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2022 has been a tough year, in which the UK has often been hit harder than its peer countries in the G7 – the club of the world’s wealthiest democracies.

Russia’s bloody attack on Ukraine led to dramatic spikes in energy costs.

A global cost of living crisis has been driven by soaring inflation and interest rates.

In the UK, hard-pressed workers across the public sector are striking.

Unprecedented political instability in the governing Conservative Party means there have been three different prime ministers in the same year.

Meanwhile, billions of us are grappling with digital technology and connectivity. Some fear social media is rendering traditional representative democracy impossible while handing power to autocrats and unaccountable corporations. Online communication has certainly made us angrier and less tolerant of others.

The world’s population passed eight billion people this year, further increasing the existential pressure humanity is placing on the planet. Extreme weather events attributed to global warming are more frequent than ever.

Globally, the COVID pandemic has claimed more than six million lives, and it is not over either, with a million more deaths predicted in China as the Communist Party reverses its zero-COVID policy.

Taken together, these problems paint a dark picture of life in 2022, yet as we try to cope with them there are glimmers of hope. As we head into the New Year, I want to lift the gloom and rustle up some reasons to be cheerful.

Hope and unity emerge from war in Ukraine

Ukrainians celebrate Russia's withdrawal from Kherson in November
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Ukrainians celebrate Russia’s withdrawal from Kherson in November

No one should minimise the horror of the war in Ukraine, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides and is still enduring the deliberate destruction by an aggressor of a modern European state. Russia’s superiority in size may still mean that Ukraine never gets back all its territory.

Still, the course of the war so far has confounded all President Vladimir Putin’s calculations and shattered the dreams of dictatorial regimes elsewhere. Russia did not conquer in a few days.

The Western democracies did not prove weak and venal. NATO is not “brain-dead”, as President Emmanuel Macron sneered a few years ago. It is stronger, with Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Led by the US, UK and Poland, Western nations have given billions of dollars in military assistance while accommodating refugees. Just as importantly, the thirst of the Ukrainian people and their leaders for liberty, peace and democracy, stressed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his impassioned address to the joint session of the US Congress, reminded us all of the values which should unite us and which are worth fighting for.

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For all their faults, Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss gave Ukraine solid support, even though it cut across their key post-Brexit foreign policy of turning away from Europe. British governments from now on are likely to grasp the importance of good relations with the UK’s closest and largest trading bloc, based on practical co-operation rather than ideology.

A healthy democracy

There is no going back on leaving the EU. But the UK has the chance to enter a new phase without obsessing over the question of Europe, which has dogged the Tory party at least since the 1990s, bedevilling the nation in the process.

Conservative governments no longer have an excuse to be distracted from dealing directly with more important questions such as growth, productivity, and fairness.

If the ruling party does not adapt and address these issues, opinion polls and recent local and by-elections suggest that the electorate may be ready to make a change.

Whatever the outcome at the next election, this is the sign of healthy democracy. Something the increasingly restless people of Russia, China and Iran, for example, are not able to enjoy.

In elections in the West this year, the tide appeared to be turning against populist leaders with links to Russia.

Candidates most associated with Donald Trump, who called Putin a “genius”, fared badly in November’s midterm elections. The Democrats kept control of the Senate. In France, President Macron was re-elected in April, defeating a challenge from Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally.

Game-changing future technology

High-powered lasers were used, converging on a target 'about the size of a peppercorn'
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US scientists carried out the first ever nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain

In an era of modern communications, the world should not and cannot de-globalise. The knock from the loss of Russian energy has led, however, to increased emphasis on the importance of producing our own green energy and trading with friendly and stable partners.

2022 will be a record year for commissioning renewable energy programmes, a trend which was already accelerating before the Ukraine invasion.

Other scientific breakthroughs this year point to game-changing future technologies. In the US, experimenters have for the first time achieved atomic fusion, producing more energy than was used to trigger it.

Chinese scientists claim to have found a way to produce hydrogen by electrolysing salt water. Applied on an industrial scale, this would dramatically increase the supply and cheapness of a potentially “green” fuel.

A test case in the Amazon

A climate activist protests at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt
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A climate activist protests at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt

There were two important world meetings on the environment this year – COP27 in Egypt on climate change and COP15 in Canada on biodiversity.

