By MATTHEW LEE, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to the Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis this week to reassert the Trump administration’s interests in the Western Hemisphere just a month after the U.S. military operation that removed then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.

With the eyes of much of the world on the U.S military buildup in the Middle East and President Donald Trump’s threats to attack Iran, Rubio will make a one-day visit to St. Kitts on Wednesday to participate in a summit of leaders from the Caribbean Community, the State Department said.

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Rubio has long championed a greater U.S. role in the Western Hemisphere and aims to keep it in focus even as Trump’s Republican administration has now shifted its top foreign policy priority to Iran, around which American forces are now massing in even larger numbers than in the run-up to the Jan. 3 Venezuela operation that captured and deposed Maduro.

Maduro has been accused in a U.S. court of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. and has pleaded not guilty.

Trump’s action against Maduro coupled with an increasingly aggressive posture aimed at eliminating drug trafficking and illegal migration have proven a concern for many in the region although they have also won support from some smaller states.

Trump, Rubio and others have likened the administration’s Western Hemisphere strategy to the Monroe Doctrine, with its rejection of outside influences and assertion of U.S. primacy throughout in what they consider to be “America’s backyard.”

Trump has said his ouster of Maduro, military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seizures of sanctioned oil tankers and tightened embargo of Cuba are key parts of a Trump corollary to the 19th-century policy that he refers to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”

In numerous group and bilateral meetings at the CARICOM meeting, Rubio intends to discuss ways to promote regional security and stability, trade and economic growth, the State Department said in a statement on Monday.

“During his visit, the Secretary will reaffirm the United States’ commitment to working with CARICOM member states to enhance stability and prosperity in our hemisphere,” it said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Kash Patel joined the American men’s hockey players in the locker room Sunday for a rowdy celebration of winning the gold medal in the Winter Olympics.

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While he was in Milan, the U.S. Secret Service shot and killed an armed man who had driven into Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Florida. Hours later, around the time the game against Canada was headed into overtime, Patel posted on X that the FBI was “dedicating all necessary resources in the investigation.”

Videos shared on social media showed a pumped-up Patel drinking beer from a bottle and spraying the rest around the locker room. After one of the players draped his gold medal around Patel’s neck, he joined the players as they jumped up and down.

“There was a threat at the president’s residence at MAL, Americans in Mexico are facing major threats by cartel members, Nancy Guthrie is still missing, and our FBI Director thinks he’s a frat bro?!,” Xochitl Hinojosa, the spokeswoman for former Attorney General Merrick Garland said on X.

Patel responded to the criticism by posting that he was “extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys.”

United States’ Jack Hughes (86), right, celebrates with teammates after scoring the game winning goal against Canada in sudden death overtime during the men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

The FBI director had defended his official trip to Italy by saying he was going to meet with Italian law enforcement officials and Americans helping to provide security at the Olympics. He posted pictures this week of his visit to the Milan Joint Operations Center, which he said was charged with protecting the security of American athletes and all those who traveled to Milan for the Winter Games. He also posted a photo of his meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Italy.

By SAM McNEIL

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top diplomats are set to meet Monday with the director of the Board of Peace in Brussels after a shaky and controversial embrace of President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, will meet the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia.

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“We want to be part of the peace process in Gaza and also contribute with what we have,” Kallas said ahead of the meeting.

Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.

The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split national capitals from Nicosia to Copenhagen. The EU is supportive of the United Nations’ mandate in Gaza.

EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are full members of the board, as are EU candidate countries Turkey, Kosovo and Albania.

Twelve other EU nations sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU flag was displayed at the event alongside EU observer and member nations.

European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen turned down invitation to join, as did Pope Leo XIV. But von der Leyen did send European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica to the meeting in Washington as an observer.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said sending Šuica without consulting the European Council, the group of the bloc’s leaders, broke EU regulations.

FILE – European Commissioner in charge for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Suica delivers her speech at the European Parliament during a debate on the protection of children and young people fleeing the war against Ukraine, Tuesday, April 5, 2022. In Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, file)

“The European Commission should never have attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington,” Barrot said in a post on X. “Beyond the legitimate political questions raised by the ‘Board of Peace,’ the Commission must scrupulously respect European law and institutional balance in all circumstances.”

“It is in the remit of the commission to accept invitations,” von der Leyen spokesperson Paula Pinho said Friday.

While the executive is not joining the board, it is seeking to influence reconstruction and peacekeeping in Gaza beyond being the top donor to the Palestinian Authority, she said.

Trump’s ballooning ambitions for the board extend from governing and rebuilding Gaza as a futuristic metropolis to challenging the U.N. Security Council’s role in solving conflicts. But they could be tempered by the realities of dealing with Gaza, where there has so far been limited progress in achieving the narrower aims of the ceasefire.

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. futures slipped and world markets were mixed on Monday after the Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.

Despite the ruling, tariffs aren’t going away. Trump said Friday he would use other avenues to tax imports, such as an executive order imposing a 10% global tariff that he later raised to 15%. He said he’s looking at other tariffs, including ones that would require Commerce Department investigations.

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Trump administration officials said they expect other countries to abide by trade agreements based on the tariffs that have been overturned. But the reaction to the latest developments has been tentative given uncertainty over what he will do.

The mixed reactions are “highlighting the winners-and-losers effect of shifts in tariff policy that has just delivered a boost to countries who previously had a comparatively bad deal,” Benjamin Picton of Rabobank said in a commentary.

“U.S. tariff policy will continue to be a source of uncertainty for markets as traders attempt to price in the implications of what is still a movable feast,” he wrote.

Bitcoin tumbled as much as 5% early Monday, dropping below $65,000, though it recovered about half of that decline later in the day. The sell-off has been driven by investors pulling out of speculative assets and concerns about future cryptocurrency regulation.

The original cryptocurrency, pitched as “digital gold,” has lost nearly half of its value since Oct. 6, when it hit a record high of $126,210.50.

Germany’s DAX fell 0.5% to 25,137.69 and the CAC 40 in Paris was unchanged at 8,515.65. Britain’s FTSE 100 was also nearly unchanged at 10,685.10.

The future for the S&P 500 lost 0.2% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.3%. The future for the Nasdaq composite index was down 0.3%.

Markets in Japan and mainland China were closed for holidays.

Hong Kong led regional gains as its Hang Seng index surged 2.5% to 27,081.91.

In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.7% to 5,846.09.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6% to 9,026.00.

Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.5% and the Sensex in India was up 0.6%. The SET in Bangkok ended nearly flat.

On Friday, Wall Street kept calm after the Supreme Court’s ruling against the tariffs, which had triggered panic in financial markets when they were announced last year. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, while the Dow added 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%.

Discouraging reports Friday showing slowing U.S. economic growth and accelerating inflation drew a relatively muted response.

The reports highlight the Federal Reserve’s dilemma over interest rates, but did not change traders’ expectations much for what the Fed will ultimately do. Traders are still betting that the Fed will lower rates at least twice this year, according to data from CME Group.

Lower interest rates would give the economy and investment prices a boost, but they also risk worsening inflation. Fed officials said at their last meeting that they want to see inflation fall further before they would support cutting rates further.

In other dealings early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 33 cents to $66.15 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 34 cents to $70.96 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 154.85 Japanese yen from 154.94 yen. The euro rose to $1.1799 from $1.1797.

The price of gold rose 1.8%, while the price of silver was up 5.2%.