AFP news

All other German parties see the far-right AfD as a threat to democracy, but the anti-immigration party has a powerful friend abroad: Elon Musk, the loudhailer voice of Team Trump.

Feb 16, 2025

Smoke billows from chimneys as factories churn in South Korea's steelmaking heartland, now under threat from Washington's swingeing new tariffs on the port city's largest export.

Feb 16, 2025

With Coldplay and Ed Sheeran among the superstars who have played to packed-out crowds in India recently, there is increasing talk that the world's most populous nation could soon become a mainstay of the global touring schedule.

Feb 16, 2025

When Germans go to vote in one week's time, after a polarising election campaign overshadowed by a far-right surge, they are expected to hand the chancellery to conservative Friedrich Merz.

Feb 16, 2025

Jannik Sinner's long doping saga came to an end on Saturday after he agreed to a three-month ban from tennis, the world number one admitting "partial responsibility" for team mistakes which led to him twice testing positive for traces of clostebol in March last year.

Feb 16, 2025

UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday demanded that the Democratic Republic of Congo's "territorial integrity" be respected and a regional war avoided, at an African summit the day after Rwandan-backed fighters seized a second DRC provincial capital.

Feb 15, 2025

Gaza militants are due to release three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for 369 Palestinians in Israeli custody, the sixth swap of a truce that came close to collapse this week.

Feb 15, 2025

An intense Israeli military raid had already sent Qusay Farahat fleeing his home in the occupied West Bank, but the offensive has since expanded, threatening a relative's house where he sought shelter.

Feb 15, 2025

M23 fighters on Friday pushed on towards another regional capital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, prompting shops and businesses to close and frightened civilians to flee, as African leaders urged an immediate ceasefire in the escalating conflict.

Feb 15, 2025

US Vice President JD Vance launched a withering attack Friday against European policies on immigration, populist parties and free speech, echoing President Donald Trump whom he called Washington's "new sheriff in town".

Feb 15, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that radiation levels were normal.

Feb 15, 2025

A run of new-release flops and the delay of the latest "Assassin's Creed" instalment sent revenue at French games giant Ubisoft plunging in its third quarter, the company reported Thursday as it continues to weigh its future.

Feb 15, 2025

The US State Department backtracked Thursday on a document saying it would award $400 million for electric armored cars by Tesla, whose chief Elon Musk has been aggressively slashing government spending on behalf of President Donald Trump.

Feb 15, 2025

Mexico on Thursday threatened to sue Google over its changing the Gulf of Mexico's name to "Gulf of America" for Maps users in the United States to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order.

Feb 15, 2025

Donald Trump unveiled an extraordinary vision of a shake-up to the world order Thursday, eyeing a three-way summit with the Russian and Chinese leaders just a day after saying he had agreed with Vladimir Putin to start Ukraine peace talks.

Feb 15, 2025

The United States has released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik, as part of an exchange deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel, a senior US official said Thursday.

Feb 15, 2025

Stock markets diverged and the dollar dipped Friday as traders tracked US President Donald Trump's latest tariff announcement, economic data and earnings.

Feb 15, 2025

Taiwan will boost investment in the United States and on its own defences, President Lai Ching-te said Friday, as Taipei seeks to head off US President Donald Trump's threats of tariffs on its semiconductor chips.

Feb 15, 2025

Cold weather, disease and capacity cuts pushed wine production in France's Bordeaux region last year to a low not seen in three-and-a-half decades, the local industry body said Friday.

Feb 15, 2025

Alibaba shares soared by more than 6% on Friday following reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping was poised to meet with the tech juggernaut's co-founder Jack Ma.

Feb 14, 2025

In a desolate area of Syria where Lebanese militant group Hezbollah once held sway, security forces shot open the gates to an abandoned building and found a defunct drug factory.

Feb 14, 2025

At a scam compound in Myanmar, Filipina worker Pieta had just days to romance strangers online and trick them into investing in a fake business -- failing which she would be beaten or tortured with electric shocks.

Feb 14, 2025

Bangladeshi high schooler Laiba is being educated for the future, but what she learns has been determined by the latest chapter in her country's battle over its past.

Feb 14, 2025

Cambodian scientist Yeang Chheang has spent six decades fighting malaria -- even in the Khmer Rouge labour camp where his wife and baby died -- and stands tantalisingly close to fulfilling his life's work.

Feb 14, 2025

Hamas was expected Friday to name three hostages it will release this weekend as part of a planned exchange for Palestinian prisoners, local media said, after days of uncertainty in which Israel threatened to scrap a nearly month-old Gaza ceasefire deal.

Feb 14, 2025

President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Friday with a warning against trusting Russia's Vladimir Putin, as concerns mount in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Ukraine war will be settled over their heads.

Feb 14, 2025

One victim was visiting Rio de Janeiro's iconic Christ the Redeemer statue.

Feb 14, 2025

US President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sell state-of-the-art fighter jets to India as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to ramp up trade, rekindling a bond that defies the new US administration's punitive approach to much of the world.

Feb 14, 2025

On Ecuador's lawless southwest coast, drug gangs operate with impunity and terrified residents ask if their president's "iron fist" security policies are just words.

Feb 14, 2025