Business

Microsoft has been invited to showcase its products in 10 Downing Street on the same day that its $75bn takeover of games-maker Activision faces being blocked by British competition watchdogs. Sky News has learnt that the technology giant is among the companies due to attend an event organised by UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), the industry

The first UK-made Jaguar electric car is to be a £100,000 four-door grand tourer, the vehicle’s manufacturer has announced. The UK’s largest carmaker said its first British car to run fully on batteries will be made in the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Solihull plant in the West Midlands and will be available in selected markets

After the rate of inflation eased slightly but still remains above 10%, Ian is joined by KMPG’s chief economist Yael Selfin to discuss the official figures. He also talks to Alex Kendall – the chief executive of the UK-based autonomous vehicle group, Wayve – about Asda beginning what it claims is the UK’s biggest trial

Soaring food and non-alcoholic drink prices have kept UK inflation in double-figures and continued to put more pressure on household budgets. More expensive bread, cereals and chocolate all caused the overall average price of food and non-alcoholic drinks to increase 19.1% in the year to March. This is the sharpest 12-month increase since August 1977. Here are some of

Twitter will finally remove “legacy” blue ticks from verified accounts on Thursday. Elon Musk announced earlier this month that 20 April was the final date for culling the checkmarks – almost three weeks after the original plan to do so on April Fool’s Day. The only blue ticks left will be those with a Twitter

The government has made it its primary aim to halve inflation by the end of the year but things aren’t quite going to plan. Britain has shot up the leader board and now has western Europe’s highest rate of consumer price inflation. Economists were expecting the headline rate to fall from 10.4% to 9.8% in

The rate of inflation has eased slightly but still remains above 10%, according to official figures showing record costs for some essential foods. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the consumer prices index (CPI) measure slowed to 10.1% in March from 10.4% the previous month. Economists had largely expected a figure of 9.8%. The

Elon Musk has said he plans to create a “TruthGPT” to counter what he claims is liberal bias shown by a popular chatbot. The billionaire Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX owner told Fox News his alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT would be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe”. Musk also

Google’s chief executive had admitted the potential dangers of AI development “keep me up at night”. Sundar Pichai said the technology “can be very harmful if deployed wrongly” and backed growing calls for regulation amid concern about its impact on jobs, privacy, and how information is shared online. “We don’t have all the answers there

China’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the first quarter of the year, according to its official figures, following the end of strict COVID curbs at the end of 2022. The country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported an annual expansion of 4.5% between January and March. Economists polled by the Reuters news agency

The value of Manchester United fell following a report the controversial Glazer family would remain owners of the club. The company’s stock price fell 13% after ESPN said owners and co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer are confident they will secure investment to enable them to retain ownership of the club. The source cited in the

The giant American financial investor Carlyle is in talks about a major investment in Manchester United Football Club as the auction of the Premier League side nears its concluding stages. Sky News has learnt that Carlyle is among a handful of parties which have pitched proposals to acquire a minority stake in the Old Trafford

The pace of price rises in the US has eased faster than expected. The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation fell to 5% in the 12 months to March, the lowest level in nearly two years and down from 6% in the year to February. The rate of inflation in the US is now

Police are now investigating alleged sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The City of London Police said its inquiries were “at a very early stage”. Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Waight said: “The City of London police takes all acts of sexual misconduct and violence against women and girls extremely seriously. “We approached

You can actually get more of a sense of the mood at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from looking not at their latest forecasts, but at the kind of vocabulary they’re using around them. Words like “ominous”, “perilous” and “significant vulnerabilities” rather sum it up. The IMF is getting very nervous about the state of

The world economy is entering a “perilous phase” of low economic growth and high financial risk, the International Monetary Fund has warned in its latest set of assessments. The IMF, which is holding its spring meetings in Washington this week, downgraded its outlook for global growth and said its medium term forecast for economic output

Cryptocurrency Bitcoin has reached a 10-month high following the worst banking turmoil since the 2008 global financial crash and is now worth more than $30,000. One Bitcoin was worth $30,438 in Asian trading on Tuesday, a high not seen since June last year – but still less than half the all-time high value of more

Atom Bank, the app-based lender, has picked advisers to secure a further £100m in capital in what is expected to be its final fundraising before an attempt to list its shares publicly. Sky News understands the Durham-based company is working with bankers at Jefferies on a share sale that will take place in the coming

The average house price continued to rise in March – but at a slower rate than the previous month, according to a closely-watched index. The Halifax House Price Index shows that average prices rose by 0.8% in March – following a 1.2% rise in February, with the typical UK property now costing £287,880. The annual

Nintendo will now fix faulty Joy-Con controllers for its Switch console for free after years of complaints. The Japanese gaming company has been criticised since shortly after the system launched in 2017 over a fault that saw its analogue sticks register movement when not being used. It was dubbed “Joy-Con drift” and can impact players