SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to wear an ankle monitor, authorities said on Friday, in a move he described as “a supreme humiliation.”

The development came as federal police conducted searches at his home and his party’s headquarters in Brasília, in compliance with a Supreme Court order.

The order prohibits Bolsonaro to leave the house at night, communicate with foreign ambassadors and diplomats or approach embassies. The former president is also barred from using social media or contacting other individuals under investigation by the Supreme Court, including his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian lawmaker who currently lives in the United States and is known for his close ties to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro is currently on trial at the Supreme Court accused of leading an alleged attempt to stage a coup to overturn the 2022 election in which he was defeated by left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

“It is a supreme humiliation,” Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia after putting on the ankle monitoring. “I never thought about leaving Brazil, I never thought about going to an embassy, but the precautionary measures are because of that.”

On Thursday, Trump wrote to Bolsonaro describing his ally’s treatment by the Brazilian legal system as terrible and unjust. “This trial should end immediately!,” the U.S. President said, adding that he “strongly voiced” his disapproval through his tariff policy.

The Supreme Court’s restrictions on Bolsonaro are part of a second investigation against Eduardo for allegedly working with U.S. authorities to impose sanctions against Brazilian officials.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is also the rapporteur of the case, said that the former president and his son’s recent actions were “blatant confessions of criminal conduct,” such as coercion during legal proceedings, obstruction of investigations and attacks on national sovereignty.

“Alexandre de Moraes doubled down,” Eduardo said on X, mentioning the order to the Supreme Court justice ahead of the criminal cases against his father. His elder brother, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, said on X: “Prohibiting a father from speaking to his own son is the greatest symbol of the hatred that has consumed Alexandre de Moraes.”

Live aerial footage from local broadcasters showed federal police vehicles outside Bolsonaro’s residence in Brasília.

Congressman Sóstenes Cavalcante, the leader of Bolsonaro’s party in the lower house, told The Associated Press that officers also searched Bolsonaro’s office at the party’s headquarters. He described the operation as “another chapter in the persecution of conservatives and right-wing figures” in Brazil.

A lawyer for Bolsonaro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday, Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet said in a report to the Supreme Court that the “evidence is clear: the defendant acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite insurrection and the destabilization of the democratic rule of law.”

Bolsonaro has described the trial on X as a “witch hunt,” echoing a term used by Trump when he came to his South American ally’s defense last week.

Last week, Trump imposed a 50% import tax on Brazil, directly tying the tariffs to Bolsonaro’s trial. The U.S. president has hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020. Trump compared the Brazilian’s situation to his own. On Tuesday, speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump repeated the claim that the trial is a “witch hunt.”

A source at Brazil’s Supreme Court said some justices have already made it clear among themselves that U.S. tariffs will have no effect on Bolsonaro’s trial, which is expected to resume between August and September. The staffer spoke under condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Mauricio Savarese contributed reporting in Sao Paulo.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

TOKYO (AP) — A Nagasaki cathedral has blessed the final piece to complete its restoration nearly 80 years after being destroyed by the second U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Japan: a reproduction of its lost bell restored by a group of Americans.

The new bell was blessed and named “St. Kateri Bell of Hope,” by Peter Michiaki Nakamura, archbishop of Nagasaki, at the Urakami Cathedral in a ceremony Thursday attended by more than 100 followers and other participants.

The bell is scheduled to be hung inside the cathedral, filling the empty bell tower for the first time, on Aug. 9, the anniversary of the bombing.

The U.S. bomb that was dropped Aug. 9, 1945, fell near the cathedral, killing two priests and 24 followers inside among the more than 70,000 dead in the city. Japan surrendered, ending World War II days later.

The bombing of Nagasaki destroyed the cathedral building and the smaller of its two bells. The building was restored earlier, but without the smaller bell.

The restoration project was led by James Nolan Jr., who was inspired after hearing about the lost bell when he met a local Catholic follower during his 2023 visit to Nagasaki. Nolan lectured about the atomic bombing in the southern city and its history about Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan’s feudal era, to raise funds for the bell restoration.

