Lucy Halliday and Chase Infiniti in ‘The Testaments.’ (Steve Wilkie/Disney)
The story continues in Gilead, and this time, it’s being told by a younger generation.
The Testaments, a new Hulu series based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood and set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, focuses on a group of teens who have grown up in the fictional dystopian society of Gilead as they navigate Aunt Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives.
“You’ll see how things change over time,” Ann Dowd, who reprises her role as Aunt Lydia in The Testaments, told ABC News. “What happens to these girls in this journey, this coming-of-age story? I think you’re going to find an entirely different experience than you did with ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.'”
Joining Dowd in the new series are Chase Infiniti as Agnes (previously known as Hannah in The Handmaid’s Tale), Lucy Halliday as Daisy, Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite, Mattea Conforti as Becka and Brad Alexander as Garth.
Infiniti began production on The Testaments after working on director Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, crediting the Oscar-winning film with sharpening her experience in ensemble work.
“I feel very grateful that I get to work with another ensemble, let alone a group of girls who are around my age,” she told Good Morning America at the premiere of The Testaments in Los Angeles on March 31. “I felt so grateful to have been a part of that, because we poured so much love into each other — we poured so much love into the story.”
Elisabeth Moss, who starred as June Osborne in all five seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale before the series wrapped last year, also appears in the new show.
“She loves this project so much and poured so much into it,” Infiniti said, adding that Moss extended her hand to the cast to let them know that if they needed anything, she was there for them.
The first three episodes of The Testaments are available to stream now on Hulu. New episodes will arrive every Wednesday through May 27.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News, Disney+ and Hulu.
Rex A. Heuermann pleads guilty in court to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree on April 8, 2026 in Riverhead, New York. (Photo by James Carbone – Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Admitted Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann was linked to one of his victims, Megan Waterman, by the distinct pattern on a Bounty paper towel, according to the district attorney.
In court on Wednesday, Heuermann changed his plea to guilty and admitted to the murders of eight women: Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Karen Vergata.
Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach from 1993 to 2010.
“This was his obsession,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told ABC News. “With his internet searches and his thought process, this was what was driving him.”
A piece of evidence that would’ve been presented had the case gone to trial is a rolled up Bounty paper towel recovered from Waterman’s mouth, Tierney said.
Waterman, 22, went missing in June 2010 and her remains were found in December 2010 in Gilgo Beach, according to Suffolk County police.
The paper towel had a particular pattern that Bounty created specifically for the box store BJ’s Wholesale Club, and that pattern was only in circulation in 2010, Tierney said.
When searching Heuermann’s home, investigators found a BJ’s receipt for Bounty paper towels, and “the SKU [stock-keeping unit] number was for a Bounty paper towel with that same pattern,” Tierney said.
“And so we were able to show that this Bounty paper towel was purchased by the defendant,” Tierney said. “And inside his desk drawer was a square of that same paper towel that matched perfectly and that he had kept in his office since 2010.”
That paper towel square was a “memento” for Heuermann, Tierney said, adding that prosecutors “would have utilized [that] at trial to link him to the commission of that particular murder.”
Heuermann was arrested in 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty to killing seven women. He was set to go to trial in September.
On Wednesday, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, prosecutors said. His sentencing is set for June 17.
Tierney said, from his “outside observation” as a prosecutor, Heuermann, 62, wanted to change his plea because “I think he was done.”
“He wanted this to come to a conclusion — that’s just my impression,” he said.
Waterman’s daughter, Liliana Waterman, told reporters on Wednesday that she accepts the guilty plea and is “very, very thankful.”
Part of the plea arrangement requires Heuermann to cooperate with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
“I think it’s very important,” Tierney said.
“This is clinical,” he said. “So I think they’re going to, hopefully, gain insight into him, his motivations, you know, what created this need or desire in him. And hopefully we’ll gain insight, you know, for cases going forward.”
The official trailer is out for Remarkably Bright Creatures, a new Netflix film based on the 2022 bestselling novel by Shelby Van Pelt. Sally Field plays Tova, a widow working at an aquarium who befriends an octopus named Marcellus. “Unbeknownst to Tova, Marcellus is on a mission to solve a mystery that will heal the widow’s heart and lead her to a life-changing discovery,” the movie’s description says. Lewis Pullman plays a young man who takes a maintenance job at the aquarium and has some healing of his own to do. The film debuts May 8 …
Legally Blonde returns to theaters next month for its 25th anniversary, with a bonus: A sneak peek at the upcoming Prime Video prequel series Elle. Plus, the original Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon, and Lexi Minetree, who plays the younger Elle in the series, have recorded a special introduction for the movie. Tickets are on sale now at FathomEntertainment.com …
Uma Thurman is returning for season 2 of Dexter: Resurrection. The actress will reprise her role as Charley, the former Special Ops officer who served as the right-hand woman for the serial killer-obsessed billionaire Leon Prater last season. As previously announced, Brian Cox is joining the cast of the Michael C. Hall drama as The New York Ripper. Dexter: Resurrection airs on Paramount+ …
Sean “Diddy” Combs attends the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 15, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Nine months after a New York jury convicted Sean “Diddy” Combs of transporting prostitutes across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties, the hip-hop mogul is set to appear in a federal appeals court on Thursday to challenge his lengthy prison sentence.
