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By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MATTHEW DALY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is trying to hammer out the world’s next steps against rapidly worsening climate change in a private, virtual session with a small group of other global leaders. Friday’s session at the White House opened with Biden announcing a new U.S.-European pledge

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s foreign minister says he will visit Bahrain later this month, the first such visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf Arab country following a diplomatic agreement reached last year. Yair Lapid announced the visit in a conference call on Friday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Doerr, Richard Powers and Lauren Groff are among this years nominees on the National Book Awards’ fiction longlist, which also includes Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut novel “The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois,” already an Oprah Winfrey selection and finalist for the

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch defense minister has resigned, a day after parliament passed a motion of censure against her for her handling of chaotic evacuations from Kabul of translators who worked for Dutch forces in Afghanistan. Ank Bijleveld is the second minister in the Netherlands’ caretaker coalition government to resign over the

By SARAH EL DEEB Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — The World Health Organization’s director general is deeply concerned about the impact of Lebanon’s economic meltdown and multiple crises on the people’s wellbeing. He says the migration of health care workers is particularly worrisome. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been in Lebanon over the past two days,

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press LA PINE, Ore. (AP) — From dusty towns to forests in the West, illegal marijuana growers are taking water in uncontrolled amounts when there often isn’t enough to go around for even licensed users. Conflicts about water have long existed but amid a severe drought, illegal marijuana farms add additional

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia will start mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for all government employees, further tightening anti-virus measures that sparked a major riot in the small Alpine state earlier this week. The measure adopted on Friday compels all government employees to receive one shot by Oct. 1 a second by Nov. 1, unless they get

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has been named as one of 17 special advisers to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Clooney was appointed Friday as an adviser on the Darfur region of Sudan, where prosecutors allege that government forces and militias backed by Khartoum carried

By MATTHEW PERRONE and LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An influential federal advisory panel has overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give Pfizer booster shots against COVID-19 to most Americans, but it endorsed the extra doses for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease. The twin votes

NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) — A Texas man linked to the “boogaloo” movement who livestreamed threats to kill police was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison after being convicted of attempted murder of a peace officer. The Texarkana Gazette reports that on Thursday, a jury in Bowie County found 38-year-old Aaron Caleb Swenson guilty

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A very special document will be auctioned off later this year — a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution. Sotheby’s announced Friday — appropriately on Constitution Day — that in November it will put up for auction one of just 11 surviving copies of the

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — The British government is simplifying its rules for international travel to England during the coronavirus pandemic, heeding complaints from travelers and businesses that the country’s regulations were cumbersome and ineffective. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the U.K. is scrapping its “traffic light” system that ranks countries as