Saudi Arabia's crown prince transferred another 8% of shares in the kingdom's oil giant Saudi Aramco to the country's prominent sovereign wealth fund on Thursday. The shares are worth some $160 billion.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's decision comes as the kingdom is trying to build a series of megaprojects and invest in sports and other fields aggressively abroad to wean the country off of relying solely on oil.

For the ninth straight month, Earth has obliterated global heat records — with February, the winter as a whole and the world's oceans setting new high-temperature marks, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus.

The latest record-breaking in this climate change-fueled global hot streak includes sea surface temperatures that weren't just the hottest for February, but eclipsed any month on record, soaring past August 2023's mark and still rising at the end of the month. And February, as well the previous two winter months, soared well past the internationally set threshold for long-term warming, Copernicus reported Wednesday.

Rafael Nadal pulled out of the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday night, a day before he was supposed to play his first official match in two months.

Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, posted the news on social media, writing that he was announcing the withdrawal "with great sadness."

A tough day for Carlo Ancelotti ended on a good note as Real Madrid advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the fourth straight season despite a lackluster performance against Leipzig on Wednesday.

After being accused of tax fraud by Spanish tax authorities during the day, Ancelotti saw Madrid struggle in a 1-1 draw with Leipzig that was just enough to put the European powerhouse into the last eight thanks to the 1-0 win from the first leg in Germany three weeks ago.

Manchester City continued its pursuit of back-to-back Champions League titles by advancing to the quarterfinals of European club soccer's elite competition with a 3-1 win over Copenhagen on Wednesday.

Goals from Manuel Akanji, Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland at Etihad Stadium saw City complete a 6-2 aggregate win.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

The most enduring English Premier League rivalry in recent times will end this season when Jurgen Klopp steps down as Liverpool manager and, presumably, makes life a lot easier for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola.

Millions of travelers across Germany were affected by strikes again on Thursday after two unions called for two-day walkouts over wages and work conditions.

Around 80% of all long-distance trains as well as regional and commuter trains in the country were canceled as train drivers went on strike. Air travel was affected as well, as ground staff for German airline Lufthansa stopped working early in the morning.

Czech farmers blocked traffic in Prague on Thursday, cramming the streets with hundreds of tractors and other vehicles as they rallied against the government and agriculture policies set by the European Union.

Public transport came to a standstill during the morning rush hour in several parts of the Czech capital. The street leading to the government office where the protesters planned to present their demands was completely blocked.

The European Union's largest political party on Thursday endorsed Ursula von der Leyen's bid for a second five-year term at the helm of the bloc's powerful Commission.

Von der Leyen 's nomination at a gathering of her center-right European People's Party in Romania's capital, Bucharest, comes ahead of June 6-9 elections for the European Parliament, the EU's only democratically elected institution. The endorsement places her firmly as a frontrunner for the top job in the 27-nation bloc.

For years, Fatima Mhattar has welcomed shopkeepers, students, bankers and retirees to Hammam El Majd, a public bath on the outskirts of Morocco's capital, Rabat. For a handful of change, they relax in a haze of steam then are scrubbed down and rinsed off alongside their friends and neighbors.

The public baths — hammams in Arabic — for centuries have been fixtures of Moroccan life. Inside their domed chambers, men and women, regardless of social class, commune together and unwind. Bathers sit on stone slabs under mosaic tiles, lather with traditional black soap and wash with scalding water from plastic buckets.