Billie Eilish covers the December issue of Los Angeles magazine, where she talks about her veganism. While she acknowledges that “vegans have a reputation of being incredibly annoying,” she tells the mag, “[T]here comes a point where I look around and [see] people I love so much, who I think of as smart, compassionate people, contributing to a culture that is incredibly damaging to the world. I want it to be clear that I’m not preaching.”
Noah Kahan and SZA are among the headliners for Canada’s 2024 Osheaga festival, taking place August 2-4 in Montreal. The remainder of the 2024 Osheaga lineup will be announced at a later date. For more info, stay tuned to Osheaga.com.
He’s vanilla, baby. Jack Harlow appears on the latest episode of Alex Cooper‘s Call Her Daddy podcast and admits he has simple tastes when it comes to his preferences in the bedroom. He says that he considers himself a five on a scale of one to 10, from vanilla to kinkiest, and says missionary is his favorite sex position.
(NEW YORK) — Two people were killed when a vehicle exploded Friday on the U.S. side of the Rainbow Bridge, which connects the U.S. to Canada at Niagara Falls, New York, according to sources.
The Rainbow Bridge has closed in the wake of the incident.
The vehicle, believed to be a Mercedes, sped toward a border checkpoint at the U.S. side of the bridge and hit a concrete barrier, multiple sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
The impact sent the vehicle careening into the area where U.S.-bound cars are sent for secondary screening, sources said.
The vehicle burst into flames and exploded, sources said.
Investigators have found some sort of suitcase or briefcase on scene, sources told ABC News. They are treating it as a possible explosive device as a precaution and the bomb squad is handling the package.
Ron Rienas, GM of the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, told ABC News all four Canada-U.S. bridges over the Niagara River have been closed out of an abundance of caution while the Rainbow Bridge investigation continues.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said, “At my direction, the New York State Police is actively working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor all points of entry to New York. I am traveling to Buffalo to meet with law enforcement and emergency responders and will update New Yorkers when more information becomes available.”
The Buffalo Niagara International Airport said it’ll be increasing security, with car checks and additional screenings for travelers.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the explosion and is closely following developments, according to the White House.
“We are taking this extraordinarily seriously,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “We are following up to try and get as many answers as rapidly as possible. … Additional measures are being contemplated and activated at all border crossings across the country.”
In Toronto, the police department said it’s increasing patrols out of an abundance of caution.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said he’s also monitoring the incident.
Adams said the NYPD has already enhanced security for Thanksgiving “so the public will see increased security at locations across New York City, including entry and egress points into and out of the city.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Courtesy Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
Billy Joel made an appearance Tuesday, November 21, at a preview of Billy Joel — My Life: A Piano Man’s Journey, a new exhibit at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
“This is a little overwhelming. Did you ever find yourself surrounded by you?” Joel told the VIP crowd, according to Newsday. “I always wondered, did I pick this life or did it pick me? ‘Cause I really didn’t think I had much of a choice. I was going to do this no matter what because I love music.”
The exhibit showcases over 50 years of Billy Joel memorabilia, including awards, rare audio and video recordings, instruments and behind-the-scenes footage and photos, many of which Billy donated from his archives.
“Where did they get all this junk? I didn’t know where they were storing all these things,” he said. “This is quite an honor. I didn’t expect it to be that extensive. I’ve had a life.”
One of the instruments on display is the 9-foot piano Joel used on his Face to Face Tour with Elton John. There’s also a selfie station where fans can insert themselves into the covers of the rocker’s hit albums, including 52 Street and Glass Houses.
As for whether he hopes the exhibit will inspire future musicians, Joel noted, “I hope they are encouraged to stay with it because that’s what it takes. Don’t give up and don’t let people talk you out of it. Follow your dream.”
The Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame is located in Stony Brook, New York. The exhibit officially opens Friday, November 24. Tickets are available at TheBillyJoelExhibit.com.
It’s time to shake up your baked treats this festive season with Niko Moon‘s snickerdoodle cookies.
The “Good Time” singer has shared the recipe for his favorite cookies on the first episode of the holiday edition of his YouTube series, STIR CRAZY.
Cinnamon, sugar, eggs and butter are some of the ingredients you’ll need. Once everything has been made, mixed and prepared, pop it in the oven to bake for nine minutes.
“I love cinnamon because my grandma used to make me cinnamon toast as a kid, especially during the holiday times. She used it [in] a lot of her cooking but especially that cinnamon toast,” Niko shares in the video. “That’s why they say, ‘It tastes better when there’s love put in it,’ and that’s very true.”
For the full recipe, check out Niko’s latest YouTube video.
While fans are used to seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates onstage together, it sounds like we may soon be seeing them on opposite sides of a courtroom.
Hall recently filed a lawsuit in Nashville Chancery Court against his musical partner Oates. While details regarding the suit are unknown because it’s under seal, the case summary describes it as a “Contract/Debt” dispute. Oates’ wife, Aimee, is also named in the suit for her role as a trustee of her husband’s trust.
