BOSTON — More than a thousand flights were canceled or delayed across the Northeast and Great Lakes regions due to snow as thousands took to U.S. roads and airports during the busy travel period between Christmas and New Year’s.
New York City received around 4 inches of snow Friday night into early Saturday — slightly under what some forecasts had predicted. At least 1,500 flights were canceled from Friday night, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. But by Saturday morning, both the roads and skies were clearing.
“The storm is definitely winding down, a little bit of flurries across the Northeast this morning,” said Bob Oravec, a Maryland-based forecaster at the National Weather Service.
Oravec said the storm was quick-moving from the northwest toward the Southeast U.S., with the largest snowfall in the New York City area reaching over 6 inches in central eastern Long Island. Further to the north in the Catskills, communities saw as much as 10 inches of snowfall.
Newark Liberty International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and LaGuardia Airport posted snow warnings on the social media platform X on Friday, cautioning that weather conditions could cause flight disruptions.
The National Weather Service warned of hazardous travel conditions from the Great Lakes through the northern mid-Atlantic and southern New England, with the potential for tree damage and power outages. Forecasters said the storm was expected to weaken by Saturday morning.
In Times Square on Saturday, workers in red jumpsuits worked to clear the sludge and powder-coated streets and sidewalks using shovels and snowblowers.
Jennifer Yokley, who was in Times Square on a holiday trip from North Carolina, said she was excited to see snow accumulating as it dusted buildings, trees, and signs throughout the city.
“I think it was absolutely beautiful,” she said.
Payton Baker and Kolby Gray, who were visiting New York City from West Virginia on Saturday, said the snow was a Christmas surprise for their third anniversary trip.
“Well, it’s very cold and it was very unexpected,” Baker said, her breath visible in the winter air. “The city is working pretty well to get all the roads salted and everything, so it’s all right.”
Ahead of the storm, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for more than half of the state.
4 dead in California
On the other side of the country, California was experiencing a fairly dry weekend after powerful storms battered the state with heavy rains, flash flooding, and mudslides. At least four people were killed including a man who was found dead Friday in a partially submerged car near Lancaster, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.
Some mountainous areas received 10 to 18 inches of rain over three days, peaking on Christmas Eve, National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld said. There were varied amounts of rain in other populated areas, including up to 4 inches across the Los Angeles Basin and many coastal areas.
There was significant damage to homes and cars in Wrightwood, a 5,000-resident mountain town about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles, as floods and mudslides turned roads into rivers and buried vehicles in rock and debris.
Before rain reappears in the forecast later next week, California was expected to experience Santa Ana winds with gusts of over 60 mph in mountainous areas from Sunday night through Tuesday. The winds could uproot saturated trees and cause power outages.
KYIV — Russia launched a massive attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine early Saturday, targeting the Kyiv region’s energy grid and leaving one-third of the capital without heating, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said, as residents face freezing temperatures and frost.
The assault, which also triggered power cuts throughout Kyiv, comes just one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to discuss the latest draft of a peace plan to end the war — a document that Russia has not signaled it is prepared to sign.
Zelensky told journalists Saturday that he was en route to Canada, where he would meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney and speak via videoconference with European leaders ahead of the Trump meeting.
The key issues Trump and Zelensky are expected to discuss include territorial control, future U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, and investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
“Putin deliberately ordered a massive bombing of residential areas and critical infrastructure of Kyiv just as leaders of Ukraine and the US are preparing to meet and advance peace,” Sybiha wrote on X. “ … Putin must realize that further rejection of peace will come at a very heavy price for him and his regime.”
Zelensky pleaded for European partners to provide new air defense systems to Ukraine and described the Russian attacks as a reaction to “peaceful negotiations between Ukraine and the United States regarding ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
By midmorning Saturday, Russia had launched nearly 500 Shahed drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, including ballistic Kinzhals, Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. Several residential buildings were hit. Footage showed vehicles on fire on a major road in Kyiv.
At least one person was killed and 28 people wounded in Kyiv, including two children, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. One woman was killed in the nearby city of Bila Tserkva. The assault lasted 10 hours — and air raid sirens blared again throughout the afternoon as more drones closed in on Kyiv’s airspace.The attacks followed others elsewhere in Ukraine in recent days, including a glide-bomb strike on Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, on Friday night that killed two civilians and wounded a 9-month old girl and her mother.
