Bella Poarch said, ' I want to be an artist, but when the person you love wants something different, it's hard'

Pakistani police are seeking Imran Khan’s permission to search his home for supporters accused of attacking military facilities

Rights group Afghan Witness says online abuse and hate speech targeting politically active Afghan women significantly increased since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021

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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is scheduled to speak to federal prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith's office

A man tore up and burned a copy of the Quran outside a mosque in Sweden on the first day of Eid – after police granted permission for the demonstration Police later charged the man with agitation against an ethnic or national group. While Swedish police have rejected several recent applications for anti-Koran demonstrations, courts have overruled those decisions, saying they infringed on freedom of speech. "It's legal but not appropriate," Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said. The protest risks sparking a fresh diplomatic row with Turkey, who have been holding up Sweden’s bid to join Nato – an application made in the wake of Russia’s invasion of UKraine – over such protests, as well as accusations from Ankara that Stockholm is harbouring people it considers terrorists. Turkey has asked for a number of extraditions and for Sweden to address its security concerns. At the protest, some 200 onlookers witnessed one of the two organisers tearing up pages of a copy and wiping them on his shoe – before eventually setting the book on fire. After the burning, police charged the man who set fire to the Koran with agitation against an ethnic or national group and with a violation of a ban on fires that has been in place in Stockholm since mid-June. Some of those present shouted ‘God is great’ in Arabic to protest against the burning, and one man was detained by police after he attempted to throw a rock. Representatives of the mosque were disappointed by the police decision to grant permission for the latest protest on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, mosque director and Imam Mahmoud Khalfi said on Wednesday. "The mosque suggested to the police to at least divert the demonstration to another location, which is possible by law, but they chose not to do so," Mr Khalfi said in a statement. Sweden applied to joint the alliance in the wake of the Kremlin launching its invasion of Ukraine last year, alongside neighbour Finland. The pair decided to drop their long-held stance of military neutrality in the face of Moscow’s aggression. Finalnd were welcomed into the bloc in April, and there were hopes that Sweden could follow suit at a summit in Lithuania in July. But that requires sign-off from all the blocs members. Beyond Turkey, Hungary has also been dragging out ratifying the move, despite officials suggesting they were behind the move. The Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, announced on Wednesday that he has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland on 6 July, ahead of the summit later in the month, to try to overcome Turkish objections. "The time is now to welcome Sweden as a full member of Nato," Mr Stoltenberg told reporters as he announced his last-ditch effort. Foreign ministers, intelligence chiefs and security advisers from Turkey, Sweden and Finland, which joined Nato in April, will be taking part in the talks in Brussels. But the chance of membership being granted in July now look increasingly remote. The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, condemned the protest as “vile” in a tweet. He added that it was unacceptable to allow anti-Islam protests in the name of freedom of expression. In late January, Turkey suspended talks with Sweden on its Nato application after a Danish far-right politician burned a copy of the Quaran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. In a phone call – that took place on Wednesday seemingly before the latest burning – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, that while Sweden had taken steps in the right direction, there were still aspects of their behaviour that were “unacceptable” to Ankara. Meanwhile, Hungary’s parliament postponed ratifying Sweden's Nato accession to its autumn legislative session. The postponement, the latest in a long succession of delays that have gone on for a year, there was no suggestion in the announcement that the protest in Stockholm had played a part. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More NATO chief convenes July 6 talks hoping to convince Turkey to let Sweden join NATO warns not to underestimate Russian forces, and tells Moscow it has increased preparedness Cleverly to renew UK backing for Sweden’s Nato bid during visit

Rescuers are using an American-made drilling machine to reach 40 workers trapped in a tunnel for four days.

