The grunge group’s contribution to this year’s event, the live album Give Way, sold close to 20,000 copies, making it the biggest-selling rock album released for Record Store Day since it began in 2007.
“We’re always excited to be part of RSD,” says guitarist Mike McCready, who spent the day at Seattle’s Easy Street Records performing with his side band The Rockfords. “It’s just so important to support the Mom and Pop shops around the world. They are more than just stores, they’re communities.”
Give Way, which was available on vinyl and CD, captures a 1998 Pearl Jam concert in Australia during the Yield tour.
While Give Way is the biggest rock Record Store Day release of all time, Taylor Swift has the biggest Record Store Day release, period. The pop superstar’s folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which also dropped during RSD 2023, sold 75,000 copies and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 — the highest for any Record Store Day exclusive.
Ed Sheeran reportedly had to miss his 98-year-old grandmother’s funeral due to his copyright trial in New York. The memorial service for Anne “Nancy” Sheeran took place Wednesday in Ireland. Ed’s father reportedly said in his eulogy that Ed was “so upset” he couldn’t be there.
BTS’ Suga is hitting the basketball court as the NBA’s new ambassador. According to a press release, Suga, who is a huge NBA fan, will work with the organization on several social media initiatives and promotional activities. He’ll get to attend games in the U.S. and Asia and interact with fans of the sport. “Music and basketball have been shared passions of mine since my youth, and it’s a dream to be named an NBA Ambassador,” he says in a statement. “I’m excited to formalize my relationship with the NBA, and I can’t wait to share some exciting collaborations I have planned with the league over the coming months.”
Did you really go to the Met Gala if you didn’t sneak a bathroom mirror selfie? Billie Eilishsnapped one with Maya Hawke, Elle Fanning and Halle Bailey at Monday’s event.
Missy Elliott was named an inductee in the 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class, an honor that has her humbled. She reacted to the news on Twitter, where she first congratulated her classmates.
“I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to all the other LEGENDARY artist [sic] who will now be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” she captioned a retweet of a Consequence post announcing the news. “They have committed DECADES of hard work and IMPACT on music I thank you for the TIMELESS music you have shared with the World.”
Alongside a tweet of her picture with the words “Inductee Missy Elliott,” she described the strength she received from God amid social media posts from her detractors.
“It’s times I have gotten on line & seen your irrelevant your a flop your washed up & it would crush me at times. BUT God you made me STRONG,” Missy wrote. “I kept going & you allowed my decades of WORK to SPEAK 4 itself. I am HUMBLED thank you all my Supporters I LOVE YOU.”
Missy will be the first woman in hip-hop to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when the ceremony takes place November 3 in Brooklyn. HOF’s Jason Hanley says he believed she would make the cut.
“When you look at the work Missy Elliott did as a female artist really creating a space for herself in hip-hop, as someone who created a flow and a bunch of musical sounds that were very different than what many other artists had done. Her style is just very unique and progressive,” he tells ABC Audio. (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)
Hanley also praised her work as a businesswoman, her music videos and her continued collaborations, calling her a “well-deserving” representative of the rock ‘n’ roll side of hip-hop.
The Madonna biopic may be on pause, but the pop star and the actress cast to play her are still hanging out. Madonna shared a few photos of her and actress Julia Garner on her Instagram Story Tuesday, captioning one of them, “B**** we’re Madonna!” with the crying laughing emojis. The two were reportedly at a birthday party for photographer and filmmaker Steven Klein, whom Madonna has worked with on a number of projects. Still no word on when or if the biopic will resume production.
Ed Sheeran reportedly had to miss his 98-year-old grandmother’s funeral due to his copyright trial in New York. The memorial service for Anne “Nancy” Sheeran took place Wednesday in Ireland. Ed’s father reportedly said in his eulogy that Ed was “so upset” he couldn’t be there.
The mother of Nick Carter and the late Aaron Carter has been arrested on suspicion of domestic battery after a dispute over the TV remote, Peoplereports. Jane Schneck, 64, allegedly got into a physical altercation with her husband, stemming from the volume of the TV. The two had allegedly been drinking. Schneck has since been released on a $100 bond.
Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin is being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category this year, and he is feeling “blessed” by the inclusion.
“And they said, ‘Welcome to the club.’ 2023 is a time to shake a lot of hands and thank several sincere souls who had my back,” he writes on Instagram. “Being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame may include a modicum of cynicism on some people’s parts, but in the long run gratitude overrides questionability.”
Taupin says he’s happy to be inducted this year, especially since the 2023 class also includes Willie Nelson and Link Ray.
He adds, “Who would of thought a country kid, corn fed on Little Richard, Willie Dixon, the Everly Brothers and Muddy Waters, would end up living in the same four walls. Blessed indeed.”
And Elton, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, is happily welcoming his partner into the club, offering up his congratulations to Taupin on his Instagram Story.
The 38th annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony returns to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center this year, with the event going down November 3.
To The Hollywood Reporter, actress Billie Lourd lashed out at her famous relatives over her decision not to invite them to her mother, Carrie Fisher‘s, posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony Thursday.
Fisher’s brother Todd, and half siblings Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher went public with their disappointment. Todd told TMZ the snub was “heartbreaking and shocking,” and his siblings issued a joint statement on Joely’s Instagram calling Billie’s decision “bizarre [and] misguided.”
To THR, Billie had her say, noting, “because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.”
Carrie Fisher died on December 27, 2016; one day later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, passed away.
Lourd, the only daughter of the Star Wars icon, continued, “Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalize on my mother’s death, by … selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother’s deaths as the subject.”
She added, “They never consulted me or considered how this would effect [sic] our relationship. The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her,” calling their actions “very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life.”
Billie continued, “To be clear — there is no feud. We have no relationship.”
She concluded by saying, “The people who knew and loved my mom at Disney and Lucasfilm have made this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to honor her legacy possible. This moment is about Carrie Fisher and all that she accomplished and what she meant to the world. I’m going to focus on that. May the 4th be with you.”
That was the message on Wednesday from Paula Reed, mom of Marine veteran Trevor Reed, who was freed in a 2022 prisoner swap after some three years behind bars in Russia on trumped up charges.
“That’s your loved one and they’re just wasting their life away. And, to me, that was the hardest thing to deal with,” Paula Reed said at an event at Lafayette Square in Washington, which was organized by the Bring Our Families Home. “Even though Trevor’s home, we’re going to continue in every way we can to help others.”
For 985 days, Trevor Reed was held in a series of Russian prisons, thrown in isolation cells as small as a closet for 23 hours a day, placed in a psychiatric ward and sent to a forced labor camp he described as looking and feeling like something “out of medieval times.”
The U.S. classified Trevor Reed as “wrongfully detained,” a designation which applies to an “individual whose detention the Department of State determines to be wrongful based on certain discretionary criteria,” according to a State Department resource guide.
In those cases, the government is much more likely to act on behalf of citizens.
Bring Our Families Home says it works to “bring attention to the individuals being wrongfully detained overseas” while urging the White House to take “immediate decisive action.”
On Wednesday, the group gathered to address reporters in Lafayette Square along with relatives of Americans who are detained in China, Iran and Venezuela. They called on President Joe Biden to do more — and more quickly — for citizens held abroad, even those not classified as “wrongfully detained.”
“Let us stand together with hope and faith,” said hostage advocate Diane Foley.
The event followed a candlelight vigil on Tuesday to remember and advocate for people held or wrongfully detained overseas. The vigil was in front of a Bring Our Families Home mural that was unveiled last July, depicting 18 such Americans.
Since then, nine of those have been released.
At the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, Biden used some of his remarks to call out the Americans held overseas, including Evan Gershkovich, Austin Tice and Paul Whelan. He promised that his administration has been seeking their freedom.
“Evan and Austin should be released immediately, along with every other American held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said then. “I want them and their families to know Jill and I understand. We see them. They are not forgotten. And I promise you I am working like hell to get them home.”
Among those who rallied outside the White House on Wednesday were relatives of Zack Shahin, who has been detained in the United Arab Emirates since 2008.
