By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump tried again Tuesday to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case, asking a New York appeals court to intervene as he fights to avoid the finality of his conviction before he returns to the White House.

Trump turned to the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court a day after the trial judge, Judge Juan M. Merchan, rebuffed his bid to indefinitely postpone sentencing and ordered it to go ahead as scheduled on Friday.

Trump is seeking an immediate stay that would spare him from being sentenced while he appeals Merchan’s decision last week to uphold the historic verdict. Oral arguments were expected before a single judge later Tuesday, with a decision likely soon thereafter.

The scheduling drama is playing out less than two weeks before his inauguration. Trump is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. If Trump’s sentencing doesn’t happen before his second term starts Jan. 20, it may have to wait until he leaves office in 2029 because of the widely held belief, endorsed by Merchan, that a sitting president is immune from criminal proceedings.

Merchan has signaled that he is not likely to punish Trump for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and will accommodate his transition by allowing him to appear at sentencing by video, rather than in person at a Manhattan courthouse.

Still, the Republican and his lawyers contend that his sentencing should not go forward because the conviction and indictment should be dismissed. They have previously suggested taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Merchan “is without authority under the law to proceed to sentencing while President Trump exercises his federal constitutional right to challenge these rulings,” Trump’s lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a filing with the Appellate Division.

Last Friday, Merchan denied Trump’s bid to throw out his conviction and dismiss the case because of his impending return to the White House. He previously refused to toss the case on presidential immunity grounds. Trump’s lawyers are challenging both rulings.

Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said giving Trump what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.”

Manhattan prosecutors have pushed for sentencing to proceed as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.”

The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.

The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.

Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday that his team was finalizing a two-volume report on its investigations into President-elect Donald Trump and that at least one volume of it could be released by the Justice Department as early as Friday.

The disclosure came in response to a request by defense lawyers, filed in court and in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, to preemptively block the report from being made public.

The report is expected to describe charging decisions made in separate investigations by Smith into Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the run-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump was charged alongside two codefendants in the classified documents case, which was dismissed in July by a Trump-appointed judge who concluded that Smith’s appointment was illegal. Trump was also charged in an election interference case that was significantly narrowed by a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s presidential victory, citing Justice Department policy that prohibits the federal prosecutions of sitting presidents.

Lawyers for Trump, including Todd Blanche, who was picked by Trump to serve as his deputy attorney general, urged Garland in a letter made public late Monday to block the release of the report and to remove Smith from his position “promptly” — or else defer the release of the report to the incoming attorney general.

Using language that mimicked Trump’s own attacks on Smith and his work, Blanche told Garland that the “release of any confidential report prepared by this out-of-control private citizen unconstitutionally posing as a prosecutor would be nothing more than a lawless political stunt, designed to politically harm President Trump and justify the huge sums of taxpayer money Smith unconstitutionally spent on his failed and dismissed cases.”

The letter was attached in an exhibit to an emergency request filed late Monday in federal court by lawyers for Trump’s codefendants in the documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. They asked U.S District Judge Aileen Cannon to block the report’s release, noting that Smith’s appeal of her dismissal of charges against the men is still pending and that the disclosure of pejorative information about them will be prejudicial.

In response to that request, Smith’s team said in a two-page filing early Tuesday that it intended to submit its report to Garland by the afternoon and that the volume pertaining to the classified documents investigation would not be made public before 10 a.m. Friday. It is presumed that both volumes of Smith’s report would be released simultaneously.

Justice Department regulations call for special counsels appointed by the attorney general to submit a confidential report at the conclusion of their investigations.

Garland has so far made public in their entirety the reports produced by special counsels who operated under his watch, including Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified information and John Durham’s report on the FBI’s Russian election interference investigation.

By LINLEY SANDERS, HUMERA LODHI and JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans say immigration should be a top focus for the U.S. government in 2025, as the country heads toward a new Republican administration in which President-elect Donald Trump has promised the mass deportations of migrants and an end to birthright citizenship.

About half of U.S. adults named immigration and border topics in an open-ended question that asked respondents to share up to five issues they want the government to work on this year, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from about one-third who mentioned the topic as a government priority in an AP-NORC poll conducted the previous year.

The issue of immigration has risen in salience across the board — among Democrats and Republicans, men and women, and adults both young and old. But Republicans, in particular, have converged around this issue in recent years. About 7 in 10 Republicans say immigration or a U.S.-Mexico border wall should be a top focus, up from 45% just two years ago.

This means that Trump will return to the White House with his base, and much of the country, interested in his signature issue. That’s a marked contrast to when he left Washington four years ago with his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, offering a more welcoming posture toward migrants.

But even with the widespread uptick in concern about immigration, that issue is still overshadowed by economic worries. About three-quarters of Americans want the government to focus on addressing broad economic concerns, similar to the past few years. There’s a range of economic issues Americans want addressed — about 3 in 10 referenced general economic issues, a similar share pointed to inflation, and roughly 1 in 10 mentioned either unemployment or taxes.

About one-third of Americans identify foreign policy as an important issue, with health care issues and politics — both identified broadly — close behind.

Republicans are especially likely to want government action on immigration

Trump won back the White House with immigration playing a key role in his campaign, often disparaging migrants to the U.S. and claiming that they commit violent crimes, though studies have shown no link between immigration and crime.

Some of his immigration reforms are likely to face legal challenges as Trump seeks to sharply limit the number of immigrants welcome in the U.S. But addressing those issues remains paramount for Americans as he prepares to take office.

About 8 in 10 Republicans want the government to prioritize economic issues, while about 7 in 10 Republicans say immigration or the border wall should be a top priority.

Most Democrats, meanwhile, are focused on the economy, but they don’t have a clear second priority. Instead, about 4 in 10 name health care and health issues, a small uptick from a year earlier. About one-third of Democrats mention political issues, the environment or climate change, or immigration.

