WASHINGTON (AP) — Trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. pier and into the besieged enclave for the first time Friday as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered the delivery of food and other supplies.

ROUEN, France (AP) — French police shot and killed a man armed with a knife and a metal bar who is suspected of having started a fire that charred and blackened the insides of a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen early Friday, an attack the interior minister said was “clearly” antisemitic and which infuriated Jewish leaders facing a surge in hate crimes since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city, as Ukraine will allow prisoners to join the army's depleted ranks and approved a fivefold increase in fines for draft dodgers.

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has undergone another operation two days after being shot multiple times and remains in serious condition, officials said Friday. Fico, 59, was attacked as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the former coal mining town of Handlova. A suspected assailant has been arrested.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Israel strongly denied charges of genocide on Friday, telling the United Nations’ top court it was doing everything it could to protect the civilian population during its military operation in Gaza.

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day visit to China on Friday, emphasizing the countries’ burgeoning strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they sought to present an alternative to U.S. global influence.

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday reaffirmed their “no-limits” partnership that has deepened as both countries face rising tensions with the West, and they criticized U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday, with officials poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) — The Slovak interior minister said Thursday that a “lone wolf” has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico and prompted soul-searching among leaders in the deeply divided society.

Violence raged across New Caledonia for the third consecutive day on Thursday, hours after France imposed a state of emergency in the French Pacific territory, boosting security forces’ powers to quell deadly unrest in the archipelago that has long sought independence.

BEIJING (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrived Thursday in Beijing for a two-day state visit to China, in a show of unity between the authoritarian allies as Moscow presses forward with a new offensive in Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces withdrew from some parts of the country's northeast and battled Russian troops in other areas Wednesday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision to postpone all his upcoming foreign trips underscored the seriousness of the threat his soldiers face.

PARIS (AP) — France's government rushed hundreds of police reinforcements to the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia and considered imposing an emergency Wednesday to curb violence that has killed four people on the island, where pro-independence supporters have long pushed to break free from France.

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times and gravely wounded Wednesday, but his deputy prime minister said he believed Fico would survive.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday claimed targeting a U.S. Navy destroyer and a commercial ship in the Red Sea. However, the attack on the warship apparently happened nearly two days earlier and saw the vessel intercept the missile targeting it.

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Kremlin is prepared to negotiate over the conflict in Ukraine in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of visit to partner Beijing that has backed Moscow in its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

PARIS (AP) — A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for armed assailants who ambushed a prison convoy, killing two prison officers, seriously injuring three others and springing the inmate they were escorting. The prime minister vowed the gang would be caught, saying, “They will pay."

MUMBAI, India (AP) — A large billboard that collapsed amid raging thunderstorms in Mumbai killed at least 14 people and injured 75 others, reports said on Tuesday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that American military aid on its way to Ukraine will make a “real difference” on the battlefield, as the top diplomat made an unannounced visit to reassure an ally facing a fierce new Russian offensive.

FORT NELSON, British Columbia (AP) — An intense wildfire could reach a town in western Canada this week, fire experts and officials warned, based on forecasts of winds that have fueled the out-of-control blaze, which has forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

PADANG, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers recovered more bodies Monday after monsoon rains triggered flash floods on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, bringing down torrents of cold lava and mud, leaving 43 people dead and another 15 missing.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — When he heard that devastating floods hit his village in northern Afghanistan last week, farmer Abdul Ghani rushed home from neighboring Kunduz province where he was visiting relatives. When he got home, he found out that his wife and three children had perished in the deluge.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Mount Ibu, a volcano in Indonesia's North Maluku province, erupted on Monday, spewing thick grey ash and dark clouds more than 16,000 feet into the sky for five minutes, officials said. “The volcanic earthquakes are still intense so there is a potential for a future eruption,” Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Rescue teams in South Africa forged ahead Monday with efforts to find any survivors still trapped under rubble a week after an apartment building that was under construction collapsed.

EICHSFELD, Germany (AP) — When Erdina Laca goes grocery shopping in Eichsfeld these days, she pulls out a special payment card that’s for asylum-seekers only. She no longer pays in cash for her apples, eggs and fish — like most of the Germans standing in line with her at the register.