Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said Friday he will uphold a ban on importing trophies of elephants hunted and killed in Zimbabwe, pending further review, reversing his own administration’s decision from just a day earlier after a public outcry. “Put big game trophy decision on hold …
Read More »Apple pushes back release of HomePod speaker to 2018
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Apple said Friday it was delaying until early next year the release of its HomePod speaker set to compete with Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices and Google Home as a smart home and music hub. The delay means Apple will miss the key holiday shopping …
Read More »US to allow Zimbabwe elephant trophy imports
Washington, United States | AFP | Animal rights groups on Thursday strongly criticized President Donald Trump’s administration for allowing the import of Zimbabwean elephant hunting trophies. The move reverses a prohibition imposed under former president Barack Obama and is the latest rollback of Obama-era controls on a number of fronts. …
Read More »Pricing the priceless: the $450mn Da Vinci record
New York, United States | AFP | A triumph of marketing over aesthetics? Or the legitimate cost of owning a Da Vinci? The sale of a Renaissance portrait of Jesus Christ for nearly half a billion dollars has stunned the art world. Its quality and condition are debated and isolated …
Read More »Google, Facebook join news organizations in ‘Trust Project’
Washington, United States | AFP | Google, Facebook and other tech firms joined global news organizations Thursday in an initiative aimed at identifying “trustworthy” news sources, in the latest effort to combat online misinformation. Microsoft and Twitter also agreed to participate in the “Trust Project” with some 75 news organizations to …
Read More »African Union lets SADC bloc take lead on Zimbabwe
Washington, United States | AFP | The African Union will allow Zimbabwe’s southern neighbors in the SADC regional bloc to mediate in the political crisis there, a senior official told reporters after talks in Washington. Smail Chergui, the AU commissioner for peace and security, said the union hopes the Zimbabwean …
Read More »Twitter to remove ‘verification badge’ from some accounts
Washington, United States | AFP | Twitter is changing its policy on “verified” accounts, reserving the right to remove the blue badges from users who violate the online platform’s terms of service. The move came a week after Twitter launched a review of its policy following disclosures that neo-Nazi and white …
Read More »US says people of Zimbabwe must choose own government
Washington, United States | AFP | US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the people of Zimbabwe must be allowed to choose their own government through democratic elections, after the military took power. “We all should work together for a quick return to a civilian rule in that …
Read More »Pope denounces healthcare inequality in rich countries
Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis on Thursday took wealthy nations to task over unequal healthcare and systems which increasingly penalise all but the very wealthy. Healthcare is a particularly hot-button issue in the United States, where President Donald Trump has been fighting to scrap the Affordable Care …
Read More »Thousands more US troops arrive in Afghanistan: general
Washington, United States | AFP | Approximately 3,000 additional American troops have now deployed to Afghanistan under President Donald Trump’s revised strategy for the war-torn country, the Pentagon said Thursday. The Pentagon had previously put the number of US forces in Afghanistan at about 11,000 but Trump in August authorized an …
Read More »