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31 Jan 2025

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World champions killed in plane crash had built a new life as coaches in the US
The two Russian figure skating coaches killed in the American Airlines crash were two-time Olympians and former world champions in the pairs event.

Potomac crash live: 60 people dead as jet, helicopter collide over Washington
Footage has caputred the moment a military helicopter and a passenger plane collided over Washington as the US president blames hiring policies for poor safety.

NZ could become 'net exporter' of population
If current trends continue, NZ could quickly reach a point where more people are leaving than arriving, experts say.

Amazon Prime Video has ads now. Here’s how to stop them
Nope, there’s nothing wrong with your TV—that was an ad you just saw on Amazon Prime Video. Like many of the big streaming services, Amazon Prime Video has rolled out an ad-supported tier, but it did so a little differently. Rather than raising prices and then giving you the chance to switch to a new, cheaper, “with ads” tier, Amazon added commercials to its standard tier, and you must pay more to turn the ads off. So, want to get rid of the commercials? Here’s what you do, along with how much it’ll cost you. How to turn off the ads on Amazon Prime Video To nix the commercial breaks on Amazon Prime Video (well, most of them anyway–more on that in a bit), you’ll need to upgrade your existing Amazon Prime account. Here’s how: Go to the Amazon Prime Video website, click your profile icon in the top-right corner of the page, then click Account & Settings. Click the Go Ad-Free button. Confirm your payment and billing info, then click Start subscription. How much ad-free Amazon Prime Video costs If you want to go back to an ad-free Prime Video experience, it’ll cost you an extra $2.99 a month, in addition to the cost of Prime. As you probably know already, Prime Video is included in Amazon Prime, which costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year. Besides Prime Video, Amazon Prime offers such benefits as free shipping for products purchased on Amazon, free Amazon Fresh grocery deliveries, Amazon Music, unlimited Amazon Photo storage, Prime Gaming, Prime Reading, and more. Ad-free Amazon Prime still has some ads Even before Amazon began rolling out ad breaks to the standard Prime Video tier, some Prime Video content already came with ads, namely Thursday Night Football and other live sporting events. It’s worth noting that if you pony up for the ad-free version of Prime Video, you’ll still see commercial breaks during TNF and live sports. What you keep–and lose–if you don’t upgrade to ad-free Prime Video Besides the ads, standard Prime Video subscribers lose a couple of key benefits included in the ad-free Prime Video tier. Namely, you’ll miss out on Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, meaning you’ll have to make do without frame-by-frame HDR mapping as well as immersive 3D audio. That said, all Prime Video subscribers get 4K and standard HDR10 streaming, along with the ability to download videos for offline viewing. Didn’t Prime Video used to be ad-free for everyone? Yep, that’s true. Previous to January 29, 2024, Prime Video content was almost completely ad-free (there were exceptions, which we’ll detail in a moment). As of now, however, the standard Amazon Prime Video plan comes with ads. Looked at another way, current Amazon Prime subscribers are now paying the same amount for Prime Video with ads as they previously did for ad-free Prime Video. For the record, Amazon first announced in September 2023 that ads would be coming to Prime Video. Purchased and rented Prime Video titles stay ad-free Even if you don’t upgrade your Prime Video plan, any movies or TV shows that you purchase or rent on Prime Video will be ad-free. Why ads came to Prime Video Amazon added commercials to Prime Video for the same reason most of the other big streamers did: It wants more revenue. Wall Street has been demanding profitability from the big streaming services, and offering cheaper, ad-supported tiers is an easy way to boost income. Indeed, Amazon is late to the “with ads” party. Max debuted HBO Max “With Ads” (back when it was still called “HBO Max”) more than three years ago. Netflix finally went the ad-supported way in late 2022, while Disney+ teed up its own ad-supported tier shortly afterward. That leaves Apple TV+ as the only big streamer without an ad-supported tier, but many expect Apple to roll out a cheaper Apple TV+ “with ads” plan sooner or later.

Potomac crash: More than 60 dead in Washington after jet, helicopter collide
Twenty-eight bodies have been recovered so far, and officials do not believe there are any survivors.

Singer Marianne Faithfull dies at 78
The death of the songwriter and actress was announced by her spokesperson.

Why parents should think twice before posting back-to-school photos of their children
Parents could unwittingly give away more information than they think when they post online, police are warning.

Waitangi Day 2025: The conversations, commemorations and celebrations taking centre stage
After a turbulent 12 months for Maori-Crown relations, the week of Waitangi Day will be crucial for te iwi Maori to discuss the kaupapa that will matter this year.