DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran’s joint military command warned Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” ratcheting up tensions again over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies.

Russian attack kills at least 20 and causes damage across Kyiv

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are reviving a line of attack against Democrats heading into the midterm elections: They’re communists. In just the past week, Trump has issued dark warnings that members of the Democratic Party’s ascendant left are communists who want to “completely destroy the traditional American way of life” and even engage in assassinations.

Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:

BANGKOK (AP) – An 11-year-old boy crashed a pickup truck into a group of monks on a pilgrimage walk in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, killing nine, officials said. A total of 35 monks from Mukdahan province, about 600 kilometers (372 miles) northeast of the capital Bangkok, were on the pilgrimage.

Residents face scenes of destruction as Russia launches a massive attack on Kyiv

The Trump administration is proposing a new rule to keep hospitals from charging markups on discounted drugs for Medicare patients and says that could save consumers $1.1 billion next year, according to estimates obtained by the AP. The rule expected Thursday comes as the Republican administration tries to show it’s tackling the challenges of affordability for U.S. families.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican responded aggressively Thursday to a traditionalist group that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent, declaring the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church. It excommunicated its bishops and priests, and warned its faithful that they too face the harshest sanctions in the church.