AFP news

Leaders from around the world reacted to Donald Trump's return Monday to the White House, offering congratulations and urging good relations with the mercurial leader.

Treading a familiar path for women in rural Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Hiep found a factory job in dynamic Ho Chi Minh City and spent 16 years helping make shoes for Western brands such as Adidas and Nike.

Hundreds of LGBTQ couples are set to marry in Thailand on Thursday, as the kingdom becomes the biggest nation in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.

For tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the EU's digital rules are a tool of censorship.

The United States withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is a blow to global cooperation on climate change, but other countries are marching ahead and stepping up leadership on the issue.

The US film industry's first big gathering since fires devastated Los Angeles will begin Thursday at the Sundance festival, where highlights include a glitzy new Jennifer Lopez musical and a dark Benedict Cumberbatch drama.

Climate change, political headwinds and diverging market dynamics around the world have pushed coffee prices to fresh records, jacking up the cost of your everyday brew or a barista's signature macchiato.

Freezing temperatures and icy winds meant Washington looked nearly deserted for Donald Trump's inauguration Monday -- although the hard-core fans who did turn out tried to make up for it.

Syrian phone shop owner Abdel Razzaq Hamra was thrilled to finally be working in peace after years of being harassed and detained by security personnel enforcing an Assad-linked company's monopoly.

A teenager on Monday pleaded guilty to the "unspeakable" killing of three young girls in a stabbing spree last year that sparked the UK's most violent riots in a decade.

European and Asian stock markets rose on Monday and bitcoin soared to a new high as Donald Trump prepared to re-enter office as president of the world's biggest economy.

The mother of US journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, said on Monday in Damascus that the war-torn country's new leadership was committed to finding him.

Chinese people on the streets of Beijing said Monday they were keeping expectations low ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump, as his second White House stint could push China-US ties into a new era of uncertainty.

US President Joe Biden on Monday issued pre-emptive pardons to former Covid-19 advisor Anthony Fauci and retired general Mark Milley to shield them from "politically motivated prosecutions" under the Trump administration.

Donald Trump will be sworn in for a historic second term as US president Monday, promising a new "golden age" for America as the world braces for the return of his unpredictable leadership.

Novak Djokovic was at the centre of another Australian Open row on Monday while Jannik Sinner needed medical attention in fierce heat to battle into the quarter-finals and Iga Swiatek won easily.

A fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was holding Monday, following the dramatic exchange of three hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners in an agreement aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in Gaza.

A fresh outbreak of guerrilla violence amid a faltering peace process in Colombia has left more than 80 people dead, including civilians, and displaced around 11,000 in just four days, officials reported Sunday.

A sweeping deportation program, "drill, baby, drill," and peace for Ukraine: President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to move big and fast when he returns to the White House on Monday.

At a shopping mall in Beijing, Zhang Yachun murmurs quietly to her closest confidant, a fluffy AI-powered robot whose soothing chirps remind her that she is not alone.

Two buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released in the Gaza ceasefire deal had to inch through a thick crowd when they at last arrived in the West Bank at 2 am Monday.

Donald Trump pledged a blitz of presidential actions to end "American decline," telling a fired-up inauguration eve rally on Sunday that he would crack down on woke ideology and immigration.

Military medic Natalya carried a jug of water blessed by priests at the Sviatogirsk monastery in east Ukraine as she celebrated Orthodox Epiphany in a Russian-affiliated church, despite the war.

Thousands of supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump braved long waits in freezing temperatures, rain and snow to attend a "victory rally" in the US capital on Sunday, saying they were eager to see him get to work.

Barbed wire lines the road to work for Pawel Sawicki, deputy spokesman of the Auschwitz museum at the site of the former Nazi death camp that was liberated 80 years ago this month.

Columns of people hundreds strong were making their way home in northern Gaza on Sunday, flanked on both sides by countless buildings turned to rubble, as a ceasefire took effect in the Palestinian territory.

President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday called for the United States to take part-ownership in TikTok and vowed to issue an executive order delaying a looming ban on the wildly popular app to allow time to "make a deal."

Novak Djokovic surged into an Australian Open quarter-final clash against Carlos Alcaraz with a dominant victory on Sunday while women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka was a ruthless winner.

A ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is to begin on Sunday at 0630 GMT, with three Israeli hostages to be released from captivity in return for a first group of Palestinian prisoners.