World

More than 6,000 prisoners have been released in Myanmar as part of an amnesty to mark the 77th anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain. The head of Myanmar’s military government has granted amnesties for 5,864 prisoners from the Southeast Asian country, as well as 180 foreigners who will now be deported, state-run media said.

Israel has confirmed it is holding the director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza following reports of his arrest last week. Dr Hussam Abu Safiya was held along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre during a raid on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on 27 December. The

What will 2025 mean for Gaza, Ukraine, trade wars and African tech? Our foreign correspondents set the scene for trends that will shape their region. From elections in the EU to a bombastic Trump presidency to climate disruption, 2025 is shaping up to be a bumpy year. But it’s not all bad news… Immediate, dramatic

Russia’s unconventional attacks against NATO “look like war” and allies must set new red lines that will trigger a retaliation if crossed, a former foreign minister has warned. Gabrielius Landsbergis, who stepped down as foreign minister of Lithuania earlier this month after four years in the post, told Sky News he did not believe the

A 40-year-old man has died after a shark attack in Australia on Saturday evening. Church pastor Luke Walford was spearfishing with his family off the coast of Central Queensland when he was mauled by a shark. He died an hour and a half later, according to police. “He was attacked by a shark while doing

World chess number one Magnus Carlsen has quit a major tournament after being told he couldn’t wear jeans. The chess grandmaster was defending his titles at the Fide World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York when the incident occurred. Officials said Carlsen had broken the dress code regulations by wearing jeans and asked

Russian air defences may have shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines flight after misidentifying it, according to US military sources. Two unnamed officials who spoke to Sky News’ US partner NBC News said America had intelligence indicating Russia may have believed the flight was a drone and engaged its air defences. It added that this was

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he would be open to peace talks with Ukraine in Slovakia “if it comes to that”.  Mr Putin said Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who this week visited the Kremlin, had offered his country as a location for negotiations as the war in Ukraine nears the three-year mark. The

An oil tanker transporting oil to Russia, which is suspected of severing power and internet cables in the Baltic Sea, has been seized by Finnish authorities. The ship, named by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a coastguard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, said Helsinki Police Chief

Syrian officials say 14 of its forces, part of the group which toppled Bashar al Assad’s regime, have died in clashes with supporters of the ousted dictator. Another 10 members of the security forces from Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) were also injured after being ambushed in northwest Syria, according to Syria’s interior ministry. They

The Albanian government plans to block access to TikTok for a year after the killing of a 14-year-old boy led to concerns about social media’s influence on children. Prime Minister Edi Rama said the proposed ban will start early next year as he particularly blamed the video-sharing app for fuelling violence and bullying, especially among

The OSINT team at Sky News uses satellite images, video and publicly available data to verify and investigate breaking stories. Whether helping inform out coverage of conflicts in the middle east, or showing the scale of damage caused by hurricanes and floods, satellite images have been an important resource throughout the year. As 2024 comes

Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted of kidnap and failing to fulfill his public duties. An Italian court has found him not guilty of refusing to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Sicily in 2019. The vessel, operated by the Spanish NGO Open Arms, was stranded in the Mediterranean Sea with

Vladimir Putin has said Russia should have invaded Ukraine earlier, in a national address spanning more than four hours. Russia began the conflict with its neighbour in February 2022 and at his annual televised news conference, Mr Putin claimed the war has made Russia “stronger”. The decision to invade “should have been made earlier” he

It is a crime so brutal and depraved it defies words – so outside the court, they applaud instead. Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual abuse Since September, people have lined the route in Avignon clapping as Gisele Pelicot walks past. It is a wordless act of support for the 72-year-old woman at the

We drove the backbone of Syria, north from Damascus through Homs and Hama to Aleppo, and then south west, through the towns and villages of southern Idlib. The scale of the devastation is almost impossible to comprehend. Yes, there is daily life and markets and bustling commercial life in the city centres. But there are

A citizen from Uzbekistan has been detained over the killing of Russian nuclear forces general Igor Kirillov, Russia’s investigative committee has said. The committee says the suspect was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services. The senior general was killed on Tuesday by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside an apartment block in Moscow. His

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Cairo for Gaza ceasefire talks, Reuters has reported. The news agency added, citing sources briefed on the meetings, that a deal is expected to be signed in the coming days. However, this wouldn’t be the first time there have been positive noises about a potential ceasefire, only

For Ukraine – pitched against Russia’s larger and more powerful military – the use of unconventional tactics such as assassinations is seen as a vital way to fight back. There is no official confirmation yet of who was behind the killing on Tuesday in Moscow of the head of Russia’s nuclear, biological and chemical defence

Germany is on course for an early election in February after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament. Of the 717 MPs who voted in the lower house, or Bundestag, only 207 supported the country’s leader, while 394 opposed him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367