Sir Elton John, winner of The Ivors Academy Honor, poses at The 71st Ivor Novello Awards 2026 on May 21, 2026 in London, England. (Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Ivors)
Elton John got an honor that nobody has ever received before Thursday in London.
He was named the first-ever president of The Ivors Academy, a U.K. not-for-profit that works to support, empower and celebrate songwriters and composers. The Academy also hands out the Ivor Novello Awards aka the Ivors, which honor Britain and Ireland’s best songwriters.
Elton got the honor because he’s “reached the pinnacle” of his profession and is “committed to giving back by supporting the community and advancing the Academy’s mission to protect the future of music.” It’s an ambassadorial role, which will see Elton advocate for rights and recognition for music creators worldwide.
In addition to being named president, Elton was given an Ivors Academy Honour, a special award that recognizes his work in championing new and emerging talent, which he does each week through his Apple Music show, the Rocket Hour.
Accepting his awards, Elton said, “To be able to write a song, it is such a personal, wonderful thing. … We’re an amazing country that produces great songwriting. … The new music that I hear inspires me, and I can’t thank them enough for keeping me young.”
At the event on Thursday, Harry Styles was on hand to pay tribute to his musical hero, Thom Yorke of Radiohead. The late George Michael was also honored.
Tulsi Gabbard, director of National Intelligence, following a prime-time address to the nation in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is resigning from her post, a source familiar confirmed to ABC News on Friday.
The news was first reported by Fox News.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The U.S. Department Of Homeland Security logo is displayed at a Citizenship and Immigration Services office on January 16, 2026 in San Diego, CA. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration on Friday issued a sweeping policy directive requiring most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees living in the U.S. to return to their home countries to apply for and complete their green card applications.
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement. “From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Drake performs live on stage during day one of Wireless Festival 2025 at Finsbury Park on July 11, 2025, in London, England. Drake is headlining an unprecedented all three nights of Wireless Festival. (Photo by Simone Joyner/Getty Images for ABA)
Sexyy Red’s friendship with Drake earned her features on two songs across his three-album release. Speaking with Complex, she talked about working with Drake and reflected on recording “Cheetah Print,” which appeared on Maid of Honour.
“Working with Drake always fun as hell ’cause he really be in his bag,” she said. “And for real, for real, he got the best ear in music.”
She added that they “were on that ‘cha cha slide’ type timing” while making “Cheetah Print,” which quickly took off online.
“I knew it was going up when I opened TikTok and everybody was using the sound. I ain’t even expect it to blow that fast. But seeing people shake a**, make videos, and really f*** with the song like that made me happy ’cause we had so much fun making [‘Cheetah Print’],” said Sexyy, who also appeared on Drake’s HABIBTI song “Hurr Not Hurr.”
The pair first teamed up in 2023 on “Rich Babby Daddy,” which also featured SZA, before reuniting for “U My Everything” in 2024.
Sexyy has continued to publicly support Drake, most recently posting a photo of a billboard celebrating his recent album release with the caption, “GO GET MY BABY DADDY ALBUM WTF!”
Others in hip-hop have also weighed in on the project. Jack Harlow praised the albums and called Iceman his favorite. “I love when he raps,” he said to Rolling Stone. “I love when he’s melodic, too. But I love when he addresses things. He’s a writer.”
Former collaborator Rick Ross criticized the album during an appearance on the PBD Podcast, claiming people around him listened and weren’t impressed.
“This a muthaf****** who always bringing up Michael Jackson. Where the Billy Jean at? Where the Thriller? My homies actually sat there and they lost a hour for the life for this s***.”
A fuel pump at a Wawa gas station in Aston, Pennsylvania, US, on Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Gas prices stand near their highest level in four years as millions of Americans ready themselves to hit the road over Memorial Day weekend.
The national average for a gallon of gas on Friday stood at $4.55, which amounts to a roughly 42% rise from this time last year, AAA data showed. Gas prices surged in recent months as the Iran war choked off global oil supply.
