Author: SKYNEWS

Britain’s biggest high street lender is closing in on a deal to buy Curve, a provider of digital wallet technology that its new owner hopes will give it an edge in the race to build smarter online payments systems.Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group could announce the acquisition of Curve for about £120m as soon as this week. City sources said this weekend that the terms of a transaction had been agreed, although a formal announcement could yet slip to later in the month.Lloyds has been in talks with Curve about a takeover for some time, with Sky…

The world’s richest man could be in line for a roughly $1trn pay award.Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, is trying to pay him about $1trn over the next decade. Money blog: UK airport ranked worst for fourth year in a rowUnder the proposal, Mr Musk would receive no salary or bonus but instalments of company shares for hitting ambitious targets around increasing Tesla’s market share, sales, revenue and company value.It’s hoped that the incentives will drive Mr Musk’s performance after he left his role at the US government’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and returned to spending time in…

Conservationists in Ibiza are warning the island’s native bright blue and green lizards are coming ever closer to extinction due to the mounting threats of invasive snakes and tourists’ litter.The Ibiza wall lizard is endemic to Ibiza and neighbouring Formentera and is vital to the ecosystem of the islands, experts say, for pollinating plants and controlling pests. Since the 2000s, the small, colourful reptiles, which are harmless to humans, have become endangered due to the proliferation of invasive snakes that first arrived in imported trees. Image: Conservationists say Ibiza lizards are endangered. Pic: Dean Gallagher Conservation foundation IbizaPreservation says snakes…

The new owner of WH Smith’s high street empire and the saviour of HMV are racing to salvage a future of Claire’s, the accessories retailer which slumped into administration last month, putting thousands of jobs at risk.Sky News has learnt that Modella Capital, which is to rebrand hundreds of WH Smith shops under the name TG Jones, made an offer to buy Claire’s from administrators at Interpath in the last ten days. Sources said that Doug Putman, whose Sunrise Records rescued HMV in 2019 and who failed in a bid to buy Wilko after its collapse four years later, had…

Morrissey has announced he is putting the entirety of his business interests in The Smiths up for sale “to any interested party/investor”.The 66-year-old musician, whose full name is Steven Patrick Morrissey, posted on social media and his website, Morrissey Solo, titling the post “A Soul for Sale,” telling fans he “has no choice”. Image: The Smiths in 1987 – the year they split. Pic: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock The deal includes the band’s name and artwork (which he created), as well as his share of merchandising rights, lyrical and musical compositions, synchronisation, recordings and publishing contractual rights.The musician said he was “burnt…

So little money has been set aside by the NHS for the rollout of the Mounjaro weight-loss jab in GP surgeries that as few as one in five people with life-threatening obesity is likely to get treatment, new research shows.The NHS estimates that around 220,000 people living with obesity will be eligible for treatment through their GP over the next three years. But Freedom of Information requests by the British Medical Journal revealed that funding from NHS England has fallen well short of what is needed for the rollout.Just nine out of 40 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England said…

Britain’s biggest holiday parks operator is lining up an American investment firm to provide hundreds of millions of pounds of funding firepower as it eyes opportunities to consolidate the market.Sky News has learnt that Centerbridge Partners, which has more than $50bn in assets under management, is in talks to inject roughly £250m into Parkdean Resorts. The funding, which would be provided as debt, has yet to be finalised, with sources close to Parkdean saying on Friday that other parties remained interested in leading the deal.Money blog: UK airport ranked worst for fourth year in a rowParkdean operates 65 sites across…

A woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” has officially pleaded guilty to selling Friends star Matthew Perry the drug that killed him.Jasveen Sangha initially denied the charges but agreed to change her plea in a signed statement in August, just a few weeks before she had been due to stand trial. The 42-year-old, a dual citizen of the US and the UK, has now appeared in a federal court in Los Angeles to plead guilty to five charges, including supplying the ketamine that led to Perry’s death.She faces up to 65 years in prison after admitting one count of maintaining…

Fashion giant Shein has opened an investigation after a shirt was advertised on its site, modelled by a man bearing a striking resemblance to Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering a US healthcare chief executive.The image with Mangione’s likeness, wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt, has since been taken down. Shein, one of the world’s biggest fast fashion retailers, told Sky News: “The image in question was provided by a third-party vendor and was removed immediately upon discovery.”We have stringent standards for all listings on our platform. We are conducting a thorough investigation, strengthening our monitoring processes, and will take…

Harrods is to remove sculptures of Mohamed al Fayed who is accused of raping and sexually assaulting dozens of women.The famous store in Knightsbridge, west London, has submitted a planning application to renovate a detailed Egyptian-themed hall and replace a five-floor escalator which features busts depicting former owner Fayed as a pharaoh. The application acknowledges “the Egyptian Escalator explicitly celebrates Mr al Fayed, including sixteen huge sculptures of his face”, adding that they represent “a visual reminder of his misdeeds”.It adds: “Obituaries, while referring to his extraordinary business career, characterised him as a liar, a fantasist and an aggressive sexual…