ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania (AP) – When NATO’s call came, the French fighter pilots scrambled with practiced urgency, already suited up to shorten their response times. They dashed in vans to hangars where their prepped and armed Rafale jets awaited, clambered into the cockpits and fired up the engines, which puffed and screamed.

TELL, West Bank (AP) – Three Palestinian teenagers have been killed in the occupied West Bank this week in a spike of renewed violence, the latest shot dead by Israeli forces during a mid-week raid.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Syrian authorities said Friday they have arrested a former intelligence officer who appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades fatally shooting dozens of people during the country’s conflict.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, on Friday welcomed Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, their first meeting since the U.S. military seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their home in January.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it will offer ultra-fast review to three psychedelic drugs being developed to treat mental health conditions, including depression, the latest step by the Trump administration toward possible approval of the experimental treatments.

When he was 19, James Broadnax jotted down rap lyrics, thoughts and even job leads in a notebook that would become evidence at his capital murder trial. Prosecutors selected lyrics with alleged references to gang affiliation and shootings to convince jurors that instead of life in prison, Broadnax should be put to death.

LIMA, Peru (AP) – Police in Peru raided the homes Friday of the now-resigned elections chief and five other officials in an investigation into a ballot shortage and other irregularities in the first round of the presidential election on April 12.