WORLD

Beijing, China | AFP | US and Chinese negotiators kicked off two days of high-level trade talks in Beijing on Thursday hoping to resolve a festering dispute that has cast a shadow over financial markets and the global growth outlook. Pressure to seal an accord ahead of a March 1 deadline set by Donald Trump …

Washington, United States | AFP | Some taxpayers are getting a bitter surprise this year as their usual annual tax refunds have shrunk — or turned into tax bills — even though President Donald Trump loudly promised the largest tax cut “in American history.” And with tax season underway, thousands of unhappy taxpayers have been …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump warned Venezuela on Wednesday that “all options” are on the table and demanded that far left leader, Nicolas Maduro, unblock US aid shipments to the country. Again stressing that he had not ruled out military options, Trump said he was “sad” about the “turmoil” in the …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro is “making a terrible mistake” by blocking US humanitarian aid. Trump said it was “sad” that the oil-rich Latin American country is in “turmoil” and said Washington has still not ruled out sending troops to the region. …

  Near Baghouz, Syria | AFP | Jihadist fighters made a desperate last stand in eastern Syria on Wednesday, while their wives and children fled the final, blood-soaked implosion of the Islamic State group’s “caliphate”. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday launched a final push to expel IS fighters from the sole remaining morsel …

Frankfurt am Main, Germany | AFP | A British departure from the European Union without a deal could put 600,000 jobs around the world at risk, with Germany the hardest hit, a study published Monday found. Researchers at the IWH institute in Halle, eastern Germany, examined what would happen if UK …

Washington, United States | AFP | A major French study published Monday has found for the first time a link between the consumption of ultra-processed foods and a higher risk of death, but researchers warned more work was needed to determine which mechanisms were at play. The study, which involved …

Paris, France | AFP | An artificial intelligence (AI) programme developed in China that combs through test results, health records and even handwritten notes diagnosed childhood diseases as accurately as doctors, researchers said Monday. From the flu and asthma to life-threatening pneumonia and meningitis, the system consistently matched or out-performed primary …

New York, United States | AFP | Over the weekend, from Los Angeles to London, the showbiz A-list strutted their stuff on red carpets for the Grammys and Britain’s Bafta film awards. Halfway between in New York, the style glitterati lined catwalks to preview the trends for next autumn and …

Paris, France | AFP | Nearly half of all insect species worldwide are in rapid decline and a third could disappear altogether, according to a study warning of dire consequences for crop pollination and natural food chains. “Unless we change our way of producing food, insects as a whole will …