US

US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated investment banker Warren Stephens to be his ambassador to the UK. Mr Trump made the announcement in a post on social media, calling him “one of the most successful businessmen in the country”. Mr Stephens is chairman, president, and CEO of Stephens Inc, a privately owned financial services company

President Biden had seemed so adamant. He would leave the Justice Department to make its own decisions. Hunter Biden would not be granted clemency for gun and tax convictions just because he was the president’s son. But that was before he dropped out of the presidential race. A lot has changed since then. A lifetime

President Joe Biden has issued a pardon for his son Hunter, who has been convicted of gun charges and pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion. In a statement released by the White House, the US president said he had given clemency to Hunter, who was due to be sentenced later this month on two separate

Donald Trump promised retribution on the campaign trail and his nomination of ultra-loyalist Kash Patel to FBI director is a sure-fire sign that he plans to deliver on it. That bodes ill for a huge cast of characters, across the US’s top law enforcement agency and the Department of Justice, who have sought to investigate

Donald Trump is set to make another controversial addition to his top team after saying he wants convicted tax evader Charles Kushner to serve as ambassador to France. The president-elect made the announcement in a Truth Social post, calling Mr Kushner “a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker”. The real estate developer is the father

An American football player has died a month after suffering a head-on-head collision during a college game. Medrick Burnett Jr was playing for Alabama A&M University against Alabama State University on 26 October – the day before his birthday – when the severe injury occurred. His sister said on his GoFundMe page that the 20-year-old

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York has been disrupted by protests over the conflict in Gaza for the second year running. The steady rain drenching the city didn’t put New Yorkers off celebrating the 98th running of the event, with ponchos and umbrellas much in evidence amid the traditional assortment of balloons,

A stowaway managed to fly from the US to France without a ticket before being discovered on the flight. The woman was caught onboard Delta Airlines flight 264 from New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Tuesday. A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson said she was able

Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr once labelled the agency responsible for vaccine rollouts in the US a “fascist” enterprise and accused it of knowingly hurting children. Mr Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic, also compared what he saw as a widespread conspiracy to hide harms from the US’ child vaccination programme to

A man has been charged with threatening to kill Donald Trump. Authorities arrested Manuel Tamayo-Torres on Monday in southern California. He is accused of posting videos on social media threatening to kill the president-elect, according to court documents. In one video, posted on 13 November, Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the 78-year-old while holding what authorities

Several people nominated to roles in Donald Trump’s incoming cabinet and administration have been targeted by bomb threats and “swatting,” a spokesperson for the US president-elect has said. The threats were made on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those targeted, Karoline Leavitt said. In a

China has warned Donald Trump that a new trade war “will leave no party unscathed” as the incoming US president’s new tariff threats provoke an angry reaction. The response by the world’s second-largest economy to Mr Trump’s promise, of additional 10% tariffs on all goods from China into the US, came via state media. “There

The notion that Donald Trump would hike tariffs is hardly a surprise – it was a plan front and centre of his economic pitch during the election campaign. If that softened the landing, it still hit hard in the three countries in the frame. Mexico warned it would cause inflation and job losses in both

Donald Trump has threatened sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on his first day in office. The president-elect, who takes office on 20 January next year, said he would introduce a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico. Posting on his Truth Social platform he also threatened an

A motion has been filed to drop the charges against Donald Trump of seeking to overturn the 2020 US presidential election result. Mr Trump was first indicted on four felonies in August 2023: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and

Matt Gaetz has joined the celebrity video platform Cameo days after he withdrew his name from consideration to serve as Donald Trump’s attorney general. The president-elect chose former Florida congressman Mr Gaetz for the role despite him facing sex trafficking allegations. But he removed himself from the running for the country’s top legal official on

Ireland’s Taoiseach Simon Harris says he is setting aside “significant funds” to protect the country from any economic shock under Donald Trump’s presidency. But the Fine Gael leader, whose party is seeking a historic fourth consecutive term in Friday’s general election, remains hopeful of retaining good trade relations. President-elect Trump has threatened to impose tariffs

