News in brief

By The Associated Press

Oil tanker held by Iran reaches international waters

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates | An oil tanker held by Iran for over a year after being seized has reached international waters. The Advantage Sweet was traveling on Thursday through the Strait of Hormuz, where it was seized in April 2023 by Iran’s navy. That’s according to tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press. Iran did not acknowledge the ship’s departure.

It came after an Iranian court earlier on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay over $6.7 billion in compensation over a Swedish company stopping its supply of special dressings and bandages for those afflicted by a rare skin disorder after Washington imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran’s government has linked the Advantage Sweet’s seizure to the court case.

Arkansas officials reject petitions for abortion-rights ballot measure

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | Arkansas election officials on Wednesday rejected petitions submitted for an abortion-rights ballot measure that organizers hoped to put before voters this fall in a predominantly Republican state.

The secretary of state’s office rejected the petitions submitted on Friday by supporters of the proposal, saying the group didn’t submit statements required regarding paid signature gatherers.

Organizers on Friday submitted more than 101,000 signatures. They needed at least 90,704 signatures from registered voters and a minimum number from 50 counties.

In his letter to organizers, Secretary of State John Thurston said that even if his office accepted the signatures it determined came from volunteers the total would amount to 87,382, below the required amount.

China tells

NATO not to create chaos in Asia

BEIJING | China has accused NATO of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia. The statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Thursday came a day after NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The spokesperson accused NATO of interfering in China’s internal politics and smearing China’s image.

China has broken with the United States and its European allies over the war in Ukraine, refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion. Its trade with Russia has grown since the invasion, at least partially offsetting the impact of Western sanctions.

Officials plead for $9M in hurricane aid in southeast Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico | People in the southeast Caribbean urgently need food, water and shelter nearly two weeks after Hurricane Beryl crushed the region as a Category 4 storm, officials said Thursday as they pleaded for at least $9 million in assistance from the international community.

Thousands of people across Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were left homeless by the storm, which killed at least seven people and destroyed schools, businesses and livelihoods on the archipelago.

—From AP reports