An outpost of the fast-food chain Raising Cane’s, which specializes in chicken fingers, will open its doors in Midvale, Utah, but it’ll be completely different from other franchises — because it’s personally designed by Post Malone.
When Posty was growing up in Texas, he enjoyed eating at the Raising Cane’s there, so when he moved to Utah, he personally asked the company’s founder, Todd Graves, if they could open one near his house, and if he could have a hand in designing it.
The exterior of the restaurant is pink with imagery based on the rapper’s tattoos, and inside, there’s solid pink flooring and stainless steel furniture. The walls are decorated with some of the outfits the star wore onstage and for photo shoots, and his guitars will also be hung in the restaurant.
Plus, the managers and crew will all wear Post Malone-themed uniforms and hats, and there’s even a vending machine stocked with exclusive Posty merch, like t-shirts, socks, magnets and ping pong balls — Post is famous for his love of Beer Pong.
Customers can order meals “the Posty Way”: four chicken fingers, crinkle cut fries, two Texas toasts and a half tea/half lemonade drink in a collector’s cup. All the packaging is also Post Malone-themed and includes a surprise decal sticker.
An unusual touch is that because Post is into medieval armor, all the restrooms are designed to look like the inside of a medieval castle, and are decorated with a suit of armor.
“I can’t wait for everyone to order their meal the ‘Posty Way,’” the “Circles” artist said in a statement.
When Single Drunk Female returns for season 2, it’ll bring about a long-awaited screen reunion.
Ally Sheedy’s Carol goes through a season of growth, but she also clashes with her late husband’s sister during a pivotal flashback episode. Who better to play Sheedy’s sister-in-law than Molly Ringwald? Sheedy let ABC Audio know what it was like to act alongside her The Breakfast Club co-star all these years later.
“I love Molly. We have an unspoken language, unspoken communication. There’s things I just don’t have to put into words with Molly. We work together in a kind of seamless way,” Sheedy says. “I feel really safe with Molly. I trust her and she trusts me, so we can go at each other a little bit, if you know what I mean. There’s just all the history. It was so much fun to be with her.”
Sheedy says while it was great to act beside Ringwald again, it was just as “lovely” to hang out with her on set.
“She brought her little dog, and we were talking about her fabulous daughter Mathilda, who is just starting to become an actor,” Sheedy says. “All the things that you could think it would be, it was.”
As for what fans can expect this season, Sheedy teases that Carol will be working on herself.
“As far as Carol is concerned, she’s never wrong and she has been wronged by everybody,” Sheedy says. “She has to start questioning herself, admitting things that she wouldn’t admit and finding it within herself to apologize and try to heal this relationship with Samantha.”
Season 2 of Single Drunk Female premieres Wednesday, April 12, on Freeform, and the entire 10-episode season streams Thursday, April 13, on Hulu.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina on Wednesday launched his 2024 presidential exploratory committee.
“I bear witness to what America can do for anyone, what she’s done for me. But we must rise up to the challenges of our time. This is a fight we must win. And that will take faith, faith in God,” Scott said in a new video.
“I will never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional. And that’s why I’m announcing my exploratory committee for president of the United States,” he went on.
The Republican would face former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and three others for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Scott has been exploring his bid for months, with frequent trips to Iowa on a listening tour called “Faith in America.” The launch of this committee comes the same week he had stops scheduled in Iowa, New Hampshire and his home state of South Carolina. An exploratory committee will allow the senator to raise money for a presidential campaign while he tests the waters in early-voting states.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the past few months,” he wrote an email to supporters. “I’ve been thinking about my faith. I’ve been thinking about the future of our country. And I’ve been thinking about the Left’s plan to ruin America.”
Scott said the date of his exploratory committee rollout — April 12 — was significant in that it was the day which marked the beginning of the Civil War.
The launch video was filmed near Fort Sumter in South Carolina, he said, which was the place of the first clash between the North and South in the winter of 1860.
As the only Black Republican in the Senate, Scott said Democrats “weaponize race to divide us to hold on to their power.”
