Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he "had nothing to do with" a poem recently being moved from an elementary school library to a middle school library.

By Joseph White DETROIT The venture capital arm of automaker Stellantis said on Thursday it will invest about

Josh Bell’s two-run double keyed a four-run, eighth-inning rally and the Miami Marlins moved closer to a playoff berth with a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates

The US is “deeply concerned” about the sentencing of former Obama Foundation Scholar Hoang Thi Minh Hong to

The Jacksonville Jaguars may have gotten too comfortable or too confident

First, Chris Billam-Smith was raised aloft. As Shane McGuigan hauled his fighter’s hulking frame into the air, for the adoring mass of fans to see, the cruiserweight’s face vanished behind his gloves. Somewhere under the battered leather, his left eye – swollen half-shut – closed completely. So did the right, trying to trap the tears. Inevitably, the dam broke. The stream washed away his sweat, while his bawls were drowned out by the flood of noise around him. Then, the cruiserweight sank to his knees, all 6ft of him reduced to the stature of a boy who once dreamt of this very moment. Or rather, this meshing of moments. To a young Billam-Smith, fighting in front of a sold-out crowd at the home of his beloved AFC Bournemouth would have represented a dream fulfilled; so would winning a world title. Doing both on the same night? If that plays like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster, then it is the kind of moment that one would deride for stretching our suspension of disbelief a fibre too far. Boxing is not Hollywood. Boxing does not provide fairytale endings. Boxing is unforgiving, and cruel. But if any boxer has earnt a mote of kindness from this sport, it is Billam-Smith. It was granted in the form of his decision win over former teammate Lawrence Okolie last month, but it should not be taken for granted. Nor could it have been when “112-112” was the first scorecard to boom over the PA at Dean Court. “I remember listening and thinking... like frowning,” Billam-Smith, 32, tells The Independent, with stitches still hovering over his left eye. “I wasn’t really listening to the [other] scores, but I just knew it was obviously a majority decision. If I had listened, I think I would have known [I’d won] because obviously one of them was a 107, and that couldn’t have been me because I had no points deducted and wasn’t knocked down or anything. Obviously I was just waiting for them to say ‘and new’. He said it, and a wave of emotion came over me. I was just thinking, ‘I’ve done it.’ I just couldn't believe it. It was such... it’s been such a long journey.” As Billam-Smith knelt in the ring, his face soaked in tears, his mother came to his mind. Dedicating his victory to her, Billam-Smith revealed in the ring that she is battling cancer. “Obviously at the moment, with my mum being unwell and stuff,” he tells The Independent, “for it to be all worth it and worth all the hard graft put in over the years, the years of not earning any money as an amateur and even early on as a pro – not earning a huge amount of money and scraping by at times... To finally to do it and achieve my ultimate dream of winning a world title at the stadium, it was just... You can’t really put it into words to be honest with you. “I had so many reasons to win; I had 15,000 people there that I couldn’t let down, my mum, my wife, my son. I was never going in there without giving it 100 per cent, because of all those reasons. And obviously for myself as well, with the growth through the years. Yeah, my mum obviously was a huge part of that as well.” So was Billam-Smith’s son, Frank, as he says. “Having to miss my son’s first birthday the day before the fight, that’s a completely different emotion. It’s weird; he has no idea what’s going on, doesn’t know that I missed his birthday – thankfully – to stand half-naked in front of loads of people at Bournemouth pier. You know, it’d be amazing for him to grow up and hopefully be proud of his dad.” These various factors, and the emotional weight loaded into each of them, had to be put aside for the sake of performance; so did the sense of occasion around fighting at Dean Court. “On the Friday, I went and sat in my old season-ticket seat and just looked at the set-up,” says Billam-Smith. “I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ The ring-walk rehearsal was very important for me to visualise how everything was going to be, so it wasn’t overwhelming and I wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, this is actually happening.’ [During the actual ring walk], there’s a point where I sort of look around and just nod to myself. Like, I’m still very much in the zone and focused and staying calm, but I thought: ‘This is awesome.’ “[In the fight], I very much had blinkers on. All the visualisation helped. I was very calm in the ring and the whole time in the build-up, just thinking about those 12 rounds and how I was going to react – making sure I reacted logically to every situation.” Billam-Smith did just that, capping off an eclectic trilogy of fights across the last 11 months. First, there was his war with Isaac Chamberlain, which ended as a points victory in Billam-Smith’s favour, then his knockout-of-the-year candidate against Armend Xhoxhaj in December, before this often-bitty bout with Okolie. The 12 rounds against Okolie will not be what fans remember from this particular night, however. They will remember the aftermath – the stirring scenes of a dream being realised in real time. “Now it’s about creating another dream,” says Billam-Smith, looking ahead to the future. “You know, I’d love to fight in Las Vegas, but most importantly I need to secure my family’s future financially. And I’m not the finished article as a boxer. “In any sport I’ve ever played, I’ve always just wanted to give it 100 per cent and improve. That’s still the same me now.” Lorton Entertainment’s“STABLE”, a four-part documentary series covering Shane McGuigan’s work with his fighters, will be released this Autumn. Read More Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes How a unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight ‘I could kill a guy and get away with it’: Teofimo Lopez is treading a disturbing path through boxing How unique night of action could lay groundwork for future super-fight Leigh Wood and Chris Billam-Smith win world titles with victories over familiar foes Boxxer’s Ben Shalom: ‘I sacrificed my twenties, I sacrificed absolutely everything’

