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FIFA on Friday strenuously denied "imposing" its scheduling for the 2025 Club World Cup amid the threat of legal action from leagues and unions.

Russia launched a cross-border ground offensive into Ukraine's northeast Kharkiv region and civilians were being evacuated amid the fighting, Ukrainian officials said Friday.

Mauricio Pochettino said "it would not be the end of the world" if he leaves Chelsea at the end of the season as the Argentine boss hinted he could quit the Premier League club.

Last-ditch talks aimed at striking a landmark global agreement on handling future pandemics went into the final hours on Friday with the chances of finalising a deal looking increasingly unlikely.

Bayern Munich forward Serge Gnabry has been ruled out for the season and could miss Germany's home Euro 2024 campaign with a hamstring injury, the club announced on Friday.

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe says he expects star players Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes to be at St James' Park next season as speculation swirls around potential big-money sales.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle visited Nigeria on Friday as part of his promotion of the Invictus Games, the sporting event he founded for wounded military veterans.

Israel bombarded Gaza including Rafah on Friday after negotiators left truce talks in Cairo without a deal and a senior UN official said aid operations are now all but impossible.

Jurgen Klopp shot down rumours over Darwin Nunez's future at Liverpool on Friday, dismissing the talk as "external speculation" as he defended the misfiring forward.

Hernan Crespo said Friday that it would be "a pleasure" to face Harry Kewell as coaches in the Asian Champions League final, almost 20 years after they played in the European equivalent.

Britain has emerged from a short-lived recession with better-than-expected growth in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, boosting embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak before this year's general election.

Austria's Dominic Thiem, former US Open champion, announced his retirement from the sport on Friday, ending a career plagued by a long-term wrist injury.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi and struggling US rival Novavax announced Friday an alliance to sell a Covid vaccine and develop another that combines with a flu shot.

Britain's main opposition Labour party on Friday pledged to scrap the Conservative government's flagship Rwanda scheme if it comes to power, replacing it with a tougher more joined-up approach to tackling irregular migration.

Georgia's ambassador to France, who has resigned over a bill criticised for mirroring repressive Russian legislation, called for the draft law to be dropped on Friday.

European stock markets climbed to fresh record highs Friday on growing hopes that central banks are close to cutting interest rates.

All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown grabbed a second-half try as the Waikato Chiefs thumped Moana Pasifika 43-7 in a bonus-point win Friday to go third on the Super Rugby table.

Abdi Hussein sat alone on a Kenyan road strewn with ramshackle tents bound with plastic strings and covered with tarpaulins, peering into the sea of rust-coloured flood water.

India's top court on Friday ordered a jailed opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be released on bail, allowing him to campaign in an ongoing national election.

Moroccan club Renaissance Berkane are due to host Egyptian outfit Zamalek on Sunday in the CAF Confederation Cup final first leg against a background of off-field drama.

Growing hopes that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks are close to cutting interest rates helped push London and Frankfurt to records Friday, while Asian markets also chalked up healthy gains.

Atalanta head into Sunday's Serie A top-five showdown with dejected Roma on the highest of highs after reaching their first ever European final in the greatest night of the club's 117-year history.

Humans have made our planet warmer, more polluted and ever less hospitable to many species, and these changes are driving the spread of infectious disease.

Japanese auto giant Honda on Friday logged a record annual profit thanks to improving global vehicle sales, but issued a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year.

Britain exited a shallow recession with better-than-expected growth in the first quarter, official data showed Friday, in a boost to embattled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of this year's election.

Growing hopes that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks are close to cutting interest rates helped push London and Frankfurt to new records, while Asian markets also chalked up healthy gains.

Taiwanese chip giant TSMC's April revenue jumped nearly 60 percent on-year, the firm said Friday, riding a huge wave of demand for the advanced semiconductors used in AI hardware.

A top Malaysian footballer is "responding well" after undergoing a three-hour skin allograft surgery, a sports official said Friday, following an acid attack that left the player in intensive care and shocked the country.

In the heart of Cotonou’s large Dantokpa market, Diane Makpenon's family corn shop is less busy than usual these days.

With Mammoth's 72 industrial fans, Swiss start-up Climeworks intends to suck 36,000 tonnes of CO2 from the air annually to bury underground, vying to prove the technology has a place in the fight against global warming.

A museum offering an unprecedented dive into Albania's dramatic military history has opened its doors, telling the story of how the once-reclusive country broke with its 40-year Communist past.

His legacy forever defined by Brexit, Britain's former prime minister David Cameron is hurriedly restoring his reputation -- and that of UK diplomacy -- as a globe-trotting foreign secretary.