Author: admin@primenews

Crisp mountain air rushed in through the car window as I drove past jagged mountain landscapes. Despite summer being in full swing, massive amounts of snowpack still clung to the 7,000m peaks. Glacial waterfalls dripped down to feed the aquamarine river below, through Pakistan’s high-altitude Hunza Valley that was aptly termed “Shangri La” by British novelist James Hilton. I was driving the Karakoram Highway (KKH), which cuts through some of the most astounding rock faces on the planet. Often coined the “Eighth Wonder of the World”, it’s a road trip of dreams, yet few have ever heard of it, or how it came…

If you’re stuck in what seems like an endless cycle of procrastination, guilt and chaos, you might be wondering, “Why am I so lazy?” or “Why can’t I just get myself together?” Despite that common perception, laziness usually isn’t the reason behind procrastination, said Jenny Yip, a clinical psychologist and executive director of the Los Angeles-based Little Thinkers Center, which helps children with academic challenges. “Laziness is like, ‘I have absolutely no desire to even think about this.’ Procrastination is, ‘It troubles me to think about this. And therefore, it’s hard for me to get the job done.’ That’s a big difference.”…

India launched its first spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun, building on a month of historic successes for the country’s civil space efforts. The spacecraft, called Aditya-L1, launched from Sriharikota, an island off the Bay of Bengal, at 11:50 a.m. Saturday local time (2:20 am ET). And it’s headed to a parking spot in orbit about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. The successful liftoff of Aditya-L1 comes less than two weeks after India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organization, made history by landing its Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface. The achievement made India only the fourth nation in the world…

Scientists have developed an energy source which could allow astronauts to live on the Moon for long periods of time. The Nasa-led Artemis Program hopes for an outpost on the Moon by around 2030. Bangor University has designed nuclear fuel cells, the size of poppy seeds, to produce the energy needed to sustain life there. Prof Simon Middleburgh from the university said the work was a challenge – “but it was a fun one”. The Moon, which is seen by some to be the gateway to Mars, contains a lot of valuable resources needed for modern technology. The hope is…

Shares in Chinese property firms have jumped after developer Country Garden reportedly secured an extension to a key debt payment deadline. Major home builders including Country Garden and Evergrande saw their shares rise in Hong Kong on Monday. Investors also welcomed moves by Beijing to step up its support for the faltering economy. It marks some rare, good news for China’s crisis-hit real estate industry. Country Garden’s Hong Kong-listed shares were around 15% higher on Monday afternoon. The company’s shares are still down by more than 60% since the start of this year. Country Garden, which is one of China’s…

As the furor over that infamously unwanted kiss circles around Spain’s Football Federation chief, Luis Rubiales, some may be surprised to learn that the initial complaint wasn’t filed by the woman he kissed, but a man watching the match in Madrid. Miguel Ángel Galán was watching with pride as Spain won the Women’s World Cup. His joy turned to disgust when Rubiales planted that forceful kiss on the team’s star striker, Jenni Hermoso. Within minutes, Galán, the head of the National Training Center of Football Managers, said he was drafting an official complaint to the Spanish government’s High Council of…

A second delivery driver has died in Texas amid record-high temperatures, just as the regulation of workplace heat safety enters a new legal limbo across the state. A law eliminating several cities’ mandated water breaks for construction workers during heat waves took effect Friday, after the state appealed a judge’s Wednesday ruling finding the Republican-led measure unconstitutional. In the meantime, cities like Houston said they planned to continue enforcing their mandates while the case moves forward. The wrangling comes days after Christopher Begley, a 57-year-old UPS driver of nearly 30 years, died at a hospital Sunday after collapsing during his route outside Dallas the…

China on Monday indicated that leader Xi Jinping would skip an important gathering of the world’s 20 top economies for the first time with Premier Li Qiang traveling to the event in New Delhi this weekend in his place. Xi’s absence from the G20 Summit comes as tensions simmer between China and host country India over their disputed border and New Delhi’s growing ties with the United States. Questions about Xi’s attendance at the meeting were first raised last week when Reuters reported the Chinese leader was likely to miss it, citing two unnamed Indian diplomats. At a regular news conference Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry…

Max Verstappen further cemented his status as the dominant driver of his generation with a historic victory at the Italian Grand Prix, his 10th consecutive race win. No Formula One driver has ever won as many races in a row in a season. The Red Bull driver had matched the previous all-time record of nine, set by Sebastian Vettel 10 years ago, at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix. Victory at Monza was Verstappen’s 12th of the year and increases the likelihood of Red Bull becoming the first F1 team to win every race in a season. McLaren came close to doing so…

On what is usually the first Friday of every month, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Employment Situation Summary, or monthly jobs report, formally known as the “nonfarm payroll” report. It’s an economic snapshot that provides crucial information about job losses and gains and the overall health of the US labor market. It can also lead to stock market swings and affect monetary and fiscal policy decisions. Many farm workers are seasonal But why does this key employment report only tally “nonfarm” workers? The most straightforward answer is that accurately counting farmers would be both too difficult and too expensive. The BLS website says…