(ATLANTA) — The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office” over what the appeals court called “a significant appearance of impropriety,” the ruling said.
The criminal indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Following the ruling, the Fulton County DA’s office filed notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment further to ABC News.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
“The Georgia Court Of Appeals in a well-reasoned and just decision has held that DA Fani Willis’ misconduct in the case against President Trump requires the disqualification of Willis and her office,” Trump attorney Steve Sadow said in response to the ruling. “The Court highlighted that Willis’ misconduct created an ‘odor of mendacity’ and an appearance of impropriety that could only be cured by the disqualification of her and her entire office. As the Court rightfully noted, only the remedy of disqualification will suffice to restore public confidence.”
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
The Georgia election interference case is one of four criminal cases that were brought against Trump after he left the White House in 2021. His two federal cases, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election and refusing to return classified documents, were dropped following Trump’s reelection last month, due to a longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting the criminal prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump’s sentencing in New York, following his conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 election, was postponed indefinitely following Trump’s reelection last month.
This illustration shows the locations where ABC News tested abandoned oil and gas wells for leaks; ABC News
(WEST TEXAS, Texas) — Rancher Laura Briggs rises early to care for the livestock scattered across her homestead on the arid plains of West Texas. Briggs and her husband saved up for years to purchase the land and build their family’s dream home near the Pecos River.
“It was a lifestyle choice to raise our kids rurally in the hopes that they would appreciate nature and where their food comes from and hard work and the other side of life that’s not so easy,” Briggs, a mother of four, told ABC News. “It could have been so much better without the fight.”
The “fight” that Briggs says has come to dominate her life in recent years centers around the 30-plus abandoned oil and gas wells littered across her ranch and left to rot by their former operators. She knew the inactive wells were on the land when she bought it, but what she didn’t expect to find was that some were leaking and no one was taking responsibility for the cleanup.
“I thought the state regulated this stuff. I never thought that this would be allowed to go on,” Briggs said.
As a result, Briggs’ dream of a bucolic ranch life has instead been marred by animals found covered in oil, concerns for her groundwater and air quality, and even the looming threat of a random explosion.
“My biggest fear is that I have a catastrophe close to my house. We have some wells close to the house and we don’t know what’s going on underground,” she said.
More than 3.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells are littered across the United States and an estimated 14 million Americans live within a mile of one of the wells. Those that leak are known in West Texas as “zombie wells” and can contaminate groundwater and spew carcinogenic chemicals and potent greenhouse gases into the environment, according to the Department of the Interior. In some cases, the wells have been blamed for home explosions.
“These wells are a threat to people and livelihoods, and especially kids and older people and people with health problems,” said Adam Peltz, director and senior attorney of the energy program at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need to go find them because they’re a problem, not just for the people who live nearby, but for everyone on the planet,” Peltz said.
Despite the potential risks, few abandoned wells are ever regularly checked for leaks. ABC News, after weeks of research and calls with multiple leading experts in the field, identified the datasets, technology and learned the recommended safety practices before fanning out across the nation with gas detectors to locate and test more than 70 abandoned wells for leaks.
ABC News partnered with six owned and affiliated stations as part of the reporting project: KABC, KAKE, KFSN, KMGH, KTRK, and WRTV.
The device used in the investigation can detect hundreds of combustible gases and whether a well is leaking while the test is being conducted, several leading experts confirmed. The device is unable to determine the exact gas type and full scope of any leak over time.
Studies have shown that leaking abandoned wells typically emit methane — a highly combustible and potent greenhouse gas. But they can also leak carcinogenic benzene, as well as hydrogen sulfide or H2S, an extremely deadly gas that can kill humans even during short exposures.
In all, 40 out of the 76 wells tested by ABC News across five states were leaking oil or combustible gas when they were tested. Leaking wells were discovered on Kansas farms, beside New York streams, near Colorado schools and along hiking trails just outside of Los Angeles. The team also looked for leaks in the Gulf of Mexico, where more than 14,000 offshore abandoned wells are located. During a boat ride into Trinity Bay, just outside of Houston, the team carefully tested 10 decaying offshore wells and found seven to be leaking combustible gas at the time.
Billions in Costs to Taxpayers
While abandoned wells have been documented in more than 26 states, no place has more decaying underground pipes than Texas. More than 600,000 of the pipes exist in the state and they are particularly common in the Permian Basin, a prolific oil producing region where Laura Briggs lives.
ABC News tested five of the abandoned wells closest to Briggs’ home and found two to be leaking oil and combustible gas at the time.
The wells’ latest operators declared bankruptcy years ago, making them what’s often called an “orphan well.” With no viable owner, it’s now left up to the state — and ultimately taxpayers — to pay to plug the abandoned wells, permanently sealing off the holes to stop potential contamination from leaks. Despite years of complaints, Briggs says only three of the 30-plus orphan wells on her land have been plugged by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry.
“They’ve been plugged because they leaked so bad, the Railroad Commission literally had to come out and do something,” Briggs said, arguing that the commission often waits until a well suffers a major blowout before committing to plugging the well. Briggs says one of the wells on her property has been leaking oil above ground for nearly 10 years, but the state has so far refused to plug it according to its priority level.
Texas has more than 8,500 documented “orphan” wells and more are added to the list every year. Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright told KTRK in Houston that “we do not have the money” to plug all of Texas orphan wells but that the agency had “developed a very good system” to prioritize plugging operations for those that leak — adding the commission had plugged 730 wells in 2023.
