Local News

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will travel to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos this week to court potential investors in UK growth projects, joining hundreds of political and economic leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps in the shadow of Donald Trump's inauguration.Ms Reeves will join political leaders including German chancellor Olaf Scholz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and a vice premier of the […]

A father accused of stabbing his 14-year-old daughter during a "play-fight" has told a court it was a "freak accident" - claiming he accidentally threw a knife at her without realising.Simon Vickers, 50, denies both the murder and manslaughter of his only child Scarlett in the kitchen of their home in Darlington on 5 July last year.Teesside Crown Court has heard Scarlett died after being stabbed through the heart.Prosecutors said the 11cm […]

The trial of an 18-year-old accused of killing three girls in a knife attack at a dance class in Southport is due to begin today.Axel Rudakubana, from Lancashire, will appear at Liverpool Crown Court charged with the murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven.The girls died following the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at The Hart Space shortly before midday […]

There's a deep, transatlantic contrast between the bombastic billionaire Donald Trump and the bespectacled human rights lawyer Sir Keir Starmer, on a political and a personal level.Despite the so-called "special relationship" it's clearly going to be an uphill battle for the British PM to forge a productive relationship with the incoming president, but he has no choice but to do so. Politics latest: Trump 'within his right' to make statement […]

Jeremy Corbyn has agreed to be interviewed under caution by police following a pro-Palestinian rally in central London, Sky News understands.The former Labour leader, 75, voluntarily attended a police station in the capital this afternoon. The BBC has reported that John McDonnell, 73, who was the shadow chancellor during Mr Corbyn's leadership, also agreed to be voluntarily interviewed.Sky News saw the pair leaving Charing Cross Police station this afternoon. They […]

There are currently "no plans" for the UK to follow in America's footsteps and ban TikTok, a cabinet minister said. Darren Jones said cats and dancing videos do not "seem like a national security threat", but suggested the position could change if an issue emerges which the government is "concerned about". The Chinese-opened app was "forced to go dark" in the US on Sunday after a Supreme Court ruling upheld […]

The owner of Poundland, one of Britain's biggest discount retailers, has drafted in City advisers to explore radical options for arresting the growing crisis at the chain.Sky News has learnt that Pepco Group, which has owned Poundland since 2016, has hired consultants from AlixPartners to address a sales slump which has raised questions over its future ownership. City sources said this weekend that the crisis would prompt Pepco to explore […]

Director Claire van Kampen has died, aged 71, on the 65th birthday of her husband, Sir Mark Rylance. She died in the German town of Kassel on Saturday morning after being diagnosed with cancer. A statement, shared on behalf of Sir Mark and her daughter Juliet, described her as "one of the funniest and (most) inspiring women we have ever known". It added: "We thank her for imbuing our lives […]

Speakers of some accents risk being stereotyped as more likely to have committed a crime, new research suggests.The study led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, sought to understand people's perceptions about 10 different accents across the UK.The researchers asked 180 participants both male and female from across the UK to listen to recordings of 10 male voices from Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, […]