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Winter Olympics star Klaebo says he has a concussion from crash in World Cup race

DRAMMEN, Norway (AP) — Norwegian cross-country skiing star Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo said Friday he sustained a concussion from a fall in a World Cup race a day earlier but that he was “all good in the hood.”

Klaebo, one of the stars of the recent Milan Cortina Games, said he would “take some days off” to recover after his crash involving U.S. skier Ben Ogden during on Thursday.

Klaebo posted a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up from a hospital bed, and he included audio of the Bee Gees disco hit “Stayin’ Alive.”

“Took a fall yesterday and hit my head pretty hard, but luckily everything is all good in the hood,” he wrote on Instagram.

“Ended up with a concussion so I’ll take some days off from both training and the internet just to make sure everything settles properly. Only got one head, so have to take good care of it.”

Klaebo, who last month set a record for most gold medals (six) won at a single Winter Olympics, also thanked “everyone who reached out and checked in.”

Klaebo’s status for the World Cup finals next week in Lake Placid, New York, was unclear.

Thursday’s crash happened in a semifinal heat of the men’s sprint competition in Drammen. Ogden lost his balance and fell across the skis of Klaebo, who fell backward and hit his head on the snow.

Klaebo’s 11 career gold medals is also a Winter Olympics record.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Zelenskyy says US 30-day waiver on Russian oil sanctions is ‘not the right decision’

PARIS (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that the U.S. 30-day waiver on Russian oil sanctions amid the Iran war is “not the right decision” and won’t help bring a stop to Russia’s more than 4-year-old invasion of Ukraine.

“This easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion for the war,” Zelenskyy said. “This certainly does not help peace.”

“I believe that lifting sanctions will, in any case, lead to a strengthening of Russia’s position. It spends the money from energy sales on weapons, and all of this is then used against us,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Paris.

“Therefore, ultimately lifting sanctions only so that more drones will later be flying at you is, in my opinion, not the right decision,” he said.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Thursday a 30-day waiver on Russian oil sanctions. The step aims to free up Russian cargoes stranded at sea and ease supply shortages caused by the Iran war.

Analysts say that spiraling oil prices due to Persian Gulf production blockages are benefiting the Russian economy. Moscow relies heavily on oil revenue to finance its invasion, and sanctions were a growing handicap.

U.S.-mediated talks between Moscow and Kyiv that seek to stop Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II are on hold due to the Iran war, though they could resume next week, according to Zelenskyy.

Macron noted that broad sanctions on Russia still stand despite the temporary U.S. waiver.

U.S. waivers announced in recent days are “limited” and “taken on an exceptional basis,” Macron said. “It does not broadly or permanently roll back the sanctions that they themselves decided to apply,” he added.

German leader says US sanctions waiver for Russian oil is ‘wrong’

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz adopted a more critical stance. He said Friday that a meeting earlier this week of heads of state and government from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies discussed with U.S. President Donald Trump the issue of Russian oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

“Six members of the G7 expressed a very clear view that this (waiving of Russia sanctions) is not the right signal to send,” Merz said during a visit to Norway. “We learned this morning that the U.S. government has apparently decided otherwise. Once again, we believe this is the wrong decision.”

Merz added: “There is currently a price problem, but not a supply problem. And in that regard, I would like to know what additional motives led the U.S. government to make this decision.”

Ukraine offers its drone expertise

Ukraine has become one of the world’s leading producers of drone interceptors, and Kyiv is offering its expertise to the United States and its Gulf partners for the war in the Middle East, hoping to receive in return the high-end weaponry it can’t manufacture at home.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has received requests from six countries for drone combat assistance. It has already sent expert teams to three countries, he said, without naming them.

Separate requests, which he didn’t detail, have also come from the United States and Jordan, he said.

Zelenskyy noted that providing interceptors was not enough to help fight drone attacks. The Ukrainian military has expertise in deploying the systems, he said.

“There must be proper, systematic work with radars and with the entire air defense system,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukraine is ready to share this experience for the sake of the security of those partners who are helping us.”

Ukraine is awaiting White House approval for an agreement on producing battle-tested drones, Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

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Novikov contributed from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press writer Kostya Manenkov in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

More severe weather could arrive late Sunday in Bartholomew County

COLUMBUS, Ind. — Most of Bartholomew County is under an enhanced risk for severe weather on Sunday, according to Bartholomew County Emergency Management.

