The Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk -- began at sunrise Saturday in much of the Middle East, where Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent energy and food prices soaring.

The conflict cast a pall over the holiday, when large gatherings over meals and family celebrations are a tradition. Many in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia planned to start observing Sunday and some Shiites in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq were also marking the start of Ramadan a day later.

A report by the World Wildlife Fund shows illegal purchases of wildlife online are growing in Myanmar in a threat both to public health and to endangered species.

The report issued Friday found that enforcement of bans on such transactions has weakened amid political turmoil following a 2021 military takeover.

Mexican and American officials have met amid disagreements about an electrical power reform that seeks to limit foreign-built renewable energy plants and grant a majority market share to Mexico's state-owned power utility.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, but the Mexican leader appeared unwilling to budge on the proposal, which is currently stuck in Mexico's Congress.

The head of the United Nations has announced the appointment of an expert panel led by Canada's former environment minister to scrutinize whether companies' efforts to curb climate change are credible or mere " greenwashing."

Recent years have seen an explosion of pledges by businesses — including oil companies — to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to "net zero" amid consumer expectations that corporations bear part of the burden of cutting pollution. But environmental campaigners say many such plans are at best unclear, at worst designed to make companies look good when they are actually fueling global warming.

Pope Francis on Friday made a historic apology to Indigenous Peoples for the "deplorable" abuses they suffered in Canada's Catholic-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to survivors of the church's misguided missionary zeal.

Francis begged forgiveness during an audience with dozens of members of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities who came to Rome seeking a papal apology and a commitment from the Catholic Church to repair the damage. The first pope from the Americas said he hoped to visit Canada around the Feast of St. Anna, which falls on July 26.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has compiled a handbook for tackling the world's interconnected environmental crises, with contributions from leading scientists and writers.

Penguin Random House has announced that "The Climate Book" will be published in Britain in October.

Bruno Fernandes signed a contract extension to stay at Manchester United through at least the 2025-26 season, the Premier League club said Friday.

The new deal adds only one season to the long-term contract Fernandes signed when he arrived from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020 but includes an option for an additional year. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold has recovered quickly from a hamstring injury and could play Saturday against Watford.

The England international's return is a big boost for Liverpool ahead of a Champions League quarterfinal match at Benfica on Tuesday and a Premier League showdown with Manchester City the following Sunday.

Turkey's justice minister said Friday that the government will recommend that an Istanbul court close a trial in absentia against 26 Saudi nationals charged in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and transfer the case to Saudi Arabia.

Bekir Bozdag spoke a day after a Turkish prosecutor requested the transfer, in line with a request from the kingdom.

Inflation in Europe soared to another record, according to new EU figures released Friday, in a fresh sign that rising energy prices fueled by Russia's war in Ukraine are squeezing consumers and adding pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates.

Consumer prices in the 19 countries that use the euro currency rose by an annual rate of 7.5% in March, according to the European Union statistics agency, Eurostat.