AFP news

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler said Wednesday that the kingdom will not establish ties with Israel until a Palestinian state has been created, in a blow to US efforts to seal a normalisation deal.

Canada announced Wednesday it was slashing international student permits next year, and tightening foreign worker rules to further bring down the number of temporary residents in the country.

YouTube beefed up tools for creators on Wednesday as it competes with streaming rivals such as Netflix on the biggest screen in most homes: the television.

YouTuber MrBeast has been named in a lawsuit claiming participants in his $5 million jackpot game show were exploited.

Elon Musk's X social network said on Wednesday that the restoration of its services in Brazil, where it had been shut down, was "inadvertent and temporary."

China presents the top challenge to the United States in all of its history, surpassing the Cold War, a top US official said Wednesday, as he urged Europe to get tougher on Beijing.

Boeing said Wednesday it would start furloughs of professional and white-collar staff as it seeks to conserve cash amid a labor strike that shuttered Seattle manufacturing plants -- while talks with a union stalled.

Snapchat, the popular teen-focused social network, is positioning itself as a healthier alternative to platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which have faced criticism for their impact on youth mental health.

France's budgetary situation is "very serious", Prime Minister Michel Barnier told AFP on Wednesday, saying more information was needed to gauge the "precise reality" of French public finances.

The Netherlands announced Wednesday that it had requested from Brussels an opt-out from the European Union's rules on asylum, days after the coalition government unveiled the country's toughest-ever immigration policy.

A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed between two Japanese islands near Taiwan for the first time, Japan's military said on Wednesday, in the latest move by Beijing to anger the close US ally.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that the pagers used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed at least nine people were made by a Hungarian partner.

Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel after hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group's members exploded in a deadly wave across Lebanon.

Japan's new prime minister will be formally elected by parliament on October 1 following next week's leadership contest, a ruling party official said Wednesday.

Tupperware Brands and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, the food container firm said in a statement.

The union for striking Boeing workers said Tuesday the aviation giant was not "taking mediation seriously," after some 33,000 US employees walked out last week over a contract dispute, effectively shutting down two Seattle-area plants.

When the Taliban banned women from attending university in Afghanistan, Zahra Hussaini thought her dream of becoming a doctor was over.

Russian operatives are ramping up disinformation operations to malign Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign by disseminating conspiracy-laden videos, Microsoft said Tuesday, amid heightened alert over foreign influence operations targeting the US election.

The US Federal Reserve is all but certain to cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in more than four years, a significant move likely to ripple through global financial markets.

Elon Musk's fervent support for Donald Trump in the upcoming US election could extend far beyond incendiary tweets and campaign cash if the former president returns to the White House.

An EU court on Wednesday scrapped a 1.49-billion euro ($1.65 billion) fine imposed by Brussels against Google over abuse of dominance in online advertising.

Bayern Munich became the first team to score nine goals in a game in the modern Champions League as the new format of Europe's elite club competition kicked off on Tuesday, with title holders Real Madrid and Liverpool also among the winners.

North Korea fired a salvo of short-range ballistic missiles early Wednesday, Seoul's military said, Pyongyang's second such weapons test in a week.

Meta on Tuesday announced the creation of "Teen Accounts," designed to better protect underage users from the dangers associated with Instagram.

Israel announced the expansion of its war aims on Tuesday, widening its nearly year-long fight against Hamas in Gaza to focus on Hezbollah along its northern border with Lebanon.

Manchester City are braced for their Champions League reunion with Inter Milan at the start of an expanded tournament that will be "so tough" for the 2023 winners.

Donald Trump hits the campaign trail again on Tuesday, traveling to Michigan two days after an apparent assassination attempt against him was foiled at his golf course in Florida.

"I am a rapist," said a Frenchman accused of drugging his wife so that he and dozens of strangers could sexually assault her, his first testimony in a trial that has horrified France.

Meta late Monday said it is banning Russian state media outlets from its apps around the world due to "foreign interference activity."