At a gas station near the Cologne, Germany, airport, Bernd Mueller watches the digits quickly climb on the pump: 22 euros ($23), 23 euros, 24 euros. The numbers showing how much gasoline he's getting rise, too. But much more slowly. Painfully slowly.

"I'm getting rid of my car this October, November," said Mueller, 80. "I'm retired, and then there's gas and all that. At some point, you've got to scale back."

China on Friday defended its tough "zero-COVID" policy after the U.S. ambassador said it was causing serious damage to the global economy and foreign business sentiment.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese economy is recovering from the effects of the pandemic and "facts prove" the policy mandating lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing is "suitable for China's national conditions and has stood the test of history."

The European Union's executive arm on Friday recommended making Ukraine a candidate for EU membership, a morale booster and a first step on what is expected to be a long road for the war-torn country to join the 27-nation bloc.

If Ukrainians were under any illusion that the European Commission's positive assessment would mean fast-track EU membership, their hopes of quickly joining the club were dashed.

The organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest said Friday that it will start talks with the BBC on possibly holding next year's event in the U.K. after concluding that it can't be held in Ukraine.

The event is traditionally staged by the previous year's winner. Last month, Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 contest, pushing Britain into the runner-up spot thanks to a surge of popular votes from viewers. The win buoyed Ukrainian spirits amid the Russian invasion.

Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev defeated Ilya Ivashka for the second time in a week, beating the Belarusian 7-6 (4), 6-3 Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the Halle Open.

Medvedev, who also elminated Ivashka in 's-Hertogenbosch last week, saved three set points when trailing 5-4 in the first set.

President Joe Biden, who has recently been focused on boosting oil production to reduce rising gas costs, will turn his attention to climate change on Friday when he convenes a virtual meeting of some of the world's biggest economies.

Among the participants will be China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Also present will be Egypt, which is hosting the next United Nations summit on climate change, and the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres.

With the polar bear species in a fight for survival because of disappearing Arctic sea ice, a new distinct group of Greenland bears seem to have stumbled on an icy oasis that might allow a small remote population to "hang on."

But it's far from "a life raft" for the endangered species that has long been a symbol of climate change, scientists said.

Floating fences in India. Whimsical water- and solar-driven conveyor belts with googly eyes in Baltimore. Rechargeable aquatic drones and a bubble barrier in The Netherlands.

These are some of the sophisticated and at times low-tech inventions being deployed to capture plastic trash in rivers and streams before it can pollute the world's oceans.

Cheers and sighs met FIFA's announcement of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup.

There were a number of no-brainers among the 16 World Cup sites, like the Los Angeles area, Mexico City and Toronto. But for some of the cities that were on the bubble, the announcement Thursday was a dud.

Russia reduced natural gas to Europe again Friday, including cutting flows by half to Italy and Slovakia and completely to France, as countries have worked to ease their dependence on Russian supplies amid the war in Ukraine.

It marks the third day of significant reductions to the fuel that powers industry and generates electricity in Europe, which also have hit Germany and Austria. It has further spiked already-high energy prices that are driving record inflation in the European Union.