Chris Brown pleads not guilty to UK assault charge
The 36-year-old appeared at London's Southwark Crown Court, where supporters filled the public gallery ahead of the hearing.
The two-time Grammy Award winner, known for hits such as "Loyal," "Run It" and "Under the Influence," was granted bail in May after promising to pay a $6.7 million security fee in order to begin his "Breezy Bowl XX" tour.
During the court hearing, Brown spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and to deny the charge of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm, telling the court clerk: "Not guilty, ma'am."
Chris Brown makes bail, surrenders passport as world tour looms
His co-defendant, Omololu Akinlolu, 38, also pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm. The pair were granted bail until their next court appearance on July 11, when they may be asked to enter a plea to a less serious charge of assault causing actual bodily harm.
Brown is also charged with having an offensive weapon, namely a bottle, but was not asked to enter a plea on Friday. Their trial is scheduled to begin on October 26, 2026.
Supporters said "We love you, Chris" as Brown left the dock after the brief hearing.
The R&B star was arrested at a hotel in Manchester, northern England, last month after returning to Britain for the first time since the incident two years ago.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Chris Brown pleads not guilty to UK assault charge
The 36-year-old appeared at London's Southwark Crown Court, where supporters filled the public gallery ahead of the hearing. The two-time Grammy Award winner, known for hits such as "Loyal," "Run It" and "Under the Influence," was granted bail in May after promising to pay a $6.7 million security fee in order to begin his "Breezy Bowl XX" tour. During the court hearing, Brown spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and to deny the charge of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm, telling the court clerk: "Not guilty, ma'am." Chris Brown makes bail, surrenders passport as world tour looms His co-defendant, Omololu Akinlolu, 38, also pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm. The pair were granted bail until their next court appearance on July 11, when they may be asked to enter a plea to a less serious charge of assault causing actual bodily harm. Brown is also charged with having an offensive weapon, namely a bottle, but was not asked to enter a plea on Friday. Their trial is scheduled to begin on October 26, 2026. Supporters said "We love you, Chris" as Brown left the dock after the brief hearing. The R&B star was arrested at a hotel in Manchester, northern England, last month after returning to Britain for the first time since the incident two years ago.
Metro
9 hours ago
- Metro
Pokémon North American International Championships 2025 report
The final national stage of the Pokémon championship season has ended with a tense showdown between US and Canadian teams. Pokémon competitive play reached fever pitch at this year's North America International Championships (NAIC), which was held in New Orleans last weekend and saw record numbers of competitors. The event is a vital checkpoint for Pokémon pros en route to the 2025 World Championships, and is the last chance for competitive Pokémon players aiming for the World Championships, to be held in Anaheim Californian in August. The fact that the Grimmsnarl ex deck – with its spooky VooDoo green and purple card art – from the new and extremely popular Destined Rivals set was the talk of the meta couldn't have been more fitting for The Big Easy. The Pokémon World Championships began in 2004 and focused primarily on the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), but it has since grown to include dedicated competitions for Pokémon video games, such as Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, Pokémon Go, and Pokémon Unite. Every year, as a precursor to what is known to competitors as Worlds, Pokémon players from around the globe battle it out for the chance to earn championship points for both the TCG and Video Game Championships (VGC). I spoke to Chris Brown, Director of Global Esports and Events Producer at The Pokémon Company International, on how to make these events easily accessible to viewers at home: 'New for this event we have, for the first time, built in closed captions, but not just closed captions in English, we've also generated them in French, Italian, German, and Spanish. 'I think that's super important too, because it makes the game more accessible. Maybe you start to play again as you're watching somebody play online, you start to feel like you're almost in one community with them. 'We're constantly playing with those things and trying to evolve. Going past that, we have things like Twitch drops, viewer rewards… we've given a little carrot out there for you maybe to load the game up and bring somebody back into the game who hasn't played it for a little while. We're constantly playing with those things and trying to evolve the viewership and the at-home experience for our fans.' Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. NAIC 2025 saw over 6,2000 competitors, registered from over 50 countries (including 40 from the UK), in what is now the largest Pokémon tournament outside of Asia. In these highly competitive tournaments, each game has its own format and set of rules, including different divisions for pros, seniors, and juniors. Cash prizes are determined based on the amount of players in each tournament, with a prize pool of over $500,000 (£371,000). In order to qualify for the Pokémon TCG World Championships, a player must earn an invitation by gaining enough championship points by the end of the competitive season, through placing high enough or winning official Pokémon tournaments. After a busy initial two days of competitive play, Sunday saw an early start for the MOBA style Pokémon Unite and the Final Stretch competition, where Team Luminosity (Canada) did it again in their third win in a row this year and one of the most brutal eSports matches I've ever seen. The score at one point was 1,231 to 11 and sometimes it looked personal between these two North American teams. Sean 'Slash' Tucker, captain of Luminosity, told me: 'It's incredible to win all three ICs so fa,r for Pokémon Unite, but we're not done making history.' Things slowed right down for the final of Pokémon Go, which came down to a best of five featuring two North American players: 'Unstoppable' Ilqm and ItsAXN – with the Lapras vs. Lapras showdown we all wanted to see. Former World Champion ItsAXN proved superior, with a 3-0 sweep to become the first Pokémon Go trainer to win two international competitions. From the kitchen table to the TCG Juniors Final, things took an adorable and unique turn with two siblings, Annabelle and Kenji Oono, facing off after a special family handshake. Dragapult ex reigned