Neither was dramatic, but both re-affirmed commitments already moving in the right direction. Crucially, at both summits, richer nations agreed to remove one of the biggest obstacles to moving faster.

They agreed, though so far more in principle than practice, to pay poorer nations for loss and damage caused by Western industrialisation and to protect vital ecosystems. Both are battles against time and the pace of degradation.

Brazil will be a test case. Deforestation in the Amazon increased catastrophically under encouragement from outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula da Silva, who takes office in January, campaigned successfully on a commitment of zero deforestation in the rain forests, wetlands, and savannah. He has re-appointed a highly committed environment minister,

Marina Silva, and upped the budget to combat destruction.

We’re living longer and healthier

68.7% of the world population have now had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. A total of thirteen billion doses have been dispensed. The capacity of the disease to kill is receding.

An anti-malaria vaccine also became a live possibility this year. Global life expectancy went up to 73 years in 2022, albeit by 0.24%. A woman born in Britain this year can expect to live to 83 – that’s 21 years progress on the average female life span in 1926, the year Queen Elizabeth II was born.

Life expectancy increases are plateauing in the UK and US. The most dramatic advances are in poorer countries. Today, 9.2% of the world population live in what is defined as extreme poverty, compared to 36% in 1990. That is still more than a billion people. In the same period, deaths of children five and under has fallen from 34,200 each day to 14,200.

Pioneers believe that mankind is on the brink of a much greater transformation in both preventative and therapeutic medicine – thanks to the use of AI technology in mapping the human genome and proteins, and the possibilities of so-called CRISPR gene editing.

A better tech universe

Elon Musk

We are not in control of the ways online technology is changing almost every aspect of our lives. Authoritarian regimes use it to control information and their own citizens. In free societies, trolls and conspiracy theorists send untruths around the world, aided by bots from hostile nations.

Ordinary people go on social media to vilify others and to “cancel” them. The furore on both sides over Jeremy Clarkson’s casually vicious comments on Meghan Markle are just the latest example.

Meanwhile, tech companies and entrepreneurs have become absurdly wealthy.

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Sky News editors give their verdicts on what might happen next

In 2022, we began to respond to this stupidity haltingly. The US government legislated against passing strategically vital tech to China. The UK government considered essential issues in the Online Safety Bill. The EU moved against US tech cartels.

FTX collapse into fraud burst the cryptocurrency bubble. Elon Musk’s humiliating mismanagement of Twitter showed the world that tech geniuses do not have all the answers. A better, less uneven, tech universe should emerge from all this, not least because the rising generations are growing up in it.

Beyond the metaverse, digging deep into the worlds of politics, health, and the environment unearths some reasons to be cheerful as this year ends.

All the same in 2023, as teachers write at the bottom of report cards, MUST DO BETTER.

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Pope Francis funeral: 200,000 people bidding farewell to pontiff who had ‘open heart towards everyone’

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Pope Francis funeral: 200,000 people bidding farewell to pontiff who had 'open heart towards everyone'

Tens of thousands of people have packed St Peter’s Square as the funeral of Pope Francis begins.

Royals, world leaders and cardinals joined scores of worshippers at the Vatican, as mourning of the 266th pontiff transcended wealth and social class.

In keeping with Francis’s life as a breaker of tradition, many of the more elaborate and expensive rituals customary for the burial of popes have been foregone in favour of simpler options.

Around 200,000 people are attending the funeral, with around 50,000 packing out St Peter’s Square.

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Pope’s coffin carried out as funeral begins

Follow live: Pope Francis funeral service latest updates

His body had been lying in state since his death aged 88 on Easter Monday, spending the last few days in St Peter’s Basilica to allow mourners to pay their respects.

The Vatican – where the funeral service is taking place – and Rome – where Francis will be laid to rest – are under heavy security, with a no-fly zone in place overhead.

The coffin of Pope Francis is carried during the funeral Mass of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, April 26, 2025. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
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The coffin of Pope Francis is borne aloft by pallbearers. Pic: Reuters

Members of the clergy sit, ahead of the funeral Mass of Pope Francis, at the Vatican, April 26, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
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Members of the clergy gathered to say farewell to their pontiff. Pic: Reuters

President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, along with Sir Keir Starmer, President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, headline a huge selection of global leaders and dignitaries.

Read more:
Pope Francis’s funeral – what is happening and when
Full order of service for Pope’s funeral

Francis’s coffin has been taken out into St Peter’s Square where 220 cardinals and 750 bishops and priests are sitting in rows, waiting to say goodbye to the Bishop of Rome.