What’s more, Hall was granted a motion for a temporary restraining order against Oates, although the reason he sought one is currently unknown.
ABC Audio has reached out to the duo’s representatives for comment.
Hall & Oates formed in Philadelphia in 1970 and have six #1 singles: “Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.”
They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
While their musical partnership has been hugely successful, their personal relationship is another story. In an interview with Bill Maher last year, Hall described Oates as “my business partner,” noting, “He’s not my creative partner.”
The Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson made a surprise appearance during Dirty Honey‘s concert in Los Angeles on Monday, November 20.
The “She Talks to Angels” singer joined the “When I’m Gone” rockers for a collaborative rendition of the AC/DC song “Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation.”
Dirty Honey previously opened for The Black Crowes on their 2021 reunion tour. In introducing Robinson to the stage at the LA show, Dirty Honey frontman Marc LaBelle told the crowd, “He’s been teaching me since before he knew me.”
Dirty Honey is currently on tour in support of their new album, Can’t Find the Brakes, which includes the single “Won’t Take Me Alive.”
We’ve got some bad news for fans wishing for a reboot of or sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Tim Burton, who wrote the story for and produced the cult classic film, dashed all hopes for more adventures with Jack Skellington, Sally and the other citizens of Halloween Town in a recent interview with Empire.
“To me the movie is very important,” Burton told the outlet. “I’ve done sequels, I’ve done other things, I’ve done reboots, I’ve done all that s***, right? I don’t want that to happen to this.”
He continued, “It’s nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I’m not.”
Burton also opened up about why Jack Skellington — also known as the Pumpkin King — is an important character to him, calling him “a character that’s perceived as dark, but is really light.”
“Those are the kinds of things that I love, whether it’s [Edward] Scissorhands or Batman, characters that have that,” he explained. “It represented all those feelings that I had. I was perceived as this dark character, when I didn’t feel that way. So it was a very personal character.”
The film, which starred Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Catherine O’Hara as Sally and featured the music of Danny Elfman, was directed by Henry Selick, with a screenplay by Caroline Thompson. It was reissued and rereleased by Walt Disney Pictures in 2006, after originally being released under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label in October 1993.
It wasn’t a box office hit when it released 30 years ago, but it has since become a film many fans rewatch every year.
Zara Larsson has announced the upcoming release of her new holiday EP, Honor the Light.
From Sommer House/Epic Records, six new festive songs from Zara will arrive on December 1, just in time to ring in the Christmas season.
The track list covers all the emotions you may be feeling this time of year, from the good times to seasonal gloom.
To get into the spirit early, you can stream the first two songs, “Memory Lane” and “Winter Song,” ahead of the EP’s release on Friday, November 24.
The four other songs on the project are “Silent Night” and “Light a Candle,” as well as two songs recorded in Swedish, “Tänd Ett Ljus” and “Sankta Lucia.”
This festive collection of songs will play a big part in Zara’s Honor the Light holiday performances next month in Sweden. She’ll play shows on December 8 and 9 in Stockholm, as well as a concert in Skellefteå on December 16.
Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Abortion rates increased by 5% in the United States in 2021, the final year the procedure remained a constitutional right under Roe v. Wade, according to new federal data.
In 2021, there were 625,978 abortions reported, according to an annual report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is a rate of 11.6 abortions per 1,000 women between ages 15 and 44.
This is a decrease from a decade earlier when there were 669,202 abortions reported in 2012 with a rate of 13.1 per 1,000 women. However, it is up from the 620,327 abortions reported in 2020 with a rate of 11.1 per 1,000 women.
The report also looked at some demographics of who is receiving abortions in the U.S. In 2021, women in their 20s accounted for more than half of abortions at 57%.
Comparatively, adolescents under age 15 and adults aged 40 and older made up the lowest percentages of abortions at 0.2% and 3.6%, respectively.
The authors also noted the percentage changes may show the continuing decrease in adolescent pregnancies in the United States.
“From 2012 to 2021, national birth data indicate that the birth rate for adolescents aged 15–19 years decreased 53%, and the data in this report indicate that the abortion rate for the same age group decreased 41%,” they wrote. “These findings highlight that decreases in adolescent births in the United States have been accompanied by large decreases in adolescent abortions.”
There were also significant racial/ethnic disparities in abortion rates. Black women were the most likely group to obtain an abortion at 41.5%. White women were the second most likely group at 30.2% and Hispanic women were the third most likely at 21.8%.
In other terms, white women had the lowest abortion rate at 6.4 abortions per 1,000 women and Black women had the highest abortion rate at 28.6 abortions per 1,000 women.
The report also found that most patients getting an abortion have already had children.
When looking at what stage of pregnancy abortions were occurring in, the report found that an overwhelming majority occurred before 13 weeks’ gestation, which is around the beginning of the second trimester.
