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
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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
A former member of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet is joining the board of Cazoo, the second-hand car retailer which is preparing to drive onto the US stock market in a $7bn deal. Sky News has learnt that Luciana Berger, who spent nearly a decade representing Labour and then the Liberal Democrats as MP for Liverpool
SAG-AFTRA has told its members not to work on an indie movie called The Curse of the Clown Motel. The union says the producer, Kalon Entertainment, “has failed to demonstrate its compliance with SAG-AFTRA’s required Covid-19 safety standards and protocols for a safe set.” Do Not Work notices from the union are not uncommon, but
The number of people looking to buy property in Cornwall has risen by more than 140% – the highest growth rate of any county in Britain. Analysis for Sky News by the property website Rightmove has found more than 15 million people searched for properties in Cornwall in the first quarter of this year, compared
EXCLUSIVE: Matt Hood, Deputy General Secretary of UK trade union Equity, is joining casting platform Talent Systems as Managing Director of Spotlight. Hood will be responsible for running the Spotlight business in the UK and Europe and working with the company’s leadership team to help grow Talent Systems globally. He will succeed outgoing CEO Richard
Ian King speaks to Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardiner about a jump in house prices. Plus, hear from The Times banking editor Katherine Griffiths about Barclays’ biggest quarterly profits in 13 years. And Hannah Kuchler, the global pharmaceuticals correspondent for the Financial Times, joins the show to discuss drugmaker AstraZeneca’s sharp rise in profits –
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a bill ready for signature that would stop social media companies from permanently kicking people off their platforms in the state. The bill was passed Thursday by the Florida House 77-38 in favor of the bill, the Senate, 23-17. It makes it a crime to remove state political candidates from
Business leaders have raised concerns that the UK’s fast growth in offshore wind is not being matched with benefits to the economy. The port of Blyth in Northumberland was once the biggest exporter of coal in Europe but has transformed itself into a leading hub for offshore energy, and most of its work is with
Today’s quarterly results from AstraZeneca are a very timely reminder that, for all the debate about the drug-maker’s involvement in the Oxford COVID vaccine, it is of very little importance to the financial fortunes of what is currently the fifth-largest company in the FTSE 100. In fact, AZ is actually losing money on its involvement
On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released new data on Covid-19, reporting 29 new deaths and 500 new positive cases. While the Department’s data showed that hospitalizations continue to decrease, case numbers and deaths reported may reflect delays in weekend reporting. Public Health’s data brings L.A. County to a total of 1,233,488
David Ross, the billionaire co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse and prominent Conservative Party donor, is to step down as chairman of the Royal Opera House (ROH) just months into a four-year tenure. Sky News has learnt that trustees of the globally renowned institution in London’s Covent Garden have begun preparing to find another long-term chairman
Refresh for updates… After the death of Olympia Dukakis was announced on Saturday, social media reactions from former collaborators and Hollywood admirers began pouring in. Actress, singer and TV personality Cher shared her memories from the set of Moonstruck, in which she played Dukakis’ daughter. “Even Though Her part was That Of a Suffering Wife, We