(NEW YORK) — With less than one week to go until the Fourth of July holiday weekend, here’s what you need to know before hitting the highway or heading to the airport.
The roads
About 43.2 million people are expected to hit the road for the July 4th holiday — up 2.4% from 2022 and up 4% from 2019, according to AAA.
The quietest days to travel by car are anticipated to be Sunday, July 2, and Monday, July 3, according to transportation analytics company INRIX.
If you’re heading for the highway on Friday, June 30, the worst traffic is forecast to be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to INRIX.
If you’re driving home on Wednesday, July 5, the worst traffic may hit from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Rental cars are averaging $47 per day, down 25% from the same time last year, according to Hopper.
The skies
More than 24 million are expected to fly out of U.S. airports from June 29 to July 5, with June 29 and June 30 expected to be the busiest travel days, according to Hopper.
But flight prices are dropping. Hopper said domestic tickets are more than $100 cheaper than they were last year.
American Airlines said it expects to fly nearly 3 million passengers from June 30 to July 4, with July 2 as its busiest day.
United Airlines said it’s planning to carry nearly 5 million passengers from June 30 to July 9, with June 30 as its busiest day.
United said its bookings are up 12% from 2022 and are now “nearly equal” to pre-pandemic levels.
The most popular U.S. destinations for the holiday are New York City, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida, according to Expedia.
The most crowded airports are anticipated to be Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, according to Hopper.
Lewis Capaldi’s fans proved once again that they have his back. The singer performed at the U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival Sunday, June 24, but needed some help finishing his set.
Footage posted by the BBC Radio 1 shows Capaldi suffering symptoms from Tourette Syndrome, including some involuntary movements, while performing his hit “Someone You Loved.” That’s when the crowd took over, singing the song as the band continued to play.
“Glastonbury, thank you so much,” he said at the end of his set. “If I never get to do this again, this has been amazing.”
The incident happened just three weeks after Capaldi canceled several dates on his tour in order to “rest and recover.” He does have several more tour dates on the books, with his next show scheduled to happen June 28 in Zurich, Switzerland. A complete list of dates can be found at lewiscapaldi.com.
Jon Hamm is officially off the market. The actor married his former Mad Men co-star Anna Osceola on Saturday, June 24 in Big Sur, California, and Page Six has the snaps.
The couple, who appeared together in 2022’s Confess, Fletch, were apparently engaged in 2022.
The 52-year-old Hamm and his 35-year-old bride met on an episode of Mad Men, and in a case of life imitating art, they chose to have their ceremony where their characters met: Big Sur’s Anderson Canyon.
Osceola played a receptionist named Clementine, who happened to meet Hamm’s Don Draper while he was staying at a wellness retreat at that location during the acclaimed show’s 2015 finale.
Fans will recall that it was there a meditating Don came up with the idea for the famous Coca-Cola “Hilltop” ad, which featured the tagline, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke…,” and saw Clementine’s braided pigtails echoed in one of the spot’s featured actresses.
Mad Men star and Jon’s pal John Slattery was reportedly in attendance, as were Paul Rudd, Larry David, Tina Fey, and Brooke Shields.
According to photos published by Page Six, the pair said their “I dos” at sunset, with Osceola wearing a strapless white gown with a plunging neckline, and her red hair flowing loose. She later changed into a dark blue dress and sandals for the reception.
Top Gun: Maverick star Hamm opted for a traditional black tuxedo.
The pair’s meeting in 2015 came after Hamm — who in 2012 swore off marriage in a Playboy interview — broke it off with actress Jennifer Westfeldt after 18 years together.
Peacock has renewed the Pete Davidson comedy Bupkis for a second season, according to Deadline. Davidson writes, executive-produces and stars in the series, which is a fictionalized version of his life. Edie Falco plays his mom and Joe Pesci portrays his grandfather. The first season also featured guest appearances from Machine Gun Kelly, Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale, Charlie Day, Al Gore, Paul Walter Hauser, Chase Sui Wonders and Ray Romano…
Variety reports the Magnum P.I. reboot has been canceled at NBC. The drama series, which was canceled by CBS last year before NBC picked it up, will end with the upcoming second part of season 5. Per the outlet, the cast’s deals have expired, leaving the network to either order more episodes without knowing when they could enter production or extend the actors’ deals to prolong the decision-making period. Ultimately, NBC opted to release the actors and move forward without the series on its roster. Jay Hernandez starred in the series, along with Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Amy Hill and Tim Kang…
Actor Frederic Forrest, best known for his roles as Bette Midler‘s limousine-driver-turned-love-interest, Huston Dyer in The Rose, and Jay “Chef” Hicks in Francis Ford Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now, opposite Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando, died Friday in Santa Monica, California after a long illness. “The great and beloved Frederic Forrest has died,” Midler tweeted on Friday. “Thank you to all of his fans and friends for all their support these last few months. He was a remarkable actor, and a brilliant human being, and I was lucky to have him in my life. He was at peace.” Coppola said in a statement obtained by Deadline, “Freddie Forrest was a sweet, much beloved person, a wonderful actor and a good friend. His loss is heartbreaking to me”…
(LONDON) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, faced off in a playful match against Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer in a new video released Sunday in celebration of Wimbledon’s ball boys and girls ahead of the famed tournament.
