Author: admin@primenews

After years of debate, the government’s controversial Online Safety Bill, which aims to make the internet safer for children, has become law. It seeks to force tech firms to take more responsibility for the content on their platforms. Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said it “ensures the online safety of British society not only now, but for decades to come.” But critics have raised concerns about the implications for privacy. WhatsApp is among the messaging services to threaten to withdraw from the UK over the act. What is the Online Safety Bill? The new law puts the onus on firms to…

“Serious failings” were made by NatWest in its treatment of Nigel Farage when it closed down his Coutts bank account, an independent review has found. The report said the communication of the closure with the former UKIP leader did not follow the bank’s policies. However, the report found the closure was lawful, and based mainly on commercial reasons. Mr Farage said the report was a “whitewash”, calling some findings “laughable”. He accused the law firm Travers Smith, which conducted the investigation, of having taken a “mealy-mouthed approach to this complex issue”. Mr Farage, a prominent Brexiteer, said earlier this year…

Most parts of Ghana have been plunged into darkness due to a lack of gas to power machinery used to generate electricity in the country. Power distribution firm Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) says the situation has caused “a supply gap of 550MW at peak time” at Tema power plant, near the capital, Accra. The major outage started on Thursday evening. Ghana is currently going through its worst economic crisis in a generation. There are frequent power cuts in Ghana but this is the worst nationwide outage for two years. A June study said the country’s current energy provision was…

In a quiet corner of a Tokyo stadium, a father wipes tears away from his eyes. He has just watched his 20-year-old son win a first Olympic gold in thrilling fashion, patiently chasing down and passing fierce Kenyan rival Timothy Cheruiyot on the final bend of the 1,500-meter final. The moment would be an emotional one for any parent, but even more so if you have coached your son throughout his running career. Such was the case for Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who was the coach to three of his seven children: Henrik, Filip and Jakob, the one who raced to Olympic gold in Tokyo two years ago. Today, however,…

One of India’s most revered entrepreneurs believes that young people need to put in exceptionally long hours at work if they want to see the country become a global economic powerhouse. N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of the software behemoth Infosys, said India needs “highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hardworking” youngsters, who should put in 70 hours a week at work. “You know, this is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War,” Murthy told Mohandas Pai, the former CFO of Infosys, in a chat published on YouTube Thursday. Murthy, whose wealth is estimated at over $4 billion by Forbes, co-founded Infosys…

Qatar has sentenced eight Indian nationals to death, India’s government said, following their reported detention in Doha last year on espionage charges. In a statement Thursday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was “deeply shocked” by the verdict and would take up the matter with Qatari authorities. “We are in touch with the family members and the legal team, and we are exploring all legal options,” the statement said. CNN has reached out to Qatar’s government but has not received an official comment. The Indian nationals were ex-servicemen of the Indian Navy, according to a letter dated December 23…

European Union leaders have stopped short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, instead appealing for humanitarian “pauses” to provide aid, as the UN warned its operations were being “paralyzed” by Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave. The communique, released after meetings Thursday in Brussels, follows several failed attempts by the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on the Israel-Hamas war, with member states preparing to vote on another draft resolution – this time put forward by Jordan on behalf of Arab states – on Friday. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told diplomats gathered at the United Nations Assembly Hall that “collective punishment is…

Straight out of your “wildest dreams,” Taylor Swift has finally released “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” The singer released the album – originally recorded and released in 2014 – at midnight on Friday, marking her fourth re-recorded offering after her former label sold the master recordings to her first six albums in 2019. “I was born in 1989, reinvented for the first time in 2014, and a part of me was reclaimed in 2023 with the re-release of this album I love so dearly,” Swift wrote on Instagram, adding, “I present to you, with gratitude and wonder, my version of 1989.” The album includes…

Amazon’s good year continues. The e-commerce giant on Thursday reported revenue of $143.1 billion for the quarter ending in September, marking a 13% increase from the same period last year and beating analysts’ estimates. The company reported quarterly profits of $9.9 billion, also beating estimates. Amazon Web Services, a longtime profit-driver at the company, saw quarterly sales jump 12% to $23.1 billion. The company also reported some $12.1 billion in Advertising revenue, marking a whopping 26% increase from the same period last year. Sales in North America were another bright spot in the report, climbing 11% year-over-year to $87.9 billion. Shares…

Patti Wukovits still thinks about how she had to bury her daughter in her prom dress. In June 2012, 17-year-old Kimberly Coffey had a fever and body aches. She told her mom it felt like her ankles were bleeding. When Wukovits looked, she noticed a purple rash. Wukovits, a nurse from Long Island, rushed Kimberly to the emergency room where doctors diagnosed her with meningitis. Her kidneys and heart were failing. They could do little to help her. Kimberly died days before her high school graduation. “Our whole world changed,” Wukovits said. “There’s not one day, one hour that goes by…