GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide.

King Charles III's coronation Saturday will be a mix of a thousand-year tradition with the streaming age. The pomp and ceremony will be unmissable for U.K. residents, but what about royal watchers across the Atlantic? There are plenty of options to watch the regalia-heavy event that serves as a formal confirmation of King Charles' dual role as head of state and titular leader of the Church of England — for those willing to wake up early enough.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Soldiers from the International Legion of Ukraine said farewell Friday to an American military veteran they served with, who was killed a month ago in the fierce struggle to prevent the eastern city of Bakhmut from falling into Russian hands.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The owner of Russia’s Wagner Group military contractor threatened Friday to pull his troops out of the protracted battle for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut next week, accusing Russia’s military command of starving his forces of ammunition and causing them heavy losses.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops on Thursday killed three Palestinian militants wanted in connection with a shooting attack that killed a British-Israeli woman and two of her daughters, the Israeli military said. In a rare daytime incursion launched as residents were starting their day, the military said forces entered the heart of the city of Nablus and raided an apartment where the men were located. Troops and the suspects exchanged fire and the three men were killed.

SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL UKRAINE (AP) — The fighters depart at dawn, single-file, rifles slung, compasses in hand, and disappear like chameleons into the lush greenery of central Ukraine’s dense forests. They’re training for a long-anticipated campaign that Ukraine hopes will shift the momentum of its war with Russia.

ROME (AP) — More than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The presidents of Iran and Syria signed Wednesday a series of long-term cooperation agreements on oil and other sectors to bolster economic ties between the two allies. Iran's Ebrahim Raisi, leading a large economic and political delegation, met with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, after landing in the war-torn country for a two-day visit — an Iranian president's first visit to Damascus since 2010.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, the second-such capture by Tehran in under a week amid heightened tensions over its nuclear program. The taking of the oil tanker Niovi renewed concerns about Iran threatening maritime traffic in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude passes.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an effort to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin decried the alleged attack attempt as a “terrorist act” and said Russian military and security forces stopped the drones before they could strike.

LONDON (AP) — London police said a controlled explosion was carried out as a precaution outside Buckingham Palace late Tuesday after a man was arrested there on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. The Metropolitan Police said officers arrested the man after he approached the palace gates and threw items suspected to be shotgun cartridges into the palace grounds. A bag that police deemed suspicious was found in the suspect's possession, the police force said.

ABOARD BRP MALABRIGO (AP) — When two Philippine coast guard vessels set out to patrol the volatile South China Sea recently, they had to face more than China’s growing territorial ambitions. The patrols are a constant battle against sun, sea, stress and gnawing isolation. The Associated Press joined a recent voyage, which provided a glimpse of what it’s like for Filipino coast guard personnel to work on the front lines of multiple geopolitical conflicts in one of the world’s most fiercely contested seas.

TORONTO (AP) — Gordon Lightfoot, Canada's legendary folk singer-songwriter whose hits include “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," died on Monday. a representative of his family said. He was 84. Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan's warring generals have agreed to send representatives for negotiations, potentially in Saudi Arabia, the United Nations' top official in the country told The Associated Press on Monday, even as the two sides clashed in the capital despite another three-day extension of a fragile cease-fire.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched its second large salvo of missiles at Ukraine in recent days early Monday, damaging buildings and wounding at least 34 people in the eastern city of Pavlohrad but failing to hit Kyiv, officials said. Air raid sirens began blaring across the capital at about 3:45 a.m., followed by the sounds of explosions as missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian defense systems.

An aircraft carrying eight tons of emergency medical supplies has landed in Sudan to help hospitals devastated by more than two weeks of fighting between forces loyal to rival generals. The …

Media reports in India say 11 people have died and four are hospitalized after a gas leak in northern Punjab state. Police told the Press Trust of India news agency the incident occurred Sunday at an …

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls, which range from severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms. The council condemned the Taliban's ban on women working for the U.N., a decision the resolution calls “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”

UMAN, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 23 people, almost all of them when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in a terrifying nighttime attack, officials said. Three children were among the dead.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warring factions trying to seize control of the east African nation of Sudan have plunged the country into chaos, and thousands are fleeing the capital of Khartoum and nearby battle zones. Some countries, including the U.S., have shuttered their embassies and many are coordinating daring evacuations of their staffs and other residents in an array of convoys, flights and frantic getaway drives.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Ya Ya the giant panda landed Thursday afternoon in Shanghai after departing from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, where she spent the past 20 years on loan. The popular panda's trip was closely followed online. People shared screenshots tracking Ya Ya's flight path into Shanghai.

ABOARD BRP MALABRIGO (AP) — A Chinese coast guard ship blocked a Philippine patrol vessel steaming into a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, causing a frightening near-collision in the latest act of Beijing’s aggression in the strategic waterway.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had a “long and meaningful” phone call Wednesday, their first known contact since Russia invaded Ukraine over a year ago, and Beijing appointed an envoy to pursue a “political settlement.”

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping appealed for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in a phone call Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warning “there is no winner in a nuclear war,” state media said, in a long-anticipated conversation after Beijing said it wanted to act as peace mediator.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday used the 37th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster to repeat his warnings about the potential threat of a new atomic catastrophe in Ukraine amid his country's war with Russia.