“I think it’s beautiful and the bell itself is more beautiful than I ever imagined,” Nolan, who was at the blessing ceremony, said after he test-rang the bell. He said he hoped the bell “will be a symbol of unity and that will bear the fruits of fostering hope and peace in a world where there is division and war and hurt.”

Kojiro Moriuchi, the follower who told Nolan about the bell, prayed and gently touched it.

“I’m so gragerul,” he said. “I hope Urakami Cathedral will be a place for peace-loving people from around the world to gather.”

A sociology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, Nolan is the grandson of a doctor who was in the Manhattan Project — the secret effort to build the bombs — and who was on a survey team that visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly after the bombings.

Nolan, based on materials his grandfather left behind, wrote a book “Atomic Doctors,” about the moral dilemma of medical doctors who took part in the Manhattan Project.

LONDON (AP) — There has been a mixed reaction in Britain to the government’s announcement that it will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 before the next national election.

The Labour Party administration says it’s part of a package of changes to strengthen British democracy and help restore trust in politics. The opposition says it’s a power-grab by the left.

Experts say it’s complicated, with mixed evidence about how lowering the voting age affects democracy and election outcomes.

The biggest change since the 1960s

Britain’s voting age last fell in 1969, when the U.K. became one of the first major democracies to lower it from 21 to 18. Many other countries, including the United States, followed suit within a few years.

Now the government says it will lower the threshold to 16 by the time the next general election is held, likely in 2029. That will bring the whole country into line with Scotland and Wales, which have semiautonomous governments and already let 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local and regional elections.

A handful of other countries currently have a voting age of 16, including Austria, Brazil and Ecuador. A few European Union countries, including Belgium, Germany and Malta, allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections to the European Parliament.

The case for votes at 16

Supporters argue that 16-year-olds in Britain can work and pay taxes, so should be allowed to vote.

“If you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

Pro-democracy organizations welcomed the lower age, and a move toward automatic voter registration, saying it would help increase voting rates. Turnout in the 2024 election was 59.7%, the lowest level in more than two decades.

The age change is part of a package of electoral reforms that includes tightening campaign financing rules and broadening the range of documents that can be used as identification at polling stations.

Supporters argue it will increase democratic participation by getting teenagers into the habit of voting at a time when most are still in school.

“Younger people who are in full-time education and often still live at home can make for better, more engaged first-time voters compared with 18- to 20-year-olds, who often experience their first election in a highly transitory phase of their lives,” Christine Huebner, a social scientist at the University of Sheffield who has studied youth voting, wrote in The Guardian.

Critics call it a cynical move

Opponents argue that 16- and 17-year-olds should not be given the vote because in most ways they are not considered adults.

“Why does this government think a 16-year-old can vote but not be allowed to buy a lottery ticket, an alcoholic drink, marry, or go to war, or even stand in the elections they’re voting in?” Conservative lawmaker Paul Holmes asked Thursday in the House of Commons.

Mark Goodwin, a senior lecturer in politics at Coventry University, agreed the move could seem paradoxical, because “socially, if anything, we’re moving in the opposite direction.”

“Increasingly the age of majority, the age at which you become a fully capable and responsible adult, is moving more towards 18,” he said.

The government’s political opponents on the right argue that Labour hopes to benefit from 1.5 million new potential young voters who generally lean to the left.

Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right party Reform UK, said Labour was trying to “rig the system.” Conservative former foreign secretary James Cleverly said the government had cynically announced the change because it is “tanking in the polls.”

Labour can’t take youth votes for granted

Experts say enfranchising 16- and 17-year-olds is unlikely to dramatically change election results, because they are a relatively small group with diverse views. And it’s far from clear that Labour will reap most of the benefits of a bigger youth vote.

U.K. politics, long dominated by Labour and the Conservatives, is becoming increasingly fragmented. Polling suggests younger voters lean left, but they are split among several parties including Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. Farage’s embrace of TikTok has built his brand with youth, and Reform has some support among young men.

