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The blueprint covers a broad range of issues, including territory, security guarantees and postwar reconstruction. But Russia has indicated little willingness to end the war.

The Trump administration said five regulators and researchers who work to tackle disinformation and abuse on the internet had been barred from entering the United States.

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Representative LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, called on immigration officials to close Delaney Hall in Newark, calling detainees food and medical care inadequate.

Zohran Mamdani chose Lillian Bonsignore to be fire commissioner, weeks after the former commissioner, Robert S. Tucker, resigned, citing Mr. Mamdanis views on Israel.

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)2025-12-24T12:44:31Z BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehems Manger Square on Christmas Eve as crowds of families and music and decorations heralded a much-needed boost of Christmas spirit after two years of war-tinged somber celebrations.The giant Christmas tree that was absent during the Israel-Hamas war returned on Wednesday, overlooking a parade of hundreds of smartly dressed scouts playing well-known Christmas songs on bagpipes. The city where Christians believe Jesus was born cancelled Christmas celebrations for the past two years during the war in Gaza, holding muted celebrations few decorations or lights or festive events.Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, kicked off Christmas celebrations during the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, calling for a Christmas full of light. After two years of darkness, we need light, Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said as he crossed the separation wall that divides Jerusalem from Bethlehem. Arriving in Manger Square, Pizzaballa said he came bearing greetings from Gazas tiny Christian community, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday. But among the devastation, he also saw a desire for life and to rebuild. We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world, he told thousands of people, Christian and Muslim, who gathered in the square. Despite Wednesdays holiday cheer, the impact of the war in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is acute, especially in Bethlehem, where around 80% of the Muslim-majority citys residents depend upon tourism-related businesses, according to the local government. The vast majority of people celebrating Wednesday were local residents, with only a handful of foreigners mixed among the crowd.But some residents said they are starting to see some small signs of change as domestic tourism slowly returns and hopefully will herald the return of international visitors the city depends on. Loss of tourism devastates BethlehemToday is a day of joy, a day of hope, the beginning of the return of normal life here, said Bethlehem resident Georgette Jackaman, a tour guide who has not worked in more than two years. People are desperate, but after two years, everyone wants to celebrate. She and her husband, Michael Jackaman, another guide who is out of work, are from established Christian Bethlehem families that stretch back generations. This is the first real Christmas celebration for their two children, aged 2 1/2 and 10 months. During the war, the Jackamans pivoted to create a website selling Palestinian handicrafts to try to support others who also have lost their livelihoods. Christmas and religious pilgrims always have been a prime economic engine for Bethlehem. During the Gaza war, the unemployment rate in the city jumped from 14% to 65%, Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati said earlier this month.People are still afraid to come visit, said Georgette Jackaman. But if people come here, we can breathe a bit of the world, even if we are living with restrictions. I came because I wanted to better understand what people in Palestine are going through, and you can sense people have been through a very hard time, said Mona Riewer, a physiotherapist from France.Although friends and family abroad cautioned her against coming due to the volatile situation, Riewer said being in Bethlehem to mark Christmas helped her appreciate the meaning of the holiday.Christmas is like hope in very dark situations, a very vulnerable child experiencing harshness, she said. Despite the ceasefire that began in October, tensions remain high across much of the West Bank. Israels military continues to carry out frequent raids in what it says is a crackdown on militants. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office started collecting data in 2006. