US

Donald Trump has been invited to testify before a New York grand jury next week as part of an investigation into hush money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign. Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer for the former president, confirmed the news, telling the Associated Press: “To me, it’s much ado about nothing.”

Prosecutors in the US state of New Mexico have denied claims made by Alec Baldwin’s lawyers that state authorities destroyed the firearm that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust. Alex Spiro, a lawyer for the 64-year-old actor said: “The court, I don’t think is aware of this point, but I

Active service members and veterans have described in harrowing detail the carnage and death they witnessed during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Former US Marine Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews was among those giving evidence to the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee examing the handling of the withdrawal. Mr Vargas-Andrews broke down in tears as

The family of US actor Bruce Willis revealing that he had been diagnosed with dementia has meant thousands more visitors to the Alzheimer’s Society website, the charity said. The 67-year-old Pulp Fiction star was recently diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), with the news shared by his family on Instagram on 16 February. It followed the

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has come under fire from Republicans after he described the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol as “mostly peaceful chaos”. On Monday, the 53-year-old conservative released security footage from the riots, which he was given exclusive access to by speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, last month. Mr

A passenger who was apparently heard threatening to “kill every man on this plane” before allegedly attacking a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon was caught on video. Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was filmed screaming from his seat during a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston. In the video, he can be

A man has been charged and arrested after allegedly attempting to open an emergency exit door while onboard a flight from Los Angeles to Boston – before then trying to stab a flight attendant in the neck, prosecutors have said. Francisco Severo Torres, 33, was charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with

Four US citizens were shot at and kidnapped by gunmen after they crossed the Mexico border to buy medicine as a search is under way to find them, say authorities. The FBI said the unidentified Americans had entered the northern city of Matamoros from Texas on Friday and were taken after armed men opened fire

A plane heading from Cuba to Florida was forced to turn back on Sunday, after it hit birds, casing an engine to set on fire, filling the cabin with smoke. Southwest Airlines flight 2923 was on its way to Fort Lauderdale in Florida, before it had to return to Havana after hitting birds. As the

The father of Venus and Serena Williams has defended actor Will Smith over his slapping of comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars – marking almost one year since the incident. Smith, 54, played Richard Williams in the biopic film King Richard, which won him best actor at the 94th Academy Awards last year. Last year’s

Chris Rock has spoken about being smacked in the face by actor Will Smith on the Academy Awards stage. During the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles last year, Smith walked onto the stage and slapped Rock, who had made a joke at the expense of the actor’s wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, as he was

It feels like we’ve just sat through one of Prince Harry’s therapy sessions. More than that, we’ve all just paid £17.99 for the privilege, albeit with a free copy of Spare thrown in. This was billed as an “intimate conversation” and that’s exactly what we got, over an hour of Prince Harry talking us through

A US woman who was declared legally dead after disappearing more than three decades ago has turned up alive in Puerto Rico, her family and police have said. Patricia Kopta, now 83, had last been seen in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1992 when investigators began looking into her disappearance. She was known to be an “eccentric”

US approval of the abortion medication mifepristone has been revoked, in a decision that could further disrupt reproductive healthcare for millions of people. Mifepristone blocks the hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy and has been approved in the US since 2000 for medical abortion and miscarriage management. It is used safely in more than 60

A lesion removed from President Joe Biden’s chest a month ago was cancerous, a White House doctor has confirmed. The lesion was a basal cell carcinoma – a common form of skin cancer – the president’s long-term physician, Dr Kevin O’Connor, said on Friday. Mr Biden, 80, requires no further treatment after “all cancerous tissue

Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of murdering his wife and son after a six-week trial that revealed the prominent lawyer’s spectacular fall from grace. The 54-year-old shot his wife Margaret, 52, four or five times with a rifle outside dog kennels on their rural Colleton County property in South Carolina on 7 June 2021. On

