Business

Tech moves fast, regulation doesn’t – that’s what the prime minister is now having to contend with.  People invent new technology like AI, new social media features designed to draw you in, new ways to interact online – and in the background, the authorities scramble to keep up. The prime minister is trying. Today, he…

More than 200 people have been arrested in the past four weeks as part of a phone theft crackdown in London – with drones and facial recognition used to catch those responsible. The Metropolitan Police said officers had made 248 arrests for stealing mobiles and seized about 770 devices, with a further 122 people arrested…

Six firms linked to Sarah Ferguson are being wound down following revelations from the latest release of the Epstein files, Companies House documents show.  The former Duchess of York and ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is the sole director of the companies, none of which appear to have been very active or have much public profile….

Royal Mail has warned of potential service delays across more than 100 UK postcodes due to poor weather and staff sickness. The company has listed 38 delivery offices which could be most affected by a slower service. A spokesman for Royal Mail said “adverse weather, including storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra in January, alongside higher-than-usual sick absence,…

The former chief executive of Carillion has been fined £237,700 by the City regulator for his role in misleading statements by the ​company before its collapse eight years ago. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) described Richard Howson’s handling of the construction firm’s communications with the market, ahead of its demise in 2018, as “reckless”. The…

The government has announced a sweeping crackdown on tech firms to protect children from illegal content. It will include measures to eliminate “vile illegal content created by AI”, and could even open the door to an Australia-style age limit on social media, a Number 10 spokesperson said. It also promises to shut down the loophole…

The UK’s biggest banks have had a strong annual earnings season. Updates from Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest have shown strong profit growth, with their respective UK earnings being boosted by the slower-than-hoped-for pace of interest rate cuts introduced by the Bank of England last year. Cost-cutting has played a role too, with lenders eyeing up…

Philip Jansen, the former BT Group boss, is taking on the chairmanship of a US-based payments software company which boasts more than 60 million end-users around the world. Sky News understands that Mr Jansen, who now chairs Heathrow Airport and the London-listed marketing services group WPP, is to take the helm of Xplor Technologies, a…

A financial trading company which counts the former mining tycoon and erstwhile Conservative Party treasurer Sir Mick Davis among its board members is reviving plans for a £40m London stock market listing. Sky News understands that Iforex Financial Trading Holdings, which sells financial instruments used to place wagers on the direction of equities and other…

The Emirati businessman credited with turning DP World into a global logistics powerhouse has left the company amid questions over his links to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem was the chairman and CEO of the Dubai based group and its earlier entities for more than four decades. Its interests include…