World

by Frank Zeller and Femke Colborne

"Let's go, guys, let's go -- fight for a great future for Germany!" the tech billionaire shouted via video link at a recent campaign rally of the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Switzerland will consider legalizing recreational cannabis use, after a parliamentary commission on Friday proposed a law that would allow regulated sale and access.

The draft proposal adopted by the lower house of parliament's health commission, with 14 votes in favour, nine against and two abstentions, called for adults to be "accorded a strictly regulated access to cannabis".

Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday vowed "reciprocity" in response to a 25-percent levy on steel imports announced by US President Donald Trump.

"There is no doubt, there will be reciprocity" from Brazil -- the second-largest exporter of steel to the United States after Canada, Lula told Radio Clube do Para.

Paris is naming part of an avenue after Alexei Navalny, the late Russian opposition leader who died in an Arctic prison colony in murky circumstances, the city council has said.

The Avenue de Pologne in the wealthy 16th district of the capital will have one side -- with odd house numbers -- named "Alexei Navalny", city hall said after a Wednesday's vote.

A double-decker bus and a car crashed into a river when a bridge collapsed in northern Peru Friday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens, authorities said.

The bus was transporting more than 50 passengers when the 60-meter (197-foot) long bridge it was crossing near Chancay gave in "due to a structural failure," according to disaster management official Cecilia Martino.

Mexico's president on Friday warned U.S. gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican cartels as terrorist groups.

The Latin American nation, which is under mounting pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to curb illegal drug smuggling, wants its neighbor to crack down on firearms trafficking in the other direction.

Axios reported Friday that in the month of November 2024, former President Joe Biden "arrested 21,000 unauthorized immigrants." Since taking over on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump's office hasn't been able to reach those numbers "despite its crackdown."

The report cites Trump's hire, Tom Homan, calculating "about 14,000 immigrants" who were arrested in the "three-plus weeks" after the inauguration.

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance Friday urged Germany's mainstream political parties to drop resistance to cooperating with the far right, hours after Berlin rejected American "meddling" ahead of its election.

"Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters," said Vance in a speech to the Munich Security Conference.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance launched a withering attack Friday against European policies on immigration, populist parties and free speech, echoing the views of President Donald Trump, whom he called Washington's "new sheriff in town".

Vance also stressed Europe must "step up" in managing its own security, a key bone of contention.

by Nioucha ZAKAVATI

The motive behind Sweden's deadliest mass shooting may never be known but the fact that almost all of the victims had foreign backgrounds has sparked concern among the country's immigrants.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday warned NATO allies in Europe against assuming that the American troop presence on the continent would "last forever", as he urged them to spend more on defense.

"Now is the time to invest because you can't make an assumption that America's presence will last forever," Hegseth told reporters alongside his Polish counterpart in Warsaw.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday said the Trump administration "has no regard for established rules" as he opened the Munich Security Conference.

"The new American administration has a very different world view to ours," Steinmeier said. "One that has no regard for established rules, partnership and established trust."

Cold weather, disease and capacity cuts pushed wine production in France's Bordeaux region last year to a low not seen in three-and-a-half decades, the local industry body said Friday.

Often called the world's most famous wine country, Bordeaux -- France's biggest wine region -- produces the iconic Medoc, Saint-Emilion, and Pomerol high-end wines, as well as larger quantities of lower-priced produce.