Author: SKYNEWS

Russell Brand has been charged with further counts of rape and sexual assault, police have said.They relate to two further women and are in addition to the charges issued to the comedian and actor in April, which involved four women. He had been previously charged with two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.Brand has pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges. Image: Russell Brand arriving at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in May. Pic: PA He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 20 January 2026 in relation to the two additional…

Two of Britain’s biggest high street banks are embroiled in a £2.5bn takeover battle for Evelyn Partners, the wealth management group.Sky News has learnt that Barclays and NatWest Group were among the bidders notified last week that they were through to the second round of the Evelyn auction. Royal Bank of Canada is also said to be in the frame to buy Evelyn, while a number of private equity firms have also tabled offers for the business.Lloyds Banking Group is understood to have explored an offer for Evelyn, although it was unclear on Tuesday whether it remained interested.For Barclays and…

Two burglars who used the Grindr dating app to trick victims into letting them into their homes have been jailed.Rahmat Khan Mohammadi, 23, and Mohammed Bilal Hotak, 27, would arrange to meet victims at their London properties, and persuade them to provide their phone passwords by asking to play music on YouTube.The Afghan refugees then stole the devices and left before making online or contactless payments, as well as occasionally transferring funds to themselves.Mohammadi targeted 11 victims in his five-month crime spree between 24 October 2024 and 24 March 2025.Hotak offended multiple times between 24 October 2024 and 23 December…

The rapper in punk duo Bob Vylan will not face further action over his “death death to the IDF” chants at Glastonbury Festival, police have said. Rapper Bobby Vylan, real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster led crowds on the festival’s West Holts Stage in the chants about the Israel Defence Forces during the group’s performance in June. Avon and Somerset Police said a criminal investigation was under way shortly afterwards, with a senior detective appointed to lead the investigation. Image: Punk duo Bob Vylan performing on stage at the 100 Club in central London. Pic: PA But in a statement released…

Informa, the FTSE-100 events group behind the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and World of Concrete, is kicking off a search for its next chairman.Sky News has learnt that Informa, which has a market capitalisation of about £11.3bn, is working with headhunters to find a successor to John Rishton. City sources said on Monday that Russell Reynolds Associates was handling the search.A former chief executive of Rolls Royce Group, Mr Rishton joined the Informa board in September 2016 before taking over as chairman nearly five years later.People close to the process said he was likely to step down in 2027,…

The UK could be set to have had its warmest year on record, according to forecasters.The Met Office says 2025 is on track to become one of the UK’s warmest years, possibly surpassing 2022. The average annual temperature is tracking at 10.05C – ahead of the previous record of 10.03C set in 2022.A forecasted cold spell over Christmas means the final figure is not yet confirmed. Image: People enjoy the warm weather in Folkestone, Kent, in July. Pic: PA If it is confirmed, 2025 will be only the second year in observational records where the UK’s annual mean temperature has…

Barry Manilow is being treated for lung cancer and has been forced to reschedule live shows, the 82 year-old has revealed.The Copacabana popstar announced on Instagram that a cancerous spot had been discovered on his left lung. “As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote.”Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK.”The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs…

A renewable energy group founded by the former chief executive of Petrofac, the oilfield services group which collapsed during the autumn, will this week announce a £40m fundraising despite signs of growing tension over its leadership.Sky News has learnt that Venterra, which was set up four years ago by Ayman Asfari, will unveil the capital injection as early as Monday. Its backers will include existing shareholders Beyond Net Zero, a fund affiliated with the private equity firm General Atlantic, and First Reserve, another private equity investor.The fundraising will come amid a challenging climate sweeping through swathes of the renewable energy…

The market seems to be content, for now at least, to keep betting big on AI.While the value of some companies integral to the AI boom like Nvidia, Oracle and Coreweave have seen their value fall since the highs of the mid-2025, the US stockmarket remains dominated by investment in AI. Of the S&P500 index of leading companies, 75% of returns are thanks to 41 AI stocks. The “magnificent seven” of big tech companies, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple and Tesla, account for 37% of the S&P’s performance. Such dominance, based almost exclusively on building one kind of AI…

Kylie Minogue has secured her first Christmas number one in the UK with her hit track XMAS.The Australian pop star, 57, is the first solo female artist in 12 years to secure the coveted festive spot, after Sam Bailey with Skyscraper in 2013, according to The Official Charts Company. Minogue has also become the first woman to have number one singles across four different decades.Her success comes after two consecutive years in which Last Christmas by Wham! was top.Minogue said it was “hard to put into words” how special it felt to lead the singles chart. She said: “Being Christmas…