Miley Cyrus had a pretty great year. She won the first two Grammys of her career for her hit “Flowers,” was named the youngest-ever Disney Legend and received multiple award nominations — including a Golden Globe nod — for “Beautiful That Way,” a song she co-wrote for the movie The Last Showgirl. But Miley is ready for a fresh start in 2025.
On Instagram, she wrote, “HAPPY HOLIDAYS & NEW YEAR! It’s bittersweet saying goodbye to a year that has been so good to me, but I am looking forward to starting over again. This is one of my favorite parts of not just the creative process but the way life has chosen to teach me.”
“In everything I do I like to go ALL the way. Give it ALL I’ve got. ALL for it to come to an end, move on and start anew,” she continued. “At times it can be a heartbreaking process but I’ve always known the pieces to come back together and create something beautiful.”
She concluded “Thank you to everyone who has been [a part] of making this year so special. Sincerely, Miley.”
The star has already revealed that she’s got a “visual album” planned for 2025. She says it was inspired by Pink Floyd — The Wall, the trippy, 1982 part live-action, part-animated film based on the classic album of the same name.
In addition to new vocalist Emily Armstrong, the reformed Linkin Park has two other fresh faces: drummer Colin Brittain and touring guitarist Alex Feder, who joined the band’s live lineup after Brad Delson announced he would not be joining LP on the road.
Delson still remains part of Linkin Park, though, and played on their comeback album, From Zero. Speaking with Guitar World, Delson elaborates on his decision to step away from the live stage.
“For everyone, it wasn’t like, ‘Let’s go back to what we were doing,'” Delson says of LP ending their seven-year hiatus following the 2017 death of frontman Chester Bennington. “It was like, ‘Let’s take what we’ve learned in the time off to approach our roles with greater self-awareness and insight.’ I really thrive in the studio. I love making new things. That’s what energizes me personality-wise.”
“That’s why I decided to focus my energy on that area and have Alex as my world-traveler doppelganger,” he continues. “I think he brings a lot to the show.”
Delson adds that he’s contributed to the feel of Linkin Park’s live show, even if he’s not playing in it.
“I’m really proud of the show,” Delson says. “Even though I’m not onstage, I put a lot of my creative love into the show. I’ve always been obsessed with the setlist, the concept of the show, and how it flows. I worked really hard on the current show; that’s no different than the past.”
After playing a number of one-off shows in 2024, Linkin Park will launch a full world tour in support of From Zero in 2025. As for whether Delson may return to the live lineup, he says, “You never know.”
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” he adds. “I can’t definitely say.”
Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images
(JERUSALEM) — Hanna Katzir, an Israeli hostage survivor who was released last year after 49 days of captivity in Gaza, has died, officials said.
Katzir, 78, struggled with a “complex medical condition” for “many months” after she was released, Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a statement.
During Hamas’ surprise terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Katzir was kidnapped from her home and her husband, Rami, was killed in their safe room at Kibbutz Nir Oz, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters said.
The couple’s son, Elad, was kidnapped and later killed in captivity, the Hostages Families Forum said. His body has since been returned to Israel.
Hanna Katzir spent 49 days as a hostage before she was released.
“Mom was a woman, wife, and devoted mother who was all about love. Her heart could not withstand the terrible suffering since October 7th,” her daughter, Carmit Palty Katzir, said in a statement.
There are 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, many of whom are feared dead.
“Each day in captivity endangers the lives of our loved ones,” Carmit Palty Katzir said. “A comprehensive agreement for the return of our 100 brothers and sisters must move forward.”
Hanna Katzir’s funeral will take place at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Tuesday.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot has soared to an estimated $1 billion ahead of its Christmas Eve drawing.
The estimated jackpot would make it the seventh-largest in the game’s history and its seventh billion-dollar prize.
It would also be the largest ever won in December, if a ticket matches all six numbers drawn.
The cash value of the jackpot is estimated to be $448.8 million.
The last time the jackpot was won was at $810 million in Texas on Sept. 10. No one has won the grand prize in the last 29 drawings, as the jackpot has ballooned.
