The White House is now "girding for a shutdown" and senior West Wing officials are drawing up plans for which personnel would be deemed "essential" starting on October 1 as the deadline to fund the government is only a handful of days away.

Your time to pre-register with DraftKings and FanDuel in Kentucky is running out. Read more to learn how you can set yourself up with bonus bets on launch day.

Ukraine says its air defences shot down 34 kamikaze drones this morning and overnight as Russia launched a major new wave of air strikes across the country. Russia’s attacks involved at least 44 Iranian-made Shahed drones in total, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. “Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units and mobile fire groups were engaged to repel the attack,” Ukraine’s military said on Telegram. A large number of the drones were fired on southern Ukrainian cities from the Black Sea, the air force said. It comes as Kyiv said hundreds of fighters from the Wagner mercenary group have returned to Ukraine to fight in Russia’s continuing invasion for the first time since the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in August. The Ukrainian military said it had seen “no significant impact” on frontline dynamics from Wagner’s return to the battlefield, however. Earlier, there were reports that a fresh offensive by Russia’s forces in the coming weeks is “unlikely”, according to British intelligence. Britain’s Ministry of Defence reported that patterns in Russian deployments suggest that Vladimir Putin’s troops are “overstretched” across the frontlines in Ukraine. Read More Viktor Sokolov seen for second time in newly emerged video as he claims Russia’s Black Sea Fleet ‘performing successfully’ New video of ‘dead’ Russian Black Sea fleet commander raises doubts over Ukraine’s claim Hillary Clinton mocks Putin over Nato expansion: ‘Too bad, Vladimir. You brought it on yourself’ Ukrainian forces ‘enjoy success’ near Bakhmut as Putin deploys reserves

Samuel L Jackson wasted no time making his feelings known when he was snubbed of a Tony Award at last night's ceremony (11 June), when he sat in the audience looking super dead-pan. The 74-year-old was up against the likes of Brandon Uranowitz, Jordan E Cooper, Arian Moayed and David Zayas for best performance by a featured actor, but was pipped to the post by Uranowitz. Understandably, Jackson looked a bit miffed that he didn't secure his first ever Tony, but it's unfortunately made him the subject of a lot of memes. There's always next year. Click here to sign up for our newsletters

The hot stove is definitely on and the Atlanta Braves are the center of attention once again. Could a big move be looming?

A combustion engine has about 2,000 moving parts. An electric motor, by comparison, has about 20. However, the

Argentina has promoted prop Eduardo Bello, lock Guido Petti and center Matias Moroni from the reserves to face Samoa in their key Rugby World Cup match on Friday

Johnny Depp set up The Viper Room to be a safe space for young celebrities to be themselves but River Phoenix's death changed everything

BYD Co. has widened its lead over Volkswagen AG as China’s top-selling automaker as local buyers continue to

Sasha Pieterse said, 'No matter how well I behaved, no matter how great I treated my body, things were actually getting worse rather than better'

Climbers scaled a tower in Barcelona on Tuesday morning (17 October), dramatic footage shows. Footage showed two men, one dressed in dark clothing and another in a white top, climbing up the 38-storey Torre Glories, formerly known as the Torre Agbar, near Placa de les Glories Catalanes. According to local reports, neither of the climbers were wearing protection and did not use climbing equipment. Catalan television channel Beteve reported that the climbers were arrested by officers from Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonian police).

The Spanish government is considering buying a stake in Telefonica SA following Saudi Telecom Co.’s plan to become