Power Book III: Raising Kanan begins its countdown to the end on Friday, when the first episode of its fifth and final season premieres on Starz. For Mekai Curtis, the final season marks the culmination of his journey bringing his title character, Kanan Stark, to life on screen.
“I’m extremely blessed that I got to take a character [through] five seasons, that I get to tell this story and represent so many different walks of life, and then so many different understandings and viewpoints and approaches to life,” Mekai tells ABC Audio. “This is something that every actor dreams of, is to have a role that has not just layers on screen, but off the screen as well.”
Over the years Mekai has helped audiences understand the origin story of Kanan, a character first introduced as an adult in the original Power, where he was portrayed by 50 Cent. However, Mekai avoided studying 50’s performance so he could deliver his own interpretation of the character.
“I kind of wanted to keep things organic, but I also didn’t want to rigidly start moving toward what that character is,” he says. “I wanted every scene, every reaction to be something that was new to Mekai and also new to Kanan.”
As the series reaches its end, Mekai says there isn’t a single moment that transforms Kanan into the man viewers met in Power. Instead, he says fans see his evolution throughout the entire show.
“I think that was the story of why Raising Kanan is a thing, is we all as people have events that we can remember that shaped how we present or move ourselves throughout the world, but it’s a culmination of all of those things … that make you who you are.”
‘Until the Sun Explodes’ album artwork. (Atlantic Records)
Sublime will release a new album called Until the Sun Explodes on Friday, marking the band’s first record in 30 years and their first with Jakob Nowell, son of late frontman Bradley Nowell. As Jakob tells Billboard, though, it may also be their last.
“Unless a child of mine wants to make another one one day, this is the last one I’m gonna make,” Jakob says.
“I think you have to know your goals, set out to achieve them, and if you do you must then create new goals,” he continues. “I love doing this and it’s truly healed me in many ways, and allowed me to grow as an entertainer and performer. But I wish to carry the flag forward in different ways now.”
That includes making music with his own Jakobs Castle project and growing his record label. Jakob also intends to keep performing with Sublime alongside original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh, and adds his feelings about making another Sublime album “could change in the future.”
“But it would be enough into the future where it would be a moot point,” Jakob says. “I’ve done what I thought was impossible and I’m very proud with the results.”
“I would want Until the Sun Explodes to feel like [an] epilogue, the victory lap, a celebration of Sublime’s history and a love letter to my father and all of his friends and the scene that raised me and touched so many people’s lives,” he continues. “After this I’d really like to pass that along and help the kids who want to do something similar.”
Rick Ross has pushed back the release date for his upcoming album, Set in Stone. It was initially scheduled to arrive on Friday, but fans noticed streaming services have changed the date to July 17. Ross is scheduled to perform in Atlanta Friday as part of his Port of Miami 20th Anniversary Black-Tie Experience Orchestra Tour. He is bringing CeeLo Green as a special guest.
Young Thug may be known for his rapping, but he’s tapping more into the melodious side of his artistry. He revealed in a video that he is working on an R&B album.
Burna Boy helped kick off the FIFA World Cup 2026 Thursday at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca stadium, performing “Dai Dai” alongside collaborator Shakira. Tyla, who teamed with Future for the “Game Time” single off the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Album, also made an appearance, treating the crowd to the South African national anthem. “DNA,” the Official FIFA World Cup 2026 Anthem, by Megan Thee Stallion, Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta and EJAE, is now available to stream.
United States Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Washington, DC Field Office Tara McLeese speaks with ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas at D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Headquarters in Washington, DC. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — As UFC fans descend on Washington, D.C., for Freedom 250 on Sunday and events surrounding it Friday and Saturday, security will also be strict, according to the top Secret Service agent for D.C.
UFC Freedom 250 has been designated a Special Event Assessment Review 1 event, like the Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby and college football games, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Entrance to the South Lawn of the White House, where the UFC Octagon has been erected, is invitation-only for some 4,000 guests. The larger crowd will be watching on The Ellipse, outside the White House grounds.
