Holiday travel Friday: Storms, wind and fire danger slam US coast to coast
People walk bundled up in winter clothing in Manhattan on December 08, 2025 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Traveling for the holidays Friday may be turbulent, as gusts and widespread rain move into the Northeast, fire warnings persist in the West and storms linger on the West Coast until the end of the year.
Here is a look at the weather forecast for Friday.
Rain and wind in the Northeast
As a large cross-country storm moves east, the system is moving through over the northern Great Lakes region and stretching down to the Southeast where wind gusts could reach 60 mph in some areas.
Areas across Appalachia, New England and coastal Maine will be affected by the strongest gusts, while rain and wind will persist from D.C. to Boston until the evening.
In the Northeast, airport delays are possible due to the inclement weather, as lake-effect snow will begin in the region before things start drying out in the evening.
The weekend will be milder with the exception of some lingering gusts and snow around the Great Lakes region.
Fire danger out West
Parts of Colorado and Wyoming are experiencing extreme and dangerous fire weather Friday, as dry and windy conditions persist across the Rockies.
In particular, the area around Denver is under a rare “Particularly Dangerous Situation” Red Flag Warning for winds between 45-55 mph and gusts up to 80-110 mph, making conditions extremely favorable for rapid fire spread.
Parts of the Texas panhandle, west-central Nebraska and other parts of Colorado and Wyoming are also under Red Flag Warnings for fire, as wind gusts may reach up to 50 mph with the dry conditions out West.
Rain, wind and some snow will rock the Northwest Friday, as a lingering system on the West Coast starts to shift south, dropping an additional 1 to 4 inches of rain across western Oregon, southwest Washington and northwest California.
A Flood Watch remains in effect across coastal Oregon and Washington until 4 a.m. Saturday, as rivers and streams will continue to rise to potentially record levels.
Some mountain resorts in California, such as Boreal Mountain and Soda Springs Mountain Resort, have paused operations into next week due to the weather and will reopen when weather permits.
“While it’s never easy to pause early in the season, this storm is expected to help build our snowpack and set us up for an exciting stretch of winter riding ahead,” the Boreal Mountain resort wrote in a Facebook post. “Our teams will be working throughout the storm to protect terrain and prepare for reopening as soon as conditions allow.”
Over the weekend, 2 to 6 more inches of rain will hit Washington down to California, and a coastal storm will gift nearly all of the West Coast with rain and wind for Christmas.
The holiday week will be much mild and warmer for the rest of the country.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends an unspecified event in New York, January 13, 2000. Patrick Mcmullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s motion to release grand jury materials and other nonpublic evidence from the criminal case of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in order to comply with Congress’ directive to publicly release materials from the government’s files on the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer determined in his 24-page order that the Epstein Transparency Act, passed last month, “unambiguously applies” to the discovery materials provided by prosecutors to Maxwell’s defense team in connection with her criminal trial.
The ruling grants the Trump administration’s request to modify the protective order in the case to allow for the Justice Department to publicly release materials subject to certain exemptions delineated by Congress.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls. A substantial subset of the government’s evidence against Maxwell was made public during her three-week trial in federal court in New York.
The Epstein Transparency Act was passed by Congress last month and signed by President Donald Trump following blowback the administration received from MAGA supporters seeking the release of the materials. The law requires the Justice Department to make public all Epstein-related materials in its possession within 30 days of the bill’s passage.
The act allows the DOJ to withhold or redact records to protect the privacy of alleged victims. It also allows the attorney general to withhold records that could jeopardize an ongoing federal investigation or prosecution.
Judge Engelmayer’s order puts in place a protocol to protect victims from the inadvertent release of materials “that would identify them or otherwise invade their privacy.”
“Nothing in this Protective Order shall prohibit the Government from publicly releasing materials whose disclosure is required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Engelmayer wrote. “The restrictions of this Protective Order, however, remain in place with respect to the segregable portions of records that ‘contain personally identifiable information of victims or victims’ personal and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.'”
Emphasizing the privacy concerns of the alleged victims, Engelmayer also added a provision to the protective order that will require the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to “personally certify in a sworn declaration” that such records have been rigorously reviewed for compliance,” according to the order.
