AFP news

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".

The world's longest-serving death row prisoner, Iwao Hakamada, won compensation from Japan this week after almost five decades in jail -- and he owes his freedom to a judge with steely determination.

At least 19 people have been killed in one of South Korea's worst wildfire outbreaks, with multiple raging blazes causing "unprecedented damage", the acting president said Wednesday.

Nathalie Mago's work day begins after she's tucked her three daughters into bed and flicked off the lights in their house north of the Philippine capital Manila.

In a matter of days, US President Donald Trump has extended a hand to Iran and bombed Tehran's allies in Yemen.

US President Donald Trump downplayed a growing scandal Tuesday after a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat about air strikes on Yemen, denying any classified information was shared and defending a top aide over the breach.

A Sudanese monitor accused the army on Tuesday of carrying out one of the deadliest air strikes in the country's nearly two-year war, hitting a rebel-held town in the western region of Darfur.