several days. meantime, northerners clean up at of massive snow fall of the past few days. two people died in maine caused by the bad weather. police warn drivers to, of course, slow down when roads a icy. in pacific northwest, crews clean up as the pineapple express pulls in. that's a storm system that's bringing a lot of moisture in from hawaii, meaning more heavy rain for the region and possibly flooding, not to mention more downed trees. as we mentioned a moment ago, the midwest as well as the northeast are in for some brutally cold weather this week. >> that's right. let's get the details from accu weather's paul williams. good morning. >> good morning to you as well. tuesday's cold not bad enough, feeling like 20 below in portions of the dakotas into minneapolis and into the single digits in the good chunk of the midwest. this blast of cold air overtakes that part of the country tuesday, slides and overtaking there

valley region for wednesday. then thursday, it's sliding over to the east coast and just covers everybody. dramatically changes everything. imagine if feels like 30 below 0 in fargo, that's what they wake up to wednesday morning, and it'll continue to feed that cold further to the south. on the other side of the country, we'll have a great deal of moisture provided much needed snow and rain, kendis, diane. >> paul, thank you. faster internet service is coming to cuba by way of google. they are installing servers to improve connectivity speed to google services including gmail and youtube. the tiny country has one of the lowest online connectivity rates in the world. less than 6% of cuban homes have internet or intranet access last year, according to the u.n. a study finds the same drugs that fight cholesterol may fend off alzheimer's disease, but the

statin is a factor as well as race or ethnicity of the patient. black men appear to gain no benefit from taking statin. the risk was greater for women than men. a retirement community in plano, texas had no trouble remembering the less fortunate this season. the knits group arranged apparel they made, colorful hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves donated to eight organizations. >> the local police officers called themselves the christmas cops amazed at what they produced. 3200 pieces. 3200 pieces, and the knitters are working on next year's donations. >> the cops said they showed up expecting to get a bag or two, inste instead, carts of clothing. >> they have been very, very busy. it's going to be cold here. we could have gloves. >> just eight to ten women in the group, by the way, quite the accomplishment. >> calmly down it. >>

>> coming up, when you think of holiday goodies, what two things immediately spring to mind? >> cheesecake. candy kaens. >> fruit cake, good, close. and rugala. this morning, we're showing you how to have the best of both worlds. right here in our insomniac kitchen. >> first, the race to rescue a humped back whale tangled in fishing gear. see how it ends next on "world news now." "world news now" weather brought to you by united health care. if you're approaching 65, now's the time to get your ducks in a row. to learn about medicare, and the options you have. you see, medicare doesn't cover everything - only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so if 65 is around the corner, think about an

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the two giant pandas born at the atlanta zoo now have names. the twin cubs are yaloon and

shiloon. they marked 100th day in life. the cubs are expected to make a public debut soon. excited about that. >> a still unnamed young humped back whale got a new chance of life off the coast of boston. rescuers disentangled the 30 footer here. he was likely weighed down for a week by rope which led to some fishing gear on the bottom of the sea floor. the prognosis for the whale is better now but takes some time to heal. >> a heweek, a long time. a friend in need, is a friend indeed, but now having the friend may save your life. >> new medical research shows people who stayed socially connected end up living very longer, healthier lives, particularly women battling breast cancer. >> reporter: breast cancer affects one in eight american women at some point in their lives, and it kills more than

40,000 every year. we've come a long way in diagnosing sooner and treating effectively with new research showing staying socially active improves odds when faced with the disease. a team of researchers studied the social habits of 9 million women with breast cancer finding those socially isolated had a 43% recurrence rate and 64% higher risk of early death from breast kaempcancer over a ten y period. those with larger social circles had a better chance of surviving and not having cancer return. this doesn't prove it tilts odds against cancer, but good to have loved ones to lean on in times of sickness, and for others, finding ways to establish social connections through support groups or other means may have more benefits than we know. >> interesting there. we must all be more social and have more wine. >> kendis, i'm

alive. >> no, no, that's creepy. he's going to live to 190. >> taking notes. >> yeah. coming up, speaking of notes, taking notes now on a pastry mashup. >> headed inside insomniac kitchen for a dessert idea. >> you're watching "world news now." "world news

♪ so this morning singing "happy holidays," we add a jewish twist to a favorite christmas holiday treat. everybody wins. >> yes, everybody wins. making either fruitcake or rugalac, intimidating for even the seasoned bakers -- >> i think i got you saying it wrong. >> you did. we're going into insomniac kitchen. >> we're getting into the spirit of christmas and happnukkah wit joy the baker showing us how to make fruitcake rugula cookies. start with making the batter. it's cream cheese.

