Polls have closed in Brazil in a highly polarized election that could determine if the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right incumbent in office for another four years. The race pits far-right President Jair Bolsonaro against his…
An exit poll in Bulgaria suggests that the center-right GERB party of ex-premier Boyko Borissov, a party blamed for presiding over years of corruption, is the likely winner of the country's parliamentary election. The Gallup International poll showed the GERB party earning 24.6% support and …
Russia has attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones. This comes as Ukraine has pushed ahead with its counteroffensive that has embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine took back control of the strategic eastern city of Lyman, which Russia had been using as a transport and logi…
The United Nations says that negotiations between Yemen’s warring sides have failed to extend a nationwide cease-fire, after an agreement was not reached before a deadline on Sunday. In a statement, the U.N.'s envoy to Yemen called on all sides to refrain from acts of provocation as the talk…
Thousands of people have marched in Paris to show their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody. French feminist groups, leading politicians and people of Iranian heritage were among those who joined the march Sunday th…
Nevada Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak and his Republican challenger, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, are meeting for their only scheduled debate of this election year. They’ll face off after after a botched inmate escape at the state Department of Corrections and air their long-simmeri…
Mediators in the West African nation of Burkina Faso say ousted coup leader Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba has agreed to resign so long as his security and other conditions are met. Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the negotiations by religious leaders, said Sunday that the country's ne…
Mediator: Ousted Burkina Faso coup leader Damiba has offered his resignation and a new junta head has accepted the terms.
An Israeli rights group says Israel is holding nearly 800 Palestinians without trial or charge, the highest number since 2008. HaMoked, which regularly gathers figures from Israeli prison authorities, said Sunday that 798 Palestinians are currently being held in so-called administrative detention. Under the practice, prisoners can be held for months, do not know the charges against them and are not granted access to the evidence against them. The group said the number of those held in administrative detention has risen steadily this year, as Israel conducts nightly arrest raids in the occupied West Bank in response to a spate of attacks against Israelis earlier this year.
King Charles III has decided not to attend the international climate change summit in Egypt next month, fueling speculation that the new monarch will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the decision came after Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss objected to Charles attending the conference, known as COP27, when she met with the king last month at Buckingham Palace. But a member of Truss’ Cabinet said the government and palace were in agreement about the decision and suggestions to the contrary were untrue. Charles has been a champion of environmental issues for decades.
President Joe Biden, a self-described “car guy,″ often promises to lead by example on climate change by moving swiftly to convert the sprawling U.S. government fleet to zero-emission electric vehicles. But efforts to eliminate gas-powered vehicles from the fleet have lagged. Biden last year directed the government to purchase only American-made zero-emission passenger cars by 2027. But the General Services Administration, which buys two-thirds of the federal fleet, says there are no guarantees. It cites big upfront costs and specialized agency needs, such as off-road vehicles for national parks that have limited EV options. About 13% of new light-duty vehicles purchased across the government this year — meaning about 3,550 — were zero emissions.
Latvia’s ruling center-right party has won the most votes in the country’s general election. According to results released Sunday, Latvia's centrist parties were the runners-up and pro-Moscow parties crashed in a vote that was shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine. With over 99% of the votes counted, the prime minister's New Unity party had taken 19% of the votes. Th opposition Greens and Farmers Union was second with 12.5% and the new centrist electoral alliance United List was third with 10.9%. None of the parties catering to Latvia’s ethnic Russian minority, which makes up more than 25% of the country’s 1.9 million people, managed to secure a seat in Parliament.
The heads of nine central and eastern European NATO members issued a joint statement backing a path to membership for Ukraine in the U.S.-led security alliance. They also called on all 30 NATO nations to ramp up military aid for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a surprise move Friday to apply for fast-track NATO membership, in response to Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine. NATO membership needs approval from all 30 members and Ukraine is unlikely to join anytime soon. Being a country already at war complicates the request.
An Associated Press investigation has found that Russian torture in the Ukrainian town of Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP also found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones. The town has now been liberated by Ukrainian forces.
Spain´s marine rescue service says it has picked up the bodies of four people from a rubber dinghy believed to have been carrying more than 30 people. A merchant ship rescued one person after it spotted the boat in waters off northwest Africa on Saturday. Spanish news reports said Sunday the man told rescue services that there had been 34 people on the boat when it set sail some nine days ago. He is being treated in a hospital on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. Thousands of migrants from northwest and sub-Saharan African countries try to reach Spain by boat each year. Many die in the attempt.
Sunday is election day in Brazil. In the Amazon region, many Indigenous people live days away from the nearest town where there is a voting center. But the nation addressed that challenge years ago, thanks in large part to Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira, who was murdered earlier this year. Pereira created a system for voting machines to travel to Indigenous villages, rather than vice versa, after an infamous incident where Indigenous voters were stranded on a riverbank for weeks with insufficient gasoline to motor their boats home, and many got sick. Some died. Today that system continues, with election officials using light aircraft and helicopters to reach remote villages.
The enthusiasm for Donald Trump’s unique brand of nationalist populism has cut into traditional Democratic strongholds in places such as Monongahela in western Pennsylvania. That's where House Republicans recently outlined their election-year campaign agenda, called “Commitment to America.” They're hoping they can tap into the same political sentiment Trump used to attract voters. But it's not clear whether the support that propelled Trump to the White House will be there on Election Day this November. Just as challenging for the Republican Party is whether Trump’s false claims of voter fraud will hurt the GOP if voters decide to sit out the election.
