Associated Press stories, Page 653

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams improved more quickly and won more games than almost anybody expected this season. That didn’t make their one-point road playoff loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday any less painful in the moment. But once the sting wears off, Matthew Stafford and his...

LOS ANGELES — “The Bear” was making a meal out of the acting awards at Monday night’s Emmys, Quinta Brunson scored an emotional and historic win for “Abbott Elementary” and the Netflix series “Beef” made its own mark with five victories. “The Bear,” the FX dramedy about a squabbling family...

LOS ANGELES — Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams has formally entered the NFL draft, leaving Southern California after two prolific seasons. Williams made his long-anticipated announcement on social media Monday, the final day for underclassmen to enter the draft. He is widely considered the favorite to be the No. 1...

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerry Jones has watched his Dallas Cowboys lose their playoff opener twice as the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The club’s owner and general manager endured the Dez Bryant catch that wasn’t in Green Bay when Dallas appeared good enough for a deep run but lost...

Israeli strikes hit Gaza City and soldiers battled militants in southern Gaza on Monday as the heads of three major U.N. agencies said the enclave desperately needs more aid to ward off famine and disease outbreaks. More than 100 days into Israel’s war against Hamas, Palestinian authorities said the death...

As frigid temperatures scour the Midwest, the Republican presidential nominating process will officially start Monday with Iowa’s caucuses. The quadrennial contest has been unusually quiet this year, a mark of former President Donald Trump’s commanding lead in the race. An arctic blast dropping the state into subzero temperatures and dumping...

Iowa moved up to No. 2 and Colorado to No. 3 behind top-ranked South Carolina in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll after a chaotic week that saw half of the top 10 teams lose. The Gamecocks (15-0), the last unbeaten team left, routed Missouri in their lone...

Connecticut has followed last year’s run to the NCAA championship with its first No. 1 ranking in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll in nearly 15 years, while Gonzaga has fallen out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in eight years. The Huskies moved to the...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses Monday, a crucial victory at the outset of the Republican primary that reinforces the former president’s bond with his party’s voters even as he faces extraordinary legal challenges that could complicate his bid to return to the White House. The...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year, boosted by a star-studded December fundraising blitz that came even as the political world’s attention shifted to the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary....

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was released from the hospital on Monday, after spending two weeks there to treat complications from surgery for prostate cancer he kept secret from senior Biden administration leaders and staff for weeks. Austin will be working from home as he recovers, and his doctors...

WASHINGTON — A fake 911 call that the White House was on fire sent emergency vehicles to the complex Monday morning, when President Joe Biden and his family were at Camp David. Fire engines and other emergency vehicles responded to a report just after 7 a.m. that the White House...

RECAK, Kosovo — Hundreds of Kosovars gathered in a southern village on Monday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a mass killing of 45 ethnic Albanians by Serb forces, an event that helped spark international intervention to end a 1998-99 war in Kosovo. Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin...

WASHINGTON — When the dust settles from Monday’s first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, the returns will reveal who had Republican caucusgoers’ vote, but they won’t shed much light on the types of people who voted or what was on their minds as they cast their ballots. That’s where AP VoteCast comes in....

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland’s president said the country is battling “tremendous forces of nature” after molten lava from a volcano in the island’s southwest consumed several houses in the evacuated town of Grindavik. Scientists said Monday that the eruption appeared to be dying down, but it was too soon to...

Jimmy Johnson showed more passion for winning on television than any of the Dallas Cowboys did on the field. Now, Jerry Jones should turn to another coaching icon to save his franchise. Speculation about Bill Belichick has ramped up. He’s already the odds-on favorite to be the next coach in...

ARLINGTON, Texas — Ashen-faced Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t ready to discuss the future of coach Mike McCarthy, quarterback Dak Prescott or anything else after a stunning playoff loss to Green Bay. “This is one of my (biggest) surprises since I’ve been involved in sport, period,” Jones said after...

ROME — Pope Francis has defended his controversial decision to let priests bless same-sex couples but admitted that “solitude is a price you have to pay” when you make difficult decisions. Francis doubled down and insisted that the “Lord blesses everyone,” during a Sunday interview with an Italian talk show....

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee said they raised more than $97 million in the final three months of last year, boosted by a star-studded December fundraising blitz that came even as the political world’s attention shifted to the start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary....

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s new King Frederik X visited the Danish parliament Monday, on his first formal day on the job, a day after his mother, Queen Margrethe, abdicated after 52 years on the throne. “We begin our responsible work as Denmark’s king in the belief that the Danish parliament...

JERUSALEM — Houthi rebels fired a missile, striking a U.S.-owned ship Monday just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, less than a day after they launched an anti-ship cruise missile toward an American destroyer in the Red Sea, officials said. The attack on the Gibraltar Eagle,...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A dangerous Arctic blast will continue sweeping across the U.S. on Monday and linger through at least midweek, prolonging a bitter cold that set record-low temperatures in parts of the country and threatens to further disrupt daily life, including an NFL playoff game and the first-in-the-nation presidential...

KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian air force shot down a Russian Beriev A-50 early warning and control plane and an Il-22 command center aircraft in a significant blow for the Kremlin’s forces, Ukraine’s military chief claimed Monday. The planes are key tools in helping orchestrate Russian battlefield movements in Ukraine....

DETROIT — Jared Goff threw for a touchdown and completed a game-sealing first down against the team that cast him away, and the Detroit Lions won a playoff game for the first time in 32 years, beating Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams 24-23 on Sunday night. The Lions...