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By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired several ballistic missiles into the sea Monday, South Korea’s military said, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops kicked off their large annual combined drills, which the North views as an invasion rehearsal. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile firings, North Korea’s fifth missile launch event this year, were detected from the North’s southwestern Hwanghae province. It called the weapons close-range but didn’t say how far they flew. The military said South Korea bolstered its surveillance posture and is closely coordinating with the United States. Earlier Monday, the South Korean and U.S. militaries began their annual Freedom Shield command post exercise, their first major combined training of President Donald Trump’s second term. The allies have already been engaging in diverse field training exercises in connection with the Freedom Shield training. North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned Monday the latest training risks triggering “physical conflict” on the Korean Peninsula. It called the drills an “aggressive and confrontational war rehearsal” and reiterated leader Kim Jong Un’s stated goals for

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration had finished its six-week purge of programs of the six-decade-old U.S. Agency for International Development, and said he would move the 18% of aid and development programs that survived under the State Department. Rubio made the announcement in a post on X. It marked one of his relatively few public comments on what has been a historic shift away from U.S. foreign aid and development, executed by Trump political appointees at State and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams. Rubio in the post thanked DOGE and “our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform” in foreign aid. President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all of the tens of billions of dollars of U.S. aid and development work abroad. Trump charged that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda. Rubio’s social media post Monday said that review was now “officially ending,”

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s next prime minister has helped run two Group of Seven economies in crisis before and now will try to steer Canada through a looming trade war brought by U.S. President Donald Trump, a threat of annexation and an expected federal election. Former central banker Mark Carney will become prime minister after the governing Liberal Party elected him its leader Sunday in a landside vote with 85.9% support. Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January but remains prime minister until his successor is sworn in in the coming days. Carney is widely expected to trigger an election the coming days or weeks amid Trump’s sweeping tariff threats. Canada ‘didn’t ask for this fight’ “We didn’t ask for this fight. But Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves,” Carney said. “The Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.” Carney said Canada will keep its initial retaliatory tariffs in place until “the Americans show us respect.” Carney navigated crises when he was the

Australian police say a wave of seemingly antisemitic attacks and threats was really a “fabricated terrorist plot, essentially a criminal con job.”

Pope Francis is participating in the Vatican’s weeklong spiritual retreat from a Rome hospital as he continued his recovery on Monday from double pneumonia and looks ahead to the 12th anniversary of his election amid questions about what the future of his papacy might look like. Francis followed the opening of the retreat by videoconference on Sunday: He could see and hear the Rev. Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, but the priests, bishops and cardinals in the Vatican auditorium couldn’t see or hear him. Pasolini delivered a meditation on “The hope of eternal life,” a theme that was chosen well before Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 with a complex lung infection. Members of different organizations of volunteers follow Cardinal Michael Czerny celebrating a mass for the world of volunteers in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican. AP Photo/Francisco Seco The retreat, which is an annual gathering that kicks off the Catholic Church’s solemn Lenten season leading to Easter, continues through the week. The Vatican has said Francis would participate “in spiritual communion” with the rest of the hierarchy

European shares dropped Monday after a mixed trading session in Asia as uncertainty persisted over what President Donald Trump will do with tariffs. Germany’s DAX lost 0.6% to 22,874.88, while the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.3% to 8,098.98. Britain’s FTSE 100 shed 0.3% to 8,653.22. The future for the S&P 500 was down 1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8%. Shares in China led losses in Asia, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down 1.9% at 23,783.49. The Shanghai Composite index shed 0.2% to 3,366.16. In the latest sign of weakness for the world’s second-largest economy, consumer prices fell in China in February for the first time in 13 months, the government reported Sunday, as persistent weak demand was compounded by the early timing of the Lunar New Year holiday. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 0.4% to 37,028.27. Japan’s trade minister, Yoji Muto, was visiting Washington for talks on ways to avert higher U.S. tariffs on Japanese exports of steel, aluminum, and automobiles. “Taking into account the voices we have heard from the industrial sector, we would like to

Canada selected a new prime minister-elect on Sunday night, as Justin Trudeau’s reign nears a close amid a trade war with the United States. Canada’s Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau after party members voted in a nominating contest between four candidates. In his acceptance speech, Carney addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and the threat Trump has posed towards the country, calling the current events the “greatest crisis of our lifetimes.” “We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win,” Carney said. Indirectly addressing Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., Carney added, “America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form.” Carney also criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and said he supports the retaliatory tariffs Canada has imposed on the U.S. “Donald Trump has put, as we know, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we

MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WPVI) — Officials are investigating after a small plane went down on Sunday near a retirement village in Lancaster County. According to authorities, all five passengers onboard were rushed to local hospitals. Luckily, no one on the ground was hurt. The plane crash occurred around 3 p.m., according to the FAA, which said it will investigate. The National Transportation Safety Board is also monitoring the situation. Thick Black smoke and raging flames filled the air after a Beechcraft Bonanza with five people on board crashed shortly after taking off from the Lancaster Airport. “Obviously they had heavy fire upon arrival from the aircraft and had to extinguish it. At this point, it’s under control and fire is all out,” explained Fire Chief Manheim Township Fire, Scott Little. Out of caution, Brethren Retirement Village issued a shelter-in-place. The plane luckily did not crash into any buildings. Twelve cars were damaged due to the crash. “At no point was anyone on the ground injured [and] at no point did the plane or aircraft strike the structure,” noted Duane Fisher the Chief of Police for

Which wedding vests are best? The vest is the fundamental element of the three-piece suit, and it can help you appear classically elegant. The vest has become a more generic term, while the vest portion of a three-piece suit is also often referred to as a waistcoat. Style always evolves, and there are multiple factors to consider before purchasing a wedding vest, such as the style and color of your suit, the formality of the venue and even the time of year. Our top pick is Coofandy Slim fit casual Suit Vest. What to know before you buy a wedding vest Size Sizing is important and it may vary between styles, but you want the vest to be comfortable, yet snug enough to fit over the shirt and under the jacket. You don’t want a bulky vest or a vest that is too short or long. When selecting a size for your wedding vest, make sure to consider length. You want the vest to fall an inch past your belt loops. Color Gray and black are the most traditional colors for a vest and a

Gary Jones’ body was found in about 45 feet of water a month after Joycelyn Wilson was found dead near Jones’ empty fishing boat, officials said.

An infant and woman were killed and ten other people hurt in a house fire in Cincinnati that the city’s fire chief described as “hellish.”

Morgan Harris was one of the Indigenous women slain by Jeremy Skibicki, who is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted of four murders last year.

Hospital-based violence intervention programs have operated in the U.S. since the mid-1990s, but recent moves by the Trump White House are raising anxiety about the programs’ future.