Author: SKYNEWS

Huw Edwards has been asked to hand back part of his annual BBC salary after pleading guilty to possession of child sex abuse images.The amount, thought to be in the region of £200,000, is what he earned from the broadcaster for five months after he was arrested. In a statement, the BBC board said: “Today, the Board has authorised the Executive to seek the return of salary paid to Mr Edwards from the time he was arrested in November last year.”Mr Edwards pleaded guilty to an appalling crime. Had he been up front when asked by the BBC about his…

Disney plans to spend $5bn (£3.9bn) on making blockbuster films and TV shows in regions including the UK over the next five years.The entertainment giant is said to have been buoyed by the success of its superhero comedy Deadpool & Wolverine, which was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. The recent release, starring Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, has topped box offices around the world and has so far made more than £33m in the UK and Ireland alone, according to trade magazine Variety.The company’s regional president Jan Koeppen told the Financial Times the title’s popularity demonstrated the genre “seems…

The UK’s competition regulator has launched an inquiry into Amazon’s investment of over £3bn into an artificial intelligence (AI) startup as regulators ramp up their scrutiny of mergers involving the fast-growing technology.The deal, which was announced by Amazon in March, included a $4bn (£3.16bn) investment into Anthropic and a commitment from the AI startup to use Amazon Web Services as its “primary cloud provider” for essential functions, including safety research and the development of future foundation models. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had “sufficient information” about Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic, the company behind the Claude generative AI…

The teenage suspects in a plot to carry out a terror attack at now-cancelled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna were planning to use knives or homemade explosives to kill as many people as possible, according to officials.A 19-year-old suspect, who had posted an oath of allegiance to the current leader of Islamic State to an internet account weeks earlier, has been arrested. The teenager, said to have North Macedonian roots, is considered the main suspect, and worked closely with a 17-year-old Austrian, general director for public security Frankz Ruf told the broadcaster ORF.The 17-year-old, who has Turkish and Croatian roots,…

The prospect of the Bank of England cutting interest rates further in the near future has been raised after a closely watched report suggested the UK jobs market is showing signs of cooling.Researchers found the pace of pay rises slowed last month, while the hiring of temporary and permanent staff continued to decline. The report, based on a survey of around 400 recruitment and employment consultancies in July, said vacancy numbers also fell for the ninth month in a row.The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG, which carried out the research, said there was growing optimism among firms about…

An army barracks in Pembrokeshire is set to be redeveloped as the home of a deep space radar programme, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The government says the space monitoring initiative would secure long-term jobs at Cawdor Barracks. Objects in deep space – up to around 36,000km away from Earth – will be detected, tracked and identified using ground-based radars in Australia, the UK and the US.The government says the initiative, known as Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), will help the nations’ land, air and maritime forces.The site in Brawdy, near St Davids, has been both a Royal…

Reality stars Pete Wicks and Tasha Ghouri are the latest celebrities to be announced for the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing.Details of the 2024 contestants have been confirmed each day this week, with Go Compare singer Wynne Evans, singer and actress Toyah Willcox, TV doctor Punam Krishan, comedian Chris McCausland and JLS star JB Gill already confirmed. Image: Toyah Willcox. Pic: PA The new announcements come amid the scandal currently facing the hit BBC series, with an investigation into allegations of abusive behaviour behind the scenes taking place.Wicks, who rose to fame on The Only Way Is Essex, was…

The Royal Mint has started extracting gold embedded in old phones and TVs to make commemorative coins and jewellery in what has been hailed as a “world first”.The UK’s coinmaker has opened a factory in South Wales which will be processing up to 4,000 tonnes of printed circuit boards from e-waste every year. Anne Jessopp, Royal Mint chief executive, said it is “transforming for the future” and the opening of its Precious Metals Recovery factory “marks a pivotal step in our journey”.As well as recycling the circuit boards it receives, the Royal Mint is also working towards receiving the entire…

Video game performers could be on strike for “a full year” over artificial intelligence (AI), the union representing striking workers in the US has told Sky News. More than 2,500 performers working for blockbuster video game studios like Activision, EA, Warner Bros. Games and Blindlight have been on strike in the US since 26 July. Their union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), wants the studios to agree to new protections for performers around generative AI use in the industry. Image: Picketers at Warner Bros. Games headquarters on 1 August. Pic: AP Now, the union’s chief…

Three water companies are facing a combined fine of £168m after a series of failings, including over sewage treatment.The proposals by regulator Ofwat include a penalty of £104m for Thames Water. Yorkshire Water faces a £47m fine, while Northumbrian Water will have to pay £17m.It comes after an Ofwat investigation found the firms had “routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends”.The regulator said it would consult on the level of the fines before the companies are ordered to pay up and could potentially reach a…