The east side of Bartholomew County is under a slight risk for severe weather on Sunday.

Hazards could include damaging winds, isolated tornadoes, lightning and localized flooding.

The severe weather is expected late Sunday into Sunday night.

Preparedness Actions:

Stay weather aware and monitor forecasts through mid-week
Have multiple ways to receive warnings (NOAA Weather Radio, phone alerts, local media)
Review your severe weather safety plan and know where your safe place is
Avoid flooded roadways — Turn Around, Don’t Drown
Be prepared for changing river levels and potential road closures in flood-prone areas
Secure outdoor items ahead of storms and ensure emergency supplies are ready

For baseball’s tallest hitters, robo-umps should bring consistency to a tricky strike zone

PHOENIX (AP) — San Francisco Giants rookie Bryce Eldridge was logged at 6-foot-7 “and some change,” he said. That was the measurement for the slugger for the major leagues’ Automated Ball-Strike System.

That is one expansive strike zone — but a more defined one, at least.

“I think they told me I’m the tallest guy they’ve measured, position player-wise,” Eldridge said during spring training. “So I got that going for me, at least. So I’ve got the biggest zone, the biggest ABS.”

After years of testing in the minors, the robot-umpire system for reviewing ball/strike calls is going to be used in regular-season games in the majors this year. The abbreviation for the setup is ABS, but the most important letters when it comes to the change just might be S-I-Z-E — relating to the strike zone for some of the game’s tallest players.

“I got a lot of respect for the umpires and what they do behind the plate,” New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said. “So I can usually pride myself in not showing them up or putting on a show or doing anything like that because they got a tough job back there. So we’ll see. I’ll find the right time to use it. If they’re pretty outrageous calls, I think I’ll use it.”

The 6-foot-7 Judge, who won his third AL MVP award last year, sounded more excited about the possibilities for 6-5 teammate Giancarlo Stanton.

“His whole career has been kind of getting screwed over. And also now, this kind of changes everything,” Judge said. “He’s so routine oriented to where you get a bad call, you get a good call, whatever, it’s kind of about flushing to get to the next pitch. Well, now you got 2 seconds to try to make up your mind.”

Strike zones vary depending on a player’s height — starting at 53.5% of a batter’s height for the top and 27% of a batter’s height for the bottom. The top and the bottom of the zone for baseball’s biggest giants — a list that also includes 6-7 center fielder Oneil Cruz of the Pittsburgh Pirates and 6-6 left fielder James Wood of the Washington Nationals — have long been two difficult areas for umpires.

But the ABS system provides an opportunity for a closer look.

Each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for video reviews. A team out of challenges for a game tied after nine innings would get one additional challenge in each extra inning.

Only a batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge a call, signaling with the tap of a helmet or cap, and assistance from the dugout is not allowed.

“Specifically with Aaron Judge, I think like his zone I think is higher than most, right? Because he’s taller,” Chicago Cubs catcher Carson Kelly said. “So you might catch one at the knees that feels like a normal strike, but it’s low on him. So I think it’s another aspect of catchers is we’re going to have to understand who’s at the plate, what the zone is like. I mean, if it’s a smaller zone, that ball that might feel like it’s a strike at the top, it’s probably a ball.”

The 21-year-old Eldridge, who got to use ABS in the minors, said he thinks it’s great for the game.

“I had a situation last year where we were in the ninth and we were down by two, I want to say, and I struck out looking,” Eldridge said. “I challenged it. It was a ball, and I hit a home run like the next pitch or something to tie it. The game can change just like that with this, so it’s pretty cool.”

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AP Baseball Writers Ronald Blum and Janie McCauley contributed.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Two long-lost episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ have been found. Fans will soon be able to watch them

LONDON (AP) — Over six decades of “Doctor Who,” the intergalactic adventurer’s adversaries have included evil robots, rampaging Yeti — and the BBC, which erased many early episodes of the now-iconic sci-fi TV series.

A film charity announced Friday that it has found two previously lost 1960s episodes among the possessions of a deceased collector. They have been restored by BBC archivists and will be available next month on the broadcaster’s streaming service.

The discovery leaves 95 episodes still missing from the adventures of a galaxy-hopping alien known as the Doctor that debuted in 1963.

