A “reckless and irresponsible” Russian weapons test has created more than 1,500 pieces of debris now endangering the seven crew aboard the International Space Station, US officials have said. Crew members were forced to take emergency measures on Monday after debris floated dangerously close by – and took cover in their docked capsules amid fears
World
Swedish police have arrested a man and a woman on suspicion of murder after two children fell “from a great height” and one of them died. One of those detained was reportedly injured and is being treated in hospital before they are questioned. The children, who were reportedly siblings and both under the age of
Austria is placing millions of people not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in lockdown as of today as Europe becomes the epicentre of the pandemic once again. Anyone over the age of 12 who has not been double-jabbed is now only allowed to leave their homes for work, school, exercise and buying essential supplies – with
Driving through the Bialowieza forest – next to Poland’s border with Belarus – a green light shines out from the porch of a house. The bulb throwing off a luminous hue into the darkness around. Pulling up to look, the owner comes out to talk. The green light is part of local movement offering help
Talks to reach a climate deal at a United Nations summit in Glasgow will continue into Saturday afternoon, after a Friday deadline passed without an agreement. COP26 president Alok Sharma has told delegates that revised documents for the agreements to be struck at the conference will be issued overnight, and be available by 8am on
A new draft climate deal has been published in Glasgow this morning as COP26 talks spill over and could last well into Saturday after passing the original deadline. Negotiators were given a new draft of the final agreement early on Saturday, which kept controversial phrasing on fossil fuel commitments. It calls on countries to accelerate
World leaders have reached the most significant climate change pact since the landmark Paris Agreement, following a turbulent two weeks of fraught negotiations in Glasgow. With a stroke of the gavel, COP26 President Alok Sharma has brought the talks to a close after almost 200 nations finally reached consensus on how to navigate the climate
Outside a detention centre in the Polish city of Bialystok, where we know asylum seekers who crossed the border from Belarus are being held, we meet a local mother and son. They have arrived as visitors. The mother, who only wants to be known as Zofia, is carrying a bag of clothes. She plans to
What’s happening is so extraordinary that at first it’s difficult to make sense of it. We’re in a town called Jharia, in northeast India, standing on the edge of an Indian government mine site. It’s about 9am and the air is already thick with choking coal dust that makes our eyes sting. In front of
A promise to end fossil fuel subsidies must not disappear from a final COP26 agreement despite opposition, the European Union’s climate policy chief has warned. Major fossil fuel exporters including Saudi Arabia and Australia have been accused of trying to water down or remove a section in the draft version that calls for an accelerated
Clinical trials are starting for a new Ebola vaccine developed by the University of Oxford, designed to tackle the two strains responsible for nearly all outbreaks and deaths worldwide. The university has launched a Phase I trial to test the vaccine in human volunteers, with the first jabs taking place today. The study is currently recruiting
Two groups of migrants have reportedly managed to cross the border from Belarus into Poland, amid accusations that Belarusian forces have fired shots into the air near a makeshift camp. Poland’s Defense Ministry posted a video on Twitter with noises of what sounded like shots in a border area. The footage cannot be independently verified
Singapore will no longer pay the medical bills for coronavirus patients who remain “unvaccinated by choice”, the country’s government has said. It comes as the southeast Asian island reported 3,397 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, compared to 2,470 the day before. The government said: “While the total number of COVID-19 cases in hospitals and the
A group of migrants have camped overnight on the far side of Poland’s eastern border in Belarus. Polish police posted a video on Tuesday, which showed the migrants were met with riot police and coils of razor wire, but officers said the situation overnight was calm. That followed a day of heavy tensions on the
The absence of President Jair Bolsonaro at the critical UN summit in Glasgow is not a problem, Brazil’s top climate diplomat has told Sky News. Asked if it was embarrassing that the President had not attended COP26, Paulino de Carvalho Neto said: “Not really. He had other things to do. We have a huge delegation
Satellite images have revealed that China has built mock-ups of US warships in its northwestern desert. The images captured by Colorado-based satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies dated on Sunday show the outlines of a US aircraft carrier and at least one destroyer that sits on a railway track. It comes as China has made a
The family of a 21-year-old Kenyan woman said to have been murdered by a British soldier are taking legal action against the Ministry of Defence. Relatives of Agnes Wanjiru, a single mother to a young baby, have instructed British legal firm Leigh Day to represent them in a bid to find answers to her death
