Keith Reid, Procol Harum lyricist and co-writer of the British band’s classic 1967 hit “Whiter Shade of Pale,” died on March 23 after a battle with cancer, according to the band’s website. He was 76.
“Whiter Shade of Pale,” whose hook was borrowed from Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major, was credited to Reid, Procol Harum’s lead singer and pianist Gary Brooker, and later, organist Matthew Fisher following a lengthy lawsuit. It reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold more than six million copies globally. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and recognized as “Best British Pop Single 1952–1977″ — along with Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” — at the BRIT Awards as part of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee. It was also played a major role in writer-director Lawrence Kasden’s 1983 film, The Big Chill.
Reid’s association with the band began with their self-titled 1967 debut album and lasted through their 2003 release, The Well’s on Fire.
In August 2008, he released the album The Common Thread under The Keith Reid Project. Reid wrote the lyrics for the songs, which were performed by a variety of musicians, including Southside Johnny and John Waite. The Keith Reid Project also released the album In My Head in 2018.
(NEW YORK) — All nine service members on board have died after two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a training mission in Trigg County, Kentucky, an Army official confirms to ABC News.
The Black Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division were on a “routine training mission” when they crashed at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, Army officials said.
“The command is currently focused on caring for the servicemembers and their families,” Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for the Fort Campbell Public Affairs Office, said in a statement.
“Please pray for all those affected,” Kentucky Gov. Andy. Beshear said.
Trigg County, where the crash occurred, is about 25 miles northwest of Fort Cambell, a military installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Kentucky State Police troopers found the wreckage in a location described as either a field or a semi-wooded area, said Sarah Burgess, a police spokesperson. There were no reports of damage to residential buildings, but residents within the debris field were asked to leave the area.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the residents other than we are doing everything we can to assess the situation and make sure that our community is as safe as it can be,” Burgess said.
A week after debuting at #1 on Netflix’s English TV list with more than 168 million hours watched, the streamer has renewed The Night Agent for a second season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The series, based on a novel by Matthew Quirk, follows an FBI agent — played by Gabriel Basso — thrown into a vast conspiracy about a mole at the highest levels of the United States government. The second season will arrive in 2024 and consist of another 10 episodes…
Comedy Central dropped the first official teaser for season 3 of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens on Wednesday. Additionally, Variety reports guest stars for the upcoming season include Michael Bolton, Ronny Chieng, Janeane Garofalo, Gina Gershon, Judy Gold, Ken Jeong and Frankie Muniz. Awkwafina stars as the titular character, Nora Lin, who leans on her dad, grandmother and cousin –played respectively by BD Wong, Lori Tan Chinn and Bowen Yang — as she “navigates life and young adulthood in outer borough-NYC.” The third season of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens debuts on April 26… (Trailer contains censored and uncensored profanity.)
Deadline reports that Karan Soni and Leslie Uggams have joined the cast of the third Deadpool movie, reprising their roles as Dopinder and Blind Al from the first two Marvel films. They join Ryan Reynolds as the titular wise-cracking superhero, along with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and franchise newcomers Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen. Deadpool 3, both DP and Wolverine’s first official foray into the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, hits theaters on November 8, 2024. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…
FX is working on a spinoff of the hit drama series Snowfall, potentially starring Gail Bean reprising her Wanda character from the original series, sources tell Deadline. The spinoff is reportedly a continuation of the original story “set in 1990s Los Angeles as South Central transitions out of the crack era into the gangster rap business, with areas heavily infested by gangs led by the Bloods and Crips.” Wanda would serve as the link between the original show and the spinoff, which is expected to introduce other main characters, according to the insiders…
Taylor Swift made a 7-year-old named Bella‘s wish come true during her Eras Tour stop in Las Vegas by replying to a letter the child wrote.
Bella’s mother, Gina Lanzino, shared the touching story in a TikTok post earlier this week. In the nearly 3-minute-long clip, Lanzino explained that her daughter wrote a letter before the show and was determined to get it to the “Lavender Haze” singer.
According to Lanzino, the letter read: “‘Dear Taylor, I’m your biggest fan. My favorite color is… what’s yours?’”
“[Bella] drew a little picture and she says, ‘I’m gonna bring this to the show and make sure Taylor gets this letter. I was kinda like, ‘I don’t really think that’s going to happen, but let’s try,'” she continued.
The plan was set in motion when Lanzino arrived at the stadium and her daughter approached an usher and asked him to deliver the letter to Taylor. Lanzino thought that was the last she’d seen of the letter, until she — and Bella — were pleasantly surprised.