The Mega Millions jackpot has only been won on Christmas Eve once before, according to the game. A $68 million jackpot was won in New York on Dec. 24, 2002, though it was never claimed.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, according to Mega Millions.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play. Tuesday’s drawing is at 11 p.m. ET.
Glam rockers Poison landed their first and only #1 song with the power ballad “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”
The song, from the band’s sophomore album, Open Up and Say … Ah!, spent three weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was #3 on the Billboard year-end charts that year.
The band’s frontman, Bret Michaels, shared in an interview for VH1’s Behind the Music that the song was inspired by a cheating girlfriend. He said he wrote it after he called her while at the laundromat and heard a male voice in the background.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Bill Clinton has been discharged from the hospital after being treated for the flu, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“He and his family are deeply grateful for the exceptional care provided by the team at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and are touched by the kind messages and well wishes he received. He sends his warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season to all,” Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Angel Ureña said in a statement.
Clinton, 78, was admitted to the hospital in Washington on Monday after developing a fever.
He was in “good spirits” as he received care and underwent testing, Ureña said.
Clinton, a Democrat who served as the 42nd president of the United States, suffered some health issues since leaving the White House in 2001.
He underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004 and in 2010 had two stents inserted into heart valves. He underwent surgery in 2005 for a collapsed lung. More recently, he was hospitalized for several days for a blood infection in 2021.
Clinton was active on the campaign trail this past year in support of Vice President Kamala Harris. He also hit the road this fall to promote his new memoir “Citizen: My Life After the White House.”
During an appearance on ABC’s “The View” earlier this month, Clinton reflected on the Democratic Party’s 2024 loss, saying “we need to quit screaming at each other and listen to each other.”
“We’re always going to have differences. We’re very narrowly divided now on many things, but I think you shouldn’t run away from the tough ones, you should turn into them,” he said. “I think it will help bring us back together. I may be wrong, but that’s what I think.”
(NEW YORK) — As Luigi Mangione pleaded not guilty Monday to state murder and terrorism charges in the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, supporters of the suspect continued to donate tens of thousands of dollars for a defense fund established for him, leaving law enforcement officials worried Mangione is being turned into a martyr.
Several online defense funds have been created for Mangione by anonymous people, including one on the crowdfunding website GiveSendGo that as of Tuesday morning had raised over $200,000.
The GiveSendGo defense fund for the 26-year-old Mangione was established by an anonymous group calling itself “The December 4th Legal Committee,” apparently in reference to the day Mangione allegedly ambushed and gunned down Thompson in Midtown Manhattan as the executive walked to his company’s shareholders conference at the New York Hilton hotel.
“We are not here to celebrate violence, but we do believe in the constitutional right to fair legal representation,” the anonymous group said in a statement.
The crowdfunding campaign prompted donations from thousands of anonymous donors across the country, many of them leaving messages of support for Mangione, including one person who called themselves “A frustrated citizen” and thanked Mangione for “sparking the awareness and thought across this sleeping nation.”
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for GiveSendGo said the company “operates with a principle of not preemptively determining guilt or innocence.”
“Our platform does not adjudicate legal matters or the validity of causes. Instead, we allow campaigns to remain live unless they violate the specific terms outlined in our Terms of Use. Importantly, we do allow campaigns for legal defense funds, as we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to access due process,” the GiveSendGo spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added, “We understand the concerns raised by such campaigns and take these matters seriously. When campaigns are reported, our team conducts a thorough review to ensure they comply with our policies. While other platforms may choose a different approach, GiveSendGo’s core value is to provide a space where all individuals, no matter their situation, can seek and receive support, with donors making their own informed decisions.”
Other crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe have taken down campaigns soliciting donations for Mangione’s defense.
“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the crowdfunding website said in a statement. “The fundraisers have been removed from our platform and all donors have been refunded.”
Amazon and Etsy have removed from their websites merchandise featuring Mangione, including T-shirts and tote bags reading “Free Luigi” and the phrase “Deny, Defend, Depose,” words police said were etched in the shell casings discovered at the scene of Thompson’s homicide.
