US

The new Omicron variant of COVID-19 is a “cause for concern and not for panic”, Joe Biden has said. The US president told reporters his decision to restrict travel from countries in southern Africa “gives us time” to take more action. The new variant was initially reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) by South

For a woman known around the world, who has been the focus of documentaries, podcasts and endless news coverage, Ghislaine Maxwell still remains an enigma.  She has said very little publicly in the two decades since sexual abuse allegations about her friend Jeffrey Epstein began to surface. We do not know how Maxwell met the

More than $1.5m (£1.1m) has been raised to help an American man who was freed after spending 43 years in jail for a triple murder he did not commit. The Midwest Innocence Project set up the online fundraiser as they fought for Kevin Strickland‘s release, noting that he would not get compensation from the state

The long-awaited trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is facing six sex-trafficking charges, is due to start in New York on Monday. The charges involve four alleged underage victims and multiple locations over a 10-year period between 1994 and 2004. The youngest alleged victim was 14 years old at the time. Maxwell also faces two counts

Stephen Sondheim – the composer and lyricist behind some of the world’s best-known musicals – has died aged 91. Just some of his best-known works from a 60-year career include the lyrics for West Side Story and Sweeney Todd. According to The New York Times, Sondheim’s death at his home in Connecticut was sudden –

NASA has delayed the launch of its new James Webb Space Telescope following an “incident” that happened affecting its connection to the rocket. The $10bn (£7.5bn) telescope is an orbiting infrared observatory that will will provide next-generation discoveries based on the work of the Hubble Space Telescope. But its launch from the Guiana Space Centre

Madonna has hit out at Instagram for taking down provocative photographs in which her nipple was exposed. The 63-year-old star had shared a series of risqué pictures of herself on and underneath a bed, wearing a cut-out bra, a thong, fishnet tights and high heels, which made headlines earlier in the week. Resharing the images

Three white men who chased and shot a black man in Georgia last February have been convicted of his murder. Ahmaud Arbery, 25, was pursued and cornered by Travis McMichael, 35, his father Gregory McMichael, 65, and their neighbour William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, 52, on 23 February 2020 in Satilla Shores just outside the city of

Keanu Reeves has finally answered the question about whether or not he is married to Winona Ryder. In 1992, the Matrix actor appeared alongside Ryder in the Francis Ford Coppola epic Dracula, where they shot a wedding scene with a real Romanian priest. Years later, the Stranger Things actress claimed in an interview with Entertainment

A rape conviction at the centre of an award-winning memoir by Alice Sebold has been overturned amid concerns the wrong person was sent to jail in 1982. Anthony Broadwater, who spent 16 years in prison, sobbed as he was cleared by a judge of raping Sebold when she was a student – an assault she

A man has appeared in court charged with multiple homicides after a car plowed into a Christmas parade in the US – as a child became the sixth person to die after the incident. Darrell Brooks, 39, cried and rocked back and forth with his face in his hands as charges were laid against him.

A spacecraft has been launched from California this morning carrying with it humanity’s greatest hopes of being able to protect our planet from a cataclysmic asteroid impact. Fortunately the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission is only a test, and if anything goes wrong before it intercepts its target next September, then Earth won’t suffer

A statue of US President Thomas Jefferson has been removed from New York City Hall over his links to the slave trade. The 1833 sculpture has been in the New York City Council chamber for more than a century but has now been taken down following a vote last month. The New York City Public

Three members of the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies group are among five people dead after a US Christmas parade turned to tragedy. The group had been performing in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on Sunday afternoon when Darrell E Brooks allegedly drove his Ford Escape into the parade. Virginia Sorenson, 79, LeAnna Owen, 71, and Tamara Durand, 52, were

A man police are questioning after five people were killed and more than 40 were injured when a vehicle drove through a Christmas parade in Wisconsin has been named in US media. NBC reported that Darrell Brooks, 39, from Wisconsin, is a person of interest being held in custody. He has not been charged with

More than 20 people have been injured after a vehicle drove through a holiday parade in the US state of Wisconsin, according to police. The incident happened in Waukesha, which is about 20 miles west of central Milwaukee, just before 5pm on Sunday. In footage on social media, the red vehicle appeared to speed towards

A convicted felon who tried to board a flight from Atlanta with a gun fled the airport after it was accidentally fired in the security screening area. Three people suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the ensuing panic. The gun discharge happened when a screening checkpoint employee was conducting a bag search after it was flagged by

Protesters hurled objects at police and broke windows amid anger following the acquittal of a teen who killed two people and injured another at a demonstration, in a verdict that has divided the US. Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of all charges over the August 2020 shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin. President Joe Biden, who

For the past two weeks the steps in front of the grand courthouse in the small Wisconsin city of Kenosha have been a focal point for supporters of Kyle Rittenhouse as well as supporters of the two men he killed and the third who he injured. And as the verdicts came in there were cheers

Kamala Harris is to get presidential powers for a “brief period of time” on Friday while Joe Biden undergoes a routine colonoscopy. Mr Biden, 78, will have the procedure at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The president will have to go under anaesthesia, which means he