Millions of households face a greater than expected increase to their energy bills of £85 a year from April after Europe’s gas storage levels slumped, according to analysts. The average gas and electricity bill for households across England, Scotland and Wales is expected to rise by nearly 5% from April to £1,823 a year for…

Placebo frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation after appearing to call the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a “piece of shit, fascist, racist” in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023. In August 2023, Meloni sued Molko over the comments. Prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into the claims and have…

A woman accused of murdering an Indigenous teen sent messages inquiring about the welfare of another boy allegedly beaten up by two of her co-accused, a court has been told. Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck…

Ironing out the 2026 budget of the euro zone’s second-largest economy will prove a “demanding” task, French Economy Minister Eric Lombard told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed, after lawmakers earlier this month finally adopted 2025’s financial plan after a spate of tumultuous, government-toppling attempts. France has charted a trajectory to reduce its public deficit, aiming to reach…

UK pay growth rose in December and unemployment remained unchanged despite warnings from business that Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget would lead to job losses. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show annual growth in total average weekly earnings rose by 6% in the three months to December, up from 5.6% in November and above…

China has called on the United States to “correct its mistakes” after a statement that Washington does not support an independent Taiwan was removed from the state department website. Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to unify with the self-ruled island one day. The United…

Ukraine will not accept US-Russia talks outcome if not involved, Zelenskyy says We’re also now hearing directly from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commenting on the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. In comments reported by the Associated Press and Reuters, he said Ukraine won’t take part in US-Russia talks this week on ending the war and…

Five suspected Islamist terrorists accused of kidnapping and torturing four French journalists covering the war in Syria have gone on trial in Paris. The men include the French jihadi Mehdi Nemmouche, 39, who is serving life imprisonment for an attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2019 in which four people died. The five…

Lib Dems: ‘Sad’ that Badenoch has chosen to ‘parrot Trump’s dangerous rhetoric’ In a reaction to Kemi Badenoch’s speech in London at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference, the Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper has accused the Tory leader of “competing with Farage to fawn over Donald Trump” and choosing to “parrot Trump’s…

Elon Musk’s Doge pushes to access taxpayer data from IRS Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) is making an unprecedented push for access to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that houses detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the US, raising alarms over privacy, security, and government overreach, The Washington Post…