By EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council urged the 193 United Nations member nations on Tuesday to use all possible means to settle disputes peacefully. The U.N. chief said that is needed now more than ever as he pointed to “the horror show in Gaza” and conflicts in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar.

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The vote was unanimous on a Pakistan-drafted resolution in the 15-member council.

In urging greater efforts to pursue global peace, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council: “Around the world, we see an utter disregard for — if not outright violations of — international law” as well as the U.N. Charter.

It is happening at a time of widening geopolitical divides and numerous conflicts, starting with Gaza, where “starvation is knocking on every door” as Israel denies the United Nations the space and safety to deliver aid and save Palestinian lives, Guterres said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech on climate action “A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the New Energy Era” at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and blames U.N. agencies for failing to deliver food it has allowed in.

In conflicts worldwide, “hunger and displacement are at record levels” and security is pushed further out of reach by terrorism, violent extremism and transnational crime, the secretary-general said.

“Diplomacy may not have always succeeded in preventing conflicts, violence and instability,” Guterres said. “But it still holds the power to stop them.”

The resolution urges all countries to use the methods in the U.N. Charter to peacefully settle disputes, including negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, referral to regional arrangements or other peaceful means.

FILE – A Ukrainian officer shows a thermobaric charge from a downed Russian drone in a research laboratory in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who chaired the meeting, cited “the ongoing tragedies” in Gaza and between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, one of the oldest disputes on the U.N. agenda, that need to be resolved peacefully.

“At the heart of almost all the conflicts across the globe is a crisis of multilateralism; a failure, not of principles but of will; a paralysis, not of institutions but of political courage,” he said.

The Pakistani diplomat called for revitalizing trust in the U.N. system and ensuring “equal treatment of all conflicts based on international law, not geopolitical expediency.”

Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the Trump administration supports the United Nations’ founding principles of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war and working with parties to resolve disputes peacefully.

Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, she said, the U.S. has delivered “deescalation” between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Congo and Rwanda.

The U.S. calls on countries involved in conflicts to follow these examples, Shea said, singling out the war in Ukraine and China’s “unlawful claims” in the South China Sea.

The war in Ukraine must end, she said, and Russia must stop attacking civilians and fulfill its obligations under the U.N. Charter, which requires all member nations to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every other country.

“We call on other U.N. member states to stop providing Russia with the means to continue its aggression,” Shea said.

By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — When a schoolboy going for a run found the ribs of a wooden ship poking through the dunes of a remote Scottish beach, it sparked a hunt by archaeologists, scientists and local historians to uncover its story.

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Through a mix of high-tech science and community research, they have an answer. Researchers announced Wednesday that the vessel is very likely the Earl of Chatham, an 18th-century warship that saw action in the American War of Independence before a second life hunting whales in the Arctic — and then a stormy demise.

“I would regard it as a lucky ship, which is a strange thing to say about a ship that’s wrecked,” said Ben Saunders, senior marine archaeologist at Wessex Archaeology, a charity that helped community researchers conduct the investigation.

“I think if it had been found in many other places, it wouldn’t necessarily have had that community drive, that desire to recover and study that material, and also the community spirit to do it,” Saunders said.

Uncovered after 250 years

The wreck was discovered in February 2024 after a storm swept away sand covering it on Sanday, one of the rugged Orkney Islands that lie off Scotland’s northern tip.

It excited interest on the island of 500 people, whose history is bound up with the sea and its dangers. Around 270 shipwrecks have been recorded around the 20-square-mile island since the 15th century.

Local farmers used their tractors and trailers to haul the 12 tons of oak timbers off the beach, before local researchers set to work trying to identify it.

“That was really good fun, and it was such a good feeling about the community – everybody pulling together to get it back,” said Sylvia Thorne, one of the island’s community researchers. “Quite a few people are really getting interested in it and becoming experts.”

In this image provided by Wessex Archaeology, the Sanday Wreck timbers are seen before being placed in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre, on Orkney, Sept 23, 2024. (Fionn McArthur/Wessex Archaeology via AP)

Dendrochronology — the science of dating wood from tree rings — showed the timber came from southern England in the middle of the 18th century. That was one bit of luck, Saunders said, because it coincides with “the point where British bureaucracy’s really starting to kick off” and detailed records were being kept.

“And so we can then start to look at the archive evidence that we have for the wrecks in Orkney,” Saunders said. “It becomes a process of elimination.

“You remove ones that are Northern European as opposed to British, you remove wrecks that are too small or operating out of the north of England and you really are down to two or three … and Earl of Chatham is the last one left.”

Wars and whaling

Further research found that before it was the Earl of Chatham, the ship was HMS Hind, a 24-gun Royal Navy frigate built in Chichester on England’s south coast in 1749.

Its military career saw it play a part in the expansion — and contraction — of the British Empire. It helped Britain wrest control of Canada from France during the sieges of Louisbourg and Quebec in the 1750s, and in the 1770s served as a convoy escort during Britain’s failed effort to hold onto its American colonies.

Sold off by the navy in 1784 and renamed, the vessel became a whaling ship, hunting the huge mammals in the Arctic waters off Greenland.

Whale oil was an essential fuel of the Industrial Revolution, used to lubricate machinery, soften fabric and light city streets. Saunders said that in 1787 there were 120 London-based whaling ships in the Greenland Sea, the Earl of Chatham among them.

A year later, while heading out to the whaling ground, it was wrecked in bad weather off Sanday. All 56 crew members survived — more evidence, Saunders says, that this was a vessel blessed with luck.