Acquitted last year of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, Combs argues that the judge imposed an overly harsh sentence by considering the crimes for which the jury found him not guilty.
“He sits in prison today, serving a 50-month sentence, because the district judge acted as a thirteenth juror,” Combs’ lawyers wrote in their appeal.
A panel of judges on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is set to hear the sentence challenge as well as Combs’ broader argument that he should not have been convicted because his sexual exploits are protected under the First Amendment.
His lawyers claim that Combs was merely “creating typical amateur pornography” by transporting escorts across state lines to engage in lengthy drug-fueled sex parties known as “freak offs.”
Lawyers with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, who initially asked for a 11-year sentence, argue the judge was correct in taking into account the violent way Combs treated his victims when handing down his sentence.
“According to Combs, the District Court should have closed its eyes to how he carried out his … offenses and abused his victims–violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them, and plying them with drugs,” prosecutors said in their appellate brief.
What was Combs found guilty of? After a two-month trial last summer, a jury reached a split verdict against Combs, acquitting him on the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering while finding him guilty of two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Though the jury determined that Combs did not coerce or exploit his victims — necessary elements to prove sex trafficking — they did conclude that he transported people across state lines for his “freak offs.”
Claiming legal victory, Combs’ lawyers unsuccessfully pushed for his release from prison, arguing he had already served enough time in prison while awaiting trial.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected those arguments and handed down a 50-month sentence, saying Combs was able to get away with violent and abusive conduct for years.
“The court is not assured that if released these crimes would not be committed again,” said Subramanian, who added that a lengthy sentence was needed “to send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability.”
How much time does Combs have left in his sentence? After spending about 14 months in the federal jail in Brooklyn ahead of his trial and sentencing, Combs has been serving his sentence at the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey. In addition to having those 14 months taken off his overall sentence, Combs is also likely eligible for a reduction in his sentence under the First Step Act and by participating in a drug rehabilitation program.
According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Combs’ tentative release date is April 15, 2028.
What is Combs’ argument to reduce his sentence? Combs’ lawyers have argued his sentence is “unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice” because it factored in conduct for which the jury acquitted Combs.
“The jury refused to authorize any punishment for coercive sex or conspiracy–because the evidence showed there was none,” his lawyers wrote in a reply brief. “The jury only authorized punishment for ‘prostitution.’ It never authorized a sentence four times the typical sentence for that crime.”
Prosecutors pushed back on those arguments, arguing that the federal sentencing guidelines allow the judge to consider relevant conduct, even if he was acquitted of those crimes.
“That is because ‘acquittal on criminal charges does not prove that the defendant is innocent; it merely proves the existence of a reasonable doubt as to his guilt,'” they argued.
How does the First Amendment apply to Combs’ conviction? Combs’ lawyers also asked the court to throw out the conviction altogether, arguing the prostitution at the center of his case was part of an effort to make “typical amateur pornography.”
“The encounters were highly choreographed performances involving costumes, lighting, and other staged effects. Later, Combs and his girlfriends often watched the films together. Such conduct is protected by the First Amendment,” his lawyers argued.
Prosecutors have told the court the transportation of sex across state lines “is not inherently expressive” conduct protected under the First Amendment.
“Combs’s intent to watch the sex sessions live cannot bring his interstate transportation of others to have sex for money within the First Amendment’s protection. Were it otherwise, any defendant who transported others to engage in prostitution could escape liability simply by watching or filming the sex,” prosecutors wrote in their brief.
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) with chicks on the sea ice at Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The status of several threatened species has been downgraded to endangered, and climate change is to blame, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Red List of Threatened Species, which was updated by the IUCN on Thursday, now includes the Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal on its endangered list.
The IUCN is the world’s largest environmental network and provides scientific, data-driven expertise on biodiversity conservation.
The Red List of Threatened Species is a comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. The species are listed in nine categories of risk: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.
Climate change is altering ice conditions and impacting food availability for these species, researchers told ABC News.
Emperor penguins moved from “near threatened” to endangered, according to the IUCN.
