Toosii participates in the BET Experience Celebrity Basketball Game on June 29, 2024, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for BET)
Toosii’s time as a college football player has already come to an end. He had joined the Louisiana State University Tigers as a wide receiver but had to pull out due to NCAA violations.
Speaking on the In the Bayou with Tyrann Mathieu podcast Wednesday, LSU Tigers football head coach Lane Kiffin reflected on Toosii joining the team, noting he initially wondered if it was a stunt.
“I met with him. He’s awesome,” Kiffin said. “He is an awesome person, figured out life, going through a lot of stuff like a lot of us, in a really good spot, and he just wanted to try.”
When asked if Toosii was still on the team, Kiffin confirmed that he isn’t. “He just recently, like, after seeing it all and kinda like going through it, he was doing well. I think he just had to balance everything, and then there’s little limitations on what he can make and do,” Kiffin explained.
“I think he did, he signed with like one of the, I don’t know what they’re called, the gambling company thing where you do the commercials for him and stuff, and that shouldn’t work in the NCAA, you know,” he continued. “So he went back to his professional career.”
Despite Toosii’s departure, Kiffin maintained that he “really enjoyed being around him.”
“It wasn’t a stunt at all,” he said. “He really wanted to see if he could do it, and I like how he impacted some of our guys.”
The news arrives days after Toosii released his new single, “Yesterday.”
Sabrina Carpenter attends the 68th GRAMMY Awards on Feb. 1, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
A judge has granted Sabrina Carpenter a restraining order against a man who has repeatedly shown up at her home and who, in May, allegedly attempted to force his way in.
The order bars William Applegate, 31, from contacting the singer, her sister Sarah Carpenter and her sister’s significant other, George Smith, who both live with her, for five years. The order is set to expire June 17, 2031, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
According to the order, Applegate cannot “contact” Sabrina Carpenter, Sarah Carpenter or George Smith, and is prohibited from “disturbing their peace.” In addition, he must stay 100 yards away from them, their home, their workplace and their vehicles. If he doesn’t obey, he faces a possible fine of up to $1,000, a possible one-year jail sentence or both.
According to The Associated Press, Applegate appeared at the hearing on Wednesday in LA and said that he and Sabrina Carpenter were part of a classified military program that required them to “be together as soon as possible” for “national and global security.” He also stated that he’d be “more than willing” to stay away from Sabrina Carpenter if she told him herself. She was not present.
As previously reported, the “Espresso” artist, 27, filed a civil harassment restraining order on May 29 against Applegate. In her declaration, she alleged that he went to her Los Angeles home on May 23 “unannounced and uninvited” and “physically grabbed the lever of my front door and forcefully pushed it down, actively trying to force his way inside my home without any invitation, permission, or consent whatsoever.”
Detective Peter Doomanis, of the Los Angeles Police Department, wrote that Sabrina Carpenter was “in genuine fear for her personal safety” at the time of the incident. Applegate was released after his May 23 arrest, and returned to Sabrina Carpenter’s home on May 24 and May 25, according to the singer’s private security guards in court docs.
Hasan Brown, a private security guard for Sabrina Carpenter, wrote in a separate declaration that he had noticed Applegate’s vehicle parked in the vicinity of her home on multiple prior occasions beginning sometime after April 19 through at least May 25, “with the vehicle progressively parking in closer proximity” to the singer’s residence over time.
The Neighbourhood on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Disney/Randy Holmes)
The Neighbourhood has premiered the video for “Planet,” a track off the band’s latest album, 2025’s (((((ultraSOUND))))).
The clip might trigger anyone with entomophobia, or the fear of insects, as it includes close-up shots of ants, cockroaches and a praying mantis.
If you can stomach that, you can watch the “Planet” video on YouTube.
(((((ultraSOUND))))) marked the fifth Neighbourhood album and their first in five years. A deluxe version, dubbed (((((ultraSOUND)))))+, dropped in February.
The Neighbourhood will launch a U.S. headlining tour in October.
Ozzy Osbourne performs during half-time of the 2022 NFL season opening game between the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium on September 08, 2022 in Inglewood, California. (Harry How/Getty Images)
A new statue of the late Ozzy Osbourne has been unveiled at the France’s Hellfest.
Sharon Osbourne has posted an Instagram video of the statue, which shows the Prince of Darkness stretching his arms forward with his palms up.
In the post’s caption, Sharon calls the statue “absolutely stunning.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be at Hellfest for the unveiling of Ozzy’s statue,” Sharon writes. “Unfortunately I had an unexpected trip to the hospital earlier in the week.”
Hellfest is also home to a statue of Ozzy’s longtime friend and collaborator, late Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister.
