Looks like Ed Sheeran‘s “Bad Habits” lead to hit singles.
The star’s new track has just debuted at the top of the chart in his native U.K., and it’s his 10th number one there overall. Britain’s Official Charts Company points out that Ed is one of just nine artists who’ve had 10 number ones or more in the U.K. He’s in pretty good company: Those artists include Eminem, who’s one of Ed’s heroes, as well as Madonna, The Beatles and Elvis Presley.
In a video celebrating his achievement, Ed says, “I want to say thank you so much to everyone that made this happen. I’ve been away for such a long time and I really, really don’t take this for granted, this is an amazing thing. Thank you for making me feel the love.”
Ed goes on to say he hopes “Bad Habits” is knocked out of number one next week by a 1996 song called “Three Lions,” which is the unofficial anthem of English soccer. The song would likely hit number one next week if England wins the European Football Championship.
“We’re going to win the Euros. It’s coming home!” Ed predicts.
After this weekend’s fireworks, get ready to celebrate another holiday: New Billie Eilish Music Day.
The “bad guy” artist has announced the release of another cut of her much-anticipated sophomore album, Happier Than Ever. The track is titled “NDA,” and will drop next Friday, July 9, along with a video.
“NDA” — which typically stands for “non-disclosure agreement,” a legal document that restricts a person from publicly sharing certain information — will be the fifth Happier Than Ever song to be released, following “Therefore I Am,” “Your Power,” “Lost Cause” and “my future.” The whole album arrives July 30.
Happier Than Ever is the follow-up to Eilish’s massive Grammy-winning 2019 debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, which spawned singles including “bad guy,” “bury a friend,” “you should see me in a crown” and “all the good girls go to hell.”
Elena Di Vincenzo/Archivio Elena di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
Nikki Sixx is officially 20 years sober.
The Mötley Crüe bassist marked the milestone in an Instagram post Friday morning.
“Some people will try an kick you in the nuts, steal your money, stab you in the back, guaranteed to let you down, sabotage yer life, not believe in you and gossip that you’ll never make a day without drugs or alcohol,” Sixx wrote in the post caption. “And do you know what you’re gonna do? YOU’RE GONNA STAY SOBER ONE DAY AT A TIME.”
“You are the miracle, the one that breaks the addiction chain, the one who is a living amens,” he continued. “The one who has altered your family history. You will live in gratitude for those that never thought you’d stay sober or make it out alive BECAUSE THEY MADE YOU STRONGER and you know how to forgive a**holes.”
Sixx concluded, “And when you see people who are still suffering/treading water or gasping for air, be sure to throw them a life vest. Because we give back now to those that are still afflicted and hope they too pass it on.”
Sixx previously detailed his struggle with drugs and addiction in his 2007 book The Heroin Diaries, which was accompanied by the Sixx:A.M. album The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack.
Earlier this week, Luke Combs shared that “Cold as You” will be his next radio single, and also told fans to keep their ears peeled for new music. Now, he’s already making good on that promise, sharing live performance video of an unreleased track called “Five-Leaf Clover.”
“As promised, here’s the second new song that I’ve been playing on tour,” Luke explained. “It’s called ‘Five-Leaf Clover.’ Hope y’all like it.”
The song, which he performed accompanied by just his acoustic guitar, underscores the singer’s gratitude for the overwhelming good luck he’s experienced in his life.
“I know I’m a lucky man, but I ain’t sure I am / ‘Cause it ain’t like anyone deserves the world in the palm of their hand,” Luke sings in the chorus. “I hit my knees, thankful as can be, but the one thing I can’t get over / How’d a guy like me, who’d have been fine with three, wind up with a five-leaf clover?”
It’s the latest in a long string of unreleased material Luke has teased over the past several months: Both live and on social media, he’s also been sharing unreleased snippets of songs like “Joe,” “See Me Now” and “We Still Drink Beer.”
The singer is expected to announce his third album soon. It’ll follow up his wildly successful sophomore project, What You See Is What You Get and its deluxe version, What You See Ain’t Always What You Get.
“Unfortunately for my teammates, my culinary skills do not match my nationality. At least Shane and Oleg with whom I have already lived were warned this time. Creation so French today: chocolate crepe, strawberries, (how’s that a tortilla?),” the translated tweet said.
