AP National News

By JONATHAN MATTISE Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A winter storm blanketed parts of the South with snow, freezing rain and sleet Thursday, tying up roads in Tennessee and Kentucky as the system tracked a path through Appalachia toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The National Weather Service says Nashville saw snowfall of 6.3 inches.

By MARK GILLISPIE Associated Press CLEVELAND (AP) — Police in Ohio have released body camera footage showing an officer firing multiple rounds through a wooden privacy fence without warning at someone shooting gunfire into the air on the other side. Forty-six-year-old James Williams, of Canton, was shot in the chest minutes into the new year

By DYLAN LOVAN Associated Press LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals court has declined to lift a three-state ban on President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The ruling comes after a nationwide ban on the mandate for federal contractors was imposed by a federal judge in Georgia last month. A judge

By LINDSEY BAHR and JAKE COYLE AP Film Writers Peter Bogdanovich, the ascot-wearing cinephile and director of 1970s black-and-white classics like “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” has died. He was 82. Bogdanovich died early Thursday morning at this home in Los Angeles, said his daughter Antonia Bogdanovich. She said he died of natural

By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon election officials ruled that former New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is not eligible to run for governor because he does not meet the state’s residency requirement. Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said it was obvious Kristof had been a New Yorker until recently, citing

By FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — While tortillas come to mind when Mexico is mentioned, every Jan. 6, Mexicans’ love of bread comes to the fore with the cutting of oval brioche decorated with candied fruit known as king cakes to celebrate Epiphany. Just hours before Mexicans took their first slices, hundreds

By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson has apologized after a government ethics investigator criticized the U.K. leader and his staff for failing to disclose messages he exchanged with a donor about financing the redecoration of his official residence. Christopher Geidt, the independent adviser on minister’s interests, wasn’t informed of

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose in the past week to start the new year. They reached their highest level since May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, yet remained historically low. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan increased to 3.22%

By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire attorney general’s office says the stepmother of a girl who disappeared in 2019 at age 5 has been charged with welfare fraud for collecting food stamps in her name. The agency said Thursday that Kayla Montgomery has been charged one with one count

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Richmond has awarded a contract for removing the city’s last major Confederate statue, along with nine other pedestals whose monuments have already been taken down. The winning bidder is the same company that recently took down the city’s Robert E. Lee memorial. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the contract will be

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The U.S. State Department says its special envoy to the Horn of Africa will end his appointment “in the coming days” after a year marked by deadly crises in Ethiopia and Sudan. Envoy Jeffrey Feltman plans to step down shortly after his current visit to Ethiopia, where more than a year

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — International humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says its teams assigned to Poland’s border with Belarus have left the country after repeatedly being denied access to the migrants and refugees they went to help. Doctors Without Borders said Thursday that it spent three months unsuccessfully seeking permission for its emergency response workers

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — A strong earthquake has shaken Nicaragua, sending people into the streets, but there are no initial reports of damage. The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1. It was centered on the country’s Pacific coast about 36 miles (59 kilometers) south of Corinto. The earthquake was

By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The theatrical magic keeping Broadway going during the latest coronavirus surge has been the unheralded actors ready to step into any role due to an emergency. Then there’s Carla Stickler, who had actually left show business altogether but returned to rescue “Wicked.” Stickler, who had

NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Mets acting general manager Zack Scott has been cleared of drunken-driving charges stemming from his arrest last August after he attended a fundraiser at team owner Steve Cohen’s house. Scott’s attorney, Bruce Bendish, said a judge in the White Plains City Court acquitted Zack Scott of all criminal

By MICHAEL MELIA Associated Press HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Principals, superintendents and counselors are filling in as substitutes in classrooms around the United States as the surge in coronavirus infections further strains schools already struggling with staffing shortages. Dozens of employees from the central office in Cincinnati were dispatched this week to schools at risk

By LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer “West Side Story’s” Ariana DeBose, “Licorice Pizza’s” Alana Haim and “Belfast’s” Caitriona Balfe are among the actors who will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuosos Award this year. Festival organizers say they plan to give out the honors at an in-person event in the coastal California town

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization says a record 9.5 million cases of COVID-19 were tallied around the world last week, marking a 71% weekly surge that amounted to a “tsunami” as the new omicron variant sweeps worldwide. But there was a decrease in the number of new deaths

By JOSEPH KRAUSS Associated Press JERUSALEM (AP) — The Netherlands says it will stop funding a Palestinian civil society group recently outlawed as a terrorist organization by Israel. But it rejected Israel’s main claims about the group following its own audit. The Dutch government said on Wednesday it found no evidence the Union of Agricultural

By The Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Jennifer Garner has been named Woman of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, based not just on her career as an actor, but also because of her record as a philanthropist and entrepreneur. The organization said Thursday that Garner will be the guest of honor