Around 134 million people in the U.S. are under alerts as an "extremely dangerous and record-breaking" heat wave broils much of the country, according to the National Weather Service.

Pope Francis will preside over an interfaith meeting in a mosque in the world's largest predominantly Muslim country during a four-nation Asian visit in September that will be the longest and most complicated foreign trip of his pontificate.

The Vatican on Friday released the itinerary for Francis' Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The packed schedule makes clear that the 87-year-old pontiff, who has battled health problems and is increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has no plans to slow down.

Months of scorching temperatures sometimes over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of India this year — its worst heat wave in over a decade — left hundreds dead or ill. But the official number of deaths listed in government reports barely scratches the surface of the true toll and that's affecting future preparations for similar swelters, according to public health experts.

India now has a bit of respite from the intense heat, and a different set of extreme weather problems as monsoon rain lashes the northeast, but for months the extreme heat took a toll on large swaths of the country, particularly in northern India, where government officials reported at least 110 heat-related deaths.

Shares advanced Friday in Europe after Britain's Labour Party prevailed over the Conservatives in this week's national election.

In London, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.3% to 8,264.59. The British pound rose to $1.2779 from $1.2760 late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.0830 from $1.0812.

Tsenguun Saruulsaikhan, a young and newly minted member of Mongolia's parliament, is unhappy with below-cost electricity rates that she says show her country has yet to fully shake off its socialist past.

Most of Mongolia's power plants date from the Soviet era and outages are common in some areas. Heavy smog envelops the capital Ulaanbaata r in the winter because many people still burn coal to heat their homes.

The German government on Friday agreed on a budget for 2025 and a stimulus package for Europe's largest economy, ending a monthslong squabble that threatened to upend Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left coalition.

Scholz, a Social Democrat, and leaders of the Free Democrats and Greens agreed on the budget early Friday after marathon talks, German news agency dpa reported, citing party sources. The leaders were expected to provide details at a news conference later on Friday.

Millions of people in the U.S. celebrated and suffered under heat warnings Thursday as they flocked to beaches and traveled in droves to toast their nation's birth with July Fourth parades, cookouts and the always anticipated fiery splashes of color in the evening sky.

In Washington, neon bursts of light illuminated the night above the National Mall. The Boston Pops performed a musical fireworks spectacular at that city's Hatch Memorial Shell. And at parades all across the country, from Brattleboro, Vermont, to Waco, Texas, to Alameda, California, revelers dressed up in red, white and blue and waved the Stars and Stripes in commemoration of Independence Day.

It's as if the sky opened up and dropped everything it had in a matter of minutes. Giant raindrops combined with hail to transform an otherwise toasty summer day into a white wintry scene, at least for a few minutes.

Then it all turned to red mud.

The Labour Party has won Britain's general election, bringing a new party to power for the first time in 14 years. But Labour leader Keir Starmer won't actually become prime minister until a carefully choreographed ceremony on Friday during which King Charles III will formally ask him to form a new government.

It's a moment that embodies the fact that, technically at least, the right to govern in the United Kingdom is still derived from royal authority, centuries after real political power was transferred to elected members of Parliament.

Venezuela's self-described socialist government is facing a serious electoral challenge in a presidential election for the first time in decades.

President Nicolás Maduro, now in his 11th year in office, is being challenged by former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia at the head of a resurgent opposition, as well as a field of eight other candidates. The official campaign period for the July 28 election kicked off Thursday.