AP News Digest 6 p.m.

Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EST. Find the AP’s top photos of the day in Today’s Photo Collection. For up-to-the-minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan in AP Newsroom.

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NEW/DEVELOPING

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TRUMP HOTEL-FIRE-LAS VEGAS; NEW-ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD-VICTIMS; MONTENEGRO-SHOOTING; NEW ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD; CAR INTO CROWD-BARRIERS; PUERTO RICO-POWER OUTAGE; SUGAR BOWL-SECURITY; FIREWORKS DEATHS-HAWAII; YE-BOX OFFICE; DUCHESS OF SUSSEX-INSTAGRAM; DUCHESS OF SUSSEX-INSTAGRAM; CFP-PEACH BOWL.

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TOP STORIES

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NEW ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD — An Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration, killing 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police. By Eric Tucker, Jim Mustian, Kevin McGill and Jack Brook. SENT: 1,110 words, photos, videos, audio. With CAR INTO CROWD-BARRIERS — New Orleans barriers to prevent vehicle attacks were in the process of being replaced; NEW-ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD-VICTIMS — An aspiring nurse, football star and father of two among the dead in New Orleans attack; NEW-ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD-VEHICLE ATTACKS — New Orleans ramming is the latest attack to use a vehicle as a deadly weapon; NEW ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD-THE LATEST; NEW ORLEANS-CAR INTO CROWD-WHAT TO KNOW. Click here for AP's all-formats coverage plans.

TRUMP HOTEL-FIRE-LAS VEGAS — One person died and seven others were injured when a Tesla Cybertruck that appeared to be carrying fireworks caught fire and exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, authorities said. By Ty O’Neil. SENT: 490 words, photos, audio. UPCOMING: video.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE-WAR — Ukraine halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of 2024 and almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor. By Hanna Arhirova and Joanna Kozlowska. SENT: 1,050 words, photos, video, audio.

MIDEAST-WARS — Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year. By Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy. SENT: 910 words, photos, videos, audio. With MIDEAST WARS-NEW YEAR — A new year dawns on a Middle East torn by conflict and change.

JIMMY CARTER-FAITH — Former President Jimmy Carter was widely known as a man of faith, a born-again Christian who defined himself as a progressive evangelical. He felt called to help others, teaching Baptist Sunday school, building homes with Habitat for Humanity and eradicating diseases across the developing world. By Bill Barrow. SENT: 1,600 words, photos, video. For more on Jimmy Carter, visit the AP's Carter obit page in Newsroom. With TRUMP-CARTER — President-elect Donald Trump says he is planning to attend Carter’s funeral.

NEW YEAR’S EVE — From Sydney to Mumbai to Paris to Rio de Janeiro, communities around the world welcomed 2025 with spectacular light shows, embraces and ice plunges. The New Year’s Eve ball dropped in soggy Times Square, where thousands of revelers stuck it out in heavy rain to celebrate the start of 2025 in New York City. By Melissa Goldin, Cedar Attanasio and Charlotte Graham-McLay. SENT: 970 words, photos, videos, audio. Find a selection of New Year’s Eve related photos in AP Newsroom.

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MORE NEWS

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DUCHESS OF SUSSEX-INSTAGRAM — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, returns to Instagram and posts a New Year’s video. SENT: 220 words, photo.

SUGAR BOWL-SECURITY — Sugar Bowl CFP quarterfinal between Georgia and Notre Dame postponed after deadly truck attack. SENT: 770 words, photos.

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YEAR END STORIES

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YE-BOX OFFICE — Movie ticket sales took a bit of a hit in 2024. The annual domestic box office is expected to end up at around $8.75 billion, down more than 3% from 2023, according to estimates from Comscore. By Film Writer Lindsey Bahr. SENT: 1,150 words, photos.

Find all of the AP’s year-end content in the 2024 Year In Review hub on AP Newsroom.

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WASHINGTON/ POLITICS

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SUPREME COURT-ANNUAL REPORT — Chief Justice John Roberts issued a defense of judicial independence, which he said is under threat from intimidation, disinformation and the prospect of public officials defying court orders. SENT: 540 words, photo, audio.

