World News: Top & Breaking World News Today

China and Russia reaffirm their close ties as Moscow presses its offensive in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping 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.

FILE - Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose prior to their talks on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China, on Oct. 18, 2023. Putin is traveling to China on Thursday on his first foreign trip as he starts his fifth term, a visit that underlines an increasingly close partnership between Moscow and Beijing. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via A, File)

What to know about Vladimir Putin’s visit to China

In this photo provided by Kherson Regional Military Administration, a destroyed apartment building is seen at the site of a Russian army attack with guided aerial bombs in Kherson, Ukraine, Thursday, May 15, 2024. (Kherson Regional Military Administration via AP)

Ukraine says it has checked Russia’s offensive in a key town, but Moscow says it will keep pushing

Slovakia's Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok speaks during a joint press conference with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Slovakia Robert Kalinak at the government headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia, Thursday, May 16, 2024. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was shot multiple times in an assassination attempt that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Slovak authorities charge ‘lone wolf’ with assassination attempt on the prime minister

FILE - Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with reporters to discuss his proposal of sending crucial bipartisan support to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after weeks of inaction, at the Capitol in Washington, April 17, 2024. House Republicans plan to deliver a rebuke to President Joe Biden for putting a pause on a shipment of bombs to Israel that could be used in an assault on Rafah. They are voting Thursday on a bill that has practically no chance of being enacted but puts pressure on Democrats as it mandates delivery of the weapons. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)

House to vote on requiring delivery of bombs to Israel in GOP-led rebuke of Biden policies

ELECTION WATCH 2024

FILE - Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right party PVV, or Party for Freedom, talks to the media, two days after winning the most votes in a general election, in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 24, 2023. Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders is on the verge of brokering a four-party coalition in the Netherlands six months after coming in first in national elections, opening the prospect that yet another European Union nation will veer toward the hard right weeks ahead of EU-wide elections. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

The Netherlands veers sharply to the right with a new government dominated by party of Geert Wilders

Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders have agreed on a coalition deal that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right.

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks during his visit to the Backstage Centre for the launch of Labour's doorstep offer to voters ahead of the general election, in Purfleet, Essex, England, Thursday May 16, 2024. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

The UK’s opposition Labour Party unveils its pledges to voters in hopes of winning the next election

Britain’s still-undeclared election campaign has stepped up a gear. Opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on Thursday announced the key pledges that he hopes will make him the U.K.’s next prime minister.

MORE ELECTIONS

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters gathered in Sabana de Mendoza, Venezuela, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Edmundo González Urrutia became the opposition Unitary Platform's candidate for president after Machado, who won the opposition's presidential primary in 2023, and her handpicked alternative were banned from registering for the July 28 election. (AP Photo/Regina Garcia Cano)

Venezuela’s barred opposition candidate is now the fiery surrogate of her lesser-known replacement

Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico shot multiple times in attempted assassination

Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot multiple times and gravely wounded Wednesday after a political event in an attempted assassination that shocked the small country and reverberated across Europe.

Watch More

West watches warily as Russia’s Vladimir Putin meets Xi Jinping during two-day trip to China

As countries tighten anti-gay laws, more and more LGBTQ+ migrants seek safety and asylum in Europe

Israel-Hamas war

In this image provided by the U.S. Army, soldiers assigned to the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) and sailors attached to the MV Roy P. Benavidez assemble the Roll-On, Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF), or floating pier, off the shore of Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on April 26, 2024. (U.S. Army via AP, File)

US military says Gaza pier project is complete and aid will soon flow as Israel-Hamas war rages

This 2021 photo provided by Haim Parag shows David Ben-Avraham at a supermarket in the Israeli town of Beit Shamesh, where he briefly worked, in Jerusalem. Ben-Avraham, a Palestinian who was born a Muslim but made the almost unheard-of decision to convert to Judaism years earlier, was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier. (Courtesy of Haim Parag via AP)

A Palestinian converted to Judaism. An Israeli soldier saw him as a threat and opened fire

South Africa's agents Vusimuzi Madonsela, seated right, and Cornelius Scholtz, seated second left, talk prior to the start of hearings at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands, Thursday, May 16, 2024. The U.N.'s top court opened two days of hearings in a case brought by South Africa to see whether Israel needs to take additional measures to alleviate the suffering in war-ravaged Gaza. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

UN’s top court opens hearings on the Israeli military’s incursion into Rafah

Russia-Ukraine war

A timeline of territorial shifts in Ukraine war

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken performs "Rockin' in the Free World" with members of The 1999 band at the Barman Dictat bar in Kyiv, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Blinken sought Tuesday to rally the spirits of glum Ukrainians facing a fierce new Russian offensive, assuring them that they are not alone and that billions of dollars in American military aid on its way to the country would make a “real difference” on the battlefield. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool photo via AP)

Blinken’s Kyiv song choice raises eyebrows as Ukraine fights fierce Russian attacks

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visit the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine outside the Saint Michael's Cathedral, in Kyiv on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Brendan Smialowski, Pool Photo via AP)

Ukrainian troops pull out of some areas and Zelenskyy postpones foreign trips amid Russian offensive

SOCCER

FILE - The display shows the VAR decision on a disallowed goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Arsenal at the Goodison Park stadium in Liverpool, England, Sept. 17, 2023. In England, according to figures given to rights-holder Sky Sports in February, 82% of refereeing decisions were deemed “correct” by the Premier League before VAR was adopted ahead of the 2019-20 season. Since VAR has been used, 96% of the decisions are correct, according to the league. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File)