World

Virgin Galactic has taken its first tourists to the edge of space. The company, founded by Sir Richard Branson, took a former Olympian and mother-daughter pair about 55 miles (88km) above Earth during the flight which lasted just more than an hour. See live updates on space launch Pilots CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, alongside

Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot and killed by an unidentified gunman while at a political rally in Quito. The killing comes amid an alarming wave of violence in the country, with drug trafficking and violent killings on the rise. Incumbent president, Guillermo Lasso, suggested an organised crime gang was behind the killing.

At least six people have died after wildfires rampaged through parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui, officials have said. Fires, fuelled by the wind, have swept across the town of Lahaina, West Maui, leading to 13 evacuations, mayor Richard Bissen Jr said. “Our main focus now is to save lives,” Mr Bissen said. It

Eleven people are missing after a fire broke out at a holiday home for disabled people in eastern France. Seventeen others were led to safety with one person taken to hospital, local authorities said. Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said there were likely several casualties after the fire ravaged the cottage, which was hosting the group

Sinead O’Connor has been remembered as a singer and activist whose “voice moved a generation of young people”, as stars including U2’s Bono and Bob Geldof attended her funeral and thousands of mourners lined the streets to pay their respects. The music star’s life was celebrated at a private ceremony before the funeral cortege travelled

“Tumbling” records in Antarctica must be taken more seriously because of their “cascading” global impacts, a group of scientists asked by the Foreign Office to investigate the “unprecedented” changes has warned today. After enormous icebergs up to a quarter the size of Wales appeared to break off with “increasing frequency”, the Foreign Office commissioned the

Another Russian warship listing in the water is probably not the image Vladimir Putin had in mind for his beloved Black Sea fleet – but it does demonstrate the increasing effectiveness of Ukraine’s sea drones. The last few days have seen two attacks on Russian ships, both reportedly carried out by Ukrainian unmanned vessels. In

A wife poisoned the coffee of her estranged US Air Force husband with bleach for months, according to court documents. Melody Johnson was arrested on 18 July after her husband submitted video to police allegedly showing her pouring the cleaning product into his coffee machine. The husband, who has not been publicly named, first noticed

Dramatic footage shows people being rescued from choppy seas in the Mediterranean – as reports emerge that a mother and her one-year-old child have lost their lives after two boats capsized. Video released on Sunday shows people clinging to life rings as they drift in the heaving waves while others are hoisted aboard a coastguard

A Russian bomb has hit a blood transfusion centre in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed. On Telegram, the Ukrainian president said there are fatalities and injuries after the strike in the town of Kupiansk. Mr Zelenskyy said rescue workers were extinguishing fires at the scene, and he described the attack as

Imran Khan has always said the mounting cases against him are politically motivated and intended to stop him from running for election. This new arrest could do exactly that. It adds more jeopardy and tension to an already febrile political climate in Pakistan. And the timing is significant. This week Shehbaz Sharif’s government announced a

Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been arrested after he was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, his lawyer said. Police were seen surrounding his residence in Lahore on Saturday after the verdict was released. The 70-year-old former cricketer was sentenced after he was found guilty of unlawfully selling

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to a further 19 years behind bars on charges his supporters have branded trumped up to keep him out of politics for even longer. The 47-year-old, who is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest domestic critic, is already serving more than 11 years in prison for fraud and

Donald Trump declared it is “a very sad day for America” after pleading not guilty to trying to overturn the 2020 election result. Speaking after his court appearance, the former US president said: “When you look at what is happening this is a persecution of a political opponent. This was never supposed to happen in

A Somali sports official has been suspended after an apparently untrained female sprinter represented the African country at an international athletics tournament in China. Nasra Abukar Ali took more than 20 seconds to finish the 100m race at the World University Games in Chengdu, with footage showing she came last by a considerable distance. She

Dozens of people have been killed in clashes in Brazil as police carry out raids to crack down on criminal gangs and drug traffickers. At least 44 people have reportedly died in total after violent scenes in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo state and Bahia state. In Rio, police said nine people

A truck driver will be sentenced to death after killing 11 worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh – the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history. Jurors found Robert Bowers guilty in June for the October 2018 attack in Pennsylvania, and have been deliberating over whether he should face execution or life in prison without parole.

