World

The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny – a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin – has died, according to the prison service. This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet

Greece has legalised same-sex marriage – becoming the first Orthodox Christian-majority country to do so. The landmark bill, drafted by prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government, passed on Thursday night with a cross-party majority of 176–76 votes. It also allows same-sex couples to legally adopt children, but will not allow gay men to acquire biological

Russia is secretly developing a new kind of satellite-killing space weapon, according to US intelligence watchdogs in Washington. The Biden administration is gathering highly sensitive information about the new capability, which is not yet operational but could potentially be a game changer in the war in Ukraine. Russia has denied the claims but the chair

The exchange of fire over Israel’s northern border with Lebanon is some of the most serious yet – but the situation remains fundamentally the same.  Hezbollah’s Iranian patrons do not want the militia to escalate the conflict to an all-out war. And its commanders want to avoid one too. Israel may be weighing a bigger

Vladimir Putin’s ambassador to the UK says the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which Russian forces razed to the ground, is now “beautiful” and “rebuilt”. In a wide-ranging interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Andrei Kelin also said Moscow has “no interest in Poland, Latvia, Estonia or any other countries” after NATO warned of future Russian

Global defence spending on everything from ammunition to nuclear weapons has jumped 9% to a record $2.2trn (£1.7trn) from a year earlier and will rise again in 2024 as the world enters “a more dangerous period”, new analysis has found. Russia – locked in a war with Ukraine – allocates more than 30% of annual

More than a million Palestinians sheltering around the southern city of Rafah are braced for an offensive by the Israeli army, with nowhere left to flee inside Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s says his office has ordered the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to develop a plan to evacuate the city and destroy four Hamas battalions

World marathon record holder and London Marathon winner Kelvin Kiptum and his coach have died in a road accident, Kenya’s former prime minister has said. The 24-year-old won the London Marathon last year. Kenya’s former prime minister Raila Odinga said on X: “Devastating news as we mourn the loss of a remarkable individual, Kelvin Kiptum,

Madagascar is set to castrate child rapists after its parliament passed a controversial law last week. The Indian Ocean island’s senate approved the law which will allow for chemical, and in certain cases, surgical castration of those found guilty of raping a minor. It must now be ratified and then signed into law by President

The chief executive of one of Nigeria’s largest banks is believed to have been killed along with his wife and son when a helicopter they were riding in crashed in Southern California’s Mojave Desert. Herbert Wigwe, chief executive of Access Bank, and his family were among six people on board when the charter flight went

Israel has been warned of repercussions if its military launches a ground invasion in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, while Israel has suggested civilians could evacuate and find refuge in tent camps which are not yet built. The warning came after Israeli air strikes killed at least 44 Palestinians, including more than a dozen children,

Pakistan is in political limbo after an election result that few in the establishment predicted. Independent candidates backed by Imran Khan‘s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) have delivered a major upset. Many seemed to underestimate the level of discontent and desire for change in a country that’s experienced years of turbulence. The army generals who have

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi has been named as the new chief of Ukraine’s army.  The 58-year-old was promoted by Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he removed General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi from the post after months of friction between the pair. Mr Syrskyi has played a key role in some of Ukraine’s biggest victories – but has also faced

Vladimir Putin has said Bill Clinton misled him over Russia’s potential membership of NATO two decades ago. During a lengthy interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Russian president said he asked the outgoing President Clinton if his country could join the alliance when he visited the Kremlin in 2000. He claims

Alexei Navalny has become the latest in a string of deaths of critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Over his more than two decades at the top of the Kremlin, a number of Mr Putin’s opponents have suffered unfortunate fates – including being jailed, shot dead in the street, or poisoned with tea spiked with

Russia’s main election authority has banned an anti-war candidate from standing in the country’s upcoming presidential election. Boris Nadezhdin, a local legislator in a town near Moscow, was required by law to gather at least 100,000 signatures in support of his candidacy. But the Central Election Commission said more than 9,000 signatures submitted by Mr

The caretaker prime minister of Pakistan has told Sky News there is no attempt to “target a specific party or group” amid claims of pre-poll rigging and candidate harassment. Speaking on the eve of the election, Anwar ul Haq Kakar did acknowledge they couldn’t totally guarantee free and fair elections. “Absolute is a very relative

A group of the Middle East’s football associations has asked world football chiefs to ban Israel over the war on Hamas in Gaza, according to a letter seen by Sky News. But the Israeli Football Association has urged FIFA to keep politics out of sport and allow them to continue trying to qualify for the

Polling stations have opened in Pakistan in a general election which has already been marred by violence and allegations of fraud. On the eve of Thursday’s election, bombs struck two political offices in southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 30 people. Tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces have been deployed at polling stations to

A US drone strike in Baghdad has killed three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, according to US officials. The drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital – and was in response to a drone strike that killed three US troops in Jordan towards the end of January.