Powerball jackpot climbs to estimated $1.5 billion after no Wednesday winner
In this photo illustration, Powerball lottery tickets are displayed on a countertop at the Brew Market & Cafe on September 04, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot is estimated to climb to $1.5 billion for Saturday night’s drawing, marking the fifth-largest prize in the lottery’s history, after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn on Wednesday, the lottery said.
A $1.25 billion Powerball jackpot prize had been up for grabs Wednesday night, with a cash value of $572.1 million. The winning numbers drawn Wednesday were: 25, 33, 53, 62, 66 and red Powerball 17.
That was the game’s sixth largest prize ever, according to Powerball. The largest prize ever was $2.04 billion won on Nov. 7, 2022.
The Powerball jackpot was last hit on Sept. 6 by two tickets in Missouri and Texas that split a $1.787 billion prize. There have been 43 consecutive drawings with no jackpot wins.
If a player had won on Wednesday night, they would have had the choice between annual payments worth an estimated $1.25 billion or an immediate $572.1 million lump sum payment.
According to Powerball, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
The drawing will be held just before 11 p.m. ET in the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.
(NEW YORK) — Tatiana Schlossberg, daughter of Caroline Kennedy and granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, has died following a battle with acute myeloid leukemia.
“Our beautiful Tatiana passed away this morning,” the JFK Library Foundation said in a statement on Tuesday. “She will always be in our hearts.”
Schlossberg revealed in an emotional essay published last month that she was diagnosed with a “rare mutation” of acute myeloid leukemia in May 2024 after giving birth to her second child.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Cancer patient Ofelia Torres holds up her baby photos, some of the include her father Ruben Torres-Maldonado. He will be released from immigration detention as early as Thursday. (ABC News)
(CHICAGO) — Chicago immigration judge Eva Saltzman on Thursday set a $2,000 bond for Ruben Torres-Maldonado, whose 16-year-old daughter Ofelia Torres is battling stage 4 cancer. Torres-Maldonado will be released from immigration detention as early as Thursday.
During the hearing, the judge not only ruled for him to be released, but also said he is now eligible to apply for a cancellation of removal based on the hardship his family would endure if he’s forced to leave the country. If his application is denied, he could still face deportation.
Despite the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier claiming Torres-Maldonado was a “criminal illegal alien” who has a history of driving offenses, Saltzman said she had no reason to believe that he posed a risk to the public.
“I see that you have very strong family ties and community ties in the United States and that you’ve hired an attorney which shows me that you take these proceedings very seriously,” the judge said. “And I see nothing in the record that would indicate to me that you pose a danger to the community.”
Torres-Maldonado also noted during the hearing that he has a valid license and insurance.
“I wish you much luck in the future, and I wish your daughter a full recovery,” the judge said.
DHS didn’t immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment about the judge’s order.
In an interview with ABC News last week, 16-year-old Ofelia Torres recalled receiving a strange phone call on Oct. 18. She said her mom had just put on sterile gloves and was helping to drain the ascites — a buildup of fluid — in her abdomen when it came.
“The first call that came through was Walgreens, and so we just declined the call. It was probably just my medication,” Torres said. “Another call came through and it said prison slash jail and I was like ‘Why is the prison calling me?’ But in my head, I kind of knew, I think they got my dad.”
Since learning that federal immigration agents arrested Torres-Maldonado at a Home Depot in Niles, Illinois, on Oct. 18, Ofelia has made it her mission to continue fighting her stage 4 cancer diagnosis and her father’s possible deportation too.
ABC News interviewed the teen at her home in Chicago last week as part of a “Nightline” story on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement mission in the state. Dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” by the administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) campaign targeting undocumented people in Chicago and greater Illinois.
Torres-Maldonado is one of more than 2,800 undocumented immigrants that the Trump administration says it has apprehended in the Chicago area since they announced the operation in early September.
At a recent press conference, attorney Kalman Resnick, who is representing Torres-Maldonado, said federal agents surrounded his client’s vehicle, smashed the window of his truck and “dragged” him into a vehicle at gunpoint.