Properly plugging a single abandoned orphan well can cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of taxpayer dollars in part because the bonds oil and gas companies are required to post before drilling a well are rarely enough to cover the actual cost of plugging it, leaving taxpayers to pick up the rest of the tab. There have been numerous attempts on both the state and federal level to pass laws raising the bonds required by companies to cover plugging costs, but few have passed as they repeatedly face strong opposition from industry trade groups.
“Industry associations will go to legislators and regulators and say you can’t raise these bond amounts. It’ll put us out of business. Don’t make any changes,” Peltz told ABC News.
“And the problem with that is, well, are we supposed to live with orphan wells? Then why is the public subsidizing this activity? The current arrangement isn’t working so we need to come up with something new,” Peltz said.
The American Petroleum Institute declined to be interviewed for this report and did not respond to written questions. The institute wrote in a statement to ABC News that “the proper sealing of oil and natural gas wells is paramount to ensure safety, sustainability, and environmental protection, and API and our member companies are committed to responsible development of our nation’s energy resources from start to finish.”
In 2021, Congress set aside an unprecedented $4.7 billion for plugging abandoned wells nationwide and the money has begun to flow to qualifying state agencies. However, an ABC News data analysis of multiple sources estimates that the cost of plugging most of the nation’s abandoned and unplugged wells could be more than $250 billion and current government funding will only cover plugging costs for about 6% of the nation’s wells.
‘This ground is dead forever’
Just a few miles from Briggs’ ranch lies one of the most notorious abandoned wells in the nation and a striking example of what can happen if a well is neglected for decades.
Formed by a leaking well that was drilled in the 1950s, the 60-acre Lake Boehmer can seem like a surreal mirage from a distance: its turquoise waters and salt crusted shores standing in stark contrast to the harsh desert plains it has been flooding with toxic water for decades. The well leaks up to 600 gallons a minute of water that contains arsenic, benzene, hydrogen sulfide and at times has even proven radioactive, according to studies by the local water district.
Even before coming within sight of the “lake,” a visitor is greeted by the potent stench of rotten eggs — a tell-tale sign of deadly hydrogen sulfide gas that ABC News detected during its visit.
According to state records, the leaking well that created Lake Boehmer was drilled looking for oil in 1951, but the operators later converted it into a water well before abandoning it. As a result, the Texas Railroad Commission has refused to plug it, claiming the responsibility — and hefty price tag — lies with the county water district. The water district argues only the Railroad Commission has the responsibility and the funds required. As the dispute plays out in court the well continues to leak and some worry it could eventually contaminate local aquifers – the underground rock or sediment that stores water.
“There’s bones all around here, because the birds come and there’s H2S in this water and eventually the gas kills ’em. And so this is where they come to die,” local rancher Schuyler Wight told ABC News.
Wight’s ranch borders Lake Boehmer and is home to more than 200 orphan wells — many of which are leaking. One abandoned well on his land that he showed ABC News had formed a toxic pool of produced water that stretched down nearby dirt roads. While there, ABC News also detected the presence of deadly H2S gas.
“This ground is dead forever,” Wight said while looking out over the site. “This ground will never grow anything on it.”
Shortly after ABC News visited the site, state authorities stopped the leak aboveground but Wight worries they haven’t done enough to protect his groundwater or to prevent another blowout from happening again.
The Wells Buried Beneath America’s Cities
Most abandoned wells are in rural areas like Wight’s, but a surprising number can be found buried beneath America’s cities. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in Los Angeles. Built atop one of the nation’s oldest and most productive oil fields, thousands of abandoned wells lie buried beneath the city’s development, their presence often only revealed by historic photographs and by those who know where to look.
In the working-class neighborhood of Vista Hermosa, fence posts lining an athletic field are actually methane vents designed to mitigate the risks of more than a dozen abandoned wells buried beneath the field. Three of the wells beneath the field remain unplugged and the vents are designed to discharge potentially harmful gases they can emit away from nearby school buildings into open areas.
“They’re actually a part of the fence. So they’re camouflaged a little bit,” lifelong resident Danny Luna told ABC News on a tour of the area. For years, Luna and Rosalinda Morales, another lifelong resident, have been advocating for authorities to plug the more than 800 documented abandoned wells located beneath their community — which they believe pose a serious public health threat.
“We have a lot of medical conditions here. We have people with autoimmune conditions, cancers,” Morales told ABC News. It is difficult to prove exactly what is causing residents’ health issues in the area, but studies show those living near oil and gas wells are more prone to such illnesses.
Brenda Valdivia says she has been dealing with illnesses she believes are tied to the area’s wells since she was 10 years old. As a child, Valdivia spent time at the home of a baby-sitter that was directly beside an active oil well. By age 10, she was “getting really sick. I had high fevers, rash on my face.” Eventually, she says doctors diagnosed her with lupus and told her it was likely caused by environmental factors after testing failed to show she was genetically predisposed to the disease. She suffered two strokes in one night and has spent most of her life in and out of hospitals.
“I’m still recovering. And I take it day by day,” she said.
