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By Elizabeth Pineau and Ingrid Melander, Reuters Emmanuel Macron called a snap election earlier this year, which delivered a hung parliament. Photo: Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via AFP French President Emmanuel Macron began meeting party leaders from across France's political spectrum on Friday with the aim, nearly seven weeks after inconclusive parliamentary elections, to finally give the country a new prime minister. Whoever Macron names will face a tough job, with parliamentary approval of the 2025 budget one of many challenges at a time when France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit. Who will become prime minister - and whether they can get a hung parliament to back any reforms - is still very much an open question, with no sign ...

Roxanne Tickle's exclusion from female-only app was unlawful, Australia's Federal Court has ruled. (File image) Photo: 123RF By Jamie McKinnell, ABC News The exclusion of a transgender woman from a female-only app constituted unlawful discrimination due to gender identity, according to a landmark Federal Court ruling in Australia. Roxanne Tickle downloaded the Giggle for Girls social networking platform, which was designed to be an "online refuge" for women, in February 2021. Users provided a selfie to be assessed by artificial intelligence software to verify they were a woman. Tickle's photo was accepted, but later that year her account was restricted after a manual override. The court case she initiated is the first to claim discrimination on the basis of gender identity since changes...

By Nandita Bose, Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu, Reuters Harris accepts party's nomination, assails Donald Trump Candidate confronts Gaza war up front, denounces tyranny Speech caps four-day Democratic National Convention Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Friday with a rousing call to end the war in Gaza and to fight tyranny around the world, drawing a sharp contrast with Republican Donald Trump. "In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs," Harris said, accusing Trump of bowing down to dictators. On the final, and most anticipated, night of the four-day Chicago convention, Harris, 59, sought to redefine herself for America as she and Trump, 78, enter the fin...

Italian divers search the wreck of the sunken yacht. Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP By Giselda Vagnoni and Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was retrieved on Thursday from the wreck of his family yacht that sank this week off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, a senior Italian official said. Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still unaccounted for, interior ministry official Massimo Mariani told Reuters after being briefed by the emergency services. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in minutes after bad weather struck early Monday. Mike Lynch's body has been retrieved from the yacht owned ...