Luke Combs looks on during a press conference for the Concert for Carolina at Bank of America Stadium on October 26, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jeff Hahne/Getty Images)
Starting Thursday, you’ll be able to support the Carolina Panthers and Luke Combs at the same time.
Die-hard Panthers fan Luke has partnered with the team for an exclusive merchandise collaboration, which will drop Thursday at 11 a.m. ET at the team store at Bank of American Stadium and online at shop.panthers.com.
Luke says in a statement, “It’s safe to say I bleed Carolina Panthers blue. They’ve been my team through thick and thin. I was born into this fandom. I met Sam Mills when I was 5 years old at a local restaurant during the team’s first season. I had a Panthers birthday when I turned 8.”
Luke adds, “I was able to hand pick each and every item in the collection. Talk about a full circle moment. This is it. Keep pounding.”
The collection features “vintage-inspired designs and a distinct ’90s aesthetic,” according to a press release. All net proceeds from the collection will go to Western North Carolina charities, including Second Harvest Food Bank NWNC.
Entertainer of the year nominee Luke will open the 59th annual CMA Awards Wednesday night on ABC.
Attorney General Pam Bondi. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Shortly after the Senate approved and sent a bill to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files to President Donald Trump’s desk on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi faced questions on how the administration will respond.
“We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward,” Bondi said at a news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other officials on an unrelated law enforcement action.
Bondi told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that there is “new information” that has come to the Justice Department regarding the Epstein files, but did not elaborate on what the new information is.
Last week, Bondi announced the Justice Department was initiating a renewed investigation into the files and potential ties between high-profile Democrats and Epstein just hours after Trump ordered her to on his Truth Social account.
ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas pressed Bondi on Wednesday what changed from the department’s memo in July in which they said they planned to make no future public disclosures related to their review of Epstein’s case and no further charges were expected.
“There’s information, new information, additional information,” she said in response to the question from Thomas. “And again, we will continue to follow the law to investigate any leads. If there are any victims, we encourage all victims to come forward. And we will continue to provide maximum transparency under the law.”
It’s unclear whether the DOJ will seek to cite the new investigation as exempting much of the files from public disclosure due to their relevance to the new investigation, despite DOJ and FBI stating unequivocally in a July statement that it uncovered no evidence in a review of the files that would support a predicated investigation against any uncharged individuals.
It’s unlikely the Justice Department would release the entire Epstein file, according to sources. Any materials related to ongoing investigations or White House claims of executive privilege will likely remain out of public view.
Earlier Wednesday, the Senate agreed to unanimously approve the bill the House passed on Tuesday, which meant there were no amendments or changes to the bill as House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of his Republican leadership team had urged.
Johnson on Wednesday said he was “surprised” that no amendments were made.
“I made clear for months that I thought there were serious flaws in the underlying bill, and I had hoped that the Senate would work to fix and correct those. They decided to go a different direction. That’s their prerogative. I was surprised and disappointed by that,” Johnson conceded.
Still, the speaker said he does not expect Trump to veto the measure.
“The Congress has spoken,” Johnson emphasized “You know that the president will process that, and there’s no delays in this at all. I mean, it’s moving forward, so I’m going to check the progress right now.”
If the legislation is signed into law, it could compel the release of federal records on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s “criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements or investigatory proceedings,” according to the legislation text. Victims’ names and other identifying information would be excluded from disclosure, as would any items that may depict or contain child sex abuse material, according to the text of the bill.
Trump said on Monday that he will sign the bill should it reach his desk.
“I’m all for it,” Trump said.
But in a post on his social media platform Tuesday afternoon, the president said he doesn’t “care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future,” and that he wants Republicans to stay focused on his agenda.
“I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had, including THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, Closed Borders, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everyone, ending DEI, stopping Biden’s Record Setting Inflation, Biggest Tax and Regulation Cuts in History, stopping EIGHT Wars, rebuilding our Military, being RESPECTED by every Country in the World, having Trillions of Dollars INVESTED in the U.S.A., having created the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World, and even delivering a HUGE DEFEAT to the Democrats on the Shutdown,” Trump said in his post.
A senior White House official later told ABC News that the bill will “be signed whenever it gets to the White House.”
