PHOTO COLLECTION: Year End Photos Global Best of 2024

This is a collection of photos chosen by AP photo editors.

First-graders attend the traditional ceremony for the first day of school in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Vero Almarche, right, hugs her neighbor Maria Munoz, who was born in the house where they are photographed and which was destroyed by flooding in Masanasa, Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Revelers lie in a pool of squashed tomatoes during the annual "Tomatina" tomato fight fiesta, in the village of Bunol near Valencia, Spain, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

People drive along a road littered with fallen power lines after the passing of Hurricane Rafael in San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, on Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Vultures surround a human corpse on the banks of the Tuquesa River near Bajo Chiquito, Panama, where migrants arrive after crossing the Darien Gap from Colombia on their journey north to the United States, on Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

With tears streaming down her face, a supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris applauds as Harris delivers a concession speech on Nov. 6, 2024, after losing the 2024 presidential election, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris looks at a monitor backstage just before taking the stage for her final campaign rally on Nov. 4, 2024, the day before Election Day, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Natasha Ducre surveys the kitchen of her devastated home, which lost most of its roof during the passage of Hurricane Milton, in Palmetto, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Actors make final adjustments to their costumes before the start of Ramleela, a dramatic folk re-enactment of the life of Rama according to the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana, in New Delhi, India, on Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A man sits inside a concrete pipe meant for municipal use after his shelter was swept away by the flooding Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

People gather in front of destroyed buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this photo taken with a long exposure, Israeli shelling hits an area in southern Lebanon, as seen from northern Israel, on Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A cleric holds up his son as he celebrates Iran's missile strike against Israel during an anti-Israeli protest at Felestin (Palestine) Square in Tehran, Iran, on Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People take cover next to a public bomb shelter as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets fired from Lebanon, in Safed, northern Israel, on Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Palestinian activist Khairi Hanoon walks with the Palestinian flag on a damaged road following an Israeli army raid in Tulkarem, West Bank, on Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A fisherman carries his catch of the day to market in Manta, Ecuador, on Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Prisoners reach out from their cell for bread at lunchtime at the Juan de la Vega prison in Emboscada, Paraguay, on July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Christophe Chavilinga, 90, suffering from mpox, waits for treatment at a clinic in Munigi, eastern Congo, on Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Druze clergymen attend the funeral of some of the 12 children and teens killed in a rocket strike by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a soccer field at the village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, on July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A pod of Beluga whales swim through the Churchill River near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, on Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Erin Young holds her adopted daughter Gianna Young, as she prays the "Patriotic Rosary" for the consecration of the nation and Donald Trump around a bonfire at their home in Sunbury, Ohio, the night before the U.S. election, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. The conservative Catholic family lives their anti-abortion beliefs through adoption, foster-parenting and raising their children to believe in the sanctity of life. They're also committed to teaching their children about political candidates they see as aligned with their beliefs. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Students beat a policeman with sticks during a protest over a controversial quota system for government job applicants in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Anik Rahman)

People mourn over the flagged-covered coffin of Israeli soldier Sgt. Amitai Alon, killed by a Hezbollah drone attack, during his funeral near Ramot Naftali, Israel, on Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Faten Mreish holds her son, who was killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, on Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Paralympic athlete Santos Araujo, of Brazil, celebrates after winning the men's 200 m Freestyle - S2 final, during the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, France, on Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A race fan holds a drink as he walks on the grounds of Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., before the 150th running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race on May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Ama Pipe, from Britain, center, receives the baton from teammate Lina Nielsen in a women's 4 X 400 meters relay heat during the World Athletics Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, on March 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Members of the water safety team move into the impact zone on a jet ski to rescue a surfer under a rainbow during a training day ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics surfing competition in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, on July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Margarita Salazar, 82, wipes sweat from her forehead in her home during an extreme heat wave in Veracruz, Mexico, on June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

An animal runs through grass while fleeing flames as the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast, on May 25, 2024. Due to rising sea levels, about 300 Guna Indigenous families are relocating to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Children play with the ropes of a ship docked on a beach in Parika, Guyana, on June 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk through a part of the Amazon River that shows signs of drought in Santa Sofia, on the outskirts of Leticia, Colombia, on Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Athletes compete during the men's 10km marathon swimming competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, on Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A member of the Seattle Mariners tosses a ball against a wall during drills at spring training baseball workouts, on Feb. 15, 2024, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Sloane Stephens of the U.S. signs autographs after defeating Daria Kasatkina of Russia in their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

