Panama's Maritime Authority has canceled the registry of more than 650 vessels since 2019 as part of an effort to fulfill US sanctions and enforce stricter rules for the ships it flags, it said in a release on Monday.A total of 214 vessels have been withdrawn from Panama's ship registry, among the world's largest, since it began implementing new rules last year to enforce sanctions, the government added. The Central American nation is collaborating with the United States on its vessel registry, it said.

Russian shelling killed at least five people on Monday in different frontline areas of eastern Ukraine, officials said.Vadym Filashkin, governor of Donetsk region, the focal point of the Russian military's slow westward advance, said one person was killed and two injured in the city of Kramatorsk.Filashkin said two more people were killed and three injured further south in the town of Illinivka.In Kharkiv region, farther to the north, prosecutors said two women were killed in a village south of Kupiansk, which has come under heavy Russian attack for months. The mayor of Kupiansk last month said his city was 90% destroyed.

A senior official in Republican US President Donald Trump's Justice Department told staff on Monday that he has been directed to investigate clemency granted by Democrat Joe Biden in the waning days of his presidency to members of his family and death row inmates.Ed Martin, the Justice Department's pardon attorney, wrote in an email seen by Reuters that the investigation involves whether Biden "was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means."An autopen is a device used to automatically affix a signature to a document. Trump and his supporters have made a variety of unfounded claims that Biden's use of the device while president invalidated his actions or suggested that he was not fully aware of these actions. It is not known whether Biden used autopen on pardons.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud spoke on Monday about Ukraine and Russia talks, stabilization in Syria and the situation in Gaza, the State Department said.

The IDF shot at several suspects who advanced towards troops about half a kilometer from the aid distribution site of the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation after initially firing warning shots on Tuesday, the military said.The suspects were seen deviating from the designated access routes at the site. The military said it is aware of reports regarding casualties, and the details of the incident are being looked into. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claimed that 24 Palestinians were killed while waiting for aid in Rafah early Tuesday morning, Reuters reported.

Spain's Defense Ministry has suspended the license of an Israeli company intending to manufacture missiles in Spain, local media reported on Tuesday afternoon.The missiles were intended to equip the Army and Marine Corps units.Pap-Tecnos is the Spanish subsidiary of the Israeli firm Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and had been awarded a €285 million contract to develop 168 firing points and 1,680 Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles.Last Friday, Spanish Secretary of State for Defense Amparo Valcarce stated that the government was working on "disengagement plans" to avoid depending on Israel "in any way."