World

Imagine having not one, but two babies born in the middle of war. Lina Hammad gave birth to twins in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. It should be a time of celebration, but the stress of keeping the infants, and two other children alive, is all-consuming. The impact of war always hits the most vulnerable.

Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting in Gaza, the Israeli military has said. The deaths take the number of Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) killed to 154 since its ground operation in Gaza began on 20 October. Some 480 IDF personnel have died since Hamas launched its incursion on 7 October. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Around 300 Indian travellers are stuck in a French airport after their flight was grounded in a human trafficking investigation. Those on board the Romania-based charter company Legend Airlines plane from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates to Managua, in Nicaragua, included families and children. The youngest passenger is a 21-month-old toddler while some

The main road into Bethlehem is closed. What is normally a simple 20-minute journey from Jerusalem now takes us an hour, as cars queue to get through the one Israeli military checkpoint open further south. It’s been like this since the war began, and it’s just one way that life in the West Bank has

The UN Security Council has voted for a resolution to speed up aid to Gaza – but left out a call for an “urgent suspension of hostilities”. It instead includes a commitment to “create conditions for the sustainable cessation of hostilities” between Hamas and Israel. Thirteen members voted in favour, while the US and Russia

Police have released bodycam footage of officers storming a university building during their response to a shooting in Prague which killed 13 people. The footage shows armed officers entering a building and members of the public fleeing the scene at Charles University in Prague on Thursday. The gunman – named in Czech media as 24-year-old

Several people have been killed and dozens have been injured during a shooting in central Prague, according to Czech police. “The entire building is currently being evacuated and there are several dead and dozens of injured,” police said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “The shooter has been eliminated.” The incident took place in

A fugitive defence contractor known as “Fat Leonard” who was at the centre of the US Navy’s worst corruption scandal will be returned to the US as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela, Washington has announced. The Malaysian, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, has been accused by US prosecutors of plying Navy

The Irish government is to bring a legal case against the UK under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The inter-state case is over the UK’s decision to bring in the Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act, deputy premier Micheal Martin has confirmed. The act became UK law in September 2023. It looks to end

Africa’s first female billionaire has lost her High Court fight against an application to freeze up to £580m of her assets. Businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, whose father Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled Angola for 38 years until 2017, is being sued by Unitel, a telecoms operator in the African country. The firm asked London’s High

Iceland is witnessing spectacular scenes of orange and gold as a volcano erupts in the southwest of the country. Semi-molten rock has been spewing into air from a crack around 2.5 miles long near the fishing town of Grindavik. Locals were evacuated in November after thousands of small earthquakes were recorded, raising the likelihood of

The molten rock that has been building up beneath southwest Iceland has erupted in spectacular fountains of lava. A gash two miles long has opened up on the Reykjanes peninsula, spewing between 100 and 200 cubic metres of lava every second. That’s far more than in other recent eruptions in the area. Incredible footage shows

Hundreds have been rescued from Australian floods, 16 people were killed in storms in South America, and Florida was deluged with five inches of rain – in just some of the wild weather that’s hitting across the world days before Christmas. People in Queensland, northeastern Australia, clung to roofs amid flooding described as “absolutely devastating”

Former defence secretary Ben Wallace has warned Israel risks losing its “legal” and “moral” authority if it continues with its “killing rage” in Gaza, as he appealed to all sides to pursue a two-state solution. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Wallace insisted he was not calling for an immediate ceasefire in the region, but

An MP who has family members she says are trapped in a church in Gaza is worried they will not survive until Christmas. Layla Moran told Sky News that around 300 people are trapped inside the Holy Family Church complex in Gaza City, including her five relatives. After contacting her family today, the Liberal Democrats’

Sixty-one people, including women and children, have drowned following a shipwreck off Libya, a UN agency has said. The boat originally contained 86 people and left the Libyan shores from Zwara, according to the International Organization for Migration. Earlier, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said illegal migration threatens to “overwhelm” Europe and hinted a change

An Israeli intelligence agent accused of stealing secrets has been executed in Iran, Iranian media has said. The unidentified agent was linked to foreign intelligence services, including the national agency of the State of Israel Mossad, and charged with releasing secret information, Iranian state news agency IRNA said. The execution was carried out by the

The Israeli military has mistakenly killed three hostages held in Gaza after wrongly identifying them as a threat. The Israeli Defence Forces said the victims, all three Israeli men in their 20s, were killed during combat with Hamas militants. The victims were identified as Samer Talalka, 22, Yotam Haim, 28, and Alon Shamriz, 26. Israeli

The pope’s former deputy secretary of state and nine others have been found guilty in the Vatican’s biggest financial corruption scandal. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Vatican employees and two outside Italian brokers were among 10 defendants described by Vatican prosecutors as “actors in a rotten predatory and lucrative system“. Becciu, the highest ranking Vatican-based church official

One person has died and another is in a critical condition in hospital after a boat carrying migrants got into trouble in the Channel. They were among at least 66 people on the inflatable dinghy which got into difficulty about 5 miles (8km) off the French coast, according to the coastguard. The survivors have been