Mariah Carey performs during opening night of ‘Mariah Carey’s Christmastime In Las Vegas’ at Dolby Live at Park MGM on November 28, 2025 (Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Live Nation Las Vegas)
When Mariah Carey released her first holiday album, Merry Christmas, in 1994, she probably never thought that one of the songs on that album would go on to become a chart-topping Christmas standard — or did she?
Mariah reposted an interview clip of herself from 1994, in which she talks about the album and the fact that she’s written three original songs for it. The interviewer asks, “Do you have the hope that one of your songs would be considered a classic one day? Wouldn’t that be nice, to have a classic Christmas song?”
“I would love it,” Mariah smiles. “I mean, I’m not gonna be that arrogant as to say, well, you know, ‘This’ll become a classic’ or ‘that’s a classic,’ but I’m very happy with them. I had a great time writing the Christmas songs.”
Mariah captioned the video, “How it started! So grateful,” adding a heart emoji.
Of course, Merry Christmas contained “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which is now the very definition of a “classic Christmas song.” Ironically, the song wasn’t allowed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994 because it wasn’t available as a commercial single.
That rule ended in 1998, and the song appeared on the Hot 100 at #83 in 2000. But then it wasn’t allowed to reenter the chart in subsequent years because it wasn’t “new.” Finally, in 2012, Billboard changed its rules again and “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was back on the Hot 100, peaking at #21 in January 2013.
It made it into the top 10 in 2017 and hit #1 in 2019. It’s returned there each year since, recently racking up its 19th week on top overall.
Sir Roger Daltrey after he was made a Knight Bachelor at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on December 10, 2025 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Andrew Matthews – Pool/Getty Images)
The Who’s Roger Daltrey has officially received his knighthood.
The rocker was recognized in June as a Knight Bachelor as part of the King’s Birthday Honours, and on Wednesday he was officially knighted by the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle.
Daltrey was recognized for his contributions to music and his charity work, including raising funds for causes like Teenage Cancer Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to providing specialized treatment and support for young people with cancer. Daltrey is a patron of the organization.
“It is a wonderful honour for me and especially for Teenage Cancer Trust,” Roger said in a statement when the honor was first announced. “I accept this award not only for myself but on behalf of all the unsung heroes who have given their energy towards making the Teenage Cancer Trust the success it has become.”
This isn’t the first time the 81-year-old Daltrey has been honored by the royal family. In 2004 he was recognized with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music, entertainment and charity.
Sophie Kinsella attends the photocall of the movie ‘Can You Keep a Secret?’ on Oct. 19, 2019, in Rome, Italy. (Stefania D’alessandro/Getty Images)
Sophie Kinsella, author of the bestselling Shopaholic book series, has died at the age of 55.
Kinsella’s family shared news of her death in an Instagram post Wednesday.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing this morning of our beloved Sophie (aka Maddy, aka Mummy). She died peacefully, with her final days filled with her true loves: family and music and warmth and Christmas and joy,” the family’s statement said, in part. “We can’t imagine what life will be like without her radiance and love of life.”
Kinsella revealed publicly in April 2024 that she had been diagnosed two years earlier with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor.
“Despite her illness, which she bore with unimaginable courage, Sophie counted herself truly blessed – to have such wonderful family and friends, and to have had the extraordinary success of her writing career,” her family’s statement continued.
Madeleine Sophie Wickham — Kinsella was a pen name — was born on Dec. 12, 1969. She was a former financial journalist who became a popular author and sold millions of books worldwide over two decades. The first two books of her Shopaholic series — The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad, published in 2000 and 2001, respectively — were adapted into the 2009 movie Confessions of a Shopaholic, starring Isla Fisher and Hugh Dancy. The film was produced by Touchstone Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Overall, Kinsella wrote 36 books, including children’s books, the young adult title Finding Audrey and short stories. Her initial books were published as Madeleine Wickham.
Kinsella’s most recent book, What Does It Feel Like?, was published in October 2024. The novella follows the story of a novelist named Eve who wakes up in a hospital bed one day and learns she has a brain tumor. In the book’s introduction, Kinsella called it her “most autobiographical work to date.”
Kinsella opened up to Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts in July 2024 about the book and living with brain cancer.
“I just thought people might be curious to know what it feels like to go through this,” Kinsella said. “It’s funny in parts, it’s sad in parts but I hope it’s full of optimism and love most of all.”
Kinsella said she first noticed something might be amiss with her health after the onset of multiple symptoms.
