Teddy Swims performs at the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Nov. 8, 2025 (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
Teddy Swims has been booked to perform at a pre-Super Bowl event.
He’ll be part of the lineup at EA SPORTS™ Presents Madden Bowl in Partnership with Visa. It will take place Feb. 6 at San Francisco’s Chase Center, two days before the big game at the Bay Area’s Levi’s Stadium. He’ll be sharing the bill with country superstar Luke Combs and a few other artists.
Teddy says in a statement to Billboard, “The last year has been surreal for me, and bringing that energy to Chase Center for Madden Bowl is a dream! Football, the Super Bowl and Madden are such a big part of how people come together, and music is always right there with it.”
Fans can watch the preshow, dubbed the Madden Bowl Blue Carpet, starting at 10 p.m. ET on EA SPORTS social channels. Twitch streamer Sketch will also host a livestream from the carpet, featuring athletes playing Madden NFL 26 against each other.
Demolition of the East Wing of the White House, during construction on the new ballroom extension of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday presented the latest plans for the East Wing renovation project, the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, in a public meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission.
The project’s architect, Shalom Baranes, said during the meeting that the White House is considering adding a one-story addition to the West Wing to restore “symmetry” to the complex after the East Wing ballroom project is complete.
His comments came after announcing a two-story colonnade would connect the East Room in the White House to the new ballroom.
“The White House is therefore considering the idea of a modest one-story addition to the West Wing colonnade, which would serve to restore a sense of symmetry around the original central pavilion.”
Baranes also clarified details about the expansion project, telling commissioners the East Wing expansion would include a second floor, and that the new ballroom would have roughly 40-foot ceilings, be roughly 22,000 square feet of the nearly 90,000 square foot project, and be able to accommodate up to 1,000 seated guests.
Phil Mendelson, the Washington City Council Chairman and member of the planning commission, said he felt the East Wing design could appear to be “overwhelming” the existing White House structure.
Baranes said the 45,000 square foot project would “exactly” match the height of the White House when completed.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly increased the size and cost of the ballroom project. Last month, he said it would cost $400 million, after an initial estimate of $200 million. The White House has said the project will be funded by private donations.
Answering questions from commissioners, Baranes said the potential project would add a story to the West Wing colonnade, and not the West Wing building proper.
He also offered no timetable for the potential addition and did not present any new renderings or drawings.
Josh Fisher, a White House official who also supplemented the presentation, said the Trump administration is also considering changes to Lafayette Park and the visitor screening areas on the White House complex in the future.
Will Scharf, a senior White House official who sits on the Capital Planning Commission, noted that Trump is hosted at Windsor Castle when he visits the United Kingdom, but when the King of England visits the White House, he may be hosted in a “tent” on the White House lawn.
“That, to me, is not a good look for the United States,” he said.
James Blair, another Trump appointee on the commission, said the current White House can’t “accommodate” efforts for the president to “break bread” with groups of lawmakers.
Other commissioners affiliated with the city expressed some reservations about the scale of the project and the fact that demolition started before the plan was presented.
The White House announced the ballroom construction project in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October, when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House that contained the first lady’s offices.
Scharf pointed out that demolition began at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum before the renovation plan was presented to local bodies.
In December, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit to stop the East Wing construction project by claiming the administration had circumvented the required review process for federal projects.
In a hearing in that case, the administration told a federal judge it would submit plans for the project to the relevant federal oversight bodies.
The judge said he would hold a follow-up hearing on the White House’s process in January and declined to stop construction at the time.
Days later, the administration submitted formal applications and plans for the renovation project to the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts, a White House official confirmed to ABC News at the time.
In its filing in the case brought by the historic preservation group, the Justice Department argued that without a permanent ballroom, the White House can no longer meet the needs of the president as he fulfills his constitutional duty to “receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers.”
“It is entirely fitting, then, that the presidential residence and workplace be equipped for that purpose. Given modern needs, the White House is not,” the Justice Department argued.
Even as it determined in late August that the White House ballroom would have “no significant impact” on the surrounding grounds, the National Park Service did highlight some of the adverse effects of the project, presaging concerns that have since been echoed by preservationists, architects and designers.
“The new building’s larger footprint and height will dominate the eastern portion of the site, creating a visual imbalance with the more modestly scaled West Wing and Executive Mansion,” the NPS report noted. “Adding a second story to the East Colonnade will further modify the setting, contrasting with the single-story design of the West Colonnade and changing the traditional spatial organization and sightlines of the grounds.”
Such changes, the report indicated, “will adversely alter the design, setting, and feeling of the White House and grounds over the long-term,” while the destruction of the East Wing would result in “the permanent loss of a component that has been integral to White House operations since 1942.”
