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World shares skid, following Wall Street's retreat fueled by worries over AI, interest rates

World shares skidded Friday following Wall Street's latest retreat due to worries over AI and interest rates.

The future for S&P 500 was down 0.3% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.2%, while oil prices advanced.

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Hungary to mount court challenge to EU's planned phase-out of Russian energy

Hungary will challenge the European Union's plan to end Russian energy imports and take the case to an EU court, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday.

Speaking on state radio, Orbán accused the bloc of trying to sidestep his veto power over sanctions on Russian energy by using trade rules instead in its plan to phase out all imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.

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Jordan's king and Indonesia's leader hold talks on economic ties and Gaza

Jordan's king and Indonesia's leader on Friday held talks as the two longtime friends agreed to strengthen military cooperation and economic ties between the two Muslim-majority nations.

King Abdullah II and President Prabowo Subianto share a long-standing personal relationship as alumni of the U.S. Fort Benning military academy that dates to 1995 when both were still serving as military officers in their respective countries.

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What to know about the BBC's latest crisis after its apology to Trump

The BBC has issued a public apology to U.S. President Donald Trump over a misleading edit of his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, but said it "strongly disagreed there is a basis for a defamation claim."

Since it was established more than a century ago, Britain's public broadcaster has been no stranger to controversy. Over the past week, it has been embroiled in one of its deepest-ever crisis as its director general stepped down, its head of news quit, questions were raised over the veracity of its journalism and Trump said he is mulling a billion-dollar lawsuit.

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5,200 cheeses compete for World Cheese Awards

The first thing that hits you at the World Cheese Awards is the smell.

As the 37th edition -- part competition, part a celebration of cheese -- kicked off in Switzerland on Thursday, some visitors might wish the offerings had more holes. With descriptions of odors including "stinky socks" and "sick dog," it's clearly a festival — and a challenge — for the nose as much as mouths, fingers and eyes.

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Flooded restaurant in Thailand brings delight with swimming fish among diners

A restaurant in central Thailand was bursting with a stream of customers coming for a unique dining experience: Enjoying a meal while sitting in flood waters, surrounded by live fish they bring into the establishment.

Since an adjacent river breached its banks 11 days ago, the flooded riverside restaurant has become an internet sensation, drawing customers keen to pose in the lapping brown water or toss fish food to photograph the feeding frenzy.

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Modi's coalition set for big win in key state election

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling coalition is headed to win a key state election in a vote seen as a crucial test of Modi's popularity in one of the country's poorest yet most politically influential states.

Partial results Friday from the Election Commission of India, the country's election watchdog, showed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, or NDA, expected to take 208 seats of the 243-member legislature in the eastern state of Bihar.

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Bodies of 15 Palestinians returned by Israel, health officials in Gaza say

Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Friday, officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said, in the latest step to fulfilling the terms of the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.

The bodies were returned after militants late Thursday handed over the body of one of the last four remaining Israeli hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that launched the war in Gaza.

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UK judge rules BHP liable for 2015 Brazil mine disaster

A London judge Friday ruled that global mining giant BHP Group is liable in Brazil's worst environmental disaster when a dam collapse 10 years ago unleashed tons of toxic waste into a major river, killing 19 people and devastating villages downstream.

High Court Justice Finola O'Farrell said Australia-based BHP was responsible despite not owning the dam at the time.

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Iran seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz, US official says

Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker as it traveled through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Friday, a U.S. official said, turning the ship into Iranian territorial waters in the first-such interdiction in months in the strategic waterway.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the seizure, though it comes as Tehran has been increasingly warning it can strike back after facing a 12-day war in June with Israel that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.

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