World

Russia's fencers have rejected the "proposed return format" set out by the IOC to come back to international competition, the Russian Olympic Committee said Thursday, raising the possibility of a boycott of Olympic qualifiers.

"As far as fencing in particular is concerned, I have repeatedly discussed with members of the national team the proposed 'return' format," ROC president Stanislav Pozdniakov said on Telegram.

Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is expected to finalize a deal Thursday with Brazilian authorities to avoid prosecution in a 2008 fraud case.

Prosecutors have proposed a deal in which Santos would pay a fine to the state of Rio de Janeiro and reimburse the fraud victim for the full amount he stole, adjusted for inflation, and the embattled lawmaker is expected to appear before the Brazilian judge in a video hearing, reported CNN.

The world's biggest chocolate makers are failing on promises to improve pay for farmers in major cocoa producer Ghana despite strong profits, charity Oxfam said in a report on Thursday.

It said earnings for US companies Hershey, Mars and Mondelez in addition to Italy's Ferrero and Swiss peers Lindt & Spruengli and Nestle had increased since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, a period when inflation has soared.

A Dutchman jailed in Peru for murder will be handed over to face charges in the United States related to the 2005 disappearance of an American woman in Aruba, authorities said Wednesday.

The ruling marks a turnaround from the South American country's decision in 2012, when it said it would only send Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot to the United States in 2038 once he had completed a 28-year prison sentence for murdering a Peruvian woman.

Donald Trump was noticeably noncommittal about his position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and national security expert Tom Nichols said he would give Vladimir Putin everything he wanted if re-elected as president.

The ex-president -- who was impeached in 2019 for an extortion scheme involving Ukraine -- told a town hall audience assembled by CNN that he wanted the killing to stop but refused to say who should prevail in the war, and Nichols told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that was an ominous sign.

Former President Donald Trump hinted during his CNN town hall appearance on Wednesday night that he would cut off American military support to Ukraine -- and he wouldn't even say whether he wanted to see Russia or Ukraine prevail in the conflict.

CNN's Jim Sciutto on Thursday morning said that some of America's allies watched the town hall and came away alarmed about the former president's attitude toward the conflict, and they think he could decidedly tip the scales in Russia's favor should he win a second term.

The resignation of a French mayor targeted by the far right over plans to move an asylum-seekers' centre prompted a political outcry Thursday after he faced death threats and an arson attack on his home.

The resignation of Yannick Morez, mayor of Saint-Brevin-les-Pins in western France, comes as support for the far right swells and mainstream parties seek to channel anti-immigration sentiment in an increasingly tense political environment.

Vincent Van Gogh's feverish final months in a French village, when he churned out masterpieces even as he spiraled into despair, are the subject of a one-off exhibition opening this week in Amsterdam.

The show at the Van Gogh Museum in the Dutch capital, which opens Friday, features 50 of the 74 works produced in his frenzied last days in Auvers-sur-Oise, just northwest of Paris, before his death at the age of 37.

A "perfect storm" of overlapping crises forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, sending the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said on Thursday.

An unprecedented 71.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2022 -- up 20 percent from a year earlier -- amid mass displacement for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as by the monsoon floods that drenched Pakistan.

The fate of tens of thousands of people seeking asylum at the United States' southern border will, from Friday, hinge on an app that has just 2.5 stars in the App Store.

For immigration managers, a sleek, computerized way to manage the wave of people expected to arrive when Covid-era rules lapse must have been tempting.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has filed a suit with a court demanding the withdrawal of parts of a biography published this month, arguing they violate her private life, the publishing house said on Wednesday.

According to the complaint seen by AFP, Borne lists passages in the book by journalist Berengere Bonte "referring to her health and sexual orientation", as well as to her family life, that need to be removed.