AP World News

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and SAM MCNEIL KYIV, Ukraine A senior Kremlin official confirmed Wednesday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is set to visit Moscow next week as efforts to find a consensus on ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine pick up speed. But Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs

HONG KONG (AP) — A fire spread across multiple high-rise apartment buildings in a Hong Kong housing complex on Wednesday, killing four people and leaving others trapped inside, authorities said. Video from the scene showed at least five buildings close to each other ablaze, with flames coming out of many of the apartments’ windows. Firefighters

By WAFAA SHURAFA, JULIA FRANKEL and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hospital officials in Gaza said Wednesday that Israel handed over 15 more Palestinian bodies, completing the latest swap of the ceasefire as the first phase of the agreement nears a conclusion and officials convened to discuss moving to the

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history’s first American pope on the road. Leo

By JAMES BROOKS Associated Press NORTH SEA, Denmark (AP) — Appearing first as a dot on the horizon, the remote Nini oil field on Europe’s rugged North Sea slowly comes into view from a helicopter. Used to extract fossil fuels, the field is now getting a second lease on life as a means of permanently

TAIJING WU and HUIZHONG WU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on Wednesday announced a special $40 billion budget for arms purchases, including to build a Taiwan Dome, an air defense system with high-level detection and interception capabilities, as the U.S. pressures the island to increase its defense spending. The budget

By PAN PYLAS and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Following weeks of speculation and mixed signals, Britain’s center-left government will deliver a budget Wednesday aimed at pleasing financial markets, businesses and jaded voters — an all-but-impossible task for an already unpopular administration. In her second annual budget since the Labour Party returned to

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hundreds of women marched through Mexico City’s streets Tuesday to protest violence against women in a country where gender violence remains pervasive. Among the hundreds of marchers clad in purple or with green bandanas, some beat drums and others carried signs. One read: “Today I am the voice of those who

By SHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — Hours after police in Indian-controlled Kashmir released shopkeeper Bilal Ahmed Wani but kept his son in custody in this month’s deadly New Delhi blast investigation, Wani set himself on fire, members of his family said. The 55-year-old dry fruit seller was treated at three hospitals but

By COREY WILLIAMS, MIKE CATALINI and REBECCA SANTANA Associated Press The Trump administration’s plan to review all refugees admitted to the United States under the Biden administration is weighing heavily on people who could be affected by the evaluation, fueling uncertainty and worry among people who believed their status was secured. The review was laid

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press Belarusian politician Mikola Statkevich has been returned to prison after being freed in a U.S.-brokered deal but refusing to leave his native country, activists said Tuesday. The former presidential candidate has been missing since Sept. 11, when a group of political prisoners were pardoned by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko at

By PAOLA FLORES Associated Press LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — President Rodrigo Paz of Bolivia said Tuesday he planned to scrap a ream of taxes, in one of his first moves since becoming the nation’s first conservative leader in nearly two decades in a bid to rescue a crisis-stricken economy. Just over two weeks since

By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday started his 27-year prison sentence for leading a coup attempt, to the surprise of many in the South American nation who doubted he would ever end up behind bars. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen the

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. military officials are meeting leaders of Caribbean nations this week as the Trump administration has escalated its firepower in the region as part of what it calls a campaign against drug trafficking. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and meet

By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A U.S. climber was among two people killed in a fall on Aoraki, New Zealand’s tallest peak, authorities said Wednesday. The men were part of a four-person group climbing near the summit of Aoraki, also known as Mount Cook, on Monday. Two members were rescued

By KATIE MARIE DAVIES Associated Press Kirill Dmitriev is not a professional diplomat. But the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has emerged as a key player in drafting a new proposal to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine. That is perhaps no surprise: A former investment banker, Dmitriev has increasingly served as a back-channel communicator

By AMANUEL GEBREMEDHIN BIRHANE and RAJESH ROY Associated Press ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Volcanic activity in northern Ethiopia’s long-dormant Hayli Gubbi volcano subsided Tuesday, days after an eruption that left a trail of destruction in nearby villages and caused flight cancellations after ash plumes disrupted high-altitude flight paths. Villages in the district of Afdera

By WAFAA SHURAFA and MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Children and families in Gaza scooped muddy water from their tents on Tuesday, trying to protect the few belongings that remain after two years of war. Winter’s heavy rains have left displaced Palestinians splashing in water that reaches their ankles, and

By JOHN LEICESTER and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The Paris prosecutor announced four more arrests Tuesday in connection with the stunning heist at the Louvre Museum in October by a gang that made off with $102 million worth of jewels. The two men and two women taken into custody are from the

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers working for Russian intelligence attacked an American engineering company this fall, investigators at a U.S. cybersecurity company said Tuesday — seemingly because that firm had worked for a U.S. municipality with a sister city in Ukraine. The findings reflect the evolving tools and tactics of Russia’s

PARIS (AP) — A couple of star giant pandas who lived in France for 13 years and gave birth to three cubs were on their way back to China on Tuesday, the Beauval Zoo said. Huan Huan, the female, and her partner Yuan Zi, both 17, are traveling on a 12-hour flight from Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle

By SAM McNEIL Associated Press BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to deepen integration of the bloc’s defense industry with Ukraine as a U.S. peace plan remains in flux and Russia’s unconventional warfare operations rattle the 27-nation bloc. European Parliament legislators voted 457-148, with 33 abstentions, to approve a 1.5-billion euro ($1.7

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Tuesday doubled down on the value of monogamous marriage between a man and woman, responding to concerns raised by African bishops about the practice of polygamy in their flocks. The document from the Vatican’s doctrine office said the Catholic Church had a well-documented

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Rights groups on Tuesday slammed the Trump administration’s decision to end protected status for Myanmar citizens due to the country’s “notable progress in governance and stability,” even though it remains mired in a bloody civil war and the head of its military regime faces possible U.N. war

By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Tuesday accused Pakistan of launching deadly overnight strikes in three eastern provinces, but Pakistan’s military dismissed the claim and said no such strikes were carried out. The Pakistani denial came hours after Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson for

By JILL LAWLESS and PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — After being elected in a landslide last year, Britain’s Labour Party government delivered a budget it billed as a one-off dose of tax hikes to fix the public finances, get debt down, ease the cost of living and spur economic growth. A year on,

By AAMER MADHANI, ISOBEL KOSHIW and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday his plan to end the war in Ukraine has been “fine-tuned” and he’s sending envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with Ukrainian officials. Trump suggested he

By REBECCA SANTANA and ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans a review of all refugees admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, according to a memo obtained Monday by The Associated Press, in the latest blow against a program that has for decades welcomed people fleeing war and persecution