AFP news

After weeks of fierce political horse-trading, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen unveiled Tuesday her new top team to help steward the EU through the next five years of global uncertainty.

"I am a rapist," said a Frenchman accused of drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could sexually assault her, his first testimony in a trial that has horrified France.

Details of the charges against superstar rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs are expected to be revealed Tuesday, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York said following the music mogul's arrest in Manhattan.

Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.

War-weary Myanmar villagers salvaged crops from flooded fields Tuesday as the country's death toll in the wake of Typhoon Yagi doubled to 226 and the UN warned as many as 630,000 people could need assistance.

Tiny but oil-rich Equatorial Guinea long escaped the youth exodus plaguing other African nations, but a decade of economic decline and rising unemployment has left many eager to leave.

White clouds still billow from the cooling towers of a coal plant near Spremberg in Germany's ex-communist east but the end is in sight as Berlin phases out the dirty fossil fuel.

Japanese players are moving to English football in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money.

Sean "Diddy" Combs -- the rap mogul whose star has plunged after a wave of sex trafficking accusations and assault lawsuits -- was arrested by federal agents in Manhattan late Monday, a US federal court said.

A global network of doctors and laboratories is working to pinpoint emerging viral threats, including many driven by climate change, in a bid to head off the world's next pandemic.

Nothing justifies Israel's collective punishment of the people of Gaza as they endure "unimaginable" suffering, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Monday.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Monday to ensure the morality police would no longer "bother" women, in remarks to the media on the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death in custody.

Flooding sparked by Storm Boris in central Europe has burst dams, knocked out power and killed at least 17 people, authorities said Monday as some communities were cut off four days into the disaster.

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said Monday the Palestinian group had ample resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.

France's powerful European Union commissioner Thierry Breton abruptly resigned with a parting shot at the bloc's chief on Monday, in a dramatic upset the day before Ursula von der Leyen unveils her new top team.

Paris and Milan are among the cities closest to reaching the urban planning goal of being a "15-minute city," while car-dependent metropolises in the United States and elsewhere lag behind, a worldwide analysis said Monday.

If you care about the environment, think twice about using AI. Generative artificial intelligence uses 30 times more energy than a traditional search engine, warns researcher Sasha Luccioni, on a mission to raise awareness about the environmental impact of the hot new technology.

US guitarist and singer Tito Jackson, an original member of the legendary Jackson 5 group and older brother of pop superstars Michael and Janet, has died at the age of 70, his sons said late Sunday.

Conservationists at Persepolis, Iran's most iconic ancient site, are waging a delicate battle against an unlikely adversary: tiny but persistent lichens eroding the millennia-old monuments.

US and European stock markets wavered on Monday as investors cautiously awaited the US Federal Reserve's first interest-rate cut since 2020.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump head into a newly intense phase of the US presidential campaign on Monday, with tensions heightened after a second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican former president.

Emergency workers cleared fallen trees and other debris from Shanghai's streets after the strongest storm to hit the Chinese megacity since 1949 disrupted transport and left tens of thousands of people without power.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday to discuss tackling illegal immigration, a day after another Channel migrant shipwreck claimed eight lives.

Faced with Russia's war on Ukraine, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has promised to name a designated defence commissioner as a key part of her new top team.

Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of grey rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago.

Germany will from Monday expand border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbours to stop irregular migrants in a move that has sparked protests from other EU members.

Outside an Audi factory in Brussels described by the German carmaker as the "cradle" of its electric drive, around 200 picketing workers huddled around a bonfire in the morning drizzle.

Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use.

The prospect of Donald Trump returning as president is hanging over crucial UN-sponsored climate negotiations, with countries "holding back" their positions until they know who sits in the White House.