CAIRO (AP) — Egypt will receive $500 million loan from the World Bank to help the Arab world's most populous country finance its purchases of wheat. The World Bank says the funds will help Egypt’s government finance procurement of imported wheat. Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer and the country’s supply is subject to price changes on the international market.

LONDON (AP) — Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has told lawmakers in Edinburgh that she plans to hold a fresh referendum on Scottish independence on Oct. 19, 2023. That's despite U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it wasn’t the right time for such a vote. Scottish voters rejected independence in the 2014 referendum.

MADRID (AP) — Turkey has agreed to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, a breakthrough in an impasse clouding a leaders’ summit in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades triggered by the war in Ukraine. After urgent top-level talks, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”

KREMENCHUK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians are feared killed or injured after a Russian missile strike hit a crowded shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the number of victims “unimaginable” and labeled it a “terrorist attack.”

ELMAU, Germany (AP) — Leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies have struck a united stance to support Ukraine for “as long as necessary” as Russia’s invasion grinds on, and said Tuesday they would explore far-reaching steps to cap Kremlin income from oil sales that are financing the war.

BERLIN (AP) — A 101-year-old man has been convicted in Germany of more than 3,500 counts of accessory to murder for serving at the Nazis' Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. The Neuruppin Regional Court sentenced him to five years in prison on Tuesday. The man, who was identified by local media as Josef S., had denied being an SS guard at the camp.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Authorities say a fire at a prison in southwestern Colombia has killed at least 51 people and injured a dozen more. National prisons director Tito Castellanos tells Radio Caracol that it’s not clear if all of the dead were prisoners. He says the fire broke out during what appeared to be an attempted riot early Tuesday at the medium security prison in the city of Tulua.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South African authorities are seeking answers after 21 underage teenagers partying after the end of exams died in a mysterious weekend incident at a nightclub. The bodies of many of the victims were discovered by police lying on tables, slumped over chairs and couches, and sprawled on the dance floor of the club in the early hours of Sunday morning.

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians are feared killed or injured after a Russian rocket strike hit a crowded shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post Monday that the number of victims was “unimaginable,” citing reports that more than 1,000 civilians were inside at the time of the attack.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Explorers say they found the wreckage of the USS Samuel B. Roberts, a U.S. Navy destroyer that engaged a superior Japanese fleet in the largest sea battle of World War II in the Philippines. They say it's the deepest wreck ever discovered at 22,916 feet.

WASINI, Kenya (AP) — Minutes away from the Kenyan mainland, the densely forested island of Wasini is one of several starting lines for coral reef restoration efforts in the western Indian Ocean. On a rare calm day during the normally turbulent monsoon season, four divers, carrying measuring equipment, shoes and toothbrushes descended in turns to the sea-bed reef restoration site on the Shimoni channel.

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — The governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region says Russia is mounting an all-out assault on the last Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern region, “pouring fire” from the ground and air. It comes as Western leaders meet in Germany to discuss ways of bolstering support for Kyiv.

ELMAU, Germany (AP) — Leading economic powers conferred by video link with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they underscored their commitment to Ukraine for the long haul. Group of Seven leaders in their Monday meeting in the German Alps were finalizing plans to pursue a price cap on Russian oil, raise tariffs on Russian goods and impose other new sanctions.

MOSCOW (AP) — More than four months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport for cannabis possession, American basketball star Brittney Griner has appeared in court for a preliminary hearing ahead of her trial.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian state television says says that Tehran has launched a solid-fueled rocket into space, drawing a rebuke from Washington ahead of the expected resumption of stalled talks over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has shattered weeks of relative calm in Ukraine's capital with a missile attack as Western leaders meeting in Europe prepared to reaffirm their support for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia. President Volodymr Zelenskyy said a 37-year-old man was killed and his daughter and wife injured when missiles hit an apartment building.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African police are investigating the deaths of at least 21 people at a nightclub in the coastal town of East London Sunday and authorities say most of the victims were minors as young as 13-year-old. It is unclear what led to the deaths of the young people, who were reportedly attending a party to celebrate the end of winter school exams.

CONSTANTA, Romania (AP) — With Ukraine’s seaports blockaded or captured by Russian forces, neighboring Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta has emerged as a main conduit for the war-torn country’s grain exports amid a growing world food crisis. It’s Romania’s biggest port, home to Europe’s fastest-loading grain terminal, and has processed nearly a million tons of grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat and corn, since the Feb. 24 invasion.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A regional governor in eastern Ukraine says that the country's troops will retreat from a besieged city to avoid encirclement. The city of Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region, has faced relentless Russian bombardment.

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — An aftershock took more lives and threatened to pile even more misery on an area of eastern Afghanistan reeling from a powerful earthquake that state media said killed 1,150 people this week.

BERLIN (AP) — The head of the United Nations has warned the world faces “catastrophe” because of the growing shortage of food around the globe. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the war in Ukraine has fueled an “unprecedented global hunger crisis” already affecting hundreds of millions of people.

LONDON (AP) — After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand is back, but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the COVID-19 crisis are struggling to keep up. With the busy summer tourism season underway in Europe, passengers are encountering chaotic scenes at airports, including lengthy delays, canceled flights and headaches over lost luggage.

GAYAN, Afghanistan (AP) — Villagers rushed to bury the dead and dug by hand through the rubble of their homes in search of survivors of a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. Wednesday's quake killed at least 1,000 people.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities say Russia's military captured two villages in eastern Ukraine and were vying for control of a key highway in a continued offensive on the frontline. The capture of the two villages in the embattled Donbas region came as part of blistering offensive in recent weeks in and around the pivotal city of Sievierodonetsk.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are set to grant Ukraine a candidate status to join the 27-nation bloc. It's a first step in a long and unpredictable journey toward full membership that could take many years to complete.