Wildfires raging near Jerusalem forced evacuations in several areas and led to several major road closures on Wednesday, as firefighters struggle to contain the flames amid dry conditions and high winds. Israel is seeking international assistance to fight the fires, as the defense minister says the country is “in a time of national emergency.” The fire forced authorities to close ...

The body of a young Ukrainian woman who died in Russian captivity after being held incommunicado for months was returned to Ukraine showing signs of torture, Ukrainian prosecutors have said. Kyiv said the remains of journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing during a reporting trip, were returned as part of a body exchange between Ukraine and Russia in February. Yuriy ...

The man vying to become Australia’s next prime minister has spent weeks trying to distance himself from comparisons to US President Donald Trump. “I’m my own person,” opposition Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton insisted, when asked for his thoughts on “Temu Trump,” the label given to him by critics referring to the Chinese website with a reputation for cheap copies. ...

The world’s smallest elephants are still big. Measuring around nine feet (2.7 meters) tall, Bornean elephants are the smallest subspecies of the Asian elephant, and are two feet (60 centimeters) shorter than their African counterparts. Found only on the island of Borneo, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah, there are fewer than 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild, ...

Britain’s King Charles opened up about his cancer diagnosis on Wednesday, saying it can be a “daunting” and “at times frightening” experience for those living with the illness. In a message shared at a reception in Buckingham Palace for cancer support charities, Charles said despite the fears that cancer can bring, it can illuminate the best of humanity. “As one ...

Venezuela is demanding that a 2-year-old girl be returned to her family after the United States deported her parents and kept the toddler in government custody. The Venezuelan foreign ministry on Monday accused the US of “kidnapping” Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, saying she was separated from her mother as she was boarding a deportation flight back to Venezuela. It also ...

Syria strongly condemned foreign intervention in the country following a rare Israeli strike near Damascus on Wednesday amid deadly sectarian violence. Syria said the Israeli strike killed at least one security officer and injured several other people. Earlier on Wednesday Israel’s military said it had carried out a strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital saying it was targeting ...

China restated its case that Covid-19 may have originated in the United States in a white paper on its pandemic response released on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration blamed a lab leak in China. The White House launched a Covid-19 website on April 18 in which it said the coronavirus came from a lab leak in China while criticizing ...

Kenya’s police have said the fatal shooting of a lawmaker by a gunman aboard a motorcycle in the capital Nairobi on Wednesday evening appeared to be targeted and premeditated. Charles Were, a member of parliament representing Kasipul constituency in Kenya’s west, was shot dead at around 7:30 p.m. (11.30 a.m. ET) when his vehicle was stopped at a traffic light ...

The United States and Ukraine have signed an “economic partnership agreement” that will give Washington access to Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for establishing an investment fund in Ukraine. The US and Ukraine have been trying to hammer out the natural resources agreement since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. The deal comes after ...