“Celebrating this conduct is abhorrent to me. It’s deeply disturbing,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told ABC News senior investigative reporter Aaron Katersky in an interview last week. “And what I would say to members of the public, people who, as you described, are celebrating this and maybe contemplating other action, that we will be vigilant and we will hold people accountable. We are at the ready.”
When Mangione appeared in court Monday for his arrangement, more than two dozen young women, who had waited in the frigid cold outside the courthouse, said they were there to support the defendant.
Most of the women wore face masks and a few appeared visibly emotional as Mangione entered the courtroom.
“This is a grave injustice, and that’s why people are here,” one of the women, who said she arrived at the courthouse at 5 a.m., told ABC News.
Other supporters outside the courthouse chanted, “Free, free Luigi” and “Eat the rich,” and held signs reading, “People over profits” and “Health over wealth.”
Manhattan grand jury indicted Mangione last week on 11 charges, including first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism. Mangione is also facing federal charges that could get him the death penalty if convicted.
Mangione’s attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, raised concerns in court Monday that her client is being used by police and New York City Mayor Eric Adams as “political fodder.”
Angifilo also slammed last week’s extradition of Mangione back to Manhattan to face charges, calling Adams’ presence amid the massive display of force used in the transfer “the biggest staged perp walk I have seen in my career.”
“What was the New York City mayor doing at this press conference — that is utterly political,” she said, before referencing the mayor’s own criminal case. “The New York City mayor should know more than anyone the presumption of innocence.”
Retired FBI special agent Richard Frankel said suspects have received unsolicited support in previous politically charged violent crimes.
“We saw it with the Unabomber,” said Frankel, an ABC News contributor, referring to Ted Kaczynski, the mathematician-turn-domestic terrorist who blamed technology for a decline of individual freedom and mailed handcrafted explosives to targeted individuals between 1978 and 1995.
Frankel said Eric Rudolph, who detonated a bomb in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympic Games and carried out three additional bombings as he eluded capture for five years, also attracted supporters.
“In my opinion, they’re supporting individuals who have committed potentially terrorist acts, but it’s a politically charged act,” Frankel said.
Referring to the Thompson killing, Frankel added, “You can be up in arms about the health care industry, but you can’t threaten or actually hurt members of the health care industry.”
Most recently, Marine veteran Daniel Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who was acting erratically on a New York City subway, after supporters donated more than $3 million to his legal defense fund.
Law enforcement officials have expressed concern that Mangione is being turned into a martyr. Someone this week pasted “wanted posters” outside the New York Stock Exchange naming other executives.
A recent bulletin released by the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, a multi-agency law enforcement intelligence-sharing network based in Philadelphia, included a photo of a banner hanging from an overpass reading, “Deny, Defend, Depose,” which are the same words etched on shell casings police said were recovered from the Thompson homicide scene.
“Many social media users have outright advocated for the continued killings of CEOs with some aiming to spread fear by posting ‘hit lists,'” the bulletin, obtained by ABC News, reads.
(SANTA CRUZ, Calif.) — A powerful storm pummeling the West Coast churned up waves as high as 60 feet, killing one man, sweeping another out to sea and prompting multiple rescues when a pier collapsed in Santa Cruz, California, authorities said.
A series of storms leading into Christmas are expected to continue to pound the West Coast on Tuesday with heavy rain, gusty winds and giant ocean waves.
On Monday, the wild weather turned deadly in Santa Cruz when a large wave hit a man, trapping him beneath debris at a beach, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
The death unfolded around 11:30 a.m. local time at Sunset State Beach in Santa Cruz, about 75 miles south of San Francisco. First responders managed to pull the man from the water, but he was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the sheriff’s office said. The man’s name was not immediately released.
The storm also caused the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf pier to partially collapse, according to the sheriff’s office. Three men, all members of a city crew working on the pier at the time, were thrown into the ocean, according to the sheriff’s office.
