On board the mission to rescue 600 people from overcrowded fishing boat abandoned by its captain
The sun beats down on us. I’m sweating, and there is noise from every angle. Two marine engines thrum behind me, churning the water of the Mediterranean.
You can smell the salt, but also the plastic of our boat, warmed by the early afternoon. Cloudless skies. I can hear shouts, cries, and also words of thanks.
Ahead of us – painted in a rich blue – is a hopelessly dilapidated fishing boat that teems with people. Crowded on to the deck, peering out of every gap, perching from every vantage point.
The boat left the Libyan port of Tobruk packed with hundreds of people and has meandered its way towards Italy. A day or so ago, with the food and water running out, the captain left during the night, abandoning his passengers to an uncertain fate. None of them knew how to control the vessel, or how to navigate.
These are the passengers we are now rescuing. Mainly Egyptians, but with groups of Bangladeshis, Syrians and Pakistanis, among other nationalities. They clamber down from the fishing vessel and on to the RIB – the universally used acronym for a rigid inflatable boat.
My job is, basically, to get them to sit down and keep relatively still, so the boat doesn’t get unbalanced.
Some of these people are exultant, but most seem exhausted. A few are clearly very ill.
I help a woman who turns and simply faints in my arms. The medic on board, a Belgian nurse called Simon, gives her a quick look and assures me she’ll be fine. He’s right. She’s simply overwhelmed.
A little boy is carried from the broken down fishing vessel onto the rib that will take them back to the Geo Barents
And now, almost out of nowhere, a middle-aged man in a discordantly warm jacket grabs me and kisses me on both cheeks. I can feel his stubble and hear him mumble “thank you”. I smile, and then ask him to sit down in the boat.
It’s filling up. Eventually, the leader of the boat team, an Argentinian man called Juan, will give the signal and we will back away and speed the passengers off to the looming presence of the Geo Barents, the 80m-long rescue ship run by the charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF). In a few hours, it will look less like a ship and more like a floating refugee camp.
The Geo Barents was never meant to be doing things like this. It was built as an oceanographic survey vessel, which is why there are still huge reels of cable on one of the decks, along with a “seismic room”.
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What is the Geo Barents rescue ship?
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But MSF wanted to hire a boat to launch rescue missions in the Mediterranean and the Geo Barents was available and fitted the bill. There is space for the two RIBs to be launched and doors that can be flung open to help the migrants clamber back in.
There is storage capacity for clothes, food, water, medical supplies, bedding and the hundred other things needed to keep people going.
And there is space, which is just as well. This is the 30th time the Geo Barents has gone to sea on behalf of MSF, and its previous record was when 440 people were rescued during mission number 25.
That record is in the process of being very comfortably broken – a total of 606 people will be taken from the fishing boat and brought over to the Geo Barents. Space, the precious commodity, will run out quickly.
The biggest area is given over to men, who make up most of the people who are rescued. Upstairs are the minors and also the relatively small number of women.
More than a hundred minors were rescued from the boat. Some are very small – I saw a tiny baby being brought on to a rescue boat, passed gingerly to its mother – and there are fearful toddlers, who cried on the boat and now sit on the Geo Barents, open-eyed and overwhelmed.
There is also a pregnant woman who was carefully helped on after her rescue. Once before, a baby has been born on the Geo Barents and there is a midwife onboard. Most of the children are here with a parent, or parents, and, as we complete one of the runs between wreck and rescue boat, a man asks me to take a photo of him and his small child. The man looks happy; the child stunned.
Food is given out once per day – a bag that contains emergency rations and meals that can be heated up by adding water and squeezing the packet.
A young injured man is lifted on the Geo Barents
We meet Hamdi and Assad, Egyptians who met in Libya and have become close friends. They paint a desperate picture of what life was like on board the boat.
“I was worried about the boat within 30 minutes of getting on board. We all thought it would be bigger and safer than it was. When we left for the first time there were even more people on board – 750 perhaps – but the captain said that we would sink. So about 150 people got off, and then we left.”