Trump did not need to wait for Congress to act — he could order the release immediately.
At a vigil on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon, a group of House Democrats and Epstein survivors broke out in loud cheers upon learning that the Senate unanimously approved the bill.
After New Mexico Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez made the announcement from the podium, the group broke out in loud cheers, claps and smiles — some of them tearing up.
Democrats were seen hugging the survivors.
ABC News’ John Parkinson, Lauren Peller, Rebecca Gelpi, Michelle Stoddart and Alex Mallin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Just a week before Thanksgiving, record-breaking heat is hitting parts of the South, with some cities setting daily records as temperatures rise 10 to 20 degrees above average.
Cities across Texas experienced record-high temperatures on Tuesday, with Waco reaching 87 degrees and Austin hitting 86 degrees. Dallas, which hit a high of 87 degrees on Tuesday, has not seen temperatures this warm this late into the year in 20 years.
Houston also shattered records on Tuesday, as it saw a temperature over 80 degrees for a record 245th day this year. The previous record of 243 days was set in 2012. This record could continue to grow, as Houston — which has only had 77 days of weather cooler than 80 degrees — will see temperatures in the low- to mid-80s for the rest of the week.
From Wednesday through Friday, record-high temperatures are possible from Houston to Charlotte, North Carolina, and areas farther south.
Other cities experiencing unseasonably warm weather include Jackson, Mississippi, which could see the temperature reach 81 degrees on Thursday, along with Atlanta, with highs consistently in the high 70s for the rest of the week.
This heat, which will move out of the South this weekend, will allow for a flood threat to develop from Texas to Missouri on Thursday.
While the heat lingers in the South, parts of the Southeast and Northeast will see temperatures “cooler than normal at times,” according to the National Weather Service.
This year, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation — a natural variation of warmer, neutral and cooler waters along the equatorial waters of the eastern Pacific — has been in the cooler pattern, or La Niña, since September and is expected to continue for much of winter.
This likely puts the U.S. in a dominant weather pattern for most of the winter, keeping the southern half of the country warmer and drier and the Pacific Northwest out to the Great Lakes cooler and wetter than average.
Megan Thee Stallion attends the 2024 Planned Parenthood Of Greater New York Gala, April 16, 2024, in New York. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Megan Thee Stallion is expected to take the witness stand at a federal courthouse in Miami in connection with a defamation lawsuit that she filed in October 2024 against Milagro Cooper, a social media commentator and blogger known as Milagro Gramz.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, alleges in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida, that Cooper participated in a targeted and coordinated social media campaign to harass, intimidate and defame Pete, in concert with rapper Tory Lanez, who was convicted of shooting and injuring Pete in a July 2020 incident.
Lanez, birth name Daystar Peterson, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit but was asked to give a deposition ahead of the trial. ABC News has reached out to his attorneys, but requests for comment were not returned.
The complaint, which was reviewed by ABC News, accuses Cooper of defamation, promoting an altered sexual depiction of Pete, cyberstalking and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Cooper denied wrongdoing in legal documents responding to the lawsuit. ABC News reached out to Cooper’s attorneys, but requests for comment were not returned.
In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Cooper’s attorneys argued that “multiple allegations of ‘defamation’ are an overreach” and alleged that some statements made by Cooper are “substantially true,” while others are “clearly opinion and/or rhetorical hyperbole and therefore not actionable as a matter of law.”
The complaint argues that Cooper conspired with Peterson to “punish” Pete for testifying in Peterson’s trial where she named him as her shooter.
Peterson, who chose not to take the witness stand during the 2022 trial, pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorneys argued during the trial that he was not the shooter.
Court records show that Peterson and his attorney were held in contempt of court by a magistrate judge earlier this week for failing to answer questions during a deposition related to Pete’s lawsuit against Cooper. Peterson was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.
ABC News reached out to Peterson’s attorney Crystal Morgan for comment.
In her lawsuit against Cooper, Pete is seeking an unspecified amount in “compensatory damages, punitive damages, statutory damages, attorney’s fees, costs, interest, and all other damages as are just and proper as well as declaratory judgment to remedy Defendant’s unlawful behavior.”
