AP World News

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in putting down recent nationwide protests in a crackdown that left thousands dead, warned that his force is “more ready than ever, finger on the trigger,” as U.S. warships headed toward the Middle East.

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese military’s top general is being investigated for suspected serious violations of discipline and law the Defense Ministry said Saturday, Zhang Youxia, the senior of the two vice chairs of the powerful Central Military Commission, is the latest figure to fall in a long-running purge of military officials. Analysts believe the

By JOSEPH FALZETTA Associated Press JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — After agreeing to accept deportees from the United States last year, South Sudan sent a list of requests to Washington that included American support for the prosecution of an opposition leader and sanctions relief for a senior official accused of diverting over a billion dollars

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The bloodiest crackdown on dissent since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is slowly coming into focus, despite authorities cutting off the Islamic Republic from the internet and much of the wider world. Cities and towns smell of smoke as fire-damaged mosques and government offices line

By DEREK GATOPOULOS, VASILISA STEPANENKO, and VOLODYMYR YURCHUK Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Olena Janchuk spends another day of freezing isolation in her high-rise apartment. The former kindergarten teacher has severe rheumatoid arthritis, and has been trapped for weeks on the 19th floor of her Kyiv tower block, 650 steps from the ground. Long

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Can it be that, like many baby boomers, King Charles III feels misunderstood? That might sound like a strange question for a man with his own public relations team and easy access to any journalist in the realm. But 16 years after he wrote a book explaining

MADRID (AP) — Spanish state prosecutors said Friday they were shelving an initial investigation into accusations of sexual assault by Julio Iglesias in the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic after concluding that Spain’s National Court lacked jurisdiction to judge the matter. Earlier this month, Spanish prosecutors had opened an investigation studying allegations that the 82-year-old

By KATIE MARIE DAVIES Associated Press Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. envoys met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington’s push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion. The talks follow a flurry of diplomatic

By The Associated Press The U.S.-led push to end Russia’s nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine gained momentum late last year and is moving ahead in 2026, with leaders, diplomats and envoys traveling to a flurry of meetings to discuss a potential deal. Some key moments: 2025 Nov. 19: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to Turkey

By FARAI MUTSAKA Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — As floods ravage Mozambique, crocodiles are appearing in submerged towns and responsible for at least three deaths. In the town of Xai-Xai, the provincial capital of Gaza province and one of the worst-affected areas in the country’s south, authorities have warned residents of heightened crocodile risks

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump took center stage in his whirlwind visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, overshadowing the yearly gabfest among national leaders, executives and other elites in the Swiss Alpine snows. While some experts highlighted business leaders’ ambitions to leverage AI

By PAN PYLAS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signaled Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump should apologize for his false assertion that troops from non-U.S. NATO countries avoided the front line during the Afghanistan war, describing Trump’s remarks as “insulting” and “frankly appalling.” Trump’s comment that he wasn’t sure the

By GREGORY GONDWE Associated Press BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — The southern African nation of Malawi began a cholera vaccination rollout this week in a bid to stem the threat of the disease that kills tens of thousands of people globally each year. Cholera is avoidable when there is access to clean water and largely treatable

By GHAITH ALSAYED Associated Press RAQQA, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces took control Friday of a prison housing members of the Islamic State group in the north of the country, after hundreds of Kurdish fighters who were guarding the facility evacuated the area as part of a recent deal. Syria’s Interior Ministry said in

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — To Lam was reelected Friday as general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party and appears poised to become the country’s most powerful figure in decades, with analysts expecting him to assume the presidency in a break from Vietnam’s tradition of collective leadership. Lam, 68, pledged to

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is celebrating the latest developments in Syria, where the new government has effectively defeated a major Kurdish-led force with an abrupt offensive. Ankara has long viewed armed groups led by Kurds — an ethnic minority with large populations in eastern Turkey, Iraq and northern Syria

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — A prominent activist who organized Hong Kong’s decades-old vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square military crackdown on democracy protesters said Friday that her group’s demand for “ending one-party rule” was a call for democratization, not for an end to the Communist Party’s leadership in China. Chow

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi dissolved the lower house of parliament on Friday, paving the way for an early election on Feb. 8. The move is an attempt to capitalize on her popularity to help the governing party regain ground after major losses in recent years, but

By JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — Modern cities with sleek high-rises, a pristine coastline that attracts tourists, and a state-of-the-art port that juts into the Mediterranean. This is what Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, says Gaza could become, according to a presentation he gave at an economic

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Deep in the Ecuadorian Andes, an ancient forest stands as a final sanctuary against the encroachment of human activity. This is the Yanacocha Reserve, the last refuge for the Black-breasted puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis), a tiny hummingbird teetering on the edge of extinction. Measuring just 9 centimeters (3.5 inches), this emblematic bird

By KAMILA HRABCHUK and KOSTYA MANENKOV Associated Press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region would be a key focus as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States meet in Abu Dhabi for talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion. The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks, which

By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday called U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he halted the hangings of 800 detained protesters there “completely false.” Meanwhile, the overall death toll from a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 5,032, activists said. Activists

By ROB GILLIES Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded to U.S. President Donald Trump comment that “Canada lives because of the United States” on Thursday by saying Canada thrives because of Canadian values. Carney said Canada can show the world that the future doesn’t have to be autocratic after returning

By TOQA EZZIDIN and JULIA FRANKEL Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Desperate Palestinians at a garbage dump in a Gaza neighborhood dug with their bare hands for plastic items to burn to fend off the cold and damp winter in the enclave, battered by two years of the Israel-Hamas war. The scene in the Muwasi

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected a Democratic-backed resolution Thursday that would have prevented President Donald Trump from sending U.S. military forces to Venezuela after a tied vote on the legislation fell just short of the majority needed for passage. The tied vote was the latest sign of Republican House

By MIKE STOBBE and DEVI SHASTRI Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, one year after President Donald Trump announced America was ending its 78-year-old commitment, federal officials said Thursday. But it’s hardly a clean break. The U.S. owes about $280 million to the global

By REGINA GARCIA CANO Associated Press CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s legislature advanced a bill on Thursday to loosen state control over the country’s vast oil sector in the first major overhaul since the late socialist leader Hugo Chávez nationalized parts of the industry in 2007. The legislation would formally break decades of state command