Author: admin@primenews

Republican presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley squared off in a tense debate on Wednesday, trading barbs just days before the Iowa caucuses. Donald Trump, the consistent frontrunner in the race for the party’s 2024 nomination, once again chose not to attend and held a Fox News town hall event at the same time. But despite the former president’s commanding lead in the polls and absence from the stage, the stakes were still high at the debate in a snowy Des Moines. Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley are battling to position themselves as the main alternative to Mr Trump…

Two Russian missiles have struck a hotel in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, injuring 11 people, the Kharkiv governor says. Photos from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showed the hotel heavily damaged and firefighters at the scene. Governor Oleh Synehubov said the injured included Turkish journalists. Two S-300 missiles struck at about 22:30 (20:30 GMT), he said. Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian cities in the past two weeks. Ukrainian officials say dozens of civilians have died in those attacks from drones and missiles. Kharkiv, just 30km (19 miles) from the Russian border, has suffered extensive damage from Russian air…

From an underground “forest” to spectacular orchids, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, discovered 74 new plants and 15 fungi last year. Many of the mysterious species were found in unlikely places, such as on the top of a volcano or clinging to Antarctic rocks. The new finds need immediate protection and at least one will probably already have been lost, the scientists say. About three-quarters of undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. The top-10 species described as new to science in 2023 are a reminder of the beauty and wonder of the natural world – and a stark…

Global software giant SAP has agreed to pay more than $220m (£172m) to settle bribery charges involving government officials around the world. The money and gifts, typically routed via outside business consultants, were intended to help win business in South Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere, according to US officials. The schemes allegedly operated from at least December 2014 until January 2022. SAP said it had cooperated with investigators and overhauled policies. “SAP remains vigilant in maintaining the highest standards of ethics and compliance,” the company said in a statement. SAP, which is headquartered in Germany and has shares listed in the…

Amazon is to axe hundreds of staff across its subsidiaries Twitch, Prime Video and MGM studios. More than 500 Twitch employees – a third of the streamer’s workforce – will be laid off, according to a note from chief executive Dan Clancy. Amazon said several hundred employees at Prime Video and film studio MGM will also lose their jobs this week. The tech giant laid off more than 27,000 staff members in 2023 despite bumper profits. Twitch was initially set up for gamers to watch and share video gameplay online. It was bought by Amazon in 2014 for $970m (£585m at the time). In…

The government hopes to boost the nuclear power industry with the biggest expansion of the sector in 70 years. A new large scale nuclear plant would quadruple supplies by 2050, which the government claims would lower bills and improve energy security. It also said its £300m ($382.6m) nuclear fuel programme would reduce reliance on overseas supply. But the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) said all clean energy needed fast-tracking. Nuclear power currently provides around 15% of the UK’s electricity but many of the country’s aging reactors are due to be decommissioned over the next decade. The government’s…

The Post Office has paid Fujitsu over £95m to extend the troubled Horizon IT system for two years after a plan to move to Amazon had to be abandoned. A serving postmaster told the BBC the software is still unreliable, and causes money to disappear. Costs and delays are still dogging the Horizon project more than two decades after the contracts were first signed. The Post Office said it plans to start trialling a new system in branches this year. When Fujitsu won the contract to install computer terminals in over 17,000 Post Office branches around the UK, it called…

The US has made the long-awaited decision to allow Bitcoin to be part of mainstream investing funds. It has approved what are known as spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which can be purchased by anyone from pension funds to ordinary investors. The announcement from the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission was accompanied by a stern warning about risks associated with the asset. But cryptocurrency fans reacted with glee – and memes about becoming rich. The US financial watchdog had repeatedly rebuffed earlier requests for approvals, citing concerns about potential for fraud and manipulation. But a US court said last year…

Fast-fashion firm Boohoo put “Made in the UK” labels on potentially thousands of clothes that were actually made in South Asia, BBC Panorama has found. Plain T-shirts and hoodies had their original labels removed at Boohoo’s flagship factory, Thurmaston Lane in Leicester, last year. On Tuesday, the BBC reported that the firm is considering closing the site. Boohoo said the incorrect labels were down to a misinterpretation of the labelling rules. Thurmaston Lane opened two years ago and was promoted by the retailer as a UK manufacturing centre of excellence, offering end-to-end garment production in the UK. The mislabelling took place…

Soldiers are on the streets in several cities in Ecuador as the country reels from an unprecedented day of violence. Masked gunmen stormed a public TV studio during a live broadcast in the city of Guayaquil and bombs were detonated across Ecuador on Tuesday. More than 130 prison staff are being held hostage by inmates in five jails. A 60-day state of emergency began on Monday after a notorious gangster vanished from his prison cell. It is unclear whether the attack on the TV studio in Ecuador’s largest city was related to the disappearance of the boss of the Choneros…