Paris, France | AFP | French President Emmanuel Macron made clear to Donald Trump on Monday “the absolute necessity to prevent a re-emergence” of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, after the US pulled its troops out of northern Syria. Macron warned, in a telephone call on Monday evening, that the …
Read More »Putin diffuses Middle East tension with mega Russia, Saudi Arabia oil deal
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Energy superpowers Saudi Arabia and Russia on Monday signed a key deal to bolster cooperation among the world’s oil giants, as visiting President Vladimir Putin sought to defuse political tensions in the Gulf. Putin’s visit follows attacks on Saudi oil installations that Riyadh and …
Read More »EU ‘has no magic powers’ to stop Turkey offensive
Luxembourg, Luxembourg | AFP | EU foreign ministers on Monday voiced concern and condemnation at Turkey’s assault on Kurdish forces in northern Syria, but warned their options for coordinated action across the bloc were limited. Several European countries including Germany and France have halted arms exports to Turkey over the offensive …
Read More »Britain, EU enter make-or-break Brexit week
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain and the European Union on Monday entered a pivotal week that will determine if they are still on course to reach amicable divorce terms — and when Brexit might finally occur. Queen Elizabeth II is due to step into the fray by performing her …
Read More »Putin begins Saudi Arabia tour
Oil, Iran top agenda as Putin visits Saudi Arabia Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday, where he is set to seal oil agreements as well as use his influence to defuse rising tensions in the Gulf. The meeting with King Salman …
Read More »Xi Jinping warns that attempts to split China risk ‘smashed’ bodies
Beijing, China | AFP | President Xi Jinping has warned that any attempts to split China would result in “bodies smashed and bones ground to powder”, amid four months of anti-Beijing unrest in Hong Kong. Xi issued the dire message during a weekend visit to Nepal, according to a …
Read More »Facebook researchers use maths for better translations
Paris, France | AFP | Designers of machine translation tools still mostly rely on dictionaries to make a foreign language understandable. But now there is a new way: numbers. Facebook researchers say rendering words into figures and exploiting mathematical similarities between languages is a promising avenue — even if a universal …
Read More »Pope to elevate British convert Newman to sainthood
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis creates five new saints on Sunday, including Britain’s Cardinal John Henry Newman — one of the Catholic Church’s most renowned converts — and a nun dubbed the “Mother Teresa of Brazil”. Heads of state from across the world are expected at the …
Read More »Impeachment probe overshadows US 2020 Democratic race
Washington, United States | AFP | Joe Biden faces scrutiny over Ukraine, Elizabeth Warren is surging and Bernie Sanders had a heart attack, but recent developments in the Democratic presidential battle are getting minimal attention, swamped by Washington’s impeachment obsession. Most Democratic candidates are pounding the pavement in early voting states …
Read More »50 years after internet conception, dark side stirs fear
San Francisco, United States | AFP | On October 29, 1969, professor Leonard Kleinrock and a team at the University of California at Los Angeles got a computer to “talk” to a machine in what is now known as Silicon Valley. The event gave birth to a network that later became …
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