A man allegedly kidnapped and murdered a couple he was renting from after finding out he was on the brink of being evicted.

Timothy Burke, 45, was arrested on Friday in connection to the deaths of Karen Koep and Davido, who went missing a week ago.

The bodies of the couple have not yet been found.

Burke was renting from Davido, who does not legally have a last name. Davido’s close friend told law enforcement officials that he believed he was about to evict Burke.

The couple rented their property on Stedman Road Southeast in Lake Forest, Washington, to tenants in camper vans, even if they were unable to pay, according to records obtained by The Seattle Times.

They were last heard from on November 10.

Koep did not show up to work, prompting her office manager to call for a welfare check on November 13.

When sheriff’s deputies entered the couple’s home, they found two big blood stains in the living room, stated a prosecutor. Two law enforcement officers at the scene assessed that it was enough blood loss to lead to death.

Deputies also discovered two bullet holes in the wall, and neighbors said they heard shots fired on Friday or Saturday, court documents state. There were also signs of someone using bleach and a vacuum to try to remove the blood stains.

Detectives believe someone was dragged to the garage where a car might have been. Koep’s vehicle has not been found.

A detective also found a partially written eviction notice by Davido for Burke.

Burke appeared in Thurston County Superior Court on Monday and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

The couple went missing the same week that a New York City landlord turned himself in for fatally stabbing three people, saying he was ‘having issues with his tenants’.

And earlier this month, a Brooklyn landlord was charged with eight counts of attempted murder after allegedly setting fire to a building over unpaid rent, causing the parents in the home to toss four of their children down to neighbors on the ground to save them.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A small plane crashed into the parking lot of a mall, killing an elderly award-winning pilot who was en route to his family for Thanksgiving.

Elzie Monroe McDonald, 87, crashed landed his single-engine Mooney M20 outside of a strip mall in Plano, Texas, around 6pm on Tuesday, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

He was just days away from his 88th birthday, his family told WFAA, and was flying to the Dallas area to visit them for the holiday.

McDonald was trying a go-around, which is an aborted landing attempt in which the plane as it approaches land, then flies back up, stated a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) incident report on Wednesday.

A video showed the plane crashed close to the Nail Addiction salon and just missed striking one of the employees.

‘He’s safe but he’s mentally affected,’ the salon owner told NBC 5, which obtained the clip. ‘He and his wife couldn’t sleep last night. I and my wife couldn’t sleep last night, either. Everyone is still very shocked from the incident.’

The owner of Mama’s Daughters’ Diner next door, Nancy Procaccini, also could not sleep afterward.

‘I love my staff. And I love my customers dearly. And it was just so close,’ she told the TV station. ‘You know, you could picture yourself being almost in a wreck and it’s like, you can almost feel like you were hit. That’s the way it felt for me.’

Witnesses heard a loud boom and saw the right wing dip right before the aircraft crashed, according to The Dallas Morning News.

No one else was aboard.

The plane, which was registered to McDonald, went down less than a mile away from Air-Park Dallas Airport, which does not have an air traffic control tower.

McDonald, of Aguila, Arizona, had recently received an FAA Master Pilot Award, which is given to those who have flown safely for 50 or more years, the Wickenburg Sun reported.

The crash happened just weeks after a pilot flying a single-engine Cessna Skyhawk 172M plane crashed itinto the Florida Everglades on Halloween. The pilot survived a night in the alligator-infested swamp and was found with a wounded leg and rescued.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

New York City’s mayor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman he worked with 30 years ago.

Mayor Eric Adams was hit with the legal action under the Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect in November 2022 and created a one-year window for sexual abuse victims to sue in federal or state courts in cases past their statue of limitations.

‘Plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Defendant Eric Adams in New York, New York in 1993 while they both worked for the City of New York,’ states the summons, according to The Messenger.

‘The claims brought here allege intentional and negligent acts and omissions for physical, psychological, and other injuries suffered as a result of conduct that would constitute sexual offenses.’

The summons informing of legal action, which is followed by a formal complaint, was only three pages long and did not provide further details on the alleged encounter.

Adams denied the allegations through a City Hall spokesperson.

‘If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it,’ the spokesperson told the news outlet.

‘But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim.’

The woman seeks a trial and at least $5million in damages, the filing shows.

She made the filing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday night, the day before the window opened up by the act closes.

Other public figures who have been sued under the act include former President Donald Trump and disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein.

The sexual assault claims are the latest problems facing Adams, a former police captain who was elected mayor in 2021.

He is subject to a federal investigation on whether he colluded with the Turkish government and accepted illegal contributions for his campaign. FBI agents raided the home of his campaign’s chief fundraiser and earlier this month seized the mayor’s phones and iPad on the street in Manhattan.

Adams has denied any wrongdoing and stated he has ‘nothing to hide’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Pro-Palestinian protesters temporarily halted Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City by gluing themselves to the pavement of the route.

The protesters disrupted the 97th annual parade at Sixth Avenue and West 45th Street around 10am on Thursday.

About 30 protesters jumped over barricades and appeared to glue themselves onto Sixth Avenue, WABC reported.

A protester on a float belonging to a New England Native American tribe hoisted a Palestinian flag. The group on the ground unraveled a massive banner reading, ‘Free Palestine’.

Other demonstrators held banners that read, ‘Liberation for Palestine and planet’, and ‘Genocide then, genocide now’.

The white jumpsuit-clad protesters doused each other and the street in a red liquid representing blood.

They forced the parade to continue forward around them. Some members of the crowd booed the white jumpsuit-clad protesters, upset that they brought in the politics of the Israel-Hamas war into the popular family-friendly event.

Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news

Want to be the first to hear the world’s top stories? Metro.co.uk is now on WhatsApp sending vital updates and top trending stories straight to your phone.

Join the Metro WhatsApp community now for breaking news, juicy showbiz stories and must-watch videos from across our website.

Simply click on this link and select ‘Join Chat’. Don’t forget to turn on notifications so you’ll always be the first to hear the latest!

Protesters refused to leave until they were removed by New York Police Department officers. How many demonstrators were taken into custody was not immediately known.

The parade has been a tradition in the Big Apple since it began in 1927.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden called into the parade to express thanks.

‘We have to remind ourselves how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on the face of the earth,’ said the president.

‘Today is about coming together, giving thanks for this country we call home. And thanks to all the firefighters, police officers, first responders and our troops, some of whom are stationed abroad.’

The parade was otherwise a cheerful event under sunny skies. Larger-than-life balloons of Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants were marched through Manhattan and Grammy Award-winning singer Cher performed.

It is not the first time the Thanksgiving parade has been subject to a protest.

In 2014, seven people protesting a court’s decision to not indict a cop in the fatal shooting of a teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. However, they did not disrupt the parade flow.

On Thursday, a large group of pro-Palestine activists also descended on the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade, chanting, ‘From Turtle Island to Palestine, genocide is a crime’, and, ‘Detroit stands with Gaza’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A mother-of-three was discovered stabbed to death inside an apartment ravaged by a fire that killed one of her children.

