AP National News

By DANICA KIRKA and SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Pledging to face an economic storm, Britain’s new government is set to offer an emergency budget featuring tens of billions in spending cuts and tax increases Thursday as it seeks to restore the U.K.’s economic credibility and patch up the nation’s battered finances. Just

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron says “sports should not be politicized” only days after it was announced that he would attend the World Cup in Qatar if France reaches the semifinals. Macron is in Bangkok and says issues about Qatar’s human rights record and the environment are “questions you have to ask yourself

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian airstrikes inflicted more damage on Ukraine on Thursday, with the latest barrage smashing into energy infrastructure, apartment buildings and an industrial site. At least four people were killed and more than a dozen others wounded in drone and missile strikes around the country, authorities said.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Starbucks workers at more than 100 U.S. stores say they’re going on strike Thursday in what would be the largest labor action since a campaign to unionize the company’s stores began late last year. The walkouts are scheduled to coincide with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company

By FOSTER KLUG Associated Press NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AP) — China and India, after months of refusing to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, did not stand in the way of the release this week of a statement by the world’s leading economies that strongly criticizes Moscow. Could this, at last, signal a bold new policy

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian airstrikes inflicted more damage on Ukraine on Thursday, with the latest barrage smashing into energy infrastructure, apartment buildings and an industrial site. At least four people were killed and five others wounded in drone and missile strikes around the country, authorities said. Separately, U.N. Secretary-General

By DANICA KIRKA and SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — So many demands. So little money. Just three weeks after taking office, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces the challenge of balancing the nation’s budget while helping millions of people slammed by a cost-of-living crisis as Russia’s war in Ukraine pushes up energy prices

By DAVID RISING Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military-controlled government announced Thursday it was releasing and deporting an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American as part of a broad prisoner amnesty to mark the country’s National Victory Day. Australian Sean Turnell, Japan’s Toru Kubota, Briton Vicky Bowman, and American

By VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The long border between Finland and Russia runs through thick forests and is marked only by wooden posts with low fences meant to stop stray cattle. Soon, a stronger, higher fence will be erected on parts of the frontier. Earlier this month, Polish soldiers began laying

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The Sri Lankan government is being urged to drop charges against two protest leaders detained for more than three months following the anti-government demonstrations that engulfed the island nation earlier this year. Amnesty International also renewed its call for Sri Lanka to repeal the harsh,

By SAM McNEIL Associated Press KONOMIE ISLAND, Australia (AP) — Below the turquoise waters off the coast of Australia is one of the world’s natural wonders, an underwater rainbow jungle teeming with life that scientists say is showing some of the clearest signs yet of climate change. The Great Barrier Reef, battered but not broken

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says security forces have detained a suspect wanted in connection with the deadly bombing in Istanbul. The operation was carried out in a Turkish-controlled area in northwestern Syria. Other suspects detained following the bombing will appear before court officials on Thursday to face possible charges or be

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Men usually outnumber and outrank women negotiators in climate talks, except when it comes to global warming’s thorniest diplomatic issue this year — reparations for climate disasters. The issue of polluting nations paying vulnerable countries is handed over to women, who got the issue

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma plans to execute a man Thursday for the torture slaying of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 1993. Richard Stephen Fairchild, who turns 63 on Thursday, is set to receive a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Fairchild, an ex-Marine, was convicted

By ABBY SEWELL Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s largest Palestinian camp was once bustling with activity: It was crowded with mini-buses and packed with shops hawking falafel, shawarma and knafeh nabulsieh — a sweet concoction of cheese and phyllo dough. Kids played soccer and brandished plastic guns until men with real guns came in

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife. Kenneth Eugene Smith is scheduled to receive a lethal injection Thursday. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men paid $1,000 each to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of

By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The largest dam demolition and river restoration plan in the world could be close to reality Thursday as U.S. regulators vote on a plan to remove four aging hydro-electric structures, reopening hundreds of miles of California river habitat to imperiled salmon. The vote by the Federal

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters Thursday, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan. The missile fired from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan

By LISA MASCARO AP Congressional Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to address her plans with colleagues on Thursday in the wake of Democrats narrowly losing control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections. Pelosi’s decision to either seek another term as the Democratic leader or to step aside