The US says the drone which crashed into the Black Sea after encountering two Russian fighter jets will not provide intelligence of any value should Moscow attempt to recover its wreckage. Russian officials have said they will seek to find whatever is left of the MQ-9 Reaper, which was downed on Tuesday. Sergei Naryshkin, head
US
The US and Russia have different accounts of what caused an American drone to crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday. It is the first time the two powers have come into direct contact since the Ukraine war started last year. ‘Something clearly went wrong’; follow Ukraine latest American officials say two Russian fighter jets
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is axing another 10,000 jobs to cut costs. The company said on Tuesday it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May. “We expect to reduce our team size
US inflation dropped to 6% over the 12 months to February, complicating the picture for interest rates as banks and stock markets feel the hit from the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the consumer price index (CPI), the measure of inflation, was down from 6.4% in the
Joe Biden will visit Northern Ireland following a formal invitation from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The invitation was extended as the pair met for talks in San Diego to announce a nuclear submarine deal with Australia. “It’s my intention to go to Northern Ireland and the Republic,” Mr Biden said as they met in Point
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
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”
US approval of the abortion medication mifepristone has been revoked, in a decision that could further disrupt reproductive healthcare for millions of people. Mifepristone blocks the hormone needed to maintain a pregnancy and has been approved in the US since 2000 for medical abortion and miscarriage management. It is used safely in more than 60
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
A US man has died from a brain-eating amoeba – possibly after rinsing his nose with tap water, health officials have said. The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County confirmed the death in a news release on 23 February but gave no details about the victim. The naegleria fowleri infection was thought to be
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
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
The United States could bar tens of thousands of migrants from arriving at the US-Mexico border under a proposed plan which would require some asylum seekers to book a meeting with US officials first. Under the new rules proposed on Tuesday, migrants who do not schedule an appointment at a US border port of entry
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 US president gave a historic speech from