Britney Spears deleted her Instagram on Friday, but reactivated it over the weekend to comment on an interview that her ex-husband Kevin Federline, her sons and her dad allegedly gave to a British journalist while making a documentary — an interview that has now been excerpted in a UK tabloid.
On Instagram, Britney writes, “The fact that people are claiming things that are not true is so sad … This may not even be them saying such things because it doesn’t make any sense to me for them to be saying that.”
In the interview, Federline allegedly claims that Britney is on drugs, and he’s afraid that she’ll O.D. Her sons Preston and Jayden share “traumatic” experiences they allegedly experienced, and the article quotes Preston as saying, “All we want is for her to listen to us…before it’s too late.”
Britney responds, “With Preston saying ‘she needs to listen to us before it’s too late” … Do you remember every visit you came to my home, you went into your room and locked the door ??? I never saw you guys.”
She adds, “But the day I told [Jayden] I wanted to see you guys more, I never saw you again. It makes me sad because I tried so hard to make things nice for you and it was never good enough. So you guys go behind my back and talk about me.”
Meanwhile, Britney’s dad Jamie Spears is quoted as saying he’s afraid she’ll “die like [Amy Winehouse].”
Britney writes, “Everyone sits back as if that’s ok to make up lies to that extent … Why am I told I have to sit back and rise above ??? When they all go so low ??? Hopefully it is just the news being hateful and Kevin nor Preston said any of those things.”
The ninth studio effort from the “Sticky” outfit arrives August 1. You can listen to two new tracks from the record, “Blame” and “How to Exit a Room,” now via digital outlets.
“Blame” is accompanied by a video, while “How to Exit a Room” got a lyric clip. Both are streaming now on YouTube.
The album The Maine follows 2021’s XOXO: From Love & Anxiety in Real Time. The Maine released the hit single “Loved You a Little,” featuring Taking Back Sunday and Charlotte Sands, in 2022.
The Maine will be touring this summer on the Sad Summer Fest alongside Taking Back Sunday and PVRIS, among others.
Gov’t Mule is set to drop their 12th studio album, Peace…Like A River, on Friday, June 16, and it sounds like it wasn’t too hard for frontman Warren Haynes to come up with the title of the record.
“When I was going through all the lyrics, I realized that the word ‘peace’ and the word ‘river’ appear more than anything else, several times in multiple songs,” he tells ABC Audio. “And so I wanted to find something that combined those two things together.”
The title was also inspired by the Paul Simon song “Peace Like a River,” with Haynes noting, “We almost recorded it and we may still at some point.”
The album was recorded during COVID-19 lockdowns, during the same sessions as 2021’s Heavy Load Blues. Haynes explains they decided to work on both “because we had all this time on our hands and I had written a ton of material, and we couldn’t travel and we couldn’t tour, so it was the best way to utilize our time.”
Haynes says the pandemic did affect the way he was thinking and feeling while writing the record, but he insists, “I tried not to let it affect the subject matter so much.”
“I didn’t want to write a bunch of COVID-centric songs, but at the same time, that’s what the world was going through,” he shares. “And so I tried to write songs that were universal, but with the mindset that was happening at the time.”
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts topped the weekend box office, opening with an estimated $60.5 million at the North American box office. The seventh film in the franchise, starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback, added an estimated $110 million overseas, bringing its global total to $170.5 million.
That knocked Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse into second place, although it gave Rise of the Beasts a run for its money, earning an estimated $55.4 million for a $225.4 million two-week total. Worldwide, it’s already surpassed 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse‘s lifetime gross of $377 million, with $390 million in just 12 days, making it Sony s highest-grossing animated release in history.
The Little Mermaid took third place with an estimated $22.8 million at the domestic box office and $52.7 million overseas. Its three-week global tally currently stands at $414.2 million.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 held on to fourth place with an estimated $7 million in North America. The third Guardians of the Galaxy movie has crossed $800 million worldwide. It’s now topped the first film’s $773 million gross, but currently trails Vol. 2‘s $863 million.
Rounding out the top five was The Boogeyman, grabbing $6.9 million in its second week of release. Its domestic total now stands at $24.7 million.
In HBO’s new show The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp plays Jocelyn, a pop star who has been driven to fame by an overbearing momager.
However, despite having two famous parents, Johnny Depp and singer Vanessa Paradis, the actress explains her upbringing wasn’t directing her toward the spotlight.
