International

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday issued strong backing for Afghanistan at a regional conference, while making no mention of human rights abuses by the country’s Taliban leaders.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents typically say a few words before they turn legislation into law. But Joe Biden flipped the script Tuesday when it came time to put his signature on the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia's pledge to scale back some military operations in Ukraine drew skepticism even as the two nations planned to return Wednesday to talks that could produce a framework for ending the war that has imposed an increasingly punishing toll.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday he has now essentially given up on his quixotic bid to sell off the presidential jet, and will rent it out for weddings or parties.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Another round of talks aimed at stopping the war in Ukraine is scheduled for Tuesday as the fighting looks increasingly like a stalemate on the ground, with the two sides trading control of a town in the east and a suburb of the capital.

BEIJING (AP) — China began locking down most of its largest city of Shanghai on Monday as a coronavirus outbreak surges and amid questions about the economic toll of the nation's “zero-COVID” strategy.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 94th Academy Awards that steadily maintained a buoyant spirit was rocked by an unbelievable exchange after Will Smith took offense to a joke made by Chris Rock about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The company behind a COVID-19 vaccine touted as a key tool for the developing world has sent tens of millions of doses to wealthy nations but provided none yet to the U.N.-backed effort to supply poorer countries, a sign that inequity persists in the global response to the pandemic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is approaching a new, potentially more dangerous phase after a month of fighting has left Russian forces stalled by an outnumbered foe. He is left with stark choices — how and where to replenish his spent ground forces, whether to attack the flow of Western arms to Ukrainian defenders, and at what cost he might escalate or widen the war.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy called on people worldwide to gather in public Thursday to show support for his embattled country on the one-month anniversary of the Russian invasion that he said breaks the heart of “every free person on the planet.”