Broadway Wicked is meeting present-day film Wicked.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth — stars from the original Broadway cast — joined Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande at the Los Angeles premiere of Wicked on Saturday.
The group of four posed together on the carpet, locking arms with the present stars tucked in between the stars of the 2003 Broadway musical. The Wicked film stars Grande and Erivo in the lead roles of Glinda and Elphaba, respectively.
“I watched it with our ‘Wicked’ family and I bawled the entire time,” Chenoweth, who played Glinda in the original Broadway production, said in a clip posted on the Wicked account’s Instagram Story.
“I was so proud of her. She killed it,” Chenoweth said of Grande. “And Cynthia, we knew she was going to be powerful but the warmth and heart she brings to it. Just like Idina, it was perfect.”
Along with Grande and Erivo, Wicked stars Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Ethan Slater as Boq, Marissa Bode as Nessarose and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Wicked: Part One hits theaters on Nov. 22. Wicked: Part Two is slated to arrive in theaters on Nov. 21, 2025.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
Hezbollah fires 75 projectiles into Israel, IDF says
The Israel Defense Forces said Hezbollah fired at least 75 projectiles into Israel on Monday.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it treated three people with shrapnel injuries in the area of Karmiel in northern Israel. Two other people were treated for shrapnel injuries in the Krayot area, the MDA said.
Hezbollah claimed several rocket and drone attacks on Monday.
Among the strikes was a “large rocket salvo” targeting a paratrooper training base in Karmiel settlement, Hezbollah said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Ghazi Balkiz
IDF orders residents of 21 south Lebanon villages to evacuate
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a warning to residents of 21 south Lebanon villages to evacuate their homes until further notice, warning of imminent Israeli strikes there.
Adraee said in a post on X that the villages were the site of Hezbollah military activity and warned that the IDF would “act forcefully” against targets there.
“For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Awali River,” Adraee wrote. “For your safety, you must evacuate without delay.”
“You are prohibited from heading south,” he added. “Any movement south could be dangerous to your life.”
Around a quarter of Lebanese territory and a quarter of all residents — some 1.2 million people — are under IDF evacuation orders, per United Nations analysis.
Israel has killed more than 3,000 people in southern Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023, Lebanese authorities have said.
IDF says deadly north Lebanon strike targeted Hezbollah weapons
The Israel Defense Forces said the strike in northern Lebanon that killed dozens of people on Sunday targeted “a Hezbollah terrorist site” which was storing weapons.
Lebanese health officials said the airstrike on the village of Aalmat — in a mainly Christian area in the north of the country — killed 23 and injured at least six others. Seven children were among the dead, officials said. Search and rescue work was ongoing as of Sunday.
The IDF said that Hezbollah fighters “responsible for firing rockets and missiles toward Israeli territory” were “operating from the site,” adding that the details of the incident “are under review.”
Lebanese authorities say that Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,000 people since Oct. 8, 2023. Some 1.2 million people — around a quarter of Lebanon’s population — have also been displaced by Israel’s military campaign.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
IDF intercepts launch from Yemen
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday it intercepted one projectile “that approached Israel from the direction of Yemen.”
“The projectile did not cross into Israeli territory,” the IDF said in a statement posted to X, noting that the projectile caused sirens to sound in several areas of central Israel.
Overnight, the IDF also said it intercepted four uncrewed aerial vehicles that approached Israel from the east.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
New Defense Minister says Israel has defeated Hezbollah
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared on Sunday that his country has defeated Hezbollah after killing the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
“We defeated Hezbollah, and the elimination of Nasrallah was the crowning achievement,” Katz said during a handover ceremony at Israel’s foreign ministry on Sunday.
The ceremony comes after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired the previous defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
There is no word on how this will affect Israel’s operations in Lebanon, which shows no sign of slowing.
“Now it is our job to continue the pressure,” Katz said. “We will work together to materialize the fruits of this victory by ensuring that the security situation in Lebanon has changed.”
Israeli president to meet Biden
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will meet President Joe Biden on Tuesday during his visit to the U.S., according to Herzog’s office.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
Netanyahu says he’s spoken to Trump 3 times, ‘we see eye to eye’ on Iran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement Sunday to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, highlighting the violence Thursday on the streets of Amsterdam that authorities said targeted Israeli soccer fans there, saying in a statement translated from Hebrew: “We will do what is necessary to defend ourselves and our citizens. We will never allow the atrocities of history to recur.”
