By Maria Salette Ontiveros, The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — A new version of the common flu is spreading globally, and health officials are monitoring this evolving strain of influenza A(H3N3) Subclade K, which has been increasingly detected worldwide.
Seasonal influenza activity has increased globally in recent months, with influenza A viruses accounting for the majority of detections, according to the World Health Organization.
Health officials are closely monitoring a growing subgroup of influenza A(H3N2) viruses known as J.2.4.1, also referred to as Subclade K.
The WHO says detections of this subclade have risen rapidly since August 2025 based on genetic sequence data shared through the global GISAID database.
Current epidemiological data do not indicate increased disease severity associated with subclade K, the WHO says, though its spread reflects the continued evolution of seasonal influenza viruses.
What is subclade K?
Subclade K is a genetically distinct subgroup of influenza A(H3N2) viruses, according to the WHO.
These viruses have drifted genetically from related J.2.4 viruses and carry several amino acid changes in the haemagglutinin protein, which plays a key role in the virus’s attachment to human cells.
Influenza viruses commonly undergo such changes over time. Global surveillance tracks these shifts to assess potential impacts on transmission, severity, and vaccine effectiveness.
Where is subclade K circulating?
The WHO reports that subclade K viruses were first detected at increased levels beginning in August 2025, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.
Since then, the viruses have been identified in more than 34 countries over the past six months, including the U.S.
Detections are increasing in many regions of the world, except so far in South America, according to the WHO.
What is happening in America?
Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that influenza activity in North America remains relatively low but is increasing, driven mainly by detections of influenza A viruses.
During the 2025 southern hemisphere influenza season in the Americas, transmission exceeded the seasonal threshold in mid-March and mainly remained at low to moderate levels, the CDC says.
The CDC reports a predominance of influenza A(H3N2) in both the United States and Canada, with growing detections of the A(H3N2) subclade K.
Are symptoms different?
The WHO says there is no evidence that infections caused by subclade K produce symptoms that differ from or are more severe than those caused by other seasonal influenza A(H3N2) viruses.
Seasonal influenza symptoms typically include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headache and fatigue. Severity can vary based on age, underlying health conditions and immune status.
Do vaccines still protect?
Early estimates cited by the WHO suggest that seasonal influenza vaccines continue to protect against severe illness and hospitalization in both children and adults.
While effectiveness against symptomatic infection may vary from season to season, health officials say vaccination remains one of the most effective public health measures, particularly for people at higher risk of influenza complications and their caregivers.
Even when circulating viruses differ genetically from vaccine strains, vaccines may still reduce the risk of severe outcomes, the WHO says.
What happens next?
The WHO says it continues to monitor global influenza activity and viral evolution, while supporting countries in surveillance efforts and updating guidance as new data emerge.
Health officials note that changes in circulating influenza viruses are expected each season and are routinely assessed through international monitoring systems.
Early estimates cited by the World Health Organization suggest that seasonal influenza vaccines continue to protect against severe illness and hospitalization in both children and adults. (Dreamstime/TNS/Dreamstime/TNS)
The Powerball jackpot has jumped to an eye-popping $1.7 billion, after the 46th drawing passed without a big winner.
The numbers drawn Monday night were 3, 18, 36, 41, 54 and the Powerball 7.
Since Sept. 6, there have been 46 straight drawings without a big winner.
The next drawing will be Christmas Eve on Wednesday, with the prize expected to be the 4th-largest in U.S. lottery history.
Powerball’s odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes growing as they roll over when no one wins. Lottery officials note that the odds are far better for the game’s many smaller prizes. There are three drawings each week.
The estimated $1.6 billion jackpot goes to a winner who opts to receive 30 payments over 29 years through an annuity. Winners almost always choose the game’s cash option, which for Monday night’s drawing would be an estimated $735.3 million.
Powerball tickets cost $2, and the game is offered in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Esta fotografía del miércoles 17 de diciembre de 2025 muestra boletos de la lotería Powerball, en Nashville, Tennessee. (AP Foto/George Walker IV)
Joselyn Walsh was working from her Pilsen home last month when her phone began to ring. It was a special agent from the FBI, the caller said, and they needed to speak with her.
Unfamiliar with the number, the 31-year-old part-time researcher, part-time garden store worker dismissed the call as spam. But then her cell sounded again. This time, Walsh googled the 10 digits flashing up at her.
Sure enough, it was the FBI headquarters in Chicago. And they had a warrant out for her arrest.
“How is this possible?” Walsh wondered.
Walsh is among six protesters facing federal conspiracy charges in one of the most high-profile cases to emerge from Operation Midway Blitz, the Trump administration’s mass deportation mission in Chicago this fall. They are accused of conspiring to forcibly impede a federal immigration agent at a September protest at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview.
Charged alongside four Democratic politicians and one political staffer, Walsh is arguably the least known of the group, known as the ‘Broadview Six.’ She said she doesn’t know her co-defendants and still doesn’t know why, among the hundreds that went to protest outside of the west suburban processing center during the two-month operation, she’s been singled out in federal court.
The case stands to test the impact and bounds of protest in the second Trump administration.
“I think (conviction),” said Steven Heyman, a law professor with the Chicago-Kent College of Law, “would send a real strong message that the government is capable of taking severe measures to suppress, I would say, legitimate dissent.”
Walsh remains confident in her innocence. But she’s keenly aware of what’s at stake.
“There’s the reality of wow, years in prison are on the line here,” she said. Still, the charges have also sharpened her resolve, spurring her to speak louder.
Weeks after her indictment, she continues to use her voice, often performing as part of a protest music collective and sometimes, returning to Broadview. Her co-defendants, by themselves and through attorneys, have denounced the charges as an attack on the First Amendment and maintained they will not be deterred. They’re not alone.
After an arraignment hearing in the case outside of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse downtown just over a month ago, dozens of protesters gathered under the red sculpted arches of Federal Plaza.
The conspiracy charges against Walsh and her co-defendants stem from a protest outside the building nearly three months ago. Alongside Walsh, charged are congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, Cook County Board candidate Catherine “Cat” Sharp, 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbit, Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw, and Andre Martin, who is Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager.
The group is accused of surrounding and damaging an ICE vehicle during a Broadview protest on the morning of Sept. 26. An 11-page indictment alleges the group “crowded together in the front and side of the Government Vehicle” and pushed against it “to hinder and impede its movement.”
Protesters surround a federal SUV and try to prevent it from driving to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Sept. 26, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Prosecutors further allege protesters scratched the car’s body, broke a side mirror and a rear windshield wiper and etched the word “PIG” into the paint.
The indictment includes the conspiracy count — which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison — as well as several other counts of impeding a federal officer, each punishable by up to one year in federal prison.
Walsh started protesting in Broadview early on into the blitz. She flocked to the facility to sing.
A lifelong musician from rural Missouri, Walsh said she’d often read about the goings-on in the world growing up. But she was inspired to start taking action after 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, while she was at college in St. Louis.
“(It) was this moment of, I think, recognizing how … power and control works in our country and in our world,” she said.
Since moving to Chicago six years ago, Walsh has grown into her advocacy. After working at a food and farming nonprofit in the city — work Walsh says was, and still is, important to her — she found herself wanting to delve into community organizing. She hit her stride through music.
