France icon Karim Benzema swapped one Saudi club for another on Monday when joining Al-Hilal from rival Al-Ittihad — a move that could be bad news for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The former Ballon d'Or winner has joined Saudi Pro League leader Al-Hilal, which is one point ahead of Ronaldo's Al-Nassr.

Manchester City went big again in the January transfer window and will hope it reaps more rewards than last year.

City was the biggest spender as Premier League clubs dominated the midseason window — splashing out a reported $115 million on Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi to boost its four-pronged trophy pursuit. Last year City spent more than $200 million in a bid to salvage its campaign but still ended up emptyhanded for the first time in eight years.

In France, civil servants will ditch Zoom and Teams for a homegrown video conference system. Soldiers in Austria are using open source office software to write reports after the military dropped Microsoft Office. Bureaucrats in a German state have also turned to free software for their administrative work.

Around Europe, governments and institutions are seeking to reduce their use of digital services from U.S. Big Tech companies and turning to domestic or free alternatives. The push for "digital sovereignty" is gaining attention as the Trump administration strikes an increasingly belligerent posture toward the continent, highlighted by recent tensions over Greenland that intensified fears that Silicon Valley giants could be compelled to cut off access.

Don't tune into the Super Bowl hoping for a break from the tumultuous politics gripping the U.S.

The NFL is facing pressure ahead of Sunday's game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots to take a more explicit stance against the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement. More than 184,000 people have signed a petition calling on the league to denounce the potential presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Super Bowl, which is being held at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area. The liberal group MoveOn plans to deliver the petition to the NFL's New York City headquarters on Tuesday.

Markets are mostly higher before the opening bell Tuesday as more corporate earnings arrive and lofty precious metals recover from recent sell-offs.

Global shares surged, led by a nearly 7% jump in South Korea's benchmark and a 3.9% rally in Tokyo that took the Nikkei 225 to a record as investors bought tech-related shares.

Bullied and buffeted by President Donald Trump's tariffs for the past year, America's longstanding allies are desperately seeking ways to shield themselves from the president's impulsive wrath.

U.S. trade partners are cutting deals among themselves —- sometimes discarding old differences to do so — in a push to diversify their economies away from a newly protectionist United States. Central banks and global investors are dumping dollars and buying gold. Together, their actions could diminish U.S. influence and mean higher interest rates and prices for Americans already angry about the high cost of living.

These days, the majestic, forested slopes of Argentina's Patagonia look like a war zone.

Mushroom clouds of smoke rise as if from missile strikes. Large flames illuminate the night sky, tainting the moon mango-orange and turning the glorious views that generations of writers and adventurers imprinted on the global psyche into something haunted.

Spain set a new tourism record in 2025 when it welcomed 96.8 million foreign visitors, according to figures released Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute.

The number of international visitors increased 3.2% compared to 2024, when there were 94 million tourists.

The Kremlin said Tuesday it had not received any indication from India that it would stop buying Russian oil following the announcement of a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.

"So far, we haven't heard any statements from New Delhi on this matter," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP, a day after Trump said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised he would stop buying Russian oil as part of a deal to ease tariffs.

A dozen Palestinian returnees were allowed into Gaza from Egypt late Monday after the long-awaited reopening of the Rafah border crossing was marred by delays. Their arrival came hours after a small group of medical evacuees was ferried from the territory into Egypt.

The reopening of the crossing marked a key step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but mostly a symbolic one, with few people allowed to travel and no goods allowed to pass through. The limitations were apparent Monday as crossings fell well short of the 50 people officials had said would be allowed to move in each direction.