Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 38
SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Paris is closing out two and a half extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion with a boisterous, star-studded show in France's national stadium, handing over hosting duties for the Summer Games to the next city in line: Los Angeles in 2028. Speculation was rife that Hollywood star Tom Cruise — seen around town during the final weekend — would feature in the closing ceremony that unlike the rain-drenched July 26 opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games, basked in hot weather. Shortly after French Presi...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — For Ukrainian hurdler Anna Ryzhykova, each stride on the Paris Olympic track will have meaning far beyond the time she clocks. Her competitions are no longer strictly an individual battle, but war on a different front. Her goal is not just gold, but also to rivet global attention on her country's fight for survival against Russia. "You're not doing it for yourself anymore," she says. "Winning a medal just for yourself, being a champion, realizing your ambitions — it's inappropriate." But the broader war is making it increas...
PARIS (AP) — A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that France's capital would be " the safest place in the world " when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet's confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris' streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show. France's vast police and military operation is in large part because the J...
PARIS (AP) — A coalition of the French left won the most seats in high-stakes legislative elections, according to final results early Monday, beating back a far-right surge but failing to win a majority. The outcome left France facing the stunning prospect of a hung parliament and threatened political paralysis in a pillar of the European Union and Olympic host country. That could rattle markets and the French economy, the EU's second-largest, and have far-ranging implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe's economic s...
OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — As young soldiers, they waded through breaking waves and gunfire to battle the Nazis. Now bent with age, the dwindling number of World War II veterans joined a new generation of leaders on Thursday to honor the dead, the living and the fight for democracy on the shores where they landed 80 years ago on D-Day. The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies in Normandy, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe. Ukraine's president was greeted with a standing ovation and ch...
CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS, France (AP) — Together, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But World War II veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France. Their respective ages — he's 100, she's a youngster of just 96 — made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration. Terens called it "the best day of my life." On her way into the nuptials, the bubbly bride-to-be said: "It's not just for young people, love, y...
PARIS (AP) — Usain Bolt's sprint world records were never in danger. Then again, even the world's fastest-ever human likely wouldn't have been so quick while balancing a tray with a croissant, a coffee cup and a glass of water through the streets of Paris, and without spilling it everywhere. France's capital resurrected a 110-year-old race for its servers Sunday. The dash through central Paris celebrated the dexterous and, yes, by their own admission, sometimes famously moody men and women without whom France wouldn't be France. Why? Because t...
PARIS (AP) — Protesting farmers shut down long stretches of some of France's major highways again Friday, using tractors to block and slow traffic and squeeze the government ever more tightly to give in to their demands that growing and rearing food be made easier and more lucrative. The farmers' spreading movement for better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and lower costs, as well as protection against cheap imports is increasingly becoming a major crisis for the government. It echoes the 2018-2019 yellow vest demonstrations a...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of Ukraine's bombed capital clutched empty bottles in search of water and crowded into cafés for power and warmth Thursday, switching defiantly into survival mode after new Russian missile strikes a day earlier plunged the city and much of the country into the dark. In scenes hard to believe in a sophisticated city of 3 million, some Kyiv residents resorted to collecting rainwater from drainpipes, as repair teams labored to reconnect supplies. Friends and family members exchanged messages to find out who had el...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians could face rolling blackouts from now through March in frigid, snowy weather because Russian airstrikes have caused "colossal" damage to the power grid, officials said. To cope, authorities are urging people to stock up on supplies and evacuate hard-hit areas. Sergey Kovalenko, the CEO of private energy provider DTEK Yasno, said the company is under instructions from Ukraine's state grid operator to resume emergency blackouts in the areas it covers, including the capital, Kyiv, and the eastern Dnipropetrovsk r...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia pounded Ukraine's energy facilities Tuesday with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets across the country and causing widespread blackouts. A senior U.S. intelligence official said missiles crossed into NATO member Poland and killed two people. A second person told The Associated Press that apparent Russian missiles struck a site in Poland about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border. If confirmed, the strike would mark the first time in the war that Russian weapons have come down on a NATO country. T...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said it began withdrawing troops from a strategic Ukrainian city Thursday, creating a potential turning point in the grinding war, while a Ukrainian official warned that Russian land mines could render Kherson a "city of death." Ukrainian officials acknowledged Moscow's forces had no choice but to flee Kherson, yet they remained cautious, fearing an ambush. With Ukrainian officials tight-lipped with their assessments, reporters not present and spotty communications, it was difficult to know what was happening in t...
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president said Friday that special military units have entered Kherson, a major regional capital that Russian forces had captured early in the war. Residents took to the streets to celebrate Russia's withdrawal, the latest pullback by Moscow as it faces intense resistance. In a video address hours after Russia said it had completed withdrawing troops from the strategically key city, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "As of now, our defenders are approaching the city. In quite a bit, we are going to enter. B...
