KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A series of clandestine, against-the-odds helicopter missions to reach besieged soldiers are being celebrated in Ukraine as one of the riskiest, most heroic feats of military derring-do in the four-month war against Russia. The flights delivered supplies and evacuated wounded during the last-ditch defense of the Azovstal steel mill. It was surrounded by Russian forces in the brutalized city of Mariupol.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says it has successfully launched its first homegrown space rocket. The Science Ministry says the three-stage Nuri rocket succeeded Tuesday in releasing and placing its functioning “performance verification” satellite at a desired altitude of 435 miles.

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of railway workers have walked off the job in Britain, bringing the train network to a crawl in the country’s biggest transit strike in three decades. About 40,000 cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers and station staff are holding a 24-hour strike on Tuesday.

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court has ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage does not violate the constitution, and rejected demands for compensation by three couples who said their right to free union and equality has been violated.

BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Despite the heavy influx of weapons from the West, Ukrainian forces are outgunned by the Russians in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where the fighting is largely being carried out by way of artillery exchanges.

BANGKOK (AP) — The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists from the Southeast Asian nation and the United States.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s weakened coalition government decided Monday to dissolve parliament and call a new election, the country's fifth in three years. The vote, expected this fall, could bring about the return of a nationalist religious government led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another prolonged period of political gridlock. The previous four elections, focused on Netanyahu's fitness to rule while on trial for corruption charges, ended in deadlock.

France's far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Monday that her party’s extraordinary surge in the country's parliamentary election is a “historic victory” in French politics. Many voters in …

Floods in Bangladesh have left millions struggling to access safe drinking water and food across the country’s vast northeastern and northern regions. More than a dozen people died across the …

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Witnesses in Ethiopia say more than 200 people, mostly ethnic Amhara, have been killed in an attack in the country’s Oromia region and are blaming a rebel group, which denies it. It is one of the deadliest such attacks in recent memory as ethnic tensions continue in Africa’s second most populous country.

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen attacked two churches in rural northwestern Nigeria on Sunday, killing three people, witnesses and a state official said, weeks after a similar attack in the West African nation left 40 worshippers dead.

BEIJING (AP) — China has launched its third aircraft carrier, the first such ship to be designed and built entirely within the country. State media reports said the Type 003 new-generation aircraft carrier christened Fujian left its drydock at a shipyard in Shanghai on Friday morning.

BORETTO, Italy (AP) — Water is so low in large stretches of Italy’s largest river that local residents are walking through the middle of the expanse of sand and shipwrecks are resurfacing, but authorities fear there’ll be far greater consequences for farmers and local populations.

LONDON (AP) — The British government has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face spying charges. WikiLeaks said it would appeal.

LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm has recommended putting Ukraine on a path to membership. That's a symbolic boost for the embattled country but one that did not slow a Russian onslaught in the east that is taking civilian lives and flattening cities.

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has produced only about half the sugar it had projected this season and authorities acknowledge that while they will cover internal demand they will not be able to meet their international commitments. An official at the government agency that regulates sugar production said Wednesday: “It’s not a secret, the sector is in crisis.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Two U.S. veterans from Alabama who were in Ukraine assisting in the war against Russia haven’t been heard from in days and are missing. Members of the state's congressional delegation say relatives of 27-year-old Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh of Trinity and 39-year-old Alexander Drueke of Tuscaloosa have been in contact with Capitol Hill offices seeking information about the men’s whereabouts.

KOZANI, Greece (AP) — Energy market turmoil caused by the war in Ukraine has triggered an increase in coal-fired electricity production in the European Union and a temporary slowdown in the closure of power plants long-earmarked for retirement. Greece set an ambitious timeline to end decades of reliance on lignite ‒ low-quality coal ‒ but has paused that program in response to a huge rise in natural gas prices.

IRPIN, Ukraine (AP) — Four European leaders made a high-profile visit to show their support for Ukraine, denouncing the brutality of the Russian invasion as they surveyed the ruins of a Kyiv suburb. After arriving in Kyiv to the sound of air raid sirens, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania headed to Irpin. The town was seized and briefly held by Russian troops along with other areas near the capital.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is expected to announce Wednesday that it will send as much as $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, the largest single tranche of weapons and equipment since the war began. The effort is intended to help stall Russia’s slow but steady march to conquer the eastern Donbas region.

BERLIN (AP) — From Frankfurt and New York to Istanbul and Beijing, skygazers could enjoy a beautiful supermoon rise over the horizon in an impressive astronomic spectacle.

BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) — An Israeli court has found a Gaza aid worker guilty of several terrorism charges. Mohammed el-Halabi, who was the Gaza director for the Christian charity World Vision from 2014 until his arrest in 2016, was accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars to the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules the territory. Both he and World Vision have denied any wrongdoing, and an independent audit in 2017 also found no evidence of support for Hamas.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian military says it has used long-range missiles to destroy a depot in the western Lviv region of Ukraine where ammunition for NATO-supplied weapons was being stored. That region is close to NATO member Poland. The Russian missile strikes came as fighting raged Wednesday for the city of Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine's eastern Donbas area, the key focus of Russia’s offensive in recent weeks.

HONG KONG (AP) — A landmark floating restaurant that fed Queen Elizabeth II, Tom Cruise and millions of other diners has been towed out of Hong Kong after falling victim to the pandemic. The parent company of Jumbo Floating Restaurant couldn't find a new owner and lacked funds to maintain it after months of COVID-19 restrictions.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — A regional governor says Russian forces control about 80% of the city of Sievierodonetsk — the main focus of the war now in eastern Ukraine. The governor of the Luhansk region says Russian forces have destroyed all three bridges leading out of the city but Ukrainian forces were still able to evacuate about 72 civilians. But he says a mass evacuation of civilians now is “simply not possible” due to the relentless shelling and fighting in the city.