Police and protesters clashed in Brussels on Friday as tens of thousands of people rallied in the Belgian capital against rising living costs and budget-tightening measures introduced by the government.

Dozens of protesters, many of them young, dressed in black and wearing masks, threw rocks and firecrackers at police at the central Brussels railway station, before setting several fires, one to a pile of city bikes and electric scooters.

The European Union on Friday said it had "serious concerns" about democratic standards in Turkey, warning that a crackdown on rights was further undermining Ankara's long-stalled bid to join the bloc.

"Our concerns about democratic standards remain. The latest developments affecting media freedom, the rights of LGBTIQ+ people and local democracy are widening the gap with Turkey's objective of joining the EU," EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told journalists in the northwestern Turkish city of Edirne.

The United Nations said Friday it was watching "with concern" school protests in France that have resulted in thousands of youngsters being arrested and several seriously injured.

"We are following with concern incidents related to the student protests and high school blockades in France, some of which have turned violent," said Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights agency, urging people on all sides to ensure they remain peaceful.

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded five more across Ukraine, officials said Friday, as Ukraine struggles to counter escalating Russian bombardments that have killed more than 50 people over the past three days.

One man was killed and five people were wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region Friday morning, said Mykhailo Semikin, the head of the regional military administration. He said that the attacks hit residential areas and that a child was among the wounded.

The wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was set to be back in court Thursday, where her lawyers will urge a judge to free her from jail and put her under house arrest because she has heart problems.

Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January when forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Portugal on the last leg of a three-nation tour of NATO allies.

Rubio arrived in Lisbon on Thursday for a brief stop on his return to Washington, a day after delivering a speech in the Greek capital of Athens urging European countries to save Western civilization by upholding the values and traditions of ancient Greece.

High school students across France launched a fresh day of protests on Thursday, despite government attempts to ease the crisis.

Amid a growing outcry, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced Wednesday that the model of stun grenade suspected of mutilating a teenager in Lens will no longer be used against high schoolers, in light, he said, of a "strong possibility" that such a weapon was involved in ripping off the pupil's hand.

Thirty people were killed and at least 18 were injured by Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine that included an attack on a public bus, authorities said Thursday, as an intensive pre-winter wave of attacks continued and power outages worsened in the capital Kyiv.

Vadym Filashkin, head of the regional military administration, said public transport in Kramatorsk and the neighboring city of Sloviansk, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, was halted because of the sharp deterioration in security.

A seven-story building in Istanbul partially collapsed on Thursday, killing one person, officials said. Emergency crews were trying to reach at least three people that remained trapped inside.

The reason for the collapse was not immediately known and an investigation was underway. Rescue teams were working to reach those trapped even as there were warnings of a further collapse of the building.

South Korea said Thursday it will recall its ambassador to Ukraine in response to a deepening diplomatic row over the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war to Seoul.

"The government has decided to recall its ambassador to Ukraine. The government hopes that all outstanding issues between the two countries will be resolved amicably and will continue consultations with the Ukrainian side to that end," the foreign ministry said in a statement.