AP World News

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — The deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades is piling pressure on Beijing’s “patriots-only” governance system, casting a shadow on elections widely seen as a further step to tighten control over the city’s legislature. Sunday’s vote to elect new lawmakers to Hong Kong’s 90-member Legislative Council

By GONZALO SOLANO Associated Press JATUN RUMI, Ecuador (AP) — High in the mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes, a group of young Otavalo Indigenous people is using anime to inspire pride in their ancient culture and language, especially among Otavalo children. They produced an animated short film titled “We’re Aya” that follows the adventures of

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — There were hundreds, then dozens, and then just a few. Now there’s one Israeli hostage left in Gaza: Ran Gvili. Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer known affectionately as “Rani,” was killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. After a

By MATTHEW LEE and GERALD IMRAY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has signed the first in what are expected to be dozens of “America First” global health funding agreements that will prioritize combating infectious diseases in countries deemed to be aligned with the president’s broader foreign policy goals and positions. The five-year,

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Russian authorities said Thursday they have imposed restrictions on Apple’s video calling service FaceTime, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet and communications online. State internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged in a statement that the service is being “used to organize and conduct terrorist activities on

By RAJESH ROY Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in India Thursday on a state visit aimed at bolstering bilateral and economic ties between the two countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the Russian leader at an airport in New Delhi, giving a bear hug and a tight handshake

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain sanctioned Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency and summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Thursday after an inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018. The government said that the GRU was being sanctioned in its entirely for “reckless”

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — A Lithuanian court on Thursday convicted the leader of one of the parties in the country’s coalition government for making antisemitic comments and fined him 5,000 euros (about $5,800). The district court in the capital, Vilnius, found that Remigijus Žemaitaitis incited hatred against Jews, grossly downplayed Nazi Germany’s crimes and grossly

By DASHA LITVINOVA Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday that any deal is still some ways off. U.S. President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop

LONDON (AP) — Britain and Norway will mount joint naval patrols to protect undersea cables from Russia, the U.K. said Thursday, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre held talks on defense. The U.K. government says a combined fleet of at least 13 warships will “hunt Russian submarines and protect critical

By AAMER MADHANI, CHINEDU ASADU and RUTH ALONGA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump praised the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda for their courage as they signed onto a deal on Thursday aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Congo and opening the region’s critical mineral reserves to the

By JAMEY KEATEN and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest, the feel-good pop music gala that draws more than 100 million viewers every year, are meeting Thursday to tackle a bitter and divisive issue: Whether Israel should be allowed to participate in the 2026 competition. The European Broadcasting

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — More than a decade ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished without a trace, sparking one of aviation’s most baffling mysteries. Despite years of multinational searches, investigators still do not know exactly what happened to the plane or its 239 passengers and crew. On Wednesday, Malaysia’s government said American marine robotics

By HUIZHONG WU and KEN MORITSUGU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China and France pledged deeper cooperation on global issues like the war in Ukraine and trade, as France prepares to take on the presidency of the Group of Seven next year. French President Emmanuel Macron met with China’s Xi Jinping on Thursday morning as

By AUDREY HOROWITZ, SAMY MAGDY and TOQA EZZIDIN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Remains that militants in Gaza handed to Israel were those of Thai agricultural worker Sudthisak Rinthalak, Israeli and Thai officials said Thursday. The confirmation brought the first phase of Gaza’s tenuous 8-week-old ceasefire a step closer to completion, with one more hostage’s

By GERALD IMRAY Associated Press CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — For 35 years, American zoologist Laurie Marker has been collecting and storing specimens in a cheetah sperm bank in Namibia, hoping conservationists never have to use them. But she worries that the world’s fastest land animal might be on the brink of extinction one

By MARLON GONZÁLEZ Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras’ former President Juan Orlando Hernández thanked U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday for pardoning him in his first communication since being released from a U.S. prison. Hernández was one year into a 45-year prison sentence for helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Wednesday released 11 mariners held since a July attack on the ship Eternity C in the Red Sea, an assault that killed four on board and sank the vessel. The Iranian-backed Houthis, who have been targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas

By ELÉONORE HUGHES and LUCAS DUMPHREYS Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Towering talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives, decades after famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx introduced them in the 1960s. Towards the end of its life — which

By LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon knew there were survivors after a September attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea and the U.S. military still carried out a follow-up strike, according to two people familiar with the matter. The rationale for the second strike was that it was

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A man alleged to be the founder and leader of a Haitian gang was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for orchestrating the kidnapping of 17 people, including five children, who were on a missionary trip to the Caribbean country. Joly Germine declined to say anything

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions Wednesday on alleged affiliates of the Tren de Aragua gang and increased the reward to as much as $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of one of the leaders of the criminal group that the Trump administration has designated

By ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister said Wednesday that his country was “far from” diplomatic normalization or economic relations with Israel, despite a move toward direct negotiations between the two countries aimed at defusing tensions. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s comments to a small group of journalists in Beirut came in

By ISOBEL KOSHIW Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Exclusive drone footage obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday shows a devastated Ukrainian town nearly encircled by Russian forces near the city that Moscow this week claimed to now control. Barely a street appears to be untouched in Myrnohrad in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, 12