From scoring goals to encouraging his teammates and coach, Raphinha is back fit and again doing almost everything for Barcelona.
Full Story
Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel were those of Thai agricultural worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The confirmation brought the first phase of Gaza’s tenuous 8-week-old ceasefire a step closer to completion, with one more hostage’s remains still to be returned.
The subsequent phases under a U.S.-drafted, U.N.-backed plan for Gaza remain deeply uncertain. There has been no word on how provisions for Hamas’ disarmament will be carried out, or how a planned international administration and security force will be established.
Full Story
European Union regulators on Friday fined Elon Musk's social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaches of the bloc's digital regulations that they said could leave users exposed to scams and manipulation.
Full Story
Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare on Friday said it had restored services following an outage that took place in the morning that brought down several global websites including LinkedIn, Zoom and others, the second such crash to affect the company in less than three weeks.
Cloudflare said the issue had been resolved and was not due to an attack. A change to how its firewall handles requests "caused Cloudflare's network to be unavailable for several minutes this morning," the company said.
Full Story
The fifth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival, one of the Middle East's largest film festivals, opened Thursday in the coastal city of Jeddah, marking a significant moment for the kingdom's growing film industry.
Running from Dec. 4 to 13, the Red Sea International Film Festival brings together filmmakers and talent from around the world, screening more than 100 films from over 70 countries.
Full Story
A raid by U.S. forces and a local Syrian group aiming to capture an Islamic State group official instead killed a man who had been working undercover gathering intelligence on the extremists, family members and Syrian officials have told The Associated Press.
Full Story
The deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades is piling pressure on Beijing's "patriots-only" governance system, casting a shadow on elections widely seen as a further step to tighten control over the city's legislature.
Sunday's vote to elect new lawmakers to Hong Kong's 90-member Legislative Council comes just 11 days after a massive fire engulfed seven towers in a high-rise apartment complex, killing at least 159 people in the financial hub's worst blaze since 1948.
Full Story
For LeBron James, the win mattered more than the streak.
James' NBA-record run of 1,297 consecutive regular-season games with at least 10 points ended Thursday night at Toronto, and he was the one who made the decision to have it end. Instead of trying to score to win the game — and extend his streak — he set up Rui Hachimura for the final shot.
Full Story
Emergency crews were racing against time on Friday after last week's catastrophic floods and landslides struck parts of Asia, killing more than 1,500 people. Relief operations are underway, but the scale of need is overwhelming the capabilities of rescuers.
Authorities said 867 people were confirmed dead in Indonesia, 486 in Sri Lanka and 185 in Thailand, as well as three in Malaysia.
Full Story
Iran launched massive missiles in the Sea of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz during the second day of a naval drill, state TV reported Friday.
The report said the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched the missiles from the depth of Iran's mainland, hitting targets in the Oman Sea and neighboring area near Strait of Hormuz in a drill that began on Thursday.
Full Story


