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A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for loungewear and cigarettes sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin Friday, defying Australian efforts to seize a messy construction site in the heart of the capital.

Eurozone economic activity worsened in June to a five-month low, hit hard by a fall in industrial production, a keenly watched survey showed on Friday.

Kenyan President William Ruto does not hold back when describing the global lending system: it is "unfair, it's punitive, it doesn't give everybody a fair chance".

At least 19 people are dead after floods triggered by South Asia's annual monsoon, with a week of relentless rains forcing thousands of people to seek shelter in India.

Bayern Munich have signed Borussia Dortmund left-back Raphael Guerreiro on a free transfer, the Bavarian club announced on Friday.

Society has become so restrictive that police would now arrest her for public performances, provocative Austrian media artist Valie Export told AFP ahead of the opening of a retrospective in Vienna.

British military spies on Friday said Russia appears to be training combat dolphins in the annexed Crimean peninsula to counter Ukrainian forces.

Equity markets sank Friday and oil extended a sharp selloff after a string of interest rate hikes by central banks revived worries about the global economy.

Grock became known as the "king of clowns" but the Swiss entertainer who made the world laugh is now in the spotlight over his connections with Adolf Hitler.

It is shortly after sunrise, and Peter Mudenda looks for elephant tracks on a dirt road surrounded by mopane trees.

A leisure centre in Exmouth, southwest England, is using a small data centre to heat its indoor swimming pool, trialling an innovative solution that reduces its energy bills and carbon footprint.

Slow-moving climate protesters have become a daily sight on London's streets, undeterred by the honking horns of irate motorists, personal insults and even arrest.

Indonesian livestreamer Christine Febriyanti stood in a room crammed with clothes in Jakarta, hawking colourful garments to hundreds of viewers on a TikTok livestream for a local fashion brand.

A mystery Russian diplomat with a penchant for loungewear and cigarettes on Friday sparked a national security standoff between Canberra and the Kremlin, defying Australia's efforts to kick him off a messy building site near parliament.

"My whole life was in this house. Now I have nothing," said Tetiana Pivneva, after returning to her flooded home in the Ukraine city of Kherson following the catastrophic destruction of a dam.

The family of the British-Pakistani father and son among the five people who died on the Titanic tourist submersible expressed "profound grief" at their loss Friday.

Between brainstorming ways to fix the global financial system and appearing onstage at a Paris pop concert, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stopped to record a message about the storm looming near her Caribbean nation.

China issued its highest-level heat alert for northern parts of the country on Friday as the capital baked in temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Each morning, four children stand barefoot in a line and proudly sing the national anthem as the Thai flag is raised outside their school, perched on a finger of land surrounded by the sea.

Ex-New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Friday she will write a book about leadership to be published worldwide, after five tumultuous years in charge of the Pacific nation.

Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.

The Olympic torch has been into space, deep underwater and even scaled Mount Everest.

Equity markets sank Friday and oil extended a sharp selloff after a string of interest rate hikes by central banks revived worries about the global economy.

The Titanic inspired a tear-jerking blockbuster and expeditions to its watery gravesite -- including a fatal one this week -- but viral TikTok videos peddle a stunning conspiracy theory: the ship never sank.

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday that the two democracies' partnership would define the next century, as Washington eyes a counterweight to China and brushes off allegations of growing authoritarianism in New Delhi.

Greece on Friday entered the final day of campaigning for Sunday's national elections, with conservative frontrunner Kyriakos Mitsotakis aiming to consolidate the gains he made in last month's inconclusive ballot.

As Pride events got underway in Europe in June, disinformation and hate speech targeting the LGBTQ community spread across social media, triggering extreme online responses, including incitements to violence.

The EU's top tech enforcer warned Elon Musk on Thursday that Twitter must have enough resources to moderate dangerous content by August 25 or risk being in violation of the bloc's landmark rules to rein in big tech.

Wearing a glittery purple leotard, Miss Gaviota steps into a ring to roaring applause from the crowd, ready to go to battle with several masked, muscular men.

A global summit seeking to overhaul the international financial system wraps up Friday after taking small steps towards easing the debt burden of developing nations weighed down by climate and economic crises.

Wild bison that once numbered in the tens of millions in North America before being hunted almost to extinction are once again thriving in a pocket of western Canada.

She is 85, has a glittering film career behind her, and recently battled cancer, but Jane Fonda doesn't intend to slow down her activism on climate change -- the "greatest crisis ever to confront humanity" -- anytime soon.