Michael Holmes is an award-winning anchor and correspondent for CNN International based at the network’s headquarters in Atlanta. For the last 45 years he has reported on major news events including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Rwandan genocide and numerous wars and conflicts all over the world.

He currently presents CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes Friday through Monday mornings between 12 and 3am ET (5-8am GMT).

Holmes, who joined CNNI in 1996 as the first Australian anchor for the network, has reported extensively from all corners of the globe including Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, India, Nepal, Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan and has traveled to more than 80 countries.

He has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Libya, Gaza, the West Bank and Iraq, where he reported on the war from the very beginning, making more than a dozen trips there – usually for weeks at a time. His coverage of Iraq included all aspects of the war including the insurgency and occupation to the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein.

In January 2004 he survived an ambush on a two-vehicle CNN convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad which left two CNN staff members dead and one wounded. A few years later, in 2007, CNN cameras followed Holmes as he reported from Iraq during what would later become one of the bloodiest months since the war started in 2003 for the award-winning documentary On Assignment: Month of Mayhem.

In the fall of 2016 Holmes spent several weeks in Iraq covering the Iraqi-led offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS. His reporting contributed to a 2016 Peabody Award for CNN, recognizing the networks’ coverage on the Battle for Mosul, ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Undercover in Syria.

In the fall of 2016 Holmes spent several weeks in Iraq covering the Iraqi-led offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS. His reporting contributed to a 2016 Peabody Award for CNN, recognizing the networks’ coverage on the Battle for Mosul, ISIS in Iraq and Syria and Undercover in Syria.

Earlier that year he reported from Brussels following the deadly terror attacks at the Zaventum airport and Maelbeek metro station. For several days Holmes covered Belgium’s response to these ISIS attacks, even securing an exclusive interview with a family member of Belgian jihadist Hicham Chaib. In 2015 Holmes anchored CNN’s breaking news coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris, which was recognized with a 2016 Royal Television Society (RTS) Award for ‘Best Breaking News Coverage.’

In 2014 Holmes traveled to Kyiv to cover riots taking place in the Ukrainian capital, and then was in Crimea for the arrival of Russian troops and the controversial referendum that led to the Russian annexation of Crimea. He returned to Ukraine in 2022 and spent more than a month covering the start of the Russian invasion, winning an Emmy for Breaking News as part of the CNN team on the ground.

In 2019 he reported from the Mexico-Guatemala border on the Central American migrant crisis and the drowning deaths of a man from El Salvador and his young daughter, whose bodies were found together on the banks of the Rio Grande after trying to cross into the United States.

Holmes also covered the 2011 Libyan revolution that led to the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi, spending several weeks with Libyan rebels as they advanced from the western mountains and covering the at-times fierce fighting in several towns and cities.

He has also reported from Afghanistan on several occasions, spending weeks with U.S. and Afghan troops on the battlefield.

In April 2002 he was one of the few journalists reporting from Ramallah during the Israeli incursion, and despite Israeli gunfire, secured an exclusive interview with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat inside his besieged headquarters during a highly dangerous period in the West Bank. That was just one of the many exclusives Holmes had from the region, seeing violence on both sides of that conflict.

He has also covered many natural disasters including Hurricanes Sandy, Michael, Irma and Maria, with coverage of the latter two earning an Edward R. Murrow Award.

As an anchor, he has interviewed prime ministers and presidents of several nations, anchored countless live events and breaking news stories from around the world and served as host and moderator at several CNN special events. He has also covered numerous natural disasters including Hurricanes Sandy, Michael, Irma and Maria, with coverage of the latter two earning an Edward R. Murrow Award.

Before joining CNNI, Holmes worked for Australia’s Nine Network, and was one of the few Australian journalists to cover firsthand the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

He was based in London for four years as the network’s European correspondent for current affairs, covering such events as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Palestinian intifada, Northern Ireland and the start of the first Gulf War. His reports in Bucharest during the miners’ uprising in 1990 earned him an Australian Television Society Award for Coverage of a Current Affairs Story.

After working in newspapers for nearly five years, he began his television career in 1982 with the Nine Network in Perth. He also has worked for several British media outlets, including WTN, The Observer newspaper and TV-AM.

His awards, individual and as part of CNN reporting teams, include an Emmy, two Peabodys, an Edward R. Murrow, RTS, AIB and two CINE Golden Eagles.

He began his career at the age of 17, as a cub reporter with the Daily News, an afternoon newspaper in Perth.