With a trio of indictments looming overhead, Donald Trump took time to assure his voters that he was focused on what really matters heading into 2024 — his shower's water pressure. During the keynote speech of a GOP dinner in South Carolina on Saturday, Mr Trump told the crowd that modern water pressures just weren't getting the job done. Though Mr Trump has proven in past speeches that he does not need segues — preferring instead to crash from topic to topic without regard for logic or causality — he did lead into his shower rant, sort of, by complaining about regulations. “You know I have this gorgeous head of hair – when I take a shower, I want water to pour down on me. When you go into these new homes with showers, the water drips down slowly, slowly,” Mr Trump told the diners. It is unclear where Mr Trump — whose two main domiciles are a luxury golf resort in Florida and a gilded skyscraper in Manhattan, both of which he owns — is experiencing these shower troubles. “You have suds, beautiful nice wonderful suds, a lot of money, Procter & Gamble, all that crap that they sell they say is good, probably costs ’em about two cents and they sell it for $10," Mr Trump said. "It takes you 10 minutes to wash your hair. You know what you do? You just stay in the shower about 10 times longer than you would have, it’s the same, you probably use more water. I broke all that up.” It's not the first time Mr Trump has complained about his bathroom activities being disrupted by water conservation efforts. In 2019 he made the telling-on-himself admission that Americans had to flush their toilets "10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once," blaming water regulating standards for his apparent need to flush a dozen times per use. “You turn on the faucet and you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out. Just dripping out, very quietly dripping out,” he said at the time. “People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.” The water issue was one of the few things Mr Trump did while in office that aligned with his early campaign promises; he directed the Department of Energy to ease up water conservation standards for showerheads. The former president may have changed the rules, but it didn't really change the way products were manufactured. Nearly all commercially available showerheads during his presidency adhered to the previous standards. Joe Biden reversed the measure following Mr Trump's presidency. Perhaps the most baffling element of Mr Trump's water gripes is his insistence that easing up regulations would actually save water. “[Americans] end up using more water. So [the] EPA is looking at that very strongly at my suggestion,” Mr Trump said in 2019. And later in 2019: “You go into a new building or a new house or a new home and they have standards only you don’t get water. You can’t wash your hands practically, there’s so little water comes out of the faucet. And the end result is you leave the faucet on and it takes you much longer to wash your hands,” Mr Trump said. He then told his supporters that his administration would be "looking at" the concept of "rain" and "opening that up." It is unclear what he was talking about, but here is what he said. “There may be some areas where we’ll go the other route – desert areas – but for the most part you have many states where they have so much water – it comes down, it’s called rain. They don’t know what to do with it,” he said, laughing at what presumably was a joke. “So we’re going to be looking at opening up that I believe. And we’re looking at changing the standards very soon.” Read More Trump attacks ‘delusional’ Pence over key role in election indictment: ‘Gone to the dark side’ Trump demands Judge Tanya Chutkan be removed from election case after ruling against him DoJ requests protective order after Trump threatens revenge in Truth Social post Trump attacks ‘delusional’ Pence over key role in election indictment Trump demands Judge Tanya Chutkan be removed from election case Vivek Ramaswamy's Hindu faith is front and center in his GOP presidential campaign

Ron DeSantis drew only a few dozen people to a $1 beer campaign event in New Hampshire, according to local reports. The event, held Saturday in Concord, initially drew approximately two dozen people, according to NBC News. The original price for the event — which allows voters to drink a beer with Mr DeSantis — was set at $50, but was later slashed to $1 in order to bolster turnout. The event reportedly started a half-hour late, and only 30 people were in attendance. Discussing the event on MSNBC, reporter Jonathan Allen quipped that "maybe [Mr DeSantis's campaign] should have offered something harder ... maybe half a bottle of liquor or something." He also noted that Mr DeSantis later attended a house party, which only drew about 35 attendees. Allen said that the governor's last few campaign trips have failed to draw many supporters and has resulted in numerous viral clips of the candidate looking awkward while engaging with voters. "So, he spent four days in New Hampshire, he had a couple of good events with slightly larger crowds, but maybe he met 2- or 300 people over the course of four days, which is wasted campaign time at this point in a presidential primary," Allen said. "It also says this comes on the back end of a two-day bus tour of Iowa, where we saw images and recordings of DeSantis struggling to talk with voters, to connect with them, asking a child at one point about the sugar content of his Icee." In the "Icee" incident, Mr DeSantis notes that a child is holding a frozen drink from a local store, and seems to suggest its not a healthy choice. "Oh what is that? An Icee?" he asks. "That's probably a lot of sugar, huh?" Later the same night, an 82-year-old farmer told the governor that he can't work the same acreage he used to since his wife died from cancer, and asked about his thoughts on ethanol as a renewable fuel for cars. Instead of taking the chance to offer the farmer sympathy for his struggles, Mr DeSantis launched into prepared comments about stemming "this rush to electric vehicles." Despite these incidents, Mr DeSantis's team has insisted that he is not struggling to connect with voters, painting the critical coverage as organised media hit jobs trying to undermine the governor. "The media will continue their obsession with endless clickbait stories that do nothing to inform voters, and Ron DeSantis will keep sharing his plans to declare American's economic independence and restore sanity in our country as the next president," Andrew Romeo, Mr DeSantis's campaign spokesman, said. Mr Romeo said that though "some candidates think they are entitled to the nomination, the governor will not be outworked and will fight for every vote, one day at a time." Read More DeSantis wants Kamala Harris to meet the controversial right-wing scholar behind Florida’s slavery curriculum DeSantis-controlled Disney World district abolishes diversity, equity initiatives DeSantis ducks opportunity to attack Trump’s massive campaign spending on legal fees Ron DeSantis mocked for dismal turnout at campaign event offering $1 beer Matt Gaetz calls DeSantis ‘thirsty’ for Kamala Harris invite DeSantis calls new Trump indictment ‘unfair’ - while pushing his own campaign

After clamping down on food stamps in the debt ceiling deal, House Republicans now want to take a whack at WIC, the food assistance program for low-income women, infants and young children.

