World

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

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

Donald Trump said Adolf Hitler “did some good things” and praised Vladimir Putin on more than one occasion during his time in the White House, his former chief of staff has claimed. Mr Trump, who is currently on the campaign trail and hoping to land a second stint as president, also repeatedly admired North Korea’s

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

Joe Biden has issued his toughest criticism yet of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – but until he backs his words with firm action, they are in danger of ringing hollow. The US president is accusing Netanyahu of “hurting Israel more than helping it” – criticism that adds to more colourful comments he’s said to

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.

Israel has continued insisting there isn’t a huge need for more aid in Gaza – enough is getting in, say its officials, with more food than before the war, they’ve even claimed. It’s all the UN’s fault for not distributing it properly, they add. Well, President Joe Biden‘s stunning Gaza port announcement is clearly a

Satellite imagery shows Israeli forces have completed construction of a road cutting across the Gaza Strip to the south of Gaza City. The images, captured by Planet Labs on the 6 March, show the new road running west from Israel‘s border and connecting with the Al Rashid coastal road by the Mediterranean Sea. Located to

In a hospital in northern Gaza, it’s been claimed 13 babies died of malnutrition in a single day last week. A Sky News camera team has filmed inside the hospital, where treatments are being carried out by the torchlight from mobile phones because the electricity isn’t working. Mothers being treated there are said to be

Ireland will hold a referendum on Friday – International Women’s Day – to delete references to a woman’s “duties in the home” from its constitution. After years of pressure, the government agreed to hold two referendums, with the other seeking to expand the constitutional definition of a family from being based on marriage to “durable

The world’s oceans have reached their highest temperature on record, raising fears that coral reefs are on the brink of a massive and potentially lethal heat shock. New satellite data from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service shows the global average sea surface temperature in February was 21.06C, higher than the previous record of 20.98C