Stock photo of a crocodile. (Diego Kondratzky/500px/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 3-year-old boy wound up in a crocodile enclosure at a zoo in eastern England, suffering serious injuries, according to police.
The “distressing incident” occurred Thursday afternoon at Johnsons of Old Hurst, a family-run farm and zoo located in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, police said.
The boy “ended up in the crocodile enclosure” and was taken to a local hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition, Cambridgeshire police said.
A 30-year-old man who is an apparent stranger to the child has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the incident, police said.
“At this stage we are speaking to people who were at the zoo at the time of this distressing incident to understand more about the circumstances,” Det. Insp. Verity McCann said in a statement. “We do not believe the man arrested and the child are known to each other.”
The incident remains under investigation.
Huntingdon Member of Parliament Ben Obese-Jecty said his “thoughts are with the young victim and his family during a hugely traumatic and difficult time.”
“This is now a live criminal investigation and I would ask people to refrain from speculation online,” he said in a statement on social media.
Johnsons of Old Hurst said its tropical house, which is home to multiple species of crocodiles and other reptiles, will remain closed until further notice “out of respect to the family.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the boy and his family following the incident that occurred today,” Johnsons of Old Hurst said in a statement on social media Thursday.
Grateful Dead ‘Steal Your Face’ (Rhino Entertainment)
Grateful Dead has released another track off the upcoming 50th anniversary remaster of their Steal Your Face live album.
The latest is a performance of the song “Big River,” a cover of Johnny Cash’s 1958 tune. They previously released a performance of “Black Throated Wind.”
“I’ve never met a ‘Big River’ I didn’t like,” writes Dead archivist David Lemieux in the description of the release. “Widely considered to have hit its peak in 1974, the Grateful Dead picked a perfect version of ‘Big River’ to act as its definitive recorded rendition on Steal Your Face.”
Steal Your Face (50th Anniversary Remaster) is set to drop June 26, 50 years to the day of the album’s original release. It will be released as a two-LP set in The Dead’s official Pantone colors, Grateful Red and Stealie Blue; the vinyl will split the colors half and half, with the addition of some black splatter.
The album will also be available for streaming and digital download.
Originally released June 26, 1976, Steal Your Face captures performances from The Dead’s five-show run at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in October 1974. The tour was a farewell of sorts, as the band would go on an indefinite hiatus after the shows. The tour hiatus eventually ended in June 1976.
Students walk through the halls between classes at Rippowam Middle School on September 14, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Nayleen Escalante-Villatoro, a sixth grader at Brookland Middle School in Washington, D.C., has struggled significantly with attending school.
She said whenever there are family problems that force her mother to take off work, she has to step in.
“Me and my older sibling stay home to watch the little ones,” Nayleen told ABC News, adding, “It makes me feel stressed because I’m missing school and I’m not learning.”
This not only frustrates Nayleen, but it also impacts her studies: “I have to do a lot of makeup work after all the missing assignments that I haven’t done,” she added.
Kids like Nayleen face a multitude of challenges at school — when they’re there.
From the rigors of learning how to read and write to addressing mental health concerns and outside distractions, students juggle more than just their classroom workloads. A combination of these issues and other societal factors has fueled an attendance crisis that’s led to a spike in student chronic absenteeism — defined as missing at least 10% of the school year — in recent years, according to experts who spoke to ABC News.
While one in three students nationwide experienced chronic absenteeism during the 2021-2022 academic year, the rate is declining, from up to 30% to roughly 24% by the start of the past school year, according to estimates from the Return 2 Learn tracker reviewed by ABC News.
Government officials are also collecting data on K-12 chronic absenteeism but the Department of Education recently told ABC News it couldn’t yet provide it. Its National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) told ABC News in 2023 that chronic absenteeism increased from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, there’s been no silver bullet to the problem. Different states have taken their own approach, from going door-to-door to check on students to providing high-impact tutoring at school. Education and health experts also emphasize family engagement, community relationships, extracurricular activities and outdoor recreation are potential solutions for chronically absent students.
Hedy Chang, CEO of Attendance Works, a nonprofit focused on addressing absenteeism, said that when kids aren’t showing up to school, it’s an indication that engagement isn’t happening.
“When you treat it as a matter of engagement, that’s when we build the relationships with families, which make them trust schools and it builds a relationship so that we can actually find out what are the underlying causes of why kids aren’t showing up,” Chang told ABC News.
United Family Advocates Executive Director Joanna Lack is calling for more attention to those underlying causes. Lack worked on the issue for many years as the chief performance officer in Camden, New Jersey, and has since transitioned to the non-profit organization dedicated to keeping families safe and together.
