Germany's government refused to back calls Friday for a swift and sharp lockdown to curb the country's worsening coronavirus situation, which saw daily confirmed cases hit a new peak and is putting hospitals under severe strain.

Health Minister Jens Spahn said contacts between people need to be sharply reduced, warning that "the situation is dramatically serious, more serious than it's been at any point in the pandemic."

French fishing crews temporarily blocked French ports and ferry traffic across the English Channel on Friday to disrupt the flow of goods to the U.K., a symbolic riposte in a dispute over post-Brexit fishing licenses.

It's the latest tension point between the neighboring countries, who are also trading blame for not doing enough to prevent the deaths of at least 27 migrants whose boat sank Wednesday off Calais, in the choppy waters of the world's busiest shipping route.

Global stocks and oil prices tumbled Friday after South Africa found a fast-spreading coronavirus variant and the European Union proposed suspending air travel from southern Africa.

London's benchmark fell 3% and Tokyo lost 2.5%. Shanghai, Frankfurt and Hong Kong also declined sharply. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 2%.

The deal struck in Sudan to reinstate the prime minister following a military coup is imperfect but has saved the country from sliding into civil strife, the U.N. envoy to Sudan said on Friday.

Volker Perthes was speaking of the agreement between Sudan's military leaders and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, who was deposed and put under house arrest following the coup last month that stirred an international outcry.

France reacted with anger and dismay on Friday to Britain's latest proposals for dealing with the deadly flow of migrants between their shores, ramping up a battle of wills over dangerous crossings of the English Channel that killed 27 people in a sinking this week.

President Emmanuel Macron scolded the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson for making public a letter that the British leader sent to the French leader on Thursday. Most notably, Johnson proposed that France take back migrants who illegally cross the English Channel — an idea that France quickly and summarily dismissed.

Poland's Foreign Ministry has said that the European Union nation will have no ambassador in Israel for the time being, bringing the mission level down to that of Israel's mission in Poland.

The traditionally sensitive bilateral relations soured in the summer after Poland adopted legislation seen as banning claims for restitution of some seized property, including that of Holocaust victims. Israel protested.

Violence receded Friday in the capital of the Solomon Islands, but the government showed no signs of addressing the underlying grievances that sparked two days of riots, including concerns about the country's increasing links with China.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare sought to deflect attention from domestic issues by blaming outside interference for stirring up the protesters, with a thinly veiled reference to Taiwan and the United States.

Rescue crews have found a survivor in a Siberian coal mine where dozens of miners are presumed dead after a devastating methane explosion, a senior regional official said on Friday.

Kemerovo region Governor Sergei Tsivilyov said on the messaging app Telegram that the survivor was found in the Listvyazhnaya mine in southwestern Siberia, and "he is being taken to the hospital."

Egyptian authorities were unveiling a renovated ancient promenade in the city of Luxor dating back 3,000 years, the latest government project undertaken to highlight the country's archaeological treasures.

Egypt has struggled to revive its tourism industry, battered by years of political turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and more lately, the coronavirus pandemic.

Defeated but somewhat relieved, a second group of Iraqis on Friday returned home to northern Iraq after a failed quest to reach the European Union, citing maltreatment and abuse suffered at the hands of Belarusian authorities.

Over 570 people returned on two flights that landed in Irbil International Airport after 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. respectively in Iraq's northern Kurdish-run region, according to Lawk Ghafuri, spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government. The first flight carried 170, the other over 400 returnees.