AP National News

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press As voting experts cheered the losses of election conspiracy theorists in numerous high-profile races on Election Day, Paddy McGuire prepared to hand over his office to one of them. McGuire, the auditor of Mason County in western Washington, lost his reelection bid to Steve Duenkel, a Republican who has echoed

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Germany’s Catholic bishops are vowing to continue their controversial reform process after a week of tense meetings with Vatican officials seeking to put the brakes on proposals to ordain women, bless gay unions and rethink church teaching on sexuality. The head of the German bishops conference

SETH BORENSTEIN, SAMY MAGDY and FRANK JORDANS Associated Press SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — In a potential step forward on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, the Egyptian presidency is proposing establishing a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich nations’ carbon pollution. Saturday afternoon’s proposal

By KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken briefly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in another step toward keeping lines of communication open between the two biggest economies. A White House official says Harris and Xi exchanged remarks Saturday while heading into a closed-door meeting at the summit

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Counting of ballots has begun in Malaysia’s tightly contested national election that will determine whether its long-ruling coalition can make a comeback after its electoral defeat four years ago. Political reformers under opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is forecast to lead Saturday’s polls. But with three main

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press BAGHDAD (AP) — Security sources and a local government official say Islamic State group militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northwestern governorate of Kirkuk killing four soldiers. IS fighters early Saturday took the soldiers’ weapons and communications gear and left the scene, security sources said. They spoke on

By BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA Associated Press TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Leaders of French-speaking countries are gathering on the Tunisian island off the Mediterranean coast for a summit amid a soaring cost-of-living crisis across Africa, Europe and the Middle East due to the war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and

By JENNA FRYER AP National Writer DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino downplayed Qatar’s last minute ban on the sale of beer at World Cup stadiums as nothing more than a brief inconvenience to spectators. “If this is the biggest problem we have, I’ll sign that (agreement),” Infantino said Saturday, a day after

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Gianni Infantino said he feels gay. That he feels like a woman. That he feels like a migrant worker. He lectured Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record and defended the host country’s last-minute decision to ban beer from World Cup stadiums. The FIFA president

A gas explosion in an apartment building has killed at least nine people, including four children, on the island of Sakhalin in far eastern Russia. Local authorities said a section of the five-story building in the town of Tymovskoye collapsed after a gas cylinder exploded Saturday in one of the apartments at around 5:30 a.m.

By KRUTIKA PATHI Associated Press BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has spoken briefly with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in another step toward keeping lines of communication open between the two biggest economies. A White House official says Harris and Xi exchanged remarks Saturday while heading into a closed-door meeting at the summit

By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — It’s a desert, where little grows. It’s a climate conference, where water is scarce inside buildings and out, lines are long, tempers are short, meetings go late and above all progress comes in one-drop drips. Yet hope springs forth in the strangest places. Not

BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese and U.S. defense chiefs will both attend next week’s expanded meeting of Southeast Asian defense ministers in Cambodia. China’s Defense Ministry says Gen. Wei Fenghe will attend the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus from Sunday to Thursday. And the Department of Defense says Defense Secretary Lloyd

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boasted that a recently tested intercontinental ballistic missile is another “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon to contain U.S. military threats, state media reported Saturday. The United States responded to the North’s weapons launch by flying supersonic bombers in a show

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — An avalanche in Kashmir has killed three Indian soldiers along the heavily militarized Himalayan frontier between India and Pakistan. The Indian military said Saturday that a slide of snow hit the northwestern Machil sector in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday and trapped three soldiers who were on a patrol. The three were

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — A week since the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson was liberated, residents can’t escape reminders of the terrifying eight months they spent under Russian occupation. People are missing. There are mines everywhere, closed shops and restaurants, a scarcity of electricity and water, and explosions day and

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — The retired bishop of Albany, New York, who has admitted to covering up for predator priests and has himself been accused of sexual abuse, has asked Pope Francis to remove him from the priesthood. Emeritus Bishop Howard Hubbard, 84, announced the decision in a statement Friday,