Author: SKYNEWS

Speculation about the next James Bond was rife even before Daniel Craig confirmed once and for all that he was stepping down.Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Idris Elba? Henry Cavill? James Norton? A female 007? Three-and-a-half years on from No Time To Die, already delayed due to COVID and other problems, there has not been a scrap of confirmation.But now – plot twist – comes the announcement that Bond’s long-time producers and custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are handing creative control to Amazon MGM Studios. Image: Daniel Craig in his first outing as Bond, Casino Royale, in 2006. Pic: Rex/Shutterstock It’s…

What happens when you put a boyhood fan in charge of their club?They discover it’s not so simple to run after all. And the fans you sat with many years ago are as impatient as ever. Anger reverberates exactly a year since Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS organisation gained day-to-day control of football operations at Manchester United. Image: Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Old Trafford. Pic: PA Fans are furious about ticket price rises.A charity helping former players has had funding slashed. And rank-and-file staff – many loyal for years without Premier League salaries – have been swept out with…

After he was squirted in the eye with battery acid, Paul Laskey thought he would lose his eye entirely, until a donated placenta helped save some of his sight. Paul, 43, was attacked after he confronted 21-year-old Robbie Scott, who had mugged his son in Newcastle just minutes earlier. “[My son] phoned us, hysterical, saying he had been robbed,” the father-of-three told Sky News. Scott had “pulled a knife on him and ripped a gold chain off his neck”.When Paul went to confront Scott, he squirted him with battery acid from a drinks bottle.”I knew instantly. I couldn’t see anything,…

The trial of the only suspect ever to be charged with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, almost 30 years after his death, has been postponed for almost a year.During a short hearing in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said she had little choice but to reschedule given new developments presented by Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ lawyers. Davis, 61, was charged with Tupac’s murder in September 2023 and has been in jail since his arrest. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and his trial has already been pushed back twice, from June…

Inflation has risen a surprising amount to the highest in nearly a year, official figures show. This means prices are rising even more than at any time since last March, according to data from the Office for National Statistics for January. The consumer price index (CPI) ticked up steeply to 3% from 2.5% a month earlier. A lower rise to 2.8% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters and by central bank the Bank of England.The rise has come from more expensive transport and food and non-alcoholic beverages costs. Flight prices did not fall as much as usual for this…

The elusive founder of disruptive Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been spotted attending a Beijing conference, one week after snubbing a global AI summit in Paris.Liang Wenfeng was seen publicly for the first time since the company’s AI model upended the tech industry. Up until DeepSeek’s unveiling, the US was thought to hold the global monopoly on artificial intelligence, with every top 10 AI company in the world being based in the States. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:50 What is DeepSeek? But when DeepSeek revealed a powerful model that was significantly cheaper to run…

Central Cee, Darkoo and Bashy are among the big winners at this year’s MOBO Awards.The ceremony took place in Newcastle this evening, with Krept & Konan, Bashy, Spice, and Nova Twins among the performers. Central Cee was named best male act, while Darkoo was named best female and picked up the MOBOs’ song of the year award for Favourite Girl, featuring Dess Dior.Central Cee – who wasn’t at the ceremony to accept his accolade – is now the joint most-decorated rapper in MOBOs history, tied with Stormzy on seven awards. Image: Darkoo was one of the performers of the night.…

Wages have risen while unemployment unexpectedly saw no change, official figures show.Average weekly earnings rose 6% in the three months to December, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed, while wages – excluding bonuses – grew 5.9%, despite economists expecting a 5.8% rise. Money blog: Your parking disputes resolved by expertEven with inflation factored in, wages are still rising. In the same month as earnings grew 6%, prices rose at a rate of 2.5%.This marks the third month in a row of wage growth after a year of slowing. In November, both basic pay excluding bonuses, and average…

On a bright but chilly February morning, around a dozen volunteers gather by the beachfront at Minster, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. In bobble hats and walking boots, they carry blue plastic bags and litter pickers. They wander slowly past the dog walkers and brightly painted beach huts, combing the pebbles for waste. But the rubbish they’re looking for isn’t normal litter; it’s builders’ rubble and shredded household waste.It was dumped en masse by the lorry load, at an illegal dump site further up the coast by Eastchurch Gap, between 2020 and 2023.”It’s lots of guttering that washes…

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy has achieved the highest-ever opening for a romcom in the UK and Ireland, according to Universal.The fourth movie in the franchise, set around the titular unlucky-in-love heroine, took $15.5m, (£12.3m) in its first weekend, beating Marvel’s first release of the year, Captain America: Brave New World. Image: Zellweger and Leo Woodall in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Pic: Universal Pictures It overtakes the second film in the franchise, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason – the previous record holder, which took $13.1m (£10.4m).Less of a household name in the US, Bridget’s latest adventure…