Author: admin@primenews

Last year’s Tonga volcanic eruption produced the fastest underwater flows ever recorded, scientists say. Huge volumes of rock, ash and mud were clocked moving across the ocean floor at speeds of up to 122km/h (75mph). These “density currents”, as they’re known, snapped long sections of telecommunications cabling, cutting the Pacific kingdom’s link to the global internet. They also smothered and killed all sealife in their path. It’s another example of the prodigious scale of the 15 January eruption. The underwater volcano called Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai is already in the record books for: Scientists knew most of the roughly six cubic km…

Pop group S Club have joined forces with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to raise awareness and research funds for heart conditions, following the death of band member Paul Cattermole. The singer died in April aged 46 from an underlying heart condition, weeks after they announced a comeback tour. In his memory, the returning group will now promote the BHF’s Spotlight On campaign at their gigs. They said if they can “help save one life” it will have been worth it. The band are encouraging fans to raise awareness with the hand-heart gesture [as shown in the above picture] as well as by…

People living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine are being asked to vote in what the authorities are describing as local elections. Ukraine’s foreign minister called the polls a “sham”, saying the votes would not have any legal standing. Candidates are all either Russian or pro-Russian, and include governors hand-picked by Moscow. Many taking part in early polling have been asked to cast their votes in the presence of armed Russian soldiers. Ukrainian officials have warned people not to participate. They say any Ukrainian citizens involved in organising the elections can expect to be punished in the future. The Council of…

King Charles III has recorded a message and released a favourite photograph of Elizabeth II to mark the first anniversary of his mother’s death. In the message, the King said he recalled the late queen’s “devoted service and all she meant to so many of us”. The photograph chosen by the King shows the queen at an official portrait sitting in 1968 aged 42. Elizabeth II died aged 96 at Balmoral Castle on 8 September last year. It came just months after her Platinum Jubilee marking 70 years on the throne. In his short tribute, the King thanked the nation…

Two attacks by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants in restive northeastern Mali Thursday killed 64 people including dozens of civilians, the country’s transitional government said. The attacks targeted a passenger boat on the Niger River near Timbuktu and an army base in Bamba, in the northern Gao region, killing 49 civilians and 15 soldiers, according to the interim government’s statement. It was not immediately clear how many people died in each attack. The Malian Army said an “armed terrorist group” attacked the passenger boat at 11 a.m. local time near Rharous Cercle in the Timbuktu region. The attacks were claimed by Support…

The uncle of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police sparked nation-wide protests last year, was arrested last week, according to a family member and a human rights group. Safa Aeli, a resident of the Kurdish city of Saqqez, was arrested on Tuesday at his home by 10 intelligence agents, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). A family member told CNN on condition of anonymity that Aeli has since been taken to Tehran, without providing further details out of concern for his safety. The reasons behind his arrest are unknown, but his…

Every Monday through Friday, you may be running between work, appointments and family obligations — can’t the workout wait until the weekend? Maybe, according to the latest research. A new report published Tuesday in the journal JAMA found that people who exercised throughout the week and “weekend warriors,” who pack theirs into the weekend, saw similar reductions in risk of heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and stroke, according to the study. The paper relied on data from the UK Biobank, a large biomedical database and research resource that follows residents long-term. A cohort of more than 100,000 people used accelerometers to…

The US is experiencing an increase of Covid-19, with weekly hospital admissions and test positivity rates on the rise, according to federal data. It should come as no surprise that some Americans say they’re having a hard time finding at-home Covid-19 tests — often the first step when someone feels ill or finds out they have been exposed to the coronavirus. Dozens of brands of Covid-19 antigen tests are available for purchase under emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. These tests can be done at home with a nasal swab and typically offer results within minutes…

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which operates the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has started the process of closing down its office in Shanghai, in another sign of big global companies pulling back operations in the world’s second largest economy. The firm, which manages Norway’s $1.4 trillion government pension fund, is the world’s biggest single investor in the stock market. As of the end of 2022, it owned shares worth about $42 billion in some 850 Chinese companies. Those investments will be managed in future from its Asia hub in Singapore, it said. The decision to close its Shanghai office was driven by “operational considerations”…

Chinese makers of electric vehicles have come out in force for this week’s IAA Mobility auto show in Munich, Germany. About 50 companies — including heavyweight BYD and upstarts like Xpeng — have traveled to the city, according to China’s state media, about twice as many as the last time the event was held and the largest-ever Chinese delegation at any global car expo. And they were the talk of the town. Even before the show kicked off, Renault chief executive Luca de Meo was on French radio talking up the rapid advances made by Chinese EV makers. “It’s clear that they are very competitive in the electric…