“The backstory that we thought about a lot for Jocelyn is that she’s somebody who’s been working basically since she could talk,” Lily-Rose tells Entertainment Weekly. “She was a child actress, she had a mother who was really pushy in that way and really kind of bred her to be this trained performer, and that was her upbringing.”
Conversely, Depp explains, “That was certainly not mine. My parents definitely did their best to give my brother [Jack, 21] and I the most ‘normal’ childhood that we could have.”
The 24-year-old adds, “Obviously, still not totally normal, but a sense of normalcy at least, and a sense of childhood and freedom and play and everything. So our childhoods are quite different.”
That said, Lily-Rose explains, “Of course, experiencing this industry from a young age, there’s obviously pieces of that that help me understand maybe Jocelyn’s perspective a little bit better, but still, definitely coming from different places.”
The Idol airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO; new episodes later stream on Max.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A portion of Interstate 95 has collapsed in Philadelphia following a large vehicle fire, according to authorities.
Emergency dispatchers received a call for an accident response on the off-ramp of I-95 at 6:22 a.m. on Sunday, Philadelphia Fire Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer said Sunday. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found heavy fire from a vehicle underneath the I-95 overpass, Bowmer said.
The highway is completely collapsed on the northbound lanes, while the southbound lanes are compromised, Bowmer said.
The incident was then upgraded to a hazmat situation, Bowmer said. Crews have extinguished the fire, but there is some runoff from possible fuel or gas lines. The cause of the fire is unknown, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told ABC News.
The accident occurred between Exit 32 for Academy Road and Exit 30 for Cottman Avenue in the Tacony section of Philadelphia, ABC Philadelphia station WPVI reported.
All northbound lanes between Exit 25 at Allegheny Avenue and Castor Avenue and Exit 32 at Academy Road and Linden Avenue are currently shut down, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Southbound lanes between Exit 32 and Exit 30 at Cottman Avenue and Rhawn Street are also closed.
That portion of I-95 is expected to remain shut down for an extended period of time, according to the DHS. The southbound overpass is in critical condition, according to the Pennsylvania DOT.
The fire was so big it had overtaken both northbound and southbound lanes on the highway, witness Lisa Taormino, who was commuting southbound on I-95 about 20 minutes before it collapsed, told ABC News.
Video taken by Taormino, and posted to social media, showed flames and smoke billowing from the northbound lane into the southbound.
“It wasn’t until I reached the bridge part that it was starting to be compromised and the structure wasn’t as sound as it should have been,” Taormino said. “There was another car behind me that looked like it was going to back up instead of traveling across the bridge.”
Other videos posted to social media show large plumes of dark smoke hanging over the highway.
There is no information on any injuries or occupants involved in the vehicle fire, Bowmer said.
Multiple agencies are involved in the response to the crash, with some expressing concern regarding the runoff due to the proximity to the Delaware River. Health officials will determine the environmental impact.
Department of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued statements saying that they are closely monitoring the accident.
The collapse will have “significant impacts” on the city and region until reconstruction is complete, Buttigieg wrote in a later tweet.
“This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete,” Buttigieg tweeted. “Our department will be there with support throughout the process of I-95 returning to normal.”
Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt will travel to Philadelphia on Monday to offer federal support and assistance.
“The I-95 corridor is a vital connection for people and goods traveling along the East Coast, and FHWA has offered support and assistance to state and local officials to help them safely reopen this section of I-95 as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson for the FHA said in a statement.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A portion of Interstate 95 has collapsed in Philadelphia following a large vehicle fire, according to authorities.
Emergency dispatchers received a call for an accident response on the off-ramp of I-95 at 6:22 a.m. on Sunday, Philadelphia Fire Battalion Chief Derek Bowmer said Sunday. When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found heavy fire from a vehicle underneath the I-95 overpass, Bowmer said.
The highway is completely collapsed on the northbound lanes, while the southbound lanes are compromised, Bowmer said.
The incident was then upgraded to a hazmat situation, Bowmer said. Crews have extinguished the fire, but there is some runoff from possible fuel or gas lines. The cause of the fire is unknown, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told ABC News.
The accident occurred between Exit 32 for Academy Road and Exit 30 for Cottman Avenue in the Tacony section of Philadelphia, ABC Philadelphia station WPVI reported.
All northbound lanes between Exit 25 at Allegheny Avenue and Castor Avenue and Exit 32 at Academy Road and Linden Avenue are currently shut down, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Southbound lanes between Exit 32 and Exit 30 at Cottman Avenue and Rhawn Street are also closed.
That portion of I-95 is expected to remain shut down for an extended period of time, according to the DHS. The southbound overpass is in critical condition, according to the Pennsylvania DOT.
