POLITICS & POLICY

In the Venezuelan mining community of El Dorado, the majority of residents carry around gold instead of cards or cash to pay for groceries.

Irish rappers Kneecap are "unfazed" by their legal problems and controversies kicked up by their anti-Israel pro-Palestinian statements, friend and film director Rich Peppiatt told AFP. Peppiatt helped create the Kneecap phenomenon with his 2024 semi-fictionalised film about the hip-hop group from Belfast, who are now playing major festivals around the world.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has weathered a series of challenges but Israel's unprecedented strikes mark his most serious crisis yet, threatening both the clerical system he leads and his own physical survival.

The "headwinds" of prizemoney and rival racing festivals are even more concerning than they were last year but nevertheless the quality of foreign runners at Royal Ascot is "pretty positive", director of racing Nick Smith told AFP. The five-day meeting -- described by Hong Kong-based Australian trainer David Hayes as "Melbourne Cup week on steroids" -- which starts on Tuesday is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Royal Procession.

Israel and Iran traded heavy fire for a third straight day on Sunday, with mounting casualties and expanding targets marking a sharp escalation in hostilities between the longtime foes.

India, whose leader has been invited to the G7 starting on Sunday, is eager to represent the Global South on the world stage, acting as a "bridge" between different countries, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.

Iranian missile fire on Israel killed at least 10 people overnight, authorities said Sunday, as the foes exchanged new waves of attacks in their most intense confrontation in history.

A quiet, walled patch of grass in the middle of an Irish housing estate is set to reveal the latest disturbing chapter in Ireland's "mother and baby" home scandal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his US counterpart Donald Trump Saturday that Moscow was ready to hold a fresh round of peace talks with Kyiv after June 22, once the sides complete exchanging prisoners and soldiers' bodies.

Israel vowed to press on with "full force" on Friday after its unprecedented onslaught on Iran that killed several of the country's top military brass, with media in the Islamic republic reporting strikes and projectiles well into the evening.

For President Donald Trump, few goals on the world stage have been more explicit -- he will not drag the United States into another "forever war."

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged Europe and Asia to build a new alliance to hold off big powers seeking to build "spheres of coercion", in a swipe at China and Russia.

The UN warned Friday that the entire population of Gaza was at risk of famine, as an Israeli far-right minister urged the use of "full force" against Hamas.

Favourites Paris Saint-Germain have their sights fixed on finally winning the Champions League trophy but a rugged and battle-hardened Inter Milan side stand in their way in Saturday's final in Munich.

On the campaign trail last year, then-candidate Donald Trump proposed handing US residency cards automatically to international students when they earn diplomas, bemoaning that they were leaving to form successful companies in China and India.

Ukraine said Thursday it was ready to hold more talks with Russia in Istanbul next week but again demanded that Moscow supply a document setting out its conditions for peace.

Billionaire Elon Musk once compared his work for US President Donald Trump to a 2,500-year-old religion.

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Thursday said it was examining a new deal proposed by a US envoy, as rescuers said at least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip.

At least 44 people were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, rescuers said, a day after a World Food Programme warehouse in the centre of the territory was looted by desperate Palestinians.

In a field of paprika plants in the heart of Zimbabwe, fourth-generation farmer Daniel Burger and relative newcomer Miriam Mupambawashe discuss the quality of the crop.

Thousands of desperate Palestinians stormed a United Nations warehouse in central Gaza on Wednesday, with the World Food Programme reporting two possible deaths in the tumult as Israel and the UN traded blame over the deepening hunger crisis.

Lawsuits, scandals, armed troops and a knife-wielding attacker all failed to deter Lee Jae-myung's ascendancy from sweatshop worker to the cusp of South Korea's presidency.

A French court on Wednesday gave the maximum 20-year jail term to a surgeon who admitted sexually abusing hundreds of patients, most of them children, during more than two decades.

The Kremlin on Wednesday rebuffed a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a three-way summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as Kyiv seeks to force Moscow to halt its three-year-long invasion.

A French court is to give its verdict Wednesday in the trial of a surgeon who admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of patients over more than two decades, in one of the country's largest child sex abuse cases.

The UN on Wednesday condemned a US-backed aid system in Gaza after 47 people were injured during a chaotic food distribution that saw shots fired by the Israeli military.

Alix Popham, one of hundreds of former rugby players to bring a lawsuit against the sport's authorities for head injuries, told AFP he wants his day in court so he can look in the face some of the officials "who are part of the reason why we are in the mess we are in."

King Charles III hailed Canada as "strong and free" as he delivered a major speech to open parliament in Ottawa against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's threats to take over the country.

Thousands of Palestinians rushed into a new aid distribution centre run by a US-backed group in southern Gaza on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, leading to chaotic scenes as Israel implemented a new distribution system.