“The Grid” awaits you. Not inside your PC, but in Orlando. The new TRON Lightcycle/Run at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom officially powers up this week.
The futuristic thrill ride is based on the groundbreaking 1982 Tron film and its sequel, 2010’s Tron Legacy, recreating the famous lightcycle race sequences, where guests — or “Users,” as they’re known in Tron-speak — strap into their own lightcycle and propel forward on the fastest indoor/outdoor coaster at any Disney theme park.
One of the first to experience the ride? Bruce Boxleitner, who played the title character in the movies.
“We got a little teary-eyed,” Boxleitner tells ABC Audio, adding the attraction represents a homecoming for the beloved franchise. “I’m standing there with Steven Lisberger, the creator of Tron who directed the first movie. I said, ‘Forty-three years, Steven, and they finally, they recognize the amazing thing about this creation.'”
TRON Lightcycle/Run boasts a track stretching more than 3,000 feet and is the largest expansion of the Magic Kingdom in over 10 years. In true Disney fashion, it offers up an immersive experience on all sensory levels.
“I’ve flown in an F-16, I’ve flown in a P-51 Mustang, but I’ve never flown like that connected to the ground,” Boxleitner says.
For fans, the ride offers a look into a past that Boxleitner felt was far, far ahead of its own design. “In 1982 when it came out, I don’t think Hollywood really knew what to do about it,” he says. “But I’m telling you, those kids pumping quarters into those arcade machines got it immediately. Tron keeps plugging along, because I actually think it’s the science fiction we are living.”
Disney World and ABC News are both owned by parent company Disney.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly a week after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia, former Gov. Bill Richardson, an expert on political prisoner negotiations, called the journalist’s detention “unacceptable” and spoke about what it may take to free Gershkovich and other Americans detained abroad.
“We’re working on cases in Russia with other Americans that don’t have the celebrity status of Brittney Griner. But what is needed is a Brittney Griner-type campaign that involves the public, that involves international issues. That involves putting pressure on the Russians and our administration to get this done,” Richardson told ABC News.
Griner is a basketball star who was arrested in Russia and detained for 10 months last year before her release in December 2022. Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was detained in the U.S.
Richardson and his namesake center work on behalf of families of political prisoners and hostages in foreign countries. Last week, the Richardson Center helped secure the release of Navy veteran James Frisvold, who was held in Guerrero, Mexico, for 13 years in “de-facto pretrial detention for a crime he did not commit,” the organization said in a news release.
The Richardson Center only gets involved in such cases if the prisoner’s family reaches out to them and requests it, which Gershkovich’s family hasn’t done, Richardson said.
“My foundation works for families at no cost to them, but we don’t want to interfere, and it has to be their request. We work with the [White House] administration, too, but they don’t tell me what to do, but we coordinate with them. So it has to be an overall effort,” Richardson said.
Gershkovich was detained last week in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage. Russia’s Federal Security Service has accused the reporter of spying and collecting “state secrets” — which the White House has called “ridiculous.”
The Wall Street Journal said in a statement it “vehemently denies” the allegations against Gershkovich. More than three dozen of the world’s top media organizations called for Gerskhovich’s release in a letter to Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
When asked why he believes Gershkovich is being held, Richardson pointed to the “deterioration” of U.S.-Russia relations. He also views the arrest as a “tit for tat” after the U.S. Justice Department charged Russian national Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov with spying for Russia under the guise of a Brazilian graduate student. The third reason, Richardson said, is that Russia views the case as an “espionage issue.”
“Evan is not a spy. He’s a journalist doing this job. But the Russians have increased level of confrontation with this arrest, and we have to deal with this at the highest level,” Richardson said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Sunday to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and urged for Gershkovich’s “immediate release,” the State Department said.
Richardson, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, called for an “international effort,” in Gershkovich’s case, because the issue is not limited to American journalists. “Journalists across the world are being detained,” he said.
Richardson was also involved with recent efforts to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and U.S. Marine Trevor Reed.
“The Russians don’t give up anything for free. They want prisoner exchanges. They want Russians in America that are detained,” Richardson said.
