World

Ireland are celebrating another Six Nations title win with a 17-13 victory over Scotland in Dublin. It is their fifth title in 11 years, having endured a drought of more than two decades between 1985 and 2009. Dan Sheehan and Andrew Porter scored tries for the hosts, who have now won back-to-back championships. Player of

India is to elect a new parliament in what is the largest democratic exercise with 970 million registered voters. The Indian Election Commission said on Saturday that the elections will take place in seven phases from 19 April to 1 June, stretched over 44 days. The gigantic exercise will be conducted by a 15 million-strong

As Russians go to the polls, the outcome is certainly already written as Vladimir Putin runs pretty much uncontested in his bid for a fifth term in office. Opposition candidates were banned from standing, fled the country or are dead – like Mr Putin’s most prominent critic, Alexei Navalny. So, what will another six years of rule

Finland is planning to adopt temporary legislation that will allow authorities to block asylum seekers arriving from Russia, the government has said. It comes after the country closed all crossings on its shared 830-mile-long border late last year, after a growing number of people with a lack of valid documents, tried to enter the European

Around 2,000 Nepali men have been recruited by Russia to fight in its war against Ukraine, Sky News understands. Driven by poverty, many of the Nepali mercenaries are now desperate to return. Ganesh, 35, is one of the few recruits lucky enough to have made it home. He spent four and a half months fighting

A palm-sized blueberry has entered the record books after being officially crowned as the world’s heaviest. The whopping fruit weighing in at 20.4g (0.71oz) and measuring 39.31mm across was grown by the Costa Group in New South Wales, Australia. Picked on 13 November, 2023, it has now been recognised by the Guinness World Records. Image:

Russia embarks this Friday on three days of voting to reconfirm the inevitable, which is another six-year presidential term for Vladimir Putin. Given the fact this is simply a matter of going through the motions for Putin and for the public, why does it matter and why does his administration go to such lengths to

A high court in Japan has ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The current marriage law has previously been interpreted to restrict marriage to just between a man and a woman. While the Sapporo High Court doesn’t have the power to overturn current laws, it called for urgent government action to

Poland is recalling 50 of its ambassadors as Warsaw tries to improve diplomatic missions at a difficult time, with neighbouring Ukraine battling Russia’s full-scale war. The diplomats were all appointed by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which had held power since 2015 before losing December’s general election. Those being recalled have not been

Josh Cavallo, who in 2021 became the first openly gay male professional footballer, is engaged after an on-pitch proposal to his partner, Leighton Morrell, at Adelaide United’s home ground. The 24-year-old made international headlines when he came out publicly in an emotional video, announcing: “There’s something personal that I need to share with everyone: I’m

Denmark is calling up women for military service as it seeks “to avoid war” in the face of Russian aggression. It also plans to boost its defence spending by £4.4bn over the next five years “in a world where the international order is being challenged,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. Follow latest: Russia opens polling stations

Russians are set to head to the polls for their country’s presidential election – with only one expected outcome. With Alexei Navalny dead in unexplained circumstances and opposition candidate Boris Nadezhdin barred from running, there is nobody remaining to pose a serious obstacle to another six years of rule by Vladimir Putin. Nonetheless, the election

The funeral of BBC Radio Scotland presenter Nick Sheridan has taken place in his native Ireland. The award-winning presenter, who died last week aged 32 after a short illness, was described by his older brother Brian as a “talented and generous soul”. “Nick epitomised everything that is good in life – family, friendship, creativity, and

A polio survivor, who lived inside an iron lung for 70 years, has died at the age of 78. Paul Alexander, widely known as “Polio Paul”, contracted the viral disease in the summer of 1952 when he was six years old and was left paralysed from the neck down. He was rushed to hospital in

Google is restricting its AI chatbot from answering election-related questions in countries where voting is taking place this year, as the company tries to avoid spreading disinformation. Now, when you ask Gemini an election-related question, it responds with: “I’m still learning how to answer this. In the meantime, try Google Search.” The response appears for

Powerful Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier has been out in the streets of Port-au-Prince calling for the international community to “give a Haiti a chance” – as he drew a rifle and fired his pistol in a show of force. Cherizier, a former police officer who is known as Barbecue among Haiti’s people, made the

Sweden has cemented its place as a new member of NATO with a flag-raising ceremony. Two soldiers raised the blue banner emblazoned with a yellow cross among the official circle of national flags at the headquarters of the alliance in Brussels, Belgium. The ceremony came two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine persuaded Sweden’s reluctant

Portugal’s political future rests on a knife edge after the country’s centre-left and centre-right parties ended up neck and neck in a parliamentary election. The centre-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 79 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, while the centre-left Socialist Party, which has been in power for the last eight years, got 77

Two young Indian men who were expecting to work as “helpers” in the Russian army have instead died fighting in Ukraine, their families have said. They are among around 35 young Indians tricked by promises of a job, only to find themselves trafficked to the frontline of the war, according to investigators in New Delhi.

Joe Biden has declared freedom and democracy are “under attack” both in the US and abroad as he delivered one of the most important speeches of his presidency. In his State of the Union address, the US president appealed to Congress to continue supporting Ukraine in its war effort against Russia, as he said: “History