The 43-year-old first shared the video Monday and as the floating disc of dough made its rounds on social media, comments varied with some hailing the snack as hilarious and original, to others calling it dismal and disappointing.
Although the recipe may not be Le Cordon Bleu-worthy, Pesquet gets serious points for creativity and credit for the first known crepe served in space.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden has announced his support for the recommendation that prosecution of sexual assaults and sexual harassment cases be removed from the military chain of command in favor of independent prosecutors to handle those cases.
Recommended by an independent civilian panel that looked at sexual assault in the military, the change has been long been supported by advocates for sexual assault victims who say it will improve the handling of sexual assault allegations.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had already announced that he backed the same recommendation made by the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault on the Military when the group presented him with recommendations.
“I strongly support Secretary Austin’s announcement that he is accepting the core recommendations put forward by the Independent Review Commission on Military Sexual Assault (IRC), including removing the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault from the chain of command and creating highly specialized units to handle these cases and related crimes,” Biden said in a statement released Friday.
“Sexual assault is an abuse of power and an affront to our shared humanity,” he added. “And sexual assault in the military is doubly damaging because it also shreds the unity and cohesion that is essential to the functioning of the U.S. military and to our national defense.”
“Today’s announcement is the beginning, not the end of our work,” Biden said. “This will be among the most significant reforms to our military undertaken in recent history, and I’m committed to delivering results.”
Biden said he looked forward to working with Congress “to implement these necessary reforms and promote a work environment that is free from sexual assault and harassment for every one of our brave service members.”
The change to remove the military chain of command from prosecutions has been the centerpiece of legislation championed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for the last decade.
Recently, Gillibrand has received bipartisan support for a bill that has been previously voted down and not backed by the Pentagon.
But Gillibrand’s bill has not received the support of key lawmakers on the Armed Services Committees who are opposed to the removal of the chain of command from all felony cases, not just sexual assault prosecutions.
While Biden expressed support for the change in military sexual assault prosecutions, ahead of Friday’s announcement two senior administration officials seemed to indicate that Biden does not support broader changes in Gillibrand’s bill.
The officials said the independent panel recommends that the changes be enacted by Congress this year but that they not go into effect until 2023 to help build the infrastructure needed to bring special victims prosecutors on board.
“We reject the notion that shifting legal decisions about prosecution from command to prosecutors diminishes the role of those commanders,” said one of the officials.
“We believe, instead, that it enhances their role and places them in the lead of taking care of their people — the number one job of commanders — and creating climates of no tolerance for sexual assault, sexual harassment, and related crimes” the official added.
(NEW YORK) — Thursday marked a major pandemic milestone — air travel exceeded pre-pandemic levels for the first time as people took to the skies for the July 4th holiday.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported it screened 2,147,090 nationwide Thursday, surpassing the checkpoint volume for the same day in 2019 by 58,330.
It’s a remarkable recovery from the height of the pandemic when fewer than 100,000 people were flying in the U.S. each day.
Experts predict airlines will carry the most passengers since the start of the pandemic this weekend.
Domestic destinations like Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando are the most popular, according to the travel booking site Hopper. The Caribbean and Mexico are the most popular international destinations, according to Hopper economist Adit Damodarn.
“July 4th is the most searched weekend of summer 2021 thus far,” Damodarn said.
American Airlines is operating nearly 5,500 daily flights between Thursday and Monday, with the busiest travel days being Thursday and Friday, a spokesperson said.
United Airlines expects to fly 2 million customers from Thursday to Tuesday, with Thursday and Monday anticipated to be its busiest days. Delta Air Lines said approximately 2.2 million customers are expected to fly with the airline between Friday and Tuesday.
The busiest airports will be Chicago O’Hare, LAX, and Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, according to Hopper. The busiest day to depart is Friday and the busiest day to return will be Monday.
“Travel is back,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby told ABC News.
“July 1 is going to be the busiest day since COVID started, but it’ll only have that record for four days because July 5 is going to break it. It’s just another indication of how we really are on the road to recovery,” Kirby said.
TSA warned of staffing shortages at more than 100 airports last month and continues to ask for volunteers to help meet demand.
“Because of the fact that you know there are shortage and staffing, you know they’re going to be long lines, just be patient,” Everett Kelley, president of AFGE, the union that represents Transportation Security Officers, told ABC.
