‘Normal Isn’t’ album artwork. (Puscifer Entertainment/Alchemy Recordings/BMG)
With Pusicifer‘s new album, Normal Isn’t, Maynard James Keenan and company did what they always do, which is to say that they did something completely different.
“The challenge that we’ve placed in front of ourselves … is to do something different than the last album,” Keenan tells ABC Audio. “Not just for the sake of being different, just literally as a challenge to just kinda figure out how we can push ourselves.”
One way Puscifer changed up their approach on Normal Isn’t was with Keenan and bandmate Mat Mitchell‘s songwriting process.
“Normally, Mat’s presenting things and I’m reacting,” Keenan explains. “So a few of the songs, we kinda flipped it around where I’m handing him things. So for him, that was his new challenge, interpreting what my ideas were and coming back with something that made it better.”
Normal Isn’t certainly has a distinct feel compared to Puscifer’s last record, 2020’s Existential Reckoning. If Existential Reckoning was the soundtrack to a hedonistic dance party during the apocalypse, the world has fully ended on Normal Isn’t and explores the consequences of that new reality.
“I would say the last one was far more cinematic, trying to widen your perspective on what you’re seeing, what you’re looking at, how you’re gonna navigate it,” Keenan says. “And then this one is definitely Mad Max. We’re scrambling for gasoline.”
One thing that Normal Isn’t is not is subtle. Take the song “Self Evident,” which Keenan opens with the lyric “You’re an idiot.”
“At some point, you just have to say it,” Keenan says. “Trying to dress it up and kinda beat around the bush, so to speak it, isn’t working, so f*** it. You’re a dumba**.”
Normal Isn’t is out now. Puscifer will launch a U.S. tour in March.
Guitarist Vivian Campbell, bass guitarist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen, singer Joe Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen of Def Leppard perform during their Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on February 03, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Live Nation Las Vegas)
Def Leppard performed their new song “Rejoice” live for the first time during the opening night of their Las Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and now they’re giving fans a look at what it took to get it to the stage.
The band has released a behind-the-scenes look at their rehearsals of the residency, particularly their work on “Rejoice.” Phil Collen says of the track, “It’s fun, it’s a rock song.”
He says that frontman Joe Elliott came to him and said he had lyrics about “finding yourself and coming to terms with yourself and actually enjoying who you are, kind of happy and rejoice and triumphant and all that stuff,” and asked him if he had any kind of mid-tempo music to go with it. Collen says he actually had “this thing sitting around for ages,” which they were able to turn into the song.
The video was shot during early rehearsals for the residency, and Vivian Campbell says getting the song right wasn’t necessarily easy.
“Like anything new, it’s a bit of a challenge, some songs more than others,” he says. He notes that with “Rejoice” the issue was getting the vocals and the guitar riffs to sound right together, calling the vocals “pretty relentless.”
Campbell adds that while it was only day three of rehearsals, “I think we’ve got it. It’s starting to come together.”
Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency runs through Feb. 28, with their next show on Saturday. A complete list of dates can be found at DefLeppard.com.
A savvy scammer meets a surgeon with a sick sense of morality in the new horror movie Twisted. Lauren LaVera stars as a scam artist who tangles with a neurosurgeon played by Djimon Hounsou.
LaVera, best known for her role in the ultra-bloody Terrifier franchise, is no stranger to the horror genre.
“I don’t know what it is about me that directors want to just throw all the blood on me,” LaVera told ABC Audio.
LaVera’s first major role in the industry came on the set of the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split, where she played a body double for Anya Taylor-Joy.
“I was terrified, because I love M. Night Shyamalan,” LaVera said.
She said The Sixth Sense director would often bring her behind the camera to observe the directing process.
“Seeing that kind of passion for this art form really influenced me,” LaVera said. “I saw that you can be this kind person and this incredible artist at the same time.”
In Twisted, LaVera tackles a morally complex character in Paloma, a grifter who attempts to sell rented properties to unsuspecting buyers — until she crosses Hounsou’s Dr. Robert Kezian, who’s on a mission to bring his dead wife back from the grave.
LaVera said Paloma isn’t so different from her Terrifier character, Sienna.