But even Democrats are more likely to want the government to make progress on immigration than they were the year before, when only about 2 in 10 Democrats considered it something that should be a primary focus for the federal government.

That doesn’t mean, though, that they align with Trump’s hard-line approach. One Democrat said the government should focus on “border control, not mass deportation,” while another said “better pathways to citizenship” should be the goal. In their responses to the poll, Republicans tended to mention “illegal immigration” and “a stronger border” as an important focus. One Republican supported “closing the border, deporting illegal immigrants, starting with criminals first.”

The focus among Republicans on immigration and the economy dovetails with two of the biggest challenges Biden confronted during his tenure, which saw both high inflation and sharp growth in migration.

Illegal border crossings reached a record level in 2023, adding fuel to Trump’s relentless focus on border security and his promise to deport migrants en masse. The numbers fell during 2024 after Biden announced a crackdown on asylum claims, but Trump argued those moves were too little, too late.

Americans under 30 really want the government to prioritize inflation

The youngest adults are particularly likely to want the government to work on economic issues.

Americans under 30 are significantly more likely than older adults to mention economic issues, inflation and personal financial topics as a vital focus for government in 2025. About 4 in 10 young adults name inflation, compared with roughly one-quarter of older adults. And about one-quarter of young adults say they want the government focused on housing costs, whereas only about 1 in 10 adults ages 60 or older say the same.

Trump made gains among young adults in 2024 compared with his performance four years earlier, but his youngest voters were much more motivated by the economy than by immigration, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters.

The same sentiment prevails as Trump prepares to take office. Compared with 2023, the December poll found, Americans under 30 are more likely to highlight general economic issues and immigration as things they want government to focus on — but they are much less focused on immigration than older adults. Only about one-third of adults under 30 said immigration should be a focus, compared with about 6 in 10 adults 60 or older.

Older Americans are also broadly focused on the economy, but their priorities are a little different — for instance, about 1 in 10 Americans over 60 want the government focused on Social Security in the coming year. Very few Americans under 30 mentioned Social Security as a concern.

Lodhi reported from New York, and Cooper reported from Phoenix.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,251 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 7, the seventh day of 2025. There are 358 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 7, 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor, before escaping. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)

Also on this date:

In 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei observed four of Jupiter’s moons for the first time.

In 1955, singer Marian Anderson became the first Black American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera.”

In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

In 2022, three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison; a judge in Georgia denied any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their neighborhood.

In 2023, Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on a historic post-midnight 15th ballot, overcoming holdouts from his own ranks after a chaotic week that tested the new GOP majority’s ability to govern.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Musician Kenny Loggins is 77.
• Actor David Caruso is 69.
• TV journalist Katie Couric is 68.
• Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is 64.
• Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is 62.
• Actor Nicolas Cage is 61.
• Actor Jeremy Renner is 54.
• Country singer-musician John Rich is 51.
• Racing driver Lewis Hamilton is 40.
• NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson is 28.
• Actor Marcus Scribner is 25.
• Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter is 13.

DETROIT (AP) — Cade Cunningham had 32 points and nine assists as the Detroit Pistons reached .500 for the first time after New Year’s Day since 2019 with a 118-115 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.

Tim Hardaway Jr. added 26 points for Detroit and Jalen Duren had 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Pistons (18-18), who were 3-33 after 36 games a season ago, have won seven of eight.

Anfernee Simons had 36 points and nine assists for Portland, while Shaedon Sharpe had 20 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. The Trail Blazers led by 22 points in the first half.

Hardaway tied the game with a jumper with 3:39 to play, then hit a 3-pointer to make it 109-106. After the teams traded baskets, Simons hit a layup to make it a one-point game.

Malik Beasley hit a 3-pointer to put the Pistons ahead 114-110. Deandre Ayton dunked for Portland with 49.5 seconds to go, but Duren’s putback restored the four-point lead.

Takeaways

Blazers: Coach Chauncey Billups was honored before the game for his contributions to Detroit’s 2004 championship and his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Pistons: Detroit hasn’t been .500 after New Year’s since it finished 41-41 in 2018-19. That season, Blake Griffin led the Pistons to the playoffs, but injured his knee in the process and they were swept by Milwaukee.

Key moment

The Blazers nearly blew Detroit off the floor in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Portland outscored the Pistons 17-0, helped by four straight 3-pointers from Sharpe and Simons.

Key stat

Portland outshot Detroit 53.3% to 44.7% from the floor, but went 3 of 5 from the free-throw line while Detroit was 19 of 22. The Pistons also had a 17-7 edge in offensive rebounds.

Up next

Trail Blazers: At New Orleans on Wednesday.

Pistons: At Brooklyn on Wednesday.

— By DAVE HOGG, Associated Press

By LARRY LAGE
The Associated Press

DETROIT — The Detroit Lions and their ear-ringing fans celebrated a feat that the franchise pulled off for the first time.

Fireworks went off and streamers came down from the rafters while fog machines filled the air with a haze as Lions players and coaches hugged on the Ford Field turf.

The Lions’ 31-9 win over Minnesota on Sunday night gave them a No. 1 seed in the NFL playoffs and home-field advantage through the NFC for the first time, increasing their chances of finally making it to a Super Bowl.

“It’s step one,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “We’re proud to be 15-2, NFC North division champs — back to back, one seed, bye week — all that stuff.

“But this just tick No. 1 and tick No. 2 is next.”

The Lions, who won consecutive division titles for the first time, will host the lowest-seed still standing in the NFC playoffs in the divisional round Jan. 18 or 19. If Detroit avoids getting upset in that game, it will be a win away from the ultimate destination.

Detroit is one of four NFL teams without a Super Bowl appearance along with Cleveland, Houston and Jacksonville.

Since the Lions were an NFL power in the 1950s, winning three titles in a six-year stretch, they failed to have much success in the playoffs until last year.

After winning their last league championship in 1957, they had one playoff victory until general manager Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell worked together to find the right players and assistants to win when it matters.

