France's lower house of parliament approved legislation on Thursday to outlaw discrimination against dreadlocks, braids, afros and any other hair style, colour or texture, defeating some who called the bill an unnecessary import of U.S. ideas. Olivier Serva, a Black MP from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, who drafted the bill, said it would help victims of such discrimination, in the workplace and beyond, make their voices heard and win court cases. "There is a lot of suffering (based on hair discrimination) and we need to take this into account," he told Reuters.
The Palestinian Authority has announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform. President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the PA for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, announced the new government in a presidential decree on Thursday. Abbas tapped Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime adviser, to be prime minister earlier this month.
Investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse continues. STI rates increase in over-55s. Trump to attend NYPD funeral. Sen. Joe Lieberman dies at 82. Haiti wary of foreign intervention.
UK greenhouse gas emissions fell by 5.4 percent in 2023, largely due to a reduction in the amount of gas used in power stations, according to official data published on Thursday.Gas use for electricity generation fell 21.1 percent in 2023, "primarily due to higher electricity imports from France, as well as UK electricity demand continuing to decline", said the report.
CBS News analysis shows most federal traffic safety grants go to planning projects, rather than actual construction. Critics say slow progress contributes to rising deaths on America's roads.
The British Museum on Thursday appointed National Portrait Gallery chief Nicholas Cullinan as its new director, as the 265-year-old institution grapples with the apparent theft of hundreds of artifacts and growing international scrutiny of its collection. Previous director Hartwig Fischer resigned in August after the museum disclosed that more than 1,800 items were missing in an apparent case of insider theft. Mark Jones, former head of the Victoria and Albert Museum, has served as interim director since then.
Former President Donald Trump is expected to attend the wake for New York Police Officer Jonathan Diller on Thursday.
The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Gaza's health ministry said wounded people and patients were being held inside an administration building in Al Shifa that was not equipped to provide them with healthcare.
A spate of terror operations carried out by the Islamic State group affiliate has raised concerns over a potential attack on US soil.
Four of the largest school boards in the Canadian province of Ontario said Thursday they launched lawsuits against TikTok, Meta and SnapChat alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning. The lawsuits claim platforms like Facebook and Instagram are “designed for compulsive use, have rewired the way children think, behave, and learn.” Meta Platforms Inc. owns Facebook and Instagram, while Snap Inc. owns SnapChat and ByteDance Ltd. owns TikTok.
Russia last Friday conducted its largest air strike on Ukraine's energy system since invading in February 2022, damaging power units at a major dam and causing blackouts for more than a million people in a number of regions. The mission said on the X platform that Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov had briefed partners on the aftermath of the attacks, urging them to provide more equipment to block incoming salvos.
A bridge engineering expert discusses the costs and limitations of building structures to withstand extreme events – and what it takes to prepare the next generation of civil engineers.
The White House on Thursday announced new standards for collecting federal data on race and ethnicity, a decision that will touch organizations that receive federal funding, determine how congressional districts are drawn and whether equal employment policies can be enforced. The standards from the White House's Office of Management & Budget (OMB)- revised for the first time since 1997- requires federal agencies to use one combined question for race and ethnicity, encourages respondents to select multiple options on how they identify and adds Middle Eastern or North African as a new identification category.
Relaxing ‘rules of origin’ restrictions in an existing trade deal could add tens of thousands of jobs in Central America.
Europa Clipper will contain a plaque that celebrates humanity’s relationship with water and a decades-old tradition of searching for life outside Earth.
The U.S. economy grew faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter, lifted by strong consumer spending and business investment in nonresidential structures like factories. Gross domestic product increased at a 3.4% annualized rate last quarter, revised up from the previously reported 3.2% pace, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its third estimate of fourth-quarter GDP. Economists polled by Reuters had expected GDP growth would be unrevised.
During the month-long period of fasting, the obligation of zakat takes on heightened significance.
Indigenous Catholics have long argued they should be able to embrace both sides of that identity.
Just as the world’s zoos breed critically endangered animals in captivity to repopulate the wild, scientists are building a global effort to freeze corals for reef restoration.
For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage. The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.