Goodwin said that in many parts of the world, “young people are abandoning the center-left in droves.

“And in many cases, they’re lending their support to parties of the populist right, or challenger parties, outsider parties, independents, more alternative parties,” he said.

“If it is a cynical ploy to get more Labour votes, there’s certainly an element of risk about where those votes would ultimately be cast.”

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Asian countries are offering to buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas in negotiations with the Trump administration as a way to alleviate tensions over U.S. trade deficits and forestall higher tariffs. Analysts warn that strategy could undermine those countries’ long-term climate ambitions and energy security.

Buying more U.S. LNG has topped the list of concessions Asian countries have offered in talks with Washington over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign goods. Vietnam’s Prime Minister underlined the need to buy more of the super-chilled fuel in a government meeting, and the government signed a deal in May with an American company to develop a gas import hub. JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, signed new 20-year contracts last month to purchase up to 5.5 million metric tons of U.S. gas annually starting around 2030.

U.S. efforts to sell more LNG to Asia predate the Trump administration, but they’ve gained momentum with his intense push to win trade deals.

Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is natural gas cooled to a liquid form for easy storage and transport that is used as a fuel for transport, residential cooking and heating and industrial processes.

Trump discussed cooperation on a $44 billion Alaska LNG project with South Korea, prompting a visit by officials to the site in June. The U.S. president has promoted the project as a way to supply gas from Alaska’s vast North Slope to a liquefication plant at Nikiski in south-central Alaska, with an eye largely on exports to Asian countries while bypassing the Panama Canal Thailand has offered to commit to a long-term deal for American fuel and shown interest in the same Alaska project to build a nearly 810-mile pipeline that would funnel gas from

The Philippines is also considering importing gas from Alaska while India is mulling a plan to scrap import taxes on U.S. energy shipments to help narrow its trade surplus with Washington.

“Trump has put pressure on a seeming plethora of Asian trading partners to buy more U.S. LNG,” said Tim Daiss, at the APAC Energy Consultancy, pointing out that Japan had agreed to buy more despite being so “awash in the fuel” that it was being forced to cancel projects and contracts to offload the excess to Asia’s growing economies.

“Not good for Southeast Asia’s sustainability goals,” he said.

LNG deals could derail renewable ambitions

Experts say LNG purchasing agreements can slow adoption of renewable energy in Asia.

Locking into long-term deals could leave countries with outdated infrastructure as the world shifts rapidly toward cleaner energy sources like solar or wind that offer faster, more affordable ways to meet growing power demand, said Indra Overland, head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.

Building pipelines, terminals, and even household gas stoves creates systems that are expensive and difficult to replace—making it harder to switch to renewables later. “And you’re more likely then to get stuck for longer,” he said.

Energy companies that profit from gas or coal are powerful vested interests, swaying policy to favor their business models, he said.

LNG burns cleaner than coal, but it’s still a fossil fuel that emits greenhouse gases and contributes to climate change.

Many LNG contracts include “take-or-pay” clauses, obliging governments to pay even if they don’t use the fuel. Christopher Doleman of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis warns that if renewable energy grows fast, reducing the need for LNG, countries may still have to pay for gas they no longer need.

Pakistan is an example. Soaring LNG costs drove up electricity prices, pushing consumers to install rooftop solar panels. As demand for power drops and gas supply surges, the country is deferring LNG shipments and trying to resell excess fuel.

The LNG math doesn’t add up

Experts said that although countries are signaling a willingness to import more U.S. LNG, they’re unlikely to import enough to have a meaningful impact on U.S. trade deficits.

South Korea would need to import 121 million metric tons of LNG in a year — 50% more than the total amount of LNG the U.S. exported globally last year and triple what South Korea imported, said Doleman. Vietnam — with a trade surplus with the U.S. twice the size of Korea’s — would need to import 181 million metric tons annually, more than double what the U.S. exported last year.

