Paris, France - They didn't exist a century ago but today PFAS "forever chemicals" contaminate the environment from groundwater to Antarctic snow to turtle eggs, and concern over their possible toxicity is growing. Lawsuits and regulations targeting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are multiplying, with France becoming the latest jurisdiction to...

World Central Kitchen -- one of two NGOs spearheading efforts to deliver aid by boat -- said a "targeted Israeli strike" on Monday killed Australian, British, Palestinian, Polish and US-Canadian staff. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged a "swift, impartial investigation" into the airstrike and said Israel needed to...

After Paris, Blinken will head to Brussels for NATO foreign ministers' talks ahead of the alliance's 75th anniversary summit in Washington. Blinken will also hold a three-way meeting in Brussels with EU leaders and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has been seeking to branch out from his country's historic...

Formula One owners paid US$4.5 billion for the deal.

Paris, France - The French parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as "bloody and murderous repression" the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence. In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come...

Paris, France -- Visitors to central Paris were treated Sunday to the sight of hundreds of aproned waiters surging through the medieval streets, in a one-of-a-kind race designed to show off the profession months ahead of the Olympic Games. Men's winner Samy Lamrous and top waitress Pauline Van Wymeersch walked the...

Copenhagen, Denmark - Developing countries should not have to set stricter targets for cutting their carbon emissions before funds are available to help them transition to cleaner energies, the chairman of this year's UN climate negotiations said Thursday. Addressing a ministerial climate meeting in Copenhagen, Azerbaijan's Mukhtar Babayev said "there is...

On average, every person on earth generates roughly 7.8 kilograms (17 pounds 3 ounces) of e-waste each year, said the report from the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), another UN agency.

PARIS, FRANCE – Liverpool football analysts have given their seal of approval to a new artificial intelligence tool from Google that suggests the best tactics for corner kicks, researchers said on Tuesday. However no Liverpool players -- or any humans -- have tried out the AI assistant's suggestions, and an outside...

Methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry have risen for three consecutive years, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), hitting near record highs in 2023.

Paris, France - Conditions affecting the nervous system -- such as strokes, migraines and dementia -- have surged past heart disease to become the leading cause of ill health worldwide, a major new analysis said on Friday. More than 3.4 billion people -- 43 percent of the global population -- experienced...

Rising fuel needs of ships rerouted away from the Red Sea also to increase demand, the International Energy Agency said. Commercial ships have been taking longer and costlier journeys around the southern tip of Africa to avoid attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

Paris, France - An Israeli tank crew who killed one journalist and wounded six others in Lebanon in October then "likely" opened fire on them with a machine gun, an expert report said on Thursday. The strike in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border on October 13 instantly killed Issam Abdallah,...

Paris, France - A German man who deliberately got vaccinated for Covid-19 a whopping 217 times did not report any side effects from his many jabs, according to researchers studying possibly the "most vaccinated person in history". The immune system of the 62-year-old man from the central German city of Magdeburg...

PARIS, FRANCE – Heatwaves and floods inflict greater economic pain on rural women than men because climate change intensifies existing inequalities, the United Nations' food and farming agency said on Tuesday. Scientists say the effects of rising temperatures are already being felt most acutely by the poorest and most vulnerable people...

Paris, France - Elon Musk has launched a legal case against OpenAI, the AI firm he helped to set up in 2015, accusing its leaders of a "betrayal" of its founding mission. The tycoon, who left OpenAI in 2018, argued in documents filed in a San Francisco court late on Thursday...

PARIS, FRANCE – Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose to a record level in 2023, but the growth slowed from previous years thanks to continued expansion of clean technologies, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. CO2 emissions from energy rose by 1.1 percent in 2023, increasing by 410 million tonnes to a...

Paris, France - Extraction of Earth's natural resources could surge 60 percent by 2060, imperiling climate goals and economic prosperity, the UN said on Friday, calling for dramatic changes in energy, food, transport and housing. Enormous expansion of infrastructure, energy demand and consumer consumption over the last half century, particularly in...

London, United Kingdom - Major stock markets traded mixed Thursday before the release of US inflation data that could present a clearer idea on when the Federal Reserve will start cutting interest rates as inflation cools. Traders reacted also to yet more earnings, with the Paris CAC 40 reaching a fresh...

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told the RTL broadcaster that there was "no consensus" on any "official" deployment of ground troops. "But no dynamic can be ruled out. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia cannot win this war," he said, using the same words as Macron...

According to local media reports, the country's war cabinet endorsed the decision to dispatch negotiators to Qatar to continue talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the war against Hamas and the return of hostages being held in Gaza. Pressure has mounted on Israeli PM to strike a deal to...

The negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the United States, and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. They also come alongside deepening fears for Gaza's civilians.

Soliman, Tunisia - A Tunisian imam expelled from France for alleged hate speech said on Friday he would take legal action in a bid to overturn the decision. Mahjoub Mahjoubi, from the town of Bagnols-sur-Ceze in the south of France, denounced his removal as "arbitrary". The 52-year-old was arrested and then...

Rotterdam, Netherlands - The world's first chemical tanker ship fitted with massive rigid aluminium "sails" has left Rotterdam, its owner hoping to plot a route to bringing down the shipping industry's huge carbon footprint. The MT Chemical Challenger, a 16,000-ton chemicals transporter set sail from Antwerp for Istanbul on Friday, and...

EDF cut its large debt by increasing nuclear production.

"The weakness of yesterday's US retail sales release have given market doves a new lease of life and allowed them to refocus on the likelihood of an early Fed rate cut," Rabobank analyst Jane Foley told AFP.

