World

Vladimir Putin has not been invited to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration next month, Moscow has said. The Kremlin said it had not received an invitation for the Russian president to attend the US president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on 20 January. Meanwhile Mr Trump has reportedly invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend the inauguration in Washington

Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host nation for the 2034 football World Cup. Also confirmed were the hosts for the 2030 World Cup, which was awarded to six countries and will take place across three continents to celebrate 100 years of the tournament. Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the 2034 competition.

The world’s landmark Paris Agreement is “more fragile” than it has ever been and disagreements risk “imploding” it, the UK’s climate ambassador has warned. The seminal treaty obliges countries to produce regular plans on how they will cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow climate change. Since it was signed in 2015, predicted levels

Podcaster Joe Rogan and Kate Middleton have joined Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Elon Musk on the ten-name shortlist for Time magazine’s Person Of The Year. The award went to music superstar Taylor Swift last year and Barack Obama was crowned twice, in 2008 and 2012. Time magazine says the title goes to the person,

Israeli troops have seized a demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights in a move that has been criticised by Egypt and Qatar. Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had entered the 155-square mile area after a rebel advance ended Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s rule on Sunday. The zone was established by

Israel has said it is “more optimistic than before” about the chance of reaching an agreement over hostages held in Gaza. Foreign minister Gideon Saar said indirect negotiations were taking place over the return of about 100 hostages. It comes amid reports Hamas has asked for lists to be compiled of people still being held

Syria’s new rebel leaders are facing the daunting task of healing a divided nation – and the toppling of the Assad regime has not put an end to fighting in the country. In northern Syria, Turkey-backed opposition fighters are still battling US-allied Kurdish forces, while both Israel and the US have today launched airstrikes on

Donald Trump has urged Vladimir Putin to reach an immediate settlement to end the war in Ukraine, saying it was the Russian president’s “time to act”. The US president-elect wrote on social media on Sunday that [Volodymyr] “Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness”. He called for “an immediate

Syria’s ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed. Mr Assad and members of his family arrived in the city on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency. The source said: “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them

Bashar al Assad started out as a doctor and ended up a mass murdering tyrant now on the run. The man who trained to save lives in Damascus and London would go on to take them in their hundreds of thousands, bombing hospitals and gassing his own people. He was a strangely unimpressive man to

It’s over. Fifty-four years of brutal Assad dynasty rule has come to an end. The streets of Damascus have erupted in celebration. President Bashar al Assad has fled the country and the capital has fallen. What comes next is of great concern. Syria is deeply divided, geographically and socially. This is a moment of huge

The Syrian government appears to have fallen after a lightning offensive by rebels. President Bashar al Assad fled Damascus on a plane for an unknown destination, according to two senior Syrian army officers speaking to the Reuters news agency and Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, speaking to AP. Syria’s army command

The Syrian government has fallen after a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – ending President Bashar al Assad’s 24-year rule. Mr Assad has left office and the country after giving orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Russia was

Seismic is an overused word. Not when it comes to events currently under way in Syria, a country straddling the fault lines of the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime, if it comes, will be the most significant event yet in the upheaval that’s followed the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel

Seismic is an overused word. Not when it comes to events currently under way in Syria, a country straddling the fault lines of the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime will be the most significant event yet in the upheaval that’s followed the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel last year. Syria

Any evidence that Russia tried to influence an election in a NATO state would expose a form of hybrid attack that is designed to weaken the alliance from within. So-called “political influence operations”, which can use social media to amplify a particular candidate to boost their chances of success, are deliberately difficult to attribute –

Tear gas has been fired by security forces at protesting farmers in India as they attempt to march to Delhi. Demonstrators broke through several layers of barricades during clashes with hundreds of police and para-military forces at the Shambhu crossing at the Punjab and Haryana border. The farmers have a series of demands including waiving

Romania’s top court has annulled the results of the first round of the country’s presidential election after claims of Russian interference. The unprecedented decision came after declassified intelligence documents alleged Russia was behind a campaign to promote far-right candidate Calin Georgescu on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram. Mr Georgescu was viewed as an outsider

Israel has dismissed allegations it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying the claims from Amnesty International are “no surprise”. Government spokesman David Mencer called it “fake news” and told Sky’s Mark Austin the human rights group’s “raison d’etre is to criticise Israel – they do that at every opportunity and this is sadly just another

Russia’s ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said. This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously – with the ratio at times