Author: SKYNEWS

Hollywood star Russell Crowe has revealed he is the distant relative of a notorious Jacobite lord who was the last man to be executed by beheading in Britain.The Oscar-winning Gladiator actor has been exploring his ancestry, and while he knew he had Scottish heritage, he recently discovered he is related to Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat – known as the Old Fox. Known for his scheming plots and switching sides to and fro between the government and Jacobite causes, his clan was eventually among those defeated at the battle of Culloden in 1746 and he was executed the following…

Ian King talks to Patrick Farrell from Charles Stanley about business confidence. Rightmove’s property expert, Tim Bannister, discusses house prices.Paddy Power, from Paddy Power, and Matt Hobbs, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK join Ian to discuss the real winner of last night’s World Darts Championship.:: Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Source link

Royal London, one of the UK’s biggest financial services mutuals, is plotting a bid for a £6bn bulk annuities portfolio being sold by Lloyds Banking Group.Sky News has learnt that Royal London, which called off a controversial merger with rival LV= – formerly Liverpool Victoria – in 2022, is in talks about a deal that would represent its biggest ever acquisition. City sources said on Thursday that Royal London, founded in 1861, was among a small number of parties expected to submit bids next week for the bulk annuities arm of Scottish Widows, which is wholly owned by Lloyds.Royal London…

Microsoft is adding a dedicated AI button to its Windows keyboards – the first significant change to its consoles in nearly 30 years. Starting this month, many of Microsoft’s new Windows 11 computers, including upcoming Surface devices, will feature the “Copilot” key, a button that launches its AI companion. By pressing the ribbon-like button, the user summons the AI chatbot powered by Bing which can help them with tasks such as summarising a dense article, looking for furniture online, or simply making settings changes on their PC.It can even create a song from scratch, without the user knowing how to…

Next has raised its profit forecast for the fifth time in less than a year after reporting better-than-expected sales in the run-up to Christmas.The high street retailer said full-price sales were up 5.7% in the nine weeks to 30 December compared to last year. The figure, revealed in a trading update from the firm on Thursday, is £38m better than the 2% rise it previously forecast for the period.As a result, Next said it was upgrading its pre-tax profit guidance for 2023/24, not including exceptional items, by £20m to £905m.That would represent a 4% rise on the £870m it made…

By 1pm this afternoon, just a few days into the new year, FTSE 100 bosses will have earned more than the typical UK worker makes in a year, according to new estimates.The median pay – the midpoint between the lowest and highest pay – for a FTSE 100 boss stood at £3.81m (excluding pensions) in the financial year ending in March 2023, analysis by the High Pay Centre thinktank revealed. This amounts to approximately £1,170 per hour – assuming the bosses work 12.5 hours a day – which is 109 times the median full-time worker’s wage of £34,963, the thinktank…

The number of new first-time buyers with a mortgage fell last year to the UK’s lowest level in a decade, according to a new report.Yorkshire Building Society said around 290,000 first-time property owners entered the mortgage market in 2023 – a decline of more than a fifth on 2022’s total of 370,287. It comes after the housing market was hit by high mortgage rates and house prices last year, along with the ongoing impact of cost of living pressures on consumers.The building society said 2023’s total was the lowest since 2013, when 260,000 first-time buyers entered the mortgage market.But its…

HSBC has joined a host of rival high street lenders vying to snap up Tesco Bank as its owner mounts a fresh attempt to offload the business.Sky News understands that HSBC has submitted an indicative offer for Tesco Bank, which has about five million customers and employs more than 3,500 people. It was unclear on Tuesday how serious HSBC’s interest is, with rival UK banks Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group also reported to have tabled offers.Tesco’s decision to explore a renewed effort to sell its banking operation was revealed by Sky News last February.One banking industry source said a deal…

Scientists at a university in Scotland believe they have discovered a way to turn waste water from the whisky industry into sustainable fuel.A team from Heriot-Watt University has developed materials that can use waste water from distilleries to produce green hydrogen which, unlike fossil fuels, does not produce carbon when it is burned. Green hydrogen is normally created using fresh water in a process thought to consume around 20.5 billion litres of fresh water every year.The Heriot-Watt team hope the material it has developed will see some of the estimated one billion litres of waste water produced by the distilling…

It’s been a tumultuous year for Hollywood – from the highs of Barbenheimer to the lows of the strikes.The double-whammy of industrial action waged by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA shuttered production for months. Although it’s back to business, it’s far from back to normal.The stoppage has already led to delays in the release calendar, which could be exacerbated further if there’s a logjam of reshoots and other production work to slog through.Studios will be tightening their belts as they face invigorated union members looking to enforce their new contracts. After COVID all but wiped out trips…