WORLD

Hong Kong, China | AFP | The Chinese scientist who claims to have created the world’s first genetically-edited babies defended the highly controversial procedure Wednesday, but announced a halt to the trial following an international outcry. He Jiankui told a packed Hong Kong biomedical conference he was “proud” to have …

Vienna, Austria | AFP | Black people in the EU continue to face “widespread and entrenched prejudice” in many areas of life, as well as racist harassment and attacks, according to a report published Wednesday. “Racism based on the colour of a person’s skin remains a pervasive scourge throughout the …

San Francisco, United States | AFP | A former Facebook employee on Tuesday went public with a memo saying the company is failing to include black people in its workforce and on the social network. Mark Luckie said that he shared the message with all Facebook employees around the world …

Paris, France | AFP | Humanity is falling further behind in the race against climate change, with the gap between greenhouse gas emissions and levels needed to achieve the Paris climate treaty temperature goals continuing to widen, the UN said Tuesday. With only a single degree Celsius of warming so …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | With a devastating drought worsening an already horrendous humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, parents are increasingly compelled to “sell” young daughters into marriage to pay off debt or buy food, the UN said Tuesday. In the drought-hit Herat and Baghdis provinces of Afghanistan, the UN children’s …

Paris, France | AFP | Protests by people clad in luminous vests have played havoc with traffic across France and prompted violent clashes in Paris in recent days. But who are the “yellow vest” protesters, and what will become of them? What are these protests about? The movement sprang up …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump once again blasted his hand-picked chief of the US central bank Tuesday, saying he was “not even a little bit happy” with his selection of Jerome Powell. The Federal Reserve chairman has presided over three interest rate increases this year, and …

Kiev, Ukraine | AFP | Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday warned of the threat of “full-scale war” and said Russia had sharply increased its military presence on their shared border as tensions escalate between the ex-Soviet neighbours. “I don’t want anyone to think this is fun and games. Ukraine …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | Tired of seeing their holy texts used to justify the subjugation of women, a group of feminist theologians from across the Protestant-Catholic divide have joined forces to draft “A Women’s Bible”. As the #MeToo movement continues to expose sexual abuse across cultures and industries, some …

Oslo, Norway | AFP | Seven European consumer groups filed complaints against Google with national regulators Tuesday, accusing the internet giant of covertly tracking users’ movements in violation of an EU regulation on data protection. The complaints cited a study by the Norwegian Consumer Council that concluded the Internet giant …