Month: September 2024

Strictly Come Dancing judge Anton Du Beke has said the show’s upcoming series will be “brilliant” despite controversy over allegations of abuse. The 58-year-old was asked about whether the furore would overshadow the BBC dancing show’s 20th anniversary series on ITV’s Loose Women, when he said the programme “won’t feel different at all”. It comes after an investigation was launched by the BBC following allegations made about professional dancer Giovanni […]

Jeremy Kyle has defended his presenting style at an inquest into the death of a man who had been a guest on his chat show, saying “it was direct, but it was empathetic, it was honest”. Steve Dymond, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, is believed to have taken his own life seven days after filming for the Jeremy Kyle Show in May 2019. Mr Kyle told Winchester Coroner’s Court that clips from […]

The competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster over Oasis concert ticket sales. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its investigation would include how so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ may have been used and would scrutinise whether the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law. Ticketmaster has said it does not set concert prices and its website states this is down to the “event organiser” who “has […]

A member of Royal Navy personnel has died after a helicopter ditched in the Channel during a night-flying exercise. The Royal Navy said the Merlin helicopter crashed off the coast of Dorset on Wednesday night during the training exercise with the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. An investigation into the cause of the incident is taking place. The family of the deceased, who has not been named, have been informed. In a […]

John Lewis has said it will bring back its ‘never knowingly undersold’ price pledge in a major U-turn, two years after ditching the commitment over concerns it what less relevant to shoppers. The department store chain will bring back the price promise – which began in 1925 – from September 9, in an effort to boost its value perception among customers. The refreshed commitment will see the retailer use AI […]

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has discontinued its indecent assault case against Harvey Weinstein, saying “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”. The 72-year-old former Hollywood film producer was facing two criminal charges of alleged indecent assault against a woman, who is now aged in her 50s, in London in 1996. On Thursday, Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “Following a review […]

President Emmanuel Macron has named EU former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister. The announcement came on Thursday after more than 50 days of caretaker government. The appointment of the 73-year-old Barnier follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who might be able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by Mr Macron’s opponents to […]

The Government must urgently increase investment in higher education as British universities “are all feeling the crunch”, an education chief has said. Dame Sally Mapstone, president of Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 higher education institutions, said universities “stand at a fork in the road” and the system could “slide into decline” without urgent action. Addressing hundreds of vice-chancellors at the UUK’s conference, Dame Sally said the organisation’s blueprint – […]

Construction of the UK’s longest railway bridge has been completed on the outskirts of north-west London. HS2 engineers installed the final deck segment of the 2.1-mile Colne Valley Viaduct on Thursday. Around 200 contractors who worked on the project gathered at the site to celebrate the milestone. The gently curved bridge will carry high-speed trains up to 10 metres above land and water across the Colne Valley between the M25 […]