AFP news

A key political meeting that is watched for signals on China's economic direction will be held in mid-July, state media said Thursday, as policymakers seek to shore up a stuttering recovery.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump square off Thursday in a crucial US presidential debate that carries enormous stakes for both candidates as they battle for the approval of undecided voters and any slim advantage in their neck-and-neck race for the White House.

Kenyan police fired tear gas at small groups of demonstrators in the capital Nairobi on Thursday, AFP journalists saw, a day after President William Ruto agreed to scrap contentious tax hikes and called for dialogue following deadly protests.

France's political future was up in the air on Thursday with the far right surging in polls but other forces fighting to the end three days before a high-stakes parliamentary vote.

Fully autonomous cars are still years away from hitting the streets, but internationally-agreed rules on their use could be ready by mid-2026, the United Nations has said.

Compared to others in war-scarred east Ukraine, Galyna Poroshyna had been lucky to live in Toretsk, a mining town nestled in a relatively sleepy sector of the front line.

Israel said it does not want war in Lebanon but could send its neighbour "back to the Stone Age", as the UN's humanitarian chief warned such a conflict would be "potentially apocalyptic".

A diver glides over an expanse of bone-white coral branches, recording the fish that dart between the ghostly arms extending from the sea floor off the Thai island of Koh Tao.

Women candidates are pushing for greater representation in Mongolia's male-dominated politics, raising their voices for change and inspiring girls to follow in their footsteps.

On Everest's sacred slopes, climate change is thinning snow and ice, increasingly exposing the bodies of hundreds of mountaineers who died chasing their dream to summit the world's highest mountain.

Fatme Ibryanova, 36, will travel from Britain to Turkey next month, not to holiday but for a medical appointment about surgery she is struggling to get on the UK's "broken" state-run health service.

The UK Conservatives scored a thumping win in 2019 by promising to "level-up" struggling regions, but for voters in towns like Keighley, the flagship policy has been eclipsed by spiralling costs.

Lines on a map once meant little to India's Tibetan herders of the high Himalayas, expertly guiding their goats through even the harshest winters to pastures on age-old seasonal routes.

Britain goes to the polls next week in a general election that looks set to end 14 years of Conservative rule marked by economic turbulence, Brexit, political scandal and upheaval.

With the Labour party widely expected to win next month's UK general election, speculation has turned to who leader Keir Starmer could appoint as senior ministers.

Bolivia's army chief was arrested Wednesday after sending soldiers and tanks to take up position in front of government buildings in what President Luis Arce called an attempted coup.

Simone Biles looks all but unstoppable as she vies to punch her ticket to Paris at the US Olympic gymnastics trials this week, where competition to fill out the five-woman roster promises to be fierce.

Patients in Gaza's few standing hospitals are dying in droves from infections resulting from a lack of protective gear and soap, even when they survive their horrific blast injuries.

The Paris Olympics have been designed to showcase the City of Light in all its splendour, with many events set to take place at some of its most iconic locations.

The two men bidding to be British prime minister faced off late on Wednesday in a bad-tempered, last head-to-head TV debate before the country's general election next week.

The yen, weakened by the Japanese government's easy monetary policy, hit a 38-year low against the dollar on Wednesday, sparking speculation about a new intervention by authorities.

A city council in South Korea said Wednesday their first administrative officer robot was defunct after throwing itself down some stairs, with local media mourning the country's first robot suicide.

A consortium led by the top shareholder of troubled French tech giant Atos, an IT partner for the Paris Olympics and French military, has withdrawn a rescue offer for the group, the companies said on Wednesday.

NATO's 32 nations on Wednesday appointed outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the alliance's next head, handing him the job at a crucial moment with Russia on the march in Ukraine and US elections looming.

Fighting raged Wednesday between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in Gaza's southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as fears grow of a wider regional war drawing in Lebanese Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Tom Maiani was behind the wheel of his car every night, all night, for two weeks in July 2023, as youths in French housing estates rioted over the police killing of an unarmed teenager of North African descent near Paris.

Iranians vote on Friday to elect a new president from six candidates, including a lone reformist who hopes he can challenge the dominance of conservatives in the Islamic republic.

Once dismissed as an "empty suit", perennial Indian premier-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi emerged from his third consecutive election defeat with his reputation enhanced and his party back from the political wilderness.

Kenya was in a state of shock Wednesday following unprecedented scenes that left parts of parliament ablaze and gutted, as protests over proposed tax hikes turned deadly, prompting President William Ruto's government to deploy the military.