Six states boast average gas prices above $5, including Washington and Alaska. California, the state with the nation’s highest gas prices, offers drivers an average gallon of $6.13, according to AAA.
Roughly 39 million people are expected to travel by car over the Memorial Day holiday, exceeding last year’s total, AAA forecasted.
“Travel demand remains strong, and despite higher fuel prices, many people are prioritizing leisure travel,” Stacey Barber, vice president of AAA travel, said in a statement.
Americans will spend about $2 billion more on gasoline over the four-day Memorial Day weekend compared to a year ago, amounting to an added cost of roughly $22 million per hour, Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, said in a post on X on Friday.
Nineteen states are expected to post record-high Memorial Day gas prices, among them Colorado, Ohio, Missouri and New Mexico, De Haan said.
Crude oil is the main ingredient in auto fuel, accounting for more than half of the price paid at the pump, according to the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Middle East conflict triggered a historic oil shortage, driving up crude prices and hiking the cost of auto fuel.
The surge in oil prices came about after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of global crude supply.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures price — a benchmark of U.S. oil prices – has soared 50% since the outbreak of war on Feb. 28.
The U.S. is a net exporter of petroleum, meaning the country produces more oil than it consumes. But since oil prices are set on a global market, U.S. prices move in response to swings in worldwide supply and demand.
Oil prices have fallen slightly this week, however, as negotiations have given rise to hope among traders about a possible resumption of normal tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
As a result, De Haan said, gasoline prices may drop over the weekend, falling to an average below $4.50 by Memorial Day.
Roughly one of every 10 low-income households is spending more than 10% of its monthly income on gas, Bank of America said in a research report shared with ABC News last month, citing internal data. For middle- and upper-income households, the share spending that much on gas drops stands at about one of every 20.
Oil prices remain well below the highs reached after some previous economic shocks. In 2022, the price of Brent crude surged above $139 per barrel in March, just weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. oil prices shot up as high as $147 a barrel.
Lola Young has premiered a new song called “From Down Here.”
The track was recorded with musician James Blake following the 2026 Grammys, during which Young won best pop solo performance for her breakout hit, “Messy.”
“The day after the Grammys, I had a wave of inspiration hit me, so I got in the studio with the incredible James Blake and made this song,” Young says in a statement. “I am rewriting the next chapter of my story because what a boring book the old one would’ve been anyway.”
You can watch the video for “From Down Here,” which finds Young standing in water with her head just above the surface, streaming on YouTube.
“From Down Here” follows Young’s 2025 album, I’m Only F****** Myself. It also marks her first new music since collapsing onstage at the 2025 All Things Go festival in New York City, after which she stepped away to look after her mental and physical health. She told Rolling Stone in an interview published in March that she’s entered treatment and has been attending AA meetings.
Phil Collins of Genesis performs at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 5, 2021 in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Phil Collins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for a second time on Nov. 14, but as of now, he doesn’t plan on taking the stage to sing any of his countless hits.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Collins says that even though he is “healthier now than I have been for quite awhile,” he still doesn’t think he’s in good enough shape for the event. “They asked me if I would perform, and I said ‘no,’ y’know, ’cause you’ve got to be match fit to do something like that,” he explains.
“Match fit” is a term usually applied to athletes: It means being in good enough shape to play a game or, as they say in the U.K., a match.
“You can’t just go onstage and — you’re gonna have to rehearse,” he continues. “And then by that point, if you’ve not been singing, your voice is gonna be shot and then that’s not gonna be good. So, I’d rather not do it.”
That doesn’t mean that Collins has given up on the idea of making music or playing live.
“But whether I would go out again, I would contemplate — yeah,” he says. “I mean, I’m constantly saying to myself, ‘I’ve gotta go back down into my studio at home.'”
“I’ve got lots of lyrical ideas that I write down. And there are things that are half-formed and a couple of things that are finished,” he adds. “So, y’know, there’s things that I can get my teeth into to start working on.”
