Lenders to Virgin Active are preparing for a fight over the future of one of Britain’s biggest gym chains as its owners draw up a radical blueprint to help it survive the pandemic. Sky News has learnt that a syndicate of roughly half a dozen banks held a beauty parade of financial advisers this week
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“The projection is that at the very end of March, early April,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the more contagious UK variant of Covid-19 “will become more dominant than the wild type. “The fact is that when you have a virus that has ability to transmit more efficiently than the wild type in the community, sooner
Financial markets have been rocked this week by a battle initiated by ordinary people against those who are usually dubbed market manipulators – hedge funds. This is not being fought on trading floors but online and is a consequence of an explosion in the popularity of amateur share trading by armchair investors and collaboration among
For the second year running, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival were canceled, according to a release posted by their promoter, Goldenvoice. The festival promoter posted an order from the health officer of Riverside County citing the “worldwide epidemic of Covid-19 disease.” The order referenced the worldwide appeal
Shares in US retailer GameStop have fallen 44% to lose some of the extraordinary gains fuelled by Reddit users – only to recover again in after-hours trading. Thousands of investors have been buying the shares to try to reap quick gains and impose losses on hedge funds who have “shorted” the company – betting billions
Premiering tonight at the semi-virtual Sundance Film Festival, Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is both an exhilarating and chastising experience. Unearthing a cultural sarcophagus of 1969 Black America, the dexterous directorial debut by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson is full of triumphal performances from some of the greatest musicians of that
Boohoo Group is in advanced talks to acquire the remaining components of Sir Philip Green’s high street empire in a deal that will accelerate the transition of famous British retail names to becoming online-only brands. Sky News has learnt that Boohoo is nearing exclusive negotiations to snap up the Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis brands
EXCLUSIVE: CAA has signed screenwriter, producer and author Selwyn Seyfu Hinds. Hinds’ has a handful of films in development including Prince Of Cats, the adaptation of Ronald Wimberly’s graphic novel, at Legendary; and 1000 Miles, based on the memoir Running A Thousand Miles For Freedom by William and Ellen Craft, to be directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper for
US financial market regulators are to review the extraordinary rallies in the shares of struggling gaming retailer Gamestop, part-driven by participants of an investor forum on Reddit. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it was working with fellow regulators to “assess the situation and review the activities of regulated entities, financial intermediaries, and other market
NBCU’s streaming service Peacock has hit 33 million signups across the U.S. to date, parent Comcast said Thursday. That’s up from 28 million on Dec. 8 when execs last updated the figure at an investor conference. Comcast saw fourth quarter revenue and adjusted EPS dip from the year earlier but beat expectations at, respectively, $27.7
Record iPhone sales have helped Apple deliver revenues of more than $100bn over the Christmas quarter. Apple’s results beat Wall Street estimates as demand from stay-at-home consumers also boosted its Mac computers and iPad tablets over the three months to 26 December. Overall revenues climbed 21% compared with a year earlier to $111.4bn while iPhone
Two days after California Governor Gavin Newsom suddenly announced he was rescinding his Regional Stay-at-Home Order, deaths statewide and in L.A. County remained at near-record levels. Los Angeles officials announced on Wednesday that the county had recorded 307 virus-related deaths in the past 24 hours. That’s just 11 short of the highest-ever total of lives
The 737 MAX has been cleared to resume passenger flights in Europe in a boost for Boeing as it prepares to reveal, what is expected to be, a record annual loss for the company. The US plane maker has been locked in crisis mode since the flagship of its fleet of planes was grounded globally
AT&T said the number of activated subscriptions to streaming service HBO Max doubled in the fourth quarter to 17.2 million compared with the third quarter, partly due to the release of Wonder Woman 1984. The number of overall domestic subscriptions to both regular HBO and HBO Max reached 41.5 million, which the company said was
A surge in demand for new Xbox consoles as well as further growth in cloud computing has helped Microsoft deliver better than expected results over the Christmas quarter. Shares climbed 4% in after-hours trading adding to big gains over the last year for the US tech giant seen as one of the winners from the
On Tuesday, Johns Hopkins University revealed that Covid-19 had infected more than 100 million people globally. That milestone comes a little over one year since the first case was confirmed in the United States. The U.S. now accounts for over one-quarter of those 100 million cases, even though it has only 4% of the world’s
The UK’s unemployment rate has hit 5% for the first time in over four years, according to official figures which suggest over 200,000 people lost their jobs in the three months to November. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also said 828,000 fewer people were on company payrolls through December compared to the pre-COVID-19 crisis
Two CBS local television executives are on administrative leave starting Monday night after a report by the Los Angeles Times alleges the bosses of inappropriate conduct towards women and people of color. A statement from CBS confirmed that President of the CBS Television Stations Peter Dunn and Senior Vice President, News David Friend have been
ASOS has said it is in pole position to snap up the most valuable brands, including TopShop, within Sir Philip Green’s collapsed Arcadia empire. The online fashion retailer issued a short statement to the City on Monday morning to announce it was in “exclusive” talks with administrators after Sky News revealed details on Saturday. The
A bankruptcy court judge Monday confirmed a liquidation plan for the former Weinstein Co., which filed for Chapter 11 three years ago as disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein imploded in a sea of sexual abuse and harassment accusations. Weinstein the man is serving a 23-year sentence for rape and assault at a correctional facility in upstate