US

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

Everything Everywhere All At Once has won the best film cast trophy at the Screen Actors Guild awards. The sci-fi adventure film is about a middle-aged Chinese-American immigrant and her husband as they scramble to complete their taxes while the Internal Revenue Service is auditing their laundromat. The film’s star Michelle Yeoh won the award

A winter storm that has made its way over the Pacific has brought several days of flooding, freezing temperatures and snowfall to some parts of Southern California. Rivers have swelled to dangerous levels and snow has even fallen in low-lying areas around Los Angeles – with some areas receiving over 30 inches of snow, and

Several US media publishers are dropping the Dilbert comic strip after its creator described black people as members of “a racist hate group”. Several media officials denounced the comments by creator Scott Adams as racist, hateful and discriminatory. Dilbert is a long-running comic strip poking fun at office culture. In an episode of the YouTube

Jill Biden has dropped the strongest hint yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term – saying there is “pretty much” nothing left to do but work out the time and place for the announcement. The US president has long said it is his intention to seek re-election, though he has yet

The production company behind the film Rust has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine to an occupational health and safety bureau following a fatal shooting on set. The New Mexico Environment Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau (OHSB) had issued a $136,796 (£114,457) fine, the maximum allowable by state law, last April. It was later

A billionaire financier, considered a pioneer of private equity investment, has been found dead in his New York office after reportedly taking his own life. While the family of Thomas (Tom) H Lee, who was 78, confirmed he had passed away there was yet to be any official confirmation from the New York Police Department

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein begged “please don’t sentence me to life in prison, I don’t deserve it” as he was jailed for another 16 years for rape and sexual assault. Weinstein, 70, will serve the jail term after completing his 23-year sentence for a sexual misconduct conviction in New York in 2020. It is

Residents near the site of a toxic train derailment say they are afraid to take showers because of the fear of contamination. It has been almost three weeks since about 50 freight carriages on a 150-car Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and the controlled burn a few days later of the toxic

A TV journalist has been shot dead while reporting from the scene of a murder in Florida. They were covering the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old woman in Pine Hills at the time of the attack. Another Spectrum News 13 employee was injured while reporting at the scene, which is west of Orlando. Detectives also

A school superintendent has resigned after an eight-year-old found his gun unattended in a bathroom.  The firearm was discovered in Rising Star Elementary School in Texas – and many parents were furious because they were not informed about the incident when it happened. The boy told his teacher about the gun, prompting the teacher to

Vladimir Putin thought his enemies would “roll over” but instead he “met the will of America and nations everywhere who refused to accept a world governed by fear”, Joe Biden has said. The US president gave a speech from the gardens of Warsaw’s Royal Castle in Poland a day after he made a highly-secretive and

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

US President Joe Biden has become the latest and most powerful Western leader to visit Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The show of solidarity for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people came as a surprise to many, as the White House said last week that the US president had no

A stroke survivor has been able to move her hand and arm for the first time in nine years after spinal stimulation. Heather Rendulic was left paralysed on her left side after a stroke in 2012 at the age of 22. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University in the US used

Actor Tom Sizemore is in critical condition after suffering a brain aneurysm. The 61-year-old suffered the aneurysm at around 2am on Saturday while at his Los Angeles home, his manager Charles Lago said. The actor is in intensive care in hospital, with Mr Lago describing the situation as “wait and see”. Sizemore is best known

The US Secretary of State has warned China there will be “consequences” if Beijing provides material support to Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Antony Blinken said in an interview after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that Washington was concerned Beijing was considering supplying weapons to Moscow. The top diplomats of the two

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has met with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, in the first meeting between the two nations since an alleged spy balloon was shot down over America. The hour-long meeting took place in Germany, where the pair were attending the Munich Security Conference, which debates the most pressing challenges to

The US and Canada have called off searches for three unidentified objects that were shot down last weekend, as investigators begin analysing the last of the debris collected from first Chinese “spy” balloon shot down at the start of the month. Authorities did not manage to locate any debris from the three unknown objects, they

The five former Memphis police officers who pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder of Tyre Nichols did not have “the courage to look me in my face,” his mother has said. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault,