World

Conquering Mount Everest will cost climbers an extra $4,000 (£3,270) after Nepal hiked up fees for the first time in almost a decade. Nepal’s government has announced a 36% increase in permit fees, meaning they will go from $11,000 (£8,930) to $15,000 (£12,200) from September. Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers

Ireland has delayed choosing its new prime minister after a row over speaking rights sparked angry scenes in the parliament. The Irish Parliament, called the Dail, had this morning convened to nominate a new prime minister, with Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin poised to take on the position. However, the process was pushed back hours

A family’s move from New Zealand to Australia went horribly wrong when they realised their cat had been left on the plane and flown back home. Mittens, an eight-year-old Maine coon cat, was booked on a one-way trip from Christchurch, in New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia, on 13 January. Once they touched down in Melbourne,

A fire at a hotel in a popular ski resort in Turkey has killed at least 66 people, the country’s interior minister has said. Ali Yerlikaya added that at least 51 other people were injured in the fire at the Grand Kartal hotel in Kartalkaya in Bolu province’s Koroglu mountains in northwest Turkey, around 185

Moments after taking office, the new president Donald Trump issued a flurry of orders ripping up rules to protect the climate and natural world. The broad roll back of climate policy, much of it advanced under Joe Biden’s previous administration, aims to maximise oil and gas production and lower household energy bills. Mr Trump vowed

Donald Trump will pull the US, the world’s second-largest climate polluter, out of the most important global treaty for tackling climate change for the second time. The White House announced the move to withdraw from the Paris Agreement shortly after Mr Trump’s inauguration on Monday. The decision would place the United States alongside Iran, Libya

Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States today – marking an astonishing return to the White House for the businessman and former reality TV star. Today’s inauguration comes after a tumultuous four years out of office that saw assassination attempts and several serious legal cases against the 78-year-old. Mr Trump will

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said a ceasefire in Gaza due to take effect this morning will not happen if Hamas fails to issue the list of the hostages up for release. A long-sought ceasefire for Gaza, where Israel has been waging a powerful military campaign for the past 15 months, was due

Iran has unveiled an underground naval base capable of taking on “enemies big and small”. Footage broadcast on state TV shows a large number of speedboats lined up in what appears to be an underground tunnel. It is reportedly part of a “secret” base built at a depth of 500m at an undisclosed location in

Hotel pools on Greek islands could be filled with seawater this summer as politicians try to combat the country’s two-year drought. Proposed new laws debated in the Greek parliament this week could pave the way for pipes to be installed connecting swimming pools at coastal hotels with the sea. The aim is to save shrinking

A police volunteer has been found guilty of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at a hospital in Kolkata, India, last year. Sanjay Roy, 33, denies the charges and claims he has been framed. He will be sentenced on Monday, and it ranges from life in prison to the death penalty. Judge Anirban

A Pakistani neuroscientist held in US custody has told Sky News she has hope she will be freed after “new evidence” emerged which may suggest her innocence. Dr Aafia Siddiqui, 52, was once one of the most wanted women in the world for her alleged links to al Qaeda‘s leadership and was jailed for 86

Iran has broached the possibility of getting Russia’s help to build a nuclear power plant during talks in Moscow. President Masoud Pezeshkian travelled to the Russian capital to meet President Vladimir Putin on Friday, when they signed a 20-year strategic partnership treaty. It was Mr Pezeshkian’s first visit to the Kremlin since winning presidency last

Donald Trump will want to strike a deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine that brings him a “win” for ending the fighting but without also gifting a victory to Vladimir Putin. Crucially, any settlement must be acceptable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has spent the past few months working hard to impress the value

Dozens of planes have been forced to divert or fly holding patterns to avoid potential debris from the SpaceX rocket that blew up. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it briefly slowed and re-routed planes in the area where the pieces were falling back to earth. Tracking app FlightRadar24 said its most-watched flights last

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a deal with Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages and prisoners. It will now go to the full cabinet for final sign-off, with a full government meeting scheduled later today. A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said approval came “after examining all political,

In Moscow on Friday, a couple of days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, two of the West’s main adversaries – Russia and Iran – will sign a strategic partnership pact. It will deepen a relationship that has blossomed since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Should the West be worried? Not according to Russia.

The two richest people on the planet are heading for a showdown in space. Elon Musk versus Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: they both launched prototype rockets on the same day, a rivalry with billions of dollars at stake. SpaceX’s Starship is fuelled by Musk’s extraordinary appetite for risk. He innovates through failure, and the seventh

Pakistan’s national airline has been criticised for an advert that shows a plane flying towards the Eiffel Tower – with some saying it bears similarities to imagery of the 9/11 terror attacks. The advert, which was posted on the official X account of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on 10 January, shows the plane heading towards

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested, six weeks after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law. A motorcade of black SUVs was seen leaving the gates of his hillside residence where he had been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire and a small army of personal security. Mr Yoon said the