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Geneva, Switzerland — The World Health Organization annual assembly on Saturday gave member countries another year to agree on a landmark accord to combat future pandemics.  Three years of effort to reach a deal ended last month in failure. But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed what he called historic decisions taken to make a new bid for an accord.  The WHO agreed in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic eased to launch talks on an accord to counter any new global health crisis. Millions died from COVID-19 which brought health systems in many countries to their knees.  The talks hit multiple obstacles however with many developing countries accusing rich nations of monopolizing available COVID-19 vaccines.  They have sought assurances that any new accord will make provision of medicines and the sharing of research more equitable.   The WHO annual assembly "made concrete commitments to completing negotiations on a global pandemic agreement within a year, at the latest," said a statement released at the end of the Geneva meeting.  The assembly also agreed on amendments to an international framework of binding health rules. The changes introduce the notion of a "pandemic emergency," which calls on member states to take rapid, coordinated action, the statement said.  "The historic decisions taken today demonstrate a common desire by member states to protect their own people, and the world's, from the shared risk of public health emergencies and future pandemics," Tedros said.  He said the change to health rules "will bolster countries' ability to detect and respond to future outbreaks and pandemics by strengthening their own national capacities, and [through] coordination between fellow states, on disease surveillance, information sharing and response."  Tedros added: "The decision to conclude the pandemic agreement within the next year demonstrates how strongly and urgently countries want it, because the next pandemic is a matter of when, not if." 

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver an address the Capitol, a show of wartime support for the longtime ally despite mounting political divisions over Israel's military assault on Gaza. The invitation from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, along with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, has been in the works for some time. No date for the speech was set. Leaders said the invitation was extended to “highlight America’s solidarity with Israel.” “We invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region,” they wrote. A speech by Netanyahu would almost certainly expose election-year divisions in the U.S., where a growing number of Democrats have turned away from the right-wing prime minister, while Republicans have embraced him. Johnson first suggested inviting the Israeli leader, saying it would be “a great honor of mine” to invite him. That came soon after Schumer, who is the highest ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S., had delivered a stinging rebuke of Netanyahu. Schumer said in the speech that Netanyahu had “lost his way" amid the Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza. Even so, Schumer had said he would join in the invitation because “our relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one prime minister or president.” The Israel-Hamas war, now in its seventh month after the October 7 terror attack by the Palestinian militant group, has caused widespread concerns in the U.S. and abroad over Israel's conduct and the extensive civilian death toll. As Israel pushes into Rafah in Gaza, the International Criminal Court has accused Netanyahu and his defense minister, along with three Hamas leaders, of war crimes — a largely symbolic act but one that further isolates the Israeli leader. President Joe Biden in supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas lambasted the ICC’s case against Netanyahu, but he has nevertheless grown critical of Israel’s war plans and has pressed for assurances of humanitarian aid. On Friday, Biden encouraged a three-phase deal proposed by Israel to Hamas militants that he says would lead to the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza and could end the war. He urged Israelis and Hamas to come to an agreement to release the remaining hostages for an extended cease-fire, arguing that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel as it did in October. Biden called the proposal “a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages.” It is unclear if Biden and Netanyahu would meet in Washington. Spain, Norway and Ireland recently recognized a Palestinian state, a move that was condemned by Israel. Slovenia's government also endorsed a motion to recognize a Palestinian state and asked the parliament to do the same. Typically, a high-profile congressional invitation is issued jointly and in consultation with the White House. But in 2015, Netanyahu was invited to address Congress in a rebuff to then-President Barack Obama by a previous Republican speaker during disputes over Iran. On Capitol Hill, the debates over the Israel-Hamas war have been pitched, heated and divisive, amplified during the college campus protests this spring, showing how the once ironclad support for Israel has weakened and splintered. Republicans, including presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, have been eager to display their support for Netanyahu and expose the Democratic divisions over Israel. More recently, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, became the highest ranking Republican elected official from the U.S. to deliver a speech before the Israeli parliament.