Despite his health struggles, Collins notes, “When I look back, I’ve lived a charmed life. I’ve really enjoyed most of it — 99% of it.”
Collins is already in the Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis.
Stock image of dental chair. (Zhenjin Li/Getty Images)
(PHILADELPHIA) — Health officials in Philadelphia are recommending certain patients of a dental clinic accused of following “unsanitary practices” get tested for hepatitis and HIV due to potential exposures from April 2025 to May 2026, the city’s Department of Public Health said in a statement this week.
Officials on Wednesday identified the dental clinic in Center City Philadelphia as Smiles at Rittenhouse Square, also called Smiles on the Square, and said it is now closed due to the dentist’s temporary suspension.
James Garrow, Philadelphia’s deputy health commissioner, told ABC News the risk is believed to be low to patients at this time because they have yet to identify any associated cases of hepatitis or HIV linked to this dentist office.
“We don’t have any known reason to say that the risk will be potentially high, but the fact of the matter is, when you are in a dentist office that’s unsanitary, unsafe, the risk always exists,” Garrow said. “So that’s why we’re really pushing folks who are patients there to get tested and make sure.”
The sole dentist practicing at this office has since had their license temporarily suspended, state records show.
“On May 15, 2026, the State Board of Dentistry suspended Dr. Kirti Chopra’s professional license in Pennsylvania because her continued practice of dentistry presents a clear and immediate danger to public health and safety,” a Pennsylvania Department of State official said in a statement to ABC News.
The alleged sanitary problems in the clinic were discovered during an unannounced site visit, the suspension order, reviewed by ABC News, said.
According to the order, the dentist allegedly admitted to investigators that used injectable medication vials were occasionally set aside for reuse on other patients and IV saline bags intended for single use were reused between patients.
Investigators said they identified multiple issues with sterilization and sanitation practices during the site visit that include finding dental instruments that were not properly sterile, handled with potentially contaminated gloves, and packaged in potentially contaminated pouches.
They also reported finding dental handpieces that came into contact with blood and saliva left attached to patient equipment after use that should be sterilized between patients.
The dentist’s temporary suspension order concluded that these findings “place patients at risk for transmission of hepatitis C, hepatitis B, Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as well as outbreaks of viral, bacterial or fungal infections.”
Hepatitis viruses and HIV are spread through contact with infected blood or body fluids. Garrow said exposure at a dentist’s office is “exceedingly rare” but it is possible to get infected if exposed through contaminated dental equipment.
“The fact of the matter is, if someone who is a patient there was exposed to one of these diseases… these are potentially life-changing chronic conditions,” Garrow said.
Doctors tell ABC News potentially impacted patients may need multiple blood tests, depending on the timing of a potential exposure.
“If it’s a recent exposure it would be a minimum of two or three blood draws to establish a baseline and then follow-up testing to determine seroconversion,” Dr. George Diaz, a spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America, told ABC News.
Doctors say hepatitis B is considered one of the more transmissible bloodborne viruses in healthcare settings when sterilization procedures aren’t followed or if contaminated instruments are reused.
The hepatitis B vaccine offers the best line of protection for a person who is exposed to this virus.
“In this case, vaccination against Hepatitis B would be protective against exposures such as this,” Diaz said. “Risk is virtually zero for those that are vaccinated.”
There are no current vaccines to prevent HIV or hepatitis C. Treatment options vary for each virus, based on timing of exposure or infection.
According to Garrow, the health department is working to finalize a list of patients potentially at risk but due to the timeframe of potential exposure, he estimates that number “could be in the hundreds.”
Garrow also said that there is another dental clinic in the same building with a similar name, Rittenhouse Smiles, that is not under investigation, and they are working on messaging to minimize patient confusion.
