(WASHINGTON) — Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin has signed a new 5-year, $47.5 million contract, the team announced Tuesday.
“Alex is the face of our franchise and is committed to this organization and this city,” said general manager Brian MacLellan in a statement. “Alex embodies what our franchise is all about, and we’re thrilled that he will continue his career in the Caps uniform for the next five years.”
Ovechkin was drafted 1st overall by the team in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft and is the franchise leader in games played (1,197), goals (730), and points (1,320). In 2018. he captained the team to its first-ever Stanley Cup Championship.
Ovechkin sits in sixth place on the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring list with 730, 165 shy of Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894. Ovechkin would need to average 33 goals a season to pass Gretzky by the end of this contract.
“Alex is a world-class athlete who will forever be regarded not only for leading the team to achieve our ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup but also for inspiring the next generation of fans and youth players,” said Monumental Sports & Entertainment Founder and CEO Ted Leonsis in a statement.
Last season, Ovechkin scored 24 goals in 45 games and became the first player in NHL history to score at least 20 goals in each of his first 16 seasons in the league. His 30 goal streak to start a career ended last year. He is tied with Jaromir Jagr and Mike Gartner for the most all-time.
Top Boy breakout star Micheal Ward has been tapped to star in Sam Mendes‘ upcoming drama Empire of Light, Deadline has learned.
According to the report, Mendes and execs were “blown away” by the actor’s table read. While plot details have not been announced, the film is described as a “love story” set around an old cinema on the South Coast of England in the 1980s. Ward will star alongside Olivia Colman, who was previously announced. Empire of Light will be Mendes first film project since winning the Oscar for his World War I drama 1917. Production is expected to begin in fall of 2022.
In other news, a trailer for Tiffany Haddish‘s revenge thriller The Card Counter has been released. The film follows Oscar Isaac as William Tell, a military interrogator turned card player haunted by his past. To find “redemption,” William agrees to help a man “execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel,” played by Willem Dafoe. Haddish will play a “mysterious backer looking to add Tell to her stable of card sharks.” The Card Counter hits theaters on September 10.
Finally, Yasiin Bey, formally known as Mos Def, has decided to remove himself from the Thelonious Monk biopic, Thelonious, following the jazz great’s family’s disapproval of the project. In an Instagrampost, Bey said in part, “If the Monk Estate is not happy with it, if Mr. Monk III is not happy with it, then neither am I. Bey added that he was “given every indication by the production company that the family was on board.” As previously reported, the film, which was slated to begin production in 2022.
Dua Lipa is speaking out after her “Levitating” remix collaborator, DaBaby, made homophobic comments at the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami over the weekend.
“I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby‘s comments,” she wrote on her Instagram Story Tuesday. “I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with.”
She added, “I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I stand 100% with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
In DaBaby’s on-stage remarks, the rapper said, in part, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light in the air.”
He also made another not-safe-for-broadcast comment regarding gay men. DaBaby later defended his comments in a series of Instagram videos, saying that there were gay fans present who enjoyed his show.
Dua fans have been calling for the singer to remove DaBaby from the “Levitating” remix. One fan suggested she replace him with Lil Nas X.
(NEW YORK) — Two key senators announced a bipartisan deal on a $2.1 billion emergency security supplemental bill to send much-needed funding to Capitol Police and the National Guard, as law enforcement officers were recounting to members of the House their gripping, harrowing tales of confrontations with former President Donald Trump’s supporters rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The deal includes $70.7 million for Capitol Police training, equipment, overtime, more officers, hazard pay and retention bonuses; more than $521 million to the National Guard to reimburse the department for the long hours guardsmen put in guarding the Capitol in the wake of the attack; and additional funding will be allotted for making repairs to the building after rioters damaged the centuries-old historic building. There’s also $35.4 million for the Capitol Police mutual aid agreements with local, state and federal law enforcement for securing the Capitol and funds to secure the Capitol complex and respond to COVID on the complex.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told reporters that “We’re going to take care of the Capitol Police, fix all the problems that need to be done here (in the building), certainly take care of the National Guard, which is critical, because they have real problems.”
The Guard has been desperate for the reimbursement, threatening to cancel training events, drills in August and September and potentially furloughing civilians.
The embattled Capitol Police, still clawing back from the Jan. 6 attacks — enacting changes in leadership, grappling with retirements and officers walking away from the job after that harrowing day — have said they would be out of funding by mid-August if Congress did not act.
The emergency supplemental also has $1.125 billion to cover the Afghanistan Special Immigrant Visa program — a little less than what the White House requested — to provide asylum to allies there who aided the U.S. mission and now face retribution from a resurgent Taliban.
Leahy has said before that the money is also designed to address the backlog of applications for the program and shortening the work requirement to one year from two, but it unclear what will be in the final deal.
The chairman said the bill could be on the floor as early as Tuesday night, but lawmakers could have a Sen. Rand Paul problem. The Kentucky Republican is opposed to awarding funds to provide asylum to Afghan interpreters and others who helped the United States in that long-fought war.
