Ansel Elgort attends Focus Features’ ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ New York premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage via Getty Images)
Actor Ansel Elgort is set to make his professional dancing debut in New York in November.
The West Side Story actor is set to play The Godfather in Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia, A Rock Ballet, inspired by The Who’s 1973 rock opera, which will run at New York City Center from Nov. 14-16.
“Rock n’ Roll is not dead. I think it’s having a rebirth right now, downtown NYC you can hear electric guitars squealing through bar doors as people are hungry for live music. Even better, a rock ballet!,” Elgort says in a statement. “My roots are in ballet and theatre and to be able to return to the stage in The Who’s Quadrophenia rock ballet feels like a gift from the rock gods. Well, one of them himself, Pete Townshend already wrote me a note welcoming me on board, and I’m framing it.”
Townshend adds, “I’m thrilled to welcome Ansel to Quadrophenia. The spirit of Rock n’ Roll was not just my generation. It’s every generation.”
Directed by Rob Ashford, Quadrophenia, A Rock Ballet debuted in the U.K. in May. It features an orchestral version of the album by Townshend’s wife, Rachel Fuller, recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The ballet is choreographed by Paul Roberts, with rising star Paris Fitzpatrick playing the central character, Jimmy.
The story, set in Brighton, England, in 1965, follows a young working-class mod named Jimmy on a journey of self-discovery. The album’s title was inspired by Jimmy’s four-way “split personality,” with each member of the band representing a different facet of that personality.
Tickets for Quadrophenia, A Rock Ballet are on sale now. More info can be found at nycitycenter.org.
Highly Suspect has announced a run of shows celebrating the 10th anniversary of the band’s 2015 debut album, Mister Asylum.
The outing kicks off Dec. 2 in Silver Spring, Maryland, and will conclude Dec. 14 in Nashville.
“We are just thrilled to celebrate this album with you, in its entirety, from front to back,” Highly Suspect writes in an Instagram post.
“While it’s not mandatory, we very much encourage you to dress up!” the group adds. “We will. Let’s consider this a regal event. Let’s all be elegant and wear some semi-formal attire and pop champagne.”
Tickets go on sale Friday. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit HighlySuspect.net.
Mister Asylum spawned the singles “Lydia” and “Bloodfeather.” Highly Suspect has since released four more albums, the most recent of which being 2024’s As Above, So Below.
Kevin Federline’s book ‘You Thought You Knew’ (Listenin Books)
Britney Spears’ ex-husband Kevin Federline is promoting his new memoir You Thought You Knew, and in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, he reveals a surprising detail about what happened the night before he and Britney got married in 2004.
That night, according to Kevin, he noticed Britney seemed upset. “I was like, ‘What’s wrong?’ I thought she was talking to her mom on the phone or something and maybe she was, like, having doubts,” Kevin said. “And she told me that she was on the phone with Justin [Timberlake].”
“And I just kind of stepped back, like, ‘Did I just hear you right?’ Like, what the hell is going on, you know? And I was immediately, you know, was, ‘Okay, we don’t have to do this.’ I didn’t care if we got married or not.”
Kevin said Britney explained, “I just wanted to make sure that everything is done. I want to make sure that I say my final piece.”
“I’m like, ‘Damn. On the night before our wedding, this is what you decide to do?'” Kevin continued. “You know, I kind of at the time took it with a grain of salt and took her explanation as, okay, maybe she is closing a chapter of her life.”
Kevin also told ET that he’s worried about Britney for the sake of their two sons, Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline.
“I’m absolutely, as a father, terrified that one day I might wake up and my sons are going to have to deal with the unimaginable,” he said.
A rep for Britney, reacting to earlier reports of what Kevin had written about her in his book, told People, “Once again [Kevin] and others are profiting off her and sadly it comes after child support has ended with Kevin. All she cares about are her kids … and their well-being during this sensationalism.”
