Author: SKYNEWS

A British astronaut has been cleared to become the first person with a physical disability to take part in a mission on the International Space Station, the European Space Agency (ESA) has said.John McFall, a former paralympian sprinter from Cardiff, has been medically certified to undertake a long-duration space mission, the agency said at a news conference on Friday. Mr McFall told Sky News’ science and medical correspondent Thomas Moore: “It’s great to have completed the feasibility study and demonstrated there is no technical showstopper for me flying to the International Space Station.”He went on to say “today’s announcement is…

Laura Whitmore has shared the last text messages between her and Caroline Flack on the five-year anniversary of her death.Flack, who was best known for presenting ITV’s Love Island, took her own life on 15 February 2020, aged 40. The Irish TV presenter shared a photo of the pair together, along with a series of screenshots of their WhatsApp conversation, in which she told Flack she had been offered the Love Island presenting role. Instagram This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use…

Regulators have proposed sweeping changes for the baby formula industry, saying high prices and branding are leading to “poor outcomes” for parents.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found many brands cost more than the weekly value of people’s benefits, leading some parents to forgo food to buy formula. The report was released nearly two years after Sky News revealed how a black market for baby formula had evolved as desperate families struggled to feed their children.Parents openly described having no choice but to steal products, no longer able to afford formula as prices soared above inflation.Read more:Desperate parents are stealing…

Ancient Egyptian mummies smell “woody,” “spicy” and “sweet”, according to researchers who took part in a unique new study.Researchers used what they described as “trained, human sniffers” and equipment like an electronic, artificial nose of sorts to study the scent of nine mummified bodies. They said smell was a key consideration for ancient Egyptians when it came to the mummification process, meaning that even 5,000 years later, conservators widely consider the aroma “pleasant” due to the use of resins and oils such as pine, cedar, and juniper.The findings, researchers said, which were published in the Journal of the American Chemical…

A pair of Dame Edna Everage’s glasses have sold at auction for £37,800, 25 times their estimated value.The glasses were expected to sell for between £1,000-£1,500, according to Christie’s auction house, who facilitated the sale. They were being sold as part of the personal collection of Barry Humphries.Dame Edna was one of Humphries’ best-known characters and became a hit in the UK in the 1970s. Image: The yellow-lacquered possum spectacles by Anglo American Eyewear. Pic: Christie’s Images Image: Barry Humphries at Ascot in 2016. Pic: David Davies/PA The Australian star, who was known for his satirical characters including Dame Edna…

Stormzy did not delete an Instagram post in support of Palestinian liberation because of his recent collaboration with McDonald’s, sources close to the rapper have told Sky News.The 31-year-old grime artist has faced a backlash for removing an old post that said “Free Palestine” after working on a campaign with the fast-food chain. But sources close to the Vossi Bop rapper exclusively told Sky News that it “is simply not true” that the “archiving” of his Instagram post and the release of the McDonald’s campaign are linked.Stormzy’s recent McDonald’s partnership packages his “go-to” order as a limited meal option, which…

Crisis-hit Thames Water has launched a bid to charge its customers more over the next five years than the industry regulator will allow, arguing it has been unfairly treated.Britain’s biggest household supplier, which is in a battle for survival as it grapples a £19bn debt pile, had sought a 53% hike to bills from 2025-30. That demand was rejected in December by the industry regulator Ofwat, which settled on a 35% rise as part of a price determination for all suppliers across England and Wales.The level of the inflation-busting increases granted to many firms are designed to unlock record investment…

TikTok is back on Apple and Google’s US app stories after President Trump said the tech giants would not be fined if they reactivated it.They removed the hugely popular video-sharing app after a law came into effect on 19 January – the day before Mr Trump was inaugurated – requiring its Chinese owner ByteDance to sell up or face a ban. There were concerns that Beijing could use TikTok to spy on American users and the app, used by almost half of all Americans, briefly went dark.But the service was restored after Mr Trump said he would sign an executive…

Grimes has criticised former partner Elon Musk’s decision to bring their son to an Oval Office news conference.The 36-year-old singer, who has had an on-off relationship with Mr Musk since 2018, apparently only learned via social media that he had taken X Æ A-12 – or X for short – to the briefing with Donald Trump on Tuesday. In response to a comment on X about her son being “very polite”, Grimes said: “He should not be in public like this. I did not see this, thank u for alerting me. But I’m glad he was polite. Sigh.”Mr Musk, 53,…

Yes there are all sorts of provisos.The UK economy is still flatlining. A 0.1% expansion is about as close as you can get to zero. Gross domestic product per head – a better measure of our living standards – is shrinking (indeed, it’s been shrinking for two quarters). And the UK remains far weaker than the leading G7 economy – the United States.But even after taking all that into account, it’s hard not to conclude that the chancellor will be celebrating today’s GDP figures. After all, economists had expected the economy to shrink by 0.1%. Thanks to a late spurt…