AFP news

Interest rate hikes are forcing mobile operators to scale back investment in 5G networks, with equipment manufacturer Ericsson reporting Friday a rare net quarterly loss and Nokia lowering its outlook.

Kenya's interior ministry on Thursday said more than 300 people including a lawmaker had been arrested following violent anti-government protests that left nine dead.

ExxonMobil will acquire Denbury Inc., a specialist in enhanced oil recovery and carbon sequestration, for $4.9 billion as it builds out its low-carbon business, the oil giant announced Thursday.

A separatist official in Armenian-populated Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan on Thursday called on Russia to ensure free movement on the only road linking the breakaway region to Armenia, warning of dire humanitarian consequences.

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that Russia's Vladimir Putin has already lost the war in Ukraine, expressing hope that Kyiv's counter-offensive would force Moscow to the negotiating table.

A summit of African leaders from war-torn Sudan's neighbours Thursday urged an end to the fighting, as UN experts reported a mass grave had been discovered in the country's Darfur region.

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday urged nations targeted by Western sanctions to band together as he hosted the leader of fellow international outlier Iran.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be guest of honour for France's Bastille Day celebrations on Friday, which are set to take place under tight security two weeks after riots swept the country.

US prosecutors arrested the former head of Celsius Network on fraud charges on Thursday, a year after the cryptocurrency platform filed for bankruptcy protection while owing investors $4.7 billion.

Hollywood actors were "duped" into extending negotiations for two weeks by studios who wanted more time to promote their summer blockbuster movies, union president Fran Drescher told AFP on Thursday.

Asian traders on Friday welcomed more data showing falling US inflation, giving the Federal Reserve room to bring the curtain down on more than a year of interest rate hikes.

Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi has urged Washington to "work with China" to improve ties during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

Deadly fires have raged for a century in mines in India's Jharkhand state, where Savitri Mahto is one of 100,000 people risking their lives shovelling coal to supply insatiable demand.

Singapore's powerful anti-graft body issued an arrest notice for one of the city-state's richest people, his company said Friday, widening a probe into rare high-level corruption.

Trade ties between France and Gulf Arab states, namely Qatar and the UAE, are expanding year-on-year, France's trade minister told AFP on Thursday, praising the deepening partnership as "good news".

The International Criminal Court has opened a new probe into alleged war crimes in Sudan, its chief prosecutor said Thursday, expressing major concern over escalating violence.

Syria will let humanitarian aid flow through its main border crossing into rebel-held areas, reopening a conduit that had closed after a Security Council stalemate, the country's UN ambassador said Thursday.

Sultan Al Jaber, Emirates oil executive and president of the most important climate summit since the Paris Agreement in 2015, has a quick answer when asked when the world will stop burning fossil fuels: when there's enough clean energy to replace them. "We cannot shut down the energy system of today before we build the new energy system of tomorrow that is equipped with zero-carbon emission sources," said Jaber, head of the United Arab Emirates national oil company ADNOC.

The IEA trimmed its forecast for 2023 oil demand for the first time this year as macroeconomic headwinds including higher interest rates bite, but still sees it reaching a record level thanks to China's thirst for fuel.

As much of the world swelters in record temperatures, spare a thought for Issam Genedi, who ekes out a living washing cars in one of the planet's hottest regions, the Gulf.

Mohammed Hamid Nour is only 23, but he is already nostalgic for how Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes once were before drought dried them up, decimating his herd of water buffaloes.

The top US and Chinese diplomats will hold their second meeting in as many months on Thursday in Jakarta, seeking to manage tensions that risk flaring anew over alleged Chinese hacking.

Chinese exports tumbled more than expected in June, official data showed Thursday, putting fresh pressure on Beijing to unveil more stimulus measures to kickstart the flagging recovery.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a two-day visit to France on Thursday where he will attend the traditional Bastille Day military parade as guest of honour and discuss major new defence deals.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the successful test of the country's newest intercontinental ballistic missile, state media reported Thursday, days after Pyongyang threatened to down any US spy planes that enter its airspace.

Elon Musk on Wednesday launched his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, as he seeks to compete with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT -- a program he accuses of being politically biased and irresponsible.

More than 600 migrants forced out of Tunisia's port of Sfax to the desert borderlands with Libya are being sheltered and given humanitarian aid, the Red Crescent said on Wednesday.

Joe Biden already had his work cut out to prevent Turkey from spoiling the NATO summit.

The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to condemn recent Koran burning incidents, but many countries declined to back the resolution, fearing it encroached on free speech.