Firefighters responded to the fire early Tuesday at the Countryside Apartments and were faced with ‘heavy smoke and flames upon arrival’, according to the Daytona Beach Fire Department.

They found the deceased mom and rushed her three kids to a hospital in critical condition.

The youngest child, an infant, was found in a crib close to the mother and died. The two other kids, aged 4 and 5, survived but the nature of their injuries and conditions were not immediately known.

‘This is a horrific incident two days out from a holiday that centers around family,’ Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young said at the scene.

The mother’s identity has not been released, pending notification to her family.

Cops are investigating the fire that started around midnight as a homicide because it had two points of origin in the home, said Daytona Beach Fire Department Lt Antwan Lewis.

State investigators suspect the blaze was set off intentionally, WKMG reported.

No suspect has been named.

A police officer received treatment for smoke inhalation.

‘I’m very proud of all the officers that initially responded, as well as fire and medical personnel,’ said Young. ‘If it wasn’t for their actions, there probably would have been more lives lost.’

It was not clear if other units at the apartment complex at 1200 Beville Road were damaged.

The deadly blaze in Florida happened a few months after a landlord in Brooklyn, New York, allegedly set fire to an apartment because the tenants stopped paying rent. The parents tossed four of their children to neighbors on the ground to save them. Firefighters rescued the two other children from the building. The landlord, Rafiqul Islam, 66, was charged with eight counts of attempted murder, assault and arson earlier this month.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Wild ‘super pigs’ that can eat anything, tear up land and spread devastating diseases are multiplying in Canada and threaten to cross into and wreak havoc in the US.

The pigs, often crossbreeds adept at surviving like wild Eurasian boar and very fertile like domestic swine, have reproduced in high numbers in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The furry pigs, which can carry African swine fever, eat both wildlife and crops and are smart enough to survive brutal Canadian winters.

They are ‘the most invasive animal on the planet’ and an ‘ecological train wreck’, according to University of Saskatchewan professor Ryan Brook.

The uncontrollable population of feral pigs threaten to cross the border into northern US states including Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota.

‘Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven’t already,’ said Brook. ‘The question is: What will be done about it?’

The super pigs are difficult to eradicate because each sow can have six piglets per litter and two litters every year, meaning their population can grow even if more than 65% are killed off annually.

Hunting them exacerbates the problem because there is only a 2% to 3% rate of shooting them down and the pigs have reacted by becoming more nocturnal and harder to track, Brook said.

They have become impossible to eradicate in Canada, where Brook has documented 62,000 sightings. To prevent their invasion and takeover in the US, states must detect the swine early and act fast.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is watching the border for swine using drones and aircraft.

In 2016, USDA Wildlife Services killed off a group of pigs that escaped from a farm in Minnesota and became feral and destroyed a wildlife preserve. The state’s director of Wildlife Services, Gary Nohrenberg, said no more super pigs have been spotted to his knowledge.

Feral pigs cause an estimated $2.5billion in damage to American crops annually and have attacked humans, including one fatal incident with a Texas woman in 2019.

They have been reported in at least 35 states and have a combined population of roughly six million.

The USDA launched the National Feral Swine Management Program in 2014 and has provided funds to 33 states to try to eradicate the wild swine, said the assistant director Mike Marlow.

It has had some success with small feral pig populations in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. But ‘eradication is not in the near future’, Marlow said.

Americans ‘have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox’, Brook said.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

President John F Kennedy’s nephew Robert F Kennedy Jr is petitioning for the release of the final sealed records on the 60th anniversary of his uncle’s assassination.

RFK Jr, a longshot 2024 presidential candidate, posted a petition titled Release The JFK Documents on his campaign website. It states that the 1992 President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act mandated the release of all records linked to JFK’s assassination by 2017.

As of Wednesday – which marks six decades since JFK was fatally shot while riding in a motorcade through downtown Dallas – hundreds of government documents are still under wraps.

‘Trump refused to do it. Biden refused to do it. What is so embarrassing that they’re afraid to show the American public 60 years later?’ states the petition.

‘Trust in government is at an all-time low. Releasing the full, unredacted historical records will help to restore that trust.

‘In the spirit of transparency, in the spirit of democracy, we, the undersigned, call upon President Biden to obey the 1992 act and release the Kennedy assassination documents to the public.’

The online petition had more than 20,000 signatures by Wednesday and dozens of people continued to sign it throughout the day.

Former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, the prime suspect in JFK’s assassination, was shot dead two days later shot by local nightclub owner Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police headquarters.

But a Gallup poll released last week showed that 65% of Americans believe Oswald was not the only actor in the assassination and that others were ‘involved in a conspiracy’.

The 1992 records act signed by President George HW Bush instructed the National Archives to collect records on the assassination and set up a review board to analyze and release them.

President Donald Trump saw through the release of about 53,000 files and then delayed the rest citing ‘identifiable national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns’.

His successor, President Joe Biden also postponed their release upon entering office, saying that the National Archives needed more time to research them amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Archives last year made more than 13,000 records public and estimates that 99% of all documents have been made available. But many Americans are awaiting the final 1% that they hope can provide more answers on JFK’s death.

RFK Jr, who in October left the Democratic Party and declared himself an independent candidate, brought up his uncle, who is the most beloved former president according to a Gallup poll in July.

‘We can redeem my uncle’s vision of our nation as an exemplar of peace, freedom, and service to humankind,’ RFK Jr wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on the 60th anniversary.

‘His death will not have been in vain.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A vehicle exploded in Niagara Falls, causing a fire and killing two people on Rainbow Bridge at the US-Canada border.

The car sped toward the bridge and exploded on the American side of the checkpoint on Wednesday morning, according to law enforcement officials.

Surveillance footage from the US government showed vehicle on a wet road going through an intersection, then hitting a low median and sailing through the air east of the main US Customs and Border Protection checkpoint. It smashed into a row of inspection booths.

‘You actually had to look at it and say, “Was this generated by AI?”‘ said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. ‘Because it was so surreal to see how high in the air this vehicle went and then the crash and explosion and the fire.’

The driver and passenger were killed, Hochul said. One of them was a resident of western New York.

‘Based on what we know at this moment, there is no sign of terrorist activity in this crash,’ the governor said.

In Buffalo, Erie Country Sheriff John Garcia said: ‘We can go on with our lives.’

The crash that drew fears of terrorism on both sides of the border amid a travel rush at the start of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Two witnesses said they heard a loud noise and that a massive smoke cloud formed near the inspections station around 11.20am, according to the Niagara Gazette.

‘We heard something smash,’ said one of the witnesses, Ivan Vitalii who was visiting from Ukraine. ‘We saw fire and big, black smoke.’

Another bystander, Mike Guenther, said he observed a car speeding from the US side to the border crossing and saw it swerve to avoid another vehicle and smash into a fence.

‘All of a sudden he went up in the air and then it was a ball of fire like 30 or 40 feet high,’ he told WGRZ. ‘I never saw anything like it.’

