Author: SKYNEWS

Wage growth has remained strong, the latest official figures show, as the Bank of England mulls its interest rate decision.Wages – excluding bonuses – grew 5.9% in the three months to January, the same amount as a month earlier, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. Meanwhile, growth in average weekly earnings, including bonuses, fell to a surprise 5.8%. Economists polled by the Reuters news agency anticipated a 5.9% rise.Money blog: top chef reveals pet hate in restaurantsIt means wage growth is still high and well above the rate of overall price rises. Inflation stood at 3% in…

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 Netflix’s hit drama series Adolescence has shone a light on the pressures faced by boys growing up today, and the rise in misogynistic violence that frequently hits the headlines. It tells the story of what happens to the Miller family after 13-year-old Jamie is arrested in a dawn raid for killing a female classmate.Sky News’ political correspondent Tamara Cohen and Labour MP for Darlington Lola McEvoy join Niall Paterson to discuss Sky News’ exclusive survey of a thousand kids aged 16 to 17 about what they see online.Is social…

Sir Keir Starmer has revealed he is watching Netflix’s Adolescence with his family and supports a campaign for it to be shown in parliament and schools.The drama, starring Stephen Graham, depicts the aftermath of the stabbing of a teenage girl – as a 13-year-old boy from her school is arrested for her murder. Politics live: PM challenged over tax rises Graham and co-writer Jack Thorne have said they want it to be a show that “causes discussion and makes change”, after it was hailed by critics and topped Netflix’s charts around the world.Asked by Labour MP Anneliese Midgley if he…

Up to 750 jobs are at risk at Santander bank under plans to close nearly a quarter of its high street branches.The high street lender has announced plans to close 95 of the bank’s existing 444 UK branches. Of the remaining branches, 36 will operate on reduced hours branches and 18 will be “counter-free”.Money blog: ‘I created something the biggest drinks companies are fighting over’Only 290 full-service Santander branches will remain. The continued move to online banking has been given as a reason for the closures. The bank said financial transactions completed in branches fell 61% since 2019, while the…

Perhaps it was just an accident of scheduling that meant Butch and Suni were brought back to Earth on a SpaceX capsule called Freedom.The test pilots were supposed to have just a brief stopover on the International Space Station (ISS) but ended up staying for nine months. Christmas, birthdays, and those big family moments – all missed as they whizzed around the planet at 17,500mph. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:32 Stranded astronauts exit capsule But the choice of capsule – there are several in the Crew Dragon fleet – could also have been deliberate.Donald…

Drag queen James Lee Williams – known as “The Vivienne”- died after taking ketamine, their family has said.Williams, who won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019 under their drag name, was found dead at the age of 32 at their home in Cheshire on 5 January. In a statement shared in an Instagram story today, Williams’ manager Simon Jones said the “family and I feel it is important to say how James tragically died”.Mr Jones continued: “We hope that by us releasing this information, we can raise awareness about the dangers of ongoing ketamine usage and…

Thousands of government credit cards are being cancelled because some of the expenditure is “not justified”, a cabinet minister has said.Appearing on Sky News’ Breakfast with Wilfred Frost, Pat McFadden was asked if the crackdown on government procurement cards (GPCs) was because civil servants are “fiddling their expenses”. Politics live: What to expect from benefits cutsHe said he would “not use that phrase”, but added: “I don’t think some of the lines of expenditure I’ve seen are justified.””This is public money – I think people need to take care with it,” he said. “So the process now will be, if…

Two astronauts stuck in space for more than nine months have left the International Space Station on their 17-hour journey back to Earth.Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off to the ISS on 5 June, and were meant to be up there for just eight days. They were testing out Boeing’s long-awaited Starliner, a ship designed to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon that is currently used to ferry astronauts into space.Read more: What can being in space for so long do to your health? Image: NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Pic: NASA Johnson But by…

US rock band Semisonic has criticised the White House for using their song Closing Time in a social media post that showed a shackled deportee. The Trump administration shared the video on Monday two days after hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members were controversially deported by the White House to a supermax prison in El Salvador. The video, which also showed deportees boarding a plane, was captioned with the song’s lyrics: “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.”Semisonic said in a statement after the video was shared: “We did not authorise or condone the White House’s…

OakNorth, the British-based digital bank, will this week unveil a milestone US deal that will pave the way for it to launch a significant expansion on the other side of the Atlantic.Sky News has learnt that OakNorth, which is chaired by the former City watchdog chair Lord Turner, will on Monday announce that it has agreed to acquire Community Unity Bank (CUB), which is based in Birmingham, Michigan, in an all-share deal. The purchase price was unclear on Sunday, although one insider said it was likely to be valued in the tens of millions of dollars.OakNorth declined to comment.Launched in…