A pet parrot that spoke with a British accent when it disappeared from its home four years ago has been reunited with its owner — and the bird now speaks Spanish.

The White House has signalled that it would be open to a short-term hike in the US debt limit as the United States moved a step closer to its first-ever default while a separate impasse, a partial government shutdown, entered its second week.

Bob Woodward’s recent flap reveals a grotesquely swollen ego fed by 40 years of hero worship. Max Holland asks: why is this man an icon?

The White House and Republican congressional leaders offered no meaningful proposals for rolling back automatic spending cuts that will slash €64bn from the national budget.