Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding posted its fastest revenue growth in more than a year, beating analyst expectations as it capitalizes on the artificial intelligence boom in China.

Alibaba said Thursday that its revenue for the quarter ended December grew 8% to 280.2 billion yuan ($38.38 billion) compared to the same period last year.

The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death.

"A pope dies, they make another," goes one, suggesting how life goes on.

Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet, Selena Gomez, Mikey Madison and other stars of the top Screen Actors Guild Awards film nominees will be among the presenters at Sunday's ceremony.

Organizers announced Thursday presenters will also include "Wicked" co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Bowen Yang. The musical is the leading nominee at the show, which will be streamed live on Netflix.

An official with the committee preparing a national dialogue conference in Syria to help chart the country's future said Friday that it has not been decided whether the conference will take place before or after a new government is formed.

The date of the conference has not been set and the timing "is up for discussion by the citizens," Hassan al-Daghim, spokesperson for the committee, told The Associated Press in an interview in Damascus Friday.

It was a mournful moment for Christians in Syria. A bell that once summoned residents to worship rang out, but the church was no longer there.

The Saint Odisho church was blown up by the Islamic State group a decade ago, leaving Tel Tal village almost empty of residents.

Days before the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainians are as somber and tense as they were right before Moscow launched the war. Only now, they aren't just worried about their longtime enemy.

Ukraine's stunning new threat comes from its once staunchest ally, the United States, whose support appears to be fading as President Donald Trump echoes the narrative of Russian President Vladimir Putin while pledging to stop the fighting between the two countries.

As the U.S. and Russia push ahead – so far without Ukraine at the table – on talks to end the war, political and military leaders in Europe are fleshing out details of a plan for European forces to help ensure Moscow does not attack again.

After months of quiet discussions, the proposal has become increasingly public. It will likely be on the agenda when British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, two major backers of the idea, visit Washington on separate days next week for talks with President Donald Trump.

U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he saw no appetite for peace from Russia in Ukraine after listening to a speech by Russia's top diplomat at a tense Group of 20 meeting in South Africa on Thursday.

Lammy was speaking to reporters after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed other senior diplomats in a closed-door session at the G20 foreign ministers meeting in Johannesburg.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a body that Hamas militants released during the handover of remains of Israeli hostages is that of a woman from Gaza instead of that of Shiri Bibas, the mother of two young boys whose bodies were returned on Thursday.

In a statement released Friday, Netanyahu criticized the handover of the wrong remains as a "cruel and malicious violation" of the ceasefire agreement, which has halted fighting in the Gaza Strip, and said Hamas would "pay the full price" for the action.

Lithium and other elements that the U.S. needs for vital defense, energy and other applications could become harder to obtain if the Trump administration goes ahead with tariffs and other protectionist policies aimed at China.

China refines more than 90% of the global supply of so-called "rare earth elements," which include neodymium and dysprosium. Not actually rare, these 17 elements are difficult to mine and refine because they're not often found in concentrated deposits. Some elements, like Lithium, are usually mentioned along with rare earth elements, because they are also critical for the tech sector.