Data showed 80.8% occurred at 9 weeks’ gestation or earlier and 93.5% occurred before 13 weeks’ gestation.
Additionally, 53% of those first-trimester abortions relied on medications. Medication abortions are a non-surgical form of abortion in which someone usually takes two pills to end a pregnancy.
Experts have previously stated that few abortions happen in the second and third trimesters and the data showed just that. Just 5.7% of abortions occurred between 14 and 20 weeks’ gestation and 0.9% occurred at or after 21 weeks’ gestation.
The CDC did not include data in the report about why patients opt for abortions at various stages of pregnancy.
However, the federal health agency said there are many reasons that determine the incidence of abortions including “access to health care services and contraception; the availability of abortion providers and clinics; state regulations, such as mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and legal restrictions on abortion providers and clinics; and changes in the economy and the resulting impact on family planning decisions and contraceptive use.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died at 96 last week, offered steadfast support for her husband, Jimmy Carter, throughout their 77-year marriage — but she forged her own legacy through humanitarian causes, including as a dedicated mental health advocate.
The Carter family released a statement Wednesday, acknowledging the impact Rosalynn Carter had on people’s lives.
“Rosalynn Carter’s deep compassion for people everywhere and her untiring strength on their behalf touched lives around the world,” the statement said. “We have heard from thousands of you since her passing. Thank you all for joining us in celebrating what a treasure she was, not only to us, but to all humanity.”
Her mission of mental health advocacy began during her husband’s 1966 campaign for Georgia governor, she wrote in her book, “Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis.”
As she campaigned for her husband, Carter wrote, she frequently heard from voters distressed about the conditions of family members living at a crowded psychiatric center in Milledgeville, Georgia. Then, one morning, an exhausted cotton mill worker shared that she and her husband worked opposite shifts to take care of their daughter with a mental illness.
Carter was “haunted” by that conversation, she wrote, and she set out to do something.
She learned her husband was holding a rally the same night she spoke with the family, she wrote. She surprised her husband in the greeting line, telling him, “I came to see what you are going to do to help people with mental illnesses when you are governor.”
He said he had been hearing the same things in his campaigning for governor. Jimmy Carter promised to help — when he was elected president, he named his wife as the active honorary chair of the President’s Commission on Mental Health during his White House tenure.
A report published by the commission led to the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. It would have funded community mental health centers and services for low-income populations, however, it was mostly repealed by President Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Jimmy Carter months after it passed.
Carter was devastated when Reagan abandoned the new mental health policy, she wrote in her book. But it did not stop her from continuing her work through The Carter Center, the nonprofit she founded with her husband in 1982.
She continued to work for decades to drive mental health legislation, accurate media coverage and social change.
In 1996, Carter launched the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism to combat stigmas through storytelling. Since then, the program has awarded more than 220 fellows worldwide, according to The Carter Center website.
Fellowship recipient Aaron Glantz, bureau chief and senior editor at The Fuller Project, wrote on X that the former first lady “was the first person to ever ask me how my journalism would make an impact.”
“This simple question changed my life & so many others. Thank you,” Glantz wrote.
Tributes poured in after Carter’s death, including on a memorial page set up by The Carter Center. Many on the page mentioned the impact of her advocacy in their remembrances.
“My mother, who was from Alabama, suffered with mental illness all of her life from the 1950’s through 2016 when she passed. She experienced first hand the tragedy of stigma, discrimination and frightening treatment both in and out of hospitals. … She wrote to Mrs. Carter to thank her for her help. She was so thrilled to receive a response back,” one user wrote.
Another person recalled being sent to the same Georgia hospital that had helped spark Rosalynn Carter’s crusade decades ago.
“To me, the most meaningful of all of Rosalynn’s accomplishments was her work with mental illness. Mental illness is like any other disease. I was 14 years old when I was sent to Milledgeville,” the user wrote.
Caregivers — such as the cotton mill worker Carter met in 1966 — played a key role in her activism, she said. Carter founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers at Georgia Southwestern State University and later wrote a book focused on caregiving, one of three books she published drawing on her own advocacy experience.
Carter’s book “Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers” discussed the latest mental health treatments and how to help people with illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety.
The former first lady’s final book released in 2010, “Within Our Reach,” was a call to action, according to The Carter Center website. In the book, she describes a mental health system that continues to fail people in need.
But the former first lady had hope, too.
Speaking at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Forum upon the book’s release, she said she never dreamed that people could recover from mental illness when she began her work.
Carter said her goal was for the book to help dispel stigmas that cause people with mental illness to hide from help.
“To neglect those who, through no fault of their own, are in need, runs counter to our values, our decency and equality,” Carter said at the forum. “Today, with our knowledge and expertise, we have a great opportunity to change things forever, for all people with mental illnesses, with what we know now, to move forward to a new era of understanding, care and respect.”