The UFC Fan Fest and Watch Party on the Ellipse is free, but tickets are required and fans will have to pass through TSA-like screening, according to Tara McLeese, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office.
Federal law prohibits flying drones in the airspace over the National Capital Region, so McLeese’s advice for fans is to “leave their drones at home.”
“We will have law enforcement drones for overwatch, but just to make it simple for the public, if they see a drone, we want them to report that,” she said.
The fight on the South Lawn and viewing on The Ellipse kick off a summer of events in the nation’s capital, many celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
“The public safety team here in the Washington, D.C., area is second to none. We have a lot of big events in D.C., and it’s very much a collaborative effort, a team effort here in D.C.,” McLeese said. The Secret Service is partnering with U.S. Park Police for security.
For the first time, the annual 4th of July fireworks display on the National Mall will be designated a National Special Security Event, with security levels on par with presidential inaugurations.The event is something Secret Service is also “very focused on,” McLeese said, adding that people attending the celebration will also have to pass through TSA-like screening.
In years past “you could just walk up and put a lawn chair and a blanket out. That will be different this year,” she said. “You won’t be able to just show up. There will be specific places, designated places to go through security before you can get on the Mall.”
The Secret Service uniformed division and agents have been involved in three shootings in the past two months — the first at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner when a gunman allegedly attempted to get through the screening area with a firearm, the second in which a man allegedly fired on a unformed officer near the Washington Monument and then days later a man allegedly opened fire on uniformed officers over Memorial Day weekend.
“I can tell you that our workforce is training every day, that we are hyper-focused on ensuring that we are ready to respond to any type of threat or attack that comes our way,” McLeese said.
Crews have suspended the search for a missing 5-year-old girl who was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California. (KABC)
(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) — A 5-year-old girl who went missing when she was swept away in the ocean in Laguna Beach, California, has been found dead, city officials said.
Her body was found Thursday morning about one-quarter mile north of where she went into the water, Laguna Beach officials said.
The girl went missing at about 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday near Treasure Island Beach, officials said. She was with her mother and a sibling near the shoreline when the three of them were swept into the ocean by powerful water conditions, the city officials said.
Bystanders ran into the ocean and were able to rescue the mother and one of her children, but the 5-year-old remained missing, officials said.
The search and recovery effort continued on Wednesday, with rescuers working “under challenging and hazardous ocean conditions, including large surf, powerful currents, and limited underwater visibility,” city officials said.
The search ended Wednesday evening after rescuers worked more than 30 hours and covered more than 90 square miles, the Coast Guard announced.
“Our deepest condolences go out to the child’s family and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time,” Capt. Stacey Crecy, commander of Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach, said in a statement. “Suspending a search is an extremely difficult decision.”
“This is one of the most heartbreaking incidents I have witnessed during my time serving this community,” Laguna Beach Mayor Mark Orgill said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the young victim’s family, friends, and all those affected by this tragic loss.”
“I am incredibly proud of the dedication and professionalism demonstrated by our Marine Safety, Fire, and Police personnel, as well as every agency that assisted in this effort,” the mayor added. “These men and women put themselves in harm’s way, entering the same dangerous ocean conditions in an attempt to bring this young girl home to her family.”
Swedish pop group Abba in London. (Photo by Angela Deane-Drummond/Evening Standard/Getty Images)
The 50th anniversary of ABBA’s iconic track “Dancing Queen” will be marked with the release of two new vinyl variants.
The single, remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, will be reissued on 10-inch black vinyl and 10-inch sparkling vinyl on Aug. 13. The song “La Reina Del Baile” is featured on the B-side.
Originally released in August 1976, “Dancing Queen” was the lead single off the Swedish band’s fourth studio album, Arrival. A huge hit across the world, the song became ABBA’s only #1 hit in the U.S. and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.
The video for the track, which reached 1 billion views on YouTube in June 2025, was directed by Lasse Hallström, who went on to direct such films as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Cider HouseRules and Chocolat.