Dave Martin, from left, Joselyn Walsh and Joseph Ozment sing pro-Palestinian carols with other activists near the State/Lake CTA station, Dec. 14, 2025, in Chicago. In October, a federal grand jury indicted six people, including Walsh, on conspiracy charges stemming from a protest outside the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
For the past two years, Walsh has performed in a citywide collective of people working to bring “the power of music to protests,” she said. Called Songs for Liberation, the group includes musicians and non-musicians alike (even “shower singers,” Walsh noted). The group started as Songs for Ceasefire in support of Palestine but has grown to encompass a broader mission to dissent through song.
“Protests don’t necessarily have a lot of music,” Walsh said. “But (we think it’s) a really powerful thing.”
The collective often performs at events and protests, sometimes by invitation and sometimes just by members’ interest, with appearances ranging from marches outside the Democratic National Convention last year to caroling outside Christkindlmarket.
The Broadview protests, which became a flash point against the Trump administration’s crackdown, were a natural fit for the collective. For weeks through the blitz, and even still today as immigration enforcement continues, some amalgamation of members would travel out to the facility and through the clashes and commotion and force, perform.
“No human is illegal here,” Walsh sang with the collective one morning in Broadview, her performance captured in a video posted online. A gas mask hung around Walsh’s arm as she strummed a guitar. “We refuse to be controlled by fear.”
Andrew Walsh isn’t surprised by his daughter’s activism. While she was a shy kid, he recalled that she’s always been fiercely compassionate. And she’s long been privy to conversations about morality and politics. Her mother is a minister. Andrew is a religion professor at a small college in Missouri, whose research focuses on the intersection of religion and social issues.
Andrew said he’s proud of his daughter. And terrified.
“(But) we can’t simply submit in fear,” he said. “Because if we all submit in fear, we’ve seen in history how that turns out.”
Sept. 26 started out just like any other day of protesting and singing, Walsh recalled, but what did stick out to her was that it felt like “there was a whole other level of random impunity.” That morning, federal agents fired baton rounds, tear gas and other less-lethal ammunition at about 200 people gathered outside the Broadview processing center, the Tribune reported at the time.
Walsh remembered leaving early after a foam baton round struck and put a hole in her guitar.
“We’re just singing and then all of a sudden, I feel this impact,” she said. After a moment of disbelief, Walsh walked away, drank water, spoke with some friends and ultimately, went home.
Joselyn Walsh, right, and other musicians play and sing in the protest area near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility on Oct. 10, 2025, in Broadview. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)Joselyn Walsh holds her guitar on Oct. 10, 2025, near a hole she said was caused by federal agents shooting pepper balls and baton rounds at musicians, protesters and reporters near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Walsh, on the advice of her attorney, couldn’t speak to the crux of the indictment, though she did call the government’s allegations “totally baseless.”
In a video of the confrontation cited by the Department of Justice, a black SUV is seen slowly rolling through a crowd of people as they chant, “up, up with liberation, down, down with deportation!” As the car inches forward, footage shows some protesters hitting the hood and windows as they try to block its movement. In another video that has circulated widely online, a guitar briefly flashes into frame.
A request for comment sent to the Department of Justice was forwarded to an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, who declined to comment because the case was pending.
“Federal agents perform dangerous, essential work every single day to enforce our immigration laws and keep our communities safe,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an October statement when charges were announced. “When individuals resort to force or intimidation to interfere with that mission, they attack not only the agents themselves but the rule of law they represent.”
The FBI called Walsh a month later. She’d been continuing to protest, while balancing her research job and taking shifts at a Humboldt Park garden store. Also due to get married in June, Walsh and her partner have been planning a wedding and had a tasting set for the day the FBI rang. They canceled their appointment.
The news of her arrest warrant left Walsh shocked and confused.
“I’m just sitting here, wracking my brain, like what possibly could have happened?” she said.
There’s been a growing trend in protests giving way to conspiracy charges.
Last year, San Francisco prosecutors charged 26 protesters with federal conspiracy after they allegedly blocked the Golden Gate Bridge for hours to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. Amid the immigration protests in Los Angeles this summer, an activist was indicted on a federal conspiracy charge after he was accused of handing out face shields during an anti-ICE demonstration, though the charges have since been dropped. In Washington, nine people are facing a federal conspiracy charge tied to an immigration protest outside a Spokane DHS office earlier this year.
The First Amendment protects individuals’ right to express their views on the government, said Heyman, the Chicago-Kent College of Law professor. Those protections do not extend to “true threats of violence” or false and defamatory statements — but they do extend to sharp criticism, Heyman said.
In his estimation, “most of the kinds of criticisms that these protesters are making about ICE and the Trump administration (are) 100% protected by the First Amendment,” Heyman said.
Where problems arise is that, generally, conduct is not constitutionally protected, he said.
“If they’re physically blocking an ICE vehicle and surrounding it and trying to prevent it from passing and so forth, basically that’s not protected under the First Amendment,” he said. Still, he said he believes that prosecuting the protesters for felonies, especially for conspiracy, is “an extreme overreaction.”
But with Walsh’s case, there’s also the matter that two criminal laws are at issue — impeding by force and conspiracy — and the burden is on the government to prove the statutes were violated, Heyman said.
Recent weeks have seen other cases out of the blitz fail to hold up in court. Last month, a federal judge dismissed charges against a woman shot by a Border Patrol agent after she allegedly rammed his vehicle in Brighton Park. And this month, a case was dismissed against Lakeview comedy club manager whom federal authorities had accused of slamming the door on the leg of a Border Patrol agent during an October immigration arrest.
For the higher charge against the Broadview protesters, prosecutors would have to show that they actually engaged in a conspiracy, Heyman said. That could be done in two ways, by demonstrating protesters had an outright agreement to conspire or had reached an implicit understanding they were going to commit a crime, according to Heyman. He noted the latter is vague and could be hard to prove.
Joshua Herman, who is representing Abughazaleh in the case, wrote in an email statement to the Tribune that the particular statute invoked by prosecutors in their conspiracy charge also does not require proof of an “overt act” — only an unlawful agreement.
“How these specific individuals,” he stated, “who were amongst a crowd of other (protesters) could spontaneously form such an unlawful agreement is a question the government will need to answer.”
He added that the statute cited is also rarely used and, to his knowledge, hasn’t been employed to prosecute protest activity in this way, despite it being on the books for well over a century.
Heyman said it’s unlikely Walsh and her co-defendants would receive the maximum sentence should they be convicted. But the case in itself, he added, conveys intimidation.
“The Trump administration is trying to send the message that they will tolerate no opposition to their immigration crackdown,” Heyman said.
He compared the case to prosecuting political opponents.
At a status hearing for the legal battle earlier this month, defense attorneys asked federal prosecutors to turn over White House communications related to a “selective prosecution” argument.
Brad Thomson, Walsh’s attorney, contends that with this case, the government is prosecuting people for protesting together.
“That’s a real danger,” he said, “when you’re trying to have a society that has a robust discourse about the actions of the government.”
When the indictment against Walsh came to light, “it definitely rocked our community,” said Jack Sundstrom, a musician who’s performed with Songs for Liberation for the past six months. Sundstrom, like Walsh, performed with the collective in Broadview.
“It’s scary and terrifying, and it would be a lie to say that this isn’t something that keeps me up at night sometimes,” the 25-year-old Glenview resident said. But in his circle, he went on, there’s also “very much a sense of we’re going to keep doing this work.” He especially intends to keep organizing through music.
“As the song goes, the people united will never be defeated,” he said. “So I am going to continue doing what I do for as long as I can.”
Walsh hopes this doesn’t keep people from speaking out.
For her and her fiancé Joseph Ozment, it’s been a surreal few weeks since her charges were unsealed. But while scary, it’s been motivating, said Ozment, who’s also involved with Songs for Liberation.
