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

Courteney Cox has a daughter named Coco with her ex-husband David Arquette, to whom she was married from 1999 to the year of 2013

According to reports, Shakira and Lewis Hamilton were seen getting cozy at various events, and they allegedly had secret meetings at her Ibiza villa

The ManningCast will not have a third host. It did provide a Tom Brady joke.

Midge Ure was starstruck meeting David Bowie and performing with Eric Clapton.

Tristan Tate took to social media to announce that a former member of his protection team was killed in a car crash

Talks between Hollywood actors and studios over an ongoing strike were suspended Wednesday, both parties said, in a blow to hopes for a swift end to a crisis...

Kevin Bacon "rejected" the fame that he got from starring in 'Footloose' as he had his heart set on becoming a "serious actor".

Tristan Tate states their are many streaming businesses in Romania

'Secret Invasion' Episode 3 sees Nick Fury and Talos bicker like a married couple as they try to thwart the start of World War III

A rap song "by Donald Trump" is making waves across social media following his arrest in Georgia last Thursday (24 August). The former president was arrested on 13 counts but adamantly denies any wrongdoing. Now, a song titled 'First Day Out' by 'Trump The Don' has racked up millions of views in a matter of days. The lyrics rap: "These DA's acting silly, my mugshot is worth a billi, sold some merch and made a milli" and "Call me racist? But these rappers riding with me, they my soldiers, MAGA, MAGA, MAGA." The track has reached almost three million views, with many being fans of the beat. One wrote: "I respect the flow! What’s a link to your real music?" Another added, "Bro this goes hard," while a third tweeted: "That’s a pretty catchy tune." "I stay out of politics but I’m not gone lie! Trump got bars," another penned. Unsurprisingly, the song is not from Trump himself. It was created by Hi-Rez The Rapper, who said he made the AI song "an absolute joke in 30 minutes." "A song I made as an absolute joke in 30 minutes now has millions of views, streams, and thousands of sales," he wrote. "We're bringing people together through comedy, music, culture, & politics. They want us divided and living in fear! We're taking back Hollywood, entertainment & the culture." In a follow up tweet, he wrote: "Btw, I will be releasing my real music in coming weeks hahaha I am just having too much fun with this sh**. Don't care who unfollows or hates it tbh I am having a blast lol!" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

Matty Healy sent a sweet message to Lewis Capaldi at his concert at the weekend.