By Toni Odejimi, CNN

(CNN) — Lottery hopefuls can try their luck for the estimated $1.7 billion Powerball jackpot in Wednesday’s drawing after no winners took home the grand prize Monday night.

Monday night’s winning numbers were 3, 18, 36, 41 and 54, with a Powerball of 7 and a Power Play multiplier of two, meaning most prizes were doubled in a separate drawing if people paid $1 more, according to a Powerball press release.

The jackpot is the fourth-largest in Powerball history and the second- largest this year, rivaling September’s jackpot of an estimated $1.787 billion, split between two winners in Missouri and Texas. The lottery game has generated some of the largest jackpots in US history, including the record $2.04 billion in 2022.

If it seems as if this jackpot has been rising for a long time, it has — with a record 46 drawings in the current series, according to Powerball. Wednesday’s drawing will be the 47th.

Though no one took home the big check, some winners got an early Christmas present of $1 million by matching all five white balls on Monday. These nine tickets were sold in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Multiple jackpots have been won either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, according to Powerball, but none of them have ever reached $1 billion.

If someone won tonight’s jackpot, it would be the first ticket to do so.

Lottery winners won’t see every cent of that $1.7 billion. That value — and the estimated $781.3 million lump sum — are before taxes, though a handful of states don’t tax their lottery winnings.

Jackpot winners have two options to get paid: either through an annuitized prize plan, with one upfront payment and 29 yearly payments increasing by 5%, or through one lump sum payout. The annuitized prize plan takes interest into account. Most lottery winners take the lump sum.

Before scrambling to buy a ticket, know that the odds for winning the jackpot are 1 out of 292.2 million, but odds improve for smaller prizes, some as low as $4. A ticket to play is $2.

The drawings are scheduled for every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 ET.

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By Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — When the Justice Department released a first batch of Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday that included photographs of former President Bill Clinton, White House officials raced to amplify the importance of the new documents.

But days later, amid a second trove that contains several references to President Donald Trump, the White House is pushing a different view: Don’t believe everything you see.

Trump officials on Tuesday downplayed the latest disclosure of more than 30,000 files related to Epstein, dismissing the significance of the materials and suggesting that some that mentioned Trump were unverified or even outright fabricated. Even as the rest of Washington pored over records showing Trump repeatedly flew on Epstein’s plane, White House aides sought to highlight other matters the president is more eager to talk about.

The messaging shift — the latest in a largely unsuccessful effort by the administration to seize control of the story — has spawned frustration in Trump’s orbit and parts of the White House, where some saw the scrambled response over the last few days as just the latest stumble in a year of Epstein-related blunders and baffling communications mishaps.

“It’s just been confusing and compounding,” Matthew Barlett, a GOP strategist and former first-term Trump appointee, said of the administration’s contradictory messaging. “It’s perpetuated this news cycle, continues to give the White House and administration a massive headache of their own making, and I don’t see any remedy any time soon.”

The new records renewed debate over the comprehensiveness of the DOJ disclosures and the extent to which the administration has complied with the law demanding their release. The Justice Department seemed to try to get ahead of any unflattering revelations for Trump, issuing a call for skepticism in analyzing the new materials — at least when it came to claims about the president.

“Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election,” the Justice Department said, adding that “if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

A White House official declined to comment beyond the DOJ’s statement. As for Trump himself, the voluble president spent half the day on the golf course before making a quiet return to Mar-a-Lago. By 2 p.m. ET, officials had declared a lid, meaning Trump would not be seen or heard from for the rest of the day.

The near-total silence from Trumpworld represented a stark contrast compared to just a few days ago, when aides and allies rushed to circulate the numerous photos of Clinton in the Epstein files as part of a bid to put fresh pressure on Democrats.

And it underscored the White House’s ongoing struggle to manage a saga that has frustrated Trump and his top aides and wounded him politically — even as his MAGA base remains deeply invested in the Epstein case, and the controversy shows no signs of going away.

“This is horrifying. Trump called me a traitor for fighting him to release the Epstein files and standing with women who were raped, jailed in stalls, and trafficked to men,” GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X Tuesday, referring to an image from the latest document dump. “Only evil people would hide this and protect those who participated. I pray for these women.” Once a strong Trump ally, Greene has broken with the president in recent months, in part over the Epstein case.

After the administration spent Friday and much of the weekend highlighting Clinton’s appearances in the files, Trump on Monday undercut the campaign by expressi

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By John Liu, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — One of China’s most popular short-video and streaming platforms was flooded with porn and violent content earlier this week, sparking outrage and bafflement in a nation where the internet is tightly controlled.

Kuaishou, a major rival of TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin, suffered a cyberattack around 10 p.m. on Monday that unleashed thousands of vulgar and violent videos on its livestreaming service for about 90 minutes, shocking hundreds of millions of users across China.

“What happened to Kauishou? The moment I scroll into a livestream, it’s nothing but porn,” one user said on popular Chinese social media Weibo.

“Kuaishou has gone mad. My eyes are going to go blind,” another user said.

In a Tuesday statement, the Beijing-based company blamed the attacks on “underground and gray industries,” which in China refers to ecosystems of illegal or quasi-legal operations that exploit the internet for illicit profit.

Kuaishou said it had reported the incident to the police and that its app has gradually resumed normal operations.

China maintains one of the world’s most extensive and effective internet censorship systems, tightly controlling what users can see and quickly scrubbing content. Pornography remains illegal in China.

Despite stringent internet controls like real-name verification and the Great Firewall that blocks access to many foreign websites, cyberattacks are not uncommon in China.

The country’s internet regulator rolled out new rules in September mandating online platforms’ prompt and detailed reporting of security breaches to the authorities.

“The scale and frequency of cyberattacks continue to rise. The volume of malware is steadily increasing, with an average of more than 3.49 million transmission attempts per day,” the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a statement explaining the need for new regulations.

As of now, no actor has claimed responsibility for the Kuaishou cyberattack.

State-run media China Daily reported on Wednesday that the attack was powered by artificial intelligence, saying the perpetrator bypassed security systems, compromised user data, and deployed 17,000 bot accounts to stream pornographic and violent content, paralyzing the platform’s livestreaming service, citing a Chinese cybersecurity firm QAX.

CNN has reached out to Kuaishou for further comment.

Kuaishou is China’s second largest short-video social media with more than 416 million of daily active users, trailing only behind Douyin, according to data in its third quarter report.

The cyberattack sent the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares down as much as 6% on Tuesday.

Wang Liejun, a cybersecurity expert at QAX, attributed the scale of the damage largely to the use of “automated attacks,” noting that many online platforms still rely on traditional, manual defense models.

Hackers use automated tools to register accounts in bulk and control bot networks, allowing prohibited content to be released and spread within seconds – far beyond the limits of what manual review systems can handle, Wang told state-run media The Paper.

“Obscene content”

The incident comes amid a controversial law amendment that has sparked heated online debate over tighter restrictions and higher fines for spreading obscene content on the internet.