Author: SKYNEWS

Britain’s payments watchdog is expected to be abolished as part of a purge of regulators being thrashed out in Whitehall.Sky News has learnt that ministers and officials are examining whether to scrap the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) and fold it into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A decision is expected to be taken in principle within weeks, although sources indicated this weekend that the government was “actively considering” a decision to scrap the body.If confirmed, it would form part of a crackdown on Britain’s economic regulators instigated by Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, as…

Personalised cancer treatment, matched to a patient via a simple blood test, is being hailed as “life-saving”, following an initial study.The Target National trial, being conducted at The Christie hospital in Manchester, analyses a patient’s DNA to determine what type of therapy will work best for them. If successful, researchers hope the procedure could become “routinely available on the NHS”.Dr Matthew Krebs, the study’s chief investigator, tells Sky News its research was making “precision medicine” more accessible for a wider range of cancer patients.”There are tiny bits of DNA which come off the cancer that circulate around in the bloodstream,”…

Pamela Anderson is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood.Ever since she was spotted on the huge jumbotron screen at a baseball game aged 21, her physical traits have been the overriding subject the world has focused on. Now 57, the actress and model is claiming back her life, her story and forging a new path in her career.”I feel so free,” she tells Sky News during a conversation in a London hotel about her latest film The Last Showgirl.”I write a lot of emotional journals and there’s a lot that you can get out. You can go to…

Cliff Nicholls runs two trampoline parks and indoor play centres: one in Tamworth in the West Midlands, the other in Bolton, Greater Manchester. He’s already feeling the pressure from the government’s latest budget measures and has been forced to abandon further investment plans.”The national minimum wage increases coming in April, combined with the reduced thresholds for national insurance and the increased rate of employers’ national insurance, will have a very significant impact,” Cliff said.To cut costs, he’s already made drastic changes. “We’ve had to take some fairly radical decisions, reducing our opening hours, making a senior staff member redundant because…

A newly discovered bat coronavirus could at some point spread to humans like COVID-19, Chinese researchers have found.The virus, HKU5-CoV-2, does not enter human cells as readily as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, the scientists reported in the journal Cell. However, they found that the bat virus uses the same cell-surface protein, ACE2, as SARS-CoV-2 to help it enter human cells.In lab experiments, HKU5-CoV-2 infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways.Read more science and technology news:How AI is being used to manipulate German votersNew prostate cancer screening trial announcedDonated placenta…

A man has been found guilty of attempted murder for attacking author Sir Salman Rushdie.The 77-year-old British-American writer was stabbed multiple times as he was preparing to give a speech in New York in 2022. He was blinded in his right eye in the incident, suffered a severely damaged hand, and spent months recovering.Following a trial in Chautauqua County Court, a jury convicted 27-year-old Hadi Matar of attempting to murder Sir Salman, after less than two hours of deliberations.He was also found guilty of assault for wounding Henry Reese, who was on stage with Sir Salman at the time. Matar…

Shops were given a surprisingly big boost in January as official figures showed retail sales rose by 1.7%.Only a 0.3% rise had been forecast by economists polled by Reuters. It’s the first growth since August and follows a fall of 0.6% in the key shopping month of December, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.Not since May has there been a rise this large.The December drop was even larger than first thought. Initially, only a 0.3% contraction was recorded by the ONS. Money blog: What are your rights if you have bad phone signal?The large rise in January came…

A Spanish photographer has been named Underwater Photographer of the Year for his picture of a humpback whale and her newborn calf in French Polynesia. Alvaro Herrero beat more than 6,750 other entries to take home this year’s prize. His photo shows “a mother’s love and communicates the beauty and fragility of life in our ocean”, the competition’s organisers said.Judge Peter Rowlands added: “This delicate yet powerful study of a mother and calf’s bond says all that is great and good about our world.”We face our challenges, but the increasing populations of humpback whales worldwide shows what can be achieved.” Image:…

Speculation about the next James Bond was rife even before Daniel Craig confirmed once and for all that he was stepping down.Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Idris Elba? Henry Cavill? James Norton? A female 007? Three-and-a-half years on from No Time To Die, already delayed due to COVID and other problems, there has not been a scrap of confirmation.But now – plot twist – comes the announcement that Bond’s long-time producers and custodians Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson are handing creative control to Amazon MGM Studios. Image: Daniel Craig in his first outing as Bond, Casino Royale, in 2006. Pic: Rex/Shutterstock It’s…

What happens when you put a boyhood fan in charge of their club?They discover it’s not so simple to run after all. And the fans you sat with many years ago are as impatient as ever. Anger reverberates exactly a year since Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS organisation gained day-to-day control of football operations at Manchester United. Image: Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Old Trafford. Pic: PA Fans are furious about ticket price rises.A charity helping former players has had funding slashed. And rank-and-file staff – many loyal for years without Premier League salaries – have been swept out with…