Other obstacles stand in the way. The Alaska LNG project is widely considered uneconomic. Both coal and renewable energy in Asia are so much cheaper that U.S. gas would need to cost less than half its current price to compete. Tariffs on Chinese steel could make building building gas pipelines and LNG terminals more expensive, while longstanding delays to build new gas turbines mean new gas power projects may not come online until 2032. Meanwhile, a global glut in LNG will likely drive prices lower, making it even harder for countries to justify locking into long-term deals with the United States at current higher prices.

LNG deals raise energy security concerns

Committing to long-term U.S. LNG contracts could impact regional energy security at a time of growing geopolitical and market uncertainties, analysts said.

A core concern is over the long-term stability of the U.S. as a trading partner, said Overland. “The U.S. is not a very predictable entity. And to rely on energy from there is a very risky proposition,” he said.

LNG only contributes to energy security when it’s available and affordable, says Dario Kenner of Zero Carbon Analytics.

“That’s the bit that they leave out … But it’s pretty important,” he said.

This was the concern during the recent potential disruptions to fuel shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and earlier during the war in Ukraine, when LNG cargoes originally destined for Asia were rerouted to Europe. Despite having contracts, Asian countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were outbid by European buyers.

“Events in Europe, which can seem very far away, can have an impact on availability and prices in Asia,” Kenner said.

Asian countries can improve their energy security and make progress toward cutting carbon emissions by building more renewable energy, he said, noting there is vast room for that given that only about 1% of Southeast Asia’s solar and wind potential is being used.

“There are genuine choices to meet rising electricity demand. It is not just having to build LNG,” he said.

Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receive support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and Britain on Friday ramped up pressure on Russia over its war on Ukraine, targeting Moscow’s energy sector, shadow fleet of aging oil tankers and military intelligence service with new sanctions.

“The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after the bloc agreed its new measures, including a new oil price cap.

Kallas said it’s “one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date” linked to the war, now in its fourth year. It comes as European countries start to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine to help the country better defend itself.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the new measures, describing them as a “timely and necessary” step amid intensified Russian attacks.

“All infrastructure of Russia’s war must be blocked,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine will synchronize its sanctions with the EU and introduce its own additional measures soon.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off the EU move, saying that “we consider such unilateral restrictions unlawful.”

“At the same time, we have acquired certain immunity from sanctions. We have adapted to living under sanctions,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “We will need to analyze the new package in order to minimize negative consequences from it.”

The U.K. has Russia’s spies in its sights

The U.K., meanwhile, imposed sanctions on units of Russia’s military intelligence service, GRU. Also added to the list were 18 officers the U.K. said helped to plan a bomb attack on a theatre in southern Ukraine in 2022 and to target the family of a former Russian spy who was later poisoned with a nerve agent.

Hundreds of civilians sheltering in the theatre in Mariupol were killed in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.

“GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilize Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

NATO also condemned Russia’s cyberattacks, saying in a statement that “we will respond to these at a time and in a manner of our choosing, in accordance with international law, and in coordination with our international partners including the EU.”

Targeting Russian energy interests

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, had proposed to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45, which is lower than the market price, to target Russia’s vast energy revenues. The 27 member countries decided to set the price per barrel at just under $48.

The EU had hoped to get major international powers in the Group of Seven countries involved in the price cap to broaden the impact, but the Trump administration could not be brought onboard.

Oil income is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse.

A new import ban was also imposed in an attempt to close a loophole allowing Russia to indirectly export crude oil via a number of non-EU countries.

The EU also targeted the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany to prevent Putin from generating any revenue from them in future, notably by discouraging would-be investors. Russian energy giant Rosneft’s refinery in India was hit as well.

The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation.

On top of that, the new EU sanctions targeted Russia’s banking sector, with the aim of limiting the Kremlin’s ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. Two Chinese banks were added to the list.

Agreeing sanctions is getting harder

The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 24, 2022.

More than 2,400 officials and “entities” — often government agencies, banks, companies or organizations — have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans.

But each round of sanctions is getting harder to agree, as measures targeting Russia bite the economies of the 27 member nations. Slovakia held up the latest package over concerns about proposals to stop Russian gas supplies, which it relies on.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had spoken to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico “almost daily” in recent days to convince him to change his mind. “But it took a very long time again — the processes are too sluggish,” he told reporters in Berlin.