Engelmayer noted in his order that the alleged victims’ concerns about inadvertent disclosure of their names and other identifying information “have a basis in fact.” He noted that in its two applications to the court to disclose records, the Justice Department acted without prior notice to the victims.
The DOJ, Engelmayer wrote, has paid “lip service” to the victims but has “not treated them with the solicitude they deserve.”
“The certification requirement that the Court is adding to the Protective Order assures that an identifiable official within DOJ takes ownership of the sensitive and vitally important process of reviewing discovery to be publicly released. It will help assure that victims’ statutory privacy rights are protected,” the judge wrote.
Following the ruling, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garica, called on the DOJ to immediately provide those records to the committee, which has an existing bipartisan subpoena to the DOJ for all its Epstein/Maxwell investigative files.
“These files are now part of the Epstein files held by the Department of Justice, and must be turned over to the Oversight Committee in response to our subpoena, and to the public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The DOJ must comply immediately,” Garica said in a statement.
“In addition to this new ruling, a federal judge in Florida has also granted the DOJ’s request to unseal Epstein-related grand jury records from the mid-2000s, and the Committee looks forward to receiving those materials as well,” the statement said.
The DOJ previously indicated to the court that the discovery materials it seeks to make public could include, among other things, search warrant applications, financial and travel records, photographs and videos of relevant properties, immigration records, forensic reports from extractions of electronic devices, materials produced by Epstein’s estate, and reports and notes of interviews of victims and third parties.
Attorneys for Maxwell told the court last week that she took no formal position on the DOJ motion, but argued that the release of nonpublic materials would impact her ability to get a fair retrial if she were to succeed in her forthcoming habeas petition, a longshot bid for a new trial.
“Ms. Maxwell respectfully notes that shortly she will be filing a habeas petition pro se. Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” her lawyers wrote.
Regarding the grand jury materials, Engelmayer ruled that the Epstein Files Transparency Act overrides the federal rule of criminal procedure that governs grand jury secrecy. He also determined the act does not exempt grand jury materials from disclosure.
Engelmayer is the second judge to grant a DOJ motion to unseal grand jury testimony and other previously restricted Epstein materials, after U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith last week granted the administration’s request to lift restrictions over grand jury material related to the first federal investigation of Epstein in Florida in the mid-2000s, which ended in his non-prosecution agreement, which was widely criticized.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman is currently considering a similar request from the DOJ to allow the government to disclose materials associated with the 2019 criminal case against Epstein in Manhattan federal court. That case ended with Epstein’s death in August of 2019.
Comptroller Brad Lander joins 11 local elected officials inside lower Manhattan’s federal building, demanding access to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holding area on the building’s 10th floor on September 18, 2025, in New York City. Members of the group were later arrested. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Several elected officials in New York were arrested Thursday during a protest at an immigration office in Manhattan, according to local media reports and the Department of Homeland Security.
Among those arrested at 26 Federal Plaza — a government building that houses an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office — were New York City Comptroller Brad Lander who was arrested at the same location in June while accompanying people to immigration court visits.
In a statement, DHS confirmed that a total of 71 people were arrested during the protest Thursday, including Lander, two New York state senators and nine New York State Assembly members.
Lander posted on social media that he and other elected officials were demanding access to the facility’s 10th floor, which operates as a holding facility for detained migrants, “to conduct oversight of conditions in ICE’s de facto detention facility.”
In the statement, DHS said: “Brad Lander showed up to 26 Federal Plaza unannounced with agitators and media and proceeded to obstruct law enforcement and cause a scene. He yelled inside the building that he was ‘not leaving’ until detainees were ‘released.'”
New York ABC station WABC reported Lander and the other elected officials who were arrested would be given police summonses and then be released.
Following the arrests Thursday, the building was later placed on a lockdown because of a bomb threat, DHS said.
The facility at 26 Federal Plaza has been the scene of numerous protests in recent months amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Lander was arrested during a protest in June after being accused of assaulting a law enforcement officer. Lander denied the allegation and said he was not charged following the incident.
Earlier this week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to improve conditions for detained migrants at the holding facility inside the building.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is maintaining a presence at COP30, despite the Trump administration declining to send an official delegation to the climate conference in Brazil.
This is the first time since the inaugural Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1995 that the U.S. will not be officially represented at the annual climate summit.
However, a large number of state and local representatives — as well as environmental nonprofits based in the U.S. — are in attendance.