“Wimbledon is renowned for its amazingly professional ball boys and ball girls, the amount of work it takes, it’s incredible to see it behind the scenes… With all the discipline and everything you’ve learned, you’ll be able to take it into so many other parts of your life, things like confidence and […] that feeling of pride with being on any of the courts is such a big moment,” Princess Kate said in the video.
The Championships 2023 at Wimbledon will take place from July 3 through July 16 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London.
In the newly released video, Her Royal Highness can be seen visiting the club to meet Federer, as well as a few prospective Wimbledon ball boys and girls to hear about training for the role.
Each year, nearly 1,000 children from the ages of 13 to 15 apply to be ball boys or girls at Wimbledon, according to a press release from Kensington Palace. The role includes months of regimented training sessions, including learning how to signal, roll balls up the net, and the correct technique to bounce a ball to a player.
In the video, Princess Kate is seen rallying against Federer before the pair participates in a ball boy and girl training session.
“This is proper practice, I’m really impressed at how much effort and training goes into being a ball kid during The Championships. I used to be a ball kid in Basel when I was 9 or 10 and as I have always said: Once a ball kid, always a ball kid,” Federer said.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse topped the domestic box office once again, grabbing an estimated $19.5 million in its fourth week of release. The animated sequel has generated $316 million in North America and $560 million globally to date.
Disney-Pixar’s animated adventure Elemental held onto second place with an estimated $18.5 million, bringing its North American tally to $65 million and $121 million worldwide.
The week’s biggest story, however, was The Flash, which fell to third place with just an estimated $15.3 million in its second week of release — a disastrous 72% drop in ticket sales.
The Jennifer Lawrence R-rated comedy No Hard Feelings bowed in fourth place, delivering an estimated $15 million at the domestic box office, to go along with $9.5 million overseas.
Rounding out the top five was Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, earning an estimated $11.6 million. After three weeks the latest Transformers movie has earned $122.9 million at the domestic box office and $218 million worldwide.
Elsewhere, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City collected an estimated $9 million after expanding to wide release — a career-high for Anderson.
(NEW YORK) — As a pediatrician, Dr. Kristina Lehman knows the ins and outs of the evidence around breastfeeding better than most.
But as a mother, she also knows that breastfeeding is hard and that following evidence-based guidelines isn’t possible or the choice for everyone.
“I’m more proud of my breastfeeding relationship than even my [medical degree],” Lehman, who is also a breastfeeding medicine specialist, internal medicine physician and associate professor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told ABC News.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that infants be exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of life and continue breastfeeding along with other food until two years of age.
Research shows breastfeeding has many benefits, including decreased infant infections and childhood cancers as well as a decreased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer in the mother.
But only about a quarter of women meet those recommendations, according to data shared by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts said that’s partly because health care and social systems aren’t set up to support breastfeeding.
The gap may mean groups like the AAP should consider adjusting their recommendations to remove the emphasis on exclusivity regarding breastfeeding and amend the two-year time frame due to the unattainable standard for so many, argued Seattle physician Dr. Amy Kennedy in a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“I encourage the AAP and other national health organizations to consider how their statements on exclusive breast-feeding are perceived by the public,” Kennedy wrote. “Everyone’s journey is different.”
But other experts said increasing support is the best way to close the gap — not changing the guidelines. Last week, Lehman and Dr. April Castillo, a preventive medicine physician and breastfeeding specialist, published an article in response on the physician-facing website KevinMD.
They argued that the health care system — including doctors themselves — needs to improve the support of women in their infant feeding choices.
The lack of social support, limited education for physicians around breastfeeding, and marketing from the formula industry adds to the stress, anxiety and isolation during an already fraught time, according to Dr. Anne Eglash, a family medicine physician and president of the North American Board of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine.
Postpartum depression and anxiety — which affect 1 in 8 people after delivery, according to the CDC — can make the process even more challenging.
The current system makes it difficult for parents to actually make a choice either way, according to Eglash, who told ABC News that “no one is supporting” parents.
Eglash described a situation in which medical providers tell the public people should breastfeed, but then send new parents, “out to run that marathon and there’s a desert and no one’s offering any water.”
Changes that could help might include improving doctors’ education around breastfeeding, putting resources towards systems that can help parents find infant feeding experts like lactation consultants, and increasing awareness around postpartum depression, according to Eglash and Castillo.
There also need to be more resources around mixed feeding, which combines breastfeeding and formula feeding, Castillo told ABC News.
But even with improvements in support, meeting guidelines still might still not be feasible for some parents, according to Kennedy.
She said she had many resources at her disposal and a supportive partner, but breastfeeding was difficult for her. She said she wasn’t able to exclusively breastfeed for six months, much less breastfeed for two years.
