Heavy rain fall (Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — An atmospheric river event has been slamming the Pacific Northwest with rain, and the flood threat is far from over.
In the last two days, 2 to 4 inches of rain fell at lower elevations and 4 to 10 inches was recorded at higher elevations across western Washington and Oregon.
On Wednesday, the rain will focus on hard-hit Washington, inundating the state with nearly constant rainfall. Four to 8 inches is forecast in higher elevations and 2 to 4 inches is expected in lower elevations.
Record flooding is forecast for some rivers, especially the Skagit River at Mount Vernon and Concrete, Washington, which could swell 3 to 5 feet above record levels.
The rain will continue in Washington on Thursday, but it will be much lighter. However, levees will be challenged starting Thursday afternoon.
Central and northern Idaho will also get heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday, which may lead to flooding.
Meanwhile, more winter storms are ahead for the Midwest and Northeast.
A storm that dumped snow in Minneapolis and Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Tuesday will move through the Great Lakes and the Northeast on Wednesday, bringing snow to higher elevations and rain to lower elevations. Three to 6 inches of snow is forecast for some areas in upstate New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.
The next winter storm will move into the Midwest on Wednesday night, bringing 3 to 6 inches of snow from Iowa to Kentucky on Thursday.
Diana Ross on ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2026′ (Courtesy DCP)
Diana Ross has made her New Year’s plans.
The 81-year-old singing icon has been announced as the 2026 headliner for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, where she’ll perform live in New York’s Times Square.
“Together we begin a new year,” Ross says. “Let’s embrace a new beginning, new opportunities, new joy — a celebration of love, where we all come together as we begin 2026.”
Ross joins a huge lineup of already announced performers, including Mariah Carey, Chappell Roan, Charlie Puth, Chance the Rapper, Rick Springfield, Busta Rhymes, T.I. & Wyclef Jean, Demi Lovato, Pitbull, Lil Jon, 4 NonBlondes and more.
The ABC special airs on Dec. 31 starting at 8 p.m. ET. In addition to the Times Square broadcast, it will feature performances from Las Vegas, Chicago and Puerto Rico. More than 85 songs will be performed before the show wraps up at 4 a.m. ET. It will also air the next day on Hulu.
Jacob Lee Bard, 48, is accused of shooting and killing a person on the Kentucky State University campus on Dec. 9, 2025. (Franklin County Jail)
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) —One student is dead and another critically injured in a shooting Tuesday at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, according to police.
A suspect in the shooting, who is not a student at the university, is in custody, police said in a press release, identifying him as Jacob Lee Bard, 48, of Evansville, Indiana.
He has been booked into jail on charges of murder and first-degree assault.
Preliminary information indicates the shooting was caused by a personal dispute and was not a random active shooter situation, an official briefed on the situation told ABC News.
“This was not a mass shooting or a random incident based on what I’ve been told, and the suspected shooter is already in custody,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a video message. “That means that while this was scary, there is no ongoing threat and I believe our families are safe.”
The Frankfort Police Department said it responded to an incident on the school’s campus Tuesday afternoon “regarding an active aggressor.”
The shooting occurred near Whitney M. Young Jr. Hall, a residence hall on the south side of the campus, according to the school.
Two Kentucky State University students were shot in the incident, authorities said. One has since died while the other was transported to a hospital in stable but critical condition, Frankfort police said.
“At this time, there is no ongoing threat to the campus community,” the school said in a statement to students.
The investigation is ongoing. The university said it is working closely with local and state law enforcement.
All classes and activities at the campus, which is located approximately 25 miles northwest of Lexington, have been canceled for the rest of the week, school officials said.
“Today, indeed, was a senseless tragedy,” Kentucky State University President Koffi Akakpo said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “We’re mourning the loss of one of our students.”
Beshear urged people to pray for those affected and “for a world where these things don’t happen.”
“I’ll keep trying to build a Kentucky that we don’t see arguments ended in violence,” he said.
James Cameron and Billie Eilish on the set of ‘BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)’ (Henry Hwu)
A new trailer has been released for BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D), the singer’s upcoming immersive movie collaboration with Titanic director James Cameron.
In the non-3D trailer, which is mostly set to Billie’s song “The Greatest,” we see her behind-the-scenes and onstage during her recently completed tour, and working with Cameron, who says, “No one’s shot a concert film on this scale before.”
He adds, “We’re using tech that’s never been used before,” to which Billie replies, “Can’t wait!”