Rosalinda Morales, an asthma survivor, grew up beside an active well that was later abandoned and says she spent her “whole life smelling rotten eggs.” For years, Morales’ next-door neighbor complained to authorities of a similar odor emanating from under his front steps. After nothing was done, he ultimately took a jackhammer to the steps and made a startling discovery — an oil well that was emitting potentially deadly H2S gas.
“Pretty scary, because that’s what we’re breathing here,” Morales said. That well, along with another across the street, was eventually plugged by state authorities after it was discovered, but hundreds in the area remain unplugged and mostly buried out of sight.
On the outskirts of the city, however, some of Los Angeles’ abandoned wells can still be seen up close. ABC News located and tested three abandoned wells found alongside a popular hiking trail in El Escorpion Park and found two to be leaking oil and/or combustible gas at the time. One of the wells maxed out ABC News’ gas detector with a reading of 10,000 parts per million.
The device ABC News used does not distinguish which combustible gas it detects and more prolonged testing is required to determine the exact size of the leak. But the New Jersey Department of Health says that exposure to anything over 2,000 parts per million of methane is “immediately dangerous to life and health.” CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry in California, wrote to ABC News that the department “does not permit leaks at any level” from abandoned wells.
Inspection records show state authorities know that these wells have been leaking for years and, while they are on the state’s latest list for plugging, they are behind dozens of other wells deemed a higher priority for plugging by the agency.
CalGem, the state agency responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry, wrote to ABC News that they are currently working through a list of 378 wells for plugging and that the wells we tested in El Escorpion Park are a “top priority” and “will be plugged and sealed soon to protect the environment and ensure public safety.”
Still, for residents living near the abandoned wells, plugging them cannot come soon enough.
“The solution is to make enough noise that maybe we’ll get some of this stuff fixed,” Wight told ABC News.
ABC News’ Timmy Truong, Kate Holland and Alex Myers contributed to this report.
Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan are all smiles in a new photo from the Peaky Blinders film set.
The pair, co-starring in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie, grinned together while dressed in the show’s traditional flat caps and long coats in a new photo released by Netflix on Thursday.
In the upcoming film, Murphy reprises his role as British gangster Tommy Shelby. In August, it was announced that Keoghan joined the cast of the highly anticipated movie.
Netflix also announced that production has wrapped for the movie, which is described by the streamer as an “epic continuation of the multi-award-winning, six-season gangster saga.”
Along with Murphy and Keoghan, the cast includes Dune alum Rebecca Ferguson, Reservoir Dogs actor Tim Roth and Boiling Point actor Stephen Graham.
Murphy portrayed the gangster for six seasons between 2013 and 2022. He stars in the new film for Netflix, which was written by show creator Steven Knight and was directed by series veteran Tom Harper.
Peaky Blinders was set in Birmingham, England, between 1919 and 1934 and centered on Tommy and his family making a name for themselves on the mean streets of England.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday took credit for killing the House Republican-proposed government funding bill, telling ABC News there will be a government shutdown unless Congress eliminates or extends the limit on government borrowing.
“We’re not going to fall into the debt ceiling quicksand,” Trump said in an exclusive phone interview. “There won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with.”
Trump said he is concerned that if government borrowing reaches the limit set by the debt ceiling, it could lead to an economic depression. Under current law, the federal government would hit its borrowing limit sometime in the spring of 2025, during the first months of the second Trump presidency. Trump said he wants it taken care of now, while Joe Biden is president.
“By doing what I’m doing, I put it into the Biden administration,” Trump said. “In this administration, not in my administration.”
“The interesting thing is, [the debt ceiling] possibly means nothing, or it means [the] depression of 1929,” Trump added. “Nobody really knows. It means nothing, but psychologically it may mean a lot, right? In other words, it doesn’t have a real meaning other than you’ve violated something. And that may be just, one day, half a story, or it may lead to the depression of 1929 and nobody wants to take the chance, except the Democrats.”
Congress must pass a funding bill by Friday night to avoid a shutdown of major federal services.
Trump said he is more concerned about the debt ceiling, which was not part of the spending bill rejected by the House on Wednesday after Trump and ally Elon Musk weighed in, than he is in the level of government spending.
“I don’t mind the spending for the farmers and for disaster relief from North Carolina, etc., but that’s all,” he said, referring to $100 billion in disaster relief aid and $10 billion in assistance to farmers.
When asked about concerns about a potential shutdown, the president-elect reiterated there will be a shutdown if the debt ceiling isn’t addressed, and claimed it would be Biden’s fault.
“Shutdowns only inure to the person who’s president,” Trump said. “That’s what I tried to teach [former House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy, but I obviously didn’t do a very good job [with] a shutdown because he kept giving them extensions into my territory, a shutdown only hurts or inures to the person who happens to be president.”
As for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s fate, Trump said, “If he’s strong, he’ll survive it. If he’s strong, he will survive it.”
(ATLANTA, Ga.) — The Georgia Court of Appeals has disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their election interference case.
“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” the court ruled.
The indictment against Trump and his co-defendants still stands, the court said.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.
Defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Thursday’s ruling leaves the question of who takes over the case — and whether it continues — to the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. That decision may be delayed if Trump or Willis continues their appeal to the state’s highest court, Georgia’s Supreme Court.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, leading Trump to appeal that decision.
The appeals court ruled to disqualify Willis and her entire office from the case because “no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the ruling said.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” the order said, reversing Judge McAfee’s original decision.
