AFP news

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday questioned China's sincerity in seeking peace in Ukraine as he directly pressed his counterpart over exports that boost Russia's military.

Oswards Ruiz said he had no choice but to flee Venezuela after President Nicolas Maduro claimed reelection in a July election the opposition says he stole.

Kamala Harris pledged Friday she would tighten the border and fix America's broken immigration system on her first visit to the US-Mexico frontier as a presidential candidate.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky held high-stakes talks Friday following several attacks by the White House hopeful on the Ukrainian president as the looming American election raises questions over long-term US support for ally Kyiv in its war with Russia.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene rose Friday to at least 33 people across the southeastern United States, authorities said, as torrential flooding inundated communities and emergency responders launched massive rescue operations.

A record wave of wildfires, fueled by severe drought linked to climate change and deforestation, is causing havoc across South America.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's hold on power is "unsustainable" given the widespread rejection of his claim to reelection, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told AFP on Friday.

Oscar-winning British actor Maggie Smith, a star of stage and screen for more than seven decades, died in hospital in London on Friday, her sons announced, prompting a flood of tributes led by King Charles III. "It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith.

With incendiary, misleading posts to his 200 million followers, Elon Musk has courted criticism for cranking up the political temperature ahead of an already polarized US election through his influential platform that is plagued with misinformation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep striking Hezbollah and fight "until victory" against Hamas, in an address to world leaders on Friday that defied calls for ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza.

A paramilitary attack on a market in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher killed 18 people, a medical source told AFP on Friday, after world leaders appealed for an end to the country's wartime suffering.

Pope Francis said Friday that the Catholic Church must "seek forgiveness" over the "scourge" of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the Church's dark past looms large.

Japan's next prime minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday outlined his ideas to reshape the nation's miliary alliance with Washington, after winning the conservative ruling party's leadership race.

Eurozone business activity declined for the first time in seven months in September, as France lost steam after the end of the Paris Olympic Games, a key survey said Monday.

Sweden's beleaguered electric car battery maker Northvolt said Monday it would cut a quarter of its staff in the country, as it struggles with strained finances and a slowdown in demand.

Iran's new president on Monday accused Israel of seeking regional war, as he attempted to cast Tehran as restrained and appealed to the West for talks on flashpoint issues.

The gunman suspected of planning to kill Donald Trump on his golf course wrote a chilling letter months ago about a failed "assassination attempt" on the former US president, according to court papers filed Monday as he was remanded in custody.

Unlike many artists, will.i.am, lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas, is not at war with artificial intelligence.

Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov said Monday that the messaging platform had removed more "problematic content", weeks after his arrest in France on charges of failing to act against criminals using the app.

As wars rage worldwide, with civilian casualties a daily occurrence, critics of the United Nations say the body is failing at its most basic job, while experts warn the organization is being scapegoated for things that are beyond its control.

Everton announced on Monday that the US-based Friedkin Group has reached an agreement to buy Farhad Moshiri's majority stake in the struggling Premier League club.

The Amazon rainforest has lost an area about the size of Germany and France combined to deforestation in four decades, fueling drought and record wildfires across South America, experts said Monday.

Boeing proposed lifting hourly wages for striking workers by 30 percent on Monday, sweetening its initial offer in an effort to end a 10-day stoppage that shuttered Seattle-area plants.

A major femicide trial opened in Italy on Monday after the brutal murder of a university student by her ex-boyfriend that triggered outrage and national soul-searching over the roots of male violence against women.

A former partner of a co-defendant in a mass rape trial that has sparked horror and protests in France broke down in tears on Monday, telling the court she had "lived a lie" and might herself have been sexually assaulted.

Pig farmer Alberto Cavagnini has slaughtered 1,600 of his hogs due to swine fever, a virus threatening the 20-billion-euro pork industry in Italy, including its world-famous prosciutto.

The US Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage-point was "an appropriate and necessary first step," given progress on reducing inflation, a senior bank official said Monday.

European and Asian stock markets diverged Monday as investors digested weak eurozone economic data and an interest rate cut by China's central bank.

Jakarta and Wellington denied Monday a claim by rebels in Indonesia's restive region of Papua that a New Zealand pilot was freed from captivity over the weekend after they received payment from a local leader.