A documentary all about Eddie Murphy is making its way to Netflix. The film, called Being Eddie, arrives Nov. 12. It will detail the comedian’s journey from being a cast member on Saturday Night Live right out of high school to the film career that followed. The documentary features stars Dave Chappelle, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jamie Foxx and Jerry Seinfeld telling all about the Oscar-nominated actor …
Abbott Elementary and The Parent Trap star Lisa Ann Walter is releasing her first-ever stand-up comedy special. The actress has signed a deal with Hulu for her debut hourlong comedy special, which will air in 2026. The actress shared the news to Instagram Tuesday …
Cousin Greg has his next gig. Deadline reports that Succession star Nicholas Braun has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy film The S***heads. The movie will also star Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr. and PeterDinklage. It follows a cynic and an idealist who both hit rock bottom and find the courage to face their failures …
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of humanitarian organizations have begun rapidly scaling up operations in the hopes of delivering aid to Gaza again amid the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Items in Gaza — including food, clean water, medicine and hygiene products — are running low, the organizations say. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of families have been displaced, many living in tents in extremely crowded areas.
Humanitarian aid workers told ABC News that they will face several challenges in delivering aid to Gaza. Israeli authorities have limited the amount of aid that can enter the strip, and destroyed roads and neighborhoods make it difficult to reach areas of the enclave.
Additionally, winter is fast-approaching, and aid workers say they have a limited amount of time to deliver provisions to help Palestinians in Gaza get through the cold weather months.
“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable. We’re asking for the volume of aid that entered Gaza Strip before the escalation in October 2023,” Tess Ingram, communications manager for UNICEF, told ABC News. “I think that’s something to watch for in the coming days. Does the aid flow? Are the crossings open? Is the U.N. enabled to do its job, to serve the children of Gaza?. … But the other part is, does the ceasefire hold? The stakes are really high right now, so that ceasefire has to hold.”
Lifting restrictions on aid
The U.N. said that Sunday, Oct. 12, was the first day progress was seen in the scale-up of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread bundles were distributed in the north and south, according to the U.N. Additionally, cooking gas entered the strip for the first time since March as well as tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour and medicine, the U.N. said.
However, on Monday, no trucks entered Gaza because of the transfer of Israeli hostages, and border crossings were also closed on Tuesday due to the Jewish religious holiday of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah.
Israeli officials announced on Tuesday it would not reopen the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt and would limit aid entering Gaza after Hamas failed to return all the bodies of the deceased hostages, as called for under the ceasefire agreement.
“Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 trucks — will be allowed to enter, and all of them will belong to the U.N. and humanitarian NGOs, with no private sector involvement,” COGAT, the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement. “No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.”
Hamas said the rubble makes it logistically challenging to locate the bodies of the deceased hostages, but Israel said it believes Hamas knows where the hostages’ bodies are and is purposefully delaying their return.
Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine Country Director, said the number of trucks entering Gaza is just “a trickle” of what is needed to meet the needs of the population.
“The destruction is significantly worse than compared to seven, eight months ago,” she told ABC News, compared to the first ceasefire when she was also in Gaza.
Multiple organizations, including CARE, said they have not been able to get aid into Gaza since March 2, when Israel imposed a total blockade — in an effort to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages — that lasted for 11 weeks.
The organization said their repeated requests to deliver aid have been denied by Israeli authorities. Veldwijk said supplies are currently stuck in warehouses in Egypt and in Jordan.
Similarly, James Hoobler, a humanitarian policy adviser with Oxfam America, told ABC News the group has had 4,000 food parcels and a large volume of essential water sanitation and hygiene equipment stuck in its warehouse in Amman, Jordan, since March.
Some organizations say they are also running into red tape while trying to access the strip.
“We’re running out of supplies now,” Veldwijk said of the CARE team on the ground in Gaza. “We still can’t bring anything in. … We’re desperate to get our supplies in, but we’re also sort of desperate for all the border crossings to open.”
