Hungary said Thursday that it would pull out of the International Criminal Court, announcing its decision just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived there for a visit despite facing an international arrest warrant.

The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made clear that it would ignore its obligations to act on the ICC warrant. Instead of arresting Netanyahu upon his arrival in Budapest on Thursday morning, Hungary rolled out the red carpet and welcomed him with a military honor band at Buda Castle overlooking the Danube River.

The withdrawal announcement makes Hungary the sole European Union country to say it wants out of the international court. The move cemented Orban’s position as Europe’s odd man out — a role he relishes largely for domestic political reasons — and showcased his desire to align with the Trump administration, which shares Hungary’s contempt for key international bodies.

Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, said Hungary would begin the process of withdrawing from the ICC “in accordance with constitutional and international law frameworks.”

A withdrawal would not take effect for at least a year, however, meaning that Hungary — by declining to arrest the Israeli leader — breached its obligations under the 1998 treaty that established the court.

“Hungary remains under a duty to cooperate with the ICC,” the court’s spokesperson, Fadi El Abdallah, said after the withdrawal announcement.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

U.N. condemns military killings in Sudan

The United Nations on Thursday condemned reports by local rights groups of extrajudicial killings taking place in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, which the Sudanese military recaptured last month.

Emergency Lawyers, a rights group tracking violence against civilians, on Monday said in a statement that the Sudanese army committed field executions against civilians in Khartoum and Jebel Aulia, purportedly on suspicion of collaborating with the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said Thursday in a statement that he was “appalled” by such reports and urged the Sudanese army to end “arbitrary deprivation of life.”

A video posted by Emergency Lawyers captures multiple instances of individuals, some blindfolded, being fatally shot by men in uniform and others in civilian clothing.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the contents of the video, but OHCHR cited similar footage reportedly showing armed men “executing civilians in cold blood” and that in some videos, perpetrators are stating that they are punishing RSF supporters.

NYC Mayor Adams to run as independent

New York City Mayor Eric Adams withdrew from the city’s Democratic primary on Thursday and said he would instead run for reelection as an independent, a move intended to buy him time to save a campaign deeply wounded by a bribery scandal and liberal anger over his warm relationship with President Donald Trump.

In a video announcement, Adams said he will not run in the Democratic primary in June because his recently dismissed criminal case “dragged on too long” while the “false accusations were held over me,” preventing him from campaigning.

The decision came after intense speculation over whether Adams would remain in the Democratic primary, which has attracted several serious opponents, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

In a practical sense, the move will allow Adams to skip directly to the general election in November, giving him more time to campaign unencumbered by the weight of his criminal charges. But it will also further distance Adams from the city’s heavily Democratic electorate and party organization, potentially weakening his chances of winning a second term.

The mayor, who had not formed much of a formal reelection apparatus, has struggled to raise money in recent months and suffered a blow when he was denied access to millions of dollars in public matching funds for his campaign because of questions about gaps in his recordkeeping.

Teens’ cigarettes suspected in S.C. fires

Two wildfires that started lose to each other in the South Carolina mountains and burned an area over half the size of Hilton Head Island are nearly contained, authorities said.

Four teens who did not fully extinguish their cigarettes while hiking have been charged with causing the largest Table Rock Mountain wildfire which started March 21, the South Carolina Forestry Commission said.

That fire and the Persimmon Ridge fire about 8 miles away burned about 25 square miles during the 10 days they were out of control in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Rain this past weekend, coupled with more humid weather, helped firefighters finally get fire breaks built and check the entire area around the blaze for hot spots Wednesday, said Mike Brod, head of the federal team helping fight the fire.

Yale accuses scholar aiding ‘sham charity’

Yale Law School has fired an Iranian scholar, accusing her of refusing to cooperate as it probed allegations that she is involved with a group that the U.S. calls a “sham charity” for a designated terrorist organization.

But Helyeh Doutaghi, an outspoken critic of Israel who worked at Yale on a visa as an associate research scholar and deputy director of the school’s Law and Political Economy Project, denies being uncooperative. She believes she was fired because of her criticism of the war in Gaza, as colleges around the country face financial pressure to crack down on antisemitism from the Trump administration.

The school said in a statement that Doutaghi, 30, was terminated on March 28 after refusing to appear in person to answer questions about “serious allegations” that included a possible connection to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network — which the U.S. and Canada designated in October as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

Yale cited a posting on Samidoun’s website that it says identified Doutaghi as a member of the group among the materials it was reviewing. Samidoun did not return an email message seeking comment.

Toll from Los Angeles-area fires rises to 30

Nearly three months after two wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in the Los Angeles area, officials said the death toll from the blazes had reached 30.

A team responded Wednesday following a report of possible human remains at a scorched property in the suburb of Altadena, within the Eaton Fire burn zone, the Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement.

An investigation determined the remains were human, bringing the total deaths from that blaze to 18, the statement said. Twelve people died in the simultaneous Palisades Fire on the other side of the area.

To identify charred remains, the medical examiner’s office said it compares dental records and DNA, reviews health records and uses radiographs to search for medical prosthetics or devices. The office also works with law enforcement to gather information on suspected missing persons.

The two blazes ignited during fierce winds on Jan. 7 and destroyed nearly 17,000 structures, including homes, schools, businesses and places of worship. Rebuilding will take years.

Florida student is first ‘bathroom bill’ arrest

A transgender college student declared “I am here to break the law” before entering a women’s restroom at the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee and being led out in handcuffs by police. Civil rights attorneys say the arrest of Marcy Rheintgen last month is the first they know of for violating transgender bathroom restrictions passed by numerous state legislatures across the country.

Capitol police had been alerted and were waiting for Rheintgen, 20, when she entered the building March 19. They told her she would receive a trespass warning once she entered the women’s restroom to wash her hands and pray the rosary, but she was later placed under arrest when she refused to leave, according to an arrest affidavit.

Rheintgen faces a misdemeanor trespassing charge punishable by up to 60 days in jail and is due to appear in court in May.

At least 14 states have adopted laws barring transgender women from entering women’s bathrooms.

— From news services