Wade, who had been the lead prosecutor in the case, resigned as special prosecutor in March after McAfee issued his ruling that either Willis or Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between the DA and the prosecutor.
While the appeals court disqualified Willis and her office, it did not find enough evidence to justify “the extreme sanction” of tossing the entire indictment against Trump and his co-defendants, as Trump had sought in his appeal.
“While this is the rare case in which DA Willis and her office must be disqualified due to a significant appearance of impropriety, we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment under the appropriate standard,” the ruling said.
Judge Clay Land — one of the three judges on the appeals panel — dissented from the decision, arguing that reversing the trial court “violates well-established precedent, threatens the discretion given to trial courts, and blurs the distinction between our respective courts.”
Land argued that the appearance of impropriety — rather than a true conflict of interest — is not enough to reverse Judge McAfee’s decision not to disqualify Willis.
“For at least the last 43 years, our appellate courts have held that an appearance of impropriety, without an actual conflict of interest or actual impropriety, provides no basis for the reversal of a trial court’s denial of a motion to disqualify,” he wrote.
In his dissent, Land emphasized that the trial court found that Willis did not have a conflict of interest and rejected the allegations of impropriety stemming from her relationship with Wade, including the allegation that she received a financial benefit from his hiring.
“It was certainly critical of her choices and chastised her for making them. I take no issue with that criticism, and if the trial court had chosen, in its discretion, to disqualify her and her office, this would be a different case,” he wrote. “But that is not the remedy the trial court chose, and I believe our case law prohibits us from rejecting that remedy just because we don’t like it or just because we might have gone further had we been the trial judge.”
(NEW YORK) — Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is waiving extradition and will be transported to New York in short order.
Mangione was remanded to the custody of the NYPD, said his Pennsylvania defense attorney, Thomas Dickey.
“This is in his best interest, and we’re moving forward,” Dickey said.
A special edition of “20/20” airing Dec. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC looks at the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the manhunt that led to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who went from the Ivy League to alleged killer.
The news comes after Mangione appeared in court in Blair County, Pennsylvania, on Thursday morning.
Spectators gathered outside the Blair County courthouse on Thursday ahead of Mangione’s appearance.
One held a sign reading “Deny, Defend, Depose,” echoing the words written on shell casings and a bullet at the murder scene.
Adam Giesseman, who had a sign that said “Free Luigi” and “Murder for Profit is Terrorism,” told ABC News, “Our country is broken.”
Another waiting spectator, who only gave her first name, Natalie, voiced frustration that the insurance system is “set up for profit over people’s health.”
“It’s unfortunate that this happened, and I’m not glorifying it in any way — but it’s brought attention to the issue that affects all Americans,” she said.
Mangione faces an 11-count indictment by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and is also expected to face federal charges out of the Southern District of New York, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
SDNY and the FBI’s New York field office both declined to comment.
Federal charges could make Mangione eligible for the death penalty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted of the state charges.
Mangione’s New York lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said in a statement, “The federal government’s reported decision to pile on top of an already overcharged first-degree murder and state terror case is highly unusual and raises serious constitutional and statutory double jeopardy concerns.”
“We are ready to fight these charges in whatever court they are brought,” Agnifilo added.
Danielle Filson, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said, “The state case will proceed in parallel with any federal case.”
Mangione, 26, is accused of gunning down Thompson outside a Hilton hotel on Dec. 4 as the UnitedHealthcare CEO headed to an investors conference. Prosecutors alleged Mangione waited nearly an hour for Thompson to arrive.
A Manhattan grand jury upgraded charges against Mangione to include first-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The killing in the heart of Midtown Manhattan was “intended to evoke terror,” Bragg said.
In New York, Mangione is also charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one of which is charged as killing as an act of terrorism; two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree; four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree; one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree; and one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was arrested on Dec. 9 after nearly a week on the run, he faces charges including allegedly possessing an untraceable ghost gun. Mangione had a 9 mm handgun with a 3D-printed receiver, a homemade silencer, two ammunition magazines and live cartridges when apprehended, prosecutors said.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it’s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future.
That’s why the ABC News Climate and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating what you need to know to keep the people and places you care about safe. We are dedicated to providing clarity amid the chaos, giving you the facts and insights necessary to navigate the climate realities of today — and tomorrow.
Biden administration sets ambitious greenhouse gas emissions goal
The Biden administration only has a month left, but that’s not stopping it from taking some significant climate actions. On Wednesday, they approved California’s request to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars. On Thursday, the administration announced an ambitious new climate goal to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 61% to 66% compared to 2005 levels by 2035.
The countries that signed the Paris Agreement in 2016, the historic climate treaty, agreed to set goals for reducing their emissions. These Nationally Determined Contribution, or NDC, goals are updated every five years. While nonbinding, the goals provide a road map for reaching carbon neutrality globally.
“I’m proud that my Administration is carrying out the boldest climate agenda in American history,” President Joe Biden said in a video announcing the pledge. “That is why I’m proud to announce an ambitious new goal: cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035.”
Biden touted his administration’s efforts to increase renewable energy sources, conserve the country’s public lands and waters, set new pollution-cutting standards and sign climate investments into law over the last four years.
The new emissions goal comes as other countries are submitting their NDCs to the United Nations for approval.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, which scientists believe would significantly reduce the impacts of climate change.
