A view of the highest mountain peak in North America. (Lance King/Getty Images)
(DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Ala.) — A search and rescue mission is underway after four people fell while climbing Mount McKinley at 18,200 feet, according to the National Park Service.
Mount McKinley — located in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve — is the tallest peak in North America, according to the NPS.
The climbers, part of a seven-member climbing team, fell in the vicinity of Denali Pass, according to the NPS.
The NPS received a report of the incident at around midnight Thursday after two other climbers were evacuated by helicopter from the mountain at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, as part of a separate incident, the NPS said.
Three members of the climbing team returned to High Camp at 17,000 feet after attending to their fallen partners, the NPS said.
The NPS said it is actively responding to the incident. Weather conditions on the mountain are improving and will soon enable helicopter operations, the NPS said.
The extent of the climbers’ injuries and their condition remains unknown, the NPS said.
Bret Michaels performs onstage during the 2019 Stagecoach Festival at Empire Polo Field on April 26, 2019 in Indio, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Stagecoach)
Bret Michaels will no longer be playing the Freedom 250 Great American State Fair.
“When this opportunity was originally presented to my team, it was described as a celebration of our country through music and a chance to honor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life,” the Poison frontman writes in an Instagram post. “As the son of a veteran, and coming from a family that has proudly served, that is something I have always been honored to support.”
Michaels says that he’s “spent my entire career bringing people together through music, positivity and good vibes,” and that his concerts have “never been about politics.”
“Unfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of,” Michaels writes. “Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable.”
He continues, “Because of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance.”
The Great American State Fair, which was announced Wednesday, is set to take place June 25 through July 10 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Several other announced artists have also dropped off the bill, including Morris Day and the Time, Martina McBride, The Commodores and Young MC.
A Virginia State Police car. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(STAFFORD COUNTY, Va.) — Five people were killed and 34 were injured in a massive crash between a bus and six vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday morning, according to state authorities.
The accident unfolded at about 2:35 a.m. on I-95 south in Stafford County, about 45 miles south of Washington, D.C., the Virginia State Police said.
As traffic slowed for a work zone, a bus did not slow down and struck six vehicles, killing five people in the cars, police said.
Thirty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said.
The crash initially closed all lanes of I-95, Virginia’s Department of Transportation said, causing massive delays for the Friday commute. Northbound lanes have since reopened.
Charges are pending, police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Stock image of court gavel. (STOCK IMAGE/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — An immigration law attorney whose career has spanned over two decades said he has never experienced a hearing like the one he had in Annandale, Virginia.
“Normally, these master calendars will have 10 people, maybe sometimes 15, but usually in that range. The judge opened the hearing and said well, we have 100 cases on today’s docket,” attorney Joseph M. Perez told ABC News.
Master calendar hearings are when immigrants in deportation proceedings first appear before a judge and are informed of their rights and the charges they may be facing. It’s a crucial first step in deportation proceedings that can occur on an individual basis or in groups of a few people.
But in recent weeks, attorneys like Perez said they are seeing as many as 100 people slotted for the same time with little to no notice in advance, prompting them to call these hearings “mega masters,” which they say could be a new tactic by the Trump administration aimed at deporting as many people as quickly as possible.
Multiple attorneys told ABC News that, in some cases, scheduled master calendar hearings are being abruptly canceled and consolidated into larger proceedings.
On Monday, attorney Briana Carlson represented a client in Virginia at one of the hearings and the judge announced she had 80 cases on the docket, she said. Her client’s hearing had originally been scheduled for July.
“He was scheduled for a hearing in July, which we knew about, but we were preparing an application for relief, and so my paralegal happened to check the portal for that relief, and that’s when she found the new hearing date that had been advanced to today, which no one received notice of,” she said.
Carlson said that when she reached out to an immigration court in Sterling, Virginia, for a different case that had also been rescheduled, a clerk notified her that the court had received a nationwide directive to advance master calendar hearings if they’re scheduled in July or later.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Department of Justice that oversees immigration courts, did not deny the existence of the directive, and in part, said the agency “prioritizes the timely completion of all cases.”
“Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible. As it continues to add new immigration judges, EOIR will continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
NPR was first to report on the so-called “mega masters” hearings.
Reports of the massive hearings across the country have prompted the American Immigration Lawyers Association to issue guidance to lawyers, urging them to constantly check their online calendars to see if their cases have been rescheduled.
Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, Practice and Policy Counsel at AILA, says there’s growing concern that the Trump administration is placing individuals who do not have attorneys in these consolidated hearings in an attempt to force them to miss a hearing, which can automatically trigger a final order of removal.
“The goal is for people that are not showing up, they’re going to get an in absentia removal order, and that is going to help the court kind of clear their backlog, as we know, is one of the main goals of this administration,” Dojaquez-Torres said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed a rule that, if approved, would increase the fee for migrants ordered removed in absentia from $5,130 to $18,000. Critics of the fee increase say it’s an attempt to force undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
In the notice announcing the proposed rule, the administration said the fee is meant to help reimburse ICE for the costs of immigration enforcement.
Perez said that the shift to larger master calendar hearings is shortsighted.
“They want to accelerate things, but there’s also existing scheduling orders. Scheduling orders are issued by every court; they lay out how the case is going to proceed, what days you have to send the documents for. They’re advancing these cases to a date upon which you do not have enough time to comply with the scheduling order, so they really haven’t thought about the whole thing here,” he said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with ABC News, Apr. 25, 2025. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — After a tumultuous year at the Department of Justice largely defined by her controversial handling of the Epstein files, former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to participate in a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
The second Trump cabinet official to testify behind closed doors as part of the Oversight Committee’s yearlong Epstein probe, Bondi is expected to face questions about reneging on her promise to publicly release the DOJ’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which ultimately prompted Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act forcing the release of millions of documents.
Trump removed Bondi as attorney general in April after sources said he grew frustrated with her handling of the Epstein files and the unsuccessful prosecutions of his perceived political opponents.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on social media announcing her departure. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Earlier this week, Axios reported that Trump had appointed Bondi to serve on an advisory panel on AI policy, tasked with coordinating cooperation between the government and tech leaders.
In an unusual arrangement, a DOJ spokesperson said that Bondi will be accompanied during Friday’s transcribed interview by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and other DOJ personnel, in order to “assist the Committee in understanding the Department’s role in implementing and complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act during her tenure.”
“Because former Attorney General Bondi oversaw the Department at the time the Act was enacted and carried out, DOJ’s presence is solely to ensure accurate representation of Department processes, facilitate any necessary clarifications, and support a complete factual record for the Committee,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.
The DOJ originally sought to have Bondi avoid appearing by arguing that the subpoena the committee issued “no longer obligates her to appear” since she left the role of attorney general. Bondi ultimately agreed to testify voluntarily after the top Democrat on the committee introduced a resolution to hold her in contempt for failing to appear.
Shortly after beginning her tenure as attorney general last year, Bondi faced immediate pressure from Trump’s MAGA followers and others to begin releasing the DOJ’s files from its investigations of Epstein and his associates. Speaking to Fox News in February 2025, Bondi said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review” and said the release of the files was a “directive by President Trump.”
However, when the DOJ released the “first phase” of the Epstein files that month — inviting, with great fanfare, conservative influencers to receive the files — it was determined that nearly every document released was already public. By July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a joint memo that no further documents would be released, citing victim privacy and the assertion that the documents warranted no further investigations — a decision that sparked backlash from much of the MAGA base.
“To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
Bondi later defended her statement about Epstein’s client list by clarifying she was referring to the Epstein files generally along with other files released by the Trump administration, including documents related to JFK and MLK Jr. The DOJ/FBI memo also said that their review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list'” and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
Despite the memo stating that no further investigation was warranted, Trump in November ordered Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats. At the time, Bondi said the DOJ would “pursue this with urgency and integrity” and assigned the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
The Justice Department’s subsequent release of Epstein files following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act prompted bipartisan criticism when the DOJ improperly redacted files — both exposing victim identities while concealing other information — and declined to release millions of additional files by claiming they were duplicative, privileged or contained sensitive victim information.
Bondi’s deputy and successor, now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, acknowledged the release of sensitive victim information was “horrible” and “inexcusable.”
He said the DOJ is finished investigating Epstein.
“And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said in April.
