WORLD

The US economy is at an "important turning point," the top economic advisor to President Joe Biden said Monday, calling for safeguards to be put in place to protect gains made in the labor market, ahead of a key Federal Reserve interest rate decision.

A man suspected of plotting to assassinate former US president Donald Trump was charged with federal gun crimes on Monday.

The conference was focused on the "Building a Net-Zero Asia – Middle East Corridor" theme and the discussions centered on the growing need for transition finance, the gaps in funding and opportunities for greater collaboration between Hong Kong and Dubai.

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement had ample resources to continue fighting Israel despite losses sustained over more than 11 months of war in Gaza.

Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt Sunday in Florida, the FBI said, with the Republican presidential candidate's campaign and law enforcement reporting he was safe and unharmed.

Flooding sparked by Storm Boris in central Europe has burst dams, knocked out power and killed at least 11 people, authorities said Monday as some communities were cut off four days into the disaster.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday to discuss tackling illegal immigration, a day after another Channel migrant shipwreck claimed eight lives.

Huw Edwards, one of the most recognisable faces on British television, arrived at court Monday to be sentenced for having indecent photographs of children, capping a stunning fall from stardom.

France's powerful European commissioner Thierry Breton on Monday announced he was quitting his role with immediate effect, claiming EU chief Ursula von der Leyen had sought at the last-minute to bar him from her incoming team.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Monday head into a newly intense phase of the US presidential campaign, with tensions heightened after a second apparent assassination attempt against the Republican former president.

Germany will from Monday expand border controls to the frontiers with all nine of its neighbours to stop irregular migrants in a move that has sparked protests from other EU members.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday signed into law controversial judicial reforms making Mexico the world's only country to elect all its judges by popular vote.

Accountancy giant PwC was banned in China Friday for six months and slapped with a fine of $62.2 million over problems with its audit of beleaguered property company Evergrande.

China said Friday it would gradually raise its statutory retirement age, as the country grapples with a looming demographic crisis and an ageing population.

US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris head to key battleground states on Friday, each seeking an edge in a race where they are running neck-and-neck less than two months before voting day.

Hundreds of villagers in Myanmar waded or swam through chin-high waters, fleeing severe floods around the remote capital Naypyidaw on Friday, while Vietnam began clearing up after deadly Typhoon Yagi.

President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday discuss whether to let Kyiv use long-range missiles against Russia, in the two allies' likely last meeting before an election that could upend US policy on Ukraine.

Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said Friday that "negotiation" was the only solution to conflicts such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as he addressed a global gathering of military officials in Beijing.

Pope Francis wrapped up an arduous 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Friday, defying health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore.

North Korea released images of its uranium enrichment facility for the first time on Friday, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring it as he called for more centrifuges to boost his nuclear arsenal.

Apple on Thursday got a green light from US regulators to add a feature that would let upcoming AirPods Pro ear pieces be used as hearing aids, potentially disrupting that market.

Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori, who ruled his country with an iron fist and then spent 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, died on Wednesday at age 86 in the capital Lima.

A new statue of Queen Elizabeth II has met mixed reviews, with one non-plussed critic assessing that it looks more like "an old lady buying potatoes at the market" than Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

Japan's leadership race kicked off Thursday with a record nine candidates including the surfing son of a former prime minister and an arch-nationalist vying to be the first woman premier.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday spoke to key ally Poland on ways to support Ukraine as Russian attacks and upcoming US elections raise new jitters.

Israel bombed a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, which rescuers said killed 18 people, including UN staffers, while the Israeli army said it hit a Hamas control centre.

Millions of people across Southeast Asia struggled Thursday with flooded homes, power cuts and wrecked infrastructure after Typhoon Yagi swept through the region, as the death toll passed 200.

Pope Francis held mass and made a plea for migrant workers to be paid fairly, as he visited the affluent city-state of Singapore Thursday on the last stop of his marathon Asia-Pacific tour.

China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.