A series of readings and prayers are being read before the 50,000 faithful gathered before the basilica, and the coffin will be sprinkled with holy water and incense.

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Singing rings out at the Vatican

Members of the clergy attend the funeral Mass of Pope Francis, in Saint Peter's Square, at the Vatican, April 26, 2025. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
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Members of the clergy stand in St Peter’s Square. Pic: Reuters

It began with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re reading the Penitential Act – a way for the faithful to confess their sinfulness.

This was followed by the Liturgy of the Word, a part in Catholic mass where faithful gather to hear and reflect on the word of God.

Cardinal Re then delivered the homily, speaking about Pope Francis’ life and service to God.

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Applause breaks out as Zelenskyy arrives

Cardinal
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Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re read the homily

The cardinal praised the pontiff as someone who “touched the minds and hearts of people” who was “attentive to the signs of the times”.

He added: “Despite his frailty and suffering towards the end, Pope Francis chose to follow this path of self-giving until the last day of his earthly life.”

He said Francis “was a pope among the people, with an open heart towards everyone”.

A view of St Peter's Square during the funeral of Pope Francis, at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Tens of thousands pack St Peter’s Square for the funeral. Pic: AP

Clergy during the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
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Clergy seated during the funeral. Pic: AP

At the end of the mass, the choir will sing in Latin: “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come and welcome you and take you into the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.”

After the service, Pope Francis’s body will be taken in procession through the streets of Rome to his final resting place at his favourite church, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

People react as they wait outside the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore), ahead of the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome, Italy, April 26, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
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Worshippers outside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Pic: Reuters

He will be ushered into the basilica – dedicated to the Virgin Mary – by prisoners and migrants, a last reflection of his priorities as pope.

In a break with tradition, the Pope outlined in his will his request to be buried “in the ground, without particular ornamentation” but simply with the inscription “Franciscus”.

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

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Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died, her family says

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault, has died aged 41.

In a statement to Sky’s US partner network NBC News on Friday, her family said she took her own life in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years.

“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.

“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.

“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”

Ms Giuffre sued the Duke of York for sexual abuse in August 2021, saying Andrew had sex with her when she was 17 and had been trafficked by his friend, the billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The duke has repeatedly denied the claims, and he has not been charged with any criminal offences.

In March 2022, it was announced Ms Giuffre and Andrew had reached an out-of-court settlement – believed to include a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”.

Prince Andrew attends the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church. File pic: Reuters
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Prince Andrew has denied all claims of wrongdoing. File pic: Reuters

‘An incredible champion’

Sigrid McCawley, Ms Giuffre’s attorney, told NBC News that she “was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims”.

“Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring,” she said. “The world has lost an amazing human being today.”

“Rest in peace, my sweet angel,” she added.

Dini von Mueffling, Giuffre’s representative, also told the outlet: “Virginia was one of the most extraordinary human beings I have ever had the honour to know.

“Deeply loving, wise, and funny, she was a beacon to other survivors and victims. She adored her children and many animals.

“She was always more concerned with me than with herself. I will miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent her.”

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Ms Giuffre said at the end of March she had four days to live after a car accident, posting on social media that “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure”. She was discharged from hospital eight days later.

Raised mainly in Florida, she said she was abused by a family friend early in life, which led to her living on the streets at times as a teenager.

She said that in 2000, she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Ms Giuffre said Maxwell then introduced her to Epstein and hired her as his masseuse, and said she was sex trafficked and sexually abused by him and associates around the world.

‘I am now a survivor’

After meeting her husband in 2002, while taking massage training in Thailand at what she said was Epstein’s behest, she moved to Australia and had a family.

She founded the sex trafficking victims’ advocacy charity SOAR in 2015, and is quoted on its website as saying: “I do this for victims everywhere.

“I am no longer the young and vulnerable girl who could be bullied. I am now a survivor, and nobody can ever take that away from me.”

:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

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Fighter jets, a naval destroyer and guns on show: The ‘unprecedented’ security operation for Pope’s funeral

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Fighter jets, a naval destroyer and guns on show: The 'unprecedented' security operation for Pope's funeral

As the line of mourners moves slowly along behind him, Ciriaco Sarnelli peers at me from beneath the immaculate brim of his cap.

