Our view, from a Mercy Air helicopter delivering food aid to starving communities surrounded by submerged farms in southern Mozambique's Gaza province, is devastating.

"This island is too big to be evacuated. But all their rice fields and food is from outside, where it is flooded," our pilot, Samuel Lips, tells us as we fly into Mexinguine.

Mexinguine is not a natural island but one created by climate change.

The roads connecting it to the rest of the country have disappeared, and its population is now squeezed into the pockets of higher ground that remain above water.

"That is a soccer field. Right next to it, completely submerged, is the hospital," says Sam, as he gears up to land on a narrow patch of dry land near a makeshift clinic.

The sound of the helicopter is a welcome disruption. The elderly, teenagers and children gather around to receive the buckets of basic sustenance before we even hit the ground.

'We need food'

In the distance, lines of people eagerly traverse the neighbourhoods turned marshes to join the growing crowd.

"We need food. We, as responders, need food to distribute. We need water. We need shelter because there is no privacy for people. We need medicine," nurse Luis Mauricio tells us in front of the two-room clinic serving the suffering population.

Luis is surrounded by patients complaining of symptoms of infectious diseases, worsened by the swamp-like conditions. As the water begins to recede, the problems are growing.

"We are alive, but the floods are troubling us. We are coughing, we don't have a place to live, we don't have food, we don't have water - the water we are drinking is contaminated because of these floods," says one of his patients, Raqualina Tamele.

"We have received children from ages zero to 17 with different diseases," Luis adds, surrounded by nursing mothers and children.

"Now, we are having a lot of diarrhoea, vomiting and some cases of malaria. It has been persistent.

"There are a lot of people, and they are sick. There is no food in this community - it is hard."

Charities face daunting task

Aid workers are scrambling to access cut-off areas to provide much-needed support, but are facing a mammoth task.

At least 400,000 people have been affected in Gaza province alone, and an area roughly the size of Cyprus - 10,000 square kilometres - is covered by floodwater.

"Climate change is really impacting a lot on the weather, and we are really feeling it. Being near the sea with a lot of surrounding countries makes our situation even worse," says Gaspar Sitefane, the country director for Water Aid in Mozambique, in Marracuene - a flood-hit district of Maputo province submerged by the Inkomati River.

"Whatever rains come to South Africa to Zimbabwe to Eswatini to Malawi, the water then comes through Mozambique to reach the sea, and when it comes it takes almost everything - people, our animals, our farms - almost everything."

Gaspar's own family home has been flooded. He tells us there are few Mozambicans who have not been touched by this tragedy.

We meet Gaspar at a school-turned-shelter, which is housing hundreds of evacuees who have lost everything.

The Mozambican government has postponed the start of the 2026 school year by nearly a month. The floods have affected 431 schools, with 80 currently used as shelter centres and 218 cut off. Some 420,000 students remain affected nationwide.

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At the Gwazamutini shelter, children are lining up to try on clothes donated by teachers. This school is now home to over 300 children, who are likely to be joined by more as new evacuees arrive in the region.

"The people of the area say that 1977 is the last time we had floods like this," says Shafi Sadat, the mayor of Marracuene, who has spent days rescuing thousands of people from the floodwaters with the support of his friends and constituents.

He adds: "We got 3,228 people out, and now we have to feed them - in the morning, afternoon and night.

"There is a lot of damage - in agriculture we've lost everything. We don't have anything. These people live with agriculture."

For more than a decade, Kurdish authorities governed this region with a high degree of autonomy.

Now, Kurdish leaders warn that their way of life - and their political future - is under serious threat.

Clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters are destabilising the northeast and risk derailing Syria's already tenuous push towards lasting peace.

Under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - a group that allied with the US and Western powers to defeat the Islamic State - the northeast remained one of the last parts of Syria outside full government control.

That status is now rapidly eroding.

In the city of Hasakah, Kurdish fighters told me they are preparing to defend their land and their communities at any cost.

Many here feel betrayed by Washington, accusing the US of shifting its support toward the new interim government in Damascus.

Since the beginning of the year, forces loyal to interim President Ahmad al Sharaa have pushed deep into the northeast, attacking Kurdish positions as part of a broader campaign to reunify the country.

Government troops have retaken cities that were originally captured from ISIS by Kurdish forces, including Raqqa, a predominantly Arab city. There, residents celebrated as Kurdish fighters withdrew.

One of the most consequential takeovers has been al Hawl camp - a vast detention facility holding families linked to the Islamic State. When government forces moved in, scenes of chaos followed.

Nearby, al Roj camp - which the Sky News team visited - remains under Kurdish control. Inside, women and children live in harsh, overcrowded conditions.

'We want to go out, get an education'

Zeelan, a Turkish national, was just 12 years old when her parents joined ISIS. She is now 20 and has spent nearly a decade inside the camp.

"We want to go out, get an education, and live our lives," she said.

