Spain's growing influence on world football will be on full display at next week's Ballon d'Or gala, the annual award ceremony honoring the sport's top performers.

Four of the five nominees for the Johan Cruyff Trophy for men's coach of the year are Spanish, as are two of the candidates for the women's trophy.

The Asian Football Confederation has endorsed Gianni Infantino for another term as FIFA president in an apparent turnaround in its stance from two months ago when it criticized the head of football's world governing body for a breach of trust.

AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa embraced Infantino with a large hug Friday in front of the Asian membership at an extraordinary congress meeting in Tokyo, where he delivered his endorsement. It was a timely boost for Infantino as he campaigns for re-election amid strong opposition from Europe

Pope Leo XIV will miss a planned trip to Assisi next week after doctors advised against the helicopter journey to the Italian town as he recovers from lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said Friday.

The pope had been due to attend a gathering on Tuesday marking the 40th anniversary of St. John Paul II's World Day of Prayer for Peace.

A first tanker carrying Russian diesel to the United States under a new import agreement has set sail, the Kremlin said Friday, two weeks after President Donald Trump said he struck a deal with President Vladimir Putin despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"The first oil tanker has sailed off to customers, and regular supplies will continue," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said without elaborating.

Turkey hosted meetings Friday with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European nations — the UK, France, Germany and Italy — to discuss conflicts in the Middle East and efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to press for diplomacy to ease tensions between the United States and Iran, stress the importance of freedom of navigation through Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandab Strait and reaffirm Turkey’s support for Saudi Arabia in the face of Houthi attacks.

Thousands of students across Indonesia have staged days of demonstrations protesting the government's response to toxic haze that has blanketed multiple cities and spread to other nations in Southeast Asia in recent weeks.

On Friday, more than 500 protesters gathered in front of the Central Kalimantan Governor's Office in the provincial capital of Palangkaraya, demanding more action to address the haze. Protests earlier this week spread to more than half a dozen Indonesian cities, including on the island of Borneo, where many of the fires are actively burning.

The Louvre and several other major Paris museums will be closed on Saturday over concerns about potential violence during planned protests, France's culture ministry said.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the ministry said the Orsay and Picasso museums were also among those that will close.

High winds knocked out power to thousands of people in southwest England on Friday morning as the first of two major storms expected to hit the U.K. this weekend swept in from the Atlantic.

The U.K. Met Office issued an amber warning — the second highest — for wind gusts up to 80 mph (130 kph) in Cornwall and Devon as the storm named Austen by the agency moved into the area early Friday.

While Brazil's presidential candidates have not made policy of the Amazon a major campaign topic, climate scientists and environmentalists say the winner of Sunday's race could determine whether, and how soon, the world's largest rainforest could reach a "tipping point."

The key threshold, heavily debated among scientists, in simple terms would be when the dense, humid, moisture-generating forest shifts to a drier ecosystem. That would come with irreversible consequences for biodiversity and the climate, as the forest absorbs massive amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that drives global temperature to rise. Brazil contains about 60% of the Amazon, which is spread across several countries in South America.

Taiwan shut down schools and offices and grounded hundreds of flights as Typhoon Champi brushed by the island Friday, packing strong winds and torrential rains.

Champi peaked at 298 kph (185 mph) maximum sustained winds earlier this week but has weakened to 155 kph (96 mph) winds as it approached Taiwan from the southwest. Its center is forecast to remain offshore as it sweeps by the island's northeastern tip before turning north toward Japan's southwestern islands.