The last raft of EU sanctions, imposed on May 20, targeted almost 200 ships in Russia’s sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers. On Friday, 105 more ships were blocked from European ports, locks and from ship-to-ship transfers, bringing the total number of vessels now sanctioned to more than 400.

Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Top church leaders visited Gaza on Friday after its only Catholic church was struck by an Israeli shell the day before, an attack that killed three people and wounded 10, including a priest who had developed a close friendship with the late Pope Francis.

The strike drew condemnation from the pope and U.S. President Donald Trump, and prompted statements of regret from Israel, which said it was an accident. Since ending a ceasefire in March, Israel has regularly launched far deadlier strikes across Gaza against what it says are Hamas combatants, frequently killing women and children. Strikes killed 18 people overnight, health officials said Friday. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Pope Leo XVI meanwhile renewed his call for negotiations to bring an end to the 21-month war in a phone call Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who offered condolences to the victims.

Church leaders organize aid, evacuations

The religious delegation to Gaza included two Patriarchs from Jerusalem — Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III. The rare visit aimed to express the “shared pastoral solicitude of the Churches of the Holy Land,” a statement said.

Israel has heavily restricted access to Gaza since the start of the war, though church leaders have entered on previous occasions, usually to mark major holidays.

They visited the Holy Family Catholic Church, whose compound was damaged in the shelling. They were also organizing convoys carrying hundreds of tons of food, medical supplies and other equipment to the territory — which experts say has been pushed to the brink of famine by Israel’s war and military offensive — and the evacuation of those wounded in the church strike.

In his call with Netanyahu, Pope Leo XVI “expressed again his concern over the dramatic humanitarian situation for the population in Gaza, with children, the elderly and the sick paying the most heartbreaking price,” the Vatican said in a statement.

Netanyahu “expressed Israel’s regret for the tragic incident in which stray ammunition accidentally struck The Holy Family Church in Gaza,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. The Israeli military has said it is investigating the incident.

In an earlier statement, the pope had “repeated his intentions to do everything possible to stop the useless slaughter of innocent people,” and condemned “the unjustifiable attack” on the church.

The Vatican said the pope had also received an update on the condition of Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, the resident priest at the church, who was lightly wounded. The priest had regularly spoken by phone with Pope Francis, who died in April, telling the pontiff about the struggles faced by civilians in Gaza.

‘We are unable to get them out, even in small pieces’

Israel has repeatedly struck schools, shelters, hospitals and other civilian buildings, accusing Hamas fighters of sheltering inside and blaming them for civilian deaths. Palestinians say nowhere has felt safe since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Israeli strikes killed at least 18 Palestinians overnight and into Friday, including a strike on a home in the southern city of Khan Younis that killed four members of the same family, according to morgue records at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

Associated Press footage of the aftermath of the strike showed people digging through the rubble in search of remains.

“They are still under the rubble,” said Belal Abu Sahloul, a relative of those killed. “Until now we are unable to get them out, even in small pieces.”

At the hospital, a mother could be seen holding the hand of her daughter, who had been killed in one of the other strikes and placed in a body bag. Nearly 18,000 Palestinian children have been killed since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Israel’s military said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities” and that it takes “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”

Three more killed seeking aid, according to health officials

Nasser Hospital said another three people were killed while heading toward an aid site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor. A spokesperson for the foundation said there was no violence at its sites overnight and that crowds were “docile.”

Since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. GHF’s four sites are all in military-controlled zones, and the Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds. There was no comment from the military on the latest deaths.

Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.

Frankel reported from Tel Aviv, Israel, and Khaled from Cairo. AP Correspondent Colleen Barry reported from Vatican City.

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s state security agency says it is cracking down on alleged smuggling of rare earths minerals that it says threaten national security, just weeks after Beijing and Washington agreed to make it easier for American firms to obtain from China those materials, which are critical for manufacturing and computer chip production.

