Nation and World
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Times Square to feature patriotic crystal ball for New Year’s Eve, kicking off US’s 250th birthday
Dec 26, 2025 12:47 pm - After the crystal ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City, it will rise again, sparkling in red, white and blue to usher in 2026 and kick off months of celebrations for the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday.
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Trump says US struck IS targets in Nigeria
Dec 25, 2025 8:00 pm - President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he’d launched a “powerful and deadly” U.S. strike against Islamic State forces in Nigeria, after spending weeks accusing the West African country’s government of failing to rein in the persecution of Christians.
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Christmas Eve winner in Arkansas lands a $1.82 billion Powerball lottery jackpot
Dec 25, 2025 7:53 pm - A Powerball ticket purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas, won a $1.817 billion jackpot in Wednesday's Christmas Eve drawing, ending the lottery game’s three-month stretch without a top-prize winner.
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Blast at mosque in Nigeria kills 5 and injures more than 30 in apparent suicide attack
Dec 25, 2025 7:50 pm - A bomb exploded during prayers at a mosque in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday night, killing five people in what police described as a likely suicide attack. Police said that 35 people were also injured in the attack.
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Trump warns against infiltration by a ‘bad Santa,’ defends coal in jovial Christmas calls with kids
Dec 25, 2025 6:27 pm - President Donald Trump marked Christmas Eve by quizzing children calling in about what presents they were excited about receiving, while promising to not let a “bad Santa” infiltrate the country and even suggesting that a stocking full of coal may not be so bad.
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Pope Leo XIV urges the faithful on Christmas to shed indifference in the face of suffering
Dec 25, 2025 6:12 pm - Pope Leo XIV during his first Christmas Day message on Thursday urged the faithful to shed indifference in the face of those who have lost everything, such as in Gaza, those who are impoverished, such as in Yemen, and the many migrants who cross the Mediterranean Sea and the American continent for a better future.
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Saudi Arabia urges Yemen’s separatists to leave 2 governorates as the anti-rebel coalition strains
Dec 25, 2025 5:58 pm - Saudi Arabia on Thursday called on Emirati-backed separatists in southern Yemen to withdraw from two governorates they now control, a move that has threatened to spark a confrontation within a fragile coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the country's north.
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King Charles III calls for kindness and unity in Christmas message amid global conflicts
Dec 25, 2025 5:50 pm - On a Christmas Day when the war in Ukraine casts a shadow over Europe, concerns over immigration divide societies, and some politicians fan anger and resentment, Britain’s King Charles III called on people to focus on kindness instead of conflict.
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Public release of Epstein records puts Maxwell under fresh scrutiny amid her claims of innocence
Dec 25, 2025 4:13 pm - Days after Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to immediately free her from a 20-year prison sentence, the public release of grand jury transcripts from her sex trafficking case returned the spotlight to victims whose allegations helped land her behind bars.The disclosure of the transcripts as part of the Justice Department’s ongoing release of its investigative files on Maxwell and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exposed how an FBI agent told grand jurors about Maxwell's critical role in Epstein’s decades-long sexual abuse of girls and young women.
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States sue HHS over move to dramatically limit gender transition care
Dec 24, 2025 7:34 pm - A consortium of 19 states including Illinois, and Washington, D.C., filed a complaint this week against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services and its inspector general over plans that could dramatically limit medical professionals from providing gender transition care to children and teenagers.