Author: SKYNEWS

German media giant Axel Springer is to buy Telegraph Media Group in a £575m deal that will see the Daily and Sunday Telegraph print titles and their online business come under overseas ownership.The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, will see titles with historic links to the Conservative Party and the British establishment, in the same stable as German titles Bild and Die Welt, along with online specialist media brands Politico and Business Insider. The owner of the Daily Mail had been in talks to buy The Telegraph titles for several months, a deal that would have brought several…

The BBC regrets its “serious mistake” during the BAFTAs broadcast, the corporation’s outgoing director general Tim Davie has said.During the ceremony, as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award on stage, a racial slur was shouted out by Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, who was there to celebrate a film about his life. The BBC failed to cut the slur from its broadcast of the 22 February event, and viewers could see the offending moment for more than 12 hours before the programme was taken down from BBC iPlayer.In a letter to Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman…

A major VPN service is becoming one of the first to block websites known for hosting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).ExpressVPN is partnering with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the UK’s CSAM watchdog, to tackle the “universally despised and despicable” content, according to Dr Peter Membrey, chief engineering officer at the VPN provider. Using a “simple, well-scoped DNS control”, he says user privacy will be protected and there’ll be “no broken encryption”, “no traffic inspection”, “no monitoring”.”It’s deliberately straightforward, because privacy systems lose trust when they become opaque.”The move is less about an impressive technological innovation and more about an…

UK average diesel costs have hit a 16-month high, less than a week after war gripped the Middle East and sent oil costs rocketing.Global energy prices have been the main financial market focus since Tehran launched attacks against Gulf nations in retaliation for the US-Israeli strikes on its country, disrupting production and deliveries of both oil and natural gas. The narrow Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, is used to more than 80 tankers a day passing through.Money latest: Energy giant imposes exit fees due to ‘super volatile market’ Image: The Strait…

Britney Spears has spent the night in custody after being arrested.The star was detained by highway patrol officers at 9.28pm on Wednesday and released at 6.07am, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. Its online records give Spears’ height as 5ft 5ins and her occupation as “celebrity”.She has been scheduled to appear in court on 4 May.Various US media reports say she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in California. Her representative said after the news emerged that her arrest was “completely inexcusable” and the incident “can be the first step in long overdue change that needs to…

People on obesity jabs will regain the majority of the weight they lose within a year of stopping the drugs, a new study suggests.Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that after stopping the jabs for 52 weeks, on average people had regained 60% of the weight they lost. They warned that if the regained weight is mainly fat, patients could “be worse off than before” they started the jabs.How do the drugs work?Weight loss jabs are a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1 to regulate blood sugar and insulin levels.…

South East Water is to be fined £22m for repeated supply failures, watchdog Ofwat has said.The fine relates to the water company’s supply interruptions in Kent and Sussex between 2020 and 2023, which affected more than 286,000 people. It is also under investigation for outages over the last four months. Ofwat said the fine “reflects the severity of the issues”. A consultation is open to the public and shareholders until 13 April, before the watchdog confirms its final decision. You need javascript enabled to view this content Enable javascript to share Share From 2023: ‘We might wake up with no…

Rapper Ghetts has been jailed for 12 years after killing a Nepalese student in a hit-and-run collision.He was also disqualified from driving for 17 years. The grime artist, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel, failed to stop after his BMW struck 20-year-old Yubin Tamang last October. Image: Ghetts, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel. Pic: Met Police Clarke-Samuel, 41, had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving in Ilford, northeast London.Mr Tamang, who had come to the UK from Nepal to study, died in hospital from his injuries two days after the crash. Speaking after the sentencing, a spokesperson…

Forget science fiction. The age of AI in war is here.Israel has used AI systems in Gaza to flag potential targets and help prioritise operations. The United States military reportedly used Anthropic’s model, Claude, during its operation to abduct Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela.And even after Anthropic got into difficulties with the US administration over exactly how AI should be used in war, the US military still apparently used Claude in its attack on Iran.Iran latest: Trump criticises Starmer over UK stance It is highly possible, experts say, that the missiles flying over Tehran today are being targeted by systems powered…

The rise in gas prices over the past 48 hours is without precedent.Even in the chaotic opening weeks of the Ukraine war in 2022, the gas price never doubled. But that is precisely what has happened to wholesale methane prices in the UK. And since gas prices are arguably the single most important price in Britain – the lynchpin of our power network, determining prices for electricity, underpinning industrial production and the manufacture of chemicals, trickling indirectly into the price of food and other sundry items – this is of enormous consequence.Markets latest: FTSE 100 loses £100bn and fuel warning…