AFP news

Eurozone economic activity shrank at its fastest rate in eight months in July, as a contraction gathered pace on the back of cuts in manufacturing, a key survey said Monday.

In a scene Ford hopes to see across Europe "soon", the first hands-free car model allowed on the UK's fastest roads zoomed down a motorway before slowing down as the back of a truck appeared.

The Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined close to $400 million for misconduct by its recently-acquired subsidiary, Credit Suisse, the US Federal Reserve announced on Monday.

TikTok, the social platform known for its addictive video content, announced Monday that it will offer text-only posts, becoming the latest tech giant to offer an alternative to embattled Twitter.

Since buying Twitter, Elon Musk has made significant changes to the company as well as the app itself, from charging for features to killing off the bird logo.

Pyongyang conducted twin missile launches late Monday, ahead of Korean War anniversary celebrations that will be attended by Chinese dignitaries in the first foreign delegation visit to the country since its 2020 pandemic border closure.

Wildfires raging across Algeria during a blistering heatwave have killed more than 30 people and forced mass evacuations, the government said on Monday.

Ukrainian drones hit two buildings in Moscow and an ammunition depot in Russian-annexed Crimea on Monday, Russian officials said, as Ukraine reported another Russian strike on a grain facility.

Twitter launched its new logo on Monday, replacing the blue bird with a white X on a black background as the Elon Musk-owned company moves toward rebranding as X. The social media network's website showed the company's new logo, but its URL was still showing as twitter.com and the blue "Tweet" button was visible, suggesting the rebrand was not yet finalized.

Eleven people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in northeastern China, state media reported Monday.

Israel's hard-right government was planning Monday to push through parliament a key element of its controversial judicial revamp.

Like other Iranian Kurds who fled into exile during last year's women-led mass protests, 17-year-old Sarina tries to keep a low profile in her new home in northern Iraq.

A baby monkey caused chaos in a Pakistan court after escaping from a troop presented as evidence in a case of wildlife smuggling, officials said.

A Ukrainian drone attack on Crimea Saturday blew up an ammunition depot, sparking evacuations on the Moscow-annexed peninsula just five days after drones damaged Russia's symbolic bridge across the Kerch Strait.

Iraqi security forces on Saturday dispersed about 1,000 supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr who tried to march to Baghdad's Green Zone housing foreign embassies, believing a Koran had been desecrated in Denmark.

Energy ministers from the group of 20 nations meeting in India Saturday failed to agree on a roadmap to phase down the use of fossil fuels in the global energy mix.

Last-ditch efforts to reach a compromise dragged into the night as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to put a key plank of his government's controversial judicial reforms to the vote Monday after undergoing surgery to fit a pacemaker.

After a wildly successful first few days, Threads popularity has waned in the weeks since Meta launched its challenge to Twitter, which lives on despite its problems.

Russia's latest strike on Odesa on Sunday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine's leader.

A library in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem offers a rare glimpse into Palestinian history with its treasure trove of manuscripts dating back hundreds of years before the creation of Israel.

Twitter owner Elon Musk and the chief executive he brought aboard just a month ago say the social media network will ditch the bird logo, rebrand the platform with the name X and move quickly into payments, banking and commerce.

Ukrainian athletes are steadfast in their condemnation of the IOC permitting Russians to compete in sports events but some are at odds with their government over the threat to boycott the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Equities mostly rose Monday in Asia with investors gearing up for policy decisions at major central banks this week, while concern over the Chinese economy continued to dampen sentiment.

Protesters took to the streets of the Iraqi and Iranian capitals Friday to denounce Sweden's permission for protests that desecrate the Koran, as Stockholm withdrew staff from its Baghdad embassy.

Former separatist commander and nationalist blogger Igor Girkin, better known by his alias Igor Strelkov, has been detained after sharply criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin, his lawyer said on Friday.

It took three tries for the group of Ukrainian soldiers to fire a huge shell from a Soviet-era howitzer at a Russian position in Bakhmut.

The White House said Friday that OpenAI and others in the artificial intelligence race have committed to making their technology safer with features such as watermarks on fabricated images.

Middle East powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran have summoned Swedish diplomats to denounce Stockholm's permission for protests that desecrate the Koran on free speech grounds.

Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie was the hero for Nigeria to earn them a point against Canada at the Women's World Cup on Friday but there was to be no fairytale debut for the Philippines.