Month: June 2023

By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection last month despite a battered economy and a cost-of-living crisis that experts say are exacerbated by his unconventional economic policies. The longtime leader appointed an internationally respected former banker as finance and treasury minister and on Friday named a

By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press FORT LIBERTY, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden traveled to the recently renamed Fort Liberty in North Carolina on Friday to sign an executive order that aims to bolster job opportunities for military and veteran spouses whose careers are often disrupted by their loved ones’ deployments. Less than 100 miles

By KANIS LEUNG Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Two giant inflatable ducks made a splash in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor on Friday, marking the return of a pop-art project that sparked a frenzy in the city a decade ago. The two 18-meter-tall yellow ducks by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman resemble the bath toys many

By JAMEY KEATEN and JOANNA KOZLOWSKA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukrainian troops have started their long-expected counteroffensive. His comments Friday that Kiev’s forces suffered significant losses came just hours after a string of drone strikes inside Russian territory. Such strikes have been exposing vulnerabilities in Russia’s air defenses.

ROME (AP) — The Vatican says Pope Francis is “progressively improving” and sitting in an armchair working. That follows surgery this week to remove intestinal scar tissue and repair a hernia in his abdominal wall. The Vatican spokesman said Francis had breakfast and read the newspapers from his armchair Friday. The Vatican quoted doctors as

By JACK JEFFERY Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s government says the U.N. envoy to the country, a key negotiator in its brutal conflict, is no longer welcome. The announcement late Thursday comes weeks after the head of the country’s military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, demanded in a letter that envoy Volker Perthes be removed

By ILLIA NOVIKOV, YURAS KARMANAU and HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — For days, the Ukrainian teenager has waited in the attic, just down the street from the cemetery of her flooded town, marking time with her 83-year-old grandfather and two other elderly people and hoping for help to escape the deluge of

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press LE PECQ, France (AP) — The attacker slashed at the 24-year-old man with the knife that he used to savagely stab one young child after another. But rather than run, Henri held his ground — using a weighty backpack he was carrying to swing at the assailant and fend off

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops, police and rescue workers began forcibly evacuating residents near Mayon Volcano on Friday as its increasing unrest indicated a violent eruption of one of the country’s most active volcanoes is possible within weeks or days. The area within a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) radius of Mayon’s crater is supposed to be

By SIMINA MISTREANU Associated Press TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Honduran President Xiomara Castro has arrived in Shanghai on her first visit to China since the two countries established diplomatic ties. China’s official Xinhua News Agency says Castro will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping “to jointly plan for the future development” of ties. Honduras established

By TIFFANY STANLEY Associated Press GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — As Ron DeSantis wrapped up a 12-stop campaign tour that began in an Iowa evangelical church and ended here in a South Carolina convention center, dozens of pastors met backstage to pray for the presidential candidate. Later, to the 1,500 people in the auditorium, DeSantis closed

By BEN FINLEY, PETER SMITH and DEEPA BHARATH Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Pat Robertson united tens of millions of evangelical Christians through the power of television and pushed them in a far more conservative direction with the personal touch of a folksy minister. His biggest impact may have been wedding evangelical Christianity to