Author: admin@primenews

Some polar bears face starvation as the Arctic sea ice melts because they are unable to adapt their diets to living on land, scientists have found. The iconic Arctic species normally feed on ringed seals that they catch on ice floes offshore. But as the ice disappears in a warming world, many bears are spending greater amounts of time on shore, eating bird’s eggs, berries and grass. However the animals rapidly lose weight on land, increasing the risk of death. The polar bear has become the poster child for the growing threat of climate change in the Arctic, but the…

President Joe Biden has blasted criticism of Nato by his likely 2024 election challenger, Donald Trump, as “dumb”, “shameful” and “un-American”. The Democrat assailed Mr Trump for saying he would “encourage” Russia to attack any Nato member that did not meet its defence spending quota. Mr Biden said the remarks underscored the urgency of passing a $95bn (£75bn) foreign aid package for US allies. The bill just passed the Senate, but it faces political headwinds in the House. At the White House on Tuesday, Mr Biden said a failure to pass the package – which includes $60bn for Ukraine -…

A Democrat has won the swing US congressional district left vacant when former Republican Congressman George Santos was expelled last December. Tom Suozzi’s Tuesday night victory over rival Mazi Pilip denies Republicans a chance to pad out their slim majority in the House of Representatives. He will finish Mr Santos’s term following his removal from Congress over allegations of fraud. The race was a closely watched bellwether for the November elections. The election marks a return to Congress for Mr Suozzi, who previously served three terms in the US House but opted in 2022 to run for governor in New…

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has been released from hospital and resumed his duties, the Pentagon has said. Mr Austin, 70, was admitted to the critical care unit at a DC-area hospital on Sunday for symptoms of an “emergent bladder issue”. In a statement, Mr Austin’s doctors said he was in “good condition” after receiving non-surgical treatment. They added that the bladder issue was unrelated to Mr Austin’s prostate cancer diagnosis of late last year. This latest hospital stay “will have no effect on his excellent cancer prognosis”, said Dr John Maddox and Dr Gregory Chesnut. The Pentagon chief had…

A top UN official has warned an Israeli assault on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, could lead to a “slaughter”. Humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Palestinians in Gaza were already suffering an “assault that is unparalleled in its intensity, brutality and scope”. The consequences of an invasion of Rafah would be “catastrophic”, he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to defeat Hamas gunmen he says are hiding in the city. In an unusually strongly worded statement, Mr Griffiths said over a million people were “crammed in Rafah, staring death in the face”. He said civilians in the city had…

Nearly half a million homes were left without power in the Australian state of Victoria after a storm knocked out parts of the network. Videos posted online showed torrential rain and gale-force winds uprooting trees and blowing entire sheds away. One dairy farmer was killed – authorities suspect he was struck by flying debris while on a tractor. The wild weather also hampered efforts to fight massive bushfires in the state’s west. A catastrophic fire weather warning had been issued in one region – Australia’s highest level of bushfire danger. The state’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said Tuesday’s power blackout…

The House of Representatives has narrowly voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, making him the first cabinet member to face impeachment in nearly 150 years. Many Republicans blame Mr Mayorkas for an unprecedented influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. The Republican-led chamber voted 214 to 213 for the measure, after the first attempt failed last week. The issue now heads to the Democratic-led Senate, where it is likely to fail. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the vote a “blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship” and a “political stunt”. Opponents of Mr Mayorkas accused him of not living…

Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos has sold more of his shares in Amazon, bringing the total value of sales in recent days to more than $4bn (£3.2bn). The technology giant, which he founded in 1994, said Mr Bezos has sold 24 million Amazon shares this month. Mr Bezos, who is the firm’s executive chair, last sold Amazon shares in 2021. Earlier this month, the company said he was planning to sell 50 million shares over the next year, which are worth around $8.4bn at current prices. The first sale of 12 million shares was announced in a regulatory filing on Friday, followed by an announcement…

Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto’s parties in Pakistan have reached a deal to form a government. Mr Bhutto’s PPP said it would help Mr Sharif’s PML-N elect a prime minister after last week’s election. The two parties were previously in a coalition that ousted Imran Khan from power in 2022. This time, independent candidates backed by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party unexpectedly won the most seats. PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari told a press conference that although his party and PML-N had contested elections against each other, they had come together in the interests of the nation. “It is not…

​A chemical manufacturer facing legal action over alleged links between its pesticide and Parkinson’s Disease ignored key health records in studies. Syngenta insists there is no evidence of a Parkinson’s link to the toxic Paraquat, which is made in the UK. But the BBC has seen legal documents in which it admits it only looked at death certificates, rather than the medical records, of workers at its Widnes site. Syngenta is fighting legal action by thousands of farmers in the US. In court documents, the company’s chief medical officer acknowledged it did not look at whether any living former workers…