KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – When landlocked Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan started fighting late last year and their border crossings closed, Afghans turned to their western neighbor, Iran, for an alternate to Pakistan’s major shipping hub of Karachi.

CAIRO (AP) – The United States and Iran appear to be closing in on a deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that negotiations are “proceeding nicely,” while reiterating his warning that fighting would resume if no deal is reached.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

Today is Monday, May 25, the 145th day of 2026. There are 220 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading he couldn’t breathe.

NEW DELHI (AP) – The foreign ministers of Australia, India, Japan and the United States, also known as the Quad, are meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday on how to strengthen their cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and common concerns about China’s growing influence in the region.

TORONTO (AP) – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday compared Alberta’s vote on whether to move toward independence to Brexit, calling it a potential “dangerous bluff.”

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean retail tycoon Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday issued his second apology in two weeks as Starbucks’ local operation faces a backlash over a recent marketing campaign that was widely perceived as mocking victims of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea launched an unidentified projectile off its west coast Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, in what appeared to be the North’s latest weapons test this year.