The words “She changed music. He changed movies. Together, they’ll reinvent the concert experience.” flash onscreen as we see more scenes of Billie on and offstage. She cries at a sweet note her brother FINNEAS sends her, grins as he joins her onstage, and laughs backstage at how tired she is.
In the last scene, Billie is seen petting various dogs and explaining, “Tour is so brutal, I like to have a puppy room to go chill in.” “I’ll be doing this on my next movie for sure,” jokes Cameron.
BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) arrives in theaters March 20. You can sign up now for early access to tickets, or purchase a “friends and family” gift card at Billie’s webstore that you can use to buy the tickets — it’ll arrive in time for the holidays.
Taylor Swift, ‘The End of an Era’ docuseries (Courtesy Disney+)
What was Taylor Swift‘s goal in putting together the Eras Tour? “Every single night, we’re going to do everything in our power to blow your mind.”
That’s what Taylor says in a special first look at the series premiere of her upcoming The End of an Era docuseries. The teaser aired Wednesday exclusively on ABC’s Good Morning America.
“We have done something that no one has ever done,” Taylor says in the teaser.
“Executing a tour of this size is mind-boggling. How do we do this?” Taylor’s mom Andrea Swift continues.
Taylor then calls the Eras tour “the biggest challenge that any of us have ever done.”
We then see scenes of Taylor rehearsing The Tortured Poets Department segment of the concert, which she added a little more than a year after the tour launched. She says in a voiceover, “We had to be all hands on deck to put in a new era into the show.”
Kam Saunders, one of Taylor’s dancers notes, “This feels like my Super Bowl.”
“Bringing out special guests is something I really enjoy,” Taylor says, as we see her rehearsing with Ed Sheeran and welcoming Florence Welch to the stage.
The first two episodes of The End of an Era, which goes behind the scenes of Taylor’s record-breaking Eras Tour from 2023 to 2024, will begin streaming Dec. 12 on Disney+, a day before her 36th birthday. Two more episodes will be released every week until the six-episode series is completed.
Ego Nwodim has been tapped to host the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards. The Saturday Night Live alum will host the awards show on Feb. 15, 2026. “No stage celebrates the incredible work of these visionary artists and independent creators everywhere quite like the Spirit Awards,” Nwodim said in a statement. “I can’t wait to join Film Independent for an afternoon of fun, laughs and a few surprises.” …
Sigourney Weaver is in talks to join a new action franchise. Deadline reports the actress is in conversations to join the upcoming Tomb Raider series at Prime Video. The show will star Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge will write and executive produce …
We now know who will joinKim Kardashian in the upcoming Netflix ensemble comedy The Fifth Wheel. NikkiGlaser, Brenda Song and Fortune Feimster are set to star in the upcoming film that follows a disastrous group trip to Las Vegas. Kardashian will also produce the film, which will be directed by Eva Longoria, and written by Paula Pell and Janine Brito …
(WASHINGTON) — More than 20 years ago, the Supreme Court outlawed the execution of intellectually disabled people convicted of capital crimes as “cruel and unusual” punishment forbidden by the Eighth Amendment.
In a major case from Alabama before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, the justices are asked to clarify who qualifies as “intellectually disabled” and what role intelligence quotient — also known as IQ — test scores play in making the determination.
Joseph Clifton Smith, an Alabama man who brought the case, confessed to a 1997 murder during a robbery, but challenged his death sentence on grounds he has had “substantially subaverage intellectual functioning” since a young age.
Smith has taken five separate IQ tests over nearly 40 years, scoring 75 in 1979, 74 in 1982, 72 in 1998, 78 in 2014 and 74 in 2017.
People below 70 are generally considered to have an intellectual disability, but major American medical groups urge a holistic assessment that also looks at social and practical skills.
The groups note that standardized test scores alone should not be conclusive. Smith’s score of 72, for example, could be 69 when factoring the 3-point margin of error.
“Intellectual disability diagnoses based solely on IQ test scores are faulty and invalid,” attorneys for the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association told the court in a legal brief. “But IQ test scores remain relevant; IQ tests are a scientifically valid means to ascertain estimates of an individual’s intellectual ability. The key is to understand both the value of IQ tests and their limits.”
Smith, who allegedly suffered physical and verbal abuse as a child, consistently functioned two grade-levels below his placement in school, according to court documents. Smith’s school classified him as “Educable Mentally Retarded” in 7th grade before he eventually dropped out.
Two lower federal courts ruled that a holistic analysis of Smith’s IQ scores and other evidence, including his behavioral history and school records, proved he is intellectually disabled and should spend life behind bars rather than face execution.
