Joe Biden’s administration will approve a scaled-back version of a controversial $7bn oil and gas drilling project. The move comes despite criticism from environmentalists who say the development of the three drill sites in northwestern Alaska conflicts with Mr Biden’s highly-publicised efforts to fight climate change. The US president has also pledged to shift to
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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.”
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”
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
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
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.
At least three people have been killed after a shooting at a US university – with the gunman apparently dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A manhunt was launched for the attacker who was described as a short black male in a cap, red shoes and a jean jacket. Police said five people were also
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
Justin Trudeau has ordered the “take down” of an “unidentified object” that “violated” Canadian airspace. The country’s prime minister tweeted that both Canadian and US aircraft were scrambled. A US F-22 stealth fighter jet, sent by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), “successfully fired at the object”, Mr Trudeau said. It was taken down
Joe Biden came out punching on Capitol Hill in a way that belied learned expectation. On the big occasion, he didn’t fluff his lines or miss his targets – unlike the Joe Biden of so many other occasions. For too many, to watch him is to write him off. Too much about this 80-year-old president