The military police chief looks, by any standards, magnificent – shoulders back and proudly wearing the black uniform of the Carabinieri.

“Our history goes back more than 200 years,” he says. “We remember our past, and our place. The only people with black uniforms are the priests, the judges and the Carabinieri.”

He leaves the rest unsaid – the Carabinieri sit at the heart of Italian cultural life.

Ciriaco Sarnelli, Carabinieri military police chief
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Ciriaco Sarnelli, Carabinieri military police chief

Pope latest: Security ramping up ahead of funeral

Once, they defended the borders of a young nation. Now, they have a new challenge that has its own weighty burden – to keep St Peter’s Square safe during the funeral of Pope Francis.

This is no easy task. Hundreds of thousands will descend upon the Vatican for the event.

More on Pope Francis

Many of the world’s best-known politicians and dignitaries will be welcomed into St Peter’s Basilica.

Inside will be Donald Trump, Sir Keir Starmer, Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Prince William and dozens upon dozens of other dignitaries.

Outside will be the Carabinieri.

They won’t be alone – there are thousands of other police officers due to be assigned to protect the event – but the Carabinieri are affiliated to the military; the most highly-trained officers on duty.

Read more:
How Pope Francis’s funeral will unfold
Pope’s doctor reveals pontiff’s last regret

Security on horseback
Anti Drone gun for the Pope's funeral
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A member of the security personnel wields an anti-drone gun for the Pope’s funeral

“This is an extraordinary operation,” says Sarnelli, as we look out over the crowd. “So we have employed some special units that belong to Carabinieri – the bomb squad, a dogs unit, snipers and helicopters. We want to assure the people who are arriving here that they can take part in this event in the best way, in a secure way.”

He says they are ready for “common crimes” – like pickpockets in the crowd – but also “the biggest, terrifying events”.

He says there is “excellent coordination” with police forces from other countries.

Around him, his officers are smiling, chatting to tourists and Romans alike.

The security here is overt but friendly, even if I’m told there are also plenty of plain-clothed officers mingling within the crowd.

Guns and grins both on show.

A police helicopter circles above. In the port of Rome, a naval destroyer has been primed for action; there are fighter jets ready to take off.

You can watch full coverage of the funeral live on Sky News on Saturday

Crowds to see the Pope
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Huge crowds have come from around the world to see the Pope’s body

If the impression is relaxed, the reality is different. The classic swan.

All the strands are pulled together from one place and, what’s more, it offers a perfect view of Vatican City.

From where I’m standing, I can see the front of St Peter’s Basilica, the side, and the roads around it. I can see the crowds coming in, and the crowds going out.

And I can see an anxious policeman drumming his fingers.

But we are not in St Peter’s and not even in the Vatican.

This is the high-security control room on the fifth floor of Rome’s police headquarters.

And from here, you can see everything.

Rome Police control room
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The control room from where security officials can see across the Italian capital

Rome Police control room

An array of screens are in front of us and, watching them, men and women, huddled over screens and all wearing contrasting uniforms.

Some are military, some national police, some wear the clothes of firefighters. A few are in plain clothes and there is even a man wearing the badge of the prison officers’ service.

This centre is a hub for collaboration and decision-making and it brings together every service that is involved in ensuring the safety and security of the funeral.

There is a Carabinieri officer here, as well as the Guardia di Finanza national police and the Roman force. The government’s secret intelligence service is represented here, too.

Elisabetta Accardo is from Rome’s police department. We talk against the gentle hubbub in the control room, colleagues pointing at screens and agreeing plans.

Elisabetta Accardo, Rome Police control room spokeswoman
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Elisabetta Accardo, Rome Police control room spokeswoman

I ask when Italy last had to deal with a security operation on this scale, and she laughs. “Hundreds of years,” she says.

“It is unprecedented. The level of security is at the maximum.” She describes the plan as “structured three-dimensional security”.

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It is a plan that has been long in the making, but which has been reshaped over the past few days to react to the whims of the Pope’s final wishes.

It is, after all, more than a century since a pope was buried outside the walls of the Vatican.

You get the impression that the people designing the security plan could rather have done without having to add an hour-long procession through Rome into the plan.

But so be it.

By Saturday night, it will be done. Rome can start to get back to normal; the foreign leaders will be on their way home.

And the Rome police will breathe just a little bit easier.

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