He says there were problems with the engine, and then the ship – hopelessly ill-balanced due to overcrowding – was nearly knocked over by large waves. And then, amidst it all, the captain disappeared, having apparently abandoned his ship and its passengers by jumping on to another boat in the middle of the night.
A member of MSF demonstrates how to prepare an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) ration
“We all thought we were going to die,” said Hamdi, and Assad nods alongside him. “We had no water, the only food we had left was rotting, people were ill because of the sun, or the cold, or the sea water, or being crammed together, and nobody knew how to steer the boat. I was sure we would die.” He smiles at me. “So now I feel I have been given another life.”
He says the passengers did not know what was going on when they were first approached by a boat. They thought it might be kidnappers or pirates. In fact, it was the Italian coastguard, who assessed the situation, saw that it was grim but salvageable, and called the nearby Geo Barents to ask it to take all the passengers off the stricken fishing boat.
Things are not always so harmonious between the boat and the authorities. The Geo Barents, along with other charity rescue boats, has been criticised by Italy’s government, which claims that it encourages migrants to try to cross the Mediterranean, knowing that there will be a boat to help them along the way.
Three people demonstrate how they had to sit for days in the fishing vessel
The reality is that the Mediterranean passage is the most dangerous migrant route in the world, with around 1,000 deaths already this year. But the political debate around migration is as fierce in Italy as it is in many other European countries. In Britain, the focus of migration policy is on small boats; in Italy, ministers talk of big ships, like the Geo Barents.
Those on board shrug off the criticism, pointing out that the coastguard rescues a lot more migrants than they do. But the tension is also clear – earlier this year, the Geo Barents was confined to harbour and fined after officials noted what they said was an administrative error. MSF suspects its work is being deliberately disrupted.
Out at sea, the last migrants are off the fishing boat. The logistical challenge of caring for them is enormous – food, water, bedding, toilets, shelter, clothes, toiletries and medical treatment are all offered. Everywhere you look, there are people sleeping, talking, laughing and eating all within a few square feet. The sense of relief over their rescue does not seem to have dissipated.
And so we set off back towards Italy, to drop off these 606 people and put them into the hands of the Italian authorities. The Geo Barents will be cleaned and loaded with new supplies, and then it will head back out to sea. A beacon of humanitarian goodwill in the minds of some, a magnet of controversy in the opinion of others.
World
Russian forces creep through disused gas pipeline in attempt to launch surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers
Russian special forces crept through a disused gas pipeline for several miles to launch a surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and pro-Moscow war bloggers have said.
Footage circulating on the Telegram app claims to show the elite soldiers crouching as they make their way through the darkness of the pipe to the town of Sudzha.
Some can be heard cursing in Russian and complaining about the commanders who sent them on the mission.
One of the soldiers is heard saying: “F*****g hell, where the f*** are we, boys?”
Another says: “Where does the pipe go? To Sudzha, for f**** sake, that’s f***ing crazy.”
Later in the clip a soldier is heard saying: “We’ll get there of course, but indignantly, because we’re f*****g sick of the f*****g command.”
He later adds: “They took our f*****g assault rifles too.”
Two of the soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes while a separate image shared on Telegram shows an operative wearing a gas mask.
The footage shows soldiers creeping through the pipeline
Soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes
The special forces soldiers walked around nine miles (15km) through the pipeline which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe, according to Telegram posts by Ukrainian-born pro-Kremlin blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
In the footage, the soldiers suggest the mission requires them to walk seven miles through the pipe.
Mr Podolyaka says some of them spent several days in the pipeline before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near Sudzha.
The operation formed part of efforts by Russia to recapture areas of Kursk which were seized by thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in a shock offensive in August last year.
Another pro-Russian war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said a major battle is under way in Sudzha after Moscow’s special forces crept through the pipe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed on Saturday that Russian soldiers had used the pipeline in an attempt to gain a foothold, but airborne assault forces promptly detected them, and they responded with rocket, artillery and drone attacks that destroyed Moscow’s units.
