AP National News

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has charged a domestic worker employed by the country’s defense minister with espionage, after he allegedly made contact with an Iranian entity and offered to use his proximity to the minister to relay information. The man, identified as Omri Goren, worked at Defense Minister Benny Gantz’ home as a

MYTILENE, Greece (AP) — A group of 24 aid workers and volunteers who participated in migrant rescue operations on an eastern Greek island are on trial in a smuggling-related case widely criticized by human rights groups. The defendants deny all charges and say all they did was help rescue people. The aid workers include prominent

By DARIA LITVINOVA and YURAS KARMANAU Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — More than 400 Iraqis are seeking to fly home from Belarus, abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union following more than a week of tensions at the bloc’s eastern border. Hundreds of migrants remain stuck there. A plane carrying an unknown number is

By DAVID KEYTON and JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Members of Afghanistan’s women’s youth development soccer team have arrived in Britain after being flown from Pakistan with the help of a New York rabbi, a U.K. soccer club and Kim Kardashian. A plane carrying more than 30 teenage players and their families, about

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have ordered an investigation into a police raid that killed four people and led to protests from families of three of the victims. Police earlier said the two civilians among the victims died in the crossfire when government forces on Monday attacked suspected rebels in Srinagar, the

By DARIA LITVINOVA Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Coronavirus deaths in Russia have hit record highs for the second straight day. Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported Thursday that 1,251 people died of COVID-19 since the day before. The previous record of 1,247 deaths was recorded Wednesday. New daily cases appeared to be taking a

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press The Biden administration is helping to distribute several billion dollars in aid for winter heating and utility bills. The money comes largely from the administration’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. It provides an additional $4.5 billion for the government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which typically has funding of

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Global shares are trading mixed after indexes shuffled lower on Wall Street. Benchmarks rose in early trading in France and Germany, but fell in Britain. Asian shares were mostly lower, though Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose momentarily after the Nikkei major business daily reported Prime Minister

NEW DELHI (AP) — Air pollution remains extremely high in the Indian capital a day after authorities closed schools indefinitely and shut some power stations to reduce smog that has blanketed the city for much of the month. On Thursday, New Delhi’s air quality was in the “very poor” category. The annual winter spike in

BERLIN (AP) — The head of Germany’s disease control agency has warned that the country faces a “really terrible Christmas” unless steps are taken to counter the sharp rise in coronavirus infections. German lawmakers are debating measures Thursday that would replace the nationwide epidemic rules which will expire at the end of the month. The

By CARA ANNA Associated Press NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United States is warning pilots that planes operating at one of Africa’s busiest airports could be “directly or indirectly exposed to ground weapons fire and/or surface-to-air fire” as Ethiopia’s war nears the capital, Addis Ababa. The Federal Aviation Administration advisory cites the “ongoing clashes” between

By ZEN SOO Associated Press HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong authorities have had enough of wild boars. An increasing number of attacks by the animals including one that bit a police officer last week have triggered an operation in a district less than half an hour’s drive from Hong Kong’s financial center. Experts used

By JOHN LEICESTER Associated Press LYON, France (AP) — Shedding her anonymity in an interview with The Associated Press, the wife of the former president of Interpol who disappeared and was imprisoned in China has now chosen for the first time to show her face. Grace Meng agreed to be filmed and photographed without the

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A video has emerged showing an Israeli soldier lining up school-aged Palestinian children and photographing them in a nighttime raid. The video was released on Wednesday by an Israeli rights group, shining a light on the military’s tactics in the occupied West Bank. It shows

By ALON BERNSTEIN Associated Press MODIIN, Israel (AP) — An Israeli couple held by Turkey on suspicion of espionage has returned home after they were released from a weeklong detention. The couple arrived to their home in central Israel where they were greeted by family and a crowd of reporters. A statement by Israel’s prime

By YURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares have mostly declined after indexes shuffled lower on Wall Street. Most major benchmarks declined, while U.S. futures edged higher. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% on Wednesday after drifting between tiny gains and declines. It’s sitting just below its all-time high set

NEW YORK (AP) — Two men who for decades steadfastly maintained their innocence in the 1965 assassination of civil rights icon Malcolm X will be exonerated. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office is expected to join attorneys for the two men on Thursday in asking a judge to toss out the convictions. Malcolm X

By RUSS BYNUM and JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery has testified that he fired his shotgun in self-defense. Travis McMichael said he made a split-second, life-or-death decision when Arbery grabbed his gun and tried to take it away. Now he’s expected to return to the

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (AP) — Jurors in the “Unite the Right” civil trial are set to hear closing arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to hold white nationalists accountable for the violence that erupted in Charlottesville in 2017. Lawyers for nine people hurt or emotionally scarred over two days of chaos allege the defendants conspired to

By KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic as hundreds of thousands of masked students took the highly competitive college entrance exam. About 509,000 students are taking the one-day exam Thursday at 1,395 sites across the nation,