Author: SKYNEWS

Disney-centric influencer Dominique Brown has died after allegedly having a severe allergic reaction during a brand event in Los Angeles.The 34-year-old, known for helping foster a huge online community celebrating Disney culture, died on Thursday evening at a gathering hosted by the pop culture merchandise retailer BoxLunch, according to Sky News’ US partner NBC News. Emergency services were called to the event at Vibiana, cathedral-turned-event venue in downtown LA, after the DJ turned off the music to announce a medical issue and asked guests for an EpiPen, NBC News said.Boxlunch and Vibiana said they were conducting independent investigations.Ms Brown was…

Thames Water has revealed a 40% spike in sewage spills while warning that a looming decision on what it can charge customers is “fundamental to our future”.The UK’s biggest supplier, which has been battling to avert the prospect of a special administration amid a massive debt pile, has consistently argued that the regulator’s ruling on its request for an inflation-busting rise to charges could make it uninvestable. Thames, and the wider industry across England and Wales, is due to learn next week what Ofwat will allow bills to rise by over the next five years.Money latest: Inflation-busting rise in cost…

Google has revealed the UK’s most searched topics in 2024.After Oasis announced they were reuniting for a UK tour back in August, they instantly became the most searched musicians of the year, with ‘how to get Oasis tickets’ the second top trending ‘how to’ question of the year. Loads of us also asked when the US presidential election would be and searched for teenage darts sensation Luke Littler as he made history as the youngest player to reach the PDC World Championship final in January.Here are a few more of the top searches that defined 2024 in the UK.NewsHope, determination,…

Singer Noddy Holder says doctors are still “keeping a check on me” after being given months to live five years ago.The former Slade frontman, famous for the line “it’s Christmas” in the band’s 1973 festive hit Merry Xmas Everybody, told Sky News he had “lasted the course”. In an interview with Kay Burley, the 78-year-old said: “I did have oesophageal cancer and that was five years ago and, at the moment, they’re still keeping a check on me.”I’m on a level playing field at the moment after at the time being diagnosed with six months to live.”So I’ve lasted the…

The north of England will directly benefit from closer trade ties with Saudi Arabia, the prime minister said as he visited the country.Sir Keir Starmer travelled to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in a bid to build closer economic ties with the two Gulf states. The trip came amid turmoil in the Middle East, with Syria’s government overthrown by rebel fighters over the weekend.Its president, Bashar al Assad, has fled the country for Moscow, according to state media.Starmer “welcomed” the fall of the “brutal” regime ahead of his visit. Syria latest: Assad flees to MoscowAs Starmer landed in…

The debate around whether fluoride should be added to tap water is not new.The practice, which is aimed at reducing tooth decay, has been ongoing for 60 years. But since fluoride toothpaste became more widely available around the 1970s, more questions have been raised about whether adding it to the drinking supply is still necessary.And with Donald Trump’s health secretary pick Robert F Kennedy Jr saying he would ban it, the issue has entered public debate yet again.Despite RFK being well known for his outlandish views on public health, it seems the fluoridation issue isn’t one that can be totally…

“You can’t flirt any more. We used to have so much more fun!”Dame Jilly Cooper, 87, looks back with nostalgia to her heyday towards the end of the last century. So do the many fans of her stories in print, audiobooks and on screen. Rivals, Disney’s dramatisation of her 1988 “bonkbuster”, set in the fictional Cotswolds county of Rutshire, has been one of the TV hits of the year on both sides of the Atlantic.A second series was commissioned. Cooper says she is “orgasmic with excitement and cannot wait for the return of my superhero Rupert Campbell-Black”, as played by…

Fourteen new trains are to be built at a Hitachi plant in County Durham, securing hundreds of jobs.The plan safeguards 700 jobs with a £500m investment for the Newton Aycliffe site. The plant and its workers had faced an uncertain future with an upcoming gap in its order book before work begins on HS2 (High Speed 2) trains.Money blog: Britons don’t want ‘thoughtful’ cash alternativeBritish transport group First Group, leasing firm Angel Trains, and Hitachi have reached a deal to order 14 five-carriage trains to run in 2027 on the new Carmarthen-London route and East Coast Mainline service. They will…

NASA has delayed its plans to send astronauts back to the moon yet again.The Artemis mission will see four astronauts sent around the moon and back, before blasting off to land on the moon’s surface a year later. But Bill Nelson, head of NASA, told a news conference the next Artemis mission has slipped to April 2026, with the subsequent astronaut landing mission, Artemis III, planned for the following year.The flight had already been delayed once, and was supposed to take off in September 2025.Now, astronauts won’t loop around the moon until 2026 and won’t land until 2027 in one…

It should have been a feel-good story: six young men, plucked from obscurity to become music stars. That’s how Neta Rozenblat, a member of boyband as1one, puts it.Pop hopefuls do not usually find themselves having to navigate fear, grief and complex political issues before the world even knows their names – but theirs is not a typical story. As1one are billed as the first-ever Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Arab boyband, put together following a two-year search by US hitmakers behind acts such as Maroon 5 and Kings Of Leon.While the band has found considerable support, including from big names -…