Still, the “environmental assessment” — prepared by the deputy director of the park service and signed by its comptroller — concluded that the benefits of a new ballroom for state functions would outweigh the adverse effects “by reducing reliance on temporary event infrastructure, minimizing wear on the grounds, and improving functionality for large gatherings.”
The White House announced the ballroom construction project in late July, and demolition began suddenly on the East Wing in late October, when workers were spotted tearing down the wing of the White House that contained the first lady’s offices.
Trump has repeatedly increased the size and cost of the construction 90,000 square foot ballroom project. Last month, he said it would cost $400 million, after an initial estimate of $200 million. The White House has said the project will be funded by private donations.
The president has also moved to fill both advisory boards supervising the ballroom project with his own aides and appointees.
He also spent some of his vacation working on the project: Last Friday in Florida, he visited Arc Stone & Tile, an Italian stone importer, and spent roughly an hour at the showroom before purchasing onyx and marble for the ballroom.
The White House expects to make its final presentations to the Commission of Fine Arts in February, and to the National Capitol Planning Commission in March, and will submit its final plan for the project by the end of January, a White House official told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Thursday failed to override two of President Donald Trump’s vetoes of GOP-backed bills that passed unanimously in the House and Senate, falling short of the necessary two-thirds majority on either vote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
It’s a new year and Gracie Abrams has new music to share — and she says not releasing it yet is very difficult for her.
Speaking toPeople, Gracie said she was “beyond ready” to let her fans hear the music, adding, “I’ve never felt this way about anything I’ve made before, so it’s definitely driving me crazy in a good way.”
But despite being excited about the new music, Gracie said the #1 thing in her life is her group of friends and collaborators.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about the people you get to make things with and spend your time with, and that … means the most to me right now,” she told People.
Gracie rang in 2026 with a group of people that included her boyfriend, Paul Mescal, and said they all “basically stood around the fire and wrote private wishes or thoughts down — things we either want to leave behind or bring with us into the new year.”
“There’s so much going on in the world for all of us collectively in this moment, and everyone’s got their own personal s*** going on all the time,” she said. “[I love] any opportunity to be with your people and remember how that is the core of everything.”
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs at The GRAMMY Museum on April 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and his band The Dirty Knobs have booked an opening spot on Chris Stapleton’s upcoming All-American Road Show tour.
The tour kicks off May 25 in Nashville, with Campbell and The Dirty Knobs set to open the Oct. 2 show in Bristow, Virginia.
A ticket presale for all shows on the tour begins Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets go on sale to the general public Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. local time.
This isn’t the first time Campbell and The Dirty Knobs have toured with Stapleton. They previously opened shows on his 2025 tour.
The artists have also collaborated together several times in the past. Stapleton appears on the song “Don’t Wait Up” on The Dirty Knobs’ 2024 album, Vagabonds, Virgins and Misfits. He also appeared on the song “Pistol’ Packin’ Mama” on their 2020 release, Wreckless Abandon, and he co-wrote another song on the album.
Campbell also appeared on Stapleton’s 2020 album, Starting Over, and co-wrote two songs on the album.
World News Tonight anchor David Muir speaks with Alessandro Vigilante who lost his Pacific Palisades home in the 2025 wildfires. ABC News
(CALIFORNIA) — A year ago, the deadly wildfires in Southern California left behind a trail of destruction and forced desperate families to flee for their lives.
Charred vehicles filled the streets in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where the flames reduced houses to ash-covered shells.
The embers are gone and the dust has settled a year later, but most of those houses are still vacant lots and families remain stuck in limbo.
“World News Tonight” anchor David Muir returned to the neighborhood to mark the anniversary of the disaster and reunited with some of the residents he met in January 2025. Many said they are still struggling to pick up the pieces and some are making the tough decision to leave their the neighborhood they once called home.
Nearly 24,000 acres burned in the Palisades fire alone, with nearly 7,000 structures — most of them homes — going up in smoke. The blaze erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, along with the Eaton fire that destroyed more than 9,000 buildings. Together, the fires claimed the lives of at least 31 people.
A year ago in Pacific Palisades, Alessandro Vigilante raced to his two boys’ school to pick them and flee the fires, while his wife stayed behind to grab their most important documents before their house burned down.
Hours later, Muir met the father of two as he returned to see what was left of his home for the first time. Vigilante and his family lost everything, but were thankful to still have each other.
“We’ll figure out the rest,” he told Muir last year.
Today, the site of Vigilante’s home is an empty grass-covered lot surrounded by a white picket fence — the only thing that remains of his old home. Speaking with Muir again, he said getting insurance money was not an easy process.
“Literally, we had the last check, like, two weeks ago,” he told Muir, nearly a year after the fires.
Pointing to the lot, Vigilante reflected on that process.