The U.S. Capitol on November 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Eric Lee/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The House and Senate on Thursday failed to pass last-minute, short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire on Friday.
The House failed to pass a three-week extension of the spy program in a 198-218 vote, well short of the two-thirds majority needed. Nineteen House Republicans voted against the bill. Seven House Democrats voted in favor of it.
In the Senate, three separate efforts to unanimously pass short-term extensions of FISA authorities also failed.
The House and Senate are expected to now leave town as it grows increasingly likely that FISA’s legal authorization will lapse for the first time in the program’s history.
Efforts on Capitol Hill to renew FISA stalled after President Donald Trump tapped Bill Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence. Democrats in the House and Senate are opposed to Pulte, arguing the director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency does not have any national intelligence experience.
Pulte is also known in the Trump administration for launching probes into several of the president’s perceived political enemies over allegations of mortgage fraud and possible misuse of authority. Targets of the investigations include Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, New York Attorney GeneralLetitia James, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. They’ve all denied wrongdoing.
“Today, we just offered a simple, clean, three-week extension of the FISA national security law. The Democrats, 199 of them, voted against a clean, three-week extension for political purposes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the failed vote. “And when the bill went down, they applauded it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune led an effort to extend the program for one singular week until Pulte is installed to replace Tulsi Gabbard, who announced last month she was stepping down from the post.
“This is a program that saves American lives. And I have to ask the question: I can’t for the life of me figure out why the Democrats continue to support policies that make this country less safe,” Thune said.
House Minority Hakeem Jeffries called Thursday’s vote a “show vote” from Republicans.
“Bill Pulte has no national security experience, no law enforcement experience and no military experience,” Jeffries said. “So, it is highly irresponsible to try to elevate Bill Pulte, as we’ve made publicly clear repeatedly to Republicans and to the administration.”
Speaker Johnson met with Trump twice this week to try to hammer out a FISA deal.
Trump on Wednesday repeated his praise for Pulte, who will take over as intelligence chief for Tulsi Gabbard following her resignation, despite the challenges his temporary appointment presented for FISA.
“He’s going to do a good job,” Trump told reporters. “He’s going to be there for a very short period of time. He will be superseded and replaced by somebody that’s going to have the job permanently.”
Trump on Thursday afternoon, after the FISA votes failed on Capitol Hill, announced a new permanent pick for director of national intelligence: Jay Clayton.
Jay Clayton, US attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), during the Bloomberg Global Credit Forum in New York, US, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. The event gathers some of the industry’s most influential voices to explore where debt markets go from here. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced on Thursday a permanent pick to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, after the uproar over his temporary pick risked derailing the renewal of a key surveillance law.
Trump said that he is nominating the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton to head the intelligence agency.
“I encourage the United States Senate to confirm Jay as soon as possible,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
The reauthorization of the spy program was muddied by Trump’s choice of Bill Pulte to serve as acting director after Tulsi Gabbard announced her resignation. Pulte drew bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill over his lack of previous experience in national security and intelligence.
ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump on Thursday about Pulte continuing to serve as acting director given his lack of intelligence experience.
“He’s only there for a little while. He’s running it for a short while we get a very talented person, Jay Clayton, in,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Apart from the national security cases he oversaw while serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Clayton also lacks experience in intelligence gathering and national security matters.
Clayton spent the bulk of his career as a corporate attorney, and prior to his appointment as U.S. attorney last year, lacked meaningful experience in criminal matters.
He has spent the last year overseeing one of the country’s highest profile federal prosecutor’s offices — focusing on drugs, gangs, immigration and fraud cases — and was also tapped to lead an investigation that Trump directly called for into high-profile Democrats such Bill Clinton, Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman’s alleged associations with Epstein. Nothing appears to have resulted from that investigation, and earlier this year acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department did not have any active cases into Epstein associates.
Clayton also oversaw the unsealing of grand jury materials related to Epstein, prompting complaints from victims about the disclosure of their sensitive personal information. The Justice Department’s push to unseal those materials resulted in little new information about the investigations into Epstein and was criticized by judges as a largely performative effort while the DOJ refused to release their own materials.