“If they’re angry at us for this,” he said, “I think it’s for a good cause.”
They’ve also been reconciling what they’re facing with what they’re fighting for.
“I get to sleep in a warm bed,” Ozment said. “I know that … I’m not going to be whisked away in the middle of the night, and my family aren’t going to know where I am.”
The parallel, Walsh said, has only emboldened her more.
“It’s great that some of us have these rights,” she said, “and it’s awful that not all of us do. We need to keep fighting for that.”
Joselyn Walsh at her apartment on Dec. 10, 2025, in Chicago. Walsh is a musician and activist who plays with a group of musicians called Songs of Liberation. Walsh is among six protesters facing federal conspiracy charges in one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Operation Midway Blitz. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to health care providers between 2021 and 2022 for people who had already died, according to a new report from the independent watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services.
But the department’s Office of Inspector General said it expects a new provision in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill requiring states to audit their Medicaid beneficiary lists may help reduce these improper payments in the future.
These kinds of improper payments are “not unique to one state, and the issue continues to be persistent,” Aner Sanchez, deputy regional inspector general in the Office of Audit Services told The Associated Press. Sanchez has been researching this issue for a decade.
The watchdog report released Tuesday said more than $207.5 million in managed care payments were made on behalf of deceased enrollees between July 2021 to July 2022. The office recommends that the federal government share more information with state governments to recover the incorrect payments — including a Social Security database known as the Full Death Master File, which contains more than 142 million records going back to 1899.
Sharing the Full Death Master File data has been tightly restricted due to privacy laws which protect against identity theft and fraud.
The massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump this summer expands how the Full Death Master File can be used by mandating Medicaid agencies to quarterly audit their provider and beneficiary lists against the file, beginning in 2027. The intent is to stop payments to dead people and improve accuracy.
Tuesday’s report is the first nationwide look at improper Medicaid payments. Since 2016, HHS’ inspector general has conducted 18 audits on a selection of state programs and had identified that Medicaid agencies had improperly made managed care payments on behalf of deceased enrollees totaling approximately $289 million.
The government had some success using the Full Death Master File to prevent improper payments earlier this year. In January, the Treasury Department reported that it had clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave Treasury temporary access to the file for three years as part of the 2021 appropriations bill.
Meanwhile, the SSA has been making unusual updates to the file itself, adding and removing records, and complicating its use. For instance, the Trump administration in April moved to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead and cancel their Social Security numbers to crack down on immigrants who had been temporarily allowed to live in the U.S. under programs started during the Biden administration.
FILE – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building is seen, April 5, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
By JAMES POLLARD and LINLEY SANDERS The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Most Americans aren’t making end-of-year charitable giving plans, according to the results of a new AP-NORC poll, despite the many fundraising appeals made by nonprofits that rely on donation surges in the calendar’s final month to reach budget targets.
The survey, which was conducted in early December by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that about half U.S. adults say they’ve already made their charitable contributions for 2025. Just 18% say they’ve donated and will donate again before the year is over. Only 6% report they haven’t given yet but will do so by December’s end. The rest, 30%, haven’t donated and don’t plan to.
But weaker income gains and steep price inflation meant that lower-income households had less money to redistribute. Other surveys have also found a yearslong decline in the number of individuals who give.
December still serves as a “very important deadline” for donors, according to Dianne Chipps Bailey, managing director of Bank of America’s Philanthropic Solutions division. She cited estimates from the National Philanthropic Trust that nearly one-third of annual giving happens in the final month.
“December 31 does provide a target to make sure that they’ve given what they intended to give before the year is over,” Bailey said.
Few donate on GivingTuesday
Perhaps no day is more consequential for fundraisers than GivingTuesday. Beginning as a hashtag in 2012, the well-known celebration of generosity now sees many nonprofits leverage the attention to solicit donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Americans donated an estimated $4 billion to nonprofits this most recent GivingTuesday.
But Americans were much more likely to make a Black Friday purchase than a GivingTuesday gift this year. Just under half say they bought something for Black Friday, according to the poll, compared to about 1 in 10 who say they donated to a charity for GivingTuesday.
“Black Friday gets the lion’s share of things,” said Oakley Graham, a 32-year-old from Missouri. “And then you’ve got GivingTuesday a couple days later. Most people have probably spent all their spending money at that point.”
Graham said his family has “definitely tightened the financial belt” in recent years. He and his wife are dealing with student loan debts now that the Trump administration suspended their repayment plan. Their two young children are always growing out of their clothes. It’s good if there’s anything left for savings.
He still tries to help out his neighbors — from handiwork to Salvation Army clothing donations.
“Not that I’m not willing to give here and there,” he said. “But it seems like it’s pretty tough to find the extra funds.”
Checkout charity proves more popular
Another avenue for nudging Americans to give is more widely used, even if individual donations are small. The AP-NORC poll found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they donated to a charity when checking out at a store this year.
Graham is among those who reported giving at the cash register. As an outdoorsy person who enjoys hunting and fishing when he can, he said he is “always susceptible to giving for conservation.” He said he likely rounded up once or twice at Bass Pro Shops for that reason.
“With the finances, I don’t do a lot of buying these days. But a couple cents here or there is like — I can do that,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like much. But I know if everybody did it would make a difference.”
The poll found that older adults — those over 60 — are more likely than Americans overall to donate at store checkouts.
One Texas architect’s unusual process for year-end donations
About one-quarter of Americans plan to donate in the last weeks of the year, and Chuck Dietrick is one of them. The 69-year-old architect applies what he calls a “shotgun approach” as the year comes to a close.
He and his wife give monthly to Valley Hope, a nonprofit addiction services provider where their son did inpatient rehab. And then there are eight or so organizations that they support with end-of-the-year gifts.
“We’re doing our own thing,” he said. “I don’t do Black Friday or Cyber Monday, either … So, I don’t do the GivingTuesday thing.”
Dietrick estimates their household donated somewhere between $501 and $2,500. The Dallas-Fort Worth area couple mostly contributes to organizations that have touched their lives or those of their friends.
There’s the Florida hospice that Dietrick said did a “super job” caring for his mother. He has relatives and friends who served in the military, so he also gives to the Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project.
“I would rather give a smaller amount of money to a variety of institutions that I care about rather than giving a big chunk of money to one,” he explained.
Giving plans went unaffected by federal funding cuts or the shutdown
Most 2025 donors say the amount they gave wasn’t affected much by this year’s federal funding cuts or the government shutdown, according to the AP-NORC poll, although about 3 in 10 say those situations did impact the charities they chose to support.
The survey suggests that, while private donors mobilized millions to fill funding gaps and hunger relief groups saw donation totals spike last month, many Americans did not respond with their pocketbooks to the nonprofit sector’s newfound pressures this year.
Jeannine Disviscour, a 63-year-old Baltimore teacher, is among 2025 donors who say the cuts prompted them to give more.
“I did not donate on GivingTuesday,” she said. “But I did donate that week because I was feeling the need to support organizations that I felt might not continue to get the support they needed to get to be successful.”
She estimates her household gave between $501 and $2,500. That included support for National Public Radio. Congress eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting this summer, leaving hundreds of NPR stations with some sort of budget hole. She said she wanted to ensure journalism reached news deserts where residents have few media options.
Living in an area that is home to many refugees, Disviscour also donated her time and money to the Asylee Women Enterprise. She said the local nonprofit helps asylum-seekers and other forced migrants find food, shelter, clothing, transportation and language classes.