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NATIONAL

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PUERTO RICO-POWER OUTAGE — Power was restored to nearly all electrical customers across Puerto Rico after a sweeping blackout plunged the U.S. territory into darkness on New Year’s Eve. SENT: 430 words, photo.

FIREWORKS DEATHS-HAWAII — A New Year’s Eve fireworks explosion in a Honolulu-area neighborhood killed at least three people and critically injured 20 others, authorities said. SENT: 270 words.

COLORADO-PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY — As Colorado becomes the second state to legalize psychedelic therapy this week, a clash is playing out in Colorado Springs, where conservative leaders are restricting the treatment over objections from some of the city’s 90,000 veterans, who’ve become flagbearers for psychedelic therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. SENT: 960 words, photos, video, audio.

VIRGINIA EXPLOSIVES ARREST — Federal agents found one of the largest stockpiles of homemade explosives they have ever seized when they arrested a Virginia man on a firearms charge last month, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors. SENT: 540 words, photo.

FLORIDA SCHOOL-PAYOUT — Hundreds of people who say they suffered physical or sexual abuse at two state-run reform schools in Florida are in line to receive tens of thousands of dollars in restitution from the state, after Florida lawmakers formally apologized for the horrors they endured as children more than 50 years ago. SENT: 520 words, photo.

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INTERNATIONAL

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MONTENEGRO-SHOOTING — At least 10 people, including two children, were killed and four others were seriously wounded in a shooting rampage that followed a bar brawl in a western Montenegrin city, officials said. The shooter was on the run. SENT: 410 words, photos, video.

SYRIA-DISAPPEARED ACTIVISTS — Protesters in Syria held a sit-in demanding justice for four activists who were forcibly disappeared in 2013 and whose fate remains one of the most haunting mysteries of the country’s 13-year civil war. SENT: 830 words, photos.

SOUTH KOREA-PLANE FIRE — Grieving relatives of the victims of the South Korea plane crash gathered at the site to pay respects to their loved ones on New Year’s Day, as officials said they’ve extracted data from one of the retrieved black boxes to find the exact cause of the crash. SENT: 410 words, photos, video, audio.

POPE-VATICAN-ABORTION — Pope Francis ushered in the New Year with a renewed appeal for the faithful to reject abortion, calling for a “firm commitment” to protect and respect life from conception to natural death. SENT: 410 words, photos, videos, audio.

BRITAIN-WEATHER PROBLEMS — Parts of the United Kingdom were flooded as heavy rains and powerful winds continued to disrupt New Year’s celebrations. SENT: 380 words, photos, video.

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

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STARGAZING CALENDAR — 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. By Aerospace Writer Marcia Dunn. SENT: 510 words, photos.

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SPORTS

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PEACH BOWL — Texas avoided the first big upset of the College Football Playoff, hitting a fourth-and-long touchdown pass to keep the game going and beating Cam Skattebo and Arizona State 39-31 in double overtime when an interception by Andrew Mukuba finally ended a Peach Bowl quarterfinal classic. By National Writer Paul Newberry. SENT: 460 words, photos. UPCOMING: Will be updated.

ROSE BOWL — Dillon Gabriel leads No. 1 Oregon (13-0) into the College Football Playoff quarterfinals against Will Howard and No. 6 Ohio State (10-2) in the Rose Bowl. By Sports Writer Greg Beacham. UPCOMING: 750 words, photos after the game ends around 8 p.m.

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HOW TO REACH US

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At the Nerve Center, Jerome Minerva can be reached at 800-845-8450, ext. 1600. For photos, ext. 1900. For graphics and interactives, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from AP Newsroom. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport@ap.org or call 844-777-2006.

