Author: admin@primenews

President Joe Biden is facing pressure from some major Democratic donors as he faces a critical few days in his campaign for re-election. A number of donors are publicly warning they will withhold funds unless Mr Biden is replaced as the party’s candidate following his disastrous debate performance last week. They include Abigail Disney, an heiress to the Disney family fortune, Hollywood producer Damon Lindelof, Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, and philanthropist and entrepreneur Gideon Stein. Mr Biden is seeking to shore up his candidacy this weekend, including with a rare primetime TV interview on Friday and a rally in Wisconsin.…

Millions of social media users in India are stranded after homegrown microblogging platform Koo, which had branded itself as an alternative to X, announced it was shutting services. The platform’s founders said a shortage of funding along with high costs for technology had led to the decision. Launched in 2020, Koo offered messaging in more than 10 Indian languages. It gained prominence in 2021 after several ministers endorsed it amid a row between the Indian government and X, which was then known as Twitter. The spat began after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government asked the US-based platform to block a…

Sex toys and many other erotic items are to be banned from online marketplace Etsy – sparking a backlash from sellers. Also prohibited from 29 July will be items which – when modelled – expose body parts such as female nipples or the cleft between the buttocks. Etsy – which focusses on handmade, vintage and craft items – said new rules on sales were being introduced because of “evolving industry standards.” Affected sellers have told the BBC they feel let down by the policy change, which they predict will cause their revenues to plummet. “As creators who have helped make…

The European Union has raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, as Brussels takes action to protect the bloc’s motor industry. The new tariffs on individual manufactures range from 17.4% to 37.6%, which is on top of a 10% duty that was already in place for all electric cars imported from China. This could raise the price of EVs across the EU, making them less affordable for European consumers. The move is also a major blow for Beijing, which is already in a trade war with Washington. The EU is the largest overseas market for China’s EV industry and the country…

The preacher who led an overcrowded gathering in India where more than 120 people were crushed to death on Tuesday has denied blame, and pledged to co-operate with the police investigation. A lawyer for the self-styled guru known as Bhole Baba told the BBC the crush occurred “due to some anti-social elements”, and blamed a “criminal conspiracy hatched against” his client. On Thursday, police said they had arrested six people who were part of a committee that organised the event. Nearly all those killed were women and children, who were attending the satsang – a Hindu religious festival – in…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says he will sell another 25 million shares in the technology giant, worth nearly $5bn (£3.9bn). It comes after the company’s stock market value hit a record high on Wednesday. In February, he announced that he would sell Amazon shares worth around $8.5bn. That marked the first time since 2021 that Mr Bezos had sold Amazon shares. The company’s shares have risen by more than 30% this year on expectations that growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) technology will boost earnings at its cloud computing business. Last month, Amazon’s stock market valuation topped the $2tn for…

A day after 121 people were crushed to death at a religious event in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, families of some of the victims are still searching for their loved ones. The incident took place during a satsang (a Hindu religious festival) organised by a self-styled preacher called Bhole Baba. Police said that massive overcrowding at the venue in Hathras district led to Tuesday’s crush – they have registered a case against the event’s main organisers. It’s one of the worst such tragedies for many years in India, where accidents involving large crowds are often blamed on…

They call them “meat assaults”: waves of Russian soldiers coming at their defensive positions, sometimes nearly a dozen times in a day. Lt Col Anton Bayev of the Khartia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard says wave after wave can arrive in just a few hours at frontlines positions north of Kharkiv. “The Russians use these units in most cases purely to see where our firing equipment is located, and to constantly exhaust our units,” he said. “Our guys stand in positions and fight, and when four or five waves of the enemy come at you in a day, which you…

The oldest example of figurative cave art has been discovered in the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi by Australian and Indonesian scientists. The painting of a wild pig and three human-like figures is at least 51,200 years old, more than 5,000 years older than the previous oldest cave art. The discovery pushes back the time that modern humans first showed the capacity for creative thought. Prof Maxime Aubert from Griffith University in Australia told BBC News that the discovery would change ideas about human evolution. “The painting tells a complex story. It is the oldest evidence we have for storytelling. It…

It’s taken until 2024, but Japan has finally said goodbye to floppy disks. Up until last month, people were still asked to submit documents to the government using the outdated storage devices, with more than 1,000 regulations requiring its use. But these rules have now finally been scrapped, said Digital Minister Taro Kono. In 2021, Mr Kono had “declared war” on floppy disks. On Wednesday, almost three years later, he announced: “We have won the war on floppy disks!” Mr Kano has made it his goal to eliminate old technology since he was appointed to the job. He had earlier…