WORLD

Hamas on Thursday accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to "thwart" a Gaza truce deal, after the Israeli premier said the Palestinian militant group has "rejected everything" in negotiations.

Donald Trump's case on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election returns to a courtroom on Thursday, but a trial of the former US president appears remote.

Understanding disinformation has emerged as a lightning rod in the United States ahead of the November election, with academics and think-tanks facing lawsuits by right-wing groups and subpoenas from a Republican-led congressional committee.

Pope Francis is set to stress religious harmony Wednesday as he meets leaders from other religions at Southeast Asia's biggest mosque and holds a mass for tens of thousands at a football stadium in Indonesia's capital.

New Zealand's Maori chiefs anointed a 27-year-old queen as their new monarch Thursday, a surprise choice hailed as a symbol of change for the country's sometimes troubled Indigenous community.

The UK government on Thursday introduces legislation to axe seats in the House of Lords retained for hereditary lawmakers as it moves to reform parliament's unelected upper chamber.

The Colombian government made an "urgent appeal" Wednesday to truckers blockading several highways to create safe corridors for food supplies, amid warnings of looming shortages in several cities.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit violence-ravaged Haiti on Thursday as he looks to consolidate gains by a multinational force and discuss finding new ways of funding.

France was still waiting Wednesday to learn the identity of its new prime minister almost two months after legislative elections left the country in political deadlock, with President Emmanuel Macron battling to find a name that would be acceptable to parliament.

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, threatened with arrest for insisting he was the rightful winner of July presidential elections, urged prosecutors Wednesday not to partake in what he called political persecution.

The United States indicted two employees of Russia's RT and imposed sanctions on top editors of the state-funded news outlet on Wednesday, accusing them of seeking to influence the 2024 US presidential election.

At least 20 migrants were missing in the Mediterranean after their vessel sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italy's coastguard and a senior UN official said Wednesday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday appointed his minister for digital affairs Jose Luis Escriva as the Bank of Spain's new governor, raising concerns about the central bank's independence.

Dmytro Kuleba resigned as Ukraine's top diplomat on Wednesday and other changes are expected.

President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to name a new prime minister almost two months after legislative elections left France in political deadlock, with an announcement possible as soon as Wednesday evening, sources close to him said.

October 7 survivor Sabine Taasa, who lost her husband and 17-year-old son during the Hamas attack, urged UN experts to stop blaming Israel for the war and focus on the trauma inflicted on Israeli children.

Burning plastic in dumps and open fires is as big a problem for the planet as littering, scientists said Wednesday in a detailed new assessment of how plastic enters the environment.

Animal rights groups said Wednesday that gunfire killed a beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness sparked suspicions the creature had been trained by Russia as a spy.

Germany's military put a first Iris-T air-defense system into service on its own soil Wednesday having delivered several of them to war-torn Ukraine to intercept Russian rockets, drones and missiles.

The US trade deficit in July expanded to its largest since mid-2022, according to government data released Wednesday, as imports rose more quickly than exports.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended Wednesday his government's partial suspension of arms exports to Israel over fears they could be used in a breach of humanitarian law as "a legal decision".

Dmytro Kuleba -- who resigned as Ukraine's top diplomat Wednesday -- tirelessly toured the world pleading for more military support and for Kyiv to be given the green light to strike targets deep inside Russia.

A French investigator leading the probe into a man accused of recruiting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife told a court Wednesday of painstaking efforts to identify the perpetrators via the husband's detailed records of the assaults.

Authorities in Rome said Wednesday they were mulling introducing a ticketing system for visitors to the iconic Trevi Fountain, in the latest attempt in Italy to tackle overtourism.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared that Christmas will come early this year, on October 1, as he seeks to impart some holiday cheer after a disputed presidential election the opposition claims he stole.

A Russian strike on the historic centre of Lviv in western Ukraine has killed seven people including three children, officials said Wednesday, a day after a particularly bloody attack in the central city of Poltava in which dozens died.

The historian running the memorial at Germany's former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald is no stranger to hate crime and threats, but he fears more trouble ahead after the far-right AfD's election triumph.

The enticing smell of grilled corn and chestnuts wafted from Hakan Deniz's red and gold food cart near a mosque in Istanbul's old city.

During her final years of high school, Chinese teenager Xu Yunting found an unusual way to make some pocket money -- transforming herself into male video game characters and taking their female devotees on dates.