Author: SKYNEWS

More than 10 years ago, I filmed my kids for a report on the impact of screens on young minds.My eldest daughter was six at the time, her twin sisters nearly three. They didn’t have their own devices – Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube were beyond their imagination. TikTok hadn’t even been invented.Yet now as teenagers their lives, like pretty much every other child we know, are dominated by social media. Snapchat is central to their social lives and TikTok is a go-to dopamine fix. Image: More than 10 years ago, Tom Clarke’s children didn’t have their own devices… Image: ……

A former Strictly Come Dancing star who took his own life in 2024 was “vulnerable to rejection both emotionally and professionally”, an inquest jury has concluded.Professional dancer Robin Windsor, 44, was found dead in a hotel room in Shepherd’s Bush. He left a note saying the way he was treated when he was dropped from Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 “destroyed him”, jurors at West London Coroner’s Court heard.After deliberating for around two hours, the forewoman gave the jury’s findings on Thursday, saying: “We agree that the probable causes are an accumulation of many attributes to depression.”Robin Jamie Windsor suffered…

A satellite data start-up which shrinks file sizes in order to transmit larger quantities of information has won backing from an early investor in SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket-making behemoth.Sky News understands that The Compression Company will on Friday announce a $3.4m (£2.5m) fundraising led by Long Journey, which has backed some of the world’s biggest technology businesses, including SpaceX, Uber and Anduril. The Compression Company uses AI-driven compression which runs onboard satellites in order to reduce file sizes by more than 95%, which it says unlocks one of the principal bottlenecks in the delivery of useful data back to Earth.The…

Decades after the first demonstration of brain computer interfaces, we have reached a “tipping point” in creating the first reliable devices that can read our thoughts, according to the man who pioneered the technology.Professor John Donoghue, who developed BrainGate – the first “brain chip” – at Brown University in Rhode Island, has just shared in the Queen Elizabeth Prize, the world’s preeminent engineering award, in recognition of his work to “unlock” the minds of people with paralysis. “If you want to control a computer, or you want to be able to restore speech, I think there’s no reason why we…

The Prince of Wales has visited a nature reserve on the final day of his first tour of Saudi Arabia to learn about a programme reintroducing endangered species.The future king toured the Sharaan Nature Reserve in the east of the country to hear about ongoing conservation initiatives aimed at protecting and reintroducing native species such as gazelles and the Arabian oryx.He was also told about a flagship programme to bring back the critically endangered Arabian leopard.The prince planted an acacia tree at the reserve as he was given details about ongoing efforts to protect its natural wildlife and landscape. Image: William plants…

Millions more workers could be indirectly affected by changes to the salary sacrifice scheme announced in the November budget, a former pensions minister has warned.Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that from April 2029 only the first £2,000 of pension contributions made through salary sacrifice will be exempt from National Insurance. Contributions above £2,000 will, from that date, be subject to employer and employee National Insurance.HMRC estimates that 7.7 million employees use salary sacrifice to make pension contributions – 3.3 million of whom sacrifice more than £2,000.But Steve Webb, a former pensions minister and a partner at LCP, says the number of…

Half a dozen beavers have been legally released at two sites in Somerset in a bid to restore a river and wetland. The releases, one involving a mother and her three children and another involving a pair of Eurasian beavers, took place at spots across the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate on Exmoor on Tuesday. It is the second time the charity has been granted a licence by Natural England to release beavers into the wild after the first release on the Purbeck Estate in Dorset in March last year. The species was previously released into enclosed areas of the Holnicote Estate…

US singer Chappell Roan has announced she is leaving her talent agency, after emails between its founder and Ghislaine Maxwell were featured in the Epstein files.The Grammy-winning star shared a statement on social media announcing her departure from Wasserman, led by Casey Wasserman, saying she holds her teams “to the highest standards” and has “a duty to protect them” as well. “No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values,” she added. Image: Casey Wasserman is chairman of organising the Olympics in 2028. Pic: AP/ Damian…

BP has reported a 16% drop in annual profits following the slump in wholesale oil prices towards the end of 2025.The company, which is awaiting the arrival of a new chief executive in April amid its renewed drive for oil and gas earnings, reported net profits of $7.5bn (£5.5bn). BP said it had made progress against its four main objectives, including growing cash flow and reducing costs, but was going further.It suspended share buybacks to help unlock more cash for oil and gas opportunities.Money latest: Illegal supplements for sale Interim chief executive Carol Howle told investors: “With a continued emphasis…

When leading AI company Anthropic launched its latest AI model, Claude Opus 4.6, at the end of last week, it broke many measures of intelligence and effectiveness – including one crucial benchmark: the vending machine test.Yes, AIs run vending machines now, under the watchful eyes of researchers at Anthropic and AI thinktank Andon Labs. The idea is to test the AI’s ability to coordinate multiple different logistical and strategic challenges over a long period.As AI shifts from talking to performing increasingly complex tasks, this is more and more important.A previous vending machine experiment, where Anthropic installed a vending machine in…