Author: SKYNEWS

A Conservative MP is urging ministers to extend a probe into the prospective takeover of The Daily Telegraph, warning that the Abu Dhabi-backed vehicle which wants to acquire it may already be exerting “material influence” over the newspaper.Sky News has learnt that Neil O’Brien, a former health minister who sits on the Tory backbenches, wants the culture secretary to issue a public interest intervention notice (PIIN) which encompasses RedBird IMI’s repayment of a £1.2bn debt to Lloyds Banking Group on behalf of the Barclay family. Mr O’Brien said that while Lucy Frazer had been right to issue a PIIN focused…

Netflix saw a surge in new subscribers at the end of last year, attributed in part to the streaming giant bringing in a ban on password sharing.The crackdown on password sharing, which started last May in a number of countries, hindered people in different households from using the same account. It appears to be having the desired effect of prompting people to open their own accounts – as the company added 13.1 million worldwide subscribers in the last three months of 2023.It was the third consecutive quarter in which Netflix boosted its subscribers, outstripping the 8.8 million subscribers gained in…

Royal Mail could be allowed to deliver letters just three days per week, under a series of options outlined by the industry regulator to help the company run a sustainable service.Ofcom said its consultation document was designed to spark a “national debate” on the future of the UK’s postal service. It separately announced that the cost of a Second Class stamp would be capped until March 2027 to ensure an affordable option for consumers and businesses.The possible relaxation of loss-making Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation (USO), which currently demands deliveries six days per week, met furious union opposition earlier this…

Ryan Gosling has expressed his disappointment that Barbie director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie were overlooked during the Oscars nominations in their respective categories.Gosling, who played the role of Ken in last summer’s box office blockbuster said he was “honoured” to be nominated for best supporting actor “for portraying a plastic doll”. Image: Ryan Gosling as Ken in Barbie. Pic: Warner Bros He also said he was “so happy” for co-star America Ferrera who received a nod for best supporting actress for her performance as Gloria.But Gerwig and Robbie, who together brought the doll to life, missed out on…

Unavoidable hidden charges for online consumers, a practice known as drip pricing, is to be banned under a wider transparency drive.The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said additional fees, which are only revealed late in the checkout process and cost customers £2.2bn a year, must be included in the headline price under the planned Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. The measure will affect things like tickets for trains and the cinema but not optional fees, such as airline seat and luggage upgrades.The crackdown will also see fake reviews added to a list of banned business practices, with website…

Apple’s first Macintosh – the technology that revolutionised personal computers – turns 40 today.The “game-changing” computer first went on sale on 24 January 1984, two days after being introduced to the world in a big-budget Super Bowl advert, by renowned British director Sir Ridley Scott. The advert, referencing George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, was itself considered a watershed moment in advertising – later being described as “more successful than the Mac itself” by Apple’s then marketing guru Regis McKenna.Starring the British athlete Anya Major breaking a screen showing the book’s chief antagonist Big Brother, the advert ended with the tagline:…

The British fund manager abrdn is preparing to cut hundreds of jobs in a cost-cutting drive aimed at boosting its flagging performance.Sky News has learnt that abrdn will announce proposals for a round of redundancies alongside a hastily scheduled trading update on Wednesday morning. It was unclear whether abrdn would give a precise figure for the headcount reductions, although one market source said it could affect in the region of 10% of its workforce of nearly 5,000 people.Analysts expect the company, which was formed from the 2017 merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life, to disclose that it has…

Britons must “strengthen their defences” against the growing threat posed by ransomware developed or enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), the head of the UK’s cyber security agency has warned. It comes as a new report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has found that AI is lowering the barrier of entry to novice cyber criminals. The NCSC – which is a part of GCHQ – has also warned that bad actors are using AI to better find and target victims and that the technology will almost certainly increase the volume and impact of cyber attacks in the near term.The…

The leader of an online church who is accused of pocketing $1.3m (£1m) through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme told his followers God told him to do it.Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, Colorado, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement. They raised nearly $3.2m (£2.5m) from more than 300 people. At least $1.3m of that went directly to the couple or was “used for their own personal benefit”, a complaint filed in Denver County District Court said.According to…

Astronomers have discovered 85 possible planets outside our solar system with temperatures that could be cool enough for life.These exoplanet candidates are similar in size to Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, and were discovered using data from NASA’s Transitioning Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS enables scientists to observe dips in the brightness of stars, known as transits, caused by objects passing in front of them.Typically, at least three transits need to be seen to discover an exoplanet in this way, in order to determine how long they take to orbit their star.However, in the new study, researchers looked at systems that…