AFP news

Major stock markets dropped Monday and oil prices jumped as traders weighed fresh interest-rate cuts from China's central bank aimed at reigniting the world's second-biggest economy.

A US and a Canadian warship have passed through waters separating Taiwan and China, a week after Beijing held large-scale military drills in the sensitive passage.

Former US president Donald Trump hits the campaign trail in hurricane-hit North Carolina on Monday, having heavily criticized the government's disaster response after at least 124 people were killed there by storm Helene.

Up to 1,000 women and children needing medical care will shortly be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization's Europe branch said in comments published on Monday.

South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador Monday to criticise Pyongyang's decision to send thousands of soldiers to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said, calling for their immediate withdrawal.

French drugmaker Sanofi's Monday confirmation that it plans to sell a controlling stake in its over-the-counter unit to a US investment fund sparked a new political backlash, stoked by fears the deal marks a loss of sovereignty over key medications.

Six Russian soldiers who fled the fighting in Ukraine have found refuge in France and hope to receive asylum, in a landmark case of Russian deserters being welcomed in an EU country as a group.

The world's biggest nature protection conference opens in Colombia Monday with the United Nations chief calling for countries to "convert words into action" and fatten a fund seeking to address biodiversity loss.

You can't walk very far through a forest in this part of the United States without stumbling upon a mushroom, an eruption from a vast fungal kingdom that all life depends on, but about which we know very little.

Moldovans voted on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling amid the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Fighting raged on two fronts Sunday as Israel targeted what it said was a Hezbollah "command centre" in the Lebanese capital, while in Gaza rescuers reported 73 people killed in a single air strike.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump invited star power to the campaign trail Saturday, as they took shots at each other's endurance and urged early voting in battleground states key to the ever-tightening US presidential race.

Two dozen world leaders will meet in Russia next week for a summit of the BRICS group, an alliance of emerging economies that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western "hegemony".

Former general Prabowo Subianto was sworn in Sunday as president of Indonesia, seeking a more prominent position on the global stage for the world's fourth most populous nation.

Fujio Uemura has to rest after driving fish all night to Tokyo, under new rules that trucking firms and experts say are crippling Japan's logistics sector and risk pushing up prices for consumers.

G7 defence ministers on Saturday met against the backdrop of multiple ongoing military conflicts, expressing concern over the escalation in Lebanon while pledging "unwavering support" for Ukraine.

Glinting in the sun by the world's biggest nuclear plant, the Sea of Japan is calm now.

The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a political victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but divisions remain in Israel over his strategy for securing the release of hostages.

White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia's invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.

Liam Payne, a British singer and former member of boy band One Direction, died after falling from a third-floor balcony at a Buenos Aires hotel.

King Charles III touched down in Australia Friday, kicking off the most strenuous foreign trip since his life-changing cancer diagnosis eight months ago.

Most Asian and European stock markets rose Friday after Chinese economic growth data beat forecasts and officials flagged fresh measures to boost the world's second biggest economy.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will lead dueling rallies Friday in Michigan, a crucial battleground state where Arab American voters angered by US support for Israel may hold the key to a deadlocked race.

Tech giant Meta has unveiled a partnership with horror film production company Blumhouse to road-test its latest AI video tool.

North Korea has decided to send a "large-scale" troop deployment to support Moscow's war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia's Far East and undergoing training, Seoul's spy agency said Friday.

TikTok and Facebook approved advertisements containing blatant US election falsehoods just weeks ahead of the vote, a watchdog investigation revealed Thursday, calling into question the tech platforms' policies to detect harmful disinformation.

On a barge on Rome's River Tiber, a stone's throw from the Vatican, Loan Rocher was "ordained" in a secret ceremony in defiance of the Catholic Church's ban on women deacons and priests.

The billboard showing an elegant young woman wrapped around a man on a motorcycle, pistol in hand, looks more like a perfume ad than a military campaign.

After months of disappointment, US President Joe Biden's administration sees new hope for reaching a Gaza ceasefire after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, but the upcoming US elections cast a shadow on prospects for a breakthrough.