The US and its allies are grappling with how to avert a global food crisis following Moscow's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal and its subsequent attacks on Ukraine's ports and storage facilities.

Keir Starmer has revealed what his last ever meal would be. In an appearance on the Table Manners podcast, hosted by Jessie and Lennie Ware, the Labour leader described what he would eat for dinner if he was to be cast out to a desert island for six months. We're not sure what it says about whether or not he is suited to be prime minister, but here's the munch. He would have a seaweed salad for starter, tandoori salmon from a restaurant in Glasgow he likes with dahl, plain naan and pilau rice, and he would finish things off with a baked lemon cheesecake. He would also have pinot grigio as his drink of choice because his wife likes it. How chivalrous. Elsewhere on the food-themed podcast, Starmer said he used to eat jam sandwiches after school and gave up meat 25 years ago "out of principle" despite loving it. His 15-year-old son brings meat into the house which tempts him but his daughter and wife are fully vegetarian. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He said the food in the House of Commons is "nothing special" and he never really gets a lunch break. "I've had lorry loads of tuna sandwiches since I've been in this job," he said. He eats them on the road travelling or while he is working and usually gets them from Pret a Manger, which will no doubt lead to accusations he is a champagne socialist from those a bit too far on the left. He hates bananas and can't even smell them and isn't a fan of avocados either. Despite the lemon cheesecake, he doesn't really have a sweet tooth and only eats dessert "rarely". Starmer also spoke about how important family life is to him. He spends every Friday night with his family so he can see his children. He also said he "loves cooking" and uses it to unwind on a Saturday. He likes making tandoori quorn and "elaborate" pasta bakes but his teenage children can be fussy. As for politics, because that is probably just about more important for him to speak about than food (but only just), he joined the Labour Party at 16 because of a "burning sense" that there needed to be change which came from growing up with little money. "It just made absolute sense to me," he said. He said polarization in politics was "corrosive" and spoke out against tribal politicians who do not mix with the opposition. He wants the next general election to come as soon as possible because "people are really suffering now" with bills and mortgages thanks to the current Tory government and said he was driven by the desire to help the country, rather than get the Labour party into power. "For the country's sake we need it [the general election] soon," he said. We'll back him on that, even if he has weird opinions about avocados. 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.

The House on Thursday passed a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill to renew funding for the agency for the next five years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have declared open season on Ukraine's consequential grain exports, targeting the port city of Odesa with new ferocity and jeopardizing worldwide food prices.

Xochitl Torres Small was sworn in as deputy agriculture secretary of the US Department of Agriculture on Monday, making history as the first Latina in the No. 2 position.

Nearly 5 million children in eight states could lose out on some extra funds for food unless their state officials sign up for a federal relief program by Friday.

Americans should reconsider travel to China due to the risk of wrongful detention, the US State Department warned in an updated travel advisory issued Friday.

Fox News' Maria Bartiromo served up a new conspiracy theory to the network's viewers, suggesting the US was "drumming up" news of internal strife in Russia to distract from Hunter Biden news. During Fox & Friends on Sunday, Bartiromo complained about a "double standard" she sees when it comes to Hunter Biden, and insisted that the biggest story of the weekend was not the dramatic break between the Wagner Group mercenaries and their Russian benefactors, but rather the president's son. “I know that the State Department and the White House would like everybody to move the Hunter Biden story off of the front page and start talking about all the drama in Russia over the weekend,” Bartiromo said. “We’re not going to do that on Sunday Morning Futures. The biggest story of the week was that WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden, and he is basically doing a shakedown that you would expect in a Francis Ford Coppola Godfather movie.” The "story of the week" Ms Bartiromo was referring to was a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden dropped his father's name to pressure a Chinese business associate to pay him. The message was reported after Hunter Biden accepted a plea deal from federal prosecutors over a misdemeanour tax charge and a felony gun charges. Bartiromo suggested the news out of Russia that the notorious Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation the carries out military operations for Russia, was revolting against its benefactors was a distraction handed to the media from Joe Biden. “The White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the MO. This is exactly the way they do things,” she said. She claims she predicted that the White House would try to cover up the WhatsApp message with a different story. "On Friday I said ‘Wow, what a blockbuster WhatsApp message. I’m sure there will be an enormous story over the weekend that the White House is gonna be pushing to take this story off the front page.’ And sure enough, we’ve got the State Department drumming up the drama that took place over the weekend in Russia," she said. "So I don’t know if it’s going to break through. The mainstream media has an excuse again not to cover it. They’re covering everything about Russia and the Wagner Group as if it really matters to the US right now." But even Bartiromo's network was covering the dramatic in-fighting in Russia, albeit with its own tinge of conspiracy theory. The day before, a Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed that the US might be pulling the strings behind the Wagner Group's short-lived uprising. Despite her insistence that the Wagner Group's actions would be of little import to Americans, she led her Sunday Morning Futures show with an interview featuring Congressman Michael McCaul about the mercenary outfit. Read More Fox News choose Jesse Watters to replace Tucker Carlson in primetime shakeup Trump hits out at Fox News’s Bret Baier after incriminating interview: ‘It was nasty, unfriendly, no smiling’ Trump fumes about ‘illegally leaked’ CNN tape of him boasting about classified documents The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a lower court opinion that invalidated a code of conduct at a North Carolina publicly funded charter school that required girls to wear skirts in order to "preserve chivalry" based on the belief that every girl is a "fragile vessel."