The first victim of Wednesday’s tragedy in the Channel has been named as Mariam Nouri Hamadameen, a 21-year-old Kurdish woman from northern Iraq. She had travelled to Germany and on to France, hoping to join her fiance who already lives in Britain. Mariam was a student and recently engaged – she left her studies early
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South Africa is racing to learn more about a new coronavirus variant that could be more transmissible and more resistant to vaccines. Just 53 cases related to the B.1.1.529 strain have been confirmed in the country so far, but there are fears the true number could be much higher. COVID-19 has been rapidly spreading among
A mayday call by French coastguard requesting urgent help from “all ships” during yesterday’s Channel boat emergency has been obtained by Sky News. Twenty-seven people – 17 men, seven women and two teenage boys and a girl – died while trying to cross to the UK in a flimsy boat, which capsized near Calais. Two
The French interior minister said migrants are “often attracted” to the UK’s job market after 27 people died while attempting to cross the Channel. Gerard Darmanin said that Britain, Belgium and Germany could do more to help France tackle illegal migrants and human trafficking issues. In an interview with French radio station RTL he also
At least 24 migrants have drowned while trying to get to the UK across the Channel in an inflatable dinghy, a French official has said. Several others are thought to be injured after their boat capsized off Calais this afternoon, as they tried to cross the world’s busiest shipping lane. “Strong emotion in the face
The World Health Organisation has said it is “alarmed” about the surge in COVID-19 infections across Europe as the continent battles a fresh wave of the virus. Cases are rising again in much of Europe – sharply in the case of countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, with the latter going back into a
A man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy in 2007 has been freed early from jail. Rudy Guede served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence, said his lawyer, Fabrizio Ballarini. He was convicted in 2008 and had been due to be freed on 4 January next year, but a
At least six people, including four children, have died after a ferry capsized off the coast of eastern Sri Lanka. A total of 12 people have been rescued so far, a spokesperson for the country’s navy, Captain Indika de Silva, confirmed. He added that a search operation was continuing to take place. The ferry was
Germany’s health minister has warned that by the end of this winter “pretty much everyone” in Germany “will have been vaccinated, recovered or died”. Jens Spahn urged Germans to get vaccinated amid a rapid rise in COVID cases. Official figures showed more than 30,000 new coronavirus cases in Germany in the last 24-hour period, an
Austria is beginning another COVID-19 lockdown, as the government seeks to limit the spread of the virus. The lockdown is the first since vaccines became widely available, but it comes as just 65% of the population is fully vaccinated. Most gathering places – such as restaurants, cafes, bars, theatres, non-essential shops, and hairdressers – will
Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, believed to have been missing for nearly three weeks, has held a video call with the president of the International Olympic Committee. In the 30-minute call, she told Thomas Bach that she was safe and well. “She explained that she is safe and well, living at her home in Beijing,
Missing Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has purportedly appeared in a video in which she is seen with friends in a restaurant. Peng, a former Wimbledon doubles champion, is seen smiling and is having fun in the apparently new footage released by state media. The video was posted on Twitter by Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of
Seven people have been arrested after rioters clashed with police in The Hague for a second night of violence in the Netherlands, sparked by protests over new COVID-19 restrictions. The unrest came a day after police opened fire on protesters in Rotterdam amid what the port city’s mayor called “an orgy of violence”, leaving three
Rotterdam’s mayor has condemned “an orgy of violence” at protests against COVID-19 restrictions in the Dutch port city, in which seven people were hurt and more than 20 arrested. The trouble flared as the Netherlands moved to curb a fourth wave of the coronavirus. Hundreds of rioters torched cars, set off fireworks and threw rocks
Across Europe, sweeping COVID-19 restrictions are being imposed in a bid to tackle a fourth wave of the virus currently surging across the continent. With Europe once again the epicenter of the pandemic, Germany, Austria, and Slovakia have reintroduced restrictions in the run-up Christmas, amid a debate over whether vaccines alone are enough to tame
More than 400 migrants, who have camped for weeks at Belarus’ borders with the EU, have boarded a deportation flight bound for Iraq. Some 430 people, mostly Iraqi Kurds, were booked onto a flight due to leave this afternoon from Minsk airport, the Iraqi foreign ministry said. They were due to board the flight at
On a sunburnt playing field at an Addis Ababa school, where hundreds of unlikely soldiers tried to march in time, I watched a sergeant from the police force trying to keep his cool. “To the left, turn to the left,” he said to one ad-hoc battalion of city residents, who were wearing bright orange bibs.
“Take it from me, please don’t come… it’s bad here.” This is one of hundreds of messages sent by migrants on the Belarus border seen by Sky News. The texts warn others not to follow in their footsteps. “To those who are saying ‘the border is open’, it’s not open. It’s a lie,” another migrant
Human remains have been found in a New Zealand coal mine more than a decade after one of the country’s worst industrial disasters, police have said. Twenty-nine men were killed after a series of methane gas explosions ripped through the Pike River mine on the west coast of the South Island in November 2010. Two
Teenager Kyle Rittenhouse has been acquitted of all charges after pleading self-defence over the killings of two people shot dead during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The fierce, televised clashes between the prosecution and defence attorneys continued until the very end of this hugely anticipated, widely followed murder trial. Lasting just two