Unvaccinated airline workers will be charged $200 (£146) extra per month for their health insurance, one American carrier has said. Delta Air Lines says the surcharge will be in effect from 1 November, and is necessary to offset the risk those who are not jabbed put on their insurance – similar to how smokers have
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An extra 12,000 COVID-related deaths have been added to the New York State total, following the departure of ex-governor Andrew Cuomo. Mr Cuomo stood down on Monday over claims of sexual harassment by 11 women – allegations which he denies. He was succeeded on Tuesday by former lieutenant governor Kathy Hochul – the first woman
A flight from New Orleans to Seattle was evacuated after a passenger’s mobile phone caught fire inside the cabin. Fortunately the phone did not catch fire while the plane was in the air and all 129 passengers and six crew members were safely transported to the terminal, with no serious injuries although two people received
A grieving father has said he feels like he “failed” his family after his twin babies died in the devastating flooding in Tennessee. At least 22 people were killed and dozens are still missing after record-breaking rainfall and floodwater caused severe damage to homes, buildings, roads and power cables as it rushed through the southeastern
Nearly 43,000 Californians are under evacuation orders as a dozen large wildfires continue to rage across the state. The wildfires have already destroyed hundreds of homes and more than 500 households are in shelters, Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, said. Governor Gavin Newsom has requested a presidential major disaster declaration
Twin babies were among at least 22 people killed as record-breaking rainfall caused devastating flooding in Tennessee. Dozens of people are still missing after floodwater caused severe damage to homes, buildings, roads and power cables as it rushed through the southeastern part of the US state on Saturday. The two seven-month-old babies were said to
Tropical Storm Henri has brought strong winds and rain to the north-eastern US as it makes landfall on the coast of Rhode Island. Henri has sent bands of rain westward, knocking out power to 140,000 homes and causing deluges that have shut bridges and flooded roads. The storm was downgraded from a hurricane before it
Two specific points are worth emphasising from the US president’s latest appearance. Joe Biden didn’t rule out an extension of the 31 August deadline to pull the troops out. Of course it is not clear how the Taliban and its offshoots will react to any extension. He also said the forces on the ground are
Joe Biden has defended the US military pullout in Afghanistan, saying that the mass evacuation of refugees would have been “hard and painful no matter when we started”. The US president said “my heart aches” for the thousands who are stranded outside Kabul airport in desperate scenes, but added that it was “just a fact”
The US president’s latest appearance reflected the need for a display of leadership and control for a situation that’s developing so fast. It has been only a week since Kabul fell, a week since President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal policy revealed all its flaws. It feels like far longer. And so for the second time
President Joe Biden has told US citizens stuck in Afghanistan and allies who worked alongside American forces “we will get you home”, but admitted he cannot promise what the “final outcome” of the troop withdrawal will be. In a news conference at the White House, he admitted images of people desperately trying to flee the
US Capitol Police are responding to reports of a possible explosive device in a truck near the Library of Congress, law enforcement officials have said. People in and around the Cannon House Office Building have been evacuated after concerns over the suspicious vehicle, which is located near the Capitol and Supreme Court. Police said investigators
Stock markets have fallen sharply after signs that the US Federal Reserve could start pulling away emergency support for the world’s biggest economy later this year. In London, the FTSE 100 was down by more than 160 points – or about 2% – in early trading following the publication of minutes of the Fed’s latest
A laboratory in the US is on the cusp of a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research which would see the fuel it generates release more energy than is needed to ignite it. The US National Ignition Facility (NIF) confirmed that a successful experiment on 8 August “made a significant step” toward this goal, which is
A former US soldier fears his Afghan interpreter will be executed by the Taliban before he is able to be evacuated from Kabul under the Special Immigrant Visa programme. James Garafalo served in Afghanistan alongside his interpreter, nicknamed Rambo, in 2017 and 2018. “He slept with us, climbed with us, ate with us and fought
Joe Biden says he stands “squarely” behind his decision to pull US troops out of Afghanistan. The US president spoke after the Taliban entered Kabul and swept to power in the country – 20 years after they were removed in the US-led invasion. Mr Biden said the US mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to
A month-long wildfire ravaging forestlands in northern California has lurched towards a small lumber town, threatening to destroy thousands of homes. Fire crews have been using bulldozers to build lines, in a bid to keep the blaze, known at the Dixie fire, from reaching the town of Westwood. The entire town of approximately 1,700 people
The US COVID crisis has seen children’s intensive care beds run out in Dallas and masks and testing to be made obligatory in schools across California. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced on Saturday that there were no paediatric ICU beds available across the entire 19-county area. Asked what to do if your child falls
Just over a month ago, President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter if a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “inevitable”. “No, it is not,” the president said. “Why?” “Because, you have, the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped, as well-equipped as any army in the world, and an Air Force, against something like 75,000 Taliban.
The upcoming 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the reimposition of coronavirus restrictions could spark violent attacks by extremists, the US Department of Homeland Security has warned. The agency added that the US is in a “heightened threat environment” that has been fuelled by resentment over measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, and extremists motivated