AFP news

The noise is deafening and the work can be lonely, but to William Smyth, who toils in the world's last commercial linen "beetling" mill, his job is unique.

Sep 26, 2025

Warsaw's central business district is booming alongside Poland's economy, but those teaching yoga and taking coffee orders in bustling premises under glass and steel office towers are often Ukrainian.

Sep 26, 2025

Stencilled just above the stairs, the red mark in Mumbai's Dharavi slum is tantamount to an eviction notice for residents like Bipinkumar Padaya.

Sep 26, 2025

Most Nigerian leather, often semi-finished, is exported to Europe and Asia and turned into luxury items bearing international brand labels, with zero trace of its origins.

Sep 26, 2025

A court on Thursday sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.

Sep 26, 2025

After high-profile violations of NATO airspace by Russia over Poland and Estonia, alliance members have appeared at odds over how forcefully to react.

Sep 25, 2025

At a windswept container park near the sprawling port of Rotterdam, a crane slots a 30-tonne white battery into a transporter vessel, enough to provide eight hours of zero-emissions freight.

Sep 25, 2025

The discovery of body parts and skeletons strewn around an isolated village in coastal Kenya has stoked fears that a doomsday starvation cult which claimed hundreds of lives has survived despite a major police operation.

Sep 25, 2025

An ocean of blue solar panels ripples across the ochre dunes of Inner Mongolia's Kubuqi desert, a glittering example of China's almost inconceivably mammoth energy transition.

Sep 25, 2025

"You need the work," one woman said, "so you shut your mouth." "We have no choice but to keep working."

Sep 25, 2025

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed dozens of people across the Palestinian territory on Wednesday, as the military pressed its assault on Gaza City that has displaced hundreds of thousands.

Sep 25, 2025

Fierce winds, pounding rain and rough seas battered southern China on Wednesday as powerful Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in Guangdong province after killing at least 17 in Taiwan.

Sep 24, 2025

The Kremlin said Wednesday it would press on with its military offensive in Ukraine and rejected US President Donald Trump's claim that Kyiv's army could retake territory it had seized.

Sep 24, 2025

TV host Jimmy Kimmel defended free speech when he returned to US screens on Tuesday, calling government pressure on his late-night talk show "anti-American" as critics decried his suspension as an attack on constitutional rights.

Sep 24, 2025

US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday hours before Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show was due to be back on the air in the United States, insulting the host, and threatening to "test ABC" over the move.

Sep 24, 2025

Once a symbol of cultural prestige, Iran's handmade rugs are no longer selling as fast as they once did, as sanctions weigh on an already troubled economy and buyers' tastes change.

Sep 24, 2025

Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale, who died on Tuesday aged 87, entranced audiences across the globe with the sultry gaze that made her the muse of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini.

Sep 24, 2025

Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale, who died on Tuesday aged 87, entranced audiences across the globe with the sultry gaze that made her the muse of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini.

Sep 24, 2025

Donald Trump makes his big comeback to the UN General Assembly podium on Tuesday, where the US president intends to denounce "globalist institutions" and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as patience with Russia wears thin.

Sep 23, 2025

Large drones that flew over Copenhagen airport for hours and caused it to shut down constituted the "most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure" to date, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday.

Sep 23, 2025

A Singapore shipping company told AFP on Tuesday it will refuse to pay Sri Lankan court-ordered damages of US$1 billion for causing that country's worst case of environmental pollution.

Sep 23, 2025

In their Pakistan safehouse, Shayma and her family try to keep their voices low so their neighbours don't overhear their Afghan mother tongue.

Sep 23, 2025

Prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah was released from prison in Cairo, his family said on Tuesday, prompting an emotional reunion with his loved ones after a pardon from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Sep 23, 2025

US President Donald Trump on Monday vehemently insisted that pregnant people should "tough it out" and avoid Tylenol over an unproven link to autism, and urged major changes to the standard vaccines administered to babies.

Sep 23, 2025

Rubble and Hebrew graffiti mark Israel's presence in Syria's Quneitra province, where people accuse the southern neighbour's troops of demolitions, detentions and forced displacement -- defying ongoing security talks between the two sides.

Sep 22, 2025

Last week, Albania announced that an AI-generated minister would take charge of a new public tenders portfolio.

Sep 22, 2025

France and other countries prepared to recognize a Palestinian state as the UN's centerpiece diplomatic week gets underway Monday, following a rash of Western governments in symbolically endorsing statehood and sparking Israel's wrath.

Sep 22, 2025

Britain was set Sunday to recognise a Palestinian state with a landmark announcement due from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as several nations were poised to follow at UN talks to pressure Israel over the Gaza war.

Sep 21, 2025

Three rebel nuns in their 80s have taken back their Austrian convent after fleeing from their care home, with supporters flocking to the nunnery Saturday in a show of solidarity.

Sep 21, 2025