Rainbow Bridge was closed to traffic and a Niagara Falls Police Department captain directed away motorists and pedestrians near the inspections plaza.

President Joe Biden said he was ‘closely following developments’.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed the explosion on Wednesday afternoon.

‘This is obviously a very serious situation in Niagara Falls,’ he said in Parliament. ‘We are taking this extraordinary seriously.’

What caused the explosion was not immediately known.

All four border crossings by land between the US and Canada have been shuttered, according to the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. The other three crossings are at Peace Bridge, Lewiston and Whirlpool.

Hochul directed the state police to work with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force ‘to monitor all points of entry to New York’.

The identities of the victims were not immediately released. A source briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that they were husband and wife.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Sixty years have passed since President John F Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, yet hundreds of records related to the assassination remain sealed by the federal government.

Today marks six decades since shots were fired in Dealey Plaza, and Americans remain deeply interested in the Kennedy assassination.

According to a poll published by Gallup last week, 65% of Americans believe others were involved in the slaying.

Only 29% of Americans are sure former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald was working alone.

But conspiracy believers are divided on exactly who killed Kennedy, who also remains the most beloved popular former president, according to another Gallup poll from July.

About 11% believe the Mafia or other organized crime elements are responsible for the killing. While this theory has long been popular, it has lost traction in recent years.

A total of 38% believe some part of the US federal government is responsible for the president’s death. This belief has steadily grown over the years, increasing by 13 points since 2013.

JFK files

This has lead many researchers to look for clues in the enormous amount of files and records kept by the federal government on the assassination.

The first pieces of documents and evidence released to the public came after the Warren Commission delivered its final report in 1964.

The Commission, which was convened by President Lyndon B Johnson and chaired by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, came to the conclusion that Kennedy was struck by two bullets fired from the Texas School Book Depository overlooking Dealey Plaza in Dallas.

It determined that Oswald acted alone and was not part of a broader conspiracy.

It also found that Oswald’s killer, mob-connected gunman Jack Ruby, likewise acted alone and unaided.

To support its claims, the Warren Commission released over 50,000 pages of documents in 26 volumes, including internal government memos, interview transcripts and witness testimony.

But a majority of Americans – at one point as high as 81% of all citizens – remained convinced that Oswald couldn’t have acted alone.

Unanswered questions

In 1991, the assassination was thrust into the forefront of the American consciousness once again after the release of Oliver Stone’s conspiracy thriller JFK.

Stone’s film followed the investigations of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who became the only prosecutor to charge an individual for crimes related to the assassination.

JFK was enormously popular at the box office, grossing over $70,000,000 in the US. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three for cinematography and editing.

In response to the growing clamor on the unanswered questions, President George HW Bush signed the President John F Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act in October 1992.

Records release

The law instructed the National Archives (NARA) to collect all available documents related to the assassination. It also set up the Assassination Records Review Board to analyze the documents and release them to the public.

The Board spent four years combing through the documents, and ultimately releasing more than four million pages of records.

‘These records include critical documentation on the events in Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the reactions of government agencies to the assassination,’ the board stated in its final report on the efforts.

‘They also include documents that enhance the historical understanding of that traumatic event in recent American history by placing it in the broader context of political and diplomatic events.’

The full records collection can be reviewed at NARA’s digital archive for the documents.

By the time the board disbanded in 1998, it released almost all of the records collected, keeping only private individuals’ tax returns sealed.

‘Rolling basis’ release

But the board also left tens of thousands of documents either completely sealed or partially redacted. According to the law signed in 1992, the unreleased records must be made public in 25 years.

The deadline finally came in 2017, as President Donald Trump was nearing the end of his first year in office. Trump, who previously voiced support for releasing the full archives, signed an executive order declassifying thousands of records.

‘The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow,’ the former president tweeted on the eve of their release. ‘So interesting!’

Both professional and amateur researchers watched eagerly for the release – but were left disappointed as the Trump administration seemingly backpedaled on their promise of full transparency.

The Record Collection Act did allow the government to continue withholding documents if they created ‘identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations’.

NARA released only 2,891 records on October 26, 2017, most of which were already available but partially redacted.

Then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo was a leading advocate for keeping the documents under seal, Reuters reported at the time.

The Trump administration promised to release the documents ‘on a rolling basis’. Between November 2017 and April 2018, NARA released thousands more documents.

Remaining 1%

After President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he restarted the records release process, as directed in two memos signed in 2022 and 2023.

‘As I have reiterated throughout my Presidency, I fully support the Act’s aim to maximize transparency by disclosing all information in records concerning the assassination, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise,’ Biden wrote in the most recent memo from June.

Thousands of more records were released in 2021, 2022 and this year. After the most recent release in August, the White House claimed that 99% of all documents collected by the Review Board have been made available to the public.

But based on the recent polling, Americans still show little acceptance of the official story to date. Perhaps that final 1% of documents would finally point us toward a clearer picture of the truth.

Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.

A teenage girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert has been charged with murdering a man she lured online.

Natalie Navarro, 17, as well as her boyfriend and apparent accomplice Yordy Martinez, 21, face capital murder charges in the shooting death of 21-year-old Arturo Pena in late August.

Navarro is also accused of being ‘in the course of committing and attempting’ to rob Pena when she allegedly shot him, according to the indictment earlier this week.

Investigators believe that Navarro met Pena online, said the Garland Police Department.

Navarro told cops ‘she had spoken to Yordy once before online but had never met him in person the night of the actual murder,’ police spokesperson Richard Maldonado told Fox News Digital.

However, authorities believe she was not telling the whole truth.

Cops suspect that Navarro met Pena in person two weeks before the shooting and was trying to set him up, FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported. Pena was reported missing on August 27.

Navarro disappeared from an apartment complex in the Far East Dallas neighborhood and The Dallas Police Department issued an Amber Alert for her on September 1, only a few days after Pena’s body was discovered at Audubon Park in Garland, Texas.

Cops found Navarro a few hours after her Amber Alert was issued, near the border with Mexico.

Martinez remains at large.

Pena’s girlfriend, Veronica Lopez, wrote on a GoFundMe page for him that ‘our angel was viciously taken from his family and loved ones’.

She wrote that she could not say too much because his death is still under investigation, but that, ‘When I was praying, I heard a still voice say, “I’m home. I’m home.”‘

As of Tuesday evening, the GoFundMe page had raised more than $3,300.

Navarro faces charges as a judge determined that another teenage girl, Kaitlyn Coones, 17, will be tried as an adult for allegedly killing her boyfriend’s mother after giving him five hours to do get rid of her himself.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Former President Donald Trump touted his weight loss from an ‘improved diet’ on his successor and 2024 opponent Joe Biden’s 81st birthday.

Trump, 77, shared his health report from his personal physician on Monday afternoon, seemingly to contrast himself to Biden whose age has many Americans feeling he is unfit to serve another presidential term.