“You don’t expect to have to discuss anything. It’s a total loss,” he said. “Basically looking at every single detail that they can think of from the handles that you had on the doors to the type of countertops. And again, that was mind-blowing, because I’m like, well, when we signed the policy, that’s the moment you should have decided whether my house was worth that much or not. Now it’s too late.”
Vigilante decided to sell the lot rather than rebuild, he noted, even though he said the land is now half the value it was when he moved in four years before.
“It’s OK. It was a chapter of our life,” he said, with a sigh.
Down the street from Vigilante, Liz Jones showed Muir the empty lot where she now plans to rebuild her family’s home from the ground up.
Last year, she saw the charred remains of her daughter’s car in one of Muir’s reports. That’s when she knew her home was gone.
“Is that when reality set in?” Muir asked her last year.
“One hundred percent,” Jones said.
Jones said she and her husband were determined to rebuild, and they are among the lucky few who were able to get some insurance money. Jones continued to carry her pride for the community around her neck, with a necklace that spelled out “Palisades.”
Preston and Kelsey Hayes had just broken ground on their new home when Muir met them at the site.
A year ago, the couple, who have two children, donned protective gear and masks to survey the damage and wondered if they would ever come back.
“Were you concerned at all about the soil and what might be contaminated from the fires?” Muir asked the couple at the construction site.
“Yeah for sure,” Preston Hayes said.
“And you felt reassured by the tests?” Muir asked.
“Yes,” Kelsey Hayes said.
As they looked out across their neighborhood a year after the fires, they knew that their neighbors would not all be as fortunate.
“We want the community to be the same. I don’t think it will be, unfortunately,” Preston Hayes said.
Tyler Perry attends the Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony Honoring Sherri Shepherd on November 03, 2025, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images)
Tyler Perry continues to add to his growing list of television and films with a new set of projects announced as part of Netflix’s 2026 lineup.
Kicking off the year is Joe’s College Road Trip, set to premiere on Feb. 13. Tyler stars as the titular character, who takes “a cross-country college road trip where tensions run high and life-changing lessons are learned,” according to Netflix. Jermaine Harris and Amber Reign Smith also star in the film.
Tyler tapped Fantasia for Tyler Perry’s The Gospel of Christmas, featuring a star-studded cast including Tank and gospel stars Shirley Caesar, Fred Hammond, the Clark Sisters, Smokie Norful, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Ann Nesby, Yolanda Adams, Hezekiah Walker and Je’Kalyn Carr. The film follows a pastor who inherits his family’s church and reconnects with his faith as he tries to save the congregation.
And as previously reported, another installment of Why Did I Get Married Again is on the way. Michael Jai White’s Marcus and Tasha Smith’s Angela reunite with their longtime couple friends for their daughter’s wedding and are forced to acknowledge how much she’s grown to be like them. Jill Scott, Taraji P. Henson and Da’Vinci are among the other cast members.
While not a Tyler Perry project, Tasha directs ’Tis So Sweet starring Taraji, Joey Bada$$, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Russell Hornsby and DeVon Franklin. The film’s about Chicago bakery owner Lenore Lindsey, whose life is changed by a discovery that inspires healing, renewed purpose and more.
Other Netflix 2026 films include 72 Hours starring Kevin Hart and Teyana Taylor; Animals with Kerry Washington; Here Comes the Flood starring Denzel Washington and Danai Gurira; and the animated film Swapped, featuring the voices of Michael B. Jordan, Tracy Morgan and Cedric the Entertainer.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on August 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A judge in New York has set a tentative date of March 3 for Harvey Weinstein’s re-trial on a charge of raping Jessica Mann.
A defense lawyer said Thursday that Weinstein would consider pleading guilty to the charge — third-degree rape — however, Weinstein made a statement in court insisting that he has never attacked anyone.
If Weinstein ultimately stands trial again, it would be the third time he goes on trial in Manhattan. His initial conviction was overturned on appeal. His second trial ended in a conviction on the Mimi Haley count, an acquittal on the Kaja Sokola count and a mistrial on the Mann count.
Earlier on Thursday, Judge Curtis Faber rejected Weinstein’s bid for a new trial in Haley’s case, ruling juror complaints about decorum in the deliberation room were adequately addressed.
The defense had argued two jurors subsequently claimed they were pressured to convict, but Farber said Thursday, “The Court’s response to the jurors’ complaints appropriately balanced the competing interests of investigating the allegations while avoiding any unnecessary taint of the deliberating jury.”
Weinstein, 73, remains in custody at Rikers Island in New York City after nearly six years of confinement. A representative for the disgraced Hollywood producer said he is “medically fragile and in legal limbo.”
A memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults murdered on May 24,2022 during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is seen on January 05, 2026 in Uvalde, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — Editor’s note: Some of the testimony described below may be distressing to some readers.
Robb Elementary School’s former afterschool coordinator, Emilia “Amy” Marin-Franco, held back tears and visibly shook in her seat when she testified on Thursday in the trial of former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales.