“Doctor Who” — the “who” is an existential question, rather than the character’s name — has become a television institution with millions of fans around the world. But the BBC’s attitude to the show in its early years was careless. Scores of episodes were lost because the broadcaster wiped the tapes for re-use.

“The attitudes to archiving back in the 60s in television was really very different from today, and lots of material was junked,” said Justin Smith, a cinema professor at England’s De Montfort University and chair of trustees of Film is Fabulous!, which works to preserve cinema and television history.

Smith told the BBC that the charity found film cans containing the two rediscovered black-and-white episodes, “The Nightmare Begins” and “Devil’s Planet,” among the collection of a film aficionado who had died. The collector’s estate wishes to remain anonymous.

The episodes aired during the show’s third series in 1965 and feature William Hartnell, the first of more than a dozen actors to play the Doctor, in a story involving archvillains the Daleks – pepperpot-shaped metal aggressors whose favorite word is “Exterminate!”

The discovery is the first since 2013, when nine missing episodes were found in the storeroom of a television relay station in Nigeria.

The newfound episodes feature Peter Purves, who played the Doctor’s sidekick Steven Taylor in 46 installments of the show.

“Twenty-seven of mine still are missing, but I’m delighted that two have been found,” 87-year-old Purves told the BBC. “It’s rather sad, but it’s great when some turn up.”

“Doctor Who” ran from 1963 to 1989 and was revived in 2005. Its longevity is due partly to the flexibility of the premise. The Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, can travel to any point in space or time and can regenerate into new bodies, allowing the character to outlive any particular star.

The most recent series, starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, aired in 2025. The show is due to return with an as-yet undisclosed actor in the role.

US economy expanded at sluggish 0.7% in fourth quarter, government says, downgrading first estimate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy, hobbled by last fall’s 43-day government shutdown, advanced at a sluggish 0.7% annual rate from October through December, the Commerce Department reported Friday in a big downgrade of its initial estimate.

Growth in gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — was down sharply from 4.4% in last year’s third quarter and 3.8% in the second. And the fourth-quarter number was half the government’s first estimate of 1.4%; economists had expected the revision to go the other way — and show stronger growth.

Federal government spending and investment, clobbered by the shutdown, plunged at a 16.7% rate, hacking 1.16 percentage points off fourth-quarter growth.

For all of 2025, GDP grew 2.1%, solid but down from an initial estimate of 2.2% from 2024 and 2023.

In the fourth quarter, consumer spending grew at a 2% clip, down from 3.5% in the third quarter. Business investment, excluding housing, increased at a healthy 2.2% pace, likely reflecting money being poured into artificial intelligence, but it was down from 3.2% in the third quarter.

The U.S. economy — the world’s largest — has shown surprising resilience in the face of President Donald Trump’s policies, including sweeping import taxes and mass deportations. But the war with Iran has driven up oil and gas prices and clouded the economic outlook.

Meanwhile, the American job market is in a slump. Last month, companies, nonprofits and government agencies cut 92,000 jobs. In 2025, they added fewer than 10,000 jobs a month, the weakest hiring outside recession years since 2002.

Economists are puzzling out whether hiring will accelerate to catch up to solid GDP growth or if growth will slow to reflect a weak labor market or if advances in artificial intelligence and automation mean that the economy can gallop ahead without creating many jobs.

Friday’s GDP was the second of the three estimates of fourth-quarter growth. The final report is due April 9.

Key inflation gauge worsened in January, before Iran war lifted gas prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.

Prices rose 2.8% in January compared with a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Friday, slightly below December’s increase in a report that was delayed by last fall’s six-week government shutdown. The shutdown created a backlog of data that is nearly cleared.

Yet excluding the volatile food and energy categories — which the Fed pays closer attention to — core prices rose 3.1%, up from 3% in the prior month and the highest in nearly two years.

On a monthly basis, prices jumped 0.3% in January, while core prices jumped 0.4% for the second straight month, a pace that if sustained would lift inflation far above the 2% annual target set by the Fed.

The data has since been overtaken by the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28 and has shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Oil prices have soared more than 40% since the war began and gas prices have jumped to $3.60 a gallon from just under $3 a month earlier, according to AAA. Those figures will likely cause inflation to spike in March and potentially April, economists forecast.