In a single-page report dated November 20, Trump’s physician since 2021 stated that he has ‘reduced his weight through an improved diet and continued daily activity, while maintaining a rigorous schedule’.

Dr Bruce Aronwald wrote that Trump’s most recent extensive laboratory examination ‘remains well within normal limits and was even more favorable than prior testing in some of the most significant parameters, most likely secondary to weight reduction’.

Aronwald added that Trump’s ‘cognitive exams were exceptional’.

‘It is my opinion that President Trump is currently in excellent health,’ wrote Aronwald, ‘And with his continued interest in preventative health monitoring and maintenance, he will continue to enjoy a healthy active lifestyle for years to come.’

The report did not include Trump’s weight, or any other numbers or detailed descriptions of his health measurements.

Trump’s weight recently made headlines in August, when the booking sheet in his arrest in the Georgia election interference case stated he was 215 pounds and 6 foot 3 inches tall.

That immediately drew comparisons on social media to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Johnson, who is roughly the same weight but 6 foot 2 inches tall.

Trump shared his health report hours after Biden spent the morning partaking in the annual White House turkey pardoning, during which he made his latest blunder confusing pop stars Taylor Swift and Britney Spears.

Days earlier, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll showed that 54% of respondents felt Biden does not have ‘the competence to carry out the job of president’. The poll published on Wednesday also had Biden trailing Trump in the 2024 election, 42% to 44%.

Trump’s apparent improved diet is a departure from his days in the White House, when he was known to eat many items from McDonald’s and even ordered from the fast food chain for visiting guests.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A painting that was stolen from a New York City gallery six decades ago in a $1million heist has been recovered more than 3,000 miles away in the UK.

The painting by French post-impressionist Edouard-Leon Cortés, titled Flower Market Madeleine, was taken from the Herbert Arnot Gallery sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. It has turned up in Lancashire, Art Recovery International announced on Tuesday.

It was one of more than 3,000 paintings that Arnot Gallery manager and salesman Louis Edelman sold and then invoiced buyers under his name – behind his employer’s back.

Edelman in 1966 decided to leave his job at the gallery at 250 West 57th Street to open his own close by. After getting away with selling several thousands of works worth more than $1million, Edelman was arrested by the FBI in Chicago and convicted of transporting stolen art across state lines.

The stolen works have since been popping up for sale at galleries and auction houses across the globe.

Flower Market Madeleine was put up for sale earlier this year by Carnes Fine Art, a dealer in Mawdesley. The work was consigned to Capes Dunn last year by a Cheshire estate who acquired it from the London-based MacConnal-Mason Gallery. Capes Dunn, located near Manchester, sold the painting to Carnes in November 2022.

‘We are very grateful to Bradley Carnes, Capes Dunn, and their vendor for releasing this stolen painting unconditionally to the Arnot Gallery,’ stated Art Recovery International founder and lawyer Christopher Marinello.

‘While in this instance, we were able to convince many of the parties to reimburse the other, eventually there will be those who are out of luck.’

Edelman was given a two-year prison sentence and $10,000 fine. But decades later, most of the paintings are still missing.

Marinello advises anyone who sells or purchases a painting by Cortés or Antoine Blanchard to check for proper authentication with the Arnot Gallery.

‘We have been recovering one or two pictures per year from this 60-year-old theft,’ Marinello stated, ‘And we’re never going to give up until every last one is returned.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A Tennessee city has removed a city ordinance which previously banned homosexuality in public.

The city of Murfreesboro had a ‘public decency’ ordinance passed in June which prohibited ‘indecent behaviours’, including homosexuality, acts of masturbation and sexual intercourse.

The ordinance had been passed into city code earlier this year, sparking outrage from opposition groups – including the American Civil Liberties Union, who sued the city on behalf of the Tennessee Equality Project.

City officials may have hoped to drive out the LGTBQ community – in particular, drag performers – but the removal of the term ‘homosexuality’ from the ordinance was passed days ago in a major victory.

But the battle for opposition groups continues, as local officials have now begun to use the ‘public decency’ ordinance to target library books with LGBTQ themes.

Local activist Keri Lambert said at a meeting in early November: ‘When, in the history of the world, have the people banning books been the good guys?’

Tennessee governor Bill Lee has also been at the centre of a firestorm for proposing a ban on drag shows in the state – even after he was pictured in drag in the 1970s.

Tennessee introduced a bill which criminalizes the act of taking part in an ‘adult cabaret performance’ or a drag show on public property.

But a photo on Reddit soon went viral, appearing to show the politician dressed in drag during his time as a high school student.

The teenage Bill Lee can be seen wearing a wig, a cheerleader’s uniform and a pearl necklace.

In response, his office told the Daily Beast that a ‘lighthearted school tradition’ should not be ‘conflated’ with the bill.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A mysterious respiratory illness is making dogs sick across the US and has veterinarians and researchers baffled.

Pups infected with the disease have come down with coughs lasting weeks, leading to pneumonia as well as severe respiratory distress.

At least five states have been hotspots of cases: Colorado, Rhode Island, Oregon, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Little is known about the disease, which in some cases has been deadly.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture began receiving reports of ‘an atypical canine infectious respiratory disease (CIRDC)’ around the Portland metro and Willamette Valley areas in August. It has since received more than 100 reports of cases.

In most instances, antibiotics have not been effective against the illness and symptoms have often worsened within 24 to 36 hours, according to the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association. The association has received more than 200 reports of possible cases.

‘Based on the epidemiology of the cases reported at this point, the cases appear to share a viral etiology,’ Oregon State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz told the American Veterinary Medical Association. ‘But common respiratory diagnostic testing has been largely negative.’

North Springs Veterinary Referral Center in Colorado has treated at least 35 dogs with the mystery illness since October 20. Four of them died from severe pneumonia.

Symptoms observed included difficulty breathing, cough, fever, sneezing, discharge from the eyes and nose and appetite loss, said veterinarian Lindsey Ganzer, who owns the center.

‘We need to be treating sooner rather than later. It’s really important,’ Ganzer told The Washington Post.

‘I’ve had cases where it’ll be two housemate dogs, and one of them will show signs, but I’ve gone ahead and started both on antibiotics. A couple days later, the other one will start to cough but is doing better than the first one.’

Ganzar is recommending that pet owners avoid leaving them at boarding facilities and day cares where the disease could spread among dogs.

‘I know it’s going to be hard with the holidays coming up,’ she said, ‘But trying to find somebody that will come to your house and take care of your dog is a better option.’

There is currently no evidence that the respiratory disease can spread to other animals or humans.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

An enormous military plane has crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii after overshooting the runway at a US Marine Corps base.

There were no casualties among the nine crew members on the P-8A Poseidon aircraft following the incident on Monday afternoon, military officials said.

The jet, which uses the body of a Boeing 737 passenger plane and is typically used for reconnaisance and intelligence gathering, could be seen floating intact on the surface of shallow Kaneohe Bay off the main Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Marine Corps spokesperson 1st Lt. Hailey Harms said the medical condition of the nine personnel, who swam to shore following the crash, was being assessed.

