AFP news

When millions of Bangladeshis came back online this week after a nationwide internet shutdown, many were shocked to watch a ferocious police clampdown they had earlier only heard while bunkered in their homes.

An ambition from Paris Olympics organisers to cut the carbon footprint of catering at this year's eco-friendly Games has run into a problem: the huge appetites of meat-loving athletes.

Hezbollah on Wednesday mourned its top commander Fuad Shukr, whose body was recovered from the rubble of an Israeli strike in south Beirut, as fears mounted of a wider conflict.

Boeing on Wednesday named the aerospace veteran Robert "Kelly" Ortberg its next CEO, as the aviation giant reported a hefty loss on continued operational problems.

Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris had decided to "turn Black" for political gain, as he attacked his Democratic White House rival during a combative and inflammatory interaction with African American journalists in Chicago.

Home favourite Leon Marchand wrote his name into the Olympic history books with a phenomenal double gold on a pulsating night in the Paris pool Wednesday, as Japanese gymnast Shinnosuke Oka took a thrilling all-around title.

Weary of gunfire and bombs, Ana Munoz recently closed her shop in a hamlet near the city of Cali, which will host a UN biodiversity summit in October that has been threatened by Colombian guerrillas.

The entire world, including Ukraine, wants Russia to join global leaders at a planned second peace summit to end the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has told French media including AFP. With Russian forces gaining momentum on the front and aid from allies ebbing or in doubt, Zelensky has launched an ambitious diplomatic offensive to end the war grinding through its third year.

International pressure mounted Wednesday on Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to release voting records to back his contested election victory claim that has sent thousands onto the streets in protest, at the cost of a dozen lives so far.

The US Federal Reserve is highly unlikely to waver from its position of holding interest rates at a two-decade high on Wednesday, but could drop hints about a September start to rate cuts.

Bot-like accounts on social media platform X that spread misinformation and hate ahead of Britain's election are now amplifying conspiracy theories around US politics, a watchdog investigation revealed Tuesday, as the race to the White House kicks into high gear.

Australian children with potentially deadly peanut allergies will be offered life-saving treatment in a nationwide programme touted as a world first.

Hezbollah said Wednesday that senior military commander Fuad Shukr was inside a south Beirut building hit by Israel the previous day but that his fate remained unknown.

Banking giant HSBC said Wednesday that pre-tax profits in the first half of 2024 came in at $21.6 billion, slightly lower than last year's record performance.

Hamas said Wednesday its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he was attending the swearing-in of the new president, and vowed the act "will not go unanswered".

The yen rose against the dollar Wednesday after Bank of Japan hiked interest rates for the second time in 17 years, while equity markets in Asia rose on growing hopes for a cut in US borrowing costs.

It was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the 10-year presidency of Joko Widodo, but Indonesia's capital-to-be, carved out of dense jungle in Borneo, is a vast building site just weeks before being due to open.

Venezuelans gathered Tuesday in a peaceful show of opposition support as their leader urged the military not to "repress the people" a day after four died in protests against President Nicolas Maduro's disputed presidential victory.

The controversy over the iconoclastic opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics is refusing to abate days into the Games, with conservative political figures worldwide condemning a show that has been staunchly defended by President Emmanuel Macron and its creators.

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged deadly fire on Tuesday, following a rocket attack from Lebanon on the Golan Heights that killed 12 children over the weekend and sent regional tensions soaring.

Throngs of firefighters were mobilized in California Monday to battle the state's largest blaze of the year, which has prompted thousands of evacuations and already burned an area larger than the city of Los Angeles.

From false claims of a "staged" assassination attempt on Donald Trump to a viral joke about his running mate having sex with a couch, American liberals have taken a page from the far-right's playbook in pushing wild conspiracy theories ahead of US elections.

Landslides in India triggered by pounding monsoon rains struck tea plantations and killed at least 93 people Tuesday, with at least 250 others rescued from mud and debris, officials said.

The United States will provide $500 million in military funding to the Philippines, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, as Washington boosts ties with Manila in the face of China's growing assertiveness.

Researchers have criticised billionaire Elon Musk for promising that his brain implant technology could eventually provide patients with vision superior to normal human sight.

A third child died on Tuesday and five others remained critically injured after a knife attack on a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in a quiet seaside community in northern England, police said.

Unsafe pollution levels in the River Seine forced the postponement of the men's triathlon at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, as gymnastics icon Simone Biles eyed her first gold of the Games.

Equity markets were mixed Tuesday as investors jockey ahead of a slew of central bank decisions, key economic data and earnings from tech titans this week.

Some gods grant riches and others good luck, but one deity in India offers a much less nebulous fortune to his devotees: tickets to a new life in the United States.