The State Department announced last week the “first tranche” of Afghans being evacuated from Afghanistan consists of 700 who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan and an estimated number of their family members — bringing the total to a “ballpark” of 2,500 Afghans set to be sent to Fort Lee base in Virginia, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
Thousands more are being moved to other cooperating countries, as well as overseas U.S. bases.
ABC News’ Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Team USA athletes, specifically women athletes, are already making history at the Tokyo Olympics.
From fencing to taekwondo, swimming and more, the Summer Games in Tokyo have been a chance for American women to prove their athletic prowess.
Lydia Jacoby
Lydia Jacoby, 17, won the first gold medal for the U.S. women’s swimming team at the Tokyo Olympics with her upset win in the 100-meter breaststroke.
Jacoby became one of the youngest American swimmers to win an Olympic gold medal and the first-ever Alaskan swimmer to win Olympic gold.
Jacoby, who is from Seward, Alaska, moved to Anchorage earlier this year to train. She is the first Olympic swimmer, and only the 10th Olympian, to be born in Alaska, according to ESPN.
Jacoby’s hometown of Seward gathered to watch her race live, and erupted in cheers when she won.
“I was definitely racing for a medal. I knew I had it in me,” Jacoby said after the race. “I wasn’t really expecting a gold medal, so when I looked up and saw the scoreboard, it was insane.”
Carissa Moore
American Carissa Moore rode into the history books on July 27, becoming the first woman ever to win a gold medal in surfing at the Olympics.
The 28-year-old Hawaiian, the world’s No. 1 ranked woman surfer, burst into tears as she emerged from the water at Japan’s Shidashita Beach following her victorious performance on waves stoked up by Typhoon Nepartak swirling in the Pacific Ocean.
Moore’s win came after she bested South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag in the head-to-head finale of the inaugural surfing event at the Tokyo Games.
She was lifted on the shoulders of Team USA coaches as she wrapped herself in an American flag.
Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell
Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell won the silver medal in the women’s synchronized 10m platform competition, making them the first U.S. team to ever win medals in this event.
The teammates competed for just the third time together ever at the Olympics.
“Jess and I just ended up making it work,” Schnell said. “Took a lot of faith in each other, a lot of trust in each other that paid off.”
Lee Kiefer
Lee Kiefer, 27, is a four-time NCAA champion at Notre Dame and a medical student at the University of Kentucky. On Sunday, Kiefer made history as the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in individual foil.
Kiefer was up against Inna Deriglazova of the Russian Olympic Committee, who is ranked No. 1 in the world. After the final point, the match ended with a score of 15-13. Kiefer ripped off her mask and shouted, “Oh my God!”
“It’s such an incredible feeling that I share with my coach, I share with my husband, with my family, just everyone that’s been a part of this,” Kiefer said. “I wish I could chop it up in little pieces and distribute it to everyone I love.”
Kiefer’s husband, Gerek Meinhardt, who is also a fencer and four-time Olympian, took to Instagram to share the moment with his followers.
“My wife just made my Olympic dream complete,” he wrote. “Words can’t describe how bad she wanted this, how hard she worked or how proud of her I am.”
Anastasija Zolotic
For 18-year-old Anastasija Zolotic, winning a gold medal at the Olympics has been a goal of hers since she was 8.
“I want to be an inspiration for young girls and young athletes. Everything I wanted and worked so hard for. It’s like a legacy I’m leaving behind in a way. It’s everything I wanted,” Zolotic told “Good Morning America.” “Just seeing how far I should push myself through each match. It’s that little 8-year-old in me saying, ‘we can do this,’ pushing me through these matches.”
After her taekwondo match against Tatiana Minina of the Russian Olympic Committee, Zolotic told reporters that her same younger self “was running around the schoolyard saying I was going to be Olympic champion but she could never have imagined what this moment is like.”
Zolotic, who is from Florida, was aggressive in her first round and kept her powerful streak going. She ended up beating Minina with a score of 25-17.
She also has a unique way of preparing herself mentally before a match, letting out a loud primal scream before she puts her helmet on.
“My dad told me, ‘I need you to shout as loud as you can before a match to let out the nerves. I do it to let out the nerves and then I see it intimidates people,” she told “GMA,” adding that she doesn’t practice that part, “it comes out in the moment just like that.”
Zolotic is only the fourth American to reach an Olympic taekwondo final and only the second woman. The only athlete to take home the gold prior to Tokyo was Steven Lopez, who won the U.S. team’s only two previous Olympic golds.
“What a dream,” Zolotic said in an Instagram post following her win. “Making history each step of the way….. GO TEAM USA.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday reversed its mask guidance to specifically target areas of the country with the highest levels of the coronavirus and recommended that everyone in those areas, vaccinated or not, wear a mask as the delta variant continues to spread rapidly across the U.S.
The public health agency also recommended schools embrace universal masks, departing from guidance released earlier this month that suggested vaccinated students and staff were safe to go without.
“CDC recommends localities encourage universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status,” the CDC wrote in a summary of the new guidance. “Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with proper prevention strategies are in place.”
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cited new scientific data from a recent outbreak investigation, as well as data from other countries, to defend the agency’s decision to urge vaccinated people to return to wearing a mask in some parts of the country.
