FBI says it thwarted potential New Year’s terror attack ‘directly inspired’ by ISIS
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel speaks during the daily press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on November 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI said it “thwarted a potential” New Year’s Eve terror attack in North Carolina.
“The subject was directly inspired to act by ISIS,” the FBI said in a post on X.
“Thanks to our great partners for working with us and undoubtedly saving lives,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media.
Additional information was not immediately available. The FBI is expected to share more details at a news conference.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
An ABC News graphic from Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, on the expected winter storm. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — A highly impactful and potentially historic nor’easter is expected to quickly strengthen as it collects itself offshore near Delaware, Maryland and Virginia on Sunday, leading to major and potentially extreme impacts for millions along the I-95 corridor.
More than 50 million Americans were on alert on Sunday morning for winter storm conditions beginning later Sunday and continuing into Monday.
Blizzard warnings are in effect for more than 35 million Americans from Cape Charles, Virginia, to Dover, Delaware, up to the I-95 corridor from Philadelphia to Boston for increased confidence in snowfall of more than a foot and gusty winds that will likely cause blizzard conditions. The entire states of Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island were included.
Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of central Virginia and Maryland, east-central Pennsylvania, southern New York, northern Connecticut, west-central Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and Vermont, and southern Maine for increased confidence of snowfall.
Some areas are expecting about 6 inches, while some areas may potentially see more than a foot, as well as gusty winds that will likely cause blowing snow and whiteout conditions.
Those conditions could hit major cities, including Baltimore; Harrisburg and Scranton, Pennsylvania; Albany, New York; Hartford, Connecticut; Concord, New Hampshire; and Portland, Maine.
On Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration ahead of the evening’s storm, saying it will allow “our state agencies have every resource they need to prepare and keep people safe.”
Shapiro asked people to stay off the roads and stressed that people should take the storm seriously and seriously and stay inside.
Conditions are expected to begin to worsen in the Philadelphia area later today, the governor said.
New York City and Philadelphia were under a blizzard warning for total snowfall reaching between 12 and more than 18 inches, with potential winds gusting up to 55+ mph, causing whiteout conditions and difficult-to-impossible travel conditions later Sunday through Monday.
New York City hasn’t been under a blizzard warning since March 2017, close to a decade ago. The last such warning for Philadelphia was in January 2016, more than a decade ago.
“The snow is back,” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on social media early on Sunday. “But New York is ready.”
At a press conference later Sunday afternoon, Mamdani announced a state of emergency for the city and a travel ban beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday and ending at 12 p.m. Monday. New York City schools will also be closed Monday, Mamdani said.
According to the National Weather Service, this is the first time that all of New Jersey has been under a blizzard warning since January 1996.
The entire state of Delaware is under a blizzard warning for the first time since Feb. 10, 2010, more than 15 years ago, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 7,400 flights have been canceled for Sunday and Monday, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Over half of all flights at John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports have already been canceled ahead of the storm.
Airports in Newark, Boston, Philadelphia, D.C. and Baltimore have also seen significant cancellations. Between 88% and 93% of flights scheduled for Monday at New York airports and in Boston have been canceled as of noon Sunday.
Coastal Flood alerts were also up from coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to the Jersey Shore, as well as from Long Island to the coast of southern and eastern New England for minor to moderate coastal flooding during high tide.
Jubilant Sykes sings with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” at Carnegie Hall, October 24, 2008. Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images
(SANTA MONICA, Calif.) — A Grammy-nominated opera singer was stabbed to death inside a California residence, and the 71-year-old’s son has been arrested in connection with the killing, police said.
Jubilant Sykes was killed in a home in Santa Monica on Monday, police said. Officers responded to the residence after a 911 caller reported an assault in progress and found Sykes with “critical injuries consistent with a stabbing,” the Santa Monica Police Department said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sykes’ son, 31-year-old Micah Sykes, was found in the home and taken into custody without incident, police said. He will be booked for homicide, police said.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident remain under investigation,” police said.
Officers responded to the home around 9:20 p.m. on Monday and the 911 caller directed them inside, police said.
First responders with the Santa Monica Fire Department pronounced Sykes dead at the scene, police said.
Police said the weapon was recovered at the scene, though did not provide additional details.
The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“This appears to be an isolated incident occurring within a private residence, and there is no ongoing threat to the community,” police said.
Sykes performed on the Grammy-nominated 2009 recording of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” with the Morgan State University Choir and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
Brian Walshe during the murder trial of Ana Walshe on December 9, 2025. (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(DEDHAM, Mass.) — The jury has begun deliberations afterclosing arguments were delivered Friday in the murder trial of Brian Walshe, a father of three accused of killing and dismembering his wife.
The Massachusetts man is accused of killing his wife, 39-year-old Ana Walshe, around New Year’s Day in 2023. He pleaded guilty last month, ahead of the trial, to lying to police following her disappearance and improperly disposing of her body, though he denies he killed his wife and has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Ana Walshe’s body has not been found.