Russia has spent months targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a bid to damage the country’s economy and its people’s resolve in the coldest and darkest months of the year. In many parts of the country, including the capital, scheduled blackouts have been in place that leave civilians without power for much of the day. New emergency outages were implemented Saturday in response to the latest attack.
The Kremlin refused Ukraine’s request for a Christmas ceasefire. Fierce battles continue across the front line in the country’s east and south. The Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of Russian soldiers fighting for Ukraine, announced Saturday that its commander, Denis Kapustin, was killed in a Russian drone attack in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
“If Russia even turns the Christmas and New Year’s time into a time of destroyed buildings and burned apartments, ruined power stations, then this sick activity can only be responded to with really strong steps,” Zelensky wrote Saturday on Telegram. “America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity. The main thing is to take advantage of it.”
A frenzied effort to draft a workable peace plan has been in the works since last month, when the White House threatened to cut all aid to Ukraine unless Kyiv signed on to a controversial 28-point proposal by Thanksgiving. That draft made major concessions to Russia, stirring outrage in Ukraine and Europe. Washington eventually backed down on the threat, and delegations from Kyiv and Washington have since met several times to draft a new version, which Zelensky said Friday numbers 20 points and is 90% complete.
The U.S. has pressured Ukraine to organize elections, including a presidential vote, which has been postponed since last year because of martial law, which has been in place throughout the war. Putin, meanwhile, changed Russia’s constitution to extend his stay in office indefinitely. Zelensky said recently that he would urge lawmakers to discuss how best to organize a presidential election but has insisted that Ukraine will require security guarantees to host any vote.
Kyiv and European partners have repeatedly warned that Russia will attempt to disrupt any vote in Ukraine. Some elements of the latest draft peace plan, especially those regarding territory, would require a referendum in Ukraine, which also would face challenges with millions of people displaced or serving on the front line.
“I am not clinging to the chair; we are ready for this,” Zelensky said Saturday of elections. But he insisted that the legal and security framework be established before any vote. “After today’s strikes — again, I repeat, because this happens daily, because Russia attacks us every day — the sky must be safe, and security ensured throughout our territory, at least for the duration of the elections or a referendum.”
Any U.S. security guarantees, Zelensky said, will depend on Trump — “what he is ready to give, when he is ready to give it, for what term. Without a doubt, I will be grateful to him if his decision aligns with our wishes.”
Ukraine continues to refuse to cede territory to Russia but has signaled openness to establishing a demilitarized zone in the Donbas region if Russia withdraws its troops — a proposal that Moscow, which remains adamant it wants to control all of Donbas, may refuse.
Ukraine also rejected an earlier suggestion that its military be restricted to 600,000 troops, which would make it incapable of fighting off any future Russian attack, instead writing into the latest draft that its peacetime military could be capped at 800,000 troops.
“Where is the Russian response to the proposals to end the war, which were put forward by the United States and the world?” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality, it’s the Kinzhals and Shaheds that speak for them. This is the real attitude of Putin and his entourage. They don’t want to end the war and are trying to use every opportunity to inflict more pain on Ukraine and increase their pressure on others in the world. And this means that the responsive pressure is not enough.”
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.
The patriotic touches at this year’s Times Square gathering, including a second confetti drop, will offer an early glimpse of what’s ahead: hundreds of events and programs, big and small, planned nationwide to mark the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
“I’m telling you right now, whatever you’re imagining, it’s going to be much more than that,” said America250 Chair Rosie Rios, who oversees the bipartisan commission created by Congress in 2016 to organize the semiquincentennial anniversary. “It’s going to be one for the ages, the most inspirational celebration this country and maybe the world has ever seen.”
Rios and her group worked with the Times Square Alliance business district and One Times Square, the building from which the ball is dropped, to make the changes to this year’s ceremonies. They’re also planning a second ball drop event on July 3, the eve of the nation’s birthday, “in the same beautiful style that Times Square knows how to do it,” Rios said.
It will mark the first time in 120 years there will be a ball drop in Times Square that doesn’t occur on New Year’s Eve, she said.
A New Year’s Eve ball was first dropped in Times Square in 1907. Built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, the 700-pound, 5-foot-diameter ball was made of iron and wood and featured 100 25-watt light bulbs. Last year, the Constellation Ball, the ninth and largest version, was unveiled. It measures about 12 feet in diameter and weighs nearly 12,000 pounds.
The only years when no ball drop occurred were 1942 and 1943, when the city instituted a nightly “dimout” during World War II to protect itself from attacks. Crowds instead celebrated the new year with a moment of silence followed by chimes rung from the base of One Times Square.