Detroit won two games in one postseason last season for the first time in six-plus decades before blowing a 17-point, third-quarter lead at San Francisco in the NFC championship game.

The Lions earned the right to stay home for the conference playoffs and hope their loud fans make Ford Field an advantage twice this month.

“It’s a great atmosphere for sure,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said.

What’s working

Giving the ball to Jahymr Gibbs. He scored three of his franchise-record tying four touchdowns in the second half, helping Detroit score the final 21 points of the regular-season finale to pull away from the 14-win Vikings.

Gibbs ran 23 times for 139 yards and a career-high three touchdowns and had five catches for 31 yards and another score, carrying a heavy load for a third straight game without injured running back David Montgomery.

“When he gets into space, he’s really tough to get him down,” O’Connell said.

Gibbs set a single-season franchise record with 20 touchdowns.

He joined Hall of Famers O.J. Simpson (1975) and Marshall Faulk (2000) along with David Johnson (2016) as the four players in league history to have 1,900 yards or more from scrimmage and at least 16 rushing touchdowns.

What needs help

The injury report. Detroit’s roster has been decimated by assorted ailments. Rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold, guard Kevin Zeitler and defensive lineman Pat O’Connor all came out of the Minnesota game with injuries.

Stock up

Amik Robertson. The 26-year-old cornerback covered star receiver Justin Jefferson about as well as possible, helping to limit him to three catches for 54 yards. Jefferson caught a season-low 33.3% of the passes thrown toward him.

“When they told me the assignment was to guard Jefferson, I knew we had a chance to win because I always believe in myself,” Robertson said.

Stock down

Goff was selected last week to the Pro Bowl, but had one of his worst games statistically of the season on Sunday night. Goff had an 80.7 passer rating, his third lowest of the season, and was picked off twice after throwing only one interception in the previous seven games.

Injuries

Arnold (foot), Zeitler (right hamstring) and O’Connor (calf) will benefit from the bye.

Key stat

146 — Sam LaPorta matched a season high with seven receptions, giving him 146 catches to surpass three-time All-Pro Keith Jackson for the most by a tight end in his first two NFL seasons.

Next steps

Rest and recharge, taking advantage of the team’s first extended break since Week 5.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some lawmakers emotionally recalled the violence. Others said they’d rather move on. And some said it wasn’t violent at all.

The certification Monday of Donald Trump’s presidential victory further exposed the divide, and the tension, among members of Congress over Jan. 6, 2021 — as Trump has called the bloody attack by his supporters “a day of love” and has promised to pardon rioters who have been convicted of crimes related to that day once he is in office.

Unlike four years ago, when the joint session of Congress to count electoral votes was interrupted by rioters trying to break down the doors, there was very little drama this Jan. 6 and no overt tension in the room as lawmakers read out each state’s electoral votes. Vice President Kamala Harris gaveled down her own defeat. Democrats did not object to any of the votes.

Standing beside windows where Trump’s supporters first broke into the building that day, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats want to “serve as an example” for Republicans.

The Democrats lost last year’s election, Schumer said, but “when you lose an election you roll up your sleeves and try for the next one. You don’t deny that you lost.”

The rioters who violently breached the Capitol four years ago, breaking in after a brutal fight with police, were echoing Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen and that President Joe Biden’s win was “rigged.” Trump maintained — and still maintains — that he won the election even though it was certified by all 50 states and courts across the country reaffirmed Biden’s win.

Four years later, the Republican Party is still divided over the attack. On Monday, as they gleefully certified Trump’s win, some GOP lawmakers made a point of downplaying the violence four years ago, defending the more than 1,250 rioters convicted of crimes.

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., posted on X early Monday morning that “individuals entered the Capitol, took photos, and explored the building before leaving,” and have since been “hunted down” and treated unjustly. Just after the joint session ended, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., repeated her plea that all of the rioters be pardoned and said “this country should never allow this type of abuse of our justice system again.”

Other Republicans remembered the day differently — a signal that Trump’s pledge to pardon rioters could become politically fraught even within his own party. It’s unclear, so far, whether he will try to pardon all of them or just those who were not violent.

“I was here,” said Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies. “Ask the cops who got beaten up. Not everybody was violent, but there was definitely violence, and the people who defiled the Capitol and attacked police officers, they deserve to be held accountable.”

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said that “the violence that occurred on that particular day, I will not forget.”

“It was real,” he said. “And we have to recognize that was a very, very bad day in our country’s history.”

More common are Republicans who don’t want to talk about it at all.

“That was a long day and I don’t want to rehash it,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who was then in the House and helped blockade the doors as rioters tried to beat them down. He said he hadn’t talked about it since the one-year anniversary of the attack.

“That’s in the past for me,” Mullin said. “I tell people all the time, you can’t drive out the rearview mirror.”

New Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters, “I was here, and I’ve said what I have to say about that day, and I’m now looking forward.”

On possible pardons, “it’s going to be a call that the president has to make,” Thune said.

Democrats marked the fourth anniversary by remembering their own experiences that day, and preparing for Trump’s return to office.

Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson said after the session that he was angry that they were there to certify Trump’s win after what happened last time.

“We performed our perfunctory duty,” Johnson said. “It should have been perfunctory four years ago. I’m angry that it was not.”

Johnson was trapped in the House gallery with other Democrats who were spacing out in the chamber amid the coronavirus pandemic. The group was trapped as people tried to beat the doors down below, and ducked below seats as rioters hunting lawmakers were rattling the doors behind them.

Some members of that group — who have dubbed themselves the “gallery group” — gathered for a photo Monday. Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal posted the photo on X.

“We will not forget,” she wrote.

Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, one of the hundreds of police officers who fought the rioters four years ago, sat in the gallery on Monday as Congress certified Trump’s win, a guest of California Sen. Adam Schiff.