“If we’re using these two women on opposite ends of the moral spectrum — they just had different upbringings. And it’s kind of like that nature versus nurture.”
Another similarity between Terrifier and Twisted is an emphasis on practical horror effects.
“It’s like assisted acting,” said LaVera. “When you have practicals, you can literally see what’s happening in the scene, and that will help influence your reaction to that.”
But it is still gross, she said: “I do not like being covered in blood. Especially when it’s sticky.”
Lily Cornell Silver at 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. (Disney/Cristian Lopez)
Lily Cornell Silver, the eldest daughter of the late Chris Cornell, has launched a band called Josie on the Rocks.
Lily says in an Instagram post that she actually started the band, which she sings in, five years ago. She writes, “Being in this band was the happiest part of my life.”
“I never really shared about it publicly because it made me so happy that I was honestly terrified to taint it with any public expectation or scrutiny,” Lily writes. “Playing with these boys pulled me out of an awful place and gave me a sense of purpose I’d never felt before.”
As Lily was getting closer to being comfortable with releasing music, the band’s drummer, Graham Derzon-Supplee, passed away.
“Then Graham died, and it seemed like the most senseless thing in the world,” Lily says. “It hasn’t really been until the last year that the three of us have talked seriously about releasing songs so that this part of Graham could live on.”
Now, Josie and the Rocks are officially making their debut with the songs “Not You” and “Super Sonic.” “Not You” is accompanied by a video, which you can watch on YouTube.
Chris shared Lily with his first wife, Susan Silver. He had two kids with his second wife, Vicky Cornell, daughter Toni Cornell and son Christopher Cornell.
Lily introduced Soundgarden’s performance at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
A Conversation With Brandy: Phases Book Tour art (Courtesy of Live Nation Urban)
After traveling across the U.S. for the Boy is Mine Tour, Brandy is hitting the road again — this time for a different kind of tour. The singer has announced A Conversation With Brandy: Phases Book Tour in support of her upcoming memoir, Phases: A Memoir. The book is described as“a raw, intimate portrait of her life, charting her growth to stardom from Mississippi churches to Hollywood spotlights.”
Brandy has scheduled two stops: She’ll discuss the memoir on March 29 at The Montalbán in Los Angeles and on April 1 at New York’s Brooklyn Paramount, reflecting on the highs and lows of her life and career.
“LA & NYC. I’m bringing my Phases book tour to you,” Brandy wrote on Instagram. “We all grow through seasons of becoming. Join me as I open my heart and share what each one taught me.”
Tickets are currently available for presale and go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time. Each purchase includes a copy of Brandy’s memoir.
Bitcoin signage on the exhibition floor during the Plan B Forum Bitcoin conference in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. The conference brings together world leaders, technologists, and entrepreneurs to discuss nation-state Bitcoin adoption, economics, financial freedom, and freedom of speech. (Photographer: Camilo Freedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The price of bitcoin plunged more than 10% on Thursday, sinking the world’s largest cryptocurrency to its lowest level since October 2024 and erasing sizable gains made since then.
That was weeks before the election of President Donald Trump, a crypto supporter whose return to the nation’s highest office helped propel bitcoin to record highs.
Bitcoin clocked in at a price of about $66,100 on Thursday afternoon, leaving it 48% below an all-time high of about $126,210 attained just four months earlier, in October 2025.
The decline of bitcoin deepened a days-long stretch of sharp losses stretching back to last week.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also extended recent losses, shedding about 10% of its value on Thursday. Solana, another popular crypto coin, saw its price dip 11%.
Experts who previously spoke to ABC News attributed the recent decline in crypto prices to looming geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which has prompted a momentum-driven selloff as crypto holders raced to the exits. The initial drop likely forced some leveraged buyers to sell off their positions, intensifying the downward pressure, they added.
The labor market has slowed in recent months, while inflation has hovered above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
Meanwhile, geopolitical conflict looms amid negotiations over Greenland, U.S.-backed leadership in Venezuela, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as escalating U.S. threats against Iran over the past few weeks.
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened tariffs against Canada, South Korea and eight European countries, invoking the tool as means of exerting pressure over a range of foreign-policy issues.