Passengers in the back of a taxi film themselves as they leave the Eiffel Tower, decorated with the Olympic rings ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, on July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A resident wades through a flooded street following heavy rains from typhoon Toraji in Ilagan City, Isabela province, northern Philippines, on Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Noel Celis)

Members of the Al-Rabaya family break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan outside their home, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Orthodox nuns wait to take part in a procession marking 250 years since the remains of Saint Dimitrie Bassarabov, patron saint of the Romanian capital, were brought to Romania, in Bucharest, on July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

People gather at the Republique plaza in Paris after the second round of the legislative election, on July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

A horse looks out the window from its stable ahead of the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes horse race at Saratoga Race Course, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A girl plays a jump rope game at a school housing residents displaced by gang violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Midwife Diluwara Begum holds a newborn baby girl after helping deliver her on a boat on the River Brahmaputra, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, on July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Maijuna mourners gather around the remains of Rosario Rios during her burial service in the cemetery of Sucusari, Peru, on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A voter fills out a ballot during general elections in Nkandla, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, on May 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Friends and family fuss over a quinceañera in preparation for her photo session at Colon square in the Zona Colonial neighborhood of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A person carrying a handgun and a sign depicting Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump stands outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A supporter of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump waits for the start of his campaign rally in Doral, Fla., on July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump prepares to walk on stage for a campaign rally at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich., on Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

People help Liudmila, 85, board a bus after their evacuation from Vovchansk, Ukraine, on May 12, 2024. Her husband was killed in their house during a Russian airstrike on the city. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Yulia Navalnaya, center, widow of Alexey Navalny, stands in a queue with other voters at a polling station near the Russian embassy in Berlin on March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Debris is visible through the window of a damaged home following severe storms in Lakeview, Ohio, on March 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Lava flows from a volcanic eruption that started on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco di Marco)

A polar bear and a cub search for scraps in a large pile of bowhead whale bones left from the village's subsistence hunting at the end of an unused airstrip near the village of Kaktovik, Alaska, on Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

A fisherman casts his fishing line into the Mediterranean Sea from a rocky area along the coastline in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A mural of former Argentine first lady María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Eva Perón, or Evita, depicting her with a saint's halo, adorns a wall inside the Peron Peron restaurant in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on June 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Pope Francis gestures during an annual gathering of pro-family organizations at the Auditorium della Conciliazione, in Rome, on May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

A mother coaxes her daughter into trying a spoonful of rice at a school turned into a makeshift shelter for people displaced by gang violence, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Children shake hands before they play a chess game at The Soga Chess Club of the internally displaced persons camp in Kanyaruchinya, Democratic Republic of Congo, on July 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce kisses Taylor Swift after the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game against the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Fans interfere with a foul ball caught by Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts during the first inning in Game 4 of the baseball World Series against the New York Yankees, on Oct. 29, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Sara Chen weeps over the grave of her longtime friend, Staff Sgt. Avraham Nerya Cohen, who was killed in action on Oct. 7, 2023, as Israel marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The mother of Ahmed Nidal Aslan, who was killed during clashes with Israeli forces, mourns over his body during his funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Qalandiya, on July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Jewish ultra-Orthodox men dressed in costumes celebrate the Jewish festival of Purim in Bnei Brak, Israel, on March 24, 2024. The holiday commemorates the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Two men in Russian Cossack uniforms pose for a selfie with the Historical Museum in the background after visiting the mausoleum of the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin, marking the 154th anniversary of his birth, in Moscow's Red Square, on April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Assistants react as members of "Castellers de Vilafranca" try to form a "Castell" or human tower, during the 29th Human Tower Competition in Tarragona, Spain, on Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump hold signs as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris passes by on her bus en route to a campaign stop at the Primanti Bros. restaurant in Pittsburgh, on Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A man transports an electronic voting machine on a pony as election officials walk to a polling booth in a remote mountain area on the eve of the first round of voting in the six-week long national election at Dessa village in Doda district, Jammu and Kashmir, India, April 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

An adult periodical cicada sheds its nymphal skin on May 11, 2024, in Cincinnati. There are two large compound eyes, which are used to visually perceive the world around them, and three small, jewel-like, simple eyes called ocelli at center. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Monuwara Begum and another woman return from a polling station across the Brahmaputra river on the eve of the second phase of India's national election in Sandahkhaiti, a floating island village in the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India, on April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