Satellite images collected from the region since 2009 indicate that the population of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has been decreasing for about a decade, Phillip Trathan, member of the IUCN’s Penguin Specialist Group, told ABC News.
“Ultimately, there’s only one trajectory, and that’s downwards,” Trathan said.
The main threat the penguins are facing is lack of sea ice due to climate change, Trathan added. Since 2016, sea ice has been diminishing and changing the whole ecosystem in Antarctica, including the molting process — when penguins shed their old feathers — and foraging opportunities, he said. Emperor penguins mainly consume fish, squid and crustaceans in Antarctic waters.
Scientists also are seeing patterns and major population changes in pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, that are making them “very nervous,” Kit Kovacs, Svalbard program leader for the Norwegian Polar Institute and chair of IUCN’s Pinniped Specialist Group, told ABC News.
The Antarctic fur seal has declined “precipitously” — losing about 57% of the adult population in the last three generations, Kovacs said.
The IUCN moved the species from “least concern” in the last pinniped assessment — which happened in 2014 — to endangered.
“That doesn’t happen very often, that you jump so many categories at once,” Kovacs said.
Populations of the krill that Antarctic fur seals subsist on are also dropping, which is likely fueling the decline, she added.
“Krill seems to be the crux of everything in the Southern Ocean,” Kovacs said.
Another Antarctic species — the Southern elephant seal — is also now at risk of extinction due to bird flu, moving from least concern to vulnerable, according to researchers.
Three out of the four big groups of Southern elephant seals have been hit by avian influenza, Kovacs noted. Those seals breed on shore, and 2023 and 2024 saw a 90% pup mortality, according to Kovacs. Breeding females are down about 67%.
There is growing concern that disease-related mortalities of marine mammals will increase due to the climate change, the IUCN said in a release. The organization noted that polar regions, where animals have not had much previous exposure to pathogens, and animals that live close together in colonies, such as southern elephant seals, could be particularly hard-hit.
Antarctic sea ice is declining at record rates, according to climate scientists.
Antarctica has lost enough ice over the last 30 years to cover the City of Los Angeles area 10 times over, glaciologists at the University of California, Irvine, found in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.
The regions losing ice the fastest are West Antarctica, the Antarctica Peninsula and parts of East Antarctica, the research found.
Glaciers all over the world — especially in Antarctica — are also retreating at a rapid pace, recent research shows.
Scientists have taken a particular interest in Antarctica’s western shelf due to its potential to cause a significant rise in sea levels. Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” already contributes to 4% of overall sea level rise due to rapid retreat, while Pine Island Glacier is Antarctica’s fastest-melting glacier and has the potential to raise sea levels by 1.6 feet if melted.
Throughout the globe, climate-driven degradation to ecosystems is accelerating faster than conservation frameworks can respond, according to the IUCN.
Poster for ‘Breaking Glass: The Pat Summitt Story’ (ABC News Studios)
The story of legendary Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt is told in Breaking Glass: The Pat Summitt Story, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The documentary follows her journey through her coaching career and features many of the people she impacted. Director Dawn Porter says it also highlights an often overlooked aspect of her legacy.
“Something I think people don’t talk about enough is Pat invited a number of Black women into the University of Tennessee to play for her when that wasn’t that common,” she says. “She didn’t make a big deal of it. … She invited the best players.”
One of those players was WNBA star Candace Parker, who still carries lessons she learned under Pat’s leadership.
“I talked with Candace Parker, who played for Pat, and she said that they were required as Lady Vols to sit in the front row in the classroom. Candace says to this day, when she’s somewhere, she sits in the front row,” says executive producer Robin Roberts. “There were many life skills … that had nothing to do with basketball, but still stays with all these women … decades later.”
With so many meaningful moments embedded in the documentary, Robin hopes viewers walk away understanding how deeply Pat cared.
“I hope people will realize how much she truly cared, not just about the Tennessee Lady Vols, not just about women’s basketball, but how much she truly, truly cared and how she saw you,” she says. “When you were in front of Pat Summitt, you thought you were the only person on earth. She made you feel important. She made you feel seen and heard.”
Dawn adds, “I hope people understand that she was a leader through and through, and she just treated everybody the same. … She was not a person who was only caring about the superstars. She cared about everybody.”
A trader works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, April 6, 2026. Signs of last-ditch efforts to secure a truce in the war that has rattled global markets spurred a cautious advance in stocks as oil retreated. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Stocks closed significantly higher on Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire.
The Dow Jones Industrial average surged 1,325 points, or 2.8%, while the S&P 500 climbed 2.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 2.8%.
As part of the accord, Iran says it will allow tankers passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas, as long as they coordinate with the nation’s military.