A photo taken on September 14, 2024, shows seafood at Jimiya fishing port in Qingdao, China, on September 14, 2024. Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(HONG KONG) — China will suspend imports of Japanese seafood, according to ABC News partner NHK, escalating a diplomatic dispute triggered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments suggesting Tokyo could take military action if China attacks Taiwan.
Chinese authorities said the import halt is necessary to monitor treated wastewater being released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
China had only recently resumed buying Japanese marine products after imposing a ban when Japan began releasing the wastewater in 2023 after the Fukushima plant was damaged in the 2011 earthquake.
The move comes as tensions spike between the two countries following Takaichi’s remarks to parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan — a formal classification that could justify a military response. Beijing saw this statement as a challenge to its claim of sovereignty over independent Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Wednesday that Takaichi’s statements “fundamentally damaged the political foundation of China-Japan relations,” adding that there was “no longer a market for Japanese seafood” as a result.
Japan has since warned its citizens in China to take safety precautions and avoid crowded places. China has also advised its citizens against traveling to Japan and postponed the release of two Japanese films.
A senior Japanese official met his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Tuesday, but the talks made no progress. Chinese diplomat Liu Jinsong later made rare comments to state media, saying he was “dissatisfied” with the meeting.
Mao warned Wednesday that “if Japan refuses to retract its remarks, or even continues to make wrong moves, China will have no choice but to take severe and resolute countermeasures, and Japan will bear all the consequences that arise.”
China has also summoned Japan’s ambassador and publicly warned that Japan would face a “crushing military defeat” if it intervened militarily in Taiwan.
The dispute marks one of the sharpest downturns in relations between China and Japan in recent years, reopening long-standing tensions over security, history and regional influence in the Indo-Pacific.
On Sunday, Chinese coast guard vessels sailed through waters surrounding a group of disputed East China Sea islands. Japan’s coast guard said it drove the ships away. The islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, have long been a flashpoint, particularly since Japan nationalized them in 2012.
Japan also scrambled fighter jets Saturday after China flew a drone between Taiwan and Japan’s Yonaguni Island in a move Tokyo called provocative, though not unprecedented.
Chinese state media and diplomats have escalated rhetoric online, including one consul general who posted, and then deleted, a comment saying “the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.”
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass weighed in on social media, criticizing Chinese officials and writing that “Halloween has been and gone” after a Chinese diplomat called Takaichi an “evil witch.”
Meanwhile, China’s travel warning for Japan has added economic pressure as Japanese tourism and retail stocks fell 5% to more than 10% just this week amid fears that a downturn in Chinese visitors, who make up roughly a quarter of all inbound tourism to Japan, could significantly affect the sector.
Japan has attempted to cool tensions by sending senior envoys to Beijing and reiterating that its stance on Taiwan and the “One China” policy has not changed but China’s foreign ministry said Premier Li Qiang does not plan to meet Takaichi during this week’s G20 summit in South Africa.
Japan ruled Taiwan for 50 years beginning in the late 19th century, leaving complex historical, cultural and economic ties.
After World War II, the island was placed under the control of China’s Nationalist government, which later fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party. The Communist government in Beijing, however, claims sovereignty over the island despite having never directly governed it.
Japan today maintains unofficial relations with Taiwan but has grown more outspoken about regional security concerns. Several of Japan’s westernmost islands lie approximately 70 miles away from Taiwan.
The dispute is unfolding as competition between the United States and China has been intensifying across the Indo-Pacific as Japan hosts the largest concentration of U.S. military personnel outside the United States.
Washington’s response so far has been measured but firm after Glass’ comments condemning hostile rhetoric from Chinese diplomats as unprofessional and urging de-escalation without directly challenging China’s core claims on Taiwan.
The YouTube channel’s viral series asks drummers to come up with their own parts to a song that they’ve never heard before. After playing drum-less versions of tracks by Shinedown, Godsmack, A Perfect Circle, Killswitch Engage and Faith No More, Drumeo finally landed on a tune that Leto didn’t know: “Metalingus” by Alter Bridge.
“I’ve never done anything like this in my life,” Leto says during his first take on the challenge. “It’s crazy.”
Eventually, though, Leto persevered and delivered a full drum cover of “Metalingus,” which earned approval from Alter Bridge drummer Scott Phillips.
