CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A 2-year-old girl arrived Wednesday in Caracas to reunite with her mother after she was separated from her parents when they were deported from the U.S. in what Venezuela denounced as a kidnapping.

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Maikelys Espinoza arrived at an airport outside the capital, Caracas, along with more than 220 deported migrants. Footage aired by state television showed Venezuela’s first lady Cilia Flores carrying Maikelys at the airport. Later, Flores was shown handing the girl over to her mother, who had been waiting for her arrival at the presidential palace along with President Nicolás Maduro.

“Here is everyone’s beloved little girl. She is the daughter and granddaughter of all of us,” Maduro said.

The U.S. government had claimed the family separation last month was justified because the girl’s parents allegedly have ties to the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua gang, which U.S. President Donald Trump designated a terrorist organization earlier this year.

The girl’s mother was deported to Venezuela on April 25. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities sent her father to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March under Trump’s invocation of an 18th-century wartime law to deport hundreds of immigrants.

For years, the government of Maduro had mostly refused the entry of immigrants deported from the U.S. But since Trump took office this year, hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including some 180 who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been deported to their home country.

The Trump administration has said the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo and El Salvador are members of the Tren de Aragua, but has offered little evidence to back up the allegation.

Maduro on Wednesday thanked Trump and his envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, for allowing Maikelys to reunite with her mother in a “profoundly humane” act. Grenell met with Maduro in Caracas shortly after Trump took office.

“There have been and will be differences, but it is possible, with God’s blessing, to move forward and resolve many issues,” Maduro said, alluding to the deep divisions between his and Trump’s governments. “I hope and aspire that very soon we can also rescue Maikelys’ father and the 253 Venezuelans who are in El Salvador.”

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

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV vowed to take “every effort” Wednesday to work for peace in the Middle East and Ukraine and to actively promote the spirituality and traditions of the eastern rite churches, those Catholic communities with origins in the Mideast and eastern Europe that have been decimated by years of conflict and persecution.

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“The church needs you!” Leo told a Holy Year audience of eastern rite pilgrims.

Eastern-rite Catholics accept the authority of the pope but have many of their own rituals and liturgy. They include the Coptic, Chaldean, Maronite and Eritrean Catholic churches, as well as the Syro-Malabar church in India and Greek Catholic communities that are found across Eastern Europe and the Americas. Unlike Orthodox Christians, these Catholic churches fully recognize papal authority.

In his remarks, Leo acknowledged that many eastern rite Catholics have been forced to flee their homelands because of “war and persecution, instability and poverty.” It was a reference to the exodus of Christians from the Middle East, Iraq and Syria especially, where entire communities have been displaced by years of Islamic extremist violence. Many of these communities in northern Iraq were some of the oldest of the faith, where the dialects of Aramaic — the language of Jesus — are still spoken.

Leo vowed to work for peace in those regions, citing in particular the Middle East and Ukraine, and said the Holy See was ready to “help bring enemies together, face to face.”

“Who better than you can sing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence?” he said. “From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see!”

In one of his first acts as pope, Leo spoke by telephone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who invited him to Ukraine and thanked him for his support. Leo has in the past called Russia’s war in Ukraine “an imperialist invasion in which Russia wants to conquer territory for reasons of power given Ukraine’s strategic location.”

The Vatican under Francis was largely sidelined in any peace efforts, though the Holy See did work on prisoner exchanges and to reunite Ukrainian children who were taken to Russian territory back with their families.

Zelenskyy, who met with President Donald Trump in St. Peter’s Basilica on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral, is expected in Rome for Leo’s formal installation Mass on Sunday.

Leo praised those Christians who are working at reconciliation even in regions where they are persecuted minorities, and urged them to continue.

“I thank God for those Christians — Eastern and Latin alike — who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them,” Leo said. “Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence.”

The audience featured a mix of faithful from around the world, with Lebanese and Ukrainian flags and ululating pilgrims.

Leo recalled that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, paid particular attention to the eastern rite churches. That Leo, who was pope from 1878 to 1903, penned the first specific document about the dignity of eastern rite churches and the need to preserve and celebrate their traditions in the west.

That Leo went so far as to threaten any Latin rite priest in the west with dismissal if he tried to bring an eastern rite Catholic over to the western traditions of the Latin rite.

The former Cardinal Robert Prevost lamented that today, these Catholics often find indifference among other Latin rite Catholics when they resettle in communities in the diaspora. They “risk losing not only their native lands, but also, when they reach the West, their religious identity,” he said.

“As a result, with the passing of generations, the priceless heritage of the Eastern Churches is being lost,” the pontiff said.

He urged the Vatican office that deals with eastern churches to define guidelines for Latin rite bishops to better support diaspora communities, saying the contribution that eastern churches can give the west is “immense.”

“We have great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty,” he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By YURI KAGEYAMA, Associated Press Business Writer

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology and entertainment company Sony logged an 18% rise in profit for the fiscal year through March on healthy results at its music and video-game operations.

Its chief executive, Hiroki Totoki, outlined the company’s strategy for growth Wednesday, stressing that collaboration among Sony Corp.’s various segments, like animation and music, were crucial to deliver the “kando,” or emotional engagement, that lies at the core of the company’s vision and strength.

“Building on our momentum and results to date and working with a laser-like focus to realize our long-term Creative Entertainment Vision will be at the core of our corporate strategies moving forward,” he told reporters.