“Joe Biden and the radical left have chosen a culture of grievance over greatness. They’re promoting victimhood instead of personal responsibility, and they’re indoctrinating our children to believe we live in an evil country. And all too often when they get called out for their failures,” he said, adding, “And when I fought back against their liberal agenda, they called me a prop, a token, because I disrupt their narrative.”
During an interview with Fox & Friends, Scott side-stepped questions on how he plans on besting Trump in a hypothetical primary.
“If we focus on our uniqueness, we focus on our path to where we are, I believe we give the voters a choice so they can decide on how we move forward. As opposed to having a conversation on how to beat a Republican, I think we are better off having a conversation about beating Joe Biden,” he said.
Katy Perry‘s gig as a judge on American Idol doesn’t just mean she gets to help young talent: It also means she gets to treat her own little one to some amazing experiences.
On this Sunday’s episode of American Idol, the remaining Top 26 contestants will be performing at Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa in Hawaii, and Katy says her two-year-old daughter Daisy came along and got a front row seat to all the Disney fun.
“She loves it. She loves Mickey. She loves Minnie. She saw Pluto. She was so happy. She’s a big Disney fan,” Katy tells Access Hollywood.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Katy says, “She went to breakfast and met Minnie and Mickey and she’s not scared at all.” Turns out Daisy and Mickey go way back: Katy says Daisy celebrated Christmas at Disneyland Tokyo last winter.
“She ran up to Mickey. She sang with Moana, I sang with Moana, it was amazing,” she laughs. “You know, I think it’s subliminal. I accidentally named my daughter after Daisy Duck.”
American Idol airs Sunday night on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
Jeremy Renner‘s road to recovery is partially covered with a red carpet.
The twice-Oscar nominated actor and Marvel movie and TV star posed for the cameras Tuesday night at the Los Angeles premiere of his new Disney+ show Rennervations — his first such appearance since his near-fatal snowplow accident in January.
Showing the same sense of humor he did on Monday’s night’s appearance of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Renner was all smiles for photographers, as his family beamed. He walked with a cane to compliment his smart blue suit and tie, and even took time to sign autographs for fans.
The Hawkeye star leaned on a knee scooter in a queue for press interviews, but was seen without it in other photos.
Kimmel also spoke at a Q&A panel about the show that took place at the premiere event, held at the Fox Theater in Westwood Village.
Rennervations sees Jeremy and some of his celebrity pals like Anthony Mackie renovating government vehicles to serve various communities.
The premiere event also featured a “block party” reception that showcased two such “Rennervations”: a mobile recreation center Jeremy and the team built for Big Brothers Big Sisters Northern Nevada and the mobile music bus built for The Base Chicago seen in the series.
(NEW YORK) — ABC News has reviewed 38 images that appear to depict classified U.S. intelligence documents that were among dozens apparently shared by one user of an online server on the chat website Discord on March 1 and March 2.
Discord is organized by servers; a Discord user can create their own server or can join another server. The server where the images were shared is dedicated to a YouTube creator with some 243,000 subscribers and which hosts comedic videos about philosophy, politics, and religion.
On April 7, shortly after the Discord server was publicly named in connection with the reported document leak, the area of the chat server where the images were being posted was deactivated. The server itself is still active; much of its activity now refers to the images shared there and the public interest in them.
Here is a timeline of significant developments:
February: The first of 107 images of possible documents are reportedly shared by one user of a YouTube creator’s Discord server, according to Bellingcat researcher Aric Toler.
· Feb. 24: A reference is made in the Discord server to leaked U.S. documents.
· March 1, 2: More images, including 38 reviewed by ABC News, appear in the YouTube creator’s Discord server.
· March 4: Ten of the images are re-shared in a separate Discord server devoted to the online game Minecraft
· April 5: Three images appear on 4chan; five appear in Telegram posts by a pro-Russian channel; one of those contains clear signs of manipulation to inflate Ukrainian and deflate Russian casualty figures.
· April 6: The New York Times reveals the existence of the alleged leaked documents.
· April 7: The Discord channel where possible documents were shared is publicly identified; later that day, the channel removes the images and begins to restrict access.