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BANGKOK — Thailand kicked off its celebration of the LGBTQ+ community's Pride Month with a parade Saturday, as the country is on course to become the first nation in Southeast Asia to legalize marriage equality.  The annual Bangkok Pride Parade filled one side of a major thoroughfare with a colorful parade for several hours in one of the Thai capital's busiest commercial districts. Pride Month celebrations have been endorsed by politicians, government agencies and some of the country's biggest business conglomerates, which have become official partners or sponsors for the celebration.  Ann "Waaddao" Chumaporn, who has been organizing Bangkok Pride since 2022, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that she hopes the parade can be "a platform that allows everyone to call out for what they want and express who they really are."  Waaddao thinks Thai society has shifted a lot from a decade ago, and the issue has now become a fashionable social and business trend.  Thanks in part to her work, a marriage equality bill granting full legal, financial and medical rights for marriage partners of any gender could become reality sometime this year.  But the public celebration of gender diversity was not always so popular in Thailand despite its long-standing reputation as an LGBTQ+ friendly country.  The first big celebration for the community in Thailand was held on Halloween weekend in 1999 and called the "Bangkok Gay Festival." It was organized by Pakorn Pimton, who said that after seeing Pride parades on his overseas travels, he wanted Thailand to have one, too.  It was hard organizing such an event back then, when Thai society was much less open, he said.  "Everyone told me, even my boyfriend, that it would be impossible," he said in an interview with AP.  Organizing such an event in a public space requires permission from authorities, and it didn't go that smoothly for Pakorn, yet he eventually pulled it off.  Pakorn said some police officers treated him well, but there were others who gave him dirty looks, or were dismissive. He recalled hearing one officer say, "Why do you even need to do this? These katoey ..."  "Katoey," whose rough equivalent in English would be "ladyboy," has generally been used as a slur against transgender women or gay men with feminine appearances, although the word now has been claimed by the community.  After getting the permit, Pakorn, who then was actively working in show business, said he tried contacting television stations for advertising and finding sponsors for his project, but they all rejected him.  "There were no mobile phones, no Facebook, no nothing. There were only posters that I had to put up at gay bars," he said.  Because of that, Pakorn said, he was bewildered to see thousands of people, not only Thais but many foreigners, take to downtown Bangkok's streets for that first celebration in colorful and racy costumes, carrying balloons and dancing on fancy floats.  The event got attention from both domestic and international media as both Thailand's first gay parade and one of the first in Asia. It was described as energetic and chaotic, not least because the police did not completely close it off from traffic, resulting in marchers, dancers and floats weaving their way through moving buses, cars and motorbikes.  Only recently did the political significance behind the term "Pride" gain much importance in the event, said Vitaya Saeng-Aroon, director of an advocacy group Diversity In Thailand.  Previously, there were not a lot of organized LGBTQ+ communities who joined in, "so there were no messages in the parade. It became like a party just for fun," he said.  Now the parade carries a more political tone because the observance has been organized by people like Waaddao who have long worked to raise awareness on gender equality and diversity.  Waaddao said she became inspired to organize the parade after taking part in the youth-led pro-democracy protests that sprang up across the country in 2020. She said the protests convinced her that street action can also advance a political agenda. 