A cosplayer dressed as Deadpool attends a Comic-Con convention in Panama City on Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Israeli students watch a virtual tour of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau at the Testimony House, a Holocaust museum in Nir Galim, Israel, on the eve of Israel's annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Cairo Consort prepares for a race in the paddock at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., before the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race on May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Wearing a device that measures his energy consumption, Israel Amputee Football Team player Ben Maman, left, fights for the ball with a young soccer player from a local team during a practice session in Ramat Gan, Israel, on April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Atmaram, who goes by one name and was found living on the street a day earlier, eats breakfast at Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society, a home for the aged and unwanted, on April 12, 2024, in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

People cry as the body of a man who was killed during anti-government protests in Bangladesh is brought to a hospital in Dhaka, on Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajib Dhar)

The faithful carry an 18th century wooden statue of Christ before the start of a procession the in Procida Island, Italy, on March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Models wait backstage for a show to start during China Fashion Week in Beijing on March 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A girl waits in the family home of the late Ousmane Sylla, who died by suicide inside one of Italy's migrant detention centers, ahead of his body's arrival in Conakry, Guinea, on April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

People fish next to drainage that flows into the Paraguay River in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Jan. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

French sailors on the bridge of the French navy frigate Normandie keep watch during a reconnaissance patrol during NATO exercises in a Norwegian fjord north of the Arctic circle on March 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

The container ship Dali rests against the wreckage of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge on the Patapsco River, on March 27, 2024, as seen from Pasadena, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A gaucho, or South American cowboy, bathes a horse during the Criolla Week rodeo festival, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and capture team pull a sedated black rhino from the water in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on Jan. 16, 2024, as part of a rhino relocation project to move 21 of the critically endangered beasts hundreds of miles to a new home. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

A cat searches for food in a house burnt by rockets fired by Hezbollah in the town of Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, on Feb. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Members of the Abu Sinjar family mourn their relatives killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at their house in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Jan. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Ultra-Orthodox Jews look at part of an intercepted ballistic missile that fell in the desert near the city of Arad, Israel, on April 28, 2024. (AP Photo/ Ohad Zwigenberg)

Emergency personnel carry a 4-year-old girl who was rescued from her collapsed house after heavy rains in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on March 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A worker inspects the permanent foundations being constructed on the coral reef for a judging tower to be used during the Olympic Games surf competition in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, on Jan. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Emerald miner Janeth Paez stands inside the tunnel of an informal mine near the town of Coscuez, Colombia, on Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

An American flag is mounted on a fence at a farm on U.S. Highway 20 during a blizzard near Galva, Iowa, on Jan. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A young man watches the ball after diving while playing soccer on a dusty field in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Alicia Keys performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 58 football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Elise Mertens, of Belgium, serves against Naomi Osaka, of Japan, at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, on March 11, 2024, in Indian Wells, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

In this photo taken with a long exposure, people look at the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, in the night sky on May 10, 2024, in Estacada, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)

Female Israeli soldiers pose for a photo in southern Israel, on the border of the Gaza Strip, on Feb. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia, the first encounter between the two nations’ leaders in 25 years and one that could mark a turning point for the region as Syria struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.

The meeting marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family, and for its new leader, who once had a $10 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.

Meanwhile, Trump said Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani, reminded him of the Saudi crown prince. He called them both “tall, handsome guys that happen to be very smart” — the latest display of warm relations between the president and his Gulf Arab hosts.

In an interview with Fox News aboard Air Force One, Trump defended his efforts to accept a donated replacement plane from Qatar, the second stop on his Middle East trip. Democrats say accepting the $400 million jet is a national security threat.

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As a result of the cuts, a senior official with the U.N. Population Fund, which promotes sexual and reproductive health, says lives will be lost and lives will be “less lived.”

Andrew Saberton, the fund’s deputy executive director for management who returned from Afghanistan over the weekend, told U.N. reporters Wednesday that 6.3 million Afghans, mostly women and girls, are losing access to “life-saving care.”

The Trump administration has canceled foreign aid contracts including to Afghanistan, where more than half the population needs humanitarian assistance to survive.

The U.S. cuts are forcing the fund, known as UNFPA, to reduce the number of midwives it supports by half, Saberton said. And in 2026 the agency will only be able to support 418 community facilities compared to 982 today.