The fire was so big it had overtaken both northbound and southbound lanes on the highway, witness Lisa Taormino, who was commuting southbound on I-95 about 20 minutes before it collapsed, told ABC News.
Video taken by Taormino, and posted to social media, showed flames and smoke billowing from the northbound lane into the southbound.
“It wasn’t until I reached the bridge part that it was starting to be compromised and the structure wasn’t as sound as it should have been,” Taormino said. “There was another car behind me that looked like it was going to back up instead of traveling across the bridge.”
Other videos posted to social media show large plumes of dark smoke hanging over the highway.
Multiple agencies are involved in the response to the crash, with some expressing concern regarding the runoff due to the proximity to the Delaware River. Health officials will determine the environmental impact.
Department of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued statements saying that they are closely monitoring the accident.
The collapse will have “significant impacts” on the city and region until reconstruction is complete, Buttigieg wrote in a later tweet.
“This is a major artery for people and goods, and the closure will have significant impacts on the city and region until reconstruction and recovery are complete,” Buttigieg tweeted. “Our department will be there with support throughout the process of I-95 returning to normal.”
There is no information on any injuries or occupants involved in the vehicle fire, Bowmer said.
(WASHINGTON) — Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons on Sunday said he thinks Donald Trump’s federal indictment over handling of classified records creates electoral trouble for the GOP in 2024 — and, at the same time, he admits some worry over Trump’s White House prospects.
“I think the challenges here are for Republicans to explain to the American people why they are confident President Trump should be reelected, given his casual — even callous — mishandling of critical national security documents,” Coons, a close ally of President Joe Biden, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
“This isn’t a minor case of who kept a handful of documents inadvertently,” Coons said. “He’s been charged for knowingly and willingly concealing, that he retained willfully federal documents that were critical to our national defense.”
Trump was indicted on 37 counts in the federal case in Florida, alleging he “willfully” retained documents containing sensitive U.S. secrets and conspired to obstruct justice as the government sought to retrieve the records after Trump left the White House.
This is the first time a former U.S. president has been charged with a federal crime.
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said on social media last week that he is innocent. He will be arraigned in Miami on Tuesday. If convicted, he will still continue his bid for the White House in 2024, he’s said.
On “This Week,” Coons referred to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s fiery defense of Trump in an interview earlier on the show and said, “There is one thing that I agree with Sen. Graham on here: Former President Trump is entitled to a presumption of innocence. Under our system, anyone who’s charged with a federal crime is entitled to due process of law, to effective representation and to a presumption of innocence.”
But Coons also stressed that the case against Trump, as laid out by prosecutors, “markedly” differs from two examples Graham raised to say Trump was being treated unequally. Unlike former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden, both of whom kept classified records while out of office, Trump allegedly stonewalled the government in retrieving the sensitive records they wanted back.
“That’s the basis of this prosecution,” Coons said. “And it is a sad day George for a former president of the United States to be federally criminally charged. But the basis of the rule of law in our democracy is that no man is above the law.”
The Department of Justice has told Pence they won’t bring charges against him, ABC News previously reported. The investigation of Biden’s handling of classified records is ongoing.
Despite what Graham and other Republicans are arguing in the wake of Trump’s indictment, Coons said, “I think there’s no evidence that the Federal Department of Justice has been weaponized.”
Specifically, he said that special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting Trump, previously prosecuted high-profile Democratic politicians including former presidential candidate John Edwards and New York state lawmaker Sheldon Silver. Smith also led the DOJ’s public integrity section.
“Former President Trump has no one to blame but himself for being federally, criminally indicted,” Coons said.
He also criticized Trump and Republican presidential candidates for, he said, villainizing law enforcement rather than reflecting on the concerns for national security raised by Trump’s case.
Biden has not made any comment on Trump’s second indictment, and Coons said Biden’s focus will instead be on getting “real results for the American people” amid his reelection campaign.
When Stephanopoulos pointed to polling showing Biden trailing Trump or the two nearly tied in the presidential race, Coons acknowledged that and said, “I think we should be worried given [Trump’s] conduct and given his record.”
“I think the best thing for Joe Biden to do in this campaign is to keep showing that he is an effective and capable president by continuing to solve big problems,” Coons said.
“Despite some suggestions by his opponents, he’s sharp, he’s skillful and he’s continuing to lead as our president,” he said, “despite the distractions of former President Trump’s rising legal problems.”
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Donald Trump’s most ardent defenders on Capitol Hill, argued Sunday that in the wake of the former president’s unprecedented federal indictment over how he handled government secrets, most conservatives see the case as politically motivated and Trump will emerge “stronger” in his reelection campaign.
Graham, at times testy in his back-and-forth with ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos, was repeatedly pressed about the allegations against Trump — including, prosecutors claim in the indictment, Trump at one point being recorded discussing a sensitive record with others while acknowledging it was still classified.
“Donald Trump — you may hate his guts, but he is not a spy,” Graham, R-S.C., said.
Trump has denied wrongdoing. He will be arraigned on Tuesday on 37 charges, including willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Graham began his fiery “This Week” interview by saying the case against Trump had parallels with that of Hillary Clinton — though a review of each investigation points to notable differences between them — and he maintained that Trump had been “overcharged” via the Espionage Act, referring to the counts of willful retention.
“Did he do things wrong? Yes, he may have. He will be tried about that. But Hillary Clinton wasn’t,” Graham, who has endorsed Trump for president in 2024, said of the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate.
Stephanopoulos followed up, pointing to the alleged recording of Trump discussing classified government information that prosecutors cited in his indictment.
“You said that he did not disseminate any of this information. In fact, there’s an audiotape in the indictment where he’s talking about the secret information, saying he knows it’s secret, knows it’s not declassified,” Stephanopoulos told Graham.
“I don’t know what happened; I haven’t heard the audio,” Graham said. “But look at who’s been charged under the Espionage Act: Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning — people who turned over classified information to news organizations … or provide it to a foreign power. That did not happen here.”
Graham then again brought up Clinton.
“Senator, first of all, she was fully investigated,” Stephanopoulos said, prompting a “yeah right” and “give me a break” from Graham.
“There is an audio tape of Donald Trump saying he knows this is secret information he knows he’s sharing with other people. How is that OK?” Stephanopoulos followed up.
“I’m not saying it’s OK,” Graham said before again comparing Trump’s behavior to Clinton’s.
But a review of government documents from both investigations suggests there are key differences in the cases of Trump and Clinton, who used a personal email server that was later found to have been used to send or receive classified information, a scandal that cast a shadow over her entire 2016 presidential bid — and often prompted Trump to tout how much more seriously he would treat government secrets.
Around 193 emails containing classified information were sent to or from Clinton’s personal email, authorities have said, while federal investigators have identified more than 322 individual documents containing classified information that were kept at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left the White House.
Prosecutors determined that the evidence and facts of Clinton’s case showed “a lack of intent to communicate classified information on unclassified systems,” especially since “[n]one of the emails Clinton received were properly marked to inform her of the classified status of the information,” and investigators found evidence that Clinton and her aides “worded emails carefully in an attempt to ‘talk around’ classified information,” according to a 2018 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general.
However, the indictment against Trump underscored not only his alleged knowledge that he possessed classified information once he was no longer president but also how he is accused of working to conceal the records from federal authorities after they asked to retrieve them.
Then-FBI Director James Comey blasted Clinton as “extremely careless” in 2016 but prosecutors determined that the evidence and facts showed “a lack of intent to communicate classified information on unclassified systems,” according to a Justice Department report.
On “This Week,” Graham also sought to compare Trump keeping classified documents to what former Vice President Mike Pence and President Joe Biden did. They both kept sensitive records while out of office (in Biden’s case, in his Delaware home’s garage). But they cooperated with government authorities in returning them, in contrast to what prosecutors said was Trump’s resistance.
The Department of Justice has told Pence they won’t bring charges against him, ABC News previously reported. The investigation of Biden’s handling of classified records is ongoing.
“I don’t like what President Trump did in certain aspects. I don’t like that Joe Biden had classified information on the garage. I don’t like that Mike Pence carelessly took classified information. I don’t like any of that,” said Graham, who also pointed to former President Bill Clinton keeping “tapes in his sock drawer.” (In the latter case, Bill Clinton designated some tapes as personal, rather than presidential, allowing him to keep them after his time in office.)
“I would like to review the system. But here’s the point I’m trying to make: What’s happening in Manhattan with Donald Trump has never happened to anybody in the history of New York,” Graham said, referring to Trump’s first indictment, in New York City, related to hush money he paid to an adult film actress. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
“I think the espionage charges are completely wrong and I think they paint an impression that doesn’t exist. This is not espionage,” Graham said. “And I do believe, George, that most people on my side of the aisle believes when it comes to Donald Trump, there are no rules. And you can do the exact same thing or something similar as a Democrat and nothing happens to you.”