There are about 70 wrongfully detained Americans around the world, Richardson said.
Gershkovich has pleaded not guilty to the spying charges. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
(LANSING, Mich.) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill Wednesday repealing the state’s nearly century-old abortion ban.
Last month, the state’s House and Senate passed HB 4006, a single-sentence bill, which revokes the 1931 law that criminalized abortion.
Specifically, the bill repealed Section 750.14, which makes it a felony — punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000 — to administer drugs that induce a miscarriage unless the mother’s life is in danger.
It also repealed Section 750.15, which makes it a misdemeanor to advertise, publish or sell “any pills, powder, drugs or combination of drugs” that can cause an abortion.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, questions remained about whether or not the 1931 law would be put back in place.
“Obstetricians, including myself, we were very concerned because we understand that there are a lot of appropriate medical indications for providing medical and surgical abortion for women across the state of Michigan,” Dr. Omari Young, an obstetrician-gynecologist and abortion provider in Michigan, told ABC News. “So, we were not only concerned for the autonomy of women, but also the quality and safety of care because we know that not having access to safe and legal abortion can lead to significant poor health outcomes for women across the state of Michigan.”
Young was part of a team of doctors that advocated for the repeal of the bill and for reproductive access to be protected in the state.
A Michigan state judge ruled in September that the ban is unconstitutional, barring any state prosecutors from enforcing it.
Two months later, in the November mid-term elections, Michiganders voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would add protections for reproductive rights.
The amendment defines reproductive freedom as “the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management and infertility care.”
Young and several other physicians involved in repealing Michigan’s abortion ban were on hand to watch Whitmer sign the bill.
“It’s a surreal moment but, ultimately, it’s like icing on the cake for all the hard work that Gov. Whitmer, all the policymakers, the advocates, the grassroot workers, and most importantly, the women and patients in the state of Michigan, all that hard work is culminating into this great event, we formally signed a bill to repeal the 1931 ban,” Young said.
Whitmer has openly expressed her support for abortion access in and out of Michigan and signed an executive order in July refusing to extradite women who come to Michigan from other states seeking abortion and refusing to extradite providers for offering the procedure.
“In November, Michiganders sent a clear message: we deserve to make our own decisions about own bodies,” Whitmer said in a statement provided to ABC News. “Today, we are coming together to repeal our extreme 1931 law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing nurses and doctors for doing their jobs.”
The statement continued, “Standing up for people’s fundamental freedoms is the right thing to do and it’s also just good economics. By getting this done, we will help attract talent and business investment too.”
(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump called for the return of the death penalty in a series of ads in 1989 amid the case of the “Central Park Five” – five Black and brown boys wrongfully accused of rape and assault in New York City.
More than 30 years later, some of the now-exonerated men say the former president’s indictment is “karma.”
The case known as the “Central Park Five” began on April 19, 1989, when jogger Trisha Meili was raped, brutally beaten and left for dead in the park. She survived and testified, but did not remember her assault.
Five Black and Latino teens — Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise — were taken into custody, hounded in police interrogations and ultimately gave false confessions.
Trump took out full page ads in local newspapers days after the attack, calling to “Bring back the death penalty. Bring back our police!” The ads never explicitly call for the death penalty against the then-dubbed “Central Park Five.”
The five were wrongfully convicted of various crimes, but their convictions were vacated in 2002 following a confession from a different man whose admission was affirmed by DNA evidence. Following a settlement between New York City and the five men, Trump said the city should not have settled with the Central Park Five and continued to rail against the men, according to an op-ed he wrote in the Daily News at the time.
In response to Trump’s arraignment, Salaam released a statement on Tuesdsay in the format of Trump’s full-page 1980s ads:
Santana, one of the now-“Exonerated Five,” criticized those who support Trump on Monday, and asked his social media followers to “never forget” Trump’s actions against the five men: “#Neverforget … because we never had a chance to,” said Santana in an Instagram post.
Salaam also spoke on MSNBC last week about Trump’s indictment and the failings of the justice system in the past.
