US

A teenage mother in New Mexico has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and child abuse, after she was captured on CCTV throwing her new-born baby in a dumpster. Alexis Avila, 18, has confessed to giving birth to the child at another location and placing him in the waste container. The baby boy was

A terminally ill man has been given the chance of life after his own diseased heart was replaced by a genetically-modified pig’s heart. In a medical first, doctors in Maryland transplanted the animal’s organ into 57-year-old David Bennett and said on Monday that he is doing well three days after the experimental surgery. It is

Davos, January 2015, and in front of a room of businesspeople at the World Economic Forum, Prince Andrew for the first time had to publicly deny the sex abuse allegations made against him. And yet since then, for seven years, the claims have continued to haunt him and the rest of the Royal Family, fuelled

A man has been saved from near-death by police officers in Los Angeles after he crash-landed his plane onto railway tracks seconds before it was hit by a train. The unnamed pilot was saved from the Cessna by quick-thinking officers who pulled him out just before a high-speed train smashed into the aircraft, sending debris

At least 19 people, including nine children, have died after a huge fire tore through an apartment block in New York City. New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the number of dead in the Bronx apartment building fire. A city official who was not allowed to speak to the media confirmed to Associated Press

Talk of a boycott from this year’s scandal-hit Golden Globes isn’t strictly true insists the organisation which runs them. Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) president Helen Hoehne has told Sky News the decision to hold a pared-back ceremony this weekend is in fact the group’s “sensitive” response to the criticism its faced over the last

A Chinese man who was brutally attacked while collecting cans in New York City has died of his injuries eight months later. Yao Pan Ma, 61, had been collecting returnable bottles and cans in Harlem to raise money to buy food after he lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was attacked from

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has revealed how he lost nearly six and a half stone (40kg) in less than six months. The Trump administration’s top diplomat told The New York Post that keeping his weight down had been a lifelong battle. But, on 21 June last year, he decided enough was enough

Three white men who chased and shot a black man as he ran through their neighbourhood have been sentenced to life in prison for his murder. Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was pursued and cornered by Travis McMichael, 35, his father Gregory McMichael, 66, and their neighbour William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, 52, on 23 February 2020 in Satilla

Astronomers have for the first time imaged the last moments in the life of a red supergiant star. It was spotted just 130 days before exploding using two telescopes in Hawaii, allowing a team of researchers to survey it before it detonated in an enormous supernova. “This is a breakthrough in our understanding of what

Peter Bogdanovich, who directed movies including The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, has died at the age of 82. His daughter, Antonia, said he died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. Born in New York in 1939, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist and critic. He also organised a series of

US President Joe Biden has marked one year since the 6 January deadly assault on the Capitol by condemning political violence in an address to the nation, as he also hit out at the former president. On 6 January 2021, Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington DC, putting 15 police officers in hospital

A blanket of snow covers Washington DC at the moment – the heart of what is often framed as the world’s greatest democracy looks picture postcard perfect. But beyond the hyperbole, and a year to the day since the event now known simply as “January 6th“, the reality seems troublingly far from perfect. That day

Thirteen people, including seven children, have died in a house fire in Philadelphia. Fire officials say they were called to a house converted into two apartments in the Fairmont neighbourhood at 6.40am local time on Wednesday. Two people were also taken to hospital and the fire was brought under control after less than an hour.

More than a million new COVID cases were reported in the US on Monday – the highest anywhere in the world since the start of the pandemic. The 1,082,549 figure – compiled by Johns Hopkins University from state data – is about double the previous high and pushes the seven-day average to more than 480,000.

