Hanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.”.

An Indigenous community in Peru has won the latest stage of a legal battle to reclaim lost rainforests.

The Houston Astros are nearing a deal to sign first baseman Christian Walker, as reported by three sources to KPRC 2 Sports.

The U.S. flu season is underway.

Fewer than 1% of nuns in the U.S. today are under 30.

MrBeast’s ambitious reality show, which the YouTube megastar hopes will expand his massive online reach and turn the corner on recent controversies, is already raising questions from consumer advocates over a partnership with a fintech company.

The Federal Reserve’s third interest rate cut of the year will likely have consequences for debt, savings, auto loans, mortgages and other forms of borrowing by consumers and businesses.

The holidays are meant to be a time of celebration with family and friends.

As the war in Gaza rages, Syria's government transforms, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank seethes, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem fight a different battle.

Max Cobb, the secretary general of the International Biathlon Union, apologized to any athlete who was mistreated during his tenure at U.S. Biathlon during a 90-minute meeting focused on concerns about athlete safety brought to light by multiple Associated Press reports.

Executions have historically been carried out with at least some public scrutiny, from public hangings in the town square to lethal injections in prisons witnessed by journalists.

United Methodist News Service reports that a religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze.

Prosecutors in Bolivia are seeking the arrest of former President Evo Morales in connection to a sexual abuse investigation involving his alleged fathering of a child with a 15-year-old girl.

Rookie tight end to miss game, perhaps longer after surgery

Santa Clauses are coming to town.

A giant salamander that evolved on the supercontinent Pangaea and outlived the dinosaurs has been proposed for federal protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It seems we might have some unexpected visitors this week!

Dozens of environmental nonprofits issued a manifesto Thursday condemning new laws in Brazilian states that threaten to dismantle the Amazon soy moratorium.

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits jumped to their highest level in two months last week but remain low relative to historical standards.

Ukraine’s top military commander says fighting around a key eastern Ukraine city is “extremely intense” after a monthslong Russian push.

Nigeria is the latest African country to give a new malaria vaccine to young childen.

Oscar-winning documentarian and Associated Press journalist Mstyslav Chernov has a new film that delves further into the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rescue crews have pulled two women from rubble several hours after a Russian missile struck a medical clinic in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia.

OpenAI has publicly released its new artificial intelligence video generator Sora but won’t let most users depict people as it monitors for patterns of misuse.

George Soros' philanthropy, Open Society Foundations, will continue to fund human rights movements around the world.

Police believe the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO was carried out with a ghost gun.

AC Milan has announced that United States midfielder Christian Pulisic has a torn muscle in his right calf.

A legal settlement in the wake of rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse will force the federal Bureau of Prisons to open its doors to a court-appointed monitor and publicly acknowledge pervasive misconduct at its now-shuttered women’s prison in California.

A new report says Earth just experienced its second-warmest November on record — second only to 2023 — making it all but certain that 2024 will end as the hottest year ever measured.

A surprising study of temperature-related deaths in Mexico upends conventional thinking about what age group is hit hardest by heat.

Eli Lilly is spending another $3 billion to bulk up manufacturing as the drugmaker seeks to stoke production of some blockbuster drugs and future products.

Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman has chosen 10 of the best songs of 2024.

Sierra Leone has started a nationwide rollout of the single-dose Ebola vaccine.

Freshman sensation Cooper Flagg had 22 points and 11 rebounds to help No. 9 Duke push past No. 2 Auburn 84-78 in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

Pop Isaacs helped unranked Creighton upset No. 1 Kansas 76-63 on Wednesday night, scoring a season-high 27 points and matching his career high with six 3-pointers.

Liam McNeeley scored 17 points and No. 25 UConn came back from an early deficit to beat No. 15 Baylor 76-72 in the Big 12-Big East Battle.

U.S. donors gave $3.6 billion on Tuesday, an increase from the past two years, according to estimates from the nonprofit GivingTuesday.

U.S. biathletes face “misogynistic” behavior while racing and fear retaliation if they report their concerns.

Melinda French Gates is offering to match up to $1 million in gifts to two nonprofit organizations to help spur donations on GivingTuesday.

Associated Press photographers captured voters with raw emotions of joy, excitement, contemplation or sorrow.

Established nonprofits, everyday individuals and mutual aid groups all want your dollars to make a difference.

Negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution have concluded in Busan, South Korea without reaching an agreement.

Players elevated from practice squad

An emboldened fringe of right-wing “manosphere” influencers has seized on Donald Trump’s presidential win to justify and amplify misogynistic derision and threats online.

Vegas Insider released the rankings for most deal- obsessed states.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift is spending Black Friday amid a sea of red to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs as they play the Las Vegas Raiders in a chilly matinee at Arrowhead Stadium.

A coalition of Canadian news publishers, including The Canadian Press, Torstar, Globe and Mail, Postmedia and CBC/Radio-Canada, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for using news content to train its ChatGPT generative artificial intelligence system.

The NBA has fined Denver guard Russell Westbrook $35,000 for making an obscene gesture on the court in the fourth quarter of a 145-118 loss to the Knicks.

Negotiators working on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution have inched closer to an agreement, with more countries saying they want to address the total plastic on Earth.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a new plan to protect the state’s iconic Joshua trees, which are imperiled by wildfires, human development and climate change.