A review of publicly available content in the server where images of the alleged documents were posted points to pervasive racism, antisemitism and references to sexual violence. As in many niche online communities, this group appears to have a language of its own and it is difficult to discern sincere statements from ironic ones.
Each of the possible documents in the 38 images reviewed by ABC News shows creases suggesting they were folded twice. The images include detailed updates on the war in Ukraine as well as a Central Intelligence Agency briefing containing intelligence on U.S. allies, partners and adversaries.
Some images of the possible documents include visible background features such as a hunting magazine, a knife, a tube of Gorilla Glue, and a strap for the company Bushnell, which makes optics and other hunting accessories.
How the alleged documents spread
According to Toler, 107 images were shared by one user in the Discord server, some appearing in February; Toler said he has seen over 50 of them. ABC News has not independently verified the existence of more than 38 images.
After they were shared in the YouTube creator’s Discord server on March 1 and 2, 10 images of possible documents were re-shared by another user on March 4 to a separate Discord server, dedicated to the online game Minecraft.
On April 5, three images appeared in posts on 4chan; the 4chan posts were made in the context of a debate about the war in Ukraine. Five images also appeared on April 5 on a pro-Russia Telegram channel; one of those showed signs of crude manipulation to inflate Ukrainian and deflate Russian casualty figures.
Origin of the alleged documents
The original source of the possible documents or the earliest date they were shared is still unknown. An archived Twitter post from a now-deleted account, which appears to belong to the user who shared the images to the Discord server on March 1 and 2, claims that the user “found some info from a now banned server and passed it on” to the YouTuber’s Discord server.
According to another post by the same account this unidentified server had a racist, offensive name and has since been deleted.
ABC News has reviewed one post, dated Feb. 24, in the YouTuber’s Discord server, referencing the images. This suggests that at least the existence of these possible documents was known to members of this server before the large tranche of images were posted on March 1 and 2.
Toler told ABC News that “hundreds” of images were reportedly posted in a separate Discord server with a racist, offensive name before being re-shared to the YouTuber’s Discord server, something ABC News has not independently verified.
(LONDON) — Italy’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill to fine vandals who damage monuments or other cultural sites up to 60,000 euros (about $65,000).
The legislation, championed by Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano, was proposed following a string of vandalism by environmental activists across the European nation. Earlier this month, activists protesting fossil fuels dyed the water black in Rome’s iconic Barracia fountain at the foot of the Spanish Steps.
“The attacks on monuments and artistic sites produce economic damage to all,” Sangiuliano said in a statement on Tuesday. “To clean it up, the intervention of highly specialized personnel and the use of very costly machines are needed.”
“Whoever carries out these acts must assume also the financial responsibility,” he added.
The fines would range from 10,000 to 60,000 euros (about $11,000 to $65,000) and would help with repairs and clean-up. Offenders could also face criminal charges.
Vandalism by environmental activists to the facade of Palazzo Madama, a 15th-century palace that houses the Italian Senate, recently cost the government 40,000 euros (nearly $44,000) to repair, according to Sangiuliano.
Last year, an American tourist caused 25,000 euros (about $27,000) worth of damage to Rome’s Spanish Steps after throwing an electric bicycle down the 18th century stairway. That incident came just weeks after a Saudi tourist drove a Maserati down the 138 steps, causing an estimated 50,000 euros ($54,649) worth of damage.
The bill swung into law following the Cabinet’s approval on Tuesday but will expire if it is not adopted by Parliament within 60 days. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government holds a majority and is expected to pass the legislation.
Italy joins a host of other European countries and cities that have imposed similar measures to deter badly behaving tourists. The Netherlands’ capital, Amsterdam, has introduced several new regulations this year as part of its “stay away” campaign, including the early closure of bars and restaurants as well as a ban on cannabis in its famous red light district.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 5% last month compared to a year ago, extending a months-long slowdown of price increases as the Federal Reserve aims to bring inflation down to normal levels without pushing the U.S. into a recession, government data on Wednesday showed.
The fresh data showed the lowest year-over-year inflation rate since May 2021.
In February, year-over-year inflation was 6%. The data released on Wednesday marked the ninth consecutive month of smaller price hikes.
