AP World News

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV closed out 2025 on Wednesday with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people, young and old. Leo presided over a New Year’s Eve vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, giving thanks for the 2025 Holy Year that brought millions

MADRID (AP) — Former Brazil and Real Madrid defender Roberto Carlos has undergone surgery for a heart problem, Spanish daily sports newspaper Diario AS reported on Wednesday. The 52-year-old former full-back, who now serves as a Madrid ambassador, was reportedly vacationing in his home country when an examination revealed a heart dysfunction. According to AS,

By TED ANTHONY AP National Writer BEIJING (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army said Wednesday that it “successfully completed” two days of military exercises in the waters off Taiwan, concluding a set of high-powered maneuvers aimed at asserting its sovereignty over the island — actions that ratcheted up tension in East Asia during 2025’s waning

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and HARUKA NUGA Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A deep-sea search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 began in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, reviving efforts to solve one of aviation’s greatest mysteries more than a decade after the jet vanished with 239 people on board. Malaysia’s Transport Ministry said Wednesday that

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence in his country’s eventual victory in

By ROD McGUIRK and SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Drummers pounded in the New Year and a stampede of computer-generated horses was shown over part of the Great Wall as China and the rest of Asia marked the start of 2026. Temple bells rang across Japan, and some climbed mountains to see

BEIJING (AP) — Dressed in a red-and-white warrior costume, Peking opera actress Zhang Wanting balances on one foot on the narrow handle of a rosewood chair. She bends forward, lifts her other leg high and grasps the two long pheasant plumes on her helmet to strike a pose like a flying swallow. From more than

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong’s New Year celebrations. Not this year. The territory greeted 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people. The city’s

By BABA AHMED Associated Press BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali and Burkina Faso said late Tuesday they would ban U.S. citizens from entering their countries in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to ban Malian and Burkinabe citizens from entering the United States. The announcements, made in separate statements by the foreign ministers of

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions on 10 people and firms from Iran and Venezuela over allegedly contributing to Iran’s drone trade and ballistics program which the Trump administration says threatens the U.S. and its allies in the Middle East. The Treasury Department said the latest measures are intended

DETROIT (AP) — Meta is buying artificial intelligence startup Manus, as the owner of Facebook and Instagram continues an aggressive push to amp up AI offerings across its platforms. The California tech giant declined to disclose financial details of the acquisition. But The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta closed the deal at more than

By ALEX TURNBULL and JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Power problems and a stuck train interrupted rail services through the undersea Channel Tunnel connecting the United Kingdom and continental Europe on Tuesday, operators said, stranding passengers during the busy end-of-year holidays. At Paris’ Gare du Nord station, Jamie and Issy Gill scrambled to

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said it will formally end its dwindling yet much-criticized bear bile farming industry this week, though about 200 bears are still kept in pens and raised for their gallbladders. The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment announced Tuesday it will ban breeding and

By MELANIE LIDMAN and SAM MEDNICK Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Tuesday said it had suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and CARE, from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules. Israel says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and KATIE MARIE DAVIES Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Leaders from Europe and Canada held talks Tuesday on U.S.-led peace efforts to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv sparred over Russian claims, denied by Ukraine, of a mass drone attack on a lakeside residence

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The political party backed by Myanmar ’s ruling military claimed Tuesday it won a commanding lead in the initial round of the first general election in five years, even though the state election body has not named the winners. Voting is taking place in three phases due

By The Associated Press Russia’s nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system has entered active service in Belarus, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday, as the U.S. efforts to broker a deal to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine have entered a pivotal stage. The ministry released a video showing combat vehicles that are part of the mobile

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The funeral for Brigitte Bardot will be held next week in Saint-Tropez, the glamorous French Riviera resort she helped make famous and where she lived for more than a half-century, local authorities said. The cinema star and animal rights activist died Sunday at the age of 91

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister on Tuesday slammed a record U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as Beijing conducted the second day of military drills around the island it has long claimed as its own. Wang Yi, the most senior Chinese official to comment on the sales so far, also

By JOHNSON LAI and KANIS LEUNG Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s People’s Liberation Army staged a second day of large-scale military drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, unleashing a live-fire show of force as part of what it called “Justice Mission 2025″ to demonstrate its ability to deter any external support for the island

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An investigation that extended to the Philippines of two men accused of shooting dead 15 people at a Sydney Jewish festival has found no evidence that they were part of a “broader terrorist cell,” police said on Tuesday. Sydney residents Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia bombed Yemen’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday after a weapons shipment from the United Arab Emirates arrived for separatist forces in the war-torn country, and warned that it viewed Emirati actions as “extremely dangerous.” The bombing followed tensions over the advance

By JULHAS ALAM Associated Press DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, whose archrivalry with another former premier defined the country’s politics for a generation, has died, her Bangladesh Nationalist Party said in a statement Tuesday. She was 80. Zia was the first woman elected prime minister of Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s interim government

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press Climate change worsened by human behavior made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said. It was also the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through the threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s largest protests in three years erupted Monday after the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the U.S. dollar, and the head of the Central Bank resigned. State TV reported the resignation of Mohammad Reza Farzin, while traders and shopkeepers rallied in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well

By The Associated Press A historic theater in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol has opened its doors more than three years after it was pummeled in a Russian airstrike that killed hundreds of civilians sheltering inside. Moscow-installed authorities marked the rebuilding of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater with a gala concert on the

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The United States is offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Foreign ministers from Cambodia and Thailand convened with their Chinese counterpart on Monday as the Beijing government, building on its expanding presence in global diplomacy, sought to play a stronger mediating role in the violent border dispute between the two Southeast Asian countries. The trilateral meeting,