Stephanopoulos interjected and said that experts believe if Trump had complied with the government efforts to retrieve the classified information he took, “There would be no case at all.”
“Well, I don’t know if that’s true. He believes he has the power to do that,” Graham responded.
He again pointed to other cases — Clinton, Biden’s son Hunter Biden — that he said showed an unequal standard of justice. (Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation himself and has maintained he will be cleared.)
“I think Donald Trump is stronger today politically than he was before. … We’ll have an election, and we’ll have a trial, but I promise you this: Most Americans believe, most Republicans believe, that the law is used as a weapon against Donald Trump,” Graham said.
Stephanopoulos told him: “What I’ve not heard from you is the defense of Donald Trump’s behavior and why you think that’s the kind of behavior you want to see in a president of the United States.”
“I’m not justifying his behavior. If it were up to me, nobody would take classified information in their garage or Mar-a-Lago,” Graham said.
Still, he said, his view of Trump hadn’t wavered.
“I think what’s happening here is trying to delegitimize him,” Graham said.
“It’s not going to change my support for Donald Trump,” he said. “He’s innocent until proven guilty. But what I’m trying to convey to you, and I’m sorry I’m not doing a better job, that most Republicans believe that the law now is a political tool.”
(WINONA COUNTY, Minn.) — A Minnesota man has been charged with murder in the death of the mother of his children, who was found dead in a rural area more than two months after she was reported missing, prosecutors said.
Adam Fravel, 29, is being held on a $2 million unconditional bond after being charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the death of Madeline Kingsbury, 26, prosecutors said.
Kingsbury was last seen alive the morning of March 31, when she and Fravel dropped their two young children off at a day care before returning to her home in Winona, police said. She was reported missing after a concerned friend requested a welfare check and police officer found Kingsbury’s cellphone, wallet and ID in her home but could not locate her.
After an extensive search, authorities located the body of Kingsbury on Wednesday concealed in brush in a wooded area north of Mabel, Minnesota, authorities said.
“She had a bright future, and Mr. Fravel took that from her,” Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman said during a Friday press conference announcing the charges.
Sonneman added that Fravel could be charged with first-degree murder at a later date, adding that the case is still ongoing.
Fravel told police that he and Kingsbury were in an on-and-off relationship for the past seven years but they had recently separated and were in the process of moving out of their shared home when she went missing, according to a complaint obtained by ABC News. Fravel indicated that two weeks prior to her disappearance, Kingsbury told him she had started a relationship with another man, the complaint stated.
Fravel had told investigators that the morning Kingsbury went missing, he left the house in Kingsbury’s van around 10 a.m., but when he returned later that day, she was not there, police said.
Police found Kingsbury on a property maintained by the Fravel family with a knotted towel wrapped around her head and neck, and her body was wrapped in a bed sheet identified as originating from Kingsbury and Fravel’s shared residence, according to the complaint.
The complaint stated that Fravel reportedly admitted to being “infatuated” with the case of Gabby Petito, a 22-year-old travel blogger who authorities say was strangled to death by her boyfriend in August 2021 while the two were on a cross-country road trip. Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, died by suicide.
“Fravel also admitted that he had made a statement to Madeline about her ending up like Gabby Petito,” the complaint stated. “Fravel claimed he was trying to make a joke.”
The complaint also included an excerpt from Kingsbury’s phone conversations in which she confronted Fravel about an alleged incident of domestic violence.
“You know I am not really OK with or over the fact that you put your hand around my neck and pushed me down in front of the kids earlier…” the message from Kingsbury to Fravel reads.
A preliminary autopsy determined that Kingsbury’s cause of death was homicide and homicidal violence, according to the complaint.
Fravel’s first court appearance is set for July 20.
In the weeks after Kingsbury was reported missing, Fravel denied having anything to do with her disappearance.
“Over the course of the last 12 days, my family and I have been subject to a myriad of accusations regarding the disappearance of the mother of my children,” Fravel said in a statement released by his attorney on April 14.
He said he has been cooperating with authorities and that investigators advised him not to attend press conferences or searches “due to safety concerns.”
Fravel and Kingsbury’s children, ages 2 and 5 at the time of their mother’s disappearance, are currently in the custody of Winona County and are with Kingsbury’s parents, ABC Saint Paul affiliate KSTP reported.
When asked about the custody of the children, Sonneman acknowledged that Fravel, who does not have custodial rights, might be able to get supervised and secured visitation rights of their children if he secures bail.
