Author: SKYNEWS

“Well, you didn’t think we were gonna let you down, did you?”So said Jarvis Cocker as he addressed the enormous crowd at Glastonbury’s Park stage in 2011; thousands and thousands of people stood in front of him to see perhaps the worst-kept secret in the festival’s history, and one of its greatest live music experiences. The speculation that the then newly reformed Pulp would play the surprise set that day – after Radiohead the previous day, no less – had grown so intense that latecomers reportedly had to be turned away, such was demand.Beyonce, Coldplay and U2 headlined that year,…

One of the policy areas on which the Labour Party has been very specific during this general election campaign is its approach towards North Sea oil and gas production.The party has been clear that it will raise existing windfall taxes first slapped on North Sea oil and gas producers in 2022 by Rishi Sunak, when he was chancellor, taking the total level of tax from the current 75% to 78%. Money latest: Warning 400,000 homes face massive rise in mortgage costsEd Miliband, the shadow secretary of state for energy security and net zero, also proposes to take away tax reliefs…

Multinational conglomerate Tata is set to shut the Port Talbot steelworks earlier than first announced over strike plans.The company has said it will bring the final closure date to 7 July, from September, as Unite members at the steel plant were due to strike on 8 July. Cutting emissionsOne of the steel blast furnaces is to close at the end of this month in a push to reduce carbon emissions at what is the UK’s single largest source of CO2.But that second closure looks set to take place next month, quickening the end of the plant and the loss of…

Around three million UK households will see their mortgage repayments rise over the next two years as high interest rates continue to take effect, the Bank of England has said.As many as 400,000 homes are likely to experience “very large increases” of more than 50%, its financial policy committee said. Money latest: 27 areas where Aldi wants to open new stores as a ‘priority’Interest rates have been brought to a near two-decade high of 5.25% in an effort to clamp down on price rises behind the cost of living crisis.Inflation – the pace of price rises – had been at…

Astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to take shelter last night after a Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces.The nine astronauts living on the space station were told to shelter in their respective spacecraft, according to NASA, after the debris was spotted. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams boarded their Starliner spacecraft, the Boeing-built capsule that has been docked since June 6 in its first crewed test mission on the station.Read more: Why two NASA astronauts are stuck in spaceThree of the other US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut went into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule…

Regaining the confidence of British business has been a priority in Sir Keir Starmer’s mission to rehabilitate Labour.Businesses of course are a disparate bunch, from sole traders and medium-sized enterprises that make up the majority of Britain’s employers, to multinationals that have a choice of markets in which to invest. They all matter though, because Sir Keir and chancellor-in-waiting Rachel Reeves are counting on the private sector to deliver the economic growth on which their plan to restore public services relies.Changing sentiment has been a long road.Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s 2019 election agenda sent a chill down the spines…

NASA has given Elon Musk’s SpaceX permission to destroy the International Space Station (ISS) by 2030.The space station has been continually occupied since 2000 by astronauts doing more than 3,300 scientific experiments above our heads. But the countries operating the ISS only agreed to run it until 2030 at the latest. Image: Sergei Krikalev (left), William Shepherd (centre) and Yuri Gidzenko (right) who became the first long-term crew on the ISS in 2000. Pic: NASA Since 1998, the US, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada have maintained different sections of the ISS. The agreements to jointly run the space station marked…

One of Britain’s best-known entrepreneurs is to take on another boardroom role by chairing a digital marketing agency owned by Carlyle, the private equity giant.Sky News understands that Tim Weller, the founder of Incisive Media and former chairman of Trustpilot, has agreed to become chairman of Incubeta. The appointment of Mr Weller, who holds a portfolio of board positions including chairing online architecture platform Resi, is understood to have been announced internally this week.Carlyle backed Incubeta 18 months ago at a £200m valuation and has since supported a number of acquisitions.His appointment is the latest in a long line of…

An undercover agent has told a court how he exchanged messages with a man accused of plotting to murder Holly Willoughby on a group called Abduct Lovers and believed he was an “imminent threat”.The US police officer began giving evidence on Thursday in the trial of 37-year-old Essex man Gavin Plumb. Using the alias David Nelson and appearing anonymously via video link, he said his job was to infiltrate social media to look for suspected kidnapping and human trafficking.He told Chelmsford Crown Court that Abduct Lovers was a group discussing kidnap, rape, and murder.Nelson said Plumb had posted four images…

A British tech champion which uses ultrasound to simulate the sense of touch is halving its workforce and preparing to offload one of its two core divisions.Sky News has learnt that Ultraleap, which was spun out of Bristol University, informed staff on Wednesday that it was proposing to slash jobs amid shifting priorities at tech giants including Meta, the owner of Facebook, and Snap. Sources said the company’s plan would involve seeking a buyer for its hand-tracking business, with its ‘haptics’ arm – which uses ultrasound waves to control technology – spun out into a new company that would be…