US

US Republican presidential candidates have taken aim at Donald Trump for failing to show up at their latest televised debate. The event, hosted by Fox Business in California, saw Mr Trump’s rivals stepping up their attacks on him in an effort to put a stop to the former president’s commanding lead in the polls ahead

A lucky winner has come forward to claim a $1.6bn (£1.32bn) Mega Millions lottery jackpot in the US. The ticket was bought at a Publix supermarket in Neptune Beach, near Jacksonville in Florida. However, the winner sat on the ticket for a while as the numbers were drawn at the start of August. Under state

A US man who spent nearly 30 years in prison for kidnapping, rape and robbery has been declared innocent and freed. Gerardo Cabanillas was exonerated with the help of DNA testing in a 1995 attack on a couple sitting in a parked car in the city of South Gate in California, the Los Angeles County

Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House, a court has ruled. Judge Arthur Engoron found that the former president and his company deceived banks and insurers by massively overvaluing assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals

A death row prisoner in Alabama is fighting plans for him to be the first person to be executed using nitrogen gas. The new execution method of nitrogen hypoxia causes death by forcing the prisoner to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen. Authorities in Alabama want to execute Kenneth Smith using the method –

The number of first responders from the New York City Fire Department to have died from illnesses related to 9/11 has reached 343 – matching the number who died on the day of the attacks. Hilda Vannata, an emergency medical technician, died from pancreatic cancer on 20 September this year, while retired firefighter Robert Fulco

A US senator facing corruption charges says nearly half a million dollars in cash which authorities discovered in his home was from his personal savings – and not from bribes. Democrat Bob Menendez also said the $480,000 (£393,000) – allegedly found stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets and a safe at his home

A “tentative” deal has been reached to end a long-running strike by writers in Hollywood. The WGA (Writers Guild of America) went on strike in May after negotiations reached an impasse over compensation, minimum staffing of writers’ rooms, and the role of artificial intelligence (AI), among other issues. In July, the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union started

A three-year-old child and two adults were fatally shot during an argument over an apparent dog sale in Florida, according to police. Five people – including the toddler – had gone to a luxury apartment complex at around 10pm on Saturday to meet with some people about the sale of a dog, said Jacksonville Sheriff’s

A sharp rise in migrants crossing the US border from Mexico has pushed a Texas city to “breaking point”, its mayor has warned. With more than 2,000 people a day seeking asylum, services in El Paso have been overwhelmed, leaving the authorities struggling to cope. The influx has also hit the Texas border city of

An alligator was spotted with human remains in its mouth by a passer-by in Florida. The 13-foot reptile was spotted by Jamarcus Bullard in a canal in Largo, about 20 miles west of Tampa. He said he saw the the alligator and a corpse in the water on Friday afternoon. “I threw a rock at

A man has been executed in the US for the rape and murder of a dance student which went unsolved for years until DNA from the crime scene was matched to him while he was in prison for burglary. Anthony Sanchez, 44, protested his innocence as he was strapped down in the death chamber at

A recording has captured the bizarre emergency call made by a US military pilot after ejecting from his jet and landing in a resident’s back garden. The unidentified pilot was flying over Charleston, South Carolina, in an F-35 fighter jet on 17 September when he ejected due to what he described as an “aircraft failure”.

Police have discovered a large quantity of fentanyl hidden in a nursery days after a toddler died from an apparent overdose from the opioid. The owners of the New York nursery, Divino Nino, were concealing bags of the drug and other paraphernalia under a trap door in the children’s play area, authorities said. The hidden

One person has died and dozens are injured – at least five of them seriously – after a bus crashed and slid down an embankment on a highway in New York State. Authorities in Orange County said they were dealing with a “bus rollover”, describing it as a “mass casualty” incident. New York State Police

Google is being sued by the family of a man who drove off a collapsed bridge while following Google Maps. The family of Philip Paxson are accusing the tech giant of negligence, claiming they had been informed the bridge had been collapsed for five years but failed to update their navigation system. The medical device