“For someone to say that ‘if they could do it to Trump, they could do it to anyone,’ — they do it to black and brown people all the time,” said Saalam. “The fact that Black and brown people are in prison, have been there for crimes they haven’t commit, like myself, is … a travesty of justice. And the truth of the matter is that we need this legal system to work and I’m excited to see what will happen on Tuesday.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Tuesday after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last week.
ABC News’ Nakylah Carter contributed to this report.
Jimmy Buffett is one of the newest members of the billionaires club. The “Margaritaville” singer has landed on Forbes’ annual World’s Billionaires List, one of 150 new people making the list this year.
The mag notes that Buffett, who lands on the list at 2,540, has made his $1 billion fortune not only from his music, but from his lucrative Margaritaville brand. The brand includes 150 themed restaurants, more than 30 vacation resorts, and even casinos in Louisiana and Puerto Rico. There’s also plenty of merch, including apparel, pickleball sets, frozen drink mixes and booze, such as Margaritaville tequila and ready-to-drink cocktails.
And there could be even more on the horizon, with his new Margaritaville at Sea cruises to the Caribbean.
Breaking down Buffett’s billion, the mag notes that 56.8% is from cash, with his Margaritaville holdings making up 18% of his fortune and his music catalog another 5%. His fortune also comes from his homes, planes and yacht.
The new episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+ features some very recognizable faces from our planet, playing in that galaxy far, far away.
A trip to uncharted planet Plazir-15 to meet up with her former Mandalorian allies leads Katee Sackhoff‘s Bo-Katan Kyrze and Pedro Pascal‘s Din Djarin to a meeting with the leaders of “the only remaining direct democracy in the Outer Rim.”
Those leaders — The Duchess and Captain Bombardier — are played, respectively, by Lizzo and Jack Black, who are revealed wearing finery at a lavish dinner party attended by various alien species.
Lizzo’s Duchess explains she was part of the planet’s royal family, and they now act as the leaders of the democracy with Black’s character, a former Imperial tasked with rebuilding the planet.
The pair met and fell in love in the interim, she explains. “We are both royals and elected leaders,” he says proudly.
Before hiring Din and Bo-Katan to deal with a problem of rogue droids, Lizzo is seen babying Baby Yoda, aka Grogu, excitedly feeding him by hand after catching the hungry child, who flips into her lap.
For the fangirl who once dressed up as Grogu for Halloween, it was a full-circle moment.
The episode also features another familiar face in Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd, playing Commissioner Helgait, who oversees the increasingly troublesome droids on which the pampered society relies.
Jethro Tull’s new album, RökFlöte, is set to drop later this month, and they are sharing yet another new track with fans.
The band just released the new song “Hammer On Hammer,” which was inspired by the Norse god Thor. The accompanying video features images of Thor battling his mortal enemy, the sea serpent Jormungand, along with images of current wars and future destruction.
This is the third track Jethro Tull has released from the album, following “Ginnungagap” and “The Navigator.”
RökFlöte, the follow-up to 2022’s The Zealot Gene, is set to drop April 21. The album is being released in a variety of formats, including two limited deluxe editions featuring bonus material, an in-depth interview with Ian Anderson and more. All formats are now available for preorder.
And RökFlöte will be celebrated on April 17 with a special premiere in Dolby Atmos immersive audio. The event will take place at Dolby Studios in London, and Anderson will be in attendance, along with Bruce Soord, who mixed the spatial audio version of the album.
(NEW YORK) — Communities across the United States — from small towns to big cities — were on alert for tornadoes on Wednesday, as a major storm system sweeps through areas still reeling from devastating twisters.
There were an unspecified number of injuries and fatalities confirmed in Missouri’s Bollinger County after a tornado hit the Glenallen area, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
At least nine other tornadoes had already been reported across Iowa and Illinois, including a “large and extremely dangerous tornado” that touched down near Canton, Illinois, on Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
On Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The cities of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Detroit were included in the watch areas, where forecasters said conditions will be favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. People were warned to seek shelter.