“We were about halfway through the show when some people came to our box…and they were asking for Bella,” she explained. “I said, ‘That’s my daughter, what’s going on?’ And they say, ‘We wanted to give this to you,’ and it was the letter Bella gave to Taylor and she [Taylor] signed it. She [Bella] did write her section number on the back, but I really didn’t ever in a million years think that this was going to get returned to her.”
“Just wanted to tell that story because I thought it was so awesome and so cool of Taylor to do,” Lanzino concluded. “So Taylor if you see this thank you you made my 7 year old thrilled.”
Alessandra Benedetti – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
(ROME) — Pope Francis has “progressively improved” after spending the night in the hospital with a respiratory infection, the Vatican Press Office said Thursday.
The pontiff rested well during the night, Matteo Bruni, director of the Press Office of the Holy See, said in a statement issued in Italian.
“The clinical picture is progressively improving, and the planned treatments continue,” Bruni said, according to a translation. “This morning after having breakfast, he read some newspapers and went back to work. Before lunch he went to the little chapel of the private apartment, where he gathered in prayer and received the Eucharist.”
Francis, 86, was taken on Wednesday to the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. Officials said he would be required to stay for several days to receive “appropriate medical treatment.”
“In recent days, Pope Francis complained of some respiratory difficulties and this afternoon he went to the Gemelli [hospital] for some medical checks,” a statement released on Wednesday read. “The outcome of these showed a respiratory infection (excluding Covid 19 infection) that will require several days of appropriate hospital medical treatment.”
It is unknown what type of respiratory infection the pope has or what type of care he will need.
The overnight stay marked the first time the Vatican has publicly announced that Francis has gone to the hospital since he underwent surgery to have part of his colon removed in July 2021.
President Joe Biden mentioned the pope during remarks at an event Wednesday celebrating Greek Independence Day.
“The pope is ill now, so say an extra prayer for him,” said Biden, who in 2021 became the first Roman Catholic U.S. leader in more than half a century to meet at the Vatican with the head of the Catholic Church.
Francis on Thursday sent a message of thanks to those who’d wished him well.
“I am touched by the many messages received in these hours and I express my gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” he said on Twitter.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday evening to mourn and honor the six victims of a mass shooting at an elementary school.
Local, state and federal officials along with dignitaries, religious leaders and community figureheads attended the somber ceremony at One Square Park in the downtown section of Tennessee’s capital city. First lady Jill Biden and singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow were among those in attendance, though Biden did not address the crowd.
Various speakers took turns reading aloud the names of the victims and expressing condolences to the grieving families.
“Just two days ago was our city’s worst day,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told the crowd. “I so wish we weren’t here, but we need to be here.”
A shooter gunned down three children and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville on Monday morning. Responding officers shot and killed the suspect about 14 minutes after the initial 911 call came in, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Police have identified the slain children as 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs. The adult victims were identified as 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill, 60-year-old head of school Katherine Koonce and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.
During Wednesday’s vigil, local school administrator Tricia Drake said she couldn’t stop thinking about her last conversation with Koonce, who she said had advised her on how to best prepare for an active shooter scenario.
“My last conversation with her, in August, was about who she used for her active shooter training because I know that she would have researched somebody,” Drake tearfully told ABC News. “We ended up using the same active shooter training at the school where I was also a head. I can’t believe that was my last conversation with her.”
Drake said she knew Koonce had made her mark when she saw the footage that police released from two of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras. One of the videos shows a Covenant School staff member meeting Officer Rex Engelbert at the school’s main entrance, telling him: “The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.” She then is seen using a key to unlock the door so officers could go inside.
“Students were in their classrooms, locked up, the professional outdoors to lead the Metro policeman. She had a key, what her headcount was, she knew exactly where the students would be, she was prepared,” Drake told ABC News. “I’m sure they had run those drills, and it’s because of Katherine and the foresight she had to make sure her staffers were prepared.”
Drake, who declined to say the name of the school she works for, said she underwent the same active shooter training that Koonce used and that the key is to adopt a “warrior mentality,” accepting injury rather than death. Part of the training, she said, is to throw students out of windows and run away as far as possible. Drake said she believes Koonce’s preparation saved lives on Monday.
Drake recalled the moment she realized something might be seriously wrong when news about the shooting at the Covenant School began to spread.
