A man whose slain brother led one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug cartels has pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine into the U.S. Prosecutors say Antonio Oseguera Cervantes worked with his brother Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the drug lord known as “El Mencho” who was killed by the Mexican army in February.

The State Department is making permanent a pilot program under which citizens from 50 countries, mainly in Africa, are required to post bonds to apply for a U.S. visa, and it’s raising the cost as well, to as much as $20,000.

Swaths of sargassum are blanketing the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, suffocating shorelines and snuffing out marine life while spooking visitors in areas that depend heavily on tourism.

The first two U.S. military aircraft intended to support operations in the Middle East have arrived at an air base in southeastern Bulgaria.

Pakistan’s military has rejected as “baseless” a recent U.N. report that said Pakistani cross-border military operations killed nearly 500 civilians and wounded over 1,000 in neighboring Afghanistan between October and June.

The main development in the Middle East on Friday was Hamas confirming that it will disarm in a potential breakthrough for ending the war in Gaza.

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced an agreement for disarmament of Hamas in Gaza and Israel's withdrawal from the area.

Hamas said Friday that it reached an agreement to disarm, a significant move that could help end the war in Gaza — but one that will face many hurdles and could take a long time if ever to achieve.

A SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers last year.

Oprah Winfrey says she will close the school for underprivileged girls she set up in South Africa two decades ago at the end of next year.

Hamas has confirmed that it will disarm as part of a deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump that also requires Israel to end its strikes and withdraw from Gaza.

The European Union has introduced a new team to regulate AI companies globally.

Jean-François Pauner is among many volunteers helping firefighters battle wildfires in southwestern France.

Human Rights Watch says Russian-controlled aircraft killed eight civilians in an airstrike in central Mali last month.

About 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s tiny Ceuta territory in the past 24 hours.

A methane gas explosion at a coal mine in southwestern Pakistan has killed 34 miners.

Israelis across political and religious lines are worried about the weakening connection with younger Jewish Americans.

Anthropic says its AI models hacked into three organizations during testing.

An Australian jury has convicted the British social media celebrity and rapper Yung Filly of assaulting a fan following a music performance two years ago.

Thousands of survivors of a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan have spent Friday in crowded shelters or sleeping in cars as they face shortages of water and fuel and punishing summer temperatures that have stoked fears of heat-related illness.

Pakistani officials say rescuers have located four bodies among the 10 international climbers missing since an avalanche on Broad Peak.

Wall Street’s wild July is ending with more swings as Amazon’s stock leaps, Apple sinks and rising oil prices worsen worries about inflation already squeezing the bond market.

President Donald Trump says a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza.

Two new studies reveal climate change's fingerprints over extreme fire weather-triggering infernos in Spain and France.

Voter registration has started in Haiti’s capital and beyond, marking a critical milestone in the push for general elections even as concerns over widespread gang violence persist.

Apple posted a solid fiscal third quarter on Thursday, climbing past Wall Street’s expectations thanks to strong sales of the iPhone and MacBook computers.

A National Guard officer has pleaded guilty to leading a double life, marrying a woman he met in Mongolia while still married in the U.S. Prosecutors allege Maj. Collin Welch used a government travel card and forged documents to facilitate his actions.

Major oil companies reported massive profits while fighting between Iran and the U.S. impeded petroleum shipments.

An explosion inside a coal mine in southwest Pakistan has killed at least 32 miners and trapped 10 others.

A federal judge has refused to dismiss the case against an Afghan woman who's the first person facing deportation under the Trump administration’s activation of a long-dormant court based in Washington.

Recent days have seen a series of attacks across the Middle East, from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia bombing militias in Iraq to drones setting ships ablaze in Egypt.

Palestinian authorities have asked the Supreme Court to halt a $656 million judgment in favor of Americans killed or wounded by attacks in Israel.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. has responded to the news that BTS will not submit their music for consideration at the forthcoming 2027 Grammy Awards.

George Clooney says his family has been forced to evacuate their home in southeastern France due to a nearby wildfire.

President Donald Trump says he may pull Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general until Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis leave office.

Spain is deploying its military to restore order at its border with Morocco in Ceuta after thousands of migrants entered the Spanish territory.

Prague Zoo has provided tons of ice to help animals beat the heat as Europe swelters in a summer heat wave.

The Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold for the fifth time this year after a bigger-than-expected drop in the inflation rate last month gave policymakers breathing space to assess the fallout from renewed fighting in Iran.

The fastest-growing recorded Ebola outbreak has killed over 1,500 people in eastern Congo.

The European Union plans to invest 10 billion euros to build seven AI gigafactories, aiming to catch up with the U.S. and China.

A book on Greek antiquities has been returned to an Australian public library about 150 years late, with water damage from years bricked into a fireplace.

Most Americans say the war in Iran has not been worth fighting, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

France has allowed 84,000 evacuees to return home after a massive wildfire, signaling progress in battling the flames.

Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine killed at least 10 people and injured over 50 others.

Australia’s online safety watchdog has taken legal action against Telegram for what the watchdog says is a failure to remove extremist content.

A monster day for Microsoft following signals that its big spending on AI is translating into profits led a powerful rebound on Wall Street, while AI stocks regained some of their sharp recent losses.