Alabama wants the justices to toss out that assessment.
“Joseph Smith is not intellectually disabled, and the Eighth Amendment does not override the death sentence he earned for murdering Durk Van Dam,” the state argued in its brief to the court. “Whether and how to weigh multiple IQ scores is left to state discretion.”
The state says intellectual disability can only be proven by an IQ score of 70 or less by a preponderance of the evidence.
The Supreme Court’s decision in the case will determine whether Smith lives or dies.
More broadly, the ruling could determine how many other borderline intellectually disabled people on death row could be able to convert their death sentences into life behind bars.
By one estimate, as many as 20% of the 2,100 people on death row in the U.S. may have some degree of intellectual disability, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
A ruling in the case — Hamm v. Smith — is expected by the end of June 2026.
The Federal Reserve logo is visible on the William McChesney Martin Jr. Building on December 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve is set to announce its latest adjustment of interest rates on Wednesday, potentially slashing borrowing costs for the third time this year in an effort to boost sluggish hiring.
Top officials at the Federal Reserve have displayed a rare degree of public disagreement over a possible interest rate cut. Inflation has picked up in recent months alongside the hiring slowdown, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
The Fed is stuck in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. To address pressure on both of its goals, the Fed primarily holds a single tool: interest rates.
If the Fed holds interest rates steady as a means of protecting against tariff-induced inflation, it risks a deeper slowdown of the labor market. On the other hand, if the Fed lowers rates to stimulate the economy in the face of a hiring slowdown, it threatens to boost spending and worsen inflation.
“We have one tool,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., in October. “You can’t address both of those at once.”
Lately, sentiment shifted in favor of a rate cut as some influential central bankers voiced openness toward the move, futures markets showed.
The chances of a quarter-point interest rate cut stand at about 87%, surging from a level as low as 30% last month, according to CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
The prospects appeared to move in response to a murky jobs report and public statements from two allies of Powell on the committee charged with setting rates.
Last month, a jobs report for September sent mixed signals about the labor market. Employers added far more workers than expected in September, though hiring fell short of a breakneck clip. Meanwhile the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, a low figure by historical standards but the highest recorded since October 2021.
New York Fed President John Williams, who is often in lockstep with Powell, days later voiced openness toward a rate cut, telling reporters he still saw “room for a further adjustment in the near term.”
Soon afterward, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daley took a similar position, telling reporters she sees room “for a further adjustment in the near term.” Daley, who isn’t voting on interest rates this year, is widely viewed as a supporter of Powell.
A quarter-point interest rate cut would reduce the Fed’s benchmark rate to a level between 3.5% and 3.75%.
That figure would mark a significant pullback from a peak in 2023. At the outset of the pandemic, interest rates stood at 0%.
Still, a reduction of interest rates could offer some relief for mortgage and credit card borrowers. Savers, however, stand to lose income as interest rates decline for accounts held at banks.
People walk through the streets of Sumy during emergency power cuts on December 9, 2025 in Sumy, Ukraine. (Maksym Kishka/Frontliner/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Millions of Ukrainians have been plunged into frequent darkness and cold as Russian drones and missiles wage a systematic long-range campaign against the country’s energy grid for the fourth consecutive winter.
Even at the offices of Ukraine’s mammoth state-owned Naftogaz oil and gas conglomerate in Kyiv, emergency generators have been keeping the lights on.
“What I can see from my window — there is an absolutely dark city with only some lights,” CEO Sergii Koretskyi told ABC News during a video interview. “I’m sure people recognize this winter as the most difficult since the full-scale invasion started. We can see power cuts from four up to 10 hours a day.”
Russia’s nightly bombardments have increasingly targeted energy infrastructure in recent months, Ukrainian officials say, often involving hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.
Ukrainian President Voloydmyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly appealed for more Western military aid to help blunt such strikes. “The Russians’ goal is to hurt millions of Ukrainians,” the president said in a social media post on Saturday.
Between October and December so far, Naftogaz recorded 11 “massive attacks on gas infrastructure across Ukraine,” Koretskyi said. “Our gas production infrastructure has suffered significant damage and destruction,” he added.
Naftogaz estimates the combined cost of covering its gas shortfall and repairing its production and storage infrastructure at more than $3 billion, Koretskyi said.
“We can see that the scale and intensity of strikes have changed dramatically,” Koretskyi added. This year’s bombardments have been even more punishing than those in the back end of last winter, he added, when Ukraine had 42% of its domestic gas production knocked out.