Texans tight end placed on injured reserve

At least 15 people have died and 113 others are missing after landslides buried homes in six villages in eastern Uganda.

Boise State advanced to the semifinals of the Mountain West women's volleyball tournament by beating Utah State on Wednesday night.

Texans promote defensive tackle

Black Friday has become something of an anachronism in the e-commerce era.

Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast endured two major hurricanes and a tropical storm in the span of nine weeks, and they are still feeling the economic shockwaves.

Drought and sea level rise are causing salty oceanwater to creep into the Delaware River, threatening a source of drinking water for Philadelphia and millions of other people.

Roman Catholic faithful will be able to view St. Peter’s tomb via a webcam as part of the Vatican’s upcoming Holy Year.

A last round of negotiations on a legally binding treaty to address the global scourge of plastic pollution has opened in Busan, South Korea.

Texans vs. Titans

Donald Trump's victory has dismayed many politically engaged Black women, and they're reassessing their enthusiasm for politics and organizing.

Gaston Martirena and Adrian Martinez scored first-half goals as Argentina’s Racing won its first Copa Sudamericana championship by beating Brazil’s Cruzeiro 3-1 in the final on Saturday.

Houston Airports are preparing for a record-breaking 2.2 million passengers this Thanksgiving travel season, from November 21 to December 2.

Donald Trump’s lock on the white evangelical vote is legendary, but he didn't focus exclusively on large religious voter blocs.

While diplomats negotiated at the United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan, climate experts played a board game where players are supposed to work together to combat global warming.

The U.S. House passed legislation that would give the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it claims support terrorism.

The federal FAFSA form used to apply for college financial aid opened to high school seniors across the nation on Thursday, a year after a disastrous rollout by the Biden administration delayed the application for months.

Commuters should expect major delays on the IH-610 Loop today

Cool-weather has arrived in Houston, marking the start of boot season.

The Associated Press has gathered up some of the best items out there to keep any movie lover stylish and informed.

Pope Francis will make late teen Carlo Acutis the Catholic Church’s first millennial and digital saint next year.

A new study says human-caused climate change made Atlantic hurricanes about 18 mph stronger in the last six years.

Kam Jones had 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists as No. 15 Marquette defeated No. 6 Purdue 76-58 to snap the Boilermakers’ 39-game regular-season nonconference winning streak.

Distant, ancient galaxies are giving scientists more hints that a mysterious force called dark energy may not be what they thought.

Australian writer Richard Flanagan has won Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize, a decade after being awarded the Booker Prize for fiction.

The top-ranked Oregon Ducks have clinched a spot in the Big Ten championship game.

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama won't play against the Oklahoma City Thunder as he recovers from a bruised right knee.

When the head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development traveled to housing sites around the country, she heard from renters in affordable housing that they felt forgotten and left out of the nation’s transition to clean energy.

From foster grandparents who volunteer at an early child care center to citizen scientists who collect water quality data in remote locations, nonprofit volunteers have come back after the pandemic.

Officials say Ukraine fired several American-supplied longer-range missiles into Russia, marking the first time Kyiv has used such weapons since the start of the war.

The Associated Press says it is looking to cut 8% of its workforce, primarily through buyouts, and employees eligible to leave their jobs would begin getting notifications.

United Nations climate talks resumed Monday with negotiators urged to make progress on a deal that could see developing countries get more money to spend on clean energy and adapting to climate-charged weather extremes.

Victoria Kjær Theilvig of Denmark has been crowned Miss Universe.

Southern California’s JuJu Watkins reached 1,000 career points in the second fewest amount of games in NCAA Division I history during the second half against Santa Clara.

Pope Francis is asking the diocese of Rome to help alleviate a growing housing crisis in the Eternal City.

Last year, Puerto Rican superstar Rauw Alejandro was in outer space with “Playa Saturno.”.

The refugee organization, the International Rescue Committee, is testing some artificial intelligence tools to try to increase the number of displaced people they can reach with critical information.

Victor Wembanyama had a career-high 50 points and the San Antonio Spurs rolled to a 139-130 victory over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

Several U.S. Catholic bishops on Wednesday encouraged the church to boldly share Vatican teachings on a range of hot-button issues, including the condemnation of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and gender-affirming surgery.

New government data shows that U.S. drug overdose deaths appear to be showing a sustained decline.

A tribunal in Argentina has upheld a six-year sentence term and lifetime ban from holding public office sentence against former President Cristina Fernández, a dominant political leader in recent years in the South American country.

Transgender youth in the United States have been flooding crisis hotlines since the election of Donald Trump, who made anti-transgender themes central to his campaign.

Even as Earth sets new heat records, humanity this year is pumping 330 million tons (300 million metric tons) more carbon dioxide into the air by burning fossil fuels than it did last year.

Houston's beloved Astrodome, once dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World," is on the brink of a new chapter. After years of anticipation, the Astrodome Conservancy will reveal its plans for the iconic structure this Wednesday.

The Northeast is keeping a wary eye on dozens of fires that killed at least one person and continue to burn amid very dry weather.

President-Elect Trump assures a mass deportation of undocumented immigrants as one of his first campaign promises.

The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog will travel to Iran this week to meet with officials there including its new president.

As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the specter of President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory hangs over the proceedings.

Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by its Vision Fund investments.

Kansas remained atop the first Associated Press men’s college basketball poll of the regular season after winning a matchup of basketball bluebloods.