows it from posting on the platform. Read More Who are the key members of the Taliban’s new all-male government? It’s wishful thinking to believe in a more moderate Taliban Taliban rename women’s ministry as office for group’s moral police $44 billion and eight months later. It’s finally all over for Elon Musk Instagram Threads hits 100 million users, becoming easily the fastest growing app ever Twitter traffic ‘tanking’ after record-breaking Threads launch

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO Brazilian economists have reduced their long-term inflation expectations, putting an end to months of unchanged projections

Ryan Poles once again demonstrated he has no earthly idea how make a trade in the NFL. What the Chicago Bears gave up for Washington Commanders edge rusher Montez Sweat was absolutely lunacy.