U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives in Beijing on Wednesday for a four-day visit to China aimed at repairing ties and expanding opportunities for British businesses in the world's second-largest economy.

He is the first British leader to come to Beijing since Theresa May in 2018. The relationship has deteriorated in recent years over growing concern about Chinese spying and surveillance, China's support for Russia in the Ukraine war and Beijing's crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, the former British colony.

For more than two years, Israelis wore yellow ribbons to remember the hostages abducted during the deadliest day in the country's history. On Tuesday, they finally could remove those ribbons and shut down a haunting clock in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, marking the end of a painful chapter.

The return of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, fulfilled nationwide hopes to return all the hostages, living or dead.

Russian forces have begun pulling out of positions in northeast Syria in an area still controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces after the group lost most of its territory in an offensive by government forces.

Associated Press journalists visited one base next to the Qamishli airport Tuesday and found it guarded by SDF fighters who said the Russians had begun moving their equipment out in recent days.

Refusing to let a tumultuous football game strain diplomatic and economic ties, Morocco and Senegal pledged Monday to give fresh momentum to their relationship and boost trade and investment between the two African nations.

The prime ministers of Morocco and Senegal signed 17 agreements in the Moroccan capital Rabat on increasing investments in sectors like agriculture, infrastructure, fisheries and mining.

Spain will host the final of the 2030 World Cup the president of the Spanish football federation said Monday.

FIFA has not yet said where it plans to stage the decisive match of a tournament that will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. But Rafael Louzán told reporters at a media event that the title match will be in Spain, although he did not specify in which city or venue it would be played.

Coco Gauff smashed her racket into the concrete floor once for every time she dropped serve, and another one for good measure, after her Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Elina Svitolina on Tuesday.

The third-seeded Gauff, a two-time major winner, struggled with her serve and recorded five double-faults in the first set, when she was broken four times.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad.

Blatter was the latest international football figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.

Palestinians are eagerly awaiting the reopening of the Rafah border crossing, which is Gaza's lifeline and only gateway to the outside world that wasn't controlled by Israel before the war.

The opening is expected after Israel on Monday announced that the remains of the final hostage in Gaza, Ran Gvili, had been recovered. Hours earlier, Israel had said it would open the Rafah crossing with limitations once the search operation for Gvili was complete.

Fighting this month between Syria's government and Kurdish-led forces left civilians on either side of the frontline fearing for their future or harboring resentment as the country's new leaders push forward with transition after years of civil war.

The fighting ended with government forces capturing most of the territory previously held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the country's northeast, and a fragile ceasefire is holding. SDF fighters will be absorbed into Syria's army and police, ending months of disputes.

As the new robot called Sprout walks around a Manhattan office, nodding its rectangular head, lifting its windshield wiper-like "eyebrows" and offering to shake your hand with its grippers, it looks nothing like the sleek and intimidating humanoids built by companies like Tesla.

Sprout's charm is the point. A 5-year-old child could comfortably talk at eye level with this humanoid, which stands 3.5 feet (1 meter) tall and wears a soft, padded exterior of sage-green foam.