Investors appeared optimistic that the agreement would ease one of the worst global oil shortages in decades, though the resumption of tanker traffic in the strait remained uncertain.
U.S. oil prices plummeted nearly 15% on Wednesday, registering at about $96 a barrel. Still, the price of oil remained well above pre-war levels of about $67 a barrel.
President Donald Trump touted the ceasefire in a social media post on Wednesday, saying there would be “no enrichment of Uranium,” despite the Iranians claiming that the U.S. agreed to its plan, which includes numerous concessions.
The president added that “the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust.'”
The Iranian Supreme National Security Council’s statement on Tuesday included “acceptance of enrichment” in its 10-point plan.
Investors will likely pay close attention to a potential uptick in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Following Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Wednesday, oil tankers are suspended from passing through the strait, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
Typically, scores of ships carry a fifth of the world’s oil through the strait each day, but Iran effectively closed the passage over the course of the war. That oil shortage sent crude prices soaring, and it threatened far-reaching price increases that some economists feared could tip the U.S. economy into a recession.
ABC News’ David Brennan, Jon Haworth and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
Mountains outside Patterson, California. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(PATTERSON, Calif.) — The attorney of a man who was shot in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-involved shooting in Patterson, California, is claiming ICE attempted to arrest his client based on wrong information.
The shooting occurred on Tuesday near the I-5, when ICE Director Todd Lyons said federal officers were attempting to arrest a man they claimed was an 18th Street gang member when he “weaponized his vehicle” and attempted to run over an officer.
Lyons claimed that the suspect, later identified as Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, is wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection with a murder.
Attorney Patrick Kolasinski said during a press conference Wednesday that he has obtained a document from the government of El Salvador that he claims proves Mendoza Hernandez was once arrested and accused of murder but was acquitted.
Kolasinski shared with reporters what appears to be a judicial document from El Salvador that says Mendoza Hernandez was acquitted of homicide in 2019.
ABC News has reached out to DHS for comment about Kolasinski’s claims. ABC News has not independently verified the authenticity of the document.
Kolasinski said Mendoza Hernandez’s family in El Salvador says he was never in a gang. The attorney also said his client has no criminal record in the United States except for a traffic ticket.
Following the shooting, Mendoza Hernandez was taken to a local hospital, according to DHS.
Kolasinski said law enforcement officials and hospital staff have not allowed him and Mendoza Hernandez’s fiancée to speak with him since the shooting.
A hospital social worker could only share that he’s in stable condition, but would not answer any other questions, they claimed during the press conference.
Eric Dane appears in a scene from season three of ‘Euphoria.’ (HBO)
Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is dedicating the new season of his hit show to Eric Dane, Angus Cloud and producer Kevin Turen.
At the season 3 premiere of Euphoria in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, Levinson addressed the audience ahead of the screening and paid tribute to the late actors and producer, who died in the years after season 2 aired on HBO.
“Some people ask why it took so long between seasons 2 and 3,” Levinson said, addressing the four-year gap. “There were obvious factors — the [writers and actors] strikes, how to make a schedule work with our very in-demand cast. But the real time was trying to figure out how to find a way to pay respect to those who we lost.”
Cloud, who starred as Fezco in Euphoria seasons 1 and 2, died in July 2023 from an accidental drug overdose. He was 25.
“When Angus died, it was tough. I loved him deeply. And I fought hard to keep him clean,” Levinson said at the premiere.
He also pointed to the opioid epidemic and discussed how it has affected many people across the U.S.
In 2023, approximately 105,000 people died from drug overdose, with 76% involving either an illegal or prescription opioid and 69% involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, “primarily illegally made fentanyl and fentanyl analogs,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Approximately 73,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in 2023, according to the CDC, representing “nearly 92% of opioid overdose deaths.”
“I learned a whole lot that year, but what I realized more than anything is that death is what gives life meaning,” Levinson said at Tuesday’s premiere, referring to Cloud’s death. “You can’t be arrogant about existence. You’re forced to reckon with the fact that life itself is a wonder, a gift, a profound blessing.”
Four months after Cloud’s death, Turen died from multiple heart issues, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Dane, who starred as Cal Jacobs in Euphoria, died in February this year, following a battle with ALS.
Prior to Dane’s death, he returned to his role for the show’s third season. Fans got a preview of his final performance in the season 3 trailer, which was released March 30.
“I’d like to dedicate this season to those who we lost: Angus, Kevin and Eric,” he said. “The Rebbe says, ‘The only way to see great light is to pass through great darkness.’ Well, it feels good to be on the other side.”
Euphoria season 3, starring Zendaya, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney, will debut on HBO and stream on HBO Max on Sunday.
