UK

Students go back to school in England and Wales this week amid concerns over a lack of preparedness for COVID-19. Representatives of headteachers and other school leaders have criticised the government for what they call a “hit and hope” strategy for pupils returning. Many of the precautions present during the last academic year – including

An alleged member of the ISIS group dubbed “The Beatles” is set to plead guilty in a court case in the United States. Alexanda Amon Kotey has been charged with conspiring to torture and behead American and European hostages in Syria. It is not immediately clear which charges he will admit at a change of

A 17-year-old girl who is in hospital after falling seriously ill with COVID says she has been targeted by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists after urging young people to have the vaccine. Maisy Evans, a former member of the Welsh Youth Parliament, told Sky News she feared she would die when her oxygen levels “dropped dramatically”

A policeman’s widow is increasing her pressure on politicians to make killing an emergency worker punishable with a mandatory life sentence, a  year after launching her campaign. Lissie Harper was left bereaved when her husband, PC Andrew Harper, was caught in strapping attached to a car in August 2019 and dragged behind the vehicle. It

The former Royal Marine who founded an animal shelter in Afghanistan has apologised for the “incredibly embarrassing” language he used in a voicemail to a government aide as he tried to leave the country. Paul “Pen” Farthing arrived at London Heathrow on a privately-funded charter flight from Kabul at around 7.30am on Sunday – with

A woman found dead at a property in Kettering, Northamptonshire, has been named as Maddie Durdant-Hollamby. Northamptonshire Police said the 22-year-old’s death is being treated as murder. The body of a man was also found in the property, and police have said they are not looking for anyone further in connection with their inquiries. Senior

The human cost of Britain’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will be felt by those who were eligible to return to the UK but did not make it on to flights out of Kabul.  It is unclear exactly how many eligible people remain, but among them are the family of a man called Mohammad, whose name has

One of the Britons killed in the Kabul bomb attack has been named as Mohammad Niazi, who died along with his wife and two of their children after he went to Afghanistan to rescue them. The 29-year-old taxi driver and father-of-four travelled to Kabul on Tuesday to bring his family to safety in the UK.

Twenty years ago after being tortured, Najib Afzali fled the Taliban from Afghanistan and settled in the UK. Today, in Kabul, his brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces are stuck, stranded, and facing death. Speaking to Sky News at his tailors in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, Mr Afzali shared the despair his family who worked with the

Scotland has recorded its highest number of daily COVID cases ever but the government has denied it will go into a circuit breaker lockdown. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said there was a “very sharp rise” yesterday as 6,835 cases were recorded, 1,910 more than the day before. It is the highest number of infections recorded

It all sounds dreadfully familiar. As the summer ends and the autumn term approaches, cases of COVID-19 are rising. We all know what happened next last winter: cases rose through the roof, as did deaths. The winter wave of this pandemic turned out to be considerably worse than the first wave in the spring. This

Caroline Buckle, like many people, has been watching and reading the news coverage of the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan. But for her, seeing the chaos and crisis unfold feels extremely personal. Ms Buckle worked in Camp Bastion with the British Army. She may have left over a decade ago, but she is still dealing with

Police have found a man wanted in connection with two murders in Westminster after nearly a week-long search. Officers are “confident” they discovered Lee Peacock, 49, on a canal barge near Ferrymead Avenue in Ealing, west London, just before 6pm on Wednesday. He had sustained serious injuries thought to be self-inflicted. London Ambulance Service paramedics

Festival-goers will be able to grab a COVID-19 jab as easily as a beer or a burger at the Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend. It comes as more than half a million 16 to 17-year-olds have received their first shot, according to NHS England. Music fans can get vaccinated in between sets at pop-up

COVID-19 protection from two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines begins to wane within six months, new research suggests.   In a reasonable “worst-case scenario”, protection could fall to below 50% for the elderly and healthcare workers by winter, analysis from the Zoe COVID study found. The Pfizer-BioNTech jab was 88% effective at preventing

The number of young people who smoke increased by a quarter during the first coronavirus lockdown, new research suggests. A study funded by Cancer Research found that hundreds of thousands more people smoked compared to before the pandemic hit. There was a 25% rise in 18 to 34-year-olds who smoke – resulting in more than