By KATIE MARIE DAVIES

Gas stations have run dry in some regions of Russia after Ukrainian drones struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks, with motorists waiting in long lines and officials resorting to rationing or cutting off sales altogether.

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Wholesale prices on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange for A-95 gas — the highest octane — spiked to record highs last week, soaring to about 50% higher than in January, as demand soared from farmers seeking to bring in the harvest and Russians hitting the roads for their last big vacation of the summer.

Russian media outlets reported fuel shortages are hitting consumers in several regions in the Far East and on the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014.

Media outlets in the Primorye region, which borders North Korea, reported long lines and prices of about 78 rubles per liter (approximately $3.58 per gallon) at gas stations in the area, where the average monthly wage is about $1,200. Journalists at local news outlet Primpress found other drivers trying to sell gas online for as much as 220 rubles per liter (about $10.12 per gallon).

In the Kurilsky district of the Kuril Islands north of Japan, shortages of lower octane A-92 gas forced officials to halt public sales outright Monday. In Crimea, a popular resort area, some companies sold fuel only to holders of coupons or special cards.

Normal price increases are aggravated this year

Russia is no stranger to gasoline price increases at the end of summer. But this year’s shortages have been aggravated by Ukraine’s attacks on oil refineries in the 3 1/2-year-old war. Larger, more concentrated attacks are causing more damage and hampering production, all timed to coincide with peak demand.

Ukraine has targeted energy infrastructure before, but the recent strikes have been more successful, with more drones targeting a more concentrated group of facilities.

“The Ukrainians are attacking an arc of refineries, starting from Ryazan, which is south of Moscow, all the way to Volgograd. That region is where people are driving through on their way to (resorts on) the Black Sea. That’s the region where most of the harvest operations are going on. And that’s also a rather densely populated region,” Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told The Associated Press.

Between Aug. 2 and Aug. 24, Ukraine attacked oil infrastructure at least 12 times, according to media reports. Of those attacks, at least 10 were targeting sites in the Ryazan-Volgograd arc in southwestern Russia.

These attacks have damaged many oil refineries but have not destroyed them outright, Vakulenko said, adding that most of the facilities are extremely resilient against fires.

But they can slow refinery activity, as shown by a fall in the intake of crude oil to be turned into diesel, gasoline or other products by roughly 200,000 to 250,000 barrels per day, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.

“That’s just enough to make their gasoline industry feel some pain, especially during the high consumption months in the summer,” he told AP. Gasoline production fell 8.6% in the first 19 days of August, compared with a year earlier, and diesel production was down 10.3%.

Other war-related issues have caused even more consumer pain. Ukrainian drone strikes repeatedly have disrupted Russian transportation networks, particularly air traffic, causing more people to travel by car and increasing demand for gas, Vakulenko said.

Inflation also has made it less profitable for suppliers who normally buy gasoline early in the year for sale in the higher-priced summer months, and many entrepreneurs simply decided not to bother this year, he said.

Individually, none of these problems caused lasting or widespread disruption in Russia. But together, they have transformed an expected annual price fluctuation into a problem for the government.

To try to ease the shortage, Russia on July 28 paused gasoline exports, with the Energy Ministry hoping to continue restrictions into September. Oil company managers have been summoned to government meetings twice this month to discuss the shortages, Russian media reported.

Moscow is largely spared from shortages

While officials appear to be concerned, the gasoline shortfall “isn’t system critical,” Peach said.

So far, the shortage remains confined to certain areas — the Far East and Crimea — because these regions usually are supplied by fewer refineries and present greater transportation demands.

Cars are parked at a gas station in Vladivostok, Russia, on Aug. 25, 2025. (AP Photo)

Moscow has been spared the latest gasoline price spike because it is well-supplied from major refineries in Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod, cities a few hours’ drive away. The capital also has a refinery in the city itself.

Yet Russia is not at immediate risk of grinding to a halt — even in more vulnerable regions, experts say. Although private drivers may feel some pain at the gas pump, most buses and trucks run on diesel, for which Russia has a surplus. The military, which largely uses diesel fuel, also is insulated from any shocks.

Vakulenko wrote in a recent commentary that annual diesel production is “more than double than what is needed.”

That doesn’t mean the situation still couldn’t deteriorate. Refineries that make gasoline for Russia’s domestic market also make diesel and other products for export — a vital source of income amid heavy Western sanctions.

