Connect with us

Published

on

The biggest landgrab since the Second World War. A dictator threatening the use of nuclear weapons.

The world’s most important institution meant to guarantee global security, the UN Security Council, rendered impotent yet again with one of its permanent members doing exactly what it was set up to prevent.

The West’s response: a strategy that has repeatedly failed to deter Putin. Sanctions and diplomatic reprimands.

An alarming day, sure, but also surreal. Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of territory he does not fully control while his troops are in retreat across it.

Putin hosts Kremlin ceremony annexing parts of Ukraine – war latest

His speech was rambling and long, the preoccupations of someone who does not get out enough. Conspiracy theories laced, it seemed, with the frustrations of a resentful old man. His audience looked bored and unconvinced.

In Red Square he told crowds victory would be Russia‘s, while in Ukraine thousands of Russian troops are being encircled in the heart of that newly annexed territory by Ukrainian forces.

More on Russia

Putin is losing on the ground and losing diplomatically, rebuked two weeks ago by two key allies, China and India. But he is not looking for a way to save face and get out.

He is doubling down. He appears defiant, but also in denial and perhaps increasingly desperate.

Outmanoeuvred in battle and isolated on the world stage, he is running out of options. And he is losing the Russian people, hundreds of thousands of them fleeing the motherland.

Putin is fond of telling the story of the rat he cornered as a child, not giving up but launching itself at him with renewed fury.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

Like the rat, he has launched his own counter-offensive and raised the stakes, announcing sham referendums and a brazen landgrab and indulging in dangerous nuclear sabre-rattling.

Read more:
Russian missile strike kills 25 – as Putin faces defeat in key city

Startling unrest in Russian republics as thousands flee mobilisation

The annexed regions will be defended by whatever it takes, he says. Publicly Western policymakers say his thinly veiled nuclear threats are a bluff. But can they be sure?

Putin has upped the ante, escalating a conflict that is becoming more dangerous for the world.

Continue Reading

World

Two children from Gaza enter UK for specialist medical care for first time after months of struggle

Published

on

By

Two children from Gaza enter UK for specialist medical care for first time after months of struggle

It was a welcome party of sorts, and it was assembled near arrivals at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

A few people clutched flowers, others brought presents, while everyone carried a sense of relief.

Two children from Gaza had been given permission to enter Britain for specialist medical care and the pair would arrive on the evening flight from Cairo.

It was a significant moment – the first time UK visas had been granted to children from this war-ravaged enclave – and the product of months of struggle by a small group of British volunteers.

Ghena Abed, five, needs urgent treatment to save the vision in her left eye
Image:
Ghena Abed, five, needs urgent treatment to save the vision in her left eye

As those in attendance offered up a cheer, a five-year-old called Ghena Abed emerged shyly from behind the security gates. With fluid pressing on her optic nerve, she needs urgent treatment to save the vision in her left eye.

Also in this party was a 12-year-old girl called Rama Qudiah. She is weak and malnourished and suffers from incontinence. Medics think she requires an operation on her bowel.

Medics think Rama Qudiah, 12, needs a bowel operation
Image:
Medics think Rama Qudiah, 12, needs a bowel operation

Her mother, Rana, told us their arrival in Britian “is just a like a dream”.

Her daughter has certainly been fortunate. A small number of children from Gaza have benefited from medical evacuations, with the majority receiving care in countries in the Middle East, Europe, as well as the United States.

Rama's mother, Rana
Image:
Rama’s mother, Rana

In March, the Israelis signed a deal with Jordan which could allow 2,000 children to leave the enclave for treatment of war injuries and conditions like cancer. However, just 29 were allowed to go at first instance.

The process has not been easy

Until now, not a single child from Gaza has entered the UK for medical care since the start of the current conflict, and the process has not been an easy one for the volunteers at Project Pure Hope.

They told Sky News it has taken 17 months to arrange temporary visas for Ghena and Rama.