TSA has said it hopes to hire 6,000 new officers to handle the summer travel boost.
It has resorted to offering recruitment incentives such as $1,000 to officers who accept employment with the agency.
They say they are prepared to handle the increased traveler volume this weekend.
Sting’s songs have appeared on so many movie soundtracks that he’s released several compilations of them. But it turns out one particular song by Sting ended up inspiring one of the biggest movies of all time: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, which marks its 30th anniversary on Saturday.
T2, released in 1991, features future human resistance leader John Connor as a teen, played by Edward Furlong, teaming up with Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Model T-800 Terminator, who’s no longer the bad guy but has been sent back in time to save John from a more advanced T-1000 model. That machine has been sent to kill Connor before he becomes the leader he’s destined to be, and who will avert a nuclear holocaust in 1997 — aka Judgment Day.
So what the heck does this have to do with Sting? In a new article on The Ringer about the making of the film, director James Cameron reveals that he got the idea for a major plot point while tripping and listening to a Sting song.
“I remember sitting there once, high on [Ecstasy], writing notes for Terminator, and I was struck by Sting’s song, that ‘I hope the Russians love their children too,’” Cameron says, referring to Sting’s 1985 single, Russians. “And I thought, ‘You know what? The idea of a nuclear war is just so antithetical to life itself.’ That’s where the kid came from.”
“Russians,” from Sting’s first solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles, was about the rising tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the ’80s, and the growing threat of nuclear war.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a massive critical and commercial success, grossing $520 million worldwide and winning several Oscars.
On July 3, 1991, James Cameron‘s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the sequel to his low-budget 1984 sci-fi classic The Terminator, blasted into theaters.
The original had a human resistance fighter traveling back in time to save a young woman named Sarah Connor from an unstoppable killing machine from the future, so that she one day could give birth to a son who would turn the tide in a future war against the machines.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day reunited Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, with Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s T-800 cyborg — but this time he was sent back to protect her 10-year-old son, John, played by Edward Furlong, after the Skynet artificial intelligence that controls the machines sends back an advanced terminator model, a shape-shifting liquid metal prototype known as the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, to kill John. But first, the T-800 and John have to break Sarah Conner out of a psychiatric facility.
Then most expensive film ever made and boasting then-bleeding edge visual effects, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a smash hit, and remains one of few sequels to surpass the original in the eyes of many fans. It grossed more than $520 million worldwide and earned Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Makeup for late legend Stan Winston, and Best Visual Effects for the team at George Lucas‘ Industrial Light and Magic, which used nascent computer technology to bring the liquid metal killing machine to life.
There have been four Terminator films since Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the most recent being 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate. But none have reached T2‘s critical and box office heights.
The month of July is off to a smooth start with unexpected music releases from IDK and Young Thug,Lil Yatchy and more. Here’s a roundup of new tracks to enjoy over the holiday weekend.
After dropping “Peloton” last month, Maryland rapper IDK returns with his new single, “Pradada Bang,” featuring Young Thug.
Thugger opens the track boasting about his money, expensive jewelry, and making “half a mil for a show.” Meanwhile, IDK’s brash bars are directly aimed at clout-chasing women who only want him for his money.
“How you want Birkins and [ish] when you ain’t even got a house / We get in one argument you gon’ live in that purse when I’m kicking you out,” he raps.
“Prada Bang” will be featured on IDK’s upcoming album, USEE4YOURSELF, arriving July 9th.
Rapper Lil Yachty takes a different direction with his alternative-hip hop single, “Love Music.” The melodic track finds the Quality Control artist reminiscing about all the “good things” he hears about a woman he loves.
Meanwhile, Toosii takes a more cold-hearted approach to women on his new single, “heart cold.”
“It’s safe to say the world getting ugly / And I could say that my heart cold, my heart cold, yeah / But that’s ’cause you put someone else above me,” Toosii raps.
And finally, G Herbo has unleashed his new album, 25, featuring appearances from Polo G, Lil Tjay,Gunna, Rowdy Rebel, 21 Savage and more. The Chicago rapper also released a music video for the song “I Don’t Wanna Die,” in which he rides the top of a school bus through his city while delivering a raw take on the violence and pain that comes with being on the streets.
