AFP news

US President Donald Trump's use of tariffs as a blunt weapon to extract concessions on everything from commerce to immigration and drug trafficking could redraw global trading norms, analysts say.

World leaders were set to hold formal talks in Paris on Tuesday on artificial intelligence (AI), seeking elusive common ground on a technology subject to a global race for promised economic benefits.

US President Donald Trump floated the idea that Ukraine "may be Russian someday", as his Vice President JD Vance gears up to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later this week.

Campaigning began Tuesday in the Philippines for mid-term elections that could set the table for the next presidential race and determine the political future of impeached Vice President Sara Duterte.

In Rio de Janeiro, children are playing again "like in the old days," and their focus in class has improved after a school cellphone ban pioneered in the city that has now gone national.

YouTube has evolved from a dinner party lark 20 years ago into a modern lifestyle staple poised to overtake US cable television in paid viewership.

Hamas announced Monday it would postpone any further hostage-prisoner exchanges under a fragile Gaza ceasefire accusing Israel of violations, while Israel said its military was readying for "any possible scenario".

Kendrick Lamar commanded one of the world's most high-profile stages Sunday as the Super Bowl's halftime headliner, yet another feather in the cap of the rap laureate who has ascended to new heights of pop stardom.

French President Emmanuel Macron trumpeted the benefits of artificial intelligence Sunday, ahead of a two-day Paris summit on the technology and its potential benefits and pitfalls.

Deep in a Bavarian forest, a black reconnaissance drone buzzes overhead, piloted by US soldiers hoping to put lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine into practice.

The Berlin Film Festival, which begins this week, is set for a challenge faced by the entire Western arts industry: how to stop politics from taking over the conversation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) risks reinforcing gender disparities rather than immediate widespread job destruction, the International Labour Organization chief said Monday as a summit of national leaders and tech bosses opened in Paris.

Nearly all nations missed a UN deadline Monday to submit new targets for slashing carbon emissions, including major economies under pressure to show leadership following the US retreat on climate change.

Philadelphia's 40-22 Super Bowl victory on Sunday was marked by the presence of President Donald Trump, crowds booing Taylor Swift, and Kansas City's crushing loss.

US President Donald Trump plans to impose 25-percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Monday, prompting the threat of retaliation from Europe and a warning from China that there were no winners in a trade war.

Equities were mostly down in Asia on Monday after Donald Trump ramped up his trade war by announcing huge tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and warned every country would face "reciprocal" levies.

Ecuador's closer-than-expected presidential election is likely headed for an April runoff between two very different candidates who have faced each other three times already.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti's ruling party appeared set to secure the most seats in Kosovo's parliamentary elections Sunday but it remained uncertain whether the incumbent stood a chance of forming a majority government.

US President Donald Trump said in remarks aired Sunday that Elon Musk, who is presiding over a purge of government jobs, will help find "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud" in federal agencies.

Some 14 million Ecuadorans began voting under tight security Sunday, choosing who will lead their violence-wracked Andean nation through its worst crisis in half a century.

She says she was violated by police. In Peaches' case, she said she was forced to give two police officers "services for free" to evade arrest for prostitution.

A Hamas official said Israeli troops on Sunday completed their withdrawal from a strategic road bisecting the Gaza Strip, part of a fragile truce deal that Israel said it was implementing.

Britain's newest reality TV show has been slammed as "insensitive", "voyeuristic" and even "nauseating" for recreating with six Britons the often fatal journeys made by thousands of refugees to the UK. Bluntly titled "Go Back to Where You Came From", the part-documentary, part-reality TV show by Channel 4 follows the group of six, who hold strong views both for and against immigration.

Mykhailo received a flurry of messages when US President Donald Trump suspended international aid, a move that endangered the NGO where he works helping Ukrainian veterans.

The three Baltic states on Saturday seamlessly cut ties with Russia's power grid to integrate with the European Union's network, a switch that gained urgency with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Hamas released three Israeli hostages on Saturday, the fifth group freed under a fragile Gaza ceasefire, with Israel condemning their "cruel" handover and worrying physical appearance.

The Baltic states on Saturday began cutting ties with Russia's power grid in order to integrate with Europe's system, a years-long process that gained urgency with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Mehdi al-Shayesh thought he would quickly resettle in his central Syrian home town after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, but like many others stuck in camps, he found his home uninhabitable.

In the throes of a bloody drug war, a shrinking economy and an acute energy crisis, Ecuadorans are remarkably optimistic about their country's future as they prepare to vote in Sunday election.