US

For beach-walking South Carolinians, it would have been quite the Saturday afternoon spectacle.  Two US fighter jets soaring above them, armed with air-to-air missiles. Then a launch. From an altitude of 58,000ft, one of the two jets fired a single ‘Sidewinder’ short range missile. It was 2.39pm eastern US time. Eyewitnesses on the ground in

The US has shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had been flying over its airspace. Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the balloon descending toward the water off the Carolina coast. The balloon was shot down with a missile fired by an F-22 fighter aircraft, about six nautical miles off the

The US is “going to take care of” a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over its airspace, Joe Biden has said. The US president was speaking after the balloon was spotted again – this time over North Carolina. Mr Biden was asked whether the US would shoot down the high-altitude balloon but he did not

China has claimed the flight of an “airship” over the US was an accident and accused politicians and the media of taking advantage of the situation. The US claims the craft is a suspected spy balloon and said it had committed a “clear violation” of US sovereignty. China insisted it is used for meteorological and

China has said a suspected spy balloon that has been flying over the US was in fact a “civilian airship” that had strayed into American airspace. The US has said it believed the object – spotted over Billings, Montana, on Wednesday, close to one of the US’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air

The US military is tracking a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been flying over northwestern America in recent days. A senior defence official said the US has “very high confidence” it is a Chinese high-altitude balloon and was flying over sensitive sites to collect information. “Clearly the intent of this balloon is for surveillance,”

Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin will make his first appearance in a US court on 24 February over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin, 64, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from the incident on the set of the Rust movie in October 2021. He was formally charged with the offences by the

Tyre Nichols’ mother said “blood is going to be on the hands” of congressmen and women if they fail to pass a bill that would limit immunity for US police officers. Vice President Kamala Harris and celebrated civil rights activist Rev Al Sharpton urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act at

The US Justice Department is conducting a search of a beach house owned by President Joe Biden in Delaware. A statement from Bob Bauer, personal attorney for the President, read: “Today, with the President’s full support and cooperation, the DOJ is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware. “Under DOJ’s standard procedures,

Scott Hubbard remembers exactly where he was on the day of one of the deadliest tragedies in the history of space travel. Before he stepped out of bed on the morning of 1 February 2003, a radio broadcast brought news that NASA’s Columbia space shuttle was “overdue” on its return to Earth. “I had a

The United States will “continue to oppose anything” that puts a two-state solution “further from reach” after one of the bloodiest months in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in several years, the US secretary of state has said. Antony Blinken said the US opposes Israeli settlement expansion and any moves towards the annexation of

Three emergency workers have been fired over their response to Tyre Nichols after he was beaten by police. The Memphis Fire Department said it had fired two emergency medical technicians and an emergency vehicle driver after an investigation found they failed to provide adequate medical care. Mr Nichols was left in critical condition after several

He’s never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down – but he is potentially gonna sue you if you (allegedly) impersonate his distinctive baritone. Rick Astley has filed a lawsuit against the rapper Yung Gravy over the song Betty (Get Money), which was released in 2022. Here is a look at what’s happened

When watching the horrific video of Tyre Nichols being kicked and punched by police officers, many minds in America were transported back to footage of another black man being beaten in similar circumstances more than 30 years ago. The video of Rodney King is grainy and shaky, before the era of police-worn body cameras and

When Memphis, a city in southwest Tennessee, had a record number of homicides in 2021 for the second year in a row, many were calling for action. Attention turned to the Memphis Police Department to tackle the murder rate, which led to the creation of the Scorpion Unit in October 2021. “MPD’s New SCORPION UNIT

Of all the words used prior to prepare us, nothing spoke louder than the pictures. That the images were captured on police bodycams made it the more chilling – a murderer’s eye view, as the indictment would have it. The video footage is as shocking as it is haunting. Having stopped Tyre Nichols in his

Memphis Police has released bodycam footage showing the moment Tyre Nichols called for his mother as he was beaten by five officers before he died. The footage shows police beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes while screaming profanities at him throughout the attack. Police have released four separate videos cut into one hour-long

The mother of Tyre Nichols has said she is “not going to stop” until every person responsible for her son’s death “is prosecuted to the fullest of law”. RowVaughn Wells was speaking to US news network MSNBC a day after Memphis Police released bodycam footage showing her son screaming “mom, mom” several times as he

A British teenage extremist has been jailed after his far-right videos were linked to two mass murders in the US. Daniel Harris used an online platform called World Truth Videos to disseminate a “call to arms” for his violent racist beliefs, a court heard. The 19-year-old from Glossop in Derbyshire was convicted of five counts

A grand jury has indicted five former police officers on murder and other charges in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. US President Joe Biden called for any protests to be peaceful following the charges on Thursday. Nichols, 29, died in hospital three days after a confrontation during a traffic stop in the US