Days before his directorial debut Creed III hits theaters, Michael B. Jordan will receive his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actor will be honored Wednesday, March 1. Ryan Coogler, who worked with Michael on Fruitvale Station, the Black Panther movies and the Creed films, will share some words about him at the event, as will his Creed III co-star Jonathan Majors.
“Michael B. Jordan has become a household name thanks to his many roles on the big screen,” stated Ana Martinez, Hollywood Walk of Fame producer. “To think that this star didn’t grow up with dreams of being an actor! Luckily for us he changed his mind and now he will be honored with an iconic star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”
Since his breakout role in Fruitvale Station, Michael has accomplished a lot in Hollywood through his art and philanthropy. He’s starred in films including Without Remorse and Journal for Jordan; has a NAACP Image, SAG Award and Producers Guild Award; and has been named TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020, People’s 2020 Sexiest Man Alive and one of New York Times’ 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
Michael also launched Outlier Society, a production company that showcases diverse stories including Fahrenheit 451 and David Makes Man, as well as a fellowship that “focuses on developing the next generation of media, arts and entertainment industry leaders.”
In 2020, he teamed with Color of Change for the #ChangeHollywood initiative, which laid out ways to invest in anti-racist content and authentic Black stories, Black talent and more. Most recently, he announced the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic, an inaugural historically-Black-colleges-and-universities (HBCU) basketball showcase that will highlight elements of HBCU life and culture.
Monday’s episode of The Bachelor found Zach and the ladies trying to make up for lost time in Tallinn, Estonia, after COVID-19 forced him to isolate from the others, leading to a confrontation between to contestants and a devastating elimination for another.
The first one-on-one was a makeup date with Charity, whose solo date with Zach last week was canceled due to the virus. This date got off to an awkward start after Zach showed up at the ladies’ hotel suite and was whisked away by Katherine “Kat” for a private conversation capped off with some kissing. Her “stunt” didn’t sit well with the others, especially Brooklyn, who called Kat out for spoiling Charity’s moment.
Later, Charity spilled the details about her date — which ended with a rose — also throwing some shade at Kat, noting, “It was a really good day” but she “tried to kind of block out some things” that happened ahead of the date.
Kat’s response that she didn’t to spoil her upcoming group date by reigniting the argument did just that when Brooklyn pointed out the hypocrisy of Kat’s remark.
The group date also included Jess, whose frustration at being the only remaining lady not to have gotten a one-on-one-date, left her in fear of elimination.
Her attempt to get some reassurance from Zach led to an emotional conversation that left him “not feeling that confident” about their relationship. Jess agreed her journey on The Bachelor was over, telling Zach, “I’m not going to beg for you.” Still reeling from Jess’ unexpected departure, Zach didn’t hand out a group date rose.
Jess’ abrupt exit also left the other ladies feeling less secure about their relationships with Zach, including Kat, who decided ahead of the rose ceremony that she needed to smooth things over with Charity. However, the meeting was cut short by Brooklyn, leading Kat to storm out of the room and Charity to Brooklyn, “Why is this a storm?”
Elsewhere, Ariel left her one-on-one date with a rose, and Aly was sent home at the rose ceremony.
Greer was missing from Monday’s episode after testing positive for COVID.
Here are the seven women remaining after Monday night’s episode:
Ariel, 28, a marketing executive from New York City, N.Y.
Brooklyn, 25, a rodeo racer from Stillwater, Okla.
Charity, 26, a child and family therapist from Columbus, Ga.
Gabriella “Gabi,” 25, an account executive from Pittsford, Vt.
Greer, 24, a medical sales rep from Houston, Texas. — First Impression Rose
Kaitlyn “Kaity,” 27, an ER nurse from Austin, Texas.
Katherine, 26, a registered nurse from Tampa, Fla.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration is giving federal agencies 30 days to ensure they do not have TikTok on any federal devices, and to ensure vendors play by the same rules, according to new guidance on Monday from Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.
Young’s memo instructs agencies to ensure the Chinese-owned app is not installed on any federal devices within 30 days. Contractors must meet the same standard within 90 days.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has invested heavily in defending our nation’s digital infrastructure and curbing foreign adversaries’ access to Americans’ data,” Chris DeRusha, federal chief information security officer, said. “This guidance is part of the Administration’s ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people’s security and privacy.”