Industry observers say Ukraine’s drones target key refinery equipment, including the distillation column that separates incoming crude oil into other products, including gasoline, diesel, fuel for ships and asphalt. If damaged, it must be repaired or replaced for the refinery to function. Repairs could be difficult if foreign parts are needed.

The gasoline crisis is expected to ease by late September as demand subsides and the annual summer maintenance for many refineries is finished.

Still, the crisis highlights a vulnerability on the home front that has the potential to be exploited further as drone warfare evolves.

David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report.

By KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A 52-year-old woman who was adopted to a French family in 1984 without her biological parents’ consent has filed for compensation from South Korea’s government, citing how authorities at the time fraudulently documented her as an orphan although she had a family.

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The rare petition filed by Yooree Kim came months after South Korea’s truth commission recognized her and 55 other adoptees as victims of human rights violations, including falsified child origins, lost records and child protection failures.

Her case was highlighted last year in an Associated Press investigation in collaboration with FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation found that South Korea’s government, Western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem for decades to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas through questionable or downright unscrupulous means.

Their stories have triggered a reckoning that has shaken the international adoption industry, which took root in South Korea before spreading worldwide. Under pressure from adoptees, the Seoul government launched a fact-finding investigation, and hundreds submitted their cases for review.

Choi Jung Kyu, Kim’s lawyer, said her administrative claim, filed under a little-used provision of the state compensation act, would be groundbreaking if successful. He said it could set a precedent for others to seek compensation without enduring long, difficult lawsuits against the state that seldom succeed.

Whatever the outcome, it is being watched as a gauge of how the government assesses its responsibility for the dubious practices which marred South Korea’s adoption program, one which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s.

The government faces calls to take responsibility

The government has never acknowledged direct responsibility for past adoption practices and has yet to act on recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

After a nearly three-year investigation, the commission concluded in March that the state bears responsibility for facilitating an adoption program rife with fraud and abuse, driven by efforts to reduce welfare costs. It urged the government to issue an apology and develop plans to address adoptees’ grievances.

The Justice Ministry technically has four weeks to decide on Kim’s request, but nothing requires it to meet that deadline. Her petition, filed on Aug. 21, does not specify an amount, leaving it to the government to propose an appropriate sum. She also reserves the right to potentially pursue a civil lawsuit against the state, Choi said.

FILE – Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chairperson Park Sun Young, right, comforts adoptee Yooree Kim during a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

“How can we ever even start to quantify the damages she endured?” Choi said.

Kim told the AP on Wednesday that her adoption, recognized by the commission as illegal, amounted to “kidnapping and forced disappearance.” South Korea committed the “biggest part of the crime,” she said, because it endorsed “proxy” adoptions to Western parents who never visited South Korea.

It was, she said, “a child sale sponsored by the state.”

Excruciating memories

Kim was 11 when she and her younger brother were sent by Holt Children’s Services, a Korean adoption agency, to a couple in France.

Following a divorce, Kim’s impoverished mother placed the children in an orphanage so at least they could eat, a common practice at the time. She says she never consented to their adoption and only discovered it after returning to the orphanage to find them gone. Kim’s father also said he never knew his children were being put up for adoption and never gave his consent.

Kim recalls being physically, verbally, and sexually abused in her adoptive home, allegations her parents denied. A judge dismissed a complaint she filed against her adoptive father for insufficient evidence.

FILE – Yooree Kim, right, who was 11 when she was adopted from South Korea to a couple in France, hugs her biological mother, who had come to visit her in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Kim first returned to South Korea in 1994 but for years resented her birth parents, believing they were in denial about giving up their children. That changed in 2022 when she confirmed through residential records that she and her brother were still registered under their father and had never been relinquished, a discovery that drove her to seek accountability from governments and adoption agencies in South Korea and France.

Kim’s adoption paperwork contains conflicting stories of how she and her brother were made eligible for adoption.

One said they were relinquished by their paternal great-aunt, whom Kim never recalls meeting. Another document says Kim’s mother agreed to the adoption. A third says the siblings were found “roaming” the streets and were “emotionally hardened” by the experience.

The discrepancies constructed a false chain of guardianship that enabled the adoptions, with the orphanage transferring parental rights it never rightfully possessed to Holt, which then placed the siblings with the French adopters.

