Author: SKYNEWS

More than 120 business leaders have written an open letter giving their backing to Labour in the general election. Senior figures, including chef Tom Kerridge and former CEOs of Heathrow, JP Morgan and Aston Martin, said the party had “shown it has changed and wants to work with business to achieve the UK’s full economic potential”. They said the public should now “give it the chance to change the country and lead Britain into the future”.Politics live: Sunak denies he is planning to flee to the USBoth Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves have long…

Regulators for artificial intelligence in the UK are “under-resourced” compared to developers of the technology, the Commons science committee chief has warned.Outgoing chairman of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Greg Clark, said he is “worried” by the gap between regulators and the “finance that major developers can command”. In a report produced by the committee into the governance of AI, the group said the £10m announced by the government in February to help Ofcom and other regulators respond to the technology’s growth was “clearly insufficient”.The next government should announce further financial support “commensurate to the scale of the task”,…

Nicki Minaj has announced the new date for the Manchester concert which she was forced to cancel last Saturday after being arrested in the Netherlands.The rapper and singer, 41, was due to perform for thousands of fans at the Co-op Live but the show was called off at the last minute as Minaj was kept in custody in Amsterdam for hours. Announcing the new Manchester date on X, she said: “OK guys, I was JUST RE-ADVISED that we actually CAN NOT do any other date for the make up #gagcityMANCHESTER date besides JUNE 3rd.Read more: Nicki Minaj apologises to fans…

The Conservatives have promised to cut taxes for pensioners by creating a new “age-related” tax-free allowance – dubbed “triple lock plus”. Currently, people can receive £12,570 a year of their pensions before they start paying income tax on them – the same figure as the personal allowance for those who work. But if the party wins the next election, a pensioner’s allowance would rise in line with either average earnings, inflation or by 2.5% – whichever is higher – from next April, echoing the rules on annual state pension increases.Rishi Sunak said the move “demonstrates we are on the side…

The house famously used when Kevin McCallister was left Home Alone at Christmas is on sale.The five-bed, six-bathroom mansion in Winnetka, Illinois has been put on the market for a staggering $5.25m (£4.1m). It is the first time since 2012 that the property has been put on the market, according to American estate agents, Zillow.Since the release of the 1990 classic film directed by Chris Columbus, the house has gone under extreme renovation.Posting a walkthrough of the interiors, estate agents The Dawn Mckenna Group, said the current owners have doubled the living space with the addition of a large conservatory…

Rishi Sunak will meet leading Conservative Party donors on Monday evening as he seeks to mobilise financial support for the surprisingly timed general election campaign he triggered last week.Sky News understands that the prime minister will have dinner with a small group of long-standing and more recent donors as the Tories target millions of pounds in fresh contributions to fund their push to retain power. This weekend, Lord Spencer, the City billionaire, said he was giving £250,000 to the Conservative campaign, although a leaked party memo reported by The Times on Monday suggested it was so far struggling to raise…

Lizzo says being referenced in a South Park episode is her “worst fear” – and shared her reaction to the joke in real time on social media. The popstar was namechecked in the latest episode of the long-running cartoon, The End of Obesity, which parodies the popularity of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. Lizzo shared a clip from the show alongside her reaction to the scene – opening the video by saying: “I’m so scared.”The clip features a conversation between Sharon and Sheila, the mothers of Stan and Kyle.Sharon says her doctor wouldn’t prescribe her any weight-loss injections because…

Former General Hospital actor Johnny Wactor has been shot dead by thieves who were trying to steal the catalytic converter from his car. He was 37.The shooting happened at about 3am on Saturday in downtown Los Angeles (11am on Saturday UK time) when Wactor approached three men by his car, according to police. One of the three opened fire, and Wactor died later in hospital.The suspects drove away, and no arrests have been made.The actor had just left a rooftop bar nearby, said his mother, Scarlett Wactor. When he saw the three by his car, he thought it was being…

Bruce Springsteen has cancelled a series of dates due to “vocal issues”, days after performing in what he described as “hellacious” weather in Sunderland.The US star, 74, postponed shows in Marseille, Prague and Milan over the next fortnight, with his European tour set to resume in Madrid on 12 June. In an Instagram post on Sunday, he said he was “recuperating comfortably” and he and the E Street Band “look forward to resuming their hugely successful European stadium tour”.With “further examination” and “consulting”, the statement also said, doctors determined Bruce “should not perform for the next 10 days”.Springsteen had played…

Pocket money is in decline, data shows – but kids are finding new ways to pay for their everyday “essentials”.Data from the NatWest pocket money index (looking at transactions from 308,000 children in the Rooster app), shared with our Money blog, shows only 30% of families now pay pocket money as part of a regular routine (down 2%), with children getting £3.78 on average a week (down 10p from last year). In fact, pocket money now makes up just 14% of children’s income.Instead, they’re finding new income streams – with a typical child netting £479.96 a year (£9.23 a week)…