Shahin’s sister-in-law, Aida Dagher, claims to have contacted the State Department on multiple occasions but has not received any correspondence on Shahin’s medical status. She said, however, that the State Department has told her they are working on his case.
“We contact the State Department over and over. Are they deaf? I don’t know,” Dagher said. (A State Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
While Shahin’s family is thankful for the media attention and the support of advocacy groups like Bring Our Families Home, they believe more can be done for him and say he is in waning health.
“They are leaving him to die. We don’t want letters of sympathy when he dies. We don’t want him in a box,” Dagher said.
Jose Pereira said at Wednesday’s event that he was held in a Venezuelan “dungeon” for more than five years and was freed in October. Pereira was speaking on behalf of family members who he said felt immense guilt while he was being held; he said their lives became a “total nightmare.”
“My point here is: All the government, all the senators and all the congressmen need to [put] aside the politics. You have to use all the tools available to bring these people back home,” Pereira said. “All these people deserve it.”
ABC News’ James Hill, Bill Hutchinson and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — An asteroid the size of a school bus will be passing by Earth at a distance close to that of the moon on Wednesday, according to NASA.
The asteroid, which has an orbit larger than Earth’s, will come as close to the planet as 270,000 miles. The moon is 238,900 miles from Earth.
The asteroid — called 2023 HV5 — is 41 feet in size, according to NASA’s lab.
The asteroid is moving at about 8.9 kilometers per second, or 5.53 miles per second, according to the agency’s calculations.
HV5 isn’t the only asteroid to pass Earth relatively nearby this week.
The next asteroid approaching Earth, which is the size of a house, could get as close as 397,000 miles away. It will be approaching Earth on Thursday.
NASA has discovered 31,831 near-Earth asteroids of all sizes.
Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets that orbit the sun like the planets.
As of May 2, NASA had discovered 851 asteroids that were larger than 1 kilometer, or 0.62 miles. An estimated 50 asteroids are left to be found, according to NASA.
In the last 30 days, 10 asteroids have passed closer to Earth than the moon, according to NASA. In the last 365 days, 103 asteroids passed closer to Earth than the moon.
(NEW YORK) — A former People magazine writer, testifying in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation and battery case against former President Donald Trump, told the jury that Trump pushed her against a wall and began kissing her while she was visiting his Mar-a-Lago estate on assignment in 2005.
Carroll, who brought the lawsuit in November, alleges that Trump defamed her in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s.
The former Elle magazine columnist added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
Former People writer Natasha Stoynoff told the jury she was at Mar-a-Lago in late 2005 to write an article on Donald and Melania Trump’s first wedding anniversary, when Trump asked to show her a room in the estate.
“I followed him and we went in through these back doors and down the hall and turned right into a room,” Stoynoff said. “I’m looking around, I’m thinking, ‘Wow, really nice room,’ wondering what he wants to show me, and I hear the door shut behind me.”
Stoynoff said she had interviewed Trump on a number of occasions as part of her assignment on the “Trump beat” for People. She testified that Trump asked her into the room while Melania was changing clothes in preparation for their interview outside.
“By the time I turn around, he has my hands on my shoulders and he pushes me against the wall and he starts kissing me,” Stoynoff testified. She said that she tried to shove him away.
“He came toward me again and I tried to shove him again,” Stoynoff said. “He was kissing me and he was against me, holding my shoulder back.”
She testified that she said no words.
“I couldn’t. I tried. I was just flustered and shocked. No words came out of me,” Stoynoff told the jury.
“Did you tell him to stop?” Carroll’s attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked. “I couldn’t,” Stoynoff answered. She said the encounter ended when a butler entered the room.
Stoynoff described herself as “ashamed and humiliated at what had happened,” and testified said nothing about it to her bosses at People because she didn’t want to cause trouble at the magazine.
She said she first decided to tell her story after she saw the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign, on which Trump is overheard boasting to then-host Billy Bush about grabbing and kissing women without consent.
“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump says on the tape, which was played for the jury. “And when you’re a star they let you do it … You can do anything.”
“Whatever you want,” another voice on the tape is heard saying.
