(PUERTO RICO) — An island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico Tuesday left millions of residents without power ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
As of Tuesday afternoon, less than 10% of customers on the island had their power restored, according to power company LUMA.
LUMA said the exact cause of the power outage, which began at 5:30 a.m. local time, remains under investigation.
“As part of our coordinated response, our LUMA team is in close communication and collaboration with island officials, including the Governor, Governor-elect, and our Mayors to keep them updated on the status of restoration,” the power company said.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi earlier said work was underway to restore the service at energy plants in San Juan and Palo Seco.
The U.S. territory has continued to face a slow rebuild of its infrastructure since Hurricane Maria caused widespread damage to the island in 2017.
In 2020, 1 million customers were without power following back-to-back earthquakes. An explosion and subsequent fire at a substation left 900,000 customers on the island without power in June 2021.
Another massive fire at a major power plant caused a massive outage for about 1.3 million customers in April 2022, followed by Hurricane Fiona in September of that year.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Chip Roy said Tuesday that he doesn’t think House Speaker Mike Johnson has the necessary votes to remain speaker in Friday’s leadership election.
“Right now, I don’t believe that he has the votes on Friday, and I think we need to have the conference get together so we can get united,” Roy told Fox Business.
The speaker vote comes after a number of House Republicans grew frustrated with Johnson during the final days of the 118th Congress, which saw a bitter fight over spending that nearly caused a government shutdown before Christmas.
Roy is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus whose chair, Rep. Andy Harris, has also said he is undecided on whether to support Johnson. They’re among 15 House Republicans by ABC News’ count who are undecided on whether they’ll vote for Johnson.
Depending on attendance during Friday’s vote, Johnson may only be able to afford to lose a single Republican vote to win the gavel.
The recent resignation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz will leave the House with 434 members — 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has already said he won’t support Johnson, even after Monday’s endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump. GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana and a number of other members have also expressed skepticism about Johnson.
“Victoria is a good friend and Thomas is a good friend and they raise reasonable concerns,” Roy told Fox. “I remain undecided as do a number of my colleagues because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president’s agenda.”
Roy expressed concern about the events that unfolded on Capitol Hill in the week leading up to Christmas, including the original government funding bill that was torpedoed by Trump and his allies.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who was tapped by Trump to run the new private advisory “Department of Government Efficiency,” initially trashed a bipartisan funding bill that would have averted a shutdown in a post on X as the House prepared to vote. Trump later issued a statement opposing the bill and demanding that it include provisions to either raise or eliminate the nation’s debt ceiling before his inauguration on Jan. 20.
The bipartisan bill ultimately failed. A bill that included Trump’s debt ceiling demands also failed. A third attempt that included $100 billion for disaster aid, $30 billion for farmers and a one-year extension of the farm bill, provisions that were in the original measure, passed in the House at the 11th hour and 38 minutes past the deadline in the Senate.
The rush to get a bill passed before the deadline caused Johnson to forgo the rule that allows members 72 hours to read legislation before a vote.
Trump endorsed Johnson on Monday, saying “Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man,” Trump wrote at the end of a lengthy social media post. “He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement.”
Musk on Monday also backed Johnson, writing on X, “I feel the same way! You have my full support.”
But that seems to have done little to ease Roy’s concerns.
“I respect like Thomas that President Trump supports Mike, he’s a good friend, but let’s consider what happened the week before Christmas,” Roy said.
Roy said the Republican conference needs to get on the same page before Friday.
“What we need to do is unite around a plan to deliver for the president. Right now I do not believe that the conference has that,” Roy said.
Spartz said Monday some of her GOP colleagues are interested in the speaker’s gavel, but she wouldn’t reveal which members because they don’t want to publicly oppose Johnson.
(WASHINGTON) — Tributes are pouring in for former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100. His life and legacy will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and in Carter’s hometown of Plains, Georgia, over the coming days.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and the work of the Carter Center — which Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter founded after his defeat in the 1980 election — in advancing human rights and alleviating human suffering.
On Monday, ABC News’ Stephanie Ramos spoke to Suggs about the former president’s work, his character and his relationship with the people of Georgia.
ABC NEWS: Now we want to turn to someone who knew Carter well. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Ernie Suggs covered Carter and developed a close personal relationship with the former president. Sir, thank you so much for speaking with us as we bid farewell today. What are some of your personal memories that you’re remembering the most?
SUGGS: Well, thank you for having me, for one. Personally, he was the person that I have always looked up to. I always told a story about, in 1976, my mother voted for Jimmy Carter. She campaigned for him in Brooklyn, New York. And we voted in PS 241 in Brooklyn, New York. And I always told him that story.