Hodges, who was captured on video crushed between two doors as some of the rioters beat him, said he found this year’s proceeding to be “very dry” — like it should have been four years ago, he said.

Otherwise, he was marking the day by doing his job, like many of the other officers who spent the day protecting the city and members of Congress.

“I was at work before this and I’m going back to work afterward,” he said.

By ASHRAF KHALIL

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s capital is often not a place that handles winter weather well. Cold-weather transplants complain about the inability of local drivers to navigate snowy roads and the tendency of the school systems to shut down at the first sign of falling flakes.

Now the ceremonial pomp of Washington is colliding with the circumstance of a major snow storm, forecast to dump up to a foot in some places by Monday night. The weather adds an unexpected layer of complexity to what was already a challenging two-week stretch for local officials.

For the first time, the District of Columbia is hosting three designated National Special Security Events in a two-week span: Monday’s congressional certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral win, this week’s state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter and then Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

“This has never happened before,” said Matt McCool of the Secret Service’s Washington field office.

The special security event designation is reserved for events that draw large crowds and potential mass protests. It calls for an enhanced degree of high-level coordination among D.C. officials, the FBI, Secret Service, Capitol Police and Washington’s National Guard contingent.

The certification, which has historically been a low-profile ministerial proceeding, was elevated to National Special Security Event after the chaotic riot of Jan. 6, 2021. This time, that process progressed smoothly Monday afternoon, amid security restrictions that, according to McCool, mimicked those of a presidential State of the Union address.

“The Washington, D.C., area is well-versed in these high-profile events,” McCool told reporters last week. “Still back-to-back NSSEs are a unique situation.”

With the certification out of the way, officials now turn to this week’s elaborate multi-day state funeral proceedings for Carter. That rolls straight into preparations for the Jan. 20 inauguration with officials on alert for potential clashes between Trump’s supporters and opponents; there’s an anti-Trump People’s March scheduled for Saturday the 18th and a pro-Trump rally planned for Sunday the 19th.

“We are committed to upholding the right to peacefully assemble and protest in our city,” Metropolitan Police Department chief Pamela Smith said. “However … we will not tolerate any violence, rioting, destruction of property or any behavior that threatens the safety and security of our city.”

Smith said she has placed her department “on full activation” starting Sunday, Jan. 5, positioning “additional officers with specialized training that can be deployed anywhere in the District at a moment’s notice.”

McCool also warned D.C. residents to get used to the sight of numerous security and surveillance drones in the next two weeks. The entire District of Columbia is normally a no-fly zone for drones.

The most immediate question is whether the snowfall will prevent visitors from coming to town to pay their respects to Carter. According to tracking platform FlightAware.com, nearly 900 flights were canceled or delayed Monday in and out of Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C. More than 300 flights were delayed or cancelled at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

After the completion of memorial services in his native Georgia, Carter’s casket will arrive in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Ceremonies, which continue through Thursday, will include a horse-drawn funeral procession Tuesday afternoon that may echo images from the chilly Nov. 22, 1963 procession for John F. Kennedy.

The snowfall already has prompted changes in standard White House operating procedure; instead of flying aboard the Marine One helicopter on Monday, President Joe Biden was forced to drive to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to board Air Force One. In a move reminiscent of secret presidential trips to war zones, Biden’s trip to New Orleans and Los Angeles began inside a hangar, rather than on the tarmac as is customary, due to the inclement weather. Air Force One was sheltered from the snow inside a secure hangar and Biden departed during an early afternoon lull in the snowfall.

Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Fatima Hussein and Darlene Superville in Washington, and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

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Comedian Nikki Glaser kicked off what she called “Ozempic’s biggest night,” the 82nd Golden Globes, with a promise: “I’m not here to roast you.”

But Glaser, a stand-up whose breakthrough came in a withering roast of Tom Brady, made her way around the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on Sunday picking out plenty of targets in an opening monologue she had worked out extensively in comedy clubs beforehand.

Glaser, hosting the Globes two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump, reserved perhaps her most cutting line for the whole room of Hollywood stars.

“You could really do anything … except tell the country who to vote for,” said Glaser. “But it’s OK, you’ll get ’em next time … if there is one. I’m scared.”

She then turned toward “Wicked” star Ariana Grande with a request: “Ariana, hold my finger.”

Glaser complimented Timothée Chalamet, nominated for his performance as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” for having “the most gorgeous eye-lashes on your upper lip.”

While Glaser might not have reached Tina Fey and Amy Poehler levels of laughs, the monologue was mostly a winner, and a dramatic improvement over last year’s host, Jo Koy. Glaser assured the crowd that, win or lose, “the point of making art is to start a tequila brand so popular that you never have to make art again.”

Early Winners

The night’s first winner was Zoe Saldaña for best supporting actress. Saldaña won for her performance in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” the trans musical that came in with a leading 10 nods, followed by Brady Corbet’s postwar epic “The Brutalist,” with seven, and Edward Berger’s papal thriller “Conclave,” with six. Among the top-nominated series were “The Bear,” “Shogun” and “Only Murders in the Building.”

FX’s “Shogun” also got started early with wins for Hiroyuki Sanada, for best actor in a drama series, and Tadanobu Asano for best supporting actor in a drama series. “I’m very happy!” exclaimed Asano with his arms raised.

For the second time, Jean Smart won best lead actress in a comedy series for “Hacks.” Said the much-honored Smart: “I never thought I’d be so happy to be called a hack.”

Though few film awards have been predictable this season, Kieran Culkin is emerging has the clear favorite for best supporting actor. Culkin won Sunday for his performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” his second Globe in the past year following a win for the HBO series “Succession.” He called the Globes “basically the best date night that my wife and I ever have,” and then thanked her for “putting up what you call my mania.”

Steadying Globes?

After a rocky few years and the disbanding of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes have seemingly stabilized. The question heading into Sunday was: But can they still put on a good show?