“There is a gap in funding and there’s more need than ever,” she said. “And I wanted to step up. And it’s in my community.”
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Sanders reported from Washington.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Dec. 4-8 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Chuck Dietrick poses for a portrait at his home in Anna, Texas, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2025. There are eight days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Dec. 23, 1972, in an NFL playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Oakland Raiders, Steelers running back Franco Harris scored a game-winning touchdown on a deflected pass with less than 10 seconds left. The “Immaculate Reception,” as the catch came to be known, is often cited as the greatest NFL play of all time.
Also on this date:
In 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel of New York; the verse, more popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas,” was later attributed to Clement C. Moore.
In 1913, the Federal Reserve System was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act.
In 1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to Japanese forces.
In 1948, former Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese World War II leaders were executed in Tokyo after being tried for war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.
In 1968, 82 crew members of the intelligence ship USS Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
In 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana (JEE’-nuh) Yeager, completed the first nonstop, non-refueled round-the-world flight as it returned safely to Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 2003, a Virginia jury sentenced teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty. Malvo and his older partner in crime, John Allen Muhammad, shot and killed 10 people over three weeks in October 2002, terrorizing the Washington, D.C., area. Muhammad was executed in 2009.
In 2024, President Joe Biden announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment weeks before Donald Trump, an outspoken proponent of capital punishment, was to begin a second term.
Today’s Birthdays:
Former Emperor Akihito of Japan is 92.
Actor-comedian Harry Shearer is 82.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark is 81.
Actor Susan Lucci is 79.
Distance runner Bill Rodgers is 78.
Football Hall of Famer Jack Ham is 77.
Political commentator William Kristol is 73.
Author Donna Tartt is 62.
Rock musician Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is 61.
Singer, model and former first lady of France Carla Bruni is 58.
Actor Finn Wolfhard is 23.
FILE – In this Dec. 23, 1972, file photo, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Franco Harris (32) eludes a tackle by Oakland Raiders’ Jimmy Warren as he runs 42-yards for a touchdown after catching a deflected pass during an AFC Divisional NFL football playoff game in Pittsburgh. Harris’ scoop of a deflected pass and subsequent run for the winning touchdown _ forever known as the “Immaculate Reception” _ has been voted the greatest play in NFL history. A nationwide panel of 68 media members chose the Immaculate Reception as the top play with 3,270 points and 39 first-place votes. (AP Photo/Harry Cabluck, File)
The Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills is waiving the admission fee to its museum through Jan. 2.
Officials for the center said they are offering free general admission to encourage reflection, learning, and community engagement during the holiday season, and especially after a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration last week in Australia.
“In the wake of the antisemitic attack in Australia, we’re again reminded how hate left unchecked can escalate to violence,” Eli Mayerfeld, the center’s CEO, said in a statement Friday. “We remain committed to educating, engaging, and empowering people of all backgrounds to stand up against hatred. If the cost of admission has ever been a barrier, we hope this opportunity encourages everyone to visit.”
The center invites visitors to explore its redesigned core exhibit, which centers on the personal experiences of Holocaust victims and survivors, many of whom rebuilt their lives in Michigan. It features immersive video testimony, archival footage, and artifacts to bring personal stories to the forefront and preserve these voices for future generations. The redesigned exhibit opened in early 2024.
The museum’s hours of operation are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. Special programming, including additional public tours and survivor presentations, is held daily between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. The center is closed on Saturday.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for senior citizens and college students, and $5 for students with identification.
Located at 28123 Orchard Lake Road north of 12 Mile Road, the Zekelman Holocaust Center was founded in 1984 and receives about 100,000 visitors annually.
Members of the public wander through the Zekelman Holocaust Center, in Farmington Hills, Jan. 22, 2024. The center has completely rebuilt its main exhibit space. (David Guralnick/The Detroit News)
By Maya Averbuch, Eric Martin and Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News
The U.S. has pursued a third oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, intensifying a blockade that the Trump administration hopes will cut off a vital economic lifeline for the country and isolate the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
The U.S. Coast Guard chased the U.S.-sanctioned Bella 1 on Sunday as it was en route to Venezuela. It boarded Centuries, a ship owned by a Hong Kong-based entity, on Saturday — the first non-sanctioned vessel to be targeted. Another very large crude carrier, the Skipper, was intercepted on Dec. 10.
The moves on three separate vessels represent the most concerted attempt to date to sever the financial links sustaining a government that Washington says is led by a drug-trafficking cartel, and one that it has also recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Maduro has so far withstood the onslaught, but the blockade is beginning to limit hard currency and to hurt an already battered economy.
State-owned Petróleos de Venezuela SA, known as PDVSA, ships most of its cargoes to China, usually through intermediaries using so-called dark-fleet tankers, older vessels with obscure ownership that ferry sanctioned oil from Venezuela as well as Iran and Russia. Imports of feedstock from Russia are also vital to dilute Caracas’ thick crude.
“Washington calculates that Maduro depends far more on oil exports than the US or China depends on his barrels,” said Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group. “With global balances loosening and prices falling, the U.S. judges it has growing leverage and is likely to intensify pressure on the Maduro regime.”
Washington’s campaign has caught the attention of oil traders, but Venezuela’s exports have dwindled over the years and now account for less than 1% of global demand. The market is also well supplied, and China has multiple alternative options. Oil prices advanced only marginally in early trade in Asia on Monday, with Brent crude climbing toward $61 a barrel.
Maduro has called the Trump administration’s recent moves — deadly strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs, the authorization of the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations and Trump’s order to block tankers — a bid to take Venezuela’s oil and install a puppet government.
“This escalation and stronger enforcement point towards a decline in the volume of exports,” said Francisco Monaldi, an energy expert at Rice University in Houston. “These days are going to be critical.”
The Trump administration’s military deployment in the Caribbean is the largest in the region in decades. The weekend’s maritime offensives are aimed at signaling that all tankers in the waters around Venezuela are at risk of interdiction and seizure, according to a person familiar with this month’s operations, who asked not to be identified discussing deliberations that have not been made public.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the blockade of sanctioned oil tankers would remain in “full force,” according to a post on X on Dec. 20.
The U.S. Treasury imposed oil sanctions on Venezuela in January 2019, during Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Later, the Biden administration adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to try to reverse Venezuela’s democratic backsliding, granting a waiver to Chevron Corp. in 2022 that allowed it to resume oil operations.
This year, U.S. officials reissued its license after it expired, but sought to guarantee that the Houston-based firm pays no royalties or taxes in cash to the Venezuelan government. Chevron has said its “operations in Venezuela continue without disruption and in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government.”
Venezuela’s oil industry has seen a dramatic decline in recent years, but Maduro’s administration has weathered sanctions and the exodus of up to eight million Venezuelans.
The country’s oil production reached the government’s 1.2 million barrels per day target, Venezuelan Vice President and Oil Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on Saturday. Production fell to around 400,000 barrels per day after the 2019 sanctions, but rebounded in later years, said Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Both ships intercepted over the weekend had Panamanian flags, though people familiar with the matter said a Chinese company holds title to the oil that was aboard the first ship, the Centuries supertanker. A White House spokesperson said the tanker was flying a false flag and carrying sanctioned oil.
“What they’re hoping for is a campaign of maximum pressure that will eventually make the regime collapse, without the need of putting boots on the ground,” said Dany Bahar, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington. “They’re trying to create a credible threat that will make this structure of power collapse, or high-level military turn around and decide to stand up to Maduro, and say, ‘You have to leave.’”