In 2021, Biden re-entered the Paris Agreement after then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the international climate accord and set the current target of 50% to 52% greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
In announcing the new goal, Biden said, “Together, we will turn this existential threat into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our nation for generations to come.”
During his campaign, President-elect Trump said he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement again and pledged to reduce or eliminate climate and environmental regulations.
Despite the expected change in federal posture on climate action, senior Biden administration officials told reporters Wednesday that non-federal leaders, like governors and mayors, can continue to drive progress, saying they believe the new goals are still achievable through state, local and tribal action.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Kelly Livingston and Matthew Glasser
Senate committee says insurance is getting more expensive because of climate change
Climate change is making it more expensive for many Americans to insure and protect their homes and property. That’s the finding of a two-year investigation by the Senate Budget Committee.
“Climate change is no longer just an environmental problem, is our conclusion here — it is an economic threat,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said during a hearing on Wednesday. “And it is an affordability issue that we should not ignore.”
The final hearing coincided with the release of a report from the committee detailing how extreme weather events made more severe by climate change is driving increasing both insurance policy non-renewal rates and premium costs across the country.
“The data released with this report demonstrate climate change beginning to upend insurance markets around the country,” the report reads.
Benjamin Keys, a real estate and finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, testified before the committee, saying, “Both affordability and accessibility issues have reached a crisis point in many communities around the country.”
He explained that the data shows the rate of policy non-renewals have almost doubled since 2020.
“The most striking pattern from the data is that both premiums and non-renewal rates are higher in markets with more disaster risk,” Keyes said.
“Insurers are responding to larger realized disaster losses, better data and risk models and growing reinsurance costs,” Keys explained. “Some of the largest insurance companies have exited markets, deciding that they cannot charge premiums that adequately reflect this growing risk.”
Ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) expressed disappointment that the committee spent so much time on this issue. However, he said he agrees that “climate change is a serious issue meriting discussion.”
“I remain convinced that the budget committee should be focused on the immediate fiscal problems facing our country,” Grassley said.
“The climate crisis that is coming our way is not just about polar bears. It’s not just about green jobs. It actually is coming through your mail slot in the form of insurance cancellations, insurance non-renewals and dramatic increases in insurance costs,” Whitehouse said while closing the hearing.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Kelly Livingston
DOE liquid natural gas report finds future production a risk to US climate goals
A new United States Department of Energy analysis on liquefied natural gas exports finds that continued production increases are inconsistent with U.S. climate goals, could increase energy costs and present community health concerns.
“Over the past five years, the U.S. has dramatically accelerated the pace of its LNG exports. The stocks that the department has already approved are more than sufficient to meet global demand for decades,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday. “Further increasing exports, unconstrained, would surely generate more wealth for the LNG industry, but American consumers and communities and our climate would pay the price.”
Liquified natural gas, or LNG, is a natural gas that has been cooled into its liquid state so that it can be more easily shipped and stored, according to the DOE.
The U.S. became the largest LNG exporter in the world in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The DOE analysis, released Tuesday, found that LNG exports account for nearly half of domestic LNG production. It also found that current export volumes are expected to double by 2030, at which point the department expects the U.S. will exceed other countries’ exports by about 40%.
“With additional unfettered exports, wholesale domestic natural gas prices would increase by over 30% and the average American household will pay more than an extra $100 annually on their gas bills,” Granholm said.
The secretary added that communities “living in the shadows of LNG export projects” would be subject to even higher methane levels, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. She said the annual direct emissions associated with exports in 2050 would represent more than 25% of our yearly greenhouse gas emissions.
Tuesday’s report has been in the works since January when the Biden Administration announced a pause on approvals for new LNG export terminals while the agency re-assessed whether such projects were in the “public interest.”
Under the authority of the National Gas Act, the DOE can make such determinations for exports to countries that are not part of a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.
Earlier this year, President Biden said the pause “sees the climate crisis for what it is: the existential threat of our time.”
The incoming Trump Administration is expected to reverse course and expedite LNG export projects that are still awaiting approval as part of an effort to establish “energy dominance.”
The analysis released Tuesday will have a 60-day public comment period.
-ABC New Climate Unit’s Kelly Livingston
How climate change is transforming the winter season
Don’t let the recent blasts of cold and snow impacting much of the U.S. fool you. Meteorological winter, which started Dec. 1, is most of the country’s fastest-warming season, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). And the impacts of this warming are intensifying with each passing year.
While cold and snowy conditions will continue to be a part of winter weather across the country, the global climate continues to warm at an accelerating rate. This long-term warming trend continues to fuel an overall decline in snow and extreme cold events across the U.S. and worldwide.
Our winter wonderlands are changing from white to wet as increased rainfall replaces snowfall and warmer temperatures make it difficult for snow to stay on the ground. This impacts everything from winter tourism to local ecosystems and agriculture. The multi-billion dollar winter tourism industry has already lost revenue due to the decrease in snow days, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
While there is a good understanding of the general long-term trends and impacts of a warming winter season, we still have much to learn about how these changes explicitly impact a local area.
Climate Central is shedding some light on local impacts in a new report. The nonprofit climate research group compared the number of above-freezing winter days to historical averages and investigated any links to climate change.
The report estimates that in the U.S., 28 states and around 63% (39 out of 62) of the cities analyzed experienced, on average, an additional week’s worth of above-freezing winter days over the past decade. In other words, these days felt less like winter and more like the start of spring.
