Author: admin@primenews

Three years after launching her clothing brand Ed-a-Mamma, Alia Bhatt, one of Bollywood’s most sought-after young actresses, is reportedly cashing out. Indian newspapers report that her company will be acquired by the retail arm of one of India’s largest conglomerates, Reliance Industries, for 3bn rupees ($36m; £28m). If the deal goes through, it would give a “fillip” to the now established trend of Indian movie stars putting money into start-ups and owning consumer-facing brands, says Bhaskar Majumdar, an early-stage investor. Bhatt is just one among a host of Bollywood stars who have been actively investing in start-ups recently. Her contemporary…

Chinese technology shares fell after the country’s cyberspace regulator recommended limiting smartphone usage of children under 18. Shares of firms like Alibaba and video-sharing site Bilibili fell on Wednesday and saw more losses early on Thursday. The proposed law would see children being only allowed to use their phones for a maximum of two hours a day. It comes four years after children in the world’s second-largest economy were subject to gaming restrictions. The rules proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), will also see children banned from accessing the internet on mobile devices from 22:00 to 06:00 local…

Adidas generated millions from its first “drop” of Yeezy trainers after ending the collaboration with rapper and fashion designer Kanye West. The sportswear giant reported sales of €400m (£344m) from the shoes between April and June this year. Adidas cut ties with West, known as Ye, last November after he made a series of anti-Semitic comments on social media. It has pledged to donate some of the proceeds of the sales to charities who work on combating hate. The demand for Yeezy shoes has not faded though, with the trainers remaining wildly popular in the resale market. Adidas boss Bjorn…

George Clooney and Meryl Streep have made significant donations to the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) emergency fund as the actors’ strike continues. A news release on Wednesday stated that with the help of “some of Hollywood’s top-earning stars,” the SAG-AFTRA Foundation has raised over $15 million and is preparing to bring aid to actors in the union facing economic hardships as a result of the ongoing strike. “In this strike action, I am lucky to be able to support those who will struggle in a long action to sustain against Goliath,” Streep said in a statement on Wednesday. “We will stand…

In early 2022, as war was breaking out, a Ukrainian family said a painful goodbye to their father amid chaotic scenes at Lviv railway station. Almost 18 months later, Fergal Keane travelled with them as they prepared to come back together. The children are struggling to sleep. For at least the last week, 10-year-old Anna has been asking her mother Oksana how many days to departure. She hops from one leg to the other. Then disappears to her bedroom to find a painting she has done at school. It is a rendering of their little flat here in Surrey, up…

Millions of Americans could receive their tax refunds more quickly in coming years as the Internal Revenue Service brings its technology further into the 21st century. The IRS is launching a major effort to digitize all paper-filed tax returns by 2025, which is expected to cut processing times in half and speed up refunds by four weeks, the agency said Wednesday. Also, taxpayers will be able to submit more correspondence online during the coming filing period. The two-pronged effort, dubbed the “Paperless Processing Initiative,” aims to cut down on the millions of paper documents the IRS receives annually. It comes a year…

The United States has ordered the partial evacuation of its embassy in Niger following last week’s coup. Hundreds of foreign nationals have already been evacuated from the country, and on Sunday the French embassy was attacked by protesters. Coup leader Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani has warned against “any interference in the internal affairs” of the country. Niger is a significant uranium producer and lies on a key migration route to North Africa and the Mediterranean. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the ousted President, Mohamed Bazoum, on Wednesday, the state department says, adding that the US is committed to…

North Korea has confirmed custody of Travis King in its first response to requests for information on the US soldier’s whereabouts, the UN Command has said. The 23-year-old private dashed across the border from South Korea on 18 July while on a guided tour. The UN Command refused to elaborate on the response “in order not to interfere with our efforts to get him home”. However, the reply indicates Pyongyang could be ready to start negotiating. The UN Command, which polices the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), had sought information on Pvt King using its direct phone line to the North Korean…

Former US President Donald Trump is due to be formally charged at a court hearing on charges of plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat. On the eve of the arraignment he slammed the case as proof of the “corruption, scandal, & failure” of the US under Joe Biden’s presidency. Security is being ramped up in Washington DC for Thursday’s hearing. Mr Trump already faces two other criminal cases as he campaigns for the White House next year. But the election case is widely seen as the most serious one of all. In an all-capital-letters post on his Truth Social…

A US federal jury has sentenced the attacker who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 to the death penalty. The ruling needed a unanimous vote from the 12-member jury for the sentence to be imposed. Prosecutors had asked the jury to vote for the death penalty. The same jury found the man guilty of all 63 charges stemming from the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue. It was the worst antisemitic attack in American history. The verdict was delivered to US District Court Judge Robert Colville on Wednesday. Mr Colville is now expected to…