this morning on "worlds news now," taking no chances ahead of new year's eve celebrations nationwide, police departments on high alert getting set to welcome 2017. security ramping up coast to coast, especially in times square. the details ahead. also, president obama's taking unprecedented steps to punish russia for its alleged role in hacking democratic organizations before the elections. russian diplomats are going loam and facilities closed, but the russians vow to retaliate. hear from the base jumper surviving an incident on camera, speaking out for the first time since this accident. why some congratulations are in order for serena williams, making an announcement that caught everyone by surprise. see if you can goes what it is

on the skinny, friday, december 30th. from abc news, this is "world news now." >> all the rich ones are taken. >> spoken for. >> all the good ones taken. good morning, everybody. starting here in new york city because we're gearing up for the big celebration that comes once a year as we say good-bye to 2016. >> so this is where the party starts saturday night. times square packed full of people bringing in the new year, and surrounded by what police call the ring of steel. heavy security to ensure 2017 gets off to a safe start. here's abc's marcy gonzalez with more. >> reporter: the cross roads of the world soon to be the center of security as millions pack in new york times square for the annual celebration. the confetti and ball in place,

the nypd is ready to ring in 2017 with extra precautions taken for this year's festivities. >> a lot you will see, and as per usual, a lot you will not see, and that's that combination that keeps us safe. >> reporter: 7,000 officers, including 550 sworn in just this week. they will blend in with the crowd looking for suspicions, and othering monitoring feeds from hundreds of cameras and others watch from rooftops and helicopters. >> everywhere you look around there's a lot of police force and soldiers. >> reporter: while there's no credible threat to the most i conic celebration in the world, a law enforcement bulletin cited concerns about loan wolves and violent extremists targeting the event. officials were mindful of the attacks in nice and berlin in developing this year's security plan including barriers made up of 65 dump trucks and 100 other large vehicles parked in and around times square. more than ever before.

>> this will be a very well-protected event, probably most protected event with multiple layers of security. >> reporter: among the layers of security is when people gather here in times square as early as 8:00 saturday morning, they cannot bring in large bags, and we're told every person is searched multiple times. abc news, new york. >> and marcy, hold on to the umbrella. >> exactly. >> should be raining around midnight at times square. new englanders have to be careful getting around after being hit by two feet of heavy, wet snow. it made for very slippery driving conditions in maine. >> great news for the ski resorts that had a dismal season last year. vermont said they received more snow this season than in all of last season. >> oh, wow. >> amazing. with more on the track of the storm, here's paul williams. >> good morning, kendis, diane. we have much needed rain covering the southwest, widespread scattered showers, cool, sl

i-5 along the west coast, but it's the northeast where that's the big story. blizzard conditions expected between 12-18 inches of snow everywhere you see the darkest of blue. looking for 6-12 along 91, and bangor down towards the boston area, but that's not the only concern. as we go into the weekend, we have a sneaky set of storms saturday. a high pressure system sneaks east, opening the door for moisture from the gulf coast and rain returns saturday in the deep south in the form of scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms. >> paul, thank you. millions of americans ring in the new year with a pay hike. 19 states including california, new york, and michigan are among the states with minimum wage increases taking effect saturday or sunday. massachusetts and washington state see the highest new minimum wages at $11 per hour. voters in arizona, maine, colorado, and washington

approved increases in november. a new cease fire in syria appears to be holding for now. officials say there was calm after the agreement went in effect midnight local time. the cease fire follows peace talks between the rebels and the syria government next month. nearly a quarter million people have died. slammed with u.s. sanctions for allegedly meddling in the u.s. election. it closed schools for american children in moscow coming at president obama kicked out 3,000 russian diplomats from the united states. mary bruce has more. >> reporter: it's the most forceful american response to a state sponsored cyber afak. the white house striking back against russia for interfering in the u.s. election. the president taking executive action to expel 35 russian intelligence operatives giving them and the families 72 hours to get out of the u.s. and shutting down two russian compounds used for intelligence gatherings. one a 45 acre estate in maryland, and this mansion on

owned by an oil industry executive bought by the russians in the '60s. on russian soil, the u.s. slapped sanctions on moscow's two leading agencies and four top officials including the head of foreign intelligence. also targeted, two notorious cyber criminals wanted by the fbi, one accused of stealing over $100 million, notably absent from the list, the russian president. >> just be clear, do you believe vad mir putin himself authorized the hack? >> reporter: when pressed, president obama pointed a finger at the russian president. the white house says there's no question, russia interferes in the u.s. election and has been harassing u.s. diplomats abroad