In addition, he said, “Hundreds of health centers in remote areas and mobile clinics are being forced to close, health workers are being laid off, supplies are running out, and lives are at stake.”

The group of more than 500 members of the Connecticut Bar Association said it decided to issue the statement due to “mounting concern across the legal profession.”

“Our deep commitment to this nation’s Constitution and laws, and to democracy, brings us together to state publicly what has so often been taken for granted but what must now be said again aloud,” according to the letter, which does not mention the Trump administration by name.

The letter affirms that judges should not be threatened with impeachment or violence because of their rulings and that lawyers have the right to choose who they represent without fear of retaliation from the government. It also states the government must follow court orders and underscores the rights to counsel, due process, free speech and freedom of association.

“We recognize that we, as lawyers, have a special duty to safeguard the law,” the letter reads. “To that end, we stand today shoulder-to-shoulder, lawyers in the Constitution state, to proclaim again these Constitutional guarantees.”

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the United Mine Workers of America, the American Federation of Teachers, National Nurses United and 10 other labor organizations.

It focuses on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which was gutted during a tornado of layoffs this year that by some estimates cut about 850 of the agency’s roughly 1,000 employees.

At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is reversing the firing of about 330 NIOSH workers. But the lawsuit seeks to reinstate all NIOSH staff and functions, arguing that the cuts flouted express directives from Congress and are illegal.

A spokesperson for Kennedy did not comment specifically on the lawsuit, but sent a statement that said that “NIOSH’s essential services will continue as HHS streamlines its operations. Ensuring the health and safety of our workforce remains a top priority for the Department.”

Acting Navy chief Adm. James Kilby told a House appropriations subcommittee that the series of accidents on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its strike group are under investigation and “we are committed to learning what happened and preventing it from happening again.”

“Accountability actions are being taken or will be taken,” said Kilby. The commander of the Truman was relieved of duty after a collision in February, but Kilby’s remarks Wednesday suggested more actions are likely coming.

In recent weeks, two F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets were lost in the Red Sea. Last week, a jet landing on the Truman went overboard when there was a failure with the system that hooks and catches the aircraft on steel wires as they hit the ship’s flight deck. The two pilots ejected. And the previous week, a fighter jet slipped off the Truman’s hangar deck, as sailors were towing the aircraft into place in the hangar bay.

In February, the Truman was involved in a collision at sea with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt.

In a fourth, separate incident, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 in December, after ships earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones launched by the rebels. Both aviators in that incident survived. The Gettysburg is part of the Truman strike group.

U.S. Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland blocked the Trump administration from arresting, detaining or transferring about two dozen international students whose legal status was abruptly terminated as part of a national crackdown.

White said he is pondering a national injunction that would apply to all international students. Judges in other parts of the U.S. have ordered similar protections for individual plaintiffs.

At least 4,700 international students had their visa records terminated en masse in early April by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, often without notification to the students or to their schools.

ICE then reversed course and began reinstating students’ visa records in a government database that maintains their legal status.

Following the state dinner, a brief ceremony was held for the World Cup soccer tournament. After being hosted by Qatar in 2022, the next one will be in the U.S. in 2026.

Trump held aloft a ball from the last tournament, which he signed along with Al Thani.

Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, asked Trump to use American pressure to bring peace to Gaza, where Israel has renewed its military operations.

Qatar has been an important stage for negotiations, and it has served as an intermediary for Hamas.

Al Thani also told Trump that he worried about him during last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“I prayed for your recovery and your safety,” he said.

While attending the state dinner, the president repeated his desire for a peaceful resolution to Iran’s nuclear program, and suggested the ball is in Tehran’s court.

“The non-friendly is a violent course and I don’t want that.” He added that “it’s their decision.”

He urged Qatar to help reach an agreement.

“It’s a perilous situation, and we want to do the right thing,” he said. “We want to do something that’s going to save maybe millions of lives. Because things like that get started and they get out of control.”

The president and his wife, Melania, are set to host a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, a White House official said.

The first lady traveled to the Capitol in March to lobby Congress to pass the Take It Down Act.

The House sent the bill to the White House on April 28 for the president’s signature.

After Trump signs the measure into law, it will become a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish such imagery without a person’s consent. Websites and social media companies also would have 48 hours to remove such material after a victim requests it.

The White House official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss scheduling decisions not yet announced.

