Author: admin@primenews

An Israeli cabinet minister has denied claims Israeli forces deliberately targeted seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza. WCK founder José Andrés has accused Israel of targeting his workers “systematically, car by car”. Nir Barkat, Israel’s minister of economy, told BBC News that Mr Andrés’ comments were “nonsense”. Israel says the strikes which killed the workers were a “grave mistake” and has promised an investigation. Speaking to BBC Chief Presenter Caitríona Perry, Mr Barkat said Israel was “terribly sorry” about killing the seven aid workers, but that “unfortunately, in wars friendly fire happens”. He said the deaths of…

Disney has won a boardroom battle against critics who had accused the media giant of botching its streaming strategy and losing its creative spark. Activist investors, including Nelson Peltz of Trian Management, had sought seats on the company’s board of directors, which they said was too close to Disney’s leadership. They pledged to push for priorities such as higher profits. A majority of shareholders voted to maintain the company’s current board. At its shareholder meeting on Wednesday, Disney said its board nominees had been elected by a “substantial margin”. Just 31% of votes cast supported Mr Peltz for a seat,…

WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram have all gone down briefly as part of a major outage at parent company Meta. Thousands of app users reported issues accessing the three sites late on Wednesday, with people taking to other social media to air grievances. While Meta’s status site indicates most issues are resolved, some of its business and messaging platforms are still experiencing “major disruptions”. Problems began around 19:00 BST. The UK site Downdetector, which monitors the performance of websites, indicated around 82,000 issues with WhatsApp at 19:25 BST but an hour later the issue appeared to have been largely resolved. Users…

For the past two weeks, an Indian cricket star has been booed heavily by fans in packed stadiums across the country. Hardik Pandya, captain of the Mumbai Indians team in Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket tournament, has faced booing crowds during the team’s games in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and even in home ground, Mumbai. Traded from his earlier side Gujarat Titans, Pandya has replaced India’s all format skipper Rohit Sharma at the Mumbai Indians for the 2024 IPL, which began on 23 March. The 30-year-old seam-bowling all-rounder had previously been part of four title-winning campaigns under Sharma’s leadership…

Google, the search engine used by more than a billion people around the world, is reported to be considering charging for premium content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The company, owned by Alphabet Inc, is said to be revamping its business model and looking at putting some of its core product behind a paywall. It would be the first time Google had charged for any of its content. Google said it did not have anything to announce “right now”. According to the Financial Times (FT) it is said to be looking at whether to add certain AI-powered search features to…

NFL star Rashee Rice has apologised for his role in a hit-and-run crash on Saturday that left two people injured. “I take full responsibility for my part in this matter and will continue to co-operate with the necessary authorities,” he posted on Wednesday. Police in Dallas, Texas, say two speeding cars, a Lamborghini and Corvette, caused “a chain reaction collision” that damaged four more cars. The Lamborghini and Corvette occupants left the scene, police say. “The occupants of the Lamborghini and the Corvette all ran from the scene without stopping to determine if anyone needed medical help or providing their…

The number of trees lost in tropical forests in Brazil and Colombia fell dramatically last year because of political action, a new analysis finds. Researchers say new leaders have prioritised the environment, with tree losses in the Brazilian Amazon down by a huge 39%. However, increased tree felling and fires in Bolivia, Laos and Nicaragua wiped out many of these gains. Global losses were up by a quarter, mainly due to forest fires in Canada. The intense, long-lasting wildfires that burned across Canada drove five times more tree losses in 2023 than in the previous year. Fires in northern forest…

Technology giant Amazon has announced job cuts affecting hundreds of staff at its cloud computing business. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been growing and now represents 14% of Amazon’s total revenue, according to its latest financial report. The company has been shifting its strategy with physical stores, Amazon Fresh, which were launched in 2020. On Tuesday, it said it would remove its self-checkout system called Just Walk Out from all the stores. The firm said the latest job cuts impact several hundred roles in sales, marketing and global services and a few hundred roles in its physical stores technology team. “These…

The people of Taiwan have woken up to the aftermath of its worst earthquake in a quarter of a century. Rescue efforts continued on Thursday after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the island’s eastern coast on Wednesday at 07:58 local time 23:58 (GMT). At least nine people were killed and more than 1,000 injured when the quake hit 18km (11 miles) south of Hualien. More than ninety people are still understood to be trapped in collapsed tunnels and roads along the coastline. Rescue operations to reach 77 people trapped in the Jinwen and Qingshui tunnels along the road in Hualien…

Joel Embiid said a two-month injury lay-off was “mentally” tough as he returned to help the Philadelphia 76ers pick up a 109-105 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. Embiid, 30, suffered a knee injury in a 119-107 defeat at the Golden State Warriors on 31 January. The Cameroonian marked his return to the court at Wells Fargo Center with 24 points, seven assists and six rebounds. “This one took a toll mentally. I just wanted to come back,” Embiid said. “I’m only going to get better but this one has been the hardest by far, especially mentally.”…