Thousands of flights to and from German airports were canceled Friday as workers walked out to press their demands for inflation-busting pay increases.

The strikes at seven German airports, including Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg, affected almost 300,000 passengers and forced airlines to cancel more than 2,300 flights.

Brazil's Carnival is back.

Glittery and outrageous costumes are once again being prepared. Samba songs will ring out 'til dawn at Rio de Janeiro's sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of raucous, roaming parties will flood the streets. And working-class communities will be buoyed, emotionally and economically, by the renewed revelry.

TikTok said Friday that it's planning two more European data centers, as the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app seeks to allay growing concerns about data privacy for its users in the West.

TikTok has been under fire from European and American authorities over concerns that it could scoop up masses of user data and send it to China.

The lower house of France's parliament debated a contested pension bill aimed at raising the country's retirement age from 62 to 64 during what was expected to be lawmakers' last discussion on the proposal before sending the legislation to the Senate.

President Emmanuel Macron's government has vowed to go ahead with the reform despite nationwide protests and strikes and opinion polls consistently showing a majority of French people oppose the change.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky planned to give the opening address Friday at a major annual conference on international security policy, where Russia's invasion of Ukraine was expected to dominate the event after almost a year of war that has produced worldwide repercussions.

About 40 heads of state and government, as well as politicians and security experts from almost 100 countries, including the United States, Europe and China, were expected to attend the three-day Munich Security Conference in Germany. Zelensky is participating by video link.

Days after losing 5-3 to Real Madrid in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup, Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal returns to its home continent to try and extend its recent dominance of the Asian Champions League in a second-round match against Shabab Al-Ahli of Dubai.

In 2019, Al-Hilal broke the eastern zone stranglehold of the tournament that had seen teams from Australia, China, South Korea and Japan winning every title but one from 2006 to 2018. The Riyadh club repeated the win in 2021, to become champion of Asia for a record fourth time.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's gas processing firm said Friday it plans to sell 4% of its shares to local investors in the latest initial public offering to be made by a state-run energy company in the Middle East.

The move follows a similar IPO by the Saudi oil giant Aramco in 2019 that raised some $30 billion, and comes months before the United Arab Emirates is set to host this year's U.N. climate talks.

A Saudi sovereign wealth fund now holds 8.26% of the stock in the video game maker Nintendo, making it the largest outside investor in the Japanese gaming company, a company filing said Friday.

The investment comes as part of efforts by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy away from oil, including billions already spent on video game firms. The fund has been a major component in the plans of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, himself said to be an avid gamer.

Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake leveled tens of thousands of buildings and displaced millions of people in Turkey and Syria, many are still struggling to fulfill their basic needs and some are bedding down in tents, factories, train cars and greenhouses.

People pushed from their homes in the disaster zone described a wide range of conditions: Some were able to find regular hot showers, while others feared freezing to death.

In less than a week the Lebanese pound's value against the dollar has plummeted to a new low from 66,000 to 80,000 at the black market rate, the exchange rate used for buying and selling most goods and services in the country. There are several mobile exchange rate applications that have been the reference for the black market rate for years.

Though the country’s pegged exchange rate against the dollar was officially devalued to 15,000 earlier this month, the black market rate has reflected a more realistic market rate for years, but rapidly fluctuates with no transparency.