A coalition of 100 local U.S. leaders — including governors, mayors and other top city and state officials — made the trip to Belem, Brazil, as part of the U.S. Climate Alliance.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, among the notable Americans at COP30, bashed President Donald Trump for disregarding the event, which kicked off Monday.
“While Donald Trump skips the world stage, California is showing up — leading, partnering, and proving what American climate leadership looks like,” Newsom said on Tuesday.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, said in a press conference on Friday that the “Trump administration simply does not represent the American public on climate issues.”
Whitehouse, a ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, accused the current administration of representing the fossil fuel industry, “most particularly the big fossil fuel donors who contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s political campaign.”
Why the U.S. did not send any delegates to COP30 The Trump administration declined to send an official delegation to COP30, according to the White House.
“The U.S. is not sending any high level representatives to COP30,” a White House official told ABC News ahead of the start of the conference. “The president is directly engaging with leaders around the world on energy issues, which you can see from the historic trade deals and peace deals that all have a significant focus on energy partnerships.”
Last week, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told The Associated Press that COP30 is “essentially a hoax.”
“It’s not an honest organization looking to better human lives,” Wright told the AP, follow a two-day business conference in Athens.
Wright added that he may attend next year’s climate conference “just to try to deliver some common sense.”
The record-breaking U.S. federal government shutdown, which ended late Wednesday, also prevented federal lawmakers from attending the conference.
Who is at COP30? Most of the nearly 200 countries that participate in the UNFCCC attend COP.
A total of 193 countries, plus the European Union, registered a delegation for the summit. Even North Korea sent a delegation to the climate summit, according to a Carbon Brief analysis.
The only other countries not in attendance are Afghanistan, Myanmar and San Marino, with each having displayed “sporadic” attendance at past conferences, according to Carbon Brief.
Other notable U.S. politicians who made the event include Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and former Vice President Al Gore.
Several mayors of American cities are also in attendance, including Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson.
American cities have always been at the forefront of innovation and climate action, said Gallego, chair of Climate Mayors and C40 Cities vice chair, in a statement.
“Mayors across the country are doubling down to fill the current void of leadership at the federal level,” Gallego said.
Other notable attendees from the U.S. at COP30 this year include Taryn Finnessey, managing director of the U.S. Climate Alliance.
Why experts say it’s important that the US participates in COP30 It is integral that the U.S., as one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases, to be present at every COP, environmental advocates told ABC News.
The U.S. shapes markets, capital flows and technology pathways, and therefore engagement by Americans signals to investors that the world’s largest economy understands the competitiveness, innovation, security and supply-chain stakes of the energy transition, Maria Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, told ABC News.
“The U.S. has a decisive role in global climate, energy and industrial policy, so sub-national leaders, non-state actors and businesses showing up at COP30 matters,” Mendiluce said.
Being on the ground at COP is “essential” so delegations can engage with “full strength,” Max Frankel, director of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Institute, told ABC News.
In addition, the scope and urgency of the climate crisis demands an international response, Max Holmes, president and CEO of the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told ABC News.
It is important to let other countries know that many Americans are still working to combat climate change, Lynda Hopkins, supervisor of California’s 5th district, County of Sonoma, told ABC News.
Although the White House isn’t in Belem to represent U.S. interest, Americans at COP30 are still working for solutions that are in the best interest of the country, Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, told ABC News.
“While the Trump administration retreats, the people and companies here are seizing the opportunity to innovate, create jobs, and build safer, healthier futures,” Krupp said.
Although Hopkins said she and other American subnational delegates were “warmly received” by other countries, some prominent figures at COP30 indicated that the U.S. was not needed at the conference to accomplish goals.
Christiana Figueres, a diplomat from Costa Rica who played a key role in the inception of the 2015 Paris Agreement, said the U.S. would not be able to “do their direct bullying” due to the Trump administration’s boycott of the summit.
“I actually think it is a good thing,” Figueres said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Figueres then said, “Ciao, bambino,” which translates to “Bye, little boy,” in Italian, in response to Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement for the second time.
Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy for the Sierra Club, described the Trump administration’s absence as “shortsighted decision” and a “slap in the face” to Americans who want clean air and water and lower energy costs.
“The reality is that this work will continue with or without America,” Frankel said.
