AFP news

Russian-born tech entrepreneur Pavel Durov has founded wildly popular social networks as well as a cryptocurrency, amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune and locked horns with authorities not just in Russia but around the world.

President Joe Biden's skeptical approach to corporate mergers has been a hallmark of his administration's business policy -- a stance generally expected to ease if Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The Israeli military launched pre-emptive strikes in Lebanon on Sunday after detecting preparations for "large-scale" attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

In key US swing state Michigan, Democratic voters of Arab and Middle Eastern heritage say Kamala Harris is going to have to win them back, after they were alienated by President Joe Biden's handling of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Police arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in southern France on Saturday in what officials suspect was a terror attack, the country's interior minister said.

Two US astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA said Saturday, in a fresh public relations blow to the crisis-hit aviation giant.

SpaceX is coming to Boeing's rescue. Because of problems with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, two astronauts who rode on it to the International Space Station in June will finally return to Earth on a vessel built by Elon Musk's SpaceX. NASA's announcement Saturday of that plan represents a blow -- even a humiliation -- for Boeing, a historic partner of the American space agency.

German police on Saturday hunted a man who stabbed three people to death and wounded eight others at a street festival in the city of Solingen, with a terror motive for the attack "not excluded".

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed more "retribution" against Russia on Ukrainian Independence Day Saturday, as Kyiv and Moscow announced the exchange of 230 prisoners just over two weeks into Ukraine's surprise offensive on Kursk.

Negotiators geared up for a crucial weekend of Gaza ceasefire talks Saturday, as Hamas said it was sending delegates to Cairo but would not participate in the discussions, and fighting raged in the Palestinian territory.

Flanked by smartphone-wielding peace activists, members of an evicted Palestinian family marched onto land seized by armed Israeli settlers, shouting "Out!

Kamala Harris's price gouging policy has been criticized by economists and analysts, who say it is an uncompetitive proposal that could end up hurting, and not helping, US consumers.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, scion of America's storied political clan, suspended his long-shot presidential bid on Friday and endorsed Donald Trump, injecting new uncertainty into the White House race.

Kamala Harris is making her pitch to voters as a muscular defender of US interests while aiming for nuance on the painful issue of Gaza -- hoping to cover vulnerabilities and to paint Republican Donald Trump as the more risky candidate on national security.

French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders on Friday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month's inconclusive election.

Australia on Friday launched a multi-million dollar effort to stop pesticide runoff and other water quality issues on the Great Barrier Reef, the latest effort to save the ailing natural wonder.

Nestle shares fell Friday after the surprise departure of chief executive Mark Schneider, which followed slowing sales growth and bad headlines at the Swiss food group.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenksy on a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday, where he is pushing for a solution to end more than two years of war with Russia.

Israeli negotiators were in Cairo Friday for talks on a Gaza truce, a spokesman said, but a dispute over the presence of Israeli troops on Gaza's southern border remained among sticking points.

Pacific island leaders gather for a key summit in the Kingdom of Tonga on Monday, aiming to navigate rapidly rising seas, damaging great power rivalries and violent unrest in New Caledonia.

Asian investors jockeyed for position ahead of a much-anticipated speech by Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell later Friday, as the dollar weakened amid speculation about how big an expected interest rate cut next month could be.

Kylian Mbappe's La Liga debut for Real Madrid did not go as planned as Los Blancos drew at Mallorca last weekend, with coach Carlo Ancelotti believing the Spanish champions lacked "balance".

US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is widely expected to use a keynote speech at a major central banking conference on Friday to signal support for cutting interest rates ahead of next month's rate decision.

Venezuela's Supreme Court, which observers say is loyal to the government of President Nicolas Maduro, on Thursday declared him the winner of the disputed July 28 election despite opposition claims of widespread vote fraud.

Kamala Harris is set to deliver the biggest speech of her life Thursday as she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago after a historic turnaround in the 2024 White House race.

The body of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch was recovered Thursday from his sunken yacht off Sicily, as the search continued for the last of the six people missing -- his teenage daughter.

Below the bombed university building in east Ukraine where she once worked, Olga Borodich conceded she would be ready to give up Ukrainian territory to end the war with Russia.

A celebrated Australian penguin famous for raising chicks as part of an unlikely same-sex couple has died, a Sydney aquarium said on Thursday.

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes once joked he could not tell the difference between an AA battery in his kids' toys and the gigantic lithium-ion units powering today's green energy revolution.