The holiday shopping season - for Mega Millions lottery ticket buyers, at least - is ramping up as officials say the estimated jackpot for tonight’s drawing has surpassed half a billion dollars.

As of late Monday, lottery officials estimate tonight’s prize at $565 million - or more than $293 million if delivered in cash - after there were no lucky winners holding a ticket that matched all six numbers in the last drawing held on Friday.

Today’s drawing will be held at 11 p.m. EST.

Tickets sold in California and Florida for an Oct. 14 drawing shared the last Mega Millions jackpot of $502 million. The lottery’s top prize has been building anew over 20 drawings held since then.

Lottery officials say there have been 11 winning jackpots of $500 million or more since Mega Millions began in 2002. The record Mega Millions jackpot is more than $1.5 billion, won in 2018, and a jackpot surpassing $1.3 billion was won in Illinois in July.

The largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won was $2.04 billion in November. The winner bought the lucky Powerball ticket in Southern California.

Migrants dropped near VP Harris home on frigid Christmas Eve

WASHINGTON - Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve.

Texas authorities have not confirmed their involvement, but the bus drop-offs are in line with previous actions by border-state governors calling attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

The buses that arrived late Saturday outside the vice president’s residence were carrying around 110 to 130 people, according to Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, a relief agency working with the city of Washington to serve thousands of migrants who have been dropped off in recent months.

Local organizers had expected the buses to arrive Sunday but found out Saturday that the group would get to Washington early, Laborde said. The people on board included young children.

Some were wearing T-shirts despite temperatures hovering around 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It was the coldest Christmas Eve on record for Washington, according to The Washington Post.

Laborde said employees had blankets ready for the people who arrived on Christmas Eve and moved them quickly onto waiting buses for a ride to an area church. A local restaurant chain donated dinner and breakfast.

S. Korea launches jets, fires shots after North flies drones

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea’s military fired warning shots, scrambled fighter jets and flew surveillance assets across the heavily fortified border with North Korea on Monday, after North Korean drones violated its airspace for the first time in five years, officials said.

South Korea’s military detected five drones from North Korea crossing the border, and one traveled as far as the northern part of the South Korean capital region, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The military responded by firing warning shots before launching fighter jets and attack helicopters to shoot down the North Korean drones. One of the aircraft, a KA-1 light attack plane, crashed during takeoff but its two pilots both ejected to safety, according to the Defense Ministry.

It wasn’t immediately known if the drones were shot down.

South Korea also sent surveillance assets near and across the border to photograph key military facilities in North Korea as corresponding measures against the North Korean drone flights, the Joint Chiefs said. It didn’t elaborate, but some observers say that South Korea likely flew unmanned drones inside North Korean territory.

South Korea’s public confirmation of any reconnaissance activities inside North Korea is highly unusual and likely reflect a resolve by the conservative government led by President Yoon Suk Yeol to get tough on North Korean provocations.

Manhattan man charged in 2 random knife slashing murders

NEW YORK - Two seemingly isolated and random outdoor murders at the height of the holiday season and of the kind New Yorkers have increasingly feared since the pandemic began were blamed by police officials Monday on a city resident with a criminal record.

James Essig, chief of detectives for the New York Police Department, underscored at a news conference how brief and unplanned were the encounters Roland Codrington is accused of having with two men slashed to death in nighttime killings three days apart, resulting in two murder charges.

It was not immediately clear who would represent Codrington at initial court appearances.

The killings come at a time of increased anxiety citywide over random violence. Mayor Eric Adams recently announced plans for authorities to more aggressively intervene to help people who need mental health treatment, including forcing individuals off streets and subways and into treatment.

Early this year after taking office, Adams said even he didn’t feel safe riding the subway, despite boosted police patrols.

In April, a man was charged with injuring 10 people in Brooklyn when he set off a pair of smoke grenades and then scattered a barrage of random shots inside a train between stations. In May, a 48-year-old man was shot and killed riding a train between Brooklyn and lower Manhattan.

- Associated Press

Despite random acts, the number of crimes reported on public transit by September was averaging slightly below pre-pandemic levels, though ridership was also down.

In the arrest announced Monday, Essig said the first killing Codrington was charged with occurred at 1 a.m. on Dec. 19, when 51-year-old James Cunningham, who had just left a bar after drinking a seltzer, was walking several blocks from Union Square when he was approached by Codrington, who was accompanied by his girlfriend.