Experts believe the plane may have overshot the runway due to poor weather conditions on the island at the time.

The US National Weather Service said visibility in the area was down to around a mile at the time of the incident, with gusts of up to 21mph.

Aircraft expert Peter Forman told Hawaii News Now that the runway at the Kaneohe base is relatively short, which also may have made landing trickier for the pilot.

He said: ‘The pilot probably didn’t put the plane down exactly where he wanted to on the runway.

‘It’s probably a combination of all those factors put together.’

The US Navy’s Third Fleet said the plane was ‘on a detachment in support of maritime homeland defense’ away from its usual base in Whidbey Island, Washington state.

There has been no indication of how long it may take to remove the jet from the sea, as concerns grow about its potential environmental impact.

The Poseidon P-8A is used by several militaries across the world, including the Royal Air Force which began using nine of the aircraft in 2020.

Since then, they have been used to keep an eye on Russian ships in the North Sea and North Atlantic.

The Marine Corps took over control of Kaneohe base from the US Navy in 1951, 10 years after it was attacked by the Japanese a few minutes before the deadly assault on Pearl Harbor in nearby Honolulu.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

The alleged boyfriend of former missing teen Alicia Navarro made a court appearance and pleaded not guilty to possessing child sexual abuse photos.

Edmund Davis, 36, was balding and had a beard and wore an orange jumpsuit as he entered a not guilty plea to two felony child sex abuse charges in a Zoom appearance at the District Court in Harve, Montana, on Monday.

Davis’ public defender, Casey Moore, said he would file a motion to reduce the bail, which was set at $1million, after speaking to the defendant’s dad and Assistant Attorney General Dan Guzynski.

Authorities have not yet said if Davis is a suspect in 18-year-old Alicia’s four-year disappearance.

Alicia ran away from her home in Glendale, Arizona, at the age of 14 in September 2019 and walked into a police station 1,000 miles away in Havre in July to take herself off the missing persons list.

Davis was arrested on October 23 after dozens of images of suspected child sex abuse material were found on his cell phone. Medical experts determined that the subjects in 10 of the images were under 13 years old and two of them were less than 5 years old. He was booked into the Hill County Detention Center.

He has been charged with possessing images of children under 12 engaged in actual or simulated sexual conduct, which carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years behind bars and up to 100. Davis has also been charged with possessing images of the sex abuse of kids under 16, which could result in four to 100 years in prison.

No more hearings for Davis were immediately set on Monday.

Alicia, now 19, was confirmed to be reunited with her family earlier this month.

‘I thank you all for all the support… My family is complete,’ wrote her mother, Jessica Nunez, on Facebook.

‘We need to heal and for that to be possible I will ask privacy… I thank everyone for all the concerns and support… god is a miracle worker.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A teenage girl allegedly killed her boyfriend’s mother by bludgeoning her with a rock after giving him an ultimatum to commit the crime himself.

Kaitlyn Coones, 17, a foster child from Canton, Ohio, was dating Jonathan Jones, 33, and gave him five hours to get rid of his mother Nicole Jones, 53, because she was intervening in their relationship, according to the prosecutor in the case.

The teen was living in her boyfriend’s bedroom and Nicole may not have been aware.

‘Kaitlyn had told Jonathan that they needed to do something about his mother because she was preventing them from being together and she gave him five hours to do something about her,’ said Sylvania Township Detective Albright, according to WOIO.

‘And at one point in the interview, she even mentioned to killing her.’

A judge determined on Friday that Kaitlyn will be tried as an adult in the case, and new details of the alleged murder were emerged in court.

Kaitlyn was the custody of Stark County Children Services and vanished in April. She allegedly sent a text message to a nurse at the group home stating that she had killed two people and had fled.

Jonathan reportedly picked Kaitlyn up at a restaurant and drove her to his home, where she went into his bedroom through the window so Nicole would not see her.

Kaitlyn gave Jonathan five hours to kill his mom, then an additional hour. Kaitlyn then killed Nicole herself, testified Albright, according to WTVG.

‘She went outside retrieved a rock and when Nicole Jones was standing in front of the refrigerator in the kitchen, unaware of Kaitlyn’s presence bludgeoned Nicole Jones a number of times and strangled her,’ said Lucas County Prosecutor Andy Lastra.

The couple then disposed of Nicole’s body in a dumpster at the apartment complex and it was emptied out at a landfill. They then fled to Mexico and were arrested there.

Jonathan was wearing a GPS monitor from being convicted of having an inappropriate relationship with Kaitlyn and it was used to track him to the dumpster, the prosecutor said.

Nicole’s remains may never be found, cops said.

Kaitlyn has been charged with murder, aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. Jonathan is also charged in the murder of his mom.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A mother-of-four who was missing for a week has been discovered dead in a storage unit registered to her estranged husband.

The body of Shakeira Rucker, 37, was found in a unit at Self Storage at 2400 Wiggins Road in Apopka, Florida, on Saturday, said the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Rucker’s death has turned into a homicide investigation.

‘Shakeira’s family was notified this evening,’ wrote the sheriff’s office on Facebook. ‘We grieve with them & our detectives are committed to bringing them justice in this case.’

Rucker left behind children aged seven, nine, 16 and 18, according to her sister Dedra Rucker.

‘She was a loving mother to four beautiful children and a victim of senseless violence,’ wrote Dedra in a GoFundMe page to raise money to support the four children.

‘Shakeira was murder by her husband and left lifeless in a storage for 6 days.’

Her sister said the family went on a manhunt but a citizen found the decomposing body first.

‘This was unexpected and has taken a major toll on her children,’ Dedra wrote.

A citizen reported a foul odor coming from the storage unit, which led to the grisly discovery. Shakeira seemed to have died from gunshot wounds, but her autopsy is pending, said Sheriff John Mina.

‘My heart breaks, I can’t imagine the pain and suffering (her family) have been enduring this past week,’ Mina said on Sunday morning, according to WESH.

Rucker’s husband, Cory Hill, 51, is the only suspect in the case and is expected to be charged in her murder, the sheriff said.

‘Cory Hill could have stopped a lot of that pain and suffering by talking to investigators in the very beginning instead of putting them through this week-long nightmare,’ Mina said.

‘The storage unit was registered to him, he had to have known that we would eventually find her in there, so it’s very, very disappointing.’

Shakeira was last seen with Hill at a restaurant in Polk County on November 11. Hours after she was last seen, Hill allegedly went to his ex-girlfriend Angel Milligan’s home and shot at her, and Shakeira was struck in the scuffle.

‘I heard gunfire,’ Milligan told WESH. ‘I felt two of them pass by my face.’

Hill has a criminal record including a murder conviction from a 1992 shooting of a man who stole his car with his baby daughter.

Winter Springs Police Chief Matthew Tracht on Sunday said, ‘It’s not the outcome we expected, but there’s a little bit of closure for Shakeira’s family.’

