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Days before Germany’s federal elections, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step: the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread COVID-19 misinformation and encourage violent responses to COVID restrictions.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Daily Stormer website advocates for the purity of the white race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated murders.

ZHUHAI, China (AP) — A military drone whose manufacturer says it can cruise for 20 hours at 15,000 meters (50,000 feet) was among Chinese warplanes, missiles and other weapons technology shown in public for the first time Tuesday at the opening of the country’s biggest air show.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A computer-graphic-soaked advertisement featuring Australian actor and Hollywood heartthrob Chris Hemsworth beckons the world to Dubai's upcoming Expo 2020, promising a “world of pure imagination” as children without facemasks race across a futuristic carnival scene.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's newly elected lawmakers are holding their first meetings on Tuesday as their parties digest the fallout of the election that reduced outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's bloc to its worst-ever result and start the process of putting together a new government.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare moment of ethical controversy for the Federal Reserve, two top officials resigned Monday in the wake of revelations about their financial trading that exposed potential shortcomings in the Fed's rules on investments.

GLENDALE, Ky. (AP) — Ford and a partner company say they plan to build three major electric-vehicle battery factories and an auto assembly plant by 2025 — a dramatic investment in the future of EV technology that will create an estimated 10,800 jobs and shift the automaker's future manufacturing footprint toward the South.

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly fell Tuesday as concerns about China chipped away at investor optimism following a mixed finish on Wall Street.

France's CAC 40 declined 1.4% in early trading to 6,561.06.

Facebook is putting a hold on the development of a kids' version of Instagram, geared toward children under 13, to address concerns that have been raised about the vulnerability of younger users.

PARIS (AP) — France and Greece on Tuesday announced a major, multibillion-euro defense deal, including Athens’ decision to buy three French warships.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a defense and security strategic partnership in a joint news conference in Paris.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s government says the coronavirus state of emergency will end Thursday so the economy can be reactivated as infections slow.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that virus restrictions will be eased gradually.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — As Europe's economic powerhouse Germany embarks on the task of piecing together a new ruling coalition after Sunday's knife-edge election, observers need only look to its neighbors, Belgium and the Netherlands, to see how tricky the process can be.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Animal rights groups on Tuesday welcomed the South Korean president's offer to look into banning consumption of dog meat.

Dog meat is neither legal nor explicitly banned in South Korea.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired a short-range missile into the sea Tuesday at nearly the same moment its U.N. diplomat was decrying the U.S.'s “hostile policy” against it, in an apparent return to its pattern of mixing weapons displays with peace overtures to wrest outside concessions.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s planning minister says the government will begin a drive to vaccinate children aged 12 or above to protect them from coronavirus.

The announcement on Tuesday by Asad Umar comes amid a steady decline in fatalities from coronavirus across the country.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s planning minister says the government will begin a drive to vaccinate children aged 12 or above to protect them from coronavirus.

The announcement on Tuesday by Asad Umar comes amid a steady decline in fatalities from coronavirus across the country.

TOKYO (AP) — The stakes are high as Japanese governing party members vote Wednesday for four candidates seeking to replace Yoshihide Suga as prime minister. The next leader must address a pandemic-battered economy, a newly empowered military operating in a dangerous neighborhood, crucial ties with an inward-focused ally, Washington, and tense security standoffs with an emboldened China and its ally North Korea.

CHESTER, Mont. (AP) — Trevor Fossen was running late for a wedding Saturday afternoon when he turned onto a dusty, gravel road in rural Montana as a westbound train approached the crossing in front of him.

HAMPTON, S.C. (AP) — Ask any of the 2,600 residents in this South Carolina town whether they know Alex Murdaugh, and you’ll probably get a quick nod.

BEIJING (AP) — The World Bank on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for developing countries in East Asia due to the impact of the coronavirus’s delta variant and called on governments to help the poor and small businesses avoid long-term damage.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The drama and deadlines driving action on Capitol Hill right now can be disorienting. Democrats are trying to pass more than $4 trillion in infrastructure and social programs at the center of President Joe Biden’s agenda — and at the same time avert a government shutdown and prevent a federal default that could send financial markets crashing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators blocked a bill to keep the government operating and allow federal borrowing, but Democrats aiming to avert a shutdown pledged to try again — at the same time pressing ahead on President Joe Biden’s big plans to reshape government.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Daily Stormer website advocates for the white race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated murders.

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly fell Tuesday as concerns about China chipped away at investor optimism following a mixed finish on Wall Street.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 0.3% to 30,139.65.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Facing a Justice Department lawsuit over Alabama's notoriously violent prisons, state lawmakers on Monday began a special session on a $1.3 billion construction plan that would use federal pandemic relief funds to pay part of the cost of building massive new lockups.

Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, will invest $3.5 billion within the next 10 years to address the climate crisis, a spokesperson for Emerson Collective, Jobs’ organization, said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators blocked a bill Monday night to keep the government operating and allow federal borrowing, but Democrats aiming to avert a shutdown pledged to try again — at the same time pressing ahead on President Joe Biden’s big plans to reshape government.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — With a statewide eviction moratorium ending Friday, officials in California are rushing to make sure tenants with unpaid rent know they can still stay in their homes after that date — but only if they have applied for assistance from the state.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter's application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman's direct supervisor and the state labor secretary.

BEIJING (AP) — Global shoppers face possible shortages of smartphones and other goods ahead of Christmas after power cuts to meet official energy use targets forced Chinese factories to shut down and left some households in the dark.

JOPLIN, Mont. (AP) — An Amtrak train that derailed in rural Montana over the weekend was going just under the speed limit at about 75 mph (121 kph) when it went off the track along a gradual curve, killing three people and possibly ejecting passengers, U.S.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that two Canadians detained in late 2019 who were allowed to return to Canada in a prisoner swap were released on bail for health reasons.

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge on Monday struck down Republican-passed Arizona laws that block schools from requiring masks and restrict the power of local governments to impose COVID-19 requirements, the latest turn in a nationwide legal battle over pandemic rules.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of families sickened and forced from their Los Angeles homes after the nation’s largest-known natural gas leak have reached a settlement of up to $1.8 billion with a utility, attorneys said Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is preparing to tell Congress that the current spike in U.S. inflation has proven to be larger and more long-lasting than expected.

But, in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday, he says that if inflation does not abate, the Fed is ready to use its tools to lower the pressure on prices.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Three gray wolves from a large pack in Yellowstone National Park that’s popular among tourists have been killed by Montana hunters, park officials said Monday.

The two female pups and a female yearling from the Junction Butte pack were killed outside the park's northern boundary in the first week after wolf season opened earlier this month, park officials said.