“The first symptoms that I had was, in fact, was my legs,” Kinsella told Roberts. “I was stumbling. I was tripping. I started getting very severe headaches. I got very confused. But it was really when I started tipping over in my chair that we realized something really was wrong.”
Kinsella said she underwent surgery after receiving the diagnosis that she had a grade 4 glioblastoma. She described the operation as a “triumph” at the time but said the treatment affected her memory and movement afterward. Kinsella also underwent multiple rounds of radiation and chemotherapy following surgery.
Kinsella lived in London with her husband, Henry Wickham, whom she called her “hero,” who stayed by her side throughout her difficult health journey. The couple had five children.
In her July 2024 interview, Kinsella was asked about what she’d want her happy ending to be.
“My happy ending is that whatever happens to me, my family is OK,” the author said at the time. “I think that’s my happy ending. Because that’s what I care about.”
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Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Rascal Flatts, Riley Green, Marcus King, Megan Moroney, Zach Top, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Dwight Yoakam all join the lineup for Nashville’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration on CBS.
They’ll be appearing from clubs and venues all across Music City, while previously announced headliners Jason Aldean, Lainey Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman will take the stage at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. CeCe Winans and the Fisk Jubilee Singers will be special guests.
The five-hour New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash kicks off at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, Dec. 31, on CBS and Paramount+.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) sits for an interview at the Pennsylvania State Capitol on June 11. (Peter W. Stevenson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(HARRISBURG, Pa.) — Editor’s note: The story’s headline has been updated.
In the wake of the firebombing of his official residence earlier this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is now facing questions about how he is spending tax dollars on security improvements for his private home.
A GOP-led committee in the state legislature voted Tuesday to issue three subpoenas seeking records related to, among other things, roughly $1 million in security upgrades to his personal home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The Intergovernmental Operations Committee is also seeking documents concerning “several charter flights arranged for the Governor’s Office” in mid-January.
The three subpoenas will be sent to the Pennsylvania State Police, the open records officer in the local township of Shapiro’s private residence and the charter flight company. They have until Jan. 16, 2026, to comply.
In a statement to ABC News, a spokesperson for the governor called the move a “partisan attack” and said they’ve already provided some information.
“The Pennsylvania State Police and independent security experts conducted thorough reviews to pinpoint security failures, review protocols, identify gaps, and make concrete recommendations for improvements to the Governor’s security. As a direct result of those recommendations, security improvements have been put in place to keep the Governor and his family safe,” the spokesperson said. “The Shapiro Administration has repeatedly responded to lawmakers’ inquiries on this matter and publicly released a substantial amount of information about the security improvements put in place by PSP without compromising those security protocols.”
The Democratic governor is among several contenders rumored for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028. As his political star has risen, so too have the threats against him and other high-profile figures.
The security improvements were recommended following the arson attack on the official governor’s residence in Harrisburg in April.
The attack occurred in the middle of the night, hours after the Shapiro family hosted more than two dozen people for the first night of Passover. Some Republicans in the legislature have said that while proper protections are appropriate — particularly amid rising political violence — they charge the governor has not been transparent.
“No one disputes that the governor should have reasonable and appropriate security protection or that the governor should have access to transportation for reasonable and appropriate travel associated with this role,” state Sen. Jarrett Coleman, chairman of the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee, told the committee as he made a motion to authorize the subpoenas. “But no administration — Republican or Democrat — should be allowed to operate in the shadows and refuse to provide basic data about their decisions when millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are involved and precedents are being set.”
The subpoenas were authorized on party-line votes of 7-4. Committee Democrats objected to the formal requests for records, Sen. Jay Costa dubbing it a “fishing expedition.”
The subpoenas seek, among other things, records from the Pennsylvania State Police related to “any construction, landscaping/hardscaping, equipment and installation” as well as related legal services at the governor’s private family home, as well as police body camera footage from the grounds between Sept. 20, 2025, and Nov. 19, 2025.
They also seek texts, emails, and other communications between the State Police, the construction services and the local township related to the upgrade work that could shed light on how decisions were made about the upgrades.
They also seek records and correspondence from the township, including communications between the local zoning officer and Shapiro or his wife.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol on December 1, 2025, in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote a letter to Secretary of the Navy John Phelan on Tuesday expressing concern about the Navy’s review of Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy Captain who serves on the committee.
