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.”
US
Millions of rats living across New York City are susceptible to COVID-19, researchers have found. Like humans, the rodents have proved vulnerable to multiple variants of the virus, from the original to Omicron, including high levels of infection in their upper and lower airways. A World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2021 concluded that the
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US approval of the abortion medication mifepristone has been revoked, in a decision that could further disrupt reproductive healthcare for millions of people.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
Tennessee has become the first US state to ban public drag performances. The state’s Republican governor Bill Lee signed the bill, which classifies the performances as adult cabaret, into law on Thursday. While the word “drag” does not appear in the bill, it changes the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee’s law to mean “adult-oriented
A US man has died from a brain-eating amoeba – possibly after rinsing his nose with tap water, health officials have said. The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County confirmed the death in a news release on 23 February but gave no details about the victim. The naegleria fowleri infection was thought to be
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,
Police are searching for rapper Travis Scott after he allegedly punched a sound engineer and caused $12,000 worth of damage at a nightclub in New York, authorities have said. Officers were called to Club Nebula in Manhattan at about 3.25am local time (8.25am in the UK) on Wednesday to reports that a man “was involved
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
Disney’s self-governing district that it uses to run its Florida theme parks has been taken over by the state’s governor, in an apparent punishment for its opposition to legislation about LGBTQ+ education. Ron DeSantis, who is widely tipped as a challenger for the White House next year, signed a bill taking control of Reedy Creek
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
Joe Biden has said Vladimir Putin expected his enemies to “roll over” when he invaded Ukraine but was met with the “iron will” of its allies – as the Russian president suspended a key nuclear treaty with the US after accusing the West of starting the war. The American president gave a historic speech from
Chinese President Xi Jinping does not want to damage relations with the US over the “spy” balloon shot down over North America, President Joe Biden has said. “I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me,” Mr Biden told Sky News’ affiliate NBC
Former US president Donald Trump has bid “good riddance” to Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon following her shock resignation announcement. Referring to Ms Sturgeon as a “failed woke extremist”, he also accused the outgoing leader of the Scottish National Party of fighting him over his golf courses in Scotland. Criticising her government’s controversial gender reforms
Elon Musk donated around $1.95bn (£1.6bn) worth of Tesla stock to charity last year, according to documents filed in the US. The billionaire gifted about 11.6 million shares between August and December of 2022, the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed. It didn’t list which organisations were the recipients of the shares.
The White House has determined that China has a “high-altitude balloon programme” for intelligence gathering. It comes as tensions are mounting between the US and China after the US shot down a fourth unidentified object over North American airspace. It was downed over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2.42pm local time on Sunday on President
China has claimed US high-altitude balloons have flown over its airspace more than 10 times over the past year. Beijing has made the claim after Washington accused China of operating a fleet of surveillance balloons around the world. The development comes a day after US jets shot down a fourth flying object that the Pentagon
The US has shot down another unidentified object that it says flew near sensitive military sites and could have been used for spying. It was downed over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2.42pm local time on Sunday on President Biden‘s orders. A US F-16 jet fired a missile at about 20,000ft amid concerns that its
Police in southern California say they are “hopeful” of finding missing actor Julian Sands, but admitted the outcome of the search “may not be what we would like”. Sands has not been seen for four weeks, after first being reported missing in the Mount Baldy region of the San Gabriel mountains on 13 January. “Regarding