ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Bringing back factory jobs is one of the most popular of White House promises — regardless of who happens to be the president.

Donald Trump said he’d do it with tariffs. Barack Obama said companies would start “insourcing.” George W. Bush said tax cuts would do the trick. But factory jobs seemed to struggle to fully return after each recession.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Senior lawmakers from the United States and Europe are calling for a change in the Western diplomatic approach toward Serbia and Kosovo amid concern that tensions between the two could rapidly spiral out of control.

In the letter, signed by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his counterparts in Germany, the U.K., Ukraine and other countries, the lawmakers said U.S. and European Union negotiators were not putting enough pressure on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. (AP) — Declaring it good “not only for Arizona but for the planet,” President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality.

WINDHAM, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday kept up his attacks on special counsel Jack Smith and vowed to continue talking about his criminal cases even as prosecutors sought a protective order to limit the evidence that Trump and his team could share.

In the early voting state of New Hampshire, Trump assailed Smith as a “thug prosecutor” and a “deranged guy” a week after being indicted on felony charges for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two trade groups in the United States have expressed their support for TikTok and its creators in their legal battle to prevent the state of Montana from banning the popular social media platform.

NetChoice, a national trade association that includes major tech platforms, and Chamber of Progress, a tech-industry coalition, filed a friend-of-the-court brief, or Brief of Amici Curiae, in support of TikTok late Monday, said a release by NetChoice on Tuesday.

TEHRAN, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian diplomat has accused the United States of deliberately perpetuating instability in Afghanistan, aiming to generate crises for neighboring countries after its unsuccessful two-decade occupation.

In an interview with Iran's state news agency IRNA on Wednesday, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's special representative for Afghanistan, alleged that the United States has been sponsoring "terrorist" groups in Afghanistan after it withdrew all its forces from the Central Asian country in 2021.

LONDON, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Police officers in Northern Ireland have been left "incredibly vulnerable" after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) accidentally made public the private details of every staff member.

The surname, initial, rank or grade, work location and department of all PSNI staff, numbering around 10,000, were published online in error in response to a freedom of information request on Tuesday.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — An explosion on the grounds of a factory that makes optical equipment for Russia’s security forces injured 56 people Wednesday north of Moscow, six of them severely, officials said.

The blast occurred at a warehouse storing fireworks but was on the grounds of the Zagorsk optics manufacturing plant, Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the region surrounding the Russian capital, said.

ROME, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Forty one migrants are thought to have died in a shipwreck last week in the central Mediterranean, Italian authorities and United Nations agencies said on Wednesday, citing survivors who have been taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Local public prosecutor Salvatore Vella and three U.N. agencies confirmed media reports that four people who survived the shipwreck had told rescuers they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children.

WARSAW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Poland will send 2,000 troops to its frontier with Belarus, the deputy interior minister told state-run news agency PAP on Wednesday, twice the number requested by the Border Guard, to stem illegal crossings and maintain stability.

Poland has worried increasingly about the border area since hundreds of battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived in Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko.

MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/: Western countries' statements about providing security guarantees to Ukraine are empty, groundless excuses, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Security guarantees presuppose the words 'guarantees' and 'security' and, overall, a range of certain characteristics as well, but these are missing here. No one here can even say anything about it, so these are empty, absolutely groundless excuses that are becoming more and more numerous," the diplomat told Sputnik Radio.

ANKARA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye is poised for a good tourism season, but meeting the targets for 2023 will be challenging due to the country's high inflation and lack of affordable options for budget-conscious foreign travelers, said industry insiders.

The number of tourists visiting Türkiye in the first half of this year increased by 17 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 22.9 million, Tourism and Culture Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on July 31 in Istanbul.