WORLD

Beijing, China | AFP | China’s Communist Party Friday expelled from its ranks a former contender for a top leadership post for “serious discipline violations” before a major congress due to consolidate President Xi Jinping’s power. Politburo member Sun Zhengcai was also dismissed from public office after the Political Bureau of …

Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter on Thursday revealed that nearly 2,000 ads were placed on the messaging service in 2016 by a Russian media group suspected of trying to interfere with the US presidential election. A Twitter statement said the social media company shared data with congressional investigators about …

Paris, France | AFP | Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from livestock are larger than previously thought, posing an additional challenge in the fight to curb global warming, scientists said Friday. Revised calculations of methane produced per head of cattle show that global livestock emissions in 2011 were 11 percent …

Tallinn, Estonia | AFP | EU leaders will look to the bloc’s digital future at a summit in Tallinn on Friday, a day after debating wider plans unveiled by French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen the union. Macron is expected to seek to persuade sceptical counterparts to overhaul tax rules so …

Washington, United States | AFP | The White House has launched an internal probe of the use of private email for official business by senior aides to President Donald Trump, news outlet Politico reported Thursday. The administration is scouring the White House server for emails to and from private email accounts …

Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union is launching an interactive online map Friday to help businesses and officials steer through the jungle of international sanctions in force against regimes, organisations and individuals around the world. With around 30 to 40 international sanctions regimes in force against regimes such as …

Ankara, Turkey | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the United States Thursday that Turkey could release a jailed American pastor if Washington handed over exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara blames for last year’s failed coup. The US pastor, Andrew Brunson, has been held by Turkish authorities …

Beijing, China | AFP | Chinese internet giant Baidu has teamed up with the country’s cyber police to control the spread of rumors and fake news, the company said Thursday, as authorities continue to tighten censorship ahead a major Communist Party congress next month. Baidu, known as China’s answer to …

Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Netflix will spend Can$500 million (US$400 million) over the next five years to make original films and television shows in Canada, the company and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly announced Thursday. This amounts to about five percent of the video streaming service’s estimated total US$7 billion production …

Barcelona, Spain | AFP | Police on Thursday seized more than six million ballots and envelopes and 100 ballot boxes in a Catalan town, in the latest bid to block a banned independence referendum, a police source said. The seizures are the latest in a long list of items confiscated by …