World

World cricket bosses have no plans to ban Afghanistan’s men from the Champions Trophy or to demand the Taliban allow a women’s team to represent the country, Sky News has learned. With the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) own policy requiring Test-playing nations to support women’s cricket, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is backing calls

Last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said. Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.

A Japanese Yakuza leader has pleaded guilty in the US to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar. Takeshi Ebisawa “brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium,” acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York Edward Y Kim said. “At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine

Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since June 2024 have said they “do not feel like castaways”. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams originally planned to go to space for just eight days but got stuck on the ISS when their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced a myriad of problems. By

Pacific Palisades is one of Los Angeles’s most expensive and exclusive suburbs, home to film stars and billionaires. The broad boulevards are framed by palm trees and gated mansions with swimming pools. But it’s in the grips of one of mother nature’s terrifying levellers, a firestorm which is ripping through community after community, raging and

The public articulation by Donald Trump of a new desired target for NATO allies to spend 5% of national income on defence will surely plunge governments across Europe into crisis mode – not least here in the UK. Britain presents itself to the world and in particular to the United States as the biggest defence

At least nine people have died in a strong earthquake in China. The 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in a mountainous area in the autonomous Tibet region, near the border with Nepal, shortly after 9.05am on Tuesday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said it had recorded a 7.1 magnitude

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation. The 53-year-old said he will step down as leader of the country’s ruling Liberal Party, which he has led since 2013. He says it will allow his party to choose a new leader as he suspends parliament until March due to political deadlock. Image: Chrystia Freeland,

Donkey karts loaded with wrapped parcels of unknown goods weave around the large puddles of water left in the dried riverbed. Young men quickly hop over laid bricks to bridge the puddles followed by women treading carefully with babies on their backs. The Limpopo River’s seasonal dryness is a natural pathway for those moving into

Ukraine has launched a new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, according to the Kremlin. The attack looks to be an effort to seize new territory after Ukrainian troops swept across the border in a shock offensive in the same region in August, claiming control of almost 500 sq miles (around 1,300 sq km) and taking

A young boy has been found alive five days after going missing in a “lion-infested” game park in Zimbabwe, officials have said. Tinotenda Pudu, seven, went missing from his home in a rural community on 27 December and “unknowingly headed into the perilous Matusadona game park,” a Zimbabwean MP stated. A search operation was launched

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced he will resign in the coming days after talks on forming a new government failed for a second time. His declaration on Saturday came after the People’s Party and the Social Democratic Party continued coalition talks, a day after the liberal NEOS party’s surprise withdrawal from discussions. “Unfortunately I

Drive an hour outside China’s commercial capital Shanghai, and you’ll reach Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory. It manufactures almost one million Tesla cars a year and produces more than half of all its cars worldwide. But with US president-elect Donald Trump preparing to move into the White House, the relationship between his best buddy Elon Musk

South Korea’s anti-corruption agency has failed to detain the country’s impeached president after a standoff that lasted hours. The decision came after investigators and police officers were seen entering the gate of the residence in Seoul. Thousands of officers were gathered at Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence and formed a perimeter around a growing number of

The man who drove a pick-up truck into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans is believed to have acted alone, the FBI has said. There is also “no definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas, the FBI’s deputy assistant director Christopher Raia, from

An Islamic State flag attached to the pickup truck used to kill and injure dozens of people in New Orleans is a grim reminder of the persistent threat posed by Islamist extremism. Investigators are rushing to understand why Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, the US citizen and army veteran who is suspected of carrying out the atrocity

Two children are among 10 people killed after a gunman opened fire in western Montenegro following a bar brawl, police and a government official said. Montenegro’s interior minister Danilo Saranovic said four people were wounded in the attack in Cetinje and the gunman is on the run. Police have identified the suspect as 45-year-old Aco

Hundreds of grieving relatives of people killed in the fated Jeju Air plane crash visited the site on New Year’s Day to pay respect to their loved ones. South Korea’s transport ministry said authorities have finished formally identifying the 179 victims of the country’s worst air disaster. Investigators have also extracted the data from the

Young women living under oppressive Taliban rule in Afghanistan have dared to share their hopes and fears for 2025, which range from an end to “gender apartheid”, to simply going for a walk in the park. The five women in their twenties have all had their studies or careers interrupted since the Taliban seized control

A team of US and South Korean investigators are to set to begin looking into the cause of the plane crash that left 179 people dead at Muan International Airport. The disaster on Sunday is the worst plane crash in South Korea’s history – with the youngest victim a three-year-old boy, according to a list

What will 2025 mean for Gaza, Ukraine, trade wars and African tech? Our foreign correspondents set the scene for trends that will shape their region. From elections in the EU to a bombastic Trump presidency to climate disruption, 2025 is shaping up to be a bumpy year. But it’s not all bad news… Immediate, dramatic

At the crash site at Muan Airport, you get a really strong sense of just how sudden and catastrophic it all was. There is an eerie quiet as the army sifts through the wreckage, picking up tiny bits of debris and placing them in small plastic bags. Tens of metres from the plane you can

US President Joe Biden says the world has lost a “remarkable leader” and a “man for all time” after the death of Jimmy Carter. Mr Carter, who was US president between 1977 and 1981, died at his home in Georgia while surrounded by his family on Sunday afternoon. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was aged

Aviation experts have said airport authorities in South Korea should face serious questions over the concrete wall that a plane collided with killing 179 people. Leading air safety expert David Learmount told Sky News the collision with the wall that supported a guidance system at the end of the runway was the “defining moment” of

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