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Ronaldo ends Saudi trophy drought with 2 goals in Al-Nassr's win to clinch league title

Cristiano Ronaldo has finally won a major trophy with Al-Nassr.

The 41-year-old Portugal star scored twice in a 4-1 win over Damac to help Al-Nassr clinch the Saudi Pro League title Thursday. It's the team's first major trophy since Ronaldo joined more than three years ago.

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Pushed to the limit, Republicans show rare defiance to Trump's demands

The day arrived when the Senate just said, No.

President Donald Trump's political revenge tour met its potential match this week as angry, upset Republican senators, pushed to a breaking point by his seemingly insatiable and outlandish demands — particularly a $1.776 billion fund for Jan. 6 rioters and others he believes were wrongly prosecuted — did the unthinkable.

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WHO chief says Ebola outbreak in Congo 'spreading rapidly'

The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is "spreading rapidly" and now poses a "very high" risk at the national level.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was revising upward to "very high" its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high. The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.

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US says 'slight progress' in Iran talks amid uncertainty on whether war will resume

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday there was "slight progress" during talks with Iran amid uncertainty as to whether a deal will be reached or war will resume.

He spoke days after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was holding off on a military strike on Iran because "serious negotiations" were underway. Trump has been threatening for weeks that the ceasefire reached in mid-April could end if Iran does not make a deal, with shifting parameters for striking such an agreement.

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Energy shock from Iran war to weigh on Europe's growth, boost inflation

The European Union's executive commission cut its growth outlook and predicted higher inflation due to sharply higher energy prices from the war in Iran — but said the economy will avoid an outright recession.

"As a net energy importer, the EU's economy is highly susceptible to the energy shock caused by the conflict in the Middle East," the commission said in a statement Thursday. The rising cost of fuel "means higher household bills and surging business costs that reduce profits for many industries."

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Hajj pilgrimage and Eid al-Adha around the world

Once a year, large numbers of Muslim pilgrims converge in Saudi Arabia, uniting in religious rituals and acts of worship as they perform the Hajj. While fulfilling a religious obligation, they immerse themselves in what can be a spiritual experience of a lifetime for them and a chance to seek God's forgiveness and the erasure of past sins.

This year, the Hajj has been approaching against the backdrop of a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war and related tensions and uncertainty in the Middle East.

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Rubio embarks on another mission to ease tensions with allies during NATO meeting

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his latest mission to assuage nervous U.S. allies in Europe about the Trump administration's intentions with NATO or at least put a friendlier face on whipsawing changes and uncertainty about American troop reductions.

Rubio will attend a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Sweden on Friday — the same day senior Pentagon officials are expected to brief the 32-nation alliance on plans for the U.S. military's commitment to European defense at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.

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Russia holds nuclear drills on land, sea and air, joined by ally Belarus

Trucks carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles rumbled over forest roads, atomic-powered submarines set sail from Arctic and Pacific ports, and crews scrambled into warplanes as Russia and neighboring Belarus held the final stage of their joint nuclear drills Thursday.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko inspected Russian short-range nuclear-capable Iskander ballistic missiles at a military unit involved in the drills, declaring: "I dreamed about this machine a long time ago."

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Ukraine says drones hit another refinery deep inside Russia as long-range strikes escalate

Ukrainian drones smashed into another Russian refinery overnight, starting a fire that produced huge clouds of black smoke, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest long-range attack on Moscow's vital oil industry.

The drones targeted the Syzran oil refinery, located more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) inside Russia, Zelensky said on social media, where he posted a video of the aftermath.

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India-Africa summit postponed due to Ebola outbreak

India and the African Union have postponed the India-Africa Forum Summit scheduled to held next week in New Delhi, due to the "evolving health situation in parts of Africa."

The announcement on Thursday by India's Ministry of External Affairs comes as health officials in Congo are tackling an Ebola virus outbreak.

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