World

Israel has said it is “more optimistic than before” about the chance of reaching an agreement over hostages held in Gaza. Foreign minister Gideon Saar said indirect negotiations were taking place over the return of about 100 hostages. It comes amid reports Hamas has asked for lists to be compiled of people still being held

Donald Trump has urged Vladimir Putin to reach an immediate settlement to end the war in Ukraine, saying it was the Russian president’s “time to act”. The US president-elect wrote on social media on Sunday that [Volodymyr] “Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness”. He called for “an immediate

Syria’s new rebel leaders are facing the daunting task of healing a divided nation – and the toppling of the Assad regime has not put an end to fighting in the country. In northern Syria, Turkey-backed opposition fighters are still battling US-allied Kurdish forces, while both Israel and the US have today launched airstrikes on

Syria’s ousted President Bashar al Assad has arrived in Moscow, Russian state media has confirmed. Mr Assad and members of his family arrived in the city on Sunday, a Kremlin source told the TASS news agency. The source said: “Assad and his family members have arrived in Moscow. Russia, for humanitarian reasons, has granted them

Bashar al Assad started out as a doctor and ended up a mass murdering tyrant now on the run. The man who trained to save lives in Damascus and London would go on to take them in their hundreds of thousands, bombing hospitals and gassing his own people. He was a strangely unimpressive man to

It’s over. Fifty-four years of brutal Assad dynasty rule has come to an end. The streets of Damascus have erupted in celebration. President Bashar al Assad has fled the country and the capital has fallen. What comes next is of great concern. Syria is deeply divided, geographically and socially. This is a moment of huge

The Syrian government appears to have fallen after a lightning offensive by rebels. President Bashar al Assad fled Damascus on a plane for an unknown destination, according to two senior Syrian army officers speaking to the Reuters news agency and Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, speaking to AP. Syria’s army command

The Syrian government has fallen after a lightning offensive by anti-regime forces across the country – ending President Bashar al Assad’s 24-year rule. Mr Assad has left office and the country after giving orders for there to be a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Russia was

Seismic is an overused word. Not when it comes to events currently under way in Syria, a country straddling the fault lines of the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime, if it comes, will be the most significant event yet in the upheaval that’s followed the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel

Seismic is an overused word. Not when it comes to events currently under way in Syria, a country straddling the fault lines of the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime will be the most significant event yet in the upheaval that’s followed the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel last year. Syria

Any evidence that Russia tried to influence an election in a NATO state would expose a form of hybrid attack that is designed to weaken the alliance from within. So-called “political influence operations”, which can use social media to amplify a particular candidate to boost their chances of success, are deliberately difficult to attribute –

Tear gas has been fired by security forces at protesting farmers in India as they attempt to march to Delhi. Demonstrators broke through several layers of barricades during clashes with hundreds of police and para-military forces at the Shambhu crossing at the Punjab and Haryana border. The farmers have a series of demands including waiving

Romania’s top court has annulled the results of the first round of the country’s presidential election after claims of Russian interference. The unprecedented decision came after declassified intelligence documents alleged Russia was behind a campaign to promote far-right candidate Calin Georgescu on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram. Mr Georgescu was viewed as an outsider

Israel has dismissed allegations it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying the claims from Amnesty International are “no surprise”. Government spokesman David Mencer called it “fake news” and told Sky’s Mark Austin the human rights group’s “raison d’etre is to criticise Israel – they do that at every opportunity and this is sadly just another

Russia’s ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said. This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously – with the ratio at times

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027 following the resignation of the country’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier. It comes after politicians in France’s National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion in the government on Wednesday. In an address to the nation on Thursday evening, Mr

Amnesty International has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians during its war against Hamas in Gaza. The human rights group said Israel sought to deliberately destroy Palestinians by launching deadly attacks, demolishing vital infrastructure and preventing the delivery of food, medicine and other aid. It said such actions met the legal threshold for the

The man at the centre of negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire has told Sky News Donald Trump wants a deal done before he takes power in January.  Speaking exclusively to Sky’s The World with Yalda Hakim, the prime minister of Qatar expressed cautious optimism but said it required “maximum pressure” on all parties to end

Russian President Vladimir Putin is using Ukraine as a “testing ground for experimental missiles” and is “not interested in peace”, NATO’s secretary general has warned. Mark Rutte made the remarks as foreign ministers from the alliance’s 32 members gathered in Brussels for a two-day meeting where there will be several discussions on Ukraine. In a

Joe Biden is on a trip to Angola that the US State Department is calling “historic”. This is the first time a sitting US president has visited sub-Saharan Africa in close to a decade. But rather than salvage his legacy in Africa, the trip has cemented that the US is not only losing influence here