US

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an “agreement in principle” on raising the US debt ceiling, according to sources in Washington. The tentative deal would bring to an end the months-long stalemate between the Republican controlled Congress and Democrat run White House. Currently, the debt ceiling stands at $31.4 trillion (£25.4

A Dallas school district has apologised after distributing a Winnie The Pooh-themed book about school shootings. The book is titled Stay Safe: Run, Hide, Fight and its cover says: “If there is danger, let Winnie the Pooh and his crew show you what to do.” Inside, it includes passages such as: “If danger is near,

A 22-year-old woman has had her leg bitten off by a shark while snorkelling in the Caribbean. The woman, who is from Connecticut in the US but has not been named, was taken to hospital in a serious condition on the Turks and Caicos Islands, police said. She and her friend were snorkelling outside the

A member of the Oath Keepers extremist group was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for participating in the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Jessica Watkins was convicted in November by a federal jury in Washington DC of obstruction of an official proceeding after storming the Capitol, which

An 11-year-old boy who was shot by a police officer has returned home from hospital after almost a week of treatment. Aderrien Murry spent five days in hospital with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver, and fractured ribs after the officer shot him in the chest early on Saturday, lawyer Carlos Moore said. Aderrien was well

Brian Laundrie’s mother offered him “a shovel and garbage bags” if he needed to dispose of a body, according to a “burn after reading” letter, court documents show. The parents of Laundrie’s fiancee Gabby Petito have been given the letter after a Florida judge denied a request from his parents to withhold it. The Petitos

“Look what I have done in this lifetime, with this body,” said Tina Turner, in a documentary released about her life in 2021. “I’m a girl from a cotton field, that pulled myself above what was not taught to me.” Tina Turner‘s life was a story of trauma and triumph – she was the star

Ron DeSantis has entered the race to be the next US president, going head to head with Donald Trump. He filed a declaration of candidacy with the US federal electoral commission on Wednesday. The 44-year-old becomes the latest in a crowded Republican contest to decide whether the party will move on from Mr Trump in

Breakfast in a Floridian diner is never for the faint-hearted. There’s the biscuits and gravy, the grits, the oversized breakfast tacos, the waffles, the pancakes, the corned beef hash and, of course, the all-American drip coffee. If you survive all that, and if you nudge the locals a little, then the passionate yet divisive politics

A school in Florida has banned the poem read at Joe Biden’s inauguration after a single complaint. The unnamed parent said Amanda Gorman’s poem The Hill We Climb was “not educational” and contained “indirectly (sic) hate messages”, adding that it could “cause confusion and indoctrinate students”. Gorman, 25, said on Instagram that she was “gutted”

A “kind and amazing” father-of-two has been struck and killed by a car after he got out of his own vehicle to help a family of ducks cross a busy intersection in California. Casey Rivara, 41, was driving his children home after their swimming practice when they noticed a duck and her ducklings struggling to

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez are engaged, according to reports. Ms Sanchez, a 53-year-old former broadcaster, was pictured with billionaire Bezos on his $500m superyacht off the coast of Cannes on Monday. Last week the couple were spotted sailing around the Spanish island of Mallorca. It was reported that Bezos had

A man accused of stabbing to death four university students in their beds in Idaho last year has refused to enter a plea after appearing in court. Criminology student Bryan Kohberger, 28, appeared at Latah County courtroom on Monday. District Judge John Judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Last week, a grand jury

SpaceX’s second private flight has launched passengers, including Saudi Arabia’s first female astronaut, to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Falcon rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre on Sunday night. The crew will be led by a retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company, which arranged the 10-day trip. It is the

A woman has been arrested four years after a newborn baby was found abandoned in a plastic bag. Karima Jiwani, 40, faces a number of charges in the US state of Georgia, including criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated assault, reckless abandonment and cruelty to children in the first degree, according to the Forsyth County

US basketball star Brittney Griner has returned to the court for her first professional league game since her Russian prison ordeal. The 32-year-old had not played alongside her Phoenix Mercury team mates in a match since 2021. The two-time Olympic gold medallist was released from a Russian jail in a high-profile prisoner exchange with the

