By Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN (CNN) — Ahead of “Saturday Night Live’s” holiday episode, a performance on the show by Adam Sandler 30 years ago is still bringing the “funukah.” Co-written by “SNL” writers Ian Maxtone-Graham and Lew Morton, Sandler first debuted “The Chanukah Song” during a Weekend Update segment on December 3, 1994, expressing his
Continue ReadingBy Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Look up to see the Ursid meteor shower, the final celestial display of the year, on Sunday morning. The diminutive meteor shower is often overshadowed by the Geminid meteor shower that peaks about a week earlier. And the Ursids always take place near the winter solstice, the shortest day
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SAO PAULO (AP) — A crash between a passenger bus and a truck early Saturday killed 38 people on a highway in Minas Gerais, a state in southeastern Brazil, officials said. The Minas Gerais fire department, which responded to the scene, said 13 others were taken to hospitals near the city of Teofilo
Continue ReadingAssociated Press LONDON (AP) — A car-ramming at a Christmas market in Germany, which police are treating as an attack, is the latest in a grim series of events in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons. There have been a spate of such attacks over the past decade, some committed by groups but
Continue ReadingAP National Writer Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900. For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement. “This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and togetherness,” said Rabbi Josh
Continue ReadingPor Haley Britzky, CNN Una serie de avistamientos de drones sobre bases militares en todo el país ha planteado preocupaciones sobre que EE.UU. no tiene una política clara a nivel gubernamental sobre cómo lidiar con incursiones no autorizadas que podrían representar una amenaza para la seguridad nacional. “Pasó un año desde las incursiones de drones
Continue ReadingAssociated Press ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 13 people, including four children, were killed in two separate stampedes in Nigeria as large crowds gathered to collect food and clothing items distributed at annual Christmas events, the police said Saturday. The two accidents came days after another such stampede in Africa’s most populous country, amid
Continue ReadingHanukkah — also spelled Chanukah or other transliterations from Hebrew — is Judaism’s “festival of lights.” On eight consecutive nightfalls, Jews gather with family and friends to light one additional candle in the menorah — a multibranched candelabra. In Hebrew, Hanukkah means “dedication,” and the holiday marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in
Continue ReadingAssociated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — At Scoma’s Restaurant in San Francisco, this holiday season ‘s batch of eggnog began 11 months ago. The process typically starts in late January, just after the previous year’s celebrations are over. Nearly a thousand egg yolks, gallons upon gallons of heavy cream and roughly $1,000 worth of vanilla
Continue ReadingABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities in Nigeria say ten people, including four children, have been killed in a stampede in the capital city as a large crowd gathered to collect food items distributed by a local church at a Christmas event. Police said the stampede occurred in the early morning hours on Saturday at the
Continue ReadingBy Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN New York (CNN) — In the hours after her daughter was born, Andrea Ippolito already felt like she was falling short as a mother. “Here I was, just like many women, trying to recover after this insane medical procedure of giving birth, and I just felt like a failure,” she told
Continue ReadingBy Amy O’Kruk, CNN Anyone who’s seen December classics like “Home Alone” or “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” knows that holiday decor can pack a punch: Tree baubles turn to glass-shard booby traps, and string lights become tripwires. While neither movie landed any characters in the hospital, in reality, Christmas decor debacles send thousands of Americans
Continue ReadingBy Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Charred to a crisp, the hundreds of brittle ancient scrolls would crumble if one were to attempt to unfurl them, and any trace of script would be nearly illegible. The Herculaneum scrolls, as they are known, still remain unopened, but thanks to the powerful tool that is artificial intelligence,
Continue ReadingAssociated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A nearly two-year investigation by Democratic senators of Supreme Court ethics details more luxury travel by Justice Clarence Thomas and urges Congress to establish a way to enforce a new code of conduct. Any movement on the issue appears unlikely as Republicans prepare to take control of the Senate in
Continue ReadingBy Alaa Elassar, CNN (CNN) — When Katie Koestner was a college freshman, a boy she liked took her out to dinner. They went on a few more dates, she says, until one night, after going back to her college campus dorm, he ignored her pleas and raped her. Up until that point, Koestner was
Continue ReadingBy John Blake, CNN (CNN) — On a cool, breezy Monday afternoon, a crowd of drunken, rowdy men gathering in the nation’s capital stared in astonishment as a striking figure headed toward them. It was a regal young woman riding a magnificent white horse, wearing a gold crown and a flowing white cape. The woman’s
Continue ReadingBy John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — A top Senate Democrat on Saturday accused conservative Supreme Court justices of violating federal disclosure laws in a lengthy report that caps a monthslong investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and comes weeks before Republicans take control of the chamber. The report from aides to Sen. Dick Durbin, an
Continue ReadingAssociated Press CAIRO (AP) — Authorities have not formally named the suspect in the car ramming in the city of Magdeburg that killed at least five people and wounded hundreds, saying only that he is a Saudi doctor who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades and that he acted alone. Local media say
Continue ReadingAssociated Press MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — A week after Cyclone Chido ravaged Mayotte, France’s poorest territory, the island remains in crisis. Hospitals are overwhelmed and doctors warning of mounting risks of epidemics like cholera due to the lack of clean water and electricity. Thirty-five people have been confirmed dead in Mayotte but French Health Minister
Continue ReadingBy Thomas Schlachter, CNN (CNN) — College Football Playoff season has finally arrived, and over the course of the next four weeks, the best teams across America will battle it out to decide the nation’s best collegiate football team. But while it’s the most wonderful time of the year for the 12 teams selected to
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