A right-wing shift in recent elections in Latin America is deepening Venezuela’s diplomatic isolation. Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and others signed a statement over the weekend demanding Venezuela respect democratic processes.
Some leaders in the region have still been critical of the campaign. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said she opposes foreign intervention into sovereign nations, when asked about her stance on opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said at Saturday’s Mercosur summit in his country that armed conflict in Venezuela would set “a dangerous precedent for the world.”
Maduro’s embattled government will have to reduce production quickly if it cannot export its oil as storage facilities are unable to hold much more crude.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington, D.C.. (Doug Mills/Pool/Getty Images North America/TNS)
By JONATHAN J. COOPER and SEJAL GOVINDARAO The Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — When Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest convention reached its halfway point, Erika Kirk tried to put a smiling face on things.
“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk, who has led the influential conservative organization since her husband Charlie was assassinated in September. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.”
That’s one way to put it.
Some of the biggest names in conservative media took turns torching each other on the main stage, spending more time targeting right-wing rivals than their left-wing opponents.
The feuds could ultimately define the boundaries of the Republican Party and determine the future of President Donald Trump’s fractious coalition, which appears primed for more schisms in the months and years ahead.
Here are some of the most notable moments from the four-day conference.
Shapiro torches podcasters
Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the conservative media outlet Daily Wire, set the tone with the first speech after Erika Kirk opened the convention. He attacked fellow commentators in deeply personal terms, saying some of the right’s most popular figures are morally bankrupt.
Candace Owens “has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years,” he said.
Megyn Kelly is “guilty of cowardice” because she’s refused to condemn Owens for spreading unsubstantiated theories about Kirk’s death.
And Tucker Carlson’s decision to host antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast was “an act of moral imbecility.”
Shapiro’s targets hit back
Barely an hour later, Carlson took the same stage and mocked Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him.
“I watched it,” he said. “I laughed.”
Others had their chance the next night.
“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” said Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser.
Kelly belittled Shapiro as a marginal figure in the conservative movement and said their friendship is over.
“I resent that he thinks he’s in a position to decide who must say what, to whom, and when,” Kelly said.
Owens, who has spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death, wasn’t welcome at the convention. But she responded on her podcast, calling Shapiro a “miserable imp.”
A schism over Israel and antisemitism
Israel came up repeatedly during the conference.
Some on the right have questioned whether the Republican Party’s historically steadfast support for Israel conflicts with Trump’s “America First” platform. Carlson criticized civilian deaths in Gaza in remarks that wouldn’t have been out of place in progressive circles.
Some attendees dug deep into history, highlighting Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty off the Sinai Peninsula in 1967. Israel said it mistook the ship for an Egyptian vessel during the Six Day War, while critics have argued that it was a deliberate strike.
Bannon accused Shapiro, who is Jewish, and others who staunchly support Israel of being part of “the Israel first crowd.” Kelly said criticism from Shapiro and Bari Weiss, the newly installed head of CBS News, “is about Israel.”
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said on the first night of the convention. Vance would be the 48th president if he takes office after Trump.
Turning Point is a major force on the right, with a massive volunteer network around the country that can be especially helpful in early primary states.
Vance was close with Charlie Kirk, whose backing helped enable his rapid political rise. The vice president is scheduled to close out the convention as the final speaker on Sunday.
MAHA teams up with MAGA
The Make America Healthy Again movement had a big presence at Turning Point, signaling its quick rise in the right-wing ecosystem.
MAHA is spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services. However, there has been friction with other parts of the Make America Great Again coalition, particularly when it comes to rolling back environmental regulations.
Wellness influencer Alex Clark, whose podcast is sponsored by Turning Point, asked the crowd whether the Environmental Protection Agency is “with us or against us?”
“Big chemical, big ag and big food are trying to split MAGA from MAHA so things can go back to business as usual, but we don’t want that, do we?” Clark said.
Clark and others have asked for Trump to fire EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who responded by reaching out to MAHA activists. The EPA also said it would release a MAHA agenda for the agency.
“The Trump EPA wants to partner with the MAHA community and make sure everyone has a seat at the table,” EPA press secretary Carolyn Holran said in response to Clark’s speech.
Erika Kirk, center, speaks as Jack Posobiec, left, and Megyn Kelly look on during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Erika Kirk, leader of the powerful conservative youth organization, endorsed him on opening night of its annual AmericaFest convention, drawing cheers from the crowd.
But the four-day gathering revealed more peril than promise for Vance or any other potential successor to President Donald Trump, and the tensions on display foreshadow the treacherous waters that they will need to navigate in the coming years. The “Make America Great Again” movement is fracturing as Republicans begin considering a future without Trump, and there is no clear path to holding his coalition together as different factions jockey for influence.
“Who gets to run it after?” asked commentator Tucker Carlson in his speech at the conference. “Who gets the machinery when the president exits the scene?”
Vance, who has not said whether he will run for president, is Turning Point’s closing speaker Sunday, appearing at the end of a lineup that includes U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Donald Trump Jr.
Turning Point backs Vance for president
Erika Kirk, who took over as Turning Point’s leader when her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated, said Thursday that the group wanted Vance “elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.” The next president will be the 48th in U.S. history.
Turning Point is a major force on the right, with a nationwide volunteer network that can be especially helpful in early primary states, when candidates rely on grassroots energy to build momentum.
The endorsement carried “at least a little bit of weight” for 20 year-old Kiara Wagner, who traveled from Toms River, New Jersey, for the conference.
“If someone like Erika can support JD Vance, then I can too,” Wagner said.
Vance was close with Charlie Kirk. After Kirk’s assassination on a college campus in Utah, the vice president flew out on Air Force Two to collect Kirk’s remains and bring them home to Arizona. The vice president helped uniformed service members carry the casket to the plane.
A post-Trump Republican Party?
The Republican Party’s identity has been intertwined with Trump for a decade. Now that he is constitutionally ineligible to run for reelection, the party is starting to ponder a future without him at the helm.
So far, it looks like settling that question will require a lot of fighting among conservatives. Turning Point featured arguments about antisemitism, Israel and environmental regulations, not to mention rivalries between leading commentators.
Carlson said the idea of a Republican “civil war” was “totally fake.”
“There are people who are mad at JD Vance, and they’re stirring up a lot of this in order to make sure he doesn’t get the nomination,” he said. Carlson describe Vance as “the one person” who subscribes to the “core idea of the Trump coalition,” which Carlson said was “America first.”
Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet framed the discord as a healthy debate about the future of the movement, an uncomfortable but necessary process of finding consensus.
“We’re not hive-minded commies,” he wrote on X. “Let it play out.”
Vance appeared to have the edge as far as Turning Point attendees are concerned.
“It has to be JD Vance because he has been so awesome when it comes to literally any question,” said Tomas Morales, a videographer from Los Angeles. He said “there’s no other choice.”
Trump has not chosen a successor, though he has spoken highly of both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, even suggesting they could form a future Republican ticket. Rubio has said he would support Vance.
Asked in August whether Vance was the “heir apparent,” Trump said “most likely.”
“It’s too early, obviously, to talk about it, but certainly he’s doing a great job, and he would be probably favorite at this point,” he said.
Any talk of future campaigns is complicated by Trump’s occasional musings about seeking a third term.
“I’m not allowed to run,” he told reporters during a trip to Asia in October. “It’s too bad.”
Attendees applaud during Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)
The Powerball jackpot now stands at an estimated $1.6 billion, making it one of the largest lottery prizes in U.S. history, Powerball officials said Sunday.
