Author: admin@primenews

A second bishop was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities on Thursday, two sources told CNN, amid a far-reaching crackdown on opposition figures and the Catholic Church by the government of President Daniel Ortega. Bishop Isidoro Mora, of the Siuna church on the country’s Caribbean coast, was arrested after taking part in a mass to celebrate the anniversary of the Matagalpa church, the sources said. CNN has reached out to the Nicaraguan government for further details on Mora’s legal situation and arrest. One of the sources said they had witnessed the moments leading up to the arrest, telling CNN that Mora had briefly mentioned the detained bishop and vocal…

Shares of several Chinese tech giants tanked in Hong Kong, after Beijing unveiled a new set of regulations to restrict online spending in the gaming industry as part of its wider crackdown. Tencent, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, plummeted 12.8% in Hong Kong by early Friday afternoon. The stock is on track to record its worst day since October 2008, during the depths of the global financial crisis. Tencent could lose 380.4 billion Hong Kong dollars ($49 billion) in its value due to that drop, according to CNN calculation based on the stock market statistics. NetEase, another…

The Czech Republic has declared Saturday a national day of mourning after a gunman killed 14 people and injured 25 at a university in Prague. President Petr Pavel expressed his “great sadness” and “helpless anger at the totally unnecessary” loss of life. The gunman, who police said had been “eliminated”, is believed to have also killed his father and may be linked to the deaths of two people last week. It is one of the worst mass shootings in recent European history. The shooting began at around 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Thursday at the Faculty of Arts building…

The UN Security Council is moving closer to a vote on humanitarian aid for Gaza after the US expressed support for the latest draft resolution. The vote, now delayed until Friday, had been in limbo after the US voiced “widespread concerns” with a draft. Washington had said it was concerned the resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, could “actually slow down” aid into Gaza. The latest announcement from the US comes after some two weeks of talks. All week, the Security Council has repeatedly postponed the draft resolution aimed at bringing in some form of ceasefire, as wrangling…

A survivor of a plane crash in the Andes, where the living resorted to cannibalism while waiting to be rescued, has said a film about it made him “smell the experience all over again”. Society of the Snow is the latest telling of a story that caused an international media frenzy in December 1972, when it emerged that 16 young men had survived Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571’s crash. They had to survive in a remote, snow-covered part of the Andes for 72 days. A few days after their rescue, the world also learned what the men had done to survive their…

Japan is going through a “once in a generation” political crisis, analysts say, as the government fights to clean up its image in the face of a corruption scandal. Four cabinet ministers from the long-term ruling party have resigned in the past fortnight, as Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fights to hang on. His approval ratings are down to 17% – the worst in over a decade. And public anger and outrage has boiled over on social media. Some hope this could be a tipping point for reforms in governance. But others note it’s the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the spotlight…

A British stockbroker who helped save 669 children from the Nazis in World War Two didn’t think of himself as a hero. Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays him in a new film, disagrees – as do those he helped. Sir Anthony Hopkins joins our Zoom interview drinking a cup of English breakfast tea. He’s at his home in Los Angeles and, for him, it’s the morning. The double Oscar winner regularly posts to his 4.8 million Instagram followers from this house. “Americans can’t make tea,” he confides. I tend to agree. The 85-year-old screen legend has joined to discuss…

Eurotunnel has confirmed that a “last-minute strike” by French workers which halted trains during the day on Thursday is over and there will be a progressive return to services. But while drive-on LeShuttle trains were set to resume during the evening, Eurostar said passenger services would restart on Friday. Currently, all Eurostar trains to and from London are cancelled. The disruption emerged as people travel for Christmas over the next few days. Eurotunnel said it had reached an agreement with trade unions and apologised for disruption to LeShuttle, which transports vehicles through the Channel Tunnel. “Eurotunnel welcomes this agreement and…

Government minister Penny Mordaunt is the latest witness in the government’s Covid inquiry to have an issue with missing WhatsApp messages. The leader of the House of Commons said that two years of WhatsApp chats with Boris Johnson had disappeared. Mr Johnson previously told the inquiry that he had lost about 5,000 messages. His spokesperson told the BBC that he has “sent all relevant messages in his possession to the inquiry and has complied exactly with their requests”. Many politicians have lost WhatsApp messages sent during the pandemic, including the prime minister Rishi Sunak, who was chancellor of the exchequer at…

Angola has announced it is leaving the oil producers’ organisation Opec over a dispute on output quotas. It follows last month’s decision by the 13-member cartel and 10 allied nations to further slash oil production in 2024 to prop up volatile global prices. Angola currently produces about 1.1 million barrels per day, of the 30 million from the whole of Opec. Oil prices fell on the news, with Brent prices down over $1 to $78.5 a barrel by 12:50 GMT, Reuters reports. Angola’s decision to withdraw from Opec came at Thursday’s cabinet meeting. “We feel that at this moment Angola…