World

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

The head of NATO has warned the alliance is not ready for the threats it will face from Russia in the coming years and that it is time to shift to a wartime mindset. Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the organisation, said NATO members had spent more than 3% of GDP on defence during

Ireland is to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to broaden its definition of genocide – claiming Israel has engaged in the “collective punishment” of people in Gaza. An intervention will be made later this month, deputy prime minister Micheal Martin said, and will be linked to a case South Africa has brought under

Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host nation for the 2034 football World Cup. Also confirmed were the hosts for the 2030 World Cup, which was awarded to six countries and will take place across three continents to celebrate 100 years of the tournament. Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the 2034 competition.

South Korea’s former defence minister has tried to take his own life while being held in detention over his role in the failed imposition of martial law, officials have said. Kim Yong Hyun, along with President Yoon Suk Yeol are the subject of a criminal investigation on insurrection charges. Mr Kim was arrested earlier on

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is recovering in intensive care after having emergency surgery to drain blood from his brain, a medical note published by the country’s government said. The leftist politician, known as Lula, had reduced travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from a trauma he suffered to the

Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to appear in court later for the first time in his long-running corruption trial. The Israeli prime minister has been charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Judges have ruled he must testify three times a week, despite the ongoing war in Gaza war and new threats in the Middle

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani, whose group was central to the lightning offensive that toppled decades of dictatorship in Syria this weekend, has spent years trying to distance himself from his former ties to al Qaeda. Labelled a terrorist by the US, which still has a $10m (£7.8m) bounty on his head, the leader

Syria’s ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed. Mr Assad and members of his family arrived in the city on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency. The source said: “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them

The Syrian government appears to have fallen after a lightning offensive by rebels. President Bashar al Assad fled Damascus on a plane for an unknown destination, according to two senior Syrian army officers speaking to the Reuters news agency and Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, speaking to AP. Syria’s army command

The Syrian government has fallen after a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – ending President Bashar al Assad’s 24-year rule. Mr Assad has left office and the country after giving orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Russia was

The favourite to win Romania’s controversial presidential election has launched an extraordinary series of attacks in an exclusive interview with Sky News, less than a day after the election was cancelled.  Calin Georgescu, the populist politician who rose from obscurity to the brink of victory, said he had been the victim of a “coup d’etat”

South Korea’s president has said he is “very sorry” days after declaring martial law and surrounding parliament with soldiers. Yoon Suk Yeol plunged his country into turmoil on Tuesday when he put the military in charge, claiming it was necessary to defend the constitutional order and “eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces”. However, his

Romania’s top court has annulled the results of the first round of the country’s presidential election after claims of Russian interference. The unprecedented decision came after declassified intelligence documents alleged Russia was behind a campaign to promote far-right candidate Calin Georgescu on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram. Mr Georgescu was viewed as an outsider

Syrian rebels have captured the central city of Hama in the latest blow to President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian army said it had withdrawn and taken up positions outside the city to protect civilians, hours after opposition fighters said they were marching towards its centre. The insurgents said they had entered Syria’s fourth-largest city

Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians during its war against Hamas in Gaza. The human rights group said Israel sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by launching deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid. It said such actions met the legal threshold for the

Cathay Pacific has apologised after an episode of Family Guy depicting Tiananmen Square was included in inflight entertainment. The episode of the adult animated series – known for pushing boundaries – includes a scene referencing the 1989 protest crackdown, in which China’s military violently suppressed massive pro-democracy protests. Cathay Pacific is Hong Kong’s flagship airline.

The French government has collapsed after prime minister Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence. It follows his decision to use special powers to force a social security budget through the lower house of parliament without a final vote after a last-minute concession was not enough to win support from the far-right National Rally

South Korean lawmakers have called for the impeachment of the president after he declared martial law only to reverse the move hours later, triggering the biggest political crisis the country has faced in decades. The surprise declaration late on Tuesday ignited a standoff with parliament which rejected President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to ban political

The president of South Korea has declared “emergency martial law”, accusing the country’s opposition of controlling the parliament and sympathising with North Korea. Yoon Suk Yeol announced he was taking the step, which enacts temporary rule by the military, during a televised briefing on Tuesday, saying it was critical for defending the country’s constitutional order.