Author: admin@primenews

Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has picked one of his party’s leaders as PM candidate. Omar Ayub Khan will run against the candidate of Imran Khan’s rivals, who have agreed to a coalition. Khan-backed independents unexpectedly won the most seats in last week’s election, but they did not have enough seats to form a government. This has led to days of deal-making as the constitution requires the formation of a government by 29 February. A senior leader of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Asad Qaiser, announced Mr Ayub as his pick for PM after meeting with the…

Jurgen Klinsmann has been sacked as head coach of South Korea after just 12 months in the role. The 59-year-old German was appointed in February last year, with his contract running until the end of the 2026 World Cup. But South Korea were beaten in the semi-finals at the Asian Cup earlier this month, prolonging the country’s 64-year wait for the title. There had also been reports of in-fighting between top players. South Korea captain Son Heung-min reportedly injured his finger during a dispute with team-mates before their shock 2-0 defat by Jordan last week. The incident took place at a team…

Artificial intelligence leader OpenAI introduced a new AI model called Sora which it claims can create “realistic” and “imaginative” 60-second videos from quick text prompts. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said Sora is capable of generating videos up to 60 seconds in length from text instructions, with the ability to serve up scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and detailed background details. “The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world,” the blog post said. OpenAI said it intends to train the…

Electric vehicles are finally turning a profit for Stellantis, CEO Carlos Tavares said Thursday, and, in contrast to some rivals, it will not cut back on producing EVs. The announcement marks an important milestone for electric vehicles and for traditional automakers, which have struggled to make money on EVs even as demand has grown. “Stellatis’ strategy is very different… from the other competitors from Detroit. We’re keeping full speed on electrification,” he told journalists after the company reported its third straight year of record profits since the merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group created the company in 2021. While non-union electric…

A judge has given the go-ahead to a mass legal action against Facebook owner Meta, potentially worth £3bn. The case is being brought by legal academic Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, on behalf of 45 million Facebook users. Her original claim was refused, in 2023, but a revised version has now been accepted, with early 2026 said to be the latest it could be heard. Meta said the claims “remain entirely without merit and we will vigorously defend against them”. ‘Take-it-or-leave-it’ offer The new claim says: “Facebook has struck an unfair bargain with its users,” according to legal documents. Facebook abused its dominance…

My son’s favourite game is Minecraft. He plays it wherever he can. On his phone, on his tablet, on our PlayStation, on his dad’s Xbox. He watches Minecraft videos on YouTube and he uses an unofficial app to create and share skins and mods. He doesn’t care who owns the game (Microsoft bought the Mojang studio in 2014) and he has no brand loyalty to a particular device – his favourite is whichever one is to hand. He’s 12 years old and this is what the games giants are up against: a generation of young gamers who don’t buy into…

People spending less, doctors’ strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show. The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September. The UK is in recession if it fails to grow for two successive quarters. The figures raise questions over whether Rishi Sunak has met his pledge made last January to grow the economy. The government has never publicly said what measure should be used to assess if it had met the Prime Minister’s pledge,…

An ex-FBI informant has been charged with making false statements about an alleged bribery scheme involving a Ukrainian company, President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Alexander Smirnov, 43, is accused of lying about the Bidens accepting payments from energy firm Burisma. The Justice Department said Mr Smirnov gave false statements to the FBI because he disliked President Biden. Republicans had relied on his claims in an ongoing bid to impeach Mr Biden. Hunter Biden, who has resolutely denied the allegations against him, is due to testify before the House Oversight Committee later this month about the accusations. Mr Smirnov…

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya fever gripped London on Thursday night as the Hollywood heartthrobs hit the red carpet for the world premiere of their new movie, Dune: Part Two. Huge crowds of adoring fans queued for hours to see them, and were screaming their names as they walked in. Zendaya drew audible gasps from the crowd when she finally appeared wearing a stunning metallic suit. The long-awaited sequel was originally set to premiere last autumn. The release date had been pushed back due to the Hollywood actors and writers strikes, which plagued the industry for much of last year. “It’s…

The prime suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann goes on trial in Germany on Friday for unrelated sex offences. Christian Brückner will be in court in the northern city of Braunschweig, facing three allegations of rape and two of sexual abuse, dating back to between 2000 and 2017 in Portugal. He is already serving a seven-year jail sentence for rape. Brückner has never been charged with Madeleine McCann’s disappearance. He has denied any involvement. The three-year-old British girl vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve region, in 2007. It remains one of the…