The letter, which was shared with ABC News, comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Phelan to review Kelly for “potentially unlawful conduct” after the Arizona senator was featured in a video with five other Democrats who have served in the military and U.S. intelligence telling service members they could refuse illegal orders, according to a memo posted on social media by the Pentagon.
In the memo, Hegseth requests that he be briefed on the outcome of the review by no later than Dec. 10.
The Democrats on the committee, except for Kelly, condemned the review in the letter.
“We believe this ‘review’ along with the Department of Defense’s social media post announcing a ‘thorough review’ of Senator Kelly’s actions, ‘which may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings’ is inappropriate, threaten the separation of powers established by our Founding Fathers, amount to a purely political exercise seeking to threaten legitimate and lawful actions by a duly elected Senator, and politicize our military justice system,” the senators wrote.
Kelly has criticized the Trump administration for threatening him with legal action. He has continued to post on social media slamming President Donald Trump and his officials over their policies.
“When Pete Hegseth tweeted he was investigating me, Gabby laughed and laughed,” Kelly said during an event last week, referring to his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords. “She realized two things. One, that guy’s a joke, and two, I’m not backing down.”
In the letter, these Democratic senators wrote to Phelan that “the theory that a sitting Member of Congress should be subject to disciplinary action entirely unrelated to their service, particularly for simply restating the law as articulated in the UCMJ and the Manual for Courts-Martial, sets an incredibly dangerous precedent.”
The letter dismissed the review as a “baseless and patently political undertaking” and argued that it violates the separation of powers.
“Senator Kelly has been elected twice by the people of Arizona as their representative and voice in the Senate. The idea that the Department would try to undo or undermine the will of Arizona’s citizens is a direct affront to our democratic system of government,” the senators wrote.
The senators also challenged the idea that the review could be conducted impartially, citing social media posts from Trump and Hegseth that they say have made “fair proceedings impossible.”
Following the video’s posting in November, Trump wrote on social media that the video demonstrated “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Trump and the White House subsequently denied that he was threatening the lawmakers with execution.
The senators said that statements like this, coupled with a directive from Hegseth to Phelan that he brief Hegseth on the review by Dec. 10, “demonstrate an outright, brazen abuse of power intended to influence the military justice process and intimidate and silence a U.S. Senator for purely political purposes.”
Kelly responded to the call for a review during a press conference earlier this month.
“I will not be intimidated by this president. I am not going to be silenced by this president or the people around because I’ve given too much in service to this country to back down to this guy,” Kelly said at the time.
In their letter, the Democratic senators said that a review of Kelly raises “significant legal concerns” about Kelly’s constitutional protections under a number of statutes.
“The impartiality of our military and the military justice system to fairly uphold the Constitution and the law are paramount to our nation,” the senators wrote.
ABC News has reached out to Phelan for comment.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
Signage outside Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is caked in snow after a blizzard struck overnight on November 27, 2019 in Bloomington, Minnesota. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A 47-year-old man was struck and killed by a snowplow at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, according to local officials.
The incident was reported shortly after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at a parking lot near Terminal 2, according to Jeff Lea, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which operates the airport.
That parking lot serves the in-flight catering services company LSG Sky Chefs.
Temperatures were in the upper 20s with light snow falling in the area at the time of the incident. Over 200 flights out of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport were delayed on Tuesday.
The victim’s identity was not immediately released.
The Minnesota State Patrol is helping with the investigation, Lea said.
The city of Minneapolis on Wednesday declared a snow emergency starting at 9 p.m., which bans certain street parking.
“These rules help plows in clearing the streets so emergency vehicles and other traffic can get around,” city officials said.
Linda McMahon, US education secretary, during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Education has moved to terminate one of former President Joe Biden’s most popular student loan forgiveness plans — impacting millions of Americans — through a proposed joint settlement with the state of Missouri on Tuesday.
The pending agreement ends the Saving on a Valuable Education or “SAVE” plan, which is home to over 7 million student loan borrowers. It marks a major victory for the Trump administration’s efforts to claw back Biden-era policies, including Biden’s numerous efforts to implement student loan debt cancellation.
Officials in the Trump administration’s Education Department, who’ve decried those policies for months, suggested that the administration is righting a wrong by ending the “deceptive scheme” of student loan forgiveness.
The Biden administration touted the plan for including $0 payments for anyone making $16 an hour or less, lowering monthly payments for millions of borrowers, and protecting borrowers from runaway interest if they are making their monthly payments.
