Author: admin@primenews

Shyam Babu Prasad was asleep when the deluge struck his home. He and his family used to live in Lal Bazar, a busy market area located on the banks of Teesta river in India’s Sikkim state. “All of a sudden, a wave about 15ft high hit our home and all of us were thrown by its force,” Mr Prasad said. He held on to a ceiling fan to survive the torrent and was rescued the next morning. But his wife, who had been with him the night before, was missing. Mr Prasad said the water separated them. “I screamed, called…

A day after a deadly blast tore through Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, sparking protests across the region, the United States has released its own assessment of what caused the devastation. Israel has laid out evidence that it said shows a misfire by militant group Islamic Jihad caused the blast, and US President Joe Biden on Wednesday backed that explanation, citing US intelligence. A spokesperson for the National Security Council later said that analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open-source information suggested that Israel is “not responsible.” Palestinian officials and several Arab leaders nevertheless accuse Israel of hitting the hospital amid its…

A company which enables its clients to search a database of billions of images scraped from the internet for matches to a particular face has won an appeal against the UK’s privacy watchdog. Last year, Clearview AI was fined more than £7.5m by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for unlawfully storing facial images. Jack Mulcaire, Clearview AI’s lawyer, said the firm was “pleased”. The ICO said it would “take stock” of the judgement. Clearview AI offers its clients a system that works like a search engine for faces – users upload a photo and it finds matches in a database…

Russian leader Vladimir Putin was given the red carpet treatment at a global summit in Beijing, as China and Russia deepen their solidarity. Hosted by China’s President Xi Jinping, the meeting celebrated 10 years of his signature foreign and economic policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Mr Putin was the guest of honour among leaders and officials from more than 130 countries. He has rarely left his country since invading Ukraine in February last year. Not only is he facing increasing diplomatic isolation, he has also been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged…

US President Joe Biden has said a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital appears to have been caused by Palestinian militants, backing Israel’s account of the incident as he visits the country. Mr Biden, who landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, said he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the explosion. Israel’s military said it was caused by a failed Palestinian rocket launch. But Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital. Health officials in Gaza have said almost 500 people were killed in the explosion, but no death toll has been confirmed. Mr Biden’s high-stakes visit has…

Greta Thunberg has been charged with a public order offence after her arrest during a Fossil Free London protest. The 20-year-old is accused of breaching a Section 14 order that police put in place outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane, where oil executives were meeting on Tuesday. The climate change activist was among protesters who gathered to object to an Energy Intelligence Forum event. In total, 27 protesters were arrested and 26 charged, the Met Police said. Ms Thunberg, a Swedish national, has been released on bail with a trial set for 15 November. ‘Deals and compromises’ The Met…

Once upon a time, you could have a haunted house up and running in a day’s time. Fill a bowl with grapes and call them eyeballs, add room-temperature spaghetti – those are guts – string up a few ghostly figures, crank the fog machines, lower the lights and plan a few jump scares. While it’s still possible to have a spooky time on a shoestring, haunted houses are increasingly looking less like tents in primary school gyms, and more like the big-budget spectacles of theme parks, film and television productions. “Many of the top haunted houses in the country have…

The British Museum has announced plans to digitise its collection, following the theft of some items. The museum said the project would take five years, and means the entire collection would be accessible online to anyone who wanted to explore it. Mark Jones, the museum’s interim director, said the steps would “improve security” following the thefts. “We are now confident that a theft of this kind can never happen again,” he added. Around 2,000 treasures are thought to have been stolen from the British Museum, but recovery has begun of some of them. A staff member at the museum suspected…

Stricter limits are needed on levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in UK drinking water which are potentially harmful to human health, experts have warned. In high doses these pollutants, known as PFAS, have been linked to serious health concerns including cancer and fertility issues. The Royal Society of Chemistry urged the government to toughen regulations in line with other countries. The government said current safety standards were “exceptionally high”. ‘Forever chemicals’ are a group of more than 9,000 chemicals widely used in everyday products from food packaging to make-up because of their water-resistant properties. They enter waterways when products such as…

As the situation in Israel and Gaza continues to unfold, many people far from the conflict are nonetheless exposed to countless images, stories and sounds of conflict via television and radio news reports, newspaper and digital stories, and of course social media. And this is taking a toll on all of us, including our children. The American Psychological Association released a statement this week warning that consuming violent and traumatic news can in and of itself negatively affect our mental health. “Psychological science tells us that fear, anxiety and traumatic stress have long-term effects on health and well-being. These impacts are also being…