In a TikTok video, Dominique Vidal shared one of the voicemails Rex Heuermann left her at the end of February after she had quit the networking group

An athletics official suffered a broken leg at the Asian Games in Hangzhou after being hit by a hammer hurled during...

Terrified villagers say they are being attacked by 7ft tall armoured aliens that look like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man. Locals described the extraterrestrials as having large heads and yellowish eyes. They claim they have attacked them every night for nearly a month since 11 July. A 15-year-old girl was allegedly grabbed from behind and had her neck cut when she resisted. Community members said they can’t sleep because they are in fear. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The claims have been made by members of the Ikitu indigenous people in the rural district of Alto Nanay, north east of Lima, Peru. They said the aliens are immune to their hunting weapons and called on the Peruvian military to step in to protect them from further interstellar intrusion. Villagers also claimed that the alien prowlers wear protective armour. Community leader Jairo Reátegui Ávila said: “These gentlemen are aliens. “They appear to be armoured like the Green Goblin from Spider-Man. “I shot one of them twice and he wasn’t injured, he rose and disappeared. “We’re very frightened about what’s happening here in our community.” He added: “Their shoes are round-shaped, which they use to float. “They float about one metre from the ground and there is a red light on the heel. “Their heads are long, they wear a mask and their eyes are yellowish. “They are experts at escaping.” Villagers have started carrying out night patrols to hunt down the alien intruders. They have requested a military presence from the authorities, however it reportedly takes a 10-hour river trip to reach the community from Iquitos City. Some villagers described the aliens as being like ‘pelacaras’, strange beings that feast on human fat and organs. According to reports, the police reached the remote area on board a speeder vessel and toured the village perimeter, including the area where the teenager was allegedly attacked. It is unclear if the authorities found anything to corroborate the villagers’ claims and if the government intends to deploy military personnel to the area for a sustained period of time. According to a 2017 national census, there are around 1,350 people who identify as being a member of the Ikitu community. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said another 3,000 of his men were ready to join Russia's invasion of Ukraine amid reports of heavy losses for Vladimir Putin's troops in their push to capture an eastern city. Mr Kadyrov, a self-proclaimed "foot soldier" of the Russian president, said his fighters were ready to form new units of the Russian defence ministry and the Russian National Guard forces. His statement comes amid reports of Russian troops suffering “some of the highest” casualties of the conflict so far amid intense fighting in eastern Ukraine. The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Monday said Russia was losing an average of 931 men a day this month, largely in the fight for the town of Avdiivka. Until now the heaviest casualties suffered in a month by Russia – according to Ukrainian data – was March this year, with an average of 776 losses per day during the push to capture Bakhmut. "They (the Chechen fighters) have the best equipment and modern weapons," Mr Kadyrov claimed on Telegram. "In addition, the guys are highly combative and very motivated to achieve results," he added. Mr Kadyrov had earlier sent 26,000 fighters to the battlefield since the beginning of Russia's war in Ukraine last year. According to reports, 12,000 were volunteers at that time and 7,000 of them were actively fighting. These claims about Chechen deployments to Ukraine could not be independently verified, and Reuters reported that several Chechen armed formations have fought on the side of Kyiv against Russia since Mr Putin launched his invasion in February last year. Mr Kadyrov also claimed last year to have sent his three teenage sons to fight in Ukraine, saying he wanted them to "show themselves in a real battle". "Soon they will go to the front line and will be on the most difficult sections of the line of contact," he had said in a Telegram post in 2022. Mr Kadyrov enjoys wide leeway from Mr Putin to run Chechnya ruthlessly as his personal fiefdom, but he angered pro-Kremlin hardliners in September by praising his 15-year-old son for beating up an ethnic Russian prisoner in Chechen custody. Mr Kadyrov met the Russian president in September amid speculations over his health, with rumours swirling that he was either dead or in a coma. He later clarified that he was fine and was travelling to a hospital in Moscow to visit a "sick uncle". Earlier this month Mr Kadyrov said that a large group of Russia's former Wagner mercenaries, who had played a prominent role in some of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine before their group fell into disarray after a brief mutiny against the Russian defence establishment, had also started training with special forces from Chechnya. Mr Kadyrov, 47, has mused publicly about handing over power at some point and appears to be actively working to raise the profile of his three teenage sons, the eldest of whom was photographed with Mr Putin in the Kremlin in March.

The Los Angeles Chargers have only themselves to blame for being winless to start this NFL season

