Hollywood kicked off 2026 with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” atop the box office for the third straight week and with hopes for a blockbuster-filled year after a disappointing 2025.

The family of a Houston nursing student and social media influencer who was allegedly murdered by her roommate is suing the landlord and background check firm who allowed her to live with a man with a violent past.

A nursing student and TikTok influencer from the United Kingdom (UK) was stabbed to death in a Houston apartment just days before her college graduation.

The University of Kentucky's president says the school will disband its office promoting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The “Yellowstone” sequel has its lead.

Holdovers and Oscar hopefuls dominated the North American box office charts this weekend in the absence of any new wide releases.

A high-level U.N. conference has raised less than $1 billion of the more than $5 billion organizers were hoping for to help over 30 million people in the Horn of Africa cope with a major climate crisis and mass displacement after years of conflict.

The body of a teenage prince captured by British troops will not be returned to his remaining family in east Africa, the British royal family has said, in the latest high-profile feud over the legacy of its brutal colonial past.

A council in Norfolk, UK, has released a rap track to highlight new rules relating to voter ID ahead of upcoming local elections in May.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced Thursday that she would resign after just six weeks in office, following a disastrous and rapidly reversed economic plan that sent the pound plunging and her government into chaos.

Danish brewer Carlsberg says it saw a strong growth in the first three months of the year despite trying to sell its business in Russia, where it generated around 10% of its sales.

The Nobel Prize ceremonies will be reined in for a second year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

HOUSTON – Two new cases of the UK variant were reported in the Houston area on Monday, including a man in his 50′s who is currently hospitalized, health officials said. The hospital’s lab helped discover the two new cases, along with a case of the South African variant in Fort Bend County. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the UK variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants, and Dr. Anthony Fauci said it could become dominant in the U.S. by the end of March. Dr. David Persse, Houston’s health authority, said the city has found evidence of the UK variant in very low levels of its wastewater as well. Harris County Public Health reported the first known case of the UK variant in Texas on Jan. 7.

A woman pushes luggage through the arrivals area at Heathrow Airport, in London, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. The UK closed all travel corridors from Monday morning to protect against the coronavirus with travellers entering the country from overseas required to have proof of a negative COVID-19 test. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming White House press secretary says his administration does not intend to lift coronavirus travel restrictions for Europe, the U.K., Ireland and Brazil. The message from Jen Psaki came Monday evening after the White House said President Donald Trump had lifted the restrictions for those countries, effective Jan. 26. They prevented most people without American citizenship or residency from traveling to the U.S. from the affected regions.

(NIAID-RML via AP)DENVER – Colorado on Tuesday reported the first U.S. case of a coronavirus variant that was first detected in the United Kingdom. Jared Polis said the state’s laboratory confirmed the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant had been found in a male in his 20 who had no history of travel. “There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious,” Polis wrote. Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK. pic.twitter.com/fjyq7QhzBi — Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) December 29, 2020This developing story will be updated.

“It’s a separate lineage from the U.K. and South Africa,” the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters. He said the Nigeria CDC and the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases would analyze more samples. The new virus variant in South Africa is now the predominant one there, Nkengasong said, as confirmed infections in the country approach 1 million. “We believe this mutation will not have an effect” on the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to the continent, he said of the South Africa variant. Infections across the continent have risen 10.9% over the past four weeks, the Africa CDC director said, including a 52% increase in Nigeria and 40% increase in South Africa.

HOUSTON – Two people who experienced possible allergic reactions after receiving the Pfizer vaccine in the UK are recovering well, according to UK regulators. However, now there’s a warning for those who have a history of severe allergic reactions, such as those to food, medicine, vaccines or need to carry an epi-pen. “There are people who have had true allergic reactions to vaccines in the past. “Work out a strategy about when and how they can safely receive the vaccine,” McCarthy said. “It may mean they need to receive it in a more monitored environment.”Locally, researchers said they’ve witnessed zero allergic reactions to the vaccines in clinical trials.

The government is negotiating with the leaders of Manchester, Lancashire and other communities in northern England about moving into the top risk tier, which would require the closure of many businesses. The opposition Labour Party’s spokesman on health issues, Jonathan Ashworth, described the measures as inadequate to stem the exponential growth of the virus. Hancock said discussions were continuing with Greater Manchester and Lancashire about moving those communities into the government’s highest risk tier. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham once again rejected government pressure to accept the higher risk rating without further financial support. “They are willing to sacrifice jobs and businesses here to try and save them elsewhere,″ a visibly furious Burnham said.

The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:___The UK government says selected sports stars are to be exempt from quarantine requirements when competing in England. However, those involved will instead live and work in bubbled environments behind closed doors, UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden announced on Sunday. The new measures will allow Formula One, international soccer, golf and snooker events to take place. Competitors involved in these events will be granted quarantine exemptions. International cricketers are also now formally exempt, although individual special arrangements have already been made for the touring West Indies and Pakistan teams this summer.

Russian bounties offered to Taliban militants in Afghanistan to kill US or UK troops there are believed to have resulted in the deaths of multiple US troops, the Washington Post reported Sunday, citing US intelligence gathered from military interrogations. CNN previously reported that Russian intelligence officers for the military intelligence agency GRU recently offered money to Taliban militants in Afghanistan as rewards if they killed US or UK troops there, according to a European intelligence official. The New York Times first reported on Friday that US intelligence concluded months ago that Russian military intelligence offered the bounties, amid peace talks. Trump, however, has repeatedly denied receiving a briefing about intelligence that Russians had tried to bribe Taliban fighters to kill US troops. Earlier Sunday, the President had tweeted that "there have not been many attacks" on US troops by Taliban fighters as evidence that the reported intelligence may be "phony."