Specific location-based data like this could be extremely valuable to a ski resort by helping them allocate resources for an upcoming winter season or planning their long-term business strategy. While smaller-scale climate change attribution is still a relatively new area of climate science, further advancements could provide a vital resource as the world adapts to our changing climate.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
More than three-quarters of the planet’s land is now permanently drier due to climate change
Humans are dependent on the land for our very survival. If we can’t farm, we don’t eat. However, much of that precious soil is in danger due to human-amplified climate change, according to a new report.
In its new report, the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) found that 77.6% of the Earth’s land has become permanently drier over the last three decades leading up to 2020. During the same period, drylands expanded by more than 1.6 million square miles and now cover more than 40% of the planet (excluding Antarctica).
Drylands are regions characterized by low rainfall and moisture, resulting in scarce water and arid land. Drier land can result in insufficient food production, increased wildfire activity, water scarcity and land degradation, according to the report.
“Unlike droughts—temporary periods of low rainfall—aridity represents a permanent, unrelenting transformation,” UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said in a press statement. “Droughts end. When an area’s climate becomes drier, however, the ability to return to previous conditions is lost. The drier climates now affecting vast lands across the globe will not return to how they were and this change is redefining life on Earth.”
The report says human-amplified climate change is the primary reason for this transformation. The UNCCD finds that greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, transportation, industry and land use changes are warming the planet and affecting rainfall, evaporation and plant life. They say those changes create the ideal conditions for increased dryness.
And it’s not just dry areas getting drier. The researchers found that more than 7% of global lands were transformed from non-drylands to drylands or from less arid areas to more arid. They warn that another 3% of the world’s humid areas could become drylands by the end of the century if we don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Without concerted efforts, billions face a future marked by hunger, displacement, and economic decline. Yet, by embracing innovative solutions and fostering global solidarity, humanity can rise to meet this challenge. The question is not whether we have the tools to respond—it is whether we have the will to act,” Nichole Barger, chair of the UNCCD’s science-policy interface, said in a statement.
The report makes several recommendations, including better monitoring, improved land use policies and investing in new water efficiency technologies. But they make it clear that the world must curb global warming if they are to stop the future damage and the threats that come from it.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser
Report finds that geothermal energy could meet 15% of global energy demand through 2050
The Earth produces a lot of heat. Scientists believe our planet’s inner core is nearly as hot as the sun. Radioactive particles in rocks slowly decay, constantly replenishing the heat. Geothermal energy harnesses that heat to create energy and warm homes and buildings.
However, geothermal energy isn’t widely used despite being clean and renewable. It’s expensive and often location-specific, usually near tectonic plate boundaries.
But according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), geothermal power could become a significant source of electricity for the world. The intergovernmental organization found that “geothermal energy could meet 15% of global electricity demand growth between now and 2050 if project costs continue to decline.”
That would be enough power to meet the current demand of the United States and India combined. Unlike wind and solar, the IEA says geothermal can provide 24/7 energy generation. It also has the added benefit of heat production and storage.
“New technologies are opening new horizons for geothermal energy across the globe, offering the possibility of meeting a significant portion of the world’s rapidly growing demand for electricity securely and cleanly,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press statement.
The IEA says with more financial investment, the cost of geothermal energy could fall by 80%. And at a time when finding workers with green energy skills can be challenging, the report states “up to 80% of the investment required in geothermal involves capacity and skills that are transferrable from existing oil and gas operations.”
“Geothermal is a major opportunity to draw on the technology and expertise of the oil and gas industry. Our analysis shows that the growth of geothermal could generate investment worth $1 trillion by 2035,” Birol added.
November was the 2nd warmest on record
With less than three weeks to go before 2025, global temperatures in November have made it all but certain that 2024 will be the warmest year ever recorded.
According to NOAA’s monthly climate assessment, last month was the second warmest November globally, with temperatures 2.41 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. Temperatures were above average across much of the world, with Asia experiencing its warmest November ever recorded. Oceania and South America were second-warmest.
Year-to-date, the world is experiencing its warmest period on record. That means there’s a more than 99% chance that 2024 will break the yearly temperature record currently held by 2023, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
According to NOAA, global tropical cyclone activity matched the long-term record with 12 named storms this year. The Atlantic saw three hurricanes in November, including Rafael, which peaked as a Category 3 storm.
Global sea ice area was the second smallest in 46 years and more than one million square miles less than the 1991-2020 average.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser
Wildfire smoke: A significant contributor to air pollution in some US communities
In recent years, wildfire smoke has emerged as a significant cause of diminished air quality across many cities in the United States, according to a new recent study presented at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, suggest that wildfire smoke can contribute to as much as 50% of annual air pollution in certain parts of the U.S. Regions in Oregon, Nevada, California, Washington, North Dakota and Minnesota were identified as some of the most affected by this smoke-related air pollution.
The researchers say the impact of wildfire smoke doesn’t just stop in remote areas; it’s also impacting major urban centers. Some of the country’s largest cities, including New York, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., reported significant smoke exposure in 2023. Los Angeles, Phoenix and Riverside experienced their highest smoke levels in 2020. The researchers say this year-to-year variation between locations underscores the unpredictable nature of wildfire seasons and their far-reaching consequences on air quality.