The current market for crypto is a far cry from the boom enjoyed by the sector in the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election.
Bitcoin climbed more than 40% over the weeks after Election Day, when voters opted for Trump, who had previously vowed to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”
On the campaign trail, Trump also vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump also promised to establish the federal government’s first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Bitcoin has proven highly volatile since its launch about 15 years ago
As recently as 2022, bitcoin suffered a downturn that cut its value by more than 60%. A similar drop happened in each of the prior two years, when the pandemic helped trigger waves of buying and selling.
Despite its ups and downs, bitcoin has sustained an upward long-term trajectory. Over the past five years, the price has climbed 63%. Over that period, the S&P 500 has increased 75%.
Boats descend lower into a desert canyon at Antelope Point Marina, requiring construction of alternative boat ramps, as Lake Powell continues to shrink on September 3, 2022, near Page, Arizona. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — It has been a tale of two winters on the opposing U.S. coasts this season.
While the East has been slammed with frigid temperatures and punishing winter storms, the West is experiencing a snow drought amid warmer-than-normal temperatures.
Prolonged drought across much of the West has been worsened this winter by below‑average snowfall and persistent warmth, fueling a widespread and intensifying snow drought. With sharply reduced mountain snowpack, the region’s water supplies and winter tourism are facing mounting challenges, experts told ABC News.
“This winter, we’ve just had an extreme lack of storm activity, and the storms that we have had have either brought very small amounts of snowfall or have brought rain,” Jon Meyer, assistant Utah state climatologist, told ABC News.
Warm temperatures have prevented snow from accumulating
Much of the western United States entered winter already grappling with a lack of rain. Widespread moderate to severe drought conditions stretched from New Mexico to Washington, including much of the Colorado River Basin, leaving soil moisture low and reservoir levels depleted heading into the season.
More than one-third of the West is currently facing some form of drought condition, with much of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico experiencing a moderate drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Mitigation Center’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Utah is facing the worst drought conditions among western states, with more than 94% of the state experiencing what the USDM categorizes as a Moderate Drought and more than 40% of the state experiencing Severe Drought.
Salt Lake City has only received a tenth of an inch of snow so far this season – the lowest to date since records began in 1874, according to the National Weather Service. Their lowest seasonal snowfall was 14.3 inches during the winter of 1933-34. By comparison, parts of the Southeast, which typically don’t see much snowfall, have seen more snow than Salt Lake City this season.
“Just totally uncharted territory for the amount of low-elevation and mid-elevation snowfall Utah has seen, and that’s a pattern that’s played out across much of the Western U.S.,” Meyer said.
While many western states received average or above-average precipitation in the fall and early winter, warmer temperatures caused much of it to fall as rain rather than snow, leading to unusually low snowpack and a rapidly developing snow drought.
“If you look at most of the West, it’s at or above average, with regards to precipitation to date,” Eric Sproles, an associate professor of earth sciences at Montana State University, told ABC News. “But if you look at the the amount of water that’s stored in the snow pack is, it’s pretty bleak.”
Meteorological winter, which begins in the U.S. on December 1, kicked off with record warmth across much of the West. December 2025 was the warmest December on record for cities including Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Portland, Oregon and Boise, Idaho, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Nine western states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming – recorded their warmest December on record. For the winter season to date, Colorado is currently experiencing its warmest winter since 1934, while Utah is experiencing its warmest winter on record, according to NOAA.
The snow drought is threatening water supplies
Drought on its own already stresses water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems. But when winter fails to deliver significant mountain snow, the resulting snow drought – a period of abnormally little snowpack for the time of year – can intensify those impacts, according to NOAA.
The snowpack typically acts as a natural water reservoir. However, without an adequate snowpack to slowly release water through the spring and summer snow melt, rivers run lower, soils dry out earlier, and drought conditions can deepen and linger.
Melting snow provides a slow release of the water into reservoirs and dams but also recharges ground water as well, Sproles said: “That slow, steady release is important. The snowpack is kind of like a savings account.”
