Author: admin@primenews

With an anticipated ten thousand athletes parading through the heart of Paris, Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony promises a spectacle par excellence. Many of the details have been kept secret, so expect plenty of surprises. The ceremony begins at 18:30 BST on Friday, and will last just under four hours. 1. A free-flowing ceremony For the first time, the ceremony will take place not in a stadium, but in the heart of a city. The world’s Olympic teams are set to parade along the River Seine in boats, watched by about 300,000 spectators in a display directed by Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s…

Major video game makers – like Activision, Warner Bros and Walt Disney – are facing a strike by Hollywood performers over the use of artificial intelligence (AI). It follows a year and half of talks over a new a contract between the games studios and a union representing more than 2,500 performers. The two sides say they have agreed on several key issues, such as wages and job safety, but protections related to the use of AI technology remain a major hurdle. The industrial action was called by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra), which…

The Philippine Coast Guard is preparing to deploy floating barriers and suction hoses to contain an oil spill and prevent it from reaching the capital, Manila. Authorities are racing to stop the oil spill from the MT Terra Nova, which capsized on Thursday as monsoon rains battered large swathes of the country. The leak appeared to be coming from the ship’s engine, not its cargo tank, which was carrying close to 1.5 million litres of industrial fuel, officials said. An “enormous” spill stretching out over several kilometres has been detected and there are fears that the oil spill could be…

One of the world’s biggest drug lords, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US. Arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman’s son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, said the US justice department. In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis. In a written statement on Thursday evening, US…

Conn’s HomePlus, a 134-year-old furniture and electronics retailer with locations primarily in the southern United States, has filed for bankruptcy and is closing nearly half of its 170 stores. The Texas-based company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, has been struggling with slumping sales amid a broader slowdown in discretionary spending among consumers. Conn’s has assets and liabilities worth at least $1 billion each, according to the filing. The 73 Conn’s HomePlus stores closing are listed on its website. Florida is the most affected state with 18 stores soon shutting down, followed by Texas with 9 locations. Other states where…

Abu Dhabi isn’t about to wean itself off the oil that made it super rich. But it is putting some of that wealth to work in support of startups trying to find solutions for the climate crisis. In April, Abu Dhabi tech ecosystem Hub71 announced its first-ever program designed to support decarbonization technologies, which included five startups focused on solutions for sectors ranging from energy to aquaculture. “The climate agenda is very important to the leadership of the UAE,” Ahmad Ali Alwan, the CEO of Hub71, which is backed by state fund Mubadala Investment Company, told CNN. “So we identified it to be a priority…

A collection of autographs from some of the 20th Century’s most well-known figures has sold for more than £78,000 at auction. A note signed by Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong had the highest selling price, fetching £22,000 when it went under the hammer. Among the other famous jottings that sold were those belonging to Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley, South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela and all four members of The Beatles. Peter Mason, of Dawsons auction house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, described the items as a “unique collection”. A signed first-edition copy of a poetry book written by The Doors’…

Financial markets in the US and Asia have fallen sharply as investors sell off shares in technology companies, with artificial intelligence (AI) stocks hit particularly hard. In Wednesday’s trading in New York, the S&P 500 lost 2.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 3.6%, in their biggest one-day falls since 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 1.2%. The losses were driven by major firms including Nvidia, Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Tesla. On Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei index led declines in Asia as it fell by 3%. Shares in technology companies, especially those related to AI, have driven much of this…

India can be tricky territory for Labour. Prime Minister Clement Attlee was criticised for allowing partition to be rushed at terrible cost in human life. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook caused a storm by offering to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. And the party led by Jeremy Corbyn angered even more here when it passed a motion calling for international intervention in the disputed region. So it must have been with some trepidation that David Lammy arrived in a warm and damp New Delhi on Wednesday morning, a newly-minted foreign secretary stepping away for the first time from the…

CrowdStrike has promised to improve its software tests after a faulty content update for Windows systems caused a global IT outage on Friday. The cybersecurity company’s mistake resulted in problems for banks, hospitals and airlines as millions of PCs displayed “blue screens of death”. In a detailed review of the incident published on Wednesday, CrowdStrike said there was a “bug” in a system designed to ensure software updates work properly. The review comes as the company faces a backlash for giving $10 Uber Eats vouchers to the “teammates and partners” who dealt with the crisis. Crowdstrike said the glitch meant “problematic…