التصنيف: أخبار

Domino’s Pizza has apologised after a video of an employee appearing to pick his nose and wipe his hand on dough went viral.

The video was filmed in the chain’s Amagasaki branch in the Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and posted on forum website Bakusai.

It shows an employee, wearing Domino’s branded uniform and blue gloves, kneading dough and speaking to the person behind the camera.

They then reach up to their face and appear to put their finger in their nose – before wiping it on the dough in front of them.

The video soon went viral and within hours of it being published Domino’s Pizza Japan issued an apology for its employee’s “inappropriate conduct” on X.

“We deeply apologise for making our valued customers uncomfortable,” it added.

The video was filmed after the branch had closed and showed dough being prepared for a 24-hour fermentation process, Domino’s said. This meant it hadn’t been used in any pizzas and it has now been disposed of.

Operations at the branch were also suspended and the employee will be punished in line with company guidelines, The Japan Times reported.

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This incident comes shortly after three people were arrested following a spate of “sushi terrorism” videos posted online in Japan.

One video showed a man licking the top of a soy sauce bottle at a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, before going on to lick his finger and touch pieces of sushi believed to be intended for other customers.

Other videos showed people putting wasabi on other customers’ sushi and licking a communal spoon from a container of green tea powder.

Three people who were part of the same group of diners were arrested on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business, the Kyodo news agency reported earlier this month.

Russia is secretly developing a new kind of satellite-killing space weapon, according to US intelligence watchdogs in Washington.

The Biden administration is gathering highly sensitive information about the new capability, which is not yet operational but could potentially be a game changer in the war in Ukraine.

Russia has denied the claims but the chair of a powerful congressional intelligence committee on Capitol Hill in Washington has issued an urgent warning about Russia’s alleged ambitions.

Space is the new frontier in military technology and never more so than during the Ukraine war. Ukraine has pioneered the use of satellites and AI to spearhead its attacks on Russia, and now Russia may be striking back.

The claims are murky and lack detail, as is often the way with intelligence reports, but it’s thought the US fears Russia is working on a weapon that could knock out many satellites at once.

Ukraine has made very effective use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network. Data gathered in space is augmented with AI to produce lists of targets for Ukrainians to strike. Satellites can also be used to help forces communicate on the ground and guide ever more lethal killer drones.

Unlike previous satellites used for military purposes, the Starlink network comprises thousands of satellites. To be effective, Russia’s new weapon would need to be able to knock them out en masse.

A nuclear device detonated in space could create an electromagnetic pulse frying the circuitry of satellites. But it’s not clear whether the alleged new weapons will be nuclear.

Other possibilities include laser technology or other forms of electromagnetic interference.

The use of space in this war will lead inevitably to escalation beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Inventions and weapons on one side require countering by the other.

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Russia, at first, was able to jam signals from Starlink and then Western engineers were able to neutralise that technology. Now it seems Russia is resorting to more aggressive solutions.

Warfare in space would have massive downsides. It could render vast areas unusable if satellites are turned into clouds of space debris. International treaties aim to mitigate that risk but the Ukraine war has highlighted the strategic advantages of operating there.

The space arms race is on, despite the enormous risks.

A trial date has been set in Donald Trump’s hush-money case, which centres on the claim he paid off two women – including an adult film star – after they said he had affairs with them.

Jury selection will begin on Monday 25 March, a judge ruled today, turning down requests for a delay from Trump‘s lawyers.

The case centres on years-old accusations that Trump sought to bury stories about extramarital affairs that emerged during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The decision means Trump will become the first former US president to stand trial on a criminal charge.

Prosecutors claim he paid off two women – porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – as well as a Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about Trump having a child outside of marriage. Trump denies having any of the sexual encounters.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time, paid Ms Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of National Enquirer to pay Ms McDougal $150,000 in a practice known as “catch-and-kill” to bury the story.

Trump’s company then paid Cohen $420,000 and labelled the payments as legal expenses, according to the prosecution. Trump’s legal team argue no crime was committed.

The former president was at the New York courthouse for the hearing and arrived shortly before 9am local time.

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It was Trump’s first visit to the building since he was there in April 2023, when a historic indictment made him the first ex-president charged with a crime.

This is the first of four criminal prosecutions against Trump to proceed to trial amid his bid to return to the White House. He is also facing multiple civil lawsuits.

Trump’s lawyers had complained about the trial going ahead as he tries to lock down his place as the Republican nominee for this November’s US general election – claiming it could amount to “election interference”.

In leaving the previously set trial date intact, Judge Juan Manuel Mercha took advantage of a delay in another of Trump’s prosecutions.

His charge for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election is effectively on hold due to a Supreme Court appeal from the former president.

Trump’s two other criminal charges are for illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and criminally conspiring to overturn his narrow 2020 election defeat in Georgia.

Israel says its special forces have raided the biggest functioning hospital in Gaza, with a number of suspects detained.

The Israeli military said the operation at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis was “precise and limited” and claimed it had information Hamas fighters were hiding there.

Israel also said the ruling militant group in Gaza may have kept hostages at the medical facility, and it was possible some captives’ bodies were at the site.

Hamas has denied the accusations, calling them “lies”, with health authorities saying Israel has pushed out displaced people and medical workers’ families who were sheltering in the hospital.

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The Israeli military had earlier this week ordered thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering at the site to leave, but told medical staff and patients they could remain.

The special forces raid came hours after an Israeli strike killed a patient and injured six others in the complex, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Video footage showed doctors scrambling to move patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke or dust.

The charity Medicins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said Israel shelled the southern Gazan hospital in the early hours of Thursday.

“Our medical staff have had to flee the hospital, leaving patients behind,” it said on X.

On Wednesday, the military said it had opened a secure corridor for displaced people to leave the hospital but would let doctors and patients stay there.

‘Nowhere is safe’

Palestinians have insisted nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all areas of Gaza.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian structures to shield its fighters.

Since the war began on 7 October last year when Hamas launched its deadly attack on Israel, about 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes due to retaliatory Israeli strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed Hamas gunmen are hiding in Rafah, on the southern Egyptian border, and is mulling launching a ground assault on the city.

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In Rafah, 1.4 million people – over half the territory’s population – are crammed into tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in the city.

A top UN official has warned the deteriorating situation in Gaza is the worst humanitarian crisis he has ever seen in his 50-year career.

Speaking to Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, Martin Griffiths said it was because “people can’t escape. They’re blocked in, they’re not able to run out of Gaza”.

“I think this is the worst [crisis] in my 50 years of experience.”

Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in its cross-border raid on Israel on 7 October and took around 250 others hostage.

In retaliatory Israeli strikes, more than 28,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.