This year, the stroke of midnight will also mark the official launch of America Gives, a national service initiative created by America250. Organizers hope to make 2026 the largest year of volunteer hours ever aggregated in the country.
On the following day, America250 will participate in the New Years Day Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., with a float themed “Soaring Onward Together for 250 Years.” It will feature three larger-than-life bald eagles representing the country’s past, present, and future.
“We want to ring in this new year from sea to shining sea. What better way to think about it than going from New York to California,” Rios said. “This has to be community-driven, this has be grassroots. We’re going from Guam to Alaska, from Fairbanks to Philadelphia, and everything in between.”
President Donald Trump has also announced the “Freedom 250” initiative to coordinate additional events for the 250th anniversary.
Rios said she sees the wide range of celebrations and programs planned for the coming months, from large fireworks displays and statewide potluck suppers to student contests and citizen oral histories, as an opportunity to unite a politically divided nation.
“If we can find something for everyone … having those menus of options that people can pick and choose how they want to participate,” she said. “That’s how we’re going to get to engaging 350 million Americans.”
Friday’s snow, sleet, and rain brought a cold mix of precipitation to Philadelphia and surrounding areas, leaving behind slippery conditions Saturday.
“Today looks quiet compared to last night, but watch out for the icy roads,” said Joseph DeSilva, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office.
Saturday looks to be mostly cloudy, with a high of 34 degrees, a low of 25, and no precipitation on the horizon, DeSilva said.
While roads continue to be treated, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has already removed a 45 mph temporary speed-limit reduction for major highways in the five-county Philadelphia region, including on Interstates 76 and 95, as well as I-476, I-676, and I-295.
The wintry mix of snow, sleet, and intermittent rain moved into the region overnight, with temperatures hovering in the mid-30-degree range.
Regional accumulation totals varied, from .2 inch in Rittenhouse Square to .3 at Philadelphia International Airport, .4 in Mt. Holly and 1 inch in Skippack.
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Ray Martin, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Mount Holly office said Friday that even without especially high accumulations, conditions would remain hazardous.
Sleet tends to be more compact than snow, demanding more effort when it comes to shoveling or plowing it off sidewalks, entryways, and garages.
For Martin, thisis: “a lot of little ice balls, basically frozen raindrops, covering the ground. It will be like shoveling sand.”
If possible, he recommended waiting to drive until later Saturday, when temperatures were expected to rise above freezing.
In Northeast Philadelphia, icy roads have already claimed a life.
A 45-year-old woman was killed when her car was struck head-on by a pickup truck, police said. The crash occurred around 2 a.m., when thepickup was traveling north on the 3500 block of an ice-covered Aramingo Avenue when the driver lost control of the truck, police said.
The pickup was moving at an “unsafe speed for the wintry conditions,” police said, crossing into the southbound lanes and striking the woman’s car head-on.
Fire Department medics transported both drivers to local hospitals. The cwoman was transferred to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:35 a.m. Meanwhile, the pickup driver is considered stable at Jefferson Hospital.
A third person, a 29-year-old passenger in the truck, was taken to Temple University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
And the snowy, icy conditions aren’t just affecting Philadelphia.
Accumulation totals were higher north of the area, with anywhere from 2 to 6 inches in northern New Jersey.
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Due to the slippery conditions, acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency across her state Friday morning, urging people to monitor official updates, remain off the roads unless necessary, and stay safe.
Due to the severe snowstorm, with the potential of icy and slippery conditions, I have declared a State of Emergency across the state beginning this afternoon.
Please monitor official updates and remain off the roads unless necessary.
As of Saturday afternoon, 27 flights at Philadelphia International Airport were cancelled, and 164 were delayed, due to the storm. Those with holiday traveling around the corner, can track flight statuses at Philadelphia International Airport.
So far this season, Philadelphia has already seen more than half the snow last winter brought. This year’s seasonal total stands at 4.2 inches, while the city saw 8.1 inches during the entire2024-25 winter.
Slight melting is expected through Saturday, but refreezing will come overnight, bringing a rainy Sunday with a high of 43 and a low of 37 degrees.
Conditions are set to improve in Philadelphia by early next week, with Monday expected to bring a high of 58 degrees and a low of 28, and the year waving farewell Wednesday with a high of 38 degrees and a low of 30, according to AccuWeather.
A pedestrian walks through a cloud of steam on a cold winter day in West Philadelphia, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025, as snow and a wintry mix are forecast for the area through Saturday morning.
