Author: SKYNEWS

The urine of thousands of women taking part in the London Marathon this Sunday will be recycled and turned into fertiliser for wheat. More than 1,000 litres will be collected from PEEQUAL’s women’s urinals – which are 2.7 times faster to use than other portable toilets and reduce queues. The company is pairing up with fellow Bristol-based start-up NPK Recovery to recycle urine and help reduce the event’s carbon footprint.Wheat has been chosen because this crop is hungry for urine’s nitrogen content – and the fertiliser could help grow enough to make approximately 195 loaves of bread. Please use Chrome…

Oasis fans collectively lost more than £2m to ticket scams for the band’s long-awaited reunion tour, a major bank has warned.The UK group announced the tour last year, with it set to begin in just over two months time. However, amid the rush for tickets, Lloyds Banking Group said a number of customers fell victim to ticket scams, losing £436 on average.The bank made the calculations based on fraud reports from its own customers.Would-be concertgoers trying to get their hands on the tickets already faced issues around dynamic pricing. And Oasis fans accounted for more than half of all reported…

A UK-based car distributor has seen its shares hit a four-year low after reporting a fall in sales and warning of hits ahead from Donald Trump’s trade war. Inchcape, which exports cars for manufacturers across more than 40 countries globally, saw its stock lose up to 16.9% in early trading on Wednesday after its first quarter trading update. It told investors that while it was not currently experiencing damage from the Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on all US car imports, revenue fell by 5% over the three months to March to £2.1bn.Money latest: Octopus Energy responds after being forced to…

Social media firms could be hit with heavy fines – or even banned from the UK – under new measures to protect children from online harm.Watchdog Ofcom has published the final version of its children’s codes, part of the Online Safety Act, to set out what sites must do to protect young people. It says they are a “reset for children online” and will mean “safer social media feeds”. However, some campaigners believe they don’t go far enough.Ofcom says the codes set out an obligation to protect children from content that is misogynistic, violent, hateful or abusive – as well…

US country music star Jelly Roll is seeking a pardon to wipe his criminal convictions from the record, after spending time behind bars as a teenager.He told the Tennessee Board of Parole that while in detention, he fell in love with songwriting which he says changed his life in ways he “never dreamed imaginable”. Now aged 40, the rapper-turned-country singer, real name Jason DeFord, wants to be able to travel internationally to perform, but his criminal past currently makes that difficult.”I want to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be – to let them…

Entain, the FTSE 100 gambling group which owns Ladbrokes, has kicked off a secret search for a new chairman, deepening the protracted uncertainty over the company’s leadership.Sky News has learnt that Entain, which has a market value of about £3.65bn, has instructed headhunters to identify a successor to chair Stella David, who is currently in her second stint as its interim chief executive. City sources said a number of candidates had been approached about replacing Ms David in recent weeks.Money latest: Are Treasury-backed savings now the best place for your cash?The search implies either Ms David will herself become CEO…

Ed Miliband has accused Nigel Farage of peddling “nonsense and lies” about the government’s commitment to net zero, as the Reform UK leader said the issue could become the “new Brexit”.The energy secretary said both Mr Farage’s party and the Conservatives were prepared to “make up any old nonsense and lies to pursue their ideological agenda” ahead of next month’s local elections. The former Labour leader also warned if an anti-net zero agenda was followed, it would not only risk “climate breakdown” but also “forfeit the clean energy jobs of the future” in Britain.In an article for The Observer referring…

Clodagh Rodgers, a singer best known for representing the UK at the 16th Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 78.The Northern Irish singer was described as “the rock of this family” by her son Sam, who said she died on Friday 18 April. Sam Sorbie wrote: “With a heavy heart, my dear beautiful mum Clodagh has sadly passed away after battling an illness for the last three years. She passed away peacefully yesterday, surrounded by her family in Cobham.”Mum has lived an incredible life, full of love and happiness. Her fantastic career performing, travelling the world, devoting her life to…

Every Tuesday in our Money blog, we answer questions about your financial problems or consumer disputes. This week, a reader asked what her rights were after Ryanair refused to pay her expenses after cancelling her flight.Elaine asked: “My flight from Cork to La Rochelle was cancelled due to a storm. I had to book a hotel and fly to a different destination, and Ryanair is refusing to pay for all my expenses. Are you able to help me?” Our Money live reporter Jess Sharp says…When Elaine got in touch with Money, she also told us that there wasn’t another flight…

Crime syndicates behind a multibillion-pound cyber scam industry are expanding globally as governments in South East Asia struggle to contain them, a UN report has warned.As they expand business, countries in South America, Africa and Eastern Europe are now being targeted, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. The networks and gangs have emerged in South East Asia in recent years, in sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of people, many trafficked and forced into work, scamming victims abroad.Sky News previously reported on one of these compounds, and the workers who were tricked, trafficked and forced into…