Prices showed a monthly gain of 0.1%, complicating a smooth downward path to normal price levels.
Despite an overall cooling of inflation, price hikes for some grocery store staples remain well above the average rate.
The price of flour jumped more than 17% over the past year, while the cost of eggs spiked 36% over that time, government data showed.
Since last year, the cost of margarine has leapt 33% and prices for cookies have surged more than 16%.
Some prices, however, have fallen over the past year, offering some relief for buyers.
Gas prices dropped 17% over the past year, government data showed, while television prices fell 14% over the period.
The data release arrives less than a month after the Federal Reserve imposed the latest in an aggressive string of borrowing cost increases, despite concern that previous rate increases helped trigger the nation’s banking crisis.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak, though it remains more than double the Fed’s target of 2%.
The rapid rise in interest rates, however, tanked the value of bonds held by Silicon Valley Bank, precipitating its failure and cascading damage for the financial sector.
With an aggressive string of rate hikes last seen in the 1980s, the Fed aims to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
Mounting evidence suggests rate hikes have slowed economic activity.
Nearly 190 banks are at risk of collapse amid high interest rates and declining asset values, according to a study released by a team of university researchers last month.
Meanwhile, the U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March, which marks robust job growth but a reduction from an average of 334,000 jobs added each month over the previous six months, according to government data released on Friday.
The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it expects the U.S. economy to expand by 1.6% this year, which would prove a slowdown from 2.1% growth in gross domestic product last year.
Still, some key areas of the economy have proven resilient, despite the rate hikes.
Existing-home sales spiked 14.5% in February, ending a 12-month streak of declines and recording the largest monthly percentage increases in nearly two years, National Association of Realtors data showed.
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales fell moderately in February but remained solid, suggesting that households still retain some pandemic-era savings.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to delay a writer’s defamation and battery case that is scheduled to go on trial this month, arguing the “deluge” of media coverage of his recent indictment on 34 criminal charges makes fairness impossible.
The writer, E. Jean Carroll, sued Trump in November alleging he defamed her by calling her a liar when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room. She 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 repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations.
The trial is scheduled to begin April 25 in Manhattan federal court but Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, asked the judge for a “cooling off” period in an overnight filing.
“President Trump can only receive a fair trial in a calmer media environment than the one created by the New York County District Attorney,” Tacopina wrote in a letter to the judge asking for a four-week delay.
If the trial goes forward as scheduled, “prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind,” Tacopina said.
There has been no immediate response from Carroll’s side.
Trump is not required to attend the trial. The judge has given Trump’s attorneys until next week to inform the court whether he will attend.
Following NBC’s renewal of all six of Dick Wolf‘s series on Monday, Universal Television has extended Wolf’s overall deal with the studio for two more years, according to Deadline. With the renewal of Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, Chicago Med, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime on Monday, and the existing two-season CBS renewals for FBI, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, all nine of Wolf’s current broadcast scripted series are locked in for next season. Wolf also has an upcoming half-hour police drama for Amazon Freevee, tentatively titled On Call, bringing his total on-air scripted series to an even 10…
Speaking of L&O, Kelli Giddish is set to reprise her role as Amanda Rollins in both Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime, according to TVLine. She’ll appear in the season 24 finale of SVU and the penultimate episode of OC‘s Season 3. Giddish’s character made her final appearance in December after marrying Peter Scanavino‘s ADA Sonny Carisi Jr. and accepting a teaching position at Fordham University. Upon her return, Rollins will reportedly surprise her former colleagues with the news that she’s pregnant…
Modern Family alum Julie Bowen has been tapped to star in the upcoming Peacock series Hysterical, according to Variety. The coming-of-age thriller follows Satanic Panic — a satanic heavy metal band of outcasts in the ’80s who capitalize on the town’s sudden interest in the occult, until “a bizarre series of murders, kidnappings, and reported ‘supernatural activity’ triggers a leather-studded witch hunt that leads directly back to them,” per the streamer. Bowen will play Linda Campbell, the mother of one of the teenage outcasts…
