NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Thursday, December 25, 2025

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Mudslides, evacuations and rescues after severe storm slams California; Single winning ticket in $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot; Christmas celebrated around the world; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening. I'm Sam Brock, in for Tom tonight. The situation is both dangerous and still unfolding for 32 million people under flood alerts in California, with a new round of rain arriving. Take a look at this. The hard-hit mountain community of Wrightwood slammed with torrential rain overwhelming the town, mud reaching the roofs of some homes. People there still under orders to shelter in place near Los Angeles, water surging through this mall. parking lot gushing out like a waterfall. And across the region, harrowing rooftop rescues after heavy rain sent debris crashing through neighborhoods. Now attention turns to the northeast, where a major post-holiday storm is also taking aim with heavy snow projected. But we begin

tonight on the West Coast with Dana Griffin. Tonight, after life-saving rescues as a deadly storm battered the West Coast, there's still a threat of mudslides and more flash flooding. The area hardest hit, this mountain community in Wrightwood. Dina Talling is stuck there without power. How has this impacted your Christmas? Oh, gosh. So I just became a grandmother for the first time three and a half weeks ago. Yeah, and I'm stuck up here. I'm stuck up here alone. In San Bernardino County, where raging water flooded entire communities, many who didn't evacuate were forced to shelter in place or be rescued. When you see those images, it doesn't look real. It really doesn't.

Firefighter, Christopher Prater, describes the harrowing ordeal. They were taking people from homes. They were rescuing people from vehicles. Some of those homes were cut off. We had no way to get in and out and did have to resort to using helicopters to get these people off of their roofs. In Northern California, a swift water rescue pulling the stranded driver to safety. And crews are working overtime to keep highways clear after multiple spinouts and collisions

overnight. In the Bay Area, tens of thousands woke up Christmas morning in the dark. Lots of loud, windy sounds outside, and then I saw a big flash, and then power went out. And Dana Griffin joining us now from the foothills of Altadina, where clearly Dana, more mud has come down from the mountain. What's the concern there tonight? Well, more rain and mud. Crews had to scrape an additional three to four feet out of the roadway dumping it here, and problems can persist even days after this storm passes. Sam? Dana Griffin, thank you so much. And already, a winter storm warning is up from New York City with the east coast poised to get the most snow yet of the year. NBC Chicago meteorologist

Kevin Jeans joins us, and Kevin, how much snow are we looking at? Hey, Sam, so big travel impacts from this one across the northeast beginning tomorrow afternoon, and this is going to ramp up through Friday afternoon. through Friday night into Saturday morning. There's going to be heavy snow and a winter mix. You have ice storm warnings over western Pennsylvania. Over a quarter of an inch of ice will be possible. So power outages are likely over western Pennsylvania. It's a wintry mix of sleet and snow across Pennsylvania all the way to the D.C. area, but heavy snow around New York. So Philadelphia, New York to Boston, seeing snow develop. And this is going to, again,

ramp up Friday evening through Friday night. Snow totals for New York, four to eight inches. of snow possible. And this will begin to clear out by Saturday morning. So some travel impacts will certainly be felt across the northeast, Sam. Kevin Jeans, thank you so much. Now to that breaking news out of the White House, the president just posting to social media moments ago about a new military strike, he says, was against ISIS in Nigeria. Let's get right to Julie who is traveling with the president in West Palm Beach. And Julie, what do the president say? Sam, tonight President Donald Trump announcing just moments ago on social media that the the U.S. military carried out what he's calling a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS in

northwest Nigeria. Mr. Trump said the Department of Defense, quote, executed numerous perfect strikes as only the United States is capable of doing, which the DOD says were done in coordination with the Nigerian government. Mr. Trump, adding that under his leadership, the U.S. will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper. The president for months has claimed Christians were being targeted and killed by Islamist militants in Nigeria. At one point, even pledging to, quote, go into that now disgraced country, guns ablazing, referring to Nigeria. Nigeria's government has pushed back on those claims, calling them a misrepresentation of reality. We reached out to the White House for more details on tonight's strike, but so far we have not heard back. However,

Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth, warning more to come. All right, numerous strikes. We're going to wait for more clarity on that. Julie Serkin, of course, following all the details. for us. Thank you so much from Florida tonight. Across the world now, and millions celebrating Christmas today from here in the U.S. to Rome, even on the front lines of the war in Ukraine. Molly Hunter has more. Today, from New York, to Paris, to the little town of Bethlehem. Christmas celebrations are in full swing across the globe. In Florida, President Trump calling troops abroad and taking calls from kids around the country. So Santa's not going to let you down. Here in the UK, King Charles delivering his Christmas Day message in Westminster Abbey.