Some agencies, like the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department already had existing TikTok bans, for security reasons.
In December, Congress tucked a bill banning TikTok from federal government devices into the massive government spending package. The law gave the Biden administration 60 days to send instructions on the ban to agencies, which OMB did today.
Asked recently about the potential for a larger TikTok ban, President Joe Biden replied, “I know I don’t have it on my phone.”
(NEW YORK) — A recent viral food trend has not only grabbed the attention of TikTok viewers, it’s landed a spot on the menu at Chipotle Mexican Grill as well.
Chipotle announced the new Fajita Quesadilla will be hitting digital-only menus nationwide on March 2, thanks to popular social media personalities Keith Lee and Alexis Frost.
Frost, a creator who regularly shares videos of everything she tried at fast food restaurants, and Lee, who helps struggling local businesses get a boost of customers by trying and reviewing their food himself, went viral late last year after sharing a secret menu tip at Chipotle.
Frost’s initial review of the Chipotle steak quesadilla with fajita veggies was dubbed a perfect “10” to her 2.4 million followers.
Lee later stitched Frost’s video with one of himself trying her order for the first time, and created a DIY vinaigrette hack that combines chipotle-honey vinaigrette dressing and sour cream. His stamp of approval then flooded the feeds of his 10.7 million followers — and counting.
Lee’s order, soon to be known as the “Keithadilla,” is a quesadilla with fajita veggies and steak and sides of roasted chili-corn salsa, sour cream and chipotle honey vinaigrette. Frost’s “Fajita Quesadilla Hack” starts the same with a steak fajita quesadilla and similar sides, but instead of chipotle honey vinaigrette, her third option is the tomatillo red chili salsa.
Now for the first time, customers who order on the app or online can add fresh fajita veggies to any quesadilla order, plus the chipotle-honey vinaigrette dressing will now be available as a side option with quesadillas.
Despite mass appeal, the viral menu “hack” initially made things difficult for Chipotle employees because it was not an official offering on the restaurant’s typical digital ordering platforms. The company subsequently worked quickly on technology updates for nearly 3,200 restaurant locations and conducted training for over 100,000 employees to ensure a seamless experience for all.
“TikTok has not only changed the way we communicate with Gen-Z, but it’s proven it can identify areas of opportunity within our business,” Chipotle’s chief marketing officer Chris Brandt said in a statement. “With the launch of the Fajita Quesadilla, we are celebrating Keith, Alexis, and all our superfans who were craving this delicious customization while prioritizing support for our employees.”
The five new quesadilla options include steak, chicken, barbacoa, carnitas or sofritas — all with fresh fajita vegetables (sauteed bell peppers and onions).
Later next month, Chipotle will bring the two TikTokers together in Las Vegas — where Lee currently lives — to surprise select lucky fans with the new quesadillas.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING
INTERLEAGUE
Atlanta 7, Toronto 0
Miami 4, Houston 3
Milwaukee 10, Kansas City 4
Cleveland 12, Chi Cubs 4
Colorado 7, Oakland 3
San Francisco 8, LA Angels 6
Texas 13, Cincinnati 2
Arizona 6, West Virginia 0
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston 4, Minnesota 1
Tampa Bay 14, Baltimore 2
Chicago White Sox 10, Seattle 1
NY Yankees 8, Detroit 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Philadelphia 9, Pittsburgh 7
St. Louis 12, NY Mets 7
Arizona 3, Chi Cubs 0
LA Dodgers 7, San Diego 6
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Charlotte 117, Detroit 106
Miami 101, Philadelphia 99
New York 109, Boston 94
Orlando 101, New Orleans 93
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Ottawa 6, Detroit 2
Boston 3, Edmonton 2
Vancouver 5, Dallas 4 (OT)
Colorado 3, Vegas 0
Anaheim 4, Chicago 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Baylor 74, Oklahoma St. 68
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Portland 1, Sporting Kansas City 0
(WSAHINGTON) — As Black History Month draws to a close, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday evening marked the celebration by delivering remarks at a reception in the White House’s East Room.
The pair touted what they called the accomplishments their administration has made for the Black community in areas like government, housing and climate while implicitly rebuking some Republican efforts to revise African American history courses.
“History matters and Black history matters,” Biden said to an audience of Black Congressional leaders, students at historically Black colleges and universities and other guests.