Netanyahu also said he has spoken to President-elect Donald Trump three times since the election.
“These were very good and important talks designed to further enhance the steadfast bond between Israel and the U.S.,” Netanyahu said. “We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its aspects, and on the dangers they reflect. We also see the great opportunities facing Israel, in the area of peace and its expansion, and in other areas.”
(BRANDYWINE, Md.) — On 7 acres in Brandywine, Maryland, Peter Scott, a former United States Army counterintelligence agent assigned to Special Forces, is farming to help food-insecure veterans in the D.C. metropolitan region.
“I was at a place in life where I needed to do something and I needed to feel like it was something good after my time in service,” said Scott.
He returned stateside after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I separated after about 12 years of service. I thought I was fine, but a few years went by and I was not fine,” Scott said. “I reached a moment with my family where it was ‘go get help or get out.’ I decided to go get help.”
After entering an inpatient program for combat PTSD, Scott met other service members who were food insecure. This discovery, along with a newfound passion for gardening, led him to launch Fields4Valor.
Since its inception, Fields4Valor has helped feed more than 500 veterans and their families. According to the Military Family Advisory Network, 1-in-5 active-duty military and veteran families experience food insecurity. And that number is on the rise.
While picking up her weekly bag of groceries from the farm, Shara Simms, a disabled Air Force veteran, expressed her admiration for the honey that is harvested from the honeycombs Scott maintains, calling it “liquid gold.”
Simms said the weekly bags afford her the opportunity to share “fresh fruit and honey that we don’t necessarily get in the stores because it’s extra expensive.”
“We live and die on everybody’s good will,“ said Scott. This year, he estimates approximately 300 volunteers helped on the farm – sometimes sourced from area military installations.
From the garden where rhubarb, kale, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce are grown, to the beehives where honey is extracted to fill jars and made into soaps, to the chicken coop where 120 chickens produce fresh farm eggs – everything is given to veterans.
(LONDON) — President Joe Biden will see out his term knowing that President-elect Donald Trump — a man he fought desperately hard to unseat in 2020 and called a “genuine danger to American security” — will succeed him.
Foreign policy has been central in Biden’s long political career. It will likewise form a major chunk of his legacy, as will the two wars — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Middle East conflagration sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack — that erupted during his term.
Now less encumbered by political calculations — for himself or for Vice President Kamala Harris — and with only two months until Trump’s second inauguration, the outgoing president may have one last window to wield the power of the Oval Office in both theaters.
But with Trump looming above the outgoing Biden-Harris administration, American allies and enemies may be hesitant to engage with the outgoing administration.
European nations, for example, are already shifting focus to how best to court Trump, Leslie Vinjamuri of the British Chatham House think tank told ABC News.
“All these European leaders are very quickly reaching out,” she added. “They’re congratulating him. They want to talk with him. They want to work with him, because they understand that the stakes are extremely high and they clearly feel that by talking with him, they have an ability to influence policy and the outcome.”
“What they don’t want to do is to be seen to be making a deal with Joe Biden that undercuts whatever it is that Trump is going to do,” Vinjamuri added.
“It’s a very tricky position to be in, because if anything’s visible that cuts across what he wants to do, you as a leader risk being punished.”
Those at the top of American politics know that foreign policy success can accelerate careers and define legacies. Former President Richard Nixon infamously undermined President Lyndon B. Johnson’s efforts to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War during the 1968 election campaign for fear it would reduce his chances of victory.
Though he has already secured his second term, Trump appears unlikely to help the Biden administration with any foreign policy “wins” in its closing days.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and room for maneuver — it’s highly unpredictable,” Vinjamuri said.
Russia and Ukraine
Russia’s war on Ukraine has dominated much of Biden’s presidency. He will leave office with Moscow’s forces holding large parts of Ukraine and still advancing, even if slowly and at huge cost.
“I think that now Biden can be much more decisive in support of Ukraine, especially when he sees that Trump will be the next president,” Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of Ukraine’s parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News.
“Biden has his hands completely untied,” Merezhko added. “Now Biden is thinking about his legacy.”
“He might even try to take some decisions which will make irreversible changes in support of Ukraine — for example, he might lift all the restrictions on the use of the Western weapons on the territory of Russia,” Merezhko said. “And he might start the process of inviting Ukraine to join NATO.”
