A new-look Sky News series takes viewers straight into some of the world’s most hostile environments.

From dodging gunfire in Syria to navigating gang-controlled streets in Haiti, Hotspots shines a light not only on the stories themselves but how those stories are captured – through every breath and decision.

“This is journalism at its most raw and its most genuine,” says special correspondent Alex Crawford, who stars in the series alongside chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay and their fearless teams.

It is a testament to the journalists who venture into some of the world’s most hostile and difficult to reach places to bring the truth to light.

Told using only natural sound and raw action gathered in the field – with the entire team mic’d up – Hotspots immerses audiences in unfiltered reality.

This multi-perspective coverage delivers unparalleled transparency in an era of fake news, giving viewers a real-time look at how Sky News’ eyewitness storytelling unfolds on the front lines – and the challenges journalists face to uncover the truth.

Last aired on TV in 2021, Hotspots returns with a new digital-first format and a host of exhilarating locations, including:

• Syria: Caught in the crossfire between armed groups
• Haiti: Inside displacement camps where hostility takes on a different face
• Somalia: Searching for ISIS hideouts in remote terrain
• Colombia: Tracking coca farmers deep in the Amazon
• The West Bank: Reporting under constant watch from Israeli forces
• Libya: Discovering overloaded migrant dinghies drifting in the dark

“Authenticity is what our viewers are desperate for. And we are giving it to them in spades now,” says Crawford.

“This fresh, behind-the-scenes Hotspots takes you right inside our team to give you an unvarnished look at how we operate, how we communicate and how we just plain survive in the most hostile and challenging of environments.”

Watch:
Why Stuart Ramsay went back to Haiti’s gangland
Sectarian violence in Syria explained

Ramsay, whose team takes viewers behind the scenes in the West Bank and Haiti, says he hopes it will provide an insight into “what it takes to bring you the news”.

“It takes a whole team to produce our stories, but as a rule you only ever see me! Hotspots gives people an opportunity to see the whole process, to see how we all work together, and to watch my team in action.

“The job is not always easy, it has its challenges as you’ll see, but I happen to think I have one of the best jobs in the world, and now through Hotspots you can (sort of) come along with me on assignment.”

Watch Hotspots on the Sky News Hotspots YouTube channel.

The death toll from a fire that tore through a Hong Kong apartment complex has risen.

Investigators are searching for bodies in the residential towers of Wang Fuk Court, where the blaze erupted on Wednesday.

Authorities say 146 bodies have now been found, rising from a previous reported total of 128.

Shuk-yin Tsang, the head of the Hong Kong police casualty unit, said another 100 people remained unaccounted for, and 79 people were injured.

Flames spread through seven of the eight towers of the complex, and the fire was not fully extinguished until Friday.

Police said they had completed searches through four of the affected buildings.

But a city official said they expected the search process to take three to four weeks.

The burnt towers

Cheng Ka-chun, the police officer leading the search, said bodies had been found both in apartments and on the roofs.

He said: “It is so dark inside, and because of the low light, it is very difficult to do the work, especially in places away from the windows.”

Before the fire broke out, the towers had been undergoing renovations and were clad in bamboo scaffolding, draped with nylon netting, with windows covered by polystyrene panels.

Residents say they repeatedly warned about the potential flammability of the materials, but were told by the authorities that they faced “relatively low fire risks”.

Now the authorities are investigating whether fire codes were violated amid growing public anger over the blaze.

Beijing has warned it will use a national security law to crack down on any “anti-China” protests that result.

‘Give justice to the families’

Over 1,000 people turned out on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of the fire, which was Hong Kong’s deadliest in more than 75 years.

Mourners queued for more than a kilometre to lay flowers, some with sticky notes attached addressed to the victims.

Joey Yeung, whose grandmother’s apartment burned in the fire, asked for justice.

The 28-year-old said: “I can’t accept it. So today I came with my father and my family to lay flowers.

“I’m not asking to get anything back but at least give some justice to the families of the deceased – to those who are still alive.”

Another mourner, Lian Shuzheng, said: “This really serves as a wake-up call for everyone, especially with these super high-rise buildings.”

‘Serious deficiencies’ in safety

An online petition demanding an independent probe into possible corruption and a review of construction oversight drew over 10,000 signatures before it was closed.

Another petition with similar demands attracted more than 2,700 signatures with its plea for “explicit accountability” from the government.

Read more:
Hong Kong fire: ‘Even if my parents are dead, I just want to know’
More arrests in deadly Hong Kong tower block blaze

City officials have announced they were suspending 28 building projects undertaken by the contractor that was renovating Wang Fuk Court, the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company.

They said the fire had “exposed serious deficiencies” in the safety of the company’s sites, “including the extensive use of foam boards to block up windows during building repairs”.

The day after the fire broke out, two directors and an engineering consultant from a construction firm were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Police said they also suspected the company’s leaders of gross negligence, without identifying the firm by name.

The three men were released on bail, but then rearrested by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption authorities, who made a further eight arrests.

The death toll following flooding and landslides in Indonesia and Thailand has risen to more than 600 – with nearby Sri Lanka also reporting more than 200 deaths after a cyclone.

Three people have also died in Malaysia, officials have said, due to the extreme weather in South Asia and Southeast Asia.

In total, Indonesian officials said 442 people had died and Thai authorities reported 170 deaths in the southern part of the country, as of midday UK time on Sunday.

Rescue efforts were ongoing throughout the day, with more than four million people affected – almost three million in Southern Thailand and 1.1 million in Western Indonesia – by the effects of a tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait.

Indonesian relief and rescue teams have used helicopters to deliver aid to people they could not access because of blocked roads on the western island of Sumatra.

Many areas have been cut off, while damage to telecommunications infrastructure has hampered communications.

Officials said on Saturday that they had received reports of people looting supply lines as they grow desperate for relief in other areas.

Hat Yai, the largest city in Thailand’s Songkhla province, received 335mm (13 inches) of rain on Friday last week, its highest single-day tally in 300 years.

After days of rain, meteorological authorities in Malaysia lifted tropical storm and continuous rain warnings there yesterday, forecasting clear skies for most of the country.

However, there are still about 18,700 people in evacuation centres, according to the country’s national disaster management agency.

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More than 200 dead in Sri Lanka

Across the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka’s disaster management centre said in a situation report on Sunday that 212 people had died as a result of Cyclone Ditwah.

Another 218 people have been recorded as missing across the South Asian country’s 25 districts, and more than half a million people have been affected nationwide.