PARIS (AP) — Deep under water, the pipes and cables that carry the modern world's lifeblood — energy and information — are out of sight and largely out of mind. Until, that is, something goes catastrophically wrong. The suspected sabotage this week of gas pipelines that tied Russia and Europe together is driving home how vital yet weakly protected undersea infrastructure is vulnerable to attack, with potentially disastrous repercussions for the global economy. It isn't known who detonated explosions, powerful enough to be detected by earth...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As was his habit before each flight, the veteran Ukrainian army pilot ran a hand along the fuselage of his Mi-8 helicopter, caressing the heavy transporter's metal skin to bring luck to him and his crew. They would need it. Their destination — a besieged steel mill in the brutalized city of Mariupol — was a death trap. Some other crews didn't make it back alive. Still, the mission was vital, even desperate. Ukrainian troops were pinned down, their supplies running low, their dead and injured stacking up. Their last-...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The European Union's executive arm recommended putting Ukraine on a path to membership Friday, a symbolic boost for a country fending off a Russian onslaught that is killing civilians, flattening cities and threatening its very survival. In another show of Western support, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to offer continued aid and military training. The European allies' latest embrace of Ukraine marked another setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched h...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has begun turning over the bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal steelworks, the fortress-like plant in the destroyed city of Mariupol where their last-ditch stand became a symbol of resistance against Moscow's invasion. Dozens of the dead taken from the bombed-out mill's now Russian-occupied ruins have been transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where DNA testing is underway to identify the remains, according to both a military leader and a spokeswoman for the Azov Regiment. The Azov Regiment w...
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.S. and Germany pledged on Wednesday to equip Ukraine with some of the advanced weapons it has long desired for shooting down aircraft and knocking out artillery, as Russian forces closed in on capturing a key city in the east. Germany said it will supply Ukraine with up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems, while the U.S. announced it will provide four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition. The U.S. is trying to help Ukraine fend off the Russians without triggering a wider war in Europe...
PARIS (AP) — When Vladimir Putin congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his re-election as France's president and wished him "success in your activities," the Russian leader probably was being more polite than sincere. As he embarks on a second term, with the intention of keeping France at the forefront of international efforts to force Putin to change course in Ukraine, Macron has given a green light for the delivery of modern artillery pieces to Kyiv that could help stem Russia's new offensive in the east of the country. Firing six rounds per m...
BEIJING (AP) — Nothing to see here, move on. That was the message that Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai delivered Monday in a controlled interview in Beijing that touched on sexual assault allegations she made against a former high-ranking member of China's ruling Communist Party. Her answers — delivered in front of a Chinese Olympic official — left unanswered questions about her well-being and what exactly happened. The interview with French sports newspaper L'Equipe and an announcement that International Olympic Committee President Thoma...
LE PECQ, France (AP) — Facebook on Saturday blocked live broadcasts from a chronically ill bed-ridden man who appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron for a medically-assisted death and who wanted to show what he expects will be a painful end to his life after he announced that he was stopping all food and drink. Prostrate on his bed, Alain Cocq posted video of himself Friday after taking what he said would be his last liquid meal. "I know the days ahead are going to be very difficult," he said. "But I have taken my decision and I am s...
NICE, France (AP) — Delayed but alive again and out on French roads, the strangest Tour de France ever set off Saturday in a bubble of anti-COVID protocols to try to keep the 176 riders virus-free for three weeks of racing through the country's worsening epidemic. Only after riders peeled off their face masks and pedaled off from the start in the Mediterranean city of Nice, serenaded by a uniformed band playing "La Marseillaise," did the Tour begin to look like its old, pre-COVID self, immediately delivering thrills and spills as storms made th...
NEW YORK (AP) — Bleak new figures Thursday underscored the worldwide economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus: The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has climbed past a staggering 30 million, while Europe's economies have gone into an epic slide. And as bad as the numbers are, some are already outdated because of the lag in gathering data, and the true economic picture is almost certainly much worse. The statistics are likely to stoke the debate over whether to ease the lockdowns that have closed factories and other b...
The world's economic pain was on full display Thursday as Europe and the United States were releasing more figures showing the devastating impact on jobs and companies of lockdown measures designed to battle the coronavirus pandemic. In Europe, where over 132,000 people with the virus have died, the fear of renewed infection spikes that could again overwhelm hospital emergency wards was tempering hopes that economies on life-support will regain their vigor as workers return to factories, shops and offices. Figures released Thursday showed that...
HONG KONG (AP) — Born after the historic July 1 day when Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the 18-year-old protester who was shot at close range in the chest by a police officer during violent demonstrations this week and then arrested in the hospital is part of a generation for whom the clock is ticking. In the lifetimes of young Hong Kong citizens born after 1997, the sands will run out on China’s promise _ enshrined in the territory’s constitution _ that Hong Kong’s “capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged...