Swiss police have used rubber bullets to disperse protesters in front of the Iranian Embassy in Bern after two men climbed over the embassy’s fence and pulled down the Iranian flag from a flagpole in the yard. Police said late Saturday that nobody was injured and that the "large crowd” of protesters was dispersed after the use of rubber bullets. The two protesters who entered the embassy’s grounds were detained. Police said they used rubber bullets after several other protesters at the unauthorized demonstration tried following the two men who had first entered the embassy’s yard and also tried accessing the premises. It wasn't immediately clear if more protesters were detained.
The Turkish Defense Ministry says its warplanes “neutralized” 23 Kurdish militants in a raid 140 kilometers (90 miles) inside Iraq. The ministry usually refers to killed militants as “neutralized.” It said Sunday that the number of casualties in the mission in the Asos region of northern Iraq was expected to rise. A video accompanying the ministry’s tweet showed F-16 fighters taking off and a number of explosions in a mountainous area. The ministry later said seven Kurdish militants had been “neutralized” in northern Syria in response to an attack on a base that killed a Turkish police officer.
Pope Francis has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, imploring him to “stop this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine. Francis also denounced Sunday what he called the “absurd” risk of nuclear war. Francis made his strongest appeal yet on the more than seventh-month war as he addressed the public in St. Peter’s Square. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “be open” to serious peace proposals. He also exhorted the international community to “use all diplomatic instruments” to end this “huge tragedy” and “horror” of war.
British Prime Minister Liz Truss has acknowledged she could have done a better job “laying the ground” for her package of unfunded tax cuts. But she insisted Sunday that she would push on with an economic plan that has caused turmoil on financial markets and weakened the country’s public finances. Truss acknowledged that the U.K. faces “a very turbulent and stormy time” but said her policies would lead to a “high-growth, low-tax economy” in the longer term. The comments are unlikely to calm Truss’s Conservative Party. The party opens its four-day annual conference on Sunday amid plunging poll ratings and growing public discontent.
Polls opened in Bosnia on Sunday for a general election that is unlikely to bring any structural change despite palpable disappointment in the small, ethnically divided Balkan country's political leaders. The election includes races for various levels of government. Bosnians of all ethnic stripes say they want representatives who will improve the economy and maintain peace. But the sectarian post-war system of governance leaves the pragmatic, reform-minded people in the country with little incentive to vote. The low turnout has historically benefited the divisive, tribal leaders. The election is held amid growing fears that Russia, through its Serb allies, might attempt to reignite the conflict in Bosnia to deflect attention from its campaign in Ukraine.
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Local election officials across the United States are bracing for a wave of confrontations on Election Day in November. Emboldened Republican poll watchers, including many who embrace former President Donald Trump’s falsehoods about the 2020 election, are expected to flood election offices and polling places. The Republican Party and conservative activists have been holding poll watcher training sessions, but in many states they've barred the media from observing those sessions. Some Republican-led states passed laws after the 2020 election that require local election offices to allow poll watchers and give them expanded access to observe and challenge ballots.
Pope Francis appeals to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end 'spiral of violence and death,' decries nuclear war risk.
Russian torture in Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers throughout the city, an AP investigation has found. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the Ukrainian town, including a deep sunless pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic, and a kindergarten. AP also spoke to 15 survivors of Russian torture and confirmed the deaths of eight men. All but one were civilians. The AP found a former Ukrainian soldier who was tortured three times hiding in a monastery, and connected him with loved ones.
The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation into Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. The call came after the Vatican’s sex abuse office said last week that it had secretly sanctioned the revered independence hero of East Timor in 2020. It forbade him from having contact with minors or with East Timor based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019. But a brief statement by the Vatican didn’t reveal what church officials might have known before 2019.
Humanitarian workers say hunger is now soaring in eastern Congo after months of fighting between M23 rebels and the army. An internal draft assessment by aid groups seen by The Associated Press says nearly 260,000 people are facing extreme food insecurity in Nyiragongo and Rutshuru territories. But only 10% of those targeted by aid groups this year received the full recommended food assistance. That's because of a lack of funds and security concerns that has restricted access to some areas. Health staff at one hospital said that the number of severely malnourished children had nearly tripled between April to July.
South Korean activists say they clashed with police while launching balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda materials across the North Korean border. Seoul had previously pleaded with activists to stop such activities after the North threatened to respond with “deadly” retaliation. Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he his group launched about eight balloons Saturday night from an area in the South Korean border town of Paju. Police officers arrived at the scene and prevented them from sending their 12 remaining balloons. Park said police confiscated some of their materials and detained him and three other members of his group over mild scuffles with officers before releasing them after questioning.
U.S. officials celebrated at the start of September when top allies agreed to back an audacious, never-before-tried plan to clamp down on Vladimir Putin’s access to cash. The countries would pay only cut-rate prices for Russian oil. That would deprive Putin of money to keep prosecuting his war in Ukraine, but also ensure that oil kept gushing out of Russia and kept global prices low. But nearly a month later, the organization made up of some of the world’s leading economies, the Group of Seven, is still figuring out how to execute their plan and gather participants.
Venezuela’s government has freed seven Americans imprisoned in the South American country in exchange for the release of two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years by the United States on drug smuggling convictions. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives imprisoned for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens that the Biden administration has ever carried out. It amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as he looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his opponents and follows months of secretive talks, including repeated visits to Venezuela over the last year by Washington’s top hostage negotiator.