SCIENCE

Ahead of their first presidential debate, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are offering sharply different visions of the US role in the world, both in style and substance.

Mass expulsions? The 78-year-old, known for his unfinished border wall project, has said he would be happy to "use the military" as part of the effort and would open detention camps to process targets for expulsion.

A Chinese probe carrying samples from the far side of the Moon returned to Earth on Tuesday, capping a technically complex 53-day mission heralded as a world first.

Ghanaian cocoa farmer Isaac Antwi says he has to smuggle his beans to Ivory Coast to sell them at a decent profit even as international prices for the commodity recently surged.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that more than 1,300 faithful died during the hajj pilgrimage which took place during intense heat, and that most of the deceased did not have official permits.

Left-wing parties in France on Friday pledged to raise 30 billion euros a year from taxing businesses and the rich if they win a majority at snap parliamentary polls, drawing ire from centrists and business leaders.

The death toll from this year's hajj has exceeded 1,000, an AFP tally said on Thursday, more than half of them unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

In the sizzling Baghdad heat, Mussa Abdallah takes to the Tigris river during the day to cool off, while others opt for ice skating to escape the relentless temperatures.

In 2023, a newborn Javan rhino in Indonesia raised hopes for the highly endangered species.

A new report backed by climate scientists and athletes warned Tuesday about the dangers posed by extreme high temperatures at this year's Paris Olympics.

Saudi Arabia on Monday warned of a temperature spike in Mecca as Muslim pilgrims wrapped up the hajj in searing conditions, with more than a dozen heat-related deaths confirmed.

In the Libyan village of Kabaw in the Nafusa Mountains, M'hamed Maakaf waters an ailing fig tree as climate change pushes villagers to forsake lands and livestock.

Inuit hunter Hjelmer Hammeken spotted a ringed seal near its breathing hole on the Greenland ice.

More than 1.5 million Muslims braved extreme heat to reach Mount Arafat on Saturday for the high point of the annual hajj pilgrimage, praying for hours, especially for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza.

In the hottest year on record, with scorching conditions claiming lives from India to Mexico and Greece sweltering in its earliest-ever heatwave, experts are sounding the alarm over heat stress.

From misting systems to heat-reflective road coverings, Saudi officials are trying to aid hajj pilgrims in coping with heat, but scientists caution that climate change may outpace these efforts.

G7 leaders were set to agree on a new $50-billion loan for Ukraine as they gathered Thursday for a summit in southern Italy, using the profits from frozen Russian assets.

When Hurricane Sally slammed coastal Florida in 2020, US pilot Dean Legidakes was aboard a scientific aircraft flying directly into the storm's core.

French business leaders have been pitched into fresh uncertainty by snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron that risk strengthening the far right.

India's heatwave is the longest ever to hit the country, the government's top weather expert said Monday as he warned people will face increasingly oppressive temperatures.

Voters across Europe cast ballots Sunday on the final -- and biggest -- day of elections for the EU's parliament, with far-right parties expected to make gains at a pivotal time for the bloc.

Once shunned and now eagerly courted by the West, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has steered his country away from its secular traditions and towards the Hindu-first politics he has championed for decades.

The final -- and by far biggest -- day of EU elections takes place Sunday with voting in 21 member countries, including France and Germany, where support for surging far-right parties is being tested.

The incoming president of the COP29 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan told AFP on Friday that his country would keep increasing fossil fuel production "in parallel" with investments in cleaner alternatives.

Research from the University of Sydney has shown that organic farming, which often utilizes organic carbon fertilizers, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50%.

The sun beats down from a cloudless sky on the town of Boundiali, where Ivory Coast's first solar power plant embodies the drive to embrace clean energy without abandoning fossil fuels.

In the mountainous valleys of Pakistan, 18-hour daily power cuts have meant local teacher Aniqa Bano uses her fridge as a cupboard for storing books and kitchen utensils.

The Pacific's Solomon Islands has become a key player in the global live animal trade, with foreign collectors sourcing exotic species including some subject to trade bans, an AFP investigation has found.

The Netherlands on Thursday kicked off the marathon four-day European elections with the Dutch far right urging voters to make a crackdown on immigration the headline issue.