Dr Farzana Rahman from Project Pure Hope
Image:
Dr Farzana Rahman from Project Pure Hope

“A lot of us are health care workers and I think it’s in our DNA that when we see people who are suffering, particularly children, we want to try and do something and that’s what motivated us,” says Dr Farzana Rahman from Project Pure Hope.

When asked why she thinks it has taken so much time to secure their visas, Dr Rahman said: “I don’t know.”

Group argues it has no time to lose to help other children

But it is clear the arrival of children from Gaza is an issue of sensitivity. The British volunteers told us on a number of occasions that all costs would be met by private sources. The children will return to Gaza when the treatment is completed.

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Project Pure Hope is not finished, however – group members have drawn up a list of other children they can help, and argue they have no time to lose.

“One of the hardest parts of trying to make progress in this area is that delays cost lives. A number of children have died who we haven’t been able to help and this is an urgent situation and I think for all of us that’s the hardest part,” says Dr Rahman.

Continue Reading

World

Ransacked and looted: Sky reporter returns to family home left in ruins after war in Sudan

Published

on

By

Ransacked and looted: Sky reporter returns to family home left in ruins after war in Sudan

The biggest city in the Sahel has been ransacked and left in ruins.

War erupted in Sudan’s capital Khartoum in April 2023 and sent millions searching for safety.

The city was quickly captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after a power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for total control.

At least 61,000 people were killed from the fighting and siege conditions in Khartoum state alone.

Thousands more were maimed and many remain missing.

The RSF fled Khartoum’s neighbourhoods in caravans carrying the city’s looted treasures as the army closed in and recaptured it after two years of occupation.

The empty streets they left behind are lined with charred, bullet-ridden buildings and robbed store fronts.

More on Sudan

The once shiny skyscrapers built along the confluence of the River Nile are now husks of blackened steel.

The neighbourhoods are skeletal. Generational homes are deserted and hollow.

Damage around Khartoum
Image:
Damage from fighting around Khartoum

Damage around Khartoum

Trenches snake the streets where copper electric cables were ripped out of the ground and pulled out of lampposts now overridden with weeds.

The majority of the 13 million people displaced by this war fled Khartoum. Many left in a rush, assuming it would only take a few weeks for peace to be restored.

My parents were among those millions and in the midst of the abandoned, looted homes is the house where I grew up.

Yousra Elbagir's family home was left in ruins by RSF troops
Image:
Yousra Elbagir’s family home was left in ruins by RSF troops

.
Image:
Yousra said it was likely a bomb had previously fallen nearby and shaken the house at its base

A shell of a home

I have to strain my eyes to see the turn to my house. All the usual markers are gone. There are no gatherings of young people drinking coffee with tea ladies in the leafy shade – just gaping billboard frames that once held up advertisements behind cars of courting couples parked by the Nile.

Our garden is both overgrown and dried to death.

The mango, lemon and jasmine trees carefully planted by my mother and brother have withered.

.
Image:
Structural damage to the outside of the home

The Bougainvillea has reached over the pathway and blocked off the main entrance. We go through the small black side door.

Our family car is no longer in the garage, forcing us to walk around it.

It was stolen shortly after my parents evacuated.

The two chairs my mum and dad would sit at the centre of the front lawn are still there, but surrounded by thorny weeds and twisted, bleached vines.

Yousra Elbagir's family home in Khartoum before RSF's takeover of the city
Image:
How the home looked before Sudan’s war

.
Image:
And how it looks now

The neighbour’s once lush garden is barren too.

Their tall palm trees at the front of the house have been beheaded – rounding off into a greyish stump instead of lush fronds.

Read more:
How recaptured palace is a significant sign of return to order
Sudan’s paramilitary chief announces rival government

Everyone in Khartoum is coming back to a game of Russian roulette. Searching out their houses to confirm suspicions of whether it was blasted, burned or punctured with bullets.

Many homes were looted and bruised by nearby combat but some are still standing. Others have been completely destroyed.

