HONG KONG (AP) — World markets mostly advanced Friday after Wall Street recouped most of the week’s earlier losses and Japan reported slowing inflation, which may keep its ultra-low interest rates steady.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher and the S&P 500 was up 0.2%.

France’s CAC 40 added 0.5% to 7,434.81 in early trading. Germany’s DAX went up 0.4% to 16,635.19. Britain’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.7% to 7,510.86.

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/:  Washington's "toxic reaction" to Moscow's stance on talks about strategic stability serves to affirm that Russia is in the right, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

She was commenting on criticism from Pranay Vaddi, a senior director for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation at the National Security Council under US President Joe Biden.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled $82 million for North Carolina to help connect 16,000 new households and businesses to high-speed internet, delivering an election-year pitch about policies he says are “just getting started” at improving the United States.

Biden, the Democratic incumbent who is campaigning to win a second term, coupled his economic message with a few jabs at his predecessor, Donald Trump, currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination and his most likely future challenger.

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people ignored warnings from the authorities and rallied in the capital of Russia's Bashkortostan republic on Friday in support of a jailed activist whose case has highlighted deep grievances among one of Russia's many ethnic minorities.

Fail Alsynov, 37, is regarded as a hero by many of the region's ethnic Bashkir people for campaigning on behalf of their language, culture and rights.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Storms that have turned roads into icy death traps, frozen people to death from Oregon to Tennessee and even sent a plane skidding off a taxiway were expected to sock both coasts with another round of weather chaos on Friday.

New York City — which only on Tuesday saw its first significant snow in more than two years — was in the headlights as the National Weather Service laid out warnings of slightly more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow through Friday in the metropolitan area, with New Jersey and Pennsylvania also getting snow.

GAZA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- As the Israel-Hamas conflict has ravaged the Gaza Strip for more than three months, the daily suffering of the Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave has been exacerbated amid the lack of daily necessities.

The locals told Xinhua that they are struggling against death, starvation, diseases, and the complicated security situation on the ground, which together make them feel under pressure all the time.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Turkey’s first astronaut along with a Swede and Italian launched Thursday to the International Space Station on a chartered SpaceX flight.

The Falcon rocket blasted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in late afternoon, carrying the three men, all with military pilot experience and representing their homelands. Their escort on the trip: A retired NASA astronaut who now works for the company that arranged the private flight.

ISTANBUL, January 19. /TASS/:  There is no more trust toward the West, which has not taken any steps to prevent the crisis in Gaza, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said.

The organizations whose tasks include ensuring global security have failed, of which the conflict between Israel and Palestine is an example, he stated.

GAZA/DOHA/TEL AVIV, Jan 19 - The Palestinian Red Crescent accused Israel of firing on Friday at a hospital in Khan Younis, as a major advance in the main city in the southern Gaza Strip threatened the few healthcare facilities still open.

The Red Crescent said displaced people were injured "due to intense gunfire from the Israeli drones targeting citizens at Al-Amal Hospital" as well as the rescue agency's base. The military said it was checking the report.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday welcomed an operation led by Qatar and France to deliver additional and much-needed medicines and medical supplies to the civilian population in Gaza and to deliver vital medicines to hostages currently held in Gaza.

"The entry of these critical supplies and humanitarian aid to Gaza is encouraging, however, much more aid needs to come into the Gaza Strip," said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for Guterres.

The UN chief commended Qatar and France for all their efforts, Dujarric added.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A small airplane that crashed into the ocean off the California coast on Sunday was constructed piece by piece over nearly a decade, one of tens of thousands of home-built aircraft that are part of a high-flying hobby taking off across the country.

Federal investigators said they believe four people were aboard the single-engine Cozy Mark IV when it went down in the evening just south of San Francisco. No survivors were found and only one body had been recovered from the waters near Half Moon Bay and identified as of Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson pressed President Joe Biden on Wednesday to recast U.S. immigration policy during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House about funding for Ukraine.

Republicans in Congress have blocked emergency funding that Biden has requested for Ukraine and threaten to force a partial shutdown of the government in an effort to push new security policies along the U.S.-Mexico border. They blame Biden's policies for an influx of immigrants into the United States.