Author: admin@primenews

Last year wasn’t the most lucrative for Wall Street bankers, but their bonus payouts still easily trounced US median household income. The average Wall Street bonus for 2023 was $176,500, according to estimates that will be released Tuesday morning by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. That’s down 2% from the $180,000 recorded in 2022. Both those averages were well below the $240,000 paid out in 2021. That the average bonus was slightly down isn’t surprising. Wall Street earnings last year were mixed, and merger and acquisition activity was underwhelming. “Wall Street’s profits were up 1.8% in 2023, but firms have…

Hamas leader Marwan Issa died in an Israeli air strike, White House official Jake Sullivan has said. As deputy military commander, Mr Issa would be Hamas’s most senior leader to die since the war began on 7 October. The Palestinian group, which controls Gaza, has not officially commented on reports of his death. Israeli media sources have reported that Mr Issa was killed in a strike on a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week. The deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing – the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was considered one of Israel’s most-wanted men. The…

Lionel Messi’s Hong Kong fans who bought tickets to a friendly that he skipped at the last minute will get a 50% refund, the match organiser said. Messi’s absence from the game in February, which he blamed on an injury, sent Chinse fans seething for weeks. Ticketholders applying for refunds must agree not to pursue legal action, Tatler Asia said. The refunds could cost up to HK$56m (£5.6m; $7.1m), the publication said. Fans had paid up to HK$4,880 each to watch the 36-year-old Argentine footballer but Messi remained on the bench throughout the match. Some 38,000 spectators at the sold-out Hong…

England cruised to a comfortable 27-run victory over New Zealand in the first T20 in Dunedin. Captain Heather Knight’s classy 63 from just 39 balls led the visitors to 160-4 after losing the toss, supported by Maia Bouchier’s unbeaten 43. White Ferns skipper Suzie Bates struck 65 in reply but struggled for middle order support as they were restricted to 133-5. Seamer Lauren Bell starred in England’s dominant bowling performance with 2-29. England’s victory was impressive in the absence of key players Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt, Sophie Ecclestone and Alice Capsey, who are missing the first three T20s because of…

The UK government will establish an independent football regulator when the Football Governance Bill is introduced in Parliament on Tuesday. The legislation will grant powers to a body, independent of both government and football authorities, to oversee clubs in England’s top five tiers. The government announced plans to appoint a regulator in February 2023, following a fan-led review in 2022. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it is “a historic moment for football fans”. “It will make sure their voices are front and centre,” he added. “Football has long been one of our greatest sources of national pride. “But for too…

Singapore’s opposition leader Pritam Singh has been charged with lying under oath over a case involving a former lawmaker in his party. The case involves former MP Raeesa Khan who had accused the police of mishandling a matter involving a sexual assault victim. Ms Khan was fined after it emerged that she had lied about the incident. She later said Mr Singh encouraged her to continue her narrative despite finding out it was not true. Mr Singh, chief of the opposition Workers’ Party, has pleaded not guilty. If found guilty, he faces a jail term of up to three years…

It’s been nearly 13 years since “The Oprah Winfrey Show” came to an end, but for viewers of her weight loss special on Monday night, it likely felt like Winfrey’s talk show was back. “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution” featured Winfrey doing what she proved for 25 seasons on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” she can do better than just about anyone else: bring people together and get them talking – and listening – to each other. “I wanted to do this special for the more than 100 million people in the United States and the over 1…

Abortions are on the rise in the United States, despite bans that have taken effect in more than a dozen states since the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that revoked the federal right to abortion in June 2022. There were more than 1 million abortions in the US in 2023, the highest rate in more than a decade and a 10% jump from 2020, according to a report released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports abortion rights. The latest trends also suggest that medication abortion is a more common option…

The health insurance billing system in the United States is stabilizing following an unprecedented cyberattack on a key company last month, but smaller health clinics may still need help to ensure they can stay in business, senior Biden administration officials said Monday after meeting with health care executives. Ninety-five percent of Change Healthcare’s health insurance claims are now being processed, the insurance billing firm that has been roiled by the Feb. 21 hack, a senior administration official told reporters in an update on the federal response to the hack. “[O]ur real focus is making sure we don’t get to the…

Japan has ended its negative interest rate policy, marking a historic shift away from an aggressive monetary easing program that was implemented years ago to fight chronic deflation. As part of the decision, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) raised its short-term interest rates to a tight range from “around zero to 0.1%,” up from minus 0.1%, according to a statement posted on its website on Tuesday. “Japan’s economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness has been seen in part,” it said in the statement. Recent data and anecdotal information have shown that the virtuous cycle between wages and prices has become “more…