“The law is clear: if you take out a loan, you must pay it back,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a release from Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s department on Tuesday. “Thanks to the State of Missouri and other states fighting against this egregious federal overreach, American taxpayers can now rest assured they will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for illegal and irresponsible student loan policies.”
The Biden administration launched the SAVE Plan, which it dubbed the most affordable payment plan ever, after the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s previous signature debt relief program in 2023.
SAVE was one of several income driven repayment (IDR) plans, which calculate payment size based on income and family size, aimed at easing the repayment process as a pandemic-era pause ended.
Several Republican-led states, including Missouri, sued the Biden administration over the plan, and a federal appeals court blocked the program in 2024.
The announcement on Tuesday would mark an end to those lawsuits.
McMahon, a vocal critic of student loan forgiveness, has said the administration will no longer allow American taxpayers to take on debts that are not their own.
“The Biden Administration’s illegal SAVE Plan would have cost taxpayers, many of whom did not attend college or already repaid their student loans, more than $342 billion over ten years,” McMahon wrote in a post on X. “We will not tolerate it.”.
Her agency’s already saddled Federal Student Aid (FSA) Office will provide support to borrowers currently enrolled in selecting a new, “legal repayment plan,” the department said.
The department said borrowers will have a limited time to find a new payment plan. However, FSA’s Loan Simulator tool will estimate monthly payments, determine repayment eligibility and select a new plan that best fits those borrowers’ needs and goals, the department said.
Some student loan advocates worry the proposed agreement unleashes chaos on borrowers.
“The 7+ million borrowers enrolled in SAVE will face higher monthly loan payments — and may lose out on months of progress toward loan forgiveness,” Michele Zampini, associate vice president of federal policy & advocacy at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) wrote in a statement.
Protect Borrowers Deputy Executive Director and Managing Counsel Persis Yu said the move strips borrowers of the most affordable repayment plan that would help millions to stay on track with their loans while keeping a roof over their head.
“This settlement is pure capitulation–it goes much further than the suit or the 8th Circuit order requires,” Yu wrote in a statement to ABC News. “The real story here is the unrelenting, right-wing push to jack up costs on working people with student debt.”
Under that bill, the plans will be replaced with two separate repayment plans: a standard repayment plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), a new income-based repayment plan coming July 1, 2026.
Myles Smith on ABC’s ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
Since he first broke out with “Stargazing” in 2024, British singer/songwriter Myles Smith has quietly become a major presence on American radio, and now he’s thanking fans in a typically British, self-deprecating way.
He reposted on his Instagram Story a fan’s roundup of his stats from the past year, showing him to be among the top 10 artists on six different U.S. airplay charts. He wrote, “This is wild. I’m so sorry for your ears America.”
In another Story, he posted a year-end 2025 airplay chart, showing his songs “Stargazing” and “Nice to Meet You” among the top 50 songs of the year on pop radio. “Excuse me what…,” he wrote. “Two of the most played songs this year in the US. And right behind my pookie at #3 and #30.”
Myles’ “pookie” is his friend Alex Warren, whose song “Ordinary” came in at #2. He posted a picture of them together on his Instagram Story with that nickname in the caption.
“It’s pretty wild to think me, from Luton [England], is annoying the a** off you guys on radio [from] the other side of the planet,” he wrote. “I genuinely love ya’ll. my anxiety has been pretty high and confidence pretty low recently. So thanks for the lift x.”
These milestones come just a few days after Myles celebrated the fact that “Stargazing” had reached 1 billion streams. He wrote on Instagram, “It’s crazy looking back at the last few years and everything that has happened.”
“I couldn’t be more grateful for every single one of you making this life possible for me. It’s ironic to think that, where i grew up, stargazing isn’t the easiest thing, but somehow u help me find my way.”
If you haven’t checked out Lainey Wilson‘s exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, she’s doing all she can to make sure you come by to see it — and that includes a special performance in the CMA Theater in early 2026.
The CMA and ACM entertainer of the year will play a special writers round Jan. 13 at 4 p.m. CT with frequent co-writers Trannie Anderson and Dallas Wilson. The show’s included with museum admission, you just need to reserve a ticket.
Known as the Heart Wranglers, the three have written hits like “Heart Like a Truck,” “Somewhere Over Laredo,” “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” and “Whirlwind,” as well as nine more songs included on Lainey’s albums.
If you can’t make it to the special show, Lainey Wilson: Tough as Nails continues its run at the Hall of Fame through June 2026.