— By Darlene Superville

At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he is rescinding the terminations of about 330 employees of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

About 850 of the agency’s roughly 1,000 employees were laid off by the Trump administration, according to estimates from a union and affected employees.

Earlier this week, a judge in West Virginia ordered that jobs be restored within NIOSH’s respiratory health division in Morgantown, although her ruling didn’t specify a number.

Kennedy said that of the 330 people being reinstated, about a third work in Morgantown, a third work at a NIOSH site in Cincinnati and a third work in a World Trade Center Health Program that has staff in several locations.

Head of Oxfam America said that as Trump travels to the region, starvation is expanding across Gaza, with children hardest hit.

Abby Maxman said the humanitarian response is at a “virtual standstill” because of Israel’s over monthslong blockade of aid and essential goods.

She called on Trump to focus on securing a full and permanent ceasefire, ending the siege on Gaza, and securing safe access for humanitarian aid.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s ruling came after the legal group filed a lawsuit alleging the Justice Department had retaliated against it by canceling grants for its Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence.

The grants cancellation came shortly after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a memo barring department employees from participating in ABA-sponsored events during work time, noting that the legal group had recently sued the federal government. The department had said the grants no longer aligned with its priorities.

The judge said the ABA would likely succeed on the merits of its lawsuit, though he said his order does not bar the department from canceling the grants for “permissible and truly nonretalitatory reasons.”

Dozens of higher education organizations are taking a stand against the Trump administration’s attacks on prestigious universities, calling on the government to “reforge” its ties with academia.

In a Wednesday statement, more than 50 groups said the nation suffers when research grants are “held hostage for political reasons and without due process.” It said all Americans benefit from the technology and medical advances produced through the government’s partnership with colleges.

The groups implore the government to respect colleges’ autonomy over their campuses. The signers include the American Council on Education, which represents hundreds of university presidents.

The Trump administration has cut research funding at Harvard, Columbia and other universities, framing it as an effort to root out antisemitism.

Trump stood with Al Thani to greet a procession of guests at the dinner. The line stretched down a palace hallway. Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a top adviser to the president, was one of the attendees

Top administration officials, including Pete Hegseth, Scott Bessent and Susie Wiles, were there. So was Chris Ruddy, the founder of Newsmax, and Kelly Ortberg, the Boeing chief executive who had earlier in the day signed a deal to sell planes to Qatar.

After nearly an hour of shaking hands, the receiving line was over. Trump and Al Thani are now participating in a state dinner at the Lusail Palace.

The president seemed impressed by the building. “Nice house!” he exclaimed.

U.S. sanctions — along with similar measures by other countries — have led to shortages of goods from fuel to medicine, and made it difficult for humanitarian agencies to operate fully.

Companies around the world struggle to export to Syria, and Syrians struggle to import goods of any kind because nearly all financial transactions with the country are banned. That has led to a blossoming black market of smuggled goods.

Experts say it will take time, and the process for lifting the sanctions is unclear. But Trump’s decision to ease sanctions could bring much-needed investment to the country.

▶ Read more about sanctions on Syria

Screams of “RFK kills people with AIDS” erupted during Kennedy’s opening statements to a Senate committee on Wednesday.

Dozens of federal health workers and offices dedicated to HIV/AIDS research have been shuttered under Kennedy’s watch.

Kennedy was delivering remarks about the agency’s proposed budget when several women began screaming, causing him to jump from his chair. U.S. Capitol Police escorted the disrupters out.

“That was a made for C-SPAN moment,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Republican chair of the committee.

The United States says it will pursue sanctions against any country, group or person that provides fuel, war material or other resources to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Last week, Trump announced that the U.S. would halt its strikes on the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that agreed to stop its attacks on American vessels in the Red Sea.

Acting U.S. ambassador Dorothy Shea told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that Iran has enabled Houthi attacks “with military, logistical, and intelligence support.”

“This council must not tolerate Iranian defiance of its resolutions and should impose consequences on sanctions violators using the tools at its disposal,” she said.

The presidential motorcade has pulled up at the Lusail Palace outside the capital of Doha. There were palm trees and flags for the U.S. and Qatar, plus about two dozen camels.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that a Georgetown scholar from India be released from immigration detention after he was detained in the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign college students.

Khan Suri was arrested by masked, plainclothes officers on March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. Officials said his visa was revoked because of his social media posts and his wife’s connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.

