This Morning’s Top Headlines – Dec. 26 | Morning News NOW

Good morning. It's good to be with you. I'm Jessica Layton in for Joe in Savannah. We begin this hour with a pair of storms that are threatening the U.S. from coast to coast this week. This morning, three people are reported dead in California due to the powerful storms that have been battering the state for days. You can see here the torrential rains causing catastrophic flooding and mudslides. Overnight, 32 million people were still under flood alerts across the state. High winds and rain prompted evacuation orders through Christmas, while trapping some people indoors over the holiday. It even led to several water rescues and evacuation orders in some neighborhoods. And now, attention turns to the northeast, where a major post-holiday storm is set to cover the region with heavy snow. With all the latest on this string of winter weather, here's NBC News correspondent Dana Griffin. Hey there, good morning. Yeah, this is day three of what you can only call a deluge of rain that is dumping across the west. Officials warn we are not out of the woods yet. Flood watches remain in effect because we are getting so much rain. A few more inches today across the region. Many people had to be rescued. Hundreds of people were rescued by boat, also by helicopter. The hardest hit community, Wrightwood, California, where we saw a wall of mud and debris inundate that community. Some cars buried in feet of mud. Officials in northern California also had to do some rescues there. We had trees that were down and power outages. Tens of thousands of power outages plaguing northern California, the Bay Area. Many people there woke up in the dark. And this is not over. You know, we're experiencing more rain at the moment. This storm blamed now for three fatalities. A guy in San Diego killed by a fallen tree. A Sacramento County Sheriff's killed on his way to work. Officials are reminding people to not let their guard down because trees can fall and mudslides can occur even days after this storm ends. And also on the opposite end of the country, there is a winter storm shaping up for much of the northeast. Forecast of four to eight inches of snow could fall in New York and northern Pennsylvania. Back to you, Dana Griffin. Thank you. Now let's bring in meteorologist Angie Lastman for even more on what's ahead in your morning news now forecast. Angie, good morning. Hi there. Good morning. We've got a whole lot of travel trouble up for us here as we gear up for some of the snow to kind of work across the northeast through the day today. You can see it's expanding from the Great Lakes, works across parts of New York, Pennsylvania. You'll see some of that significant icing anywhere from northern Virginia down through Pennsylvania, but it's a significant snowfall for places like New York City. That's really going to get your attention through the day today into tomorrow. The good news is those snow showers will start to taper off by the time we get into the second half of your day tomorrow, but still some slick roads expected for that first half of the day. When it's all said and done, again, some significant snowfall, especially across parts of the northeast like New York, which will likely see anywhere from six to eight inches. It's been years since we've seen that in Central Park. We have to look all the way back to 2021 for that. Otherwise, parts of northern New York upstate, you're going to get anywhere from three to six inches. Places like Philadelphia, one to two inches, and Hartford tops out anywhere from two to four inches. The icing will also be an issue. Notice, especially in northwestern Pennsylvania, likely to see some, again, travel trouble, of course, but the power outages, the tree damage, all on the table with about a quarter of an inch expected there. Meanwhile, out west, still dealing with the heavy rain, the wind, and the snow. That's continuing for folks across California, so the flood risk remains as well. The good news is we'll start to see some better conditions for tomorrow. The west coast will finally get a break as this system kind of works out across parts of the Rockies, and we'll see some of that additional snowfall for folks across the ski resort areas for the rest of the weekend. Meanwhile, it's a little bit of rain. We'll pick up maybe a quarter of an inch or a half of an inch, and then, again, there's those snow totals, pretty good in some spots, up to a foot across parts of the Rockies. Travel-wise, I think, as we look to the day today, snow and ice across the northeast is going to be your biggest issue getting out for as far as the airlines are concerned. New York, Philadelphia are two spots that I would watch, but Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, L.A., all going to see difficulty as well. In those same regions is where you'll see the road trouble, too, especially the slick conditions across the northeast. Looking ahead to Sunday, the rain will be likely across the Great Lakes, but otherwise, a lot of dry conditions, so travel should be a little better. Back to you. All right, Angie, thank you. This morning, the Trump administration is praising surprise strikes on alleged terror targets in Nigeria. On Christmas Day, President Trump said he authorized, quote, numerous perfect