AP World News

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Just after 8 p.m. Thursday, Iran’s theocracy pulled the plug and disconnected the Islamic Republic’s 85 million people from the rest of the world. Following a playbook used both in demonstrations and in war, Iran severed the internet connections and telephone lines that connect

By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — For nearly 20 years, Brazil’s largest soy producers assured buyers that their harvest — the world’s biggest — wasn’t grown on land cleared from Amazonian forests. The pledge, known as the soy moratorium, has been widely credited with helping curb rainforest loss. That changed this

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, officials said Saturday, after Russia launched a powerful hypersonic missile along with drones and other weapons that disrupted Kyiv’s power supply and heating. There were no immediate reports of casualties, Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov was

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world. With the internet down in Iran and phone lines

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Greenland’s party leaders have rejected President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the U.S. to take control of the island, saying that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people. “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen

By JIM GOMEZ Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Rescuers detected signs of life in an avalanche of garbage that killed at least four workers and left more than 30 others missing Thursday in a central Philippines landfill and plan to intensify search efforts, an official said Saturday. Twelve workers have been rescued with injuries

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and MATTHEW LEE Associated Press GUATIRE, Venezuela (AP) — The United States and Venezuela said Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring relations, as a Trump administration delegation visited the South American nation. The visit marks a major step toward reestablishing diplomatic ties between the historically adversarial governments. In a

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and MATT SEDENSKY Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — At the White House, President Donald Trump vows American intervention in Venezuela will pour billions of dollars into the country’s infrastructure, revive its once-thriving oil industry and eventually deliver a new age of prosperity to the Latin American nation. Here at a

By DAVID RISING and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Demonstrations broke out in Iran on Dec. 28 and have spread nationwide as protesters vent their increasing discontent over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. Dozens of people have been killed and thousands arrested as the

By JOSH BOAK and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called on oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House tries to quickly secure $100 billion in investments to fix the country’s neglected infrastructure and fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum. Since the U.S.

By STEVEN GRATTAN Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Environmental experts are warning that the U.S. push to revamp and boost Venezuela’s vast oil reserves could worsen decades of ecological damage and increase planet-warming pollution in a country already struggling with the legacy of a long-declining petroleum industry. The warnings come as Washington has intensified

By DANICA KIRKA and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Thousands of homes and businesses across northern France and southern England were without power Friday morning and residents faced widespread travel delays after a storm swept in off the Atlantic, bringing high winds, rain and snow to the region. The low-pressure system, named Storm

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The United States, which played a major role in ending border clashes last year between Thailand and Cambodia, will be providing $45 million in aid packages to the two Southeast Asian countries to help ensure regional stability and prosperity, a senior U.S. State Department official said Friday.

By The Associated Press Russia said Friday it used its latest missile against Ukraine for a second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, a forceful signal to Kyiv and its Western allies as U.S.-led peace talks have entered a new and crucial stage. The hypersonic Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile hit Ukraine’s western Lviv region

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — He has been in exile for nearly 50 years. His father, Iran’s shah, was so widely hated that millions took to the streets in 1979, forcing him from power. Nevertheless, Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi is trying to position himself as a player in

By FATMA KHALED Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s main separatist group and its institutions will be dismantled effective Friday, the group’s secretary-general said, following weeks of unrest in areas of southern Yemen and a day after its leader fled to the United Arab Emirates. Abdulrahman Jalal al-Sebaihi said the Southern Transitional Council would shut

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — David Bowie’s bedroom could soon be London’s newest tourist attraction. The house where the musician grew from suburban schoolboy to rock ‘n’ roll starman has been bought by a charity that plans to open it to the public. The Heritage of London Trust said Thursday that the

By WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across Gaza have killed at least 13 people, according to health officials, as U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to announce his Board of Peace to oversee the fragile ceasefire. Health officials and family members said at least one child was among

MARTIGNY, Switzerland (AP) — Switzerland will hold a memorial service Friday, part of a national day of mourning to honor the 40 people who were killed in an Alpine bar fire earlier this month during a New Year’s celebration. An additional 116 people were injured, many of them seriously, when the fire broke out less

By OMAR FARUK Associated Press MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Somalia’s capital to protest Israel’s recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, waving Somali flags and chanting patriotic songs in a show of national unity. The protest on Thursday night took place at Taleh Square in downtown Mogadishu, where the crowds

By SAMYA KULLAB and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack, officials said Friday, killing at least four people in the capital. For only the second time in the nearly 4-year-old war, it used a powerful, new hypersonic

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world. At least 65 people

By OMAR ALBAM Associated Press ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Syria’s Defense Ministry announced a ceasefire on Friday after three days of clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo that displaced tens of thousands of people. There was no immediate public response from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, while a

By MARIA SHERMAN AP Music Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Two things can be true at once. K-pop is an inextricable force in global pop culture, and it has long been undercelebrated at institutions like the Grammys — where K-pop artists have performed but have never taken home a trophy. That could change at next

By JIM GOMEZ, JOEAL CALUPITAN and AARON FAVILA Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics joined an annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in the Philippine capital Friday, with some using the gathering to express outrage over a corruption scandal involving influential legislators. After a

By ISABEL DEBRE Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Venezuela’s sudden release of detainees Thursday brought relief and guarded optimism to a country consumed by uncertainty. But it was another, less covered news event farther away that some Venezuelan rights advocates said offered their only real hope for justice as long as the government