By the time Khan Suri’s petition was filed, authorities had already put him on a plane to Louisiana without allowing him to update his family or lawyer, Khan Suri’s attorneys said. A few days later, he was moved to Texas.

Kennedy said he would “probably” vaccinate his children against measles today, if given the option.

Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat of Wisconsin, questioned Kennedy during the House hearing on his proposed budget for the nation’s health department, which would cut billions of dollars from infectious disease, medical research, maternal health and preschool programs.

After giving his answer, Kennedy demurred, saying he doesn’t want to seem like he’s dispensing advice. And he would not directly answer whether he’d vaccinate his kids against chickenpox or polio.

“My opinions about vaccines are irrelevant,” Kennedy said. The health department will eventually “lay out the pros and cons” of vaccines in guidance, he said.

For a former real estate developer with flamboyant tastes, this week’s trip has been a tantalizing glimpse at the wealth of his oil-rich hosts.

Trump has marveled at the “perfecto” marble in Qatar and praised the “gleaming marvels” in Saudi Arabia. He’s also groused about the “much less impressive” plane that serves as Air Force One.

The president’s envy will likely fuel his plans to upgrade the White House, which he’s talked about renovating and expanding.

▶ Read more about Trump’s reactions to his Arab hosts’ wealth.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making his first appearances as health secretary before Congress — the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday morning and Senate health committee in the afternoon.

Senators have questions about the thousands of job he’s eliminated at the $1.7 trillion Department of Health and Human Services, the steep cuts he’s made to vaccination campaigns and his response to a measles outbreak that’s sickened 1,000 people.

His agency’s budget request includes a $500 million boost for his “Make America Healthy Again” initiative to promote nutrition and healthier lifestyles while deeply cutting infectious disease prevention, maternal health and preschool programs. Kennedy is sharing “his vision on how HHS’ transformation will improve health outcomes, eliminate redundancies to save the American taxpayer, and streamline operations to improve efficiency and service,” an agency statement says.

▶ Read more on Kennedy’s return to Capitol Hill

Al-Sharaa told a visiting Republican congressman last month in Damascus that he was “open” to negotiating a normalization of relations between Syria and Israel.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, an Indiana Republican, also asked the interim Syrian leader about signing an Abraham accord, pushed by the United States to normalize relations between Arab nations and Israel.

Al-Sharaa responded that “after some negotiations, he would be open to the Abraham accords,” Stutzman recounted Wednesday by phone.

Al-Sharaa’s overriding goal was a free and unified Syria, with hopes of rebuilding its damaged economy through tourism, trade and commerce, Stutzman said.

“We have to watch day to day, and see what his actions are,” the congressman said.

House Democratic lawmakers are urging Republicans to schedule a vote if Trump accepts a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar.

Rep. Ted Lieu, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, argued that congressional approval is required.

“People need to ask: Why is a foreign country trying to give this massive gift to Donald Trump?” Lieu said. “Think about the precedent it would set.”

Trump has stressed that the plane would initially be donated to the Defense Department. After his term ends, he says it would be donated to a future presidential library.

Mike Johnson declined to weigh in on Trump’s plans to accept a free plane from Qatar to replace Air Force One.

“It’s not my lane,” the Republican leader said at a Wednesday news conference, although he later said he believes the emoluments clause doesn’t apply because the gift would go to the country, not to Trump himself.

Johnson said that he’s “not following all of the twists and turns” of the process as he focuses on passing a budget reconciliation bill.

Super Micro Computer surged 12.7% Wednesday after signing a partnership agreement with Saudi Arabian data center company DataVolt.

The benchmark S&P 500 index that sits at the center of many 401(k) accounts has erased all its losses since Trump escalated his global trade war and is back to within 4.2% of its all-time high set in February.

Trump has delayed his most severe tariffs against America’s trading partners, but some import taxes remain and uncertainty continues to hang over businesses and consumers. The on-again-off-again nature of Trump’s trade policy has left companies unable to plan ahead and consumers nervous about spending.

A Biden-era rule due to take effect Thursday would have limited the number of artificial intelligence chips that could be exported to certain international markets — including Middle Eastern countries Trump is visiting this week — without federal approval.

The rule sorted more than 100 countries into tiers of export restrictions. “These new requirements would have stifled American innovation and saddled companies with burdensome new regulatory requirements,” the Commerce Department stated in its guidance.

