US News

A man has admitted to killing a woman 20 years ago, as well as attempting to extort $250,000 from the victim’s mother. Joran Van Der Sloot pleaded guilty to attempted extortion, and as part of a plea deal he had to reveal how 18-year-old American Natalee Holloway died. He said he beat Ms Holloway to

US President Joe Biden has said an explosion that killed hundreds in a hospital in Gaza appears to not have been caused by Israel but “by the other team”. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Mr Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

A summit between between Palestinian, US, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders, has been cancelled, just hours before Joe Biden was due to visit the region. The US president was set to meet them after his visit to Israel on Wednesday. The summit’s cancellation is a blow to Mr Biden’s diplomatic efforts over the Middle East crisis.

Donald Trump is suing a private investigations firm over “shocking and scandalous” claims that he engaged in “perverted sexual acts” in Russia. The former US president is suing Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based company co-founded by ex-British spy Christopher Steele, over a dossier containing rumours about him that caused a storm before his 2017 presidential

President Joe Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday, amid fears about the war with Hamas expanding into a larger conflict. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive Breaking News alerts on a smartphone or tablet via

Janet Yellen has told Sky News the United States can “certainly” afford wars on two fronts, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens stability in the Middle East and the US continues to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Talking exclusively to Wilfred Frost ahead of a meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg, the US

A six-year-old boy has been stabbed to death and his mother left in a critical condition after a suspected hate crime in the US state of Illinois. Wadea al Fayoume, a Palestinian-American, died in hospital after being stabbed 26 times with a “military-style knife” on Saturday, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Celebrated Nobel-winning poet Louise Gluck has died aged 80, her editor has confirmed. Her death was confirmed on Friday by Jonathan Galassi, her editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux. According to her publisher, the US poet and Pulitzer Prize-winner died of cancer at her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In a career spanning more than 60

North Korea has sent large amounts of weapons to Russia to help Moscow fight its war in Ukraine, the White House has said. Pyongyang has delivered more than 1,000 containers of “equipment and munitions” in recent weeks, National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday. Washington released pictures that it said showed containers loaded

A rare solar eclipse will sweep across the US later today, with a spectacular phenomenon known as the “ring of fire” due to stun stargazers. The “ring of fire” annular solar eclipse will be on show in a number of US states as well as parts of Central and South America. Unlike in a total

A lottery customer who bought a Powerball ticket in a little town in California has become the second biggest winner ever. The mystery winner with the ticket for a whopping $1.7bn (£1.44bn) prize has yet to come forward since the lucky numbers were announced on Wednesday. It’s the talk of the mountain town of Frazier

Republican congressman Steve Scalise has abandoned his bid to be the next US Speaker of the House – just over 24 hours after his party nominated him. His decision to withdraw from the race throws Washington’s House of Representatives into further turmoil – and means the position of Speaker has now been vacant for 10

Cher has denied allegations that she hired four men to kidnap her 47-year-old son from a New York City hotel room. The singer, 77, told People Magazine “that rumour is not true” and declined to comment further when asked about the incident. The publication reported last month that her son Elijah Blue Allman’s estranged wife

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas is the “enemy of civilisation” and will be “crushed”. Speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Mr Netanyahu thanked Washington for its support since Hamas’s attack – adding the militant group should be treated “exactly as ISIS was treated”. Mr Netanyahu said “no country should harbour”

Microsoft owes the US Treasury $28.9 billion (£23bn) in back taxes, plus penalties and interest according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The figure, which Microsoft disputes, stems from a long-running IRS investigation into how Microsoft allocated its profits among countries and jurisdictions in the years 2004 to 2013, according to a securities filing Critics

A star witness has given evidence at the trial of fallen crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried – telling the court he directed her to commit fraud. Caroline Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research – a hedge fund linked to the doomed FTX exchange – and used to be the one-time billionaire’s girlfriend. She told the

Debris from the Titan submersible has been recovered – including “presumed human remains”, the US Coast Guard has said. Marine safety engineers say fresh evidence has been gathered from the seafloor of the North Atlantic Ocean, four months after the doomed vessel went missing. The debris is now being analysed by US medical professionals as

A skydiver has died after falling onto someone’s front garden in Florida. The 69-year-old parachutist was found on a resident’s property in Titusville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon. The man, later identified as Frederick Morello, was pronounced dead at the scene by the Titusville Police Department. Police said they believed Mr Morello, who was found wearing

Police in San Francisco have fatally shot the driver of a vehicle that crashed through the Chinese consulate in the city. The car entered the lobby of the building’s visa office at about 3pm local time on Monday, which the Chinese diplomatic post in San Francisco said posed a “serious threat to the safety of