The Radiohead offshoot band The Smile has premiered a new song called “Bending Hectic.”
The eight-minute track follows the group’s 2022 debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention, and previously debuted live during their set at Switzerland’s Montreux Jazz Festival.
“Bending Hectic” arrives just as The Smile — which features Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and guitarist Jonny Greenwood, as well as drummer Tom Skinner of the band Sons of Kemet — is set to kick off a North American headlining tour Wednesday, June 21, in Mexico City. The outing launches in the U.S. on Sunday, June 25, in Austin, Texas.
You can also probably expect more new material from The Smile coming up: Greenwood recently told Consequence that the band has “a big backlog of ideas.”
James Taylor has been forced to postpone a trio of shows after coming down with a case of laryngitis.
“I really hate to have to postpone these shows and it’s not something I take lightly,” Taylor shares on Instagram. “I thought I could push through but I’m at the point now if I don’t take these days off I risk doing permanent damage.”
The affected shows were due to take place in Huntsville, Alabama, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mt. Pleasant, Michigan; they’ve been moved to August 22, 24 and 26, respectively.
“So very sorry to everyone who has tickets this week, I hope you’re able to hold onto your tickets for the new dates,” Taylor adds. “I look forward to picking the tour back up in Milwaukee on Saturday.”
Those unable to attend the rescheduled dates will be able to get refunds for their tickets.
Taylor’s tour is set to run until September, wrapping with a three-night stand in Vienna, Virginia, September 7, 8 and 10. A complete list of dates can be found at jamestaylor.com.
(WASHINGTON) — News that President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, has agreed to a plea deal regarding a pair of tax-related misdemeanors follows a five-year Justice Department probe into the younger Biden’s finances and comes as a GOP-led congressional panel investigates what House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says are the Biden family’s “shady business deals.”
After years of largely avoiding public confrontations about his business dealings, Hunter Biden earlier this year engaged a new legal team to undertake a more aggressive legal tack, making private citizen criminal referrals and sending cease-and-desist letters involving some of his most vocal critics.
Here’s a look at the various investigations into the president’s son:
Justice Department probe
Federal authorities with the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-era appointee, had been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018, but the probe was temporarily paused for several months ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The investigation spilled into public view in December of 2020, shortly after Joe Biden secured the presidency, when Hunter Biden confirmed the probe into his “tax affairs.” Prosecutors have examined whether he paid adequate taxes on millions of dollars of his income, including money he made from multiple overseas business ventures.
Prosecutors also explored allegations that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use on a gun application form in 2018, despite later acknowledging that he was addicted to drugs around that time.
ABC News has previously reported that the younger Biden borrowed $2 million from his lawyer and confidant Kevin Morris to pay the IRS for back taxes, penalties and liens that he owed.
A grand jury empaneled in Delaware reportedly heard testimony from multiple witnesses over the course of their probe, including some of Hunter Biden’s business partners and a woman who had a child by Hunter Biden out of wedlock.
The younger Biden, a Yale-trained lawyer, has said he is cooperating with investigators and remained “100% certain” that he would be cleared of any wrongdoing. President Biden has said he and his son never discussed his foreign business dealings and there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president in any way.
The White House has repeatedly sought to distance the president from the probe.
Congressional oversight
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, House Republicans have been conducting a long-expected investigation into Hunter Biden and his father.
Last month the powerful House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the FBI demanding the bureau produce a record related to an “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
The subpoena seeks an unclassified FD-1023 document, which is generally defined as a report from an informant. An FD-1023 form could be generated in a variety of situations involving someone presenting themselves as a “source” with claims of wrongdoing.
The White House denounced the accusation as “anonymous innuendo.”
In April, a supervisor at the IRS told lawmakers that he had information that suggested the Biden administration was possibly mishandling the investigation into Hunter Biden, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
In a letter to lawmakers obtained by ABC News, the lawyer for the IRS whistleblower said his client was an IRS criminal supervisory special agent “who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation” and “would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.”
The disclosures, the letter said, “(1) contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee, (2) involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case, and (3) detail examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who had testified on Capitol Hill that the Hunter Biden probe was free from any improper political interference, responded to the letter by saying he stood by that statement.
“I stand by my testimony, and I refer you to the U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate,” Garland said last month.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, pledged after November’s election to “pursue all avenues” of wrongdoing and called investigations into the president’s family a “top priority.”
In February, former Twitter executives testified before the Oversight Committee that the social media company made a mistake in blocking users from sharing a controversial 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
President Joe Biden subsequently dismissed the Oversight Committee’s probe in an interview with PBS NewsHour.
“[The] public’s not going to pay attention to that,” he said. “If the only thing they can do is make up things about my family, it’s not going to go very far.”
