Protests, hallmarks of US history, are also typically met with irritation.

Imran Khan recorded his last report from occupied East Jerusalem pre-empting the decision to close Al Jazeera in Israel.

Israel’s mass slaughter in Rafah will not start with a ground invasion; it has already been taking place.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has unanimously voted to shut down Al Jazeera's operations in Israel.

As November vote nears, here are the key issues and challenges facing presumptive nominees Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Reacting to Indian nationals' arrest, Trudeau acknowledges fear in Canada's Sikh community but underscores rule of law.

Police kill the boy after he stabbed a man in Perth in an attack authorities say indicated 'terrorism'.

Displaced residents of Gaza have mixed hope for whether a ceasefire will happen soon - but all are eager to return home.

The protege of an ex-head of state convicted for corruption leads the race, with seven others vying for the position.

Israeli cabinet decides unanimously to close the network's operations in Israel with immediate effect.

Police have dismantled the Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of Virginia and arrested several protesters.

Anthony Edwards's 43 points led Minnesota Timberwolves' 106-99 home win over Denver Nuggets.

Dozens of Pro-Palestine graduates interrupted their commencement ceremony at the University of Michigan.

Girona scored a stunning 4-2 win over their Catalan rivals Barcelona to hand a 36th Spanish league title to Real Madrid.

As the war enters its 801th day, these are the main developments.

Anwar Abdullatief creates stunning halal food with the Cape Malay flavours of his childhood

Messi had a record five assists and scored a goal, while Suarez scored a hat-trick in the win over New York Red Bulls.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested nationwide as students continue protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

NAIROBI, Kenya — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today. Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said. It took him a year of "running around and scouring" his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. "Everything was a learning experience," he said. But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina's Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms.  Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there's still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030. Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods. Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year. That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. "In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain," he said. The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector. Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market. Venture capitalists "can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures," said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. "Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way." That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of MAX, formerly Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015. Adetayo said venture capitalists "are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential." "We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it's not trivial investment," he said. The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $5.2 million since it was launched in 2021. He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his. "There's so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time," he said. "VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them." Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent. But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions. From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa's climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%. The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they're more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study. "The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space," he said. "They understand the funding models." Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is "more complex," he said. One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations. The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa. "Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low," said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. "But there's visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you'll start to see those shifts." Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience. "We're starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in," he said. Maelis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives. "We're not gonna go far enough with just the public funding," she said. "We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large."

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028. It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat. "It's a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it," Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP and NBC were granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns. The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 800 kph that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 305 meters of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions. At the end of the hour-long flight, Kendall said he'd seen enough to trust this still-learning AI to decide whether to launch weapons in war. There's a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use. "There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software," the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons "are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response." Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used. The military's shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict, for example, today's Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China's air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons. Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion. Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said. Vista's military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes it to learn more. China has AI, but there's no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista's test pilots said. Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions being tested on Vista are beating human pilots in air-to-air combat. The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed. But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet. "We have to keep running. And we have to run fast," Kendall said.