"The recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France," he said at a joint press conference in Paris with Jordan's King Abdullah II. Macron also repeated a warning against Israel attacking the city of Rafah, the southernmost point in the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory of Gaza.

The new hub part of a trend for big tech firms to base teams in European centers.

Paris, France - A boisterous young chimpanzee slaps an adult in his family on the back, then scampers away and looks back to see the response to his cheekiness. Nothing yet, so the young chimp Azibo rolls back and dishes out another slap, this time provoking a reaction: the distracted adult...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Earth has endured 12 consecutive months of temperatures 1.5C hotter than the pre-industrial era for the first time on record, Europe's climate monitor said Thursday, in what scientists called a "warning to humanity". Storms, drought and fire have lashed the planet as climate change -- supercharged by the...

The OECD raised its 2024 world economic growth forecast Monday but warned that the Middle East conflict posed a risk, with disruptions in Red Sea shipping threatening to increase consumer prices. Global growth "proved unexpectedly resilient" in 2023, reaching 3.1 percent as inflation declined faster than anticipated..

Paris, France -- Parisians were voting on Sunday in a referendum on tripling parking costs for hefty SUV-style cars, a campaign that has drivers' groups up in arms against city hall. Some 1.3 million in the French capital are eligible to cast their ballot on the change, which would see cars...

Paris, France - Hackers have used the notorious Pegasus spyware to break into the phones of dozens of journalists and activists in Jordan over the past four years, according to the findings of an investigation released Thursday. The Access Now NGO highlighted 35 cases of hacking that date back to 2019,...

As Qatari and Egyptian-led mediation efforts intensified, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was due in Cairo on Thursday to discuss a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris last weekend with CIA chief William Burns. Israel's withering air, land and sea offensive has killed at least 26,900 people in Gaza, most of...

"Markets are eagerly anticipating today's meeting from the Federal Reserve with traders looking for signs over whether a March rate cut is plausible," said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

PARIS, FRANCE - More than two-thirds of musicians fear that artificial intelligence will make it impossible to make a living, according to a study by French and German music societies published on Tuesday. Based on a survey of over 15,000 people in the industry, France's Society of Authors, Composers and Music...

Taher al-Nunu, a senior Hamas official, said his group wanted a "complete and comprehensive ceasefire, and not a temporary truce." Speaking to AFP, he said that once the fighting stopped "the rest of the details can be discussed" including a hostage release. Qatar, Egypt and the US have led mediation...

Paris, France - A gene therapy that has allowed several children born deaf to hear for the first time is being hailed as a "game changer" that raises hopes of the first new treatment for hereditary deafness in decades. Several medical teams around the world are trialling the procedure, which focuses...

Paris, France - Airbus will build a helicopter assembly line in India with Indian conglomerate Tata, the European aircraft manufacturer said Friday. The deal was announced during a two-day visit to India by French President Emmanuel Macron. Airbus said the facility -- which will take two years to set up -- would...

PARIS, FRANCE - France's top constitutional authority on Thursday rejected parts of a controversial immigration bill adopted under pressure from the right, in a ruling applauded by government but slammed by the far right. The bill adopted last month is a flagship reform of President Emmanuel Macron's second term, but the...

PARIS, FRANCE - Imane Ayissi is on a mission to put authentic African textiles in the spotlight but faces an uphill battle as a pioneer African couturier at Paris Fashion Week. The bark of the Obom tree, kente cloth from Ghana and kapok fibres from Burkina Faso are some of the...

PARIS, FRANCE - The Paris Fashion Week menswear shows draw to a close on Sunday. Here are some of the highlights among the 40-plus runway shows of the past few days.   Quiet luxury The watchword of high-end fashion last year was quiet luxury, thanks in large part to the success of...

Paris, France - World oil supply will continue to rise this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, as it predicted that demand growth would continue a downward slide throughout 2024. The Paris-based IEA, which advises oil-consuming nations, said it expects increase in global oil demand to halve from 2.3...

Paris, France - Counterfeit products -- mainly clothes -- cost the European economy 16 billion euros a year and result in nearly 200,000 lost jobs, the EU's Intellectual Property Office said Tuesday. The findings, based on data from 2018 to 2021, show that fakes take the biggest toll on the clothing...

Paris, France - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Middle East leaders will attend a World Economic Forum in Davos next week dominated by the war in Gaza, the WEF said Tuesday. Argentina's libertarian new president, Javier Milei, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese Premier Li...

PARIS, FRANCE - The year of 2023 was the hottest on record, with the increase in Earth's surface temperature nearly crossing the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, EU climate monitors said on Tuesday. Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C...

The deal could be worth as much as $8.5 billion.

PARIS, FRANCE  - A consortium of Brazilian, British, French and Chinese energy firms will test new technology aimed at capturing CO2 in an undersea oilfield off Brazil in an effort to reduce emissions, TotalEnergies said on Monday. The pilot unit will separate oil from CO2-rich natural gas at the bottom of...

Paris, France - Google has begun limiting third-party cookies for some users of its Chrome web browser, a first step towards eventually abandoning the files that have raised privacy concerns. Google, which announced in 2020 that it planned to get rid of cookies, said fully eliminating third-party cookies could only happen...

World food prices fell in 2023, with considerable declines for grains and oils as supply concerns eased, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said. The FAO's cereals price index fell 15.4 percent last year, "reflecting well supplied global markets" compared to 2022, when prices soared after Russia's invasion of Ukraine,...