The GoFundMe page, which was launched to provide Shakeira’s kids ‘with the care, comfort, and resources they need during this incredibly difficult time’, had raised more than $900 as of Monday afternoon.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

President Joe Biden spent the morning of his 81st birthday at the White House pardoning turkeys and during the annual tradition confused Taylor Swift with Britney Spears.

Biden set a new record as the oldest US president on Monday, and joked about his age.

‘It’s my birthday today… I just want you to know, it’s difficult turning 60 – it’s difficult,’ he said.

Partaking in the presidential tradition, he pardoned Liberty and Bell, sparing the birds from ending up on the dinner table.

Biden said the two turkeys went through hard work to be selected to be with him on the White House lawn. They had to ‘show patience and be willing to travel over 1,000 miles’, Biden said.

‘You could say even harder than getting a ticket to the Renaissance tour, or, or, or, Britney’s tour,’ he continued, shutting his eyes as he struggled with what he was trying to say.

‘She’s down in… it’s kind of warm in Brazil right now.’

Biden appeared to mix up Britney Spears with another pop superstar, Taylor Swift who began a three-concert stop of her Eras Tour in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. The heat was so sweltering there on Friday that a fan died, and Swift postponed her show on Saturday to Monday. Spears was not in Brazil.

The Renaissance World Tour was Beyonce’s and ended early last month.

Biden’s blunder came as 54% of respondents in a Yahoo News/YouGov poll felt he does not have ‘the competence to carry out the job of president’, up from 49% nine months ago. The poll released on Wednesday also showed Biden trailing his predecessor Donald Trump, 42% to 44%, in the 2024 election.

Asked about his forthcoming birthday, the White House did not directly address the age issue on Sunday but chose to focus on the president’s accomplishments, making the point that his long experience in Washington has paid off.

Asked about Biden’s age on Sunday, the White House did not respond directly.

‘Because of President Biden’s decades of experience in public service and deep relationships with leaders in Congress, he passed legislation that has helped to create more than 14million jobs, lower prescription drug costs, invest in America’s infrastructure and technology and led to the strongest economic recovery in the developed world,’ White House communications director Ben LaBolt told The New York Times.

‘He has revitalized alliances on the world stage – cultivated over many years – to promote America’s interests and respond forcefully when global crises arise.’

Biden’s only public event on Monday was the turkey pardoning. He is heading to Nantucket on Tuesday for a vacation with his family.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A library book that was more than a century overdue has finally been returned to the shelves in a US library.

The copy of Titled Famous Composers was checked out from the public library in St Paul, Minnesota, way back in 1919.

Featuring the likes of Bach and Mozart, the book turned up while someone was sorting through a relative’s belongings.

St Paul’s Mayor Melvin Carter joked in a tweet on Saturday that there would be no fine – as the library, like many in the US, stopped charging late fees.

John Larson, the St Paul Public Library’s digital library co-ordinator, said he doubted it will go back into circulation because of its delicate condition, but expected the library to hang on to it.

He said: ‘It has reached a point where it’s not just an old book, it’s an artefact. It has a little bit of history to it.’

Mr Larson said it was the oldest book he had ever seen returned in his 25 years working for the library.

‘There’s been a time or two when something has come back and maybe it has been checked out for 20 or 30 years, but nothing where it looks like it has been out for some 100 years,’ he said.

One man in Canada returned a book to his local library more than 37 years late – and said he never even read it.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

The suspect in a series of shootings across Tennessee has been found dead following a police manhunt.

Three women and a teenage girl were shot and killed at three different locations in Tennessee.

Police in Memphis were searching for Mavis Christian Jr, 52 with local, state and federal law enforcement involved in the search.

However Christian has now been found dead in his car with a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Officers were called to a shooting on the 100 Block of Howard Drive at 9.22pm on Saturday, where they found a woman who was declared dead at the scene.

She had suffered an apparent gunshot wound and investigators have linked the killing to two other shootings in the town.

One woman and a 13-year-old girl were killed in Field Lark Drive where another teen, 15, was found critically injured.

A third woman was found dead in Warrington Road.

Police have not released the timings of each shooting but warned the public not to approach Christian, who is believed to have been driving a white 2017 Chevrolet Malibu.

Each shooting is believed to have been a domestic violence incident, police added.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A five-year-old girl was discovered dead by her parents in a laundry hamper at their home.

Khloe Teresa Williamson was rushed unresponsive to St. Vincent’s East hospital, where she was pronounced dead around 7.17am on Monday.

The girl was last seen playing with her brother and sister at their home in Trussville, Alabama.

‘She was a happy child and brought incredible joy to her family. Her smile was infectious to everyone she met,’ states her obituary.

‘Khloe loved going to school at Magnolia Elementary, reading, singing and dancing. Most of all she loved playing with her siblings and spending time with her family.’

A medical examiner performed her autopsy on Monday but her cause of death is pending additional lab studies, said Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates, according to The Mirror.

Khloe’s death is believed to have been accidental but an investigation continues.

Trussville City Schools stated on Monday evening that Khloe was a kindergartner and that her mother was a teacher.

She was a ‘precious, smart and inquisitive child whose heartbreaking loss has affected us all’, stated the school district.

‘This is a very sad and tragic event, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family.’

The school district provided on-site counselors for students and staff.

‘We are more than a school system in Trussville, we are a family,’ it stated. ‘Something like this touches us all, and we will provide support to the family in the coming days and weeks as they deal with this tragic loss.’

Khloe is survived by her mother, Alicia Williamson; brother Isaiah and sister Camille; two grandparents an aunt and uncle and three cousins.

Her memorial service will be held on 2.30pm on Saturday at First Baptist Church of Trussville. Her family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Khloe Williamson Memorial Fund.

Khloe’s death comes just a few weeks after a nine-year-old Florida girl playing on an obstacle course strap with other children inside a gated community died when a palm tree fell on her.

In 2018, a three-year-old boy died after getting locked in a washing machine while playing hide-and-seek with his sister in Slupsk, Poland.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A suspect opened fire at a psychiatric hospital in New Hampshire before being shot dead.

The shooting around 4pm on Friday was ‘contained to the front lobby’ of New Hampshire Hospital, said State Police Director Mark Hall.

Cops took down the shooter at the psychiatric facility in Concord and ‘all patients are safe’, Hall said.

Authorities initially reported ‘multiple victims’. Hall did not specify how many people were injured.

One person was admitted to Cocord Hospital, a spokeswoman for the facility told The Washington Post. She added she did not know of any other injuries from the incident.

‘There is no active shooter threat to the public,’ Hall told reporters. ‘The scene remains active as one suspicious vehicle has been located.’

Democratic Rep Annie Kuster said the shooting was ‘horrifying’ and urged the public to stay away from the hospital amid the investigation.

‘Thank you to the State Police Officers who responded to the scene so quickly,’ stated Kuster. ‘My thoughts are with the victim, their family, and the Concord community.’