Throughout its full-scale invasion — which began in February 2022 following eight years of lower-intensity cross-border Russian aggression — Moscow has denied intentionally targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
The Russian Defense Ministry says it attacks Ukrainian fuel and energy targets that support the Ukrainian armed forces and Ukraine’s military-industrial enterprises.
Ukraine is also waging its own long-range strike campaign against Russian energy targets, particularly oil storage and refining facilities. Kyiv says the lucrative proceeds from Russian oil exports help fund Moscow’s ongoing invasion.
Koretskyi declined to say what proportion of the country’s gas production and storage capacities had been taken offline during this winter’s attacks, citing operational security and Moscow’s use of public statements and statistics to guide its strike campaign.
But virtually all of Ukraine’s regions now routinely face rolling blackouts, imposed to help protect the country’s grid while repairs are carried out, leaving millions with only hours of power.
Naftogaz says it supplies gas to 12.5 million households across Ukraine. Around 80% of the population using gas to heat their homes. Each night of Russian attacks threatens new blackouts for tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people.
“Their goal is clear — this is pure terrorism,” he said, “to put us into the darkness without heat during this winter season.”
Analysts have suggested that Western support could prove vital in helping Ukraine through this winter.
“Without substantial Western support — particularly air defense systems, transformers, and financial assistance for emergency repairs — blackouts are likely to be more regular, people will suffer in the cold, and economic activity may slow,” political consultant Kateryna Odarchenk wrote for the Center for European Policy Analysis this month.
Zelenskyy and his top officials have consistently pressed Western allies to provide more air defense systems and ammunition, to help Ukrainian defenders protect civilian centers, military sites and critical infrastructure.
Yuriy Boyechko, the CEO of the Hope For Ukraine charity, told ABC News that the current energy crisis is a result of inadequate air defenses in the face of “the relentless deluge of Russian missiles and drones.” He added, “The only viable solution is immediate, comprehensive air defense support from Western allies.”
The bombing has wrought holes in Ukraine’s energy network. As of December, Naftogaz estimated that Ukraine needed to import 4.4 billion cubic meters of gas through to the end of this heating season — which Ukraine’s government estimates will end by around March 31.
This is expected to cost some €1.9 billion — around $2.2 billion — Koretskyi said. Zelenskyy and his government have mobilized to secure the funding from foreign partners and financial institutions, but Naftogaz’s chief said a hole of around €600 million remains.
Kyiv is turning to private companies in gas-rich nations like the U.S. to help fill the gap. Companies require two permits to export natural gas — one from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and one from the Department of Energy.
This year already, more than 500 million cubic meters of American liquid natural gas (LNG) have been imported, with another 300 million cubic meters agreed for import earlier next year.
Through 2026, Koretskyi said, Ukraine would like to bring in another 1 billion cubic meters of American LNG. “We would like to build long-term relationships with U.S. LNG suppliers,” he said.
A recent agreement to import U.S. LNG through the Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline running from Greece is also part of this drive, Ukrainian officials have said.
But as Russia’s attacks grow larger and more sophisticated, the cost and complexity of recovery grows. Naftogaz’s list of equipment needed for repairs is now 190 items strong, Koretskyi said. The estimated cost of this badly needed equipment is more than $900 million, he added.
“There are two lists of equipment — the first one for repairing or replacing those damaged or even destroyed, and the second is for a strategic reserve for upcoming potential attacks,” he explained. U.S. and European suppliers, Koretskyi said, could prove pivotal in filling the gaps.
“The lead time — of production time, delivery and installation — will take between eight and 18 months,” Koretskyi said. “So, we should be ready not just for this winter season, but for the next heating season.”
Meanwhile, the strikes and blackouts continue.
On Dec. 4, for example, the Kherson central heating plant in the southern frontline city was knocked offline after days of attacks by various Russian weapons systems. Kherson military administration head Oleksandr Prokudin said that disruption left more than 40,000 without heat.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Koretskyi said of life under rolling blackouts for many Ukrainians. “I do believe Ukrainians recognize the risk, the challenge, that Russia will continue bombing us.”
“Nobody can imagine what will happen in the coming months or weeks,” he added, suggesting that Ukrainians may have to summon reserves of resilience already tapped by almost four years of full-scale war.
“This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Koretskyi said. “The war changes, upgrades and becomes different every day. The measures for survival, for protection, should be changed as well … That’s how we live.”
