JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — President Joe Biden has been greeted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump as he arrived at a royal palace in Jeddah. Biden is working to bridge a rift between the United States and the oil-rich kingdom. It is his first meeting with the Saudi crown prince, who is the presumed heir to the throne held by his father, King Salman.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's prime minister has been sworn in as its interim president until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse forced him from office. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was acting president since Rajapaksa fled the country Wednesday after angry protesters had stormed his official residence.
President Joe Biden is visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus. Biden, a devout Roman Catholic, stopped by the church Friday after meeting with Palestinian leaders in the ancient West Bank city.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — President Joe Biden has called for “two states for two peoples” — the Israelis and Palestinians — while visiting the West Bank on Friday. But he also acknowledged that the “ground is not ripe" at this moment for restarting peace talks between them.
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP) — Rescue teams with sniffer dogs are combing through the debris in a central Ukrainian city looking for people still missing after Russia’s devastating missile strike that killed at least 23 and wounded over 100 others. Russian forces pounded other sites in Ukraine in a relentless push to wrest territory from Ukraine and try to soften the unbending morale of its leaders, troops, and civilians.
ROME (AP) — Italy's president has rebuffed Premier Mario Draghi's offer to resign after a key ally refused to back the government in a Senate vote. The presidential office said Thursday evening that President Sergio Mattarella “didn't accept the resignation and invited the premier to go to Parliament” to test support for his national unity government.
LONDON (AP) — A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings. The National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday it was discovered on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition.
Did you catch the supermoon? There was a full moon Wednesday night, and at the same time, the moon was closer to Earth than usual. That combo is called a supermoon. The close proximity to Earth can make the moon appear slightly bigger and brighter, if the skies are clear. One name for July's full moon is the “Buck moon." The name is a reference to the time of year when new antlers are growing on male deer, or bucks. The full moon last month was also considered a supermoon.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan protesters have begun to retreat from government buildings they had seized and military troops reinforced security at the Parliament on Thursday. A tenuous calm reigned in a country in both economic meltdown and political limbo. Embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled Wednesday under pressure from protesters furious over the island nation’s economic collapse.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say Russian missiles that struck a city in central Ukraine killed at least 20 people and wounded about 90. Ukraine’s national police said three missiles hit an office building and damaged residential buildings in Vinnytsia on Thursday. The city is 167 miles southwest of the capital, Kyiv.