a russian police guard tackled a u.s. diplomat. the obama administration offered details how they pulled off the cyber assault and according to the report, two russian groups passed officials and dnc stealing tens of thousands of internal e-mails. the hackers tricked victims into handing over credentials by mimicking the e-mail systems. there's retaliation we don't know about, but no details on any covert cyber actions the u.s. may take to penetrate russia's system. >> one thing we can do is let them know, hey, we're here. what that does is sends a strong message, if you mess with us, we have the ability to turn on real actions against your critical infrastructures. >> reporter: russia is blasting these measures saying they are aggressive and unpredictable and vowing to respond, promising countermeasures will be announced today.

american officials feel uncomfortable. mary bruce, abc news, the white house. >> mary, thank you. now to a tragedy in a colorado ski resort. a woman visiting from texas fell to her death from a ski lift at the grandby ranch resort 90 miles from denver. the victim's two daughters, 9 and 12 fell, but survived. they were rushed to the hospital and both expected to recover. it's not clear what caused the accident. an odd twist in new england. the stolen items were recovered in a frozen ponds. these pictures are from maine. the local fire chief helped police recover mail that had been dumped over the side of a bridge all together. it was about three bags worth. two people are now under arrest. we want to get to our continuing coverage right now of eagle watch. 2016. >> a whole lot of action going on in the nest right now. >> so over the last couple days,

we've been watching the eagles in fort myers, take turns sitting on top of two eggs, they were to come between christmas and new year's, and we've been watching this riveting camera ever since then. >> that's right. harriet and m15, her husband, perhaps, are expecting two little eagles, but we have breaking news. >> oh, we do? >> completely intended. there are reports there may be a crack in at least one of the eggs. >> oh, wow. this is huge. >> so -- >> yeah. >> you can't actually see it. it doesn't necessarily mean it's hatching right now, but -- >> yeah. >> yeah. >> here's the deal. watched it for three days. we've also been watching one of

those hatchimals to see if that hatches first. my bet is on harriet and m 5 first. >> there's been reports that the hatchimals are not hatching as quickly for parents resulting in lots of crying. >> oh, wait. >> oh, both eagles are in the nest. this is huge. >> we have not had this happen. >> you can almost see the tail of one of the eagles. >> someone pressed on the web. we lost the camera. >> bye, good luck. >> finally something happens and they -- >> tripped over the computer cord, and just like that. >> all right. well, we'll check back in with that. in the meantime, we're sending over to t.j. holmes on what happened to his beloved

ranch football team. he must have been beaming when the hogs went to halftime with a lead over the virginia tech smokies in the belt bowl. >> however, in the second half, you can call it a comeback or a complete slaughter. the hokies came back for a 35 unanswered points, biggest comeback victory in 124-year history of the football program. >> so, you know, razorbacks made history. >> this is true. if you're going to go down, might as well give everybody a show and story. >> all right. well, coming up, more ugly incidence at the nation's shopping malls. now management companies take steps to make malls safer. plus, who made out best this past year when it comes to major music tours? well, we'll show you the details. it's all ranked ahead in the skinny. stick around. "world news now" weather

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to $4 on lysol and buy any 5 lysol products for 100 bonus box tops. for the first time this morning, hear from the arizona man whose jump went horribly wrong. images caught on camera as he jumps, smacks into the cliff, and plunges 100 feet to the ground. >> he is lucky to be alive. he says he still doesn't know what went wrong. >> it's hard to tell right now. i didn't do anything when jumping, anything for that to happen. >> he has already had surgery. he has to have another one, and then he's expected to spend some

he fractured his ankle and shattered both heels, but he says he plans to base jump again. >> always seems to be the case. christmas is a time of peace and good will, exempt if you visit a mall. >> and it's not even black friday, but shopping mall owners are actually now looking at how to protect shoppers and workers after chaos in several malls across the country. clayton sandell reports. >> reporter: more trouble in american shopping malls. sunrise, florida, a fight breaking out when a customer tries to get inside a closed shoe store. employees hold her back, but she throws a water bottle and someone in the store throws a punch. the incident recorded by andy slater. >> everyone in the crowd couldn't believe it either. this is a season where everybody's happy and full of joy, but it was anything but. >> reporter: florida's followed monday's rash of more fights in a dozen malls around the country, forcing evacuations from connecticut to illinois,