So one of the last times we talked, I didn’t mention it, you know. For some reason, I just didn’t mention it, I don’t know what we were talking about. And he mentioned it. He said “How’s your mother doing? How’s she doing?” And I said — at the time my mother wasn’t doing too well — “She’s sick.” She had been battling dementia.
And he told me about, you know, he reiterated the work that Rosalynn Carter was doing with mental health. And he asked me if my mother could talk on the phone. And I said, sure, you know, she could talk. And he called my mother and he called my mother out of the blue to talk to her, just to kind of give her some words of encouragement as she was dealing with this illness and an illness that eventually his wife Rosalynn had.
So I think that’s the kind of example of a person who’s compassionate, who loves humanity, who loves people. And I tell that story as if it’s unique, but it’s not because he has done that kind of work and he’s done those kind of things for so many people, for so many, for 100 years. And for that I’m proud.
ABC NEWS: Absolutely. Such a wonderful example of what type of man he was and what type of life he led. You touched on this a bit, that in the decades after he left office, Jimmy Carter continued to carry so much influence around the world and he continued to do so much work.
As you covered him in those years, what else stood out to you from that work that he was able to do over, over really decades?
SUGGS: One of the things that he said he wanted to see before he died was the eradication of the Guinea worm disease. And that disease is down to about four people now. And when he started this, thousands of people were suffering from this horrible disease. Now it’s down to four, about four people. So it’s going to be eradicated in a couple of years. So this is the kind of work that Jimmy Carter did post-presidency.
The first line of his obituary that I wrote says that he was the 39th president of the United States. I’m sure that’s the first line that you wrote in your obituary. But I think that if you ask him, his most enduring legacy is what he did after the presidency and what he continued to do up until his 100th birthday to kind of promote humanity and to promote decency and to give to others.
ABC NEWS: And on that list of achievements, and you’ve written about some of those achievements, you’ve written that Carter grew up or grew into a politician who shaped race relations, but before that, he was shaped by, by then growing up in the Jim Crow South.
So how do you think those early experiences shaped his worldview and his approach to others throughout his life?
SUGGS: I think that had a tremendous effect. He was born in 1924. We have to understand that. So he was born prior to the Great Depression. He was born in the segregated South.
One perfect example was in 1954 when he left the Navy to return to Plains to take over his father’s business. He was the only white businessman in Plains, Georgia, who was not a member of the Citizens’ Council. We know what the Citizens’ Council is — it’s basically the Ku Klux Klan.
They came to his store and said, “Hey, we’re going to boycott you unless you join the Citizens’ Council. We will even pay your $5.” And he said, “I’d rather throw my $5 down the toilet then give you $5 to join this racist organization.”
So even in 1954, even owning a business in that rural, tiny Plains, Georgia, he rebuked the temptation to join basically the klan or the Citizens’ Council because of who he was and how he grew up and the people who was around him when he grew up.
ABC NEWS: And after a hundred years, we’re hearing so many stories, so many new stories in the last 24 hours about his life — that’s a story I hadn’t heard before. So thank you for sharing that. Since news of his passing last night, you’ve been speaking with people in Plains, Georgia, where Jimmy Carter is from and in other parts of Georgia. What are you hearing from them? What are they sharing with you?
SUGGS: People in Plains, Georgia, if you come by this town, they love him. If you go to anyone’s house in Plains, Georgia, they have a story about Jimmy Carter or “Mr. Jimmy,” as they called him.
Everyone’s house you go to has a photograph of Jimmy Carter, and it’s not a photograph of him from the White House or it’s not a standard portrait. It’s a photograph that they’ve taken with their Polaroid cameras or their selfies of him on their porch, eating peanuts and laughing and joking around, shucking corn.
So that’s who he was. He was Mr. Jimmy. He was truly a man of the people, who happened to one day have served as the 39th president of the United States.
ABC NEWS: He really was a man of the people. What a remarkable life and what an impact Jimmy Carter had on this country and those who had the pleasure of meeting him and knowing him. Ernie Suggs, thank you so much for speaking with us today. Thank you so much for your insights.
(NEW YORK) — A woman who died after being set on fire on a New York City subway train this month has been identified, according to police.
The woman was identified as 61-year-old Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey, according to the New York Police Department.
Kawam was sleeping on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on the morning of Dec. 22 when she was set on fire allegedly by a 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, according to police.
The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, has been charged with first-degree and second-degree murder and first-degree arson, according to police. He has yet to enter a plea.
“The depravity of this horrific crime is beyond comprehension, and my office is committed to bringing the perpetrator to justice,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement released shortly after the homicide occurred. “This gruesome and senseless act of violence against a vulnerable woman will be met with the most serious consequences.”
The suspect allegedly “approached and lit the victim on fire” with a lighter, police said.
Police officers in the area at the time smelled smoke and went to the train to investigate, where they found the woman standing inside the car “fully engulfed in flames.” She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Images of the suspect were captured on officers’ body cameras, as that person stayed on the scene after the incident, sitting on a nearby bench.