“Grab them by the p—-,” Trump says. “You can do anything.”
After Stoynoff made her allegation in 2016, Trump denied her claim by saying “Look at her. You tell me what you think. I don’t think so,” in a response that Carroll’s attorneys said echoed his assertion that Carroll was “not my type.”
On cross-examination, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina asked Stoynofff if she had a legal claim against Trump. She said no.
Stoynoff is one of two women who the court has ruled are allowed to testify about prior alleged assaults by Trump. On Tuesday, Jessica Leeds told jurors that Trump had groped her during a flight to New York in 1979, in what Carroll’s attorneys said showed a pattern of behavior on Trump’s part.
Leeds, who first made her allegations to The New York Times just before the 2016 presidential election, testified that she was seated next to Trump in the first-class section, “when all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.”
“It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt, that gave me a jolt of strength,” testified Leeds, who said she freed herself and went “storming back to my seat in the back of coach.”
Trump has denied the allegations.
Earlier Wednesday, Tacopina told Judge Lewis Kaplan that Trump will not mount a defense in the case.
Tacopina told the judge that he had decided not to call an expert witness that had been expected to testify for the defense. “We’re not going to move forward,” Tacopina said.
The judge told the jury to expect to get the case “early next week,” following testimony from additional witnesses for the plaintiff.
Carroll’s sister, Cande Carroll, testified Wednesday afternoon that she found out about her sister’s alleged rape in 2019 when Carroll sent her an email containing a link to an excerpt of Carroll’s 2019 book that contained the rape allegation.
That she found out about it that way was hardly surprising, she said, because she and her older sister “just didn’t talk about those things.”
On cross-examination, the younger Carroll testified that she and Carroll had a close relationship in the 1990s when the alleged rape occurred.
“You talked almost daily?” defense attorney Perry Brandt asked. “Most days,” Carroll responded, before Brandt asked her to affirm that the first she had heard of the alleged sexual assault by Trump was in 2019.
Earlier Wednesday, a psychologist testified that Carroll continued to shop at Bergdorf Goodman after the alleged attack because “she didn’t feel that Bergdorf Goodman raped her.”
“She didn’t blame the store. She blamed herself,” said Dr. Leslie Lebowitz, who evaluated Carroll for the case.
The defense suggested the fact that Carroll continued to shop at Bergdorf’s, saved the dress she wore the evening of the alleged assault, and watched Trump’s reality television show, “The Apprentice,” were behaviors out of step with the deep trauma Carroll said she suffered.
Lebowitz pushed back against the inference from the defense that Carroll’s rape claim against Trump could not be true because she did not act like it actually happened.
“I think anywhere Ms. Carroll could see evidence that she was negatively affected by what happened, she would fight against it. So to not go back into Bergdorf’s would have been really obvious, given how much she loved that store,” Lebowitz said.
The same holds true for the dress, Lebowitz said.
“I think that she loves clothes and that was the most expensive dress she’d ever brought,” Lebowitz said. “It would have been impossible to avoid the realization that she was that negatively affected.”
As for watching “The Apprentice,” Lebowitz said there was excitement about the show in Carroll’s professional and social circles. To not watch would have forced her to reveal why.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Chad Seigel asked Lebowitz if her diagnosis concluded that Carroll had been raped.
“You’re not offering an opinion in this case whether Ms. Carroll was raped?” Seigel asked.
“I’m not,” Lebowitz replied.
Lebowitz said that Carroll did meet some of the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, including exhibiting signs of memories affected by trauma. She described a moment during her evaluation when Carroll “began to squirm in her seat” because she appeared to be “re-experiencing” elements of the alleged assault.
She also told the jury that rape victims commonly experience self-blame.
During her testimony earlier this week, Carroll said, “I was ashamed. I thought it was my fault.”
“Why did you think it was your fault, Ms. Carroll?” her attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked.
“Because I was flirting with him and laughing and having one of the great times. It was high comedy. It was funny,” Carroll said.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina told Judge Kaplan at the conclusion of testimony Tuesday that Trump himself would not be testifying in the case.
“It’s his call,” the judge said. “I understand that. You understand that. He understands that.”
