OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A “highly impactful” winter storm is expected to dump as much as a foot of snow Monday across the country’s midsection, where blizzard and winter storm warnings are in effect.

The storm has the potential to bring 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 centimeters) of snow to a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado and western Kansas, through eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, up toward the upper peninsula of Michigan, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The cockpit voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet which lost a panel mid-flight on Friday was overwritten, U.S. authorities said, renewing attention on long-standing safety calls for longer in-flight recordings.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair Jennifer Homendy said on Sunday no data was available on the cockpit voice recorder because it was not retrieved within two hours - when recording restarts, erasing previous data.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Biden administration leaders, top Pentagon officials and members of Congress were unaware for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized since Monday, U.S. officials said Saturday, as questions swirled about his condition and the secrecy surrounding it.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ State of the State address on Tuesday is supposed to be about Florida’s future. Iowa, though, is more likely at the front of his mind.

The speech kicking off Florida’s annual legislative session comes exactly a week before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, and DeSantis has been spending much more time in the Hawkeye State than the Sunshine State in recent weeks.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — On another urgent diplomatic mission to the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Arab partners to press for their help in tamping down resurgent fears that Israel’s three-month war against Hamas in Gaza could spread.

CHANIA, Greece (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that Turkey is committed to playing “a positive, productive” role for postwar Gaza and prepared to use its influence in the region to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from broadening even more.

The latest Mideast mission by America’s top diplomat opened with talks in Turkey and Greece before shifting to the region for “not necessarily easy conversations” with allies and partners about what they are willing to do “to build durable peace and security.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will give his annual State of the Union address on March 7.

In a letter sent to the White House on Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., extended the formal invitation for Biden to speak to a joint session of Congress. Johnson said he was inviting Biden “in this moment of great challenge for our country.” On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Biden accepted. “Looking forward to it, Mr. Speaker,” the president said.

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011, will try for the second time Monday to sue the Norwegian state for allegedly breaching his human rights.

Norway’s worst peacetime killer claims his solitary confinement since being imprisoned in 2012 amounts to inhumane treatment under the European Convention of Human Rights.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new California law that bans people from carrying firearms in most public places was once again blocked from taking effect Saturday as a court case challenging it continues.

A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel dissolved a temporary hold on a lower court injunction blocking the law. The hold was issued by a different 9th Circuit panel and had allowed the law to go into effect Jan. 1.

ATLANTA (AP) — Election integrity activists want a federal judge to order Georgia to stop using its current election system, saying it’s vulnerable to attack and has operational issues that could cost voters their right to cast a vote and have it accurately counted.

During a trial set to start Tuesday, activists plan to argue that the Dominion Voting Systems touchscreen voting machines are so flawed they are unconstitutional. Election officials insist the system is secure and reliable and say it is up to the state to decide how it conducts elections.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Thamsanqa Mothobi was going about his life in Johannesburg when he was carjacked and taken to an informal settlement where robbers accessed his mobile banking apps.

“They had guns and demanded the PIN codes for my apps. They increased the withdrawal limits in my accounts and emptied them. I was only released in the early hours of the morning,” the father of three said, adding that his one comfort was that he was not killed.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea again fired artillery shells near its tense sea boundary with the South on Sunday, as the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mocked the South’s ability to detect its weapons launches.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff dismissed Kim Yo Jong’s statement as “a comedy-like, vulgar propaganda” meant to undermine the South Korean people’s trust in the military and stoke divisions.