World

Lady Gaga sang in French and played the piano as she performed at the Olympics opening ceremony on the banks of the River Seine. The US superstar – the first musical act at the event – was joined by a host of dancers shaking pink pompoms. For the first time in Olympics history, the ceremony

Vandals have carried out arson attacks on France’s high-speed train network causing major travel disruption ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. The state-owned railway operator SNCF said fires had been set at installations along the lines connecting Paris with the country’s west, north and east and that services would be severely impacted during the

Kamala Harris’s step-daughter has pushed back against JD Vance after a clip resurfaced of him calling the vice president one of the Democrats’ “childless cat ladies”. The Republican nominee for vice president – picked by Donald Trump as his running mate earlier this month – attacked Ms Harris and other Democrats for being “a bunch

It may be the smallest planet in the solar system but Mercury could be hiding a big secret.  A layer of diamond beneath the crust of Mercury could be up to 10 miles (18km) thick, new research suggests. Scientists from China and Belgium used data collected by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft between 2004 and 2015 to

Russian authorities are investigating a suspected car bomb attack in Moscow that left two people injured, following conflicting reports a military official was targeted. Footage of the blast, posted on Telegram, appears to show a man and a woman getting into a vehicle before it suddenly explodes. Initial reports in state media outlets named the

The pilot is the only survivor after a domestic plane carrying 19 people skidded off the runway and crashed while attempting to take off in Nepal. The plane was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to the city of Pokhara for maintenance checks, airport security chief Arjun Chand Thakuri said. Mr Thakuri also told

At least six people have died and seven are missing after a fishing vessel sank, British and Spanish maritime officials said. The boat was carrying 27 people and was nearly 200 miles off the coast of the Falkland Islands when it got into trouble. Fourteen people made it onto a life raft and were rescued

An 11-year-old Irish girl has died after falling from a hotel balcony in Majorca.  The girl has been named locally as Clodagh Phelan from Co Wicklow. A spokesperson for the Civil Guard on the Spanish island said it received reports of a girl falling from a hotel balcony when her parents were asleep on Sunday

Joe Biden has vowed “I’m not going anywhere” and he is “going to be working like hell” in his final months as US president and as he campaigns for Kamala Harris to be his successor. He was speaking in a phone call to workers at the campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, in his first public

A gunman has killed several people in a care home in central Croatia, police say. Local media reported five people were killed and others were wounded at the home in the town of Daruvar. The Index news portal said the suspect fled the scene after the incident but police caught him in a cafe near

Since 8 October when Hezbollah first fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Palestinians following the Hamas attacks, the two sides have exchanged nearly 5,000 strikes. The majority have come from Israel – but analysis by Sky News’ Data and Forensics team shows Hezbollah is changing its tactics, with its attacks stretching further into Israeli

A series of Israeli strikes have been launched against the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah in Yemen. The attack on oil refinery facilities resulted in fatalities in the western coastal city, according to the Houthis’ own TV station Al Masirah. The strikes come a day after the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a drone strike

At least 11 people have been killed and dozens more are missing after a highway bridge collapsed in northwest China, authorities have said. China’s President Xi Jinping urged all-out rescue efforts following the disaster in Shaanxi province, which happened around 8.40pm local time on Friday and followed heavy storms and flooding. Xinhua News Agency said

This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were told that as the internet matured, that this kind of thing – a single error causing a domino effect taking out millions of machines – was supposed to become less and less likely. There would be more and more servers and cables distributed in more and more places,

Businesses including banks, airlines, telecommunications companies, TV and radio broadcasters, and supermarkets have been taken offline following a mass global outage. Major US airlines including American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines have been grounded, while airports in Germany and Spain are also reporting issues. In the UK, Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern

The man who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan has disavowed violence in the wake of the attempt on Donald Trump’s life.  John Hinckley Jr, who wounded the former US president during an attack in 1981, wrote on X: “Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance.” The post on Wednesday came days after Mr Trump

Families of two British men missing in Sweden are appealing for information on their whereabouts – amid fears they were victims of a double murder. It comes after two bodies were found in a burnt-out car in Malmo on Sunday afternoon. Emergency workers noticed a possible bullet hole in one of the victims, according to

Rare images of an uncontacted tribe show its members face “humanitarian disaster” as loggers encroach on their territory, a British human rights group has warned. According to local campaigners, the Mascho Piro indigenous tribe have been sighted coming out of the rainforest in their remote part of the Peruvian Amazon in recent weeks in search

Traces of cyanide have been found in cups and a teapot in the room of a luxury Bangkok hotel where the bodies of six people were discovered in a suspected deliberate poisoning. Police in Thailand said cyanide poisoning was likely the cause of death of the three men and three women – four Vietnamese nationals

At least six people have been found dead at a hotel in Bangkok. The bodies of the six people – all Vietnamese nationals – were discovered in Thailand’s capital on Tuesday. An initial report that there had been a shooting was dismissed by a local police official. “There is no sign of a shooting,” the