SCIENCE

Europe is "absolutely vital" to the fight against global warming and its leadership must not waver as climate ambition backslides elsewhere, the CEO of November's COP30 summit in Brazil told AFP. In an interview in Paris, Ana Toni urged the European Union to unite around a strong emissions reduction target as the 27-nation bloc squabbles over its level of climate ambition.

China's wind and solar energy capacity has surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time, the national energy body said Friday.

A charred Myanmar hillside is wreathed by flames, spewing ochre smoke that smothers out sunlight in an apocalyptic scene.

In 2010, Ghana's Cardinal Peter Turkson said he was not ready to become pope -- and that the Catholic Church might not be either.

It is lunchtime at a Texas eatery called Trump Burger and diners are enjoying fast food and the frenetic first 100 days of their president's second term.

Tesla electric car sales in Europe plunged in the first three months of the year, industry data showed Thursday, in a fresh blow to its boss Elon Musk who has been criticised for his work in US President Donald Trump's administration.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank "must be made fit for purpose again," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday, arguing the institutions should be promoting economic growth instead of social issues.

An unprecedented coral bleaching episode has spread to 84 percent of the world's reefs in an unfolding human-caused crisis that could kill off swathes of the essential ecosystems, scientists warned Wednesday.

Nguyen Thi Kim's small verdant community in northern Vietnam no longer exists, wiped away in a landslide triggered by Typhoon Yagi's devastating heavy rains last year.

After decades spent pruning thorny bushes and working arduous harvests, Khalaf Allah al-Talhi has perfected the art of capturing the fragrant aroma of the desert rose in a bottle.

Nepal's first nationwide survey of the threatened snow leopard estimated nearly 400 of the elusive big cats in the Himalayan nation, wildlife officials said Tuesday.

On a cloudy spring morning in one of Athens' most densely inhabited districts, thousands of fresh saplings dotting a small hilltop park mark a fledgling effort to tackle crippling heat that critics say is long overdue.

With his storm of tariffs on Chinese goods, US President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say.

African leaders praised the "legacy of compassion" and "commitment to inclusivity" of Pope Francis as they joined global mourning over his death on Monday.

Pope Francis, who died Monday aged 88, will go down in history as a radical pontiff, a champion of underdogs who forged a more compassionate Catholic Church while stopping short of overhauling centuries-old dogma.

The rhino lay frozen in the sand, its grey legs stiff, glassy eyes open, horn crudely sawed off.

The United States would drastically reduce its diplomatic footprint in Africa and scrap State Department offices dealing with climate change, democracy and human rights, according to a draft White House order.

Astronomers raised hopes that humanity might not be alone in the universe by announcing on Thursday they have detected the most promising hints yet of life on a distant planet.

The spectre of a transatlantic trade war is also fuelling hopes of a silver lining in Europe: that a commerce deal with four South American countries could get a final green light despite longstanding French opposition.

When the news came through of yet another massacre in the countryside in Nigeria's volatile Plateau state, local Christian Jamaima Haruna was terrified for her Muslim husband.

People were hacked to death with machetes. "She told me not to come," he told AFP at the hospital, shortly after his brother died in the intensive care unit after being shot and hacked.

The uncertainty kicked up by Donald Trump's stop-start tariff rollout will undoubtedly hit growth, the president of the World Bank said Wednesday, ahead of next week's semi-annual meeting of global financial leaders in Washington.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised on Wednesday to defend Australia's interests in its trade tangle with the United States, in a televised debate ahead of May 3 national elections.

Singaporeans vote on May 3 in an election that will test Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's leadership, as the wealthy city-state faces a turbulent global economy upended by US tariffs.

Meta will train its artificial intelligence (AI) models with its European users' public content and conversations with the Meta AI chatbot, the firm said on Monday.

US senator Bernie Sanders became one of Coachella's top cameos so far, drawing a massive crowd on Saturday as he made a pitstop at the premier music festival.

In normal conditions, Canadian Air Force helicopter pilot Jonathan Vokey uses the treeline to gauge his altitude.

Member states of the International Maritime Organization have voted in favour of a global pricing system to help curb maritime carbon emissions, the UN shipping body announced Friday.

An onslaught of tariffs by the United States will send "shock waves" through African economies, the president of the African Development Bank said on Friday, warning of reduced trade and higher debt-servicing costs.