AP World News

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — English phrases once bothered Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro so much that he urged his State of the Union address audience to phase out words like skatepark and fashion. But as the White House now ponders whether the U.S. military should strike Venezuela, Maduro is embracing

By SAM MEDNICK Associated Press TEL AVIV (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked the country’s president to grant him a pardon from corruption charges — seeking to end a long-running trial that has bitterly divided the nation. Netanyahu, who has been at war against the country’s legal system over the charges,

By DAVID RISING Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — The death toll in Hong Kong’s apartment complex blaze rose to 146 on Sunday as investigators discovered more bodies in the burned-out buildings. A steady stream of people placed bouquets of flowers at an ever-growing makeshift memorial at the scene of the disaster, among the worst

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Hondurans began casting ballots Sunday to elect a new president only days after U.S. President Donald Trump intervened in a close race with an endorsement of one candidate and announced that he would pardon a former president. At a voting site in the capital, the country’s

By NICOLE WINFIELD and ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Pope Leo XIV landed in Lebanon on Sunday aiming to bring a message of hope to its long-suffering people and bolster a crucial Christian community in the Middle East. He arrived at a precarious moment for the small Mediterranean country after years of successive

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The day before Honduras elects a new president, suddenly the main topics of conversation here shifted from domestic matters to U.S. President Donald Trump and the former Honduran president he said he will pardon. Trump cannonballed into the deep end of Honduran politics this week, first

By The Associated Press Georgian authorities detained a prominent opposition figure Saturday on suspicion of trying to set fire to the Tbilisi City Court office building, the Interior Ministry said. Alexander Elisashvili, also known as Aleko, broke into the court chancellery building in the Georgian capital at dawn by smashing a window with a hammer,

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British playwright Tom Stoppard, a playful, probing dramatist who won an Academy Award for the screenplay for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love,” has died. He was 88. In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his

By JOSH BOAK and GABRIELA MOLINA Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday said that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be considered as “closed in its entirety,” an assertion that raised more questions about the U.S. pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. His government accused Trump of

By DANIEL NIEMANN and GEIR MOULSON Associated Press GIESSEN, Germany (AP) — A confident far-right Alternative for Germany set up its new youth organization on Saturday even as thousands of protesters converged on the western city of Giessen, where the party held its meeting, some of them clashing with police. A convention of the anti-immigration

By WILSON MCMAKIN and ASSANA SAMBU Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau following a military coup, saying it won’t tolerate unconstitutional changes. In a resolution adopted by the AU Peace and Security Council on Friday, the organization reiterated it has “zero tolerance on unconstitutional changes of government.” It moved to

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — It’s been 10 years since Verónica Rosas set up a Christmas tree. The sorrow brought on by the disappearance of her son in 2015 has been too overwhelming. Before the 16-year-old vanished in a Mexico City suburb, mother and son yearned for the winter season.

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday, while a hospital said that Israeli fire killed two Palestinian children in the territory’s south. The toll has continued to rise after the latest

By ISOBEL KOSHIW Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drone and missile attacks in and around the Ukraine’s capital killed at least three people early Saturday, officials said, as the country’s representatives traveled to the U.S. to work on a renewed push to end the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that

By CHAN HO-HIM Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — It was just after 3 p.m. when William Li received the unusual call from his wife, who was at work, saying she’d heard from a friend that their building was on fire. There were no alarms, no signs of smoke in his 2nd floor apartment, and

By NINIEK KARMINI and KASPARMAN PILIANG Associated Press AGAM, Indonesia (AP) — Improved weather on Saturday helped rescuers on Indonesia’s Sumatra island recover more bodies as they struggled to reach several areas that were hit by landslides and flash floods that left more than 300 dead and scores missing. Parts of Sumatra, known for its

By JOSH BOAK and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will be pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who in 2024 was convicted for drug trafficking and weapons charges and sentenced to 45 years in prison. The president explained his decision on social

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press ZIBQIN VALLEY, Lebanon (AP) — The Lebanese army has intensified its efforts in areas along the border with Israel, in the volatile area that witnessed the 14-month war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group. Parts of the zone south of the Litani River and north of the border with

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Window displays advertising 30% discounts and shoes for $20 were not enough to draw throngs of bargain hunters this Black Friday to a popular mall in Venezuela’s capital. Even the newly opened H&M store was virtually empty in the morning. The country’s suffocating economy, Venezuelans

By SOPHIKO MEGRELIDZE Associated Press TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Crowds of demonstrators gathered in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Friday to mark 365 days of non-stop protests against the government’s decision to halt talks on joining the European Union. Carrying drums, whistles, placards and flags, thousands of protesters marched along Rustaveli Avenue, the city’s

By ANSELM GIBBS Associated Press PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago retracted comments where she asserted that no U.S. Marines were currently in the twin-island nation — a development that comes as the U.S. government seeks allies amid ongoing strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and beyond. Prime

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press PARIS (AP) — A man arrested by French police earlier this week is thought to be the fourth member of the team that stole France’s crown jewels in a brazen heist from the Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Friday, meaning that the entire gang is now believed to be

By ABDULRAHMAN SHAHEEN Associated Press DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli forces raided a Syrian village and opened fire when they were confronted by residents on Friday, killing at least 13 people, Syrian officials said, in the deadliest Israeli attack since its troops seized a swath of southern Syria a year ago. Syria’s Foreign Ministry called

BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from flooding in southern Thailand has reached at least 145, officials said Friday, as receding waters started to reveal devastating damage across the region. More than 1.2 million households and 3.6 million people have been affected by floods triggered by heavy rains in 12 southern provinces, the Department of