The U.S. Federal Reserve may have hit "pause" on interest rate hikes, but the European Central Bank still has its finger on "fast forward" as inflation plagues consumers with higher costs for everything from groceries to utility bills and summer vacations.

Analysts say an increase of a quarter-percentage point is a foregone conclusion when the ECB's governing council meets Thursday, a day after the Fed took at least a temporary breather after 10 straight hikes.

The Israeli military has admitted that it had shot and killed a Palestinian toddler in the occupied West Bank by mistake earlier this month — a rare acknowledgement of wrongdoing.

After an initial investigation into the killing, the Israeli military said it would reprimand one of the officers involved in the killing. The military said it hadn't yet decided whether to proceed with a criminal investigation into the child's death.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip said his economic policies have not changed but he suggested that his finance minister will have leeway to move away from an unconventional approach that many have blamed for a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Erdogan, who was reelected to a third term last month, appointed Mehmet Simsek, an internationally respected banker who served in the Cabinet previously, as treasury and finance minister. He also picked Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former U.S.-based bank executive, to head the central bank, the first woman hold the role.

Wednesday's deadly shipwreck off southern Greece, involving a large boat carrying migrants that capsized after apparently rebuffing offers of help, is just the latest case of smugglers packing vessels full of desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe.

The trip from Libya or Tunisia through the Central Mediterranean and north to Europe is the deadliest migratory route in the world, according to the U.N.'s International Organization of Migration.

Damaging winds and possible tornadoes toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway Wednesday as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.

The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, mainly in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, and cautioned that gusts of hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph (145 kph) were possible in parts of northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi. Some areas also were pelted with large hail.

Australia's Parliament passed legislation on Thursday to prevent Russia from building a new embassy near Parliament House citing threats of espionage and political interference, as tensions grow between Moscow and a major supporter of the Ukraine war effort.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the legislation would extinguish Russia's lease on the site of a second embassy based on the advice of security agencies.

Pope Francis and a leading Sunni imam have made calls for peace as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the importance of "human fraternity" and condemn the hatreds that kindle conflicts.

The pope, who is in hospital recovering from abdominal surgery, sent a statement saying that a third world war is being fought "piecemeal" and with the potentially catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons "the time has come to say an emphatic 'no' to war."

This year's Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after a daunting three-year period when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam's holiest and most beloved rites.

Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin the several days of rituals at holy sites in and around the city. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God's forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad and Abraham.

Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece. Hundreds of people are still feared missing.

At least 78 bodies have been recovered after a fishing boat crammed with migrants seeking to make it from Libya to Italy capsized and sank a day earlier in deep waters off the Greek coast.

The conflict in Sudan has displaced more than 2 million people, the United Nations said, as a U.N. official warned that escalating attacks in Darfur city could amount to "crimes against humanity."

Sudan has plunged into chaos since mid-April when monthslong tensions between the military and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the northeastern African nation.