Sony’s movies division has strong offerings in the pipeline, including Spider-Man films and biopics about The Beatles, while animation remains a driver of growth centered around the popular anime streaming service Crunchyroll, Totoki said.

Tokyo-based Sony reported a record annual profit of $7.8 billion. Annual sales were virtually unchanged, inching down to $88 billion.

One area that lagged among Sony’s sprawling businesses was the financial segment, where revenue stalled. But its film division and its imaging and sensor solutions segment did well.

Sony officials said they were studying how to respond to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, although that was a challenge because of uncertainties and constant changes. But they said the negative impact from U.S. trade policy will be kept to 10% of Sony’s operating profit in the coming fiscal year by adjusting the allocation of shipments, among other measures.

Totoki stressed that Sony plans to leverage its content creating technology, like virtual reality and image sensors, to feed into its entertainment products, including working on immersive experiences. Sony also has powerful collaborative relations with various entertainment companies like Kadokawa, which includes publishing as well as films and animation, and Bandai Namco, a video game maker, he added.

Sony will emphasize the “diversity” of its workers, helping bring out people’s creative potential, Totoki said.

Among the Sony movies that fared well at the box office for the fiscal year through March were “Venom: The Last Dance,” featuring the Marvel Comics superhero, and “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” an action comedy, where Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return in their popular cop roles in the fourth installment in the series.

Sony, which makes the PlayStation console and game software played on that machine, also posted healthy results in the gaming business.

Its music operations, which also held up, include recordings, streaming services and music for games. The top-selling recorded music projects for the latest fiscal year globally was SZA’s “SOS Deluxe: LANA,” followed by Beyonce, Future & Metro Boomin and Travis Scott.

The top seller in its Japan music business was Kenshi Yonezu’s “Lost Corner” album, followed by offerings from Stray Kids and Six Tones.

For the January-March quarter, Sony posted a $1.3 billion profit, up 5% from 189 billion yen the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. Sales were $17.7 billion.

Sony is forecasting a nearly 13% drop in profit for the fiscal year through March 2026, to $6.3 billion, on $80 billion sales, down 2.9% on-year.

Sony Group Corp. stocks, which fell in Tokyo morning trading, rebounded to finish 3.7% higher after its financial results were announced.

By LISA MASCARO, MATT BROWN and LEAH ASKARINAM

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker is launching a renegade effort to impeach President Donald Trump, pushing past party leaders on Wednesday with an attempt to force a procedural vote in the U.S. House that is expected to fail.

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Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan announced his intention to charge ahead, saying that as an immigrant he wants to do all he can to protect America’s Constitution and its institutions. His resolution contains seven articles of impeachment against the Republican president.

“Donald J. Trump has been committing crimes since day one — bribery, corruption, taking power from Congress, creating an unlawful office in DOGE, violating First Amendment rights, ignoring due process,” the congressman said earlier from the House floor.

It would be the historic third time Trump has faced impeachment efforts after being twice impeached during his first term as president — first in 2019 on charges related to withholding military aid to Ukraine as it confronted Russia and later on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. Trump was acquitted both times by the Senate.

Thanedar is not the only Democrat who has signaled impeachment efforts against Trump. But his decision to go it almost alone, without backing from party leadership, comes as he faces his own political challenges at home, with several primary opponents looking to unseat him in his Detroit-area congressional district.

Democrats who streamed out of their weekly caucus meeting were critical of the impeachment effort. They said the focus should not be on impeachment but on Republican efforts to cut spending on important programs that Americans rely on, such as Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

“There’s no support for an impeachment resolution. There have been no hearings on compiling a record for which impeachment can be based. And this is just a procedure that’s meaningless at this point,” said Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. ”The sponsor is out of sync with the mood and the trajectory of House Democrats.”

“The work that we need to focus on is that Republicans are stripping away access to health care, stripping away nutritional assistance for hungry kids, and giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and large corporations,” said Rick Larsen, D-Wash. “This resolution has nothing to do with that.”

Timing is also key. Thanedar’s resolution claiming Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” comes as Trump is traveling in the Middle East in his first major trip abroad of his second term, violating a norm in American politics of not criticizing the president once he leaves the U.S. waters’ edge.

But Thanedar said he was pressing ahead in part because of Trump’s trip abroad and the potential conflicts of interest as the president appears to be mixing his personal business dealings with his presidential duties and is considering accepting a lavish gift of an airplane from the Qatari government.

“My constituents want me to act,” Thanedar told The Associated Press late Tuesday.

“It’s time for us to stand up and speak. We can’t worry about, ‘Is this the right time?’ We can’t worry about, ‘Are we going to win this battle?’ It’s more about doing the right thing,” he said. “I took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. So did Mr. Trump. He has violated his oath, and he’s doing unconstitutional activities. It’s time for someone to stand up and say that, and if that’s just me, then so be it.”

Thanedar is using a procedural tool to force a vote Wednesday on whether to proceed to the issue or shelve the matter.

One top Trump ally, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, criticized Thanedar and dismissed the impeachment effort.

“It’s DOA,” she posted on social media.

Impeachment of a president or other U.S. officials, once rare, has become an increasingly common in Congress.

Republicans in the House opened an impeachment inquiry into then-President Joe Biden, a Democrat, but stopped short of action. The Republicans in Congress did, however, impeach Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Senate dismissed two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, ending his trial.

Thanedar, who’s from India, has said he came to the United States without many resources. He said he loves the U.S. and wants to defend its Constitution and institutions.

When he took over the Detroit congressional district, it was the first time in decades the city was left without a Black lawmaker in Congress.

Staff writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.