The inflation-fighters at the Fed have kept their key interest rate elevated to slow borrowing, spending, and growth in an effort to cool inflation further. Fed policymakers meet next week and are widely expected to keep their rate unchanged given that the conflict in the Middle East will raise inflation, at least in the short run.

5 indelible photos from Hollywood’s awards season, and the stories behind them

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As a staff photojournalist for The Associated Press based in Los Angeles, Chris Pizzello covers hundreds of entertainment events a year — perched in the rafters, crouched on the red carpet or directing stars to make the perfect portrait. It all culminates in awards season, where he captures the defining moments in the lives of the celebrities he’s shot day in and day out, from the triumphs of Beyoncé and Bad Bunny at the Grammys to the envelope snafu and The Slap at the Oscars.

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, he broke down his favorite photos from the 2026 awards season thus far.

Critics Choice Awards: Amy Madigan surprises — and is surprised

One of the cool aspects of shooting the Critics Choice Awards in January is that the few photographers allowed inside are placed right in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables of celebrities. Usually, at awards shows, we’re placed far behind the action, requiring us to scope out the celebrities with massive, bazooka-like 600 mm lenses on monopods.

I usually try to predict who is going to win right before the announcement, so that I can capture their instant reaction. It’s one of my favorite kinds of entertainment photos. Everyone likes to win and they’re always at least a little surprised or gratified, no matter how many times they’ve won before. For the supporting actress category, I actually thought that Teyana Taylor was the likely winner, since “One Battle After Another” had been winning a lot of critics’ awards. So I had my lens trained on her back near the stage. But I knew Amy Madigan was also quite close to my position over to my left. When they announced Madigan’s name for “Weapons,” I swung my lens over quickly and managed to capture her own surprise. I love the reactions of the folks at the table around her, especially her young co-star Cary Christopher in the shades.

Golden Globes: Teyana Taylor, triumphant

Every awards season, there is one nominee who is having more fun than everyone else — and this year, that person is Taylor. Awards season eventually becomes a slog to the vast majority of the nominees, and you can sense the flagging energy as February churns into March. The shoulders slump imperceptibly, the smile becomes a little forced, and the wave to the crowd a little less ebullient than it was at the Palm Springs Film Festival at the start of January (the unofficial kickoff of every awards season).

But none of this applies to Taylor. She’s easily been the red carpet star of the 2026 awards season. She’s the most fashionable, the most energetic and just the plain happiest to be here. The entertainment photographers all wake up when she arrives for the red carpet, and she definitely knows what she’s doing out there.

I like this frame from the photo room of the Golden Globes because you can sense Taylor’s exuberance without even seeing her face. She had just won the supporting actress in a motion picture award for her performance in “One Battle After Another” and was posing up a storm. She gave the photographers about 10 different looks, all equally lively and fun, before finally turning around and striking this triumphant pose.

Oscar nominees luncheon: Connecting with Ethan Hawke

Some of the best vibes of awards season are found at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, customarily held at the storied Beverly Hilton. Nominees will stroll around makeshift studios set up by the world’s media outlets and do interviews. A few of the outlets (like the AP) are allowed to shoot brief portraits.

It’s all a bit of a crapshoot, since every outlet is fighting to get the same nominees and there are only so many interviews they can do. You just have to be ready for whoever happens to stop by. This year, best actor nominee Ethan Hawke was one of the very first nominees to visit the AP studio. The “Blue Moon” star was so early that my lighting was not even fine-tuned yet. (It usually takes a few sessions before you really have the lighting ratio locked in.)

Since these are very brief shoots, all you can do is try to get the subject on your side immediately. What popped into my head was how I felt he was robbed a few years ago when he was not even nominated for his incredible performance in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” He chuckled and said he agreed. Hawke has an interesting way of chatting and posing at the same time, a quality that has been remarked upon by fellow photographers. It’s more efficient because when you put your camera down to mingle, you’re robbing yourself of precious time to get portraits. Or potentially taking time away from the interviewer. In this frame, Hawke laughed at something in mid-conversation, which gave the portrait a relaxed, spontaneous feel — all you can ask for.