Police in Western Australia have called off a search for a swimmer attacked by a shark. Paul Millachip, 57, was swimming at Port Beach near Fremantle on Saturday morning when he was attacked by what appeared to be a four-and-a-half-metre (15-foot) great white shark. The search was called off on Sunday afternoon, local time, with
Iraq’s prime minister has survived an attempted assassination by a drone armed with explosives. The government said the drone targeted Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi’s home in Baghdad’s Green Zone early on Sunday. Baghdad residents heard the sound of an explosion followed by gunfire from the heavily-fortified area, which houses government offices and foreign
Scores of people have been killed after an oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, with the country’s president mourning the “horrendous loss of life”. Local authorities and morgue officials told the Reuters news agency that 91 people had been killed in the incident near Freetown. The government has yet to confirm the number of
Nine armed Ethiopian factions have joined forces in a bid to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from power. The newly-formed United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces aims to form a transitional government “by force or by negotiation”. “There is no limit for us… Time is running out”, said Tigray official and former foreign
Tourists at a beach resort in Mexico were left scrambling for cover after a gang of men shot dead two suspected drug dealers in front of several luxury hotels. Gunmen stormed a beach in front of the high-end resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun on Thursday. They then shot dead two men, who
A man has been charged over the alleged abduction of four-year-old Cleo Smith in Australia. Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, has been charged with various offences including forcibly taking a child under the age of 16. Kelly, from Carnavon, Western Australia, was arrested after police rescued Cleo from a locked house. Please use Chrome browser for
US Navy investigators have identified the “unknown object” that collided with a submarine in the South China Sea in October – an uncharted underwater mountain. The USS Connecticut was in a “safe and stable condition” after the incident in the disputed waters, which provoked outrage from officials in China. But the risk of fallout following
Police who found missing Cleo Smith in a locked house in Australia say they were “shocked” and then “elated” when the four-year-old confirmed: “My name is Cleo.” Detective Sergeant Cameron Blaine told reporters they were not prepared for such a happy outcome despite “always” hoping for it. “It was absolutely fantastic. To see her sitting
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his ex-UEFA counterpart Michel Platini have been charged with fraud in Switzerland. It follows a six-year investigation into a payment of two million Swiss francs (£1.6m) from FIFA to Platini. Blatter, 85, and French football legend Platini, 65, could now face a trial within months. “This payment damaged FIFA’s
2070. It’s the most distant net-zero target of any G20 nation, but, as one climate activist in Kolkata, India, told Sky News: “At least it’s a start, although I’ll be dead by then.” Coming into Glasgow’s COP26 climate summit, India hadn’t updated its previous carbon reduction commitments (or NDCs, Nationally Determined Contributions) pledged during the 2015
Drive through the swamplands of Western Siberia, and you’ll pass one oil installation after the next. This is the largest petroleum basin on Earth and the heartland of Russia’s vast oil and gas reserves. Pipelines cut through the swampy ground. Fuel tankers thunder past, carrying hydrocarbons for global delivery. There is not much sense of
Madagascar is on a frontline where there are no bullets being fired, no mortars being launched and no bombs being dropped. But its people are helplessly trapped in the centre of a war where the results are just as devastating. Our Sky News team managed to get inside the country despite it still being cut
“It’s one minute to midnight and we need to act now,” the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson will declare on Monday as he seeks to stir world leaders into dramatic action at urgent UN climate talks. At the COP26 opening ceremony, the prime minister will say humanity has “long since run down the clock on
A man brandishing a “long knife” while dressed as the Joker from Batman stabbed several passengers on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire in one of the carriages, local media reported. At least 17 people were injured in the attack, including three seriously, though not all the wounded had been stabbed. The incident
At least three people have died and several more are injured after security forces opened fire during Sudan’s largest pro-democracy protest since the military seized control earlier this week. Last Monday, Sudan’s top general Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of the Sovereign Council, declared a state of emergency and dissolved the country’s transitional government. Sudan’s
More than 160 buildings in a Myanmar town have been destroyed in fires caused by shelling from government troops, according to local media. Tensions between Myanmar’s military junta and opposing militia forces have continued to grow since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February. Now footage has