Hospitality chiefs have urged the chancellor to prepare a new financial support package for the industry even as remaining restrictions on their operations are lifted in the coming weeks. Sky News has seen a letter sent this weekend sent by Kate Nicholls, the UK Hospitality chief executive, to Rishi Sunak in which she calls on
Business
The backlash against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is showing no sign of ebbing. Mark Ruffalo, who won a Golden Globe Award this year, called out the international journalists group today. Hours after Deadline broke the news about Netflix’s Ted Sarandos vowing to stop activities with HFPA until more extensive changes occur, Ruffalo and GLAAD issued
Britain’s biggest high street lender is in advanced talks about its biggest corporate acquisition since it was returned to full private ownership four years ago. Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group is close to finalising a £400m takeover of Embark Group, a privately owned provider of savings and retirement products. City sources said
“I’ve never been in a space station before,” said David Letterman onstage last Sunday as he looked around the gleaming cavern of SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Letterman was there to introduce Foo Fighters who — along with Jennifer Lopez, H.E.R., Eddie Vedder, Selena Gomez, Prince Harry and J Balvin — were a part of
The UK is set to relax restrictions for visiting a handful of countries under a new traffic light system. Those returning to the UK from countries on the green list will not need to self-isolate for 10 days, while visitors to countries on the amber list will have to quarantine and get tested on their
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki indicated this week that the White House hopes to name nominees for ambassadorships “soon,” a highly anticipated announcement in L.A. donor circles and among Democratic fundraisers across the country. Only adding to the chatter of who is in line for what was an Axios report this week that Los
The parent firm of British Airways has demanded government action in “four key areas” to help facilitate the restart of foreign travel while revealing a reduction in first quarter losses. International Airlines Group (IAG) argued that the authorities globally needed to assist airlines begin the process of economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis through measures
In an upbeat annual report to members released Friday, WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson said that despite the hardships imposed by the pandemic, “overall our members’ earnings remained remarkably strong.” Freelance film, TV and streaming writers, he wrote, “have mostly remained employed throughout the pandemic,” though “some members certainly lost work opportunities – series
It is a striking number, a historic one. The strongest economic growth since 1941. The Bank of England’s decision to upgrade its growth forecast for this year from 5% to 7.25% is not exactly a surprise. Everyone was expecting a big number, and indeed up until the third lockdown over the opening months of 2020
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron was nearly giddy Thursday, quoting Winston Churchill, trying to top him, talking up a box office recovery, the chain’s expanded market share, cash position and hiring plans and millions of new retail investors who have replaced China’s Wanda Group as its core shareholder base. Like an Oscar acceptance speech, he
The Bank of England has upgraded its growth forecast for the coronavirus-hit UK economy and signalled it will not raise the interest rate in the near term – despite seeing a looming spike in inflation ahead. The latest meeting of the central bank’s interest rate-setting committee left policy unchanged, with rates remaining at their COVID-19
While Los Angeles County will wait until tomorrow to loosen business restrictions in accordance with its move into the least-restrictive Yellow tier of the state’s economic-reopening blueprint, Pasadena and Long Beach enacted eased guidelines today, including the reopening of indoor bars. Weekly statistics released by the state Tuesday showed L.A. county’s rate of daily new
Uber has set aside $600m (£430m) to resolve “historical claims” relating to its private hire drivers in the UK after it lost a legal battle over their employment rights. The company said in March that it would give basic protections to 70,000 drivers in the country, following the Supreme Court defeat earlier in the year
Outkick Media, a sports-focused digital media brand that gained attention in the years after its founding in 2008 by relentlessly attacking ESPN, is being acquired by Fox Corp. Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox, on Fox’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts described the deal as a fit with Fox’s ongoing push into sports wagering. He
The new owners of Asda have offered to sell a number of petrol stations they already controlled in a bid to ease competition fears that could lead to the £6.8bn deal being blocked. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) declared last month it was concerned that the takeover would weaken competition in relation to the
Fox Sports has struck a deal with CONMEBOL, to become the new home of South American national team soccer. The network’s six-year agreement with the South American Football Federation will bring more of FIFA’s top-ranked men’s and women’s teams and players into its portfolio than ever before. CONMEBOL Copa América 2021 kicks Fox Sports’ supersized “Summer of
Tinder’s parent company Match Group has set its sights on a “summer of love” surge for its global dating platforms as coronavirus vaccinations increase and economies reopen. Match forecast revenue for the April-June quarter of up to $690m, 24% up on the same period last year and ahead of estimates pencilled in by analysts. That
EXCLUSIVE: Heather McGhee’s New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together is getting the audio series treatment. Higher Ground, the production company set up by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, has struck an option deal to turn the non-fiction book into a Spotify podcast
There is growing evidence the economy is finding a new gear following more than a year of coronavirus disruption, with two readings of activity showing record rates of growth for this century. First, data from the Bank of England showed the biggest net increase in mortgage lending on record during March – driven by tax
The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to authorize use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in kids 12 to 15 years old as soon as next week, according to federal officials via the New York Times. If permission is granted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel will likely meet the following