The funeral drew world leaders, including President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who had a talk in the Basilica.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Feb. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)2025-04-26T17:20:54Z RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice president. Its a major step by the aging leader to designate a successor.The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the front-runner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.The move is unlikely to boost the image among many Palestinians of Fatah as a closed and corrupt movement out of touch with the general public.Abbas hopes to play a major role in postwar Gaza. He has been under pressure from Western and Arab allies to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He has announced a series of reforms in recent months, and last week his Fatah movement approved the new position of PLO vice president. The PLO is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people and oversees the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Abbas has led both entities for two decades. Under last weeks decision, the new vice president, coming from the PLOs 16-member executive committee, would succeed Abbas in a caretaker capacity if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.That would make him the front-runner to replace Abbas on a permanent basis, though not guarantee it. The PLOs executive committee would need to approve that appointment, and the body is filled with veteran politicians who see themselves as worthy contenders. The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, would have a separate caretaker leader, Rawhi Fattouh, the speaker of the Palestinians non-functioning parliament. But within 90 days, it would have to hold elections. If that is not possible, the new PLO president would likely take over the position. Al-Sheikh, 64, is a veteran politician who has held a series of top positions over decades, most recently as the secretary-general of the PLOs executive committee for the past three years. He spent 11 years in Israeli prisons in his youth and is a veteran of the Palestinian security forces experiences that could give him credibility with Palestinian security figures and the broader public.Now he finds himself in a strong position to shore up his power.He is Abbas closest aide and, most critically, maintains good working relations with Israel and the Palestinians Arab allies, including wealthy Gulf countries. As Abbas point man with Israel, al-Sheikh is responsible for arranging coveted travel permits for Palestinians, including VIP leaders, giving him an important lever of power over his rivals.However, polls show al-Sheikh, like most of Fatahs leadership, to be deeply unpopular with the general public. This weeks decision behind closed doors by the PLOs aging leadership is likely to reinforce its image as being stodgy and out of touch.In a 2022 interview with The Associated Press, al-Sheikh defended his unpopular coordination with Israel, saying there was no choice under the difficult circumstances of the occupation. I am not a representative for Israel in the Palestinian territories, he said at the time. We undertake the coordination because this is the prelude to a political solution for ending the occupation.The most popular Palestinian, Marwan Barghouti, is serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison, and Israel has ruled out releasing him as part of any swap for Israeli hostages held in Gaza by the Hamas militant group.As Israels war with Hamas drags on, with talk by U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of uprooting Palestinians in Gaza to relocate them elsewhere, al-Sheikh will be under mounting pressure to unite the Palestinian leadership.The PLO is a rival for Hamas, which won the last national elections in 2006 and is not in the PLO. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas forces in 2007, and reconciliation attempts have repeatedly failed.Abbas is still seen internationally as the leader of the Palestinians and a partner in any effort to revive the peace process, which ground to a halt when Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. The chain-smoking political veteran has clung to power since his mandate expired in 2009.

The Browns traded up in the fifth round Saturday and selected quarterback Shedeur Sanders at No. 144 overall, ending the Colorado star's NFL draft free fall. Watch Day 3 of the draft live on ESPN and ABC.

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For many ordinary Palestinians, the appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh was emblematic of how out-of-touch the leadership of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority has become.

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The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles added to their quarterback room Saturday, picking Syracuse's Kyle McCord with the No. 181st pick in the sixth round.

The Steelers selected Ohio State's Will Howard with the 185th pick in the sixth round Saturday, adding a quarterback to their depth chart while they continue to wait on an answer from Aaron Rodgers.

