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

People in Belgium have been warned not to eat their Christmas trees. Authorities issued the warning in response to a suggestion people could reuse pine needles in recipes as a way to avoid waste. Belgium‘s food agency has now issued a health warning and said people should not eat their Christmas trees. Ghent’s local council

Ryanair has said it is taking legal action against a disruptive passenger. In what it described as a “major misconduct clampdown”, the airline said it is seeking €15,000 (£12,500) in damages from a passenger in Ireland, whose behaviour forced a plane bound for Lanzarote to divert to Porto in Portugal last year. Ryanair claims the

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

So can you stop people smugglers by lumbering them with sanctions? That is the government’s latest idea, and it is bold and innovative. It will certainly get attention, even if that doesn’t mean it will work. But it is another effort by this government to differentiate itself from the leaders who came before. In a

The family of a motorcyclist who died in a crash in Thailand say they have “suffered immeasurable loss”. Corey Beavis, 28, from Barry in South Wales, died after a collision on Saturday morning, his family have confirmed. They have set up a JustGiving page to raise money to return his body to the UK as

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

Soldiers working within the UK’s special forces discussed concerns that Afghans who posed no threat were being murdered in raids against suspected Taliban insurgents, an inquiry has been told. One soldier, who was reading operational reports of SAS actions, said in an email in 2011 that they feared that UK special forces seemed “beyond reproach”,

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

Russia’s unconventional attacks against NATO “look like war” and allies must set new red lines that will trigger a retaliation if crossed, a former foreign minister has warned. Gabrielius Landsbergis, who stepped down as foreign minister of Lithuania earlier this month after four years in the post, told Sky News he did not believe the

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

Former US president Jimmy Carter has died aged 100. The Carter Centre said its founder, who was the oldest living former US president, died in Plains, the town where he was born in Georgia. Mr Carter, a Democrat, became the 39th US president when he defeated former president Gerald Ford in 1976. The Georgia native

An Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed, killing 38 people, was damaged while flying over Russia “due to shooting from the ground”, the country’s president has said. President Ilham Aliyev said he believed that the plane, which crashed around two miles from Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, was not shot down intentionally. However, he accused some

Passengers are being rescued from the tail of a plane which crashed into a wall at an airport in South Korea after veering off the runway. The plane was carrying 175 passengers and six crew when it attempted to land at Muan Airport in the southwest of the country. Firefighters are attempting to rescue 23

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

In Russia, size matters when it comes to family. Just look at the Asachyovs. Vera and her husband Timofey have eight children – from 18-year-old Sofiya to 18-month-old Marusya – and they’ve just been crowned Moscow Family of the Year. “It’s a great honour and joy,” Vera Asachyova told Sky News when asked how it

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would be open to peace talks with Ukraine in Slovakia “if it comes to that”.  Mr Putin said Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who this week visited the Kremlin, had offered his country as a location for negotiations as the war in Ukraine nears the three-year mark. The

Azerbaijan is observing a national day of mourning after 38 people were killed in a plane crash – as footage from inside the aircraft emerged. People can be heard praying as oxygen masks are lowered on board the Azerbaijan Airlines’ Embraer 190, in a clip filmed by a passenger before the plane went down. The