“That was really well done, super cool,” says Phillips, who also plays drums in Creed. “Great job, man.”
You may recall that Thirty Seconds to Mars’ music was featured in a previous Drumeo video, in which Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith played along to their song “The Kill.” That video has over 28 million views on YouTube.
Thirty Seconds to Mars released their latest album, It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day, in 2023.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson in ‘One Battle After Another.’ (Warner Bros. Pictures)
The nominees for the Movies for Grownups Awards have arrived.
AARP has announced the films and TV shows that have been recognized as projects that tell the stories of and celebrate people 50 years and older.
The films nominated for best picture/best movie for grownups are Hamnet, A House of Dynamite, One BattleAfter Another, Sinners and Train Dreams.
Those nominated for best actress are Laura Dern for Is This Thing On?, Jodie Foster for A Private Life, Lucy Liu for Rosemead, Julia Roberts for After the Hunt and June Squibb for Eleanor the Great.
In the best actor category, the nominees are George Clooney for Jay Kelly, Leonardo DiCaprio for OneBattle After Another, Joel Edgerton for Train Dreams, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Dwayne Johnson for The Smashing Machine.
As for the shows nominated for best TV series or limited series, Adolescence, Hacks, The Pitt, The Studio and The White Lotus received recognition.
“These nominees prove that powerful storytelling transcends age. At AARP, we believe representation matters—not just for audiences, but for the industry itself,” Myechia Minter-Jordan, the CEO of AARP, said. “By honoring these actors and creators, we’re shining a light on the richness, depth, and diversity of experience that deserves to be seen and celebrated.”
The annual Movies for Grownups Awards ceremony will take place on Jan. 10, 2026. Tony and Emmy winner Alan Cumming returns to host the awards show, which will be broadcast by Great Performances on PBS on Feb. 22.
The NVIDIA logo is displayed on a mobile phone with the company branding visible in the background. Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Financial results to be released on Wednesday by chipmaking-giant Nvidia will be closely watched as a bellwether for the stock market and the overall economy, which have both come to rely on massive spending on artificial intelligence to propel continued growth.
The latest test for the world’s most valuable company arrives at a fraught moment for markets, which have fallen for four consecutive days over fears of an AI bubble. Nvidia, which makes many of the chips fueling AI products, has suffered a decline of more than 10% over the past two weeks.
As big-tech names spend hundreds of billions on chips and data centers necessary for the energy-intensive technology, the financial benefits remain uncertain. The earnings reported by Nvidia will gauge demand for a key building block of AI, showing whether appetite for the technology remains at a fever pitch.
The results hold major stakes for the U.S. economy, which has shown signs of strain in recent months as hiring has slowed and consumer sentiment has dampened.
The AI spending boom, a lone bright spot, added a 0.5 percentage point boost to annualized gross domestic product growth over the first half of 2025, accounting for about one-third of economic activity, Pantheon Macroeconomics found.
“There is one company in the world that is the foundation for the AI Revolution,” Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at investment firm Wedbush, told ABC News in a statement, referring to Nvidia.
Fears of an AI bubble surfaced over the summer ahead of Nvidia’s previous earnings report, but the California-based company defied naysayers.
Nvidia recorded $46.7 billion in sales over three months ending in July, which exceeded analyst expectations of $46.2 billion. The jump in revenue marked 56% growth compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
The company boasts a market cap of $4.5 trillion, making it roughly equivalent to the GDP of Japan or Germany. The company has expanded at a breakneck pace since an AI craze set off by the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. The California-based company saw its stock price soar nearly 700% over the ensuing two years.
Alongside continued growth, the company is weathering new challenges. President Donald Trump barred the sale of chips to China earlier this year, before revoking the ban in July. A month later, Trump struck an agreement with Nvidia and its competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that allowed the companies to sell chips in China if they hand over 15% of revenue generated by the exports to the U.S.
Speaking at the White House in August, the president recounted the agreement.
“I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release,'” Trump said.
Earnings released in August said Nvidia did not sell any of its H20 chips in China over the most recent quarter, but the firm did not mention any losses related to the policy. The H20 chip was specifically designed for sale to China.