The animated film Hoppers has set its Disney+ release date. Pixar’s latest feature will be available on the streaming service starting on June 3. The movie follows a young woman named Mabel who uses groundbreaking technology to put her consciousness inside of a lifelike robotic beaver. She then uncovers a hidden animal world and the rules that shape it …
See Oscar Isaac star in the new trailer for In the Hand of Dante. The Netflix film features a star-studded cast. Along with Isaac, it includes Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Sabrina Impacciatore, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino and Jason Momoa. Julian Schnabel directed the film, which arrives to the streaming service on June 24 …
The upcoming Rambo prequel now has a release date. Lionsgate is set to releaseJohn Rambo in theaters on June 4, 2027. The film is an origin story that takes place before the events of the 1982 film First Blood. Noah Centineo stars as the titular United States Army Special Forces veteran, taking over the role from Sylvester Stallone …
(NEW YORK) — Tucker Wetmore’s career momentum continues to intensify, as his third single becomes his third #1 on the Mediabase chart: “Brunette” is sitting atop the radio ranking, following “3,2,1” and “Wind Up Missin’ You.”
“Brunette” also becomes his first #1 on the comparable Billboard Country Airplay tally.
His mom surprised him with the news he’d won the Academy of Country Music’s new male artist of the year trophy while he was in London on April 30, a revelation significant enough to trigger his disbelief.
“Overwhelmed, excited — I don’t think this is real,” he summed it up, following the May 17 ACMs in Las Vegas. “If I wake up tomorrow and it’s all fake, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“I’m just blessed, honestly,” he added. “It’s all God. It’s all it is, is God and his blessing towards me. So, I’m just happy to be a vessel to enjoy it, you know?”
What’s next? For now, Tucker’s on HARDY’s COUNTRY! COUNTRY! Tour, before he plays the main stage during CMA Fest at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on June 4.
He’ll kick off the second leg of The Brunette World Tour later this summer.
Corinne Bailey Rae launches a tour Friday in celebration of the 20th anniversary of her 2006 self-titled debut album, which spawned the hit “Put Your Records On” and earned her four Grammy nominations. As Corinne told ABC Audio, she wanted to mark the milestone because that album everything for her.
“Going from playing in a bar to a hundred people to sort of getting a phone call from Stevie Wonder, or Prince coming to our show, or Elton John sending me champagne,” she recalls. “Those things — really that song in particular, ‘Put Your Records On’ — and the popularity of that record, it really changed my life and my work.”
“And so I knew the anniversary was coming but I wanted to do something special for it,” she adds.
As for the set list, Corrine says she plans to play the album in its entirety, adding, “We’ll maybe do like a catch-up on the end, and I’ll probably say, ‘If you have to leave for your babysitter, that’s fine. But we’re also gonna play a what you might have missed kind of thing.'”
Some parents, however, won’t have to worry about babysitters because they’re bringing their children along. According to Corrine, “Put Your Records On” has found a whole new generation of listeners.
“I’m so grateful for that,” she says, adding that she’s “so moved” that there are 7- and 9-year olds in the audience even if they don’t always make it through the whole show.
“You definitely have a lot of lovely sweet kids on the front row who are just nodding off by the time you get to ‘Put Your Records On,'” she says. “And their mum’s, like, poking them: ‘This is why you came!’ And sometimes they wake up and sometimes they don’t.”
Artwork for Wyclef Jean’s ‘Mr. October’ featuring G Herbo (Megaforce and The Orchard)
Mr. “Gone Till November” is now “Mr. October,” according to his new song. Wyclef Jean has released the lead single to his upcoming album, Clef Notes. The track features G Herbo and finds Clef returning to his hip-hop roots, a genre that once served as a means of survival for him.
“G Herbo represents the voice of a generation. We’re living in an era where we must amplify reform over violence and believe in the possibility of a better future for underserved communities,” Wyclef said in a statement.
In his own statement, G Herbo reflected on collaborating with one of his longtime inspirations.
“Working with Wyclef who I call ‘Unk’ now inspired me to focus on delivery. I can’t just get on a song with him and not focus on bars and punch lines,” he said. “It’s always been a dream of mine to work with him, and now we’re on song # 2, so I must be doing something right.”
Wyclef previously appeared on G Herbo’s “Emergency,” which reworked his song with Mary J. Blige, “911.”
“Mr. October” is the first of seven tracks on the hip-hop-focused Clef Notes, which kicks off Wyclef’s ambitious Quantum Leap series. Over the next year, he plans to release a total of seven albums with seven tracks each, with every project centered on a different genre that helped shape him as an artist.
“Mr. October” is now available on streaming services.
