Thousands of protesters on cars and motorbikes took to the streets of Colombia's main cities on Monday to reject recent hikes in gasoline prices that have drastically increased the price of fuel in the South American country.

Protesters say that the monthly price hikes set by Colombia's first leftist government are making it harder for small businesses to operate, and could push up the price of food.

All 28 vehicle assembly lines at Toyota's 14 auto plants in Japan shut down Tuesday over a problem in its computer system that deals with incoming auto parts.

The automaker doesn't believe the problem was caused by a cyberattack but the cause is still under investigation, said spokeswoman Sawako Takeda.

The Vatican on Tuesday sought to tamp down an uproar that erupted after Pope Francis praised Russia's imperialist past during a video conference with Russian Catholic youths, insisting that he never intended to encourage modern-day Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said Francis merely wanted to praise the positive aspects of Russia's spiritual and cultural history when he praised Russia's imperial rulers Peter and Catherine the Great, encouraged young people to remember that past and praised their way of "being Russian."

The top Chinese official in charge of economic relations with Washington told Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Tuesday he was ready to "make new positive efforts" to improve cooperation following an agreement to reduce trade tension by launching groups to discuss export controls and other commercial disputes.

The agreement Monday was the most substantial result to date out of a string of visits by American officials to Beijing over the last three months to revive relations that are at their lowest level in decades. They express optimism about better communication, but neither side has given a sign it is ready to compromise on disputes about technology, security, human rights and other irritants.

President Joe Biden will observe next month's 22nd anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil at an Alaska military base with service members and their families, the White House announced.

Biden will not participate in any of the observances at 9/11 memorial sites in New York City, Virginia or Pennsylvania. Instead, the president will stop in Alaska for a Sept. 11 observance at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage on his way back to Washington after a trip to Asia.

President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend the funeral for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said, following reports that the mercenary chief who challenged the Russian leader's authority would be buried Tuesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't say where or when the chief of the Wagner Group military company would be buried, adding that he couldn't comment on a private family ceremony.

A new coalition of Egyptian political parties has publicly criticized the country's current government for persecuting politicians, in a rare act of political dissent.

In a news conference Monday, Emad Gad, a spokesmen for the Free Current coalition, said the practices of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi's government "represent a severe danger to the political and economic future of our country."

The United Nations' top official in Yemen has warned that the Arab world's poorest country will remain a powder keg for renewed war unless its rival factions work out a new cease-fire deal.

Hans Grundberg, the U.N. special representative for Yemen, told The Associated Press the situation in the conflict-stricken country is fragile nearly a year after the internationally recognized government and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels failed to renew a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.

Jeanette Kiokun, the tribal clerk for the Qutekcak Native Tribe in Alaska, doesn't immediately recognize the shriveled, brown plant she finds on the shore of the Salish Sea or others that were sunburned during the long, hot summer. But a fellow student at a weeklong tribal climate camp does.

They are rosehips, traditionally used in teas and baths by the Skokomish Indian Tribe in Washington state and other tribes.

Taiwan's weather authorities warned residents of heavy rain and strong winds starting Wednesday as Typhoon Saola skirts by the island's southern coast on its way to China's southern coast.

The typhoon is moving northwest with sustained winds of 162 kph (101 mph) and gusts of up to 198 kph (123 mph), according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau. The typhoon's eye won't hit Taiwan's mainland, but is expected to graze the island's southern cities with its outer bands.