A former director of the CDC under Donald Trump says he believes COVID-19 may have been born in a North Carolina laboratory as part of a secret biodefense program. Robert Redfield has previously been a proponent of the ‘lab leak’ theory which posits the disease came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Now Redfield – a frequent critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci – says that the disease may have origins in the Tar Heel State.

A leading feminist writer ‘sent police packing’ when they visited her home to investigate one of her tweets as a ‘hate crime’. Julie Bindel said she was told by two Metropolitan Police officers that a ‘transgender man’ from Holland had reported one of her social media posts. They asked her to voluntarily attend the local police station to make a statement in an incident similar to the case of Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson.

Senior Russian politicians have declared President Joe Biden has taken a ‘big step towards World War Three’ after his administration reportedly gave the green light for Ukraine to blast targets inside Russia with US-supplied long-range missiles. The decision, which comes on the eve of the 1000th day of war in Ukraine amid the dying days of the Biden administration, heralded a torrent of apocalyptic warnings from Russian lawmakers. ‘This is a very big step towards the beginning of the Third World War,’ said Putin-loyalist Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the upper house and a retired security service general.

A teacher failed to sue her school for marriage and age discrimination after she was referred to as ‘Miss’ instead of ‘Mrs’ on letters addressed to her. Eniola Alabi told an employment tribunal she felt ‘embarrassed’ and ‘humiliated’ when her payslips failed to acknowledge her marital status. She told the tribunal that ‘Miss’ was ‘less’ than ‘Mrs’ and so this was an act of discrimination from bosses at the South London secondary school where she worked.

The terrifying final moments of a man mauled to death in a vicious XL bully attack have been revealed. Christopher Bell, 45, from Hull, today appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to admit a charge of being the owner of a dog which caused injury leading to death while dangerously out of control in a public place. Ian Langley, 54, died in hospital after Bell’s tan and white XL Bully called Titan suddenly lunged at his throat in Sunderland, on the evening of October 3 last year.

Amanda Knox has been urged to ‘shut up’ by locals in Perugia as filming begins there for a new drama about Meredith Kercher’s murder which she is co-producing. Kercher was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox while she was studying in Perugia in 2007 on exchange from the University of Leeds. Knox was found guilty of fatally stabbing Kercher and jailed but was acquitted of the murder for the second time in 2015, after she had already served four years of her sentence.

President-elect Donald Trump is calling to ‘fully investigate’ the Iowa pollster who predicted him losing in heavily red state just days before November’s election. The Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey conducted by Ann Selzer of Selzer & Company showed Harris at 47 percent support to Trump’s 44 percent. Iowa had gone red for Trump in the last two election cycles after twice voting for Democratic President Barack Obama – and had not been considered to be a battleground state in 2024.

Lidia Thorpe has torn up a censure motion passed against her after the rogue senator interrupted King Charles’ visit to Australia with a headline-grabbing protest. Foreign Minister Penny Wong moved a censure motion against Ms Thorpe in the Senate on Monday morning, claiming her outburst during the King’s visit last month sought to ‘incite outrage and grievance’. Ms Thorpe was not in the chamber to hear the censure motion, which passed by 46 votes to 12, prompting her to rip it up while on live TV on Sky News.

Democratic lawmakers are admitting that they may have missed the mark in the 2024 election and are calling on their colleagues to stop ‘preaching down’ to Americans. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) says that her party could learn a thing-or-two from Republicans after their sweeping wins this election cycle that will see the GOP with a trifecta in the House, Senate and White House next year. Asked why Democrats lost, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said his party needs to stop ‘canceling’ people that might disagree with them on something.