Ingram, from UNICEF, who is currently in Gaza, said limiting the volume of aid entering the strip is the opposite of what is needed but that UNICEF has seen some success in its operations on the ground since the ceasefire went into effect.
“We are able to move far more freely, get access to areas that we haven’t been able to get to for a while,” she told ABC News. “We don’t have to coordinate our movements with the Israeli authorities anymore, which means that we’re not facing delays or denials.”
She went on, “So for example, the last three days, I was in and around Gaza City, and that was kind of the first time in a while that we were able to get into parts of Gaza City that were the focus of that intense bombardment in August and September, and really get a sense of how that has affected the area and how people are planning to resume living there, and what they need.”
Aid workers added that rebuilding sanitation networks is also necessary but will be a challenge until the supplies entering Gaza necessary increase.
“I went to a big wastewater dam in Gaza City, which is surrounded by residential area, and it’s at risk of flooding because the pumps aren’t working,” Ingram said. “Sanitation presents a massive disease risk if we don’t get on top of it. So, we need to really improve the systems that remove solid waste, that deal with sewage and wastewater.”
Clearing rubble and rebuilding roads
Destruction across Gaza also presents a logistical challenge in delivering aid to the civilian population. Many roads have been destroyed, and rubble may be hiding unexploded ordinances.
Zaheer Kham, global director of fundraising for the humanitarian charity Human Appeal, told ABC News that he received a message from teams on the ground in Gaza on Tuesday that rubble in the roads is starting to be removed.
“Is it enough? Of course not, we need heavy machinery to remove the rubble in the roads that has accumulated over two years,” he told ABC News.
Humanitarian workers told ABC News that rebuilding water networks will be critical in the rebuilding effort in Gaza, but it comes with many logistical challenges.
Aid workers said water that comes from the ground in Gaza is very salty from years of degradation. Drinking water needs to be desalinated, which is accomplished by desalination plants across Gaza, aid workers say.
“There needs to be quite a bit of work to make sure that they’re all functioning properly.” Ingram said. “There’s some that are out of service. So, there’s work that needs to go into making sure that drinking water production increases.”
The network of pipes that brought water into homes has mostly been destroyed so most people in Gaza receive their water from water trucks, which collect drinking water from desalination plants and distribute it throughout the strip.
Ingram said the trucks have gone through wear and tear, which may limit their ability to distribute water as water networks and wells are rehabilitated.
“The water trucks themselves are a limited fleet that have done two years in a war zone over rubble,” she said. “They need maintenance and repairs.”
Aid workers say there are many groundwater wells, which pump domestic water that people use for cooking, cleaning and showering, many of which need repairs.
Veldwijk said CARE has rehabilitated water networks in the past to bring drinking water and domestic water to people’s homes to complement the water supplied by trucks, but some of have been destroyed and need to be rebuilt.
She said the group is also working to rehabilitate wells as well as desalination units.
Aid workers added that rebuilding sanitation networks is also necessary but will be a challenge until the supplies entering Gaza necessary increase.
“I went to a big wastewater dam in Gaza City, which is surrounded by residential area, and it’s at risk of flooding because the pumps aren’t working,” Ingram said. “Sanitation presents a massive disease risk if we don’t get on top of it. So, we need to really improve the systems that remove solid waste, that deal with sewage and wastewater.”
Clearing rubble and rebuilding roads
Destruction across Gaza also presents a logistical challenge in delivering aid to the civilian population. Many roads have been destroyed, and rubble may be hiding unexploded ordinances.
Zaheer Kham, global director of fundraising for the humanitarian charity Human Appeal, told ABC News that he received a message from teams on the ground in Gaza on Tuesday that rubble in the roads is starting to be removed.
“Is it enough? Of course not, we need heavy machinery to remove the rubble in the roads that has accumulated over two years,” he told ABC News.
Veldwijk said the roads being destroyed make it difficult to travel from southern Gaza to central Gaza to northern Gaza and if all the border crossings are opened, supplies can more easily be funneled throughout Gaza.
