AP World News

By MELANIE LIDMAN and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — With the world’s attention fixed on efforts to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, talks are quietly continuing to liberate an Israeli hostage held in Iraq by a different Iranian-backed militant group. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a 38-year-old graduate student at

By EMMA BURROWS Associated Press KONGSBERG, Norway (AP) — In 1944, Norwegian resistance fighters in the town of Kongsberg blew up a factory making cannons for occupying Nazi German forces during World War II. More than 80 years later, the municipality could once again be a target for sabotage and is preparing for war. The

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s presidential race has devolved into personal attacks and petty disputes, drowning out meaningful policy debate after former conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster over his martial law fiasco. The bitter mudslinging between liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung and conservative opponent Kim

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — A huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier thundered down a Swiss mountainside on Wednesday, sending plumes of dust skyward and coating with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. Video on social media and

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — The Canadian province of Manitoba has declared a state of emergency over a series of wildfires, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has agreed to send in the military to help. “This is the largest evacuation Manitoba will have seen in most peoples’ living memory,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said. He said

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the world to know he’s no “chicken” just because he’s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats. The U.S. Republican president’s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what’s known as the “TACO” trade, an acronym coined by The

By MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Truck drivers in Iran blocked roads and ports Wednesday as part of their strike protesting low salaries, high insurance rates, and a possible hike in fuel prices. The strikes, which began last Thursday in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, one of the

By ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KOROSTYSHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Three coffins — one adult-sized, one medium and one child-sized — lay Wednesday inside the Soviet-era Palace of Culture in this northern Ukrainian city, surrounded by dozens of bouquets as a church choir sang farewell prayers. Hundreds of residents stood in grim silence. Some wept quietly.

By EMMA BURROWS Associated Press BERLIN, Germany (AP) — Three people in Germany were charged with working for one of Russia’s intelligence agencies and could have been plotting to kill a man, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday. The three men arrested in the “particularly serious case” on June 19, 2024 in Frankfurt were

By SAMY MAGDY and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Mohammed Sinwar, believed to be the head of Hamas’ armed wing, has been killed, apparently confirming his death in a recent strike in the Gaza Strip. There was no confirmation from Hamas. Sinwar is the younger

By JON GAMBRELL, ZEKE MILLER and AAMER MADHANI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on striking Iran to give the U.S. administration more time to push for a new nuclear deal with Tehran. “I told him this would be inappropriate

KAREL JANICEK Associated Press PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic has accused China of being “responsible” for cyberattacks against a a communication network of its Foreign Ministry, officials said on Wednesday. The Foreign Ministry in Prague said the malicious activities started in 2022 and targeted the country’s critical infrastructure, adding it believed the Advanced Persistent

By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAMY MAGDY and MELANIE LIDMAN Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of Palestinians stormed a United Nations food warehouse Wednesday in Gaza in a desperate attempt to get something to eat, shouting and shoving each other and ripping off pieces of the building to get inside. Four people died

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has hanged a man convicted of spying for Israel, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday. According to the reports, Pedram Madani was hanged after Iran’s supreme court upheld a death sentence issued by a lower court. The official IRNA news agency said Madani had visited Israel and met Mossad officers

By DANIEL NIEMANN Associated Press HAMM, Germany (AP) — A German court ruled against a Peruvian farmer on Wednesday in a landmark climate lawsuit where he claimed that global warming fueled by energy company RWE ‘s historical greenhouse gas emissions put his home at risk. Farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya said that glaciers

By STEFANIE DAZIO and BARRY HATTON Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged Wednesday to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets as the Kyiv government fights to repel Russia’s invasion. Some of the advanced weapon systems that

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Airline passengers in Turkey who unbuckle their seat belts, access overhead compartments, or occupy the aisle before their plane has fully stopped now face fines under new regulations issued by the country’s civil aviation authority. The updated rules, which aim to enhance safety and ensure a more orderly disembarkation, came into

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s biggest water company was fined almost 123 million pounds ($166 million) on Wednesday for releasing sewage into rivers and streams while paying dividends to its shareholders. Industry regulator Ofwat said that Thames Water must pay 104.5 million pounds for failing to protect the environment, and 18.2 million pounds for breaking rules

BANGKOK (AP) — A Cambodian soldier was killed when Thai and Cambodian troops briefly fired at each other in their disputed border area Wednesday, officials said. Cambodian army spokesperson Mao Phalla said the Cambodian troops were conducting a routine patrol along the border when the Thai side opened fire. The Thai army’s statement said the

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers searched Wednesday for six people still missing after an explosion at a chemical plant in eastern China shook nearby buildings, killing at least five people and injuring 19. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast at an industrial park in the Shandong province city of Weifang. The explosion knocked

By NINIEK KARMINI and FADLAN SYAM Associated Press JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron met with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday in a visit aimed at boosting defense and trade cooperation as part of his roughly week-long trip to Southeast Asia focused on strengthening regional ties in an increasingly unstable global

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Get ready for several years of even more record-breaking heat that pushes Earth to more deadly, fiery and uncomfortable extremes, two of the world’s top weather agencies forecast. There’s an 80% chance the world will break another annual temperature record in the next five years, and

By NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY and SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press A 74-year-old pedophile and former surgeon was given a maximum 20-year prison sentence on Wednesday by a French court for the rape and sexual assault of hundreds of patients, mostly children, over more than two decades. Joël Le Scouarnec was sentenced after admitting molesting nearly 300 victims

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian army whistleblower David McBride, who leaked allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan to the media, lost a court bid to have his prison sentence reduced on Wednesday. The Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal rejected the 61-year-old former army lawyer’s appeal against the severity

By ELÉONORE HUGHES Associated Press RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro’s mayor on Tuesday loosened new restrictions on live music on the city’s beaches after many people warned of a threat to the dynamic cultural scene. Mayor Eduardo Paes earlier this month introduced the measures and reinforced existing ones, citing the need to

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan said Tuesday it plans to use some slightly radioactive soil stored near the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant on flower beds at Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s office to show it is safe to reuse. The soil was removed from across the Fukushima prefecture as part of decontamination

By MAYUKO ONO and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) — In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck and Nagasaki is the place to find them. They are known as “omagari neko (bent-tail cats)” or “kagi neko (hook cats)” and have their own society of admirers and even a dedicated Shinto shrine. Their

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he has appointed a team of legal experts to start working on a new constitution — which critics say could allow him to remain in power beyond 2028, when his current term ends. Erdogan, who has led Turkey as president since 2014 and was

By DAVID McHUGH and PAUL WISEMAN AP Business Writers FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Top officials at the European Union’s executive commission says they’re pushing hard for a trade deal with the Trump administration to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods. Trump had threatened to impose the tariffs on June 1, but has pushed back

By MOHAMMED JAHJOUH and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Chaos erupted on the second day of aid operations by a new U.S.-backed group in Gaza as desperate Palestinians overwhelmed a center distributing food on Tuesday, breaking through fences. Nearby Israeli troops fired warning shots, sending people fleeing in panic. An AP