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Mbappé farewells French league when PSG visits Metz in final round

Nine years after his debut, Kylian Mbappé bids farewell to the French league when Paris Saint-Germain visits struggling Metz on Sunday.

He has a last chance to add to his club-record tally of 256 goals, including 191 in the league.

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FIFA reveals promised anti-racism pledge

FIFA will urge all 211 national federations to mandate racist abuse in soccer as a disciplinary offense, after months of consulting with victimized players including Vinícius Júnior.

Soccer's world body also suggests on Thursday "a global standard gesture for players to communicate racist incidents" to referees — hands crossed at the wrists and raised in the air — and for match forfeits to be a specific punishment.

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Germany coach watches as others announce his Euro 2024 squad with no surprises

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann watched as his initial European Championship squad was announced for him by a variety of people reflecting the mix in German society on Thursday.

Stuttgart goalkeeper Alexander Nübel was the only new name among the 27 called out in a video message featuring students, TV presenters, singers, döner kebab chefs, radio presenters and others.

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Japan's economy shrinks on weak consumer spending, auto woes

The Japanese economy shrank at an annual rate of 2% in the first quarter of this year, as consumption and exports declined, the government said Thursday.

Although unemployment has stayed relatively low in the world's fourth largest economy at about 2.6%, wage growth has been slow and prices have risen partly due to weakness of the yen against the U.S. dollar.

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Facebook and Instagram face fresh scrutiny under the EU's strict digital regulations

The European Union opened fresh investigations Thursday into Facebook and Instagram over suspicions that they're failing to protect children online, in violation of the bloc's strict digital regulations for social media platforms.

It's the latest round of scrutiny for parent company Meta Platforms under the 27-nation EU's Digital Services Act, a sweeping set of regulations that took effect last year with the goal of cleaning up online platforms and protecting internet users.

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Fire threat eases near Canada's oil sands hub, but long, hot summer looms

The threat from a wildfire near Canada's oil sands hub of Fort McMurray, Alberta, appeared to be easing, a day after it forced thousands of residents to evacuate and stirred memories of a damaging blaze nearly a decade earlier.

Favorable winds were expected to push the fire away from the city of about 68,000 in northwest Canada, where many residents earn a paycheck from the nearby oil industry. The Fort McMurray fire comes as Canada is just entering a new fire season after last year's record number of wildfires sent choking smoke across parts of the U.S. and forced more than 235,000 Canadians to evacuate their communities.

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US applications for jobless benefits come back down after last week's 9-month high

Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain at historically low levels even as other signs that the labor market is cooling have surfaced.

Jobless claims for the week ending May 11 fell by 10,000 to 222,000, down from 232,000 the week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Last week's applications were the most since the final week of August 2023, though it's still a relatively low number of layoffs.

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Second scourge batters Brazil's flooded south: Disinformation

While flooding that has devastated Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state has yet to subside, another scourge has spread across the region: disinformation on social media that has hampered desperate efforts to get aid to hundreds of thousands in need.

Among fake postings that have stirred outrage: That official agencies aren't conducting rescues in Brazil's southernmost state. That bureaucracy is holding up donations of food, water and clothing. One persistent rumor contends that authorities are concealing hundreds of corpses, said Jairo Jorge, mayor of the hard-hit city of Canoas.

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Almost 75% of Maui wildfire survey participants have respiratory issues

A University of Hawaii study examining the health effects of last year's deadly wildfires on Maui found that up to 74% of participants may have difficulty breathing and otherwise have poor respiratory health, and almost half showed signs of compromised lung function.

The data, gathered from 679 people in January and February, comes from what researchers hope will be a long-term study of wildfire survivors lasting at least a decade. Researchers released early results from that research on Wednesday. They eventually hope to enroll 2,000 people in their study to generate what they call a snapshot of the estimated 10,000 people affected by the fires.

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Israel says more troops to 'enter Rafah' as operations intensify

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday that more troops would "enter Rafah" as military operations intensify in Gaza's far-southern city.

The operation in Rafah "will continue as additional forces will enter" the area, Gallant said, adding that "several tunnels in the area have been destroyed by our troops... this activity will intensify".

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