Rishi Sunak has abandoned his predecessor’s plan to intervene in global energy markets by spending billions of pounds on foreign gas imports. Sky News has learnt that Liz Truss’s Energy Supply Taskforce (EST), which was launched in September, is being scrapped. Headed by Madelaine McTernan, who was director-general of the government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce, the
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Kim Simmonds, leader of the last post-Beatles wave of British blues bands with Savoy Brown, has died at the age of 75, the band announced. Simmonds died Tuesday, the band announced on Facebook on Thursday. The group had been together for more than 55 years. Simmonds had been battling stage 4 signet cell colon cancer,
Rail workers have entered the second half of their latest 48-hour strike – as the business secretary says he is hopeful that a resolution can be found “sooner rather than later”. Grant Shapps was speaking to Sky News as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union prepared for another day of industrial action in
EXCLUSIVE: BET has signed a first-look non-scripted deal and a second-look scripted deal with Mary J. Blige and her production company, Blue Butterfly. In addition to her partnership with BET, Blue Butterfly has a first-look scripted TV deal with Lionsgate Television. The first project from her first-look deal with BET is the unscripted series The
Workers at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ Goodwood factory are to receive a pay award worth up to 17.6% after negotiations between the luxury automaker and Unite the union. In all, 1,200 production workers at the West Sussex plant are to receive a salary boost of 10% and a one-off payment of £2,000 from January, avoiding the
Ain’t No Mo’, playwright Jordan E. Cooper’s acclaimed but struggling Broadway comedy, has extended its run for another week and will now play through Friday, December 23, at the Belasco Theatre. Cooper announced the extension at the curtain call following tonight’s performance. The reprieve comes just days after the production, presented by Lee Daniels, announced
There was a surprise fall in retail sales last month as shoppers remained cautious given the squeeze on budgets from inflation in the run-up to Christmas. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a fall in sales volumes of 0.3% compared to October when the effects of fuel sales were excluded. Economists had expected to
EXCLUSIVE: Britton Rizzio’s boutique management firm Curate Management, focused on creators in film and TV, has announced its acquisition of Zipa Entertainment, the Mexico City-based management company founded by Sofia Escallon. Escallon now joins Curate as a Partner, and will spearhead the company’s efforts to expand internationally. Zipa’s focus on bilingual and bi-cultural showrunners, writers
The Bank of England has revealed a 0.5 percentage point interest rate increase – its ninth consecutive rise as it maintains its battle against inflation. The decision, by its monetary policy committee (MPC), took the bank rate to 3.5% – a fresh high not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The move, however, represented a
Chris Redd is opening up about his brutal attack outside a comedy club in New York City back in October and the former Saturday Night Live star feels that it was planned out. The comedian made an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Bennington Show where he shared he saw surveillance footage of his attacker hanging around
The rules limiting the volume of liquids allowed on planes and requiring electronics to be taken out of hand luggage in security are to change. The government has set a deadline of June 2024 for major UK airports to install new security technology, which will make obsolete the rule to bring no more than 100ml
The Washington Post is the latest media company to announce layoffs as the industry grapples with a softening ad market. Publisher Fred Ryan said at a company town hall on Thursday that the layoffs would take place in the first quarter, but did not specify an exact figure, according to a staffer who was there.
US interest rates are now at their highest since the global financial crisis as the US central bank has again imposed an increase as it seeks to lower inflation. The Federal Reserve, known as the Fed, has imposed a 0.50 percentage points rise in interest rates. The widely-expected rise will mean more expensive borrowing for
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation granted more than $800,000 in emergency financial assistance, Covid assistance, senior financial crisis aid, health assistance and disaster relief this year to members of the union, the foundation’s president, Courtney B. Vance, said in his year-end fireside chat. He also reported that the Foundation awarded another $300,000 in higher education scholarships to
The rate of inflation eased to 10.7% from 11.1% last month, according to official figures showing that food and the cost of a night out continue to rise in price ahead of Christmas. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said falling motor fuel prices led the decline in the core consumer prices index (CPI) measure
Ain’t No Mo’, the Broadway debut of author and star Jordan E. Cooper, opened at the Belasco Theatre on Dec. 1 to the sort of reviews producers and playwrights dream about. Even the few critics who weren’t completely won over couldn’t help but point out a singular brilliance at work here, not to mention a
Money stolen by the former boss of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges was being sent to political candidates to gain influence and impact policy in Washington DC, it has been alleged. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, has been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The US attorney leading the
Mariah Carey has risen to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts once again with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and unseated Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” after a six-week streak at the pinnacle of the list. In fact, it took the combined powers of Carey’s holiday classic and Christmas to knock Swift off.
The UK recorded its second largest fall in real wage growth since records began in 2001 during October while the unemployment rate also rose, according to the latest official jobs figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that wage growth was 4.2% weaker when the effects of CPI inflation were included – following a
Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk continued his war of words with critics after being booed at length by the audience at a Dave Chappelle show Sunday night in San Francisco. “The woke mind virus is either defeated or nothing else matters,” he tweeted Monday morning after facing a tough crowd at a Punchline Comedy Club