AP National News

By The Associated Press Flight cancellations surged again on the last day of 2021, with airlines blaming it on crew shortages related to the spike in COVID-19 infections. By late morning Friday on the East Coast, airlines scrubbed more than 1,300 flights, according to tracking service FlightAware. That compared with about 1,400 cancellations for all

By JOHN LEICESTER and NICK PERRY Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Beset by the fast-spreading omicron variant, the world ushered in 2022 with a bittersweet cocktail of sorrow for the dead and dying, fear of more infections, and hope for an end to the coronavirus pandemic. In many places, celebrations were muted or canceled for

By DÉBORA ÁLVARES, MAURICIO SAVARESE and MARCELO SILVA DE SOUSA Associated Press BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Leaders around the world are relying on public health specialists to inform their decisions about whether and when to vaccinate their nation’s kids, but Brazil government is instead asking the public for guidance. President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The annual New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York City’s Times Square will come just as the year prior began, with the pandemic clouding an already uncertain future. The city said it would limit the number of people Friday to about 15,000 in-person spectators.

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The annual New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York City’s Times Square will come just just as the year prior began, with the pandemic clouding an already uncertain future. The city said it would limit the number of people Friday to

LONDON (AP) — New post-Brexit custom rules for goods arriving from the European Union to Britain are taking effect on Saturday. A leading food industry body has warned that the new border controls could lead to food shortages. Beginning Jan. 1, importers must make a full customs declaration on goods entering the U.K. from the

By STEVE PEOPLES and WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — This time last year, the Republican Party was hitting bottom. The GOP had already lost the presidency and the House. Soon, Republicans would squander their Senate majority and watch as thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But what a difference 12

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Denis O’Dell, a British film producer and director who worked with The Beatles on the movie “A Hard Day’s Night,” has died at his home in Spain. He was 98.  His son said Friday that his father died overnight at his house in Almería, in southeast Spain. He said the family

By The Associated Press This week’s new entertainment releases include a new album from drag queen titan RuPaul, the sixth and final season of NBC’s “This Is Us” and two ABC programs focusing on Mamie Till-Mobley, the civil rights icon and mother of slain son, Emmett. Ben Affleck has another winning turn in “The Tender

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police say six people were shot as six gunmen fired dozens of shots on a street full of businesses late Thursday. Officers responded to 911 calls for a shooting and found a 21-year-old woman with gunshot wounds lying near more than 65 casings from at least two different semi-automatic weapons. Officers

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Winnie the Pooh” and “The Sun Also Rises” are going public. A.A. Milne’s children’s book and Ernest Hemingway’s novel are among the works from 1926 whose copyrights will expire Saturday, putting them in the public domain in 2022. Poetry collections “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “Enough Rope” by Dorothy Parker

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (AP) — The judges of a Michigan university’s cheeky annual “Banished Word List” have a message for texting and tweeting Americans: Your “wait, what?” joke is lame. The phrase topped Lake Superior State University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula lighthearted list of 10 “winners” chosen from among more than 1,250 submissions of

The Associated Press Stocks were slightly lower in thin trading Friday, closing out what has turned out to be another banner year for Wall Street. Energy and banks were among the biggest gainers, a common occurrence for the last month. The S&P 500, which hit its latest record high on Wednesday, is heading for a

The Associated Press Stocks are inching higher in early trading Friday, the final day of what turned out to be another big year on Wall Street. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq were also up 0.1%. The S&P 500, which hit its latest

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin is wishing Russians a happier new year, hailing their solidarity and strength in the face of tough challenges like the coronavirus pandemic. In a televised address broadcast just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones, Putin said the nation has faced “colossal

By BRITTANY PETERSON, PATTY NIEBERG and COLLEEN SLEVIN Associated Press/Report for America SUPERIOR, Colo. (AP) — Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle says Friday at least 500 homes were likely destroyed and there were no known deaths in a wind-fueled wildfire outside Denver. Tens of thousands of Coloradans driven from their neighborhoods by wind-whipped wildfires are

AVENTURA, Fla. (AP) — Police say two people died when a higher speed commuter train hit their car as the driver tried to make it around the crossing gate near Miami. Officials say the crossing gate’s lights were flashing and bells were ringing to signal an approaching train on Thursday morning when the car tried

By SYLVIA HUI Associated Press LONDON (AP) — Officials have warned revellers in Scotland and Wales to think twice before travelling to England to ring in the new year, highlighting how the four parts of the U.K. are again taking starkly different approaches to coronavirus restrictions amid record high infections and soaring hospitalizations. Prime Minister

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni military officials say an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition has mistakenly hit a camp of pro-government forces in a southern Yemen province. The officials say at least 12 troops were killed and eight were wounded in the strike, which took place on Thursday in the

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military says troops shot and killed a Palestinian man as he ran toward a bus stop in the occupied West Bank wielding a knife in an attempted stabbing attack. It said the alleged attacker got out of a car at a junction on Friday and advanced toward a