Merezkho acknowledged that progress on the NATO front might be ambitious. “Yes, he doesn’t have much time,” he said. “But he — with [National Security Adviser] Jake Sullivan and [Secretary of State] Antony Blinken — might do something creative to help Ukraine.”
It appears unlikely that Biden’s final months will bring Kyiv any closer to NATO membership. Ukrainian leaders are still pushing for an invitation to join the alliance despite fierce opposition from Russia — and hesitance among key alliance members. Allies have repeatedly said that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” but even top officials in Kyiv acknowledge this cannot happen amid war with Moscow.
The outgoing president may at least be able to ring fence much-needed funding for Kyiv.
Matthew Savill of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., said Biden “might choose in his last months in office to use the remainder of the funding available for support to Ukraine under Presidential Drawdown Authority, amounting to over $5 billion.”
The Pentagon has already committed to rolling out new funding packages between now and January totaling some $9 billion. “That is consistent with how we’ve been doing this in the past,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told journalists last week. “It’s something that we’ve done on a pretty regular, almost weekly, basis.”
Biden has also reportedly already decided to allow non-combat American defense contractors to work in Ukraine to maintain and repair U.S.-provided weaponry.
Yehor Cherniev — a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chairman of his country’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly — told ABC News that deeper sanctions on “Putin’s inner circle” are on Kyiv’s wish list, along with the delivery of all previously allocated aid, commitments for more, plus the end to restrictions on Western weapon use inside Russia.
Trump has suggested he would quickly end Russia’s invasion by threatening to cut off military aid to Kyiv unless it agrees to hand Moscow direct or indirect control of swaths of occupied territory in the south and east of the country.
As such, his election has raised concerns in Ukraine of an imminent sellout.
Merezhko, though, stressed the unpredictability of the president-elect. “Trump might become even more critical of Russia to show that all suspicions about him are groundless,” he said.
“We know that Trump loves his country and seeks to protect its interests in accordance with his vision,” Cherniev said. “Therefore, we are confident that the U.S. will not leave us alone with Russia, since this is not in the interests of the U.S. and the free world.”
“However, much will depend on Putin’s willingness to make concessions and compromises,” he added. “If the Russian dictator does not show due flexibility, I think Trump will increase his support for Ukraine.”
As to potential tensions between Trump and Biden in the coming months, Merezhko said, “Competition between them will continue.”
“For us, it would be better if they compete amongst themselves on who will do more for Ukraine.”
European nations, meanwhile, will be bracing for Trump while hoping to influence the president-elect’s take on the war.
Vinjamuri, of the Chatham House think tank, said Europeans will also be working closely with the Biden administration “to put in place everything that they can to keep Europe and Ukraine in as good a place as possible before Jan. 20, when Trump comes in and tries to negotiate a peace deal.”
“That means that getting Ukraine in the best position on the ground, because when you start negotiating a peace, a lot of what gets locked in is based on what land people hold,” she said.
The Middle East
The Biden administration’s pre-election Middle East diplomatic push does not appear to have made significant breakthroughs in either Gaza or Lebanon. Fierce ground fighting and devastating Israeli airstrikes continue on both fronts, with the toll of civilian dead and displaced growing ever larger.
The regional war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw around 250 taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel’s military response in the strip has killed some 43,600 people and injured more than 102,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israel’s airstrike and ground campaign in Lebanon has killed more than 3,000 since Oct. 8, 2023, Lebanese health officials say.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — one of his prime political rivals and an advocate for a cease-fire deal — on the eve of the U.S. election, reinforcing his position and entrenching his government’s commitment to what he has called “total victory.”
Hafed Al-Ghwell, senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News he has little expectation of peace during Biden’s final months. “I don’t think he has any incentive to do anything,” Hafed said.
“In the case of Israel and Palestine, Biden has taken not just a political stand but an ideological one, and there is no sign that he is going to change that,” Hafed added. “He has called himself a Zionist, and he had ample opportunity to stop this war. Even when the United Nations proposed a resolution to end the occupation, he didn’t support it.”
“It would be really controversial for an outgoing president to make any major decisions,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu will be confident in the new White House’s backing in his suppression of Palestinian and Lebanese groups, as well as in his wider showdown with Iran.