Clayton’s office has brought the first two prosecutions of insider trading on prediction markets, including cases against a special forces soldier and Google employee, putting his office at the center of the debate about how to govern the sites that critics say are rife with insider trading.
Clayton was never confirmed by the Senate as U.S. attorney, though his nomination was approved by the federal judges in the district and was seen by many as a steady hand to lead the high-profile office. He was, however, the subject of criticism earlier this week when he appeared on CNBC and opined about baseless claims of election fraud in California.
“There’s a great phrase, ‘opportunity for fraud,'” Clayton said, criticizing the state’s mail-in voting laws.
Clayton spent most of his career at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where he represented hedge funds, wealthy investors, large banks and massive corporations such as Deutsche Bank, UBS and Alibaba Group. Clayton represented Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis and Barclays when it purchased Lehman Brothers’ assets out of bankruptcy.
During Trump’s first administration, Clayton led the SEC, cracking down on cryptocurrencies and winning $14 billion in monetary remedies, including returning $3.5 billion to investors. While he championed the “long-term interests of the Main Street investor,” Clayton also pushed deregulations — such as removing the requirement that hedge funds publish stock positions and loosening the rules for corporate auditors — that critics said weakened investor protections.
While Clayton generally avoided the political spotlight while at the SEC, a June 2020 proposal to nominate Clayton to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York briefly resulted in political turmoil. The sitting U.S. attorney, Geoffrey Berman, refused to leave his post after then-Attorney General Bill Barr announced he would be replaced by Clayton. The standoff was resolved with Berman’s deputy taking over the position, and Clayton continued to lead the SEC.
Paul Anthony Kelly at the Disney Upfront on May 12, 2026. (Disney/David Russell)
Paul Anthony Kelly is making the leap from romantic drama to psychological thriller.
The actor, known for playing John F. Kennedy Jr. in the hit FX series Love Story, will star in The Housemaid’s Secret, Lionsgate announced Thursday.
The upcoming film is a sequel to The Housemaid, which was released in 2025.
Kelly will star as Douglas in the sequel alongside Sydney Sweeney, who reprises her role as Millie. Michele Morrone, who also starred in The Housemaid, will reprise his role as Enzo, according to Lionsgate.
Kirsten Dunst will also star in the film, with Paul Feig returning to direct the project.
According to a synopsis from Lionsgate, The Housemaid’s Secret will see Millie “taking a job keeping house for a woman she’s never allowed to see — only to discover the truth behind the locked door that threatens to expose secrets far darker than her own.”
The Housemaid and The Housemaid’s Secret are based on the New York Times bestselling novels of the same name by Freida McFadden.
McFadden’s most recent Housemaid novel, The Housemaid Is Watching, was published in June 2024.
Lionsgate added in a press release that while The Housemaid’s Secret enters production later this year, “the studio anticipates adapting even more of McFadden’s beloved thrillers from the world of The Housemaid in the years ahead.”
Kelly was also recently announced as the newest cast member for the 13th installment of American Horror Story, premiering later this fall on FX and Hulu.
The Housemaid’s Secret will be released on Dec. 17, 2027.
The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of FX, ABC News and Good Morning America.
Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, and Bill Berry of R.E.M. attend the 2024 Songwriters Hall Of Fame Induction and Awards Gala at New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on June 13, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Joy Malone/Getty Images)
R.E.M. fans now have a new website to share personal stories about how the band and their music has affected their lives.
According to a post on the band’s social media, the site, R.E.M. Stories, is “dedicated to collecting and preserving personal stories about R.E.M. and the ways the band’s music has intersected with people’s lives for more than four decades.”
The fan-driven project, created by Justin Bass, will feature all sorts of stories — as the website says, “Some are funny. Some are profound. All are true. Together they form an oral history of what the band and its music have meant to people.”
There are currently three stories live on the site, with new ones planned for the 1st and 15th of every month.
Fans can submit their stories about R.E.M. and check out other fans’ stories at remstories.net.