Trump is not required to appear, as the trial is a civil case and not a criminal one.
The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll’s defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages.
Carroll’s lawsuit is her second against Trump related to her rape allegation.
She previously sued Trump in 2019 after the then-president denied her rape claim by telling The Hill that Carroll was “totally lying,” saying, “I’ll say it with great respect: No. 1, she’s not my type. No. 2, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” That defamation suit has been caught in a procedural back-and-forth over the question of whether Trump, as president, was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the federal government when he made those remarks.
If Trump is determined to have been acting as a government employee, the U.S. government would substitute as the defendant in that suit — which means that case would go away, since the government cannot be sued for defamation.
This month’s trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time, while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House, and possible attempts to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said last week she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — In the United States, Black Americans go missing at a disproportionate rate compared to other races, according to the National Crime Information Center. Last year alone, out of approximately 546,000 people reported missing, 36% of those were Black.
Lawmakers in California are hoping to address the disparity with recent legislation that would allow law enforcement to request an “Ebony Alert” to get the word out about missing Black women and children ages 12 to 25.
Derrica Wilson and Natalie Wilson, cofounders of the Black and Missing Foundation, say the legislation is a “step in the right direction” to getting more attention to cases that often go under the radar. They spoke to “GMA3” about the alarming rate of missing persons in the Black community and what they say needs to change in order to address the problem.
EVA PILGRIM: And joining us now are the cofounders of the Black and Missing Foundation, Derrica and Natalie Wilson. Thank you both so much for being with us. So, Derrica, I want to start with you. Why do such a disproportionate number of people of color go missing in this country? And your foundation says they are less likely to be featured on Amber Alerts. Why is that?
DERRICA WILSON: Absolutely. So we have our community going missing at an alarming rate. Typically, when families are going to law enforcement, their cases are often dismissed. Our children are classified as runaways and runaways does not meet the criteria to initiate an Amber Alert. And when it’s adults, oftentimes their disappearance is associated with some sort of criminal activity. And it really dehumanizes and desensitizes the fact that these are valuable members of our community.
DEMARCO MORGAN: And Natalie, a new bill was introduced in California that would allow law enforcement to request an Ebony Alert to get the word out about missing Black women and children ages 12 to 25. What do you make of this legislation?
NATALIE WILSON: Well, I believe that this legislation is a step in the right direction. When 40% of the missing population are people of color and they are under the radar, they’re not getting the same level of media coverage which can aid in their recovery. That is an issue. So we see this alert, it is in conjunction with the Amber Alert and the Silver Alert, so that the individuals that are most vulnerable can get the help that they need, because awareness is key and getting the media to cover these stories, it will be a great impact on these cases.
PILGRIM: Derrica, do you think that solves the problem? If law enforcement isn’t recognizing these people as missing, does changing the name of the alert fix the issue?
DERRICA: That is a great question. It really is a step in the right direction. But there needs to be enhanced training with law enforcement, and we have to start with the classification. Runaways does not meet the criteria for Amber Alert. So if law enforcement is immediately dismissing the case, would it also qualify for an Ebony Alert? So I think we have to look at it holistically. I think we have to really enhance the training, and I think we need to just terminate the classification “runaway” altogether. These children are missing. They are not in positions to make decisions on their own and they are endangered when they are missing in our community.
MORGAN: Natalie, what systemic changes need to be made to find people who are missing people of color?
NATALIE: Well, as Derrica mentioned, we need to change the classification from runaways, because if you are classified as a runaway, you do not get the Amber Alert, and you definitely don’t get any media coverage at all. But again, awareness is key, and we need to peel back the layers on the issues as to why people are disappearing. Sex trafficking, domestic violence and the list goes on and on. And we need to look at unhoused individuals that are homeless, you know, economic status. So there are so many issues as a community we need to take a look at. But we also need our community to get involved. Don’t turn a blind eye to the issue because it’s not your family member that’s missing.
MORGAN: It is so important to have you guys on the front lines. This is an important subject here, a very important topic, and we appreciate it. All right. Natalie and Derrica Wilson, thank you for being with us.