Fans of the famous YouTube sensation MrBeast were surprised when they spotted someone who looked remarkably like him traveling in economy class

'I don't know her and I can't imagine that she has any time to reach out to me,' Megan Hilty said referring to Meryl Streep

In the latest NBA Draft rumors, the Pistons and Mavs are talking, and both Jonathan Kuminga and Brandon Ingram could be dangled for the Warriors and Pelicans to move up.NBA Draft rumors: Pistons-Mavs trade could be in the worksAccording to ESPN's Jonathan Givony, the Pistons may explore tra...

Hutchinson's journey from being a Trump administration aide to a key whistleblower in the January 6 investigation is nothing short of extraordinary

Colleen Ballinger (also known as Miranda Sings) has denied swirling allegations against her by releasing a 10-minute video of her playing the ukulele. "A lot of people are saying some things about me that aren’t quite true. Doesn’t matter if it’s true, though, just as long as it’s entertaining to you, right?", she sings in the video titled 'Hi.' Ballinger was accused of forming inappropriate relationships with fans. "Many years ago, I used to message my fans but not in a creepy way, like a lot of you are trying to suggest. It was more of a loser kind of way, where I was just trying to be besties with everybody", she continued singing. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI), as well aggressive state-aligned groups pose a significant threat to critical infrastructure, the UK’s cyber security agency has said. In its annual review, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned ongoing geopolitical challenges and AI also posed a threat to UK elections. Published on Tuesday, the NCSC’s Annual Review said the Centre, which is part of GCHQ, had seen the emergence of a new type of cyber adversary in the last year – state-aligned actors who are ideologically, rather than financially, motivated. The NCSC highlighted China and Russia as enduring and significant threats to UK cyber security, noting that many of the new state-aligned groups it had seen appear were sympathetic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On artificial intelligence, the NCSC warned that the next general election in the UK, expected next year, will be the first to take place against the backdrop of significant advances in AI, which it said would enable and enhance existing challenges. The cyber security agency said that large language models (LLMs) – the technology apps such as ChatGPT are built on – would almost certainly be used to generate fake content as part of disinformation campaigns to disrupt the democratic process. Beyond the present challenges, we are very aware of the threats on the horizon, including rapid advancements in tech and the growing market for cyber capabilities Lindy Cameron, NCSC At the first AI Safety Summit, held in the UK earlier this month, industry figures and world leaders warned of the potential for AI to help cybercriminals carry out more sophisticated cyber attacks. “The last year has seen a significant evolution in the cyber threat to the UK – not least because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine but also from the availability and capability of emerging tech,” NCSC chief executive Lindy Cameron said. “As our annual review shows, the NCSC and our partners have supported government, the public and private sector, citizens, and organisations of all sizes across the UK to raise awareness of the cyber threats and improve our collective resilience. “Beyond the present challenges, we are very aware of the threats on the horizon, including rapid advancements in tech and the growing market for cyber capabilities. “We are committed to facing those head on and keeping the UK at the forefront of cyber security.” The annual review said work needed to be done to ensure the UK kept pace with the changing threats, particularly in relation to enhancing cyber resilience in the nation’s infrastructure. Read More Private parole hearing for one of killers of James Bulger to begin Papers react to Sunak’s reshuffle ‘gamble’ over return of Cameron Thunderstorm warning in effect as downpours continue in parts of UK Immigration minister Robert Jenrick vows to see Rwanda deportation plan through Cost-of-living payments not enough to meet scale of the problem, say MPs Applications open for owners to register XL bully dogs before ban