KABUL, Afghanistan — For 10 hours a day, Rahimullah sells socks from his cart in eastern Kabul, earning about $4.5 to $6 per day. It’s a pittance, but it’s all he has to feed his family of five.
Rahimullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, is one of millions of Afghans who rely on humanitarian aid, both from the Afghan authorities and from international charity organizations, for survival. An estimated 22.9 million people — nearly half the population — required aid in 2025, the International Committee for the Red Cross said in an article on its website Monday.
But severe cuts in international aid — including the halting of U.S. aid to programs such as food distribution run by the United Nations’ World Food Program — have severed this lifeline.
More than 17 million people in Afghanistan now face crisis levels of hunger in the winter, the World Food Program warned last week, 3 million more than were at risk more than a year ago.
The slashing in aid has come as Afghanistan is battered by a struggling economy, recurrent droughts, two deadly earthquakes, and the mass influx of Afghan refugees expelled from countries such as Iran and Pakistan. The resulting multiple shocks have severely pressured resources, including of housing and food.
U.N. appeals for help
Tom Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, told the Security Council in mid-December that the situation was compounded by “overlapping shocks,” including the recent earthquakes and increasing restrictions on humanitarian aid access and staff.
While Fletcher said nearly 22 million Afghans will need U.N. assistance in 2026, his organization will focus on 3.9 million facing the most urgent need of lifesaving help due to reduced donor contributions.
Fletcher said this winter was “the first in years with almost no international food distribution.”
“As a result, only about 1 million of the most vulnerable people have received food assistance during the lean season in 2025,” compared to 5.6 million last year, he said.
The year has been devastating for U.N. humanitarian organizations, which have had to cut thousands of jobs and spending in the wake of aid cuts.
“We are grateful to all of you who have continued to support Afghanistan. But as we look towards 2026, we risk a further contraction of life-saving help — at a time when food insecurity, health needs, strain on basic services, and protection risks are all rising,” Fletcher said.
Returning refugees
The return of millions of refugees has added pressure on an already teetering system. Minister of Refugees and Repatriation Affairs Abdul Kabir said Sunday that 7.1 million Afghan refugees had returned to the country over the last four years, according to a statement on the ministry website.
Rahimullah, 29, was one of them. The former Afghan Army soldier fled to neighboring Pakistan after the Taliban seized power in 2021. He was deported back to Afghanistan two years later, and initially received aid in the form of cash as well as food.
“The assistance was helping me a lot,” he said. But without it, “now I don’t have enough money to live on. God forbid, if I were to face a serious illness or any other problem, it would be very difficult for me to handle because I don’t have any extra money for expenses.”
The massive influx of former refugees has also sent rents skyrocketing. Rahimullah’s landlord has nearly doubled the rent of his tiny two-room home, with walls made half of concrete and half of mud and a homemade mud stove for cooking. Instead of 4,500 afghanis (about $67), he now wants 8,000 afghanis (about $120) — a sum Rahimullah cannot afford. So he, his wife, daughter, and two young sons will have to move next month. They don’t know where to.
Before the Taliban takeover, Rahimullah had a decent salary and his wife worked as a teacher. But the new government’s draconian restrictions on women and girls mean women are barred from nearly all jobs, and his wife is unemployed.
“Now the situation is such that even if we find money for flour, we don’t have it for oil, and even if we find it for oil, we can’t pay the rent. And then there is the extra electricity bill,” Rahimullah said.
Harsh winters compound misery
In Afghanistan’s northern province of Badakhshan, Sherin Gul is desperate. In 2023, her family of 12 got supplies of flour, oil, rice, beans, pulses, salt, and biscuits. It was a lifesaver.
But it only lasted six months. Now, there is nothing. Her husband is old and weak and cannot work, she said. With 10 children, seven girls and three boys between the ages of 7 and 27, the burden of providing for the family has fallen on her 23-year-old son — the only one old enough to work. But even he only finds occasional jobs.
“There are 12 of us … and one person working cannot cover the expenses,” she said. “We are in great trouble.”
Sometimes neighbors take pity on them and give them food. Often, they all go hungry.
“There have been times when we have nothing to eat at night, and my little children have fallen asleep without food,” Gul said. “I have only given them green tea and they have fallen asleep crying.”
Before the Taliban takeover, Gul worked as a cleaner, earning just about enough to feed her family. But the ban on women working has left her unemployed, and she said she developed a nervous disorder and is often sick.