with a mixer. this is the crisco adding tenderness. you want to add the sugar. add the vanilla and pinch of salt. into this, we will add our flour. that's two and a half cups of floor. slowly fold it together. as it comes together, it's thick, but that's where you want it. it has a big job of holding all of these dried fruit and nuts. you want to roll it into a disk. you can't go wrong. >> a disk? >> a disk, and then we'll wrap this in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator. while the dough's chilling, we make all the filling. i got dates in here. i'm doing cranberries. golden raisins. a trinity of color.

well. >> all right. >> i'm mixing brown sugar, spice, regular sugar. adding our finely chopped walnuts to our fruit filling. i'm just going to toss it with my hands. i'm going to set this aside and grab our chilled dough to roll out and start to fill it. this is the follow-un part. we're going to roll it out and start to fill it. flour this area really well. you don't want the dough to stick. we want it about a quarter inch thick and about 9 inches around. what we're going to do is lightly spread some res berry jam over the top of this. do you want to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on it? i will follow you with the dried fruit and nut mixture. slice some wedges. i'm going to

edge. okay. let's do our baking sheets, just place them on the baking sheet. i'm going to grab a little brush to brush with egg wash. that'll help them get even more golden brown. i'll springkle with more sugar. cookies bake for 15 minutes or so, we cooled them, and so let's try them. >> really good. >> totally delicious. >> i love the textures. >> crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside, fruit. >> how do we get you in our homes? i need you to bake for me. >> invite me over. just have wipe, i'll come over. >> thank you so much, joy the bake e and happy holidays. >> happy holidays. >> all right. i'm adding them now to my holiday list. >> the reason

because christmas eve, hanukkah is on christmas eve this year. a combination. >> entertaining for both, you got dessert. start by taking care of families for 70 years. earn the trust of 32 nfl teams. be there for america's toughest and help, when help is needed america's #1 isn't a status earned overnight. it's earned in every wash, and re-earned every day. tide, america's #1 detergent take delsym, the #1 12-hour uncontrolcough medicine. it helps control the impulse to cough for 12 hours. which means, you're controlling your cough on your morning commute. and later when you're joking with beth... even when most cough medicines stop, delsym is still working. ♪ and when your days' over, your cough is still under control.

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♪ >> topping the charts there. haley nominated for a golden globe. >> she's blowing up, good for her. >> with a no. 4 song there. three days away from the box open of roegrogue 1. >> shaping up to be the biggest opening ever. here's nick watt. >> reporter: whopping 120-150 million is the estimated hull just for the open weeken

here's my kid on the red carpet. last year's the force awakens was three biggest december opening of all time, going on to bring in $2.1 billion world wide. this is a holiday tradition. >> second year in a row, i know. we're going to have to keep it up. >> reporter: rogue 1 expected to be the biggest december premier, lower than the fourth, partly because of a different cast of characters. no hhans or sky walker. >> i'm a captain, an intelligence officer, basically a spy for the rebel yen. >> reporter: our parent company, disney, is embargoing reviews. >> there's a lot of surprises in the film. >> reporter: but a standing ovation at the premier and lots of lovely nonspoiler twitter reviews. mind blowing, unbelievably wonderful, last time i loved a movie as

>> interesting because you don't know what's going to happen, and that's cool. >> reporter: one rumor to address is rogue 1's episode 7. after tonight, you can then talk about the fact that your character is ray's mother? >> that is not true. she is not ray's mom. she is not. >> reporter: yes, vader appears. that'll all i'll say for now. nick watt, abc news, los angeles. >> i think we've been trying to keep the opening for it a little too quiet. >> yeah, definitely. i don't know who had more fun, nick or his son. they are both excited. >> nthey looked pump. can't say anything about it. that's the news for this half hour. >> thanks for watching.

just to see their faces in the morning when i wake them up. the first thing you think about is your wife and your kids and your family. so i had surgery locally, and it came back after my follow up that i needed a second surgery. and that's when i said i need a second opinion. everyone, from the moment i walked through the doors, they're smiling and i love the fact that included me in the whole process. the diagnosis of cancer is one of those things that you want an answer now. we can do now here. rod was great. i mean, he did everything that we asked him and more. the treatment plan was for him to have chemotherapy and radiation followed by surgery.

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this morning on "world news now, " narrowing down choices for secretary of state. >> one of the front runners in the top spot, mitt romney, out of the running. a formal announcement later this morning as we learn more about the man he intends to nominate and his ties to russia. new developments from syria as government forces advance on recks in aleppo. a turn in the war raging for years now with tens of thousands of lives still caught in the cross fire. president obama makes his final appearance on "the daily show" as america's commander in chief. a first for host trevor noah, what the president said about the man who is weeks away from taking over the oval office. and check out the ultrasound for one couple ready to share the news