Still, all the experts agreed that people feeding infants need compassion, regardless of the way they navigate the journey.
“I think a lot of women think that it is all or nothing. And so when they try all and it’s too hard, they totally quit instead of backing off a little bit. But that’s where you need that individualized support to be able to say, what are your goals?” Lehman said. “It’s a conversation and it has to be individualized.”
Eglash noted that the goals aren’t the problem — the system needs to change to help people have the best possible experience.
“I think the big thing is that we all want babies fed, right? And we want parents to meet their intentions, to have the right to feed their babies the way they intend,” Eglash said.
Danielle Craigg, MD, is a senior general preventive medicine and public health resident at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(KANSAS CITY) — A shooting that erupted Sunday morning in a Kansas City, Missouri, parking lot killed at least three people and left five others injured, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
The violence unfolded about 4:30 a.m. southeast of downtown Kansas City, Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte tweeted Sunday morning.
Forte said officers were called to investigate a report of gunfire and found three victims, two men and a woman, dead in the parking lot and on a street just south of the intersection of 57th Street and Prospect Avenue.
No arrests were immediately announced, and a motive was under investigation.
Five other people were taken to hospitals by ambulance or private vehicles, all suffering from what are believed to be non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, Forte said.
Preliminary evidence, according to Forte, indicates there was a large gathering of people in a parking lot at the intersection when the shooting broke out.
Detectives and crime scene investigators were interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence at the crime scene.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect or suspects involved in the shooting.
The triple homicide came amid a 28% increase in homicides in Kansas City this year, according to Kansas City Police Department crime statistics. Prior to this weekend, Kansas City police had investigated 91 homicides this year, up 20 from the same time last year, according to the statistics.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucus posted a message on Twitter Sunday, expressing his condolences to the families of those killed and questioning why a crowd was gathered in a parking lot at the time of the shooting.
My condolences to the families of three people killed in a shooting this morning at an apparent after-hours gathering near 57 and Prospect. If the business knew persons would be present, without security, selling alcohol, and thwarting our laws, that business should be closed.
“If the business knew persons would be present, without security, selling alcohol, and thwarting our laws, that business should be closed,” Lucus tweeted.
Lucus said a total of 13 people were shot in Kansas City overnight, including a person slain at a short-term vacation rental.
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — The suspect accused of killing five people in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is set to be arraigned Monday on 323 charges, including multiple first-degree murder, attempted murder and bias-motivated crimes charges.
Investigators and witnesses say Aldrich, a 22-year-old who identifies as nonbinary, allegedly opened fire as soon as they walked into Club Q before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022. Patrons at the venue tackled Aldrich, subduing them until police arrived, according to witnesses.
Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance died in the attack. At least 19 people were also injured in the shooting.
In February, preliminary hearings were held on whether the case against Aldrich was strong enough to move forward. Their defense attorney’s focused on Aldrich’s mental health and highlighted Aldrich’s history of drug use and claimed they suffered abuse at home to counter the messaging that Aldrich was motivated by hate.
“Aldrich’s behavior after this incident says they’re sorry, upset and emotional about what they did,” defense attorney Joseph Archambault said in court. “It’s categorically different than someone who targets a group, and that’s not what Aldrich did.”
Lead investigators for the state said Aldrich administered and ran a website that hosted a “neo Nazi white supremacist” shooting training video, according to testimony from Lead Detective Rebecca Joines in the preliminary hearings. Joines also said that Aldrich used gay and racial slurs when playing video games online, in testimony aimed at Aldrich’s bias charges.
The defense has not openly commented on the case, as per Office of the State Public Defender policies.
(NEW YORK) — More than half a million customers were without power in the United States early Monday after a weekend of deadly tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.
The severe weather outbreak over the weekend spawned at least 20 reported tornadoes across three Midwestern states — Iowa, Michigan and Indiana. On Sunday alone, there were four reported tornadoes in Indiana, killing at least one person and damaging or destroyed dozens of homes, according to local authorities.
Another person was killed in Georgia’s Fulton County by a falling tree, local authorities said.
Meanwhile, thunderstorm winds brought down trees in multiple areas southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, and baseball-sized hail was spotted 35 miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana.
Overall, a potent line of storms impacted a swath of the nation from the U.S.-Canadian border to the Gulf Coast, with tens of millions of Americans under tornado and severe thunderstorm watches on Sunday.
By Monday morning, nearly 430,000 customers were without power across the South, namely Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Georgia. An additional 71,000 were without power in Michigan, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.
The massive weather system is forecast to move toward the East Coast on Monday, with severe storms expected to hit from New York and Connecticut all the way down to South Carolina, potentially impacting more than 86 million Americans. The highest threat will be damaging winds, large hail and even a few tornadoes.
The cities in the bullseye of Monday’s storms will be Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. New York state’s Hudson Valley and New York City as well as parts of Connecticut are also under threat for severe storms on Monday, but less acute than in the South.
The weather system could bring flash flooding to parts of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania on Monday.
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Mariama Jalloh contributed to this report.
