The German football federation appointed Andreas Rettig as sporting director in charge of all its national teams and youth academy on Friday.

The federation said Rettig was taking over with immediate effect. It did not say how the appointment would affect Rudi Völler's position as sporting director of the men's national team.

The Central Bank of Russia raised its key lending rate by one percentage point to 13% on Friday, a month after imposing an even larger hike, as concerns about inflation persist and the ruble continues to struggle against the dollar.

The increase comes as annualized inflation rose in September to 5.5% and the bank said it expected it would reach 6%-7% by the end of the year.

The European Union faced a Friday deadline to decide whether to extend a ban on Ukrainian food from five nearby countries that have complained that an influx of agricultural products from the war-torn nation has hurt their farmers.

Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria still allow grain and other Ukrainian food to pass through on the way to parts of the world in need.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting Friday with his Belarusian ally, who suggested that Minsk could could join Moscow's efforts to revive an old alliance with Pyongyang after this week's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Belarusian President Alexander made the proposal as he met with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the Russian leader said he would brief him about the talks with Kim on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia's Far East.

Tens of thousands of climate activists around the world are protesting Friday and through the weekend to call for an end to the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels as the globe suffers dramatic weather extremes and record-breaking heat.

The strike — driven by several mostly youth-led, local and global climate groups and organizations, including Greta Thunberg's Fridays for Future movement — is taking place in dozens of countries and in hundreds of cities worldwide.

The United States said that it was sanctioning more than 150 businesses and people from Russia to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Georgia to try to crack down on evasion and deny the Kremlin access to technology, money and financial channels that fuel President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

The sanctions package is one of the biggest by the State and Treasury departments and is the latest to target people and companies in countries, notably in NATO member Turkey, that sell Western technology to Russia that could be used to bolster its war effort.

The Biden administration has said that Egypt's poor human rights record hasn't improved, but it won't withhold as much military aid as it did last year regardless. Administration officials cited what they said were overriding U.S. national security interests for the decision to limit the extent they would penalize Egypt for the abuses.

The officials cited regional stability and international support for Ukraine's battle against invading Russian forces as among the U.S. national security interests served by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, despite Sisi's retreat on some human rights benchmarks. They briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the State Department.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet billionaire businessman Elon Musk during a trip to the United States next week, the Israeli leader's office said.

Netanyahu's office said their meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, will include discussions about artificial intelligence. It comes at a time when Musk is facing accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Britain, France and Germany announced Thursday they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country's atomic program and development of ballistic missiles. The measures were to expire in October under a timetable spelled out in the now defunct nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In a joint statement, the three European allies known as E3 and which had helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said they would retain their sanctions in a "direct response to Iran's consistent and severe non-compliance" with the accord, also known by its official name as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

Libyan authorities blocked civilians from entering the flood-stricken eastern city of Derna on Friday so search teams could look through the mud and wrecked buildings for 10,100 people still missing after the known toll rose to 11,300 dead.

The disaster after two dams collapsed in heavy rains and sent a massive flood gushing into the Mediterranean city early Monday underscored the storm's intensity but also Libya's vulnerability. The oil-rich state since 2014 has been split between rival governments in the east and west backed by various militia forces and international patrons.