Police block the area after a vehicle caught fire and exploded outside the lobby of President-elect Donald Trump's hotel Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the vehicle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Pope Francis kisses a wooden statuette of the infant Jesus at the end of a mass in St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican on New Year's Day, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

The northern lights appear over homes in Anchorage, Alaska, on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

Revelers in costumes enter the cold water during the annual Polar Bear Plunge on New Year's Day, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Security personnel investigate the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley (6) intercepts a pass intended for Boise State wide receiver Cameron Camper (9) during the second half of the Fiesta Bowl College Football Playoff game, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

People observe the first sunrise on New Year's Day from a pedestrian bridge, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in Yokohama near Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Nuns read prayer books as they attend New Year's Eve Vespers and Te Deum celebrations with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Revelers celebrate after the ball drops in New York's Times Square, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A couple kiss after the ball drops in New York's Times Square, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

A light show is projected on the Arc de Triomphe as fireworks explode during New Year's celebrations on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Brothers Belal, 5, and Mohammed Hamad, 7, collect water from their flooded family tent after overnight rainfall at the refugee tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A young girl walks barefoot, carrying empty jerrycans to collect water, after overnight rainfall at the refugee tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip,, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People celebrate the New Year in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Syrians celebrate the new year after the ousting of Assad regime, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

A major winter storm forecast to produce heavy snow, significant ice and frigid temperatures was set to begin in the central U.S. on Saturday and move east over the next several days, according to the National Weather Service.

Here is what to know about the storm expected to affect millions in the eastern two-thirds of the country:

A large system made landfall along the West Coast on Friday afternoon, bringing rain to the Pacific Northwest with snow expected in the Cascade Mountains, according to meteorologists.

The system will be responsible for the development of a major winter storm from the Central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic this weekend into early next week.

By Saturday evening, widespread heavy snow is likely in areas between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70, where there is a high chance of at least 8 inches (20.3 centimeters).

For places in the region that typically experience the highest snow totals, it may be the heaviest snowfall in at least a decade, meteorologists said.

The storm will then move into the Ohio Valley, where severe travel disruptions are expected. It will reach the Mid-Atlantic states on Sunday into Monday.

Wind gusts higher than 35 mph (56 kph) and heavy rates of snowfall could lead to blizzard conditions, particularly in Kansas and nearby portions of the Central Plains by Sunday morning.

Whiteout conditions may make driving dangerous to impossible and heighten the risk of becoming stranded.

Dangerous sleet and freezing rain, particularly detrimental to power lines, also is anticipated to start Saturday from eastern Kansas to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and much of Kentucky and West Virginia.

Treacherous travel conditions are expected with power outages likely in areas with more than a quarter-inch (a half centimeter) of ice accumulation.

“It’s going to be a mess, a potential disaster,” private meteorologist Ryan Maue said.

Starting Monday, hundreds of millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the country will experience dangerous, bone-chilling air and wind chills, forecasters said.

Temperatures could be 12 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (7 to 14 degrees Celsius) colder than normal as the polar vortex stretches down from the high Arctic.

“This could lead to the coldest January for the U.S. since 2011,” AccuWeather Director of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said Friday, noting there could be up to a week or more of "temperatures that are well below historical average.”

The biggest drop below normal is likely to be centered over the Ohio Valley, but significant and unusual cold will extend south to the Gulf Coast, said Danny Barandiaran, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.

A hard freeze is even expected in Florida, he added.

“The wind chills are going to be brutal,” Woodwell Climate Research Institute climate scientist Jennifer Francis said. "Just because the globe is warming doesn’t mean these cold snaps are going away.”

The brutal weather may be triggered in part by a fast-warming Arctic, a reminder that climate change gooses weather extremes, said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.

The polar vortex — ultra-cold air spinning like a top — usually stays above the North Pole, but sometimes stretches down to the U.S., Europe or Asia, causing intense doses of cold.

Cohen and colleagues have published several studies showing an increase in the polar vortex stretching or wandering. Cohen and others published a study last month attributing the cold outbreaks partly to changes from an Arctic that is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe.

FILE - A leaf is frozen in the ice of a garden pond during cold weather in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - Steve Beckett with the street department in Owensboro, Ky., sprays a salt brine solution along Hickman Avenue in preparation for predicted snow and ice over the weekend, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in Owensboro, Ky. (Greg Eans/The Messenger-Inquirer via AP, File)

FILE - Resident Todd Brainard cleans snow off of the roof of his home in North Perry, Ohio on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos, File)