Le Journal

Zac Efron is getting his head in the (football) game. The “High School Musical” star made a rare public appearance to watch the New England Patriots face off against the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Jan. 18, hitting the field for a photo op with Patriots CEO Robert Kraft. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Efron, 38, smiled alongside Kraft, 84, while wearing one of the businessman’s NFL championship rings on his middle finger. He also showed his support for the team by donning their signature colors, keeping warm in a navy blue puffer coat with red zippers while pairing the garment with a dark hoodie and matching beanie hat. The sporty outing marked Efron’s first public appearance since November, when he made his long-awaited entry into the “Dancing With the Stars” ballroom to support his brother Dylan Efron on the ABC competition series. And the gesture went a long way with Dylan, who was ecstatic to have his sibling watching on as he and his pro partner Daniella Karagach performed their routine. Hey @ZacEfron 👋 pic.twitter.com/w3yq5qwwaI— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 18, 2026 “It meant everything,” the 33-year-old told E! News’ Will Marfuggi at the time. “I grew up watching him do stuff like this, so the fact that he’s now watching me do this is crazy to me.” In fact, Zac Efron inadvertently created a viral moment when he reacted to Dylan Efron receiving a score of 27 out of 30, with cameras cutting to the actor asking if the total was a “good score.” However, the “Traitors” winner later revealed that his big bro felt the internet had misconstrued his reaction. “I can’t remember what he was saying, but I think he said that he thought it was a really good dance,” Dylan Efron explained on Sirius XM’s Radio Andy show “Smith Sisters Live” in December. “So he is like, ‘Is that the highest score they would give?’” “But it was funny regardless because Zac got defensive,” he continued. “He was like, ‘No, they misinterpreted what I meant!’”

Monday marks one month since the deadline for the Justice Department to release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein, but only a fraction of the records have been made public. The delays have frustrated Epstein’s victims and brought warnings of repercussions from the co-authors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. Massie claimed in a statement to NBC News on Friday that “Attorney General Bondi is making illegal redactions and withholding key documents that would implicate associates of Epstein.” In a separate statement Friday, Khanna said “DOJ’s refusal to follow the law” is “an obstruction of justice.” “They also need to release the FBI witness interviews which name other men, so the public can know who was involved. That is why Massie and I are bringing inherent contempt against Bondi and requested a special master to oversee this process,” he said. “The survivors and the public demand transparency and justice,” Khanna said. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on the releases and the lawmakers’ claims. It said in a court filing last week that it had “made substantial progress and remains focused on releasing materials under the Act promptly while protecting victim privacy.” “Compliance with the Act is a substantial undertaking, principally because, for a substantial number of documents, careful, manual review is necessary to ensure that victim-identifying information is redacted before materials are released,” the filing said. Jeffrey Epstein Jan 13 House GOP seeks to hold Bill Clinton in contempt for skipping Epstein deposition Jeffrey Epstein Jan 7 House committee votes to issue more subpoenas related to Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Epstein Jan 6 More than 2 million Epstein files still to be released, DOJ says in court filing Victims have complained that the Justice Department is protecting the wrong people. In a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general last week, a group of Epstein survivors and relatives of victims complained that the redactions to date had been “selective.” “These failures have caused renewed harm to survivors and undermined trust in the institutions responsible for safeguarding sensitive information,” the group said in its letter. “In multiple instances, names of individuals alleged to have participated in or facilitated abuse appear to have been redacted, while identifying details of survivors were left visible. In some cases, survivors’ names, contextual identifiers, or other information sufficient to identify them publicly were not adequately protected,” they added. They also complained, as have Khanna and Massie, that the Justice Department has not complied with another part of the law, which requires it to explain its redactions. “Without it, there is no authoritative accounting of what records exist, what has been withheld, or why, making effective oversight and judicial review far more difficult,” an attorney for the congressmen argued in a filing. The Justice Department has not commented on the request for the inspector general to step in. On Friday, lawyers for the Justice Department challenged Massie and Khanna’s request for a special master to oversee the release of the materials in a court filing, arguing the pair do not have legal standing to make the request. President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on Nov. 19. The law gave the attorney general 30 days to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice” involving Epstein, “including all investigations, prosecutions, or custodial matters.” On Dec. 19, the day the files were due to be made public, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche…

Thousands of customers are without power on Monday morning after a storm dumped heavy, wet snow across parts of New England overnight. Some areas of Massachusetts received almost 8 inches of snow from the storm. As of 7:30 a.m., 9,441 customers in the Bay State were without electricity. Most of the outages were in the eastern part of the state, particularly Cape Cod and Plymouth and Bristol counties, though there were scattered outages in Suffolk and Norfolk counties as well. Nearly 3,000 Rhode Island customers were without power, along with 2,096 in Maine, 132 in New Hampshire, 124 in Connecticut and a single outage in Vermont.

As our storm pulls away, the last bits of light snow will shrivel up early Monday morning. Still, there will be some slick spots around, so be careful if you must travel on this holiday. As the sun pokes out, we’ll be treated to a winter wonderland across the area – it’ll also be super bright (fresh snow is highly reflective), so keep the sunglasses handy. The snowpack will also settle and partially melt as highs rise near or slightly above freezing. Very cold air is on the move later Monday. It comes in overnight as an arctic front passes with a few widely scattered flurries. Tuesday’s highs will only be in the low and mid-20s, and with a gusty wind from the northwest, we’ll see wind chills in the single digits above/below zero. Winds back off late into the evening. Wednesday and Thursday see a recovery above freezing with highs in the upper 30s to near 40. This will be the last gasp of “milder” air before the deep plunge into the frigid air late week. Highs will struggle to make the mid-teens as some of the coldest air of the season bears down. In this arctic air we’ll also be wary of any storms that may pop up. Last night’s storm was well handled DAYS in advance by our AI models. They’re already hinting at more snow next weekend. Let’s see how it plays out. Have a good week!

Unlike most of the storms so far this winter, Sunday’s storm hit Massachusetts harder than most of the other New England states. Some areas received almost 8 inches of snow from the storm, according to the National Weather Service. Here’s a closer look at the jackpot towns, by state: Massachusetts Hawley: 7.8″ Plymouth: 6.5″ Randolph: 6″ Acushnet: 6″ New Bedford: 6″ Holliston: 5.9″ Burlington: 5.8″ Whitman: 5.8″ Somerset: 5.8″ Sandwich: 5.8″ Norton: 5.5″ Buckland: 5.5″ Attleborough: 5.3″ Shutesbury: 5.2″ Lexington: 5.1″ Dighton: 5.1″ Sutton: 5″ Mendon: 5″ Northampton: 5″ Hopkinton: 4.5″ Rhode Island Coventry: 7.4″ Cumberland: 6.3″ West Warwick: 6″ East Greenwich: 6″ Newport: 5.3″ Glocester: 5.2″ Little Compton: 5.1″ Hope Valley: 5″ Narragansett: 5″ Connecticut Wauregan: 5.5″ New Hampshire Whitefield: 5″ Durham: 5″ Stratham: 4.8″