AFP news

French business leaders have been pitched into fresh uncertainty by snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron that risk strengthening the far right.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday pleaded for more air defence help to stop Russian attacks as he began an intense week of diplomatic meetings with Western partners.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to moderate his Hindu-nationalist agenda to assuage his coalition partners, but they will likely let him press on with his foreign and economic policies, analysts say.

When Hong Kong author Kay So left her home city in 2020, she had in her luggage two short stories she had written about the huge, at times violent democracy protests that upended the city in 2019.

Behind metal fences topped with barbed wire, men play volleyball and basketball at a detention center in Texas, passing time as they wait to hear if they will be allowed to stay in the United States.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with key Israeli opposition figures on Tuesday, a day after he arrived in the country to push a ceasefire plan for the war in Gaza.

When Sri Lanka's economy crashed in 2022, people sought work abroad wherever they could find it -- including ex-soldiers who joined forces fighting in Ukraine after Russia's invasion.

Israel's collective euphoria following the rescue of four hostages on Saturday stands in stark contrast with the anger of Tami Metzger, whose captive husband in Gaza was announced dead days ago.

President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he was confident French voters would make the "right choice" in snap elections he called after the far right crushed his centrist alliance in Sunday's EU ballot.

Russia on Monday claimed the capture of another village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the latest in a string of gains ahead of a major Ukraine summit in Switzerland.

Microsoft's Xbox team on Sunday showcased action-packed coming video games and a new digital-only version of its console to launch by the end of this year.

Apple on Monday will attempt to persuade doubters on its AI strategy after rivals raced ahead in adopting artificial intelligence.

Europe's stock markets and the euro slid Monday after far-right parties performed well in EU elections, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap parliamentary poll and plunging the bloc into political turmoil.

North Korea has sent hundreds more trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea, Seoul's military said Monday, after Kim Jong Un's powerful sister warned of further responses if the South keeps up its "psychological warfare".

India's heatwave is the longest ever to hit the country, the government's top weather expert said Monday as he warned people will face increasingly oppressive temperatures.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday described the prospect of French parliamentary elections just weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics as "extremely unsettling", while the International Olympic Committee played down any direct impact on the event.

World leaders from countries around the world will gather in Switzerland this weekend to try to work out a way towards a peace process for Ukraine -- albeit without Russia.

At her lowest point, fighting burnout and depression in her Chinese hometown, Huang Bingbing says she found comfort in watching the escapist love story of two young men on a then-unknown Thai TV drama.

The United States stepped up pressure Monday for a Gaza ceasefire with a call for a UN Security Council vote on a truce as it redeployed Washington's top diplomat to the region scarred by eight months of war.

French President Emmanuel Macron has taken the biggest gamble of his political career by calling early legislative elections to combat the surge of the far right, with the outcome decisive for his political legacy.

Hardly a third of Bulgarians voted in the Balkan EU member's sixth parliamentary elections in three years on Sunday, with the party of conservative former premier Boyko Borisov coming in first, but more political uncertainty looming.

Benny Gantz, who quit Israel's war cabinet Sunday, is a centrist politician with dreams of toppling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Carlos Alcaraz fought back to defeat Alexander Zverev in a five-set French Open final on Sunday and become the youngest man to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces.

South Korea on Sunday resumed a loudspeaker propaganda campaign against the North, as Pyongyang sent a fresh barrage of trash-filled balloons across the border and vowed a "new response."

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in on Sunday for a third term after worse-than-expected election results left him reliant on coalition partners to govern.

Voters across Europe cast ballots Sunday on the final -- and biggest -- day of elections for the EU's parliament, with far-right parties expected to make gains at a pivotal time for the bloc.

Israelis on Sunday cheered the rescue of four hostages from war-torn Gaza while Palestinians counted the cost, with Hamas officials saying 274 people were killed and hundreds wounded during the daytime raid.

Once shunned and now eagerly courted by the West, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has steered his country away from its secular traditions and towards the Hindu-first politics he has championed for decades.

The final -- and by far biggest -- day of EU elections takes place Sunday with voting in 21 member countries, including France and Germany, where support for surging far-right parties is being tested.