“Look, I can’t just choose to learn what we want to know. We learn when we should know to learn everything: the good, the bad, the truth and who we are as a nation,” he said.
Harris echoed that.
“Let us all be clear. We will not as a nation build a better future for America by trying to erase America’s past,” she said to a round of applause.
“This month, and all year round, we must recognize the full arc of our nation’s history,” she said, adding, “So during Black History Month, we celebrate the heroes of the past as well as those who currently carry the baton.”
Black history — particularly how it’s taught and which perspectives are included — has become the center of debate in schools across the country as some members of the GOP have aimed to decry teachings of “critical race theory,” an academic concept about systemic racism typically taught in higher education institutions.
“We proudly require the teaching of African American history. We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. recently tweeted about curriculum in his state, which was challenged by the state and revised.
Biden — whose 2020 presidential campaign was revived by his decisive win in South Carolina, home to many Black voters — began his remarks on Monday by thanking close ally Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., along with Black members of his administration.
“I wouldn’t be standing here without Jim,” Biden said.
He boasted of his administration’s diversity, of his selection of the first female Black vice president and female Black Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and of appointing more Black women to federal circuit courts than “than every other president in history combined.”
At one point, Biden began talking about his ties to the “Divine Nine” — the National Pan-Hellenic Council formed of African American sororities and fraternities — throughout his life in politics.
“I may be white boy, but I’m not stupid,” he said to a round of laughter.
“I know where the power is … I learned a long time ago about the ‘Divine Nine.’ That’s why I spent so much time in Delaware State campaigns and organizing my campaign in Delaware,” he said, nodding to his time organizing at Delaware State University, a historically Black institution.
Biden also highlighted some of his work as president and how it touched or would touch Black communities, including lowering unemployment levels for Black Americans, the environmental provisions passed as part of the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act and last year’s infrastructure investment legislation, a $6 billion increase in funding for existing grants that help historically Black schools and other efforts.
“I committed by 2025, we’re going to increase to 15% of every single contract I award as president will go to Black and brown small businesses,” he said.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Buzzy catchphrases like “Quiet Quitting” and “Great Resignation” have captured frustration among some employees as the pandemic has upended their workplace routines and called into question work as a lifestyle priority.
Now there is a new viral trend: “Bare minimum Monday.”
Marisa Jo, who boasts 154,000 followers on TikTok, popularized the phrase with a series of posts that criticize angst-filled preparation for the workweek and ambition-fueled exhaustion brought about by overactivity on the first of five consecutive work days.
Instead, Jo encourages workers to do as little as possible at work on Mondays, restoring their energy and focusing on other interests.
In a post last month, Jo said she lamented her previous approach to Mondays.
“You’d make a to-do list that was way too long thinking you could over-achieve your way out of the stress — but you never did,” she said in the post. “You’ve always put more pressure on yourself than any boss, so you started to wonder why,” she added. “You knew it was time for something new.”
That video garnered 145,000 views and 18,000 likes. A separate viral post from Jo on the topic yielded 1.8 million views, Forbes reported.
“Bare minimum Monday” marks a convergence of pandemic-era trends: a blurring of the boundary between work and leisure amid the rise of work from home, a tight labor market that has afforded leverage to employees and social media content creators who’ve found a wide audience for workplace frustration, experts told ABC News.
“It’s a perfect storm of the type of expression and dissatisfaction we’re seeing put on these platforms in a very public way,” Brooke Duffy, a professor of communication at Cornell University who studies the impact of new technology on labor, told ABC News. “It isn’t just being posted, but it’s gaining traction.”
The new catchphrase has emerged as the job market is booming, despite high-profile layoffs at companies like Amazon and Twitter.
Last month’s unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest figure since 1969. Further, as of December, the economy had 11 million job openings, federal data this month showed.
In a tight labor market, workers typically wield greater leverage over an employer since they retain more latitude to seek a job elsewhere, experts said.
Meanwhile, some indicators of job dissatisfaction have emerged.
Last year, labor unions reached their highest level of approval in the U.S. since 1965, a Gallup poll showed.
The number of workplace strikes rose 52% in 2022 compared to the year prior, researchers at Cornell University found.
Meanwhile, workers at Amazon and Starbucks astonished allies and adversaries last year, delivering landmark labor victories. Starbucks workers unionized more than 260 stores last year, according to federal data.
