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
World
World leaders have made a series of climate pledges at COP26 culminating in an agreement to strengthen emissions-cutting targets for 2030 by the end of next year. A lot has happened over the past two weeks in Glasgow. Here is a look back at all the key agreements. Follow the latest coverage in our COP26
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
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
As the sun rose over the Amazon, so did we - to see for ourselves what’s at stake here, in the battle to save the most biodiverse sanctuary on the planet. Our pilot, Raphael Montenegro, pilots police helicopters. Every day he witnesses the increasing number of blemishes on nature’s masterpiece. While flying over the breathtaking canopy
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
US spy agencies have admitted that the true origins of COVID-19 may never be known. The Office of the US Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said on Friday that theories involving transmission from animals or a leak from a lab were plausible. However, the office added that analysts could not agree which was more likely
Failure to tackle global vaccine inequality at this weekend’s G20 summit could prolong the pandemic, civil society groups have warned. Campaigners have claimed previous calls to tackle structural problems with vaccine supply have so far been ignored, allowing doses to be “hoarded” by rich nations. The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of more than 75
Two weeks of global leaders meeting to save the world begin with a one-on-one between the leader of the planet’s biggest religious denomination and its most powerful superpower. US President Joe Biden flies into Rome for an audience with the Pope ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders and after that the COP26 climate
France has detained a British scallop trawler owned by Macduff Shellfish and given a verbal warning to another fishing boat in waters off its coast. French maritime minister Annick Girardin said it is “not war but this is a combat”, amid a warning the country could ban allowing British fishing boats to disembark at French
The president of the COP26 UN climate summit has told Sky News it is unclear if the crucial meeting will be a success and it is currently hanging “in the balance”. Just days from the summit, Alok Sharma said: “This is going to be difficult. “This is going to be a big challenge. “This is
Analysis by Tom Cheshire, Asia correspondent If anyone was hoping for a big statement from the world’s biggest polluter ahead of COP26 – well, bad luck. This is as good as it gets. There are no new pledges. Those were unlikely after President Xi made his dramatic and welcome declaration last year, that China would
“I am just the same, unselfconfident person I was,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told Sky News in August last year. “But this is my mission. I have to overcome all these difficulties and bring our country to a free future and become a mother and wife again.” That was shortly before a blatantly rigged election robbed her
Attacks by Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) in Afghanistan have become more deadly since the withdrawal of NATO forces, with at least 346 civilians killed by the group since late August. The insurgents carried out bombings in areas where previously they had little presence. A security expert told Sky News this could be a sign of
At least seven people have been killed and 140 injured after Sudan’s military seized power, a health ministry official has said. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the military-civilian Sovereign Council on Monday and announced a state of emergency. He has promised to hold elections in July 2023 and then hand over power to an elected
At least five senior government officials have been detained by military forces, according to reports. The country’s main pro-democracy political group, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), has called on people to take to the streets in response to any apparent coup attempt. Internet and mobile phone signal outages have been reported, say SPA officials who
The head of the world’s largest oil firm has rejected suggestions that oil will be fully phased out and said that it would be a mistake to “demonise” the hydrocarbon industry. In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Amin Nasser, the CEO of Saudi Aramco, insisted oil has a future, despite a global shift towards
An Ecuadorian Olympic sprint star who became a national hero at London 2012 has been fatally shot in his home city of Guayanquil, police say. Alex Quinonez, 32, reached the finals of the 200m nine years ago, finishing seventh as he competed in a field that included athletics legend Usain Bolt. He won bronze in