World

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest organized Christian groups in America, ended a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ policies this week, including a ban on gay clergy and on penalties for clergy who conduct same-sex marriages.

Hamas is studying a proposal for a temporary cease-fire with Israel in a “positive spirit,” as international pressure mounts on the two sides to reach a deal and end a conflict that has shaken the Middle East.

As many as a million Russians fled abroad in the first year of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Now thousands are returning home, delivering a propaganda victory to President Vladimir Putin and a boost to his war economy.

As the U.S. Secretary of State worked toward a Gaza cease-fire on a visit to Israel Wednesday, a major Tel Aviv newspaper offered a front-page summary of his challenge: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with key cabinet colleagues and the headline “Who’s in charge here?” 

Ukrainian drones hit a major oil refinery owned by state-controlled Rosneft PJSC in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, just as the facility’s crude-processing had recovered from a previous strike.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed anew Tuesday to launch an invasion into the southern Gaza Strip, even as a renewed push for a cease-fire agreement was showing glimmers of a potential breakthrough.

Israel will consider joining cease-fire talks with Hamas only when the militant group responds to the latest internationally mediated proposal for a temporary truce and hostage release, state-run Kan News reported.

LONDON – As the group of amateur archaeologists sifted through tiles, animal teeth and pottery fragments buried within an ancient Roman pit in eastern England, one of them encountered something unusual last June.

In Ukraine, it’s far from quiet on the eastern front. By the end of the weekend, Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from three villages in the eastern Donetsk region, a tactical retreat that betrays Kyiv’s deeper vulnerabilities. Short of ammunition and fresh troops more than two years into its dogged resistance of Russian invasion, Ukraine finds itself on the back foot as the Kremlin attempts to renew its offensive momentum. Russian forces seized the eastern city of Avdiivka in February and have made further inroads since that success.

Israeli negotiators, offering a hint of hope for negotiations over a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, have reduced the number of hostages they want Hamas to release during the first phase of a truce, three Israeli officials said Monday.

The protests outside her window at Columbia University were loud, and Dahlia Soussan lay awake all night, tossing in her dorm room bed, a little bit scared. As a Jewish student, some of the chants felt threatening, like she was being targeted because she supports the existence of the state of Israel.

The convoy rolled out of the military base before dawn into the mist-shrouded mountains straddling Guatemala's border with Mexico. Its mission: destroy opium poppies used to make heroin.

Ukraine is just beginning to understand the lasting effects of the traumas its prisoners of war experienced in Russian captivity, but it has been failing to treat them properly and returning them to duty too early, say former prisoners, officials and psychologists familiar with individual cases.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will step up efforts to secure a truce in Gaza during meetings in the Middle East on Monday, in what could be a final chance to persuade Israel to call off an attack on Rafah.

A California woman who was accused of using counterfeit postage on tens of millions of packages pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding the United States Postal Service out of more than $150 million.