strikes on Islamic State militants whom he accused of targeting and killing primarily Christians in the West African country. Nigeria's government has previously called Trump's portrayal of the security situation there as, quote, misleading, but Nigerian officials this time confirmed earlier today that they were involved in these strikes. NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Julie Serkin has the latest from West Palm Beach, Florida, near President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Julie, good morning. Good morning, Jessica. The president posting late on Christmas Day yesterday, announcing that the U.S. military had conducted strikes overnight against ISIS in northwest Nigeria. The president announcing, quote, numerous perfect strikes against ISIS were conducted. He went on to say that multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in this operation, and it was done in coordination with the Nigerian government. That is according to the Department of Defense. This all goes back to what the president has been claiming for months, that Christians are being persecuted, attacked, and killed by Islamist militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government had previously pushed back on those claims, saying that they were misrepresentations of reality. But we have learned, according to the Department of Defense, and later, the Nigerian government confirming that that government had helped the United States in executing these strikes. We got a statement later on from the Nigerian government saying that they, quote, remain engaged in structured cooperation with the United States in, quote, addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism. This comes, as you know, after the United States conducted strikes against ISIS in Syria last week. The president had announced at that time, certainly escalating their oversight and their attacks and their counterattacks on these militants, which the president says will be, quote, exterminated no matter where they are. So that is how the president rounded out his Christmas day, a major development and perhaps more to come. Jessica. All right, Julie, thank you. In California, Ashley Buzzard is set to be arraigned in a Santa Maria court later this morning on a first-degree murder charge in the death of her daughter. She was arrested at her Santa Barbara home on Tuesday, accused of killing her nine-year-old daughter, Melody, who had been missing since October. The girl's body was found in a rural area of Utah on December 6th, more than two months after her disappearance. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office says Melody died from gunshot wounds to the head. For more on this, let's bring in NBC News correspondent Stephen Romo. Stephen, good morning. Thanks for being here. What other charges is Ashley facing right now in this case? Yeah, Jessica, this is just such a tough one, especially looking at pictures of this nine-year-old girl. We know that Ashley Buzzard, her mother, does have a court appearance scheduled for later today. She is charged with one count of first-degree murder so far. That is what she was arrested for. Investigators say they believe she killed nine-year-old Melody during a multi-state trip in early October. Law enforcement says they think Ashley changed the license plates along the way on that trip, which spanned eight different states. That was actually Melody's school, who reached out to authorities after excessive absences, and that started the search, which finally ended when Melody's body was found in rural Utah, the death from an apparent gunshot wound to the head, the FBI having to use DNA to identify her remains in this case. Just each new detail, just more disturbing than the last, Jessica. Yeah, you mentioned the DNA, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff said that, told reporters, that they have uncovered a significant amount of evidence. What are they looking at evidence-wise? Yeah, it seems like they do have quite a bit of evidence that they've already spoken about so far. The license plate that I mentioned just a moment ago, along with some surveillance video. There's surveillance video from a rental car facility, and it appears that both Ashley and Melody are wearing wigs in that video. All of those things that investigators say is believed that it's Ashley trying to evade detection while she was on this trip with Melody. Authorities also say that they have evidence that they've obtained from Ashley's property, which some of that evidence is ammunition that they say matches the ammunition that they believe was used in this murder. They have thus far not announced finding a murder weapon, something that we may be hearing about in the near future when investigators speak on this, along with that hearing that is scheduled for later today. Obviously, this community was so invested in this case for several weeks. How are people in the neighborhood responding to what they've learned? Yeah, it's something about this case when there's so many people who come together to try to search for this missing child. We learned in early October that she was missing, so that kicked off the search. Neighbors coming together, asking questions, trying to help find her only for the just heartbreaking discovery of her body