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the territory, including Bethlehem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to attend the midnight Mass on Wednesday night for the first time in two years, the mayor said. As poverty and unemployment have soared during the war, about 4,000 people have left Bethlehem in search of work, the mayor said. Its part of a worrying trend for Christians, who are leaving the region in droves. Christians account for less than 2% of the West Banks roughly 3 million residents, a presence that has been shrinking. Across the Middle East, the Christian population has steadily declined as people have fled conflict and attacks. But on Wednesday, many were thrilled to once again mark Christmas in the birthplace of Christianity. The beginning of a return to normal lifeFadi Zoughbi, who previously worked overseeing logistics for tour groups, said his children were ecstatic to see the more than two dozen scouts marching bands streaming through the streets of Bethlehem.They represent cities and towns across the West Bank, with Palestinian flags and tartan draped on their bagpipes, drummers spinning mallets adorned with pompoms. For the past two years, the scouts marched silently through the streets as a protest against the ongoing war. Irene Kirmiz, who grew up in Bethlehem and now lives in Ramallah, said the scout parade is among her favorite Christmas traditions. Her 15-year-old daughter plays the tenor drum with the Ramallah scouts, the same instrument she played as a teen scout. But her family in Ramallah had to wake up at 5 a.m. Wednesday to arrive in time for the parade and waited upwards of three hours at the Israeli checkpoints along the way. The drive previously took 40 minutes without the checkpoints that have increasingly made travel difficult for Palestinians, she said.Its very emotional seeing people trying to bounce back, trying to celebrate peace and love, Kirmiz said. I remember the Bethlehem of my childhood, it really depends on tourism, and so many Christians have left, the streets are empty and families are suffering. But today we see a light of happiness, and we are hoping for a better peace for everyone.The Israeli Ministry of Tourism estimates 130,000 tourists will visit Israel by the end of December, including 40,000 Christians. In 2019, a banner year for tourism before the pandemic, the tourism ministry said 150,000 Christian tourists visited during the week of Christmas alone. The war and lack of tourism has had far-reaching impacts in Bethlehem, exacerbated by Israel cancelling work permits for Palestinians from the West Bank during the war and thrusting the area deeper into poverty. During the previous two years, the heads of churches in Jerusalem urged congregations to forgo any unnecessarily festive activities. They encouraged priests and the faithful to focus on Christmas spiritual meaning and called for fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land. Bethlehems Manger Square did not erect the towering Christmas tree and instead featured a nativity scene of baby Jesus surrounded by rubble and barbed wire in homage to the situation in Gaza. MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Whenever I tell people Im getting back into tapes, their faces immediately light up.Theres a genuine excitement in peoples expressions these days when I mention physical media. Lately Ive been talking about the cheap walkman I bought on a recent trip to Tokyo, and the various little shops where I hunted for music on cassettes. Unlike in Europe and the US, physical media never went out of vogue in Japan, and many people still have a strong preference for shopping in-person. This made Tokyo the ideal place to rediscover my love of portable analog music.I searched through racks of tapes stacked on top of an old piano in a back-alley store on the edge of Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood known for thrifted fashion and oddball record shops. On recommendation from a friend-of-a-friend, I checked out a specialist shop on a sleepy street in Nakameguro, where cassettes easily outnumbered vinyl records 10-to-1. Almost always, I steered myself toward local artists whose names I didnt recognize. Sometimes, I bought tapes based on the cover art or description alone. Most second-hand music stores in Tokyo keep everything sealed in plastic, so you either have to bother the shopkeep, or just trust your gut and take a chance.This kind of music discovery delights people when I describe it to them. Sometimes they start telling me about rediscovering their old CD collection, or wanting to track down an old iPod Classic to experience their music library away from the surveillance and excess of big tech platforms. Maybe its just because I live in a particular social bubble in a particular countercultural pocket of New York City. But recently, the conversations Ive had on this topic have got me feeling like the culture of music is shifting.People are leaving Spotify, and those who arent seem embarrassed about using it. Major artists pulled their music off the platform this year in protest of the companys ICE recruitment ads and connections to military drones, and posting your Wrapped stats has gone from a ubiquitous year-end pastime to a cultural faux pas. Many folks are sick of streaming in general. Theyre sick of giant corporations, algorithmic playlists, and an internet infested with AI slop. Artists are tired of tech platforms that pay them virtually nothing, owned by degenerate billionaires that see all human creativity as interchangeable aesthetic wallpaper, valued only for its ability to make numbers go up. Everywhere I go, people are exhausted by the never-ending scroll, desperately wanting to reconnect with something real.My own path to re-embracing physical media unfolded in stages. Last year, I canceled my Apple Music subscription and started exclusively listening to music I bought from artists on