Last year’s comeback edition, hosted by Koy, was widely panned, but it delivered where it counted: Ratings rebounded to about 10 million viewers, according to Nielsen. CBS, who waded in after NBC dumped the Globes, signed up for five more years.

The Globes are now owned by Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which acquired the award show from the now defunct Hollywood Foreign Press Association. After diversity and ethics scandals, the HFPA sold off the Globes and dissolved. However, more than a dozen former HFPA members are seeking to have the sale to Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions rescinded.

Either way, the Globes’ primary reason for being, from studios’ perspectives, is to serve as one big marketing event for its awards contenders. It’s still almost two months until the Academy Awards on March 2.

But unlike last year, where “Oppenheimer” steamrolled and the billion-dollar-grossing “Barbie” juiced the race, this year’s top contenders are more arthouse, and no clear favorite has yet emerged.

The Globes are taking place about two weeks before the Trump’s inauguration. So far in Hollywood’s awards season, most nominees have tried to stay out of the political fray, with the major exception of “The Apprentice,” the young Trump drama starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. Both actors were nominated by the Globes, with Stan picking up a second nod for his performance in “A Different Man.”

For more coverage of the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/golden-globe-awards

Cade Cunningham scored a season-high 40 points and the Detroit Pistons overcame Anthony Edwards' career-high 53 points to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-105 on Saturday night.

Cunningham, who also had nine assists, set his previous season high of 35 points against Milwaukee on Nov. 13.

Edwards' previous career high was 51 points against Washington on April 9 last season. His 3-pointer with 9:25 remaining tied his career best but he didn't score again until 22 seconds remained.

Malik Beasley had 23 points as the Pistons won their third straight and sixth in their last seven games. Tobias Harris contributed 16 points and 11 rebounds and Ausar Thompson added 10 points, 10 rebounds and a career-best six steals.

Julius Randle was the only other Minnesota player in double figures with 17 points.

Takeaways

Timberwolves: A Western Conference finalist last season, they appeared to be heating up with three straight victories late last month. They've now lost three in a row to drop back to the .500 mark (17-17).

Pistons: With starting guard Jaden Ivey sidelined by a fractured fibula, the Pistons may have found his replacement in the lineup. Thompson gave that unit a defensive spark that energized their transition game.

Key moment

Detroit had a five-point lead after the first quarter and extended it to 18 with a 13-0 run to start the second. Cunningham had six points and an assist while Thompson made two steals and dunks during that span. The Pistons led the rest of the way.

Key stat

Edwards had been held to 20 or fewer points in eight of the previous 14 games. His previous season high was 37 points against Portland on Nov. 8.

Up next

The Timberwolves host the Los Angeles Clippers and the Pistons host Portland on Monday night.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Today is Sunday, Jan. 5, the fifth day of 2025. There are 360 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge; the bridge was completed in May 1937.

Also on this date:

In 1896, an Austrian newspaper reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (RENT’-gun) of a new type of radiation that came to be called “X-rays.”

In 1925, Democrat Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming took office as America’s first female governor.

In 1953, Samuel Beckett’s two-act tragicomedy “Waiting for Godot,” considered a classic of the Theater of the Absurd, premiered in Paris.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed assistance to countries to help them resist Communist aggression in what became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.

In 1980, “Rapper’s Delight,” by The Sugarhill Gang, became the first hip-hop song to reach the Billboard Top 40.

In 2022, Australia denied entry to tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was seeking to play for a 10th Australian Open title later in the month; authorities canceled his visa upon his arrival in Melbourne because he failed to meet the requirements for an exemption to COVID-19 vaccination rules.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Robert Duvall is 94.
• Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is 84.
• Actor Diane Keaton is 79.
• Actor Vinnie Jones is 60.
• TV personality Carrie Ann Inaba is 57.
• Rock singer Marilyn Manson is 56.
• Actor-filmmaker Bradley Cooper is 50.
• Actor January Jones is 47.
• Actor Mike Faist is 33.
• Actor Walker Scobell is 16.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Danny Wolf finished with a season-high 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead Michigan to an 85-74 victory over Southern California on Saturday night.

Wolf made 9 of 12 shots with two 3-pointers in his seventh double-double this season for the Wolverines (11-3, 3-0 Big Ten Conference). He added seven assists and blocked a career-high six shots.

Tre Donaldson and Nimari Burnett scored 16 apiece for Michigan with Donaldson adding six assists. Roddy Gayle Jr. had 12 points and Vladislav Goldin scored 11.

Desmond Claude and Wesley Yates III both scored 19 to lead the Trojans (9-5, 1-2). Claude added seven rebounds. Kevin Patton Jr. had 14 points and Saint Thomas scored 10.

Burnett had 13 points, Donaldson scored 12 and the pair combined to make 7 of 8 from 3-point range as Michigan took a 42-38 lead into halftime.

Claude buried a jumper for USC to begin the second half, but Wolf had four baskets and fellow 7-footer Goldin had a three-point play and a dunk as the pair did all the scoring in a 13-0 Michigan run for a 55-40 advantage with 16 minutes remaining.

The Trojans rallied to take a 65-63 lead on a Patton layup with 7:33 remaining. Gayle scored six in a 10-0 run and Michigan led 73-65 with 5:09 to go. USC scored six straight, but Goldin and Wolf had back-to-back baskets in a 10-0 run to wrap up the victory.

The schools had not played each other since Dec. 27, 1981 — a 77-63 victory for the Trojans in the Holiday Classic at the L.A. Sports Arena.

Michigan remains in Los Angeles to play No. 15 UCLA on Tuesday. USC travels to play Indiana on Wednesday.

By JENNIFER PELTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Say hello to the latest dog in the American Kennel Club’s lineup of recognized breeds. Or you might say “hej.”

The Danish-Swedish farmdog — yep, that’s the official name — joined the pack Thursday. The designation makes the breed eligible to compete for many best in show trophies, and it likely augurs more widespread interest in the small, sprightly dogs. The prospect both gladdens and concerns their biggest fans.

