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Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Wildfires in Brazil have swept through an area the size of Switzerland, a level of destruction that will take decades to recover, if it ever does, according to a new satellite assessment. The breadth of forest that has been lost or degraded was revealed as smoke that has blanketed

Associated Press A court in Uganda has sentenced a former commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels to 40 years in prison for brutal crimes committed by the group during its insurgency that started in the 1980s. Thomas Kwoyelo  — a former child soldier who later became a rebel commander — will serve only 25

Associated Press Some hurricane-impacted households in North Carolina and Florida will receive one-time, direct cash payments of $1,000 on Friday. The nonprofit GiveDirectly is using AI to find low-income households in badly damaged areas and reaching out to them via an app used to manage SNAP benefits. GiveDirectly hopes the tech-forward model can inspire more

Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike that hit a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon has killed three journalists who were covering the Israel-Hezbollah war. Those killed were camera operator Ghassan Najjar and broadcast technician Mohammed Rida of the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV, and camera operator Wissam Qassim, who worked for Al-Manar TV of Lebanon’s

Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — George Washington. Benjamin Franklin. Betsy Ross. The two Founding Fathers and the seamstress of the American flag all once worshipped on the now centuries-old wooden pews of Christ Church. It’s the site of colonial America’s break with the Church of England — and where the U.S. Episcopal Church was born.

Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The two historic churches are less than a mile apart in Philadelphia. Christ Church is where some of the Founding Fathers worshipped, and where colonial America made its break with the Church of England. Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is located on the oldest parcel of land continuously owned

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek ferry crews have curtailed a four-day strike by several hours, announcing Friday they would go back on the job in the early afternoon instead of at midnight. The strike had threatened to disrupt the travel plans of thousands of Greeks heading to islands for a long weekend ahead of a

Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday. Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s state-run media say security forces have arrested the son-in-law of the country’s former longtime military ruler, Than Shwe, for allegedly posting inflammatory statements on his Facebook account. Nay Soe Maung, a 67-year-old retired colonel and a former army medical officer, was the latest to be arrested and jailed for writing Facebook

Associated Press BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on has praised the Serbian president for meeting  her and other European Union leaders instead of attending a Russia-organized summit of developing economies held earlier this week. Von der Leyen was also in Bosnia on Friday as part of a trip this

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to combat growing inflation. Government spending on the military is straining the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and driving up workers’ wages. The central bank said in a statement Friday

Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — The banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party has claimed responsibility for an attack on the headquarters of a key defense company in Ankara that killed at least five people. A statement from the PKK’s military wing said Friday two members of its so-called “Immortal Battalion,” carried out the attack in response to

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican former President Donald Trump and five third-party candidates will compete for New Mexico’s five electoral votes, but the most competitive race on the ballot will likely be a U.S. House race that could determine control of the narrowly divided chamber. Democratic Rep. Gabriel Vasquez