Author: Prima News

Charismatic U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, an eloquent Baptist minister raised in the segregated South who became a close associate of Martin Luther King Jr and twice ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, has died at age 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our father was a servant leader – not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said. Jackson, an inspirational orator and long-time Chicagoan, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017. The media-savvy Jackson advocated for the rights of Black Americans and…

Tom Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel chain whose name appeared multiple times in newly released documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, has stepped down as chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, the company said. According to The New York Times on Monday, Pritzker is the latest prominent figure to step down following renewed scrutiny over ties to Epstein, the financier who was charged with operating a sex trafficking ring involving underage girls and was found dead in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial. In a letter to Hyatt’s board, Pritzker said he was stepping down effective immediately. “Good stewardship…

The UN said on Monday that Israel denied or impeded nearly half of coordinated humanitarian aid movements inside the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire deal, with only just over half fully facilitated over a six-day period. Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned during a news conference that humanitarian operations “continue to face significant impediments.” “Shipments from Jordan are restricted to a route that requires multiple offloading and reloading points,” he said, adding that “shipments from Egypt, via Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem, face high return rates: despite a recent improvement, between Feb. 4 and 10, less than…

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke Monday with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on economic and security cooperation. “Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Keir Starmer,” said a statement published by Carney’s office. Carney thanked Starmer for his condolences following last week’s deadly school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. “The prime ministers discussed the growing economic and security partnerships between Canada and the UK, including intensified collaboration on trade,” said the statement, as they highlighted the progress in digital trade, critical minerals and sovereign AI infrastructure through the Canada-UK…

Russia could deploy its navy to prevent European powers from seizing its vessels and may retaliate against European shipping if Russian ships are taken, Nikolai Patrushev, one of Russia’s leading hardliners, was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Western states have sought to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions and in recent months have tried to block oil tankers suspected of involvement in Russian oil shipments. In January, the United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker as part of efforts to curb Venezuelan oil exports. Patrushev, a Kremlin aide who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Russia needed to give a…

Five people have died and four others suffered minor injuries in a fire at an apartment building in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia, regional firefighters said late on Monday. According to Spanish news agency EFE, citing fire department sources, authorities believe all the deceased were young people, and some may have been underage. The blaze broke out in a storage room of a five-story building in Manlleu, a town of 21,000 in the Osona area north of Barcelona, firefighters said in a statement. For reasons still unknown, the victims were unable to escape the storage area, they added. The Mossos d’Esquadra -…

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un marked the completion of 10,000 new houses built in Pyongyang, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, as the country prepares to hold a key party congress. Kim has been touring construction sites and touting project progress ahead of this month’s Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, the country’s biggest political gathering that reviews performance, sets new policy goals and can bring leadership change. On Monday, Kim oversaw the completion ceremony for 10,000 houses in Hwasong District, Pyongyang, which achieved the goal of 50,000 new houses in the metropolitan area set during the Eighth…

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday his government would not help Australians in a Syrian camp holding families of suspected Islamic State militants return home, with the government open to prosecutions if they make it back. “We have a very firm view that we won’t be providing assistance or repatriation,” Albanese told ABC News. Thirty-four Australians released on Monday from a camp in northern Syria were returned to the detention centre due to “technical reasons,” two sources told Reuters on Monday. Dubbed “IS brides” by local media – though the cohort also includes children – they are expected to travel…

Ruben Vardanyan, an Armenian-born billionaire banker who served as a senior official in the breakaway Armenian administration of Nagorno-Karabakh, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an Azerbaijani court on Tuesday, state media reported. Vardanyan, who was Karabakh’s number two official in 2022 and 2023, had been on trial in a military court on charges including terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Azerbaijani state news agency Azertac did not say if Vardanyan intended to appeal. Reuters was not able to immediately reach his Baku-based lawyer, Emil Babishov. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for the 57-year-old, whose international…