Author: SKYNEWS

Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays and Virgin Money customers have been affected by problems affecting their banking services.The issues could affect workers on what is commonly pay day for many across the country. Nationwide said there is a “delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today” and Barclays reports issues with transfers and payments that “may not arrive as normal”.Money blog: Public told to check energy readings to avoid overpayingMeanwhile, HSBC and Virgin Money said it is aware of issues affecting its online and mobile banking – with the former “really sorry” and the latter saying it is working…

A security guard accused of planning to kidnap, rape and murder Holly Willoughby has told a jury the television presenter was “my celebrity crush”.An undercover US police officer on Thursday told Chelmsford Crown Court he believed 37-year-old Gavin Plumb posed an “imminent threat” to the former This Morning Host.Plumb shared a video of his “abduction kit” with the officer, referred to as David Nelson, and said he would use chloroform to snatch Willoughby, 43, from her home to sexually assault her before slitting her throat, the jury has heard.He alerted UK police who found two bottles of liquid, alongside items…

The UK’s exit from recession during the first three months of the year was stronger than initial figures suggested, according to official data.In an update on its first growth estimate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7% between January and March. It had originally said on 10 May that output was 0.6% up on the previous three months – a positive figure that brought to an end the shallow recession that struck during the second half of 2023.Then, the effects of Bank of England interest rate rises to combat inflation were widely blamed…

“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…