(BBC News) A proposal to codify a new geological epoch based on humanity's influence on Earth has been rejected.
It means "the Anthropocene" will not be added to the chronostratigraphic chart featured in textbooks and on classroom posters to record the major changes in Earth history.
The International Union of Geological Sciences upheld an earlier vote by a lower committee to dismiss the idea.
But it recognized the term "Anthropocene" had common currency.
"Despite its rejection as a...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Pakistan’s security forces foiled a major attack in Gwadar, a port city in the southwestern province of Balochistan, when eight armed fighters were killed on Wednesday when they tried to enter the Gwadar Port Authority complex.
The facility is a centrepiece of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan’s most ambitious infrastructure and investment project in recent years.
Saeed Ahmed Umrani, a senior government official, confirmed that the port complex was attacked, and...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says he is stepping down as the leader of the governing Fine Gael party.
In the surprise announcement on Wednesday, Varadkar said he would relinquish his role as prime minister as soon as a successor is chosen.
“I am resigning the presidency and leadership of Fine Gael, and will resign as taoiseach (prime minister) as soon as my successor is able to take up that office,” Varadkar...
(BBC News) Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is giving $640 million to non-profit organizations, more than double her previously planned donations for the year.
Scott announced this week she would give the money to 361 small groups, out of the more than 6,000 organizations that applied for funding.
She had initially planned to make 250 awards of $1 million each this year.
She has given away $16.5 billion since her 2019 divorce from Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
She has a...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) At least 12 bodies have been removed by ambulance from the affluent neighbourhood of Petion-Ville on the outskirts of the Haitian capital as tensions simmer pending the announcement of a new government.
Gunmen looted homes in the mountainous communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police.
The neighbourhoods had remained largely peaceful despite a surge in gang attacks across...
(BBC News) Donald Trump cannot find a private company to guarantee the $464m (£365m) he has been ordered to pay in a New York civil fraud case.
The former president must either pay the full amount in cash or secure a bond in order to continue his appeal.
Trump's lawyers said on Monday that securing a bond of that size was a "practical impossibility".
For a fee, a bonding company would guarantee the full amount to the...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) President Vladimir Putin is set to win a record post-Soviet landslide victory in Russia’s election, cementing his grip on power, despite a large number of opponents staging a noon protest at polling stations.
Shortly after the last polls closed on Sunday, early returns pointed to the conclusion everyone expected: that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.
According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, he had some 87 percent of...
(BBC News) The first maritime humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza has been unloaded onto the shore.
The US charity behind the mission, World Central Kitchen (WCK), is co-operating with the United Arab Emirates.
The shipment contained 200 tonnes of food for Gaza, which the UN says is on the brink of famine.
Aid agencies have accused Israel of impeding aid deliveries, a charge denied by Israeli officials.
They say Israel is allowing aid through two crossings in the...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of trying to disrupt his country’s presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 soldiers to try to pierce Russia’s borders, promising to punish Kyiv for its actions.
Polls opened across 11 time zones in Russia on Friday to begin three days of voting with Putin almost certain to secure his fifth term since winning his first election in 2000 with dissent in...
(BBC News) The prosecutor in Donald Trump's election fraud case in Georgia can stay on the trial, if the lawyer she had an affair with quits, a judge has ruled.
Trump and his co-defendants had tried to get Fani Willis disqualified, saying her relationship with Nathan Wade — whom she hired — had compromised the integrity of the case.
Judge Scott McAfee disagreed, but said it did create an "appearance of impropriety."
He said either Willis or...