No ticket matched all six winning numbers on Saturday — white balls 4, 5, 28, 52, 69 and red Powerball 20. That sets up the fifth-largest U.S. jackpot ever for Monday’s drawing, according to a news release from Powerball.
The biggest U.S. jackpot was $2.04 billion in 2022. The winner bought the ticket in California and opted for a lump-sum payment of $997.6 million.
The odds of winning Monday’s jackpot, which is the fourth-largest in Powerball history, are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball.
The winner can opt for a lump-sum payment estimated at $735.3 million or an annuitized prize estimated at $1.6 billion. Both prize options are before taxes.
The annuity option offers one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year, Powerball said.
Powerball is available in 45 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is overseen by the Multi-State Lottery Association, a nonprofit group made up of state lotteries. Profits from ticket sales are used by states to support public education and other services.
Powerball lottery tickets are seen Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
The Great Lakes Water Authority has started building a new tunnel in southwest Detroit. The project will divert excess stormwater from a large sewer line along the Rouge River to a retention and treatment basin nearby.
Potential to address a longstanding problem
GLWA Chief Operating Officer Navid Mehram says the tunnel will reduce the risk of flooding. Additionally, it should mean fewer basement sewage backups during heavy rain.
“We’re making an investment in our existing system by rerouting some flows, so that we can leverage an existing facility that wasn’t receiving all the flow it can treat,” Mehram says.
GLWA officials pose with part of a tunnel boring machine
The tunnel will be almost 4,000 feet long and several feet wide. Nehram says GLWA expects to finish the job in 2028.
“Our projects are very large,” he says. “This is a tunneling project, which is extremely complicated.”
Besides reducing sewage backups, Mehram says the project will also make the system more resilient to heavy rain.
“This not only provides us with water quality improvements along the Rouge River, but it can also provide a backup for our Water Resource Recovery Facility,” he says.
Who’s paying for it?
The project will cost $87 million. Mehram says GLWA will use both government grants and sewer rate revenues to pay for it. He says it will not increase customers’ bills.
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The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the U.S. won’t take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after President Donald Trump announced the appointment of a special envoy to Greenland.
Trump’s announcement on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry would be the U.S. special envoy prompted a new flare-up of tensions over Washington’s interest in the vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark’s foreign minister said in comments to Danish broadcasters that he plans to summon the U.S. ambassador.
”We have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said in a joint statement. “They are fundamental principles. You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security.”
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland,” they added in the statement, emailed by Frederiksen’s office. “We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.”
Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. In March, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of underinvesting there.
The issue gradually drifted out of the headlines, but in August, Danish officials summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland. Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States.
On Sunday, Trump announced Landry’s appointment as special envoy, saying that “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.”
Landry wrote in a post on X that “it’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
FILE – Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a brief statement that “the appointment confirms the continued American interest in Greenland.”
“However, we insist that everyone — including the U.S. — must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he added.
Danish broadcasters TV2 and DR reported that in comments from the Faroe Islands later Monday, Løkke Rasmussen said he will call in the U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen, Kenneth Howery, for a meeting at the ministry.
Before issuing the joint statement with Frederiksen, Nielsen wrote on Facebook that Denmark had again woken up to a new announcement from the U.S. president, but it “does not change anything for us at home.”
Earlier this month, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service said in an annual report that the U.S. is using its economic power to “assert its will” and threaten military force against friend and foe alike.
Denmark is a member of the European Union as well as NATO.
Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the EU’s executive Commission, told reporters in Brussels Monday that it wasn’t for him to comment on U.S. decisions. But he underlined the bloc’s position that “preserving the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, its sovereignty and the inviolability of its borders is essential for the European Union.”
FILE – Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen speaks during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
MARIENBERG, Germany – In a workshop tucked into the rolling hills of eastern Germany’s Ore Mountains, rows of wooden soldiers stood at attention. Their red coats gleamed and their square-jawed mouths – designed to crack nuts but mostly decorative – formed the trademark stiff grin of Steinbach Nutcrackers.
For decades, these handmade figures have sailed across the Atlantic and into American homes, filling mantels and collectors’ shelves and appearing in countless Christmas card photos. Alongside gingerbread houses and fir trees with all the trimmings, they are one of the most recognizable German exports of the holiday season.
This year, however, tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have given the stern-faced ornaments a new reason to grimace: About 95 percent of sales by the family-founded manufacturer, Steinbach Volkskunst, come from the United States and the company’s most reliable market has become its biggest bureaucratic headache.
Under a deal between Trump and the European Union reached earlier this year, most exports to the U.S. are subject to a 15 percent tariff. Separately, the Trump administration also ended the “de minimis” exemption – a rule that had allowed small parcels under $800 to enter duty-free.
The move was aimed at curbing low-cost imports from Chinese e-commerce giants such as Temu and Shein. But for niche businesses that rely on direct-to-consumer shipments, like Steinbach, that change hit even harder than 15 percent tariff.
“The biggest concern wasn’t price – it was instability,” CEO Rico Paul said, standing in front of a glass cabinet filled with colorful nutcrackers. “Policies changed depending on political mood. For us, planning ahead is essential. One day, the rules were one way, the next day they changed.”
For six months after Trump’s inauguration, confusion reigned. Initially, the president threatened tariffs of 30 percent or more on most goods, prompting the E.U. to ready plans for retaliation. The deal on 15 percent tariffs, reached in late July, ended that uncertainty.
But in late August, Trump issued an executive order ending the “de minimis” exemption, meaning a slew of new paperwork and bureaucracy.
Costs rose and delays mounted as Customs and Border Protection grappled to keep up with the surge in new parcels requiring clearance. With the holiday season approaching, Steinbach faced the possibility of its nutcrackers getting stuck in customs warehouses.
More than half of Steinbach’s business comes from online orders shipped directly to American doorsteps, and customers soon felt the increase. Prices are up roughly 25 percent compared to last year, because of the tariffs and customs costs, as well as rising wages.
“In the United States, our name is extremely well known,” Paul said. “We’re practically synonymous with the word nutcracker.” The outsize U.S. demand for Steinbach products, he added, “was always an advantage – until the tariff dispute.”
American affection for Steinbach’s products seems undiminished by the price increases. “We were worried Americans wouldn’t pay more,” Paul said, pulling up a fresh order from Monticello, Florida, on his phone. “But the loyalty is incredible. They’re still buying, even if it’s more expensive.”
That loyalty stretches back to the 1950s, when U.S. service members stationed in postwar Germany discovered the nutcrackers and brought them home as souvenirs. They quickly became a cultural shorthand for authentic European Christmas.
The nutcracker legacy itself is older. In Saxony’s Ore Mountain region, miners began carving these wooden figures in the 1600s, meant to bring protection and keep evil spirits at bay during the darkest months of winter.
French author Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” later inspired Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet “The Nutcracker.” The ballet, initially a flop in Russia, became an American holiday institution in the mid-20th century – catapulting the nutcracker to global fame as a Christmas icon.
On a late November morning at the Steinbach factory, about 40 artisans carved, sanded and painted wooden limbs, while sewing machines upstairs stitched miniature outfits. Outside, snow settled on fir branches as workers packaged the finished products for their long journey.
One detail is new: a bright yellow sticker on every box, addressed to the person who will decide if the toy enters the United States smoothly: “Dear U.S. Customs Officer,” it says, “Thank you for keeping the trade flowing.”
It may be wishful thinking. In October, U.S. news outlets reported that thousands of packages had stalled in customs hubs under the new rules. Some carriers reportedly disposed of abandoned shipments.