Compounding their misery is the harsh cold of the northern Afghan winter, when snow halts construction work where her son can sometimes find jobs. And there is the added expense of firewood and charcoal.
“If this situation continues like this, we may face severe hunger,” Gul said. “And then it will be very difficult for us to survive in this cold weather.”
The agreement took effect at noon and calls for a halt in military movements and airspace violation for military purposes.
Only Thailand has carried out airstrikes, hitting sites in Cambodia as recently as Saturday morning, according to the Cambodian Defense Ministry.
The deal also calls for Thailand, after the ceasefire has held for 72 hours, to repatriate 18 Cambodian soldiers it has held as prisoners since earlier fighting in July. Their release has been a major demand of the Cambodian side.
Within hours of the signing, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry protested to Cambodia that a Thai soldier sustained a permanent disability when he stepped on an anti-personnel land mine it charged had been laid by Cambodian forces.
Defense ministers met at the border
The agreement was signed by the countries’ defense ministers, Cambodia’s Tea Seiha and Thailand’s Nattaphon Narkphanit, at a border checkpoint. It followed three days of lower-level talks by military officials.
It declares that the sides are committed to an earlier ceasefire that ended five days of fighting in July and follow-up agreements.
The original July ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia and pushed through by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who threatened to withhold trade privileges unless Thailand and Cambodia agreed. It was formalized in more detail in October at a regional meeting in Malaysia that Trump attended.
Despite those deals, the countries carried on a bitter propaganda war and minor cross-border violence continued, escalating in early December to widespread heavy fighting.
On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the ceasefire announcement and urged Cambodia and Thailand to fully honor it and the terms of the peace accord reached earlier in Malaysia.
Civilians bore the brunt of the fighting
Thailand has lost 26 soldiers and one civilian as a direct result of the combat since Dec. 7, according to officials. Thailand has also reported 44 civilian deaths.
Cambodia hasn’t issued an official figure on military casualties, but says that 30 civilians have been killed and 90 injured. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated on both sides of the border.
“Today’s ceasefire also paves the way for the displaced people who are living in the border areas to be able to return to their homes, work in the fields, and even allow their children to be able to return to schools and resume their studies,” Cambodia’s Seiha told reporters after the signing.
Each side blamed the other for initiating the fighting and claimed to be acting in self-defense.
The agreement also calls on both sides to adhere to international agreements against deploying land mines, a major concern of Thailand.
Thai soldiers along the border have been wounded in at least 10 incidents this year by what Thailand says were newly planted Cambodian mines. Cambodia says the mines were left over from decades of civil war that ended in the late 1990s.
Following the latest injury on Saturday, Thailand’s Foreign Ministry noted that the new agreement “includes key provisions on joint humanitarian demining operations to ensure the safety of military personnel and civilians in the border areas as soon as possible.”
Another clause says the two sides “agree to refrain from disseminating false information or fake news.”
The agreement calls for a resumption of previous measures to demarcate the border. The sides also agreed to cooperate in suppressing transnational crimes. That’s primarily a reference to online scams perpetrated by organized crime that have bilked victims around the world of billions of dollars each year. Cambodia is a center for such criminal enterprises.
Malaysia’s leader hails agreement
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was instrumental in putting together the original ceasefire, said the new agreement “reflects a shared recognition that restraint is required, above all in the interest of civilians.”
Many clauses similar to those in Saturday’s agreement were included in October’s ceasefire document, and were open to various interpretations and generally honored only in part. These included provisions concerning land mines and the Cambodian prisoners.
The fragility of the new agreement was underlined by Thailand’s Defense Ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri in a news briefing after Saturday’s signing. He said that the safe return of civilians to their homes would indicate the situation had stabilized enough to allow the repatriation of the captured Cambodian soldiers.
“However, if the ceasefire does not materialize, this would indicate a lack of sincerity on the Cambodian side to create sure peace,” he said. “Therefore, the 72- hour ceasefire beginning today is not an act of trust nor unconditional acceptance but a time frame to tangibly prove whether Cambodia can truly cease the use of weapons, provocations, and threats in the area.”
Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell has sent a scathing letter criticizing a musician’s decision to abruptly pull out of a scheduled annual holidayperformance at the institutionand threatening him with legal action.
Drummer and vibraphonist ChuckRedd is the longtime host of the center’s Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, which was canceled this year shortly after the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that it was renaming the storied arts institution after President Donald Trump.