Bandcamp. I still have a large mp3 library, and I thought about setting up a self-hosted media server to stream everything to my phone. But ultimately, I got lazy and wound up just listening to albums I downloaded from the Bandcamp app. Then I ran out of storage on my phone, and the amount of music I had available on-the-go shrank even more.When I came to Tokyo, a friend took me to a store that sold cheap portable cassette players, and I knew it wouldnt be a huge leap to take my music listening fully offline. The walkman I bought is unbranded and has a transparent plastic shell, allowing you to watch all the little mechanical gears turning inside as the tape spools around the wheels and past the playheads. It was one of the easiest purchasing decisions Ive made in recent memory: After years of psychic damage from social media and other phone-based distractions, I was ready to once again have a dedicated device that does nothing but play music.There are lots of advantages to the cassette lifestyle. Unlike vinyl records, tapes are compact and super-portable, and unlike streaming, you never have to worry about a giant company suddenly taking them away from you. They can be easily duplicated, shared, and made into mixtapes using equipment you find in a junk shop. When I was a kid, the first music I ever owned were tapes I recorded from MTV with a Kids Fisher Price tape recorder. I had no money, so I would listen to those tapes for hours, relishing every word Kim Gordon exhaled on my bootlegged copy of Sonic Youths Bull in the Heather. Just like back then, my rediscovery of cassettes has led me to start listening more intentionally and deeply, devoting more and more time to each record without the compulsion to hit skip. Most of the cassettes I bought in Tokyo had music I probably never would have found or spent time with otherwise.Getting reacquainted with tapes made me realize how much has been lost in the streaming era. Over the past two decades, platforms like Spotify co-opted the model of peer-to-peer filesharing pioneered by Napster and BitTorrent into a fully captured ecosystem. But instead of sharing, this ecosystem was designed around screen addiction, surveillance, and instant gratification with corporate middlemen and big labels reaping all the profits.Streaming seeks to virtually eliminate what techies like to call user friction, turning all creative works into a seamless and unlimited flow of data, pouring out of our devices like water from a digital faucet. Everything becomes Content, flattened into aesthetic buckets and laser-targeted by perfect fit algorithms to feed our addictive impulses. Thus the act of listening to music is transformed from a practice of discovery and communication to a hyper-personalized mood board of machine-optimized vibes.What we now call AI Slop is just a novel and more cynically efficient vessel for this same process. Slop removes human beings as both author and subject, reducing us to raw impulses a digital lubricant for maximizing viral throughput. Whether we love or hate AI Slop is irrelevant, because human consumers are not its intended beneficiaries. In the minds of CEOs like OpenAIs Sam Altman, were simply components in a machine built to maintain and accelerate information flows, in order to create value for an insatiably wealthy investor class.On one hand, I empathize with those who still feel like they get something out of streaming. Having access to so much music can feel empowering, especially when so many people feel like they lack the time and resources to develop a music-listening practice. What streaming service should I use instead of Spotify? is a question Ive been seeing constantly over the past few months.Heres my contrarian answer: What if theres no ethical way to have unlimited access to every book, film, and record ever created? And moreover, what if thats not something we should want?What if we simply decided to consume less media, allowing us to have a deeper appreciation for the art we choose to spend our time with? What if, instead of having an on-demand consumer mindset that requires us to systematically strip art of all its human context, we developed better relationships with creators and built new structures to support them? What if we developed a politics of refusal the ability to say enough is enough and recognized that we arent powerless to the whims of rich tech CEOs who force this dystopian garbage down our throats while claiming its inevitable? 0:00 /0:07 1 Tapes and other physical media arent a magic miracle cure for late-stage capitalism. But they can help us slow down and remember what makes us human. Tapes make music-listening into an intentional practice that encourages us to spend time connecting with the art, instead of frantically vibe-surfing for something that suits our mood from moment-to-moment. They reject the idea that the point of discovering and listening to music is finding the optimal collection of stimuli to produce good brain chemicals.More importantly, physical media reminds us that nothing good is possible if we refuse to take risks. You might find the most mediocre indie band imaginable. Or you might discover something that changes you forever. Nothing will happen if you play it safe and outsource all of your experiences to a content machine designed to make rich people richer.

