Polls have closed and votes are now being counted in Ecuador’s general election, where 16 candidates are vying for the presidency, including incumbent Daniel Noboa and his main political rival Luisa González. According to Ecuador’s Constitution, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the first round…

For a man who’s spent his career battling to make France more pro-business, Europe’s prospects on artificial intelligence are worrying: an oversight that could cost the bloc dearly. “We need an AI agenda,” he said, “because we have to bridge the gap with the United States and China on AI.”…

The families of the three Israeli hostages released Saturday have spoken out about their loved ones’ ordeal in Hamas captivity, saying they hope their suffering provides impetus to efforts to free all those still in Gaza as soon as possible. Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy appeared gaunt…

Vilnius, Lithuania (REUTERS) – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronized their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to Russia and Belarus Planned for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet…

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from a week-long trip to Washington, toting a fantastical and radical Gaza plan from the American president, he finds a country at a crossroads. Will Israel return to war in Gaza? Or will the ceasefire hold, and more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners…

The number of new marriages recorded in China fell to a record low last year, despite sweeping government efforts to encourage young people to tie the knot and have babies to halt demographic decline in the world’s second-largest economy. Some 6.1 million couples registered their marriages in 2024, a plunge…

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed on Sunday in the deadliest combat so far this year in central India, police said. Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that…

Two rare black wolves, likely siblings, were spotted on camera crossing a stream in a Polish forest, a conservation organization said Sunday. The unusual sighting, captured last year on a video camera set up by SAVE Wildlife Conservation Fund Poland project coordinator Joanna Toczydłowska, has prompted the organization to collect…