“I texted my sister and friends of mine to say: That’s Katherine’s school. I know she’s going to come out. She’s going to come out anytime now and tell everybody that it’s under control, that everything’s ok,” Drake recounted. “And I waited like everyone else for Katherine to come out and I thought it was so strange that she was not visible. She was so professional, so prepared, so committed to her faculty and those sweet children of hers, and it’s just such a loss. It is unthinkable that this has happened in our little town.”
The suspect — identified as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville — was a former student of the Covenant School, according to police. Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters on Tuesday that it appears the school was likely targeted, but “students were randomly targeted.”
The police chief had told reporters on Monday that Hale was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News that the suspect was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to Hale that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
The suspect was armed with two assault-style rifles, a handgun and “significant ammunition” at the time of the attack, according to police. Investigators have since searched Hale’s home in Nashville, where they seized “a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence,” police said in a press release on Monday.
The police chief said the suspect had legally purchased seven guns from five different local stores and hid some of those weapons at home. Hale was under a “doctor’s care for an emotional disorder,” the police chief said, and Hale’s parents “were under the impression that was when she sold the one weapon” they believed Hale owned.
Hale also had a detailed map of the school as well as “writings and a book we consider to be like a manifesto,” the police chief told ABC News in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
“We have not been able to determine a motive as of yet,” he added. “The investigation is very much still ongoing.”
Video from the school’s surveillance cameras shows the suspect arriving in a vehicle and parking in the parking lot at 9:54 a.m. ET. Minutes later, the suspect is seen shooting through a door on the side of the school and entering the building. Hale allegedly went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots, according to police.
Police received a 911 call about an active shooter at the school at 10:13 a.m. ET. As officers responded to the scene, the suspect fired on police cars from a second-floor window, police said.
Video from two of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras shows them entering the school, following the sound of gunfire to the second floor and finding the suspect in a lobby area near a window. After an officer shouts “reloading,” officers Rex Engelbert, a four-year veteran, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran, both fire at the suspect.
The Covenant School, a private Christian school for children in preschool through sixth grade, has about 209 students and 40 to 50 staff members. It does not have a school resource officer, according to police.
In a statement released Monday night, the Covenant School said its community “is heartbroken.”
“We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our church and school,” the school said. “We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”
(NEW YORK) — A train derailed near Raymond, Minnesota, on Thursday, prompting a local evacuation order, officials said.
Residents nearby were told to evacuate after a BNSF train derailed and caught fire, Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release overnight.
(NEW YORK) — A fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday, killing 39 people, officials said.
The blaze began as the result of a protest by people being held in the facility, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said in a morning press conference. Protestors lit a mattress on fire inside the building, after some at the facility were informed they’d be deported, Obrador said.
“We do not yet know the names and nationalities of those who lost their lives,” he said, adding that they were mainly from Central America.
The Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) had said Tuesday night there were 38 people dead. The INM had previously said 40 people died in the fire.
In a tweet Tuesday night, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the people responsible for the fire have been brought before the Mexican attorney general.
Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, the Mexican secretary of security and citizen protection, identified eight people Wednesday who were likely responsible for the fire and crimes related to the fire.
In addition to the eight suspects, officials said they believe that federal and state agents, as well as security guards, are also responsible for the fire.
“At 8:30 p.m., migrants gathered mattresses and minutes later set them on fire. None of the civil servants, nor the security guards, took any action to open the door to the migrants who were inside with the fire,” Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, head of the Specialized Prosecutor for Human Rights, said.
Mexican authorities said the fact that security guards did not open the cell doors when the fire started is “part of the investigation” and called this action a “serious crime.”
Additionally, Mexican authorities seek to charge the eight suspects with crimes including intentional homicide, directly called “homicidio doloso” in Spanish, injuries and damage to property, officials said.
Law enforcement officials are working to get four arrest warrants for the eight people believed to be responsible for the crimes, they said.
The eight individuals have given their statements to the attorney general’s office. At least one of the suspects is a migrant, the officials said.
The suspects have not been detained, because the Mexican authorities are currently waiting to obtain the arrest warrants.
The fire started at about 10 p.m. on Monday at the Instituto Nacional de Migración, Mexico’s Institute of Migration said early Tuesday. Sixty-eight men from Central and South America had been housed in the facility at the time of the fire, officials said.
The dead were all migrants, according to the statement. Another 27 people were injured, some seriously, and were transferred to four local hospitals, authorities said.
The center is in an area across the border from El Paso, Texas, and is close to the Puente Internacional Lerdo Stanton bridge.
(WASHINGTON) — A Democratic lawmaker who was screaming about Republicans’ approach to gun violence just off the House floor on Wednesday soon got into a tense altercation with one of his conservative colleagues.
