Author: SKYNEWS

An employee benefits platform used by Asda and Burger King has secured close to £20m in new funding from investors including a subsidiary of the British Business Bank (BBB).Sky News has learnt that Wagestream, which enables the employees of its corporate clients to receive their salary early every month, will announce on Thursday that it has raised £17.5m from a combination of new and existing shareholders. Used by three million people, Wagestream offers a range of services through an interactive payslip, including choosing when they get paid, saving money on household bills and accessing free debt advice.The company was founded…

At least one bumblebee species can survive underwater, scientists have found after a mishap led to an experiment.A study by researchers in Canada has found when hibernating, common eastern bumblebee queens can survive being submerged in water for a week with no apparent issues. Research began after Dr Sabrina Rondeau, of the University of Guelph in Ontario, made a mistake during a previous experiment.After storing a shipment of 300 hibernating common eastern bumblebee queens in a refrigerator, she later found condensation had filled four containers housing the insects.”I was sure that the queens were dead,” Dr Rondeau told The Globe…

Hugh Grant has settled a High Court claim against the publisher of The Sun newspaper over allegations of unlawful information gathering.The actor, 63, was suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) alongside Prince Harry for claims which included landline tapping, burglary and “blagging” confidential information about him. His case was one of several lawsuits which were eligible to go to trial at London’s High Court in January, but the actor has agreed to settle with NGN, his lawyer David Sherborne said.Grant, famous for films such as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill”, has become a prominent campaigner on press reform…

The governor of the Bank of England has signalled the UK is still on course for an interest rate cut as official figures show a further easing in the pace of price growth in the economy. Andrew Bailey was speaking hours before the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation slowed to 3.2% in the 12 months to March – the weakest level for two-and-a-half years. That was down from the 3.4% figure measured the previous month but slightly above economists’ expectations.ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said of the shifts seen last…

“I had just woken up and I got an email that said, ‘We’re going to have a company-wide meeting’. I knew right away.”James, not his real name, was visiting his family earlier this year when he saw the message. “I started thinking about everything I was set to lose.”He had worked as a game designer at one of the UK’s biggest video game studios for nearly a decade. It was a job he loved and had dreamt of since he was nine years old. But recently he had been worried.All around him, friends in the gaming industry were being let…

Birmingham Airport temporarily suspended operations today due to a “security incident on an aircraft”.A Birmingham Airport spokesperson said earlier: “The aircraft landed safely and all passengers and crew have disembarked. “All customers due to travel should make their way to the airport and check in as normal.” 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 to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings…

Taylor Swift fans in the UK could have already lost more than £1m to con artists pretending to sell concert tickets for her Eras tour, a major bank has estimated.Lloyds Bank has issued a warning to fans based on an analysis of purchase scams reported by its customers, as well as those of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, where Swift and/or the Eras Tour were referenced as part of the claim. More than 600 Lloyds Banking Group customers have reported being scammed since tickets went on sale in July 2023.Each victim lost £332 on average, though in some cases the…

The government would not have accepted faulty accounting software Horizon being phased out, a former Post Office chief executive told the inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of sub-postmasters.The inquiry seeks to find out who knew what and when about the accounting computer programme that falsely generated financial losses at Post Office branches across the UK and led to the conviction of hundreds of sub-postmasters who ran branches for theft and false accounting. As a result of Horizon’s errors, many other sub-postmasters lost homes, moved out of their communities, and became unwell having wracked up significant debts and had their reputations…

In the circumstances, the numbers could hardly look much better. A year or two ago, the conventional wisdom was that America was facing a terrific recession. Instead, according to the latest data from the International Monetary Fund, the US has outperformed pretty much every other major economy in the world (including China).In its latest World Economic Outlook report – the most closely-watched set of international forecasts – it upgraded the US more than nearly every other major economy.From a European perspective, there is much to be jealous of about America’s recent performance (most European nations, including the UK, saw the…

Fake videos and images flooded social media in the hours after Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel on 13 April.Within seven hours of the drones being launched, 34 fake images and videos claiming to show the conflict had received 37 million views on X, according to a report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). Seventy-seven per cent of the posts came from ‘verified’ paid accounts. X amplifies some posts and replies from these accounts so they are more easily seen by other people, and the verified ‘tick’ may make users think the post is real.”The checkmark, based on…