top-stories

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio House lawmakers on Tuesday picked a Republican from rural southern Ohio as the GOP-led chamber’s next leader, after support shifted away from another representative who’d won an informal vote weeks ago for that powerful role in state politics.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands has fired the attorney general of the U.S. territory who pursued various cases against disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including a lengthy legal fight that resulted in a $105 million settlement.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The president responsible for giving America the federal Christmas holiday is getting a special day of his own.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nearly 1,600 death row inmates have been put to death in the U.S. since 1977, but an execution scheduled for Tuesday in Missouri would be the first of an openly transgender woman.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An estimated $785 million Mega Millions jackpot set for Tuesday night will give lottery players a chance to start the new year with a lucrative bang.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Congress opens with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy grasping for his political survival, with the potential to become the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win initial support from his own colleagues in a high-stakes vote for the gavel.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When lawyers argue before the Supreme Court, a small white light goes on to tell them when their time is almost expired and then a red light signals when they should stop. But arguments this term are extending well beyond the red light’s cue.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI ‘s body, his head resting on a pair of crimson pillows, lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday as tens of thousands queued to pay tribute to the pontiff who shocked the world by retiring a decade ago.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations will try again on Wednesday to mold a coordinated approach on if and how authorities should check incoming airline passengers from China for any new COVID-19 variants after several member nations announced individual efforts over the past week.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them, Russia’s defense ministry said Monday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.