An animated Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a former principal, came off the floor and began telling reporters to continue to press GOP members on their views on the issue of guns and shootings.
“Please ask them. Don’t let them off the hook,” Bowman said.
“Ask them about gun violence. What are they doing about it? Nothing!” he continued to yell as colleagues exited the floor.
“They don’t have the courage,” he insisted. “They’re cowards.”
Republicans have avoided or dismissed questions about new restrictions on assault weapons like those used in the Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting this week.
They have instead advocated for ramping up school security and more and more have cited addressing “mental health” as the better solution, given longstanding reluctance to restrict gun ownership, saying it’s unconstitutional.
“The first thing in any kind of tragedy is I pray. I pray for the victims. I pray for the families. I get really angry when people try to politicize it for their own personal agenda, especially when we don’t even know the facts,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday.
Bowman, on Wednesday, forcefully rebuked that.
“They have control of the House! The American people need to know that they don’t have the courage to do anything to save the lives of children,” he said.
Though most members just walked past Bowman as he was screaming for about five minutes — aside from the occasional applause from Democratic members — Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, decided to engage.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I’m talking about gun violence,” Bowman responded.
“You know there’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry,” Massie tried to argue.
“Carry guns! You think– More guns lead to more death!” Bowman retorted.
Massie told Bowman multiple times to calm down, prompting Bowman to exclaim: “Calm down? Children are dying! Nine-year-old children!” and “I was screaming before you came and interrupted me.”
After Bowman left the Capitol, still yelling, Massie told reporters: “Next week, I’m reintroducing a repeal of the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act. It’s the deadliest bill that’s ever been passed.”
(WASHINGTON) — During a Wednesday hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on aid to Ukraine, lawmakers spent hours questioning the top watchdogs overseeing the three government agencies most directly involved in distributing billions of dollars in American support to the war-torn country, repeatedly arriving at the same answer:
So far, there is no evidence that support has been misused.
Although conservatives have criticized the Biden administration for what they called a lack of oversight over the funds — with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledging before the midterms that there should no longer be a “blank check” — most Republicans on the panel sought to balance support for Ukraine with a commitment to surveillance.
“To be clear, I do not conduct this oversight to undermine or question the importance of support for Ukraine, but rather — to the contrary — oversight should incentivize the administration and Ukraine to use funds from Congress with the highest degree of efficiency and effectiveness,” said Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
But New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the committee’s top Democrat, reminded the chamber of comments from lawmakers he called “MAGA Republicans” who assert that Kyiv has been given too much leeway, saying their comments play right into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands.
Others — like Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif. — went further, questioning if even holding the hearing would provide fodder for Russian disinformation campaigns.
“I think we should talk about more important issues, like how do we make sure other countries don’t give additional assistance to Russia? How do we make sure Ukraine has the long-range weapons they need to win this war?” Lieu said.
During their testimonies, the acting inspectors general covering the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development as well as the inspector general overseeing the Department of Defense each explained how they sought to create a full account of how aid to Ukraine was used and install necessary controls against corruption.
But the witnesses also acknowledged the unique challenge posed by the conflict.
“We’re doing oversight at the speed of war,” said Robert Storch, who monitors the Department of Defense.
Some of the hearing’s most contentious moments were tied to issues that hit closer to home, with Republicans like Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania pushing the witnesses on why the Biden administration was indirectly footing the bill for some Ukrainians’ pensions rather than shoring up domestic entitlements or securing the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Can you give us assurance that none of that money that’s being sent to arguably one of the most, if not the most, corrupt country on the planet is being misused, misspent, lost?” Perry pressed. “What assurance can you give the American people?”
“What I’ve testified to, congressman, is that based on our completed work, we have not substantiated any instances of diversion of U.S. security,” Storch answered.
Still, the witnesses acknowledged that their work wasn’t finished and that those findings could change as time marches on.
Republicans made multiple references to Afghanistan, with at least one lawmaker in the party suggesting that an office be created specifically to monitor aid to Ukraine, just as Congress did for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in 2008.
While the witnesses didn’t weigh in on that prospect, they said their own oversight efforts could be boosted with additional financing from Congress.
“Our folks are, frankly, burning the candle at both ends to meet the extensive mandate that we have and it’s because they are deeply, personally committed to the mission that they do that,” said the deputy inspector general for the State Department, Diana Shaw, who also advocated for her office to have a larger footprint operating out of the American embassy in Ukraine.
