NEW YORK (AP) - A sell-off for stocks wrapped around the world and hit Wall Street. By the end of trading, the S&P 500 had sunk 0.9%. The index had been down as much as 2.5% in the morning. The Dow dropped 403 points, having plunged more than 1,200 earlier. The Nasdaq composite pared its loss to 1%.

Ukraine will see less economic growth this year due to extensive destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure by Russia over the winter, an international development bank said Thursday, as businesses struggle to keep going into the fifth year of Russia’s invasion.

BEIRUT (AP) – Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an “open war” with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. is moving to sever a small Swiss bank from access to the U.S. financial system for its alleged support for Iranian and Russian actors, as U.S. and Iranian officials hold indirect talks Thursday in Geneva over Tehran’s nuclear negotiations.

NEW YORK (AP) – For President Donald Trump, some of the sharpest criticism he’s faced in the early days of the Iran war has come from once-loyal media figures far more accustomed to singing his praises.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) – At least two South Africans have died fighting for Russia in the war in Ukraine after being tricked into traveling there by a recruitment scheme, South Africa’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Police in Kenya have arrested a man named in an alleged scheme that duped Kenyans with promises of skilled work in Russia, only for them to end up on the front lines of the fighting in Ukraine.