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By ALEXANDRA JAFFE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets with Pope Francis on Friday, he won’t kiss the ring. Biden, who is only the second Catholic president in U.S. history, has said he eschews the traditional sign of respect because his mother told him not to — that no one is “better”

By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — ExxonMobil’s chief executive says his company “does not spread disinformation regarding climate change″ as he counters congressional allegations the industry concealed evidence about the dangers of it. Exxon CEO Darren Woods is among top officials at four major oil companies testifying Thursday as congressional Democrats investigate what

By DAVID SHARP Associated Press PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Federal prosecutors say law enforcement officers and a prosecutor aided an operation that illegally sold $13 million in pot grown for Maine’s medical marijuana program. Federal documents unsealed Wednesday when a defendant in a related case pleaded guilty revealed an elaborate operation in western Maine. Twelve

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An independent Dutch government advisory panel says the government must urgently take more action to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases. The Council of States warned Thursday that climate targets set by the government are currently “out of sight.” The report comes just days before the start of a U.N.

By LISA MASCARO, AAMER MADHANI and ALAN FRAM Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has traveled to Capitol Hill to pitch House Democrats on a dramatically scaled back domestic policy package. It’s now $1.75 trillion and without a paid family leave program and other priorities. But it’s still a sweeping proposal with new

ATLANTA (AP) — A former employee of Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has been arrested on charges that she sent emails impersonating Duncan to get information about her divorce. Beth Green turned herself into the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on Monday on felony charges of impersonating a public officer or employee, computer invasion of privacy

By ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel is due in Greece Thursday evening for a two-day visit to the country whose financial crisis marked much of her tenure and Germany’s relationship with Europe. Merkel arrives on a Greek national holiday marking the day in 1940 when Athens rejected

By JOSHUA GOODMAN Associated Press MIAMI (AP) — Knowledgeable sources and message exchanges reveal that Venezuela’s government quietly offered last year to release imprisoned Americans in exchange for the U.S. letting go a key financier of President Nicolás Maduro. A person involved says the offer was discussed at a previously reported meeting in Mexico City

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A 19-year-old British man obsessed with demons has been sentenced to serve at least 35 years in prison for murdering two sisters, in the belief that the killings would help him win a lottery jackpot. Judge Philippa Whipple sentenced Danyal Hussein Thursday in the stabbing deaths of

The Associated Press Stocks are moving higher in early trading on Wall Street Thursday, keeping the S&P 500 hovering near the record closing high it set on Tuesday. The benchmark index was up 0.5% in the early going, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were also up about as much. It’s a

By FRANK JORDANS Associated Press BERLIN (AP) — The U.N.‘s top human rights official and U.S. President Joe Biden’s envoy to this year’s climate summit called Thursday for countries to step up the fight against global warming. Both issued dire warnings about the costs of failure, saying it is a matter of survival for the

By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and GENE JOHNSON Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Accounts and images from court documents, interviews and social media postings have revealed much of what happened when actor Alec Baldwin shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on an Old West movie set in New Mexico. But a week

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — A U.N.-backed report says sites containing some of the world’s most treasured forests, including the Yosemite National Park in the U.S., have been emitting more heat-trapping carbon dioxide than they have absorbed in recent years. According to the report released Thursday, factors like logging, wildfires and clearance