AFP news

Humanity is suffering from an "extreme heat epidemic," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday, calling for action to limit the impacts of heat waves intensified by climate change.

The United States sees no need to negotiate an international agreement on taxing the super-wealthy, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday on the sideline of a G20 finance ministers' meeting.

Kamala Harris launched a blistering attack on Donald Trump and his "extremist" Republicans as she addressed teachers Thursday, seeking to rally a key part of the Democratic coalition behind her bid to take on the billionaire for the presidency.

US economic growth blew past expectations in the second quarter, boosted by consumer spending and inventory building despite high interest rates, government data showed Thursday.

Anton Yushyn spent four years studying Italian at university in Kyiv but the outbreak of war taught him the most valuable lesson of his student life: to prioritise what matters most.

Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai will take the witness stand for the first time in November in a high-profile national security trial where he is accused of sedition and colluding with foreign forces, a court said Thursday.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept Thursday as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that precipitated the disorder.

The death toll from landslides in a remote region of southern Ethiopia has risen to 257, the United Nations said Thursday, warning that the number of victims could soar to up to 500.

Police on Thursday arrested climate activists who glued themselves to the tarmac at Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest, compelling it to temporarily suspend arrivals and departures.

Israeli forces retrieved the remains of five Israelis, killed during Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, whose bodies had been taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday.

Myanmar's junta and an ethnic minority armed group both claimed on Thursday they were in control of a town and regional military command in northern Shan state following days of clashes.

Joe Biden will press Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to seal a Gaza ceasefire deal, despite the US president's shock election exit threatening to limit his leverage over the Israeli premier.

The strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in eight years killed three people and flooded parts of the island's second-biggest city on Thursday, while rescuers searched for nine sailors missing after their cargo ship sank in the storm.

It started with a raid on a Chinese-run online gambling center north of Manila where hundreds of foreigners and Filipinos were forced to run scams or risk torture.

A Philippine-flagged tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil sank off Manila on Thursday, authorities said, as they raced to contain a spill.

Artistic gymnastics at Paris 2024 gets underway at the Bercy Arena on Saturday.

Comic-Con returns in full force to San Diego this week, where a hugely anticipated Marvel superhero film event is among the draws for tens of thousands of hyped-up fans dressed as fantasy heroes and sci-fi villains.

President Vladimir Putin held talks with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Moscow amid calls for Russian mediation to cool tensions between Turkey and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Gaza ceasefire demonstrators Wednesday and called for a global alliance against the Iranian regime he accuses of funding them, as he addressed a US Congress divided by the war.

US President Joe Biden told Americans Wednesday he quit the 2024 election to unite the country, saying in a historic Oval Office speech that it was time to pass the torch to "younger voices."

The pop world has coalesced rapidly around Kamala Harris's last-minute candidacy, as the US vice president gets a boost from an online explosion of videos mixing her speeches with hit songs.

The tired troops moved through the forest in east Ukraine at dawn, imitating assault rifle fire while searching for non-existent Russians between the trees.

Rescuers aided by drones were continuing a desperate search on Wednesday for possible survivors of devastating landslides in an isolated area of southern Ethiopia that have claimed the lives of at least 229 people.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement has agreed with Hamas to form a "national unity government" in post-war Gaza, but analysts are sceptical about the significance of the Beijing-brokered deal.

Football and Rugby Sevens kick off the sport at the Paris Olympics Wednesday, two days before the opening ceremony, featuring a top French star and a huge police presence for Israel's first appearance.

Earth withered through a second-straight day of record-breaking heat on July 22, the EU's climate monitor said Wednesday, as large parts of Europe, Asia and North America suffer blistering temperatures.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in southern China on Wednesday, with both sides calling for peace as Russia's war grinds on against its neighbour.

Keir Starmer faces his first House of Commons grilling as UK prime minister on Wednesday, after suspending seven of his own Labour MPs for rebelling over a controversial welfare policy.

A passenger plane crashed on take-off in Kathmandu on Wednesday, with the pilot rescued from the flaming wreckage but all 18 others aboard killed, police in the Nepali capital told AFP. Nepal has a woeful track record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has seen a spate of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades.