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Lead On Dec. 17, 2025, Xcel Energy initiated a public safety power shutoff at 10 a.m., cutting service for about 50,000 customers along Colorado’s Front Range to reduce wildfire risk amid extreme winds and very dry conditions. The outages affect residents in Boulder, Clear Creek, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld counties; Denver County is not expected … Read more

Scientists have revised the ancestry of the skeleton long labelled the “Beachy Head Lady,” concluding that DNA does not support recent sub‑Saharan roots. The remains, recovered from Eastbourne Town Hall in 2012 and radiocarbon dated to between 129 and 311 AD, show a genetic profile closely matching people from rural Britain. Researchers estimate the young … Read more

Lead: U.S. equities saw notable intraday swings on Dec. 17, 2025, as a handful of large-cap and cyclical names — including Oracle, Jabil, Paramount and Texas Pacific — emerged among the session’s biggest movers. Traders reacted to company-specific news, analyst activity and broader market flows during the midday window (around 12:00 p.m. ET), producing outsized … Read more

Lead: On Dec. 17, 2025, the Powerball jackpot climbed to an estimated $1.25 billion with an advertised cash option of $572.1 million, heading into Wednesday night’s drawing in Tallahassee. The prize rose after the previous drawing produced no jackpot winner; the last jackpot-winning tickets were sold Sept. 6, 2022, when two tickets split a $1.787 … Read more

Lead: Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to brief a House Judiciary committee behind closed doors about his two closed criminal inquiries into President Donald Trump. In his prepared remarks, Smith said his teams had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Mr. Trump engaged in a scheme to overturn the … Read more

Lead: A new reanalysis of Cassini spacecraft data by a team led at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggests Saturn’s moon Titan may lack a single, global subsurface ocean. The researchers report evidence for a thick outer ice shell and deeper layers of slush with isolated pockets of liquid water, based on timing measurements of Titan’s … Read more

Britain announced it will rejoin the European Union’s Erasmus student-exchange programme in 2027, six years after leaving the scheme amid Brexit. The government framed the move as a major win for young people, promising broader access to study and training abroad. Rejoining restores the option for UK students to spend a year at European universities … Read more

On December 17, 2025, Google introduced Gemini 3 Flash, a faster and lower-cost variant of the Gemini 3 family, and set it as the default model in the Gemini app and AI mode in Search. The company says the model delivers strong multimodal performance and substantial speed gains over earlier Flash versions while remaining broadly … Read more

Lead As of Dec. 17, 2025, more than a tenth of sitting members of the U.S. Congress have indicated they will not hold their current seats after the 2026 midterm elections, citing retirements, redistricting and runs for other offices. NPR’s tracker counts 54 lawmakers — 10 senators and 44 representatives — who announced departures or … Read more

Lead: On Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Google announced that its vibe-coding toolkit Opal is now built into the Gemini web app, enabling users to create and reuse AI-powered mini-apps called Gems. The integration places Opal inside the Gems manager and adds a visual, no-code editor that converts natural-language prompts into ordered steps. Users can refine … Read more

Nick Reiner, 32, is expected to face a first court appearance in Los Angeles after his parents, director Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead at their Brentwood home on Sunday. Los Angeles prosecutors have charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders; … Read more

Prime Video’s second season of Fallout has arrived, bringing Ella Purnell back as Lucy and renewing attention on the franchise’s crossover between television and games. The show’s creators worked closely with Bethesda veterans to preserve series “canon,” while the TV exposure has driven renewed interest and sales for several Fallout titles. Developers say the collaboration … Read more

Dec 16, 2025 — The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) on Dec. 16 issued a statement from President Antonio Busalacchi responding to media reports that the Trump administration is proposing to break up the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). UCAR, which manages NSF NCAR on behalf of the NSF … Read more

Lead Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) announced on Wednesday that he will not run for re-election in 2026, ending a decade-long tenure that began with his 2014 victory. Newhouse is one of the last House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In a statement … Read more

Gil Gerard, the actor best known for playing the title role in the NBC science-fiction series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, died Dec. 16, 2025, in hospice care in Georgia. He was 82. Gerard’s wife, Janet Gerard, announced his death on social media and said the cause was cancer. His career spanned commercials, soap … Read more