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BUDAPEST, Hungary — A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Hungary’s capital Saturday in a show of strength behind Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a week ahead of European Parliament elections, a contest he has cast as an existential turning point between peace in Europe and a world war. The demonstration, dubbed by organizers as a “peace march,” brought Orbán’s supporters from all over Hungary and neighboring countries, who marched along the Danube River in Budapest from the city's iconic Chain Bridge onto Margaret Island, waving flags and signs reading “No War.” Orbán, whose 14 years in power make him the European Union’s longest serving leader, has focused his campaign for the June 9 ballot on the war in Ukraine, portraying his domestic and international opponents as warmongers who seek to involve Hungary directly in the conflict. Critics say his appeals for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine would allow Russia to retain territories it has occupied and embolden it further. On Saturday, he told supporters it was time for his party to “occupy Brussels” — the European Union's de facto capital — and transform the continent's approach to support for Ukraine as it fends off Russia's invasion. “We can only stay out of the war if Hungarian voters support the government,” he said during a speech on Margaret Island. "We must win the European elections in such a way that the Brussels bureaucrats in their fear will open the doors of the city to us and leave their offices in a hurry." Orbán and his Fidesz party have built a reputation as being among the friendliest in the EU to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Hungary has refused to supply neighboring Ukraine with weapons to assist in its fight against Russia’s invasion and has threatened to derail EU financial aid to Kyiv and to block sanctions against Moscow. His party appears set to gain the most seats in the EU legislature in next week's election. But a series of scandals and a deep economic crisis has given room for one political newcomer, Péter Magyar, to seize on Orbán’s moment of weakness and build a major political movement in the last three months that looks poised to take a significant portion of votes. Magyar, who has risen to prominence through publicly accusing Orbán’s party of corruption and turning Hungary's media into a pro-government propaganda machine, has himself held numerous large protests and called for “the largest political demonstration in Hungary’s history” on the eve of the elections. But the crowd in Budapest on Saturday showed that Orbán's brand of right-wing populism — and threats that military support to Ukraine by the EU and United States is leading toward a new world war — still resonates among large parts of Hungarian society. “I trust Viktor Orbán. Let our children have a livable country, not a bombed-out country," said Budapest resident József Fehér at the demonstration. "The weapons that Europe has given to the Ukrainians could be turned back against us. And we don’t want that.” Orbán has condemned his EU and NATO partners who assist Ukraine as being “pro-war,” and advocated for an election victory for former U.S. President Donald Trump. In his speech, he said a Trump victory in November would lead to he and the U.S. administration forming a “transatlantic peace coalition” that could bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

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LONDON — Voters in Iceland are choosing a president Saturday, selecting from a field of 12 people that includes a former prime minister. The candidates are vying to replace outgoing President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who didn't seek reelection for the largely ceremonial post. The winner will be the seventh president of Iceland since the founding of the republic some 80 years ago. Among the best known of the candidates is Katrin Jakobsdottir, who became prime minister in 2017 after three parties formed a broad governing coalition in hopes of moving Iceland out of a cycle of crisis that triggered three elections. Jakobsdottir resigned as prime minister earlier this year to run for president. Iceland, a rugged island of around 380,000 people just below the Arctic Circle, has been ranked as the world’s most gender-equal country 14 years in a row by the World Economic Forum, which measures pay, education, health care and other factors. Polling stations opened at 9 a.m. and are set to close at 10 p.m., with results expected Sunday.

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CAIRO — A court run by Yemen's Houthi rebels Saturday sentenced 44 people to death, including a businessman working with aid groups, on spying charges, a defense lawyer said. The 44 were among 49 people who were detained by the Iran-backed rebels and accused of “collaborating with the enemy,” a reference to the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, lawyer Abdel-Majeed Sabra said. Four were given prison sentences, Sabra said. Sixteen were sentenced to death in absentia, while 28 were brought before the Specialized Criminal Court in the capital, Sanaa, Sabra said. Among those sentenced to death was Adnan al-Harazi, CEO of Prodigy Systems, a Sanaa-based company that developed systems to help humanitarian groups register and verify the distribution of aid to those in need in the war-stricken country. The Houthis detained al-Harazi in March last year after throwing stones at his company. Saturday’s court ruling included the seizure of al-Harazi’s property, Sabra said. Sabra accused the Houthis of torturing the suspects “physically and psychologically,” adding that they disappeared into solitary confinement for nine months. He said the defense team withdrew at the beginning of the trial after the judges refused to allow them to obtain a copy of the case documents, describing the trial as “unfair.” A spokesperson for the Houthis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Thousands have been imprisoned by the Houthis during Yemen’s civil