World

At least two people have died off the coast of Calais attempting to cross to England, French media is reporting.  Around 50 migrants have been taken into the care of French humanitarian charity Utopia 56. Ten people with severe hypothermia are being cared for by firefighters, BFM TV reported. A French Navy helicopter is part

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will go into hospital to have his prostate removed, his office has said. The 75-year-old was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement. Mr Netanyahu is expected to go into hospital on Sunday to undergo the operation. Earlier this year, he had surgery for a

Russian air defences may have shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight after misidentifying it, according to US military sources. Two unnamed officials who spoke to Sky News’ US partner NBC News said America had intelligence indicating Russia may have believed the flight was a drone and engaged its air defences. It added that this was

Father Christmas, driving a sleigh filled with NATO-branded rockets, is shot out of the sky above Moscow in an apparent new piece of Russian propaganda. “Good, we don’t need anything foreign in our skies,” says a second Santa in Russian, sitting in what appears to be a control room. Ukraine Centre for Countering Disinformation shared

South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo. The move could deepen a constitutional crisis in the Asian country triggered by a short-lived period of martial law declared by Mr Han’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. After the vote on Friday, Mr Han said he will step aside to avoid more chaos. The

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system, according to four Reuters sources. The Embraer 190 passenger jet was en route from Azerbaijan‘s capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it changed course. It crashed around two

Indonesia and Thailand are marking 20 years since a tsunami caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people in one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. People started gathering in prayer today and visiting mass graves in Aceh, one of the worst-hit areas by the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami which saw

Ukrainians sheltered in metro stations on Christmas morning as Russian missiles and drones rained down on their cities. Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that he said sought to plunge his people into darkness. “Putin deliberately chose Christmas,” he said on Wednesday. “What could be more inhumane?” Russia’s defence ministry said it

Dozens are feared dead after a passenger plane carrying 67 people crashed in Kazakhstan, the country’s emergencies ministry said. Preliminary data suggests 25 people survived the crash, authorities have said. The Azerbaijan Airlines flight was en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, but was rerouted due to fog. It crashed near the

The sense of hollowness of the Church of the Nativity is deeper than absent tourists. The chants and prayers are pain-stricken and desperate. Down in the manger by the enshrined spot where baby Jesus was said to be born, a priest solemnly swings incense into the corners. Image: Bethlehem’s Christian community struggles to celebrate amid

Slovakia’s prime minister has drawn criticism from across Europe and from his own people after his surprise visit to Moscow for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Robert Fico is only the third EU leader to visit Mr Putin in Moscow since the Russian president ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ukraine

The sister of a British man who has been missing in Spain for nine days has said “panic” is setting in. Courtney George last spoke to her brother John Hardy on Saturday 14 December, around the time she believes he was due to drive from Alicante to Benidorm. She reported him missing after he failed

The suspect in the German Christmas market attack “threatened to do something that would attract international attention” in 2013 and was flagged as a potential threat the following year, according to a state interior minister. Christian Pegel told a press conference the 50-year-old suspect had referred to the Boston Marathon bombings, in which three people

The mother of a nine-year-old boy killed in the German Christmas market attack has paid tribute to “my little teddy bear”. Andre Gleissner was one of at least five people who died, while more than 200 others were injured when a car ploughed into crowds in Magdeburg on Friday evening. German Christmas market attack –

A memorial service has taken place in Magdeburg, Germany, for the victims of a Christmas market attack. At least five people were killed and more than 200 others injured when a car ploughed into crowds shopping on Friday evening. Image: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (C) and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (R) at the memorial service. Pic:

The suspect in the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg appeared to be dissatisfied with the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, a prosecutor has said. On Friday evening, a car was driven at speed into visiting crowds in the central German city. Five people have died so far – including a nine-year-old child

A police investigation is under way after a car was “driven at speed” into a crowd at a Christmas market in Germany. At least two people have been killed, including a small child, and dozens of others have been injured following the incident in Magdeburg, according to local officials. They say the suspect is a

At least one person has been killed and dozens of others injured after a car was driven into a crowd at a Christmas market in Germany, local media reports. News agency dpa said the driver had been arrested following the incident in the eastern city of Magdeburg, while AFP news agency reports 60-80 people have

Vladimir Putin has said Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier, in a national address spanning more than four hours. Russia began the conflict with its neighbour in February 2022 and at his annual televised news conference, Mr Putin claimed the war has made Russia “stronger”. The decision to invade “should have been made earlier” he

A man who repeatedly drugged his then wife and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after a historic mass trial. Dominique Pelicot, 72, had confessed to all the charges and admitted he mixed sedatives into the food and drink of his wife, Gisele Pelicot,

Ukraine cannot remove Russian troops from the land they occupy in the east of the country and Crimea, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted. While Kyiv would never recognise Russia’s rule, he said diplomacy is the only option to get President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his army. It comes less than a month after he gave similar

The compound in front of the blue and white low-rise building is buzzing with rushed activity. On one side there are men stacking boxes of water bottles. On another, women sitting on chairs are picking through bundles of clothing on the ground before folding and organising them into piles of men’s, women’s and children’s sizes.

A well-known former boss of Australia’s national rugby team has denied dozens of sex charges against 10 males. Alan Jones – who was also a radio presenter for many years – appeared in court for the first time since his arrest last month. The 83-year-old is accused of 34 charges of aggravated indecent assault, indecent

For Ukraine – pitched against Russia’s larger and more powerful military – the use of unconventional tactics such as assassinations is seen as a vital way to fight back. There is no official confirmation yet of who was behind the killing on Tuesday in Moscow of the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defence

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have “gotta make a deal” to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. The US president-elect said the conflict “has to stop” and that people were “dying at levels nobody has ever seen”. He also claimed it could take “100 years” to rebuild Ukraine’s cities from

Former Syrian leader Bashar al Assad has issued his first statement since the fall of his regime. In a social media post, he claimed he had planned to keep fighting rebel forces before Russia evacuated him. The comments, the first in public since his regime was toppled more than a week ago, were made on

Nobody should ever have to die in a place like this, in this sorry bit of northern France where these two Kurdish migrants were shot. They died, surrounded by rubbish, on a patch of unloved scrubland between a road and a railway line. The grass is still stained with their blood, and the blankets that

Close to 1,000 people may have been killed after Cyclone Chido hit the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, the island’s top official has said. Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told local TV station la 1ere: “I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand, even thousands… given

The billionaire founder of fashion chain Mango Isak Andic has died in a mountain accident today, according to police. The 71-year-old businessman reportedly slipped and fell from a 150-metre cliff while hiking with relatives in the Monserrat caves near Barcelona, a police spokesperson said. His family called the emergency services at about 12.30pm local time,

Shocked and bruised, a survivor of a shooting at a migrant camp near Dunkirk on Saturday has told Sky News how he saw his friends murdered by “the angel of death”. Two migrants and two security guards were shot dead by a 22-year-old French gunman at a migrant camp in Loon-Plage, with one other victim

South Korea’s parliament is set to vote again on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived attempt to declare martial law earlier this month. It was a decision that plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered calls for Mr Yoon to step down on the grounds he had broken the

Children are among the dead after an Israeli airstrike on a block of flats in a Gaza refugee camp killed at least 33 people, according to Hamas-run health authorities. The attack – which Israel said targeted a “senior terrorist” but may have caused a secondary blast – came hours after the US national security adviser

Russia has established “direct contact” with Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) rebel group, according to state media outlet Interfax. It reported that deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told journalists that Russia was aiming to maintain its military bases inside Syria. Mr Bogdanov said contact with HTS was “proceeding in constructive fashion” and that Moscow