In Utah, the snow water equivalent – meaning how much water is in the snowpack – is currently at only 55% of its median, which is the lowest snow water equivalent to date. Moreover, only a quarter of the state has seen a ground snow cover depth of at least 1 inch.
Colorado and Oregon are also reporting their lowest snow water equivalents to date, with Montana approaching its lowest snow water equivalent to date.
In much of the West, snowmelt provides a large percentage of the water used by communities, agriculture, and ecosystems; in some states, up to about 75 percent of the water supply can come from melting snow, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As such, the snow water equivalent is a vital measure of the region’s water resources.
According to NOAA, a persistent snow drought can trigger a cascade of hydrologic changes. Low snowpack and early snowmelt can affect vegetation, reduce surface and subsurface water storage and alter streamflow, all of which directly impact water management and planning across the West.
While soil moisture in not currently a concern, it could dry out over the next couple of months, according to Meyer.
“We’ve become critically reliant on soil moisture observations for drought monitoring and predictions,” Meyer said.
The reservoirs along the Colorado River are especially threatened, the experts said. Major reservoirs in the Colorado River Basin remain well below average, according to latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). As of early February, Lake Powell, in southern Utah and northern Arizona, was about 26 % full, while Lake Mead – the nation’s largest reservoir by volume, located in Arizona and Nevada – was about 34% full.
Total storage in the Colorado River system, which provides water for more than 40 million people and fuels hydropower resources in seven western states, was roughly 37% of capacity, down from about 42% at the same time last year, according to the USBR, which has flagged 13 reservoirs, the majority located in the West, for having the lowest observed water storage levels for the current time period.
The Colorado River system also serves as a vital resource for 30 tribal nations, sustaining 5.5 million acres of farmland and agricultural communities throughout the West, while also supporting critical ecosystems and protecting endangered species, the USBR said.
Winter sports have been impacted by lack of snow
The snow drought is also impacting local economies that rely on winter sports, an industry that contributes $20 billion annually to the U.S. economy, according to The Climate Reality Project.
“The resort winter tourism is a huge economic backbone for many of these mountain resort communities,” Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president for climate change for the World Wildlife Fund, told ABC News. “And so as they lose their snowfall, they also lose these revenue.”
Vail Resorts, a Colorado-based company that owns and operates some of the largest ski resorts in North America, reported in January that skier visits to its North American resorts were down about 20% through Jan. 4, compared to the same period last year. The company issued the update as a mid-season report on skier visits and revenue, citing a lack of early-season snowfall as a major factor in the decline.
Season-to-date total lift revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue, was down 1.8% from the same period last year, said the tourism company, which operates dozens of resorts across North America, including Vail Mountain and Breckenridge in Colorado and Park City Mountain in Utah.
“We experienced one of the worst early season snowfalls in the western U.S. in over 30 years, which limited our ability to open terrain and negatively impacted visitation and ancillary spending for both local and destination guests during the period,” Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said in a statement.
Vail’s Tahoe-area resorts in California also had a slow start through mid-December, but holiday-period snowstorms allowed the company to open more terrain, Katz said.
February and March typically can bring significant amounts of snow to the region, and odds favor above-average precipitation for much of the region over the next few weeks, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, with persistent unusually warm conditions less likely. However, NOAA notes, snowfall in the coming months may not be able to make up for existing deficits.
Forecasters further caution that this pattern may not last for the rest of the month, with overall warmer and drier-than-average conditions still favored for the month as a whole.
BLACKPINK, ‘Deadline’ track list (YG Entertainment)
BLACKPINK‘s LISA and JISOO are beefing up their acting resumes.
Netflix has announced that JISOO’s new romantic comedy series Boyfriend on Demand will make its debut on March 6. She plays a webtoon producer who escapes from reality when she subscribes to a virtual dating simulation program that allows her to date the men of her dreams.
“I think it will be a fun treat for anyone who feels worn down by the monotony of everyday life,” JISOO says of the show.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports that LISA, who previously starred in The White Lotus season 3, is reteaming with the show’s executive producer, David Bernad, on a romantic comedy set to stream on Netflix. Sources tell Deadline that LISA and David came up with the premise after being inspired by the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie, Notting Hill.
