NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks pulled back from their record heights on a shaky Wall Street. The S&P 500 fell 0.4% Thursday to halt its weekslong rally. The Dow Jones lost 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.9%. Stocks also took a hit after the price for a barrel of Brent crude briefly jumped above $107.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Four candidates to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations will audition for the job this week, far fewer than there were 10 years ago when António Guterres was selected as U.N. chief.

BANGKOK (AP) – China’s role as an unofficial mediator in the latest war in the Middle East is drawing attention across the world as it seeks to project the image of being a responsible global power while U.S. actions are straining its long-standing alliances.

MADRID (AP) – Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader María Corina Machado drew several thousand supporters Saturday to a rally in Madrid, where the Nobel laureate declined a meeting with Spain’s progressive Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on a multicountry European tour.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) – Pope Leo XIV urged the United States and Iran to return to talks to end the war Thursday and condemned capital punishment, in a wide-ranging press conference en route home from his trip to Africa.

LIMA, Peru (AP) – Peruvian interim President José María Balcázar has deferred the decision to purchase 24 fighter jets valued at $3.5 billion to his successor who will emerge after a runoff in the country’s presidential election.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

CAIRO (AP) – The U.S. imposed sanctions on three people and two firms over allegedly recruiting and deploying Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s war, which has entered its fourth year with no end in sight.