The hospital has about 185 beds and is the only psychiatric hospital for adults run by the state.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Former President Donald Trump attended the funeral for his eldest sister Maryanne Trump Barry alongside his family and expressed his love for her in the final farewell.

‘Funeral Now. I Love Maryanne,’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform on Friday morning. ‘God Bless You. Rest In Peace!’

Trump, his wife Melania Trump, and eldest children Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump and their significant others gathered outside St Ignatius of Loyola church on Park Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the New York Post reported.

The Trump family embraced each other as Barry’s coffin was pulled out of a black Cadillac hearse and they watched as it was carried inside the church by pallbearers.

Trump wore a navy suit with a gray tie. Melania stood next to him wearing a black coat and black sunglasses. Ivanka a long-sleeved black lace dress and had a black bow on her hair. Trump Jr wore a black suit and his brother Eric a dark gray one.

Barry, a former federal appellate judge, was found dead in her Upper East Side home at the age of 86 on Monday morning. Trump Jr that morning outside the courthouse where he testified in his dad’s fraud trial said it was ‘a rough day for myself and my family’ learning about Barry’s death.

Trump on Friday re-shared his post from Tuesday on his ‘great sister’.

‘A truly beautiful woman, tall and elegant, with a presence like no other, she was also a tremendous student, intellect, and Judge, in charge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, just below the U.S. Supreme Court,’ he wrote.

‘Her life was largely problem free, PERFECT, until I made it difficult for her when I decided to run for President.’

Barry, who was appointed to serve as a judge in New Jersey’s US District Court by then-president Ronald Reagan in 1983, defended her brother and was the subject of an investigation into whether she was involved in fraudulent tax schemes with Trump and her siblings.

Trump attacked ‘The Fake News’ for going after her ‘mercilessly’.

Barry also criticized Trump, secret recordings by their niece Mary Trump revealed. She apparently called Trump ‘cruel’ and said he ‘has no principles’.

But Trump said only good things about his sister during the farewell.

‘I will never forget the many times people would come up to me and say, “Your sister was the smartest person on the Court,”‘ Trump wrote.

‘I was always honored by that, but understood exactly what they meant—They were right! She was a great Judge, and a great sister. She will be truly missed!’

One of the 13 priests taking part in Barry’s service, Jesuit Reverend Joseph Parkes, said she was ‘a very generous woman’.

‘The homily was about the type of life she led, caring for so many people,’ Parkes told the Post. ‘She certainly helped the Jesuits out, particularly the schools we run for low-income kids. She was an extraordinarily generous person.’

About 100 people attended the service. Trump shook hands with the priests outside the church, and a bagpiper played as Barry’s casket was carried out of the church.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Disgraced lawyer Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty to a total of 101 counts of financial crimes.

Murdaugh, 55, accepted a plea deal for embezzling over $8.8million of his clients’ funds while working as a prominent personal injury attorney in his home state of South Carolina.

The years-long fraud lead to charges of embezzlement, money laundering, and tax evasion.

‘I agree that I wrongly took all of that money, your honor, and did all of those crimes’ Murdaugh told the court on Friday.

Prosecutors asked Judge Clifton Newman for a 27-year prison sentence as part of the plea deal. A final sentence will be determined at a hearing on November 28.

When asked if he understood the seriousness of his guilty plea, Murdaugh smirked and replied, ‘I’ve had a long time to think about it.’

‘This is a win for the victims and for justice in South Carolina,’ Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement. ‘We hope the families he betrayed and stole from feel a little peace that he is going to serve time for those crimes.’

Murdaugh is currently serving two life sentences for killing his wife, Margaret, and his son, Paul, at his country estate in 2021.

He was found guilty of murder after a high profile jury trial in March.

Murdaugh has previously admitted to committing the financial crimes, but continues to deny involvement in the murders.

In September, Murdaugh pleaded guilty to 22 more federal financial crimes, including wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy.

‘There’s two things Alex will tell you,’ his attorney Dick Harpootlian said after he pleaded guilty in federal court. ‘One, he stole the money. Two, he did not kill Maggie and Paul.’

Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.

A lobsterman in Maine leaped from his boat to rescue a stranded woman who drove a stolen car into the Atlantic Ocean.

Police and firefighters in Portland, Maine responded to reports of a submerged car in the Casco Bay around 12.00pm on Thursday.

They arrived to find a Ford Mustang had driven off the Cutter Street Boat Launch in Portland’s East End neighborhood and was now sinking into the bay.

Both police officers and firefighters attempted to force entry into the sinking car, which was now submerged about 75 yards offshore in 50 degree Fahrenheit ocean water.

Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan on a nearby lobster boat noticed the emergency and leapt into action. The man was equipped with a diver and assisted rescuers in extracting the car’s occupant, the Portland Police Department said in a news release.

Police later identified the Good Samaritan as Manny Kourinos.

‘It was automatic—came to me what to do,’ Kourinos told News Center Maine.

‘I’ve been diving, you know, for over 20 years now, and never been in that circumstance where I had to recover someone from underwater.’

Portland Police Lt Robert Douherty called Kourinos’ actions ‘absolutely amazing.’

‘He risked his life without hesitation,’ the officer said.

The occupant, who was identified as a 33-year-old woman, was hoisted out of the water and onboard the Portland Police Department’s Marine 3 vessel.

‘The occupant was unresponsive without a pulse, but was later revived and transported to Maine Medical Center,’ the police department said.

The cause of the incident is still under investigation, but police did confirm that the sports car was reported stolen in South Portland earlier that day.

It is unclear if the victim will be facing charges related to the stolen vehicle.

Got a story? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. Or you can submit your videos and pictures here.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Follow Metro.co.uk on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news updates. You can now also get Metro.co.uk articles sent straight to your device. Sign up for our daily push alerts here.

A British taxi boss bought a gun specifically to kill his wife before turning the weapon on himself, police believe.

Carl Ashcroft shot his wife then killed himself in their daughter’s home in California, USA, on November 12.

The 61-year-old killed his wife Kathryn, 55, and even told a friend what he was going to do beforehand, Wigan Today reported.

The person who received the call dismissed it as a joke initially before the couple were both found with gunshot wounds.

It happened at their daughter Fallon’s home in Rancho Mirage, a city in Riverside County just south east of Palm Springs.

Ashcroft, who was the owner of Pemberton Taxis based in Wigan, Greater Manchester in England, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kathryn was rushed to hospital where she later died from her injuries.

Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has said in a statement the case is being investigated as a ‘murder-suicide’, and added there’s no threat to the wider community.

Sergeant Mike Kelleher said yesterday: ‘The victim in this case was identified as Kathryn Ashcroft, a 55-year-old resident of Simi Valley.

‘The suspect has been identified as Carl Ashcroft, a 61-year-old resident of Simi Valley.’

Investigations into what happened are still underway but US police believe Ashcroft shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself.

The source said: ‘The shooting happened at Fallon’s house. We don’t know if she was there at the time or not. But it’s truly horrible.