"We have seen nothing here - no life at all.

"Nine years in this place. Look around - no one can stand it. Anyone from outside who came here, even for just one month, would kill themselves.

"We've been here for nine years. I worry about dying here. I can't see a way out," she told me.

Like thousands of others, she remains trapped in legal limbo, with no country willing to take her back.

The head of al Roj camp, Hikmya Ibrahim, says the atmosphere inside has darkened since government forces began their advance.

"Since the new government took control of Damascus, there have been noticeable changes in the camp," she said.

"The women are feeling empowered and hopeful, believing that the era of the Islamic State is returning because they perceive ideologically aligned forces to be back in power."

The offensive is reshaping Syria's political landscape following the fall of the Assad dynasty. The Kurds' semi-autonomous region - once stretching across much of the northeast - is now rapidly shrinking.

At stake is control over the vast majority of Syria's oil and gas reserves, most of which are located in the northeast - vital revenue for a country struggling to rebuild after years of war.

Despite their losses, the Kurds remain a sizeable military force with long-held aspirations of statehood. Damascus is demanding they disarm and integrate into the national army.

'Children killed, women tortured'

Kurdish leaders say that is impossible without firm security guarantees and a degree of political autonomy.

In Kurdish-held areas, the new interim government - led by former rebel factions, some with extremist links - is viewed with deep mistrust. And there is widespread unease about what this new chapter may bring.

Thousands of Kurdish civilians have already fled advancing government forces. Some have taken refuge inside a mosque in the city of Qamishli.

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Shireen Abdul Fattah is sheltering there with her family, fearing a full-scale conflict between Kurdish forces and the authorities in Damascus.

"We were afraid of airstrikes, of death, and of the complete absence of mercy," she said.

"Children were being killed, women were arrested and tortured. You can see our situation and how we were forced to flee."

She described the new leadership in the capital as fundamentally hostile to Kurdish communities.

"In 2014, the same groups were fighting the Kurds - al Qaeda affiliates and Jabhat al Nusra attacked us," she said.

"Today, the same man has become the president of Syria, yet he does nothing for us as Kurds."

At night, armed militias patrol roads across Kurdish regions as tensions continue to rise. A 15-day ceasefire, intended to allow the transfer of ISIS prisoners to a more secure facility in Iraq, is already beginning to fray.

And Kurdish fighters say that if the Syrian army attempts to seize the region by force, they are prepared to fight to the end.

There is no cure, and most people die within a few years as they lose their ability to move, eat, talk and breathe.

But for Eleanor, there was a lifeline - a breakthrough drug that has stopped the condition in its tracks.

"It's a miracle to be honest, it's like I've frozen in time," the mum-of-one told Sky News.

MND affects the brain and nerves, causing muscles to get progressively weaker. While Eleanor has lost some movement in her legs, her symptoms have not got any worse - allowing her to reach milestones she did not think she would live to see.

"My worst fear was that I'd be dead within a year," Eleanor said.

"I would put things on TV that would make me cry, so that I could say it was the TV that was making me cry, but it wasn't really. It was me worrying about, I'm not going to see my daughter grow up or I'm not going to get to 50.

"Having this new drug has meant I've achieved all those things.

"But I'm really lucky - and not everybody is getting that same opportunity."

The drug, Tofersen, is the first effective treatment for MND symptoms. Eleanor was able to get it through an early access programme ran by its manufacturer Biogen, which is currently offering it to the NHS for free.

However, it requires regular spinal injections, and while the drug itself is free, some NHS trusts say they don't have the staff or resources to administer it.

These issues have resulted in a postcode lottery for access, with people like 19-year-old Lillia Jakeman losing out.

'Mental torture'

"It's like a carrot that's dangled, and then it's taken away," said Lillia's stepmum Rachel, a GP of 30 years. "It's a very cruel, unjust situation."

Lillia was diagnosed with MND in August, when she was given a leaflet about Tofersen. However, she has not been able to access the treatment upon referral.

She now uses a wheelchair, while her upper arms are getting weaker, affecting her ability to do what she loves.

"One of the biggest things for her is that she used to love doing Lego and artwork, and [now] she can't," said Rachel.

"She's still got a degree of thumb function, so she can use an electric wheelchair, she can do certain things. But the point is that Tofersen needs to be given to these patients as early as possible to preserve function, and you know every day matters.

"Lillia describes it really as mental torture, not knowing when you wake up the next day, whether you might have lost something, some other function that's gone."

The All Party Parliamentary Group on MND, chaired by Labour MP Ian Byrne, said it was aware of 20 people unable to access Tofersen and four people who had died while awaiting treatment.

The drug is for those with an inherited form of MND called SOD1 - which makes up 2% of cases.

Caroline Nokes, Lillia's local MP and a senior Conservative backbencher, said it should not be difficult to extend access to a small handful of people.