“We’re excited about it. We’re looking forward to it,” said Carey Segebart, one of the people who worked to get Danish-Swedish farmdogs recognized by the AKC. She proudly plans to debut one of her own at a dog show this month near her Iowa home.

Still, she thinks increased exposure is “a double-edged sword” for the fleet, versatile pups.

“We don’t want the breed to just explode too quickly,” she said.

Called the farmdog or DSF for short, the breed goes back centuries in parts of what are now Denmark, southern Sweden and some other European countries, according to the Danish-Swedish Farmdog Club of America.

“They’re interesting, fun little dogs,” said Segebart, who has owned them since 2011 and is the club’s incoming president. “They’re essentially up for anything. They succeed at most everything.”

In their original homelands, the dogs’ main job was rodent patrol, but they also would herd a bit, act as watchdogs and play with farmers’ children. Some even performed in circuses, according to the club.

After Denmark and Sweden became more urban and suburban in the 20th century, farmdog fanciers set out to secure the breed’s place in both nations (where “hej” translates to the English “hello”). Kennel clubs there began registering farmdogs in 1987.

In the U.S., many of the just about 350 farmdogs nationwide compete in agility, obedience or other canine sports that are open to all dogs, including mixed breeds.

But until now, farmdogs couldn’t enter the traditional breed-by-breed judging that leads to best in show prizes at events including the prominent Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York. The entry deadline has passed for February’s Westminster show, so farmdogs will have to wait for 2026 there, but they may well appear later this year at two other major, televised shows, the National Dog Show and AKC National Championship.

The Danish-Swedish farmdog is the AKC’s 202nd breed and “a wonderful addition to a family that is able to provide it with the exercise and mental stimulation that it needs,” said the club’s Gina DiNardo.

The AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry and essentially a league for many dog competitions. Registration is voluntary, and requirements for breed recognition include at least 300 pedigreed dogs spread through at least 20 states. Some breeds are in other kennel clubs or none at all.

Danish-Swedish farmdog fanciers deliberated for several years before pursuing AKC recognition and the attention that’s likely to come with it, Segebart said. The number of farmdog puppy-seekers has grown substantially over the last decade; each of the few breeders receives multiple inquiries a week, and the typical wait for a puppy is a year or more, she said.

Farmdog folk fear that their appealing, relatively easy-care breed could quickly become too popular for its own good. They’re not the first to worry: Much fur has flown in dogdom over the rise of the French bulldog, which the AKC now ranks as the most popular breed in the country.

Some animal rights activists echo those concerns to argue against dog breeding in general. They say purebred popularity trends divert people from adopting shelter animals, fuel puppy mills and prize dogs’ appearance over their health.

The AKC says it promotes responsibly “breeding for type and function” to produce dogs with at least somewhat predictable traits, whether as basic as size or as specialized as bomb-sniffing skills. The club says it has given over $35 million since 1995 to its canine health research charity.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. Giuliani?

As Rudy Giuliani’s life gets stripped for parts to satisfy a $148 million defamation verdict, the former New York City mayor is fighting to keep one gleaming set of sports memorabilia in the family: Yankees World Series rings bestowed to him by the team’s late owner, George Steinbrenner.

A lifelong Bronx Bombers fan, Giuliani contends that the rings — bejeweled behemoths commemorating the team’s four championships in five years while he was mayor — now belong to his son, Andrew, and shouldn’t be given up.

In sworn testimony made public this week, ahead of a pair of key court dates, Giuliani described the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 World Series rings as something of a family heirloom and Yankees good-luck charm.

He recounted how he and Andrew would each put one on for “a special Yankee occasion,” like the team’s last World Series win in 2009.

Giuliani testified that when Steinbrenner gave him the rings in 2002, he insisted on paying for them and told the owner, “These are for Andrew.” He said he then invited his son — a teenager at the time — to take one for himself while he held the others for safekeeping.

Realizing he wasn’t wearing them as much as the Yankees’ fortunes ebbed, Giuliani testified, he decided to give the rest to Andrew at a birthday party in 2018. He estimated that the rings, the same as the players received, were worth about $27,000.

“They are now yours,” Giuliani recalled saying. “These are your rings. I don’t know what I’m keeping them for. They belong to you.”

The ex-mayor took his swings at a Dec. 27 deposition, a week before the start of a courtroom doubleheader in a tug-of-war over assets sought by the two former Georgia election workers who sued him over his lies about them in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. A transcript was posted to the court docket on Monday.

Up first is Giuliani’s contempt hearing in Manhattan federal court Friday over what lawyers for the Georgia women say was his failure to turn over property in a timely fashion, such as his New York City apartment lease.

Then, on Jan. 16, Judge Lewis J. Liman will hold a trial to decide what happens not only to Giuliani’s World Series rings but also his condominium in Palm Beach, Florida. Giuliani claims the condo, estimated to be worth more than $3 million, is his primary residence and should be exempt.

For Giuliani, once heralded as “America’s Mayor” for his post-9/11 leadership, it’s the legal equivalent of two strikes, two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Lawyers for the former election workers, mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, argue that Giuliani has engaged in a “consistent pattern of willful defiance” of court orders to turn over items.

In a Monday filing, lawyer Aaron Nathan said Giuliani’s compliance has been spotty, noting that while he finally surrendered a Mercedes previous owned by actor Lauren Bacall, he failed to provide the vehicle’s title.

After listing 26 watches in a bankruptcy filing, Giuliani now claims without explanation that 18 watches he turned over to Freeman and Moss are all he has, Nathan wrote. He added that Giuliani also claims not to know the whereabouts of a shirt signed by Joe DiMaggio or a photo signed by Reggie Jackson, both Yankees legends.

Freeman and Moss asked the judge in August to award them the World Series rings, but the judge demurred and scheduled a trial after Andrew Giuliani, now 38, said they belong to him.

