Author: SKYNEWS

Virgin has cleared the first step in its plan to launch a rival Eurostar service. The company, owned by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has been granted access to share Eurostar’s Temple Mill international depot in east London. The decision, by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), is an important first step towards operating cross-border train services via the Channel Tunnel.Sir Richard has described it as “the big hurdle that we had to get through” in the process. Access to the depot means Virgin can maintain and store trains.Money blog: Major bank loses 23,000 customers to rivals…

Tech giants Apple and Amazon have defied industry predictions with better-than-expected financial results.Apple’s success is largely thanks to record-breaking iPhone sales, while Amazon’s is down to cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS), in spite of last week’s outage which knocked out thousands of websites. AWS revenue accelerated 20.2% to $33bn (almost £25bn), which CEO Andy Jassy said was a pace it hadn’t seen since 2022. AWS accounts for 60% of Amazon’s total operating income.Cloud growth has been a key focus for the company in the face of ever-growing pressure from rivals Google and Microsoft, which also reported revenue leaps…

Kirsty Gallacher has been flooded with well wishes from famous friends after a stranger attacked her in central London.The former Sky Sports News presenter said a man dressed “all in black, covered up” walked towards her before physically assaulting her in the street.The unprovoked attack happened at around 7pm on Tuesday as she walked to her car on her way home, with the streets lit and other people nearby.Ms Gallacher, who currently presents Global’s Gold Radio Drive, appeared tearful in an Instagram video posted on Wednesday evening, saying she was attacked during the walk she takes “most nights”.”I was walking…

Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping as “amazing” – and says he will visit Beijing in April.The leaders of the world’s two biggest economies met in South Korea as they tried to defuse growing tensions – with both countries imposing aggressive tariffs on exports since the president’s second term began. Catch up on Trump-Xi meeting – as it happenedAboard Air Force One, Mr Trump confirmed tariffs on Chinese goods exported to the US will be reduced, which could prove much-needed relief to consumers.It was also agreed that Beijing will work “hard” to stop fentanyl…

Boris Johnson has warned the Conservatives will not win the next election by “bashing the green agenda”. Under Kemi Badenoch, the Tories have vowed to repeal the Climate Change Act – and scrap an “impossible” commitment to reach net zero by 2050 because it risks “bankrupting” the UK. Politics Hub: Latest updates from WestminsterBut in a new podcast, the former prime minister has described current arguments surrounding environmental policy as “depressing”. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 10:13 Net zero by 2050 ‘is impossible’ Mr Johnson claimed everyday voters aren’t interested in anti-net zero policies -…

A university academic who is receiving “substantial damages” for how he was portrayed in a film has told Sky News he hasn’t received an apology from star Steve Coogan – nor the two companies involved in its production.Richard Taylor said he was “shell-shocked” after seeing The Lost King for the first time, a film about how Richard III’s skeleton was discovered below a car park in Leicester. He told The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee: “I wasn’t consulted or even knew I was in the film. The first I hear is I get a phone call while I’m on holiday…

The chair of the Premier League will next month stand for a second three-year term as it awaits the outcome of a landmark case against Manchester City Football Club over scores of alleged breaches of its financial rules.Sky News has learnt that Dharmash Mistry, the Premier League’s senior independent director, has in recent weeks been canvassing the top flight’s 20 clubs, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Wolverhampton Wanderers, about their support for Alison Brittain. Ms Brittain’s initial term as chair expires at the end of the year.Insiders said clubs would be asked to vote on her re-election for a further three…

Roughly 14,000 corporate jobs are to go at tech giant Amazon, the company announced.The impact on the 75,000-strong UK workforce is not immediately clear from the announcement, which said impacted people and teams would hear from leadership on Tuesday. Money blog: ‘We’ve assets worth £1m – how much inheritance tax will we owe?’A loss of 30,000 jobs had been anticipated based on reporting from Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.Amazon workers’ union in the UK, GMB, had said, based on those numbers, that “it is almost inevitable that many UK workers will lose their jobs”. “The fact that companies can…

John Cleese has paid tribute to his Fawlty Towers co-star Prunella Scales, who has died aged 93, describing her as a “wonderful comic actress”.The star, who was living with dementia, was watching the sitcom the day before she died, her sons Samuel and Joseph West said in a statement confirming her death. “Our darling mother Prunella Scales died peacefully at home in London yesterday.”Her seven-decade acting career saw her in multiple roles from the 1950s, including in 1960s sitcom Marriage Lines, before featuring as the wife of John Cleese’s character Basil Fawlty, in two series of Fawlty Towers in 1975…

Pimco, the giant bond fund manager, has offloaded hundreds of millions of pounds of Thames Water debt as the crisis-hit utility limps towards a private sector rescue deal aimed at averting the threat of temporary nationalisation.Sky News has learnt that Pimco – run by the former Man Group boss Emmanuel Roman – has in recent weeks reduced its exposure to Thames Water’s mountain of debt by selling the majority of its holdings to fellow investors including Apollo Global Management, Elliott Advisors and Silver Point Capital. Further details of the trades were unclear on Tuesday, although one insider said they accounted…