The holidays are meant to be a time of celebration with family and friends. But they can also bring pressure to spend money on gifts, gatherings and plane tickets home, exacerbated by brand emails, social media influencers and family expectations.

With credit card debt rising and prices for many items still high due to inflation, overspending during the holiday season can add to the financial stress many Americans are already experiencing, said Dr. Marketa Wills, CEO and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association.

Erling Haaland's failure from the penalty spot and Bruno Fernandes' latest red card compounded the woes of Manchester City and Manchester United on another tough day for the two Premier League giants.

There were no such problems Thursday for Liverpool, which rallied to a 3-1 win over Leicester in foggy conditions at Anfield and moved seven points clear atop the standings approaching the halfway point of the campaign.

Communities and firefighters across Australia's second-most populous state were preparing Thursday for potentially devastating wild fires as a heat wave fanned by erratic winds presented the worst fire conditions in several years.

With temperatures in Victoria state reaching 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) and with wind changes expected throughout the day, fire chiefs have issued stark warnings to rural communities to delay travel or leave their homes and seek safety at shelters.

North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia's Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine's military intelligence said Thursday.

The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.

The head of the U.N. health agency says he and his team were about to board a flight in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa when the airport came under aerial bombardment.

“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters (yards) from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

Syria's new security forces checked IDs and searched cars in the central city of Homs on Thursday, a day after protests by members of the Alawite minority erupted in gunfire and stirred fears that the country's fragile peace could break down.

A tense calm prevailed after checkpoints were set up throughout the country's third-largest city, which has a mixed population of Sunni and Shia Muslims, Alawites and Christians.

Electric vehicles had another whirlwind year around the globe, driven by buyers in China, and growth in parts of Europe and the United States, despite headwinds.

In a milestone for China, the world's biggest auto market, EVs hit 50% of new car sales in July. That included pure battery EVs plus plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Chinese companies such as BYD continue to gain traction worldwide with their inexpensive EVs.

The world football players' union disagreed with FIFA's temporary changes to transfer rules on Monday following the landmark Lassana Diarra judgement.

Former France international Diarra challenged FIFA 's rules due to a dispute with a club dating to 2014, and the European Court of Justice ruled in October that some rules were contrary to European Union law because they restricted freedom of movement and were anti-competitive.

Turkey's central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5% on Thursday, carrying out its first rate cut in nearly two years as it tries to control soaring inflation.

Citing slowing inflation, the bank's Monetary Policy Committee said it was reducing its one-week repo rate to 47.5% from the current 50%.

Israeli airstrikes on Thursday targeted Yemen's Sanaa airport, the Hodeida port and energy and oil facilities, in an apparent response to missile and drone strikes on Israel by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

A missile launched from Yemen had triggered air raid sirens across central Israel early Wednesday, sending millions of residents looking for cover for the second night in a row.