The researchers analyzed data collected from more than 800 particle monitors in over 350 areas, representing nearly 90% of the U.S. population. The team combined data from the NOAA Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product with surface PM2.5 readings to explore how these smoky days affect overall pollution levels. PM2.5 is a type of particulate matter pollution smaller than human hair that can cause a number of health problems, such as asthma and heart disease.
The results from the study raise important questions about public health and environmental policy, especially as climate change intensifies wildfire seasons. According to a study from researchers at the University of Tasmania, extreme wildfire events have more than doubled in frequency and magnitude globally over the past two decades. And the Environmental Protection Agency has found that the U.S. wildfire season has grown longer and shifted earlier in recent decades due to warmer springs, longer summer dry seasons and drier vegetation.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser and ABC News Medical Unit’s Vinh-Son Nguyen, MD
The rapidly warming Arctic tundra is now contributing to climate change
For thousands of years, the vast Arctic tundra has acted as a critical carbon sink. That means it absorbed more carbon dioxide than it produced. As a result, it has been removing a heat-trapping greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. However, rapidly warming conditions and increasing wildfire activity have now turned the region into a source of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Arctic region is warming much faster than the global average, and rapidly warming temperatures are fueling the troubling shift in several ways.
First, increasing temperatures are thawing the permafrost, releasing carbon that’s been stored in the soil into the atmosphere. Second, warmer conditions promote vegetation growth, contributing to more frequent wildfires in the region and additional carbon dioxide emissions.
The Arctic’s warmest years on record have all occurred within the last nine years. The persistent warming trend has contributed to declining snow cover and a shortening snow season. According to the report, last winter brought the shortest snow season in 26 years for portions of Arctic Canada, and overall, Arctic snow melt is occurring one to two weeks earlier than historical averages.
Less snow promotes further warming and increases the wildfire threat in the region. And these compounding factors create an unsettling cycle that feeds on itself, boosting global warming while making it increasingly difficult to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s administrator, said the addition of the Arctic tundra as a source of carbon dioxide emissions “will worsen climate change impacts.”
Local ecosystems are already having to adapt. According to the report, food sources for ice seal populations are shifting due to water temperature changes and warmer and wetter weather is devastating inland caribou herds.
If this trend continues, cascading impacts could reach far beyond the Arctic region. “What happens in the Arctic has wide-reaching implications for the entirety of North America and Eurasia,” Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a press statement.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
The US just experienced its warmest autumn on record
Another season, another climate milestone. According to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), persistent above-average to record-warm conditions across much of the United States made meteorological autumn, which lasts from September to November, the warmest ever recorded.
The record-warm fall season makes it more likely that 2024 will end up as one of the nation’s warmest, if not the warmest, years on record. As of November 2024, the contiguous U.S. year-to-date temperature was 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
Despite December’s chilly start for much of the country, with widespread below-average temperatures in many regions, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says that the cold will ease during the second half of the month with above-average temperatures favored from the West to the Northeast.
The stretch of abnormally warm temperatures was accompanied by extremely dry weather across much of the country, fueling dangerous wildfire conditions in regions like the Northeast. A very dry start to the season brought drought conditions to more than half of the lower 48 states by late October.
Fortunately, several significant rainfall events in November brought notable drought relief to large swaths of the country, reducing overall drought coverage by nearly 10.5% and suppressing the wildfire danger.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
Nearly one-third of the planet’s species risk extinction because of climate change
Nearly one-third of the world’s species could be at risk for extinction because of climate change if the world does nothing to reduce global warming, according to a new analysis from Science.
University of Connecticut researcher and biologist Mark Urban found that while some species are adapting to climate change, 160,000 species are already at risk. Many are now facing declining populations because of changes in our climate.
According to the study, with current global temperatures at 1.3 degrees Celsius above industrial levels, 1.6% of species are projected to become extinct. As the temperatures warm even more, Urban found the extinction rate would also increase, with the most severe scenario included (5.4 degrees Celsius of warming) putting the extinction risk at 29.7%.
“The increased certainty of predicted climate change extinctions compels action,” Urban wrote. “Extinction represents just the final endpoint of a species’ existence; even when extinction is avoided, declining abundances and shrinking ranges can strongly affect many other species, including humans.”
Urban defines the risk of extinction as the probability that any one species will go extinct without mitigation efforts. Urban found that extinction rates could increase dramatically if global temperatures rise over 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to industrial levels.
1.5 degrees Celsius is the warming limit set by the world’s nations under the Paris Agreement after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that crossing that benchmark would lead to more severe climate change impacts.
Risks varied across geographic areas in the study, with Australia/New Zealand and South America facing the highest risks (15.7% and 12.8%, respectively) and Asia facing lower risks (5.5%).
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Kelly Livingston
Antarctic sea ice hits new low during Earth’s 2nd warmest November on record
Imagine you have a swimming pool with ice cubes filling it. Now, measure the total area of the pool that has ice on the surface, even if the ice cubes don’t cover it completely. Because ice often spreads out unevenly, leaving water between the chunks, scientists count areas where at least 15% of the surface is covered. So, because your pool is loaded with ice cubes, it would be considered ice covered. In the real world, scientists call it sea ice extent.
While you can add ice to your pool, you can’t to the ocean. And according to a new report by Copernicus, the European Union’s Climate Change Service, the sea ice extent in the Antarctic has dipped to its lowest value on record for the month of November. It is 10% below average. This occurred during a stretch of near-record global land and sea surface temperatures.
