AFP news

Hype is growing from leaders of major AI companies that "strong" computer intelligence will imminently outstrip humans, but many researchers in the field see the claims as marketing spin.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday he would call a general election "imminently", with local media reporting the poll would be held on May 3.

Israel's parliament on Thursday passed a law expanding elected officials' power to appoint judges, defying a years-long movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's contentious judicial reforms that saw massive street protests.

A plunge in automakers hit Asian and European equities on Thursday after Donald Trump announced painful tariffs on all imported vehicles and parts as he presses hardball trade policies many fear will spark a recession.

Wildfires in South Korea are now the largest and deadliest on record, having burned more forest and killed more people than any previous blaze, officials said Thursday, as the death toll hit 27.

Sudan's gold industry has become the lifeblood of its war, with nearly all of the trade channelled through the United Arab Emirates, enriching both the army and paramilitaries, according to official and NGO sources.

In a sweltering factory in Lesotho, rows of workers hunch over thrumming sewing machines churning out piles of jeans for the global market from a country that US President Donald Trump has mocked as unknown.

Booing crowds, a man jabbing his finger and swearing -- it is not easy these days for some Republican members of Congress as they face their constituents in town halls dominated by rage over President Donald Trump's radical cost-cutting policies.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday is to host European leaders including President Volodymyr Zelensky for a summit aimed at boosting Ukrainian security ahead of any potential ceasefire with Russia.

From a gated community for her Zoroastrian faith in Pakistan's megacity Karachi, 22-year-old Elisha Amra has waved goodbye to many friends migrating abroad as the ancient Parsi community dwindles.

US President Donald Trump's homeland security chief on Wednesday visited the mega-prison in El Salvador where hundreds of Venezuelan migrants have been deported under contested legal grounds.

US President Donald Trump has announced steep tariffs on auto imports and parts, provoking threats of retaliation from trading partners ahead of further promised trade levies next week.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday warned Russia was still showing a "desire for war" despite efforts to forge a ceasefire in Ukraine, ahead of a summit aimed at boosting Ukrainian security under a potential truce brokered by the United States.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Wednesday to seize parts of Gaza if Hamas did not release hostages, while the militant group warned they would return "in coffins" if Israel did not stop bombing the Palestinian territory.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan arrived at Khartoum's presidential palace on Wednesday, declaring the capital "free" of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces after nearly two years of war.

Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to stand trial on charges of plotting a coup after losing elections in 2022.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken Turkey closer to autocracy with the arrest of the elected mayor of Istanbul, but the scale of the ensuing protests could yet shake his grip, analysts say.

The producers behind the "Spider-Man" and "Harry Potter" film franchises will oversee the next James Bond movie, Amazon MGM Studios announced Tuesday.

Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging app that is considered one of the most secure in the world by security professionals, but was never intended to be the go-to choice for White House officials planning a military operation.

Israeli police released Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal on Tuesday, after detaining him a day earlier for "hurling rocks" following what activists described as an attack by settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Lingering hopes that Donald Trump's planned tariff blitz next week will not be as painful as feared lifted most Asian markets Wednesday, though uncertainty about the president's policies and the US economy tempered optimism.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads Wednesday to the Caribbean looking for ways forward on violence-torn Haiti and to show support for oil-rich Guyana in its dispute with Venezuela.

Huthi media in Yemen reported Wednesday at least 17 strikes in Saada and Amran, blaming the United States for the attacks.

By 2030, Coca-Cola products will account for an estimated 1.33 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of plastic waste entering the world's oceans and waterways each year, according to a stark new analysis published Wednesday by the nonprofit Oceana.

China remains the main threat to the United States globally but of increasing concern is its closer cooperation with Russia, Iran and North Korea, said an annual US intelligence report released Tuesday.

At South Korea's thousand-year-old Gounsa Temple, workers delicately swaddled a giant gilded Buddha statue with a fire-retardant blanket.

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde's recent remarks on a "digital euro" prompted a fresh wave of misinformation online, highlighting an uphill battle ahead to convince the public of the project's merits.

An "unprecedented" mass bleaching event has been recorded off Australia's western coast, scientists said Wednesday, turning huge chunks of a celebrated reef system a sickly dull white.

Truck driver Lee Seung-joo was driving through South Korea's Andong mountains when the wildfires hit, engulfing the area in flames and turning it into "a literal hell".