No Hollywood star seems as intrinsically tied to Venice as George Clooney.

Twenty-six years ago he attended his first Venice Film Festival with the instant classic "Out of Sight"; 19 years ago, it's where he debuted his sophomore film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," which earned him his first best director nomination; and 10 years ago, it's where he exchanged vows with then Amal Alamuddin, at the Aman Venice, a five-star hotel perched alongside the Grand Canal.

British energy bills are set to start rising again this autumn, the sector regulator announced on Friday, sparking fears that fuel poverty will worsen amid an ongoing cost of living crisis.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have issued a ban on women's voices and bare faces in public under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue.

The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice" after seizing power in 2021.

Google will soon give California millions of dollars to help pay for local journalism jobs in a first-in-the-nation deal, but journalists and other media industry experts are calling it a disappointing agreement that mostly benefits the tech giant.

The agreement, which was hashed out behind closed doors and announced this week, will direct tens of millions of public and private dollars to keep local news organizations afloat. Critics say it's a textbook political maneuver by tech giants to avoid a fee under what could have been groundbreaking legislation. California lawmakers agreed to kill a bill requiring tech to support news outlets they profit from in exchange for Google's financial commitment.

Freight trains in Canada could be running again within days after the government forced the country's two major railroads into arbitration with their labor union Thursday, a move aimed at averting potentially dire economic consequences across the country and in the U.S. if the trains are sidelined for a long period.

The government's action came more than 16 hours after Canadian National and CPKC locked out workers over a labor agreement impasse. Both railroads said they would work to get trains moving again as soon as possible.

To figure out what really works when nations try to fight climate change, researchers looked at 1,500 ways countries have tried to curb heat-trapping gases. Their answer: Not many have done the job. And success often means someone has to pay a price, whether at the pump or elsewhere.

In only 63 cases since 1998, did researchers find policies that resulted in significant cuts of carbon pollution, a new study in Thursday's journal Science found.

A tropical storm is expected to deliver strong winds and heavy rain to Hawaii this weekend, particularly to the Big Island and Maui, as it passes south of the island chain.

The National Weather Service on Thursday evening issued a tropical storm watch for Hawaii County, which includes all of the Big Island, in anticipation of Tropical Storm Hone.

Floods wreaked more havoc in India's northeast and neighboring Bangladesh's eastern region, raising this week's total death toll to 30, officials and media reports said Friday.

Rain stopped in many parts of Bangladesh on Friday and weather officials in Dhaka said the waters had started receding in some areas, but said the flooding would not be over for days.

Global shares traded mixed Friday ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that might deliver clues on how quickly and deeply the Fed may cut interest rates.

France's CAC 40 rose 0.3% in early trading to 7,546.93, while Germany's DAX gained 0.4% to 18,563.15. Britain's FTSE 100 added nearly 0.2% to 8,302.17. U.S. shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.3% at 40,930.00. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% to 5,614.75.

Ukrainian forces say they have recaptured territory in the eastern region of Kharkiv, where Russia launched a large offensive in the spring that brought initial gains but the operation soon stalled.

Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said in a statement late Thursday that its forces advanced nearly two square kilometers (about three-quarters of a square mile) in that area.