Author: SKYNEWS

Preliminary readings of sites in Arizona and southern California indicate that the US has suffered its hottest March day on record.Large parts of the southwest of the United States are trapped in a dangerous heatwave, made worse in some places by a heat dome, with temperatures reaching around 43C (110F) at testing sites. The heatwave has shattered March temperature records all over the southwest of the country, with hot weather arriving months ahead of schedule. Image: A new air conditioning unit is installed during record-breaking heat. Pic: AP “This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing…

Video has been released of Justin Timberlake being arrested by officers who suspected him of drink driving.The footage shows the pop star struggling to perform sobriety tests requiring him to talk in a straight line and stand on one leg during the incident in an affluent beach town in New York’s Hamptons in June 2024. At one point he tells officers: “These are like really hard tests.” Image: Pic: Sag Harbor Police Department/AP The footage includes Timberlake being stopped after Sag Harbor police said he ran a stop sign in the village centre, veered out of his lane and got…

Average annual energy bills will rise by £332 in July, more than double the previously anticipated increase, due to high oil and gas prices driven by the war in Iran, trusted forecasters predicted.If it comes to pass, it will mean the most expensive typical annual bills in three years, at a high last seen in July 2023. Less than three weeks ago, in the early days of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, that rise was expected to be £160, according to estimates from research firm Cornwall Insight.But as the oil and gas prices spiked and remained about $110 per barrel of…

A US jury has found Elon Musk misled investors by deliberately driving down Twitter’s share price in the months leading up to his $44bn (£33bn) takeover of the social media company.But the tech tycoon, and the world’s richest person, was cleared of some fraud allegations in the civil trial in San Francisco. The case centred on a class-action lawsuit, filed just before Mr Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X.Jurors were asked to decide if two tweets and comments Mr Musk made on a podcast in May 2022 amounted to him intentionally defrauding Twitter shareholders, who sold…

👉 Listen to This Is Why on your podcast app 👈Saturday Night Live has launched the careers of Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell among many others in its 50-year run on NBC in the US. It’s now coming to the UK with Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed hosting the first shows.As in the US, there’s an ensemble cast of comedy players – so how important could SNL UK be for the comedy scene?Niall speaks to the creator and host of the Saturday Night Network podcast, Jon Schneider, about what makes SNL so successful and asks comedian…

British households have been told to brace for a surge in inflation and multiple interest rate hikes this year after surging oil and gas prices sparked by Donald Trump’s war on Iran.Tehran has launched a series of retaliatory strikes on energy sites in the Gulf since the conflict began, and has throttled the key shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz. Israel, meanwhile, has targeted Iran’s South Pars gas field – the largest of its kind in the world.The benchmark Brent crude oil currently sits at around $110 a barrel, compared to $72 before the war, while a unit of…

The government has said it will directly fund the clear-up of 48,000 tonnes of waste at illegal tips in the north of England, following criticism of a north-south divide on tackling waste crime.Sky News had highlighted how local people in Bickershaw, near Wigan – whose homes have been infested with rats because of the waste – said they felt abandoned by the Environment Agency. That followed the government setting aside £9m for clearing up a similar-sized waste site in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.The decision to clear waste from sites in Wigan, Sheffield and Lancashire is part of a major raft of measures…

Val Kilmer is to ​posthumously appear in an action-adventure film, a year after his death from pneumonia – thanks to AI.The company behind the movie, First Line Films, say it is the first-ever performance enabled by generative artificial intelligence. The Top Gun star was originally cast in As Deep As The Grave five years ago but had been unable to work on set due to illness.He will play Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist Father Fintan. Kilmer previously claimed Cherokee ancestry and was a vocal supporter of Native American rights.The filmmakers say they have worked closely with Kilmer’s estate and…

UK unemployment has remained at the highest rate in five years, new official figures show.The jobless rate was to 5.2% in the three months to January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. Before last month, such a high hadn’t been seen since the three months to January 2021.The increases in the last three months were “largely” due to young people, aged 18 to 24, the statistics body said.Money blog: New speed cameras trialled – here’s where they’re located The yearly increase, it said, was due to the rise in youth unemployment as well as those aged 50 to…

The UK government has scrapped plans to introduce copyright law exceptions which would allow AI firms to use the work of songwriters without their permission.The government had been in favour of allowing AI developers to train their machines on copyrighted works, with rightsholders having an opt-out option. However, that approach was “overwhelmingly rejected by the vast majority of the creative industries”, Liz Kendall, the minister for innovation and technology, said on Wednesday.Due to this, she announced, “the government no longer has a preferred option”. Image: The change of course was announced in a statement by Liz Kendall The decision was…