supreme with Annabelle beating her brother but giving him a consolatory hug. I spoke to Annabelle just after her win: 'It felt amazing, it felt like a dream because it's just so hard to get to this goal and it felt like we've both won.' TCG Masters saw championship staple Gardevoir ex come to the fore, as two North American players went head-to-head. Riley McKay vs. Isaiah Bradner was extremely close, as they pulled out plenty of Munkidori for psychic damage with VooDoo Mind Bend and Adrena-Brain abilities. Bradner pushed for the win, combining consistency, tech utility, and matchup resilience, which should serve as a blueprint for top-tier players heading into Worlds. In an exciting turn of events for European competitors, the Masters video game final was completely dominated by Italian players this year. While Marco took early terrain control, ultimately Frederico Camporesi, with his fairy electric Miradion/Lunala core, took the championship with another Miraidon win and an impressive prize of $15,000 (£11,000). So, this year strangely enough a European won the North American Championship, and an American won the European Championship. I spoke to Rose Gregson, in attendance from the UK and competing in TCG Masters, who ranked in the top eight at the Latin America International Championships. 'The Pokémon TCG community is gaining an incredible amount of new players very quickly, and I believe the Pokémon company is doing a good job of matching those expectations,' she said. 'Something that would support players of all levels would be the official Pokémon company hiring pro players to create educational content in how to improve at the game for the official channel, such as the recent WolfeyVGC and Cybertron collaboration stream they did for the VGC Grand Challenge. 'A similar idea on the official Pokémon stream would be during stream downtime to get players to review their own official stream matches, so they can walk through why they made the decisions they did. From the meta continuously evolving in a positive direction, I have hope that the three-prize Pokémon won't be as good as they previously were, however only time can tell from if they have learnt from past mistakes.' 'My favourite Pokemon currently is between Jolteon and Origin Form Magearna, however it changes all the time, with Gardevoir and Palafin in a close second!' During the event, there was a chance for North American players and spectators to visit the pop-up Pokémon Center, which was themed around the Year of Eevee celebration and packed with those keen to get their hands on some exclusive merchandise featuring Psyduck and Ogerpon. Personally, I was saving my pennies for the Worlds retro style merch, featuring a 1950s drive-in aesthetic. More Trending In addition to the Pokémon Center pop-up store, there were big queues for the origami workshop, board game area, and Play Lab – which allowed fans and visitors to learn the basics of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and which for taking part you received a beautiful Glaceon pin. It's going to be a busy summer for trading card games, Star Wars Unlimited Galactic Championships is just around the corner, held for the first time in Las Vegas this July, and Disney's Lorcana World Championship is just a couple of weeks away, at the end of June. It's being held at Walt Disney World but is somewhat of a low-key affair, with only the 28 qualifying players invited and no public or press invites. There's nothing low key about Pokémon these days though, from the spectacular opening ceremony of NAIC, which showcased the best of Mardi Gras, to the increasing global recognition. Now all the Worlds slots have been filled, and the metagame continues to evolve, as the fierce matches, breakout decks, and format defining plays have finally paved the road to Anaheim. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: PS5 is more profitable than all other PlayStation consoles combined MORE: Every Nintendo Switch 2 launch game reviewed – all 25 games so far MORE: Switch 2 third party games sold 'below our lowest estimates' says publisher
The National
16 hours ago
- The National
SFA hit back at Rangers over John Brown 'corrupt' fine row
Bomber Brown gave his opinion when there was no goal awarded, despite the ball clearly being over the line, during Rangers' last match of last season at Easter Road. Appearing on Rangers TV that day, he said: "I would say it's corrupt." Tom Miller quickly responded: "I'm not sure we can actually say that." "Well I am saying it," Brown added. "That's a disgrace and it's the worst decision I've seen in all the years I've been in football." The SFA handed out a £3,000 fine to the Ibrox club after they were found to be in breach of the rules following the incident. Rangers issued a strongly worded statement on Thursday evening in response, as they insisted they would be watching proceedings closely relating to content produced by club TV channels of other Scottish clubs. Now, the SFA has maintained the charge was rightly passed down in line with the rulebook, as they reminded clubs of 'their responsibilities' "We note Rangers' response to the determination of a recent independent Judicial Panel Tribunal," an SFA spokesperson said. "In the interests of accuracy, we wish to address some of the misleading comments contained therein: "The sanction imposed by an independent panel was entirely in keeping with the application of the rules. "The most recent and relevant example of a similar breach, the sanction imposed on Richard Foster of Motherwell FC for comments of a similar nature in the media, attests to that. Read more: "Furthermore, to address the comments regarding 'rationale behind differing outcomes', we wish to point to the fact that investigations were undertaken in previous cases outlined and that the Compliance Officers of the time saw fit to issue a censure by way of warning letter for potential breaches deemed insufficiently serious to be progressed to a Notice of Complaint. "This system of proportionality has been adopted since the inception of the Judicial Panel Protocol in 2011. "Indeed, such discretion was exercised last season when the Compliance Officer wrote to the club to warn of the future conduct of players following matters involving Vaclav Cerny, Dujon Sterling and Mohamed Diomande. "We also note that Rangers intend to contact the association to seek clarity on the Judicial Panel Protocol and its application. "The club is, in fact, already represented on the JPP Working Group. "We have requested written reasons from the panel chair involved in the tribunal and in the interests of transparency, will publish in due course. "JPP Rule 38 was introduced in response to the referee strike of 2010, when match officials campaigned for greater protection after enduring sustained personal criticism from clubs and fans. "Ahead of a new season, we remind clubs of their responsibilities in this regard."
