Author: SKYNEWS

A powerful new supercomputer will be built in Edinburgh after all, the chancellor has announced. Up to £750m has been put aside for the project, Rachel Reeves revealed as part of her spending review. The Conservatives, when in government, had previously pledged £800m for the project but in August, Labour scrapped the plans, claiming it was part of “unfunded commitments”.”We are investing in Scotland’s renewal, so working people are better off,” said Ms Reeves on Wednesday. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:29 Keir Starmer wants UK to embrace AI On Monday, one of the leading figures…

Rachel Reeves is a “gnat’s whisker” away from having to raise taxes in the autumn budget, a leading economist has warned – despite the chancellor insisting her plans are “fully funded”.Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said “any move in the wrong direction” for the economy before the next fiscal event would “almost certainly spark more tax rises”. ‘Sting in the tail’ in chancellor’s plans – politics latestSpeaking the morning after she delivered her spending review, which sets government budgets until 2029, Ms Reeves told Wilfred Frost hiking taxes wasn’t inevitable.”Everything I set out yesterday was…

Video game actors in the US have ended their strike after nearly a year of industrial action, over the use of artificial intelligence by game studios. More than 2,500 US performers were barred from working on games impacted by the strike while the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) negotiated a deal with studios. Now, after more than 11 months of discussions, a “tentative” agreement has been reached.”Patience and persistence has resulted in a deal that puts in place the necessary AI guardrails that defend performers’ livelihoods in the AI age, alongside other important gains,” said SAG-AFTRA’s…

The sun’s south pole has been seen for the first time from outside the ecliptic plane in unprecedented images sent back to Earth by a solar orbiter.The Solar Orbiter spacecraft travelled 15 degrees below the sun’s solar equator to take the images in mid-March – with the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA revealing them to the world on Wednesday. It is only the second craft to have passed over the sun’s poles – with the ESA and NASA’s 1990-2009 Ulysses craft lacking the capacity to take any photos. Image: The view of the sun’s south pole from Earth. Pic:…

A judge in the US has dismissed actor Justin Baldoni’s $400m (£295m) defamation lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively.Baldoni filed the countersuit against the 37-year-old in response to her launching legal action in December, accusing him of sexual harassment against her while filming the 2024 movie. The 41-year-old and production company Wayfarer Studios countersued in January for $400m, accusing Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, their publicist, the New York Times, and others of orchestrating a smear campaign to extort him.Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle explainedHe accused Lively of trying to “hijack”…

Long Harbour, a real estate management firm, has made an approach to acquire PRS REIT, the suburban housing investment trust which put itself up for sale earlier this year.Sky News has learnt that Long Harbour has secured backing from a major financial investor to table an offer for PRS REIT. City sources said it had submitted a formal proposal to its target, although it was unclear on Wednesday at what price its offer had been pitched.PRS REIT is said to have drawn interest from a number of suitors since hoisting a ‘for sale’ sign in April.The company is investing more…

Nintendo has revealed how many Switch 2 consoles have been sold in the first four days since launch.More than 3.5 million devices have flown off the shelves worldwide since 5 June – making it the most successful debut in the company’s history. The Switch 2 features a larger, more responsive screen than its predecessor and new magnetic controllers, with more powerful processing and graphics performance.The new system has a GameChat feature, which enables players to voice or video chat as well as share their game screen with friends online while playing a game.Many bundles of the Switch 2 also come…

Sly Stone, one of the pioneers of funk music, has died aged 82, his family have said.As front man for his band Sly And The Family Stone, the musician fused soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel to take the sound that defined an era in the 1960s into new territory, second only to James Brown as an early founder. Several of the band’s seminal tracks became known to a wider audience when they were subsequently sampled by hip hop artists.”Everyday People” was sampled by Arrested Development, while “Sing A Simple Song” was sampled by Public Enemy, De La Soul and Dr…

KPMG, one of the world’s big four accountancy firms, is preparing to kick off a process to select its next global chairman amid growing speculation that its UK chief intends to stand for the role.Sky News has learnt that Jon Holt, who has been chief executive of the professional services giant’s UK arm since 2021, is being widely touted by colleagues as a contender to replace Bill Thomas as chair of KPMG Global next year. The formal election process will not get underway until the first half of 2026, according to insiders.Money latest: My insurance firm charged me £700 after…

Fifteen years after the Sizewell C nuclear power station was proposed, the government will announce a £14.2bn commitment to the Suffolk site.Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to confirm the funding at the GMB union conference ahead of the spending review on Wednesday, which will set departmental budgets until 2029. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will call it a “golden age” of nuclear to boost the UK’s energy security.The funding will go towards creating 10,000 jobs, the government will say, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and will support thousands more jobs across the UK.On Monday, it was revealed Britain’s nuclear power sector grew by…