The judge dismissed the jurors to begin their deliberations midday Friday.
Prior to the closing arguments, Judge Diane Freniere told the jury during instructions that they will be able to choose to convict on second-degree murder, not just the first-degree murder charge the prosecution has argued for and includes the element of premeditation.
During the trial’s opening statements last week, defense attorneys said Brian Walshe found his wife dead in bed on New Year’s Day in 2023 and then panicked and lied to police as they investigated her disappearance — but maintained he did not kill her.
Brian Walshe allegedly killed and dismembered his wife, then disposed of her remains in dumpsters, according to prosecutors. The internet history on his devices on Jan. 1, 2023, included searches such as “best way to dispose of a body,” “how long for someone to be missing to inherit,” and “best way to dispose of body parts after a murder,” prosecutors said.
Defense attorney Larry Tipton argued the Commonwealth hadn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Brian Walshe — whom he described as a “loving father and loving husband” — killed his wife or there was any motive to do so.
Positing what might account for the “unspeakable” internet searches and how someone could “dispose of the body of the woman that he adored,” Tipton said, “Could it be something that was sudden, something that was unexpected, something which was unbelievable, something that only a medical examiner would understand, have knowledge of, but not a man like Brian Walshe?”
Tipton conceded there’s evidence Brian Walshe lied and disposed of a body, but argued there was nothing proving that he planned to harm his wife. He claimed the internet search on murder came six hours after his wife died and “upsetting” searches about dismemberment and “cleaning up” do not point to a plan but rather his “disbelief.”
“Why is a man searching now if he had intended to kill his wife?” Tipton asked the jurors. “Where is the evidence of premeditation in thousands of pages of records?”
At the start of the Commonwealth’s closing argument, prosecutor Anne Yas told jurors, “Ana Walshe is dead because he murdered her,” while pointing toward Brian Walshe in the courtroom.
She argued Ana Walshe didn’t die of natural causes — but Brian Walshe killed her and then disposed of her body to hide the evidence.
“The defendant did not want anyone to find Ana’s body and to know how she died, so the defendant bought cutting tools at Lowe’s and Home Depot and he cut up Ana’s body — the woman that he claimed to love — and he threw her into dumpsters,” she said.
Yas argued the evidence shows Brian Walshe intended to kill his wife and was “methodical” — that his claims he misplaced his phone for two days around New Year’s Eve “allowed him to carry out his plan” and have an explanation for police as to why he hadn’t been in contact with her. She said he had a list when he was shopping at Lowe’s.
Yas said their marriage was in “crisis,” and they had been having arguments about Ana Walshe being away from the family due to her job in Washington, D.C. She also claimed Brian Walshe knew his wife was having an affair, which the defense has denied.
“Please do not allow the defendant’s self-serving act of dismembering and disposing of Ana’s body let him get away with this murder,” Yas said.
She urged jurors to use their “common sense” while they deliberate, and that they will “see that the evidence shows there is only one verdict” — guilty of the premeditated first-degree murder of Ana Walshe.
The defense rested on Thursday without calling any witnesses. Freniere noted in court on Thursday that it appeared that Brian Walshe would testify in his defense, based on the defense’s opening statement. Though he ultimately waived his right.
Evidence presented during the two-week trial in Dedham included surveillance footage of a man believed to be Brian Walshe buying tools and other supplies at a Lowe’s on Jan. 1, 2023. A receipt showed that items, including a hacksaw, utility knife, hammer, snips, Tyvek suit, shoeguards, rags and cleaning supplies totaling $462 were purchased with cash.
Additional surveillance footage presented in court showed someone throwing out trash bags at dumpsters on multiple days in early January 2023.
Several blood-stained items recovered from dumpsters by investigators — including a hacksaw, a piece of rug, a towel and hairs — and an unknown tissue were linked to Ana Walshe through DNA testing, a forensic scientist from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory testified during the trial.
Blood was also found in the basement of the family’s rental home in Cohasset, another forensic scientist with the crime lab testified.
Ana Walshe was reported missing by her employer on Jan. 4, 2023. Brian Walshe told police at the time that she had a “work emergency” at her job in D.C. and left their Cohasset home on New Year’s Day, according to video of his interview shown in court.
At the time, Brian Walshe and their three children were living in Massachusetts while he was awaiting sentencing in a federal fraud case after pleading guilty to a scheme to sell counterfeit Andy Warhol paintings.
Ahead of the murder trial, Brian Walshe admitted to lying to police amid her disappearance and improperly disposing of her body. His defense said during opening statements that he panicked after finding her dead in bed, calling her death sudden and unexplained.
Jurors heard testimony, including from a D.C. man with whom Ana Walshe was having an affair, that the mother of three was upset about being away from her young children so much — who were 2, 4 and 6 at the time — and that there was stress in the marriage. The defense maintained that the couple were happy.
