Author: SKYNEWS

A government AI tool used to test public feeling on different issues is to be rolled out nationwide. The tool, called Consult, was first used by the Scottish government to understand public views on the regulation on non-surgical cosmetic procedures like Botox and fillers. It was able to produce results identical to those of human officials, according to the UK government, and will now be used to review responses from other consultations.It is claimed it could help save human workers from 75,000 days of manual analysis each year and around £20m in staffing.”No one should be wasting time on something AI…

A pub group founded by the ex-boss of Greene King is in advanced talks to buy a swathe of sites from his former employer in a £90m deal.Sky News has learnt that RedCat Pub Group, which was established by Rooney Anand during the Covid pandemic, is close to finalising the purchase of 39 pub-hotels from Greene King. Sources said a deal could be struck within days.RedCat, which is backed by the US investor Oaktree Capital Management, has had a mixed track record since it was founded in 2021.The company trades from roughly 100 sites, about a third of which operate…

Rapper Tory Lanez has said he was stabbed 14 times while serving his prison sentence for shooting hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in the foot. Lanez, 32, sustained “7 wounds to his back, 4 to his torso, 2 to the back of his head, and 1 to the left side of his face”, according to a post on his verified Instagram account. Canadian Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, was attacked at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi at 7.20am (3.20pm UK time) on Monday, according to a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.He was hospitalised following the…

Weight-loss jabs for obese children are effective and help prevent battles around mealtimes, researchers have claimed.Experts presented the findings at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain. They found that the drugs helped obese youngsters lose weight on top of a diet and lifestyle plan.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), however, is “unable to make a recommendation” about use of the jabs on teenagers because of a lack of evidence of their impacts.Weight-loss jabs, also known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by reducing food cravings but are known to cause nausea, diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vision…

A new government initiative is being launched with pension providers aimed at boosting investment in UK companies.Seventeen workplace pension providers will today sign up to a voluntary initiative called the Mansion House Accord, which ministers say could release £25bn directly into the UK economy by 2030. Those signing up must commit to allocating at least 10% of the funds they hold in what are known as defined contributions to private markets within the next five years, with at least 5% of the total allocated to the UK, assuming that there is a sufficient supply of suitable assets.It comes amid debate…

Mr Bates Vs The Post Office and Mr Loverman were among the big winners at this year’s BAFTA TV awards – with Danny Dyer and Ruth Jones picking up comedy prizes.After Mr Bates was named the winner of the TV BAFTA for best limited drama, ITV was also given a special award for commissioning a show that “brought dynamic change”. The four-part series, which aired in January 2024, depicted how former subpostmasters and subpostmistresses were held liable by the Post Office for financial discrepancies thrown up by its computerised accounting system, Horizon – shining a light on one of the…

Weight loss injections could help prevent cancer beyond helping people slim down, new research suggests.The study said that there were similar rates of obesity-related cancer among patients treated with the injections and those given weight loss, or bariatric, surgery. It also found weight loss jabs, officially GLP-1 receptor agonists, could almost halve the risk of related cancers – in addition to the expected health benefits from losing weight.Dr Yael Wolff Sagy, the study’s co-lead author from Clalit Health Services in Tel-Aviv, Israel, said a “direct effect” of the injections was that they were found “to be 41% more effective at…

Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group are to unveil a merger of their business communications and IT operations in a bid to create a £3bn telecoms powerhouse.Sky News has learnt that the two companies will announce later on Monday that they are to combine to form a company with annual revenues of about £1.4bn. Virgin Media O2 will own 70% of the new business, while Daisy Group will own 30%.The tie-up will create a stronger challenger to BT Group, Britain’s biggest provider of IT and telecoms services to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).The new VMO2-Daisy business will have roughly 700,000…

A lawyer representing Sean “Diddy” Combs has told a court there was “mutual” domestic violence between him and his ex-girlfriend Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura.Marc Agnifilo made the claim as he outlined some of the music star’s defence case ahead of the full opening of his trial next week. Combs has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts oftransportation for prostitution. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.Ms Ventura is expected to testify as a star witness for the prosecution during the trial in New York. The final stage of…

A car-sized piece of Soviet rocket has crashed back through the atmosphere, after 53 years in orbit.Scientists haven’t yet pinpointed its location but one organisation has predicted it had re-entered over southern England early on Saturday morning. It is not immediately known how much of the rocket survived the blazing hot descent, with scientists suggesting it had burned up or broken up at the last minute, sometime between around 7am and 8.30am.Cosmos 482 launched in 1972 and been set to land on Venus but it became trapped in orbit after a stage of the mission failed.Scientists tracking the lander as…