Chronic alcohol abuse led to the death of Cody Longo, the actor best known for playing Nicholas “Nikki” Alamain in the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives, according to a medical examiner’s autopsy report obtained by TMZ. Longo was found dead in his home in Austin, Texas on February 8 at the age of 34. Longo’s other credits include films like Ball Don’t Lie and the 2009 Fame reboot. The actor also secured recurring roles on shows such as ABC Family’s Make It or Break It and Nick at Nite’s Hollywood Heights…
Apple TV+ has canceled Sam Esmail‘s adaptation of Fritz Lange‘s classic 1927 sci-fi movie Metropolis due to marketing costs and “uncertainty related to the ongoing strike,” a rep for UCP, the studio producing the series, tells Deadline. Metropolis, based on Thea Von Harbou‘s 1925 novel, is set “in a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners,” where “the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences,” per IMDB…
Paxton Whitehead, the Broadway and TV actor best-known for his recurring role as Hal Conway, the neighbor of Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt‘s Paul and Jamie Buchman in the NBC sitcom Mad About You, died June 16 at a hospital in Arlington, Virginia, his son Charles tells The Hollywood Reporter. Whitehead’s other notable sitcom appearances included playing Mr. Waltham, Rachel’s boss at Bloomingdale’s and the uncle of Ross’ fiancee Emily, on Friends. Whitehead made his film debut in 1986’s Back to School, portraying Dr. Philip Barbay, dean of the business school at Grand Lakes University — boyfriend of literature professor Sally Kellerman‘s Diane Turner and foil to Rodney Dangerfield’s Thornton Melon. Whitehead also had an extensive Broadway career in such plays as the 1980 revival of Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot opposite Richard Burton, for which he earned a Tony nomination…
Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA
(NEW YORK) — Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has agreed to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors as part of a deal that would end a politically fraught and years-long probe into his personal and professional life, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Under an agreement negotiated with the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, the younger Biden, 53, will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend probation, meaning he will likely avoid prison time.
The agreement also includes what is known as a pretrial diversion for one felony count related to illegal possession of a firearm, which would not require Hunter Biden to submit a plea on that charge and stipulates that prosecutors would agree to drop it if he adheres to certain terms over a specified period of time.
If a federal judge accepts the deal, Tuesday’s development would mark the conclusion of an investigation that has dogged not only Hunter Biden, but also his father, whose political foes have latched onto the younger Biden’s overseas business dealings to level allegations depicting the entire Biden family as corrupt.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — District Judge Aileen Cannon has set a tentative date of Aug. 14 for the start of former President Donald Trump’s trial on charges of obstruction and mishandling classified documents, per a new scheduling order posted to her court docket Tuesday morning.
(NEW YORK) — Andrew Tate, the influencer detained in December by Romanian officials, has been charged with rape, human trafficking and creating an organized crime group, local prosecutors said in a statement on Tuesday.
Tate faces the charges along with his brother, Tristan, another internet personality, and two other women, both Romanian nationals, prosecutors said.
The Tate brothers will “embrace the opportunity it presents to demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation,” a spokesperson said.
“Tate’s legal team are prepared to cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities, presenting all necessary evidence to exonerate the brothers and expose any misinterpretations or false accusations,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
They have all been in police custody — first in jail, then under house arrest — for about six months as they awaited the full charges.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — A submersible carrying five people has gone missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. The United States Coast Guard immediately launched a search and rescue operation for the 21-foot craft, named Titan, in coordination with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(PARIS) — Police were searching offices associated with organizers of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Tuesday as part of two financial investigations, French officials said.
“A police search is currently underway at the headquarters of the Organising Committee,” the Paris 2024 committee, COJOP, said in a statement. “Paris 2024 is cooperating fully with the investigators to facilitate their investigations.”
A search was also underway Tuesday at the offices the Société de Livraison des Ouvrages Olympiques, also known a SOLIDEO, a spokesperson for France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office told ABC News.
The searches were part of two open investigations, the spokesperson said.
The first investigation, opened in 2017, was into possible “counts of illegal taking of interests, embezzlement of public funds, favoritism and concealment of favoritism targeting several contracts awarded in particular by” the organizing committee, the spokesperson said.
The second investigation, opened in 2022, was into possible “illegal taking of interests, favoritism and concealment of favoritism relating to several contracts awarded by the COJOP and SOLIDEO, following an inspection by the French Anti-Corruption Agency,” the spokesperson said.
The first investigation was being pursued by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses. The second was under the Brigade for the repression of economic crime, the official said.
(NEW YORK) — Hamish Harding, one of the five people aboard a submersible missing near the Titanic wreck, is no stranger to exploration.
Harding circumnavigated the Earth in 2019, he said on Facebook. He made a dive in 2021 to the deepest point on earth, Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench. And he traveled into space last year aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
Now he’s one of five passengers aboard the missing OceanGate Inc. tourist submersible, for which the U.S. Coast Guard and others have launched a round-the-clock search.
“Our entire focus is on the wellbeing of the crew and every step possible is being taken to bring the five crew members back safely,” OceanGate said as part of an emailed statement.
The submersible, which last pinged in a location close to the Titanic wreck, was designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours.
Here’s what we know about the people onboard:
Hamish Harding
Harding, a British businessman and chairman of Action Aviation, previewed his dive to see the Titanic shipwreck in a Facebook post.
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” he posted on Sunday. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
Shahzada Dawood is vice chairman of Engro Corporation Limited, a sprawling business headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. Suleman Dawood is his son, the family said in a statement.
“Our son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, had embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the Dawood family said.
The statement continued: “A rescue effort that is being jointly led by multiple government agencies and deep-sea companies is underway to reestablish contact with the submersible and bring them back safely. We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time. The family is well looked after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members.”
