This Is Why

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the Sudanese city of Al Fashir in the days after it was captured by a paramilitary group, analysts believe.  The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been at war with Sudan's army since 2023 and have been accused of carrying out ethnically-motivated mass killings and other atrocities. Now, new satellite images appear to show ground stained with blood and scatt...

Why did the Home Office pay Hadush Kebatu £500 to leave the country?    Sky News has spoken to migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu hours after he was deported to Ethiopia. He claims he tried to hand himself in to police after he was released accidentally from prison last Friday but they ignored him.       Responding to Kebatu's claims, the Metropolitan Police told Sky News: "The Met is not aware of...

Less than two weeks after Prince Andrew announced he was giving up most of his royal titles he is now facing mounting calls to leave his 30-room home in Windsor.    Public anger over the prince’s links to Jeffrey Epstein has been reignited following revelations in the posthumous memoir of his sexual assault accuser Virginia Giuffre.     Andrew continues to deny all the allegations against him – bu...

Ukrainian soldiers sprint away from a disabled tank on the battlefield while their control room desperately tries to help them evade the Russian drones pursuing them.   Later, a Russian soldier waves a white flag from the basement entrance of a gatehouse which was targeted by Ukrainian quad-copter drones. It's become a war of the future in the so-called "kill zone" in the Donbas region of Ukraine...

A former television presenter and heavy metal drummer has become the first woman to be elected prime minister of Japan. Sanae Takaichi is known for her right-wing views and cites Margaret Thatcher as an inspiration. But it's not just her political beliefs that are controversial – Ms Takaichi has a love of hard rock and motorbikes, despite her deeply conservative background. Why has it taken so lon...

Whether they are providing the beef for your roast dinner or the milk for your cup of tea – cows are undeniably useful animals. The problem is they also enjoy burping and breaking wind and it's having a huge impact on global warming. The steaks couldn’t be higher and that’s why an agricultural college in Scotland has developed the Cool Cows programme to breed the animals in a way that means they e...

With Ukraine highlighting the use of UK hardware in strikes against Russia and the US insisting British military personnel join a team monitoring the Gaza ceasefire, are we at risk of ending up in a wider conflict? The possibility, however slim, that UK soldiers could be engaged in fighting in the Middle East follows Ukraine's very public revelation that British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles were...

The rise of AI has been hailed as a new industrial revolution - a huge economic success story (depending on your point of view) with massive implications for energy, materials and jobs.     In the US, artificial intelligence has accounted for the vast majority of economic growth so far this year - not least because of the patronage of Donald Trump, who's also fond of taking AI-generated jibes at h...

The downfall and disgrace of Prince Andrew has taken another dramatic turn after he announced he was giving up some of his royal titles.     Reports have emerged that Andrew asked his personal protection officer to help with a smear campaign against Virginia Giuffre years before she filed a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. The prince continues to deny any wrongdoing.      What role di...

The UK's first female prime minister undoubtedly transformed the country as she achieved electoral success her Conservative successors could only dream of. Evidence of her enduring influence is the fact that it's not just Tories who claim a debt to her but also opposing politicians, with Rachel Reeves recently branding herself the "iron chancellor". She was also a very divisive figure, with lastin...

A ceasefire may be in place, but violence continues to plague Gaza. As Hamas attempts to keep some control, a rival group has told Sky News they plan to fight to the end.  With internal fighting and power struggles ongoing, can peace hold within Gaza for the Palestinians hoping to begin rebuilding their lives?  Dominic Waghorn, our international affairs editor, and digital investigations journalis...

Dishonesty, discrimination, and misconduct – just some of the reasons why more than 730 police officers were sacked and barred from service last year. Of those, 21 were struck off for child sexual offences. But can our police forces recover from falling public trust and reputational damage?    Martin Brunt, our crime correspondent, joins Niall to explain what’s gone wrong – and assess whether ‘bad...

Members of minority religious groups say they feel less safe in the UK than ever before. A summer of protests outside asylum seeker hotels and a renewed debate about immigration have led to concerns British society is becoming increasingly fragmented. And last week, figures released by the Home Office showed that religious hate crime recorded by police in England and Wales had reached a record hig...

All 20 remaining living Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas – after more than two years in captivity.    Now the slow process of recovery and rehabilitation begins. For each of them, that journey will be different. What kind of support will they receive? And will the trauma ever truly be over?    Niall discusses the needs of the released hostages with Stephen Regel – a former senior psych...

Can you put a price on freedom of speech? Comedy royalty including Dave Chapelle and Jimmy Carr, famous for defending their right to say whatever they want, have been paid big money by the Saudi government to appear at the inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival.  But there's a catch.... they're not allowed to say anything that could cause "embarrassment" to Saudi Arabia, its royal family or any religion...

Donald Trump has claimed the credit for ending seven wars and with the developments in Gaza it could soon be eight - surely then he's a dead cert for this year's Nobel Peace Prize? Unsurprisingly, with this bombastic US president, it's not quite that simple... no matter how much he insists that he deserves it. As the world prepares to find out who has won this year's prize, the self-styled peacema...

The prime minister’s been asked to ‘explain himself’ after the UK’s top prosecutor blamed the collapse of a China spy trial on the government - for not labelling China a risk to national security.    But Sir Keir Starmer blames the previous Tory government.    A parliamentary researcher and his associate were accused of passing on “politically sensitive” information to a member of China’s ruling p...

  In September, former England rugby captain Lewis Moody received a devastating diagnosis that changed his life forever.    The 47-year-old Rugby World Cup winner is the latest retired professional player to be told he has the fatal muscle-wasting condition motor neurone disease.    What do we know about the possible causes of MND? Is there a link between extreme exercise and developing the diseas...

It's the morning of Monday 6 October 2025 and Russia has launched a missile strike against the UK. That was the scenario of The Wargame - a gripping five-part Sky News podcast that brought together former government ministers, military chiefs, and top defence experts to explore how the UK might respond to a modern-day crisis.    On the real 6 October, we speak to some of the makers of the series t...

Could the historic appointment of a first female Archbishop of Canterbury cause a split within the Anglican Church? Dame Sarah Mullally has been chosen for the role while the Church is arguably in a state of crisis - but also at a time when there has been a surge in attendance among young people. She's the first woman to lead the Church of England in its almost 500-year history - the question now...

Communities in Manchester are once again reeling following a terror attack - this time on a synagogue in Crumpsall during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.  The prime minister has announced extra security for synagogues, but there had been previous warnings of a rise in religious hatred across the UK.    Niall speaks to Sky's home editor, Jason Farrell, about the attack and the w...

The senior police officer in charge of preventing violence against women and girls has warned the political discourse around asylum seekers risks being a distraction from the "real threat" to women's safety.  Met Police deputy assistant commissioner Helen Millichap made the remarks after a summer of protests outside hotels housing migrants across the country. Will the row undermine the government'...

The government has continued to grapple with the subject of immigration during the Labour Party conference - where a desire to fight Reform UK's rhetoric has come up against the political reality of public opinion. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has openly called Reform UK's policies "racist" - at the same time as his new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has highlighted the need to review the rul...

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her keynote speech to the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool.     In an address where there were multiple standing ovations in the hall, she explained she won’t take risks with the public finances and warned the UK will "face further tests, with the choices to come made all the harder by harsh global headwinds".     But were there any significant pol...

Just as they were for her ex-husband, revelations about her relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have proved highly embarrassing for Sarah, Duchess of York.  Several charities have now dropped her as a patron after it emerged she had emailed Epstein to apologise for publicly disavowing him following his conviction.  In messages dating back to 2011, the duchess described the late...