An 8-hour Russian drone barrage keeps Kyiv on edge

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Dozens of Russian drones have targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv in a nighttime attack that lasted eight hours. Russia has kept up its relentless pounding of Ukraine after almost 1,000 days of war. Authorities said on Thursday that the Russian attack sought to stretch air defense systems and unnerve city residents. At least two people were reported injured. Ukraine’s forces are struggling to match the might of Russia’s military. Western support is crucial for Ukraine to sustain the costly war of attrition. Uncertainty over how long that aid will continue has deepened with the election of Donald Trump for the next U.S. president. He has repeatedly taken issue with U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Cuba left reeling after Category 3 hurricane ravages island

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has been left reeling after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across western portions of the island, knocking out the country’s power grid, downing trees and damaging infrastructure. No fatalities have immediately been reported. Some 50,000 people took shelter in Havana, with thousands more doing the same in regions south and just west of the capital since they lived in flood zones or in flimsy homes. The main road from Havana to the southern coastal city of Batabanó was strewn with dozens of utility poles and wires. As Hurricane Rafael plowed across Cuba late Wednesday, it slowed to a Category 2 hurricane as it chugged into the Gulf of Mexico before heading toward Mexico.

Belarus’ hardline president releases 31 political prisoners but crackdown persists

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has led a harsh crackdown on opposition, has pardoned and released 31 political prisoners. Their names were not made public but Lukashenko’s office said three of them are invalids and 17 have chronic illnesses. Human rights activists and former prisoners say medical care and health conditions in Belarusian prisons are poor. The announcement said the released prisoners had been convicted of “crimes of an extremist nature,” a description widely used for opposition figures and people arrested in the mass protests that arose in 2020 after the disputed results of a presidential election gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office.

Haitian activists demand halt to deportations

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haitian activists are demanding that other countries temporarily stop deportations to their country given a surge in gang violence and deepening poverty. Tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti in the past month, including 61,000 from the Dominican Republic. Haiti’s Support Group for Returnees and Refugees said Thursday that many of those deported remain homeless because their neighborhood is infested with gangs that control 80% of Haiti’s capital. The deportees now join the more than 700,000 people left homeless by gang violence in recent years.