Author: SKYNEWS

Kate Garraway has called the public’s messages of support “an extraordinary comfort” as she goes through the “raw pain of grief” after her husband’s death.Derek Draper died aged 56 following several years of serious health complications due to coronavirus. Good Morning Britain presenter Garraway, who had chronicled his health struggles on TV, recorded a message for Monday’s show.”Thank you so much for all the wonderful messages that you have sent me,” she told viewers.”It really does mean so much to me, Darcey, Billy and all of Derek’s family. “They are an extraordinary comfort and I’m so lucky to feel connected…

The American company behind plans for a London entertainment venue that was blocked by Sadiq Khan last month has formally withdrawn its planning application, complaining that it had become “a political football”.Sky News has learnt that Madison Square Garden (MSG), Sphere Entertainment’s parent company, has written to British officials to notify them that it is pulling out of a process overseen by the Planning Inspectorate. The notification comes less than two months after the London mayor blocked plans for a 300-foot tall sphere in Stratford, east London which would have been capable of staging events in front of 23,000 people.Mr…

The owners of SoundCloud, one of the world’s largest music streaming services, are preparing for a sale that could fetch in excess of $1bn.Sky News has learnt that Raine Group and Temasek Holdings, the Singaporean state investment fund, have begun interviewing investment banks about a prospective auction of the company. Founded in 2007, SoundCloud provides artists with the tools to build their careers by providing them with an online home to publish their work.In total, more than 40 million artists have released 320 million tracks on the platform.A sale of SoundCloud would underline the scale of its turnaround in recent…

Actor Idris Elba has urged the government to immediately ban machetes and so-called zombie knives, saying it’s “time to push the agenda as strongly as we can”.The Luther star has launched a campaign called Don’t Stop Your Future, and told Sky News that “the nation wants to see that we do care about our youth”. “We’re seeing a rise not a decline and that needs to change,” Elba said. Image: Idris Elba stands in Parliament Square with clothing representing the human cost of UK knife crime. Pic: AP “What [a ban] will symbolically say is that our society has no…

Barclays is in the process of removing 5,000 roles from its global workforce as part of a renewed push by executives to slash costs and improve the bank’s profitability.Sky News has learnt that a total of roughly 5,000 jobs were shed from the British bank’s 84,000-strong ranks during 2023, with about a quarter of the reductions thought to have taken place in its UK operations. The roles have been lost through a combination of redundancies and vacancies that will not be filled following the introduction of a hiring freeze in the middle of last year, according to an insider.The level…

Professor Sir Roy Calne, a pioneering surgeon who led Europe’s first liver transplant operation in 1968, has died at the age of 93.Sir Roy died in Cambridge late on Saturday evening, his family said. The surgeon led the landmark transplant operation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, on 2 May 1968.In 1978, he became the first doctor to use an immunosuppressant, which was found to be effective in reducing organ rejection.Immunosuppressants remain an important part of life for modern transplant patients, who take the drugs for the rest of their lives to ensure donated organs are not rejected. Nine years later, he…

Gill Catchpole, the wife of singer James Morrison, has died. Ms Catchpole, who had two daughters aged 15 and five with the singer, was found dead in her home in Whitminster, Gloucester, on Friday.In a statement, Gloucestershire Constabulary said: “Police were called to Whitminster in Gloucester at around 9.10am on Friday 5 January following concerns for the welfare of a resident.”Officers attended and the body of a woman in her 40s was found within an address.”The death is being treated as non-suspicious at this time.”The coroners and woman’s next of kin have been informed.”The couple were together for around two decades,…

Apple has reportedly started making payments to US owners of certain iPhone models over claims handsets are slowed down.Complainants are due about $92 (£72) for each affected model owned as part of a maximum $500m (£394m) total payout. The sum only applies to owners in the US and covers the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus and SE if they ran iOS 10.2.1 or later before 21 December 2017 – along with iPhone 7 or 7 Plus on iOS 11.2. It comes as UK owners await developments in a similar case against Apple that was given the go-ahead in…

A private lunar lander which launched from the US this morning has suffered an “anomaly” – with experts trying to resolve the issue.Peregrine Mission 1 – which took off on a new Vulcan rocket at 7.18am UK time – aimed to become the first US spacecraft due to land on the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972 and appeared to lift off into space as planned. American company Astrobotic, in control of the launch, said Peregrine “successfully” separated from the rocket but an “anomaly” has since occurred which prevents it from “achieving a stable sun-pointing orientation”.That suggests its solar…

Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate will regain access to his supercars, properties and designer watches after a court overturned a decision to seize his assets.Tate and his brother Tristan are facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, where they live, and had previously been in jail and later under house arrest since they were detained in December 2022. In January 2023, prosecutors said they had seized 15 luxury vehicles and more than 10 properties and homes belonging to the suspects to prevent the assets from being sold or hidden.Fourteen designers watches, two ingots – blocks of usually precious…