In a report published Friday in the state-run newspaper Global Times, the Ministry of State Security said foreign “espionage and intelligence agencies” were colluding to steal rare earths-related goods by repackaging and relabeling rare metals to hide their Chinese origin.

In some cases the minerals were falsely declared as non-controlled items, mislabeled as such things as “solder paste,” mixed into other materials like ceramic tiles, or hidden in plastic mannequins or bottled water, it said.

It referred only to an unnamed “certain country” that it said lacked the capacity to make and refine its own rare earths.

Investigations had found Chinese criminals were involved, exploiting shipping and delivery channels to evade controls on exports of the materials used in many high-tech applications including electric vehicle batteries, it said.

The crackdown followed a report by Reuters earlier this month detailing how rare earths were being transshipped to the U.S. via Thailand and Mexico.

China is the main source for many strategically vital rare earths and it has moved to slow exports of such minerals in retaliation for steep import duties President Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese goods since he returned to the White House and launched his crusade to overturn a global trading system he says is unfair to the United States and its workers.

That followed an earlier series of restrictions by Beijing on exports of such materials as gallium, germanium, antimony and tungsten in response to trade friction with the administration of then-President Joe Biden.

In April, Beijing imposed permitting requirements on seven rare earth elements, under a Chinese law that applies to all exports, not just those bound for the U.S. market.

With the permitting process taking 45 days, the new requirement caused a pause in shipments, threatening to disrupt production of cars, robots, wind turbines and other high-tech products in the U.S. and around the world. The U.S., meanwhile, added to restrictions on exports of advanced technologies to China.

Rare earths have remained at the center of China-U.S. talks aimed at staving off huge tariff increases that were postponed in May to allow time for negotiations on a broader trade agreement. The deadline for reaching a deal is Aug. 12.

An agreement announced in late June did not remove China’s permitting requirement on rare earths, but Beijing agreed to flexibility in dialing up or down the approval process as needed.

Computer chips are another key bone of contention.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry said Friday that it had taken note of a decision by the Trump administration to lift restrictions on exports of key semiconductors used in artificial intelligence made by Nvidia and its rival Advanced Micro Devices.

In April, the Trump administration announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China — as well as MI308 chips from AMD.

But Commerce Ministry spokesman Wang Wentao said restoring healthy trade ties will require more action by Washington.

U.S. export controls on Ascend chips made by Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies have hurt the interests of Chinese companies, Wang told reporters in Beijing.

“We hope that the United States and China will meet each other halfway and correct their wrong practices through equal consultation, create a good environment for mutually beneficial cooperation between enterprises of both sides, and jointly maintain the stability of the global semiconductor production and supply chain,” he said.

LONDON (AP) — Britain will lower the voting age from 18 to 16 by the next national election as part of measures to increase democratic participation, the government announced Thursday.

The center-left Labour Party pledged before it was elected in July 2024 to lower the voting age for elections to Britain’s Parliament. Scotland and Wales already let 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local and regional elections.

Britain will join the short list of countries where the voting age is 16, alongside the likes of Austria, Brazil and Ecuador. A handful of European Union countries, including Belgium, Germany and Malta, allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections to the European Parliament.

The move comes alongside wider reforms that include tightening campaign financing rules to stop shell companies with murky ownership from donating to political parties. Democracy Minister Rushanara Ali said the change would strengthen safeguards against foreign interference in British politics.

There will also be tougher sentences for people convicted of intimidating candidates.

Additionally, the government said it will introduce automatic voter registration and allow voters to use bank cards as a form of identification at polling stations.

The previous Conservative government introduced a requirement for voters to show photo identification in 2022, a measure it said would combat fraud. Critics argued it could disenfranchise millions of voters, particularly the young, the poor and members of ethnic minorities.

Elections watchdog the Electoral Commission estimates that about 750,000 people did not vote in last year’s election because they lacked ID.

Turnout in the 2024 election was 59.7%, the lowest level in more than two decades.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, head of left-leaning think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said the changes were “the biggest reform to our electoral system since 1969,” when the voting age was lowered to 18 from 21.