Community effort

The ship’s timbers are being preserved in a freshwater tank at the Sanday Heritage Centre while plans are discussed to put it on permanent display.

In this image provided by Wessex Archaeology, Ben Saunders from Wessex Archaeology supervises the Sanday Wreck timbers as they are placed in a freshwater tank to preserve them, on Orkney, Sept 23, 2024. (Fionn McArthur/Wessex Archaeology via AP)

Saunders said that the project is a model of community involvement in archaeology.

“The community have been so keen, have been so desirous to be involved and to find out things to learn, and they’re so proud of it. It’s down to them it was discovered, it’s down to them it was recovered and it’s been stabilized and been protected,” he said.

For locals, it’s a link to the island’s maritime past — and future. Finding long-buried wrecks could become more common as climate change alters the wind patterns around Britain and reshapes the coastline.

“One of the biggest things I’ve got out of this project is realizing how much the past in Sanday is just constantly with you — either visible or just under the surface,” said Ruth Peace, another community researcher.

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) — Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday vowed to remain in power to oversee the implementation of a new Japan-U.S. tariff agreement, despite media speculation and growing calls for him to resign after a historic defeat of his governing party.

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Ishiba met with heavyweights from his Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, and former Prime Ministers Taro Aso, Fumio Kishida and Yoshihide Suga at party headquarters.

He told reporters afterward that they didn’t discuss his resignation or a new party leadership contest, but only the election results, voters’ dissatisfaction and the urgent need to avoid party discord.

Despite his business-as-usual demeanor, Ishiba is under increasing pressure to bow out after the LDP and junior coalition partner Komeito lost their majority in Sunday’s election in the 248-member upper house, the smaller and less powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament, shaking his grip on power.

It came after a loss in the more powerful lower house in October, and so his coalition now lacks a majority in both houses of parliament, making it even more difficult for his government to pass policies and worsening Japan’s political instability.

Ishiba says he intends to stay on to tackle pressing challenges, including tariff talks with the U.S., so as not to create a political vacuum despite calls from inside and outside his party for a quick resignation.

Ishiba “keeps saying he is staying on. What was the public’s verdict in the election all about?” said Yuichiro Tamaki, head of the surging Democratic Party for the People, or DPP.

At the LDP, a group of younger lawmakers led by Yasutaka Nakasone started a petition drive seeking Ishiba’s early resignation and renewal of party leadership.

“We all have a sense of crisis and think the election results were ultimatum from the voters,” he said.

Japanese media reported that Ishiba is expected to soon announce plans to step down in August.

The conservative Yomiuri newspaper said in an extra edition on Wednesday that Ishiba had decided to announce his resignation by the end of July after receiving a detailed report from his chief trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, on the impact of the U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy, paving the way for a new party leader.

Ishiba denied the report and said that he wants to focus on the U.S. trade deal, which covers more than 4,000 goods affecting many Japanese producers and industries. He welcomed the new agreement, which places tariffs at 15% on Japanese cars and other goods imported into the U.S. from Japan, down from the initial 25%.

Still, local media are already speculating about possible successors. Among them are ultraconservative former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, who lost to Ishiba in September. Another conservative ex-minister, Takayuki Kobayashi, and Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former popular Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are also seen as potential challengers.

In Sunday’s election, voters frustrated with price increases exceeding the pace of wage hikes, especially younger people who have long felt ignored by the ruling government’s focus on senior voters, rapidly turned to the emerging conservative DPP and right-wing populist Sanseito party.

None of the opposition parties have shown interest in forming a full-fledged alliance with the governing coalition, but they have said they are open to cooperating on policy.

People expressed mixed reaction to Ishiba, as his days seem to be numbered.

Kentaro Nakamura, 53, said that he thought it’s time for Ishiba to go, because he lacked consistency and did poorly in the election.

“The (election) result was so bad and I thought it would not be appropriate for him to stay on,” Nakamura said. “I thought it was just a matter of time.”

But Isamu Kawana, a Tokyo resident in his 70s, was more sympathetic and said if it wasn’t Ishiba who was elected prime minister last year, the result would have been the same.

“I think he got the short end of the stick,” Kawana said.

Reeno Hashimoto contributed to this report.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A brown bear attacked a woman as she hiked a popular trail in a hillside neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska, and officials are still looking for the animal, state police said.

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State troopers used a helicopter to take the woman from the Basher Trail to a hospital, police spokesman Christopher Barraza said. Her injuries aren’t considered life-threatening, he said.

The woman, who has not been identified, called 911 at around 3 p.m. Tuesday and told the dispatcher that she had been mauled by a bear about 2 miles into the trail, in Stuckagain Heights, Barraza said. She told officials she couldn’t walk.

The trail is in the Chugach Mountains, which sit along Anchorage’s eastern border.

The woman spoke with officials by phone for about an hour, telling them the area she was in as they used drones to try to find her, Barraza said. She told them the bear ran off after it mauled her and that she wasn’t able to see which direction it headed.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game blocked off the area and is searching for the bear, Barraza said.

Anchorage, which is by far Alaska’s biggest city, is home to about 290,000 people. Nearly 350 black bears, 65 brown bears and 1,600 moose also live there.

“We’re advising everybody to make sure they go prepared when they go to do hikes and trails,” Barraza said. “Make sure you know what to do when you see a bear, carry your bear spray, stuff like that.”

The fire department wrote on Facebook that hikers should temporarily avoid the trails around the Stuckagain Heights area.