Author: SKYNEWS

Robbie Williams has said he bought Eric Morecambe’s glasses and pipe because he has always seen the comedian as an “uncle of sorts”.The singer said he cried “happy, childlike tears” after submitting the top bid last month with a final offer of £20,000. This far exceeded the £2,000 to £4,000 estimate.In an Instagram post featuring photos of Williams using the glasses and pipe, he said he treated himself to the items ahead of his 51st birthday. Instagram This content is provided by Instagram, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission…

Reports of “ghost broking”, scammers selling fake car insurance, have risen by 30% over the last five years, exclusive data obtained by Sky News reveals.Ghost brokers sell false policies to drivers, manipulate information given to genuine insurance companies, or take out insurance and cancel it straight away. This leaves people without valid car insurance, which is illegal. Wayne Simpson lost over £500 to a ghost broker.He was looking for cheap car insurance and saw an advertisement on social media for a deal which was half the price of other companies.He bought the policy, and it was only when he tried…

Residents who live near disused coal tips in South Wales say lessons have not been learned from the Aberfan disaster nearly 60 years on.Their comments come after a disused coal tip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent, partially collapsed in November, forcing around 40 homes to be evacuated.A coal tip is made up of waste material from coal mining, many of which have existed for several decades. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:09 Evacuations after coal tip collapses Dianne Morgan, 68, has lived in the house she had built in the Cwmtillery ward for the last 10…

Demi Moore, Zoe Saldana, Kieran Culkin and Adrien Brody are among the big winners of this year’s Critics Choice Awards.Moore took home the best actress award for her performance in The Substance, in which she plays a fading Oscar winner who discovers a black-market drug to create a younger model of herself. The prize adds to her Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination in what has been her first acknowledgement for major Hollywood awards, after decades in the business.”This has been such a wild ride, I can’t tell you when I started this journey on this film, I could never…

Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to allow it access to encrypted data stored by the company’s users worldwide in its cloud service.At the moment, only the Apple account holder can access such data – not even the US technology giant can see it. Apple, which makes iPhones, iPads and iMacs, has been issued with a Technical Capability Notice (TCN), the Washington Post and BBC are reporting.This order, which does not get published, is said to require a blanket ability for the government to view people’s encrypted data – both in the UK and abroad.The Home Office…

For weeks now, most of the friends and families I know have had a cough of some kind. The pollution in the dry season in Thailand has long been a problem.But recently, it’s reached dangerous and deeply worrying levels. Bangkok was the fourth most polluted city in the world this month. Across 31 districts 352 schools were also closed because of pollution. Image: People wearing face masks because of poor air pollution in the Thai capital. Pic: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha For weeks, I’ve had to rush my children into school with masks on, as the cheery teachers apologetically declare: “Pollution day…

Here we go again. Another broadcaster following pretty much the same recipe card as the last one.What’s the best way to distance yourself from the alleged bad behaviour of a top celebrity chef that’s making headlines? Distance yourself by pointing the finger of blame at the independent production company that makes his shows, then simply repeat the term “robust duty of care policies” until everything’s cooled down. Image: Gino D’Acampo. File pic: PA The only problem is this kind of approach tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth.Those who both pay for and air the shows where staff…

Keir Starmer was touring the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in Preston when the Bank of England halved its 2025 growth forecast, cut interest rates for the third time in six months, warned of an uptick in inflation and said the national insurance hike on employers would hit prices and jobs more than expected. It was a blow to a prime minister and chancellor who have placed all their chips on growth, made all the more painful because of those budget decisions that – in the short term at least – have made matters worse. Rachel Reeves said soon after: “I am…

A nuclear weapon could potentially be sent into space to deflect an asteroid heading Earth’s way, an astronomer has told Sky News.Dr David Whitehouse said the measure could be taken against a space rock the size of a football pitch which is being monitored by the European Space Agency (ESA) and could strike the planet in a little over seven years. The asteroid, called 2024 YR4 and measuring 100m by 40m, is currently at a distance of around 27 million miles and is edging away.However, its path will cross our orbit on 22 December 2032 and was initially estimated to…

American music producer Irv Gotti has died at the age of 54. The producer, who founded the hip-hop label Murder Inc Records, produced nearly 30 Hot 100 hits in the US charts for artists including Ashanti, Ja Rule, Ye, DMX, Fat Joe, Mary J Blige and Jay-Z. His death was confirmed by his children – Angie, Sonny and JJ – who posted on his official Instagram page to say that he died on 5 February “surrounded by his family and friends”.Describing their father as an “incredible man” and “true visionary”, they said he will “leave behind a legacy that will forever…