Gonzales, who was one of nearly 400 law enforcement officers to respond to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, is charged with child endangerment for allegedly ignoring his training during the botched police response. Nineteen students and two teachers were killed, and investigations have faulted the police response and suggested that a 77-minute delay in police mounting a counterassault could have contributed to the carnage.
Gonzales has pleaded not guilty and his legal team says he did all he could to help students.
Marin testified that on May 24, 2022, she saw a man crash his truck near the school. She was one of the first people to call 911 — first to report the crash, and then realized he was armed and heading to the school.
Jurors heard her 911 call, in which Marin simultaneously tried to get police to respond while encouraging students to hide.
“There is a guy with a gun. … Oh my god. I think he came on campus now,” she told a dispatcher, while telling students, “Come on guys, hurry.”
In deeply emotional testimony, she told the jury, “I kept asking the operator, ‘Where are the cops? Where are the cops?’ And I tell her, ‘There are kids running everywhere.'”
Marin told jurors that she feared for her and her students’ lives as she sheltered in a classroom and heard countless gunshots.
“They were like, nonstop,” she said. “I thought, ‘He’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me, he’s going to kill me. I’m going to die, I’m going to die.'”
She testified that she tried to come up with a plan to disarm the shooter if he were to find her.
“I’m looking at the floor and I’m thinking, ‘I’ll tackle him from his ankles and knock him down with my shoulder. Get up on the counter, when he comes in, jump on his back, poke his eyes out, take his gun away from him,'” she said.
A prosecutor tried to ask Marin to describe what that moment was like.
“The feeling of that type of fear is something that only someone can understand who’s been through a mass shooting,” she said. “You won’t understand if you haven’t experienced it and I don’t wish it on anybody.”
“Is it an ugly feeling?” the prosecutor asked.
“It haunts me to this day,” she said.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Marin was falsely accused of leaving a door open that allowed the shooter to enter. She testified about removing a rock that was briefly used to prop the door open. During a brief cross-examination, defense attorneys used the testimony to highlight how Robb Elementary had issues with doors remaining unlocked.
Earlier on Thursday, Judge Sid Harle sided with defense lawyers and instructed jurors to completely disregard the testimony of former teacher Stephanie Hale, who was a key prosecution witness.
Hale returned to the stand for an hour Thursday morning in an effort to salvage her testimony, but defense lawyers ultimately argued that allowing her testimony to stand would endanger Gonzales’ right to a fair trial.
“There’s no doubt that this was crucial to the [defense] strategy,” Harle said. “I don’t think I have any choice, having denied the mistrial — other than to craft a remedy that will protect the due process rights and hopefully avoid any appellate review that would result in this case being reversed — so I am reluctantly going to instruct the jury to disregard her testimony in its entirety.”
Before instructing the jury, the judge personally thanked Hale for her testimony and emphasized that she was not at fault.
“I want to emphasize that you did absolutely nothing wrong. It’s not on you,” the judge said. “I want to tell you, just from personal experience, memories of traumatic events change.”
When Hale was on the stand Thursday, defense attorney Jason Goss attempted to point out that her original account — provided to state investigators four days after the 2022 shooting — differed from what she told the jury on Tuesday.
Hale testified that she saw the shooter near the south side of Robb Elementary and saw him firing toward her and her students. Defense lawyers alleged she never gave that information to state investigators.
“Seeing a shooter, and being shot at, are important details, you would agree with that?” Goss said.
“It depends on who you are,” she responded. “I don’t know. I guess possibly.”
Goss pointed out inconsistencies in her description of events over the last three years, such as how she learned about the shooter and his location.
“I’m not very good with directions,” Hale remarked about the location of the shooter.
During re-direct examination, Hale clarified that she told the grand jury about seeing clouds of dust near the playground, which suggested to her that she and her students were being shot at. She acknowledged, however, that she did not initially see the shooter with her own eyes.
Hale told defense lawyers that it was “kind of implied” that she saw the shooter based on her comments about seeing the dust clouds.
Scotty McCreery, bluegrass queen Rhonda Vincent, comedian Henry Cho and the Grammy-nominated The War and Treaty will headline An Evening with the Grand Ole Opry at Carnegie Hall.
Look for more artists to be announced for the March 20 show that’s part of the United in Sound: America at 250 festival. It’s also a continuation of the Opry 100 celebration that kicked off in 2025.
This will be the fourth time the Opry and the famed New York City concert hall have come together. In 1947, Ernest Tubb led a show that featured Minnie Pearl, Bill Monroe, Eddy Arnold and The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter.
In 1961, Patsy Cline headlined a benefit for the Musician’s Aid Society.
Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley and more returned in 2005 to mark the Opry’s 80th birthday.