Lifeguards sprang into action and rescued two of the men, while the third worker swam to shore on his own. None of the men were seriously injured, according to Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley.
The incident lopped off a 150-foot section at the end of the pier, which was undergoing a $4 million restoration. Large chunks of the pier were left floating in the water.
Video showed one worker stranded on a piece of the pier floating in the water being rescued by a first responder on a jet ski.
The sheriff’s office also issued an evacuation order Monday afternoon for oceanfront residents along an approximately 3-mile stretch of shoreline just south of Santa Cruz, citing large swells and high tides.
The National Weather Service in the Bay Area warned that “dangerous and life-threatening beach conditions” are forecast for along the Pacific Coast through Tuesday, including rough seas and breaking waves up to 60 feet.
A separate rescue attempt occurred Monday near Monterey, where authorities believe high surf likely pulled a man into the ocean. The incident happened at Marina State Beach along the Monterey Bay around noon, according to the Marina Police Department.
“Bystanders attempted to assist the individual; however, due to extremely large waves and strong currents, their rescue efforts were unsuccessful,” police said in a statement.
Marina police officers, firefighters, U.S. Coast Guard and the California Highway Patrol launched an extensive search for the man using boats and aircraft, but were forced to suspend the rescue operation when weather conditions became too dangerous, police said. The man, who was not immediately identified, remained missing Tuesday morning.
At the time of the search, the National Weather Service estimated waves in the Santa Cruz area to be 25 to 50 feet, according to police.
High surf warnings were issued up and down the West Coast from Washington to Southern California.
The Santa Cruz Sheriff’s office said first responders also made water rescues in a harbor near Capitola, about 4 miles south of Santa Cruz.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
Kendrick Lamar is ending 2024 on top of Billboard‘s Greatest Pop Star of the Year list. The publication’s Andrew Unterbergestated this year was the year K. Dot let “people know just what he’s capable of” on his song “Not Like Us,” as well as through other “new releases or revelations that captured headlines and captivated the culture.”
“What made Kendrick Lamar’s 2024 so remarkable was that he didn’t just remind us of all the reasons why he was so big at his commercial and cultural peak – he showed that he could do things we’d never even seen from him before,” Andrew continued. “He showed that he was capable of hitting heights no other rapper had reached this decade…He showed that he was able to create cultural moments of both singular blunt-force impact and massive historical gravity – and then to do it again, and then again. And he showed that at his absolute best and biggest, he could dominate the streets, the charts and everywhere in between with equal sun-blocking vastness, and emerge as the winner not only when pitted against his most direct adversaries, but against any other potential peer in popular music.”
Kendrick was respectively followed by Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Jelly Roll, with Drake and Bruno Mars honorable mentions. The mag also named Shaboozey Rookie of the Year, while Hozier was praised for his Comeback of the Year.
K.Dot’s “Not Like Us” was also #1 on Vevo’s Top 10 Hip-Hop Videos chart in the U.S. GloRilla secured four spots on the list, with “TGIF” landing at #2, “Yeah Glo!” at #4, Big Boogie and DJ Drama‘s “BOP” at #5 and “All Dere” featuring Moneybagg Yo at #8.
One of this year’s breakout stars was Dasha, whose song “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’)” was a major hit on country radio. Now that her touring is finished for the year, the singer can focus on the holidays, and on her new house, which she began moving into in November. But she took a look back at Christmases past for ABC Audio.
Asked to name the best gift she ever received, the California native told ABC Audio, “My dad took me hot air ballooning one year [in Albuquerque] … I love adventures or things we can do together as gifts, so that was pretty cool.”
And what about the best gift she ever gave? Well, it was sort of one-sided on her part.
“I gave my mom a really nice purse one year, and I thought it was so kind,” she laughs. “She has not worn it once! So I think we have different styles, so that was kind of a bummer.”
Next up for Dasha, you can see her perform Dec. 31 during the West Coast Party segment of ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. The show will also feature performances from Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Cody Johnson, HARDY, Megan Moroney and ERNEST.