Last month ranked as the second warmest November on record globally, with an average temperature of 14.10 degrees Celsius, or 57.38 degrees Fahrenheit.
Copernicus noted the new data not only makes it virtually certain that 2024 will surpass 2023 as Earth’s warmest year on record, but it will likely be the first year to be 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) than the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent the worst outcomes of climate change.
As of November 2024, the average global year-to-date temperature was 0.14 degrees Celsius (or 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was in 2023, which is the warmest year ever recorded.
(NEW YORK) — A deadly, undiagnosed disease that has been spreading in one region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may be linked to malaria, health officials said Thursday.
As of Dec. 14, the latest date for which data is available, 592 cases have been reported with 37 confirmed deaths and 44 deaths under investigation, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the public health agency of the African Union.
Over the last week, 181 samples from 51 cases were tested in a laboratory, Dr. Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC chief of staff, said during a Thursday press briefing.
Laboratory testing showed 25 out of 29 tested were positive for malaria. Additionally, rapid testing showed 55 out of 88 patients were positive for malaria.
Ngashi said there are two hypotheses: The first is that the undiagnosed disease is severe malaria “on a background of malnutrition and viral infection” and the second is the disease is a viral infection “on a background of malaria and malnutrition.”
Malaria is a serious disease caused by a parasite that infects a certain type of mosquito, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most people contract malaria after being bitten by an infected mosquito.
Most cases of malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa, but it also occurs in parts of Oceania and in parts of Central and South America and Southeast Asia.
Malaria can be deadly if is not diagnosed and treated quickly, the CDC said.
What we know about the disease
The disease first appeared in a remote area in the province of Kwango, in the southwestern part of the DRC on the border with Angola, according to Africa CDC.
The first case was documented on Oct. 24. Patients have been experiencing flu-like symptoms including fever, headache, coughing and difficulty breathing as well as anemia, Africa CDC said during a press briefing earlier this month.
A plurality of cases, or 42.7%, have occurred in children under 5 years old. This age group also has the largest number of deaths, with 21 so far, data from Africa CDC shows. Children between ages 5 and 9 make up the second highest number of cases
Africa CDC said in a post on X earlier this month that it took five to six weeks after the first case was reported for local authorities to alert the national government, highlighting “gaps in Africa’s disease detection systems: limited surveillance, testing delays & weak lab infrastructure.”
-ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
The first teaser trailer for the upcoming James Gunn-directed Superman film was released on Thursday.
The teaser from DC Studios gives fans their first taste of what to expect in the film starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane.
DC Studios teased the trailer ahead of its release with a new look at Corenswet in full superhero gear on Monday and a new look at Brosnahan’s intrepid reporter on Wednesday.
Gunn first announced he was taking on the project in March 2023. He shared a photo with the cast of the upcoming film earlier this year, following a table read.
Along with Corenswet and Brosnahan, the upcoming film will also star Nicholas Hoult as Superman’s archnemesis Lex Luthor, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher and María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/The Engineer.
The cast also includes Isabela Merced, who plays Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi, who plays Mister Terrific; Anthony Carrigan, who plays Metamorpho; Nathan Fillion, who plays Guy Gardner/Green Lantern; and Wendell Pierce, who plays Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White.
Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell play Clark’s adoptive human father and mother, Jonathan and Martha Kent, respectively. Alan Tudyk is also cast in an undisclosed role.
(NEW YORK) — The Christmas and New Year’s holiday period is expected to be the busiest on record for both air and road travel, according to AAA — continuing this year’s trend where every major travel period has set new records.
Here’s what you need to know before you head to the airport or hit the highway:
Air travel
The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen nearly 40 million travelers from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2 — a 6.2% increase from 2023.
The Federal Aviation Administration predicts Thursday, Dec. 19, will be the most crowded day to fly, followed by Friday, Dec. 27, and Friday, Dec. 20.
United is planning for its busiest holiday travel period ever, with 9.9 million passengers expected between Dec. 19 and Jan. 6. The airline said it’s adding almost 500 more flights per day during its holiday travel period.
United said it anticipates its busiest days to be: Friday, Dec. 20; Friday, Dec. 27; and Saturday, Dec. 28.
American Airlines said Friday, Dec. 27, and Friday, Dec. 20, are expected to be its busiest and second-busiest days respectively during its holiday period, which runs from Dec. 18 to Jan. 6.
American said it’ll serve more than 6.6 million bags of pretzels during its holiday travel period.
The cheapest days to fly are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to Expedia. The busiest and most expensive days will be from Friday, Dec. 20, through Sunday, Dec. 22.
The most popular Christmas destinations in the U.S. are Las Vegas, New York City and Orlando, Florida, according to Hopper.
Airports in major cities are expected to be the most crowded in the mornings, between 8 a.m. and noon, according to Hopper.
Road travel
About 107 million people are forecast to drive to their holiday destinations between Dec. 21 and Jan. 1 — approximately 2.5 million more people than last year, according to AAA.
The busiest days to pick up a rental car will be Friday, Dec. 20, and Saturday, Dec. 21, according to AAA.
If you’re heading out the door on Dec. 20, the worst travel time is between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. and the best time is before 11 a.m., according to analytics company INRIX. On Dec. 21, the worst time to be on the road is between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.; the best time is before 2 p.m.
Traffic will be minimal on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, INRIX said.