Elián González has the same big, expressive eyes he did 23 years ago when an international custody battle transformed him into the face of the long-strained relations between Cuba and the United States. Now 29, González is stepping into Cuban politics. He recently entered his country’s congress with hopes of helping his people at a time of record emigration and heightened tension between the two seaside neighbors. “From Cuba, we can do a lot so that we have a more solid country, and I owe it to Cubans,” he said during an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “That is what I’m going to try to do from my position, from this place in congress — to contribute to making Cuba a better country.” González has given only a handful of interviews since he was unwittingly thrust into the geopolitical spotlight as a boy. In 1999, at just 5 years old, he and his mother were aboard a boat of Cuban migrants headed toward Florida when the boat capsized in the Florida Straits. His mother and 10 others died while González, tied to an inner tube, drifted in open water until his rescue. Granted asylum under U.S. refugee rules at the time, González went to live with his great uncle, a member of the Cuban exile community in Miami that is often a center of fierce criticism of Cuba's government. In Cuba, his father begged then-President Fidel Castro for help. Castro led protests with hundreds of thousands of people demanding little Elián's return. Anti-Castro groups in Miami pressed for him to stay in the U.S. The tug-of-war quickly gained the world’s attention and became emblematic for the testy feelings between the two neighboring nations. Then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno ruled the boy should be returned to his father, but González’s relatives refused. AP photojournalist Alan Diaz captured the moment when armed immigration agents seized González in a Miami home, and the photo later won a Pulitzer Prize. “Not having my mom has been difficult, it has been a burden, but it has not been an obstacle when I have had a father who has stood up for me and been by my side," González told AP. He is a father himself now, of a 2-year-old daughter. He works for a state company that facilitates tourism to the island nation his mother left, underscoring the alternate track his life has followed since his homecoming. What’s more, he recently became a lawmaker. In April, González was sworn in as a member of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, effectively Cuba’s congress. He represents Cárdenas, a town in Matanzas province about 80 miles east of Havana where he lived until his mother took him to sea. He still lives in the province. Dressed in black pants and T-shirt, with a discreet braided bracelet on his right hand and his wedding ring on his left, González was interviewed in Havana’s Capitol, the renovated seat of congress. “I think the most important thing is that I have grown up like other young people. I have grown up in Cuba,” he said. For years, his father made it nearly impossible to get close to the child. From afar, the boy could sometimes be seen playing with other children or accompanying his father to political events. Castro would visit him on his birthday. Over the years, González was a military cadet and later became an industrial engineer. Because Cuba's congressional positions are unpaid, he will continue to work his tourism job. The legislative body has faced criticism for lacking opposition voices and for carrying out the agenda set by the country’s leadership. González's legislative term comes amid historic emigration from the crisis-stricken Caribbean island, as many young Cubans seek a new life in the U.S. — just as his mother did. It also comes at a moment of heightened tensions between the two nations. There have been allegations that Cuba hosted a Chinese spy base, which Cuba adamantly denies. Meanwhile, Cuba claims Biden has yet to ease tough policies enacted by Donald Trump that target the island, while the U.S. points to resumption of some flights and sending of remittances. Amid a deepening political and energy crisis in Cuba, González cast blame on decades of American sanctions stifling the island's economy as the root of many of Cuba's problems, echoing many in the government. He said he believes in Cuba's model of providing free access to education and health services among other things, but acknowledged there is a long way to go for that to be perfected. Despite harsh prison sentences doled out by Cuban courts, punishments defended by the communist government, González said his people have the right to demonstrate. But he added that the causes of current crises should be analyzed before condemning the state. He also had kind words for the hundreds of thousands of Cubans who, like his mother, chose to emigrate. “I respect all those who made the decision to leave Cuba, I respect those who do so today, just as I do my mom,” he said. “My message will always be that (those who leave) do all they can to ensure that Cuba has a status (without sanctions) equal to any country in the world.” Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Jersey Shore towns say state's marijuana law handcuffs police and emboldens rowdy teens AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean In workaholic Japan, 'job leaving agents' help people escape the awkwardness of quitting

A prosecutor is asking jurors to impose a death sentence on the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, saying Robert Bowers targeted them because of their faith and has never once expressed remorse

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By Marianna Parraga and Deisy Buitrago HOUSTON/CARACAS Chevron Corp's renewed oil operations in Venezuela begin a new phase

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Road traffic was re-opened on one lane of the Crimean Bridge late on Monday following what Russia called