“People have been annoyed with their work for a long time, and now all of a sudden there’s a lot of media attention to worker organizing and strikes, and it has made a lot of workers say, ‘Oh, gee, maybe that would be better for me than putting up with this,'” Ileen DeVault, a professor of labor history at Cornell University, told ABC News.
“That’s certainly tied to the tight labor market,” she added. “Workers are much more likely to quit their jobs than get fired right now, and their employers panic if they even make noises about quitting.”
(NEW YORK) — Stargazers in the U.K. who missed the first round of a rare Northern lights display will be treated to an encore performance.
On Sunday night into early Monday morning, the Northern lights phenomenon, usually seen in regions closer to the Arctic like Iceland and Scandinavia, made an appearance further south, delighting those in the U.K. with a multi-colored display against the dark night sky. Auroras occur when atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere clash with a solar flare from the sun.
Aurora sightings across some regions in the continent occurred after a coronal hole high speed stream — regions of open magnetic fields on the sun that appear dark next to denser plasma surrounding it — combined with a “rather fast” coronal mass ejection, a powerful burst of magnetized plasma from the sun’s corona, its outermost layer, the U.K.’s Meteorological Office tweeted. Both events are known to contribute to geometric storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The astrological event painted skies pink and green in places as far south as North Uist, Scotland, North Wales, Cambridgeshire and Shropshire, according to the Met Office.
The sightings are so rare south of Norway, Iceland and Greenland because it takes “a severe or extreme geomagnetic storm” to bring the belt south enough to be directly over the U.K., according to the Met Office.
During more moderate geomagnetic storms, the auroras can be faintly visible from northern parts of the U.K. on a clear night as they are pushed toward southern Iceland or toward the Faroe Islands, the Met Office said.
Meteorologists are predicting sightings in the U.K. from 7 p.m. local time until 4 a.m. Tuesday. Residents further north on the continent with access to clear skies will have the best chance at seeing the lights.
At least two auroras were predicted for 3:51 p.m. UTC and 5:21 p.m. UTC, according to AuroraWatch U.K. More sightings are possible throughout the evening.
Solar flare eruptions on the sun are expected to continue on Tuesday, according to NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center.
Parts of North America were also privy to the light display on Sunday night. The lights were visible in places like Fairbanks, Alaska, and Calgary, Canada, and could appear again in the early morning hours on Tuesday.
More frequent displays of the aurora are likely in the coming years as the sun reaches the solar maximum stage in its 11-year of its magnetic field activity in 2025, according to the Met Office.
Best viewing practices include a dark location with no light pollution and looking toward the northern horizon, according to the Met Office.
(NEW YORK) — For more than 27 years, Colleen Nick has been living with a void in her heart that she said will never be filled.
On June 9, 1995, her 6-year-old daughter Morgan was watching a Little League game at a ballfield near Alma, Arkansas, and went missing. Nick recalled the last time she saw her daughter was when she was running near the field with some friends during the game.
“I just looked up as they were running across. She had on her little green Girl Scout T-shirt,” Nick said. “But I looked at her running across with them and I turned back to the game.”
To this day, neither Morgan nor her remains have been found, and for years investigators have pursued every clue and every avenue for answers in Morgan’s disappearance.
But in the last two years, investigators said they may have received a huge lead that could bring more closure to the family.
An ABC News Studios docuseries now streaming on Hulu, “Still Missing Morgan,” chronicles the investigation into the missing child and features exclusive interviews with local detectives and FBI agents, and offers new key evidence that may lead to a suspect in the case.
Nick, who runs the Morgan Nick Foundation, an organization that helps find missing children, said she has never given up hope that Morgan would be found and her family would get justice.
Investigators said that one of the most important clues in the case was a red pickup truck with a camper that was parked near the ballfield at the time of the girl’s disappearance. The local police said that they received reports of a man who was inside the vehicle approaching children at the time.
For years, detectives and FBI agents didn’t have any suspects despite getting tips and information from thousands of people.
In November 2021, the FBI announced they had a break.
Investigators officially named Billy Jack Lincks as a person of interest. Lincks was convicted of sexual indecency after attempting to abduct a child two months after Morgan Nick’s disappearance.
During the incident, the victim of the attempted kidnapping told police that Lincks had pulled up in a red pickup truck that resembled the one linked to Morgan’s disappearance.
