Author: admin@primenews

Shares in Meta – the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – fell sharply after it announced higher than expected spending on artificial intelligence (AI). They went down more than 15% in after-hours trading in New York despite the tech giant revealing strong earnings figures. Boss Mark Zuckerberg said it would take some time before its huge AI investment increased revenues. Meta also said its X rival, Threads, now has more than 150 million monthly active users, increasing the pressure on the Elon Musk-owned platform. “Threads is well on its way to beating X by becoming the Twitter alternative users…

UK-based mining giant Anglo American has been approached by rival BHP about a potential £31bn takeover. Anglo American told the BBC that the proposal is currently being reviewed by its board of directors. BHP confirmed the proposal which it said would give it access to “Anglo American’s world class copper assets”. If the deal goes ahead it would be one of the mining industry’s biggest mergers in many years. Anglo American – which operates mines in countries like Chile, South Africa, Brazil and Australia – had a stock market value of around £29bn before the approach was made public. Australian-based…

Searing heat has forced 33 million children out of schools in Bangladesh, as temperatures in parts of the country soared past 42C (108F). Schools and colleges will be shut for at least until 27 April. This is the second year in a row that authorities made such a move due to extreme weather. It follows school closures in the Philippines and India as a persistent heatwave sweeps across Asia. “Children in Bangladesh are among the poorest in the world, and heat-related school closures should ring alarm bells for us all,” said Shumon Sengupta, Save the Children’s Bangladesh director. The country’s…

Many companies in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru are offering a host of incentives – from free food to taxi rides – to people voting in the general election. Located in Karnataka state, Bengaluru is often in the news for its low voter turnout. So hotels, taxi services and other firms have announced initiatives to encourage people to cast their ballot. These include free beer, discounted cab rides and even free health check-ups. At some food outlets, customers need to show their finger stained with indelible ink as proof they’ve voted. The city is voting on Friday in round…

European Union officials have raided the offices of Chinese security equipment maker Nuctech as part of a probe into subsidies, exposing rising tensions between the bloc and one of its biggest trading partners. The European Commission said Tuesday that it carried out “unannounced inspections” at the premises of a company making and selling security equipment in Europe, which it suspects may have benefited unduly from state subsidies. It did not name the company. “The commission has indications that the inspected company may have received foreign subsidies that could distort the (EU’s) internal market,” the EU’s executive body said in a statement on its website.…

Mining giant BHP has made a near-$40 billion bid to take over its UK rival Anglo American in what would be the largest mining deal on record. BHP said in a statement Thursday that it valued Anglo American shares at £25.08 ($31.40) apiece, or £31.1 billion ($38.9 billion) in total. If completed, the acquisition would increase BHP’s access to copper reserves, it added. The potential deal would have a higher value than the $38.3 billion acquisition of Switzerland’s Xstrata by commodities company Glencore in 2012, according to Dealogic data. It would also be the biggest merger or acquisition in the mining industry…

A third of 11-year-olds and more than half of 13-year-olds in England have drunk alcohol – putting it top out of 44 countries examined in a report by global health experts. Girls were found to be more likely than boys to be drinking and getting drunk aged 15 in England, Wales and Scotland. The World Health Organization (WHO) report said alcohol, which can damage children’s brains, has been normalised. It called on countries to introduce more measures to protect children. The report looked at data from about 4,500 school-age children from each country in Europe, central Asia and Canada in…

A Chinese student in the US has been sentenced to nine months in prison for stalking and threatening a female Chinese student who put up pro-democracy fliers on campus. The fliers, put up at the Berklee College of Music in Boston in late 2022, read: “We want freedom… We want democracy, we want to love, stand with Chinese people.” In response, Xiaolei Wu said he would “chop [the woman’s] hands off”. A federal judge has ordered that the 26-year-old be deported after serving his sentence. “What Mr. Wu did in weaponising the authoritarian nature of the People’s Republic of China…

The leader of the US House of Representatives was heckled in a tense visit to Columbia University as protests against the war in Gaza continue to spread across US campuses. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Columbia officials had lost control of the situation. He called on university president Nemat Shafik to step down. In Texas and California, police confronted campus protesters and made dozens of arrests. At Columbia, pro-Palestinian demonstrators also called for Ms Shafik’s resignation over police action there against the protests. Mr Johnson held a news conference at Columbia along with other Republican lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon…

Ukraine has begun using long-range ballistic missiles secretly provided by the US against invading Russian forces, American officials have confirmed. The weapons were part of a $300m (£240m) aid package approved by US President Joe Biden in March and they arrived this month. They have already been used at least once to strike Russian targets in occupied Crimea, US media report. Mr Biden has now signed a new $61bn package of aid for Ukraine. The US previously supplied Ukraine with a mid-range version of the Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) but had been reluctant to send anything more powerful, partly over concerns…