“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — isclassic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,”Grenell said in his letter to Redd, a copy of which the center shared Friday with the Washington Post.
He added,“This is your official notice that we will seek $1 million in damages from you for this political stunt.”
Redd did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Friday.He told the Associated Press on Wednesday that upon seeing the name change,he had decided tocall off the concert, which he described as a “very popular holiday tradition” that it was “very sad to have had to cancel.”
Grenell, a Trump ally, was appointed to lead the Kennedy Center in February, the same month thepresident fired the majority of its board and became its chairperson. Grenell formerly served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany and as acting director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration. Under President George W. Bush, he was also a State Department spokesperson to the United Nations.
His letter to Redd, which is undated, was first reported by the Associated Press.
In it, he said Redd’s decision “surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center.”
Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, added in an emailed statementto the Post: “Any artist cancelling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled — they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people.”
The Kennedy Center, which is visited by approximately 2 million people a year, is a public-private institution that was founded to be the nation’s cultural center and was designated in 1964 as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy following his assassination.
Its board of trustees voted last weekto rename the institution “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” but the move was swiftly challenged by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D., Ohio), who filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that an act of Congress was required to officially change its name.
Somemembers of the Kennedy family including Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, and Joe Kennedy, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, expressed disbelief and dismay over the vote.
The Kennedy Center has experienced a steep decline in ticket sales since Trump’s takeover of the institution compared with the same period last year, the Post reported. Sales for orchestra, theater, and dance performances are the worst they have been since the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Post analysis.
In the weeks after the February board changes, at least 20 productions were canceled or postponed, with names such as comedian and actor Issa Rae pulling out of planned performances at the center, and musical artist Ben Folds and opera singer Renée Fleming announcing they were stepping down as artistic advisers.
The Eagles clinched the NFC East title last week, and now head into a heavyweight battle against reigning MVP Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills with an extra day of rest.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Eagles-Bills matchup…
How to watch
The game will kick off on Fox at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday in Highmark Stadium. Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady will be on the call, marking the former New England Patriots star’s fifth time covering the Birds this year, with Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi as sideline reporters.
If you prefer to listen to the game, Merrill Reese and Mike Quick will call the game on 94.1 WIP.
Expected weather
The National Weather Service is forecasting steady rain throughout the late afternoon and into the evening in Buffalo. Warm weather will prevent snow, but 10-20 mph winds may impact the throwing and kicking game for both teams.
The Eagles have ruled out Lane Johnson (foot) and Nakobe Dean (hamstring) for Sunday’s game, with Jalen Carter finally being cleared to return to action after missing three games following procedures on both shoulders.
Tackle Cameron Williams is once again listed as questionable after being a full participant in practice throughout the week. The Eagles have one more week to decide to end his season or sign him to the active roster.
For the Bills, Allen is expected to play after suffering a foot injury at halftime last week against the Cleveland Browns. But Allen may be without two of his top targets, as tight ends Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid are both listed as questionable with knee injuries.
The Buffalo defense will also be without defensive tackles DaQuan Jones and Jordan Phillips, as well as former All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer and kicker Matt Prater.
The Eagles will be without starting linebacker Nakobe Dean on Sunday in Buffalo.
Eagles vs. Bills odds
As of Saturday morning, the Birds are 1.5-point underdogs at DraftKings and FanDuel, with each sportsbook setting the total at 44.5 points. For more betting props, check out our betting guide here.
Eagles Playoff Picture
The Eagles secured back-to-back NFC East titles for the first time since 2004 with their triumph over the Washington Commanders last week — guaranteeing a home playoff game come January. Now, the team will battle for seeding in the NFC.
The Birds are mathematically eliminated from competing for the No. 1 seed, and could only rise to the No. 2 seed with two straight wins coupled with two losses from the Chicago Bears (11-4). This leaves the Eagles squarely in control of the No. 3 seed with a two-game lead over the Carolina Panthers (8-7).
The San Francisco 49ers (11-4), the Los Angeles Rams (11-4), and the Green Bay Packers (9-4-1) are the Eagles’ likeliest first-round playoff opponents — with the 49ers and Rams still in the hunt for the No. 1 seed.
Storylines to Watch
Can the Eagles gain momentum heading into the playoffs?
The Birds haven’t beaten a team that currently has a winning record since their 10-7 victory over the Packers on Monday Night Football all the way back on November 10th.
On the flip side, the Bills have had a resurgence to end the year, winning four straight, including a barn burner versus the AFC’s No. 2-seedeed New England Patriots.
