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MAGA firebrand Lauren Boebert emerged as one of the fiercest critics to the debt ceiling deal brokered by House leader Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden to avoid a catastrophic default. But when it was time for the House of Representatives to cast their votes on Wednesday night, she failed to show up. Ms Boebert was mocked on social media after she reportedly “narrowly missed the vote, running up the steps right as they gaveled”, according to Axios Capitol Hill reporter Juliegrace Brufke. Spencer Soicher, a reporter from Ms Boebert’s home state of Colorado, pointed out that she had made 23 Twitter posts in the past week voicing her displeasure with the compromise deal. Democrat Adam Frisch, who in 2022 lost his bid to unseat Ms Boebert in Colorado’s third district by just 546 votes, wrote on Twitter: “How can you represent #CO03 when you don’t even show up? What was more important than voting?” Jon Cooper, who chairs The Democratic Coalition, tweeted: “Lauren Boebert was a vocal opponent of the bipartisan debt ceiling bill — but she ended up MISSING tonight's vote entirely. Is anyone surprised?” Ms Boebert had earlier vowed to vote against the debt ceiling deal, saying on Tuesday that the bill was a “bunch of fake news and fake talking points” that did nothing to rein in federal spending. “If every Republican voted the way that they campaigned, they would vote against tomorrow's bad deal.” The House voted overwhelmingly by 314 to 117 to raise the debt limit, after Republicans were given concessions to cut IRS funding and increase work requirements on social spending programmes. A total of 71 Republicans voted against the deal, along with 46 Democrats, avoiding an apocalyptic scenario where the US would default on its debts. The bill now heads to the Senate, where a vote is expected to be held by Friday. Read More Debt ceiling news - live: Senate races to pass Biden-McCarthy deal as Boebert mocked for missing House vote What’s next for Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal as Senate races to beat default deadline? White House rejects Lauren Boebert’s claim that antisemitism plan will be used ‘go after conservatives’ Boebert didn’t turn up to vote on debt ceiling deal she furiously campaigned against Lauren Boebert claims Biden plan to combat antisemitism will target ‘conservatives’ Lauren Boebert intervened in son’s alleged 911 abuse call, report says

National Donut Day is celebrated today, the first Friday in June. Learn the history behind why we celebrate Donut Day (not to be confused with Doughnut Day).

By John Kruzel WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered the latest in a series of rulings undercutting

Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke asset manager turned Republican presidential hopeful, has a plan for ending Russia's year-and-a-half war on Ukraine – sort of. The 38-year-old political newcomer will unveil what he describes as a plan to bring the brutal conflict to a close by halting American support for Kyiv and "negotiating a peace treaty with Russia that achieves a vital US security objective: ceasing Russia's growing military alliance with China". In remarks to be delivered on Friday in New Hampshire to the Belknap County GOP Lincoln Day, Mr Ramaswamy will say his plan is the mirror-image approach of the late US president Richard Nixon's effort to break up the Soviet Union's alliance with the People's Republic of China, citing what he describes as Russian President Vladimir Putin's status as "the new Mao". The Independent obtained a copy of his speech ahead of Friday's event. It cites a two-decade-old treaty between Russia and the PRC, as well as the "no limits" partnership unveiled by Mr Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as evidence that a Sino-Russian alliance "presents the greatest military risk the US has ever faced" and accuses President Joe Biden of "pushing Russia into a closer military alliance with China which increases the risk of nuclear war" through his quarterbacking of US and Western support for Ukraine's defence. While Mr Ramaswamy's prepared remarks call his solution to the conflict a "peace treaty," what he lays out does not appear to meet the definition of the term. Peace treaties, by and large, represent final settlements to armed conflicts. Famous examples include the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, and the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco that formally brought an end to the Second World War. What he instead proposes is an analogue to United Nations-enforced armistice that has been in force on the Korean Peninsula since 1953. Under the terms of his plan, Kyiv would legitimise Russia's occupation of Ukraine's Donbas region by ceding it to Russia. The US and the West would end all sanctions on Russia, cease defence assistance to Ukraine, and Nato would prohibit Ukraine from ever becoming a member of the 31-nation defensive pact. The alliance would also roll back troop deployments that have taken place on its eastern frontier since 2016 – including closing all bases on Nato territory in Eastern Europe. In return, he proposes that Russia would exit its 2001 treaty with China, end the "no limits" partnership while ceasing any military cooperation with Beijing, rejoin the New START arms control treaty, withdraw any forces deployed in Latin America and remove "all nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities" from Belarus, any Ukrainian territory it has annexed, as well as the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, which is Russia's only ice-free port for its Baltic Fleet. His prepared remarks do not offer any evidence that Russia would be willing to cease cooperation with China or give up its military presence in Kaliningrad, which has housed a major naval base since the Soviet era. Nor does he provide any evidence to support his claim that Moscow would be willing to cut off decades of warm relations with Beijing in return for an end to Western sanctions, particularly since the Sino-Russian relationship has existed since the dawn of the 21st century. Despite multiple credible reports from US officials and other Western governments which say Kyiv's defence forces have dealt a major blow to Russia's conventional warfare capability, he plans to say that he believes Ukraine "will not defeat Russia militarily" without "extraordinary intervention" on the part of the United States, which he claims would lessen America's ability to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. "Under my peace plan, Ukraine will still emerge with its sovereignty intact and Russia permanently diminished as a foe. Ukraine's best path to preserving its own security is to accept a US-negotiated agreement backstopped by Russian commitments to the US," he will say. The rollout of his plan for the Ukraine conflict represents the political neophyte's first foray into foreign policy waters since he launched his presidential campaign earlier this year. His opposition to continuing US defence assistance to Kyiv is in line with much of the pro-Trump wing of the GOP, which tends to view Russia far more favourably than the general US population. In a press release, the Democratic National Committee condemned the plan as "siding against our ally as Vladimir Putin wages an unjust and violent war in Ukraine" and derided Mr Ramaswamy as a "MAGA Republican presidential hopeful". "Vivek Ramaswamy is promising to end America's support of Ukraine – posing a threat to our allies on the ground and democracy itself," the DNC said. The DNC also pointed out that Mr Ramaswamy's position syncs up with much of the GOP presidential field, including the two highest-polling candidates: Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Mr Trump, who has long professed an affinity for Mr Putin and has described him in positive terms despite his having ordered an unprovoked invasion of another country, praised the war crime-laden invasion as "savvy" and "genius" just days after Russian tanks crossed over the Ukrainian border. Mr DeSantis, who is a distant runner-up to Mr Trump in most polls of the GOP primary electorate, downplayed war – the largest land-based conflict on the European continent since 1945 – as a "territorial dispute" and a flight over "borderlands". But James Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral who served as Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 2009 to 2013, was far more generous in his reaction to the plan. Mr Stavridis told The Independent in an email that he is "all for creative ideas in international diplomacy" and said he "would love to be able to say that there is a chance of this type of settlement occurring". But he added that he could not say there would be such a chance. For one, the former Nato commander said Mr Putin is "so deeply invested in the relationship with China" that there is "zero chance" he'd abandon his partnership with Mr Xi. He added that in his estimation, Russia would "never" agree to give up Kaliningrad as a base for nuclear-capable forces, and said there is also no chance that Kyiv would agree to cede approximately 20 per cent of its territory to Moscow. "Nor do I think that the west would be willing to completely walk away from Ukraine and deny providing them appropriate security guarantees, or even membership in NATO. The red lines for both sides are significant," he said. But Mr Stavridis did say he believes a "Korean-style armistice" is the most likely outcome of the 14-month-old conflict, with the caveat that "it's too soon to know where those boundary lines might be or where the trade-offs could occur". "Our job in the west is obvious, which is to give the Ukrainians everything they need in terms of material and training, so they can be at the best position when the negotiations ultimately begin," he said, adding later that "one thing [he knows] for sure" is that the Ukraine war presents "deeply complex issues with enormous, competing equities on all sides," with the chances of a simple settlement "within 24 hours" as Mr Trump suggested at a recent CNN town hall "approach[ing] negative infinity". While the ex-Navy admiral was measured in his evaluation of Mr Ramaswamy’s plan, a prominent GOP foreign policy veteran was far less generous when asked to opine on his proposal. Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime member of the upper’s chamber’s foreign relations committee, told The Independent on Thursday that the anti-woke businessman’s plan amounted to “rewarding aggression” and called him “somebody who really doesn’t understand how the world works”. He added that rewarding Mr Putin for his aggression would result in China feeling empowered to take Taiwan. “You know, I’m glad people don’t think that way when it came to our freedom,” he said. “Go study history and give me an example where aggression was rewarded where you got less of it”. Senior Washington Correspondent Eric Garcia contributed reporting from Capitol Hill Read More Trump's welcome of Scott into 2024 race shows his calculus: The more GOP rivals, the better for him Zelensky salutes ‘powerful support’ from allies at Moldova summit – as he increases pressure over jets A six-year-old Ukrainian girl saved by adoption or a murderous adult imposter: Who really is Natalia Grace? The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