“Because of changes to U.S. import regulations, we are seeing many packages that are unable to clear customs due to missing or incomplete information,” UPS, the shipping company, said in a statement. “Our goal is to speed every package to its destination, while complying with federal customs regulations.”
In late November, UPS said that its brokerage team was clearing more than 90 percent of packages on the first day – but not without complications.
Still, Steinbach nutcrackers continue to sell well, particularly those with pop culture and political themes.
Last year, Steinbach introduced a pair of nutcrackers dubbed “Republican” and “Democrat,” bearing more than a passing resemblance to Trump and Kamala Harris. The Republican model sold out before Election Day.
Prices for the smallest nutcrackers start at about $150, while the largest and most intricate figures cost more than $700. Alongside traditional soldiers and Santas, Steinbach has embraced the American appetite for nutcrackers in all forms, including Star Wars stormtroopers, “Wizard of Oz” characters and even Pope Leo XIV.
But the tariffs and customs delays have prompted Steinbach to seek a work-around. “We are building a warehouse in Pennsylvania and hiring staff,” Paul said.
The nutcrackers will still be made in Germany – local craftsmanship remains a central selling point – but pre-shipping and storing finished goods in the United States stands to insulate the business from further regulatory whiplash. The tariffs and additional costs of maintaining and staffing the warehouse will be passed on to customers, but the move should eliminate paperwork and delays for shipments to individual buyers.
Steinbach is not alone. Across Germany, exporters large and small are recalculating.
“The escalation of U.S. import duties – now effectively averaging 15 percent on key industrial goods – has hit Germany particularly hard,” said Andreas Baur, foreign trade expert at the Munich-based Institute for Economic Research. “If you take January to September and compare it to the previous year, we have a decline [in exports] of about 8 percent, and for cars around 14 percent.”
OTTENDORF-OKRILLA, GERMANY – NOVEMBER 26: Baker Marlon Gnauck carries a board of traditional Dresden Christmas stollen in the Gnauck bakery on November 26, 2025 in Ottendorf-Okrilla, Germany. The Gnauck bakery is a fifth-generation family business. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
But beyond automakers, chemical giants and heavy industrial goods, the regulatory shift has quietly reshaped the fate of artisans whose exports trade more in memories than volume.
On the outskirts of Dresden, a 90-minute drive northeast of the nutcracker workshop, the sweet smell of raisins and butter filled Bäckerei Gnauck in the district of Ottendorf-Okrilla.
Bäckerei Gnauck is one of about 100 bakeries permitted to bake true Dresdner Christstollen – a dense fruitcake that is tightly regulated by the Dresden Stollen Protection Association.
Here too, the lifting of the de minimis rule has left fifth-generation baker Marlon Gnauck kneading frustration into this year’s cake loaves.
Stollen, another German Christmas tradition that has gone global, has deep roots in and around Dresden, where it first appeared in the 14th century as a simple, butter-free loaf made under strict Advent fasting rules.
That changed in 1491, when Pope Innocent VIII issued the “Butter Letter,” allowing bakers to enrich the dough. Spices, candied fruit and almonds followed and, by the 18th century, Dresden bakers were presenting enormous loaves to royalty, securing the bread’s vaunted holiday status.
OTTENDORF-OKRILLA, GERMANY – NOVEMBER 26: A traditional Dresden Christmas stollen is packaged at the Gnauck bakery on November 26, 2025 in Ottendorf-Okrilla, Germany. The Gnauck bakery is a fifth-generation family business. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
Today, mass-produced versions fill German supermarkets, but only a small group of certified bakeries may call their loaves Dresdner Stollen. Dotted with raisins, and carefully folded together before being baked and doused in confectioners sugar, Stollen is supposed to represent the image of a swaddled baby Jesus.
Every holiday season since 1999, Gnauck, a fifth-generation baker in his family, has shipped some of his stollen to Americans – half as corporate gifts, he estimates, and a quarter to families with German ancestry.
He has enjoyed hearing from happy customers, even those who make him wince with their “American innovations” such as toasting stollen or spreading it with peanut butter.
“Just a good slice of stollen, with a cup of coffee – that’s it, ” he said. “That’s how it should be enjoyed.”
But now a single two-kilogram shipment, with postage and duties, costs more than $170, he said as he attached the required documents to parcels bound for Dorchester, Massachusetts; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Houston.
“You’re looking at paying between $60 and $70 in import charges for a two-kilo stollen,” Gnauck said. “The product costs 50 euros [about $59]. Shipping is almost another 50. And then roughly $70 of customs and administrative fees.”
Only about 2 percent of Gnauck’s sales are to the United States, but the time required for paperwork and the additional costs for longtime customers have tainted the festive cheer. Gnauck’s verdict: “The Grinch lives in the White House,” he said. “Because what he’s actually doing is completely ruining the gifts.”
In October, after the first seasonal orders were shipped across the Atlantic, Gnauck temporarily stopped shipping to the U.S. after customers complained about unpredictable costs.
“We called the next 50 customers who had placed an order,” he said. “A quarter of them canceled. Another quarter of them reduced their order to a 1 kg, and the rest said they’d pay no matter what.”
Sending stollen to America was never economically logical, he said. “It was emotional. A gesture. And now that gesture is expensive.”
Some Dresden bakeries have stopped exporting to the United States altogether. But like Paul, the Steinbach CEO, Gnauck isn’t ready to quit. Both men said they simply want one thing from Trump: predictability.
Paul said a limited-edition nutcracker resembling Trump at the Resolute Desk – with a price tag of $399 – has nearly sold out. “The president is sitting at his desk and is signing a declaration, granting the Steinbach company duty-free status for all eternity,” he quipped.
For now, that remains fantasy: a wooden wish for stability in a season built on nostalgia – and customs logistics.
MARIENBERG, GERMANY NOVEMBER 26: Wooden nutcrackers stand on a shelf at Steinbach Volkskunst in Marienberg, Germany, on November 26, 2025. Steinbach Volkskunst is a family-run business that produces traditional nutcrackers as well as modern versions featuring characters such as Darth Vader, Sherlock Holmes, and Uncle Sam. Located in the Ore Mountains of Saxony, a region known for its Christmas crafts, Steinbach Volkskunst exports 95 percent of its production to the USA. (Photo: Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
An aerial view of Grant Park looking north in June 1973. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1910:Aaron Montgomery Ward won a lengthy court battle to keep Chicago’s lakefront “forever open, clear, and free of any buildings, or any obstruction whatsoever.” The Illinois Supreme Court ruled the Field Museum could not be built in or adjacent to Grant Park.
Ward forced the city to create and maintain the now more than 300-acre Grant Park and won legal recognition of citizens’ rights to have a say about the city’s parks.
The debate about the lakefront did not end, however, with Ward’s court victory. A large water-filtration plant next to Navy Pier, the soaring Lake Point Tower residential building, and the McCormick Place exhibition hall were built over the objections of lakefront preservationists. Grant Park, however, fulfilled Ward’s hopes and became the city’s front yard.
Paul Thompson, of the Chicago Blackhawks, circa 1934. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
1937: Chicago Blackhawks forward Paul Thompson scored a goal against his brother Cecil Thompson — Boston Bruins goalie — during the Bruins’ 2-1 win on the road at Boston Garden. It was the first time in NHL history one brother scored on another.
“The university believes in athletics and in a comprehensive program of physical education for all students,” the school’s board of trustees said in a statement. “It believes its particular interests and conditions are such that its students now derive no special benefit from intercollegiate football.”
