World

COVID-19 will be over as a public health emergency this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted. During a briefing on Friday, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world is “certainly in a much better position now than we have been at any time during the pandemic”. He said it is “pleasing to see”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of abducting children from Ukraine. It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia‘s commissioner for children, on similar allegations of war crimes. The Kremlin said Russia found the questions raised by the ICC

Police in Paris pepper sprayed young protesters near the Sorbonne University as two motions of no confidence were tabled against French President Emmanuel Macron. One motion of no confidence came from Marine Le Pen’s party Rassemblement National and was signed by 88 cross-party MPs. Another group of independent politicians put forward a second motion which

We’re racing across town in battle-torn eastern Ukraine, trying to keep up with a battered BMW driven by an 18-year-old with his 21-year-old mate urging him on; but they aren’t joyriding youngsters. They’re soldiers in the military and part of a special unit, and they’re taking us to their headquarters. We had met an hour

Poland is to send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days, it has been announced, with more to follow later. “Firstly, literally within the next few days, we will hand over, as far as I remember, four aircraft to Ukraine in full working order,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday. “The rest

The battle of the AI chatbots has stepped up a notch after Chinese search giant Baidu unveiled its much-anticipated rival to ChatGPT. The company showed off Ernie (short for “enhanced representation through knowledge integration”), which analysts believe could be Beijing’s strongest competitor in a crowded field dominated by US firms. ChatGPT is made by the

Banking stocks are enduring fresh, steep losses on Wednesday as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic. Credit Suisse shares plunged to new record lows following comments by its largest investor that it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance. Switzerland’s second-largest bank, no stranger to crisis over the

Police in Vienna have put more armed officers on the streets after intelligence suggested a possible Islamist terror attack was being planned against churches. “There is a nonspecific threat of an assault against churches,” police in the Austrian capital tweeted. “If there is a concrete danger for the population at a concrete location, Vienna police

FIFA is set to approve an expansion of the men’s World Cup today with 40 more matches from the 2026 tournament in North America, Sky News understands. The decision to grow from 64 to 104 matches – rather than the 80 originally planned in 2026 – is due to come at a meeting of the

Naatu Naatu from the Telugu-language blockbuster RRR has made history as the first Indian song to win an Academy Award, taking the Oscar for best original song.  With its catchy chorus and energetic choreography, the song sparked a viral TikTok challenge as people tried to master the acrobatic moves. The song by MM Keeravani and Chandrabose beat

Aside from the business at hand, events in China’s Great Hall of the People really are an impressive spectacle. Everything is performed to perfection, from the synchronised tea pouring to the delegates clapping and even page-turning in unison. The National People’s Congress (NPC) is an annual event that theoretically decides policy and occasionally makes changes

China must modernise its military to make it a “Great Wall of Steel”, President Xi Jinping has said. Speaking for the first time in his precedent-breaking third term as head of state, Mr Xi called for China to step up its ability to safeguard national security and manage public security. “Security is the foundation for

The Indian government is pushing back on an attempt by campaigners to win legal recognition for same-sex marriage, according to reports. Officials have urged the court to reject challenges to the current legal framework lodged by LGBT couples, reported Reuters news agency, which has seen a Sunday filing submitted to the Supreme Court. The Ministry

The Israeli army says its soldiers have shot dead three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on their post in the West Bank. The incident happened near the northern city of Nablus and a fourth gunman was arrested after he surrendered, the military added. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed three people were killed. It did not

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been brutal and attritional, and has shocked most of the “civilised” world. Russia’s evident disregard for casualties and collateral damage in the pursuit of victory is very different to the West’s approach to warfare, which has profound implications for the war in Ukraine, and the West’s wider defence planning assumptions.

A gunman believed to have been acting alone has killed several people in a Jehovah’s Witness building in the German city of Hamburg, police have said. Shots were fired at the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Kingdom Hall in the Gross Borstel district, with police alerted at around 9.15pm on Thursday. Police have not confirmed how many people

I met Larysa standing on broken glass outside her Kyiv apartment block trying to convince two council workmen to come up to her flat and mend her shattered windows. Only hours earlier she had been shaken to the core by a huge explosion in the residential complex car park three floors beneath her. She invited

Georgia’s ruling party said it will drop a controversial bill on “foreign agents” after two days of violent protests. The ruling party, named Georgian Dream, said in a statement it would “unconditionally withdraw the bill we supported without any reservations”. It cited the need to reduce “confrontation” in society but denounced “lies” told about the

Ireland will hold a vote in November on removing “outmoded” references to a woman’s place being in the home from the country’s constitution. The Irish government said on Wednesday that it will hold a referendum on Article 41.2, which says Ireland recognises that “by her life within the home, woman gives to the state a

In the migrant camps in northern France, it’s Mother Nature that calls the shots.  Many of the people staying in makeshift tent villages are waiting to catch small boats to the UK. Today, it’s the weather which has disrupted some of those crossings rather than an announcement from Westminster. “I’m going because my wife and my