Netanyahu “probably feels like he has a free run,” Vinjamuri said. “Even if Biden tried to push him, I’m not so sure he would be responsive, because he knows that Trump is now coming into office.”
Hafed suggested Netanyahu’s domestic concerns, too, will be driving his policy in the coming months. “He knows that the minute this war stops, the Israeli public won’t want him around,” he said. “So, he will continue the war in Lebanon and probably threaten Iran, knowing he will have the full support of Trump.”
Burcu Ozcelik at RUSI said the extent of Trump’s influence over Netanyahu tops “a complex list of unknowns.”
“Trump in recent weeks indicated that he was prepared to give Israel freer rein, provided that the war ended by the time he entered office,” he added.
Those living in the region will be left grappling with the fallout, Hafed continued. “For the people of the Middle East, Biden’s legacy is one of a bloodbath,” he said. “The region is bitter and battered.”
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this article.
Disney+ has set April 22 as the premiere date for season 2 of its Star Wars series spinoff Andor, according to Variety. The series follows Diego Luna‘s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor, and his early days with the Rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire. Genevieve O’Reilly, Stellan Skarsgård, Adria Arjona, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Fiona Shaw, Forest Whitaker and Andy Serkis also star. The 12-episode second season will take place over four years split into three-episode pods, with each pod covering a few consecutive days in each successive year before the events of Rogue One, per the outlet. Disney is the parent company of ABC News …
Actress/singer Andra Day has been tapped to play Athena in season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, according to Variety. Season 2 is based on The Sea of Monsters, the second installment in Rick Riordan‘s acclaimed book series. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, is one of the most important Olympian characters in the Percy Jackson books. Day joins fellow newcomer Tamara Smart, and series regulars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer. Disney is the parent company of ABC News …
Tony Todd, the actor best known for starring in the Candyman and Final Destination horror franchises, died peacefully at his home in Marina Del Rey on November 6, his rep Jeffrey Goldberg tells ABC News affiliate KABC-TV. He was 69. A cause of death was not given. Todd’s other credits include Night of the Living Dead, The Rock and The Crow. He also played Kurn in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Alpha Hirogen in Star Trek: Voyager …
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Houston 101, Detroit 99 Boston 113, Milwaukee 107 Indiana 132, New York 121 Orlando 121, Washington 94 Golden State 127, Oklahoma City 116 Miami 95, Minnesota 94 Philadelphia 107 Charlotte 105 (OT) Denver 122, Dallas 120 Sacramento 127, Phoenix 118 (OT) Memphis 134, Portland 89 LA Lakers 123, Toronto 103
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE San Jose 1, New Jersey 0 Chicago 2, Minnesota 1 (OT) Anaheim 4, Columbus 2
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Carolina 20, NY Giants 17 (OT) Buffalo 30, Indianapolis 20 Kansas City 16, Denver 14 Minnesota 12, Jacksonville 7 New England 19, Chicago 3 New Orleans 20, Atlanta 17 Pittsburgh 28, Washington 27 San Francisco 23, Tampa Bay 20 LA Chargers 27, Tennessee 17 Arizona 31, NY Jets 6 Philadelphia 34, Dallas 6 Detroit 26, Houston 23
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL Gonzaga 88, Arizona St. 80 Creighton 96, Fairleigh Dickinson 70 Indiana 90, E. Illinois 55
The Offspring‘s current single, “OK, But This Is the Last Time,” has a lot in common with the band’s classic song “Self Esteem” — both tracks are told from the perspective of someone whose feelings are continually trampled over.
“[Guitarist] Noodles described the character in that song as sorta ‘Self Esteem’ part two or grown up,” frontman Dexter Holland tells ABC Audio of “OK, But This Is the Last Time.”
“He’s almost got self-esteem,” Noodles adds. “[He’s] almost not gonna take it anymore.”
Holland wasn’t necessarily thinking of “Self Esteem” in writing “OK, But This Is the Last Time.” He shares that he liked that phrase and wanted to put it in a song, and felt that the sentiment behind it was relatable.
“I think we’ve all been there with somebody, where you do something that you’d really rather put your foot down, but you kinda give in because you like the person or whatever,” Holland says.
Holland adds that he thinks the protagonist of “OK, But This Is the Last Time” is “not just a schmuck like the ‘Self Esteem’ guy.”
