Author: SKYNEWS

TikTok could be banned in the US if the social media app’s Chinese owner doesn’t sell its stake after the House of Representatives voted in support of the measure.The TikTok legislation was included in a US foreign policy package which saw representatives approve sending $60.8bn (£49bn) in foreign aid to Ukraine, as well as money for Israel and Taiwan. The package will now go to the US Senate, where it is likely to be passed on Tuesday. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the TikTok legislation once it reaches his desk.If the bill becomes law, the owner of…

People who are fit to work but do not accept job offers will have their benefits taken away after 12 months, the prime minister has pledged.Outlining his plans to reform the welfare system if the Conservatives win the next general election, Rishi Sunak said “unemployment support should be a safety net, never a choice” as he promised to “make sure that hard work is always rewarded”. Politics live: ‘Moral mission’ to end ‘sicknote culture’, says SunakMr Sunak said his government would be “more ambitious about helping people back to work and more honest about the risk of over-medicalising the everyday…

An HSBC-backed technology company which was in talks to raise funding at a valuation of over £1bn four years ago is to break itself up amid mounting losses.Sky News has learnt that Monese, which has targeted customers who are underserved by mainstream banks, is working with advisers on plans to split itself into separate consumer-facing and corporate businesses. City sources said that Interpath Advisory had been appointed to work with Monese on the break-up, which they added could lead to a sale or further restructuring at a subsequent time.Monese has about two million customers in more than 30 countries, and…

The private equity titan Blackstone is this weekend drawing up plans for a £1.2bn takeover bid for the owner of songs performed by Blondie, the Kaiser Chiefs and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.Sky News can exclusively reveal that Blackstone has already tabled several offers to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF), the London-listed music rights investment company. The first was worth 82p-a-share, insiders said, while another was pitched at 88p and the most recent was worth marginally less than a 93.2p-a-share bid for HSF unveiled on Thursday from Concord Chorus, a music and theatrical rights company.Sources said that Blackstone, which is…

Taylor Swift is one of the world’s best-selling artists, a billionaire, and a record breaker. And she’s just 34.With her 11th studio album – The Tortured Poets Department – out today (her follow up to 2022’s Grammy winning Midnights) the buzz around the singer is at fever pitch. Updates:What do her new lyrics mean?Swift reveals ‘secret double album’ Image: Swift accepts the Global Icon award at the Brit Awards 2021. Pic: PA Fans can expect 16 new tracks (addressing the five stages of heartbreak) and collaborations from the likes of Florence + The Machine and Post Malone.With a history of…

How have the markets reacted to Israel’s attack on Iran?Ian King is joined by Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown to assess the impact.He is also talking to the boss of Dutch telecoms firm KPN, which has launched a major campaign against the sending of unsolicited sexual images.Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Source link

An “‘irreplaceable” 17th Century artwork stolen from an Oxford University Gallery has been found in Romania – but police say they’re still hunting for two more paintings taken in the heist.In March 2020 at least three thieves broke into the Christ Church Picture Gallery, taking three 16th and 17th Century paintings off the walls. They used a ladder to escape with the artwork through the roof.The haul was collectively worth around £10m.The artwork is Salvator Rosa’s A Rocky Coast, With Soldiers Studying a Plan, painted in the late 1640s, Sir Anthony van Dyck’s A Soldier on Horseback, from 1616, and…

Getir, the grocery delivery app once valued at nearly $12bn (£9.7bn), is close to pulling the plug on its operations in Britain in a move that would spark concerns for well over 1,000 jobs.Sky News has learnt that Getir is preparing to announce next week that it is withdrawing from the three remaining European markets in which it operates: the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. In total, thousands of jobs will be put at risk, including approximately 1,500 in the UK, according to people close to the situation.The process through which Getir, which has a multimillion-pound commercial partnership with the…

Bitcoin’s rare halving event has taken place, according to crypto analysis firm CoinGecko.It slashes the number of new Bitcoin entering the market by cutting the rewards earned by Bitcoin miners by 50%. Taking place roughly every four years, it’s designed to cap supply at 21 million by 2140.It means just 450 Bitcoin will now be created each day.Halvings also took place in 2012, 2016 and 2020 – and the mechanism was written into Bitcoin’s code when it was first created. The cryptocurrency’s price remained stable at $63,747 (£51,531) after the halving, with analysts saying the anticipated event had already been…

The UK’s first professional women’s gaming tournament of its kind starts on Saturday.Four teams of professional gamers will play the first-person shooter game Valorant, which is the most-watched esports game in women’s leagues. It is the first time Europe’s best teams have battled it out in the UK, and organisers hope it will bring more women into gaming. Image: Meg ‘Megsoundslikeegg’ Gardner is one of the hosts of the Red Bull Instalock tournament “The more people see you can enjoy gaming as somebody who’s not native to it, the more confident they’ll get and the more they’ll enjoy it,” said…