WORLD

French cycling legend Bernard Hinault is licking his lips at the prospect of current superstars Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel tackling the same route at the 2027 world championships as he faced when he claimed his one and only rainbow jersey in 1980.

The Trump administration aims to remove degradation of habitat from its definition of "harm" to endangered species, proposing Wednesday a rule change that would open the door to human activity in ecologically sensitive environments.

Astronomers announced Thursday that they had detected the most promising "hints" of potential life on a planet beyond our solar system, though other scientists expressed scepticism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Elon Musk on Wednesday, telling university students he was a pioneer comparable to legendary Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev.

US President Donald Trump's tariffs will likely push up prices and constrain growth, and could put the Federal Reserve in the unenviable position of having to choose between tackling inflation and unemployment, the central bank's chair said Wednesday.

The European Union on Wednesday published a list of seven countries it considers "safe", in a bid to speed up migrant returns by making it harder for citizens of those nations to claim asylum in the bloc.

French President Emmanuel Macron will on Thursday meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff, the Elysee palace said, as transatlantic tensions soar over the war in Ukraine.

Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen flew to El Salvador on Wednesday to press for the release of a US resident mistakenly deported to the Central American country.

President Donald Trump called Harvard a "joke" Wednesday and said it should lose its government research contracts after the top US university refused to accept demands to come under outside political supervision.

Assailants targeted cars and a building lobby linked to prison staff in France overnight, the authorities said Wednesday, the latest in a series of coordinated attacks that have put the government on edge.

Global trade is expected to plummet this year in the wake of President Donald Trump's tariff offensive, fuelling uncertainty that threatens "severe negative consequences" for the world, the World Trade Organization warned Wednesday.

Israel said Wednesday it would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, where a relentless military offensive has turned the Palestinian territory into a "mass grave", a medical charity reported.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that Iran's enrichment of uranium as part of its nuclear programme was "non-negotiable" after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff called for a halt.

At a malnutrition treatment centre in Afghanistan's capital, the cries of children have given way to a heavy silence, as patients are turned away and medical staff laid off due to US aid cuts.

Cod and herring are normally more likely to be on the dinner menu than the negotiating table at European security talks.

Like thousands of senior citizens in Ukraine, Zinaida Gyrenko was spending the sunset years of her life in a shelter, her retirement upended by Russia's invasion.

At the bottom of a long-abandoned mine, 50 metres below the surface, one company searches for rare Welsh gold, attracted by soaring prices and its royal connection.

China on Wednesday said its economy grew a forecast-beating 5.4 percent in the first quarter as exporters rushed to get goods out of factory gates ahead of swingeing new US tariffs.

Sheltering in the shade of a bus repurposed into a mobile museum, Mean Loeuy tells a group of children about the hell he went through in a Khmer Rouge labour camp.

Unai Emery believes there is more to come from Aston Villa as they exited the Champions League with pride after a thrilling 3-2 victory over Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

Worldwide consumption of wine fell in 2024 to its lowest level in more than 60 years, the main trade body said Tuesday, raising concerns about new risks from US tariffs.

US President Donald Trump's bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return.

A wave of coordinated attacks have hit prisons across France, with unknown assailants torching cars outside several jails, leaving mysterious inscriptions and hitting one facility with automatic gunfire.

US President Donald Trump's showdown with the judicial system will be in the spotlight Tuesday at a hearing on the fate of a migrant who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

President Donald Trump stepped up his extraordinary threats to send Americans to foreign jails, saying Tuesday he would love to deport "homegrown" US citizens who commit violent crimes to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's push for a ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine was "not easy" and condemned Russia's "terrible pattern" of attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

More than 10 percent of the Afghan population could be deprived of healthcare by the end of the year due to the termination of US aid, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday will bestow awards on around 100 craftspeople and officials who helped restore Notre Dame to its former glory after a fire nearly destroyed the beloved Paris cathedral six years ago.

Nearly 60,000 Afghans have been forced to leave Pakistan since the start of April, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday, after Islamabad ramped up a campaign to deport migrants to Afghanistan.