Giuliani’s eight hours of deposition testimony offered a vivid portrait of a still-proud, combative and downtrodden man who has lost almost everything and remains convinced that it has been unjustly taken.

Recalling his days as a two-term Republican mayor, he boasted that he “cured” homelessness in the city while acknowledging that he is now rejected by most clubs he would like to join, except for two.

Questioned by Nathan, he spoke at length about the rings, his ties to Trump and the Yankees, and his dismay over his once-beloved Big Apple’s liberal politics — a factor he said drove him to relocate to Florida and register to vote there last May.

“Frankly, I wanted my vote to count,” Giuliani testified.

Asked why it was important to him to cast a vote for president, Giuliani replied: “Because I am a very, very strong supporter of Donald Trump, which is the reason why you are doing all of this to me.”

Before Trump, it was the Yankees. Giuliani, who saw them win 10 titles during his childhood and college years, regularly cheered the team as mayor, often sitting next to the dugout.

“I was a very ardent Yankee fan,” he testified. “When I was the mayor, I was described as New York’s No. 1 Yankee fan.”

After the team triumphed in 1996 to snap a 15-year drought, Steinbrenner thought “New York’s No. 1 Yankee fan” deserved a World Series ring — but Giuliani wasn’t having it.

“I didn’t think it was appropriate that a mayor get a ring,” Giuliani testified.

By the time he left office in 2002, the Yankees had three more championships.

At spring training that year in Tampa, Florida, Steinbrenner presented him with a plaque and three World Series rings, Giuliani testified, each engraved with his name.

“I was very touched and moved by that,” he said.

The Yankees also gave him the 1996 ring that he turned down, he said. He recalled showing all four rings to his son and telling him: “These are going to be yours.”

Each ring was bigger and more extravagant than the last, Giuliani testified, so much so that “you’d look crazy wearing it.”

Giuliani lamented that his rings didn’t bring the Yankees more success, noting their 2003 World Series loss to the Marlins and 2004 playoff collapse against the hated Red Sox.

“I stopped wearing them after the Yankees stopped winning because it was no longer working,” he said. “And then I wasn’t using them anymore.”

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The new year will bring a pair of lunar eclipses, but don’t expect any sun-disappearing acts like the one that mesmerized North America last spring.

While the world will have to wait until 2026 for the next total solar eclipse, the cosmos promises plenty of other wow moments in 2025. It’s kicking off the year with a six-planet parade in January that will be visible for weeks. Little Mercury will join the crowd for a seven-planet lineup in February.

Five planets already are scattered across the sky — all but Mars and Mercury — though binoculars or telescopes are needed to spot some of them just after sunset.

“People should go out and see them sometime during the next many weeks. I certainly will,” said the Planetary Society’s chief scientist Bruce Betts.

Here’s a sneak peek of what’s ahead:

ECLIPSES

The moon will vanish for more than an hour over North and South America on March 14, followed two weeks later by a partial solar eclipse visible from Maine, eastern Canada, Greenland, Europe, Siberia and northwestern Africa.

The cosmic double-header will repeat in September with an even longer total lunar eclipse over Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, and a partial solar eclipse two weeks later near the bottom of the world.

SUPERMOONS

Three supermoons are on tap this year in October, November and December.

The full moon will look particularly big and bright those three months as it orbits closer to Earth than usual.

November’s supermoon will come closest, passing within 221,817 miles (356,980 kilometers). Last year featured four supermoons, wrapping up in November.

PLANET PARADE

Six of our seven neighboring planets will line up in the sky to form a long arc around mid-January. All but Neptune and Uranus should be visible with the naked eye just after sunset, weather permitting.

The parade will continue for weeks, with some of the planets occasionally snuggling up. Mercury will make a cameo appearance by the end of February. The planets will gradually exit, one by one, through spring.

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN LIGHTS

The sun burped big time last year, painting the sky with gorgeous auroras in unexpected places.

Space weather forecasters anticipate more geomagnetic storms that could yield even more northern and southern lights.

That’s because the sun has reached its solar maximum during its current 11-year cycle that could continue through this year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Shawn Dahl urges everyone to stay on top of space weather news, so as not to miss any pop-up, razzle-dazzle shows.

METEOR SHOWERS

The Perseids and Geminids are perennial crowd-pleasers, peaking in August and December, respectively. But don’t count out the smaller, less dramatic meteor showers like the Lyrids in April, the Orionids in October and the Leonids in November.

The darker the locale and dimmer the moon, the better it will be for viewing. Meteor showers are generally named for the constellation in which they appear to originate. They occur whenever Earth plows through streams of debris left behind by comets and sometimes asteroids.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By BRIAN MELLEY

LONDON (AP) — Police in London are searching for a burglar who broke into an occupied mansion and stole more than 10.5 million pounds ($13.2 million) worth of jewelry, designer handbags and cash.

The owners of the estate, identified in British media as an Instagram influencer and her developer husband, were not home at the time on Dec. 7. But employees were there and a housekeeper had a near run-in with the armed intruder, according to surveillance footage.

“This is a brazen offense where the suspect has entered the property while armed with an unknown weapon,” Det. Constable Paulo Roberts of the Metropolitan Police said on Monday, when the theft was announced.

Among the stolen items were a 10.73-carat diamond ring, diamond earrings and a clip studded with gold, diamonds and sapphires. The haul also included 150,000 pounds ($189,000) worth of handbags.

The homeowners have offered a 500,000 pound ($628,000) reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the suspect, and an additional reward of 10% of the value of recovered items.

Police said the suspect broke in by climbing through a second-floor window.

Surveillance footage obtained by the MailOnline showed the man walking down a corridor a minute before a maid stepped off an elevator in the same place.

The home near Regent’s Park in one of London’s wealthiest areas.

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, LAURA UNGAR and MIKE STOBBE

Five years ago, a cluster of people in Wuhan, China, fell sick with a virus never before seen in the world.

