Author: SKYNEWS

TikTok, Reddit and Imgur are to be investigated by the UK’s data protection watchdog over how they use teenage users’ personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it wants to look into how video-sharing app TikTok uses information from users aged 13 to 17 to deliver content recommendations to them. The investigations into online forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur will focus on their use of age assurance measures, such as how they estimate and verify children’s ages, and how they use their personal information.The regulator is taking action amid growing concerns about how social media platforms use…

Cryptocurrency prices have jumped after Donald Trump revealed he would like Bitcoin and other lesser-traded tokens to be in a new US strategic crypto reserve.He said his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Cardano (ADA). The names had not previously been announced.The American president said in a post on Truth Social: “A US Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration, which is why my Executive Order on Digital Assets directed the Presidential Working Group to move forward on a…

Hollywood’s biggest stars have begun arriving at the Oscars in Los Angeles. Demi Moore, Timothee Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Zoe Saldana and Kieran Culkin are among the A-list nominees, with the race to win this year’s top prizes wide open. Oscars 2025: Follow live updatesBefore the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre officially kicks off, the stars will put on their finest frocks and suits and take to the red carpet.Here are some of the first arrivals’ best looks: Image: And here’s your first best actress nominee… Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo. Pic: AP Image: She’s channelling her wicked witch of the west character…

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander has successfully touched down on the moon, in a pivotal moment for private space travel.The size of a compact car, the four-legged lander is carrying 10 scientific payloads and used 21 thrusters to guide itself to touchdown near an ancient volcanic vent on Mare Crisium, a large basin in the northeast corner of the moon’s Earth-facing side. It has on board a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperatures as deep as 10 feet. Also on board is a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust – a scourge…

Rail fares in England and Wales are set to rise by 4.6% from Sunday.Railcards are also going to become more expensive, despite record-low reliability of services. Public transport campaigners cautioned that the fare hikes will “pile further misery on hard-pressed households” as some commuters will have to pay hundreds of pounds more per year for travel.Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged passenger frustration.The UK government set the 4.6% cap for England’s increase in regulated fares. This will include season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long-distance routes and flexible tickets for travel around major cities.Operators set rises…

Charli XCX has continued her Brat domination at the BRITs, winning five awards, including album of the year.This year’s most nominated artist, she took the first prize of the night, best song, telling the crowd: “I’m really happy that a song about underwear now has a Brit award, very important stuff and I’m sure that that proves something about songwriting but I’m not quite sure what.” The 32-year-old, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, went on to win best dance act and artist of the year, joking that there had been complaints about her sheer top, and adding “free the…

Microsoft has announced it will shut down Skype, once the dominant video call service, in May this year.At its peak, the service boasted more than 300 million users, but that number had fallen to more than 36 million users, according to the most recent figures shared by Microsoft in 2023. The US tech giant, which bought Skype for $8.5bn in 2011, will shift some of its services to Microsoft Teams, its flagship videoconferencing and team applications platform. Skype users will be able to use their existing accounts to log into Teams.From Blackberries to floppy disks and MP3 players, Sky News…

A former chief executive of Aston Villa and Liverpool is a surprise contender to become the inaugural chairman of the government’s controversial football watchdog.Sky News can exclusively reveal that Christian Purslow, who left Villa Park in 2023, is on a three-person shortlist being considered by Whitehall officials to chair the Independent Football Regulator (IFR). Mr Purslow, an outspoken character who has spent much of his career in sports finance, was this weekend said to be a serious candidate for the job despite having publicly warned about the regulator’s proposed remit and its potential impact on the Premier League.A former commercial…

Police say it is a “reasonable assumption” that actor Gene Hackman died when his pacemaker had its “last event” on 17 February.Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in separate rooms of their home in a gated community in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Wednesday. One of the couple’s three pet dogs was also found dead near Arakawa. Their deaths were announced yesterday and an official later said the condition of the bodies indicated the pair had been dead for “several days, possibly even up to a couple of weeks”.In an update on Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff…

A privately-built spacecraft has embarked on an unprecedented deep space mission to scout out an asteroid’s potential for mining.The probe, called Odin, was launched on a SpaceX rocket alongside a robotic moon lander that will drill for water and a lunar orbiter that will map water resources with an instrument built by the University of Oxford. The asteroid mission is a high-risk venture that heralds a new dawn of commercial exploitation of our celestial neighbours.Odin is destined for asteroid 2022 OB5 that’s believed to be rich in platinum and similar metals, which are critical for electronic, medical and green technology.…