BERLIN (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, is for many the man who restored democracy to many European countries under communist rule. He is being saluted as a rare leader who changed the world and for a time brought hope for peace among the superpowers.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — United Nations inspectors are making their way toward Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Theirs is a long-anticipated mission to help secure the Russian-held facility in the middle of a war zone and avoid catastrophe. Underscoring the danger, Kyiv and Moscow again accused each other on Wednesday of attacking the area around Europe’s biggest nuclear plant.

MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, has died at 91. He waged a losing battle to salvage a crumbling empire but produced extraordinary reforms that led to the end of the Cold War. The Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow said in a statement that Gorbachev died after a long illness. No other details were given.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet says Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized and later let go of a U.S. sea drone in the Persian Gulf. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a 5th Fleet spokesman, said Tuesday the incident saw a Revolutionary Guard ship try to seize a Saildrone Explorer. Hawkins said the Guard vessel was towing the drone behind it as a U.S. Navy ship and helicopter approached it. Hawkins told The Associated Press the Navy called repeatedly to the Iranians, who ultimately let the drone go.

PRAHOVO, Serbia (AP) — The worst drought in Europe in decades has not only scorched farmland and hampered river traffic, but it has also exposed a part of World War II history that had almost been forgotten. The hulks of dozens of German warships have emerged from the mighty Danube River as its water levels dropped.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Armed supporters of a powerful Iraqi cleric who clashed with security forces in the capital have begun to withdraw from the streets. That restored a measure of calm following a serious escalation of the political crisis gripping the nation. Following two days of deadly unrest that sparked fears instability might spread throughout the country and even the region, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his supporters Tuesday to leave the government quarter.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The first ship carrying grain from Ukraine for people in the hungriest parts of the world has docked at the Horn of Africa port of Djibouti as areas of East Africa are badly affected by deadly drought and conflict. Food security experts call it a drop in the bucket for the vast needs in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the nation where this first shipment is going.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine. Martin Griffiths urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter. He spoke at the U.N. Security Council Monday where the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Andriy scrambled back to Ukraine at the start of Russia's war after moving to Western Europe to work as an engineer. He underwent a conversion within weeks from civilian life to a sniper being trained by Ukraine's special forces. He spoke to The Associated Press while practicing alone at an informal firing range near Kyiv.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military says several Israelis were wounded overnight after they entered the Palestinian West Bank city of Nablus and came under fire. The Israelis appeared to be headed to a flashpoint shrine in the city, where visits are usually coordinated by the military under tight security precautions. After they came under fire, the military said Tuesday troops entered the city, which is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, to evacuate the Israelis.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A surge in fighting on the southern front line and Ukrainian claims of new attacks on Russian positions is feeding speculation that a counteroffensive has started to try to turn the tide of the war. The British defense ministry said Tuesday that as of early Monday “several brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces increased the weight of artillery fires in front line sectors across southern Ukraine.”

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has arrived in Taiwan for a visit focused on semiconductors, the critical chips that are used in everyday electronics and have become a battleground in the technology competition between the U.S. and China. His visit is the latest in a recent string by U.S. politicians that have angered China, which claims the self-governing island off its coast as part of its territory and says the visits encourage Taiwan independence forces.

KYIV (AP) — A U.N. nuclear watchdog team has set off on an urgent mission to safeguard the endangered Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine. The world hopes this long-awaited trip will help avoid a nuclear catastrophe. The trip is to a country where the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986, sent radiation throughout the region, shocked the world and intensified a global push away from nuclear energy.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An influential Shiite cleric has announced he would resign from Iraqi politics and hundreds of his angry followers stormed the government palace in response, sparking violent clashes with security forces in which at least five protesters were killed. Medical officials said at least 15 protesters were wounded by gunfire and a dozen more were injured by tear gas and physical altercations with riot police in the protests Monday that followed the announcement by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — International aid is reaching Pakistan, as the military and volunteers desperately tried to evacuate many thousands stranded by widespread flooding driven by “monster monsoons” that have claimed more than 1,000 lives this summer. Two cargo planes from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates landed near Islamabad on Sunday and more help arrived.

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian military says it will launch sweeping military drills in the country’s east that will involve forces from China. The maneuvers that start on Thursday reflect increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing amid the tensions with the West over the Kremlin’s action in Ukraine.

BEIJING (AP) — More than 100,000 people have been evacuated to safer areas as heavy rains bring flood risks to a region of southwest China that was devastated by heat and drought for most of the summer. Heavy rain is forecast for parts of Sichuan province and Chongqing city through at least Tuesday. Chongqing, a megacity built in a hilly area and including mountains and countryside, issued a flash flood warning.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June, officials said Sunday. Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as …

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan health ministry officials say clashes have broken out between rival militias in Libya’s capital, killing at least 23 civilians and wounding 140 others. An emergency services spokesman said Saturday the dead included a comedian known for his social media videos who was shot in the chest. The spokesman says many other civilians were wounded in the clashes that centered in the capital city of Tripoli.

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russia and Ukraine have traded claims of attacks at or near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. These reports Sunday intensified fears that the fighting could damage the Zaporizhzhia plant and cause a massive radiation leak. Ukraine’s atomic energy agency painted an ominous picture of the threat by issuing a map forecasting where radiation could spread. Ukrainian officials say Russian strikes hit areas across the Dnieper River from the power plant.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say a team from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant next week after it was temporarily knocked offline. More shelling was reported in the area Friday. Ukraine says Russia is seeking to sabotage the IAEA visit. Fire damage to a transmission line at Europe’s largest nuclear plant caused a blackout across the region on Thursday.

LONDON (AP) — British residents will see an 80% increase in their annual household energy bills. The U.K.’s energy regulator announced Friday that costs will go from 1,971 pounds a year to 3,549 pounds in October. It follows a record 54% annual spike in April. The costs are roiling the British economy, which has the highest inflation rate among the Group of Seven wealthiest democracies and seen disruptive strikes for months as workers push for pay to keep pace with the increasingly expensive cost of living.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The deadly siege of a hotel in Somalia's capital over the weekend was the longest such attack in the country's history. It took more than 30 hours for security forces to subdue the al-Shabab extremists who invaded the hotel. In a national address this week, Somalia’s president spoke of “total war” to confront the group that has controlled parts of the country for years.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan's leader says China and Russia are “disrupting and threatening the world order" with Beijing's recent large-scale military exercises near the island and Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. President Tsai Ing-wen spoke during a meeting in Taipei with U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who is on the second visit by members of Congress since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip prompted China to launch the exercises.

Scientists have created “synthetic” mouse embryos from stem cells without a dad's sperm or a mom's egg or womb. The lab-created embryos mirror a natural mouse embryo up to 8 ½ days after fertilization, containing the same structures, including one like a beating heart. In the near term, researchers hope to use these so-called embryoids to better understand early stages of development and study mechanisms behind disease without the need for as many lab animals. The feat could also lay the foundation for creating synthetic human embryos for research in the future.