Girls miss more school or college days due to periods than any other reason – including colds, mental health or truancy, according to a new report. Periods cause girls to be absent from school or college for three days a term on average, compared with colds and flu (2.6 days), mental health (1.9 days) and truancy (1.2 days), the data released by washroom provider phs Group has revealed. This equates to 54 lost education days over the course of their teen years, the equivalent of 11 academic weeks. The findings form part of phs Group’s Period Equality: Breaking the Cycle report, now in its third year, for which Censuswide polled 1,262 girls aged 13-18 years across the UK. The majority (82%) cited cramps as the main reason for this, while almost one in five (19%) said they stay away from lessons because they’re embarrassed about being on their period, and one in 12 (8%) said it’s because no period products were available to them. This is despite the introduction of period equality measures in recent years, designed to improve access to free period products in education settings. “It’s important to recognise that huge advances have been made in giving girls access to free period products in schools across the UK. What we must do now is close the gap between providing schools with all the products they need and getting them into the hands of any girls that need them, for whatever reason,” said Kelly Greenaway, period equality lead at phs Group. “We know from our own data providing schools with products, that they have more than enough for their girls, so we need to tackle the misconceptions around free access to products in washrooms, and the stigma and shame that goes hand-in-hand with failing to have open conversations about menstruation.” Since the launch of the Government’s Period Product Scheme in January 2020, which provides free period products to education settings in England, via phs Group, 99% of secondary schools and 94% of post-16 organisations have ordered products through the scheme. However, the report published today highlights how periods remain a barrier to education for many girls – with the number of girls missing school due to their periods almost the same for the 2023 findings (54%) as the findings in 2019 (52%), before free sanitary product schemes were introduced. Despite the roll-out of such schemes, over half (52%) of the students surveyed said they did not find period products freely available in their school and college settings, while one in seven (14%) said they did not know if they were available. To help tackle the issue and raise awareness, phs Group is launching a new period equality podcast – called The Blobcast: Free The Period – hosted by menstrual wellbeing and confidence educator Kasey Robinson. Robinson said: “I know too well about the barriers facing so many of us when it comes to our menstrual health. It’s simply not enough to blame absenteeism figures on access to products alone. “On the ground, the story is clear: we aren’t being educated, supported and informed enough about periods. Menstruation is still a taboo subject, and our experience is a secret to keep to ourselves and something we feel forced to hide. In education settings, this is leading to more and more girls staying away from school. “Without workshops, learning resources and the support for and from teachers and caregivers, this issue will stay the same, or get worse,” Robinson added. “It should not be a revolutionary act to teach people about periods, it’s a right. We need to break the cycle of shame and encourage open and honest conversations about periods – exactly what The Blobcast is seeking to do.” The Blobcast: Free The Period launches on all free streaming platforms on October 18. More information can be found at www.phs.co.uk/TheBlobcast.

Isaac Paredes homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs, Tyler Glasnow got his first win in two years, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Texas Rangers 8-3 in a matchup of teams with the best records in the majors

Newcastle have completed the signing of Sandro Tonali from AC Milan.

Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes and enter an agreement

By John Kruzel WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dealt another setback to organized labor by making

By Katie Paul NEW YORK Meta's head of augmented reality software is stepping down from his role, a

The British tourist who attracted outrage in Rome after being accused of carving his name into the Colosseum walls with a key is facing up to five years in prison and a €15,000 (£12,850) fine. The man – identified as Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old fitness instructor and delivery driver resident in Bristol but originally from Bulgaria – was visiting Italy’s Eternal City with his girlfriend Hayley Bracey when he was filmed scratching “Ivan + Hayley 23” into the ancient stone walls of the 2,000-year-old amphitheatre. The venue, a protected Unesco World Heritage site, was constructed during the reigns of the emperors Vespasian and Titus in the first century AD. It attracted the Roman public to see spectacular gladiatorial bouts, historical reenactments and parades of exotic wild animals imported from Africa and the Middle East, including elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, lions, leopards, panthers and ostriches. The act of vandalism was caught on camera by another visitor, Californian Ryan Lutz, who was incensed by the incident and asked “Are you serious, man?”. He then uploaded the footage to YouTube under the title “A****** tourist carves name in Colosseum in Rome”, where it promptly went viral. The Italian Carabinieri responded to the video and quickly identified Mr Dimitrov as their suspect, with Major Roberto Martina telling the media he had expressed “sincere remorse” for his actions when confronted. “He told us he was very upset by what he had done, and he kept apologising for it,” Major Martina told Mail Online. “I think he was worried about the consequences of any trial and we explained that he could be jailed for between two and five years and be fined up to €15,000,” he said. The major went on to say he believed the case would be reasonably straightforward to prosecute because of the video evidence. “He had contacted us after we secured his mobile telephone from hotel records and left a message for him to call us,” Major Martina said of the Carabineri’s investigation. “He was naturally worried about the legal implications, and these were all explained to him. “We didn’t ask him why he did it, that will be for a judge to hear, we just told him that he was a suspect and was part of the investigation.” The officer added that Ms Bracey “is not part of any complaint so is an innocent party as far as we are concerned”, adding: “Although technically, she could be seen as an accessory.” Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano thanked the police for identifying the suspect of the “uncivilised and absurd act committed at the Colosseum”. “It was an act that offended those around the world who appreciate the value of archaeology, monuments and history,” he said. “Now I hope justice will take its course by rigorously applying the laws.” This is not the first such incident at the Colosseum. A Russian tourist was given a suspended four-year jail sentence and fined €20,000 (£17,000) in 2014 for engraving a “K” on its walls. The following year, two American tourists were also cited for aggravated damage after they likewise carved their names into its stones. Read More British tourist who carved name into Colosseum begs for forgiveness Tourist accused of vandalising Colosseum in Rome could face trial and up to five years in prison Tourist who carved name into Rome’s Colosseum ‘is British fitness trainer’ What happened to the tourist accused of carving his name into Rome’s Colosseum? Tourist who carved name into Colosseum begs for forgiveness Tourist who carved name into Rome’s Colosseum ‘is British fitness trainer’