America

    Diego Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, has died aged 60. The Argentinian, who had brain surgery this month, inspired his country to World Cup glory in 1986 when as captain he displayed a level of skill, creativity, strength and desire arguably not seen before or since. In the 2-1 quarter-final victory over England he also scored perhaps the greatest goal of all time, a match in which the forward also showed his darker, mischievous side with the infamous ‘Hand of God’. Maradona also achieved success at club level, most notably with Napoli, whom he led to their first Serie A title in 1987. A second followed in 1990, alongside an Italian Cup in 1987 and a Uefa Cup in 1991, and such was the player’s impact at a club which previously had...

    President-elect Joe Biden formally announced his first appointments to his incoming cabinet and senior White House leadership, a national security and foreign policy team that reflects the fact that America is back and ready to lead the world, not retreat from it. In remarks from Delaware on Tuesday, Mr Biden said his appointments will confront our adversaries and not reject our allies. His appointments include Antony Blinken as secretary of state, Alejandro Mayorkas to run the Department of Homeland Security, Avril Haines as director of National Intelligence, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the US ambassador to the United Nations, and Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser. Former secretary of state John Kerry has been tapped for a new role as a “climate envoy”...

    Odds have shortened on Joe Biden entering the White House as the Democratic challenger and president Donald Trump await the results of an unprecedented election campaign. As of Thursday morning, online gambling company BetFair was giving Mr Trump a 4/1 chance of winning re-election. The odds for Mr Biden were 1/6. While national polls had shown a landslide for Mr Biden, in reality the results were a lot closer in some states than Democrats had hoped. But the odds on Mr Trump securing a second term lengthened significantly as his opponent won key battlegrounds such as Wisconsin and Michigan. After a rollercoaster 24 hours, it looks like Donald Trump's prospect of re-election is finally starting to fade significantly as his route to victory narrows again, said Betfa...

    Joe Biden's campaign has launched a searing attack on Donald Trump after he pledged to contest the election in the courts. In a subdued and seemingly unscripted speech this morning the US President claimed with no evidence that a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise his voters. He then went on to claim he had won the election, despite many states not declaring their results, and said he would go to the Supreme Court to get all voting to stop. Millions of ballots which were legally cast before the election deadline passed have yet to be counted and could prove crucial in determining who has won the race. This morning Biden's campaign said it has legal teams standing by if Trump follows through with his threat to go to court to try to stop the counti...

    US voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday as the presidential election race nears the finishing line. The winner of the hard-fought contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden is unlikely to be declared on the night, owing to the high number of Americans voting via postal ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But we could get a good indication of who is going to take the White House if a number of key states are won with a large enough margin. Here are the key battleground states to keep an eye on. Electoral maths In order to win the keys to the Oval Office, Democratic candidate Biden needs to secure 38 electoral votes more than the 232 that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. The states below have a combined total of 70 electoral votes and were all taken...

    A shooting at a nightclub early Sunday left two people dead and eight wounded in South Carolina, a sheriff's official said. Two Greenville County sheriff's deputies noticed a disturbance at Lavish Lounge just before 2 a.m., and saw a large crowd running out of the building, Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at a press conference. There was “active gunfire from inside the building,” Lt. Jimmy Bolt said in an initial statement, and Lewis said all the shots were fired inside. Both Lewis and Bolt initially said 12 people had been wounded with at least four in critical condition, Lewis said but Bolt told The Associated Press that two victims were likely counted twice in the confusion at the hospital. No one was immediately taken into custody. Bolt told the AP that the sheriff's...

    John Wayne's name and statue should be removed from Orange County's airport in California because of racist comments, local politicians are demanding. An emergency resolution has been passed condemning the actor's remarks made in a 1971 interview, when he said he believed "in white supremacy". In the Playboy interview, he also used a homophobic slur and said he felt no remorse for the subjugation of Native Americans - who he said had been "selfishly trying to keep [land in America] for themselves". The resolution calls on the Orange County Board of officials to drop his name, statue and other likenesses from the international airport, saying they should "restore its original name: Orange County Airport". Ada Briceno, chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Orange Co...

    Police officers in one of New Jersey's largest and most violent cities were praised on social media for marching alongside protesters in rallies held this weekend over George Floyd's death. Camden County Police Chief Joe Wysocki, who has been working in the city for decades, joined the front line of a march in Camden on Saturday afternoon, sporting his uniform, a protective face mask and a peace sign. ”Yesterday was another example of our ongoing engagement, and a very real dialogue, that we are having with residents throughout Camden that has made our agency part of the fabric of this city," Wysocki said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press. Since Camden's police force disbanded and reformed in 2013 as a county agency, officers there have been hyper-foc...

    The Foreign Office has warned against all but essential travel to the US. The move comes hours after Washington said a ban on flights from the UK would be introduced because of Britain's coronavirus outbreak. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: We are advising against all but essential travel to the USA following the US government announcement imposing restrictions on travel from the UK... The announcement was made shortly before Britons become subject to America's ban on travellers from European countries. Britain joins the list at 4am GMT on Tuesday 17 March. Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf said the ban had been extended because of the growing outbreak in the UK, where 21 people have died. Downing Street said on Saturday night that Boris Johnson had...

    The Senate just voted to acquit President Donald Trump of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress ending a more than four-month impeachment process that began when Trump withheld aid from Ukraine and pressured its leader to investigate Hunter Biden. The acquittal is the third time in US history the Senate has acquitted a president who has previously been impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Clinton in 1999. While several Republican senators acknowledged the president’s wrongdoing, nearly all of them eventually voted to acquit Trump of both articles. Sen. Mitt Romney, ultimately, was the only senator to break with his party and vote to convict on the abuse of power charge. As a result, the vote on the two articles was slightly different. Senator...