The changes must be approved by Parliament. The next national election must be held by 2029.

“For too long, public trust in our democracy has been damaged and faith in our institutions has been allowed to decline,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said. “We are taking action to break down barriers to participation that will ensure more people have the opportunity to engage in U.K. democracy.”

Stuart Fox, a politics lecturer at the University of Exeter who has studied youth voting, said it’s “far from clear” whether lowering the voting age actually increases youth engagement.

“It is right to help young people be heard,” he said. “But there are other measures which are more effective at getting young people to vote — particularly those from the poorest backgrounds who are by far the least likely to vote — such as beefing up the citizenship curriculum or expanding the provision of volunteering programs in schools.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fresh off securing a plan to receive more U.S. weaponry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed a new prime minister – the key negotiator of his country’s deal with the U.S. to partner on the development of minerals.

By naming Yulia Svyrydenko, the former economy minister, to become the country’s first new head of government since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Zelenskyy on Thursday elevated a loyal politician who has experience in diplomacy with the U.S. and other Western nations.

In addition to negotiating the mineral agreement — seen as an important way of tying U.S. interests to Ukraine’s security — the 39-year-old Svyrydenko has represented her country in a wide range of high-level talks with Western partners, including on issues of defense and economic recovery and reconstruction. In 2022, she negotiated with other countries to impose sanctions on Russia.

The outgoing prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, will become defense minister at a time when Ukraine is looking to ramp up domestic weapons production, and as President Donald Trump seeks to bring an end to the war.

“War leaves no room for delay,” Svyrydenko said on X after the parliament voted to approve her promotion. “We must act swiftly and decisively. Our priorities for the first six months are clear: reliable supply for the army, expansion of domestic weapons production, and boosting the technological strength of our defense forces.”

Svyrydenko and Shmyhal are among a wider group of officials taking on new leadership roles as Zelenskyy aims to reenergize a war-weary nation. But to Ukrainians, the reshuffling of the Cabinet is not seen as a major shift in direction for Zelenskyy, who will still be mostly relying on the same experienced officials, as opposed to introducing new faces to his leadership team.

Earlier this week, Trump endorsed a plan to have European allies buy billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment – including air-defense systems — that can be transferred to Ukraine, which has come under intense Russian attacks.

“We all want peace as soon as possible,” Zelenskyy said Thursday in a speech to Ukraine’s parliament. “At the same time, we all see how difficult it is to maintain sufficient global support, and how many other wars and crises are flaring up around the world, truly scattering global efforts. Therefore, Ukraine needs more of its own strength.”

In announcing the weapons plan on Monday, Trump also made an ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising to impose stiff tariffs on countries that purchase its oil if he doesn’t agree to a ceasefire within 50 days.

Shmyhal, who announced his resignation as prime minister on Tuesday, was the longest-serving head of government in Ukraine’s history, serving since March 2020.

Shmyhal will replace Rustem Umerov as defense minster. Although Umerov sought to push reforms, critics said the ministry under his command was plagued by mismanagement.

Also on Thursday, Zelenskyy nominated Olga Stefanishyna to become Ukraine’s next ambassador to the United States. In the meantime, he appointed Stefanishyna, previously the minister for European integration, as the special representative for the development of cooperation with the United States.

Ties between Ukraine and the U.S. have been uneasy since Trump returned to the White House in January, and Zelenskyy had previously said he intended to replace Oksana Markarova as Ukrainian ambassador in the U.S.

One person was killed when their car was buried by soil and concrete after a retaining wall of an overpass collapsed in Osan, just south of Seoul, during heavy rain on Wednesday, the Interior and Safety Ministry said.

Three other people were separately found dead Thursday in a submerged car, a stream, and a flooded basement in southern regions. Ministry officials said they were still investigating whether those deaths were directly caused by heavy rain.

The heavy rain has forced the evacuation of 1,382 people from their homes, the ministry said in a statement, adding 46 flights have been cancelled.

Parts of southern South Chungcheong province have received up to 16.5 inches of rain since Wednesday, according to the ministry.