“We’ve been looking at the wrong problem instead of opening up the hood and saying ‘What’s actually going on here?'” she said.
Home life among ‘constellation’ of issues
Student absenteeism is often correlated with household or child welfare problems that impact the student’s school life, according to UFA’s Lack.
“Chronic absenteeism is like the symptom that you experience, but it’s not the disease, and we’ve been treating it like it’s the disease,” Lack said.
The Department of Health and Human Services does not have a specific initiative targeting chronic absenteeism. However, Head Start and the Family Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement-Fatherhood (FORGE) program under the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) both aim to improve outcomes in child welfare and enhance early childhood education, according to HHS officials.
Chang said there isn’t an urgent need for new federally funded programs or aid, just better use of ones that are available.
“I need existing programs to think about how they use chronic absence data to collaborate and work together to support kids and families and make sure the kids who need their resources, or the schools that need their resources, are getting it,” she said.
There’s a “constellation” of issues that contribute to increased absences, from child welfare involvement to unstable housing, but Lack noted that families are complex and kids don’t come in silos.
Activity makes a ‘huge difference’
Nayleen is one of the thousands of students across the country who participate in extracurricular activities through the SCORES program, which creates safe environments where young people can build connections with their communities, according to its website. She said DC SCORES — which provides soccer, poetry, and service-learning programs — has helped her return to class more regularly.
She explained that playing soccer with DC SCORES has empowered her and she looks forward to talking to her coach after attending school.
“It helps me because whenever I’m going through stuff he will understand me,” she said. “Sometimes he will help me. He will sit down and have a talk with me,” she said, adding, “Whenever I’m down, he will ask me if I’m OK.”
At the last month’s inaugural National Executive Forum on Health and Outdoor Recreation, which combined outdoor recreation industry and health leaders to promote using recreation as a pillar of public health, experts told ABC News that recess makes a “huge difference” for holistic growth in adolescents.
Outdoor Recreation Roundtable President Jessica Turner emphasized that being outside is fundamental to student health.
“We’ve stepped back so far from incorporating the outdoors into our lives and to step back into it doesn’t take very much,” Turner told ABC News. “It’s not a heavy lift.”
Schools supporting parents and kids
Chang, of Attendance Works, said chronic absenteeism isn’t inevitable.
She stressed that schools are starting to adopt more effective family engagement strategies for those dealing with attendance issues.
Shavar Jeffries, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, which operates the largest public charter school network in the nation, has utilized some simple yet effective solutions to correct absenteeism.
Jeffries told ABC News that when a student doesn’t show up, they call the family “immediately.”
“‘Johnny, Mary, didn’t come to school today. We really need them because they are going to miss an opportunity to learn,'” he said, adding “Then, frankly, sometimes we also say: You got to figure it out.”
“Get your baby to school because they can’t learn to fulfill that potential if you’re not able to do that,” Jeffries added.
An Influenza Vaccine is prepared for a patient, Sept. 12, 2025, in Coral Gables, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(SAN ANTONIO) — The basic training facility for the Air Force in San Antonio, Texas, is experiencing a flu outbreak following the end of mandatory vaccination for all service members.
As of Wednesday, there are at least 159 known cases among recruits and two hospitalizations at Joint Base San Antonio, two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. One source told ABC News the number of cases and hospitalizations may be higher.
The outbreak comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in April that the annual flu vaccine would be optional for all U.S. military personnel, both active and reserve.
Previously, the flu vaccine was mandatory, but the new policy is in line with a previous change of making the COVID-19 vaccine optional.
The Pentagon has granted the military services exceptions to the policy, so the flu vaccine can be required in certain cases.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the outbreak to ABC News and said in a statement that over the last three weeks there has been a “localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training.”
“Medical professionals and Public Health officials have implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees to reduce further exposure and continue to monitor the situation,” the statement read. “Medical personnel are also monitoring trainees who were in close contact with sick members in case they become symptomatic.”
The spokesperson said symptomatic trainees are receiving “the appropriate care” including antiviral medications such as Tamiflu.
“Once they are cleared by medical professionals they will return to training,” the statement said.
Earlier this year, when Hegseth ended mandatory vaccination, he referred to the policy as “overly broad and not rational.”
“Our new policy is simple: If you, an American warrior entrusted to defend this nation, believe that the flu vaccine is in your best interest, then you are free to take it; you should. But we will not force you,” Hegseth said.
