Climate change intensified heatwaves, droughts and wildfires across the planet, and pushed the global thermometer 1.48 C above the preindustrial benchmark, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported.

At 34, Gabriel Attal is France's youngest post-war prime minister, a record previously held by the leftist Laurent Fabius, who was 37 when he was named prime minister by Francois Mitterrand in 1984.

Following days of speculation, Macron late Monday accepted the resignation of Elisabeth Borne, 62, who stepped down along with the rest of the government after serving less than two years in office.

South Africa says Israel's "genocidal acts" stem from the killing of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, forced displacement and preventing adequate aid access, resulting in starvation.

"Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world," the pope said.

The Vatican on Monday approved blessings for same-sex couples, a hugely contested issue in the Catholic Church, as long as they are not in contexts related to civil unions or weddings.

Thousands of people from aid agencies, businesses and civil society as well as refugees joined the Geneva event as the number of displaced people globally surpasses a record 114 million amid conflict, poverty and climate change.

Petro-state Azerbaijan has cleared a key hurdle to host next year's UN climate summit despite the controversy over COP28 taking place in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Last month smashed the previous November heat record, pushing 2023's global average temperature to 1.46 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

Sri Lanka asked the Netherlands to return the artefacts after the Dutch government approved the restitution of historic objects in 2021. 

Wilders, a political veteran whose outspoken views have kept him out of power and under 24-hour security protection for years, won a clear mandate to lead government formation talks, taking 23 percent of the vote in Nov. 22 elections.

Dutch far-right politician Wilders of the Freedom Party (PVV), who has vowed to halt all immigration to the Netherlands, was set for a victory in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, an exit poll showed.

His comments have led to sometimes violent protests in nations with large Muslim populations, including Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt. In Pakistan, a religious leader issued a fatwa against him.

"I called on President Putin to end his attack on Ukraine and withdraw troops from Ukraine's territory, so that this war can finally end," Scholz told journalists at a press conference in Berlin alongside Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Last year, Italy formed its most right-wing government since World War Two after the election victory of Giorgia Meloni.

A weighted poll published on the eve of the vote showed anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) tied for the lead with the conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) of outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

With polls suggesting the race is too close to call and the next government certain to be a multi-party coalition, here are the main candidates vying to lead the EU's fifth-largest economy.

NATO will replace its ageing fleet of AWACS surveillance planes, in service since the Cold War in the 1980s, with a militarized version of the Boeing 737 commercial jet, the alliance said on Wednesday, in a deal likely worth billions of euros.

Cameron's return suggested Sunak wanted to bring in a more centrist, experienced hand rather than appease the populist right of his party which backed Braverman.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office said on Saturday there was a "considerable" risk of an eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula because the size of the underground magma intrusion and the rate at which it was moving.

Francis, 86, has tried to make the Church more welcoming to the LGBT community without changing Church teachings, including one saying that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are.

With temperatures soaring beyond previous averages by exceptional margins, scientists say the pressure on world leaders to curb planet-heating greenhouse gas pollution has never been more urgent as they prepare to meet in Dubai for the UNCOP28 climate conference this month. 

The Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) said 85 out of 173 countries surveyed had "suffered a decline in at least one key indicator of democratic performance in the past five years".

It is no longer enough to promise, as more than 70 countries do, to be carbon neutral by 2050 or 2060. Nations must negotiate the phase-out of the main contributor to global emissions, never mentioned in the Paris Agreement: fossil fuels.

Carbon credits have been debated since their inclusion in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

"Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about an unsourced report by a Russian Telegram channel, picked up by some Western media, that the president had suffered a serious health episode on Sunday evening.

Peter Kyle, a senior Labour lawmaker, said his party had delivered a "political earthquake".

The world's biggest publishing trade event begins Wednesday just over a week since Hamas launched the deadliest attack in Israel's history, prompting Israel to respond with a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip. 

Mohammadi, a 51-year-old journalist and activist, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail for her campaign against the mandatory hijab for women and the death penalty.

The illness has long been a scourge in much of Asia and Latin America, causing an estimated 20,000 deaths each year. Rates of the disease have already risen eight-fold globally since 2000, driven largely by climate change as well as the increased movement of people and urbanization.