The scientist, the twins and the experiment that geneticists say went too far
Updated 0117 GMT (0917 HKT) December 1, 2018
Humanity was reluctantly dragged into a new era this week.
In a video posted on YouTube, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced to the world that he successfully used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to modify the DNA of two embryos before birth, essentially creating the world's first genetically modified humans.
The news, delivered on the eve of a high-profile scientific meeting in Hong Kong on human gene editing, left the science community in shock. "I see it as one of those moments that happens once every few decades," said William Hurlbut, Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University Medical Center's Department of Neurobiology. "Where someone does something that so dramatically changes the landscape that the world will never be the same again."
North Korean soldier flees to South as Trump talks up second Kim summit
South Korean soldiers escort defector to safety after finding him on their side of military demarcation line
Another North Korean soldier fled across a heavily fortified border to defect to South Korea early on Saturday, the military in Seoul said, just as the rivals began taking steps to reduce military tensions.
South Korean soldiers escorted the defector to safety after finding him moving south of the eastern side of the military demarcation line that bisects the Koreas, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said.
The incident came as Donald Trump reaffirmed in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in that he wants a second summit with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. Trump and Moon, meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, “reaffirmed their commitment to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearisation” of North Korea, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.
Brexit and our forgotten military losses of the past show up Britain's naive exceptionalism
The golden glow given to our past fuels a comfy belief that predictions of disaster are either exaggerated or a malign effort to generate fear. It is difficult to imagine a cast of mind more likely to produce frustration and failure
The anniversary of the sinking of two great capital ships off Singapore, one of the great British defeats of the Second World War, falls unnoticed between the proposed May-Corbyn debate on 9 December and the House of Commons vote on the Brexit agreement with the EU on 11 December. This is a pity because the miscalculations that go into producing first rate disasters, both political and military, have a lot in common.
Seventy-seven years ago, on 10 December 1941, Japanese planes found and sank the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulsewhen they unwisely sailed north of Singapore without air cover in a bid to attack the Japanese forces invading Malaya. Describing his reaction to the sinking, in which 840 sailors died, Churchill said: “In all the war, I never received a more direct shock.”
Cameroon stripped of hosting 2019 Africa Cup of Nations
Cameroon was on Friday stripped of hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations due to delays in preparing for the continental showpiece, organisers the Confederation of African Football announced.
"Today we took the decision to withdraw the 2019 CAN from Cameroon," CAF president Ahmad Ahmad told a press conference in Accra, seven months before the 2019 opening match.
He was speaking after a 10-hour CAF executive meeting held behind closed doors in the Ghanaiancapital.
Ahmad said "a task force" would be set up to launch an appeal for offers "to determine a new organising country between now and the end of the year".
Heavy rain turns Tijuana asylum seeker camp to mud
Hundreds moved to indoor facility as fear grow migrants and refugees will become sick due to unsanitary conditions.
As heavy downpours Thursday night flooded the already unsanitary encampment in Tijuana's northern side where thousands of Central American asylum seekers are being housed, authorities began moving small groups to a new government-run indoor shelter, 20km east of the US-Mexico border.
A total of 700 out of the 6,000 people sheltered at the Benito Juarez sports complex were transported in buses to the new facility.
Buses arrived on Friday morning to transport others, but many expressed scepticism due to the distance the new shelter is from the border.
G20 Argentina: Rifts laid bare as world leaders meet
World leaders have held the opening session of their annual G20 summit, with any number of disputes and disagreements on the table.
Host president, Argentina's Mauricio Macri, said the solution was "dialogue, dialogue and dialogue" and called for a clear message of shared responsibility.
But US President Donald Trump has already cancelled meeting Russia's Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
And huge differences remain on climate change, trade and the Khashoggi affair.
The G20, made up of 19 of the world's most industrialised nations plus the EU, accounts for 85% of the world's economic output and two-thirds of the world's population.
Its meetings, which began in 2008, are an opportunity for members to develop global policies tackling major issues - but many of the key decisions will be made in one-on-one encounters.
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