She said the data show the delta variant “behaves uniquely” from past strains of the virus.
The data indicate that on “rare occasions, some vaccinated people with the delta variant … may be contagious and spread the virus to others. This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations,” she said.
Last May, the CDC took the country by surprise when it announced guidance that all vaccinated Americans were safe to go without a mask indoors or in a crowd. Its guidance for schools followed that principle.
The CDC recommendations noted that individuals and schools could still opt to wear a mask even if fully vaccinated, but said the risk of illness and transmission was low.
On Tuesday, two months after the initial guidance was released, the agency told reporters that the risk of severe illness from COVID still remains low for Americans who are fully vaccinated and the vast majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are still unvaccinated.
But the delta variant, which has taken root in the U.S. over the last month and now represents 83% of all infections, is different than past mutations of the virus, the CDC said.
“In rare occasions, some vaccinated people can get delta in a breakthrough infection and may be contagious,” the CDC said.
Ahead of the CDC’s announcement, ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers asked press secretary Jen Psaki what the White House’s message is to Americans who may now rethink even getting a vaccine with these conflicting recommendations.
“We continue to be at war with a virus, an evolving pandemic,” Psaki said in response. “Our responsibility here is to always lead with the science, and always lead with the advice of health and medical experts and we’re going to continue to provide information to all of you about how to protect yourself and save your lives. We’re not saying that wearing a mask is convenient, or people feel like it, but we are telling you that that is the way to protect yourself protect your loved ones and that’s why the CDC is issuing this guidance.”
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The Kid LAROIsurprised fans with an extended version of his latest album.
At midnight on Tuesday, he released F*ck Love 3+ , which features six bonus tracks: “I Don’t Know,” “About You,” “Lonely and F***** Up,” “Situation,” “Attention” and “Best for Me.”
Just last Friday, the Australian rapper dropped F*ck Love 3, the third installment in his F*ck Love series following his July 2020 debut mixtape F*ck Love and November 2020’s F*ck Love (Savage).
LAROI also announced a pop-up show in Los Angeles that’s set to take place Tuesday night at an undisclosed location. Fans can register for free tickets and if selected, they’ll receive a text with the venue and show details.
Blake Shelton and his fellow The Voice coaches Ariana Grande, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson take to the wilderness in a humorous promo video for the show’s upcoming season.
Though the promo is packed with tons of star power, the main focus is on new judge Ariana.
The clip begins with Blake, Kelly and John gathered around a makeshift campfire as they enjoy the view of the night sky.
“Whoa, look at that amazing star over there!” Blake exclaims, with a guitar in hand. “You mean Alpha Centauri?” John questions. “No, I mean Ariana Grande,” Blake retorts.
Joining the crew at the camp site, Ariana honors the tradition of a new coach gracing the veteran coaches with a song, belting out a stellar rendition of Olivia Newton-John‘s “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” while Blake strums his acoustic guitar, and as woodland creatures — and host Carson Daly, dressed in park ranger attire — watch in awe.
“This is going to be an amazing season,” the country star remarks, adding in a voice-over, “The stars are out. Ariana Grande joins The Voice on NBC.”
The Voice season 21 premieres on NBC on September 20.
The YSL CEO showcased his love for punk rock and hip-hop music during an intimate garden performance at The Houdini Estate in Los Angeles. The Grammy-winner opens with a track where he reflects on his parents splitting up at a young age and missing his son’s birthday while on tour.
“I’m just seeking for God’s soul ’cause I know something’s missing,” Thugger admits on “Die Slow.” He followed that with “Droppin’ Jewels,” “Hate the Game,” “Tick Tock,” and a punk-rock version of the chart-topping single, “SKI,” with drummer Travis Barker, whom he called “G.O.A.T.”
Thugger’s other guitarists and drummers wore pink sweat short sets to match the rapper’s pink-hued dreadlocks. The 13-minute performance ends with the back of Young Thug’s shirt featuring the name and release date for his first solo album in two years.
Fans on Twitter were amazed by Thugger’s NPR debut, calling it one of the best Tiny Deskperformances by far. Others gave it a ranking of 12/10.
“Never knew we needed Young Thug on rock beats until now. #NPR,” one fan tweeted, while another asked, “Did @youngthug really give us one of the best NPR Tiny Desk episodes and have fire-new songs for an album we can’t get [until] later this year? Somebody give me the number to YSL. I just want to talk.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Chris Cornell Estate
Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, Metallica‘s James Hetfield and Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash are sharing their support for Road Recovery, an organization that uses music to help teens battling addiction and other at-risk youth.
Each rocker filmed a video testimonial speaking about Road Recovery’s mission and how music can help, especially during a particularly difficult time like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I get really emotional, that’s when I write lyrics,” Hetfield says in his video. “When I get in a really happy, good mood, that’s when I start writing riffs. That’s just what I do, and you’ll find your own thing.”
Other artists offering testimonials include Peter Frampton and Bad Company‘s Paul Rodgers. You can watch all the videos now via the Road Recovery YouTube channel.