Unidentified drones were spotted over three airbases in the UK this week, the US Air Force (USAF) has confirmed. The incidents involved “small unmanned aerial systems” between 20 and 22 November over RAF Feltwell in Norfolk and Suffolk-based RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall. It’s not clear if the drones were considered hostile, according to the

Rapper Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video. Warning: This story contains details that readers may find distressing The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at

The owners of a funeral home in Colorado, accused of storing 190 decaying bodies, have pleaded guilty to corpse abuse. Jon and Carie Hallford, who own the Return to Nature Funeral Home, began storing bodies in an old building near Colorado Springs as far back as 2019, prosecutors allege. It is further alleged the couple

The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has postponed the sentencing scheduled for next week and has granted permission for his lawyers to seek dismissal of the case. State Judge Juan Merchan ruled after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a court filing earlier this week that it wouldn’t

Donald Trump has pledged for years to surround himself with ultra-loyalists who can mould his government to his vision without barriers.  That’s precisely why he picked Matt Gaetz. Now he’s out, Pam Bondi is in and she’s equally loyal. Gaetz was uniquely unpopular on Capitol Hill but ultra-MAGA and ultra-loyal to the president-elect. He was

Within hours of taking office, president-elect Donald Trump plans to begin rolling out policies including large-scale deportations, according to his transition team. Sky News partner network NBC News has spoken with more than half a dozen people familiar with the executive orders that his team plans to enact. One campaign official said changes are expected

A 43-year-old man was shot dead by police after calling 911 to report intruders had entered his home in Las Vegas. Brandon Durham was at home with his 15-year-old daughter when he called the emergency line to report armed intruders were trying to break into his property on 12 November. Bodycam footage shows Mr Durham

An anaesthetist has been jailed for 190 years for injecting dangerous drugs into IV bags. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr put a nerve blocking agent and other drugs into the bags at Surgicare North Dallas. An investigation was launched after a medic, Melanie Kaspar, took one of the tainted bags home to treat her dehydration and

Donald Trump has chosen TV host Dr Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Celebrity heart surgeon Dr Mehmet Oz rose to prominence working on Oprah Winfrey’s leading daytime television show before getting his own long-running series. But how has he gone from TV personality to Donald Trump’s choice for overseeing

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has successfully performed another launch of its Starship rocket in front of President-elect Donald Trump, but the test flight did not go perfectly. The 400ft (122m) high rocket system, designed to land astronauts on the moon and ferry crews to Mars, lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas. The first stage, called Super

The leader of a church in New York where pop star Sabrina Carpenter filmed a provocative music video has been relieved of his duties. An investigation into Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel church in Brooklyn was launched after he gave permission for US singer Carpenter to film the video to

Police in the US have arrested two teenagers after a high-speed chase ended with a stolen vehicle crashing and catching fire. The car hit a kerb and struck a tree before bursting into flames in Colorado, after officers from Larimer County in the US state performed what is known as a precision immobilisation technique (PIT)

One person has died and dozens have fallen ill after contracting E.coli from bagged organic carrots. In total, 39 people were infected and 15 taken to hospital in 18 states after they ate the carrots (both whole and baby) sold by Grimmway Farms, which is based in California. Most of the people affected live in

As the two most powerful countries in the world, the relationship between the United States and China is the most consequential of all bilateral ties. Any change in interactions and behaviour by either side does not just impact security, economic activity and trade in Washington and Beijing, but also affects the rest of the planet.

Joe Biden has met with Xi Jinping for the last time as US president, where the Chinese leader said he is “ready to work” with Donald Trump. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, Mr Biden said the US and China’s relationship should be about “competition, not conflict”. “We haven’t always agreed,

A passenger plane has been hit by a bullet near the cockpit as it was preparing to take off at an airport in Dallas. The bullet struck the right side of the Southwest Airlines jet just under the flight deck around 8.30pm local time on Friday (2.30am on Saturday UK time). Flight 2494 was cancelled