KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Defending champion and world No. 4-ranked Miyu Yamashita shot a 6-under 66 Friday to take a two-stroke lead after two rounds of the LPGA Tour's Maybank Championship.
The 2025 Women's British Open winner had a two-round total of 13-under 131 on the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club course. She won last year’s Malaysian tournament after a three-way playoff.
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Esther Henseleit of Germany plays a shot on the third hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Charley Hull of England lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Miyu Yamashita of Japan watches a ball on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Miyu Yamashita of Japan watches a ball on the 3rd hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
“I’ve been playing some really good rounds this year especially,” Yamashita said. "My game is in better shape than last year, so my swing feels really good, too.”
Julia Lopez Ramirez birdied three of her final four holes for a 66 and was tied for second with Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, who led by a stroke after the first round.
“Try to keep your mind cool and your body hydrated in these conditions," Lopez Ramirez said of her preparations for the weekend in the usual high humidity in Kuala Lumpur.
A Lim Kim had the round of the day, a 64, and was in fourth place, three strokes behind Yamashita.
Charley Hull had five birdies in her first six holes to move into the lead, but bogeyed two of her final three holes for a 69 and was tied for fifth, four strokes behind.
Haeran Ryu, a major winner this year at the Women’s PGA Championship and at the Evian Championship, withdrew before her first-round tee time Thursday due to a strained finger ligament she suffered while riding in a golf cart during the Wednesday pro-am. She was the highest-ranked player in the tournament in the absence of No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul.
Last week, Yuri Yoshida won the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, the fourth Japanese player this season to win on the LPGA Tour, joining Yamashita, Shiho Kuwaki and Yuna Nishimura. Yoshida shot 70 Friday and was at 5-under.
Next week, the LPGA's four-week, late-season Asian swing ends with the Toto Japan Classic at Omitama outside Tokyo.
See AP’s full golf coverage here
Esther Henseleit of Germany plays a shot on the third hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Charley Hull of England lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Miyu Yamashita of Japan watches a ball on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Julia Lopez Ramirez of Spain lines up a putt on the eighth hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Miyu Yamashita of Japan watches a ball on the 3rd hole during the second day of LPGA Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Evacuees from Russian-occupied Oleshky began the long journey out of the war-ravaged region in bus convoys Friday, on the fourth day of the most significant truce since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 4½ years ago.
The estimated 2,000 remaining residents in the city of Oleshky were offered the choice of traveling to Ukrainian- or Russian-held territory, or remaining in the city with replenished food and medical supplies.
Officials in Kyiv said the evacuated residents bound for Ukraine were traveling to the city of Anapa in southern Russia from where they would fly to Belarus before crossing the border into northern Ukraine.
The shortest route from Oleshky to Anapa is about 450 kilometers (280 miles) through Russian-held Crimea.
Russia’s ombudswoman and lead representative on the mission, Yana Lantratova said buses also transported Oleshky residents who want to live in Russia.
Russia and Ukraine have not specified how many people chose to leave the city, but U.S. first lady Melania Trump, whom the White House said helped broker the localized truce, posted on social media Friday that the convoy could safely evacuate more than 750 people.
After the convoys left Oleshky, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s ombudsman and chief negotiator, described the aid mission as “unique” and said he hoped the same model could be used to help other communities stranded by the war in Ukraine.
After a concerted effort to remove all Russian mines from roads in and out of Oleshky, an aid convoy of 25 buses, some ambulances, trucks and other vehicles arrived in the stranded city earlier Friday to deliver food and medicine.
Officials from both countries worked together in the rare joint humanitarian effort, offering a brief respite in the grim war of attrition. The localized ceasefire in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region is expected to continue through Sunday evening.
The United States played a central role in the mission. Aside from the first lady's apparent role, Pope Leo XIV — the first American pontiff — also pressed Russian and Ukrainian leaders to allow aid deliveries and civilian evacuations.
“Everyone who wishes to leave Oleshky will have the opportunity to do so safely,” Russia and Ukraine said in separate but identical statements earlier Friday. “Those who choose to stay may remain and will receive all the humanitarian support they need.”
Fighting continued elsewhere, however. Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched ballistic and other missiles, along with scores of drones.
A Russian drone attack on a town in northeast Ukraine has left one woman dead and eight people injured, Ukraine’s emergency services said Friday. The strike occurred in the Sumy region in the town of Shostka, near Ukraine’s border with Russia. The agency said rescue efforts were hampered by repeated air raid alerts.
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of stepping up attacks designed to make ordinary Ukrainians suffer during another winter. He did not mention the aid mission.
“The Russians have not taken a single step toward de-escalation in the energy sector and continue terrorist strikes on our cities,” he said. “We will respond accordingly and justly.”
Zelenskyy's office also announced sanctions on individuals and entities involved in developing Russia’s Rassvet satellite communications system, which Kyiv says Moscow is scaling up for military purposes.
Associated Press writers Susie Blann and Derek Gatopoulos in Kyiv, Ukraine; Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia; and Darlene Superville and Konstantin Toropin in Washington D.C. contributed.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center right, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine's Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP) CORRECTION: change position of Dmytro Lubinets from center left to center right
Women walk through a local market beneath anti-drone nets stretched over a street during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian aid mission in Oleshky, in Ukraine's Kherson region, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A Ukrainian soldier of Khartia brigade prepares a Ukrainian-made "Darts" drone, a multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicle used as a kamikaze drone to attack Russian forces, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)
In this photo provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, center left, and Russian Ombudsman Yana Lantratova speak with journalists before departing for Oleshky to evacuate local residents to a safe area during a local ceasefire linked to a humanitarian mission in Ukraine's Kherson region, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP)
In this screenshot from a video provided by the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, left, speaks with residents of Oleshky during their evacuation to a safe area amid a local ceasefire connected to a humanitarian aid mission in Oleshky, Kherson region, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, cars are on fire following a Russian air attack in Chernyhiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
A residential building is seen damaged in Russian attacks during a local ceasefire related to a humanitarian aid mission in Oleshky, in Kherson, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A local man rides a bicycle beneath anti-drone nets stretched over a street during a local ceasefire related to a humanitarian aid mission in Oleshky, in Kherson, Ukraine, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
