Author: SKYNEWS

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has reported another year of record sales, bolstered by a recovery in China and the launch of its new all-electric Spectre model.The Goodwood-based firm, which is owned by BMW, said 6,032 vehicles were delivered to customers in 2023 – a slight uptick on the previous 12 months. The performance was driven, the company said, by demand for its existing Cullinan, Ghost and Phantom marques, with buyers all securing a degree of individuality for their cars under its growing Bespoke programme.A burgeoning Coachbuild operation also allows for the customer to be involved in every stage of the design…

A new era of commercial missions to the moon is due to lift off today as NASA gambles on a ride on an untested private lunar lander – alongside human remains and a marketing stunt by a sports drink manufacturer.Peregrine Mission-1 will be the first US spacecraft with the aim of landing on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. But the robotic lander, which is the size of a garden shed, will be under the control of the American company Astrobotic.NASA has paid the start-up just $108m (£85m) for five scientific instruments to be carried to the moon, a…

The Sky News Breakfast programme has a fresh new look and will start earlier from Monday 15 January.Live from 6am every weekday presenter Gareth Barlow will be joined by political correspondent Mhari Aurora with news from around the world and Westminster. They will stay in the studio for Breakfast with Kay Burley from 7am-10am while Burley conducts the morning’s biggest interviews.Wilfred Frost will also join Sky News Breakfast with previews of the day’s news agenda live from the main newsroom.The Breakfast team will join Anna Jones for Breakfast every Friday-Sunday, while Jacquie Beltrao will deliver the sports headlines every weekend.…

Dramatic footage shows the moments after a window and chunk of fuselage blew out of a passenger plane in mid-air, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Boeing 737-9 MAX. One Alaska Airlines passenger on the affected flight said a boy and his mother were sitting in the same row as the damage and the boy’s shirt was torn off him and sucked out of the plane. While only minor injuries were reported, the situation could have been “very dangerous,” according to David Learmount, consulting editor at Flightglobal. “If there were people near it who were not wearing the…

New images have revealed Neptune and Uranus look more like each other than was previously thought.Many people will think of Neptune as being a rich blue colour, and Uranus more green. However, Professor Patrick Irwin from the University of Oxford and his team found that the two ice giants, the most distant planets in our solar system, are a similar shade of greenish blue.Experts suggest the idea that both planets were different colours arose because images of them captured in the 20th century – including by NASA’s Voyager 2 mission in the 1980s – recorded images in separate colours.The single-colour…

US talent show judge Nigel Lythgoe has announced he is stepping aside as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance amid lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault.Among those making allegations against Lythgoe is Paula Abdul, who claims he groped her breasts and genitals and “began shoving his tongue down her throat” in the early 2000s. The singer was a judge on American Idol at the time, while Lythgoe was a producer on the show. Image: Paula Abdul in 2019 In a statement, the 74-year-old Briton confirmed he will not be taking part in the 18th season of So…

Ian King is joined by Mark Shepherd, from the Association of British Insurers, to discuss the impact of the widespread flooding disruption.Mike Hawes, from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, talks to Ian about car sales.And Randall Atkins, from Ramaco Resources, discusses a new discovery at a coal mine in Wyoming.:: Listen and subscribe to The Ian King Business Podcast here. Source link

NASA is offering members of the public the chance to etch their name in the stars as part of its next mission to the moon.The VIPER, NASA’s first robotic moon rover, will touch down on unexplored parts of the moon’s south pole in late 2024 to pick apart the mysteries of its water and understand the environment where NASA plans to land astronauts. Along with an array of scientific instruments, the rover will carry the names of potentially millions of people – all of whom will also be given a souvenir boarding pass to “be part of that risky journey”.”With…

Actor David Soul, best known for his role in the TV series Starsky & Hutch, has died at the age of 80, his wife Helen Snell said.The US-born actor died on Thursday surrounded by his family.Soul played Kenneth “Hutch” Hutchinson alongside Paul Michael Glaser’s David Starsky in the hit crime-solving TV series, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1979. Image: Pic: Moviestore/Shutterstock The show grew so popular it spawned a host of children’s toys.Ms Snell said in a statement: “David Soul – beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother – died yesterday after a valiant battle for life in the…

One of the largest supermarket chains in France is refusing to sell PepsiCo products on the grounds they have become too expensive to stock.A spokesperson for Carrefour said the move would apply to its network of more than 9,000 stores across France, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The chain said it had deployed signs in-store that blamed “unacceptable price increases” for the move.It marks the latest high-profile spat between European supermarket chains and major grocery producers since the cost of living crisis began in the wake of Russia’s war with Ukraine.Surging wholesale costs for energy and many commodities meant producers were…