Those images were released as police requested the public’s assistance in identifying the man, who fled the train.
Three high school students recognized him and contacted police.
The suspect was taken into custody in a subway car at Herald Square within hours of the incident, according to police. When he was captured, the suspect had a lighter in his pocket.
A motive for the crime remains under investigation.
Zapeta was initially removed from the U.S. back to Guatemala in June 2018 after U.S. Border Patrol encountered him in Sonoita, Arizona, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said. He unlawfully reentered the U.S. at an unknown time and location, the spokesperson said.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations will lodge an immigration detainer with the NYPD location where Zapeta is being held, an agency spokesperson said.
During a news conference on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Kawam briefly stayed in a city homeless shelter. He said authorities have been in contact with her next of kin, but he released no additional information about her.
“Our hearts go out to the family,” Adams said, calling the homicide a “horrific incident to have to live through.”
He said such high-profile “random acts of violence” have overshadowed the success police have achieved in bringing crime down in the subway system. NYPD crime statistic show that as of Sunday, overall crime in the subway system is down 5.4% compared to last year.
“It was just a bad incident and it impacts on how New Yorkers feel,” said Adams. “But it really reinforces what I’ve been saying: People should not be living on our subway system. They should be in a place of care. And no matter where she lived, that should not have happened.
(NEW YORK) — Multiple rounds of frigid, arctic air could sweep across the eastern half of U.S. in the coming weeks, ushering in an abnormally cold start to 2025.
The first blast of bitter cold hits the Northern Plains and the Midwest on Wednesday and Thursday and then reaches the Northeast by the end of this week.
The surge of arctic air will likely be the start of multiple back-to-back cold blasts lasting throughout much of January, unleashing freezing temperatures across a large swath of the country.
Beginning next week, the polar vortex will likely trigger even colder air across the eastern half of the U.S.
The polar vortex lives in the upper atmosphere and is located near the North Pole in the arctic. When the polar vortex is strong, it locks the cold air in the arctic. When the polar vortex gets weaker, or breaks up, it unleashes cold air to the south.
Temperatures will likely be below average throughout most of January for the eastern half of the U.S., especially the East Coast.
It is too early to know exactly how cold it will get, but there could be dangerously freezing temperatures for millions.
With the surge in cold temperatures, odds favor more precipitation falling as snow rather than rain in many spots.
A large, fast-moving storm may bring snow to parts of the Midwest and severe thunderstorms to the South early next week. Some of that snow may reach the mid-Atlantic, as well.
(NEW YORK) — A woman who died after being set on fire on a New York City subway train this month has been identified, according to police.
The woman was identified as 61-year-old Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey, according to the New York Police Department.
Kawam was sleeping on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn when she was set on fire allegedly by a 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, according to police.
The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, has been charged with first-degree and second-degree murder and first-degree arson, according to police. He has yet to enter a plea.
“The depravity of this horrific crime is beyond comprehension, and my office is committed to bringing the perpetrator to justice,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement released shortly after the homicide occurred. “This gruesome and senseless act of violence against a vulnerable woman will be met with the most serious consequences.”
The horrific incident unfolded around 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 as Kawam, who is believed to have been homeless, was asleep on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn, according to police.
The suspect allegedly “approached and lit the victim on fire” with a lighter, police said.
Police officers in the area at the time smelled smoke and went to the train to investigate, where they found the woman standing inside the car “fully engulfed in flames.” She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Images of the suspect were captured on officers’ body cameras, as that person stayed on the scene after the incident, sitting on a nearby bench.
Those images were released as police requested the public’s assistance in identifying the man, who fled the train.
Three high school students recognized him and contacted police.
The suspect was taken into custody in a subway car at Herald Square within hours of the incident, according to police. When he was captured, the suspect had a lighter in his pocket.
Zapeta is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson. He was initially removed from the U.S. back to Guatemala in June 2018 after U.S. Border Patrol encountered him in Sonoita, Arizona, the spokesperson said. He unlawfully reentered the U.S. at an unknown time and location, the spokesperson said.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations will lodge an immigration detainer with the NYPD location where Zapeta is being held, an agency spokesperson said.
(NEW YORK) — Federal health officials have begun collecting samples of aged raw cow’s milk cheese across the U.S. to test for bird flu, the Food and Drug Administration announced.
Sample collection started at the end of this month and is expected to be completed by the end of March 2025, the FDA said Monday. If needed, the agency said it will extend the collection period.
It comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal order earlier this month that raw milk samples nationwide would be collected and shared with the agency to be tested for bird flu.
The FDA said it plans to collect 300 samples of raw cow’s milk cheese that has been aged for at least 60 days from warehouses and distribution centers across the country.
