Tonight, the final countdown to 2026, massive crowds gathering in Times Square right now with the NYPD on high alert, the entire force on duty, with a million people expected for tonight's celebrations.

Plus, security ramped up across the country, the National Guard deployed to New Orleans one year after an ISIS-inspired terror attack there,

and cities around the world already ringing in the new year. Plus the winter wallop,

20 million people now under storm alerts, some areas bracing for as much as three feet of snow,

and the new rain bringing a mudslide threat to California. We're tracking the New Year's forecast.

The Justice Department scrambling to review and release millions more pages of the Epstein

files and the new report what an 18-year-old Marlago employee said that prompted President

Trump to ban Jeffrey Epstein from his Palm Beach Club.

The Trump administration halting all federal

child care payments to Minnesota after new allegations of fraud, this time at Somali-run

daycare centers. The new comments from that state's Democratic governor and the White House tonight.

A second Patriot star now facing assault charges. What the team's coach

just said, will they be on the field for the playoffs? Daring rescue, the officer rushing

in to save the driver trapped inside a burning car. And there is good news tonight about

our wishes for the New Year, hidden in the confetti that will rain down in Times Square

when the clock strikes midnight.

This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas.

Good evening. I'm Peter Alexander in tonight for Tom. It is the final and perhaps most festive night of the year.

But for law enforcement, it's also one of the most challenging. As cities across the country prepare for those New Year's celebrations, local, state, and federal authorities are all on the lookout for potential threats in the wake of that recent anti-Semitic rampage in Australia.

And last New Year's deadly

terror attack in New Orleans, where tonight the National Guard is on patrol.

Ahead of the biggest party of them all in Times Square, authorities say there are no specific

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