Author: admin@primenews

Bitcoin jumped briefly on Tuesday after a post on the US markets regulator’s X account (formerly Twitter) said it had approved new so-called exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the cryptocurrency. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later deleted the post and said its account had been “compromised”. The social media platform has said the compromised account was not due to a breach of its systems. US regulators are expected to make an announcement on the new ETFs this week. The false post appeared on the SEC’s official X account shortly after 16:00 Washington time (21:00 GMT). It said the regulator “grants…

Masked gunmen have broken into a live television studio in Ecuador and threatened terrified staff. Employees were forced on to the floor during the broadcast by the public television channel TC in the city of Guayaquil before the live feed cut out. Police say they later freed all the staff and made 13 arrests, showing off weapons recovered. At least 10 people have been killed since a 60-day state of emergency began in Ecuador on Monday. The emergency was declared after a notorious gangster vanished from his prison cell. It is unclear whether the incident at the TV studio in…

As cyber scams go, this one is rather unique. In early December Mangesh Kumar (name changed) was scrolling on Facebook when he came across a video from the “All India Pregnant Job Service” and decided to check it out. The job sounded too good to be true: money – and lots of it – in return for getting a woman pregnant. It was, of course, too good to be true. So far, the 33-year-old, who earns 15,000 rupees ($180; £142) per month working for a wedding party decoration company, has already lost 16,000 rupees to fraudsters – and they are…

Global warming in 2023 hit 1.48 degrees Celsius, data published Tuesday shows, as the hottest year on record propelled the world just hundredths of a degree away from a critical climate threshold. Analyses last year had already confirmed 2023 to be the warmest on record, but Tuesday’s data shows an alarming leap in heating from 2016, previously the hottest year. In 2023, the average global temperature was 14.98 degrees Celsius — 0.17 degrees above the previous record — while warming in the world’s oceans also hit a new high. Scientists repeatedly expressed shock in 2023 as successive heat records fell, and warned the world is…

The American oil industry is on high alert for an escalation of the violence in the Middle East that disrupts the flow of oil out of the region. Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, worries there is a growing chance the crisis will intensify and derail oil supplies. “This should be a real concern, I think, to every American,” Sommers told CNN in an exclusive interview. “Oil tankers are being attacked by the Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. And what you’re seeing is a number of those oil tankers no longer traversing the Red Sea.” Sommers, who…

Bill Ackman is accustomed to institutions bending to his will. He’s also notorious for not letting up whenever they don’t. The hedge fund manager’s signature investing strategy — buying shares in a company and then not shutting up until its leaders do what you say — has expanded in recent years to include a kind of whack-a-mole online social activism. Ackman, no stranger to controversy, has become something of a social media loose cannon. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Ackman regularly floats his contrarian takes on the issues of the day (such as his belief that Kyle Rittenhouse,…

More than 100 flood warnings remain in place, mainly in southern England, following last week’s wet weather, as cold temperatures continue. The Environment Agency said 125 flood warnings remain in England, including along the River Thames near London. A yellow warning for ice across southern England and southern Wales expired early on Tuesday morning. Temperatures remain cold, however, and an amber cold health alert is in place for much of England until Friday. BBC Weather presenter Stav Danaos said that “the misery of floodwater clean-up continues across parts of England as the rivers and waterways only slowly return back to normal”. “Weeks…

A tribute concert for Sinéad O’Connor and The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan is set to take place in New York City’s Carnegie Hall in March. The one-night-only show called Sinéad & Shane at Carnegie Hall will be a celebration of both their lives. Artists such as Mountain Goats, Cat Power, and Dropkick Murphys are set to cover a number of O’Connor and MacGowan’s songs. Both Irish singers passed away in 2023. In 1995 they recorded a duet of Haunted together, a song previously released by The Pogues in 1986. It reached number 30 in the UK charts. O’Connor, known for…

A decade ago, Margo McDaid quit her job as a primary school teacher after one of her pupils was murdered. The shocking event made her reassess her life and she decided it was time to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming an artist. After moving from inner city London to the Kent coast, she made a pledge to herself to create at least one painting every single day. A decade on, she has kept that promise and, using the name Margo in Margate, has sold more than 16,000 of her joyful, bold, colour-packed pictures – almost all of which are…

All eyes will be on Taiwan when the self-governing island of 23 million people goes to the polls on 13 January. Whoever is elected president on Saturday will shape relations with both Beijing and Washington – Taiwan is a key flashpoint in their tussle for power in this region. And it will also have crucial implications for the island’s neighbours as well as allies like Japan who are wary of Beijing’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea. The China factor China is among the top concerns for most voters, given that its People’s Liberation Army has dialled up pressure…