AFP news

Many Gazans were hostile to Hamas ahead of the group's brutal October 7 attack on Israel, with some describing its rule as a second occupation, according to rare polling data analyzed by a US-Palestinian researcher.

Israel said Monday that 11 more hostages released in the Gaza Strip had arrived safely, hours after the announcement that a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza will be extended by two days, opening the way for further releases.

The United Arab Emirates is ready for soaring temperatures that are feared to make parts of the Gulf uninhabitable by the end of the century, the oil power's climate change minister told AFP. Long experience of the harsh desert summers has taught the country to live with temperatures that regularly flirt with 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), she said.

Italy won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1976 as Jannik Sinner crushed Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-0 to seal a 2-0 win over Australia on Sunday in Malaga.

Bulgaria's failure to qualify for Euro 2024, extending the 1994 World Cup semi-finalists' absence from major finals to two decades, has sparked demands from fans and analysts for radical change at the helm of the football federation.

The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its attack.

New Zealand's incoming conservative government will jettison world-leading measures to stub out smoking, new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed Monday, in a move described by health campaigners as a "huge win for the tobacco industry".

Relatives of dozens of Chinese passengers who died when a Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared almost 10 years ago called Monday for a new investigation, as a Beijing court began hearing their fresh appeal for compensation.

Unlike her fellow Hong Kong urbanites toting plastic or paper cups filled with coffee, pet groomer Lucine Mo takes her caffeine hit in a thermal mug with a QR code.

Bangladesh has launched a sweeping and violent crackdown on opposition parties to "eliminate competition" ahead of general elections, including arresting almost 10,000 activists, Human Rights Watch said Monday.

A four-year-old American girl is safely in Israel after being released Sunday from captivity in Gaza, US President Joe Biden said as he urged the pause in Israel-Hamas fighting be extended to allow for more hostage releases.

Growing calls for the world to come to grips with the many ways that global warming affects human health have prompted the first day dedicated to the issue at crunch UN climate talks starting next week.

Thousands of demonstrators, some waving Israeli and British flags, marched against anti-Semitism through central London on Sunday.

The "Hunger Games" prequel stayed atop the North American box office over the long US Thanksgiving weekend, fending off an invasion by new Ridley Scott film "Napoleon," industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.

Argentina's president-elect Javier Milei was traveling Sunday to the United States to meet with US and international officials over two days.

Irish author Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday for his novel "Prophet Song," a dystopian work about an Ireland that descends into tyranny.

Former airline boss Christopher Luxon formally took office as New Zealand's prime minister on Monday, vowing to tame inflation and bring down interest rates.

Indian military engineers were preparing to dig by hand Monday to reach 41 workers trapped in a collapsed road tunnel for 16 days, a rescue operation hit by repeated setbacks.

Six teenagers go on trial in Paris on Monday for their role in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty, the first of two trials in a case that horrified France.

He has used science to underpin his moral missives on climate change. - 'Change of direction' - Two years after picking a papal name in honour of the patron saint of ecology, Francis in 2015 published a landmark thesis called "Laudato Si" (Praise Be To You) which lambasted manmade climate change and -- in an unprecedented move for a religious leader -- used science to do so.

President Joe Biden will miss the latest UN climate summit in Dubai, after two years of attending the talks in hopes of highlighting US leadership, a US official said Sunday.

The UAE's Sultan Al Jaber, the president of the forthcoming UN climate conference in Dubai, is "cautiously optimistic" that the pivotal talks will be successful, he told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

Oil and gas firms will face a crucial choice at UN climate talks next week between contributing to the climate crisis or embracing the clean energy transition, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.

They are both abrasive, have a penchant for insults and vulgarity, and boast an untamed mop of hair.

Turkey's central bank on Thursday surprised the market with a larger-than-expected interest hike as it ramped up its fight against inflation and efforts to support the slumping lira.

"I am here to take you home. From a manual for trauma care to medical support, even the first words the soldiers escorting them home will say have been carefully scripted, with experts warning many could face a long road to recovery.

Venice announced on Thursday that it would introduce a fee for day tourists to enter the city's overcrowded historic centre on 29 days next year as it seeks to come to grips with overtourism.

A gas-guzzling fossil fuel exporter trying to spearhead more ambitious climate action, the United Arab Emirates remains heavily dependent on hydrocarbons for its prosperity.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk broke his silence Thursday on a strike against his company in Sweden, saying it was "insane" that it may block new car deliveries.