Author: SKYNEWS

Ian King speaks to Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds Bank commercial banking, about rising UK business confidence. Cecilia Parker Aranha, the CMA’s director of consumer protection, talks about a crackdown on so-called ‘greenwashing’ by major fashion retailers.And could 2024 be the year more European companies come to the market? Ian discusses that with Jos Dijsselhof, chief executive of SIX Group, owner of the Swiss and Madrid stock exchanges.Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Source link

Bruce Springsteen has been made a fellow of the UK’s Ivors Academy – the first international songwriter to do so.The American icon, 74, was named as the next recipient of the academy’s highest honour on Tuesday in recognition of the impact his career has had on the cultural landscape of the UK. The Born to Run musician has sold more than 140 million records worldwide, as well as winning 20 Grammys, an Oscar and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Image: Joe Biden presents Springsteen with a National Medal of Arts medal in the White House last March. Pic: Reuters Springsteen…

The first City trader to be jailed for rigging Libor interest rates has lost his appeal against his 2015 conviction. Tom Hayes, 44, a former Citigroup and UBS trader, was handed a 14-year jail sentence – cut to 11 years on appeal – in 2015, which was one of the toughest ever to be imposed for white-collar crime in UK history. His case, as well as that of Carlo Palombo, 45, who was jailed for four years in 2019 over rigging the Euribor interest rates, was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which…

Police raids on two properties owned by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs were an “unprecedented ambush” and a “gross use of military-level force”, his lawyer has said.Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami were searched by Homeland Security Investigations agents on Monday. The searches were connected to a sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, US news outlets reported on Tuesday.In the first statement released on behalf of the rapper and music mogul since Monday’s raids, his lawyer Aaron Dyer said: “Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr Combs’ residences.”There…

Spills of raw sewage into England’s rivers and seas reached their worst on record last year.Discharges of untreated sewage by water companies doubled from 1.8 million hours in 2022 to a record 3.6 million in 2023, according to new Environment Agency data. The number of individual spills also soared by 54% – from 301,000 incidents in 2022 to 464,000 in 2023. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:35 Why is sewage flooding in gardens and streets? Water companies partly blamed the huge jump on last year’s wet weather – 2023 was England’s sixth wettest on record…

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is hoping to deliver a knockout blow with his new cannabis product – edibles in the shape of nibbled ears.The bizarre products are a nod to when Tyson infamously bit off part of the ear of his opponent Evander Holyfield in their WBA Heavyweight Championship bout in Nevada in 1997. The edibles have been released by Tyson 2.0 – a cannabis company founded by the iconic boxer known as “Iron Mike”.They come in flavours including black eye berry, sour apple punch and watermelon. Image: Mike Tyson bites the ear of Evander Holyfield during…

The former food delivery executive who was employed as Boris Johnson’s cost-of-living tsar is to be the next boss of Ovo Energy, Britain’s third-biggest domestic gas and electricity supplier.Sky News has learnt that David Buttress, who turned Just Eat from a start-up into a multibillion pound company, will be named later on Wednesday as Ovo’s new chief executive. He will replace Raman Bhatia, whose appointment as CEO of Starling Bank was announced earlier this month.Mr Buttress, who will start at Ovo in May, spent the second half of 2022 working with Mr Johnson, the then prime minister, on initiatives to…

Exercising at least twice a week significantly cuts the risk of insomnia, according to a study.It found people who worked out regularly were 42% less likely to have trouble getting to sleep and 22% less likely to report any insomnia symptoms. Those who keep up exercise long term were found to be 55% more likely to be normal sleepers – getting six to eight hours – than people who weren’t active.The study, published in the BMJ Open journal, also found consistent exercisers were about a third (29%) less likely to be short sleepers (under six hours per night).And they were…

Taylor Swift’s father will not face police charges over accusations he assaulted a photographer in Australia.Ben McDonald had told police that Scott Swift struck him in the face in Sydney on 27 February. The alleged confrontation happened after the 72-year-old and his megastar daughter left a yacht following the final show of her Eras Tour in Australia.At the time, a representative for the popstar accused members of the media of behaving “aggressively” towards her during the interaction.Mr McDonald, 51, described the incident at the time as a “punch in the chops” that “didn’t require medical assistance”. Following an investigation, New…

Shares in former US president Donald Trump’s media firm have soared on their stock market debut in New York, leaving his majority holding worth more than $5bn (£4bn) on paper.Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the vehicle for his social media rival to X called Truth Social, gained 40% when trading got underway on the Nasdaq. It took the company’s valuation beyond $9.25bn.Analysts suggested that investors were mostly Trump supporters ahead of the looming presidential election rather than institutions and that it was the most trending stock on US exchanges.The shares were trading under the ticker name of DJT -…