Kim’s adoption was clearly unlawful, given the lack of consent from her parents who were easily identifiable, Choi said. None of Kim’s records indicate any effort to contact her parents. Kim’s petition also cites screening failures related to her adoptive parents. Her adoptive father was 50 when he received the siblings, above the age limit of 45 set at the time by South Korean authorities.

Holt has not responded to repeated requests to comment on Kim’s case.

Difficult legal battles

The truth commission confirmed human rights violations in 56 of 367 complaints filed by adoptees before halting its investigation in April, weeks before its investigation deadline. The fate of the remaining 311 cases, either deferred or incompletely reviewed, now hinges on whether lawmakers establish a new truth commission through legislation.

There were clear limitations to the commission’s report, which didn’t thoroughly examine the profit structures of adoption agencies, their links to child sources like hospitals, or receiving countries’ practices. Only 45 of the complaints were from adoptees from the United States, leaving the biggest recipient of Korean children underrepresented.

Some adoptees hope to use the commission’s findings to file lawsuits against their agencies or the Korean government. But others, including Kim, have called for the government to offer specific plans for reparations without forcing adoptees to go to court.

Choi, who represents multiple plaintiffs suing the government over human rights abuses linked to Seoul’s past dictatorships, said they often struggle with prolonged legal battles as the government frequently dismisses truth commission findings as inconclusive or cites expired statutes of limitations.

Even a modest payout from Kim’s petition would carry symbolic weight, acknowledging government responsibility and potentially strengthening future legal claims, he said.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Police in Istanbul have seized jewels and antiques worth an estimated $30 million from businesses in the city’s historic Grand Bazaar during an investigation into smuggled diamonds, Turkish media reported Wednesday.

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The operation was launched after 10 suspects were initially detained for smuggling gems into Turkey, broadcaster CNN Turk and other outlets reported.

Acting on orders from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, police raided 23 businesses in the 15th-century covered marketplace, arresting a further 40 people.

Police confiscated some 135 pieces of jewelry, 1,132 ingots of precious metals and 267 historical artifacts with a value of 1.25 billion Turkish liras ($30.5 million), according to reports. Firearms and digital material were also seized.

The Grand Bazaar is one of the world’s most visited tourist sites and hosts thousands of small shops. It was established by Sultan Mehmet II shortly after he conquered the city from the Byzantine Empire.

Frequently described by tour guides as the world’s first shopping mall, the Grand Bazaar is no stranger to the attentions of law enforcement. In April, investigators raided a company dealing in foreign currency and precious metals over money-laundering claims.

A shooter opened fire Wednesday morning during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, killing two children and injuring 17 other people before killing himself, officials said.

The shooting happened during Mass at Annunciation Catholic School. Monday had been the first day of classes.

Of the 17 injured, police said 14 were children. Two of those children were in critical condition.

The shooting comes as school years are starting across the U.S., and some universities have dealt with false alarms about school shootings. At least a dozen college campuses faced hoax active shooter calls — some featuring gunshots sounding in the background.

Here are some of the things to know about the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School.

What do we know about the victims?

The two children who were killed were 8 and 10 years old, officials said. Authorities have not released the identities of the victims, but said the children who were killed were fatally shot while they were in the church pews celebrating a Mass. It is unclear how many people were inside the church at the time.

What do we know about the shooter?

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the shooter — armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol — approached the side of the church and shot through the windows toward the children inside before killing himself in the parking lot.

He said the shooter was in his early 20s, did not have an extensive known criminal history and acted alone. He did not release more details.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press authorities have identified the shooter as Robin Westman. That official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

What do we know about the school?

Founded in 1923, the school had 391 students enrolled for the 2023-24 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Each grade level has two classes, with about 20 students in each class.

It’s located in the city’s Windom neighborhood, about 5 miles south of downtown Minneapolis.

The school’s website says teachers “focus on Christian values and civic-mindedness.”

President Trump’s comments

President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that he was briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the White House would continue to monitor the situation.

“The FBI quickly responded and they are on the scene,” Trump said in a statement on social media.

“The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!”

A nearby shooting

A shooter killed one person and injured six others nearby Cristo Rey Jesuit High School on Tuesday afternoon, in what authorities believe was a targeted shooting.

Annunciation Catholic School is about 4 miles south of Cristo Rey, and officials do not believe the shootings are linked.

The police chief said Tuesday that a group of adults hanging out near the school were shot, and least one of them was targeted. There was no mention of anyone from the school being involved in the shooting.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington has contributed to this report.

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