With the great diversity of our communities, we can find the strength to ensure that right triumphs over wrong. And as they always do, the king and queen gathering with the rest of the royal family at the Sandringham estate, the prince and princess of Wales and their children greeting well-wishers. At the Vatican, Pope Leo celebrating Christmas Day Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, something that hasn't happened since the 1990s. Delivering his Christmas Day message, condemning the suffering in Gaza and calling for peace from the Middle East to Ukraine,

urging Russia and Ukraine to find the courage for direct talks. For Ukrainians, it's a sign of spiritual solidarity, and it's very important to have a lesson for our freedom. And as the war marches towards the four-year mark, on the front lines, Ukrainian troops, far from home today, calling loved ones on the holiday. And in Kiev, the courage to sing carols, to make merry to celebrate even amid the uncertainty. Molly Hunter, NBC News, London.

Thank you, Molly. And it was a very Merry Christmas indeed for one lucky lottery player or group in Arkansas. A single ticket delivering the $1.8 billion jackpot. Aaron Gilchrist has that story for us tonight. Tonight we have another live-changing jackpot for you. A Christmas Eve Powerball drawing big enough to overstuff even the biggest stocking. Your Powerball number tonight, good luck, everyone, is 19. The second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever, and today Powerball announcing a single ticket matching all six numbers was sold at this Murphy USA gas station in Cabot, Arkansas, just outside Little Rock.

That ticket before taxes now worth a lump sum payout of $834.9 million, or $1.8 billion paid out over 30 years. The jackpot has reset. Now, everybody in Arkansas is trying to figure out who defied those odds of $1 and $292 million. But per Arkansas law, the winner can choose to stay anonymous for up to three years. No one ever gets lucky here. Until today. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Nationwide, eight other tickets in the drawing matched five. numbers, meaning a Christmas bonus of $1 million each for those Powerball players.

But here in Arkansas, curiosity is building about the state's newest billionaire. Do you think maybe you know somebody in town? Are you starting to like... I don't know, but I need to start making phone calls, that's for sure. Now, for the person holding that winning ticket, the advice is clear. First, you want to sign it and then take a selfie with it and then lock that ticket away so you can process this life-changing event and claim your prize. Sam?

Under lock and key, no doubt. We just hope that winner or winners are generous. When we return on this Christmas edition of Nightly News, the NBA star, whose generosity changed the life of a teen prospect. Turns out it's a whole lot easier to follow in your hero's footsteps when you both wear a size 20 shoe. And we are back now with the story of an incredible gift, not from Santa or even mom and dad, but from an NBA star player who knows how hard it can be

to fill the biggest shoes. Kent Erdle, from our affiliate Care 11 in Minnesota, has the story. Basketball has its advantages when you're big. I'm 610 right now. And how old are you? I'm 15. But Harrison Wiesniff admits being this big isn't all fun in games. It's really big struggle to find size 20 shoes. Samantha Wiesnith is Harrison's mom. It took her months to find Harrison's first pair of 20s last year. His coach asked a trainer who asked another trainer who had access to the Timberwood's facility, found us

one pair. They were told that pair were cast-offs from center Rudy Gobert. And that's basically all the shoes I had. So when his game shoes suddenly gave out at the start of this season, Samantha decided to try going straight to the source, sending Rudy a DM on Instagram.

What's the chance? He's not going to answer me. But a couple weeks later, he did answer. And this past week, A big gift arrived. Opened it, peaked in, and I was like, it's really here. It really came. A whole box. That's when she handed the package over to Harrison.

Look, and there's more shoes! And started recording. Yo! As he unboxed not one, but multiple pairs of size 20 basketball shoes and then some. I threw a pair of air forces, white air forces. We asked Rudy about that special delivery after Tuesday's game and shared it with Harrison. I was happy to put together a little box and then choose some shoes for him to be able to wear. Not too long ago, I was a kid with big feet.

He's the reason I'm able to have shoes to play. Like, he's been the reason I've been able to play basketball. I'm just so thankful. And welcome back. Two Iowa soldiers killed in Syria are back on American soil tonight. A plane carrying staff sergeant, Nate Howard and Edgar Torres Tovar returned their bodies home on Wednesday. The U.S. launching rare strikes in Syria earlier this month on ISIS positions in retaliation. for the shooting attack that left the National Guardsman and an American interpreter dead.

Well, when we come back, a final holiday message from Tom Yamis and a tribute to the hardworking team that gets this broadcast on the air each and every night. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Nightly News. Before we go tonight, we wanted to say thank you for watching and supporting us each and every night. It's been an honor to take this role and share. our evenings together. We start every day thinking about you and your family and how we can help you stay informed and inspired. And I say we because there is a great team that works really hard to put together this broadcast every night. It is a true pleasure to be part of their team and NBC News. So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. The New Year, it's going to bring new stories and

challenges and amazing moments, but one thing won't change. Tonight and always will be here for you. We're going to be able to be. Oh, my God. Thank you. We're going to be able to be. You know, I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be able to be.

Thank you. You're going to be able to be. We're going to be able to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.