AFP news

Brazil is betting its much-hyped climate summit in the Amazon next month can deliver something increasingly rare in a fractured world: proof that nations can still unite to confront a global crisis.

Climate cooperation is facing a reckoning. With climate change already causing dangerous extremes across the planet, a United Nations-led system based on consensus and pledges faces tough questions.

The US soybean harvest is underway and in rural Maryland, farmer Travis Hutchison cracks open a pod to show how a field is nearly dry enough for reaping.

"Red John" is an old acquaintance of landowners and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon.

Hamas was set to release all surviving hostages on Monday in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as US President Donald Trump headed to the region for a peace summit having declared the war "over".

A Madagascar army unit siding with anti-government protesters installed a new military chief Sunday as President Andry Rajoelina denounced an "attempt to seize power illegally".

Hamas will release its remaining hostages on Monday and will play no role in Gaza's future government, the group told AFP, as US President Donald Trump and other world leaders prepared to convene in Egypt for a major peace summit.

The NBA brought star-studded lineups to Macau this week for the league's return to China after six years but many of the biggest wins happened off the basketball court, industry insiders and experts told AFP. Thousands of fans cheered Friday as the Phoenix Suns -- led by four-time NBA All-Star Devin Booker -- beat the Brooklyn Nets, with celebrities such as David Beckham, actor Jackie Chan and Alibaba founder Jack Ma in front-row seats.

A military contingent joined thousands of anti-government demonstrators in Madagascar on Saturday, calling on security forces to "refuse orders to shoot" and condemning police action to quell over two weeks of youth-led protests that have rocked the Indian Ocean island.

France's newly reappointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Saturday scrambled to get an austerity budget approved, as more parties threatened to topple him again, after his first term lasted only 27 days.

Thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to a devastated Gaza City on Saturday, the second day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with many stunned by the destruction even as others were relieved to find their homes still standing.

Drones flying over airports, commercial sites and other sensitive infrastructure in Europe is a growing phenomenon which EU leaders blame on Russia, and preventing the disruption they cause will prove a tough technical challenge, observers say.

In the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley, Naef Jahaleen fears for the future as Israeli settlers come for the land home to one of the area's last Bedouin herding communities.

Israel declared a ceasefire and started pulling back troops in Gaza on Friday, as thousands of displaced Palestinians began to make their way back to their wrecked homes.

The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, a "unifying" figure in what has become a "brutal" state, the Nobel jury said.

Roberto Mosquera's family had no trace of him for a month after he was arrested by US immigration agents, until a government social media post revealed he had been deported to Africa's last absolute monarchy.

Asian equities staggered into the weekend on Friday following a mixed week that saw an agreement on a Middle East ceasefire and huge new AI investments play off against the US shutdown and concerns about a tech bubble.

Solomon Islander Dennis Phillip was ploughing his soil by hand when he heard an unusual clunk -- one of the countless unexploded bombs still scattered across the small Pacific nation decades after World War II. Japanese and Allied forces waged a savage campaign across the Solomon Islands from 1942 to 1945, in which tens of thousands were killed.

Before a Myanmar student descends into a classroom entombed in a concrete bunker, she prays for compassion and her community's safety, knowing her appeal will go unanswered.

A chatbot from one of Silicon Valley's hottest AI startups called a 14-year-old "sweet king" and pleaded with him to "come home" in passionate exchanges that would be the teen's last communications before he took his own life.

The Nobel Prize for Literature was on Thursday awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai considered by many as Hungary's most important living author, whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a ceasefire deal to free the living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

They could soon be unboxing fines rather than freebies -- Germany's online influencers are facing a tax evasion crackdown that has left them screaming OMG!

French President Emmanuel Macron was on Thursday racing to find a new prime minister within a two-day deadline after the resignation of outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, his office said on Wednesday, after the resignation of outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu tipped the country deeper into political crisis.

France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Wednesday she would thwart all action by any new government, throwing into doubt Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's ability to solve the country's deepening political crisis with a coalition cabinet.

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry Wednesday for developing a method of designing molecular structures whose multiple uses include tackling climate change by capturing carbon dioxide and harvesting water from desert air.

The leader of Britain's Conservative Party, once an electoral powerhouse now facing an uncertain future, called for it to return to its roots at its annual meeting Wednesday, urging the creation of a "blueprint for Britain" based on conservative values.