The OP is asking why the first match is returned by $&. Even with /g the first match is returned because it is not in list context.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;

"AAC\nGTT"=~/^.*$/mg;
print "\$& scalar context => $&\n";

my @matches = "AAC\nGTT"=~/^.*$/mg;
print "\$&   list context => $&\n";
print "\@matches => @matches\n";

__END__

output:
$& scalar context => AAC
$&   list context => GTT
@matches => AAC GTT

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In reply to Re^2: /m pattern matching modifier by Lotus1
in thread /m pattern matching modifier by tandx

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