Grammys: Justin Bieber strips it down

The Grammys are always a busy, chaotic, three-hour plus show with elaborate sets, constant lighting and costume changes, pyrotechnic displays and sometimes a cast of hundreds running around the stage for just a single production number. So it was a radical move indeed when Justin Bieber came out onstage to perform, wearing nothing but a guitar and his boxers.

His performance was literally so stripped-down that there wasn’t much to shoot other than tight shots of Bieber moodily leaning into his microphone. Then near the end of the song, as I was switching lenses, I looked up and noticed the wider context of a lone, small figure alone on the stage, dimly lit by a spotlight overhead. Shooting the boxer-clad Bieber in front of a sea of black hopefully gets across the guts it took for him to lay it on the line in front of not only a packed arena but also a live, worldwide viewing audience.

Actor Awards: Michael B. Jordan, mind-blown

It had all been getting too predictable. While there has been some variability in the supporting actor wins through awards season, the leads seemed to have been locked in since early January: Jessie Buckley and Timothée Chalamet. While Buckley prevailed yet again at the Actor Awards, there was a big surprise in store when Viola Davis took the stage to present male actor in a leading role.

My lens was trained on Chalamet. I thought the only possible upset could be Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” since he was the early favorite in the category before everyone saw Chalamet’s electrifying turn in “Marty Supreme.” But Leo was not even in the building, so I kept my focus on Chalamet.

But Davis suddenly called out Michael B. Jordan’s name for “Sinners,” and the ballroom erupted. No one saw it coming, least of all Jordan. He is a pretty cool customer, so it was fun to shoot his genuinely gobsmacked reaction up at the podium. The Actor Awards this year was like seeing a fairly conventional Hollywood film with an out-of-nowhere twist ending.

5 indelible photos from Hollywood’s awards season, and the stories behind them

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As a staff photojournalist for The Associated Press based in Los Angeles, Chris Pizzello covers hundreds of entertainment events a year — perched in the rafters, crouched on the red carpet or directing stars to make the perfect portrait. It all culminates in awards season, where he captures the defining moments in the lives of the celebrities he’s shot day in and day out, from the triumphs of Beyoncé and Bad Bunny at the Grammys to the envelope snafu and The Slap at the Oscars.

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, he broke down his favorite photos from the 2026 awards season thus far.

Critics Choice Awards: Amy Madigan surprises — and is surprised

One of the cool aspects of shooting the Critics Choice Awards in January is that the few photographers allowed inside are placed right in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables of celebrities. Usually, at awards shows, we’re placed far behind the action, requiring us to scope out the celebrities with massive, bazooka-like 600 mm lenses on monopods.

I usually try to predict who is going to win right before the announcement, so that I can capture their instant reaction. It’s one of my favorite kinds of entertainment photos. Everyone likes to win and they’re always at least a little surprised or gratified, no matter how many times they’ve won before. For the supporting actress category, I actually thought that Teyana Taylor was the likely winner, since “One Battle After Another” had been winning a lot of critics’ awards. So I had my lens trained on her back near the stage. But I knew Amy Madigan was also quite close to my position over to my left. When they announced Madigan’s name for “Weapons,” I swung my lens over quickly and managed to capture her own surprise. I love the reactions of the folks at the table around her, especially her young co-star Cary Christopher in the shades.

Golden Globes: Teyana Taylor, triumphant

Every awards season, there is one nominee who is having more fun than everyone else — and this year, that person is Taylor. Awards season eventually becomes a slog to the vast majority of the nominees, and you can sense the flagging energy as February churns into March. The shoulders slump imperceptibly, the smile becomes a little forced, and the wave to the crowd a little less ebullient than it was at the Palm Springs Film Festival at the start of January (the unofficial kickoff of every awards season).

But none of this applies to Taylor. She’s easily been the red carpet star of the 2026 awards season. She’s the most fashionable, the most energetic and just the plain happiest to be here. The entertainment photographers all wake up when she arrives for the red carpet, and she definitely knows what she’s doing out there.

I like this frame from the photo room of the Golden Globes because you can sense Taylor’s exuberance without even seeing her face. She had just won the supporting actress in a motion picture award for her performance in “One Battle After Another” and was posing up a storm. She gave the photographers about 10 different looks, all equally lively and fun, before finally turning around and striking this triumphant pose.

