AP World News

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

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Undeterred by a panicked stock market, President Donald Trump threatened additional tariffs on China on Monday, raising fresh concerns that his drive to rebalance the global economy could intensify a financially destructive trade war. Trump’s threat came after China said it would retaliate against

ROME (AP) — King Charles III arrived in Rome on Monday for a state visit to Italy on his first overseas trip since being briefly hospitalized for side effects of cancer treatment. Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch,

By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on Monday hit next to a charity kitchen where Palestinians crowded to receive cooked meals as food supplies dwindle under Israel’s monthlong blockade of the Gaza Strip, one of a string of attacks in the territory that killed

BANGKOK (AP) — Long-shot efforts to find survivors from Myanmar’s devastating March 28 earthquake were winding down Monday, as rescue efforts were supplanted by increasing relief and recovery activity. The death toll surpassed 3,600 and was still climbing. A situation report issued late Monday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, LORNE COOK and DAVID McHUGH AP Business Writer BRUSSELS (AP) — America’s trading partners wrestled with responses to U.S. President Donald Trump’s blast of tariff hikes and some planned to send negotiators to Washington, while the head of the European Union’s executive commission offered mutual reduction of tariffs – while warning that

By SAM MEDNICK Associated Press TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel has dramatically expanded its footprint in the Gaza Strip since relaunching its war against Hamas last month. It now controls more than 50% of the territory and is squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land. The largest contiguous area the army controls is around

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in the restive northwest near the Afghan border, killing nine militants, the military said Monday. The military said in a statement that a high-value militant whom it identified as Shireen was among the insurgents killed in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

MOSCOW (AP) — An appellate court in Russia’s far east on Monday reduced the prison sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested

By The Associated Press U.S. stocks are falling in a manic Monday after President Donald Trump doubled down on his tariffs, despite seeing how much financial markets would love to see him do the opposite. The S&P 500 was down 1.4% in midday trading, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global

By COLLEEN BARRY and ANDREA ROSA Associated Press CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Zen, a 5-year-old border collie, circled friskily around a mound of snow as he picked up a scent, his quick movements signaling to his handler that someone was buried deep below. Zen has been a rescue dog for three years, and on

By MEGAN JANETSKY Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — At a Mexican military base, Captain Eduardo Barrón picks up not a rifle but a microphone. Swaying boot-to-boot, he belts out a song as the sounds of trumpets and accordions roar from a band of a dozen camouflage-clad soldiers. The rhythmic style — known as a

By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON and FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S., digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that

By GRANT PECK Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — People in Myanmar’s earthquake-stricken areas braced for thunderstorms late Sunday, after heavy rains and winds the previous night disrupted rescue and relief operations and added to the misery of the many who lost their homes in the disaster and were forced to sleep in the open. Myanmar’s

By THOMAS ADAMSON Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Convicted of embezzling public funds and banned from running for office, far-right politician Marine Le Pen stood unshaken before a sea of French flags in Paris on Sunday. “For 30 years I have fought against injustice,” she told the crowd. “And I will continue to fight.” Thousands

By CARA ANNA Associated Press The United States once cheered the creation of South Sudan as an independent nation. Now the Trump administration has abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying the country’s government has failed to accept the return of its citizens “in a timely manner.” The decision means South Sudanese could

By SAM METZ and AKRAM OUBACHIR Associated Press RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Tens of thousands of Moroccans on Sunday protested Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza, putting fury toward U.S. President Donald Trump near the center of their grievances. In the largest protest Morocco has seen in months, demonstrators denounced Israel, the United States and their