International News

Northeast Asia doesn’t so much repeat history as drag it along like an anchor

Circuses in Peru are built around clowns, providing work for more than 500 of the characters. But the shows have been struggling in recent years, their patrons lured away by the internet, video games and other live entertainment, and then the pandemic hit. The coronavirus has kept millions of Peruvians locked down at home, dealing a hard blow to the hundred or so small circuses in the country. In an empty lot in Lima, Santos Chiroque keeps the yellow tent, logs and ropes that he used until March to set up the circus that fed him and his family. He had put money into the new tent in hopes of boosting business. “Money invested in vain,” says the 74-year-old, whose clown name is “Piojito.” Now his wife and five children sell caramel apples on the streets of Lima in search of some coins. At least one clown has died from the coronavirus — William Tovar in the city of Huancayo. His white coffin was painted with colored circles and six saddened clowns carried him through the streets...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid tribute to surviving veterans of the multinational World War II campaign against Japan that ended 75 years ago

A Venezuelan court has sentenced 15 men to prison for a failed beach attack launched alongside two former U.S. special forces members trying to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Obama administration Daniel Shapiro discusses the normalizing of relations between Israel and the UAE, and what it means for the Mideast.

Mexico’s point man for the coronavirus pandemic says he belie ves the country has reached its peak of infections over the last three weeks

Prosecutors in El Salvador have presented charges of bribery, money laundering and criminal conspiracy against  former President Mauricio Funes, who has fled to Nicaragua

People caught up in the crackdown tell of group beatings, threats of rape.

The head of Mexico's National Immigration Institute says more than 1,040 immigration officers have been referred to internal affairs or forced to quit after they were caught demanding bribes and other acts of corruption

Israel says it has hit several militant sites in the Gaza Strip, responding to explosive-laden incendiary balloons launched across the frontier into Israeli territory

Lebanese survivors of the massive port explosion and relatives of the victims are asking the U.N. Security Council for an international investigation into the blast that wrecked their capital

A Colombian fast food chain is planning to turn its branches into automated restaurants at a moment when the coronavirus pandemic has slammed the food service industry worldwide

Iran's top diplomat is accusing Western countries of taking advantage of Beirut's massive explosion last week that killed and injured thousands to dictate their own policies on Lebanon

British tourists scurried to get out of France by whatever means possible before a deadline that would require them to quarantine at home for two weeks

A Mexican zoo is celebrating the birth of two African elephants as part of its breeding program for the threatened species.

The temperature-detecting bus stops have thermal imaging cameras on the doors. Riders with temperatures lower than 99.5° F are only allowed to enter.

Tens of thousands of people have flooded the heart of the Belarus capital of Minsk in a show of anger over a brutal police crackdown this week on peaceful protesters that followed a disputed election

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has expressed “full solidarity” with Greece and Cyprus and urged a “immediate deescalation” by Turkey after EU foreign ministers discussed military tensions in the eastern Mediterranean over drilling rights

A student at George Washington University is allegedly in KGB custody.

A provincial government official says a plane crash in Congo’s South Kivu province killed all five people on board

Lithuania is playing an outsized role among European Union nations amid a major crisis in neighboring Belarus

French military personnel arrived in Beirut to deliver supplies and help with search operations.

On the sweeping plains at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, a group of female wildlife rangers is making history by defying patriarchal norms

Officials in southern Mexico say they have arrested a 23-year-old woman whose abduction of a 2-year-old boy set off a hunt that helped rescue other stolen children

The Canada-U.S. border will remain closed to non-essential travel for at least another month

The leader of a little-known political party in Cambodia has been arrested for comments about the alleged encroachment on the country’s territory by Vietnam, the second arrest in the past two weeks related to the politically sensitive subject

It was supposed to be a dip in a pool to cool off from Egypt’s summer heat

Bulgaria’s embattled prime minister says he will step down if lawmakers approve his proposal for the election of a special Grand National Assembly that would consider constitutional amendments to overhaul the country’s political system

Dozens of volunteers are working around the clock in Beirut to rescue animals trapped or lost among the rubble following the massive explosion that tore through the Lebanese capital last week, killing and injuring thousands of people

Plus, some of the most popular restaurant chains could face bankruptcy and inside the U.K.’s first socially distanced venue.

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir say two officers were killed and another was injured when anti-India rebels attacked a police party in the disputed region’s main city

Student activists at Thailand’s most prestigious university have defied a ban by college administrators and staged an anti-government rally, as a prominent protest leader was arrested elsewhere for his involvement in a previous demonstration

Israel and the UAE agree to normalize relations in exchange for Israel suspending annexation of parts of the West Bank.

A look at the week's top photos from around the globe.

India is urging China to expedite the complete disengagement of troops from border areas in eastern Ladakh, where thousands of soldiers from the two countries have remained in a tense standoff since May

The Dutch statistics office says the country's economy suffered a 8.5% contraction in the second quarter as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on spending, exports and investments

Israel’s agreement to establish diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates marks a watershed moment in its relations with Arab countries, but the Palestinians say it puts a just resolution of the Middle East conflict even further out of reach

U.K. rail investigators have confirmed that a passenger train hit a landslide before derailing earlier this week, killing three people

A court in Angola has sentenced the son of former President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to five years in prison for fraud and other crimes

Mozambique's president says the “war” in the north is the fault of people who want to divide the country for its wealth

The government says Afghanistan has released the first 80 of a final 400 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for negotiations between the warring sides in Afghanistan’s protracted conflict

Across South Asia, more than 17 million people are suffering as a result of this year's monsoon floods

Queen Elizabeth II’s only daughter will be celebrating her 70th birthday in a no-nonsense manner that befits her reputation in Britain

A leading militant suspect who has been linked to the beheadings of Filipino and foreign hostages has surrendered after being wounded in battle

Police in the Dutch city of The Hague say that rioters on rooftops and streets threw stones, eggs and fireworks at officers overnight during a second night of unrest in a low-income neighborhood

Indonesia’s president called on all citizens to turn the COVID-19 crisis into an advancement opportunity and pledged health care reforms in an national address ahead of the country’s 75th anniversary of independence

AP Week in Pictures, Latin America & Caribbean

Aug. 7-13, 2020 This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published by Associated Press photographers in Asia and Pacific. The gallery was curated by AP photo editor Masayo Yoshida in Tokyo. Follow AP visual journalism: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP—Images AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

The ceiling tiles collapsed inside a supermarket in England after consecutive nights of storms.

A resident in northern Wales filmed the moment lightning struck a transformer.