Author: SKYNEWS

Saga has set a deadline next month for proposals to release capital from its ocean cruises operation.Sky News understands that the London-listed insurance and travel group is working with Lazard, the investment bank, on potential partnership arrangements for the cruise business. Prospective buyers have been asked to submit indicative offers in April, according to insiders.The structure of a deal has still to be determined but Saga and its advisers are exploring a number of options for the division, which operates the Spirit of Adventure and Spirit of Discovery.Saga has been labouring under the weight of a large debt pile for…

Actress Marisa Abela consulted a dietician to help her safely portray Amy Winehouse in the upcoming biopic about the singer’s life.The 27-year-old actress from Brighton said feeling “frailer and smaller” helped when depicting the Valerie singer in the upcoming film Back To Black – named after the artist’s famous album and song. “I had help to do it safely; I consulted a dietician and was being monitored,” Abela said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK.”Feeling frailer and smaller helped – I hadn’t understood, before, how much that affects your tempo.” Image: Abela in the Back to Black trailer. Pic:…

A new £24m border control post may have to be demolished because repeated changes to post-Brexit border arrangements have left it commercially unviable.The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month, but changes to border protocols since it was built mean half of the building will never be used. Built with a £17m central government grant and £7m from Portsmouth City Council, which owns the port, it is designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truck loads of produce a day.…

Within weeks of Yadi Zhang’s arrival in London in September 2017, Jian Wen had left her job and room in a Chinese takeaway and moved into a £5m six-bedroom house near Hampstead Heath. The women, who claimed to run an international jewellery business trading in diamonds and antiques in countries including Japan, Thailand and China, travelled the world and spent tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes and shoes in Harrods. In her newly affluent lifestyle, Wen bought a £25,000 E-Class Mercedes and sent her son to the £6,000-a-term Heathside preparatory school.But alarm bells rang when she tried to…

Greg Rutherford has spoken about the “horribly painful” injury that caused him to miss the Dancing On Ice final almost two weeks ago. The 37-year-old Olympian announced he had “effectively [given himself] a C-section” when he tore his abdominal muscles after sliding through the legs of professional skaters Brendyn Hatfield and Colin Grafton. He withdrew on the morning of the final of the ITV show after being injured in rehearsals on 10 March. Image: Mr Rutherford and his ice skating partner Vanessa James had to pull out of the final. Pic: Kieron McCarron/ITV/Shutterstock Mr Rutherford shared the news on Instagram…

Ian is joined by Rebecca Klar, technology and policy reporter at The Hill, to talk about the US government suing Apple for allegedly maintaining an illegal monopoly on smartphones.Also, hear the latest as the Bank of England votes to keep interest rates unchanged for another month at 5.25%.Meanwhile, thousands of women may be entitled to compensation after the pension age was increased. Ian finds out more with economist France Coppola.Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Source link

The first patient to receive a brain chip from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has appeared to play online chess.Neuralink released a nine-minute video in which the patient, who is paralysed below his shoulders, appears to move a cursor across a laptop screen with nothing but his thoughts. The video shows him playing chess and turning off the laptop’s music. The patient, who had not been previously identified, said in the live stream video that his name is Noland Arbaugh, 29, who was paralysed below the shoulder after a diving accident. X This content is provided by X, which may be…

Stephen Fry has revealed how he had started taking Ozempic to lose weight but had to stop as the drug made him vomit up to five times a day.The actor and comedian, 66, said he got the jab – a treatment originally designed for people with diabetes – from his doctor in the US “years ago”. Speaking on the River Cafe Table 4 podcast, Fry described how the first week of being on Ozempic reaped “astonishing” results, which made him believe he had found a “brilliant” solution to his weight-loss efforts.”I’m an early adopter of these things,” Fry, who was…

For some reason which no-one can quite remember, when economists talk about interest rates they invariably find themselves referring to species of birds.They call those who are broadly in favour of lower interest rates “doves”. Those who are keen on higher borrowing costs are “hawks”. Analysts in the City of London draw up diagrams of the nine members of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, denoting how many of which bird there are at each meeting.Money latest: Reaction to Bank of England’s interest rate decisionThose who invariably lean towards higher rates are perma-hawks or uber-hawks and those on the other side…

The US Justice Department has launched a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of maintaining an illegal monopoly on smartphones.The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has used its monopoly power and its control over the iPhone to stifle competition and innovation. California-based Apple is said to have “tightened its grip on the smartphone market… not through product improvement, but by maintaining a chokehold on competition, locking its customers in to the iPhone while locking its competitors out of the market”, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.President Joe Biden has called for the Justice…