NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks are flirting with a record Wednesday following their big rally the last two weeks on hopes that the global economy can avoid a worst-case scenario. The S&P 500 rose 0.8%  The Dow Jones was down 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:09 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.4% higher.

NEW YORK (AP) – A U.S. judge pressed the Trump administration Thursday about its basis for barring Venezuela’s government from paying former President Nicolás Maduro’s legal fees in the drug trafficking case that has put him behind bars in New York.

BEIJING (AP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday that the stability and certainty of China-Russia relations are particularly “precious” in the face of an international landscape intertwined with change and chaos.

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro returns to a New York courtroom Thursday as he seeks to have his drug trafficking indictment thrown out over a geopolitical dispute over legal fees. It’s the first time that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, will be in court since a January arraignment at which he protested “I am not guilty. I am a decent man.”

SAN SALVADOR (AP) – Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday signed into law constitutional reforms to permit life prison sentences for people as young as 12, a contentious reform that follows other heavy-handed measures pushed through by the populist leader.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez preached of lucrative long-term opportunities in her resource-rich country at a Saudi-backed investment summit on Wednesday, offering a window into how Venezuela’s government is trying to lure investors to its oil sector.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

MIAMI (AP) – Secretary of State Marco Rubio is testifying Tuesday over his interactions with former Miami congressman David Rivera nearly a decade ago, when his longtime friend was accused of secretly lobbying on behalf of Venezuela’s government.