“This guy, he knows full well what he’s doing,” Holland says. “He’s walking into this with eyes wide open. He knows, like, ‘Alright, I’m a sucker for you, I admit it, I’m just gonna do this,’ but kidding himself that it’s the last time.”
“OK, But This Is the Last Time” appears on The Offspring’s new album, SUPERCHARGED, out now. It also includes the lead single “Make It All Right.”
Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Live performances from Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, Pink and Adele are among the nominees for this year’s Pollstar Awards, saluting the best of the live entertainment industry.
In the category of Major Tour of the Year, Taylor’s Eras Tour is nominated — duh — as well as Olivia Rodrigo‘s GUTS World Tour, Coldplay‘s Music of the Spheres Tour and Morgan Wallen‘s One Night At A Time 2024 tour.
Pop Tour of the Year nominees include Justin’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour, Pink’s Summer Carnival 2024 tour, Billie Eilish‘s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT TOUR, and Taylor and Olivia’s tours.
Adele is up for Residency of the Year for both The Colosseum at Caesars Palace and the residency shows she did in a custom-built stadium in Munich, Germany. Billy Joel is also nominated in that category for his residency at Madison Square Garden, which concluded in July after 10 years. The bands that have had residencies at Sphere Las Vegas are all nominated, as well: U2, Dead & Company and the Eagles.
In the New Headliner of the Year category, Sabrina Carpenter is among the nominees.
The nominations come after many of these artists received Grammy nominations on Nov. 8. The Pollstar Awards will be handed out Feb. 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
L-R: Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani; photo credit: Mindy Small/Getty Images
Sammy Hagar spent his summer performing Van Halen songs on his The Best of All Worlds Tour with Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte, and it sounds like it won’t be a one-time thing.
Hagar tells ABC Audio that he is definitely up for doing the tour again.
“Because if we don’t, then those songs, nobody’s going to play ‘em. There is no one else to play those songs,” he says. “And I’d hate to see that stuff just fade out.”
Sammy says the trek was “one of the most successful tours I’ve ever had,” noting, “obviously those people want to hear those songs. So if they want to hear those songs, it ain’t about money, it ain’t about success and fame and fortune, it’s about I got to serve it to ’em because I wrote ’em.”
In addition to another tour, Sammy says he envisions recording new music with the band, sharing, “That’s the way I would like to continue it instead of just going until we die, you know, until it’s phased out.”
“Joe and I’ve already written a song,” he says. “It’s really, really good. And the idea is to channel the Van Halen way of writing. Let Joe write some crazy, whacked out guitar music, and I’ll just write lyrics and sing to it.”
If and when another Best of All Worlds Tour happens, Sammy says he plans to add some Van Halen songs they didn’t get to play last time around, including the 5150 ballad “Love Walks In.”
“We couldn’t get it done on this tour,” he says. “It just didn’t come together. So we’ll figure that one out.”
When the Grammy nominations were announced on Nov. 8, the big headlines were who received the most nods: Beyoncé leads with 11, making her the most-nominated artist in history. Post Malone and Billie Eilish got seven, while Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter each got six. But farther down the list, you’ll find some other nominations your favorite stars picked up in categories you may not be aware of.
For example, John Legend is nominated for Best Children’s Music Album for his release My Favorite Dream.Norah Jones is up for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her project Visions.
Both Alicia Keys and Ingrid Michaelson are nominated for Best Musical Theater album for the Broadway shows they wrote the music for: Hell’s Kitchen and The Notebook, respectively.
Miley Cyrus is up for Best Country Duo/Group performance for “II MOST WANTED,” the duet she and Beyoncé recorded for Bey’s album Cowboy Carter.
In the category of Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording, Barbra Streisand is nominated for her reading of her hefty autobiography, My Name Is Barbra. And in the category of Best Song Written for Visual Media, “Love Will Survive,” which Barbra recorded for the film The Tattooist of Auschwitz, is nominated.
Also in that category, “Better Place,” the song Justin Timberlake co-wrote for the movie Trolls Band Together and then recorded with his *NSYNC bandmates, is nominated.
In the category of Best Music Video, Taylor is nominated for her clip for “Fortnight,” which she directed. In the category of Best Music Film, the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, about the making of “We Are the World,” is one of the nominees.
The Grammys will be handed out Feb. 2 and air live from LA on CBS and Paramount+.