Saquon Barkley has a great matchup against a porous Buffalo run defense.
Facing two straight backup quarterbacks in the team’s recent wins over the Las Vegas Raiders (2-13) and the Commanders (4-12), the Birds have their work cut out for them against a Bills offense that is third in the league in total yards and scoring. Can Jalen Hurts and the offense keep up with Buffalo, or will the defense have to carry the day once again?
Here’s how our beat writers are predicting Sunday’s game:
Olivia Reiner: “While the Bills boast one of the best pass defenses in the league, their run defense is suspect, conceding 5.4 yards per attempt (the second-worst rate in the NFL). Buffalo is a tough place to play. The Bills are a good team with a great quarterback, who may or may not be limited by a foot injury on Sunday. I’m not fully convinced that the Bills are a great team, especially given their strength of schedule this season. Eagles 28, Bills 27
Jeff Neiburg: “The Eagles have struggled this year against quarterbacks who run, but they kept Marcus Mariota in check before he left the game in the second half. It’s a tough one to predict in what essentially is a coin-flip game. But I think the Eagles find a way to win. Eagles 27, Bills 23
National Media Predictions
Here’s a look at who the national media is picking for Sunday’s game …
ESPN: Only two of 11 panelists are picking the Birds straight up.
CBS Sports: Three of seven experts are leaning towards the Eagles.
Bleacher Report: Only two of seven analysts are choosing the Birds.
Sporting News: Bill Bender has the Eagles losing 27-20.
What we’re saying about the Eagles
Here’s a look at what our columnists are saying, starting with Mike Sileski’s eulogy of the Eagles’ world-famous Tush Push, followed by Marcus Hayes’ review of the team’s recent performance against the Commanders:
Mike Sileski: “But the demise of the Tush Push is real, and it has to be a worry as the Eagles look ahead to the postseason. Hurts has made it clear that he had grown tired of running it anyway, and the league officials had raised their level of scrutiny of it, calling more penalties against the Eagles this season. It has gone from an automatic first down to an unreliable chore. They will have to find a new way to remain aggressive, and to succeed, in fourth-and-short situations.”
Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, who grew up just outside of Philly and used to coach with the Eagles, knows the challenge the Birds present on both sides of the ball.
Marcus Hayes: “Glass half full: A good win — on the road, against a division opponent, with no offensive turnovers, but with a defensive turnover. Also, a win having lost linebacker Nakobe Dean, who left early with a hamstring injury. Also, a win with right tackle Lane Johnson and defensive tackle Jalen Carter likely to return for next Sunday’s game at Buffalo.
Glass half empty: Another ugly win — against a poor team, a win despite a skittish $5 million kicker who has missed five of his last 11 kicks; a win in which Hurts continued an inconsistent season; a win in which the coaching staff seemed unprepared with a game plan that seemed uninspired.”
What the Bills are saying about the Eagles
Allen, who has faced off against the Eagles only twice in his career, knows not to underestimate the reigning champs.
“Well, they got a lot of studs on that side,” Allen told reporters. “Their front, they get after the quarterback. They’ve got two of the best linebackers in the game. A shutdown corner. They rotate well. Got a safety from Wyoming that’s a stud. They got a lot of dogs on that side of the ball. We got to make sure we have a good week of game planning. Ultimately, it’s going to come down to who executes better on Sunday.”
Cornerback Tre’Davius White: “It’s going to take all 11 guys on deck this week,” White said. “We got to play the whole field. Be able to cover the whole field. These guys do a great job of exploding the ball each and every direction, through the air, on the run. So we’re going to have to be able to try to limit the big-time plays. This is an explosive offense. It’s going to be on us as a defense to communicate well and play well as a group.”
Head coach Sean McDermott: “Very talented roster,” McDermott, who grew up just outside of Philly, told reporters. “They’ve done a great job building it in particular with the key positions. Numbers are numbers. And numbers can indicate certain things. But they can also not tell the full story. We know who Saquon [Barkley] is. I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame player. Their offensive line, very talented as well. … It’s a tough unit to stop. And the run game in particular is real. I know what the numbers say, and I’m not buying the numbers.”
What we are reading (and watching)
🏈 Jordan Mailata’s journey, the Eagles clinch the division, and more ‘Hard Knocks’ highlights
🎁 A ‘New Heights’ gift guide for ‘dudes who can’t shop good:’ Where do scented candles and gift cards stand?
