Author: admin@primenews

Airbnb has been fined A$15m and has agreed to pay compensation after it was found to have misled around 63,000 Australian customers. The prices of some lettings on the firm’s website were in US dollars rather than the lower value Australian dollars – but this was not made clear initially. It meant some customers paid more than expected for their accommodation. Airbnb has apologised and said it is committed to “price transparency”. The fine was handed down by Australia’s Federal Court on Wednesday after Airbnb admitted making false or misleading representations to Australian users between January 2018 and August 2021.…

Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global are in early talks to merge, according to multiple media reports. The deal would see the owner of HBO channels and CNN team up with the studio behind the Mission Impossible films and CBS News.  Warner chief executive David Zaslav and Paramount chief Bob Bakish discussed a possible deal over lunch in New York this week, as first reported by Axios. Talks are at an early stage and a deal may not happen, sources told the FT. The deal would bring together two of Hollywood’s “Big Five” studios, with Warner and Paramount’s combined market value standing…

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Buenos Aires in the first big protest against the new Argentine government’s economic shock policies. President Javier Milei announced measures that include spending cuts and a drastic currency devaluation. He also signed an economic reform decree that will end limits on exports. The march was led by groups that represent the unemployed. Police were deployed in large numbers to stop the protesters from blocking roads. President Milei, who took office less than two weeks ago, has promised tough action against any groups that try to thwart his plans with disruptive protests. The…

Married at First Sight dating coach Mel Schilling has revealed she has been diagnosed with cancer. Posting on Instagram on Tuesday, Schilling said doctors told her she had colon cancer last week. She added that she would be spending Christmas in hospital as she has an operation to remove a tumour. The psychologist has been a part of the MAFS cast since 2016, first in her home country Australia and later on the UK version of the show, which airs on E4. She is one of three relationship experts on the UK show alongside Paul Brunson and Charlene Douglas. The…

Christmas shoppers ordering cheap gifts from Temu risk buying items made using forced labour, an MP has warned. The Chinese app, popular for its huge range of clothing, toys and gadgets at ultra low prices, was downloaded 19 million times in the UK in 2023. But Alicia Kearns, head of the foreign affairs select committee, told the BBC she’d “long been concerned about the rise of Temu and the risks it poses”. Temu said it “strictly prohibits” the use of forced, penal, or child labour. The warning comes after a US government investigation found an “extremely high risk” that products sold on…

A sub-variant of the Omicron strain of coronavirus has been classified as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization, because of “its rapidly increasing spread”. JN.1 has been found in many countries around the world, including India, China, UK and the United States. The risk to the public is currently low and current vaccines continue to offer protection, the WHO says. But it warns Covid and other infections could rise this winter. Respiratory viruses such as flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and childhood pneumonia are also on the rise in the northern hemisphere. The virus which causes Covid…

In the image above, a Dalit (formerly known as untouchable) woman worker limps past an open-cast coal mine in India’s Jharkhand state, where underground fires have burned for over a century. The photograph is part of a black-and-white series titled “Broken” by Asha Thadani, who has been chronicling the lives of Dalits for seven years. India’s 200 million Dalits find themselves among the nation’s most marginalised citizens, condemned to the lowest echelons of society by a rigid caste hierarchy. Quotas in state institutions for Dalits have narrowed gaps in education, income and health. Dalits now boast a thriving chamber of…

An infamous fugitive billionaire – known as Fat Leonard – has been released as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela, the White House has confirmed. The fugitive, whose real name is Leonard Glenn Francis, masterminded a $35m (£30m) fraud against the US Navy. He escaped from US custody in 2022. Ten US citizens held in Venezuela were released as part of the deal. In exchange, the US released Alex Saab, an aide to Venezuela’s president. Francis, the most high-profile prisoner involved in the deal, was detained in September 2022 trying to board a flight from Venezuela to Russia while on the…

At least 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been reported killed since Israel began bombing the territory in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attacks. BBC Verify examines what Gaza’s death toll reveals about the conflict. On average, nearly 300 people have been killed each day since the start of the conflict, excluding the seven-day ceasefire, data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry indicates. The World Health Organization’s regional emergency director Richard Brennan says he considers these casualty figures trustworthy. Counting the dead is a challenge in any war zone, and doctors in Gaza say the death toll is likely to be…

An Oklahoma judge has exonerated a man who was in prison for almost half a century for a 1974 murder, the longest wrongful sentence to be served in the US. Glynn Simmons, 70, was freed in July when a judge ordered a new trial. But a county district attorney said on Monday there was not enough evidence to warrant one. In an order on Tuesday, Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo declared Mr Simmons innocent. “This court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offence for which Mr Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned… was not committed by Mr…