We start this week with Jasons story about Flock exposing a bunch of AI-powered cameras. These cameras zoom in on people as they walk by, sometimes so closely you can read whats on their phone screen. After the break, we talk about some of our biggest stories this year. In the subscribers-only section, we give some of our personal recommendations of games, other reporting, or just a more chill life.Listen to the weekly podcast onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orYouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism.If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked OurselvesAnyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE.gov WebsiteMike Waltz Accidentally Reveals Obscure App the Government Is Using to Archive Signal MessagesHow Teas Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the WorldHalf of the US Now Requires You to Upload Your ID or Scan Your Face to Watch Porn

Christmas Day includes three NFL matchups and five NBA games. We're previewing them all with picks, predictions, storylines and more.

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A responder navigates around Bristol Health & Rehab Center and surrounding rubble after a gas explosion the day prior on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Bristol, Pa. (AP Photo/Mingson Lau)2025-12-24T15:13:28Z BRISTOL, Pa. (AP) Construction crews and drones searched the rubble of a Pennsylvania nursing home Wednesday, a day after a powerful explosion killed at least two people, collapsed part of the building and left several residents unaccounted for.Emergency responders from across the region had evacuated residents and dug through debris on Tuesday amid flames, smoke, a strong smell of gas and even a second explosion, Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference that evening.The blast at the 174-bed nursing home in Bristol Township, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of Philadelphia, happened shortly after a utility crew responded to reports of a gas odor at the facility, authorities said. Investigators are examining whether a gas leak caused the explosion, a finding officials cautioned remains preliminary.The towns fire chief, Kevin Dippolito, said at the Tuesday news conference that five people were still unaccounted for, but he cautioned that some may have left the scene with family members. The first report of an explosion at Bristol Health & Rehab Center came at around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. Dippolito described a chaotic rescue in which firefighters found people trapped in stairwells and elevator shafts and pulled residents from windows and doors. Two people were rescued from a collapsed section of the building. Firefighters handed patients to police officers waiting outside, including one officer who literally threw two people over his shoulders, Dippolito said. Rescuers used search dogs, heavy equipment and sonar to locate potential victims. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Willie Tye, who lives about a block away, said he was watching a basketball game when he heard a loud boom. I thought an airplane or something came and fell on my house, he said. When he went outside, he saw fire everywhere and people fleeing the building. The local gas utility, PECO, said its crews were responding to reports of a gas odor when the explosion occurred. The company said it shut off natural gas and electric service to the facility to protect first responders and nearby residents.It is not known at this time if PECOs equipment, or natural gas, was involved in this incident, the utility said in a statement.Investigators from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission went to the scene. A utility commission spokesperson said a determination that a gas leak caused the explosion cannot be confirmed until investigators examine the site.Musuline Watson, who said she was a certified nursing assistant at the facility, told WPVI-TV that staff smelled gas over the weekend but did not initially suspect a serious problem because there was no heat in that room.The nursing home recently became affiliated with Saber Healthcare Group and was previously known as Silver Lake Healthcare Center.Saber called the explosion devastating in a statement and said facility personnel promptly reported the gas odor to PECO before the blast. The company said it was cooperating with authorities to ensure the safety of residents, staff and the surrounding community. State records show the facility was cited for multiple violations during its most recent inspection in October by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, including failing to provide accurate floor plans, properly maintain stairways and fire extinguishers on one level. Inspectors also cited the facility for lacking required smoke barrier partitions designed to contain smoke across floors.According to Medicare.gov, the facility underwent a standard fire safety inspection in September 2024 and received no citations. Medicares overall rating of the facility is listed as much below average, with poor ratings for health inspections in particular.___Levy and Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press reporters Tassanee Vejpongsa in Bristol, Pennsylvania; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Michael Casey in Boston; and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed. MARC LEVY Levy covers politics and state government in Pennsylvania for The Associated Press. He is based in Harrisburg. twitter MARK SCOLFORO Scolforo is an Associated Press reporter in the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg. twitter mailto

