US

Alex Murdaugh has been convicted of murdering his wife and son after a six-week trial that revealed the prominent lawyer’s spectacular fall from grace. The 54-year-old shot his wife Margaret, 52, four or five times with a rifle outside dog kennels on their rural Colleton County property in South Carolina on 7 June 2021. On

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,

DNA evidence from an alleged sexual assault in 1994 has led to the arrest of a man for a 43-year-old murder in California. Harold Carpenter, 63, is believed to have killed Patricia Carnahan in 1979, the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office in California said. Ms Carnahan’s body was found at a campground at Lake

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

The trial of a prominent US lawyer for the murder of his wife and son has prompted the reopening of investigations into other deaths. Alex Murdaugh, 54, is accused of shooting dead his wife Margaret, 52, and their youngest son Paul, 22, on their estate in South Carolina. Prosecutors say the lawyer carried out the

Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has admitted that some Fox News commentators endorsed false claims made by Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen – and that he didn’t try to stop them. The claims are from a deposition unsealed on Monday, which is part of a lawsuit against the

Three crew members on the set of Rust are suing actor Alec Baldwin and others over the death of the film’s cinematographer. Ross Addiego, Doran Curtin and Reese Price say they have suffered anxiety and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder since a prop gun held by Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on

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

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

Convicted serial murderer Ramon Escobar is suspected of killing his new cellmate on Friday at a central California prison, officials have said. Escobar, 51, shared a jail room with Juan Villanueva at North Kern State Prison in Delano. Villanueva, 53, was found unresponsive on 24 February at 8.49am. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation

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