Author: admin@primenews

The smell of barbecued artichokes wafts along a row of dozens of tractors parked in central Barcelona, as rock music blares out of speakers, and wine is poured into plastic cups. The scene is festive, but this is a protest, not a party. Hundreds of Catalan farmers have driven into their region’s capital to voice their grievances, central to which is the climate. “We’re now in a situation where we have a full-on drought,” says Xavier Oliva, an artichoke farmer who owns land just outside the city. “If it doesn’t rain you can’t plant anything.” Oliva and his colleagues are…

A power company that has received £6bn in UK green subsidies has kept burning wood from some of the world’s most precious forests, the BBC has found. Papers obtained by Panorama show Drax took timber from rare forests in Canada it had claimed were “no go areas”. It comes as the government decides whether to give the firm’s Yorkshire site billions more in environmental subsidies funded by energy bill payers. Drax says its wood pellets are “sustainable and legally harvested”. The Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is a converted coal plant which burns wood pellets. In 2023,…

The future site of the the UK’s biggest electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility has been confirmed. Jaguar Land Rover-owner Tata says it will invest £4bn in a brownfield site near Bridgwater in Somerset. The government previously announced the flagship battery factory would be built in the UK, but this is the first official confirmation of the site. The new plant is expected to create 4,000 jobs and thousands more in the supply chain. Tata says battery production is set to begin there in 2026. Agratas – Tata Group’s global battery business – has confirmed it will build the factory, its first outside…

Pop star Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day, on 20 April. Bush said it was a “great privilege” to support the initiative, which champions independent record shops and vinyl collectors across the UK. “Isn’t it great to see how the resurgence in vinyl has taken the music industry by surprise?” she said. “It had decided to leave vinyl far behind, but it would seem that not everyone agrees! I love that!” She added: “I know there are many, many artists who are just as excited to see the audience turning the tide.”…

An organiser of a “whites only” party in Sri Lanka has apologised after the event sparked a backlash online. The event’s advertisement specified a white dress code, but also had a line saying “Face control: White” – which was largely interpreted to mean the event was open only to white people. An organiser later said the event was “a bad idea”, adding that it was meant to bring together expatriates. The party, which was due to take place last Saturday, was cancelled. Backlash against the event was swift, with many on social media calling it “disgusting” and “racist”. “I know…

TikTok’s global trust and safety unit is getting a new leader, the company confirmed on Tuesday. Cormac Keenan, who has led trust and safety for the social media giant since 2020 from its Dublin, Ireland, office, is stepping back into a strategic advisory role working with the company’s senior leadership team, CEO Shou Chew said in an internal memo to employees Tuesday. Keenan will also serve on the board of the company’s Irish entity. Following Keenan’s move, TikTok’s global trust and safety unit will now fall under the leadership of Adam Presser, the company’s Los Angeles-based head of operations. However,…

In vitro fertilization, or IVF, is one of the last bastions of hope for couples unable to conceive on their own. “IVF is really common. Infertility affects 1 in 6 people in the United States, and annually in the US alone, we perform about 400,000 cycles of in vitro fertilization,” fertility expert Dr. Eve Feinberg, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on his podcast recently. “If you look collectively at the population of the US just over time, in the 40 years since Louise…

Starbucks said Tuesday it will begin talks with the Workers United union to discuss bargaining agreements and union organizing. “We have agreed with Workers United that we will begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve collective bargaining agreements, including a fair process for organizing, and the resolution of some outstanding litigation,” the company said in a statement. Starbucks also said it is using the framework to begin to resolve litigation related to partner benefits announced in May 2022 and the use of the Starbucks brand in an intellectual property lawsuit. “As a sign of good faith, Starbucks has agreed to provide partners represented…

Adele has postponed all of next month’s shows of her ongoing Las Vegas residency after announcing she is ill. The British singer said on her social media that doctors told her to rest but did not reveal details of her illness. The announcement comes just over five months ahead of her four-night run of stadium shows in Munich in August. The Vegas residency began in November 2022, 11 months after the original launch date was delayed for a number of reasons. In a statement, the singer said: “Sadly I have to take a beat and pause my Vegas residency.” She…

TikTok says it has started removing more music from its platform as part of a continuing row over royalties with Universal Music Group (UMG). The app has already silenced songs by artists signed to the label, but is now having to do the same with writers too. This means that videos featuring songs by artists such as Harry Styles and Adele, who have written with Universal-signed artists, could soon be muted. TikTok says up to 30% of what it calls “popular songs” could be lost. But some industry estimates say up to 80% of all music on TikTok could be muted. That’s…