Author: SKYNEWS

A former top Post Office executive has denied lying “throughout” her two days of testimony at the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal.Angela van den Bogerd, who held various roles over 35 years at the organisation, told the hearing that while she did miss evidence of problems with the computer software at the time, it had not been “intentional”. Her roles at the Post Office included handling complaints about the Horizon system, which was provided by Japanese firm Fujitsu.More than 700 Post Office managers were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after the software made it seem like money was missing…

The owner of Superdry’s flagship store in central London is weighing a challenge to a rescue plan that would impose steep haircuts on the struggling chain’s landlords.Sky News has learnt that M&G, the London-listed asset manager, has engaged lawyers from Hogan Lovells to scrutinise a restructuring plan launched by Superdry earlier this month. The move by M&G, which owns the fashion retailer’s 32,000 square foot Oxford Street store, will not necessarily result in a formal legal challenge.However, property industry sources said on Friday that such a move was a possibility.Other Superdry landlords, including Landsec, are understood to be monitoring the…

A high school athletics director has been accused of using AI to create a fake recording of the principal going on a racist and antisemitic rant.Dazhon Darien allegedly impersonated Eric Eiswert’s voice with artificial intelligence, in a clip that went viral and was widely shared on social media. In the forged audio, it sounded as if the principal had said “ungrateful” black students “couldn’t test their way out of a paper bag” – and had also disparaged Jewish people. Detectives believe Darien faked the clip in revenge following a conversation about his poor work performance, and a suggestion that his contract…

Peter Kay says he has been forced to postpone two shows at a new arena in Manchester again – this time for almost a month.The comedian was due to perform at the Co-op Live in Manchester, which is set to become the UK’s biggest arena, on 23 and 24 April. Behind-schedule power tests and safety concerns meant both gigs were initially pushed back to 29 and 30 April – but now, the dates have been delayed until 23 and 24 May.Co-op Live’s general manager, Gary Roden, resigned yesterday following a series of problems and delays at the new venue.Kay wrote:…

Jack Whitehall says he’s been the victim of “outrageous shading” after the Prince of Wales described his jokes as “dad-like”.The next in line to the throne was asked by a group of school kids to tell a “dad joke” – and responded by saying he was “channelling” the 35-year-old comedian. On X, Whitehall quipped: “There goes my knighthood.” X This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or…

NatWest Group has become the latest UK banking giant to report a sharp drop in earnings for the first three months of the year.The lender said pre-tax profits in the first quarter of 2024 were £1.3bn – a fall of nearly 28% on the same period a year ago. However, the figure was better than the £1.2bn forecast by analysts, and the bank’s chief executive described the results overall as “strong”.Increased competition for savings, lending and mortgage products has squeezed margins across the banking sector in recent months.Lloyds Banking Group revealed earlier this week that its pre-tax profits plunged by…

There’s a trade war brewing between China and the West, at stake is who will dominate the global market for electric vehicles.Outside the port city of Ningbo, Chinese car company Zeekr is rolling out luxury EVs and growing fast. The factory has only been up and running for three years, but this year it’s more than doubling production. Image: Chinese car company Zeekr is rolling out luxury EVs at its factory near the port city of Ningbo. Pic: Lex Ramsay Zeekr is a new player in the EV market, but it has unbridled ambition to sell its high-end, high-tech cars…

The extraordinary, unprecedented and largely unexplained flows of millions of pounds of British luxury cars into states neighbouring Russia continued in February, according to new official data.Some £26m worth of British cars were exported to Azerbaijan in February, according to data from HM Revenue & Customs. The numbers show that in the latest quarter this former Soviet state with developing economy status was the 17th biggest destination for UK cars, bigger than long-established export markets such as Ireland, Portugal and Qatar. Azerbaijan’s ascent has coincided almost to the month with the imposition of sanctions on the export of cars to…

Hilary Swank says playing roles based on real stories have made her a “better person”.The 49-year-old has portrayed a real-life single mother, a lawyer and a high-school dropout – and won her first Academy Award in 2000 for Boys Don’t Cry, a story based on the life of Brandon Teena, a trans man who was murdered in 1993. She tells Sky News: “Each character that I’ve ever played is in my heart, and I am so grateful for that because it just made me, I think, a better person and certainly helped me challenge myself as an artist”. Image: Hilary…

Labour has denied the railways will be given “lower priority” if they are brought back into public ownership as the party pledged to “sweep away” the current “broken” model.Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh promised to deliver the biggest shake-up to rail “in a generation” by establishing the long-delayed Great British Railways (GBR) organisation and bringing routes back into public ownership, if Labour forms the next government. In a speech, Ms Haigh also pledged to establish a “best-price ticket guarantee” for travellers, offer automatic “delay repay” schemes and make digital season tickets available across the network.But the proposals have been attacked…