Biden administration takes step to make marijuana use a less serious crime
FILE – A vendor makes change for a marijuana customer at a cannabis marketplace in Los Angeles, April 15, 2019.
French Iranian author wins top Spanish prize for graphic novel
FILE – French-Iranian graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator and film director Marjane Satrapi poses during a photo session in Paris on Nov. 1, 2022. Satrapi was awarded the 2024 Princess of Asturias Prize for Communication and Humanity on April 30, 2024.
Growing donor support for UNRWA shows vote of confidence in embattled agency
FILE – Displaced Palestinians wait to receive United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024.
Rival Palestinian groups meet in China to discuss political reconciliation
FILE – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, right, shakes hands with Palestine Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki as he meets with his five Arab and Islamic counterparts at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing, Nov. 20, 2023.
Rights groups alarmed about new anti-LGBTQ+ law in Iraq
FILE – Lawmakers are pictured during a parliament session in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 9, 2022. Lawmakers on April 27, 2024, passed an amendment to an existing anti-prostitution rule; it says those found guilty of same-sex relations will face 10 to 15 years in jail.
Horse racing’s household name will miss the 150th Kentucky Derby
FILE – Bob Baffert, center, holds the trophy after Medina Spring won the 147th Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky., on May 1, 2021, but then failed a post-race drug test that led to a suspension for Baffert, the horse’s trainer. (Jim Owens-USA Today Sports via Reuters)
Threat of ‘large-scale massacre’ in Sudan’s Darfur is imminent, US official says
FILE – A Doctors Without Borders handout photo from January 2024 shows a woman and baby at the Zamzam displacement camp, close to El Fasher in North Darfur, Sudan. Fighting between RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces appears ready to engulf the area.
Talks on global pandemic agreement are in race against time
FILE – The headquarters of the World Health Organization are pictured in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18, 2020. Members are trying to negotiate a new global agreement on combating future pandemics and began a last round of talks April 29, 2024.
Pier for Gaza aid to cost US $320 million
This satellite picture taken by Planet Labs PBC show the construction of a new aid port near Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on April 18, 2024. The port is being built ahead of a U.S. military-led operation to deliver food and other aid. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
Biden calls on Putin to release journalists Gershkovich, Kurmasheva jailed in Russia
Host Colin Jost, left, and President Joe Biden applaud as an image of Austin Tice, an American journalist detained in Syria, appears on screen at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, April 27, 2024, in Washington.