The germ didn’t have a name, nor did the illness it would cause. It wound up setting off a pandemic that exposed deep inequities in the global health system and reshaped public opinion about how to control deadly emerging viruses.

The virus is still with us, though humanity has built up immunity through vaccinations and infections. It’s less deadly than it was in the pandemic’s early days and it no longer tops the list of leading causes of death. But the virus is evolving, meaning scientists must track it closely.

Where did the SARS-CoV-2 virus come from?

We don’t know. Scientists think the most likely scenario is that it circulated in bats, like many coronaviruses. They think it then infected another species, probably racoon dogs, civet cats or bamboo rats, which in turn infected humans handling or butchering those animals at a market in Wuhan, where the first human cases appeared in late November 2019.

That’s a known pathway for disease transmission and likely triggered the first epidemic of a similar virus, known as SARS. But this theory has not been proven for the virus that causes COVID-19. Wuhan is home to several research labs involved in collecting and studying coronaviruses, fueling debate over whether the virus instead may have leaked from one.

It’s a difficult scientific puzzle to crack in the best of circumstances. The effort has been made even more challenging by political sniping around the virus’ origins and by what international researchers say are moves by China to withhold evidence that could help.

The true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years — if ever.

How many people died from COVID-19?

Probably more than 20 million. The World Health Organization has said member countries reported more than 7 million deaths from COVID-19 but the true death toll is estimated to be at least three times higher.

In the U.S., an average of about 900 people a week have died of COVID-19 over the past year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The coronavirus continues to affect older adults the most. Last winter in the U.S., people age 75 and older accounted for about half the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations and in-hospital deaths, according to the CDC.

“We cannot talk about COVID in the past, since it’s still with us,” WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

What vaccines were made available?

Scientists and vaccine-makers broke speed records developing COVID-19 vaccines that have saved tens of millions of lives worldwide – and were the critical step to getting life back to normal.

Less than a year after China identified the virus, health authorities in the U.S. and Britain cleared vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Years of earlier research — including Nobel-winning discoveries that were key to making the new technology work — gave a head start for so-called mRNA vaccines.

Today, there’s also a more traditional vaccine made by Novavax, and some countries have tried additional options. Rollout to poorer countries was slow but the WHO estimates more than 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally since 2021.

The vaccines aren’t perfect. They do a good job of preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death, and have proven very safe, with only rare serious side effects. But protection against milder infection begins to wane after a few months.

Like flu vaccines, COVID-19 shots must be updated regularly to match the ever-evolving virus — contributing to public frustration at the need for repeated vaccinations. Efforts to develop next-generation vaccines are underway, such as nasal vaccines that researchers hope might do a better job of blocking infection.

Which variant is dominating now?

Genetic changes called mutations happen as viruses make copies of themselves. And this virus has proven to be no different.

Scientists named these variants after Greek letters: alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron. Delta, which became dominant in the U.S. in June 2021, raised a lot of concerns because it was twice as likely to lead to hospitalization as the first version of the virus.

Then in late November 2021, a new variant came on the scene: omicron.

“It spread very rapidly,” dominating within weeks, said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. “It drove a huge spike in cases compared to anything we had seen previously.”

But on average, the WHO said, it caused less severe disease than delta. Scientists believe that may be partly because immunity had been building due to vaccination and infections.

“Ever since then, we just sort of keep seeing these different subvariants of omicron accumulating more different mutations,” Long said. “Right now, everything seems to locked on this omicron branch of the tree.”

The omicron relative now dominant in the U.S. is called XEC, which accounted for 45% of variants circulating nationally in the two-week period ending Dec. 21, the CDC said. Existing COVID-19 medications and the latest vaccine booster should be effective against it, Long said, since “it’s really sort of a remixing of variants already circulating.”

What do we know about long COVID?

Millions of people remain in limbo with a sometimes disabling, often invisible, legacy of the pandemic called long COVID.

It can take several weeks bounce back after a bout of COVID-19, but some people develop more persistent problems. The symptoms that last at least three months, sometimes for years, include fatigue, cognitive trouble known as “brain fog,” pain and cardiovascular problems, among others.

Doctors don’t know why only some people get long COVID. It can happen even after a mild case and at any age, although rates have declined since the pandemic’s early years. Studies show vaccination can lower the risk.

It also isn’t clear what causes long COVID, which complicates the search for treatments. One important clue: Increasingly researchers are discovering that remnants of the coronavirus can persist in some patients’ bodies long after their initial infection, although that can’t explain all cases.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By TARA COPP, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, COLLEEN LONG and TY ONEIL, Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person who died when a Tesla Cybertruck packed with explosives burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel was a highly decorated U.S. Army Green Beret who deployed twice to Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

Two law enforcement officials identified the man inside the futuristic-looking pickup truck as Matthew Livelsberger. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the Army said in a statement. He had served in the Army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.

The FBI said Thursday in a post on X that it was “conducting law enforcement activity” at a home in Colorado Springs related to Wednesday’s explosion but provided no other details.

The explosion of the truck, packed with firework mortars and camp fuel canisters, came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people before being shot to death by police. That crash was being investigated as a terrorist attack and police believe the driver was not acting alone.

Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive Army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple Army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.

Chris Raia, FBI deputy assistant director, said Thursday that officials have found ‘no definitive link’ between the New Orleans attack and the truck explosion in Las Vegas.

Seven people nearby suffered minor injuries when the Tesla truck exploded. Video showed a tumble of charred fireworks mortars, canisters and other explosive devices crowded into the back of the pickup. The truck bed walls were still intact because the blast shot straight up rather than to the sides.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday afternoon on X that “we have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.”

“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” Musk wrote.

Authorities know who rented the truck with the Turo app in Colorado, Kevin McMahill, the elected sheriff of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Wednesday. He did not release the person’s ID, however.