US

The US government has narrowly avoided a crippling shutdown after politicians agreed on a last-minute spending deal. Failure to reach an agreement would have meant federal employees would have missed pay ahead of the festive season, impacting various public services. Plans to approve the government’s budget were thrown into disarray this week after billionaire Elon

The US says it has killed Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Yusif in Syria. US Central Command Forces (Centcom) said it carried out an airstrike targeting Yusif – who also goes by Mahmud – in an area controlled by the Syrian regime and Russian force before the recent fall of Bashar al Assad. Another IS

US politicians have rejected a spending bill endorsed by president-elect Donald Trump – leaving Congress with no clear plan to avert a fast-approaching government shutdown. On Wednesday, Mr Trump dismissed a bipartisan compromise, which Republicans and Democrats had reached to prevent a shutdown just days before the Christmas winter break. Instead, he urged Republicans in

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting dead UnitedHealthcare boss Brian Thompson, has arrived in New York where he faces new charges. The 26-year-old was flown to Manhattan by plane and helicopter after he agreed to be extradited from Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week after five days on the run. He now faces fresh federal

A man who was in contact with a female student who opened fire at a private religious school in Wisconsin, killing two people before apparently taking her own life, has been arrested in the US. A 20-year-old California man told the FBI he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, 15, about attacking a government building with

Five members of the same family, including a two-year-old girl, have been found dead at a home in the US state of Utah. A 17-year-old boy was also found alive but with gunshot wounds. It is not yet clear whether he is a suspect or victim in the case, according to local police. Roxeanne Vainuku,

The man accused of killing an insurance firm chief in New York has been charged with murder as an act of terrorism. Luigi Mangione is suspected of shooting Brian Thompson, chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, on 4 December, and was arrested after a manhunt that ended with police finding the 26-year-old in a McDonald’s. He had

A lawyer representing an alleged victim of Sean “Diddy” Combs has told Sky News she believes the criminal case against him is “just the tip of the iceberg” and there are “hundreds” more who may be “too afraid to come forward”. Lisa Bloom is representing singer Dawn Richard, a former member of two groups formed

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have “gotta make a deal” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. The US president-elect said the conflict “has to stop” and that people were “dying at levels nobody has ever seen”. He also claimed it could take “100 years” to rebuild Ukraine’s cities from

Three people, including a young suspect, have died and several are injured after a shooting at a school in Wisconsin. The shooting occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in the state capital Madison and children were among the dead, police said. “Officers found multiple victims with gunshot wounds when they arrived at the scene,” said

Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx has been injured after being struck in the mouth with a glass – as reports suggest he was involved in a “physical altercation” while celebrating his birthday. A representative for Foxx said the 57-year-old “had to get stitches and is recovering” after the incident at the Mr Chow restaurant in Beverly

ABC News has settled a defamation lawsuit with Donald Trump and will pay $15m towards his presidential library. The settlement describes the funding as a “charitable contribution” from the US broadcaster, which also agreed to pay $1m in legal fees to Mr Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito’s law firm. The claim concerned a segment of George

A man convicted of participating in the January 6 Capitol riots has told Sky News he expects Donald Trump to set him free.  Speaking from his Washington jail cell, Gregory Purdy said he anticipates the president-elect will “exonerate and pardon” him. Mr Trump has said he intends to pardon “many” of the rioters whom he

A woman who has accused rappers Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of raping her when she was 13 after the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, has acknowledged inconsistencies in her story. The woman, who is identified only as “Jane Doe” (a US legal term to say that she is anonymous), told Sky’s US partner

Texas has sued a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas. A lawsuit, filed by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on Thursday, alleges Dr Margaret Carpenter unlawfully prescribed abortion-inducing drugs to the 20-year-old, in violation of the state’s laws. While no criminal charges are involved, Mr Paxton said the

Fourteen North Korean nationals have been accused of using false identities to get IT jobs with US companies and siphon money back to their communist country. The practice, if proven, is in violation of US sanctions against the restrictive nation. An indictment filed in a federal court in Missouri alleges that $88m (£70m) was generated

Joe Biden has said he will commute the sentences of almost 1,500 non-violent offenders and pardon 39 others in the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The outgoing president said in a statement that America “was built on the promise of possibility and second chances”. He called it a “great privilege” of his

Mark Zuckerberg’s firm Meta has donated $1m to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund as the Facebook founder tries to mend ties with the president-elect. In August, Mr Trump threatened to imprison the billionaire if he did “anything illegal” to influence the presidential election. But last month the pair dined together at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in

A woman whose father took his own life after she went missing has been “found safe”, her family and police have said. Hannah Kobayashi, 30, flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles early last month. She was intending to take another flight to New York on 8 November but missed her connection. She vanished days later

Police say fingerprints of the man suspected of shooting dead a US health insurance boss match those found near the crime scene in New York, according to Sky News’ US partner NBC News. Luigi Mangione has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, who was shot dead in Manhattan last week.