Poverty in Lebanon tripled over the course of a decade during which the small country slid into a protracted financial crisis, the World Bank said Thursday.

The percentage of people in Lebanon living below the poverty line rose from 12% in 2012 to 44% in 2022, the bank said in a report based on surveys conducted in five of the country's eight governorates.

The stunning announcement that the International Criminal Court is considering issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity has ignited a fierce debate about the court's future as an independent arbiter.

The request by Prosecutor Karim Khan against the leader of a close U.S. ally also comes as the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, is investigating whether Israel has committed genocide during its seven-month war against Hamas in Gaza.

Iran on Thursday prepared to inter its late president at the holiest site for Shiite Muslims in the Islamic Republic, a final sign of respect for a protégé of Iran's supreme leader killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week.

President Ebrahim Raisi's burial at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad caps days of processionals through much of Iran, seeking to bolster the country's theocracy after the crash killing him, the country's foreign minister and six others.

Taiwan scrambled jets and put missile, naval and land units on alert Thursday over Chinese military exercises being conducted around the self-governing island democracy where a new president took office this week.

China's military said its two-day exercises around Taiwan were punishment for separatist forces seeking independence. Beijing claims the island is part of China's national territory and the People's Liberation Army sends navy ships and warplanes into the Taiwan Strait and other areas around the island almost daily to wear down Taiwan's defenses and seek to intimidate its people, who firmly back their de facto independence.

On a Friday morning in April, Dan Stein, the founder of Giving Green, a climate philanthropy organization, found some big news in a surprising email. An anonymous donor had given his fund $10 million.

"I didn't quite process the number of zeroes," Stein said, adding he was "tickled, awestruck, surprised" by the gift.

Just two days after celebrating its Serie A title win, Inter Milan and its fans face a nervous wait to see what will happen with the club.

Club owner Suning and Inter president Steven Zhang could lose control of the Nerazzurri if they fail to repay a debt of nearly 400 million euros ($434 million) to American investment fund Oaktree.

Marcus Rashford was left out of England's provisional squad for the European Championship on Tuesday.

The Manchester United striker has paid the price for a disappointing season at club level and failed to make the cut for Gareth Southgate's initial 33-man selection.

Two admired coaches at opposite ends of their careers, with shared values of loyalty to their overachieving small-city clubs, will contest the Europa League final Wednesday.

Xabi Alonso has led unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen to an instant classic soccer story in his first full season in the job at age 42.

Markets on Wall Street were mixed early Wednesday but remain at or above record levels as more results from retailers take center stage amid a dearth of economic news.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average just barely edged into positive territory, rising less than 0.1% before the bell, while futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.1%.

French President Emmanuel Macron flew to New Caledonia Wednesday in a bid to find a political solution to the unrest that has rocked the French archipelago in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, some 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) from metropolitan France.

The unrest has raised new questions about Macron's handling of France's colonial legacy. There have been decades of tensions between Indigenous Kanaks, who seek independence for the territory of 270,000 people, and descendants of colonists and others who settled on the island and who want to remain part of France.