WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Senators delivered an overwhelming bipartisan vote ratifying NATO membership for Finland and Sweden. Lawmakers call Wednesday's 95-1 vote to expand the Western defensive bloc a “slam-dunk” for U.S. national security and a day of reckoning for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan after a visit that drew threats from China. China claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments. Pelosi met with Taiwanese leaders on Wednesday.

LONDON (AP) — The family of a comatose British boy at the center of a life-support battle says it has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in a last-ditch bid to stop a hospital from ending his treatment. Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at home on April 7. Doctors believe he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s defense ministry says the first Ukrainian grain ship traveling under a wartime deal is preparing to pass through Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait on its way to Lebanon. The ministry said an inspection team finished its review aboard the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni on Wednesday. The team included officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations. The four are parties to an agreement struck last month to create safe shipping corridors for exporting agricultural products as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri is intensifying global scrutiny of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. They had pledged not to harbor members of the extremist group as they seek desperately needed international aid after overthrowing Kabul’s Western-backed government. Al-Zawahri’s killing raises questions about whether the Taliban leadership knew one of America’s most-wanted fugitives lived among their elite.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The seeds of the U.S. counterterrorism operation that killed al-Qaida's leader were planted over many months. Years of efforts by U.S. intelligence operatives under four presidents to track Ayman al-Zawahri paid dividends earlier this year, when they located him at a safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The first cargo ship to leave Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor more than five months ago is sailing off the coast of Bulgaria as it heads toward Istanbul. The voyage puts to the test an agreement signed last month between Moscow and Kyiv that aims to help alleviate a global food crisis. Officials say the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni is expected to reach Istanbul early Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. drone strike has killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in Afghanistan, according to five people familiar with the matter. Current and former officials began hearing Sunday afternoon that al-Zawahri had been killed in a drone strike, but the administration delayed releasing the information until his death could be confirmed, according to one person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

BEIRUT (AP) — A section of Beirut’s massive port grain silos, shredded in the 2020 explosion, has collapsed after a weekslong fire. The silos' northern block toppled in a huge cloud of dust on Sunday after what sounded like an explosion. The recent fire was triggered by grains that had fermented and ignited in the summer heat.

Even as the Russian war machine crawls across Ukraine’s east, trying to achieve the Kremlin’s goal of securing full control over the country’s industrial heartland of the Donbas, Ukrainian forces are scaling up attacks to reclaim territory in the south. The Ukrainian troops have made inroads into the Russian defenses and used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike bridges and military infrastructure in the south, forcing Moscow to divert its forces from the Donbas to counter the new threat.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The first ship carrying Ukrainian grain has set out from the port of Odesa. The departure of the ship laden with corn follows an internationally brokered deal that is expected to finally allow large stores of Ukrainian crops to reach foreign markets and ease a growing hunger crisis.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities say a small explosive device carried by a makeshift drone blew up Sunday at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula, wounding six people. The attack prompted the cancellation of ceremonies honoring Russia’s navy there. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — China has responded in kind to a top U.S. Navy official who criticized Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea. China says it's America’s military deployments in the disputed waters, which it called “navigation bullying,” that can spark confrontations. The Chinese Embassy in Manila said Friday that U.S. Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro’s remarks were unfounded, "maliciously smeared China” and inflated the “China threat.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of shelling a prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine. Separatist authorities in the Donetsk region said an attack on Friday killed at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were captured after the fall of Mariupol in May. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied multiple rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s leaders have effectively acknowledged the struggling economy won’t hit its official 5.5% growth target this year. They said they will try to prop up sagging consumer demand but will stick to strict anti-COVID-19 tactics that have disrupted manufacturing and trade.

ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited a Black Sea port as crews prepare terminals to export grain trapped by Russia’s five-month-old war. Zelenskyy said Friday that the first ship was loaded since the war but that others that have been stuck with their cargos of grain would be the first to leave.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke for more than two hours on Thursday amid rising tensions between their two nations. The call began at 8:33 a.m. and ended at 10:50 a.m. It's the fifth talk of their presidencies and the first since March, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned he’s ready to use his nuclear weapons in potential military conflicts with the United States and South Korea. State media reported Kim made such a warning in a Wednesday speech marking the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched missile strikes Thursday on the Kyiv area and the northern Chernihiv region for the first time in weeks, in what a Ukrainian official said was revenge for the fierce resistance the Kremlin has faced after it invaded its neighbor. The renewed strikes on the areas come a day after the leader of pro-Kremlin separatists in the east publicly called on the Russian forces to “liberate” a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv and Chernihiv.

TOKYO (AP) — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools. The attacks are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s railway network has ground to a crawl after 40,000 staff walked off the job in a dispute over jobs, pay, and working conditions. Train companies say only about a fifth of services across the country are due to run on Wednesday. The 24-hour strike by cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers, and station staff comes a month after the country’s most disruptive rail walkout in three decades.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch farmers are protesting government plans to reduce nitrogen emissions. The farmers dumped manure and garbage on highways Wednesday and set fires alongside roads, creating traffic chaos on some roads in the central and eastern Netherlands. Fire services rushed to clear the debris as traffic built up. The latest demonstrations are part of a summer of discontent.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A strong earthquake has killed at least five people, injured dozens, and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines. Patients were briefly evacuated from two hospitals in the capital. Scientists say the 7-magnitude quake Wednesday morning was centered around Abra province in a mountainous area, where one person was killed and dozens of others injured.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military has used a U.S.-supplied precision rocket system to deliver a morale-lifting knockout punch to a bridge Russia used to supply its forces in an occupied region of southern Ukraine. The deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration in the Kherson region said Ukrainian artillery struck the Antonivskyi Bridge late Tuesday. He says previous Ukrainian attacks damaged the bridge last week but the span had to be closed to vehicles on Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A big pink diamond of 170 carats has been discovered in Angola and is claimed to be the largest such gemstone found in 300 years. Called the “Lulo Rose,” the diamond was found at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine. The mine’s owner, the Lucapa Diamond Company, announced the discovery of the large pink diamond on its website.