Yousra Elbagir's family home in Khartoum before RSF's takeover of the city
Image:
How the home looked before the war

.
Image:
And how it looks now

The outside of our house looks smooth from the street but has a crack in the base of the front wall visible from up close.

It is likely a bomb fell nearby and shook the house at its base – a reminder of the airstrikes and shelling that my parents and their neighbours fled.

Inside, the damage is choking.

Most of the furniture has been taken except a few lone couches.

The carpets and curtains have been stripped. The electrical panels and wiring pulled out. The appliances, dishes, glasses and spices snatched from the kitchens.

Yousra Elbagir shows her mother pictures found in the home
Image:
Yousra shows her mother pictures found in the home

.

The walls are bare apart from the few items they decided to spare. Ceilings have been punctured and cushions torn open in their hunt for hidden gold.

The walls are marked with the names of RSF troops that came in and out of this house like it was their own.

The home that has been the centre of our life in Sudan is a shell.

.
Image:
Sudan’s war has left the country fractured

Glimmers of hope

The picture of sheer wreckage settles and signs of familiarity come into focus.

A family photo album that is 20 years old.

The rocking chair my mother cradled me and my sister in. My university certificate.

Yousra Elbagir finds her university degree certificate in the wreckage
Image:
Yousra finds her university certificate in the wreckage

Celebratory snaps of my siblings’ weddings. Books my brother has had since the early nineties.

The painting above my bed that I have pined over during the two years – custom-made and gifted to me for my 24th birthday and signed by my family on the back.

There are signs of dirt and damage on all these items our looters discarded but it is enough.

Yousra's parents pictured at home before they fled Khartoum
Image:
Yousra’s parents pictured at home before they fled Khartoum

Evidence of material destruction but a reminder of what we can hope will endure.

The spirit of the people that gathered to laugh, cry and break bread in these rooms.

.
A portrait of Yousra Elbagir's grandmother which was damaged by RSF troops
Image:
A portrait of Yousra’s grandmother damaged by RSF troops

The hospitality and warmth of a Sudanese home with an open door.

The community and sense of togetherness that can never truly be robbed.

What remains in our hearts and our city is a sign of what will get us through.

Continue Reading

World

Unpredictable and disruptive or canny and persistent – what exactly is Donald Trump’s foreign policy?

Published

on

By

Unpredictable and disruptive or canny and persistent - what exactly is Donald Trump's foreign policy?

So, after 100 days of Donald Trump the big question for me remains – does the US president have a coherent foreign policy or is he just winging it?

Let’s take his attitude to the war in Ukraine – here “inconsistent” is perhaps the best description.

Back in February, he and vice president JD Vance humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by shouting at him in the Oval Office.

A few days later, I spoke to Mr Zelenskyy in person when he confided to me that maybe he would have to step down if NATO could guarantee Ukraine membership – a man who perhaps sensed he could never win against a hostile Mr Trump.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sky News meets Zelenskyy: The key moments

Yet, fast-forward to last weekend in Rome, and an iconic picture of the two men in close conversation at the Pope’s funeral.

This time round, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin on the receiving end of the presidential anger, blaming him for the fact that “too many people are dying!”

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, and President Donald Trump, talk as they attend the funeral of Pope Francis in Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
Image:
Trump and Zelenskyy talk in the Vatican. Pic: AP

To Trump’s supporters, this is the smart negotiator, constantly repositioning himself as new information comes in, prior to pulling off a spectacular deal.

To his many detractors, it indicates a dangerous incoherence that is replicated in other key areas, including tariffs as well as his relationship with his allies in Europe and his foes in Beijing.

Trump 100: Read more
Tariffs, DOGE, diet coke: 100 days in 100 words
Trump’s awkward reckoning 100 days in

How an immigration crackdown has changed lives

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Flexible or fallible; in control or all at sea? In the fast and furious world of Donald Trump, it’s almost impossible to call.

The only constants are his unwavering self-belief, or as the man himself says: “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”

We shall see.

Continue Reading

Trending