Author: SKYNEWS

British retailers saw sales rise last month after a boost from Euro 2024 and summer discounting, official figures show, in a further sign of a growing economy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said retail sales grew 0.5% in July, after contracting 0.9% in June. It was, however, slightly below predictions, with a consensus of economists forecasting a 0.7% increase for the month.Money blog: Fines for taking children out of school to changeThe increase was thanks to discounts in sports equipment shops and department stores as the Euros football tournament drove purchases, the ONS added. High street retailers said sales…

Kim Dotcom, who founded the globally popular file-sharing site Megaupload, will be extradited to the US from New Zealand.German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been fighting extradition since 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. He is charged with copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.US authorities say Dotcom – born Kim Schmitz – and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios and record companies more than $500m (£388m) by encouraging paying users to store and share copyrighted material.This generated more than $175m (£136m) in revenue for the now-defunct website, according to authorities. In a post on…

American actress Gena Rowlands has died at the age of 94, her son has said.Nick Cassavetes revealed in June that his mother, who won four Emmy awards and two Golden Globes, had Alzheimer’s disease and was “in full dementia”. Rowlands portrayed a woman suffering from the disease in 2004 film The Notebook, directed by her son.”It’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us,” Mr Cassavetes told Entertainment Weekly. Image: Rowlands in 1982. Pic: John Barrett/Photolink/MediaPunch/IPX Rowlands was known for playing strong, troubled women, and was often directed by her husband, John Cassavetes. Operating…

The education secretary has said private schools have themselves to blame for closures – not the government’s VAT policy.Bridget Phillipson said some private schools have failed to balance their books over a number of years as she denied they had closed because the government is making them pay 20% VAT on fees from January. Two schools in Scotland, Kilgraston and Cedars, this week became the first to close since Labour came into power, citing the uncertainty over the policy as part of their reasons.But Ms Phillipson dismissed that, telling Sky News: “I think what we’ve seen is that private schools…

Some of the biggest social media platforms are failing to detect and remove dangerous suicide and self-harm content, according to a study.The Molly Rose Foundation found that of more than 12 million content moderation decisions made by six of the biggest platforms, over 95% of them were detected and removed by only two sites – Pinterest and TikTok. The other four platforms that featured in the report were Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X, formerly Twitter.The foundation said it found the response of most platforms to such content was “inconsistent, uneven and unfit for purpose”.The charity said Meta’s Instagram and Facebook…

Footage of Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff shortly after his Top Gear crash has been shown for the first time, revealing the extent of his injuries.The TV presenter and former England cricket all-rounder sustained serious facial injuries and broken ribs after a crash while filming Top Gear at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, in December 2022. The incident happened midway through the filming of the second season of Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, which aired yesterday on BBC One.The programme showed footage Flintoff filmed of himself a week-and-a-half after the accident. Image: Pic: BBC “Genuinely should not be here after what happened,” he said…

The owner of Paddy Power is in talks to buy the consumer arm of London-listed Playtech in a deal that could be worth about £2bn.Sky News has learnt that Flutter Entertainment, which recently moved its primary listing to the US, is in discussions to buy Snaitech, one of Italy’s biggest gambling companies. It was unclear on Wednesday how advanced the talks were, but one source suggested that they were sufficiently detailed that Playtech would be required to publicly confirm them.A formal agreement is unlikely to be reached until at least next month.If completed, a deal would value Snaitech at a…

Older people who feel their life still has purpose are less likely to get memory loss, a survey has suggested.More than 900 people were tracked for an average of 14 years in the US state of Illinois, to see whether they developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. MCI is classed as the stage between an age-related decline in memory and thinking and a dementia diagnosis.Factors taken into account when assessing a feeling of purpose included relating positively to others, personal growth, self-acceptance, autonomy and mastery of one’s environment.An international team of researchers found people who developed MCI showed a…

Disgraced BBC newsreader Huw Edwards is banned from unsupervised contact with children and talking to youngsters online as he awaits sentencing. The 62-year-old was granted conditional bail after he pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children between December 2020 and August 2021 last month.Edwards, who was the BBC’s highest-paid newsreader before he resigned in April, was warned “all options”, including an immediate jail term, would be considered when he is sentenced on 16 September.According to court records seen by Sky News, Edwards’s bail conditions also ban him from contacting Alex Williams, a 25-year-old paedophile, from Merthyr…

One of Britain’s leading challenger banks has agreed to hand out its inaugural dividend after reporting a bumper profit in its last financial year.Sky News understands that Oaknorth, which is chaired by the former chairman of the City watchdog, Lord Turner, notified investors last week that it would distribute roughly $40m (£31.2m) as a special dividend. The payout will unlock a capital return for shareholders in Oaknorth for the first time.Money latest: Heinz could bring back snackLaunched in 2015, the bank is among a group of lenders – along with Monzo and Starling Bank – founded after the 2008 financial…