Aid workers say entire sections in Gaza have been destroyed, making it difficult to find people who may be in need of aid.
“It’s like being inside the skeleton of a city,” Ingram said of visiting neighborhoods in Gaza City and Jabalia, just north of Gaza City. “Everything is gray. Things that would normally tell you where you are, are gone, and it’s very disorienting.”
On Tuesday, the U.N. Development Programme announced that the cost of rebuilding Gaza is estimated at around $70 billion, with $20 billion needed in the next three years alone.
Fast-approaching winter season
With the cold weather months approaching, humanitarian organizations say there is an urgent need to get warm clothes and blankets into Gaza.
Winters in Gaza are usually not very severe with low temperatures typically in the 40s F, but heavy rains and its seaside location can make it feel colder.
“It really is a race against time,” Hoobler, with Oxfam America, said. “Winterization is a major issue, especially with the amount of destruction to housing that we’ve seen. So, we know people are in very overcrowded conditions there. They don’t have adequate shelter. Many of the makeshift shelters that people were in were destroyed in bombings.”
Nine out of 10 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Gaza, meaning some people are sleeping in homes with missing walls or roofs while others are sleeping in tents, according to Ingram, increasing the need for mattresses, blankets and other provisions.
Ingram said that last winter, some children — including babies — died of hypothermia, which she said is preventable with the proper supplies.
She added that she is concerned that many children in Gaza have only one or two sets of clothes, many of which are not warm enough for winter months.
“Our aim is to provide every child in the Gaza Strip under the age of 10 with a new set of winter clothes during the ceasefire and a new pair of shoes,” Ingram said. “That goal is heavily dependent on the volume of aid that gets into the Gaza Strip, so we remain hopeful, but we do call on both parties to the conflict to adhere to the terms of the ceasefire.”
(NASSUA COUNTY, N.Y.) — The New York State Department of Health has confirmed a case of locally acquired chikungunya on Long Island, marking the first case of the virus reported to be locally acquired in New York and the first locally acquired case to be reported in the United States since 2019.
Laboratory testing at the department’s Wadsworth Center confirmed the case in Nassau County on Long Island, according to health officials.
“An investigation suggests that the individual likely contracted the virus following a bite from an infected mosquito,” officials said. “While the case is classified as locally acquired based on current information, the precise source of exposure is not known.”
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne disease most common in tropical and subtropical regions and symptoms include fever and joint pain, headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash, officials said.
The disease cannot be spread directly from one person to another, authorities said, and the risk to the public is low.
The illness is rarely fatal, and most patients recover within a week, though some may experience persistent joint pain, authorities continued.
“People at higher risk for severe disease include newborns infected around the time of birth, adults aged 65 and older, and individuals with chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease,” according to the New York State Department of Health.
The Aedes albopictus mosquito, which is known to transmit chikungunya, is present in parts of downstate New York and local transmission can occur when an A. albopictus mosquito bites an infected traveler, becomes infected and bites another person.
“Our Wadsworth Center has confirmed this test result, which is the first known case of locally acquired Chikungunya in New York State. Given the much colder nighttime temperatures, the current risk in New York is very low.” State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said. “We urge everyone to take simple precautions to protect themselves and their families from mosquito bites.”
In 2025, there have been three additional chikungunya cases outside New York City that were all linked to international travel to regions with active chikungunya infections, according to health officials.
“Routine mosquito testing conducted by the Department’s Wadsworth Center and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has not detected chikungunya virus in any New York mosquito samples to date,” said the New York State Department of Health.
Health officials said that all New Yorkers should take precautions to reduce the risk of mosquito bites by using EPA-registered insect repellents, wearing long sleeves, long pants and socks outdoors when possible, removing standing water around homes, such as in flowerpots, buckets and gutters, and by repairing or patching holes in window and door screens to keep mosquitoes out.
(PASS LAKE, British Columbia) — Two hikers were attacked by a grizzly bear after they encountered the mother and her two cubs on a trail in Canada, authorities said.