war. An AP investigation found some detainees were scorched with acid, forced to hang from their wrists for weeks at a time or were beaten with batons. Courts in Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas in Yemen used to give harsh sentences to those accused of collaborating with the Saudi-led coalition. In September 2021, the rebels executed nine people who were convicted of involvement in the killing of a senior Houthi official, Saleh al-Samad, in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in April 2018. Yemen was plunged into a devastating conflict when the Houthis descended from their northern stronghold in 2014, seizing Sanaa and much of northern Yemen and forcing the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, intervened in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government. The conflict has turned in recent years into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

GARDI SUGDUB, Panama — On a tiny island off Panama’s Caribbean coast, about 300 families are packing their belongings in preparation for a dramatic change. Generations of Gunas who have grown up on Gardi Sugdub in a life dedicated to the sea and tourism will trade that next week for the mainland’s solid ground. They go voluntarily — sort of. The Gunas of Gardi Sugdub are the first of 63 communities along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts that government officials and scientists expect to be forced to relocate by rising sea levels in the coming decades. On a recent day, the island’s Indigenous residents rowed or sputtered off with outboard motors to fish. Children, some in uniforms and others in the colorful local textiles called “molas,” chattered as they hustled through the warren of narrow dirt streets on their way to school. “We’re a little sad, because we’re going to leave behind the homes we’ve known all our lives, the relationship with the sea, where we fish, where we bathe and where the tourists come, but the sea is sinking the island little by little,” said Nadin Morales, 24, who prepared to move with her mother, uncle and boyfriend. An official with Panama’s Ministry of Housing said that some people have decided to stay on the island until it's no longer safe, without revealing a specific number. Authorities won’t force them to leave, the official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue. Gardi Sugdub is one of about 50 populated islands in the archipelago of the Guna Yala territory. It is only about 366 meters (1,200 feet) long and 137 meters (450 feet) wide. From above, it’s roughly a prickly oval surrounded by dozens of short docks where residents tie up their boats. Every year, especially when the strong winds whip up the sea in November and December, water fills the streets and enters the homes. Climate change isn't only leading to a rise in sea levels, but it's also warming oceans and thereby powering stronger storms. The Gunas have tried to reinforce the island’s edge with rocks, pilings and coral, but seawater keeps coming. “Lately, I’ve seen that climate change has had a major impact,” Morales said. “Now the tide comes to a level it didn’t before, and the heat is unbearable.” The Guna’s autonomous government decided two decades ago that they needed to think about leaving the island, but at that time it was because the island was getting too crowded. The effects of climate change accelerated that thinking, said Evelio Lopez, a 61-year-old teacher on the island. He plans to move with relatives to the new site on the mainland that the government developed at a cost of $12 million. The concrete houses sit on a grid of paved streets carved out of the lush tropical jungle just over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the port, where an eight-minute boat ride carries them to Gardi Sugdub. Leaving the island is "a great challenge, because more than 200 years of our culture is from the sea, so leaving this island means a lot of things,” Lopez said. “Leaving the sea, the economic activities that we have there on the island, and now we’re going to be on solid ground, in the forest. We’re going to see what the result is in the long run.” Steven Paton, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s physical monitoring program in Panama, said that the upcoming move “is a direct consequence of climate change through the increase in sea level.” “The islands on average are only a half-meter above sea level, and as that level rises, sooner or later the Gunas are going to have to abandon all of the islands, almost surely by the end of the century or earlier,” he said. “All of the world's coasts are being affected by this at different speeds,” Paton said. Residents of a small coastal community in Mexico moved inland last year after storms continued to take away their homes. Governments are being forced to take action, from the Italian lagoon city of Venice to the coastal communities of New Zealand. A recent study by Panama’s Environmental Ministry’s Climate Change directorate, with support from universities in Panama and Spain, estimated that by 2050, Panama would lose about 2.01% of its coastal territory to increases in sea levels. Panama estimates that it will cost about $1.2 billion to relocate the 38,000 or so inhabitants who will face rising sea levels in the short- and medium-term, said Ligia Castro, climate change director for the Environmental Ministry. On Gardi Sugdub, women who make the elaborately embroidered molas worn by Guna women hang them outside their homes when finished, trying to catch the eye of visiting tourists. The island and others along the coast have benefitted for years from year-round tourism. Braucilio de la Ossa, the deputy secretary of Carti, the port facing Gardi Sugdub, said that he planned to move with his wife, daughter, sister-in-law and mother-in-law. Some of his wife’s relatives will stay on the island. He said the biggest challenge for those moving would be the lifestyle change of moving from the sea inland, even though the distance is relatively small. “Now that they will be in the forest, their way of living will be different,” he said.