A “cancer-killing pill” has appeared to “annihilate” solid tumours in early research – leaving healthy cells unaffected. The new drug has been in development for 20 years, and is now undergoing pre-clinical research in the US. Known as AOH1996, it targets a cancerous variant of a protein called proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). In its

China is to limit the export of long-range drones over fears they are being converted for military use in Ukraine. Beijing says it will limit the export of some high-performance civilian devices due to the “increasing risk” that they are being used for “non-peaceful purposes”. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of targetting

A zoo in China has denied suggestions some of its bears might be humans in costumes after photos of the animals standing like humans circulated online. Hangzhou Zoo said on social media that the sun bears from Malaysia are smaller than other bears and look different, but insisted they were the real thing. “Some people

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says war is coming to Russia after suspected Ukrainian drones hit skyscrapers in a wealthy Moscow neighbourhood. Vladimir Putin suggested an African initiative could be a basis for peace talks, but not while Ukrainian forces were on the offensive. On the Sky News Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by military analyst Sean Bell

No one has yet said they carried out Sunday’s devastating blast at a political rally in Pakistan, but the country’s Islamic State (IS) group has claimed to be behind several attacks in the area this year. The latest atrocity – which has left at least 40 people dead – happened on the outskirts of Khar,

At least 40 people have been killed in an explosion at a political rally in northwestern Pakistan, according to reports. The blast happened on the outskirts of Khar, the capital of Bajur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Geo News, citing local officials. More than 100 people were also injured when the bomb went off at

Vladimir Putin has said an African and a Chinese initiative could serve as a basis for peace in Ukraine, but warned there are things that are “impossible to implement”. The Russian president also claimed Moscow had not rejected peace talks in comments made following the conclusion of the Africa-Russia Forum in St Petersburg. He told

At least nine people have been hurt after two buildings were hit by blasts in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed “Russian missile terror” for the damage to a high-rise apartment block and offices belonging to the country’s Secret Service on Friday evening. Regional governor Serhiy Lysak wrote on Telegram that

While pressure builds on President Zelenskyy to deliver some form of progress with the Ukrainian offensive, he is not the only leader under pressure. Away from the battlefields, there is growing evidence that President Putin‘s authority and support base is waning as cracks start to form in the foundations of his regime. Is there a

The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation after officials accidentally sent emails containing classified information to a Russian allied country. A “small number” of emails intended for the Pentagon were sent to Mali thanks to the omission of an “i” from an email address. British officials sent the messages to an address ending with

Prigozhin does not appear to be persona non grata You would have thought Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin would be persona non grata in Russia, having set his men on Moscow last month but, it appears, he is still most definitely not. A photo apparently published to the Facebook account of one of Wagner’s top men

The ex-British spy who wrote a dossier on Donald Trump and Russian interference in the US election says he believes Vladimir Putin will be out of power “within the next year”. Christopher Steele, who ran the Russia desk at MI6 in London between 2006 and 2009, told Sky News the West needs to “prepare for

A group of soldiers in Niger have claimed to have put an end to the government, hours after detaining President Mohamed Bazoum in the presidential palace. Appearing on national television in the West African nation, air force colonel, Amadou Abdramane, and nine other uniformed officers said defence and security forces had decided to “put an

Myanmar has said it “categorically rejects” claims made by Sky News in its undercover reporting of the civil war in the country. The report from inside the country claims to “bring Myanmar to the world’s attention” but has been “found to be deceiving”, the country’s embassy in London has said in a statement. It comes

The UK government’s sanctions targeting Wagner have been “underwhelming in the extreme” and it should act faster to exploit the mercenary group’s current weakness, a new report has found. MPs on the foreign affairs committee say ministers have taken their eye off the ball over the last decade as Wagner expanded its reach across Syria,

Six men have been found guilty of murder over the 2016 Brussels terror attacks that left 32 people dead. The trial lasted seven months and was held in the former headquarters of NATO. Bombs exploded at Brussels Airport in March 2016 and then on a metro train passing through the city’s European quarter, in attacks