AFP news

France's Top 14, with its seemingly bottomless resources, has always attracted the finest cuts of world rugby talent but the arrival of Owen Farrell, the epitome of English 'rosbif', at Racing 92 comes across as more substantial than most.

Movie critics and audiences don't always see eye-to-eye -- but rarely have they appeared as divided as they are over "Reagan," a highly flattering biopic of the Republican president released just months before another deeply polarized US election.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared in person at a meeting of Ukraine's international backers in Germany on Friday to rally support for Kyiv days after one of the deadliest Russian strikes of the war.

Boeing's problem-plagued Starliner is set to finally depart the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, returning to Earth without astronauts after NASA deemed the risk too great.

Millions of Brazilians, including the president, have flocked to social media platforms such as Threads or Bluesky, where Portuguese has become the most spoken language in the few days since Elon Musk's X was shut down in the country.

Donald Trump announced Thursday that if elected president he would appoint billionaire Elon Musk to lead an audit of government spending and implement "drastic" reform.

Joe Biden's son Hunter pleaded guilty in a tax evasion trial on Thursday, without reaching the deal he had sought with prosecutors, in a case that has been an embarrassment for the US president.

German police shot dead a gunman who had opened fire on them near Munich's Israeli consulate on Thursday, the anniversary of the hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area -- and claimed that Ukraine's Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he supported Kamala Harris in November's US presidential election, an apparent wry remark a day after the United States issued indictments accusing Moscow of vote interference.

France's newest nuclear reactor, plagued by massive delays and cost overruns, shut itself down automatically Wednesday just a day after starting up for the first time.

South Korea experienced its highest average summertime temperature since such records began half a century ago, nearly two degrees higher than the historic average, the weather agency said Thursday.

Elon Musk's woes are hardly limited to Brazil as he now risks possible EU sanctions in the coming months for allegedly breaking new content rules.

Jannik Sinner closed in on his second Grand Slam title of 2024 on Wednesday when he reached his maiden US Open semi-final as Jessica Pegula stunned Iga Swiatek to complete a rollercoaster Grand Slam year for the world number one.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday pledged over $50 billion in financing for Africa over the next three years, promising to deepen cooperation in infrastructure and trade with the continent as he addressed Beijing's biggest summit since the pandemic.

A French woman whose husband is accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged told his trial on Thursday that police had saved her by uncovering the crimes.

Hamas on Thursday accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to "thwart" a Gaza truce deal, after the Israeli premier said the Palestinian militant group has "rejected everything" in negotiations.

Donald Trump's case on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election returns to a courtroom on Thursday, but a trial of the former US president appears remote.

Vice President Kamala Harris travels to the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday, where she will reportedly spend five days preparing for next week's presidential debate.

Pope Francis and a top Indonesian imam warned Thursday against using religion to stoke conflict, before the 87-year-old pontiff holds mass for tens of thousands at a football stadium in Jakarta.

New Zealand's Maori chiefs anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch Thursday, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country's Indigenous community.

Lionel Messi will not win another Ballon d'Or this year after being left out of the nominees revealed by organisers on Wednesday, as stars of Spain's Euro 2024-winning team and Real Madrid's Champions League victors feature heavily.

NASA admitted on Wednesday there was "tension" during meetings with Boeing executives about how to bring home two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, but denied reports of shouting matches.

A 14-year-old boy killed four people, including two students, and wounded nine more when he opened fire at a high school in the US state of Georgia on Wednesday, law enforcement said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suffered a major political blow on Wednesday when a small leftist faction in parliament pulled its support for his minority Liberal government.

Nvidia on Tuesday defended its tactics in the hot market for chips to power artificial intelligence in the face of reports the US is probing whether it abused its clout.

The United States unsealed a raft of "terrorism" and other charges against six Hamas leaders on Tuesday related to the armed Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

A former official who worked as an aide to the governor of New York state was arrested and charged with working as an agent of China in return for millions of dollars, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Emma Louise O'Connor can no longer hear a fire truck's siren without freezing up with fright after living through Britain's worst residential fire since World War II. Seven years since London's Grenfell tower went up in flames, the 35-year-old told AFP she is still struggling to recover from the trauma, demanding justice for the victims of the disaster that killed 72 people.