Local News

A clothing ad filmed on the wedding day of two reality TV stars has been banned for glamorising smoking, the advertising watchdog has said.The video was posted on Instagram by The Only Way is Essex alum Ercan Ramadan on 3 October last year and shared by his wife Vicky Pattison, a former star of Geordie Shore. It featured Ramadan and seven groomsmen with cigars.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the […]

Rachel Reeves's trip to China – the first by a British chancellor since 2019 - was always going to be controversial. In recent years Conservative governments have been keeping Beijing at arm's length - amid concern about espionage, the situation in Hong Kong, and the treatment of the Uyghurs. David Cameron's so-called "Golden Era" of engagement in the pursuit of economic investment, notoriously capped by a visit to an Oxfordshire […]

The government contract for the controversial asylum barge in Dorset has ended.The last asylum seekers are believed to have left Bibby Stockholm at the end of November after Labour said it would have cost more than £20m to run in 2025. Its closure this month was expected, and on Friday the management firm and the Home Office confirmed to Sky News the contract had now expired.It's currently unclear when Bibby […]

This was more than an opening ceremony. It felt like a love letter to a city misunderstood.Eleven thousand people bought tickets to watch Bradford welcome its year as the UK's City of Culture. "It's a really, really good opportunity for people to see what Bradford is about," one young local tells me, "for people to come into Bradford, dispel the myths and realise that, actually, it's a city with a […]

Nigel Farage has told Sky News he "can't be pushed or bullied" by anybody after Elon Musk said the Reform MP "doesn't have what it takes" to lead his party. In an interview with Sky's political correspondent Ali Fortescue, Mr Farage said he has spoken with the billionaire owner of X since his criticism on 5 January, when Mr Musk said: "The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn't have […]

Scotland's first minister has said a call to strip rugby player Stuart Hogg of his MBE in the wake of his domestic abuse conviction is "reasonable and understandable".John Swinney branded the former Scotland rugby captain's behaviour towards his estranged wife as "incredibly disappointing". He added: "I think it's absolutely reprehensible for men to behave badly in any circumstance of life and one example of that will be domestic abuse." Image: […]

Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city's Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday. The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club. Image: […]

Bosses of leading high street businesses are set to lead a new drive to cut crime and get ex-offenders into stable jobs.It's part of a government initiative creating 11 new regional employment councils across England and Wales. Leaders from firms including the Co-Op, Iceland, Greggs, and Oliver Bonas will provide voluntary advisory roles in conjunction with probation, job centres, and the Department for Work and Pensions.The idea is to help […]

A Russian spy was living in a "typical seaside hotel" on the English coast crammed full of electronic surveillance equipment, a court has heard.Orlin Roussev boasted to his controller that he was becoming like the James Bond character "Q" as he prepared his spying "toys" for kidnap and surveillance operations across Europe. He is said to have taken instructions from a handler called Jan Marsalek, who is wanted in connection […]