Author: SKYNEWS

Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press. She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 2:49 Watch: Val Kilmer in his most iconic roles He wrote on…

Conservation experts are urging homeowners not to mow their lawns over the coming months to help boost butterfly numbers, with more than half of UK species now in long-term decline.Last year was one of the worst on record for butterflies, with 51 of the UK’s 59 butterfly species showing a decline in numbers compared with figures for 2023. The fall is being driven by human activity, the use of pesticides and climate change, experts have said. Image: Human activity has destroyed many habitats for butterflies, experts say. Pic: PA The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, run by a coalition of conservation…

World leaders and governments have begun reacting to Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.The president imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all imports – but many of America’s biggest trading partners have been hit by a far higher rate. Speaking at an event he called “Make America Wealthy Again”, Mr Trump criticised foreign “cheaters” and held a chart detailing who would be paying what.Here is some of the latest reaction. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 6:39 Trump’s tariffs explained China, facing a 34% tax, said it would “resolutely” hit back and “take countermeasures to safeguard its own…

Val Kilmer, the actor who starred in Top Gun and Batman while earning a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy, has died aged 65.His daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press he died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles surrounded by family and friends.California-born Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered, she said.The actor, who played Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in Top Gun alongside Tom Cruise in 1986, previously admitted he didn’t want the role which made him famous.But he said he begged to be part of the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, even going…

A Bitcoin tycoon has blasted off on a SpaceX rocket in what is the first manned spacecraft to circle Earth over the North and South poles.The fully automated Dragon capsule will take about 46 minutes to fly its pole-to-pole trajectory and roughly 90 minutes to go around the Earth completely. It launched from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday night on SpaceX’s sixth private mission – and is now orbiting 272 miles above Earth at 17,000mph.China-born Chun Wang, who made his fortune mining Bitcoin, paid an undisclosed amount for the bespoke mission.However, a spot in the reusable Dragon spacecraft…

Heathrow Airport bosses had been warned of potential substation failures less than a week before a major power outage closed the airport for a day, a committee of MPs has heard.The chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators’ Committee Nigel Wicking told MPs of the Transport Committee he raised issues about resilience on 15 March after cable and wiring took out lights on a runway. A fire at an electricity substation in west London meant the power supply was disrupted to Europe’s largest airport for a day – causing travel chaos for nearly 300,000 passengers, the committee heard.”I’d actually warned Heathrow…

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.The two Irish stars will be joined by London-born actors Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four actors appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style. Image: (L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters Mendes is making four interconnected…

One of the astronauts who was stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) has said some of the blame for what went wrong lies with him. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down off the coast of Florida earlier this month after more than nine months onboard the ISS. The two astronauts docked at the ISS on 5 June last year, expecting to be there for just eight days.Instead, issues with Boeing’s long-awaited Starliner meant NASA decided to leave them waiting in orbit for months. Image: Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Pics: NASA Please use Chrome browser for a more…

For those who’re on modest means, the cost of the licence fee going up by £5 on 1 April of all days is a bit of a bad joke.Certainly, for residents at St Crispin Retirement Village, it’s hard to see the funny side. Among them is 83-year-old Stan Fritton who, since last November, has been embroiled in a battle over how much he and his neighbours should be paying for the BBC.Their accommodation coming under one roof, they previously paid £7.50 each, qualifying for an accommodation for residential care (ARC) licence.They then turned a former storage room into one of…

Richard Chamberlain, who starred in the TV medical drama “Dr Kildare” and the 1980s mini-series “Shogun”, has died at the age of 90, his publicist said.Chamberlain became a heartthrob as the handsome Dr James Kildare in the medical drama that ran from 1961 to 1966. Photoplay magazine named him “most popular male star” three years in a row from 1963 to 1965.His breakout role in Dr Kildare marked the start of a six-decade career that spanned theatre, films and television.The California-born actor was dubbed the “king of the mini-series” after appearing in several TV dramas in the 1980s. This included…