AP National News

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Seeking to Poland’s government is easing access to abortion for women needing to end a pregnancy for health reasons,  issuing guidelines to doctors that reaffirm the legality of the procedure when based on medical recommendations. The law allows abortions for health reasons are permitted but the previous conservative government limited some

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the commander of the country’s air force Friday, four days after an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners crashed during a Russian bombardment and killed the pilot. The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans awoke Friday to a major power outage in the capital, Caracas, and several states. President Nicolas Maduro’s government blamed the outage, which it said began about 4:50 a.m., on “electrical sabotage.” Freddy Nanez, the communications minister, said officials were working to restore power. Venezuela in years past suffered from regular

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Massachusetts Republicans will choose candidates to challenge U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch in state primaries on Tuesday. The contests top the list of races that will be held across the commonwealth. Democrats have a lock on the state’s congressional delegation, with both U.S. Senate seats and

The Kremlin says it has “no worries” about President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to Mongolia, a country that is a member of the International Criminal Court, which last year issued a warrant for his arrest. The visit, scheduled for Sept. 3, will be Putin’s first trip to an ICC member state since the warrant was

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights office says it will deploy a fact-finding team to Bangladesh to investigate alleged rights abuses and violations during a harsh crackdown by security forces to quell protests this summer. The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he received an invitation from the country’s

Associated Press Racial differences in how schools discipline students received new attention 10 years ago, during a national reckoning with racial injustice. A decade later, change has been slow to materialize. In many schools around the country, Black students have been more likely to receive punishments that remove them from the classroom, including suspensions, expulsions

Associated Press PARIS (AP) — At the Paralympic Games in Paris, women are blazing trails in the roughest of sports — mixed-gender but male-dominated wheelchair rugby. Sarah Adam is the first American woman to compete at the Paralympics in wheelchair rugby. She was in the starting lineup when Team USA kicked off its campaign on

Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Defense Ministry has sought a record 8.5 trillion yen or $59 billion budget for the next year to fortify its deterrence on southwestern islands against China’s increasing threat. Defense officials are also focusing on unmanned weapons and artificial intelligence to make up for the declining number of servicemembers as

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent German leftist politician was sprayed with a red liquid, likely paint, during a campaign event in the eastern city of Erfurt, ahead of closely watched state elections on Sunday.  Sara Wagenknecht, founder of the new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, was only lightly hit by the liquid but briefly left the stage,

Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Märtha Louise, will marry American self-professed shaman Durek Verret on Saturday in a picturesque corner of southern Norway. The wedding comes amid widespread criticism of the couple’s actions and waning support for the Scandinavian royals, who have been plagued by negative reports about

AP Business Writer FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation is down in Europe. August’s figure is only 2.2%, down from 2.6% in July. The pace of consumer price increases in the 20 countries that use the euro is now close to the 2% goal set out by the European Central Bank, the monetary authority for the

Associated Press DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas police chief says a man accused of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer and wounding two others was targeting police. Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference Friday that the officers “were targeted for nothing more than the uniform they wear.” The suspect was later killed by

Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Israeli military strike has hit the first vehicle in a convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians associated with a local transportation company. The Israeli military insisted that the four men carried weapons, while the American

GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss city of Basel will host next year’s Eurovision Song Contest from May 13 to 17, organizers announced Friday. The mostly German-speaking city on the Rhine River bordering both France and Germany was selected over Geneva in a faceoff that generated buzz and anticipation across Switzerland. Basel’s city council said in

Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — Germany has deported Afghan nationals to their homeland for the first time since August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power. A government spokesman described the 28 Afghan nationals deported Friday as convicted criminals but did not clarify their offenses. While the deportations have been in the works for months,

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s oldest giant panda a happy 20th birthday. Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan’s enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20. Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner