Business

Uber has recorded the first operating profit in its history, after trips rose by more than a fifth in the last year. The American company, best known for its ride-hailing app, recorded pre-tax earnings of $326m (£255m) from its operations after a rise in demand led to 22% more trips booked on the platform in

House prices will likely fall further in the coming months after a closely-watched index reported the biggest drop in 14 years, experts predict. It comes after Nationwide reported that annual property values declined by 3.8% in July – the sharpish fall since July 2009. The average home is now worth £260,828 – a fall of

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

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

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

The BBC has issued an apology to Nigel Farage over a story on the closure of his Coutts bank account, “which turned out not to be accurate”. In a statement, the broadcaster said: “Because of this evidence, we have since changed the headline and the copy on the original online article about his bank account

A decision by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to invest in electric vehicle battery production in the UK is “very welcome”, a Labour MP has said. Darren Jones, chair of the cross-party Business and Trade Committee, was responding to reports that Tata will establish a battery gigafactory in Somerset for its JLR operation, potentially creating thousands

Self-driving vehicles could be used to bridge the gaps in the UK’s public transport network, according to the results of a new government-led study. The study, the first of its kind in the country, found up to 72% of people believed the vehicles could be used to improve transport links – particularly in rural areas.

Young adults and renters are some of the groups of people worst hit by rising prices as official figures show around 1 in 20 said they’d run out of food in the past 2 weeks and couldn’t afford more. Those aged 25 to 34 were at greater risk of financial vulnerability than those over the

The UK’s national debt could hit 300% of GDP by the 2070s because of the string of major challenges still facing national governments after a “rapid succession of shocks”, according to a report for the Treasury. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility laid out how climate change, defence and the fact people were living longer

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

Elon Musk has launched his long-awaited artificial intelligence start-up xAI in a bid to build an alternative to ChatGPT. The Twitter owner has brought in a team of engineers from other tech firms he is hoping to challenge in the artificial intelligence sphere. Musk has warned for months about AI’s potential for “civilisational destruction”, arguing

Controversial proposals to mine precious metals in the deep sea are being discussed at key international talks. Environmental groups warn a “gold rush” to extract minerals from the seabed would be catastrophic for the marine environment. But mining companies argue that cobalt, nickel and other metals are critical in the race to net zero –

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