The Bears organize for a brief cheering session in their dressing room after a 37-9 victory over the New York Giants in the NFL championship game on Dec. 21, 1941. They are (1) Jack Manders, (2) Dick Plasman, (3) Trainer Homer Cole, (4) George McAfee, (5) Billy Anderson, (6) Coach Hunk Anderson, (7) Coach Luke Johnsos, (8) Bob Snyder, (9) Al Matuza, (10) John Federovitch, (11) Coach George Halas, (12) Bob Swisher, (13) Ray McLean, (14) John Siegal, (15) Ray Nolting, (16) Trainer Andy Lotshaw, (17) Joe Mihal, (18) Joe Maniaci, (19) Bulldog Turner, (20) Dan Fortmann, (21) Al Baisi, (22) Ray Bray, (23) George Musso, (24) Lee Artoe, (25) Al Forte, (26) Joe Stydahar, and (27) George Wilson. (Chicago Tribune historical photo)
The Bears’ 37th and final point was scored on a drop kick from Ray “Scooter” McLean. It would be the last time a drop kick was used successfully in the NFL until Jan. 1, 2006. That’s when New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie — in his final NFL game — converted a point-after-touchdown by drop kick against the Miami Dolphins. According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the drop kick remains a legal maneuver in the NFL.
Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley claimed on Jan. 12, 1961, that the term “manager” was antiquated in baseball. That’s why he instituted the “college of coaches” for the 1961 season — eight men rotating in positions of leadership. The idea was abandoned by the 1963 season. (Chicago Tribune)
1960: Chicago Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley announced his team henceforth would be a ‘‘college of coaches” comprised of eight men: Rip Collins, Charlie Grimm, Elvin Tappe, Goldie Holt, Vedie Himsl, Harry Craft, Bobby Adams and Rube Walker. The college, with a few changes, ruled for five seasons.
“Now, about the word ‘manager,’” Wrigley said as he addressed the team’s annual press luncheon in January 1961. “I looked it up and the pure definition is ‘dictator.’” (Tribune editors balked at this explanation.)
Cook County sheriff's officers carry bodies to the medical examiner's office on Dec. 22, 1978, from John Wayne Gacy's house in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. (Quentin C. Dodt/Chicago Tribune)
With Gacy in custody, Des Plaines police and Cook County sheriff’s office investigators obtained a warrant and entered Gacy’s one-story, ranch-style house in unincorporated Norwood Park Township. They uncovered the first of 29 bodies buried on Gacy’s property — 26 in the crawl space under his home and three more outside the house. Gacy confessed to four more murders of victims, whose bodies were found in waterways south of Chicago.
Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, was convicted by a federal jury on Dec. 21, 2023. (Chicago Tribune)
2023: Former Ald. Edward Burke — the longest-serving alderman in Chicago history — was convicted by a federal jury of racketeering conspiracy and a dozen other counts for using the clout of his elected office to win private law business from developers. Deciding against running for reelection, he stepped down from office in May 2023.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall sentenced Burke to two years in prison — eight years less than the 10-year term that prosecutors originally sought — and fined him $2 million. Less than 10 months after reporting to federal prison, Burke was released in July 2025 to spend the rest of his sentence in the Chicago area, according to federal officials.
John Wayne Gacy in the back seat of a police car as he is transferred from the Des Plaines Police Department to Cook County Jail’s Cermak Health Services for observation on Dec. 23, 1978. (William Yates/Chicago Tribune)
Hurricane-force winds battered Colorado’s Front Range this week, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, closing highways and dozens of schools and causing extensive delays at Denver International Airport.
While the highest winds were recorded in the mountains and foothills, National Weather Service records show most of the Front Range saw significant wind gusts.
LONGMONT, CO – DECEMBER 19:A large tree lies across the roof of a house on Cornell Drive in Longmont on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. A National Weather Service red flag warning covers the mountains and foothills along the Front Range from Castle Rock to Fort Collins. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
An area of very old trees at Independence Oaks County Park has been recognized as part of a national network of old-growth forests, drawing attention to both rare natural features and thousands of years of human history tied to the land.
Carol Bacak-Egbo is an Oakland County Parks historian. She says the newly designated old-growth forest lies within a landscape shaped by Indigenous peoples for 5,000 to 6,000 years. The park sits near historic Native American trail routes, and contains the headwaters of the Clinton River, once a major travel route for the Anishinaabe across what is now southeast Michigan.
“This history doesn’t start with log cabins and sawmills,” Bacak-Egbo says. “People lived with and cared for this land long before Europeans arrived.”
Even in winter, Independence Oaks’ old-growth trees tower above the landscape. (Photo by Amanda LeClaire, WDET News)
Artifacts indicate the area was likely used as seasonal camps rather than permanent villages. The park also contains one of only two remaining wild rice beds in southeast Michigan, a culturally and spiritually significant food source for the Anishinaabe.
The forest largely escaped widespread logging and farming in the 19th century, almost by accident.
In the early 1900s, a wealthy Detroit businessman purchased land around Crooked Lake but left it undeveloped. Later owners also did not farm the southern portion of the property, allowing the old-growth trees to remain intact.
Park naturalist Kegan Schildberg says the designation supports efforts to protect remaining natural areas in Oakland County, which has developed rapidly during the last century.
Bacak-Egbo encourages visitors to view parks as places where natural and human history intersect.
“When people walk these trails, they aren’t just connecting with nature,” says Bacak-Egbo. “They are walking through the same forest people walked through hundreds and even thousands of years ago.”
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The scents of the season will be the focus of a pop-up event at Source Booksellers this weekend.
Terees Western is a “scent docent,” artisan perfumer and the owner of FragranTed. She says she explains the cultural, historical and emotional experience of scent the way a docent in a museum might explain a work of art.
Saturday, December 20 from 2-4 p.m. at Source Booksellers, Western will offer visitors a chance to craft a personal holiday scent.
She spoke to WDET’s Sascha Raiyn about the scents of the holidays and winter, and the event.
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Today is Friday, Dec. 19, the 353rd day of 2025. There are 12 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Dec. 19, 2008, citing imminent danger to the national economy, President George W. Bush ordered a $17.4 billion emergency bailout of the U.S. auto industry.
Also on this date:
In 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington led his army of more than 12,000 soldiers to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to camp for the winter.
In 1907, 239 workers died in an explosion at the Darr coal mine near Van Meter, Pennsylvania.
In 1960, fire broke out on the hangar deck of the nearly completed aircraft carrier USS Constellation at the New York Naval Shipyard, killing 50 civilian workers.
In 1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, concluding the Apollo program of crewed lunar landings.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. (He was subsequently acquitted by the Senate.)
In 2011, North Korea announced the death two days earlier of leader Kim Jong Il; North Koreans marched by the thousands to mourn while state media proclaimed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the nation’s new leader.
In 2016, a truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. (The suspected attacker was killed in a police shootout four days later.)
In 2023, a strong earthquake rocked a mountainous region of northwestern China, killing 131 people, reducing homes to rubble and leaving residents outside in below-freezing winter weather.
Today’s Birthdays:
Actor Tim Reid is 81.
Singer Janie Fricke is 78.
Actor Jennifer Beals is 62.
Basketball Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis is 61.
Olympic skiing gold medalist Alberto Tomba is 59.
Actor Kristy Swanson is 56.
Model Tyson Beckford is 55.
Actor Alyssa Milano is 53.
Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp is 53.
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal (JIH’-lihn-hahl) is 45.
Actor Annie Murphy is 39.
Journalist Ronan Farrow is 38.
Auto executives, from left, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, and Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli, testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, before a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the auto industry bailout. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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