WORLD

A record number of Cabinet ministers lost their seats on Friday in Britain's general election, leaving only a couple of obvious contenders for the party leadership if Rishi Sunak resigns.

Iran holds a presidential election runoff Friday between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili following a record-low turnout in the first round.

The French far right and its struggling rivals make a final push for votes on Friday ahead of the decisive round of parliamentary elections that were called in a major gamble by centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

The Scottish National Party was forecast to suffer its worst result in a British general election since 2010 on Thursday, dealing a blow to Scotland's flagging independence movement.

Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen won stage six of the Tour de France on Thursday after an eye-catching run though Burgundy ended in a feisty mass dash for the finish line in Dijon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday ordered his spy chief to Qatar for talks with mediators on a Gaza war ceasefire that could see Hamas militants release hostages seized in the October 7 attacks, sources said.

Novak Djokovic on Thursday backed Andy Murray to keep playing despite the insistence of his career-long rival that he is bidding farewell to tennis this year.

Campaigning for July 28 presidential elections officially opened in Venezuela amid great uncertainty Thursday, with incumbent Nicolas Maduro accused of political persecution.

French far-right leader Marine le Pen insisted Thursday her party can still win control of parliament despite the centre and left scrambling to block her way and football hero Kilian Mbappe urging fans to outvote "those people".

After almost 800 days in Iran's notorious Evin prison, the now-free Swedish diplomat Johan Floderus recalled the darkest moments throughout his imprisonment and how he survived them.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has been pleading with its Western partners to provide the country with modern fighter jets.

In her constituency in northern France, former prime minister Elisabeth Borne is counting on support from left-wing voters to hold her seat, even if many refuse to forget her role in passing a controversial pension reform.

Erik ten Hag has signed a contract extension that keeps him at Old Trafford until 2026, the Premier League club announced on Thursday.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and explosive drones Thursday at Israeli military positions as tensions have soared amid the almost nine-months-old Gaza war.

Monsoon rains cause widespread destruction every year, but experts say climate change is shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme events.

A US mid-range missile system deployed in the Philippines for annual joint military exercises -- to the annoyance of China -- will be pulled out of the country, a Philippine Army spokesman said Thursday.

Hundreds of South Korean patient rights advocates gathered Thursday to urge physicians to halt a prolonged strike that has affected public health services.

More than seven percent of all deaths in 10 of India's biggest cities are linked to air pollution, a large study said Thursday, leading researchers to call for action to save tens of thousands of lives a year.

Crowds bopped to bass-heavy electronic music at a weekend party in Shanghai that brought together deaf and hearing clubbers, with staff taking food and drink orders through sign language.

Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as a wildfire rages out of control in northern California, with a swathe of the United States in the grip of a "record-breaking and dangerous" heatwave that was complicating firefighting efforts.

Britons head to the polls Thursday in a general election widely expected to emphatically return the opposition Labour party to power and end nearly a decade-and-a-half of Conservative rule.

A magistrate Wednesday charged prominent film director Benoit Jacquot for allegedly raping actors Julia Roy and Isild Le Besco, prosecutors said, in a high-profile MeToo case that has rocked France.

The Hamas militant group said Wednesday it has sent new "ideas" to Qatari mediators aimed at ending the nearly nine-month Gaza war with Israel.

The Kenyan presidency said Wednesday it had ordered a review of salary increases for public servants in an apparent move to defuse tensions after a wave of sometimes deadly anti-government protests.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled southern Gaza since Israel issued an evacuation order, amid fears of a new offensive in the area which came under Israeli bombardment on Wednesday.

It may not look like much -- just a flaking image of three people around a big red pig.

The US trade gap grew slightly less than expected in May, to the widest level since late 2022, government data showed on Wednesday, as exports and imports both slipped.

Hindu preacher Bhole Baba promised to improve the lives of poor Indian families struggling to get by.

The leaders of Russia and China were in Kazakhstan on Wednesday for a regional summit, seeking to harden anti-Western alliances and press their influence in the strategic Central Asian region.