The Russian authorities Friday outlawed Human Rights Watch as an “undesirable organization,” a label that under a 2015 law makes involvement with such organizations a criminal offense.

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The designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organization to prosecution.

The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in an unrelenting crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified to unprecedented levels since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate statement on Friday, the office said it was opening a case against Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot that would designate the group as an extremist organization.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russia’s Supreme Court designated the Anti-Corruption Foundation set up by the late opposition activist Alexei Navalny as a terrorist group. The ruling targeted the foundation’s U.S.-registered entity, which became the focal point for the group when the original Anti-Corruption Foundation was designated an “undesirable organization” by the Russian government in 2021.

“There is no doubt that other organizations will soon be designated as ‘terrorists’ — independent media, human rights projects, and local initiatives,” the foundation said in a statement.

“This is a political strategy used by the Russian authorities: to declare anyone who interferes with their theft and endless war an enemy of the state.”

Russia’s list of “undesirable organizations” currently covers more than 275 entities, including prominent independent news outlets and rights groups. Among those are prominent news organizations like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, think tanks like Chatham House, anti-corruption group Transparency International, and environmental advocacy organization WWF.

Founded in 1978, Human Rights Watch monitors and researches human rights violations in countries across the world. It has been outspoken in its opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recently published an investigation into Russian forces using drones to deliberately chase, injure and kill civilians living in Ukraine’s Kherson region.

BANGKOK (AP) — The death toll from flooding in southern Thailand has reached at least 145, officials said Friday, as receding waters started to reveal devastating damage across the region.

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More than 1.2 million households and 3.6 million people have been affected by floods triggered by heavy rains in 12 southern provinces, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said Friday.

Government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat said in a news conference in Bangkok that flooding has killed 145 people in eight provinces, particularly in Songkhla province which recorded at least 110 deaths.

He said search and rescue efforts have become more successful as floodwaters started to recede further.

Songkhla province recorded a sharp increase in the death toll after flooding began to subside. News reports showed rescuers gained more access to residential areas that had previously been submerged under high water and recovered more bodies, particularly in Hat Yai, the largest city in the south.

The disaster department reported Friday morning that waters have receded in most of the affected areas, but levels remain high in some locations. The Meteorological Department said rainfall has decreased in the south but warned of thunderstorms in some areas.

The flooding caused severe disruption, leaving thousands of people stranded, rendering streets impassable and submerging low-rise buildings and vehicles.

Videos and photos from the affected areas on Friday show damaged roads, fallen power poles, household appliances and debris washed away by floodwaters piled along the streets. Abandoned cars were overturned or stacked atop one another, apparently swept away by powerful currents.

By The Associated Press

Black Friday kicked off the holiday shopping season with enthusiasm, despite consumer confidence in the U.S. economy falling this month in the aftermath of the federal government shutdown, weak hiring and stubborn inflation.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Black Friday Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy’s flagship store on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Adam Her wins the $5000 prize as he walks into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Shoppers line up to get into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
A shopping cart full of Barbies can be seen as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers enter a Kohl’s department store for Black Friday to shop for deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers line up to get into Mall of America for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Bloomington, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Eva Klein sits in the bottom of her grandmothers shopping cart as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Black Friday Shoppers browse products at Macy’s flagship store in New York on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)
Becca Mendoza and Tammi Hines look at products as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
The shirt of a woman who has matching shirts with 4 other friends and all shop together on Black Friday as shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday looking for deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers browse through Kohl’s department store for Black Friday deals, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, in Woodstock, Ga. (AP Photo/Megan Varner)
Shoppers walk along London’s most famous shopping Street, Oxford Street, on black Friday in London, Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

By NINIEK KARMINI and KASPARMAN PILIANG, Associated Press

PADANG, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island rose to 164 on Friday with 79 people missing, authorities said, as rescue workers found their efforts hampered by damaged bridges and roads and a lack of heavy equipment.

Monsoon rains caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province Tuesday. The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged more than 3,200 houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said. About 3,000 displaced families fled to government shelters.

The death toll in North Sumatra province rose to 116, while 25 people died in Aceh. Rescuers also retrieved 23 bodies in West Sumatra, National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s Chief Suharyanto said.

“Mudslides that covered much of the area, power blackouts and lack of telecommunications were hampering the search efforts,” Suharyanto, who goes by a single name like many Indonesians, told a virtual news conference. He spoke from an airport in North Tapanuli district, shortly after conducting an aerial inspection above the devastated areas to see the scale of the disaster.

At a National Teachers’ Day commemoration speech, President Prabowo Subianto noted that three aircraft —including a Hercules C-130 and a newly Airbus A-400 — carrying rescue personnel, food, medicines, blankets, field tents and generators were deployed Friday morning as part of ongoing relief operations.

“We continue to send aid and support the needs of those affected,” Prabowo said. “Many roads are cut off and the weather remains unfavorable. Even our helicopters and planes sometimes struggle to land,” he added.

Prabowo said the disaster highlights growing global challenges such as climate change, global warming and environmental degradation. He suggested that environmental awareness should be strengthened in school curricula.

“We must teach the importance of protecting our environment and our forests, and seriously prevent illegal logging and destruction,” he said.

Footage on the aerial view above devastated areas in the three provinces shows swathes of emerald forest and terraced hillsides have been ripped open, their scars bleeding torrents of mud into valleys below. In North Sumatra, entire neighborhoods in the provincial capital of Medan and Deli Serdang regency lie submerged under a vast sheet of brown water, rooftops barely visible as rivers burst their banks. Roads that once pulsed with traffic now resemble canals, littered with stranded vehicles and uprooted trees.

Rescue workers on Friday were trying to reach many people in isolated villages after floods or landslides damaged roads and bridges, Suharyanto said. Aid and other logistic supplies in some places can be distributed only by foot over the severe terrain,

Rescue teams struggled to reach affected areas in 12 cities and districts of North Sumatra province. while the flooding in West Sumatra also destroyed rice fields, livestock and public facilities.

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In Aceh province, authorities struggled to bring excavators and other heavy equipment over washed-out roads after torrential rains sent mud and rocks crashing onto hilly hamlets.

The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, said Achadi Subarkah Raharjo at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.

He warned that unstable atmospheric conditions mean extreme weather could persist as long as the cyclone system remains active.

“We have extended its extreme weather warning due to strong water vapor supply and shifting atmospheric dynamics,” Raharjo said.

Senyar intensified rainfall, strong winds, and high waves in Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, and nearby areas before dissipating. Its prolonged downpours left steep, saturated terrain highly vulnerable to disasters, he said.

Seasonal rains frequently cause flooding and landslides in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile flood plains.

Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.