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Teslas sleek electric vehicles used to be a status symbol in liberal Mill Valley, Calif. Now, they are despised by many including those who drive them.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen on a screen as he attends a concert in Red Square in Moscow, on March 18, 2024, marking the 10th anniversary of Russias annexation of Crimea. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)2025-04-27T05:11:09Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) A peace proposal by the Trump administration that includes recognizing Russian authority over Crimea shocked Ukrainian officials, who say they will not accept any formal surrender of the peninsula, even though they expect to concede the territory to the Kremlin, at least temporarily.Giving up the land that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 is also politically and legally impossible, according to experts. It would require a change to the Ukrainian constitution and a nationwide vote, and it could be considered treason. Lawmakers and the public are firmly opposed to the idea.It doesnt mean anything, said Oleksandr Merezkho, a lawmaker with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys party. We will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia.Unlike a territorial concession, a formal surrender would permanently relinquish Crimea and abandon the hope that Ukraine could regain it in the future. The Ukrainian public largely understands that land must be ceded as part of any armistice because there is no way to retake it militarily. Polls indicate a rising percentage of the population accepts such a trade-off. But much of the public messaging about land concessions has suggested that they are not necessarily permanent, as when Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko told the BBC recently that Ukraine may need to temporarily give up land as part of a peace deal. Saying otherwise would effectively admit defeat a deeply unpopular move, especially for Ukrainians living under Russian occupation who hope to be liberated and reunited with their families one day. It also would call into question the sacrifices made by tens of thousands of Ukrainian service members who have been killed or wounded.U.S. President Donald Trump underscored the Crimea proposal in an interview published Friday in Time magazine: Crimea will stay with Russia. Zelenskyy understands that, and everybody understands that its been with them for a long time. His comments offered the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege. Trump has also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Crimea, a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, was seized by Russia years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022. The Russian takeover followed large protests that ousted former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union.In the lead-up to peace talks, Ukrainian officials told The Associated Press for months that they expect Crimea and other Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia to be among Kyivs concessions in the event of any deal. But Zelenskyy has said on multiple occasions that formally surrendering the land has always been a red line.Elements of Trumps peace proposal would see the U.S. formally recognizing Crimea as Russian and de facto accepting Moscows rule over occupied Ukrainian territories, according to a senior European official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic discussions. Whether the U.S. formally recognizes Crimea as Russian is out of Zelenskyys hands. But many obstacles prevent the Ukrainian president from doing so, even under immense pressure. He cannot unilaterally sign any such proposal, and he could be reprimanded by future governments for even attempting it, experts said.Ukraine began to accept that it would not regain its lost territories after the failure of the countrys 2023 summer counteroffensive. From then on, the Ukrainian military concentrated on defending the territory it still held.In return for territorial concessions, Ukraine wants robust security guarantees that ideally would include NATO membership or concrete plans to arm and train its forces against any future Russian invasion with the pledged support of allies. One scenario envisions European boots on the ground, which Russia rejects. Zelenskyy has said negotiations over occupied Ukrainian territory will be drawn out and will not likely occur until a ceasefire is in place. In late March, he told reporters after a call with Trump that the U.S. president clearly understands that legally we will not recognize any territories.He said giving up territory would be the most difficult question and a big challenge for us.Formal recognition of Crimea would also amount to political suicide for Zelenskyy. It could expose him to legal action in the future, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former economics minister.Signing a potentially unconstitutional document could be interpreted as high treason, Mylovanov said.The Ukrainian government cannot act either. It has no constitutional means to accept a violation of its territorial integrity, and altering the territorial makeup of the country requires a nationwide referendum. If Ukrainian lawmakers were even to entertain the idea of surrendering Crimea, it would trigger a long, drawn-out legal debate.Thats why Russia is pushing it, because they know its impossible to achieve, Mylovanov said.Anything related to constitutional change gives so much policy and public communication space to Russia, he added. This is all they want.Soldiers on the front line say they will never stop fighting, no matter what the political leadership decides.We lost our best guys in this war, said Oleksandr, a soldier in the Donetsk region, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used in line with military protocols. We wont stop until all Ukrainian lands are free.___Associated Press Writer Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report. SAMYA KULLAB Kullab is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine since June 2023. Before that, she covered Iraq and the wider Middle East from her base in Baghdad since joining the AP in 2019. twitter instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A lone demonstrator waves the Palestinian flag outside the Peace Palace, rear, housing the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)2025-04-27T06:01:52Z THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) The top United Nations court on Monday will begin hearing from 40 countries on what Israel must do to provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.Last year, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to weigh in on Israels legal obligations after the country effectively banned the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid to Gaza, from operating. The United States, Israels closest ally, voted against the resolution.Israel over a month ago again cut off all aid to Gaza and its over 2 million people. Israel has disputed that there is a shortage of aid in Gaza, and says it is entitled to block the aid because it says Hamas seizes it for its own use.The Hague-based court has been asked to give an advisory opinion, a non-binding but legally definitive answer, in the latest judicial proceedings involving Israel and the 18-month war in Gaza. That is expected to take several months. What is the International Court of Justice?Set up in the aftermath of World War II, the ICJ is an organ of the U.N. and adjudicates disputes between countries. Certain U.N. bodies, including the General Assembly, can request advisory opinions from the courts 15 judges.All 193 U.N. member states are members of the ICJ, though not all of them automatically recognize its jurisdiction.Last year, the court issued an unprecedented and sweeping condemnation of Israels rule over the occupied Palestinian territories, finding Israels presence unlawful and calling for it to end. The U.N. General Assembly sought the opinion after a Palestinian request. The ICJ said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians right to self-determination. Two decades ago, the court in another advisory opinion held that Israel was violating international law by constructing a barrier between Israel and the West Bank. That opinion, also requested by the U.N. General Assembly, dismissed Israeli arguments that the wall was needed for security.Israel has not participated in previous advisory opinion hearings but has submitted written statements. What is the genocide case that Israel is facing at the ICJ?South Africa went to the court last year to accuse Israel of genocide over its actions in the war in Gaza, which began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.Israels retaliatory offensive has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not say how many are civilians or combatants. The offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, and most of its people remain homeless.Israel rejects South Africas claim and accuses it of providing political cover for Hamas.South Africa also asked judges to make nine urgent orders known as provisional measures. They are aimed at protecting civilians in Gaza while the court considers the legal arguments.The court has ruled several times on that request, including ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza. The proceedings are ongoing and likely to take years to reach a conclusion. How is the ICJ different from the International Criminal Court?The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 as the court of last resort to prosecute those responsible for the worlds most heinous atrocities: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.While the ICJ deals with disputes between two or more countries, the ICC seeks to hold individuals criminally responsible.In November, a three-judge panel issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant have used starvation as a method of warfare by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israels campaign against Hamas, charges Israeli officials deny. The warrant marked the first time a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the global court of justice and has sparked major pushback from supporters of Israel, including the U.S.Israel and its top ally, the United States, are not members of the court. However, Palestine is, and judges ruled in 2021 that the court had jurisdiction over crimes committed on Palestinian territory.

Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guhi is a man in demand ahead of the summer transfer window. Transfer Talk has the latest news, gossip and rumors.