‘Carl had never bothered with guns while in America but something has clearly gone badly wrong.

‘I’ve been told he bought this gun for the specific purpose of doing what he did.

‘Then he rang someone to tell them he was going to kill Kathy but at first they took it as a joke so they didn’t do anything about it.

‘It is so terribly sad. Kathy was a lovely woman who spent most of her life in Wigan but didn’t have any family here. She must never be forgotten though.’

Ashcroft and Kathryn met 40 years ago when Kathryn was in her mid-teens.

Friends have described them as a loving couple who would do everything together.

They spent most of their relationship living in Wigan, but had been spending time in America recently – in Florida and then California.

A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said: ‘The case will continue to be investigated by the Sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit and the Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau until a determination can be made.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A man who was executed yesterday shared an urgent message before he died for young people who are struggling with their mental health.

Casey McWhorter, who shot and killed his friend’s dad during a pre-planned robbery in 1993, was killed by lethal injection yesterday in Alabama, the US, over 30 years after the crime happened.

But before he died at the age of 49, he urged other young people to stop and think before they make a life-changing mistake like his.

McWhorter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death at the age of 18 after he shot and killed 34-year-old Edward Lee Williams.

He and two other teenagers, including Edward’s 15-year-old son, conspired to steal money from Edward and kill him.

But in a recent interview McWhorter said he never intended to go through with the killing.

The situation escalated when Edward unexpectedly returned home while his house was being ransacked.

The group were in the house grabbing items when Edward came in and began fighting with his son because of the gun he had.

McWhorter then entered from another room, and Edward noticed him and began swinging at him. McWhorter said he did the only thing he could think to do – which was to start shooting with the other gun he had.

He shot Edward in the abdomen but says he meant to aim for his legs.

Edward was shot about 11 times with a 22-caliber weapon, according to Alabama governor Kay Ivey.

In his final words before he was executed for the crime three decades later, McWhorter said he loved his mother and family, and said sorry to the victim’s family.

He said: ‘I would like to say I love my mother and family. I would like to say to the victim’s family I’m sorry. I hope you found peace.’

He also addressed accusations of domestic abuse facing the prison warden executing him, calling him a ‘habitual abuser of women’.

McWhorter added that he had been a ‘very confused kid’ when he carried out the robbery and shot Edward.

He said: ‘I had some issues going on in my head that I didn’t know how to fix, and the only way I knew to feel acceptance was doing some of the stupid stuff I was doing with the people I was doing it with. I felt like they were family at that point.’

This is when he urged other young people to think before acting, adding that his actions ruined his life and he doesn’t want other people to go through what he has.

He continued: ‘Anything that comes across them that just doesn’t sit well at first, take a few seconds to think that through.

‘Because one bad choice, one stupid mistake, one dumb decision can alter your life — and those that you care about — forever.’

McWhorter’s lawyers did request a stay on his execution on Thursday, citing two reasons – his age at the time of the crime and issues with chemicals used in Alabama’s lethal injections.

The state has recently had to impose a moratorium on executions lasting several years due to issues with the chemicals.

McWhorter was 18 on February 18, 1993 when the crime took place, and under Alabama’s law he would still be considered a minor.

But the US Supreme Court declined to halt his execution on this basis.

Prosecutors recommended for the execution to still go ahead because even though he was 18, they said he ‘methodically gathered items from the home, including retrieving Edward’s wallet from his dead body before driving away in Williams’ pickup truck.’

McWhorter was pronounced dead at 6.56pm yesterday at the Holman Correctional Facility prison in Atmore, southwest Alabama.

A prison spokesperson confirmed that McWhorter had a final meal of Turtles candy and he had visits from his mum, stepdad and spiritual adviser before his death.

He also spoke to his friends and attorney on the phone before he died.

His execution was the second in the state of Alabama this year.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A suspended attorney who allegedly shot his father to death after stealing $450,000 from his mother’s trust fund has been discovered dead in his jail cell.

Brandon Labiner, 34, was found hanging and died by apparent suicide at Palm Beach County jail on Wednesday morning, his lawyer Val Rodriguez told WPTV.

He was arrested and charged for murdering his father, Paul Labiner, 68, in July. Brandon was charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

A man’s body was found in a pool of blood in a parking garage in Boca Raton that was at the same building where Brandon and his dad worked. The man had gunshot wounds on his head, upper chest and lower body, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the TV station. The suspect’s name was withheld due to Marsy’s Law.

Surveillance footage eventually connected Brandon to the fatal shooting. It showed a suspect bicycling to and from the office building at 5499 Federal Highway around the time of the shooting. The suspect appeared to take a gun out of his backpack inside the garage.

The footage showed the suspect, after a man seeming to be the victim entered’, ‘holding his right hand out and in a downward motion towards where the decedent was found’.

While searching the office, cops found a bicycle matching the description of the suspect’s, as well as a drawstring backpack, .9mm gun box and .9mm magazine.

Brandon’s law license was suspended in April and revoked in October due to a complaint initiated by his father alleging that he stole close to $450,000 out of his mother’s trust fund.

He was first in custody on a warrant for driving under the influence.

Brandon was due in court for a status check with a judge in West Palm Beach on November 28.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

At least 81 people were arrested as Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Protesters lined up and blocked all lanes of westbound Interstate 80 on the bridge during rush hour on Thursday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Some protesters tied themselves to each other with chains while others staged a ‘die-in’ lying on the ground and covering themselves with white sheets bearing the words, ‘Stop the genocide’.

Cops apprehended protesters utilizing zip ties and put them in buses.

‘We are 100% in support of people’s rights to exercise their First Amendment, but this is the wrong way to do it,’ highway patrol Chief Ezery Beauchamp told reporters. ‘This is 100% wrong, not acceptable, and is illegal to do.’ 

Protesters chocked the morning commute as the weeklong Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit took place in San Francisco, with US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in attendance.

One of the groups behind the protest, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC Bay Area), wrote on X (formerly Twitter): ‘There’s a genocide happening in #Gaza and @POTUS is hosting cocktail parties in #SanFrancisco.

Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news

Want to be the first to hear the world’s top stories? Metro.co.uk is now on WhatsApp sending vital updates and top trending stories straight to your phone.

Join the Metro WhatsApp community now for breaking news, juicy showbiz stories and must-watch videos from across our website.

Simply click on this link and select ‘Join Chat’. Don’t forget to turn on notifications so you’ll always be the first to hear the latest!

‘Bay Area has shut down the Bay Bridge to demand #CeasefireNOW.’

Most of the protesters who were arrested received citations and were released, San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto told KGO. They were charged with unlawful assembly and failure to disperse.

‘I will say that we were not caught off guard. This was something that we were anticipating happening. We were here within a couple of minutes, but they were planned, they worked together, they brought their vehicles to a stop, and they got that accomplished within seconds,’ said Beauchamp.

‘Again, you can protest you can your First Amendment rights but not on the Bay Bridge.’

All lanes of westbound I-80 were reopened by the afternoon, KRON reported.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.