Before they both begin, BLACKPINK will release their new mini album, DEADLINE, set for release Feb. 27. The group posted the track list on Instagram, revealing songs “GO,” “Me and my,” “Champion” and “Fxxxboy,” as well as previously released single “JUMP.”
A Nike logo is seen at the Nike flagship store, Dec. 20, 2019, in New York. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal agency that investigates workplace discrimination is seeking court enforcement of a subpoena it has issued to Nike as it pursues allegations that the athletic apparel maker has been discriminating against its white employees in its corporate diversity policies.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed its motion this week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, where Nike has a factory that produces its famous AIR footwear technology.
The agency’s charges against Nike date to 2024, when commission member, and current Trump-appointed chair, Andrea Lucas alleged that Nike had been engaging in a pattern of discriminatory practices, including “race-based workforce representation quotas,” and hiring, promotion, demotion and firing decisions that were a function of “disparate treatment against White employees, applicants, and training program participants.”
In its filing, the EEOC says the charges were not triggered by internal complaints from workers, but were “based on publicly available information regarding Nike,” including the company’s public pledges to have “30% representation of racial and ethnic minorities at Director level and above in the U.S.,” and 35% representation across its entire U.S. corporate workforce.
The EEOC said in the filing that it has gone to court because the company provided some, but not all, of the data the agency requested on the racial and ethnic makeup of its workforce following the issuance of a subpoena last September.
“Respondent NIKE’s failure to comply with the subpoena has delayed and hampered the EEOC’s investigation of alleged unlawful employment practices under Title VII” of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the motion states.
In a statement to ABC News, a Nike spokesperson said that the EEOC’s move to seek court enforcement of the subpoena “feels like a surprising and unusual escalation.”
“We have had extensive, good-faith participation in an EEOC inquiry into our personnel practices, programs, and decisions and have had ongoing efforts to provide information and engage constructively with the agency,” the Nike statement said. “We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information.”
Nike’s statement further said it is “committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow[s] all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” adding, “we believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”
In this photo released by the Norwich Fire Department, a train derailment is shown in Mansfield, Conn., on Feb. 5, 2026. (Norwich Fire Department)
(MANSFIELD, Calif.) — A freight train carrying flammable liquids derailed in Connecticut on Thursday, prompting a shelter-in-place advisory, officials said.
Approximately 14 railcars of a New England Central Railroad (NECR) train went off the tracks shortly after 9 a.m. in Mansfield near a body of water, fire officials said.
Six railcars carrying liquid propane went fully off the track, with four ending up in water, officials said.
Other derailed cars were carrying liquified natural gas and cooking grease, according to Mansfield Fire Chief John Roache.
The derailment occurred along the Willimantic River, near Eagleville Lake, according to NECR.
Air monitoring has not detected any flammable leaks from any of the train cars, Roache said during a press briefing Thursday. An NECR spokesperson also said there is no indication of any leaks.
Richard Scalora, a supervising emergency response coordinator with the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said his staff is working on several of the railcars to “assure that we don’t have any releases.”
“We’re going to continue in this position until all the rail cars are back on their wheels and safely removed from the area,” he said during the press briefing.
All residents within a half-mile of the area have been advised to shelter in place out of an abundance of caution, due to concerns over a potential natural gas leak, officials said.
No injuries have been reported, according to an NECR spokesperson.
“First responders are on scene with NECR managers to assess the situation,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Emergency response contractors are also en route to assist with an expeditious cleanup.”
The cleanup is anticipated to take several days due to the hard-to-reach location, with crews working to gain access to the site and bring in cranes, according to Roache.
“It’s not going to be a today operation,” he said. “We’re definitely taking it slow and methodical.”
Mansfield Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said he will be issuing an emergency declaration later Thursday, calling it a “very serious event.”
“We are blessed with natural resources in this community that we want to safeguard, and certainly potential hazardous waste spill is a serious concern,” he said during the briefing. “Fortunately, right now, it appears that the situation is under control and the public health and safety is being maintained.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said he is in touch with “our state emergency management and environment teams to assess any impacts regarding the train derailment involving hazardous materials in Mansfield.”
