A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on Wednesday, shaking Istanbul and prompting people to evacuate buildings. The earthquake was confirmed by Turkey's disaster agency, AFAD, and the country's minister of the interior said on social media Wednesday morning the agency had begun doing initial field scans to assess the damage. There were no immediate reports of damage, according to reporting from Reuters, but people evacuated buildings as the quake hit ands hook the city. Reuters, citing broadcaster TGRT, reported that one person had been injured as a result of jumping off...

Arab mediators are working on a proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war that would include a 5- to 7-year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday. An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 23 people, according to local health authorities. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike. France, Germany, and Britain meanwhile said Israel's 7-week-old blockade on all imports to Gaza, including food, was "intolerable," in unusually strong criticism from three of the country's closest allies. Egypt and Qatar are still...

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the Marmara Sea off the coast of Turkey on Wednesday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey. The USGS said that the tremor occurred approximately 13 miles off the coast of the coastal town of Marmara Ereğlisi, which around 67 miles from Istanbul, the country’s commercial capital and largest city. The service added that the temblor struck at a depth of 6.2 miles. No damage had been reported at the time of writing, although residents of Istanbul said aftershocks continued to shake the city...

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Arab mediators are working on a proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war that would include a five to seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine people overnight, according to local health authorities. Egypt and Qatar are still developing the proposal, which would include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire strip and the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to an Egyptian official and a Hamas official who spoke...

In a first such decision,, a Miami federal jury has found that travel booking company Expedia Group ows $29.85 million to a Cuban-American family in damages for having promoted and sold bookings to Floridians at hotels in land confiscated by the Cuban government during the early days of Fidel Castro’s revolution. The case was filed by Mario Echevarría, one of the heirs of a Cuban family that claimed ownership of Cayo Coco, a small key off the northern coast of central Cuba, against Expedia and its affiliate sites Hotels.com and...

LONDON — European diplomats pulled the plug on high-level talks about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine set for Wednesday after top U.S. diplomats abruptly canceled plans to attend. The disruption comes amid anger in Washington over Kyiv’s reluctance to accept proposals to cede territory to Russia and that Kyiv prefers “to discuss a complete ceasefire first and everything else later,” said an official briefed on the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the tense political moment. Lower-level talks were expected to carry on Wednesday, but a...

African governments have appointed special envoys to be dispatched to Washington to negotiate with President Trump’s representatives before the July 9 deadline. Workers perform a quality check inside the United Aryan textile factory at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Nairobi on Feb. 4, 2025. Workers perform a quality check inside the United Aryan textile factory at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Nairobi on Feb. 4, 2025. Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images JOHANNESBURG—With reciprocal tariffs imposed by the United States expected to kick in on July 9, African governments...

Asked about all this by a reporter, Francis wryly replied that he hadn’t found anyone with “an identity card in the Vatican with ‘gay’ on it.” He then added, in what would become one of the best-known lines of his papacy: “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge?” Some in the gay community were disappointed with a 2021 Vatican statement that confirmed a ban on religious blessings of same-sex unions, calling such relationships not “even remotely analogous...

BEIJING (Reuters) - The U.S. should stop making threats and resorting to coercion if it wants to make a deal, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday when asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks about potentially lower tariffs on China.

Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun accused the U.S. of continuing to exert "extreme pressure" even as it tried to reach an agreement, saying that was not the right way to deal with China.

LOS ANGELES — Jurors convicted a Southern California judge of second-degree murder on Tuesday for fatally shooting his wife while the couple argued and watched television at home. Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson, 74, was on trial for the 2023 death of his wife Sheryl, 65, in their Anaheim Hills home. Ferguson took the stand in his own defense, admitting to shooting his wife but saying it was an accident. Jurors reached their decision Tuesday afternoon, a day after deliberations began. After the verdict was read in court,...