biggest shopping days of the year. many of the troublemakers were teens police say may have been drawn to the malls by social media posts, prompting the shopping center industry this week to strategize on ways to improve security, including teens to be escorted by an adult over 21. as for the florida fight, police tell us they are not pressing any charges, but the store says they are still investigating. clayton sandell, abc news, denver. >> all right. when we come back, a surprising announcement from a tennis star. >> one of the hottest new movie stars signs up for a really long trip. the skinny's next. "world news now" continues after this from our abc stations.

time now for the last skinny of 2016. >> you got to play the drums for the last one. >> really? >> yeah. >> there's drums in the song? >> sure there is. >> what better way to announce your engagement than on reddit itself? >> where serena williams wrote a poem and her fiance says -- >> the two have been quietly dating since 2015, but they posted this photo. she's worth $150 million. he's worth a mere $4 million, and we say prenup. >> that's all? >> yeah.

appears ryan gosling goes from the city of stars to the stars itself. the actor playing neil arm strong in an upcoming feel from lalaland director. >> goslling made it official yesterday. the movie first man is based on the book of the same name and shoots next year. he says it focuses more on the moon landing than on armstrong's life. >> best known for being the runner-up. ryan reynolds, 2016 was a great year for concert tour, and the boss and beyonce led the way. they soaked up more than $268 million on the river. the boss sold 2.4 million tickets. >> behind him, beyonce grossed $256 million from the formation

she sold 2.2 million tickets including two our very own in chicago. cold play sold more than either of them, 2.7 million. >> wow. right after the super bowl performance. how could you not want to go listen to coldplay? ♪ >> or we can just have -- >> that was any coldplay imitation. >> there's baby news this morning. grey's anatomy star and her husband, chris, have a third child, a boy, eli christopher, and they have two daughters. >> they announced it on instagram, but did not say when the baby was born. the couple, you might remember, waited two months to talk about the second child, and the parents were seen hi

the baby on wednesday. grammy winner pink and her husband, by the way, had a son on christmas. >> congratulations. 2016 is going out the way it

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2016 is going out the way it began. we started the year with the death of david bowie, and now the tragic celebrity news this week. >> a busy week for news, and too much of it bad news. let's take a look at the friday rewind. >> i offer my sincere and everlasting condolences to the souls who lost lives here. >> 2400 americans taken, fathers, husbands, wives, and daughters, in heaven east rails for all eternity. >> if israel goes down the one-state path, they will never have true peace with the abe world.

>> we do not need lectured on the importance of peace by foreign leaders. israel's hand has been extended in peace to its neighbors from day one. >> loud noises, cracking throughout the evening. it got progressively greater, like, boom. >> there were so many cracks. the basement was shifting and moving. >> i love this white christmas. >> i don't know, waiting, all we can do, right? >> a language, people change, to late to try again? >> try again at 27. bloody hell. let alone at 45. ♪ >> help me, you're my only hope. >> i love you. >> i know. >> the famous moment where you say, i love you. >> i know. >> that's what he says. >> i know. >> what do you say to all little girls outs there who were

inspired by princess leia? >> she can do anything. she can do what she can do and do what she can't. >> she said she missed her daughter and wanted to see her again, and i don't think she really meant it quite like that, but within 30 minutes, she went to go see her again. >> 2016, too much sadness and ending it on that note, however, we are going to kick off 2017 with some fun stuff for you. >> yes. >> because -- >> sparing no expenses. it is the 25th anniversary of "world news now." we have our confetti all set, special guests a week from tonight. we'll have special drinks. >> special segments. >> special people. >> all of that. ll of that.

making news in america this morning, russia is vowing a response today after president obama's new sanctions. this as some lawmakers call for stiffer penalties against russia for its alleged hacking around the election. we're live in washington with the latest. winter weather on both coasts. snow pounding new england, more than a foot and the northeast getting a fresh round of snow as welch what's on tap for the holiday weekend as we ring in the new year. a child kidnapped during a car theft is safe. see the emotional reunion with her mother. an urban avalanche. this in alaska's capital. a good friday morning. we begin with russia'swi