Author: SKYNEWS

Paula Abdul has accused former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexually assaulting her when she was a judge on the show.The singer’s lawsuit also accuses him of another assault, years later, when she worked on So You Think You Can Dance. Lythgoe denied the accusations and said he is “shocked and saddened”.Abdul claims the 74-year-old Briton groped her breasts and genitals and “began shoving his tongue down her throat” in a lift after a day’s filming in the early 2000s.She said she pushed him away and ran to her hotel room when the doors opened. Image: Lythgoe was part…

Campaigners say hundreds of neglected historic buildings across the UK should be put to new uses to help meet the country’s net zero emissions targets.Eighteen buildings in Greater Manchester have been added to the Buildings at Risk register run by the campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage. They join more than 1,000 buildings nationwide which have fallen into disrepair and disuse but which could potentially be saved with benefits for historical preservation and efforts to cut carbon emissions.The group says the buildings – among them former theatres, churches, schools and bars – are at risk of dereliction or demolition which would…

British Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, best known for his role in The Full Monty, has died aged 75, his family has announced.The Yorkshire-born star played the character Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy, which tells the story of a group of redundant steelworkers from Sheffield on their journey to set up an all-male striptease act.Wilkinson received a BAFTA for best supporting actor for his performance.He also featured in the 1998 romcom Shakespeare In Love, the 2005 Christopher Nolan blockbuster Batman Begins, and starred alongside Dame Judi Dench, Dame Penelope Wilton, and Bill Nighy, in the all-British ensemble cast of the…

If you crack open a bottle of something – be it wine, water or soft drinks – over the festive season, there’s a good chance the glass came from the Encirc factory in Cheshire.Here, on the banks of the River Mersey, you will find one of the world’s largest glass factories. They take sand from Norfolk, soda ash created from the salt sitting beneath the Cheshire countryside and a lot of recycled glass and throw it into two of the biggest glass furnaces in the world. There, in the furnace, at temperatures of around 1,600 degrees centigrade, the sand melts…

Scientists have debunked a theory that the “beer goggles” effect is due to drinkers finding someone more attractive because their faces appear more symmetrical under the influence.Researchers from the University of Portsmouth questioned 99 men and women aged between 18 and 62 in a pub to test how people rate looks after a few drinks. But the study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that while alcohol did impair face symmetry detection, it did not influence judgments of attractiveness. A spokesperson said: “The term ‘beer goggles’ has been used for decades to describe when a person finds themselves sexually…

A woman has sued Michael Jackson’s older brother Jermaine, accusing him of sexually assaulting her in 1988. The suit against The Jackson 5 singer was filed in California under the state’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which allows civil suits in sexual assault cases after the statute of limitations has expired if one or more parties are legally responsible or if there was a cover-up. The deadline for suits to be filed under the act is 31 December. Image: The Jackson Five: Michael, Marlon, Jermaine, Tito and Jackie. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock Rita Butler Barrett said in the suit she knew…

The finance chief of The Daily Telegraph’s parent company is to leave amid a government-commissioned probe into the newspaper’s takeover by a state-backed Abu Dhabi investment vehicle.Sky News has learnt that Cormac O’Shea, who has been Telegraph Media Group’s (TMG) chief financial officer since the autumn of 2021, is likely to step down in the next couple of months. This weekend, insiders said the independent directors of the broadsheets’ holding company – who were initially appointed by receivers and have stayed on to oversee the Telegraph’s sale – had written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to…

How to sum up a year like 2023?Perhaps the best thing to say is that it was considerably less exciting – as far as the economics went – than 2022. And that’s probably no bad thing, because in 2022 much of what passed for excitement was extremely painful: the onset of a cost of living crisis which caused the biggest fall in British standards of living in modern record, a financial meltdown in the wake of Liz Truss’s mini-budget.The plan, when Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt came into office, was always to make the economy boring again, and to some…

Young people today are demonised for being “too colloquial” with language, despite William Shakespeare being praised for doing the same thing 400 years ago, a theatre director has said.Intermission Youth Theatre combines 400-year-old language with the modern day, remixing the bard’s work through the lens of youth culture. This year it celebrated 15 years with a rendition of Taming Of The Shrew, re-titled Taming Who?The fast-paced Shakespeare remix interweaves old verses with new dialogue to give fresh relevance to the Bard’s original.The adaptation challenges gender stereotypes and explores identity and coming of age. Tre Medley played the role of Hortensio,…

Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “desperate” briefing on inheritance tax (IHT) after reports suggested it would be slashed ahead of the next election. It comes as the government confirmed the date of the next spring budget, which will be delivered on 6 March. With a general election looming next year, Mr Sunak will be under pressure from Tory MPs to announce tax cuts to boost their chances of victory.On Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph reported that Downing Street is considering axing IHT as part of a “gear change” on tax, having made halving inflation rather than reducing the tax…