Brussels, Belgium - The European Union's 27 member states on Friday approved landmark rules on reining in artificial intelligence, passing a key last hurdle after tough negotiations to the very end.Brussels first proposed an AI law in 2021 but spent most of last year racing to greenlight the draft text after chatbot...

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, with...

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 Publishers...

Western governments including the United States have repeatedly warned Iran against such launches, saying the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead. Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for...

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 toughened...

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 textiles...

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The healthcare system has almost entirely collapsed, with hospitals overwhelmed and doctors having to treat a growing number of casualties with dwindling resources.

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 luxuryThe watchword of high-end fashion last year was quiet luxury, thanks in large part to the success of TV show...

Paris, France - The French government has been flooded with applications from low-income households to lease a subsidized electric car from 100 euros ($109) a month, Environment Minister Christophe Bechu said on Friday.President Emmanuel Macron unveiled the plan on social media in December as part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions...

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 million...

Automakers are facing a 2035 deadline set by the European Union to phase out sales of new combustion engine vehicles. Sales of hybrid cars also soared last year, up by nearly 30 percent.

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 sector,...

In a video posted online and broadcast at a meeting in Tel Aviv in support of the hostages, Emmanuel Macron said that France does not abandon its children and "that is why we have to resume negotiations again and again for their release." He said that France is determined that...

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 Qiang...

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 above...

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

The proposed text affirms "the sustainable choice of using nuclear energy as a competitive and carbon-free" source of electricity. But the proposed text sets no such targets for building renewable capacity, in particular wind and solar, whereas previous energy laws did.

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 the...

The French leader posted a photograph of an airman standing on the cargo ramp of a military plane, with parachutes visible in the sky below. The supplies dropped by France and Jordan were equipped with systems that remotely guided them to a Jordanian field hospital operating in the territory, the...

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 with...

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,...

Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemned comments by two Israeli ministers calling for Palestinians to emigrate from the Gaza Strip. Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The comments at issue came in a video of a preacher, Mahmoud Al Hasanat, which Atal posted to his 3.2-million-follower Instagram account five days after Hamas' bloody October 7 assault on Israel.

Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. His comments came the day after Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, adding that Israel should "encourage" the territory's approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to...

The takeover was finalized for an undisclosed amount.

The task force announced by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday initially included Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. The Iran-backed Houthis say their missile and drone strikes on passing container ships are in support of Palestinians in the Gaza war raging between Israel...

President Emmanuel Macron told the France 5 broadcaster, "We cannot let the idea take root that an efficient fight against terrorism implies to flatten Gaza or attack civilian populations indiscriminately." While acknowledging "Israel's right to defend itself and fight terror", Macron said France called for the protection of civilians and...

Paris, France - The French government of President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday was battling to salvage a flagship immigration reform following deadlock in parliament that risks casting a shadow over his second mandate.After the government bill was rejected by parliament last week, a commission of French lower house MPs and upper...

Dubai, UAE – About 79 percent of UAE employees believe digital skills are crucial for business success, and 84 percent feel that new technologies are empowering them to reach their potential, according to a latest ServiceNow survey . The survey, which included over 5,500 working adults from the UAE, France, Germany,...

Nice, France - Algerian international footballer Youcef Atal goes on trial in France on Monday accused of inciting hatred after posting a video in which a Palestinian preacher purportedly threatens Israel with a "black day".Atal, who plays for Ligue 1 side Nice, shared the video on his Instagram account, which has...

The Israeli government has come under growing pressure from the international community to pause the fighting and do more to protect civilians. The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Gazans -- around 80 percent -- have been displaced by the war.

PARIS, FRANCE - While the UN's COP28 climate summit marked a pivot moment, when the world pledged to say "goodbye" to fossil fuels, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol told AFP on Friday, it needs to now urgently boost finance for the energy transition in developing countries.Birol welcomed the landmark agreement...

There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally in Lebanon, and Israel since the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Business activity in the eurozone slumped at a faster rate in December, weighed down by a deeper downturn in France, a key survey said on Friday.The HCOB Flash Eurozone purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by S&P Global fell to 47 in December from 47.6 in November. A figure below 50...

PARIS, FRANCE - The family of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody, have been banned from traveling to France to collect a top rights prize awarded posthumously, their lawyer said on Saturday.Amini died aged 22 on September 16, 2022, while being held by Iran's religious police for...

In a note to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Climate Change body, shared with AFP, climate scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Exeter University said there was very little room for anything but a total phase-out of fossil fuels.

Paris, France - Ukraine's allies have dramatically scaled back their pledges of new aid to the country, which have fallen to their lowest level since the start of the war, the Kiel Institute's Ukraine aid tracker showed Thursday."The dynamics of support to Ukraine have slowed," the German-based institute said, adding that...

Paris, France - Asian countries dominated the top spots in a keenly watched survey of education capabilities published Tuesday, while levels in Europe slipped at a record pace -- and not just because of Covid.However, the report also showed that students in top performing countries were not necessarily happier.The PISA survey...

Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN's COP28 climate talks in Dubai, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the "Israeli authorities" will have to define their objective and desired end state more precisely. He warned that its aim of destroying the Palestinian movement could unleash a...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Growing calls for the world to come to grips with the many ways that global warming affects human health have prompted the first day dedicated to the issue at crunch UN climate talks starting next week.Extreme heat, air pollution and the increasing spread of deadly infectious diseases are...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Around 80% of consumers surveyed across 16 countries now view climate change as the world’s No. 1 challenge, a recent research conducted by GSMA Intelligence with support from Huawei, revealed. The countries include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Pakistan,...

Beijing has this year sought to play a greater role in the Middle East, facilitating a historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and sending an envoy to the region to push for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Manama, UAE--The Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) has partnered with UpGradelle, a leading French-based consultancy firm, to develop capabilities in the field of digital transformation.The agreement was signed during the visit of Eric Giraud-Telme, the Ambassador of France, who serves to strengthen education and training ties between Bahrain...

Dubai, UAE--Dubai International Chamber has attracted a total of 92 businesses, including 15 multinational companies and 77 SMEs, to the emirate between January and September 2023.The chamber has also supported the successful expansion of 33 Dubai-based companies into global markets, either by increasing their exports or helping them to establish...

Paris, France - Tax havens are blamed for lower public revenues elsewhere as they lure away multinational firms but a study published on Tuesday showed that tax breaks in high-rate countries are also heavily exploited.Half the profits booked by multinationals benefiting from low tax rates were from countries that have high...

PARIS, FRANCE -  Countries' greenhouse gas-cutting pledges put Earth on track for warming far beyond key limits, potentially up to a catastrophic 2.9 degrees Celsius this century, the UN said Monday, warning "we are out of road".The UN Environment Program's annual Emissions Gap report is released just ahead of crucial COP28...

PARIS, FRANCE - Rarely a month goes by without big tech companies getting fined for price fixing, squashing competitors or misusing data, but it can take years before they pay a penny.Ireland's data regulator confirmed to AFP that Meta has not paid any of the US$2.2 billion (2 billion euros) in...

Alstom said it aims to cut debt by 2 billion euros by March 2025.

Pleading for an end to Israel's war on the Gaza Strip, thousands of pro-Palestine supporters took to streets in Paris under the rallying cry "Stop the massacre in Gaza." The left-wing organisers called for France to "demand an immediate ceasefire" between Israel and Hamas", as the death toll in Gaza...

Paris, France-- The UAE has made a fervent appeal to members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to join the country and its group of friends to lead climate efforts on the occasion of the UAE hosting COP28 in Expo City Dubai from 30th November to...