Author: admin@primenews

A former senior staff member at Meta said Instagram is not doing enough to protect teens from sexual harassment. Arturo Béjar, who is testifying in front of the US Congress on Tuesday, said he thinks whistleblowing means he will never work in the industry again. He worked for Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, between 2009 and 2015, and again from 2019 to 2021. Meta said it had brought in “over 30 tools” to support a safe environment for teens online. Mr Béjar said that part of his job was working to help better protect people online. He thought that…

Glenn Maxwell battled through injury to hit a sensational double century against Afghanistan and guide Australia into the World Cup semi-finals. Maxwell arrived at the crease to face a hat-trick ball at 49-4 before Australia slumped to 91-7 chasing 292 in Mumbai. He was dropped twice and struggled with a back injury and cramp but played a remarkable innings, often on one leg post century, to finish 201 not out. He shared 202 with Pat Cummins (12*) as Australia won with 19 balls to spare. Afghanistan, who had earlier made 291-5 with Ibrahim Zadran hitting their first World Cup century,…

A very rare blue diamond sold for over $40m (£32m) at a Christie’s auction in Geneva, news agencies said. The 17.61 carat, pear-shaped Bleu Royal diamond, set in a ring, fetched $43.8 million, they said. It is the “largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue gem” ever to appear for sale in auction history, Christie’s said.. Part of a private collection for 50 years, it was the first time the Bleu Royal was sold at an auction. “This diamond is amongst the rarest to have been unearthed,” the auction house said in a statement. Christie’s said only three fancy vivid blue…

A man depicted on the album cover of Led Zeppelin IV has been revealed as a 19th Century thatcher. The figure is most likely Lot Long from Mere in Wiltshire, photographed by Ernest Farmer. Brian Edwards, from the University of the West of England (UWE), found the original picture when looking through a photograph album for other research. “I instantly recognised the man with the sticks – he’s often called the stick man,” he said. A long-time fan of British rock band Led Zeppelin, he told BBC Radio Wiltshire “it was quite a revelation”. Wiltshire Museum has since acquired the photograph…

The mother of a girl whose photo was used in AI-generated naked images says hundreds of parents have told her their children are also victims. Miriam Al Adib’s daughter was one of several children from a Spanish village who had indecent images created using photos of them fully clothed. She says parents around the world claim their children have also been targeted. The Internet Watch Foundation said it was “not surprising” the practice was so widespread. The town of Almendralejo hit headlines in September after more than 20 girls, aged between 11-17 had AI-generated indecent images shared online without their knowledge. Mrs Al Adib was…

Ohio voted to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution on Tuesday, marking a major victory for pro-choice campaigners in the state. The BBC’s US partner CBS News projected a decisive victory for the amendment. Early returns showed almost 58% of voters in the conservative-leaning state had backed it. Its projected success is likely to bolster Democrats’ hopes that abortion rights remain a winning issue ahead of elections in 2024. It also extends an unbeaten record for ballot measures designed to protect abortion rights since the nationwide right to the procedure was rescinded by the Supreme Court last year. This is…

The story of Adam Neumann and the rise and fall of WeWork reads more like a parable than a business story. A tale of monstrous ego, vaulting ambition and a credulous public. Adam Neumann was the tall, handsome, barefoot, tequila-shooting, weed-smoking Svengali who booked rap stars for the office party, had aspirations to live forever, become the world’s first trillionaire and expand his company to Mars. That seems a million miles from humbling reality, as the company that became the largest tenant of office space in New York and London files for bankruptcy protection from the very landlords who once adored it.…

Millions of Australians have been left without mobile and internet service after telecommunications giant Optus was hit by an outage. Optus is the country’s second-largest provider, with more than 10 million individual customers and hundreds of thousands more businesses. The outage has caused transport delays, cut hospital phone lines, and downed payment systems. Its cause is unclear, but Optus says there is no evidence of a cyber-attack. The company made global headlines last year after it suffered what was believed to be the biggest data breach in Australian history, as a result of a cyber-attack. Wednesday’s outage was first reported…

It is now “virtually certain” that 2023 – a year of deadly heatwaves, floods and fires – will be the warmest on record, new data suggests. The prediction follows “exceptional” high October temperatures. Global average air temperatures were 0.4C warmer than the previous high of October 2019, according to the EU’s climate change service. Driven by carbon emissions and an El Niño weather event, this was the fifth month in a row of record warmth. Extreme global temperatures will likely continue into 2024, researchers say. That this year will be the warmest ever recorded is now pretty much unavoidable: the…

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and killed 34 people in California four years ago has been found guilty of negligence. Jerry Boylan, 69, was convicted of one count of “seaman’s manslaughter” after a 10-day trial in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said the captain failed to have a night watchman or conduct fire drills as required by law. All 33 passengers and a crew member sleeping below deck died – among the worst maritime disasters in California. The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning on 2 September 2019 while the Conception was moored in…