The Republican leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell is to stand down in November, AP is reporting. It ends a record run in the powerful post, that has seen him trade blows with many top figures in multiple US administrations of the last two decades. This breaking news story is being updated and more

Joe Biden has won Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary – but has been hit by a significant protest vote from those angry at his support for Israel’s military action in Gaza. With most of the counting complete, the US president easily defeated his rival candidates by securing more than 80% of the vote. However, nearly 14%

A man accused of helping to kill more than 3,000 birds, including eagles, intends to plead guilty, court documents show. Prosecutors allege Travis John Branson and others killed about 3,600 birds during a killing spree lasting years on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and elsewhere. According to the official documents, Branson, from Cusick in

Joe Biden’s claim there could be an imminent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was “wishful thinking”, a spokesperson for the Palestinian group has told Sky News. The US president has said he hoped a ceasefire could be secured by the end of this weekend. Negotiators are working on a weeks-long ceasefire between the two sides

An American couple who disappeared a week ago after their catamaran was hijacked by three escaped convicts are likely dead, police have said. Police Commissioner Don McKenzie said the prisoners had escaped custody on the Caribbean island of Grenada on the 18 February and the following day commandeered a catamaran named Simplicity – with Kathy

Joe Biden has said he hopes a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas can be secured by the weekend. The US president made the remarks during an unannounced visit to the Van Leeuwen ice cream parlour, next door to 30 Rock in New York, on Monday. Flanked by late night TV show host Seth Meyers, Mr

Vigils have been held across the US for a “bullied” non-binary student who died after a fight at their school. Nex Benedict, 16, died a day after getting into an altercation with three girls in a bathroom at Owasso High School in Oklahoma. The teenager was taken to hospital by their mother but was discharged

A US Air Force member who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC has died. The victim, who was an airman on active duty, had set himself ablaze in an apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza. He had said he would “no longer be complicit in

A woman spent six years languishing in US immigration detention due to a “bogus” Interpol red notice stemming from a harassment campaign by a police officer in El Salvador. Jessica Barahona Martinez, who is originally from the Central American country, told Sky News and its US partner NBC News about her ordeal in her first

A man is in a critical condition after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC. Firefighters arrived at 1pm and extinguished the fire, the authorities said. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You

It was no cliffhanger. Donald Trump was always going to win the South Carolina primary, it was simply a matter of margin – margin of victory and margin of Republican shift. This result moves the party’s centre of gravity yet further, from traditional to Trump. It strengthens his status as Republican nominee-in-waiting, as a movement

Donald Trump has defeated Nikki Haley in the South Carolina Republican primary, NBC News has projected. The result will further cement his grip on the race to be his party’s nominee for president. Mr Trump claimed his fourth straight primary win on Saturday, handing an embarrassing loss to his last remaining major rival in her

Donald Trump has claimed his four criminal cases have boosted his support among black Americans because they relate to being “discriminated against”. The former president also said the mugshot taken of him after he was charged with trying to overturn the 2020 US election result in the state of Georgia was “embraced” by the “black

The second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine comes as America prepares for a crucial election and while funding for a Ukrainian victory remains blocked in a divided Congress. As our own frontline eyewitness reporting shows, Vladimir Putin has the upper hand. Western leaders have repeatedly warned that Putin won’t stop at Ukraine given the

Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with dementia. A statement released on behalf of her caretakers says the 59-year-old has primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, the same form of the illness as actor Bruce Willis. The condition has “already presented significant hurdles in Wendy’s life” and caused behavioural and cognitive impacts,

Hundreds of new sanctions have been placed on Russia by the US and the EU on the eve of the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine and a week after Alexei Navalny’s death. Among those targeted by Washington’s more than 500 new sanctions are people involved in Mr Navalny’s imprisonment and three Russian officials

Don’t underestimate the significance of this latest moon landing. The first by the US in more than 50 years, the first by a private company and the first so close to the intriguing south pole. Many other nations have landed during America’s absence: Russia, China, India and most recently Japan. The US is a late

The Odysseus moon lander has successfully touched down. The privately-owned Intuitive Machines’ lander is the first US lander to successfully touch down on the moon’s surface in more than 50 years – since the last of NASA’s Apollo programme in 1972. It is also the first ever private craft to land on the moon. There

Joe Biden’s dog has bitten United States Secret Service (USSS) personnel at least 24 times, according to newly-released internal documents. Sky News reported the US president’s German shepherd, Commander, was removed from the White House last October after he bit a female officer, resulting in her needing medical treatment. That attack was the 11th recorded

Joe Biden has sparked a war of words with the Kremlin after he called Vladimir Putin a “crazy SOB” at a fundraiser. Speaking at an event in San Francisco, the president fired a barb at his Russian counterpart while discussing the effects of climate change. “This is the last existential threat. It is climate,” Mr

US authorities have charged the leader of a Japanese crime syndicate with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar for expected use in Iranian nuclear weapons. Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and his co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material, “going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that

A young girl has died after being buried in sand on a beach in Florida. She was digging a deep hole with a little boy when it collapsed on Tuesday. Emergency crews arrived at the scene and found the boy buried up to his chest in sand, while the girl was trapped underneath. Image: Investigators

A former YouTuber who gave parenting advice online has been jailed for up to 30 years after she admitted to physically and emotionally abusing her children. Ruby Franke, a mother of six from Utah who gave parenting tips via a once-popular video blog called “8 Passengers”, convinced her two youngest children that they were evil,

Two men have been charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting following the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade. A woman was killed and 22 other people were injured in the 14 February shooting, in Kansas City, Missouri. Dominic Miller and Lyndell Mays have been charged with second-degree murder and other gun-related

Washington’s unwavering diplomatic support for Israel at the UN has put the US in an increasingly isolated position as many of the world’s countries have called for an end to the fighting in Gaza. President Biden is also under pressure domestically and within his own party to change the course of the war. As one

A US man has admitted the rape and murder of a woman who was pushed down a ravine near a famous German landmark, used as the inspiration for the famous Disney Castle. The 31-year-old made the admission at the start of his trial in Kempten, southern Germany. He allegedly met two American women, aged 21

Today is Julian Assange’s last chance to stop UK officials extraditing him to the US. It has been almost 12 years since the WikiLeaks founder, now 52, stepped into the Ecuadorian embassy in London to evade arrest. Over the next two days, the High Court will hear his final appeal against being sent to the

Donald Trump has broken his silence on the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – but avoided casting blame on President Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump, who drew criticism for praising the Russian ruler during his presidency, spoke out in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. The former US president wrote on

Donald Trump is giving a “green light” to Republicans in Congress to block extra US funding for Ukraine, Nancy Pelosi has claimed. Describing Mr Trump as “grotesque”, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives also said he is “chummy” with Vladimir Putin, who she described as “just a very evil person”. A new US

Former NBA Scot Pollard is “awake and feeling great” one day after a successful heart transplant, his wife has said. Dawn Pollard took to X on Friday to share that the former basketball player, who turned 49 on Monday, “has a new heart!” She said: “Surgery went well and I’ve been told the heart is