Author: SKYNEWS

After a very strong start to 2024, during which the UK economy achieved its strongest growth for two years, things stalled again in April.That the economy flatlined during April was no surprise, though, given a couple of factors. One was the early timing of Easter, which will have led some consumer spending that would normally have taken place in April to be brought forward to March.Money latest:The most expensive place to buy a seaside home in the UKThe other, more pertinent factor, was the weather. The Office for National Statistics notes in its release that rainfall during April was 155%…

The UK economy flatlined in April, according to early official figures that have been seized on by the government’s critics as evidence the Conservatives’ plan is not working.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said there was zero growth in April compared to the 0.4% figure recorded during March. A Reuters news agency poll of economists had predicted the 0% performance given earlier evidence that wet weather had knocked retail sales and construction output particularly hard.The GDP (gross domestic product) report from the ONS – the last to be released ahead of the election – showed UK overall rainfall at 155%…

Researchers have found the route of one of Europe’s busiest winter getaways – the annual migration of millions of insects heading south through a high mountain pass in the Pyrenees.Using video cameras and butterfly nets, researchers from the University of Exeter recorded an estimated 17 million flies, wasps, butterflies and dragonflies pouring through a single 30-metre-wide pass between two peaks on the border of France and Spain each autumn. “To see so many insects all moving purposefully in the same direction at the same time is truly one of the great wonders of nature,” said Dr Karl Wooton, from Exeter’s…

A British indie band formerly called Easy Life have changed their name to Hard Life after they said they were sued last year by the brand owners of the easyJet airline.Writing on Instagram, the Leicester group admitted the “last nine months have not been easy” but they have now released a new single, Tears. Part of the video was included in the social media post. Last October, the musicians said they were going to change their moniker.It came after they said they were sued by easyGroup because their name was too similar.In the lawsuit, it was pointed out the band…

Whether Conservatives judge the 2024 manifesto a success or not rather depends on their definition of success.For some, it will be enough that Rishi Sunak has not exploded his election campaign in quite the way Theresa May did with her pledge to impose extra taxes on people to pay for social care in her 2017 manifesto. Some will be pleased that, unlike Liz Truss, Mr Sunak has not sought to introduce unfunded tax cuts (even if there are a fair few question marks about how reliable all his revenue numbers are). And for those who crave a moderately sensible set…

Annabel Thomas left her job as a strategy consultant in London more than a decade ago to pursue her ambition to change the way the world thought about whisky. With women and sustainability at the forefront of her mind, she has gone on to create the UK’s first net-zero whiskey distillery – and has hired a female-led team to do it. It took four years of hard graft, fundraising and actually building to create the Nc’nean distillery in the Highlands, and then another three years to produce its first bottle.She was first inspired by her parent’s farm and dreamed of…

The London Stock Exchange is in talks about a deal to boost its offering to retail investors by taking over parts of PrimaryBid, one of the hottest British fintech start-ups of recent years.Sky News has learnt that the LSE is in advanced discussions to license the retail capital-raising technology pioneered by PrimaryBid, as well as its regulated dealmaking activities and key UK operations. Alongside its discussions with the LSE, City sources said that Sir Donald Brydon, the veteran businessman who used to chair the stock exchange’s parent company, is to step down as chairman of PrimaryBid.Sir Donald joined the company…

African elephants have names for each other that are spoken through rumbles, scientists have found, in a “really exciting” discovery.It’s the first time an animal has been discovered creating individual names for each other, instead of just mimicking the other’s noises like parrots and dolphins do. “It’s really exciting,” said Dr Joyce Poole, scientific director of ElephantVoices, who was part of the team that made the discovery that was published in the Nature Ecology & Evolution journal.”Elephants live in a pretty complex society. They’re quite a bit like ourselves [in that] families are not together all the time, they split…

Comedians Sophie Duker, Grace Campbell and Alexandra Haddow have pulled out of Latitude Festival in protest over event sponsor Barclays’ ties to the Israel-Hamas war.They follow in the footsteps of musical acts including Irish singer-songwriter CMAT, who announced last week that she would no longer be performing at the Suffolk festival. Duker shared a photo of her at a previous Latitude Festival, along with a short video explaining that she would no longer be performing as long as Barclays were the sponsor, despite it being “magical for me in the past”.She said she believed the bank was “profiting from the…

If a company says there is no fault with your heat pump dryer but the issue continues, what can you do?That was the simple version of a question asked by Money blog reader Donna Adams from Dumfries… “I purchased a new Candy heat pump dryer from AO in December thinking I was making a more environmentally ethical purchase than a cheaper condenser or vented dryer. I carried out research and was satisfied with AO and Candy’s description of drying time being a ‘little longer’.”Fast forward to February I could stand it no longer and called Candy to discuss a “fault”…