World

As Russian missile strikes against Ukraine’s power and water supplies ramped up in recent weeks, images of surgeons carrying out life-saving work by torchlight started to make headlines around the world. Liev Schreiber, who you might know as Hollywood “fixer” Ray Donovan in the hit TV series, or for his roles in films varying from

“Whoever introduces external forces to get involved is a complete traitor!”  “I understand the rally organised this time was by… the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of America.” “Don’t be led astray by external forces. No matter what, you must love your country!” These comments are far from unusual on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

People living on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island have been told to prepare for a worst-case scenario as it continues to erupt and belch volcanic ash into the air.  Waves of orange, glowing lava are flowing from the world’s largest active volcano in its first eruption in 38 years

Ireland could face being cut off if the UK experiences a gas shortage this winter, a leading MEP has warned. The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem has warned of a “significant risk” of natural gas shortages due to the war in Ukraine, and that has caused alarm in Ireland, which imports around 70% of its gas

The niece of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has called on foreign governments to cut all ties with Tehran’s “murderous and child-killing regime”. Farideh Moradkhani, a well-known rights activist, made the comments in a video posted online two days after she was arrested in Iran. The authorities in Iran have cracked down

These protests are momentous. Wherever they lead, they are already hugely significant. China has witnessed bigger protests in Hong Kong, but nothing on the mainland has come close to this since 1989. Unrest is actually commonplace in China but demonstrations are usually small, localised and easily quashed. What will worry China’s leadership about these protests

Belarus’s long-serving foreign minister has died “suddenly”, the country’s state news agency has said. Vladimir Makei, who had been in post since 2012, was 64. He attended a conference in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, earlier this week, and had been due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday. “Foreign minister Vladimir Makei has

A Wales supporter in Qatar for the World Cup has died, the Welsh football association has said. He has been named as Kevin Davies, 62, from Pembrokeshire. Mr Davies is reported to have been rushed to Hamad General Hospital, in Doha, following Wales’ match against Iran, where he later died. It is understood to have

Vladimir Putin is trying to freeze and starve Ukraine’s people into giving up this winter by attacking power and water supplies but he will fail, the foreign secretary has told Sky News. James Cleverly, on his first visit to Ukraine, said he had never seen such devastation before and said it was vital for the

Climate protesters broke on to a runway in Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport and glued themselves to the tarmac, causing its temporary closure and delays to flights. Berlin police said they encountered “several people” in an area not open to the public, after activists gained unauthorised access, with some gluing themselves to the ground. Activists from the

China has intensified its COVID restrictions and lockdowns as its daily infection figures climbed to a record high. On Wednesday it recorded 31,444 new COVID-19 cases – exceeding the previous peak in April when Shanghai was in a city-wide lockdown that would last two months. It is also the highest daily figure since the virus

As if there weren’t other things for Russian MPs to worry about nine months into the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine. But as their president seeks to exalt traditional Russian values above what he has called the “outright Satanism” of the West, his parliament has adopted in the second reading a bill that further tightens the

Iran has started producing enriched uranium at 60% purity at its underground Fordo nuclear plant, according to official media. The country is already enriching to 60% purity at its Natanz nuclear facility, meaning that supplies of the radioactive metal held in at least two facilities are now closer to weapons-grade 90% purity. The semi-official news

It was a day that football fans back home had been dreaming of. Wales, in their first World Cup for 64 years; England, getting their campaign under way with genuine hope of finally ending 56 years of hurt. ‘Tickets disappear from phones’ – World Cup latest And both can be satisfied with their opening salvos

Turkey has struck Kurdish militant bases in retaliation for a bomb attack in Istanbul last week. The air strikes on the bases in northern Syria and northern Iraq killed 11 civilians, including a journalist, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said. Six people were killed in the bombing in central Istanbul. The SDF has denied

Ukrainian forces could be back in Crimea by the end of December and the entire war with Russia will be over by the spring, a Ukrainian deputy defence minister has predicted. Volodymyr Havrylov, a retired major general, said his country would never stop fighting until victory and had even factored in the potential of a

Nigeria was subjected to the worst flooding in a decade in October, which left more than 600 people dead and about a million displaced. Along with the hundreds of thousands of houses destroyed, huge swathes of the country’s farmland were devastated by the surging waters. Sky News’s Yousra Elbagir visited the country to see the

Italy’s prime minister has rebuked criticism she faced for taking her six-year-old daughter to the G20 summit in Indonesia. Giorgia Meloni brought Ginevra to the summit, where she met US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ms Meloni was later criticised in an article in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, which read:

The Chinese government has called on retired military and government workers to help boost production at the world’s largest iPhone factory amid COVID staff shortages. An open letter posted on WeChat asks veterans and ex-civil servants to “answer the government’s call” and “take part in the resumption of production” at the Foxconn facility in Zhengzhou

Late on Tuesday afternoon, Ilyas Verdiev looked from his apartment in Kyiv across an ink-black neighbourhood. He knew the dark and cold was not an experience unique to him. Click to subscribe to Ukraine War Diaries wherever you get your podcasts For weeks, millions across Ukraine’s capital have grown used to living with the blackouts