Officials say people who are unsure about potential exposure or patients of Smiles at Rittenhouse Square should call 215-685-5488, a hotline the health department set up that is open between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
“Dr. Chopra is cooperating with the Department of Public Health and the Pennsylvania Department of State,” a lawyer representing Chopra and Smiles at Rittenhouse Square said in a statement to 6ABC Philadelphia on Wednesday. “Dr. Chopra will continue working cooperatively with public-health officials regarding patient notification, testing recommendations, and any required infection-control remediation.”
Mark Abdelmalek, MD is a medical contributor and investigative reporter for ABC News. Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a fellow of the ABC News Medical Unit.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on May 21, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump attacked outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis on Friday, calling him a “RINO” — an acronym for “Republican in Name Only” — and a “quitter” as he appeared to acknowledge the ongoing revolt among some in his own party.
“I called him a ‘Nitpicker,’ always fighting against the Republican Party, and ME, mostly on things that didn’t matter,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
“Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!!!” Trump said.
Tillis is among several Republican lawmakers to criticize aspects of Trump’s agenda, most recently the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration. The fund was created as part of a settlement agreement in President Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
Tillis slammed the fund as the “payout pot for punks.” Critics have said that those who committed violence against police, including Jan. 6 rioters, might be eligible for compensation in addition to Trump’s political allies.
“These people don’t deserve restitution, they — many of them deserve to be in prison,” Tillis said on Thursday. “Some of them deserve the pardon because they were over prosecuted, but this is, I mean, this is just stupid on stilts.”
Congressional Republicans on Thursday punted plans to advance a $70 billion immigration bill as Senate Republicans were poised to try to rein in spending for the so-called anti-weaponization fund, as well as Trump’s East Wing expansion and White House ballroom construction project.
Several Republicans who Trump has spurned have become the fund’s most outspoken critics, including Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy. Cassidy lost his primary race last week after Trump endorsed his opponent.
“People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,” Cassidy wrote on X.
Trump on Friday suggested that Tillis’ choice to not run for reelection was in some part because Trump declined to give him an endorsement.
“When I told him that I would not, under any circumstances, endorse him for another run, too much work and drama (he couldn’t have won, anyway!), he immediately quit the race and publicly announced that he was going to ‘retire.’ I said, ‘Wow, great news, that was easy!'” Trump wrote in the post.
When Tillis announced last year that he wouldn’t run for reelection, he said is a statement that it was “not a hard choice” to rule out running for a third term as he was finished with “navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington.”
Tillis was asked by reporters on Thursday what he thought of Trump going after some Republican incumbents in primary races.
“Be careful what you ask for,” Tillis responded.
In defense of the fund, which has also drawn legal challenges, Trump on Friday claimed he “gave up a lot of money” by allowing it to move forward and that he could have made an “absolute fortune” if he hadn’t made the IRS settlement.
“Instead, I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!,” Trump wrote in another social media post.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
If you’ve ever dreamed of exploring Key West with Kenny Chesney, his new music video for “Carry On” may be just about as close as you’ll come.
“Key West isn’t about who you are, but what’s in your soul,” he says of the Florida town that’s the setting for both the song’s narrative and its visual. “It’s the great equalizer, with wisdom to be found just about anywhere if you listen. I knew I wanted this video to show people that heart – beyond what tourists see – and give them a sense of what this song’s really reaching into in terms of how to live.”
The clip opens with Key West legend David Wegman delivering his take on “Carry On,” followed by a performance from Kenny centered at Schooner Wharf, the open-air bar on William Street’s Harbor Walk that’s mentioned in the song.
“If you want to understand making the most of every day, of filling your time with creativity and laughter and adventure, David Wegman is all of that, and more,” Kenny says. “When we started filming, I wanted him to be part of this, so people could see what ‘Carry On’ draws from.”
“We had the best day shooting at his place, where you never know if you’ll find painters, musicians on tour or just friends from somewhere around the world… But that’s what makes it so awesome. Open your arms and just welcome what life brings you,” he adds.
You can check out Kenny’s new “Carry On” video on YouTube now.
