Powerball jackpot surges to $1.25 billion ahead of Wednesday’s drawing
Purchased Powerball tickets ((Photo by Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A $1.25 billion Powerball jackpot prize is up for grabs Wednesday night, with a cash value of $572.1 million, after no winners were selected Monday.
This is 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 last rolled Monday night, when no ticket matched the five white balls — 23, 35, 59, 63, 68 — and red Powerball 2.
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 wins on Wednesday night, they will have 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) — A inmate in Louisiana is on the run after allegedly throwing a chemical substance at an officer and escaping from jail, according to the Berwick Police Department.
Cecil Michael Stratton, 46, fled from prison on Wednesday at approximately 10:12 p.m. local time while jailers were “securing inmates during lockdown procedures,” police said in a statement on Thursday.
During a “brief struggle” between Stratton and authorities, a chemical substance was hurled into an officer’s face, allowing for Stratton — and another inmate who has since been recaptured — to flee, police said.
As of Friday afternoon, the multi-agency manhunt continues for Stratton, police confirmed to ABC News.
“We are asking for the public’s assistance in reviewing any home or business surveillance cameras for suspicious activity that may have occurred in your area,” police said. “Even the smallest detail could be helpful to our investigation.”
Stratton, who is allegedly known to have “violent tendencies,” has previously escaped from a prison in North Louisiana, police said.
He is wanted for unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure, disarming a peace officer, battery of a police officer, aggravated battery and aggravated escape, police said.
Stratton’s criminal record includes a slew of previous charges, including theft, illegal possession of a stolen property, marijuana possession, attempted first-degree murder and resisting an officer, according to ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ.
The public is urged to use “extreme caution if Stratton is seen or located” and is discouraged from approaching the suspect, officials said.
Anyone with information on Stratton’s whereabouts should contact the Berwick Police Department at 985-384-7710, officials said.
(NEW YORK) — Two men hired by Iran in a failed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian dissident, author and activist, at her New York City home in 2022 were sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday.
A Manhattan federal court jury convicted Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov of murder-for-hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering in March.
Federal prosecutors said the two partnered with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an attempt to silence one of Iran’s most vocal, internationally recognized and effective critics in exchange for half a million dollars.
“I looked these men in the eyes — men who intended to silence me for defending women’s freedom — and am still standing,” Alinejad said after the sentencing hearing.
The journalist said the verdict is a “victory for my fellow dissidents who continue to fight for freedom and refuse to be silenced.”
“For too long, dictators have treated America as their personal playground to orchestrate transnational oppression,” she said. “It’s past time the U.S. government makes clear that U.S. residents are protected and that if they are targeted on American soil, there will be consequences for the hitmen as well as the regimes that sent them.”
In a video posted on social media Wednesday morning, Alinejad said she was en route with the FBI to the federal courthouse for the sentencing “to face my would-be assassins” and read a victim impact statement.
“As you see, I’m wearing red because they were hoping to cover all over my body with blood,” she said. “I’m wearing red to celebrate my life.”
Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutors said Omarov and Amirov deserved 55 years in prison because they sought “to soak the Brooklyn streets with the victim’s blood.”
Meanwhile, Omarov’s attorney argued for a sentence of no more than 10 years and Amirov’s attorney argued for no more than 13 years.
Prosecutors said the pair is part of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran and wanted to use the bounty to build power and influence in the Russian mob.
“When Amirov and Omarov were presented with a $500,000 bounty to assassinate Ms. Alinejad, they pursued the assignment quickly and relentlessly,” federal prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that in late July 2022, the triggerman hired by Amirov and Omarov “repeatedly traveled” to Alinejad’s Brooklyn neighborhood to surveil her.
At one point, the triggerman, Khalid Mehdiyev, saw Alinejad on her porch while he was walking around the neighborhood, and by the time he was able to make his way back to his car to retrieve an assault rifle, she had gone back inside, prosecutors said. “Alarmed” by the sight of Mehdiyev, Alinejad left her house on July 28, 2022, to stay with a friend out of state, prosecutors said.
Alinejad posted a video on social media of Mehdiyev outside her house on July 28, 2022.
When the triggerman drove away from the Brooklyn residence that day, the NYPD pulled him over for blowing a stop sign and driving on a suspended license. The officers arrested him and, during an inventory search of the car, found the assault rifle, as well as 66 rounds of ammunition, a ski mask, gloves and a bundle of cash, prosecutors said.
Cattle are shown at the Cattlemen’s Columbus Livestock Auction in Columbus Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has pushed back against President Trump’s plan to increase beef imports from Argentina, calling it “misguided.”
The group, which describes itself as “the national trade association representing U.S. cattle producers,” said in a statement that “efforts to manipulate markets only risk damaging the livelihoods of American cattlemen and women, while doing little to impact the price consumers are paying,” calling it “a misguided effort to lower the price of beef in grocery stores.”
“The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and its members cannot stand behind the President while he undercuts the future of family farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef in an attempt to influence prices,” said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall in the statement, in part.
“If President Trump is truly an ally of America’s cattle producers, we call on him to abandon this effort to manipulate markets,” he added.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One earlier this week that buying beef from Argentina “will bring our beef prices down” while also helping Argentina economically. On Wednesday, the president posted on his Truth Social online platform that American cattle ranchers “have to get their prices down,” and that they “don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil.”
The NCBA said in their statement that the U.S. already has a deep beef trade imbalance with Argentina.
“During the past five years, Argentina has shipped beef valued at more than $800 million to the U.S., while purchasing only $7 million of U.S. beef,” the statement said, adding “It is imperative that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins let the cattle markets work.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told ABC News Wednesday that he was concerned about the impacts of increasing foreign beef imports.
“We’ve got all the folks that are ranchers in my state that are handling beef. They would tell you firsthand American beef is the best beef in the world. That’s why we work hard to be able to export it,” he said.
“The president worked very hard to be able to open up Australia and Japan and other places to increase American beef going in there because the world wants American beef. So I’m a big proponent of raising more American beef to solve America’s issues,” Lankford further said.
Eight House Republicans also sent a letter to the White House Tuesday, expressing their concerns about President Trump’s plans to increase beef imports from Argentina.
“While we recognize the importance of strong trade relationships and diverse markets, our producers are seeking clarity on how this decision will be made, what safety and inspection standards will apply, and how this policy aligns with your administration’s commitment to strengthening American agriculture,” the letter reads, in part. It was signed by representatives from Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas.
Last week, the president announced a $20 billion bailout for Argentina’s foundering economy, prompting questions as to why the U.S. would commit billions to boost the economy of a foreign country when thousands of American farmers are suffering.