TEHRAN, Iran — A high-ranking general in Iran's Revolutionary Guards has died after an illness, Iran's state TV reported Saturday. General Vajihollah Moradi was one of the commanders of the Guards’ foreign wing, state TV said. He was also a comrade of General Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020. State TV said funeral preparations were underway and a funeral ceremony will be held in the northern city of Babolsar on Sunday. Iran occasionally holds funerals for its soldiers fallen in Syria, although officials say Iranian forces are there only as advisers. This event highlights the continuous involvement of Iranian forces in the war-torn country. In April, Iranian forces pulled out of bases in Damascus and southern Syria, moving away from the border with the Golan Heights — after suspected Israeli warplanes bombed Iran's embassy in Damascus just weeks earlier. That strike killed an Iranian military commander and marked a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries. Iran is Syrian President Bashar Assad's main regional supporter in the Arab nation’s lengthy civil war. Hundreds of Iranian forces have been killed in the war in Syria.

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Tehran, Iran — Iranian authorities have arrested 35 people in a raid on a "satanist network gathering" in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, local media reported Saturday.  The raid took place after police had "identified the location" of the gathering, which featured "signs and symbols of satanism, alcohol and drugs," ISNA news agency said.  Raids on so-called "satanist" gatherings are not uncommon in the deeply conservative country, often targeting parties or concerts with alcohol consumption, which is largely banned in Iran.  A total of "31 men and four women at the venue" were taken into custody and referred to judicial authorities, ISNA said, quoting Ruhollah Yaarizadeh, police chief in Khuzestan's Dezful city.  Early last month, Iranian police arrested more than 260 people, including three Europeans, west of the capital, Tehran, over similar charges.  The report said those suspects were arrested in Shahryar County for “spreading the culture of satanism and nudity.” It did not elaborate.   A 2007 raid on an unauthorized rock concert near Tehran saw some 230 people arrested.  Authorities in the Shiite Muslim-dominated country have in the past branded rock and heavy metal music concerts as "satanist" gatherings. 

MILAN, ITALY — While Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni adopts a reassuring Western-allied foreign policy, cultural wars at home are preserving her far-right credentials heading into a European parliamentary election, where her neo-fascist-rooted Brothers of Italy party is projected to secure significant gains — and a possible coalition role. In less than two years leading the EU’s third-largest economy, Meloni has emerged as the most powerful right-wing leader in Europe, a position emphasized in a fiery speech in May to a Vox rally in Spain that included French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Hungarian President Viktor Orban and pro-Trump Republicans. Still, her pro-Ukraine and Israel policies have proven reassuring to centrist American and European allies as Italy prepares to host U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven most-industrialized nations in late June. The European elections June 6-9 could begin to tip Meloni’s balancing act. “I think there are two Melonis, and the Meloni that is getting more attention is the pragmatic, pro-Ukrainian Meloni," said Wolfango Piccoli of the London-based Teneo consultancy. “There is another Meloni, back in Italy, where she is pursuing a clear right-wing agenda on a variety of issues from migration to social-cultural values. The European elections could be a bit of a moment of truth. She has never been forced to take a clear ideological stand.” After campaigning on an anti-EU platform, Meloni has adjusted her rhetoric as Europe pours more than $228 billion in pandemic recovery funds into Italy. As premier, Meloni has a potential political ally in EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has not ruled out inclusion of Meloni’s party in a grand coalition, if needed. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is forecast to grow from six seats to at least 20 seats when Italians vote June 8-9, with Meloni personalizing the polls by asking voters to write her name, “Giorgia,” besides checking the party symbol. Even as her popularity grows, Italian opposition leaders, activists and journalists are sounding an alarm over the spread of far-right policies that are curbing LGBTQ+ and women’s rights while creating what some see as a climate of xenophobia and intimidation. Senator-for-life Liliana Segre, a nonagenarian Holocaust survivor, told the news agency ANSA that she is “really very worried” about the European election outcome. So far in her term, Meloni has delegated most of the cultural social politics to her ministers, giving her a degree of separation on many hot-button issues. Migration is the exception, as she champions her so-called Mattei Plan to fund projects in African countries along migrant routes in exchange for better controls, while pressing ahead with plans to run asylum reception centers in Albania — winning consensus from von der Leyen, a development she ballyhoos on the campaign trail. “Here we make history. ... This is a referendum," Meloni told a final election rally in Rome's Piazza del Popolo on Saturday. “When it comes to Meloni and the potential impact on EU politics after the European election, [the victory] depends on the numbers and the chemistry that emerge,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an analyst at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. He noted that the kind of social-cultural policies that her government has been most keen to tackle in Italy fall largely under national, not EU, competencies. Meloni’s government barred city administrations from legally registering a nonbiological parent in same-sex couples, effectively limiting their parental rights, and made access to abortion more difficult by allowing anti-abortion activists to enter abortion clinics, which activists say creates an intimidating environment. Her government also has come out against gender theory and is pushing a law through parliament that would ban surrogacy motherhood. Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano is unapologetically vanquishing foreigners and left-leaning appointees from running landmark museums, institutions and opera houses, exhibiting a desire to command the cultural debate in a way that hasn’t been seen in previous ideological shifts between the left and the right. The late Silvio Berlusconi, a three-time conservative premier, never so much as blinked at Italy’s cultural institutions. Under Meloni, the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has downgraded Italy five notches in its annual press freedom index, putting it in the “problematic” category alongside Poland and Hungary. In one recent episode, journalists at RAI state television accused the new government-installed leadership of censoring a planned Liberation Day monologue denouncing fascism. More recently, the editor of the Turin daily La Stampa, Massimo Giannini, said four police agents woke him at his hotel room at 4 a.m. to deliver a defamation complaint for comments critical of the Meloni government made on a television talk show the evening before. Giannini told private TV La7 that such treatment is usually reserved for “drug traffickers, not journalists.” The new Made in Italy Ministry has engaged in grandstanding tactics, like recently impounding dozens of Fiat Topolino microcars emblazoned with the emblem of the Italian flag despite being made in Morocco. Such operations serve a dual purpose, Piccoli said, distracting from Italy’s ongoing structural issues and stagnant economy, while appealing to Brothers of Italy stalwarts. “The beauty of all this in my view is that we are almost halfway through her term, and none of the structural issues in Italy have been addressed," he said, including addressing the right-wing issue of the demographic collapse or reforming pensions. “You just wonder whether they just go for the easier stuff, which helps to mobilize public opinion, rather than addressing the structural problem of this country, including the lack of economic growth.” Some analysts say that Meloni's pragmatic streak brings into question the degree to which she personally believes in the far-right social and cultural agenda. Political analyst Roberto D’Alimonte notes that the growing popularity of the Brothers of Italy is taking on board fickle voters who don’t necessarily have the same ideology, which could give Meloni room to loosen the far-right orthodoxy if she increases her mandate in the next Italian parliamentary vote. “She is a shrewd politician," said D'Alimonte, of Rome's LUISS university. "If she wins the next election, we might see a Meloni who tries to change that, becoming more conservative even on cultural matters, rather than far-right.”

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