Business

Wine and gin drinkers will have to shell out more from today as alcohol taxes rise. The shake-up aims to encourage drinkers to cut back by taxing all alcohol based on its strength, rather than the previous categories of wine, beer, spirits and ciders. The increase will see duty rise by 44p on a bottle

San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection has said it is investigating a giant flashing X on top of Twitter’s headquarters, amid a series of complaints. People based in the area complained about intrusive lights, with video circulating on social media showing the X sign emitting a blinding white pulsing light, particularly affecting a high-rise building

Rishi Sunak will head to Scotland on Monday as the Conservatives kick off a week of campaigning on energy security. Number 10 said the prime minister would use the trip to “highlight the central role” the country will play in “defending the UK against disrupted global energy supplies” and reaching the government’s net zero targets.

A consumer debt advice start-up aimed at helping Britons weather the cost-of-living crisis has secured external funding ahead of its public launch. Sky News understands that SuperFi, which is aimed at an estimated 18m adults who are wrestling with monthly household bills, will announce on Friday that it has raised $1m in a pre-seed round.

Tech giant Meta is the latest company to beat Wall Street revenue expectations as the number of people using its platforms grew, but Metaverse losses mounted and AI spending rose. Revenue at the WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook parent company was up 11% to $32bn (£24.7bn), greater than the 7% growth expected by analysts. User numbers

A British healthcare company which allows patients to perform blood tests at home to aid their cancer treatment has received a $20m (£15.4m) funding shot in the arm. Sky News understands that Entia, which has previously struck partnerships with the likes of Pfizer, the American pharmaceuticals behemoth, will announce this week the closing of a

In Premier League rules strengthened in March, being convicted of corruption would disqualify someone from owning or controlling a club. But Tottenham insist Joe Lewis should no longer be described as their owner while fighting charges in the US. A change quietly made last year saw Lewis officially cease to be someone with “significant control”

The energy regulator has published a series of proposals that, it hopes, will provide greater protections for households and businesses in time for the coming winter when gas and electricity charges peak. Ofgem said it was responding to complaints about poor customer service standards through planned new rules to ensure households can contact suppliers and

Robinhood Markets, the US stock trading app, has hired a senior executive from Freetrade, a British fintech company, to spearhead revived plans for a UK launch. Sky News has learnt that Jordan Sinclair, a former Barclays executive, has been appointed as Robinhood’s UK CEO. A filing registered with the Financial Conduct Authority shows Mr Sinclair’s

The UK data watchdog is looking into a cryptocurrency scheme launched by OpenAI boss Sam Altman that offers digital coins in exchange for eyeball scans. It comes after the billionaire entrepreneur, whose artificial intelligence company created ChatGPT, helped launch Worldcoin in cities around the world on Monday. The project gives people the chance to stare

Spotify is raising the price of its ad-free premium service in more than 50 countries, including the US, UK and Ireland. The music-streaming company, which has more than 200m Premium subscribers, said the move will result in a $1 (78p) increase for US-based plans. This means the price of a single plan will now start

A Conservative peer who played a key role in establishing the Culture Recovery Fund during the ravages of the pandemic is being lined up as the next chair of Historic England. Sky News has learnt Lord Mendoza, the provost of Oriel College, Oxford, is expected to be unveiled in the post in the coming weeks.

Credit Suisse has been fined a record £87m by the Bank of England for “extremely serious” risk management failures. The bank, which was subject to a forced takeover by Swiss rival UBS earlier this year, fell “well below” regulatory standards in its dealings with private investment firm Archegos Capital Management, officials said. Credit Suisse lost

Tesla has shared a new look of its upcoming Cybertruck vehicle – almost four years after it was announced. The unusual looking electric pick-up truck, first unveiled back in 2019, is nearing full production – and company boss Elon Musk has said deliveries should begin by the end of the year. He provided the update

The UK’s gas storage is “materially behind” Europe, the chief executive of British Gas owner Centrica has said. Chris O’Shea said there was a need to expand gas storage and his company was seeking to bring the UK’s largest gas facility to full capacity, but the efforts did not have government regulatory agreement. While the

The economy contracted in May as the additional public holiday for the King’s coronation weighed on output, according to official figures. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed negative growth of 0.1% during the month, better than economists had predicted but continuing the yo-yo pattern seen throughout the last year that has left

Artificial intelligence produces misinformation when asked to answer medical questions, but there is scope for it to be fine tuned to assist doctors, a new study has found. Researchers at Google tested the performance of a large language model, similar to that which powers ChatGPT, on its responses to multiple choice polls and commonly asked

The Bank of England is reiterating its forecast that inflation will fall over the rest of the year, with governor Andrew Bailey saying it will fall “markedly”. The rate of price increases will come down due to lower energy costs, which should result in falling food bills for shoppers, Mr Bailey’s Mansion House speech is