Author: SKYNEWS

A pair of Friends scripts found in a bin 25 years ago have sold at auction for £22,000, despite their value previously estimated to stand at no more than £800.Auctioneers at Hanson Ross in Hertfordshire said they were “flabbergasted” by the “phenomenal global interest” in the scripts of The One With Ross’ Wedding, season four’s famous two-part finale. The saleroom’s head of operations, Amanda Butler, told Sky News their phonelines were swamped with bids far exceeding the initial valuation on Thursday, the day before the auction.But bidders “went crazy” for the scripts – which were meant to be destroyed after…

In 2007, Apple was credited with revolutionising the landscape for communications when it launched the first iPhone – a mobile phone that could play music and access the internet.The product laid the foundation for 17 years of smartphones and propelled Apple to become the world’s first company to reach a valuation of more than $3tn (£2.3tn) last year. In recent months, its fortunes have taken a turn. Image: Customers photograph themselves with the new Apple iPhone 15 in London in September Read more Apple stories from Sky News:Apple begins pay-outs over ‘slowed-down’ iPhonesApple watch import ban liftedThe company has faced…

Scientists have discovered a huge ring-shaped structure in outer space – and it’s so big that it challenges our current understanding of the universe.Dubbed the Big Ring, the ultra-large structure has a diameter of 1.3 billion light-years and a circumference of 4 billion light-years, making it roughly 15 times the size of the Moon, as seen in the night sky from Earth. The structure is made up of galaxies and galaxy clusters and is the second of such a huge size to be identified by Alexia Lopez, a British PhD student.She also found the Giant Arc – a structure spanning…

Sir Elton John is putting a piano, jumpsuit and a pair of platform boots up for auction in New York next month.A painting of the pop megastar and his partner, David Furnish, by Damien Hirst – titled Your Song after his hit track, and inscribed “xxx for Elton + David” – is expected to fetch $350,000 to $450,000 (£280,000 to £360,000). Also included is a portrait of the 76-year-old singer by American painter and Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel – valued at between $200,000 and $300,000 (£160,000 to £240,000). Image: Sir Elton John’s often outrageous stage outfits are represented in the…

A US regulator has reluctantly given its approval for funds holding Bitcoins to be traded on the US stock exchange.The approval by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – an independent agency which has a primary purpose of enforcing laws against market manipulation – will allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without owning the cryptocurrency directly. However, SEC said it was still deeply sceptical about cryptocurrencies and that the agency “did not approve or endorse Bitcoin” in its decision.It comes after hackers were blamed for a fake post on SEC’s X account that announced the financial market regulator’s…

More than one in 20 adolescents have taken non-prescription weight loss products, like diet pills or laxatives, in the past year, according to a new global study.Among the general adolescent population, this rose to nearly one in 10 teenage children that had taken the diet aids in their lifetime, the study found, with girls “significantly” more likely to take them. Diet pills were the weight-loss product used most frequently by adolescents, followed by laxatives and diuretics, according to the study.The research was published in the JAMA Network Open – a monthly open-access medical journal published by the American Medical Association.It…

A committee of MPs has recommended the government appoint a new chair for Welsh-language broadcaster S4C.The chair of the Welsh affairs committee has written to the culture secretary after an evidence session with current S4C chair Rhodri Williams and the lead non-executive board member of the unitary board, Chris Jones. Sian Doyle was sacked as chief executive of the public service broadcaster in November after an investigation into the organisation’s culture.The report – conducted by commercial legal firm Capital Law – said Ms Doyle’s leadership style was “dictatorial” and found she was “creating a culture of fear”.Ms Doyle was admitted…

A sports marketing group which works with Formula One motor racing and the International Olympic Committee is in advanced talks to be sold to a British buyout firm for £250m.Sky News has learnt that Two Circles, which was founded by Gareth Balch, a former international athlete, could announce a deal to be acquired by Charterhouse as early as this week. City sources said on Tuesday that the deal had been under discussion for some time.Two Circles, which has been owned by Bruin Sports Capital since 2019, uses data on sports fans to help its clients target their audiences more effectively.It…

An autonomous robot designed to tackle potholes using AI is to venture out of a controlled environment and be tested on actual roads for the first time.The machine called ARRES (Autonomous Road Repair System) PREVENT can identify and characterise potholes and cracks using artificial intelligence. Image: Pic: Zenzic CAM UK Image: It can automatically fill the cracks. Pic: Zenzic CAM UK It can then automatically fill them up to keep out surface water – which otherwise can seep through causing further damage.Should it be successful, ARRES could save time and money identifying potholes that could worsen due to neglect, and…

Baywatch star Nicole Eggert has been diagnosed with breast cancer aged 51.The actress, who also starred in 80s sitcom Charles In Charge, told People Magazine she was diagnosed with stage 2 cribriform carcinoma breast cancer in early December. Image: Nicole Eggert as Roberta ‘Summer’ Quinn in Baywatch. Pic: Fremantle Media/Shutterstock Eggert told the US publication that the journey to being diagnosed has been “rough”, saying: “I always read inspirational quotes and corny stuff, but it gets me through.”The actress will need surgery but is waiting for her doctors to determine if the cancer has spread and when chemotherapy and radiation…