A record number of people died of a drug overdose in the US last year, according to government estimates. The death toll of 93,000 is a big increase from the 72,000 estimate in the previous year, and it means there were more than 250 deaths each day, roughly 11 every hour. Only two states –
US
Four Iranians have been charged with plotting to kidnap a New York-based journalist and human rights activist critical of Iran and take her back to Tehran, the US Department of Justice says. Court papers did not name the target, but Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad said it was her. Authorities said the accused – alleged intelligence
The long-range weather forecast from meteorologist Mike Everett is bleak: “Places like this could become uninhabitable.” He has spent the last week guiding viewers of NBC News in Palm Springs, California, through its latest record-breaking heatwave. The desert city is used to the heat but things are extreme. It has recorded its hottest June ever,
Cuba’s president has accused Cuban Americans of using social media to trigger protests over high prices and food shortages. Police have been out in force on the island’s streets after demonstrations in several cities and towns. The protests are some of the biggest displays of anti-government sentiment seen in recent years and come as the
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic saw more than $1bn wiped off its value the day after it completed a successful crewed test flight – as it revealed plans to sell up to $500m in shares. The New York-listed company had been trading sharply higher in pre-market deals following Sunday’s trip – with billionaire founder Sir
Firefighters are grappling with searing heat as they struggle to contain a huge wildfire in California as western states remain in the grip of a fierce heatwave. It comes after a large part of the US west baked over the weekend in triple-digit temperatures which are expected to continue into the start of this week.
Workers have started to remove the last of the high-security fencing erected around the US Capitol in the wake of the deadly attack on Congress. The eight-foot black mesh fencing was built around several parts of Capitol Hill after Donald Trump supporters stormed government buildings on 6 January. But six months on from the deadly
Sir Richard Branson’s private space tourism company will launch its first flight carrying the billionaire, two pilots, and three mission specialists to the fringes of space. The VSS Unity spaceplane will be launched in mid-air after dropping from the belly of its mothership at an altitude of about 9.4 miles (15km) before its rocket fires
Richard Branson’s moment of destiny in space will happen 50 miles above a town called Truth or Consequences. In the high desert of New Mexico, a dream that was born when Branson watched the moon landing two days after his 19th birthday will, he hopes, finally be realised. It has been a long journey for
People are being evacuated from a community in the US state of Nevada as a wildlife that started in neighbouring California spreads. The inferno, near Doyle, northeast of the Sierra Nevada region, has doubled in size in recent days as it has rushed through the bone dry timber amid record temperatures in the region. On
A 14-year-old girl has made history by becoming the first African American to win the 96-year-old US Scripps National Spelling Bee. Zaila Avant-garde, a sporting prodigy with several Guinness World Records to her name for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time, won the event by correctly spelling Murraya – a genus of tropical Asiatic and
Police bodycam footage shows officers rescuing a six-year-old girl after she was kidnapped from outside her home in Kentucky. The victim was riding her bicycle in Louisville on 2 July when she was snatched by a stranger in a car, witnesses told the Louisville Metro Police Department. Neighbour Prentiss Weatherford told WHAS-TV that he saw
Recent record-high temperatures in the US and Canada, which caused hundreds of deaths and huge wildfires, would be “virtually impossible” without climate change, analysis has found. A rapid analysis of last week’s heatwave in parts of North America by an international team of climate scientists found global warming driven by human activity made it at
Authorities have called off a search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Florida, saying there is “no chance of life”. Emergency workers shifted their efforts to recovery on Thursday after a fortnight of searching the ruins of the Chaplain Towers South, in Surfside, Miami. A total of 54 bodies had
Ten more bodies have been pulled from the rubble of a Miami building that collapsed two weeks ago, bringing the total death count to 46, authorities have said. Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told family members in a private briefing on Wednesday that additional human remains had also been found in the wreckage. It comes
Eight more people have been confirmed dead in the Florida apartment block collapse – taking total deaths to 36, while 109 residents are still missing. Emergency teams appear increasingly pessimistic of finding any more survivors among the rubble and say they have detected no new signs of life since the immediate aftermath. Miami-Dade County fire