Business

A water company boss has blamed people working from home for a new hosepipe ban.  South East Water will impose the first hosepipe ban of the summer from Monday, affecting more than two million homes and businesses across Kent and Sussex. Its chief executive, David Hinton, said in a letter to customers that post-pandemic working

The search for a submersible sent to tour the remains of the Titanic dominated coverage across cable news networks all week, along with the tragic news that the vessel most likely suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five on board. According to the latest figures from Nielsen, all three cable news networks saw a viewership

Mortgage lenders and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have agreed that people should be given a 12-month break before repossession proceedings start amid soaring interest rates. After the rise of the base rate to 5%, Mr Hunt met with leaders of financial institutions including Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and Virgin Money. They agreed that the repossession break should

Producer and songwriter “Dr. Luke” has dropped a defamation lawsuit against the singer Kesha, a former protégée who had accused him of rape in a 2014 lawsuit. That ends a dispute that lasted nearly a decade and damaged both careers. A statement posted to both parties’ social media accounts said the two “agreed to a

A rail union has revealed three fresh strike dates in July as part of a continuing fight for better pay. The RMT said its 20,000 members working across 14 train operating companies would walk out on 20, 22 and 29 July. The Open Championship is taking place at Royal Liverpool from 16-23 July, while fans

New York Mets pay-TV network SNY has been dropped by YouTube TV in the latest sign of decline for the traditional regional sports network model. In an email to its subscribers (with the ominous subject line “Service Update on SNY”), YouTube TV said the network would be taken off its service on 11:59 p.m. on

The Bank of England has shocked economists and investors by raising interest rates half a percentage point to 5% – the highest level since 2008. Economists had expected the Monetary Policy Committee to raise interest rates by only a quarter percentage point, but the MPC voted 7-2 for the surprise increase, explaining that it was

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been scrapping it out in the social media ether for months and now they’re ready to do the business in a cage. In a hardly believable exchange that has taken place over the last couple of days, Musk said “I’m up for a cage match if he is” in

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is selling its stake in McLaren, the supercar maker and Formula One team-owner, in a deal that will reinforce Bahrain’s status as the company’s biggest shareholder. Sky News has learnt that Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s state investment fund, will announce on Thursday that it is buying the preference shares in McLaren Group

UPDATE: The House voted 213-209 to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), as Democrats jeered loudly in the chamber as the roll call wrapped up. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) then moved to give Schiff a verbal rebuke as Democrats shouted “shame” and “disgrace.” They continued to shout as McCarthy began to read the censure resolution,

The rate of price rises has remained 8.7% despite expectations of a fall, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced the consumer price index measure of inflation stood at 8.7% in the year up to May, the same as the rate in April. A slight decrease, to 8.4%, had been expected

Sweden’s Embracer paid nearly $396M for the rights to the Lord of the Rings franchise. The 4.25BN SEK ($395.6M) paid for Middle-earth Enterprises was revealed today in Embracer’s annual report. At the time of the deal, no financial figure was placed on the agreement but was thought to be much higher than what has emerged.

The chancellor has ruled out mortgage bill support for fear it would increase inflation. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Jeremy Hunt told MPs that “schemes which involve injecting large amounts of cash into the economy, right now will be inflationary”. Despite expressing sympathy for people with higher mortgage costs he said, “we won’t

In-theater advertising firm National CineMedia announced a special shareholders meeting to vote on a reverse stock split — a move that boosts the price of a company’s shares — as it risks being delisted by the Nasdaq market and works through a voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization. The company, which was founded and is largely owned

The pace of grocery inflation has eased to its slowest monthly rate this year, according to industry data that backs hopes the worst may be over. Kantar Worldpanel, which tracks supermarket sales and prices, reported a rate of 16.5% over the four weeks to 11 June. That was down from the 17.2% figure revealed a

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media has struck a partnership with TikTok, with an initial focus on Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine to uncover underrepresented independent authors and literary material from the #BookTok community. Unveiled today at Cannes Lions, TikTok said it will “leverage Candle Media’s storytelling capabilities across its business units to launch new

It’s too early to talk about job losses, as part of a deal that would create the UK’s biggest mobile phone operator, the Vodafone UK chief executive exclusively told Sky’s Ian King Live programme. “Some roles” might be impacted by the merger with Three, Ahmed Essam said, in his first interview since the deal was

Fox News has released a preview clip of anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Donald Trump, the former president’s first sit down since he was indicted last week on federal charges related to his withholding of classified documents. According to the clip (watch it below), Trump offered another explanation for why he didn’t just return the

The prime minister has declined to back extra support for mortgage holders despite higher interest rates making payments more expensive – and a further rise in rates expected. Asked if the government will introduce financial support for mortgage bills, similar to those introduced to help with energy bills, Rishi Sunak said he understood the public

The second day of the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance music festival at The Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington has been canceled after shooting deaths at a nearby campground. Two people were killed at the campgrounds on Saturday night and three others were wounded, including the shooter, according to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. The shooter