Our film editor’s 15 best movies of 2024, from Dune to Poor Things December 21, 2024 It’s been a hugely significant year for the movies: Hollywood got back to work after the 2023 strikes, the superhero genre continued to nosedive and nostalgic sequels were all the rage. As the year wraps up, City AM Film Editor Victoria Luxford picks her 15 best movies of the year. The Holdovers (January) Destined to [...]
McDonald can strike up a Divano partnership with Brahms December 20, 2024 IT IS last chance saloon for bettors to earn some extra cash at Sha Tin on Sunday, before all the Christmas festivities get underway next week. As per normal, the 10-race programme comprises some fiendishly difficult handicaps, and the feature race, the Poinsettia Handicap (9.50am) over six furlongs, is no different as it consists of [...]
The James Earl Jones tribute is the only good bit in Mufasa: Lion King December 20, 2024 There’s no creative explanation as to why we are getting a follow-up to 2019’s remake of The Lion King. But John Favreau’s reinterpretation of the 1994 classic made over $1billion five years ago, making another film a certainty. Mufasa: Lion King hits cinemas in time for Christmas. Positioned as both a prequel and sequel, the [...]
A look back at the highs and lows of politics in 2024 December 20, 2024 With elections in the UK and US in 2024, a new government, and a fresh opposition leader, watchers of Westminster and elsewhere have had a busy year in politics. At City AM we’ve followed every twist and turn as Labour secured an election victory in July, Donald Trump pulled off a White House comeback and [...]
‘Christmas comes early’ as inheritance tax receipts jump on threshold freeze December 20, 2024 The amount of inheritance tax (IHT) brought in by the government ticked up to £600m in November, as frozen thresholds pushed more estates into paying the tax. “Christmas has come early for the government,” said Shaun Moore, tax and financial planning expert at Quilter, with the higher tax receipts allowing the amount the government borrowed [...]
UK retail sales rise slightly in November amid concern over golden quarter December 20, 2024 The latest ONS data showed retail sales jumped 0.2 per cent last month, following a 0.7 per cent fall in October.
Digital skills are key to staying connected at Christmas December 20, 2024 The generation that invented the web should not be isolated from its possibilities, says Victoria Johnson A 65 year-old today was 30 when the world wide web launched. It is this generation who have contributed most to the development of the technology that underpins life as we know it today. And while ONS data shows they are [...]
Why you shouldn’t give to charity this Christmas December 20, 2024 You wouldn’t make all of your investment decisions in the last few days of the year, but that’s when most people make their charitable donations. It’s not effective philanthropy and it doesn’t help the charities themselves either, says Gilad Tanay It’s Christmas season. In London, that generally means a few things: last-minute present shopping, filling [...]
The Capitalist: Bunking off work and rationing at Christmas time December 19, 2024 Not turning up for work, an end to bonuses and mindfulness goes out the window: it’s the Christmas edition of The Capitalist Bunking off? That’s the festive spirit As the days and hours creep encouragingly towards that great long stretch of dead time we call Christmas, the topic of skiving off from work has become [...]
Sales skyrocket at London Waterloo after biggest ever Wetherspoons opens December 19, 2024 Sales at London Waterloo shops have soared to the top of a leader-board of Britain’s busiest train stations, following the opening of the UK’s largest ever railway station Wetherspoons. The London hub reported the most quarterly sales growth of any of the 19 stations Network Rail runs in the UK, up 47 per cent year-on-year, [...]