AP World News

By JUAN ZAMORANO Associated Press PANAMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Panama Canal faces ongoing threats from China but that together the United States and Panama will keep it secure. Hegseth’s remarks triggered a fiery response from the Chinese government, which said: “Who represents the real threat to the

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, JOSH BOAK and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than one hour before the stock market closed on Monday, journalists gathered in the Oval Office for their only chance of the day to ask President Donald Trump about the turmoil caused by his tariff plans. Are the new tariffs, scheduled

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A waiver issued Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security allows the federal government to bypass environmental regulations and begin construction to add more barriers along the U.S-Mexico border in Southern California even as illegal crossings have plummeted. Homeland Security said in a statement that the waiver signed by Secretary

By CHINEDU ASADU and HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The three Americans convicted of participating in a botched coup attempt in Congo last year have been repatriated to the United States, days after their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, Congo’s presidency said Tuesday. The three will serve out their sentences

By TIA GOLDENBERG Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Washington for a hastily organized White House visit bringing a long list of concerns: Iran’s nuclear program. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The surging influence of rival Turkey in Syria. And the 18-month war in Gaza. Netanyahu appeared to

By VASILISA STEPANENKO Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military has captured two Chinese men fighting alongside the Russian army in the eastern Donetsk region and has information that “significantly more” are with Russian forces, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from China. Beijing is not known

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The roof of an iconic nightclub in the Dominican capital collapsed early Tuesday during a merengue concert attended by politicians, athletes and others, leaving at least 98 people dead and 160 injured, authorities said. Crews were searching for potential survivors

By DEE-ANN DURBIN AP Business Writer Olja Ivanic looked forward to welcoming some cousins from Sweden to her Denver home in June. Ivanic and the four travelers were planning to go hiking in Colorado and then visit Los Angeles and San Francisco. But then President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a February

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — The death toll from last month’s deadly nightclub fire in North Macedonia has risen to 61 after a second critically injured victim died while receiving treatment in Lithuania, authorities said. The North Macedonian Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday that a 29-year-old man, with severe burns and respiratory had died Monday. He

By SYLVIE CORBET Associated Press PARIS (AP) — The monthslong trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign is shedding light on France’s surprising back-channel talks with the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Family members of terrorist attacks sponsored by Gadhafi’s regime have told the

By JON GAMBRELL and AMIR VAHDAT Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran ‘s foreign minister said Tuesday he’ll meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman for the first negotiations under the Trump administration seeking to halt Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program as tensions remain high in the Middle East. Speaking to

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s military fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed the rivals’ tense border on Tuesday, South Korean officials said, the first known border intrusion by North Korea in nearly a year. Violent confrontations and bloodshed have occasionally happened at the Koreas’ heavily fortified

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and China sparred over tariff hikes and other retaliatory moves on Tuesday, as governments elsewhere were brainstorming strategies to cope with the trade war between the global economic giants. China said it will “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the

By The Associated Press Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight and into Tuesday killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics. Gaza’s Health Ministry says the bodies of 58 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO Associated Press AMORGOS, Greece (AP) — For more than 50 years, Spyridon Denaxas has prayed, worked and welcomed the faithful in an island monastery carved into a seaside cliff that’s little changed since its founding more than a millennium ago. Greece has rapidly secularized alongside the rest of Europe, and other Aegean

MOSCOW (AP) — NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and two Russian crewmates arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday on board a Russian spacecraft. A Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan to put the Soyuz MS-27 carrying the trio in orbit. They docked at the station

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s comptroller authority said Monday an audit found irregularities in the renewal of a 25-year port concession in the interoceanic canal and it would request an investigation into the authorization of the contract to a Hong Kong company. Comptroller-General Anel Flores said the audit found some payment defaults, accounting miscalculations and

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea will hold a snap presidential election June 3 to choose Yoon Suk Yeol’s successor after the conservative was ousted over his imposition of martial law late last year. The announcement from acting President Han Duck-soo came four days after the Constitutional Court unanimously

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Associated Press BEELITZ, Germany (AP) — Asparagus season has arrived in Germany, signaling the unofficial beginning of springtime. There is no other vegetable that Germans obsess about as much as white asparagus. They can discuss for hours whether it should be eaten with melted butter or Hollandaise sauce, served with smoked ham

By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry was treated unfairly when he was stripped of his British security detail, his attorney told appeals court judges Tuesday. Harry, whose rare appearance in court indicated the case’s importance to him, lost his government-funded protection in February 2020 after he stepped down from his role

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday it would “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the United States to safeguard its own interests after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports. The Commerce Ministry said the U.S.‘s imposition of “so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’” on China is “completely groundless and is a

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, SAMY MAGDY and DAVID BILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has ended funding to U.N. World Food Program emergency programs helping keep millions alive in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and 11 other impoverished countries, many of them struggling with conflict, according to the organization and officials who spoke to The

By SONIA PÉREZ D. Associated Press GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — An altar from the Teotihuacan culture, at the pre-Hispanic heart of what became Mexico, was discovered in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the center of Mayan culture, demonstrating the interaction between the two societies, Guatemala’s Culture and Sports Ministry announced Monday. The enormous city-state of

By MOLLY QUELL Associated Press BEMMEL, Netherlands (AP) — The Netherlands expanded a government-run initiative on Monday allowing legal cannabis sales. While growing cannabis is still illegal, cannabis shops — known as coffeeshops — in 10 municipalities will be allowed to sell marijuana from 10 licensed producers. “Weed was sold here legally for 50 years,

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administrated has canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Department of Labor division administered to combat child labor and slave labor around the world. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over

By MATTHEW LEE AP Diplomatic Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The appointment of a junior foreign service officer to serve as the senior official in the State Department’s personnel office is facing opposition and concern from current and former U.S. diplomats and their union. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents U.S. diplomats, the American Academy

By MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writer Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers. Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct “designed to gain notoriety and

By DÁNICA COTO Associated Press SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — More than 260 people were killed during recent gang attacks on two communities in Haiti’s capital, according to a report on Monday by the U.N. political mission in Haiti that questioned the delay in the response by authorities. The report notes that during the

By YEHOR KONOVALOV and ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press KRYVYI RIH, Ukraine (AP) — Anger and outrage gripped the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday as it held funerals for some of the 20 people, including nine children, killed by a Russian missile that tore through apartment buildings and blasted a playground. More than

By AAMER MADHANI, TIA GOLDENBERG and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will hold direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program, while warning the Iranians they would be in “great danger” if the talks don’t succeed in persuading them to abandon their nuclear weapons program. For