World

Former Syrian leader Bashar al Assad has issued his first statement since the fall of his regime. In a social media post, he claimed he had planned to keep fighting rebel forces before Russia evacuated him. The comments, the first in public since his regime was toppled more than a week ago, were made on

Nobody should ever have to die in a place like this, in this sorry bit of northern France where these two Kurdish migrants were shot. They died, surrounded by rubbish, on a patch of unloved scrubland between a road and a railway line. The grass is still stained with their blood, and the blankets that

Close to 1,000 people may have been killed after Cyclone Chido hit the French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, the island’s top official has said. Mayotte Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville told local TV station la 1ere: “I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand, even thousands… given

A former Premier League footballer has been appointed president of Georgia amid heightening tensions over the country’s relationship with Russia. Mikheil Kavelashvili, 53, was a striker for Manchester City between 1996 and 1997, and later played for several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to parliament in 2016, and in 2022 co-founded

Shocked and bruised, a survivor of a shooting at a migrant camp near Dunkirk on Saturday has told Sky News how he saw his friends murdered by “the angel of death”. Two migrants and two security guards were shot dead by a 22-year-old French gunman at a migrant camp in Loon-Plage, with one other victim

South Korea’s parliament is set to vote again on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after his short-lived attempt to declare martial law earlier this month. It was a decision that plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered calls for Mr Yoon to step down on the grounds he had broken the

The head of NATO just told allies they must return to a “war mindset” and “turbo-charge” defence spending to counter growing threats in what is surely the most consequential speech by an alliance chief since the Cold War. The big question is whether national governments and their publics across Europe – including here in the

Russia has established “direct contact” with Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) rebel group, according to state media outlet Interfax. It reported that deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told journalists that Russia was aiming to maintain its military bases inside Syria. Mr Bogdanov said contact with HTS was “proceeding in constructive fashion” and that Moscow

The head of NATO has warned the alliance is not ready for the threats it will face from Russia in the coming years and that it is time to shift to a wartime mindset. Mark Rutte, the secretary general of the organisation, said NATO members had spent more than 3% of GDP on defence during

The last time I came to Homs, I crossed the border from Lebanon on the back of a motorbike. I recall ducking beneath somebody’s washing hanging on a line and crisscrossing through a minefield, the driver shouting: “Don’t worry, Habibi, I do it all the time!” This time, I drove past the burnt-out hulks of

An 18-year-old Briton has been sentenced to a year in prison in Dubai after a “holiday romance” with a girl who was 17 at the time. Marcus Fakana was with his family in the UAE when he met the girl – who’s also from London and is now 18. The head of campaign group Detained

Football has never seen a stadium as audacious and outlandish before. A futuristic cliff-top venue will be built 350m above ground when the $1.5trn NEOM megaproject springs up from the Saudi Arabian desert. There are no limits on ambition or spending to bring the World Cup to the kingdom in 2034 – and no need

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is recovering in intensive care after having emergency surgery to drain blood from his brain, a medical note published by the country’s government said. The leftist politician, known as Lula, had reduced travel in recent months while doctors monitored his recovery from a trauma he suffered to the

Israeli troops have seized a demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights in a move that has been criticised by Egypt and Qatar. Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had entered the 155-square mile area after a rebel advance ended Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s rule on Sunday. The zone was established by

Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani, whose group was central to the lightning offensive that toppled decades of dictatorship in Syria this weekend, has spent years trying to distance himself from his former ties to al Qaeda. Labelled a terrorist by the US, which still has a $10m (£7.8m) bounty on his head, the leader

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

Seizing military bases, toppling regime statues, freeing prisoners and capturing major cities – this is just a fraction of what Syrian rebel forces have achieved in just over a week. Sky News has tracked the shock offensive that has ousted President Bashar al Assad, using over 60 geolocated videos that show how they advanced through

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

Prince William has met Donald Trump for the first time since the American was re-elected president. The pair met at a ceremony in Paris to mark the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral – attended by leaders from around the world. They exchanged a few words and William patted the president-elect on the chest. Later in the

South Korea’s president has said he is “very sorry” days after declaring martial law and surrounding parliament with soldiers. Yoon Suk Yeol plunged his country into turmoil on Tuesday when he put the military in charge, claiming it was necessary to defend the constitutional order and “eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces”. However, his