Author: SKYNEWS

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is nearing a deal with one of Britain’s biggest high street lenders to overhaul its banking arm as a financial services and loyalty ‘superapp’.Sky News has learnt that M&S and HSBC, whose UK arm owns M&S Bank, are close to announcing a new long-term relationship agreement that will pave the way for an overhaul of the business. M&S Bank has more than 3m customers, offering personal loans, travel insurance, store payment cards and a buy now pay later credit product.Sources said the long-running talks between M&S and HSBC had focused on concluding a deal before the…

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it’s a comet that has been spotted from Earth for the first time in 71 years.The 12P/Pons-Brooks comet is growing brighter and is now visible in the night sky – but you’ll still need binoculars or a telescope to see it. Image: A composite photo of the comet taken in Cumbria. Pic: PA/Stuart Atkinson However, it may be visible to the naked eye in the coming weeks.It has already had several outbursts of activity, according to Dr Megan Argo, an astrophysicist at the University of Central Lancashire.”If we’re lucky, it may…

“One, two, three, four – let me hear you scream if you want some more…”Anyone who got within a sniff of a dancefloor in the mid-noughties will know the lyrics, the hypnotic electro beat, possibly the gymnastics-inspired video typical of chart-friendly club tracks of the era (because if it didn’t look like a sexy work-out, were you even making dance music?) Twenty years later, it’s happening all over again. Princess Superstar’s Perfect returned to the charts in the UK earlier this year – and entered the Billboard chart in the US for the first time ever – thanks to its…

Cara Delevingne’s Hollywood mansion has been extensively damaged in a major fire.The British-born model and actress’s Studio City home, reportedly worth $7m (£5.5m), was engulfed in flames and smoke on Friday morning, causing the roof to collapse. It took 94 firefighters more than two hours to put out the blaze. Two people were injured, including a firefighter, and an occupant of the home, which was not Delevingne, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said. Image: Pic: AP Delevingne, 31, is currently in the UK starring in the musical Cabaret in London’s West End.On Friday, the star uploaded a video and…

Laurence Fox has responded after his ex-wife Billie Piper claimed co-parenting two children with the actor had come with “enormous difficulty”.Piper, who has been largely coy about her 2016 divorce from political activist Fox, made the comments in an interview with British Vogue. On Friday, Fox responded in an extended post on social media site X.”The reality is that not all marriages work out and the world isn’t perfect,” he wrote.”I do however take great exception to the assertion that co-parenting with me is enormously difficult,” he added. “I have never tried to deny our boys access to their mum…

A group of lenders to Thames Water’s parent company have engaged advisers weeks before a £190m debt held by Britain’s biggest water utility falls due.Sky News has learnt that a syndicate of financiers which is owed the sum by Kemble Water, under which Thames’s regulated operations sit, has drafted in the big four accountancy firm amid growing concerns about the company’s survival. A £190m facility is due to be repaid or extended by the end of April, with the utility’s bosses telling MPs in December that it was “not currently” able to repay the funding.The progress towards a successful conclusion…

AI chatbots are more likely to recommend the death penalty when a person writes in African American English (AAE) compared to standardised American English, according to new research. AI was also more likely to match AAE speakers with less prestigious jobs. African American English is generally spoken by black Americans and Canadians. The paper, which has not been peer reviewed yet, studied covert racism in AI by looking at how the models responded to different dialects of English.Most research into racism in AI has been focused on overt racism, like how an AI chatbot responds to the word ‘black’.”African American English…

Billie Piper has admitted co-parenting her two children with Laurence Fox comes with “enormous difficulty” in rare comments about their divorce.The British actress, 41, has been largely coy about her divorce from actor-turned-political activist Fox in 2016, after a nine-year relationship. Fox, a self-professed “anti-woke” campaigner, has found himself in the middle of several high-profile controversies in recent years – one of his most recent ones leading to his suspension by GB News over “misogynistic” comments he made on air about a female journalist.Piper has admitted co-parenting her two children aged 11 and 15 with Fox amid such controversies comes…

McDonald’s customers say they were turned away from restaurants around the world, including in the UK, after the fast food chain was hit by major IT problems.British diners complained about outlets being shut, despite many being able to place orders through the company’s app. Follow live:Updates on McDonald’s tech issuesMcDonald’s Japan also halted operations at most of its 3,000 stores due to a system disruption, while the company’s Australia spokesperson said the firm was aware of an outage affecting its outlets nationwide.The New York Times said McDonald’s Hong Kong also experienced a “computer system failure” – with mobile ordering and…

Bitcoin has suffered a sharp pullback from record highs.The world’s biggest cryptocurrency fell to $66,885 in the early hours of Friday – down 9%. Only yesterday, the digital asset had been touching an unprecedented price of $74,000. Image: Bitcoin’s price over the past week. Pic: CoinGecko It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason for Bitcoin’s sudden contraction, as several are at play.For one, many crypto traders will be taking profits off the table after an extraordinary bull run that’s seen BTC surge by 175% over the past 12 months. Another relates to wider uncertainty in the global economy, with…