QUICK HITS

1 Official says Taliban abducted

peace activists: The Taliban ambushed a peace convoy in western Afghanistan and abducted 26 activists, members of a peace movement, a police spokesman said Wednesday. The insurgents staged the ambush Tuesday in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province.

2 “Star Wars” kiss scene cut in Singapore: A brief kiss between two female characters was removed from screenings of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in Singapore, a country with restrictive laws against gay people. Though lasting just a few seconds and hardly a major plot point, the kiss between two minor characters was notable as the first overt appearance of gay characters in a “Star Wars” film.

3 Nissan exec leaving: Jun Seki, Nissan Motor Co.’s third-highestranked executive, will leave the company to join a leading electricmotor company, an abrupt move that deals yet another blow to the scandal-plagued Japanese carmaker. The shares fell to their lowest in eight years.

4 Blaze destroys homes: Awildfire raged through a residential area on the outskirts of the Chilean city of Valparaíso, prompting evacuation orders and destroying more than 150 homes as of Wednesday morning, Chile’s interior minister said. The blaze, which started Tuesday, was only partly under control by Wednesday, but had begun to shift from populated areas to forested land, the interior minister, Gonzalo Blumel, said.