Other nations and U.S. chipmakers Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices were opposed. Microsoft President Brad Smith told the Senate this week that the rule sent “a message to 120 nations that they couldn’t necessarily count on us to provide the AI they want and need.”

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s statement says Trump urged al-Sharaa to:

These prisons are run by U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces who agreed last month that all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the Northeast would be brought under the central government’s control by the end of the year.

Trump’s desire for Syria to take over the prisons also signals the potential of a full American military withdrawal from Syria.

Trump said the Qatari leader reminds him of the Saudi crown prince, who he had just visited. He called them both “tall, handsome guys that happen to be very smart.”

Trump and Al Thani then signed economic and defense agreements:

Eric Trump attended a recent cryptocurrency conference in the United Arab Emirates with Zach Witkoff, a founder of the Trump family crypto company, World Liberty Financial, and son of Trump’s do-everything envoy to the Mideast, Steve Witkoff.

During the conference, a state-backed investment company in Abu Dhabi announced it had chosen USD, World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, to back a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Critics say that allows Trump family-aligned interests to essentially take a cut of each dollar invested.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said when asked by reporters about the transaction on Wednesday.

It’s not just the “gesture” of a $400 million luxury plane that President Donald Trump says he’s smart to accept from Qatar. It’s not even that the Trump family has fast-growing business ties in the Middle East that offer the potential of vast profits.

It’s the combination of these things and more — deals between a family whose patriarch oversees the U.S. government and a region whose leaders are fond of currying favor through money and lavish gifts — that’s raising concerns about their impact on U.S. policy.

Before Trump began his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. traveled the Middle East extensively in recent weeks, drumming up business for The Trump Organization. Eric Trump announced plans for an 80-story Trump Tower Dubai in the UAE’s largest city.

Asked before this trip if Trump might meet with people tied to his family’s business, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it’s “ridiculous” to “suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”

“The president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws,” she said.

Administration officials have brushed off such concerns that Trump’s policy decisions could bleed into his family business interests, noting that Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. A voluntary ethics agreement also bars The Trump Organization from striking deals directly with foreign governments, but unlike during his first term, allows deals with private companies abroad.

“The president is a successful businessman,” Leavitt said, “and I think, frankly, that it’s one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to this office.”

▶ Read more about Trump’s business connections in the Mideast

Benjamin Netanyahu said Emmanuel Macron is echoing “despicable propaganda” from Hamas. He accused Macron of “demanding that Israel surrender and reward terrorism.”

Macron had called Netanyahu’s decision to prevent all aid including food and medications from entering the Palestinian territory a “disgrace.”

Gaza’s 2.3 million people rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive and now face famine. Nearly half a million Palestinians could starve while 1 million others can barely get enough food, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.

Netanyahu’s statement Wednesday said Macron had “once again chosen to stand with a murderous Islamist terrorist organization” while Israel fights “for its very existence” following the Oct. 7 2023 Hamas attack.

“It sounds good on paper but in practicality, it’s a disaster,” Trump said in February when he signed an executive order freezing enforcement of the law. “It’s going to mean a lot more business for America.”

Supporters see this law as an undeniable force for good in a corrupt world, a groundbreaking anti-bribery statute that has brought powerful businessmen to heel for secretly paying off foreign government officials to win contracts abroad.

Detractors say it unfairly hobbled American companies while foreign rivals, not so encumbered, swooped in.

▶ Read more on Trump’s suspension of this law

Trump’s dealmaking in Qatar comes amid controversy over the country’s gift — which Trump said he’d accept — of a luxury Boeing 747-8 that the U.S. could use as Air Force One.

Qatar has also played a central role in pay-to-play-style scandals around the globe:

On his flight from Saudi Arabia, Air Force One was escorted by Qatari F-15 jets, according to a post on X by White House official Margo Martin. It was a repeat of Tuesday’s escort by Saudi Arabian fighter jets, which was a high-profile move without recent precedent.

Trump was greeted at the airport by Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani. Both leaders then walked down a receiving line of representatives from each country at the Amiri Diwan, the government palace. The ceremonial greeting also included an escort of riders on camelback.

While Al Thani shook hands with U.S. officials, he had a warmer greeting for Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy who has played a key role in Middle East negotiations. They clasped hands and pulled each other in for an embrace. Trump then sat down briefly with Al Thani and marveled at the government palace.

“As a construction person, I’m seeing perfect marble,” said the former real estate developer. He described it as “perfecto.”