A decision should be made “pretty soon” on whether Virginia Giuffre’s sex assault civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew should be dismissed, a US judge has said. Ms Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, is suing Andrew after claiming he “committed sexual assault and battery” upon her when she was a teenager. Andrew Brettler, representing the

The founder of blood-testing startup Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, has been convicted of fraud. The 37-year-old was found guilty of turning her company into a sophisticated sham that duped investors and patients into backing revolutionary finger-prick blood-testing technology that never actually worked. A jury convicted her on two counts of wire fraud and two counts of

Twitter has permanently suspended the personal account of US politician Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeated violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. Ms Greene has been kicked off of Twitter after being issued a “fourth strike” in August when she was suspended for a week for saying that vaccines were failing. She claimed in July that

A confidential settlement between Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, which could be key to a legal case involving Prince Andrew, is set to be made public today. The 2009 agreement between Epstein – the late disgraced financier – and Ms Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, is due to be released following an order by

An unvaccinated couple with four children died on the same day after contracting COVID-19. Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez, of Loma Linda in Southern California, died without hours of each other on 19 December, their family said. Mr Fernandez, 44, was hesitant about getting a COVID vaccination so had not got his jab before developing symptoms

Emergency services searching for people missing after wildfires swept through communities in Colorado will use cadaver dogs to hunt through layers of fresh snow covering the smouldering debris. Three people are missing and nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed and hundreds damaged in the fires, the cause of which is still unknown. For those who escaped

New York City’s new mayor Eric Adams, a retired captain in the New York Police Department, called in an assault he witnessed during one of his first media engagements. Adams became the second black mayor of New York City when he was sworn into office on Saturday morning after holding a ceremony in Times Square.

Tributes have been paid to veteran actress Betty White who has died less than three weeks before her 100th birthday. The Golden Girls star, whose career spanned eight decades, reportedly died at her home on New Year’s Eve. Her death was confirmed by her longtime agent and close friend, Jeff Witjas. He told Associated Press

Ghislaine Maxwell has been “scapegoated” for the crimes of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein and “was not given a fair trial”, her brother has told Sky News. The British former socialite was this week found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex

Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial was billed as the moment, after years of waiting, when we would get answers. In reality, the woman at the centre of the case revealed almost nothing, and the courtroom drama, scheduled to last six weeks, was over in three. Maxwell did not take the stand, and her defence offered little

A past settlement between sex offender Jeffey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, which could be key to a legal case involving Prince Andrew, is set to be made public next week. The 2009 agreement between Epstein and Ms Giuffre, formerly Virginia Roberts, will be released on or around 3 January following an order by US judges.

The judge in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial wants jurors to work more days and longer hours because of a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in New York. Judge Alison Nathan said a positive COVID-19 case among jurors would endanger “our ability to complete this trial” and asked them to work every day

Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty of recruiting underage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein. The 60-year-old former socialite and ex-girlfriend of billionaire financier Epstein is now facing the prospect of years in prison. As the verdicts were read out in court in New York, Maxwell appeared to show little reaction behind a

The mother of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, a 14-year-old girl who was fatally shot by police in Los Angeles, has said seeing her daughter “die in her arms” was one of the “most profound pains any human being can imagine”. Speaking at a news conference via a translator, Soledad Peralta said she begged officers to help her

The Los Angeles Police Department has released the bodycam footage from an incident that led to an innocent teenager being fatally shot as officers opened fire on a suspect. Valentina Orellana-Peralta, 14, was in the changing room at the Burlington Coat Factory in North Hollywood on 23 December, when a bullet struck her through a

What is thought to be a time-capsule has been discovered under the remains of a plinth that held a statue of a Confederate leader in Virginia. Crews wrapping up the removal of the Robert E Lee statue in Richmond in the state made the discovery on Monday, with the likely contents said to be long

Sarah Weddington, who won a landmark court case to make abortions legal across the US, has died at the age of 76. The Texas lawyer passed away in her sleep early on Boxing Day morning at her home in Austin, her former student and colleague Susan Hays said. She had been in poor health for

Hundreds of flights have been called off for a third day in a row in the US as the Omicron variant of COVID continues to spread. More than 720 commercial flights going into or out of the US were cancelled on Sunday, according to a tally on flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. This meant thousands of people