AP National News

By MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has donated religious offerings to a Tokyo shrine viewed by Chinese and Koreans as a symbol of Japanese wartime aggression. Kishida did not visit Yasukuni Shrine, but donated “masakaki” religious ornaments to mark the shrine’s autumn festival. It was the

LONDON (AP) — Celebrities will join Prince William in London for the inaugural awards ceremony of his Earthshot Prize. The ambitious environmental program aims to find new ideas and technologies around the world to tackle climate change and Earth’s most pressing challenges. Judges including naturalist and veteran broadcaster David Attenborough, actor Cate Blanchett and singer

By MARI YAMAGUCHI The Associated Press TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s new prime minister has visited the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and said a planned mass disposal of wastewater stored at the complex cannot be delayed, despite concerns from local residents. Fumio Kishida was speaking Sunday during his first tour of the facility since taking office.

By AHMED AL-HAJ and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — U.N. aid workers and Yemeni officials say Houthi rebels have continued their weekslong blockade of a district in the central province of Marib. They say that’s blocking humanitarian aid and movement of its 37,000 people. The officials say the Iranian-backed Houthis have advanced

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press At least five people charged in the riot at the U.S. Capitol have chosen to defend themselves in court. In doing so, they’re brushing aside federal judges’ repeated warnings about the risks of trying to navigate their high-stakes cases without a lawyer. Self-representation is a bedrock

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS Associated Press ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — Cloudy weather has disrupted the dress rehearsal for the Beijing Winter Olympics flame-lighting ceremony at the birthplace of the ancient Games in Greece. And earlier Sunday, two protesters were detained on the Acropolis in Athens trying to raise a banner to draw attention to human-rights

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is decrying recent deadly attacks in Norway, Afghanistan and Britain. Greeting the public in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, he cited the violence last week, which he noted claimed many lives. He expressed his closeness to the victims’ families and prayed that violence as a “way of life” be

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo is holding municipal elections, with the left-wing governing party aiming to capture the city hall in the capital, Pristina. About 1.9 million voters were casting ballots Sunday to elect mayors for 38 municipalities and some 1,000 town hall lawmakers. The main contest will be for Pristina. Voting in the north,

MADRID (AP) — Officials say there is no sign that a volcanic eruption on the Spanish island of La Palma is coming to an end, four weeks after it began. The volcano on one of the Canary Islands off northwest Africa has so far destroyed more than 1,800 buildings, mostly homes. Prompt evacuations have helped

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) — Flea had a funky birthday. So did the music school he co-founded that has become a Los Angeles institution. As the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist turned 59 on Saturday, his Silverlake Conservatory of Music turned 20. They celebrated with a joint party in the

By ARNO PEDRAM and SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Hundreds of people, including Algerian protesters and their descendants, are commemorating the 60th anniversary of a bloody police crackdown in Paris during the final year of Algeria’s independence war with its colonial power. A tribute march was organized in Paris to remember the Oct.

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The man known as the last Jew of Kabul could soon be heading to Israel, after agreeing to grant his estranged wife a religious divorce in a Zoom call. The divorce is a precondition for his entry to the Holy Land. Zebulon Simentov, who fled Afghanistan last

By JIM HEINTZ Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Russia is reporting its largest daily number of new coronavirus infections, more than 70% up on the number a month ago as the country faces a sustained rise in cases. The national coronavirus task force on Sunday said 34,303 new infections were recorded in the previous day,

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The father of a man held for the fatal stabbing of a British lawmaker during a meeting with local voters has told British media that he was shocked and “traumatized” by his son’s arrest, as police continue questioning the suspect under terrorism laws. Dozens of mourners attended

By DEMETRIS NELLAS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Two women attempted to hang a banner from the Acropolis in Athens Sunday morning in protest at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics and were detained by Greek police. The activists, 18-year-old Tibetan student Tsela Zoksang and 22-year-old Hong Kong exiled-activist, Joey Siu, both American citizens, are

By CARLEY PETESCH Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Toufah Jallow first became popular as Gambia’s scholarship winner in a contest for young women with academic promise. Now, she is the face of empowerment for a generations of women who, because of her, feel more emboldened to talk about sexual violence.  In 2015, she fled

By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The death of a former Syrian Druse lawmaker, allegedly by Israeli sniper fire, could mark a new phase in what Israel calls its war against Iranian entrenchment in neighboring Syria. Syria’s state-run news agency said the former lawmaker was fatally shot Saturday. It said the shooting happened

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo is holding municipal elections, with the left-wing governing party aiming to capture the city hall in the capital, Pristina. About 1.9 million voters were casting ballots Sunday to elect mayors for 38 municipalities and some 1,000 town hall lawmakers. The main contest will be for Pristina. Voting in the north,

Associated Press NEW DELHI (AP) — At least eight people have died and a dozen are feared missing following a day of torrential rains in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Rescue operations were underway on Sunday after heavy rains lashed the state the day before, triggering flash floods and landslides across districts, reported the

By RENATA BRITO Associated Press ABOARD THE SEABIRD (AP) — A humanitarian effort seeks to monitor human rights violations and assist in the rescue of migrants fleeing Libya to Europe by boat on the Mediterranean Sea. The German non-governmental organization known as Sea-Watch conducts the operation. Even if they spot a boat full of migrants