“The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the general staff reported.
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A close-up image of one of the soldiers in the pipeline
The soldiers crept through the tunnel for several miles
It comes as Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces shared a video on Telegram on Saturday which it claims shows Kyiv’s forces repelling Russian forces in Kursk with airstrikes.
Sky News has not independently verified the footage.
Months after Kyiv’s forces seized parts of Kursk, Ukrainian soldiers are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 Russian troops, including some from Moscow’s ally North Korea.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield showed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that it had captured a settlement in Kursk and another in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Russia also launched heavy aerial attacks overnight on Ukraine into Saturday – with at least 22 people killed, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
Ukrainian president Voldymyr Zelenskyy described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
The attacks come after the US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Mr Zelenskyy descended into a confrontation in front of the world’s media.
The Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine and apparent favouring of Moscow has sparked concern among European leaders.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told Sky News on Sunday that European countries should “absolutely” introduce conscription as he conceded the continent was “quite weak” militarily in the face of the Russia threat.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have been criticised after presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders on International Women’s Day.
Russia is often accused of throwing its troops into a “meat grinder” with little regard for their lives.
The local branch of government in the northwestern Russian town of Polyarniye Zori defended itself against the backlash, saying critics were making “callous and provocative interpretations” of the gifts.
Canada is set for a new prime minister as the ruling Liberal Party prepares to announce Justin Trudeau’s replacement as leader.
Mr Trudeau, who has been prime minister since 2015, announced he was stepping down in January after facing calls to quit from a chorus of his own MPs.
The 53-year-old’s popularity had declined as food and house prices rose.
The Liberal Party will announce its new leader tonight following a vote by around 140,000 members.
A former Bank of England governor has emerged as the frontrunner as the country deals with the impacts of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
The next prime minister will also have to decide when to call a general election – which must be held on or before 20 October.
As the Liberal Party prepares to choose its new leader, we take a look at the candidates.
Mark Carney
Mark Carney addresses supporters in Alberta in March. Pic: AP
The 59-year-old will be a familiar face to many in the UK as he served as governor of the Bank of England between 2013 and 2020.
He was formerly the head of Canada’s central bank and was praised after the country recovered from the 2008 financial crisis faster than many other countries.
Mr Carney has picked up one endorsement after another from cabinet ministers and MPs since he declared his candidacy in January.
He did not serve in Mr Trudeau’s government but was named as the chair of a government task force on economic growth last September.
Daniel Beland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Mr Carney’s calm demeanour and outstanding resume make him a reassuring figure to many Canadians at a time when Mr Trump is “going after their country’s economy and sovereignty”.
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Chrystia Freeland
Chrystia Freeland speaks during the Liberal leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Ms Freeland, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Canada, was leading in the polls to replace Mr Trudeau shortly after he announced his resignation.
However, her long association with the outgoing prime minister and the threat of Mr Trump’s tariffs have since tipped things in Mr Carney’s favour.
The 56-year-old was born in the west Canadian province of Alberta to a Ukrainian mother.
Before entering politics in 2013, Ms Freeland worked as a journalist covering Russia and Ukraine for several years.
Mr Trudeau told Ms Freeland that he no longer wanted her as finance minister in December but that she could remain deputy prime minister and the point person for US-Canada relations.
She stepped down shortly after and released a scathing letter about the government which increased pressure on Mr Trudeau ahead of his resignation.
Karina Gould
Karina Gould speaks during the Liberal Party leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Ms Gould is the youngest woman to serve as a minister in Canada and has advocated for a tough stance on Mr Trump.
The 37-year-old, who has served as minister of democratic institutions and minister of international development, has previously branded herself as part of a “generational shift” and said the Liberal Party “needs to embrace this shift too”.
Ms Gould has reportedly proposed an increase in corporate taxes on large companies earning more than CAN$500m (£270m) a year to encourage them to reinvest in business and productivity.
She was serving as house leader until January 2025 when she left the cabinet to run for party leader.
