AFP news

South Sudan's leader Salva Kiir on Tuesday pledged that delayed elections set for next year would go ahead as planned and that he would run for president.

Joseph Guret surveyed the charred remains of his tobacco shop outside Paris, one of the hundreds of businesses ransacked in riots that have caused an estimated one billion euros across France.

Humanity's failure to draw down planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions -- 41 billion tonnes in 2022 -- has thrust once-marginal options for capping or reducing CO2 in the atmosphere to centre stage in climate policy and investment.

Moscow said Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory would "not be possible" without US and NATO help, escalating its rhetoric after reporting it had downed five drones near the capital on Tuesday.

Inside Kyiv's St Michael's cathedral, mourners gathered Tuesday to bid farewell to Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who died of her wounds suffered in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant.

The United Nations on Tuesday warned the world to prepare for the effects of El Nino, saying the weather phenomenon which triggers higher global temperatures is set to persist throughout 2023.

The study of disinformation has emerged as a political lightning rod in the United States, with conservative advocates launching a sweeping legal offensive that researchers fighting falsehoods denounce as an intimidation campaign ahead of the 2024 election.

Asian markets sank Wednesday as another round of data showed China's economy continued to struggle in June, with little hope that the country's leaders can unveil the blockbuster stimulus needed to kickstart growth.

The European Commission said Tuesday it was "concerned" about China's decision to impose export controls on two rare metals vital for making semiconductors amid an escalating tech battle between Washington and Beijing.

Turkey warned Tuesday it will not be pressured into backing Sweden's bid to join NATO and said it was still assessing whether the Nordic country's entry would benefit or hurt bloc. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan's comments came two days before he was due meet his Swedish counterpart in Brussels to discuss Stockholm's attempt to become the 32nd member of the US-led defence alliance.

Elon Musk spent the weekend further alienating Twitter users with more drastic changes to the social media giant, and he is facing a new challenge as tech nemesis Mark Zuckerberg prepares to launch a rival app this week.

A bronze head of Emperor Septimius Severus on display at a Copenhagen museum has become a bone of contention between the Danish museum and Turkey, which claims it was looted during an archaeological dig in the 1960s and wants it back.

Seven tech giants, including Amazon and Apple, have informed the European Union they meet the threshold to come under landmark new rules to curb their market dominance, Brussels said Tuesday.

China's Xi Jinping urged the leaders of Russia, Iran and other Shanghai alliance states on Tuesday to bo-ost ties and resist sanctions, as Vladimir Putin thanked the bloc for support during a failed rebellion.

Afghanistan's Taliban authorities have ordered beauty parlours across the country to shut within a month, the vice ministry confirmed Tuesday, the latest curb to further squeeze women out of public life.

French President Emmanuel Macron was on Tuesday to meet with hundreds of French officials to begin exploring the "deeper reasons" for the country's plunge into riots after the killing of a teenager at a traffic stop.

NATO's members on Tuesday extended the tenure of alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg for one year, after struggling to find a replacement in the shadow of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Overnight violence in French cities has halved in 24 hours, the interior ministry said Tuesday, a week after riots erupted over the police killing of a teenager at a traffic stop.

A Polish mountaineer has died after summiting the world's ninth-highest peak, officials said Tuesday, becoming the first casualty reported in Pakistan's climbing season.

The United Nations is convening this week a global gathering to try to map out the frontiers of artificial intelligence and to harness its potential for empowering humanity.

Russia on Monday granted the United States consular access to jailed Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich after a more than two-month gap, with the US ambassador reporting him in good health.

Novak Djokovic launched his bid for an eighth Wimbledon title on Monday with a 40th successive win on Centre Court while American stars Coco Gauff and Venus Williams were knocked out.

An international investigation office seen as a "truly historic" first step towards a possible trial of Russia's leadership opened in The Hague on Monday to probe a crime of aggression against Ukraine.

The city government in Paris said Monday it was "not worried" about knock-on effects from almost a week of riots on next year's Olympic Games.

Environmental campaigners protested Monday outside the London-based International Maritime Organization, which is meeting to discuss curbing carbon dioxide emissions from the high-polluting shipping sector.

A top EU climate official said Monday there is a "contradiction" between China's ambitious goals to combat global warming and its continued building of coal-fired power plants.

Israel on Monday began a large-scale military raid including drone strikes and hundreds of troops in the northern occupied West Bank, killing eight Palestinians in what the army labelled an "extensive counterterrorism effort." The operation under the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the biggest of its kind in years, with bulldozers, armoured vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

An international office to investigate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine opens on Monday in The Hague, in the first step towards a possible tribunal for Moscow's leadership.

Viktor Grozdov was in a hole. "I was walking along the avenue and thought I'd quickly walk round the hole where the shell fell -- or a bomb, I don't know," recalled Grozdov, sitting in his flat near the town's former cinema.