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This photo provided by the family shows Suze Lopez, and her son, Ryu, in California in October 2025. (Lopez family via AP)2025-12-24T14:00:54Z Suze Lopez holds her baby boy on her lap and marvels at the remarkable way he came into the world.Before little Ryu was born, he developed outside his moms womb, hidden by a basketball-sized ovarian cyst a dangerous situation so rare that his doctors plan to write about the case for a medical journal. Just 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus, and those that make it to full term are essentially unheard of far, far less than 1 in a million, said Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles where Ryu was born. I mean, this is really insane.Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse who lives in Bakersfield, California, didnt know she was pregnant with her second child until days before giving birth.When her belly began to grow earlier this year, she thought it was her ovarian cyst getting bigger. Doctors had been monitoring the mass since her 20s, leaving it in place after removing her right ovary and another cyst. Lopez experienced none of the usual pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, and never felt kicks. Though she didnt have a period, her cycle is irregular and she sometimes goes years without one. For months, she and her husband Andrew Lopez went about their lives and traveled abroad.But gradually, the pain and pressure in her abdomen got worse, and Lopez figured it was finally time to get the 22-pound cyst removed. She needed a CT scan, which required a pregnancy test first because of the radiation exposure. To her great surprise, the test came back positive. Lopez shared the news with her husband at a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie.I just saw her face, he recalled, and she just looked like she wanted to weep and smile and cry at the same time.Shortly after the game, Lopez began feeling unwell and sought help at Cedars-Sinai. It turned out she had dangerously high blood pressure, which the medical team stabilized. They also did blood work and gave her an ultrasound and an MRI. The scans found that her uterus was empty, but a nearly full-term fetus in an amniotic sac was hiding in a small space in her abdomen, near her liver. It did not look like it was directly invading any organs, Ozimek said. It looked like it was mostly implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, which is also very dangerous but more manageable than being implanted in the liver.Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah not involved with the case, said almost all pregnancies that implant outside the uterus called ectopic pregnancies go on to rupture and hemorrhage if not removed. Most commonly, they occur in the fallopian tubes.A 2023 medical journal article by doctors in Ethiopia described another abdominal pregnancy in which mother and baby survived, pointing out that fetal mortality can be as high as 90% in such cases and birth defects are seen in about 1 in 5 surviving babies.But Lopez and her son beat all the odds.On August 18, a medical team delivered the 8-pound (3.6-kilogram) baby while she was under full anesthesia, removing the cyst during the same surgery. She lost nearly all of her blood, Ozimek said, but the team got the bleeding under control and gave her transfusions. Doctors continually updated her husband about what was happening.The whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside, Andrew Lopez said. It was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.Instead, they both recovered well.It was really, really remarkable, Ozimek said.Since then, Ryu named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series has been healthy and thriving. His parents love watching him interact with his 18-year-old sister, Kaila, and say he completes their family.With Ryus first Christmas approaching, Lopez describes feeling blessed beyond measure. I do believe in miracles, she said, looking down at her baby. God gave us this gift the best gift ever.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. LAURA UNGAR Ungar covers medicine and science on the APs Global Health and Science team. She has been a health journalist for more than two decades. twitter mailto

Derek Orth works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)2025-12-24T05:06:27Z NEW YORK (AP) Wall Street was largely unchanged early Wednesday as markets hovered near record levels on a holiday-shortened trading day.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern. The S&P 500 index was up less than 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%.Markets will close at 1 p.m. ET for Christmas Eve and are closed for Christmas. Markets will reopen for a full day of trading on Friday, however volumes are expected to be light this week with the holiday and most investors having closed out their positions for the year.Much of the focus remains on the state of the U.S. economy and where the Federal Reserve will move interest rates. Investors are betting the Fed will hold steady on interest rates at its January meeting.Recent reports show high inflation and shaky confidence among consumersworried about high prices. The labor market has been slowing and retail sales have weakened. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week and remain at historically healthy levels despite some signs that the labor market is weakening.U.S. applications for jobless claims for the week ending Dec. 20 fell by 10,000 to 214,000 from the previous weeks 224,000, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Thats below the 232,000 new applications forecast of analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet.Dynavax Technologies soared 38% after Sanofi said it was acquiring the California-based vaccine maker in a deal worth $2.2 billion. The French drugmaker will add Dynavaxs hepatitis B vaccines to its portfolio, as well as a shingles vaccine that is still in development. Sanofi shares were unchanged in the premarket.European markets were moving slightly between slight gains and losses. Asian markets were also quiet, with Hong Kong moving up 0.2% while Japans Nikkei 225 fell 0.1%Both gold and silver futures were higher, with silver prices rising more than 1%. U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to %58.61 a barrel. CHAN HO-HIM Chan covers China business, economy and finance for The Associated Press, reporting on key sectors from technology to trade. He is based in Hong Kong. mailto

