HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Mark Davis, a television news journalist who covered Connecticut politics for three decades for a local ABC affiliate, has died. He was 76.
Davis died on Monday, WTNH-TV announced on Tuesday. He worked at the station for 36 years and retired in 2020 as chief Capitol correspondent. The cause of death was not disclosed. He had surgery last year for bladder cancer, the station previously reported.
Known for always beating out other reporters to ask the first question at news conferences, Davis covered the most high-profile political stories in the state including the 2000 vice presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who ran with Al Gore, and the 2004 resignation of Republican Gov. John Rowland during a corruption scandal.
“The thing I like the best about the job is … when someone walks up to me on the street and says, ‘I like you, Mark Davis. You’re a plain talker,'" he said in a 2017 WTNH video celebrating his 50th anniversary in broadcasting. “I mean that’s our job, is to be plain talkers.”
Davis worked at Boston radio stations in the 1970s before moving to Connecticut in 1980 to take a radio job in Hartford.
He moved to television in 1984 when he joined WTNH. He held various jobs there, including anchor, before becoming a political reporter in 1989. He retired in 2020, citing worries about contracting the coronavirus at his age.
Condolences poured in from political leaders across the state on Tuesday.
“For decades, Mark Davis provided the people of Connecticut with valuable news and information about what was going on in their state, giving them insight into their communities, their government, and their neighbors," Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. “Mark Davis is a Connecticut icon, and his passing is a loss for our state.”
Davis' death came nearly four months after the death of another longtime Connecticut TV political reporter, Tom Monahan, who worked at NBC affiliate WVIT-TV for 45 years. Monahan, who was 84, retired from the station in 2010.
This undated photo, provided by WTNH-TV, shows Mark Davis, a television news journalist who covered Connecticut politics for three decades for a local ABC affiliate. Mark Davis has died, he was 76. (WTNH-TV via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow's invasion of its neighbor approaches the four-year mark.
Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.
The daytime temperature in Kyiv, which has endured freezing temperatures for more than two weeks, was minus 12 degrees C (about 10 degrees F), with streets covered in ice and the rumble of generators heard throughout the capital.
Kyiv has grappled with severe power shortages for days, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday night's strikes caused the biggest electrical outage the city has faced so far.
More than 500 residential buildings remained without central heating Tuesday. Throughout the city, bare trees were weighed down with icicles and snow was piled up next to sidewalks.
To cope, friends and relatives gathered in those apartments that have power or hot water, at least temporarily. They charge their phones, take hot showers, or share a warm drink.
Klitschko ordered the city to provide one hot meal per day to needy residents. He also announced that workers in the city’s water, heating and road maintenance services would receive bonuses for working “day and night” to restore critical infrastructure.
Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.
On Monday, the U.S. accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.
Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water in winter over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
The attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.
In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.
Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defese Ministry said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.
Ukraine’s military said its drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant designs, manufactures and tests Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.
It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.
Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
