Russia on Friday said its troops were progressing in all sectors of the Ukrainian front, despite observers seeing little movement more a year and a half after Moscow launched a full-scale assault on Ukraine.

"Our servicemen are acting competently and decisively, occupying a more favourable position and expanding their zones of control in all directions," Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu said, as his troops intensify assaults on the eastern front.

Mediator Qatar said Friday that efforts are continuing to renew an Israel-Hamas truce and expressed “deep regret” over the resumption of Israeli bombardments after a weeklong cease-fire expired earlier in the day.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame, with each saying the other side violated the terms of the truce. Qatar, which has served as a mediator along with Egypt, appeared to be singling out Israel’s role in the resumption of violence.

Israeli fighter jets hit targets in the Gaza Strip minutes after a weeklong truce expired on Friday, as the war with Hamas resumed in full force. Black smoke billowed from the besieged territory and Israel dropped leaflets over parts of southern Gaza urging people to leave their homes, suggesting it was preparing to widen its offensive.

Renewed hostilities heightened concerns for the about 140 hostages who remain in Gaza, after more than 100 were freed as part of the truce.

Israeli fighter jets hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday shortly after a weeklong truce expired, the military said, as the war resumed in full force.

Airstrikes hit southern Gaza, including the community of Abassan east of the town of Khan Younis, the Interior Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said. Another strike hit a home northwest of Gaza City.

The world just took a big step toward compensating countries hit by deadly floods, heat and droughts.

Nearly all the world's nations on Thursday finalized the creation of a fund to help compensate countries struggling to cope with loss and damage caused by climate change, seen as a major first-day breakthrough at this year's U.N. climate conference. Some countries started putting in money right away — if little compared to the overall anticipated needs.

There's been discriminatory chanting in the stands, a team bus pelted with stones, a game called off because of crowd trouble, and precious few goals on the field.

The French football league is making headlines for all the wrong reasons this season. And now even the French government is calling for something to be done about it.

Pope Francis said on Thursday that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekend to avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.

"As you can see, I'm alive," Francis quipped at the start of an audience with participants of a symposium on health care ethics.

All these years later, the scene still is almost too bizarre to imagine: a tearful president and his perplexed aide, neither very religious, kneeling in prayer on the floor of a White House bedroom in the waning hours of a shattered presidency.

Until the embittered end, Henry Kissinger was one of the trusted few of a distrusting Richard Nixon. That trust, combined with Kissinger's intellectual heft and deft manipulation of power, made him a pivotal player in a tense period in American history, a giant of U.S. foreign policy and a fixture in international relations for decades to come.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100.

With his gruff yet commanding presence and behind-the-scenes manipulation of power, Kissinger exerted uncommon influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize. Decades later, his name still provoked impassioned debate over foreign policy landmarks long past.

The U.N. weather agency said Thursday that 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future.

The World Meteorological Organization also warned that the average temperature for the year is up some 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times – a mere one-tenth of a degree under a target limit for the end of the century as laid out by the Paris climate accord in 2015.