US

Thousands of flights have been delayed and baseball games postponed across the US east coast as smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to drift south, covering cities in a yellowy-brown haze. Canadian officials say this is shaping up to be the nation’s worst wildfire season ever. Forest fires have scorched 9.4 million acres of the country

People in New York are being warned to limit outdoor activity as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifts across many areas of the northeastern US. Air quality in the state is now “unhealthy”, according to the Environment Protection Agency, and a murky haze has descended over landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and Times Square.

A man armed with four handguns killed two people and wounded five others by firing into a crowd outside a high school graduation ceremony in Virginia, causing hundreds to flee in panic, police said. A 19-year-old man, who is believed to know one of the victims, was arrested in Richmond shortly after the incident outside

Arnold Schwarzenegger has apologised for groping women, 20 years after dismissing the allegations as “made-up”. Six women accused the Hollywood star of groping and humiliating them in a Los Angeles Times report in 2003. The investigation was published in the lead-up to the 2003 California governor election. Schwarzenegger, who won the election, labelled the story

One of the most notorious American double agents has died in prison. Robert Hanssen, a former FBI agent, was sentenced in 2002 to life behind bars after pleading guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years. He had divulged information about US intelligence-gathering since at least 1985 and was

Former vice-president Mike Pence has declared himself a candidate in the 2024 Republican race for the White House – pitting himself against Donald Trump. Mr Pence‘s campaign filed a declaration of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. He will formally launch his campaign with a video and a speech in the early nominating state of

A loud boom in the Washington DC area which residents of the US capital said shook houses and sounded like an explosion was caused by military jets which had been scrambled to deal with an airspace violation. US officials have confirmed that the sound was the sonic boom of fighters pursuing a light aircraft that

Multiple people were shot, including a woman who died later in hospital, at an event being held in Chicago to remember a man who died four years ago in a car crash. A large group of people had gathered at 1am to mark the man’s fatal crash when there was an altercation and shots rang

Joe Biden has signed a “critical” budget deal to raise the debt ceiling for the US, saving the country from falling into an unprecedented default – the failure to make debt repayments. The US president signed the bill in private at the White House on Saturday. The Treasury Department had warned that the country would

A man who was repeatedly tasered by police in Los Angeles died from an enlarged heart and cocaine use, a coroner has said. Keenan Darnell Anderson – cousin of a Black Lives Matter co-founder – was stopped after a traffic collision on 3 January, with bodycam showing him initially complying with police before running away.

A parent angered by a spate of book bans across the US has taken revenge, of sorts – by getting the Bible banned from some of Utah’s schools. The Davis School District, which has nearly 74,000 children, has largely removed the book from circulation but has kept it in high school libraries. In a copy

Billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein tried to contact a disgraced US gymnastics team doctor while in prison, newly-released documents show. Epstein’s letter to Larry Nassar was found returned to sender in the jail’s mail room weeks after he took his own life in August 2019. Epstein was in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking

The US Senate has voted through a crucial deal to raise the country’s debt ceiling with just days to spare. Senators followed the House of Representatives in passing the agreement, which will be sent to Joe Biden to be signed into law before Monday’s deadline. Had the cut-off date been missed, it could have led

Joe Biden has tripped and fallen during a graduation ceremony at the US Air Force academy. The American president, 80, was quickly helped up by three people, and walked back to his seat unassisted following the incident in Colorado. As the leader was helped up, he pointed behind him, seeming to indicate what he tripped

A crunch deal to raise the US debt ceiling has been voted through by the House of Representatives. The agreement – which aims to avert a potentially catastrophic scenario where the US defaults on its national debts – passed through the Republican-majority House by 314-117 votes. The proposal will now move to the Senate. The

A 73-year-old woman who took part in two killings on the orders of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969 should be released from prison on parole, a Californian appeals court has ruled. Leslie Van Houten is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other followers kill Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and

The US has said a Chinese fighter pilot performed an “unnecessarily aggressive” manoeuvre during an intercept over the South China Sea. In a statement, the US military command responsible for the Indo-Pacific said the Chinese J-16 aircraft carried out the manoeuvre last week and forced the US RC-135 plane to fly through its wake turbulence.

Efforts to prevent the United States reaching its debt limit and to avert a potentially catastrophic default on loan repayments on Wednesday move to the Senate, where the vote on the proposal to raise the debt ceiling takes place. President Joe Biden and leader of the House of Representatives, speaker Kevin McCarthy, had spent the

Nine people have been injured in a shooting near a Hollywood Beach, Florida. One person has been arrested and police have said they are looking for one more suspect. Early reports said there was an altercation between two groups. Police said there would be a heavy presence of officers as the investigation continues. Advertisement

A mother has pleaded guilty to murder and child abuse over the death of her six-year-old son in Arizona. Elizabeth Archibeque, 26, reached a plea deal with prosecutors this month and could face life in prison under the first-degree murder charge. Her son, Deshaun Martinez, had been locked inside a small bedroom closet without food