World

Russia doesn’t want conflict with the Ukraine but Western powers must provide Moscow with “unconditional security” guarantees, President Vladimir Putin says. Speaking at his annual news conference, Mr Putin said the US has missiles at “Russia’s doorstep” and the “ball is in the West’s court” in relation to security in the region. The conference comes

The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that “blanket” COVID-19 vaccine booster programmes were “likely to prolong the pandemic”. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the widespread distribution of boosters risked diverting supply to countries that had high levels of their populations already jabbed and away from those that need it most. That

A Madagascan government minister said he swam for 12 hours after his helicopter crashed at sea during a rescue mission. Police Minister Serge Gelle had been part of a team searching the northeast coast of the country after a cargo ship illegally carrying 130 passengers sank, killing at least 19 people. A further 66 are

Vladimir Putin has threatened a “military-technical response” if Western countries continue with what he calls “unfriendly” actions over Ukraine. Speaking to military officials, Mr Putin said there was no room to retreat in the standoff currently centred on the former Soviet state. Concerns are growing that Russia is planning to invade its neighbour with thousands

Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has been ordered to pay around £550m to his former wife and their two children in what is thought to be the largest award of its kind ordered by an English court. Judge Philip Moor said most of the money awarded to Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, who

With record numbers of daily infections in recent days, the UK is currently a hotspot for Omicron – but the latest COVID-19 variant has hit other countries around the world, too. The US government’s chief medical officer Dr Anthony Fauci has called on Americans to get vaccinated, as densely populated areas such as New York

“What if you’re married… but your husband dies? Who is going to come in and feed you? Who is going to help you look after yourself?” This is how Evangelista Apelis and her team convinced some communities in Papua New Guinea that women, so far banned from diving, should be allowed to take it up

The sound of the distant rumble of sporadic artillery, in positions a few miles away from us, only adds to the tension. We approach Ukrainian army positions through an icy fog that portends to the inevitable snowstorms that will soon envelop the east of the country. The army unit we are with is dug in

An 11-year-old boy has been named as the sixth child to be killed in a bouncy castle accident four days ago in Australia’s island state Tasmania, police have confirmed. The children fell 10 metres (33 feet) to the ground as they were left trapped inside an inflated bouncy castle that was lifted into the air

The Netherlands will enter into a tough lockdown from tomorrow morning to curb the spread of Omicron, with non-essential shops, bars, restaurants, and other public places to close. Schools will also shut from Monday, and the lockdown will run until at least 14 January, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has announced. He added it was “unavoidable

At least 15 people have been killed and 16 injured after a powerful blast in a sewage system beneath a bank in southern Pakistan. A young boy was among victims pulled from the rubble after the blast, which police believe was caused by a gas leak below the building in the Sher Shah neighbourhood of

The Kurdish travel agent, responsible for 10 of the people who died crossing the Channel last month, has told Sky News he thinks about the dead every day and defended his role in the network. “Even if we don’t participate, the process will still happen,” he said. “As an agency in Kurdistan and Iraq, we

As many as 75,000 people in China are dying prematurely each year from air pollution caused by the country’s increasing meat consumption, a new study has found. Global increases in meat production over the past 50 years are most pronounced in east Asia, and particularly China, according to the paper, published in Nature Food. The

Up to 27 people are feared to have died or been critically injured in a building fire in western Japan. State broadcaster NHK said the fire broke out on the fourth or fifth floor of an eight-story building in a shopping and entertainment area in the city of Osaka. It said the victims were found

2021 was the year that warnings on climate change went into overdrive. It was the year that scientists seemed to run out of patience. And it was the year that the consequences of climate change finally, indisputably, arrived at the doorstep of the western world. By summer, the UN’s special climate panel declared global warming

British tourists are to be banned from France amid concern over the “extremely rapid” rise in Omicron COVID cases in the UK. From Saturday morning, France is banning travel to and from the UK without “compelling reasons”. Those reasons do not include travel for tourism and business, Paris said. UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said

A full invasion of Ukraine by Russia would spread conflict around Europe and could even trigger World War Three, a Ukrainian government minister has warned. Yuliia Laputina, the minister for veterans affairs – who previously served as a top officer in Ukraine’s equivalent of MI5 – told Sky News that her country was ready to

Up to 350 people are trapped on the roof of Hong Kong’s World Trade Centre after a major fire broke out in the skyscraper, police have said. The fire started to rip through the 38-story building, which houses both offices and a mall, in the bustling commercial and shopping district of Causeway Bay early on

At least 60 people were killed and dozens more injured after a petrol tanker overturned and exploded in northern Haiti. Late on Monday, the truck overturned in the coastal city of Cap-Haitien and exploded in a fireball, engulfing cars and homes in flames. Hours later, a local hospital was overwhelmed with injured people as it

The husband of a Belarusian opposition leader has been jailed for 18 years by a court in the country. Siarhei Tsikhanouski was charged with organising mass unrest and inciting hatred, among other offences, in a case widely seen as politically motivated. His sentence was announced on Tuesday, six months after his trial began behind closed