Tune in this Sunday at 2:55 p.m. as The Inquirer’s Olivia Reiner and Jeff McLane break down the Eagles’ matchup with the Buffalo Bills on Gameday Central.
A woman was killed in front of her three children reportedly by their father who then shot himself during a custody transfer early Friday afternoon in Upper Darby.
Shortly after 1 p.m., Upper Darby police posted on social media that a man and woman had been found shot. Just after 6 p.m., Upper Darby police posted an update that the double shooting at Copley Road and Locust Street was “another senseless act of domestic violence.”
Officers responded to a 911 call for a shooting at the location and found the woman seated in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with a gunshot wound. Lifesaving measures were attempted but unsuccessful for the woman, police said.
The man was transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition on life support, police said.
Police Superintendent Timothy M. Bernhardt told the Delaware County Daily Times that the woman was 34 and the man is 45. Their identities have not yet been made public.
Bernhardt told the Daily Times: “What we know through investigation so far is that the female was there picking up children. There’s a custody order in place. The male had the children for Christmas, he walked up to the car with the children, the children got into the vehicle, there was some type of an argument, exchange of words, he pulled out a handgun and shot her … got out of the vehicle and then shot himself.”
Three children inside the vehicle at the time of gunfire were not injured, Upper Darby police said.
“Yesterday’s incident was a brutal act of domestic violence,“ Bernhardt said in a statement to The Inquirer. ”A mother was killed in front of her children. Those children will live with this trauma for the rest of their lives. There is no excuse for this kind of violence, and the damage it causes is permanent.”
Staff writer Maggie Prosser contributed to this article.
Philadelphia nearly ranked last in a recent survey that asked residents of 65 large cities how satisfied they were with where they lived. Some neighborhood leaders shared what they believe it would take to change that.
Two brothers and their nephew nearly died in the fatal explosion that rocked a Lower Bucks County nursing home facility on Tuesday. From the hospital on Christmas, they shared how they survived.
The story behind New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s landslide victory last month can be understood by looking at her strong performance in the city of Camden. Dive into an Inquirer analysis of municipal-level data.
The site of the shuttered Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester is officially seeking a new tenant. The building owner said the goal is to “find something similar,” though not necessarily a brewery.
What’s the polite thing to do after receiving a gift you didn’t want? Things can get dicey when you add in-laws into the mix.
Someone asked The Inquirer: My mother-in-law gifted me an ugly Eagles table runner. Do I have to keep it? My first thought was that any superstitious fan may feel it’s bad luck to hide or get rid of it. But let’s be real: Other Philly teams could use a miracle right now.
To help this reader out, Inquirer editor Evan Weiss recruited life and culture reporter Zoe Greenberg and senior video editor and producer Astrid Rodrigues. They debated whether it’s worth putting it out just once or even holding onto it at all. You just might need it for an Eagles-themed party.
I’m partial to Rodrigues’ take: give a polite “thank you,” then do as you wish with it. If it wasn’t my style, I’d try to regift it to someone I know would love it. Greenberg made this timeless point of one man’s trash being another’s treasure: “Someone might love to find an ugly Eagles table runner on the street, so it’s like a beautiful gift you’re passing along.”
Despite growing anti-consumerist sentiment toward the holidays, the National Retail Federation expected a record-setting $1 trillion to be spent nationwide on consumer goods this season.
In a column for The Inquirer, B.G. White argues in favor of holiday shopping as an extension of the spirit of giving, even though critics say it can conflict with some religious values.
“Rather than dismissing holiday shopping as a symbol of materialism and excess, I have come to view it as an expression of generosity that captures the purpose of the season,” White writes.
Somewhere in Philly, this museum entrance stands out.
Think you know where this photo was taken? Our weekly game puts your knowledge of Philly locations to the test. Try your best guess here.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
Hint: This holiday song was composed in a Philadelphia church for the Christmas season in 1868
BOLT HOLE ONE TIME TWELFTH
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Michaelene Fanelli, who correctly guessed Wednesday’s answer: The End of an Era. We tracked all the Philly connections in Berks County native Taylor Swift’s new docuseries.
Darlene Harley, of Overbrook Park, and her great-granddaughter, Aryah Nelson, 7, watch as the light show begins at the Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia.
Thousands crowded into the Grand Court of the Wanamaker Building on Christmas Eve for what could be the last chance to behold the light show. Mike Newall and Tyger Williams captured the beloved holiday tradition in this story.