Frank Baylis
Frank Baylis during the Liberal Leadership debate in Montreal in February. Pic: AP
Mr Baylis, a businessman from Montreal, served as a Liberal Party politician between 2015 and 2019.
The 62-year-old has reportedly proposed creating two pipelines that would transport natural gas to international markets in Europe and Asia to reduce dependence on America.
Mr Baylis criticised Mr Trudeau for travelling to meet Mr Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November.
He said: “Anybody’s that ever dealt with a bully successfully know you don’t give an inch.”
What’s next for Canada?
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‘You can’t take our country or our game’
The new leader of the Liberal Party is expected to call a general election shortly after they take up the role.
After decades of bilateral stability, Canada’s next election is expected to focus on who is best equipped to deal with the United States.
Mr Trump’s trade war and his talk of making the country the 51st state have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games.
Some are cancelling trips south and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can.
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, has embraced a populist approach not unlike Mr Trump’s.
He attacks the mainstream media and has vowed to put “Canada First”.
Before Mr Trump’s inauguration, the Conservatives were widely expected to win the country’s next election.
However, the US president’s threats against Canada have led to a surge in popularity for the Liberal Party in the polls.
World
Zelenskyy condemns ‘vile and inhumane’ Russian attacks after one of year’s deadliest days for Ukrainian civilians
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Ukraine’s allies for condemning Russian strikes after one of the deadliest days for civilians in his country so far this year.
Ukraine’s president described the attacks as a “vile and inhumane intimidation tactic” by Russia.
While a warning by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin to stop “pounding” Ukraine or else, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Russia launched heavy aerial attacks overnight into Saturday after the White House administration suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
The US has been piling pressure on President Zelenskyy’s government to cooperate in convening peace talks with Russia.
American aerospace company Maxar Technologies said on Friday it had disabled access to its satellite imagery for Kyiv. Its ability to strike inside Russia and defend itself from bombardment is very much diminished without such images.
At least 22 people were killed in multiple Russian attacks, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’s embattled eastern Donetsk region.
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Russian strike kills at least 11 in Ukraine
Russia fired two ballistic missiles into the town centre, then launched a strike targeting rescuers who responded, according to Mr Zelenskyy. Forty-seven people, including seven children, were injured in the attack.
“It is a vile and inhumane intimidation tactic to which the Russians often resort,” he said.
The president added: “It was one of the most brutal strikes, a combined one. The strike was deliberately calculated to cause maximum damage. Missiles, along with a Shahed drone, targeted the central part of the town.
“Nine residential buildings were hit. Also, the shopping centre and stores were struck.”
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People stand at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian missile strike in Dobropillia. Pic: Reuters
Another seven people were killed in four towns close to the frontline where Russian troops have been making steady advances, said regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Three others died when a Russian drone hit a civilian workshop in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services reported. And one man was killed by shelling in the region.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was one of 2025’s deadliest attacks for Ukrainian civilians.
Pic: Reuters
Some 24 hours earlier, Russia struck Ukrainian energy facilities using dozens of missiles and drones.
The attacks hampered Ukraine’s ability to supply power to its citizens and run weapons factories vital to its defences.
When asked on Friday if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the US pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, Mr Trump responded: “I think he’s doing what anybody else would.”
Mr Zelenskyy did not mention intelligence-sharing on Saturday, but said he welcomed Mr Trump’s proposal to bring in banking sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and final peace settlement is reached.
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Mr Zelenskyy also said: “I am grateful to all the leaders, all those diplomats of our partner countries, all public figures who support Ukraine, who have condemned these Russian strikes and who call all things by their proper names.
“And it is essential that we continue coordinating all our efforts with our partners to ensure that our defence works effectively and that we do everything to bring peace closer.”
Mr Zelenskyy has said he and other senior Ukrainian officials will go to Saudi Arabia next week to discuss proposals aimed at ending the war.
In a post on X, he wrote he was set to meet Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, and his team would remain in the country to have talks with US officials.
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