The incident occurred on Sunday when the unnamed hikers encountered a grizzly sow with her two cubs on Farm Cabin Trail near Pass Lake in British Columbia, Canada, according to a statement from the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service (COS).
“They were transported and treated at University Hospital of Northern BC,” officials said. “Both hikers are in stable conditions and recovering in hospital.”
Following an investigation, the COS Predator Attack Team determined the bear’s actions were defensive and that due to the location and nature of the incident, no action will be taken against the bears.
The trail has remained closed since the attack and signage has been posted warning about the potential of bears in the area as authorities are asking people to respect the closure and avoid the area.
COS officials also took the opportunity to remind people about bear safety when hiking in the wilderness and said that if you encounter a bear, you should stay alert and make noise by talking, singing or clapping regularly to avoid surprising a bear, especially when near streams, dense brush or when visibility is low.
Officials said that people should always travel in groups since bears are less likely to approach and to always carry bear spray and, if you see a bear, stay calm and don’t run, speak in a calm voice and slowly back away.
“We’re wishing them a full and speedy recovery,” COS said about the hikers recovering from the attack.
Pedro Portal/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Coast Guard says that it has seized over 50 tons of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean since launching Operation Pacific Viper in early August, averaging nearly a ton daily.
In total, 86 people suspected of narco-trafficking have been arrested as a result of 34 interdictions since early August, according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday.
“Through Operation Pacific Viper, the Coast Guard is accelerating counter-drug operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, where significant transport of illicit narcotics continues from Central and South America,” officials said.
The U.S. Coast Guard said that it has surged their assets in the region in the past two months in order to “interdict, seize and disrupt transshipments of cocaine and other bulk illicit drugs.”
Operation Pacific Viper’s ultimate goal is to counter narco-terrorism seeking to produce and traffic illicit drugs into the United States.
“The Coast Guard’s seizure of over 100,000 pounds of cocaine, in such a short timeframe, is a remarkable achievement,” said Rear Adm. Jeffrey Novak, deputy commander of U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.
“When we say the Coast Guard is accelerating counter-narcotics operations, we mean it. Alongside our partners and allies, our maritime fighting force is scouring drug smuggling routes in the Eastern Pacific and dismantling narco-terrorist networks,” Novak continued. “As we mark our interdiction of 100,000 pounds, we are already working towards the next milestone.”
The Coast Guard is the United States’ lead federal agency for maritime drug interdiction, officials said, and its more than 76,000 members “operate a multi-mission, interoperable fleet of more than 220 cutters, 185 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, 1,300 boats and its own dedicated cyber command to protect critical maritime infrastructure,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
If you look at the cover of Morgan Wallen‘s hugely successful I’m the Problem album, you might see a well-drawn picture of a country singer at the top of his game.
But that’s not what Morgan had in mind. Instead, the artwork was his way of addressing the troubles he was going through at the time.
“I was in my lawyer’s office and I just saw some like court sketches,” he explains. “And I thought it looked cool, and I thought it felt appropriate for the album title and just with everything that’s been going on in my life. I’ve never really been one to shy away from everything going on, so I thought it was a unique perspective.”
“I hadn’t seen that in an album cover before,” he continues. “And I looked it up, I couldn’t find anything on it. And I’m like, ‘Well, this is cool.’ You know, ‘This is different.’ I’m pleased with how it came about.”
The drawing let Morgan address the issues while still showing some restraint.
“You know, I didn’t use an actual picture of me in the courtroom. I didn’t want to be like completely on the nose of that, but I wanted it to kind of give a hint of that and those troubles and just things that have been going on,” he adds.
Morgan spent time at a DUI education center, paid a fine and agreed to two years of probation as part of a plea deal after he was arrested for throwing a chair from the roof of Eric Church‘s bar in April 2024.
Musically, “I Got Better” is currently at #2, as Morgan prepares to release “20 Cigarettes” as his next radio single.