The United States and Iran have each fired barrages of missiles as the pattern of back-and-forth strikes takes hold again and hope dims for a quick end to the five-month conflict.

As wildfires and successive heatwaves in France and Spain highlight climate change's impact, a severe drought is causing record low water levels on the Danube River, affecting tourism and industry.

Voters in Manchester are electing a new mayor Thursday to replace Andy Burnham, who left the job to become Britain’s prime minister.

A French student has been fined in Singapore for licking a straw from a juice vending machine and putting it back in what lawyers described as a social media stunt.

The Kumamoto prefectural government says the powerful earthquake that hit southwestern Japan earlier this week has now killed at least 25 people.

Since former Macao pro-democracy lawmaker Au Kam San was arrested under a national security law in July 2025, little about his case has been made known.

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics has reported a record operating profit of $62 billion for the April-June quarter.

The stop-start fighting between the United States and Iran appears to have entered a new phase as Saudi Arabia has publicly joined military escalations against Tehran-backed proxies.

Fifteen elephants in southern Kenya are suspected to have been poisoned by cyanide-contaminated tomatoes, according to wildlife authorities.

Italy’s highest court has ruled that children born with both Italian and another citizenship do not automatically lose their Italian citizenship if a parent naturalizes abroad.

Four women have accused Jared Leto of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers, to which the actor and musician responded that he has “never sexually assaulted anyone.”.

The head of the U.N. food agency is warning that the fastest growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded is leaving thousands more people hungry in eastern Congo.

Wildfires near Bordeaux are hurting the wine region's economy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham is being buried in South Carolina, where a funeral in the state capital drew people who remembered him for never forgetting his roots as the son of pool hall owners.

K-pop powerhouse BTS say they will not submit their music for consideration at the forthcoming Grammys.

Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions from senators in a Republican-led committee hearing about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academy Award-winning Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has died in a motorcycle crash.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has set a Sept. 19 deadline for the 211 member federations to accept a $20 million offer to each in his controversial plan to sell stakes in a subsidiary running the World Cup.

Ukraine says its forces have hit two of Russia’s major oil refineries in their latest long-range strikes.

Firefighters in southwest France are battling a mega-fire four times the size of Paris.

Fire crews in southwest France are battling a massive blaze four times the size of Paris, while two firefighters were killed fighting a wind-driven blaze on the Greek island of Crete.

Russian authorities have charged Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the popular messaging app Telegram, with aiding terrorism and placed him on an international wanted list.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has announced a ban on new foreign-made humanoid robots, citing national security concerns.

Right-wing Israeli activists are ramping up their fringe campaign to establish Jewish settlements inside Syria by staging frequent incursions across the border.

The U.S. military says it has completed what it describes as “a heavy wave of strikes against Iran” conducted in response to an earlier Iranian missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.

Several families have returned to their village in southern Lebanon, digging through the debris of their homes damaged in the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

A massive wildfire in southwest France has forced over 220,000 people to evacuate.

Oil prices got back to jumping, while sinking technology stocks dragged Wall Street lower amid uncertainty about what the Federal Reserve will do to get high inflation under control.

Soldiers and emergency workers are combing through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan.

Delhi has adopted a new policy to make most new vehicles electric, aiming to improve air quality.

The deadline to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider President Donald Trump's loss on birthright citizenship has passed, with no new filing on the docket.

The Senate took the first steps toward passage of a sweeping Russian sanctions bill on Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Capitol.

A Washington think tank says recent fighting with Iran has used up more of the U.S. military’s stockpiles of advanced air defense systems.

The U.S. military says it successfully intercepted an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia’s forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days.

Kenya’s wildlife authorities are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past month in Amboseli National Park.

Officials in Pakistan administered Kashmir are accusing an outlawed political group of trying to sabotage elections for the region’s constitutional assembly.

Keiko Fujimori has been sworn in as Peru’s president after a narrow victory in the June runoff election.

The man on trial in the stabbing of Salman Rushdie has chosen not to testify or call any witnesses in the federal terrorism case.

Scientists are alarmed by the British government's decision to cut funding for the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino plans to create a $20 billion company running the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family.

An Azerbaijan court has convicted nine journalists and founders of a top independent news outlet on financial crime charges and sentenced them to prison.

Ugandan authorities have declared the country free of Ebola after the last patient was discharged in mid-June.

Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are in the running for the 2026 edition of the prestigious fiction award.

The U.S. military says Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles at American forces in the Middle East on Tuesday.

China has rejected criticism that its huge trade surplus reflects excessive manufacturing capacity.

Firefighters combating Spain's biggest wildfire on record say they have never seen a fire of such power.

Romania is taking a new approach to drones entering its airspace by shooting them down.

Protesters have stormed a key energy complex in western Libya amid ongoing anti-government demonstrations over power outages.

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has surpassed 3,200 cases.

Large waves are coming ashore in Hawaii thanks to Tropical Storm Fausto and in Mexico thanks to Hurricane Genevieve.

Iran has publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.

The United Nations reports that cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan has killed nearly 500 civilians in Afghanistan and wounded over 1,000 others between October and June.

French authorities have ordered nearly 4,000 more people to evacuate from Atlantic coast tourist sites because of wildfires.

The U.N. refugee agency is marking the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.