President Donald Trump says he doesn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin will go to Turkey for ceasefire talks with Ukraine unless he also goes.

“I don’t know if he would be there if I’m not there,” Trump said, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he was flying from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.

He noted that his schedule on Thursday is “all booked out” with a state visit in Qatar, set to include an engagement with U.S. troops in the region. Trump didn’t categorically rule out visiting Turkey, but said he planned to send Secretary of State Marco Rubio in his stead.

Trump also said he’ll know more in a few days if Putin is just leading him on on its openness to negotiations to end its war on Ukraine.

Asked if he believed Putin was just “tapping” him, as he suggested earlier this month, Trump said in response: “I’ll let you know in a few days.”

Trump praised Syria's new leader after their meeting in Saudi Arabia.

He’s a “young, attractive guy,” Trump said. “Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”

Trump also said he thought al-Sharaa has “got a real shot at holding it together.”

“I think he’s got the potential to do — he’s a real leader. He led a charge and he’s pretty amazing,” Trump said, adding that he believes al-Sharaa will eventually join the Abraham Accords and recognize Israel.

“I think they have to get themselves straightened up,” Trump says. “I told him, ‘I hope you’re going to join when it’s straightened out.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ But they have a lot of work to do.

Trump says he “doesn’t know” how an Emirati investment firm chose a stablecoin launched by one of his businesses for a $2 billion investment.

“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump says when asked by reporters aboard Air Force One about the transaction.

A state-backed investment company in Abu Dhabi announced it had chosen USD, World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, to back a $2 billion investment in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Critics say that allows Trump family-aligned interests to essentially take a cut of each dollar invested. Trump on Thursday is set to travel to Abu Dhabi on the final leg of his Gulf states trip that has seen his business and official interests intersect.

The Gaza Health Ministry says that about 60 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight and early on Wednesday morning.

In addition to strikes in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, that killed more than 50 people, including 22 children, additional strikes killed at least 10 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to the European Hospital.

Overnight in Jabaliya, rescue workers smashed through collapsed concrete slabs using hand tools, lit only by the light of cellphone cameras, to remove bodies of some of the children who were killed.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi expressed displeasure at Trump’s announcement about the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria.

Araghchi, who is Iran’s nuclear negotiator, slammed Trump as having a “very deceitful viewpoint.”

“What he stated about the hope of regional nations for a progressive, flourishing path, is the same path that people of Iran decided through their revolution,” Araghchi said.

“It was the U.S. that blocked progress of Iranian nation through sanctions for more than 40 years as well as its pressures, military and nonmilitary threats,” he added.

Trump told GCC leaders in Riyadh that he wanted to secure a deal that would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He said he hoped for a “future of safety and dignity of the Palestinian people” but not with Gaza’s current leaders, Hamas, who he said “delight in raping, torturing and murdering innocent people.” He said his sanctions relief for Syria would “give them a fresh start.”

He told the room of regional leaders that the world was watching them “with envy” but added: “if we can simply stop the aggression from a small group of pretty bad actors.”

Trump also dove into U.S. politics, making sure to mention his victory in the 2024 election, which he called historic. He said the Biden administration “created havoc and bedlam.”

In this photo released by the Saudi Royal Palace, President Donald Trump, centre, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio , third from right, meet with Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, second left, and with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, second right, in Riyadh, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP)

In this photo released by the Saudi Royal Palace, Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump, centre, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. At right is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.(Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace via AP)

Syrians wave Saudi and Syrian flags in celebration after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans during his visit to Saudi Arabia to ease sanctions on Syria and normalize relations with its new government, in Homs, Syria, late Tuesday, May 13, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Syrians celebrate after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans during his visit to Saudi Arabia to ease sanctions on Syria and normalize relations with its new government, in Homs, Syria, late Tuesday, May 13, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Syrians wave Saudi and Syrian flags in celebration after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans during his visit to Saudi Arabia to ease sanctions on Syria and normalize relations with its new government, in Homs, Syria, late Tuesday, May 13, 2025.(AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Syrians celebrate after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to ease sanctions on Syria and move toward normalizing relations with its new government to give the country 'a chance at peace,' in Idlib, Syria, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

President Donald Trump waves as he leaves the Royal Palace after a signing ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman walk for a signing ceremony at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pose for a photo at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gesture as they meet delegations at the Royal Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)