Oscar nominees luncheon: Connecting with Ethan Hawke

Some of the best vibes of awards season are found at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, customarily held at the storied Beverly Hilton. Nominees will stroll around makeshift studios set up by the world’s media outlets and do interviews. A few of the outlets (like the AP) are allowed to shoot brief portraits.

It’s all a bit of a crapshoot, since every outlet is fighting to get the same nominees and there are only so many interviews they can do. You just have to be ready for whoever happens to stop by. This year, best actor nominee Ethan Hawke was one of the very first nominees to visit the AP studio. The “Blue Moon” star was so early that my lighting was not even fine-tuned yet. (It usually takes a few sessions before you really have the lighting ratio locked in.)

Since these are very brief shoots, all you can do is try to get the subject on your side immediately. What popped into my head was how I felt he was robbed a few years ago when he was not even nominated for his incredible performance in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” He chuckled and said he agreed. Hawke has an interesting way of chatting and posing at the same time, a quality that has been remarked upon by fellow photographers. It’s more efficient because when you put your camera down to mingle, you’re robbing yourself of precious time to get portraits. Or potentially taking time away from the interviewer. In this frame, Hawke laughed at something in mid-conversation, which gave the portrait a relaxed, spontaneous feel — all you can ask for.

Grammys: Justin Bieber strips it down

The Grammys are always a busy, chaotic, three-hour plus show with elaborate sets, constant lighting and costume changes, pyrotechnic displays and sometimes a cast of hundreds running around the stage for just a single production number. So it was a radical move indeed when Justin Bieber came out onstage to perform, wearing nothing but a guitar and his boxers.

His performance was literally so stripped-down that there wasn’t much to shoot other than tight shots of Bieber moodily leaning into his microphone. Then near the end of the song, as I was switching lenses, I looked up and noticed the wider context of a lone, small figure alone on the stage, dimly lit by a spotlight overhead. Shooting the boxer-clad Bieber in front of a sea of black hopefully gets across the guts it took for him to lay it on the line in front of not only a packed arena but also a live, worldwide viewing audience.

Actor Awards: Michael B. Jordan, mind-blown

It had all been getting too predictable. While there has been some variability in the supporting actor wins through awards season, the leads seemed to have been locked in since early January: Jessie Buckley and Timothée Chalamet. While Buckley prevailed yet again at the Actor Awards, there was a big surprise in store when Viola Davis took the stage to present male actor in a leading role.

My lens was trained on Chalamet. I thought the only possible upset could be Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” since he was the early favorite in the category before everyone saw Chalamet’s electrifying turn in “Marty Supreme.” But Leo was not even in the building, so I kept my focus on Chalamet.

But Davis suddenly called out Michael B. Jordan’s name for “Sinners,” and the ballroom erupted. No one saw it coming, least of all Jordan. He is a pretty cool customer, so it was fun to shoot his genuinely gobsmacked reaction up at the podium. The Actor Awards this year was like seeing a fairly conventional Hollywood film with an out-of-nowhere twist ending.

5 indelible photos from Hollywood’s awards season, and the stories behind them

LOS ANGELES (AP) — As a staff photojournalist for The Associated Press based in Los Angeles, Chris Pizzello covers hundreds of entertainment events a year — perched in the rafters, crouched on the red carpet or directing stars to make the perfect portrait. It all culminates in awards season, where he captures the defining moments in the lives of the celebrities he’s shot day in and day out, from the triumphs of Beyoncé and Bad Bunny at the Grammys to the envelope snafu and The Slap at the Oscars.

Ahead of Sunday’s Oscars, he broke down his favorite photos from the 2026 awards season thus far.

Critics Choice Awards: Amy Madigan surprises — and is surprised

One of the cool aspects of shooting the Critics Choice Awards in January is that the few photographers allowed inside are placed right in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables of celebrities. Usually, at awards shows, we’re placed far behind the action, requiring us to scope out the celebrities with massive, bazooka-like 600 mm lenses on monopods.

I usually try to predict who is going to win right before the announcement, so that I can capture their instant reaction. It’s one of my favorite kinds of entertainment photos. Everyone likes to win and they’re always at least a little surprised or gratified, no matter how many times they’ve won before. For the supporting actress category, I actually thought that Teyana Taylor was the likely winner, since “One Battle After Another” had been winning a lot of critics’ awards. So I had my lens trained on her back near the stage. But I knew Amy Madigan was also quite close to my position over to my left. When they announced Madigan’s name for “Weapons,” I swung my lens over quickly and managed to capture her own surprise. I love the reactions of the folks at the table around her, especially her young co-star Cary Christopher in the shades.