Samples will be tested with a PCR test, which looks for genetic material from the virus, and will be completed within one week of collection, according to the FDA. Samples that indicate the presence of the virus will undergo viability testing.
Viability testing will be done by injecting part of the virus into an embryonated egg and analyzing if it grows or multiplies.
Raw milk cheese is made with unpasteurized milk. In the U.S., cheese can be made from raw milk but must be aged a minimum of 60 days to lessen the risk of any pathogens that may be present, per the FDA.
Samples that test positive for viable virus will be “evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” the FDA said, and the agency may issue actions “such as a recall, follow-up inspection or other possible responses to protect public health.”
The FDA has previously warned of the dangers of drinking raw milk, which does not undergo pasteurization — a process that kills viruses and bacteria. The agency currently considers unpasteurized soft and hard cheeses, as well as other products made from unpasteurized milk, a “high-risk choice.”
Past studies from federal health officials have shown that pasteurization effectively kills the bird flu virus. Nearly all, or 99%, of the commercial milk supply produced on dairy farms in the U.S. follows a national pasteurization program.
Pasteurization has been a practice in the U.S. for more than 100 years and kills harmful bacteria and viruses by heating milk to a specific temperature over time, the FDA notes.
The U.S. has been facing an outbreak of bird flu, or avian influenza, since April, when the first human case was reported.
Almost all confirmed cases have had direct contact with infected cattle or infected livestock. Most bird flu cases in the U.S. have been mild, and patients have typically recovered after receiving antiviral medication.
The Pacific island nation of Kiribati was the first country to ring in 2025, with its 133,500 citizens celebrating the new year at 5 a.m. ET on Tuesday. The Micronesian nation was soon followed into 2025 by the Chatham Islands in New Zealand at 5:15 a.m. ET.
Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand’s capital Wellington and its largest city of Auckland — both located on the country’s North Island — welcomed 2025 at 6 a.m. ET. Fireworks lit up the Auckland skyline as massed crowds watched.
Sydney
Residents of the western Australian city of Sydney enjoyed a fireworks display three hours ahead of midnight local time, which is 8 a.m. ET.
The famed Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House provided a familiar backdrop for New Year’s revelers in the country’s largest city.
Tokyo
The words “Happy New Year” lit up a building in Tokyo as Japan ushered in 2025.
Seoul
In South Korea, people gathered at midnight to honor the victims of this weekend’s plane crash at South Korea’s Muan International Airport that killed 179 of the 181 people on board.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong said goodbye to 2024 with an epic fireworks display at 11 a.m. ET.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly half of U.S. states are set to raise their minimum wage at the outset of 2025, boosting pay for millions of workers stretching from California to Maine.
In all, 21 states will raise their wage floors on Jan. 1 in keeping with inflation-adjusted increases or as part of scheduled hikes that take effect at the beginning of each calendar year.
The pay increases will affect about 9.2 million workers, who will gain a combined $5.7 billion over the course of 2025, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, or EPI.
After the wave of wage hikes, Washington will become the state with the highest minimum wage, offering workers $16.66 per hour. Workers in California and New York will enjoy the second-highest wage floor, as both states implement a minimum hourly wage of $16.50.
Pay increases set to take hold in the new year will bring the wage floor to $15 an hour or higher in Washington, D.C., as well as 10 states, among them Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island. Those areas play host to one of every three U.S. workers, EPI found.
Overall, the states set to raise their minimum wage on Wednesday include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The nation’s highest wage floors will take effect in some of the nearly 50 cities and other localities that will impose minimum pay hikes.
Twenty-nine cities in California will see pay hikes, including a $17-an-hour wage floor that will take effect in Oakland. Seven localities in Washington will increase their minimum wage, among them the country’s highest wage floor: $21.10 an hour in Tukwila.
The latest round of pay increases, however, will not affect more than a dozen states concentrated in the South that lack a minimum wage or offer a minimum wage that does not exceed the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
The last federal minimum wage hike took place in 2009, when Congress raised the pay floor to its current level. When adjusted for inflation, the federal minimum wage stands at its lowest level since February 1956, nearly 70 years ago, EPI found.
(DURANGO, Mexico) — Four family members, including three Americans, were shot in an attack in Durango, Mexico, that left three of the four relatives dead, officials said.
The three adults were all killed: two brothers who are U.S. citizens, Vicente Peña Rodríguez and Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, and their relative, who is a local resident, Jorge Eduardo Vargas Aguirre, the Durango Attorney General’s Office said.
Vicente Peña Rodríguez’s son, a minor, survived, and is in critical condition, the attorney general’s office said.
The attack unfolded on Friday night as the family was traveling in a GMC Yukon with an Illinois license plate, officials said. The SUV was found on the side of the Francisco Zarco highway.
Authorities are investigating whether robbery was a motive, according to the attorney general’s office.