The sources told ABC News that there is 40% flu vaccination rate among recruits at the San Antonio base since the mandate was lifted. Previously, the rate was nearly 100%.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told ABC News that the Defense Department recently granted exceptions to the policy for the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Security Agency (NSA) and Defense Health Agency (DHA) through the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
“The decisions were based upon thorough risk assessments and are designed to maximize operational readiness, lethality, and force generation, while safeguarding at-risk populations,” Parnell said. “The Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, and DHA are responsible for implementing the [exceptions to the policy]. The Department remains committed to the health and readiness of our warfighters and civilian personnel.”
The annual flu vaccine is currently recommended to everyone over 6 months old between September and the start of November. Although the typical flu season ends by February or March, people can become infected at any time.
People who travel internationally or live in group settings are at higher risk of transmitting and acquiring infectious diseases.
Public health specialists have warned that military members may suffer unnecessary complications from the flu after the vaccination mandate was ended and fear that severe cases will continue to climb in subsequent flu seasons if preventive vaccinations aren’t given to those most at risk.
Evidence has shown that young recruits are much more vulnerable to severe infection from influenza compared to other service members, though lower than the general population due to the military having historically high immunization rates.
A study published last year by the Defense Health Agency found that from the 2010-2011 to the 2023-2024 flu seasons, the highest rate of influenza hospitalizations among active service members were among those under the age of 25, especially young recruits.
The flu vaccine has been required for the military since 1945, at the end of World War II, partly tied to the threat of biological warfare use by rival nations and as well as the devastation that the flu pandemic of 1918-1920 wreaked on U.S. troops, according to a 2022 analysis from Wright State University in Ohio and the U.S. Air Force.
It’s estimated that between 20% and 40% of Army and Navy personnel fell ill, with more than 26,000 deaths among U.S. soldiers during the 1918-1920 flu pandemic.
After researchers noticed the effectiveness of the vaccine fading, the mandate was withdrawn in 1949. This was later found to be caused by abrupt and major changes to the flu virus — and the mandate was reinstated in the early 1950s after the changes became “clearer and combatable,” according to the analysis.
Compliance among military health care personnel has exceeded 95% in past years, compared to less than 75% among civilian health care personnel.
The names of enslaved people who lived in the President’s House are carved into a monument in Independence National Park on August 9, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration revealed the list of materials that the National Park Service removed from parks across the country that relate to civil rights, diverse populations, science and the environment.
The list was made public on Wednesday as part of a court filing brought by various organizations. The Interior Department is appealing a federal judge’s order to restore those materials ahead of America 250 celebrations on July 4.
Included in the list are vague descriptions of the materials that were removed and their location. The list, however, does not provide images of the content that NPS found objectionable.
Examples of items that were removed include signs about climate change at parks like Acadia National Park in Maine and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York; materials involving civil rights at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and at the Medgar and Myrtle Evans Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi; materials involving slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia and materials on women’s rights at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York.
The list also includes reasons for the removals.
“Disparages Americans past or living” appears to be the reason provided by NPS for the removal of items related to civil rights, diverse communities, slavery and atrocities committed by the United States against Native Americans.
“Unrelated to beauty, abundance and grandeur of the national landscape” was listed as the reason for the removal of items related to science and the environment.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department confirmed to ABC News in a statement that the government is appealing the judge’s order to restore the items.
“We fully believe politically charged language denigrating our Founding Fathers is inappropriate and only further divides Americans,” the spokesperson said. “Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country.”
The spokesperson added that the government seeks to “strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”
ABC News reached out to the Interior Department and NPS for further comment.
U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the restoration of the materials in a Friday ruling and cast their removal by NPS as “a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.” She ordered the government to restore all items by July 3.
The federal government has filed a motion asking for an emergency stay pending appeal, which would block the restoration as the appeals court considers the case. In the motion, the government argued that the restoration of the materials would cause “irreparable harm.”
In response, Kelley ordered the government to produce the list of changes and the condition of the materials, writing that this information was necessary for her to consider the government’s argument.
The removal of materials, which relate to civil rights, diverse communities, science and the environment, was made in compliance with a March 27, 2025, executive order in which President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Department to remove content that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
The complaint filed in February challenges the removal of the materials and was brought by a coalition of organizations committed to preserving history, the parks and the environment.
“National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent,” said Alan Spears, a senior director ” said Alan Spears, a senior director at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of organizations suing NPS. “Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history. Stories of triumph and tragedy alike deserve to be told out loud at parks.”
The Pearl Jam frontman recorded the track in collaboration with the organization Guitars Over Guns, which provides musical instruments and instruction to young people from vulnerable communities.
Vedder debuted “Better Believe” alongside Guitars Over Guns students Thursday at the opening ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Following the performance, the studio version officially debuted on digital outlets.
All of Vedder’s royalties will be donated to Guitars Over Guns.
