AP World News

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Human rights organizations, politicians and experts have sharply criticized a law approved by El Salvador’s Congress as a censorship tool designed to silence and criminalize dissent in the Central American nation by targeting nongovernmental organizations that have long been critical of President Nayib Bukele. The law proposed by Bukele

By SAMYA KULLAB and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press CHERNIHIV REGION, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine began a major prisoner exchange Friday, swapping hundreds of soldiers and civilians in the first phase of an exchange that was a moment of cooperation in otherwise failed efforts to reach a ceasefire in the 3-year-old war. President Volodymyr

By JOHN LEICESTER and THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Friday found the ringleader and seven other people guilty in the 2016 armed robbery of Kim Kardashian, but did not impose any additional time behind bars for their roles in what the U.S. celebrity described as “the most terrifying experience

By WAFAA SHURAFA Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in a 24-hour period, Gaza’s health ministry said Friday, as Israel pressed ahead with its military offensive and let in minimal aid to the strip. The dead included 10 people in the southern

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — As Venezuelans head to a Sunday election, they are again being used as political pawns. Opposition factions are urging abstention while the ruling party aims to tighten its grip on power — all while both sides appeal to the U.S. government for decisions that would

By HUIZHONG WU and RAJESH ROY Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — The Chinese government said Friday that the Trump administration’s move to ban international students from Harvard would harm America’s international standing, as anxious students and parents overseas fretted over what would come next. Among the two largest parts of the international student community in

By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Under the scrutiny of a black-robed official and before a hushed audience, a decorative cookie tin rattles like a bingo drum. Inside: the future of New Zealand ’s laws. The ceremonial lottery at Parliament, where bills are drawn randomly from what’s known as “the biscuit

By JON GAMBRELL and GIADA ZAMPANO Associated Press ROME (AP) — Iran and the United States made “some but not conclusive progress” Friday in a fifth round of negotiations in Rome over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, the talks’ Omani mediator said. The remarks by Badr al-Busaidi suggested the negotiations between the two longtime enemies

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Rice is essential to Japanese culture, tradition and politics. People take pride in the oval-shaped sticky Japonica grain, which is still a staple even though total consumption has fallen over the decades. But since last summer, prices have soared as supplies have fallen short of demand. The

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is seeking to arrest those responsible for the failed launch of its second naval destroyer, as it denied the warship suffered major damage — a claim quickly met with outside skepticism. A statement from North Korea on its handling of

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Associated Press The foreign men convicted of crimes who were placed on a deportation flight headed for the chaotic nation of South Sudan were originally from countries as far away as Vietnam. They had lived in various places from California to Iowa, Nebraska to Florida, with one serving a sentence of

By STEVEN GRATTAN Associated Press BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A civil court in Peru has issued a landmark ruling recognizing the territorial rights of the Kichwa people within a protected area in the Amazon — marking a major breakthrough for Indigenous land claims. The decision affirms that Indigenous stewardship is fully compatible with conservation goals,

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The Organization of American States came under pressure Thursday to help quash gang violence in Haiti as a U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police in the troubled Caribbean country struggles with a lack of funds and personnel. A U.S. Department of State official attending

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government will roll out the use of medication to suppress the sex drive of sex offenders, as part of a package of measures to reduce the risk of reoffending and alleviate the pressures on the prison system, which is running out of space. Justice Secretary

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press They were colleagues, and they were a couple, days away from a marriage proposal. But the interwoven lives of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were brutally cut short Wednesday evening, when the two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot while leaving a reception for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama and Venezuela will resume commercial flights nearly a year after suspending them when they broke off diplomatic relations, Panama’s Civil Aviation Authority said Thursday. Venezuela pulled its diplomatic representation from Panama last July after Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino refused to recognize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection. The Association of

By DUSAN STOJANOVIC Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European Union’s top foreign policy official said Thursday that membership candidate Serbia faces a “strategic choice” of direction, just weeks after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic defied EU warnings and attended Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow. “Serbia faces a strategic, geostrategic choice, where it wants

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press ROME (AP) — Italy’s Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights can’t be restricted to the biological mother alone in families with same-sex parents. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city

By MOHAMMED JAHJOUH, WAFAA SHURAFA, SARAH EL DEEB and SAM MEDNICK Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Grabbing her daughter’s feeble arm, Asmaa al-Arja pulls a shirt over the 2-year-old’s protruding ribs and swollen belly. The child lies on a hospital bed, heaving, then wails uncontrollably, throwing her arms around her own shoulders

By The Associated Press Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscow’s invasion in 2022 and days after U.S. President Donald Trump said they would start ceasefire negotiations “immediately.” “There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,”

By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Global reactions poured in Thursday in the hours after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum. Authorities say the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested. The violence was

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — A retired high-ranking officer in Myanmar’s military was shot dead by a self-proclaimed urban guerrilla group on Thursday near his home in the country’s biggest city, marking the latest assassination attributed to militants opposed to army rule. The former army officer, Cho Tun Aung, was shot by

By LIUDAS DAPKUS and GEIR MOULSON Associated Press VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated a groundbreaking German brigade in Lithuania that is meant to help protect NATO’s eastern flank and declared Thursday that “the security of our Baltic allies is also our security” as worries about Russian aggression persist. He said Berlin’s strengthening

By The Associated Press Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza overnight, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday. Videos taken by a health official at Al-Awda Hospital show walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing wreckage. The Israeli military said its forces were operating “adjacent”

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Britain signed an agreement Thursday to hand sovereignty over the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a move the government says ensures the future of a U.S.-U.K. military base that is vital to British security. The Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important naval and bomber

By YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian man has died in prison while serving a sentence for insulting the country’s authoritarian president, a human rights group said Thursday, adding to a growing number of political prisoners who perished amid a relentless crackdown on dissent in the tightly controlled country. Valiantsin Shtermer,

By STEPHEN McGRATH Associated Press BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Thursday rejected as unfounded a request to annul the presidential election by the hard-right candidate who decisively lost the race to his pro-European Union opponent on Sunday. After deliberations on Thursday, Romania’s Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank. In a 10-page written submission posted

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Decades before transgender became a household word and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” became a worldwide hit — before visibility brought rights and recognition — there was Bambi, the Parisian icon who danced for Hollywood. The moment that changed queer history occurred on a sweltering summer day in early