The US airman accused of leaking classified files will remain in jail until his trial, a judge has ruled. Jack Teixeira is accused of leaking scores of documents, including sensitive information on America’s allies and operations abroad, on to the social media site Discord. The 21-year-old has been held behind bars since his arrest on

The US and its allies plan to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, a White House official has said. The move comes after US President Joe Biden previously refused requests from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the aircraft. The timing for when Ukraine will receive the jets – and which countries will provide them –

The moment a US police officer points a gun at a suspect while kneeling on the bonnet of his moving car – before clinging to the roof of the vehicle as the motorist drives away at speed – has been revealed in a newly released video. An officer had been seen approaching the car before

Harry and Meghan have demanded an agency hand over photos and videos taken by paparazzi during a “chase” in New York earlier this week – but it has refused. Lawyers representing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have sent a letter to the Backgrid agency – but in response, the company reportedly told Harry that

Montana has become the first state in the US to ban Chinese-owned popular video-sharing platform TikTok from personal devices. The state’s Republican governor Greg Gianforte signed legislation prohibiting mobile application stores from offering the app. The legislation makes it illegal for app stores to offer TikTok, but does not prevent those who already have the

The court of public opinion on Harry and Meghan is unmoved. The book, the Netflix series and the numerous TV interviews have cemented people’s views.  There are those who have sympathy for a “hounded” couple. And those who think they are a pair of hypocrites – craving the quiet life but complaining when they put

A high school student has been suspended for three days after she recorded her teacher using a racial slur in class. The Missouri student decided to record the incident on her phone on 9 May during her geometry class at Glendale High School in Springfield, US. According to NBC News, the teacher allegedly used the

A girl whose disappearance was featured on Netflix’s “Unsolved Mysteries” was found alive in North Carolina last week, six years after she was allegedly abducted by her mother. Kayla Unbehaun, who was born in Illinois, was nine years old when she went missing in 2017 while in the care of her mother, Heather Unbehaun. In

Legendary US disco group the Village People have sent Donald Trump a legal letter after a video emerged of him dancing to one of their hit songs. The footage shows the former president enjoying a live tribute performance of Macho Man while at a poolside dinner party at Mar-a-Lago. The 76-year-old, who wants to return

A man with a metal baseball bat has attacked two employees at a politician’s office in the US. Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly said the man walked into his northern Virginia office on Monday morning, asked for him, and then struck two female workers with the bat. One of the victims, an intern on her first

The ‘Godfather of poker’, Doyle Brunson has died at the age of 89. The legendary figure of the game died on Sunday in Las Vegas, his family announced, via his agent on Twitter. Their statement said: “It is with a heavy heart we announce the passing of our father, Doyle Brunson. “He was a beloved

A city named Kyle is calling on namesakes from around the world to help it break a record… for the largest gathering of Kyles. The Texas city is hoping to bring together thousands of people with the first name Kyle in order to clinch the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with

They couldn’t build the wall over a mountain. It’s why the US-Mexico border wall ends at the foot of Mount Cristo Rey and is reduced to a block of concrete a foot high. It’s the “add-on” to fill the gap between wall and mountain, like something you’d use to zone off an industrial estate car

In a few short weeks, Elon Musk will hand over the helm of Twitter to Linda Yaccarino. But who exactly is the new chief executive, and how does she fit into Musk’s vision of “the everything app”? Musk, who brought Twitter in October and has been running it since, has long insisted that he would

“I’m basically a ticking time bomb,” Lori Vallow says with a wide smile and a laugh. She’s speaking at the Mrs Texas beauty pageant in 2004 where she is competing. At the time it must have seemed an innocuous comment about balancing home and work life, but nearly 20 years later the words take on

A suspected drunk driver involved in a crash that killed a bride on her wedding day said she “did nothing wrong” following the incident, according to a witness. Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, was arrested after allegedly hitting a golf cart containing a newly-married couple at more than twice the speed limit in South Carolina. She

The chaos and confusion at the border today is exactly what President Joe Biden wanted to avoid when he announced a major change in immigration policy. A makeshift campsite has sprung up between two 30ft fences which divide San Diego in the United States from Tijuana in Mexico. There has been a significant increase in