Brandon Lake poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)2025-12-24T15:14:22Z NEW YORK (AP) It is one of the most surprising music stories of the year. While streams of new music releases from the last 18 months were down from last year, one genre is on the rise: Christian and gospel music, according to industry data and analytics company Luminates 2025 Midyear Report.Jaime Marconette, Luminates vice president of music insights and industry relations, said the shift is led by acts like Forrest Frank, Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship, who are connecting with a younger, streaming-forward fan base thats 60% female and 30% millennial. In fact, for the first time in 11 years, two contemporary Christian music songs Franks Your Ways Better and Lakes Hard Fought Hallelujah with Jelly Roll broke through the Billboard Hot 100s all-genre Top 40, placing them in direct competition with mainstream artists. Its also why traditionally secular artists like Jelly Roll, Killer Mike and T.I. are nominated in Christian music categories at the forthcoming 2026 Grammys the lines are blurring. An evolving Christian music soundChristian music (is) unlike any other genre thats defined by a sonic component. Christian music is defined by its lyrical component, says Holly Zabka, the president of Provident Entertainment, a Sony Christian music subsidiary. Its not limited to a narrow definition. Its a lyrical component that can appeal to anyones musical preference. Christian music artist Brandon Lake discusses performing Hard Fought Hallelujah with Jelly Roll at the CMA Fest. (Nov. 18) From a label perspective, shes interested in pursuing artists that dont have to fit within that narrow lane of Christian bookstore and Christian radio. It can be rap, hip-hop, it can be rock, it can be country, and thats appealing to a broader audience because its what theyre already listening to, she says. Very few people listen in a vacuum and only listen to one genre. But for many years, CCM jas held a reputation for being unimaginative what writer John Jeremiah Sullivan infamously referred to as excellence-proof for its tendency to mimic and water down popular, contemporary mainstream sounds for a religious audience. Absolutely theres been an improvement in quality, says Zabka. When all the music has to live side by side on these streaming platforms, we cant just be the cheap alternative. Oh, you like Taylor Swift? You will like this lesser version offering in the Christian genre. We want to be the greatest art.You have to imitate before you innovate, Chris Brown, singer and worship leader at Elevation Worship, jokes. Theres not as many rigid lines stylistically within Christian music as maybe there was 10 years ago or certainly like 20, 30 years ago. There was a period of time where people idealized Christian music as like, OK, were going to have this look, were going to sound like this, says two-time Grammy-winning Christian and pop musician Lauren Daigle. Theres so much more artistry now. People are very expressive. Theyre able to share their creativity. And that also comes with different types of people represented. Why Christian music is connecting nowZabka says her genre is experiencing a special moment and a perfect storm. Streaming and the ability to connect on social media have democratized music discovery, she says, allowing CCM to compete with secular music. That, partnered with what she views as a resurgence of faith in young people, is responsible for the interest. The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a 2025 survey from the Pew Research Center. A new class of millennial and Gen Z Christian influencers, too, are aiming to connect with young people. Lauren Daigle performs at the Pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 4, 2023. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) Lauren Daigle performs at the Pre-Grammy Gala in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 4, 2023. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Christian music has also shifted in its authenticity of the lyrics, Zabka adds, making the music more relatable than previous iterations of the genre, which often featured a neat message of everything is going to be OK, just follow Jesus in 3 minutes. Now, she says, their songs are much more authentic and real and honest. Life is hard. Breakups are hard. Bad things happen, and that provides a level of hope that other music doesnt provide for the listener.Daigle points out that artists like Lake are performing in huge stadiums categorical proof that Christian artists are growing in popularity. I think a lot of people are looking at the world and they find fortitude in this music, and they find a sense of strength in this music, and they find truth in this music, she says. Daigle also theorizes that because Christian music points to something else to God instead of focusing on individual issues or the ego of the performer on stage, it evens the playing field between listener and artist, while giving both a sense of purpose. In a world that has become so self-focused and self-centered, the freedom of saying Wow, I can actually lean on someone else for a while, or Theres something that is actually greater than me, she says. And the purpose of Christian music, for me, is to bring hope to people. Brown theorizes that people relate to his Charlotte, North Carolina-based CCM collective because of how fundamentally were rooted in their local church.Its easy to connect because were just church people, he says.A crossover momentLake, who is nominated for three Grammys in 2026, including Hard Fought Hallelujah, believes people are connecting with Christian music now because thats simply the purpose of religious music.The reason why people are turning their ear toward those kinds of songs right now is because thats what they were made for, Lake says. People are finding in these songs theyre finding themselves, their spirit, connecting with the spirit of God. Those songs arent just entertainment; they tee up an encounter.I love all kinds of music, he continues, but if you have a song that carries that kind of message, its just super charged, you know? It does something deeper.He also believes this may be the start of a crossover moment, where more Christian artists will be welcomed into other genres and mainstream spaces. I pray its just the beginning, he says. And I pray that it takes over. Entertainer Jelly Roll talks on the sidelines before an NFL football game between the Titans and the Seattle Seahawks, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File) Entertainer Jelly Roll talks on the sidelines before an NFL football game between the Titans and the Seattle Seahawks, Nov. 23, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Jelly Roll agrees. I think there really is a revival happening in America right now where people are being re-presented the Gospel in a digestible way. And it doesnt seem as finger-waggy and Youre all going to hell, you know? he says.I really dont care when the organized religions wave their finger at me, he continues. Im just glad to see the message, the Gospel getting presented.___The 68th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards. MARIA SHERMAN Maria Sherman is the music reporter at The Associated Press. She is based in New York City. mailto

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