earlier this month in December. That has set off so many people asking questions, trying to find people who know the family to ask questions of them. Not only detectives and investigators, but online sleuths, which we see pop up in cases like these. Many people want answers for how this happened and why something like this could happen. What do we know about whether Ashley's being cooperative? Yeah, a great question there. Something that authorities have said since this started in October, that she has not been cooperative. And whenever they were doing their press conference about these charges after the arrest, they mentioned things like changing wigs and changing the license plates. Things that they say are intentionally done to evade detection and presumably to throw off investigators for when this investigation started. So thus far, authorities have said she has not been cooperative. Well, court appearance today, we know you'll keep us posted. Stephen Romo, thank you. Turning now to the year in business, Wall Street reached new heights, but it was a mixed story on Main Street with lingering concerns about affordability. Perhaps the defining business story was President Trump's trade agenda. NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung has a look at that and some other economic inflection points in 2025. The biggest economic story this year was just one word, tariffs. April 2nd, the day that this board right here upended the modern train system, imposing a baseline tariff on nearly all imports with extra levies on these countries big and small, from China to Sri Lanka. Businesses were left confused as Ford, Walmart and Adidas were among the companies saying they'd have no choice but to raise prices. It was the beginning of months of tariff whiplash, tariffs on countries, tariffs on industries, tariffs announced and tariffs postponed. Inflationary consumers unsure about where prices were heading. The tariffs threatened price increases on nearly everything from coffee from Brazil to clothing from Vietnam, even cheese from the European Union all got more expensive for American importers to bring here. Your Xi'an and Taiwan orders from China also tariffed. Now, through the uncertainty, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times as policymakers fretted over an economic slowdown that could lift unemployment. Wall Street going for a ride through it all, cratering after Liberation Day, but recovering in the months that followed as the administration backed off of some of the tariffs, like in November, when over 200 food items got exemptions. Now the market also getting a boost from artificial intelligence, AI generated videos taking over social media this year, showing just how far the tech has come. And chipmaker Nvidia became the symbol of the AI investment boom, becoming the first company to cross the five trillion dollar mark. But that excitement on Wall Street, not crossing over to Main Street, where major employers like Amazon, UPS and Target said they make big trims to their headcounts, part of the over one million announced job cuts this year. Now, as families grapple with affordability, spending was still strong, with shoppers spending a record 44 billion dollars online this Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, perhaps on toys like, yes, the boo-boos, those viral dolls from Chinese company Pop Mart, celebrities from Blackpink's Lisa to Rihanna and Naomi Osaka fueling a worldwide obsession. Consumers finding joy in the smaller things in what was a big year for the economy. Our thanks to Brian Chung for that look back. It was a very Merry Christmas indeed for the winner of this week's historic Powerball jackpot. A ticket sold in Arkansas is the only winner of that 1.8 billion dollar grand prize. NBC News national correspondent Erin Gilchrist has more. Tonight we have another life changing jackpot for you. A Christmas Eve Powerball drawing big enough to overstuff even the biggest stocking. Your Powerball number tonight, good luck everyone, is 19. The second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever. Powerball announcing a single ticket matching all six numbers was sold at this Murphy USA gas station in Cabot, Arkansas, just outside Little Rock. That ticket before taxes now worth a lump sum payout of 834.9 million dollars or 1.8 billion paid out over 30 years. The jackpot has reset. Now everybody in Arkansas is trying to figure out who defied those odds of one in 292 million, but per Arkansas law, the winner can choose to stay anonymous for up to three years. No one ever gets lucky here. Until today. Yeah, I know, it's crazy. Nationwide, eight other tickets in the drawing matched five numbers, meaning a Christmas bonus of 1 million dollars each for those Powerball players. But here in Arkansas, curiosity is building about the state's newest billionaire. Do you think maybe you know somebody in town? Are you starting like, I don't know, but I need to start making phone calls, that's for sure. The best advice that people give for folks who win jackpots this big, and this is the second largest U.S. jackpot in history, the advice is that they sign that ticket right away, take a selfie with the ticket, and then lock that puppy away until they can figure out exactly how this is all going to change their lives.