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By SETH BORENSTEIN and ISABELLA O’MALLEY Associated Press Sweltering heat is blanketing much of the planet, and the past seven days have been the hottest week on record. It’s the latest grim milestone in a series of climate-change-driven extremes. Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at an unofficial record high set the day before. And

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — Authorities in Texas say an arrest has been made five years after a fire intentionally set at a housing complex killed five people. The fire on July 20, 2018 also displaced 200 people. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has said the fire had been set on

LONDON (AP) — London police say seven children and two adults were injured Thursday when a car crashed into an elementary school on a very narrow road in Wimbledon, in southwest London. The Metropolitan Police said the incident was not being treated as a possible extremist attack. Police were called to The Study Preparatory School,

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer The Venice Film Festival is serving up one of the year’s buzzier films as its opening night selection in Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.” The romantic tennis drama starring Zendaya, “West Side Story’s” Mike Faist and “The Crown’s” Josh O’Connor will have its world premiere out of competition at the 80th

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Officials in Pakistan say the death toll from two weeks of monsoon rains rose to at least 43 on Thursday after four people died in weather-related incidents in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore amid fears of floods, off. Lahore witnessed a record-breaking downpour the previous day, flooding many streets and disrupting

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Groups hoping to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution have delivered nearly double the number of signatures needed to place an amendment on the fall statewide ballot. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said they dropped off more than 700,000 petition signatures on Wednesday to Republican

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch museums are handing back hundreds of cultural artifacts to Indonesia and Sri Lanka that were taken, often by force, from the countries in the colonial era. The pieces include richly decorated cannon from the city of Kandy, and precious metals and jewelry from the

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a 55-year-old Swedish man with fraud and falsifying records for putting his dead female companion in a freezer and cashing in her pension. Officials did not identify the man, but the resulting fraud, they said, involved about $119,500. The man had told investigators that he had put the Norwegian

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey fire chief says two firefighters were killed battling a blaze that broke out inside a cargo ship docked at Newark’s port. Fire Chief Rufus Jackson says responding firefighters found five to seven vehicles ablaze inside the ship Wednesday night. Jackson says they tried to put it out but

BERLIN (AP) — Lawmakers in Germany have failed to agree on new rules regulating assisted suicide. They voted Thursday to reject two proposals drawn up after the country’s highest court ruled that legislation banning the practice on a “business” basis was unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2020 that the ban violated the rights

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s parliament has approved legislation that would allow authorities to confiscate the cars of people who are caught driving far above the speed limit.Lawmakers on Wednesday approved the bill that calls for the cars of people who exceed the speed limit by more than 60 kph (37 mph) in built-up areas or

LONDON (AP) — A British parliamentary watchdog says a lawmaker accused of drunkenly groping two men at a private members’ club should be suspended from Parliament for eight weeks for “completely unacceptable” conduct. The House of Commons Standards Committee said Chris Pincher pinched a parliamentary staffer’s bottom and grabbed a civil servant by the groin

By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell Chinese officials that Washington wants healthy economic competition but will defend trade curbs imposed by the U.S. on security grounds. She also will express concerns about Beijing’s export controls on metals used in semiconductors and solar panels, according to

By ANNA FRANTS Associated Press MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is in St. Petersburg and his Wagner troops have remained at the camps where they had stayed before a short-lived mutiny against Moscow, the president of Belarus said Thursday. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko helped broker a deal for Prigozhin to end

BEIJING (AP) — The leader of the Solomon Islands will visit China next week, highlighting the accelerating contest between Beijing and Washington for influence in the South Pacific. China’s Foreign Ministry says Manasseh Sogavare will meet top officials in Beijing and travel to Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, among China’s most developed. A ministry spokesperson says

By BASSEM MROUE and KAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli forces have shelled a southern Lebanese border village after several explosions were heard in a disputed area where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet. Tensions continue to flare in the border area over two tents erected by the militant group Hezbollah

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV Associated Press LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired cruise missiles Thursday at a western Ukraine city far from the front line of the war, killing at least four people in an apartment building in what officials said was the heaviest attack on civilian areas of Lviv since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine

By CHINEDU ASADU Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria say they have activated a national response plan for another round of deadly floods blamed mainly on climate change and infrastructure problems. The West African nation’s National Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it has begun to work based on dire forecasts by seeking