AFP News

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will want to bow out before he takes a sabbatical with a comprehensive victory over Australia coached by former Irish handler Joe Schmidt on Saturday.

The annual Black Friday shopping day has always been about finding the best deals, but this year retailers are preparing for a US consumer more zealously fixated than ever on getting value for their money.

Liverpool can take another giant step towards just a second English top-flight title in 35 years against fragile Manchester City on Sunday as Ruben Amorim aims for a first Premier League win as Manchester United manager.

Social media giants on Friday hit out at a landmark Australian law banning them from signing up under-16s, describing it as a rush job littered with "many unanswered questions".

Landslides that hit several villages in eastern Uganda killed 15 people and left more than 100 unaccounted for, police said Thursday.

Jihadist fighters cut the Damascus to Aleppo highway on Thursday during an offensive that a monitor says killed around 200, including civilians hit by Russian air force strikes.

Families from south Lebanon's Tyre are returning to their homes after an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, but Israeli strikes have turned parts of the city into an uninhabitable disaster zone without water or electricity.

President Joe Biden on Thursday warned against damaging relations with Canada and Mexico, after Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on both US neighbors when he takes office in January.

Barely known a year ago, far-right candidate Calin Georgescu successfully dominated social network TikTok to emerge the shock winner of Romania's first-round presidential election -- an online campaign that has raised suspicions.

Parades, football and feasts were on the menu Thursday as Americans celebrate the annual Thanksgiving holiday, with stormy skies and the bitterly fought election hanging over many festivities.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged an overhaul of Britain's immigration system on Thursday after revised figures showed net migration hit a record high of 906,000 in 2023 compared with a year earlier.

Romania's presidential election was thrown into chaos Thursday as a court ordered a recount of first-round results and security officials alleged that interference via TikTok had boosted a little-known far-right candidate.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Thursday that while Tbilisi remains committed to its goal of European Union membership, it will not pursue accession until 2028, accusing Brussels of "blackmail".

It was lunchtime and residents of Paiporta, one of the places hit hardest by the deadly floods that ravaged eastern Spain last month, were lining up to get a hot meal.

Hundreds of employees of French cognac maker Hennessy on Thursday staged a protest over potential measures to circumvent Chinese tariffs imposed in a spat with the European Union.

President Bola Tinubu said on Thursday Nigeria is "open for business" as he embarked on a state visit to France, with Paris looking to boost ties in English-speaking Africa following a series of setbacks with former allies on the continent.

Australian lawmakers passed landmark rules to ban under 16s from social media on Thursday, approving one of the world's toughest crackdowns on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram and X. The legislation ordering social media firms to take "reasonable steps" to prevent young teens from having accounts was passed in the Senate with 34 votes in favour and 19 against.

A bitterly-fought climate finance deal reached at COP29 risks weakening emissions-cutting plans from developing countries, observers say, further raising the stakes for new national commitments due early next year.

Chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans announced Thursday their decision to leave their label ADOR, accusing the company of "mistreatment".

Former Liberian warlord Prince Johnson, a key player in the country's back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, died Thursday aged 72, officials from his party and the Senate told AFP. Johnson, who was seen sipping beer in a video as fighters loyal to him tortured then president Samuel Doe to death in 1990, was an influential senator.

French farmers blocked off entrances to two public buildings in Paris on Thursday in protest at "constraints" imposed by regulatory agencies, which they say result in lost production.

The French government is ready to offer concessions to parliament to pass its budget, the finance minister said Thursday, in a standoff which is causing market turbulence and risks bringing down the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

France's richest man, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault, testified Thursday in the influence-peddling trial of the former head of France's domestic intelligence agency, denying any knowledge of an alleged scheme to protect the luxury group.

With its longtime leaders dead, its military capabilities vastly diminished, and its fighters forced to retreat from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah emerges from its war with Israel facing unprecedented challenges.

Lebanon's military deployed troops and tanks across the country's south on Thursday as a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war largely held for a second day.

In the chaos of protests that turned Pakistan's capital into a battleground, a new figurehead has emerged: Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.

Iran is set to meet with Britain, France and Germany for talks Friday on its nuclear programme after the three governments joined with the United States to have Tehran censured by the UN atomic watchdog.

Crunch United Nations talks to find funding to curb the destruction of nature will resume in Rome in February, the UN said on Thursday, after negotiations this month in Colombia ended without a deal.

The French government is ready to offer concessions to parliament to get through its budget, the finance minister said Thursday, in a standoff which is causing market turbulence and risks bringing down the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.