As the storm continues to move east, severe weather is in the forecast for a vast area — from western Texas to western New York. Cities in the bull’s-eye for damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes on Wednesday include Memphis, Louisville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, according to the latest forecast.
The forecast comes just days after a powerful storm system unleashed violent tornadoes and severe thunderstorms across the country, killing at least 32 people and leaving thousands without power.
The National Weather Service has confirmed at least 81 tornadoes touched down in 14 states on March 31 and April 1. It was the largest single tornado outbreak to hit the U.S. in a year, since the one that spawned 140 twisters in southeastern states — from Texas to Maryland — on April 12-13, 2020.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 05, 1:30 PM EDT
At least 5 confirmed dead in Bollinger County, Missouri
At least five people have died in Bollinger County, according to local Sheriff Casey Graham.
“Several of our communities in Bollinger County, specifically the Grassy and Glenallen areas, were hit with what appears to be a significant tornado early this morning,” Graham said in statement posted on Facebook.
Images show that the village of Glenallen sustained heavy damage. It sits just 4 miles from Marble Hill, the county seat.
Search and rescue efforts remain ongoing, Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol, told ABC News on Wednesday morning.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Apr 05, 11:01 AM EDT
Tornado watch issued for Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for several regions under threat of severe storms on Wednesday.
Included in the advisory are central and southern Indiana, north-central Kentucky and southwest Ohio. The formation of tornadoes could be “likely” in cities like Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville, according to the NWS.
The threats include “widespread” damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph, the advisory states.
The tornado watch is in effect until 5 p.m. ET.
Apr 05, 10:54 AM EDT
Multiple fatalities reported in Missouri’s Bollinger County
An unspecified number of injuries and fatalities have been confirmed in Missouri’s Bollinger County after a tornado hit the Glenallen area, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
At least nine other tornadoes had already been reported across Iowa and Illinois, including a “large and extremely dangerous tornado” that touched down near Canton, Illinois, on Tuesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced he will visit hard-hit Bollinger County.
Parson will “assess damage and learn what resources will be needed during recovery” in the rural county in the state’s southeast, he said in a tweet.
“We appreciate the work of our first responders and the many neighbors who reached out to help their neighbors, and our prayers are with the loved ones of those who were killed in the storms,” the governor said.
Apr 05, 10:54 AM EDT
Parts of 8 states on alert for tornadoes
Parts of eight states — Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio — are on alert for tornadoes Wednesday as a major storm sweeps through areas already reeling from devastating twisters.
As the storm continues to move east, severe weather is in the forecast for a vast area from western Texas to western New York.
The forecast comes just days after a powerful storm system unleashed violent tornadoes and severe thunderstorms across the country, killing at least 32 people and leaving thousands without power.
The National Weather Service confirmed at least 81 tornadoes touched down in 14 states on March 31 and April 1. It was the largest single tornado outbreak to hit the U.S. in a year, since the one that spawned 140 twisters in southeastern states — from Texas to Maryland — on April 12-13, 2020.
Rival Sons have premiered the video for “Bird in the Hand,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, DARKFIGHTER.
The clip follows the “Do Your Worst” outfit after they’ve successfully pulled off a heist. However, the celebrating at the safe house soon stops when, as is often the case in these situations, one of them betrays the others.
You can watch the “Bird in the Hand” video streaming now on YouTube.
DARKFIGHTER, the follow-up to 2019’s Feral Roots, drops June 2. Another companion record, LIGHTBRINGER, is due out later this year.
Whitney Houston‘s posthumous gospel record has made it onto Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart. I Go to the Rock: The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston has debuted in the #2 position after earning 4,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 30, according to Luminate. The album is her second to hit the Gospel chart following The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack, which arrived at #1 in December 1996 and dominated for 26 weeks.
I Go to the Rock features studio recordings and live performances that showcase Whitney’s love of gospel music. It includes six newly released tracks, including “He Can Use Me,” “I Found a Wonderful Way,” “Testimony,” “This Day,” “He/Believe” and a live rendition of Simon & Garfunkel‘s“Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