By Maha El Dahan, Alex Lawler and Ahmad Ghaddar VIENNA OPEC and its allies are unlikely to decide

DUBLIN Ireland's domestic economy returned to growth in the first three months of the year after a shallow

Stone, who suffered the medical emergency in 2001, took seven years to recover fully and, by then, movie roles for her had dried up

The settlement 'is fair, appropriate, and in the best interests of Andros Hutchins, a minor, a protected person,' the judge ruled

Polish referee will keep his role in charge of the Champions League final after apologising for appearing at a far-right event in Poland. Marciniak spoke at a recent event organised by a Polish far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen. Uefa appointed Marciniak last month to referee the Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan in Istanbul, which takes place next Saturday, 10 June. He said in a statement: “I want to express my deepest apologies for my involvement and any distress or harm it may have caused. “Upon reflection and further investigation, it has become evident that I was gravely misled and completely unaware of the true nature and affiliations of the event in question. I had no knowledge that it was associated [with] a Polish extreme-right movement. Had I been aware of this fact, I would have categorically declined the invitation. “It is important to understand that the values promoted by this movement are entirely contrary to my personal beliefs and the principles I strive to uphold in my life. I am deeply remorseful for any perception that my participation may have contradicted them.” Mentzen, co-chairman of the Confederation party, launched the political slogan ‘We stand against Jews, gays, abortion, taxation and the European Union’. Anti-racism group Never Again had urged Uefa to drop Marciniak after claiming he had promoted and was one of the keynote speakers at an event held by Mentzen at the International Congress Centre in Katowice. But Marciniak has kept his role and Uefa said: “After conducting a thorough review, we have received a statement from Mr Marciniak expressing his deepest apologies and providing a clarification regarding his involvement in the event.” Marciniak, 42, became the first Polish referee to take charge of a World Cup final in Qatar last December when Argentina beat France on penalties. He refereed the second leg of City’s semi-final win against Real Madrid and has taken charge of seven other Champions League fixtures. Read More Erling Haaland: Winning treble with Manchester City would be my biggest dream Why Man City’s FFP case could be another Super League moment for football

Global stocks climbed Friday, led by a resurgent Hong Kong market, as investors greeted signs that the US Federal Reserve may hold off raising interest rates this month, the end of the US debt ceiling drama, and talk that China might unveil new measures to boost its faltering economic recovery.

Every now and then a story comes along which completely changes the way you think about space. For instance, did you know the universe is essentially evaporating right before our eyes? A new study has been released which focuses on the effect that radiation emitted from objects in the solar system can have a massive impact on quantum fields surrounding them. It follows on from Stephen Hawking’s theory that black holes lose mass and evaporate over time as an unusual form of radiation takes effect. Now, astrophysicists Michael Wondrak, Walter van Suijlekom, and Heino Falcke of Radboud University in the Netherlands have stated that this unusual form of radiation is apparent in other objects as well as black holes. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter In fact, they believe that “Hawking radiation” could be found in objects apparent everywhere in the universe – and it could mean that the universe is slowly evaporating before our very eyes. "We demonstrate that," Wondrak says in the study published in Physical Review Letters. "In addition to the well-known Hawking radiation, there is also a new form of radiation." "We show that far beyond a black hole the curvature of space-time plays a big role in creating radiation," van Suijlekom explains. "The particles are already separated there by the tidal forces of the gravitational field." Essentially, huge objects in the solar system can cause space-time to bend around them. When that happens, it causes enough change in quantum fields to generate particles which have similar properties to Hawking radiation. Falcke said: "That means that objects without an event horizon, such as the remnants of dead stars and other large objects in the universe, also have this sort of radiation. "And, after a very long period, that would lead to everything in the universe eventually evaporating, just like black holes. This changes not only our understanding of Hawking radiation but also our view of the universe and its future." 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.

Two civilians were killed on Friday in shelling on Russia's Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, while Kyiv was hit by Russian strikes overnight for...