Author: admin@primenews

New Zealand’s deputy prime minister Winston Peters says he “does not care” about the row over using Chumbawamba hit Tubthumping at a political rally. The UK band had accused him of “hijacking” the song and had asked their recording label to issue a “cease and desist” letter. “It seems the media care more about the Chumbawamba story than we do. We actually don’t care,” Mr Peters said. “There’s nothing to ‘cease or desist’,” he wrote on X on Wednesday. Mr Peters, who leads the right-wing New Zealand First Party that is part of the governing coalition, walked on to stage to Tubthumping…

An Indian man who made a fortune by selling lottery tickets is in the spotlight after he was revealed to be the top donor to political parties under a controversial funding scheme. Santiago Martin’s company, Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd, bought electoral bonds worth 13.68bn rupees ($165m, £130m) between April 2019 and January 2024 under the scheme which allowed political donors to remain anonymous – until the Supreme Court recently scrapped the scheme and ordered their names to be published. While donations under this scheme were not illegal, electoral bonds have been accused of making political funding more opaque. Since…

Civilians caught up in Sudan’s civil war have given graphic accounts to the BBC of rape, ethnic violence and street executions. Our journalists have managed to make it to the front line of the fighting close to the capital, Khartoum. Top UN officials have said the conflict has plunged the country into “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history” and could trigger the world’s largest hunger crisis. There are also fears that in Darfur, in the west of the country, a repeat of what the US called genocide 20 years ago may be beginning to unfold. WARNING: This…

A federal appeals court has frozen Texas’ controversial immigration law, one of the toughest laws of its kind enacted by a US state in modern times. The decision came just hours after the Supreme Court allowed the measure, SB4, to take effect pending an appeal. The measure would allow officials in the state to detain and prosecute unauthorised migrants. Mexico has refused to accept any migrants deported by Texas under the new law. The Biden administration has challenged SB4, calling it unconstitutional. — CutC by bbc.com

As accidental adverts for art shows go, a giant pooch made of flowers is a crowd pleaser. Outside the Guggenheim Bilbao in northern Spain, Jeff Koons’ much-loved flower 1992 sculpture “Puppy,” shows how Pop art — that high kick of counter-intuitive artistic expression so often equated with the 1960s — never really went away. It’s appropriate then, that Koons’ monumental 43ft-high Highland Terrier made of 38,000 bedding plants sits faithfully — and spectacularly — outside the museum’s new show “Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection.” The exhibition both celebrates and deconstructs Pop – the artistic movement that reframed…

Marmite and Dove soap-owner Unilever is to cut about 7,500 jobs worldwide, as part of an extensive three-year cost-saving plan. The group also said it would split off its ice cream business which includes the Wall’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Magnum brands. The food and household goods giant said the spin-off will start immediately and should be completed by the end of 2025. Unilever said the shake-up would help it to “do fewer things better”. The job cuts, which Unilever said would mostly affect office staff, represent more than 5% of its 128,000 global workforce and are aimed at saving…

Speculation over which actor will take on the role of James Bond has been mounting once again, after reports British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been offered the role. The Sun has reported the Kick-Ass and Marvel films actor has been “formally offered the job” as the 007 spy, formerly played by Daniel Craig. Craig left the role in 2021 after starring in five films over 16 years. The next bond film will be the 26th, after No Time to Die. The BBC has approached Taylor-Johnson and Eon Productions for comment. Taylor-Johnson recently told Numero magazine he found it “charming and wonderful that people…

Britain’s Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Miami Open in the United States with a lower back injury. The 21-year-old was scheduled to play China’s Wang Xiyu in the first round on Tuesday. It is a blow to Raducanu’s comeback following an injury-disrupted 2023 season. The 2021 US Open champion was beaten in straight sets by world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the third round at Indian Wells last week. It is not known how serious Raducanu’s injury is, or whether it will impact her selection in Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup squad for their qualifying-round tie with France from 12-13 April. Before…

Real Madrid have filed a complaint against the referee who took charge of Saturday’s game at Osasuna for omitting alleged racist abuse towards forward Vinicius Jr from his match report. The club say the “insults and vexatious shouts” were “deliberately” not included by Juan Martinez Munuera. Vinicius has suffered racist abuse on multiple occasions in Spain over the past three years. Real have demanded “necessary measures be taken” to “eradicate” the abuse. The Spanish Football Federation’s technical committee of referees has been contacted for comment. Real said: “The referee voluntarily and deliberately omitted the insults and vexatious shouts directed repeatedly…

Five years before Concorde’s first flight, another majestic supersonic aircraft took to the skies — and almost became the inspiration for an even faster passenger plane. It was the XB-70 Valkyrie, an experimental plane developed for the US Air Force. Its inaugural flight — 60 years ago in September 1964 — kicked off a golden era for supersonic aircraft. The plane would later achieve a speed of just over 2,000 miles per hour, nearly 50% faster than Concorde. “The overall design of the XB-70 was a thing of beauty,” says Tony Landis, a historian at the Air Force Materiel Command in Dayton,…