Lincks had previously been charged with sexual abuse in 1992, according to police records. He died in 2000 while serving his prison sentence in the sex abuse case, and the FBI is still seeking any information about connections he had with Morgan’s disappearance.
“I think the part that bothers me the most is that the [alleged] perpetrator is deceased, which means at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it means there’s no justice,” Nick said. “That no one is held accountable. No one has to stand and face us for what they did, that there’s just no justice for Morgan in this. And that’s something I have a really hard time getting my head around.”
The FBI was able to take possession of Lincks’ pickup truck and broke it down to try and find any evidence that would confirm it was used to abduct Morgan.
Initial crime lab reports found that blood was identified on part of a seat inside the truck and there were hair samples. However, those items didn’t have enough DNA information for a match to Morgan.
FBI investigators did, however, find a crucial piece of evidence inside the vehicle. A blue-green cotton fiber was discovered in the mat under the seats and in metal pieces of the truck.
Investigators said the strand could have been from Morgan’s Girl Scout shirt that she was wearing during the Little League game.
“Our hope was to get that information back very quickly,” Nick said before she found out the results.
An analysis found the fiber matched the same Girl Scouts shirt.
“The lab technician was able to determine that it is highly unlikely that the fibers found within the truck would come from a different material,” FBI Special Agent Ruben Gay said.
Although Lincks has yet to be formally charged with the abduction, FBI Special Agent Rob Allen said that the new evidence gives investigators a more explicit link between him and Morgan’s abduction.
“Now we can push away effort and resources on other subjects and reallocate them to this one and do a full-court press on this one subject,” he said.
Nick said that she is still holding out hope that she will find peace after all of these years.
“The possibility is that 2% [of missing children] do survive. That means that until someone can prove that Morgan didn’t survive, the possibility remains that she survived until someone can prove it,” she said. “My fight is for that small percentage in case Morgan fell into that 2% for the possibility, the tiny little possibility. As long as that possibility is there, that’s my fight to bring.”
(ATLANTA, Ga.) — After the foreperson of the Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and a push to overturn the 2020 election spoke out in several headline-making interviews, the judge overseeing the case told ABC News on Monday that jurors “can talk about the final report.”
But Judge Robert C. McBurney noted the matter can get “problematic” if jurors start to “synthesize the testimony” and the group’s thoughts on it.
McBurney said in an interview that after the grand jury submitted its report in January, he held a “farewell session,” at the request of the district attorney, in which he “reminded them of their oath, which is a statutory obligation that they not discuss with anyone outside their group their deliberations — that’s the one word that’s in the oath.”
McBurney emphasized that “it’s important for people to understand that witness testimony is not deliberations.”
“I explained you don’t talk about what the group discussed about the witnesses’ testimony, but you can talk about witness testimony,” he said. “You could talk about things that the assistant district attorneys told you. … And then finally, you can talk about the final report because that is the product of your deliberations, but it’s not your deliberations.”
Last week, the grand jury foreperson, Emily Kohrs, gave interviews to news outlets regarding her work as a juror, including confirming that the panel had recommended indictments against multiple people.
Kohrs also gave details on testimony from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham and others in Trump’s orbit.
Kohrs’ statements sparked criticism from some, including Trump’s lawyers, who argued in an interview over the weekend that the investigation “has been compromised” and “if any indictments were to come down, those are faulty indictments.”
McBurney, however, emphasized that the special grand jury was essentially investigative and did not have the ability to bring indictments.
That decision that would ultimately rest with another grand jury, should Fulton County District Attorney Fanni Willis pursue a case. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
“This grand jury’s sole role was to prepare a report that was merely a set of recommendations for the district attorney — full stop. Nothing more,” McBurney said. “And so folks should think long and hard about what impact, at all, this special purpose grand jury’s work would have should there be an indictment down the road.”
“This grand jury could not and did not bring charges against anyone,” he reiterated.
McBurney declined to say if he saw anything in Kohrs’ public comments that overstepped his guidance or her oath. Kohrs hasn’t responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
The judge said people may be “more familiar with federal grand jurors and a more extensive oath of secrecy than is the case in Georgia.”
“It’s just important not to apply the wrong standard to grand jurors in this jurisdiction,” he said. “Their oath requires them to keep secret their deliberations, and it is a different oath than what federal grand jurors take.”
