Author: admin@primenews

In early November, 50 Georgian opposition MPs addressed Nato and EU member states calling for a unified stance against Russia’s plan to establish a permanent naval base in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. The Kremlin’s plans have raised fears that the base could drag EU-hopeful Georgia into Russia’s war in Ukraine and harm Tbilisi’s own plans for a port on the Black Sea. “We unanimously and firmly condemn Russia’s occupation, militarisation and other actions aimed at annexation of the occupied regions of Georgia, a new expression of which is the opening of a permanent Russian naval base in Ochamchire…

Volodymyr Zelensky’s third visit to Washington on Tuesday was tinged in desperation. It was a last-ditch effort to win new military aid from Congress before the currently approved amount runs dry. The Ukrainian president is desperate because his nation’s fate may hang in the balance. His American counterpart, Joe Biden, is desperate because he views the Ukrainian war as a pivotal battleground in a world conflict between democracies and autocratic regimes. At the end of the day, however, there was little to show for their efforts. When Mr Zelensky came to Washington last year, he was cheered on by a…

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been fined £350,000 over an email blunder that exposed details of interpreters fleeing Afghanistan. The 265 people affected had worked with the UK government – some were in hiding when the Taliban seized control. Lives could have been at risk had data fallen into their hands, the data watchdog said. The MoD said it recognised the severity of the breach, fully acknowledged the ruling and apologised to the victims. The information commissioner, John Edwards said the error “let down those to whom our country owes so much”. He added: “This was a particularly egregious…

Netflix has released viewer data on 99% of its catalogue for the first time. Users watched The Night Agent for 812 million hours, making the political thriller its most viewed show in the first half of this year. The streaming giant has been criticised for not being transparent about how content performs on its platform. The criticism was central to this year’s Hollywood strikes, which paralysed the film and television industry for several months. Actors and writers have been demanding higher royalties for shows that performed well on streaming platforms. On a conference call with the media, co-chief executive Ted…

Award-winning South African Afro-pop singer Bulelwa Mkutukana, popularly known as Zahara, has died, the country’s culture minister announced. She had been in hospital, reportedly with liver complications, and the government had been assisting the family “for some time”, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa said. The songstress won fame in 2011 with her album Loliwe, loved across Africa. In 2019, Zahara opened up about her battle with alcohol addiction. Last month, the family confirmed she had been admitted to hospital and called on South Africans to keep the musician in their prayers. She passed away on Monday night in…

A Turkish football club president has been arrested after punching a referee following a top-flight game on Monday. MKE Ankaragucu president Faruk Koca ran onto the pitch and struck match official Halil Umut Meler after his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Caykur Rizespor. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Koca and two others were formally arrested for “injuring a public official”. All Turkish league football has been suspended following the incident. Fifa president Gianni Infantino said the incident was “totally unacceptable” and violence had “no place in our sport or society”. “Without match officials there is no football,”…

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have hit a Norwegian tanker with at least one missile, causing a fire. There were no casualties in the attack. A Houthi spokesman said the MT Strinda was delivering oil to Israel, but the ship’s owners said it was headed to Italy with feedstock for biofuel. The group has vowed to block ships of any nation heading to Israel until Israel stops its offensive on Gaza, in what the Houthis say is a show of support for the Palestinians. The United States has said it will consider “appropriate responses” to any such attacks, which it describes…

Zara says it “regrets” a “misunderstanding” about an ad campaign criticised for using photos resembling images from the Israel-Gaza war. It has pulled the remaining pictures following days of backlash on social media and complaints to the UK’s advertising watchdog. One image showed a model holding a mannequin wrapped in white plastic. Zara said some customers saw “something far from what was intended when they were created”. Some social media users on X, formerly Twitter, had called for a boycott of the fashion retailer. Zara said that the campaign, advertising its Atelier line, was “conceived in July and photographed in…

At least 23 soldiers have been killed and dozens injured in Pakistan after militants attacked a police compound. The attack took place in the early hours when a vehicle containing explosives rammed into the building in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the Afghan border. A militant group affiliated to the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack. The compound was being used as a base camp for the Pakistani army. Ahead of the vehicle ramming, several militants attempted to enter the compound in the Dera Ismail Khan district but failed, the army said in a statement. The group then used…

Digital publisher The Arena Group, which operates household brands such as Sports Illustrated and The Street, fired its chief executive on Monday amid a larger C-suite bloodbath, a spokesperson for the company told CNN. A spokesperson for The Arena Group declined to go into further detail to explain the ouster of Ross Levinsohn, who served as chief executive for three years. But the move came after an embarrassing debacle in which Sports Illustrated was caught publishing stories with fake author names and profile photos generated by artificial intelligence. Levinsohn was replaced, effective immediately, by interim chief executive Manoj Bhargava, the 5-Hour Energy…