AP National

AP Business Writers Stocks shook off a choppy start to finish higher Monday, as Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 ended 0.7% higher after having been down 0.5% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also recovered from an early slide to eke out a 0.2% gain. The tech-heavy

Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — A board game with ancient roots that established a foothold nearly a century ago in Mexican prisons is spreading in popularity outside the walls and trying to shed the stigma of being merely a pastime for prisoners. Poleana requires mental dexterity, rapid calculations and is increasingly bringing together people

Associated Press HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Some of the most festive times of Zimbabwe’s holiday season occur around the unveiling of tombstones for late relatives. The generations-old rite has come to be associated with long holidays such as Christmas in the southern African nation. The weakened economy leaves many people struggling to do their duty

Associated Press VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday formally inaugurates the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome, amid new security fears following a Christmas market attack in Germany. At the start of Christmas Eve Mass, Francis will push open the Holy Door on

Associated Press BAN NAM KHEM, Thailand (AP) — The 20-year-old freshman student was still asleep that Sunday morning at the family’s house on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Thailand when her mom, sensing something wasn’t right, woke her up saying they needed to leave right away. The day is forever seared in Neungduangjai Sritrakarn’s

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen was injured after being bucked off a horse and is expected to be hospitalized for several days. Pillen, a first-term Republican, was with his family Sunday when he was thrown off a new horse and injured. The governor’s office says he was taken to a hospital in

Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump came to Arizona on Sunday for his first rally speech since winning the November election. He was greeted by thousands of adoring supporters who confirmed his popularity across the conservative base. Trump attempted in his 75-minutes on stage to go beyond his core supporters. But he also

WINTER PARK, Colo. (AP) — Officials were investigating Sunday what caused a crack in a Colorado ski lift that forced the evacuation of over 170 stranded skiers and snowboarders. The gondola lift at Winter Park Resort, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Denver, automatically stopped when it detected the crack in a structural piece

Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — Donald Trump is suggesting that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal. He says the United States “foolishly” ceded it to its Central American ally. And he contends that shippers are being charged “ridiculous” fees to pass through the vital transportation channel linking the Atlantic

Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister says the ban on TikTok his government announced was “not a rushed reaction to a single incident.” Prime Minister Edi Rama said the government will shut down TikTok for one year, accusing the popular video service of inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Authorities have

Associated Press New York City police announced Sunday they have in custody a “person of interest” in the early morning death of a woman who they believe may have fallen asleep on a stationary subway train before being intentionally lit on fire by a man she didn’t know. Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving

ROME (AP) — Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain reopened Sunday after three months of renovations on the 18th-century monument that’s one of the Italian capital’s main attractions. The opening is just in time for the inauguration of the 2025 Jubilee Holy Year that is expected to draw millions of visitors. To manage the overwhelming number of

AP Film Writer NEW YORK (AP) — In the holiday season battle of big-budget family movies, Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” sped past the Walt Disney Co.’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” to take the top spot at the box office ahead of the lucrative Christmas corridor in theaters. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” debuted with

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Fico arrived in Russia on a “working visit” and met with Putin one-on-one on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA

Brazil’s Civil Defense Agency says a small plane has crashed into a Brazilian town that’s popular with tourists and killed all 10 passengers and crew on board. More than a dozen people who were on the ground Sunday have been taken to hospitals with injuries including smoke inhalation, and two are said to be in

Associated Press FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — For centuries, Florence’s 16th-century Vasari Corridor was only accessible to dukes and lords. Now, the raised passageway that connects the city’s Uffizi Galleries to the former residence of the powerful Medici family, has reopened to the public after an eight-year restoration project. The corridor, named after the Renaissance architect and biographer Giorgio Vasari, who

Associated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Stampedes during three Christmas charity events across Nigeria have left at least 67 people dead in the past week, many of them children. Families are struggling during the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. At least 35 children were killed in southwestern Oyo state on Wednesday. And on

Cleanup continues in the Kerch Strait near Russian-occupied Crimea, a week after at least 3,700 tons of low-grade fuel oil spilled out of two storm-stricken Russian tankers. Russia’s state Tass news agency says that by Sunday afternoon, more than 12,000 tons of contaminated soil had been removed along 34 kilometers (21 miles) of shoreline. Russia’s

AP National Writer The average final score over the first week of the College Football Playoffs: Winners 36, Losers 17. This bold, new experiment was supposed to bring more programs from more parts of the country into the loop of a largely regional sport that had been dominated by about a half-dozen teams for the

AP National Writer When the page turns on 2024, it will be time to say goodbye, once and for all, to the amateur athlete in college sports. In theory, the concept held on stubbornly via the quaint and now all-but-dead notion that student-athletes played only for pride, a scholarship and some meal money. In practice,

AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — A NASA spacecraft aims to fly closer to the sun than any object sent before. The Parker Solar Probe was launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun. Since then, it has flown straight through the sun’s corona: the outer atmosphere visible during a total

Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Capitol buildings are almost always an imposing presence. The seat of government, they tend to be elegant and stately. Visitors to Pennsylvania’s Capitol are drawn to its priceless artwork, polished marble and intricate carvings. But there’s another treasure there: 273 antique clocks that were part of its original design.

Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spaniards have been anticipating the arrival of “El Gordo” or “The Fat One” for weeks. That’s the name of the first prize in Spain’s hugely popular national Christmas lottery. This year’s total draw is worth 2.7 billion euros. Much of that will be paid out in small winnings. The top

Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — It was during the pandemic when the Rev. Kira Austin-Young and her puppet-maker husband, Michael Schupbach, were going a little stir-crazy that they came up with the idea. Instead of a star or some stylized humanoid angel to top their Christmas tree, why not create a biblically accurate angel?

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire on all war fronts in his Sunday prayer ahead of Christmas celebrations, condemning the “cruelty” of bombing schools and hospitals in Ukraine and Gaza. Francis said, “Let the weapons fall silent and let the Christmas carols ring out!” He delivering his blessing from indoors

Associated Press MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — When Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte’s fragile infrastructure, it also exposed deep-seated tensions between the island’s residents and its large migrant population. Thousands of people who have entered the island illegally bore the brunt of the storm that tore through the Indian Ocean archipelago — France’s poorest territory. Authorities in

Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — A prominent Lebanese politician has met with the insurgent who led the overthrow of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and both expressed hope Sunday for a new era in relations between their countries. Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria’s involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad’s father for

MUGLA, Turkey (AP) — An ambulance helicopter has crashed in southwestern Turkey, killing all four people on board. Two pilots, one doctor and one health care worker were taking off Sunday morning from the city of Mugla on their way to pick up a patient in the neighboring province of Antalya. The helicopter hit the

Associated Press MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — German authorities said they received tipoffs last year about the suspect in a car attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg as more details emerged on Sunday about the five people killed. Authorities have identified the suspect as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had

Associated Press DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Sunday killed at least 22 people, including five children, Palestinian medical officials said, while Gaza’s small Christian community celebrated a pre-Christmas Mass. Israeli authorities allowed a rare Gaza visit by the leader of the Catholic Church in the

NEW YORK (AP) — The challenge of photographing Christmastime in New York is that there is so much of it. The big tree in Rockefeller Center. Ice skating in Central Park. The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. All those lavish, holiday-themed department store window displays. This is the iconic New York tourists come to

Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — Adella Bass dropped her in-person college classes because it was just too hard to get there from the far South Side of Chicago, where the city’s famous elevated train doesn’t run. And it can take her nearly two hours to get to the hospital where she is treated for a

Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Plunging participation in girls basketball led one of Nebraska’s largest high schools to cancel its varsity team for the year. The decision by Grand Island Senior High School — the state’s third-largest with more than 2,600 students — reflects a national decline in participation in the girls sport, even

Associated Press KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and

Associated Press QARDAHA, Syria (AP) — On the walls of the palatial mausoleum built to house the remains of former Syrian President Hafez Assad — whose son, Bashar Assad, was ousted two weeks ago — vandals have sprayed variations of the phrase, “Damn your soul, Hafez.” While the Assads lived in luxury, most residents of

Associated Press AYOD, South Sudan (AP) — Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. Smoke from burning dung rises near homes of mud and grass where thousands of people now live after floods swept away their village. “Too

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Northern California authorities say a man has been arrested on suspicion of beheading his 1-year-old son. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office says in a Friday statement that deputies responded to a family disturbance at a home in the northern part of the county. It says they were taking 28-year-old Andrey Demskiy

Associated Press SURIN ISLANDS, Thailand (AP) — When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. By age 3, he could already swim and dive in shallow waters. His home was a kabang, a boat, that his family sailed in Thailand’s

Associated Press SURIN ISLANDS, Thailand (AP) — When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. By age 3, he could already swim and dive in shallow waters. His home was a kabang, a boat, that his family sailed in Thailand’s

KILLEEN, Texas (AP) — A pickup truck driver fleeing police careened through the doors of a JCPenney store at a busy Texas mall, injuring five people before he was fatally shot by officers, authorities said. A 53-year-old man identified as John Darrel Schultz of Kempner drove a truck and crashed into the department store in

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, says she’s removing herself from consideration to be a Florida senator. That ends speculation she could replace Sen. Marco Rubio, who has been tapped to be the incoming administration’s secretary of state. Lara Trump posted Saturday on X that she “decided to remove my

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s governor has ordered more than a dozen state prison staffers fired over the fatal beating of an inmate earlier this month. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday that she has directed the state’s corrections department commissioner to begin the process of terminating 14 workers involved in the fatal

AP Sports Writer OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the brash speedster who shattered stolen base records and redefined baseball’s leadoff position, has died. He was 65. Henderson died on Friday. The Athletics said Saturday they were “shocked and heartbroken by his passing,” but did not specify a cause of death. Known

Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Mark Burnett, the power producer who helped reintroduce Donald Trump to a national television audience with “The Apprentice,” is being tapped by the president-elect as special envoy to the United Kingdom in his upcoming administration. “With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Santa Claus has arrived in Rio de Janeiro — under water. Starting on Saturday, he’ll be spotted at AquaRio Marine Aquarium swimming with sharks during their daily fish feeding sessions as part of the city’s Christmas festivities. Nine-year-old Guilherme Martins Matos said he’d seen Santa — or at least an

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard says it continues to search for survivors or victims of a speedboat that capsized carrying migrants off the eastern Greek island of Rhodes. The capsizing, the result of the boat’s maneuvering to evade a patrol vessel, according to authorities, left eight confirmed dead. A total of 18 migrants,

Associated Press Federal officials have joined with the state of Arizona to begin fulfilling a settlement agreement that was reached with the Hopi Tribe nearly three decades ago. Officials on Friday filed condemnation documents to start transferring dozens of square miles of state land into trust for the Hopi. Tribal leaders called it a historic

AP Business Writer Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract. Strikes during busy periods like the holidays can help unions exercise

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — After days of threats and demands, Donald Trump had little to show for it once lawmakers passed a budget deal in the early hours of Saturday, narrowly averting a pre-Christmas government shutdown. The president-elect successfully pushed House Republicans to jettison some spending, but he failed to achieve his central goal

Associated Press KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A ferry overloaded with people returning home for Christmas capsized on the Busira River in northeastern Congo, leaving 38 people confirmed dead and over 100 others missing, officials and eyewitnesses said Saturday. Twenty people have been rescued so far. The sinking of the ferry late Friday came less than

AP Technology Writer Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August.

Associated Press GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana’s government has formally protested to Venezuela following the completion by Venezuela’s armed forces of a bridge built on a remote river island shared by both countries. Work on the bridge, which links Venezuela’s mainland to a military base, has caused a decades-old row over border lines in the

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Four women and a 9-year-old boy were killed and 200 people were injured when a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg — an attack that has left Germans mourning the victims and with a shaken sense of security. How did the

Associated Press TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children. Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after

Associated Press BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is drawing a direct link between immigration and an attack in Germany where a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people and injuring 200 others. Orbán on Saturday also implied that the 27-nation bloc’s migration policies

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Saturday that averts a government shutdown, bringing a final close to days of upheaval after Congress approved a temporary funding plan just past the deadline and refused President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demands in the package. The deal funds the government at

Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The top uniformed police officer in the New York Police Department has resigned amid allegations he demanded sex from a subordinate. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Saturday she accepted the resignation of Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey on Friday night, effective immediately. John Chell, the department’s chief of patrol,

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban says it carried out a deadly attack on a military checkpoint in the country’s northwest. It’s the militant group’s latest assault on troops in the restive province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan. The group said it killed 35 soldiers and injured 15 others in an early Saturday

Associated Press ROME (AP) — The Vatican has taken the first main step to implement Pope Francis’ wish that Belgium’s late king be beatified for having abdicated for a day rather than approve legislation to legalize abortion. The Holy See’s saint-making office on Dec. 17 established a historical commission, made up of experts in Belgian

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is allocating more than $100 billion in emergency aid to address extensive damage caused by hurricane and other disasters. The money is in a bill passed early Saturday by Congress after this week’s scramble to find consensus on a government spending bill. The money is being provided after back-to-back

AP Sports Writer The Washington Commanders’ path to returning to nation’s capital is clear after an on-again, off-again saga in Congress ended with a late reprieve. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution early Saturday to transfer the land including old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia. A provision to do

Associated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — A crash between a passenger bus and a truck early Saturday killed 38 people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil, officials said. The Minas Gerais fire department, which responded to the scene, said 13 others were taken to hospitals near the city of Teofilo

Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons. There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but

Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah — a multibranched candelabra. In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria say ten people, including four children, have been killed in a stampede in the capital city as a large crowd gathered to collect food items distributed by a local church at a Christmas event. Police said the stampede occurred in the early morning hours on Saturday at the

Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A nearly two-year investigation by Democratic senators of Supreme Court ethics details more luxury travel by Justice Clarence Thomas and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a new code of conduct. Any movement on the issue appears unlikely as Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate in

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people yearning for the promise of spring have marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument. Some cheered and others beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. on Saturday over the giant standing stones on the day

Associated Press ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is suffering from a cold and will deliver his Sunday blessing from indoors, the Vatican said, announcing the precautions ahead of a busy Christmas period and launch of the Holy Year that will sorely test Francis’ stamina and health. The Vatican cited the cold temperatures outside and Francis’

Associated Press MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned the victims of an apparent attack in which authorities say a doctor drove into a busy outdoor Christmas market, killing five people, injuring 200 others and shaking the public’s sense of security at what would otherwise be a time of joy. The alleged attack Friday

Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Thirty years after Florida required schools to teach African American history, how the subject is taught remains inconsistent across Florida classrooms, a review by The Associated Press has found. In the eyes of some advocates, Black history instruction in public schools is inadequate and under fire by