Golden Globes: Teyana Taylor, triumphant

Every awards season, there is one nominee who is having more fun than everyone else — and this year, that person is Taylor. Awards season eventually becomes a slog to the vast majority of the nominees, and you can sense the flagging energy as February churns into March. The shoulders slump imperceptibly, the smile becomes a little forced, and the wave to the crowd a little less ebullient than it was at the Palm Springs Film Festival at the start of January (the unofficial kickoff of every awards season).

But none of this applies to Taylor. She’s easily been the red carpet star of the 2026 awards season. She’s the most fashionable, the most energetic and just the plain happiest to be here. The entertainment photographers all wake up when she arrives for the red carpet, and she definitely knows what she’s doing out there.

I like this frame from the photo room of the Golden Globes because you can sense Taylor’s exuberance without even seeing her face. She had just won the supporting actress in a motion picture award for her performance in “One Battle After Another” and was posing up a storm. She gave the photographers about 10 different looks, all equally lively and fun, before finally turning around and striking this triumphant pose.

Oscar nominees luncheon: Connecting with Ethan Hawke

Some of the best vibes of awards season are found at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, customarily held at the storied Beverly Hilton. Nominees will stroll around makeshift studios set up by the world’s media outlets and do interviews. A few of the outlets (like the AP) are allowed to shoot brief portraits.

It’s all a bit of a crapshoot, since every outlet is fighting to get the same nominees and there are only so many interviews they can do. You just have to be ready for whoever happens to stop by. This year, best actor nominee Ethan Hawke was one of the very first nominees to visit the AP studio. The “Blue Moon” star was so early that my lighting was not even fine-tuned yet. (It usually takes a few sessions before you really have the lighting ratio locked in.)

Since these are very brief shoots, all you can do is try to get the subject on your side immediately. What popped into my head was how I felt he was robbed a few years ago when he was not even nominated for his incredible performance in Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed.” He chuckled and said he agreed. Hawke has an interesting way of chatting and posing at the same time, a quality that has been remarked upon by fellow photographers. It’s more efficient because when you put your camera down to mingle, you’re robbing yourself of precious time to get portraits. Or potentially taking time away from the interviewer. In this frame, Hawke laughed at something in mid-conversation, which gave the portrait a relaxed, spontaneous feel — all you can ask for.

Grammys: Justin Bieber strips it down

The Grammys are always a busy, chaotic, three-hour plus show with elaborate sets, constant lighting and costume changes, pyrotechnic displays and sometimes a cast of hundreds running around the stage for just a single production number. So it was a radical move indeed when Justin Bieber came out onstage to perform, wearing nothing but a guitar and his boxers.

His performance was literally so stripped-down that there wasn’t much to shoot other than tight shots of Bieber moodily leaning into his microphone. Then near the end of the song, as I was switching lenses, I looked up and noticed the wider context of a lone, small figure alone on the stage, dimly lit by a spotlight overhead. Shooting the boxer-clad Bieber in front of a sea of black hopefully gets across the guts it took for him to lay it on the line in front of not only a packed arena but also a live, worldwide viewing audience.

Actor Awards: Michael B. Jordan, mind-blown

It had all been getting too predictable. While there has been some variability in the supporting actor wins through awards season, the leads seemed to have been locked in since early January: Jessie Buckley and Timothée Chalamet. While Buckley prevailed yet again at the Actor Awards, there was a big surprise in store when Viola Davis took the stage to present male actor in a leading role.

My lens was trained on Chalamet. I thought the only possible upset could be Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” since he was the early favorite in the category before everyone saw Chalamet’s electrifying turn in “Marty Supreme.” But Leo was not even in the building, so I kept my focus on Chalamet.

But Davis suddenly called out Michael B. Jordan’s name for “Sinners,” and the ballroom erupted. No one saw it coming, least of all Jordan. He is a pretty cool customer, so it was fun to shoot his genuinely gobsmacked reaction up at the podium. The Actor Awards this year was like seeing a fairly conventional Hollywood film with an out-of-nowhere twist ending.