ICE is under the supervision of the DHS. In a statement sent to ABC News before the hearing, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin alleged that Torres-Maldonado backed into a government vehicle while attempting to flee.
“His criminal history shows he has a history of habitual driving offenses and has been charged multiple
times with driving without insurance, driving without a valid license, and speeding,” McLaughlin said.
Torres denied the government’s claims that her father is a criminal.
“I’ve gotten a parking ticket, am I a criminal?” she said. “Sometimes we break a law without even knowing, does that make us criminal? I don’t know.”
Torres was diagnosed with metastatic aviolar rhabdomyosarcoma — an aggressive form of cancer — last December. The teen said she tried to keep her diagnosis private for several months, but told ABC News she is speaking out to defend her father. She said Torres-Maldonado instilled in her a sense of gratitude for the country they call home.
“I need the world to know my dad’s story and if that means letting the world know I have cancer, so be it. I don’t care,” she said. “I need my dad.”
The immigration crackdown in Chicago has come under scrutiny from advocates and legal experts including Mark Fleming, associate director of Federal Litigation for the National Immigrant Justice Center, who told ABC News that many of the arrests and detainments have been unlawful.
So far, the human rights organization National Immigrant Justice Center has presented over 800 cases that they claim were unlawful under a consent decree — a court-ordered agreement between parties that resolves a dispute — limiting DHS’ ability to hold someone who entered into the country unlawfully without a bond hearing.
Fleming told ABC News the organization has 280 more cases that his legal team will soon present before a judge.
“It’s truly unprecedented. We are lead counsel in a class action lawsuit that has a consent decree that dictates when and how DHS, Department of Homeland Security, whether it’s Border Patrol or Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, can stop and arrest people without warrants,” Fleming said.
“Regardless of what you feel about immigration or the levels of immigration or the level of enforcement — those are fair debates for us to have. What is deeply troubling here is the lawlessness, the violence, the cruelty, the carelessness with which they are doing this operation,” he later added.
Torres said despite how her father was treated, she has “nothing but love” for the federal agents who arrested her father.
“That’s all I have for everyone in this world. Love in my heart,” she said. “To the ICE agents who smashed my dad’s window, to the ICE agent who pointed a gun at my dad, I’m not mad at you … I just want you to know that that was not the right thing to do.”
– ABC News’ Ashley Schwartz Lavares, Jessica Hopper, Sally Hawkins, John Kapetaneas and WLS’s Tom Jones contributed to this report.
In this handout satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hurricane Melissa churns through the Caribbean Sea, captured at 15:20Z on October 28, 2025. NOAA via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — From the ground, chaos reigned across Jamaica in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa as residents emerged from the storm to find their communities shattered, their homes lying in ruins along with streets left awash in mud, debris and dangling power lines.
From the air, the picture of the widespread devastation came into a sobering focus as Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness released videos on social media of his tour on Wednesday of the hardest hit areas of the western part of his country.
“The most terrifying experience of my life, and I would not want to see it again,” a staff member of the Black River Hospital told Holness as he was filmed assessing the damage to the medical facility in the coastal community.
Holness praised the hospital workers for continuing to care for patients through the horrific Category 5 storm, even when the power went out and they were forced to use flashlights and lanterns to see.
One hospital staffer described having to dodge pieces of flying glass and other debris as the storm blew out windows and shook the facility.
During a news conference Thursday morning, Daryl Vaz, the country’s minister of science, energy, telecommunications and transport, said nearly 500,000 Jamaican Public Service customers remained without power, or about 72% of the utility company’s customers.
The number of deaths from the storm was still being assessed on Thursday. The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed on Wednesday that at least three people died in Jamaica in storm-related incidents. Other hurricane-related deaths occurred in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, officials said.
Sen. Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said Thursday that the Jamaica Defense Force has dedicated a helicopter to the recovery of bodies.
Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, declined to provide a death toll, but said, “There has been casualties and we do anticipate based on our information that they’ll be more.”
McKenzie added, “I’ve been hearing some stories that I don’t want to repeat and I’m not going to repeat those stories because the police have not confirmed those reports.”
McKenzie said that about 13,000 people remained in shelters across Jamaica on Thursday.
Video footage taken during Prime Minister Holness’ helicopter tour of the hard-hit areas showed communities left in ruins. From the air, Holness witnessed entire neighborhoods devastated, with numerous homes missing roofs and walls. The videos showed twisted metal, splinted wood, and chunks of broken concrete strewn across the green landscape for miles.
Black River — where Hurricane Melissa, packing 185 mph winds, made landfall on Tuesday — appeared to be one of the most devastated towns that Holness encountered.
In all directions, businesses, churches and homes appeared to be damaged or destroyed.
In one of the videos, Holness told residents that 90% of the structures in Black River and nearby St. Elizabeth sustained damage.
Some coastal areas of Jamaica, including Black River, were also hit with a storm surge of up to 13 feet, officials said.
The Emergency Operation Center in Black River was also damaged, hampering search-and-rescue efforts in the area, Superintendent Coleridge Minto of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said in a video statement posted on social media Wednesday afternoon.
“We are immobile. When I say immobile, police units are down,” Minto said on Wednesday. “At this point in time, we are unable to do any rescuing; we are unable to respond. So, we are trying to let everybody know that the situation here is devastating.
Mento said all buildings in Black River sustained damage, including court offices, supermarkets and bakeries.
A container storing relief supplies was turned upside down by the storm, damaging everything inside, Minto said.
“There is urgent need for support,” Minto said.
On Wednesday, Holness posted a statement on social media, saying his nation was “ravaged” by the hurricane and its torrential rain. Holness declared the entire island nation a disaster area.
“I know many, especially those in the worst-affected parishes, are feeling disheartened,” Holness said in a social media post. “Your homes may have been damaged or destroyed, and your communities and towns no longer look the same.”
During his tour of St. Elizabeth, Holness said crews were working to clear roads covered in mud, toppled trees and power poles so that emergency crews can reach devastated areas.
On Thursday, Dixon said emergency crews on foot reached the town of Westmorland in the westernmost province of Jamaica by “cutting their way on foot through blocked roads.”
Authorities said some rural areas of the island, including the hilly and mountainous regions, received up to 49 inches of rain, triggering landslides.
Much of St. Elizabeth Parish, one of Jamaica’s largest parishes with a population of more than 150,000, was left underwater by the storm, authorities told ABC News.
The only public hospital in St. Elizabeth Parish lost power and its roof and had to be evacuated, officials said.
Search-and-rescue operations are underway across Jamaica.
All airports in Jamaica, including the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, have been closed since Monday, but some were beginning to reopen on Thursday.
Esther Pinnock, spokesperson for the Jamaica Red Cross, told ABC News on Wednesday that communication has been lost with some hard-hit communities.
“So, we’re not able to get what’s happening in such locations,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said infrastructure across the island has been damaged and that some communities were cut off from fresh running water.
“Interventions are being made to address those concerns,” Pinnock said.
Pinnock said some areas of the island that suffered widespread damage from Melissa were still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 hurricane storm that pummeled the island in July 2024.
“Emotionally and from a mental perspective, yes, we are just rebuilding our livelihood, and now we have to start all over again,” Pinnock said.
After passing across Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa took aim at Cuba, where it made landfall early Wednesday as as Category 3 storm near the the city of Chivirico in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
Images emerging from Cuba in the aftermath of the hurricane, showed collapsed structures and people digging through destroyed homes in search of survivors and personal belongings.
On Thursday morning, Melissa was still a Category 2 hurricane moving north-northeast across the Atlantic Ocean at 21 mph. It is expected to pass west of Bermuda late Thursday night and into Friday morning.
A hurricane warning has been issued for Bermuda as winds are expected to top 70 mph.
