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Cate Blanchett's powerful female, gender-fluid and gay roles have helped transform Hollywood, but she told Venice on Thursday that she never sets out to make a political statement.

UN inspectors will be "staying" at a Russian-held nuclear plant in southern Ukraine, its head said Thursday after their first visit to the facility following a risky journey across the frontline despite early-morning shelling of the area.

Serena Williams reunites with sister Venus at the US Open on Thursday as four-time singles champion Rafael Nadal and world number one Iga Swiatek target the last 32.

An increasingly high-stakes standoff between Donald Trump and federal investigators lands in court Thursday, after days of headline-grabbing revelations surrounding highly classified documents seized by the FBI from the former president's Florida home.

Semiconductor giant Micron announced Thursday it will invest $15 billion over the next decade to expand its operations in the US state of Idaho to build memory capacity for automotive and other sectors.

With a post-fascist party topping opinion polls ahead of Italian elections later this month, Mark Cousins's "March on Rome" at the Venice Film Festival is particularly timely.

Human rights campaigners on Thursday slammed David Beckham for fronting a glossy publicity campaign praising World Cup host Qatar as "perfection", despite concerns over its rights record.

Central American journalists can pay a steep price for publishing unflattering stories about governments in the region -- one with a history of civil wars and dictatorships and where poverty, violence and corruption are rampant.

Brazil's economy posted higher-than-expected growth of 1.2 percent in the second quarter, official data showed Thursday, giving President Jair Bolsonaro a boost ahead of elections next month.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will soon embark on a new chapter in motherhood and it is one that will have fellow parents quaking in their spikes.

An Afghan woman has claimed in an online video that a Taliban official beat, raped and forced her into marrying him -- charges which the senior member of the hardline Islamist movement has denied.

Twitter said Thursday it has begun actively testing an edit button, after months of publicly discussing such a tweak.

Around 21 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu effectively went into lockdown on Thursday as authorities raced to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak.

The EU's drug regulator on Thursday approved Covid-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna adapted for the Omicron variant, paving the way for a booster campaign this winter.

UN inspectors arrived at a Russian-held nuclear plant in southern Ukraine Thursday despite an early shelling attack, as the ICRC warned the consequences of a strike on the facility could be "catastrophic".

Leicester moved quickly to replace Chelsea-bound defender Wesley Fofana by signing Wout Faes from Ligue 1 side Reims on Thursday, their first major acquisition of the summer just hours before the transfer window closes.

The city of Paris on Thursday introduced fees for parking motorbikes and motorised scooters in the capital, sparking outrage and defiance among bikers.

Dutch opera director Lotte de Beer takes over on Thursday as artistic director of the Volksoper opera house in Vienna, the first woman to hold the post.

Around 21 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu effectively went into lockdown on Thursday as authorities raced to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak.

Guinea's ruling junta has told a Confederation of African Football mission that it will meet the timetable for staging the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (CAN).

The cost of living crisis in England has passed Premier League clubs by with the all-time record for an entire season, £1.86 billion ($2.15 billion) from 2017-18, under threat of being broken come the closing of the transfer window later on Thursday.

UN inspectors pressed on towards a Russian-held nuclear plant in southern Ukraine Thursday despite an early shelling attack, as the ICRC warned the consequences of a strike on the facility could be "catastrophic".

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday defended his policy of keeping up a dialogue with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, saying that Turkey should not be the only power talking to Moscow and preparations should already be made for a negotiated peace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev due to scheduling issues, his spokesman said on Thursday.

Rainfall 10 times heavier than usual caused Pakistan's devastating floods, the European Space Agency said Thursday, as it released satellite images of a vast lake created by the overflowing Indus river.

Russian energy firm Lukoil said Thursday its chairman Ravil Maganov had passed away following a "serious illness", after Russian media reports said he died after falling out of a hospital window.

Global stock markets sank Thursday, propelled by rampant inflation and growing recession fears.

Nairo Quintana has lodged an appeal against his Tour de France disqualification for taking a banned pain medication with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the tribunal announced Thursday.

Uyghur activists and exiles had hoped a long-delayed United Nations report into alleged human rights violations by China would make it impossible for the world to ignore their plight.

Manchester United completed the signing of Antony from Ajax on Thursday for a fee reported to be 95 million euros (£81.3m), making him the fourth most expensive signing in Premier League history.

President Joao Lourenco faces Herculean tasks of fixing Angola's economy and winning over its disillusioned youth as he enters his second term with decimated support, analysts say.

Wildfires and storms. Rivers at record lows. Parched crops withering in the fields. For many Europeans, this year's scorching summer means climate change is increasingly hard to ignore.