She joined Lillia's family and Mr Byrne in handing in a petition to Downing Street on Wednesday, calling for the government to intervene.

NHS 'red tape'

The issue has sparked wider concern about accessing new treatments on the NHS, given the millions of pounds being invested in the life sciences sector on research projects and clinical trials.

Tofersen received marketing authorisation in July from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency.

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However the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the body that advises whether drugs should be made available for routine funding on the NHS.

It will begin its evaluation process for Tofersen in March, but it is not clear how long it will take.

Ministers are said to be reluctant to interfere as they feel this would undermine the official process.

Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi, a consultant neurologist at King's College Hospital, said there needed to be a simpler system.

He said: "The government would like us to be a science superpower, and for motor neurone disease, we really are.

"And this drug is available but it's not available to patients despite the scientific breakthrough, what does that say?

"What's the purpose of finding these new treatments if they're not available on the NHS? The pathway has to be complete."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are committed to improving care for people with motor neurone disease like Lillia and ensuring they receive the support and treatment they need.

"Tofersen is approved for use in the UK and NICE is working with the manufacturer on whether to recommend it for routine funding by the NHS.

"If recommended, NHS England will work to make it available to NHS patients as rapidly as possible."

In an emotional video posted on social media, the 36-year-old boxer, who sustained minor injuries in the collision, called the two men "my left and my right" and said he had been through a "tragic, traumatic time".

Joshua was travelling in the back of a black SUV when it struck a stationary truck on a major road near Lagos on 29 December, killing Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami.

The two-time world champion had been on holiday with his friends following his knockout victory over US YouTuber turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami on 19 December.

Mr Ghami, who had been part of Joshua's team for more than a decade, was a strength and conditioning coach specialising in musculoskeletal injuries and corrective exercise.

Mr Ayodele, an old friend of the boxer, was a personal trainer.

"We went back home, went to see our families and everything just got flipped upside on its head," Joshua said in the video.

"That was such an unforeseen circumstance, that was out of all our control.

"Not only did their parents, their uncles, their cousins, their friends and myself lose two great men, we lost people that we dearly care about and have been major players in all of our lives."

Joshua described Mr Ghami and Mr Ayodele as "my brothers" and admitted that while he has "lost people before", he had not "lost people like that".

"It's tough. It's really tough," he added.

"I'm not going to sit here and show all of my emotions. I know in today's day and age it's easy to micro-analyse people and pass judgement. I know what I feel and that's what matters to me. I know what my duty is. They're my brothers, they're my friends, first and foremost.

"I've lost people before. But I don't think I've lost people like that. My left and my right… They were very important team members, very important friends and two of my brothers.

"I'm the big guy but I was walking with giants that kept me protected, kept me shielded."

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Joshua also said he would support their families and thanked people for their tributes.

"My goal is to continue to help them achieve their goals.

"I'm going to do what's right by them, I'm going to do what's right by their family.

"I still can't get my head around, just my two friends, just how popular [they are]. We just grew up together. I've known them as my friends but they built such strong characters over the years.

"I'm sure their parents are 100% are proud of them because I am.

"Thank you for the love worldwide. For anyone out there that's lost a son, a brother, one love to you."

Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, has been charged with dangerous driving causing death, reckless and negligent driving, driving without due care and attention, and driving without a valid national driver's licence in connection with the crash.

Kayode appeared at Sagamu Magistrate Court, in southwestern Ogun State, earlier this month.

The case was adjourned until 25 February at the prosecution's request.

The former Labour cabinet minister told Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that the prime minister's trip to the world's second-largest economy was intended to improve the financial situation of voters in the UK.

However, she said the government would remain "clear-eyed" about potential threats from Beijing.

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After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Sir Keir confirmed UK citizens would get 30-day visa-free entry to China, and that whisky tariffs would be halved.

Ms Harman said: "The overwhelming imperative for the government is to get growth in the UK economy and for people's living standards to improve.

"And China being the second-largest economy in the world with increasing difficulties with the US.

"You know, it's just, as he said, it's the pragmatism, and when [Sir Keir] was speaking with the business delegation on camera, saying, actually, this is all about people back home.

"I think that you can see, and he's obviously radiating out to the Chinese as well, a very clear focus on this.

"They're not going all around the houses on this. This is about the economy."

Rigby pointed out that the trip could potentially open the door for the government to invite Mr Xi to visit the UK, as he did in 2015.

"[It] would be a massive deal if the UK government is prepared to allow Xi to visit, given that the Chinese government had sanctioned British parliamentarians from coming to China," Sky's political editor said.

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Ms Harman said: "This is about more trade, it's about more investment.

"And obviously they're managing all the other things like the banning of the MPs, like the security issues, like the espionage.

"So those all things have got to be managed, and that's why they say, we're going to be clear-eyed about this. So we are not forgetting about those problems.

"But it's just the economy stupid, isn't it?"