COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — World War II veteran Jake Larson, a 100-year-old American best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake," enjoyed giving hugs to the many fans he met during his trip to Normandy for D-Day commemorations. Larson, who has more than 600,000 followers on TikTok, attended a ceremony on Tuesday at the American Cemetery marking the 79th anniversary of the assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control.

ON OMAHA BEACH, France (AP) — An overwhelming sound of gunfire and men’s screams. That’s how World War II veteran Marie Scott described D-Day, as Tuesday's ceremonies got underway in honor of those who fought for freedom in the largest naval, air and land operation in history. This year's tribute to the young soldiers who died in Normandy also reminds veterans, officials and visitors what Ukraine faces today.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The wall of a major dam in southern Ukraine collapsed Tuesday, triggering floods, endangering Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides in the war rushed to evacuate residents and blamed each other for the destruction. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper River in an area that Moscow controls, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the contested area.

PARIS (AP) — France’s beloved abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel has reached a ripe old age. It's been 1,000 years since the laying of its first stone. The millennial of the UNESCO World Heritage site and key Normandy tourism magnet is being celebrated until November with exhibits, dance shows and concerts. French President Emmanuel Macron is heading there on Monday.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces were making a major effort to punch through Russian defensive lines in southeast Ukraine for a second day, a Moscow-installed official said Monday as Russia's Defense Ministry declared that it had foiled an assault in an illegally annexed region of the invaded country.

ON UTAH BEACH, France (AP) — Looking at the vastness of Utah Beach, its sand blowing in strong wind and bright sunshine, made Robert Gibson's memory of D-Day even more vivid. “It was tough,” the 99-year-old veteran said of the moment when he landed there on June 6, 1944, alongside more than 150,000 other Allied troops.

BANGKOK (AP) — The United States military released video Monday of what it called an “unsafe” Chinese maneuver in the Taiwan Strait on the weekend, in which a Chinese navy ship cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the U.S. vessel to slow to avoid a collision. The incident occurred Saturday as the American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a so-called “freedom of navigation” transit of the strait between Taiwan and mainland China.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy said Monday its sailors and the United Kingdom Royal Navy came to the aid of a ship in the crucial Strait of Hormuz after Iran's Revolutionary Guard “harassed” it. Three fast-attack Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Old cars, used tires and barbed wire block off the biggest neighborhood in the capital of Haiti. Gun-toting gangsters have been robbing, raping and murdering the innocent. Weak or corrupt police and officials have done little, or worse. Now, the people are taking action and a wave of brutal vigilante justice is roiling Haiti, concentrated in this capital of about 1 million.

SINGAPORE (AP) — China's defense minister defended sailing a warship across the path of an American destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait, telling a gathering of some of the world's top defense officials in Singapore on Sunday that such so-called “freedom of navigation” patrols are a provocation to China.