Author: admin@primenews

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday a ground incursion into Gaza will take place and that current airstrikes were “just the beginning,” as new satellite images revealed the devastation wrought by Israel’s bombs in the besieged enclave. As the humanitarian crisis reaches a critical point in Gaza, with daily airstrikes, life-saving fuel on the verge of running out and health services crippled, pressure is building on the international community to get Israel to allow desperately needed aid into Gaza with more countries advocating for a “humanitarian pause” in fighting. “We are raining down hellfire on Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a televised address Wednesday evening, while claiming…

Stellantis, home to brands such as Jeep and Chrysler, has become the latest global automaker to tie up with a Chinese startup as the electric vehicle (EV) race continues to heat up. The Dutch group announced Thursday it would acquire a 20% stake in Leapmotor, a Hangzhou-based EV maker, for about €1.5 billion (nearly $1.6 billion). The two will form a joint venture that will give Stellantis the exclusive rights to produce, export and sell the Chinese brand’s vehicles outside Greater China. The plan is to start by entering the European market. Stellantis will control the joint venture, with a 51%…

A retired Taiwan air force colonel has been jailed 20 years for running a military spy ring for China. Liu Sheng-shu was convicted of recruiting other active-duty officers to transmit military secrets to Beijing. Five other officers – from the navy and air force – were jailed from six months to 20 years for their involvement. Local media reports say Liu was recruited during a 2013 business trip to China. He reportedly ran a network of informants, paying them through shell companies. Prosecutors said that he was paid for passing on military intelligence, such as details on the functions of…

Almost 500,000 people attended Eurovision-related events in Liverpool in May, giving the local economy a £55m boost, the council has said. Fans flocked to the city when it hosted the annual song contest plus a festival of other concerts and cultural events. In total, 473,000 people went to Eurovision events, of whom 306,000 were additional visitors to Liverpool, according to research by the council. They spent £54.8m in places like bars, hotels, restaurants and shops, it said. The figures were well above the council’s predictions of 100,000 visitors and a £25m economic boost this year. It had said, before the event, that…

Sony has announced its latest Spider-Man release is the fastest-selling video game made by PlayStation. Spider-Man 2 sold more than 2.5 million physical and digital copies in its first 24 hours, it said in a blog post. The game, developed by PlayStation-owned Insomniac Games, has won rave reviews since it was released on Friday for the PS5. But it has faced some criticism over its length, with its main story taking around 15 hours to complete. That extends to roughly 40 hours including side-content, a fairly typical length for video games, although some releases this year like Baldur’s Gate 3 can potentially…

Vernon Kay’s BBC Radio 2 show has 6.9 million listeners, according to new audience figures – 1.3 million fewer than predecessor Ken Bruce pulled in before he left the mid-morning slot. Kay took over in May after Bruce left the BBC for Greatest Hits Radio. Kay’s ratings mean he has the most popular radio show in the UK. But Bruce, going head-to-head with his Radio 2 successor, has increased the audience for his new Greatest Hits show to 3.7 million, Rajar said. The ratings body publishes audience figures four times a year, and the latest set – covering July, August…

The Turner Prize-nominated artist David Shrigley has pulped 6,000 copies of Dan Brown’s best-seller The Da Vinci Code and republished them as George Orwell’s novel 1984. He hatched the plan back in 2017 when he heard that an Oxfam shop in Swansea had stopped accepting any more copies of the conspiracy thriller. On Saturday 1,200 copies of Shrigley’s 1984 edition will go on sale in the same Oxfam. Each is unique, costs £495 and comes complete with a signed and numbered print. Richard Broadhurst is the manager of the shop and remembers well what happened in 2017: “Around that time…

A type of bacterium never seen before in wild elephants has been found in the bodies of six African Savannah elephants that died in mysterious circumstances in Zimbabwe. Scientists think it was the cause of a septicaemia, or blood poisoning, that killed the animals in 2020. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. The study might provide more clues about the deaths of 356 elephants in neighbouring Botswana that same year. That incident drew international headlines, when conservationists discovered the dead elephants in Botswana’s Okavango Panhandle. Some of the animals appeared to have collapsed and died suddenly while walking…

US President Joe Biden has warned China that the US will defend the Philippines in case of any attack in the disputed South China Sea. The comments come days after two collisions between Filipino and Chinese vessels in the contested waters. Mr Biden reiterated his “ironclad” defence commitment to the Philippines. Manila has contested Chinese claims to the waters, cutting floating barriers and inviting media to film what it calls Beijing’s dangerous moves at sea. Mr Biden’s statement on the South China Sea on Wednesday was his strongest since tensions between Beijing and Manila heated up in recent months. “I want to be…

The UK government is to charter flights to relocate Afghan refugees living in Pakistan who have been promised UK visas, starting on Thursday. Thousands of people who worked with or for the UK government in Afghanistan and fled the Taliban are in Pakistan, waiting for relocation to the UK. Some have been waiting for over a year, according to charities. Earlier this month, Pakistan said it plans to start deporting illegal migrants from 1 November. Among the Afghan refugees in Pakistan are former translators for the British army and teachers for the British council, all part of either the Afghan citizens…