Drugs designed to treat diabetes and repurposed as miracle diet aids have taken over TikTok. The weight loss caused by these weekly injectables is rapid and previously unattainable, people boast, showing off newly svelte bodies. But what are these drugs, how do they work – and what were they originally designed to do? Mounjaro, Ozempic,

DNA evidence from an alleged sexual assault in 1994 has led to the arrest of a man for a 43-year-old murder in California. Harold Carpenter, 63, is believed to have killed Patricia Carnahan in 1979, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office in California said. Ms Carnahan’s body was found at a campground at Lake

The director of the FBI has said the agency believes COVID-19 “most likely” came from a lab leak in China. “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Christopher Wray told Fox News. Mr Wray said he could not

China has denounced the US over its TikTok bans, saying it has been “abusing state power”. Congress and more than half of US states have banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices, following cybersecurity concerns. TikTok is used by two-thirds of American teenagers but there is concern in Washington that China could use its legal and

The trial of a prominent US lawyer for the murder of his wife and son has prompted the reopening of investigations into other deaths. Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Margaret, 52, and their youngest son Paul, 22, on their estate in South Carolina. Prosecutors say the lawyer carried out the

Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has admitted that some Fox News commentators endorsed false claims made by Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen – and that he didn’t try to stop them. The claims are from a deposition unsealed on Monday, which is part of a lawsuit against the

Three crew members on the set of Rust are suing actor Alec Baldwin and others over the death of the film’s cinematographer. Ross Addiego, Doran Curtin and Reese Price say they have suffered anxiety and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder since a prop gun held by Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on

The COVID-19 virus most likely leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, according to the US Energy Department. In a report seen by the Wall Street Journal, the US agency said the virus was not being engineered as part of a weapons program. Recently given to the White House and members of Congress, the updated report

A winter storm that has made its way over the Pacific has brought several days of flooding, freezing temperatures and snowfall to some parts of Southern California. Rivers have swelled to dangerous levels and snow has even fallen in low-lying areas around Los Angeles – with some areas receiving over 30 inches of snow, and

Several US media publishers are dropping the Dilbert comic strip after its creator described black people as members of “a racist hate group”. Several media officials denounced the comments by creator Scott Adams as racist, hateful and discriminatory. Dilbert is a long-running comic strip poking fun at office culture. In an episode of the YouTube

Convicted serial murderer Ramon Escobar is suspected of killing his new cellmate on Friday at a central California prison, officials have said. Escobar, 51, shared a jail room with Juan Villanueva at North Kern State Prison in Delano. Villanueva, 53, was found unresponsive on 24 February at 8.49am. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

Jill Biden has dropped the strongest hint yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term – saying there is “pretty much” nothing left to do but work out the time and place for the announcement. The US president has long said it is his intention to seek re-election, though he has yet

The production company behind the film Rust has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to an occupational health and safety bureau following a fatal shooting on set. The New Mexico Environment Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) had issued a $136,796 (£114,457) fine, the maximum allowable by state law, last April. It was later

A billionaire financier, considered a pioneer of private equity investment, has been found dead in his New York office after reportedly taking his own life. While the family of Thomas (Tom) H Lee, who was 78, confirmed he had passed away there was yet to be any official confirmation from the New York Police Department

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein begged “please don’t sentence me to life in prison, I don’t deserve it” as he was jailed for another 16 years for rape and sexual assault. Weinstein, 70, will serve the jail term after completing his 23-year sentence for a sexual misconduct conviction in New York in 2020. It is

Residents near the site of a toxic train derailment say they are afraid to take showers because of the fear of contamination. It has been almost three weeks since about 50 freight carriages on a 150-car Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and the controlled burn a few days later of the toxic

A TV journalist has been shot dead while reporting from the scene of a murder in Florida. They were covering the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old woman in Pine Hills at the time of the attack. Another Spectrum News 13 employee was injured while reporting at the scene, which is west of Orlando. Detectives also