AFP news

Britain on Thursday announced plans for a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on UK soil. The new sanctions regime will expand existing penalties imposed by creating new criteria under which individuals and entities can be hit.They include any Iranian activities "undermining peace, stability and security in the Middle East and internationally", and the "use and spread of weapons technologies from Iran".

The Emirati oil executive chairing this year's UN climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, told private and national oil and gas companies on Thursday they must slash their planet-warming emissions. Jaber said the entire industry "should be aligned" to help the world meet the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This includes not only international oil companies but also national state-controlled ones, Jaber told an OPEC seminar in Vienna.

The Israeli army said Thursday it was conducting strikes on southern Lebanon after a mortar launched from its northern neighbour exploded in the border area between the two foes.

The world saw its hottest June on record last month, the EU's climate monitoring service said Thursday, as climate change and the El Nino weather pattern looked likely to drive another scorching northern summer.

Taiwan's chip giant TSMC said Thursday it did not expect any direct effect on production from China's latest export controls on two rare metals essential for making semiconductors.

Saudi Arabia is continuing its multi-billion-dollar entry into all aspects of global culture, hitting a new milestone on Thursday with the first Saudi designer presenting at Paris Fashion Week.

Britain's defence minister on Wednesday said allegations of unlawful killings in Afghanistan being examined by an independent inquiry relate to UK special forces.

Clothes, sofas and kitchen furniture still lie strewn around Nadiya Yefremova's garden a month after her home was flooded by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine have taken Iran to the UN's top court to seek damages for families of passengers on a jetliner downed by Tehran in 2020, they said Wednesday.

Sporting a white cap and apron, Rachid Ibersiene bustles around vats at his dairy in Algeria's Atlas Mountains where he has brought the tradition of artisanal cheesemaking back from Switzerland.

The US military said Wednesday it had blocked two attempts by the Iranian navy to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman, including one case in which the Iranians fired on the tanker.

Russian investigators on Wednesday said they had launched a criminal investigation after award-winning journalist Elena Milashina was badly beaten in Chechnya.

UN observers appealed on Wednesday for greater access to Europe's largest nuclear plant, after Moscow and Kyiv traded accusations over a possible "catastrophic" act of sabotage at the Russian-controlled facility in Ukraine.

Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek were in cruise control at Wimbledon on Wednesday, but confetti-throwing climate protesters and rain delays caused more headaches at the All England Club.

Facebook behemoth Meta officially launched Threads, its text-based rival to Twitter, on Wednesday -- but its release in Europe has been delayed over data privacy concerns.

Chinese companies investing in minerals used in the renewable energy industry have been accused of more than 100 human rights and environmental abuses around the world since 2021, according to a report released on Thursday.

Markets fell again in most of Asia on Thursday as traders resigned themselves to more US interest rate hikes after minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting showed officials felt more needed to be done to rein in inflation.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday dismissed talk of discord with oil ally Russia, praising their coordinated decisions to remove barrels from the market in efforts to prop up prices. Oil producers are grappling with falling prices and high market volatility amid fears of global economic slowdown and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has upended economies worldwide. On Monday, Riyadh said that it would extend a production reduction of one million barrels per day (bpd), which began in July, to August to boost prices.

Iran is still meting out harsh punishments on people suspected of involvement in mass protests, including "chilling" executions, a United Nations fact-finding mission said Wednesday.

Turkey's annual inflation rate slowed to 38.2 percent in June, official data showed Wednesday, although economists warned that this may be a low point for the year.

Award-winning Russian investigative journalist Elena Milashina, who was badly beaten in the restive republic of Chechnya, is in a "difficult" condition in a Moscow hospital, her editor told AFP Wednesday.

As Israeli forces pulled out of Jenin, its Palestinian residents came back to assess the devastation: trashed homes, charred cars and roads strewn with rubble, glass and bullet casings.

Once, the way to get ahead among India's Konyak warriors was by chopping off an enemy's skull.

The risks of harvest failures in multiple global breadbaskets have been underestimated, according to a study Tuesday that researchers said should be a "wake up call" about the threat climate change poses to our food systems.

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.