In recent days, Nvidia announced a large investment in AI, signaling confidence in the outlook of the technology. Nvidia on Tuesday announced a multi-billion dollar partnership with two of its largest counterparts in AI: Microsoft and Anthropic.
Under the terms of the deal, Nvidia and Microsoft agreed to invest $15 billion in Anthropic, a top developer of AI models. Anthropic, meanwhile, vowed to purchase $30 billion of computing infrastructure operated by Microsoft Azure on Nvidia systems.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch speaks during a press conference on Public Safety at City Hall on June 03, 2025 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will have one familiar face in his administration when he takes office in January.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Wednesday that she accepted Mamdani’s offer to remain in her position when Mamdani succeeds Mayor Eric Adams.
Late into his mayoral campaign, Mamdani, 34, said he would not replace the commissioner if elected. The mayor-elect cited the city’s drop in shootings, murders and transit crime since Tisch, 44, began her tenure as the commissioner in November 2024.
“I’ve spoken to Mayor-elect Mamdani several times, and I’m ready to serve with honor as his Police Commissioner. That’s because he and I share many of the same public safety goals for New York City: lowering crime, making communities safer, rooting out corruption, and giving our officers the tools, support, and resources they need to carry out their noble work,” Tisch said in a statement.
“I have admired her work cracking down on corruption in the upper echelons of the police department, driving down crime in New York City, and standing up for New Yorkers in the face of authoritarianism,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Mamdani has been previously outspoken about his concerns about the NYPD and has apologized for some of his past comments that were critical of the force.
Tisch acknowledged that she and Mamdani do have some differences in a department-wide email on Wednesday morning.
“Now, do the Mayor-elect and I agree on everything? No, we don’t. But in speaking with him, it’s clear that we share broad and crucial priorities: the importance of public safety, the need to continue driving down crime, and the need to maintain stability and order across the department. We also agree that you deserve the city’s respect and support,” she said in the email that was obtained by ABC News.
“I appreciate that the Mayor-elect wants a team with different points of view — a team where ideas and policies are debated on their merits. In those discussions, you can trust that I will be a fierce advocate for you and for this department. You know how I operate: I don’t mince words. When I say something, I mean it. And that is not going to change,” Tisch added.
Tisch, who is the daughter of James Tisch, the CEO of the Loews Corporation, has long been involved in city government under different administrations.
In 2008, she was an intelligence research specialist in the NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau, later counsel to the police commissioner, and the Counterterrorism Bureau’s director of policy and planning.
When Bill Bratton returned to lead the NYPD under Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014, Tisch was appointed as the deputy commissioner of Information Technology and led efforts to improve the department’s tech, including its CompStat tracking.
When Mayor Eric Adams took office in 2022, he appointed her as sanitation commissioner.
When Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned in September 2024, following a federal probe and an FBI search of his home, Adams, who was indicted on federal charges that same month, appointed Thomas Donlon as an interim commissioner before announcing Tisch two months later.
She became the second female NYPD commissioner, following Keechant Sewell, who served from January 2022 to June 2024.
Adams, who decided not to run for re-election in October, praised Tisch’s work and her decision to stay on.
“In choosing her to stay on as police commissioner, Mayor-elect Mamdani is recognizing our public-safety efforts were right and that they will continue into the future. We all want a safer city, and keeping Commissioner Tisch in place and supporting our police officers every day with the policies we have implemented, is exactly how we do that,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Rock band America performs onstage at The Canyon Club on October 26, 2019 in Agoura Hills, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
America is hitting the road on a new tour in 2026.
The band, best known for such classic tracks as “A Horse with No Name” and “Sister Golden Hair,” has announced dates for The Happy Trails Tour 2026. The trek will kick off March 7 in Highland, California, and wrap May 23 in Modesto, California, with more dates to be added.
A complete list of dates and ticket information can be found at AmericaTheBand.com.
Original America member Dewey Bunnell is currently leading the group, following fellow original band member Gerry Beckley’s retirement from touring in 2024.
Bunnell and Beckley were announced as nominees for the 2026 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in October. Nominees become eligible 20 years after their first commercial release of a song. Inductees will be celebrated at a gala event in New York City next year.
