VIENNA (AP) — Iran has slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Monday. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

The confidential report comes as Iran and the United States are negotiating a prisoner swap and the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korea. However, international inspectors also noted new challenges in trying to monitor Iran’s program.

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) — A microphone in hand, Sen. Tim Scott left the podium at a recent barbecue event in South Carolina and made his way through tables draped in red, white and blue as attendees finished plates of pulled pork and baked beans.

As he talked about his campaign, Scott passed Casey DeSantis, the first lady of Florida, who looked ahead at the empty stage from which she would soon speak. She was there in place of her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was overseeing the response to Hurricane Idalia.

DETROIT (AP) — A 46% pay raise. A 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay. A restoration of traditional pensions.

The demands that a more combative United Auto Workers union has pressed on General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — demands that even the UAW’s own president calls “audacious” — are edging it closer to a strike when its contract ends Sept. 14.

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (AP) — Tens of thousands of partygoers stranded at the Burning Man counterculture festival by a late summer storm hoped muddy roads would reopen Monday and allow them to begin their exodus from the northern Nevada desert.

Event organizers said in the morning that it was still too wet for a safe mass departure of RVs and other vehicles but hoped traffic could begin flowing later in the day with the help of sunny and mostly clear skies — even as they asked revelers to delay their exit to ease traffic on the main road.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Floridians are struggling to recover from Category 3 Hurricane Idalia and the following floods as tension spirals over U.S. President Joe Biden's survey of the damage in Florida, without meeting the state's Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his 2024 presidential rivals.

On Saturday, Biden and his wife toured areas damaged by the storm in Live Oak, met residents, and thanked emergency responders.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A longtime aide to President Joe Biden who is a senior adviser in Vice President Kamala Harris’ office is Biden’s choice to represent the United States at the United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture.

The U.S. recently rejoined the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after a five-year hiatus initiated by Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will deepen her outreach to Southeast Asia this week at an international summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she’ll try to erase doubts about U.S. commitment to the region stirred by President Joe Biden’s absence.

TEHRAN, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Monday blamed Western states' "miscalculations about the riots in Iran" for the failure to conclude talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal in September last year.

At a weekly press conference in the Iranian capital Tehran, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the final draft resolution of the talks was ready to be concluded in September 2022 to prepare the ground for all sides' return to the deal, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister claimed on Monday that U.S. military equipment left behind during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan has fallen into militant hands and ultimately made its way to the Pakistani Taliban.

The equipment — which includes a wide variety of items, from night vision goggles to firearms — is now “emerging as a new challenge” for Islamabad as it has enhanced the fighting capabilities of the Pakistani Taliban, Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Copenhagen’s mayor on Monday urged foreigners not to buy weed in the city’s Christiania neighborhood where a 30-year-old man was shot and killed and four others injured two weeks ago due to gang turf wars fighting over the marijuana trade in the area.

The Aug. 26 killing was the latest in a bloody feud between rival gangs, the Hells Angels and the outlawed Loyal to Family. Both are trying to monopolize the sale of cannabis in Christiania.

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Men walk through a lush plantation between Ecuador ’s balmy Pacific coast and its majestic Andes, lopping hundreds of bunches of green bananas from groaning plants twice their height.

Workers haul the bunches to an assembly line, where the bananas are washed, weighed and plastered with stickers for European buyers. Owner Franklin Torres is monitoring all activity on a recent morning to make sure the fruit meets international beauty standards — and ever more important, is packed for shipment free of cocaine.

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Lee Jae-myung, leader of the South Korean main opposition Democratic Party, on Monday urged Japan to stop dumping radioactive wastewater into the ocean, which will endanger the safety of people around the world.

Lee made the remark during a meeting with global experts and activists, including those from Japan and the United States, who participated both online and offline at the parliamentary building in Seoul.