Mark Hamill, who in October of last year was named an ambassador for Ukraine’s war fundraising efforts by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is raffling off specially designed Star Wars-themed posters to raise money.
The poster features one X-wing Starfighter painted in the blue and yellow colors of Ukraine’s flag, facing off with the Imperial fleet painted up in the colors of the Russian flag. The image reads, “Resist. Stand with Ukraine.” The imagery was the brainchild of an artist named Justin Aram, who posted it to social media last year. Hamill made it viral after he retweeted it, writing “May the Force be with you” in Polish and Ukrainian.
Hamill, who hasn’t signed memorabilia since 2017, first announced the autograph initiative earlier this month. However, UNITED24 just announced that from Friday, February 17, through March 24, anyone who donates $100 will be entered for a chance to win one of five of the posters; another five pieces will be guaranteed to fans who donate $10,000 to the effort.
Proceeds from the raffle will fund the purchase of RQ-35 Heidrun reconnaissance drones, according to the organization.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan came to East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday, he was the first top Biden administration official on the scene since Norfolk Southern rail cars filled with toxic chemicals derailed near the town two weeks ago.
The incident has since sparked intense health and environmental concerns that forced hundreds to flee their homes.
His visit came amid daily headline news coverage depicting angry residents and Republican and Democratic criticism of the federal government’s response that had the White House on the defensive.
The day before Regan arrived, the town’s mayor told ABC News he was ill-equipped to handle such a large-scale catastrophe.
“I need help,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said at a town hall on Wednesday night. “I’m not ready for this. I wasn’t built for this.”
And Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — a favorite GOP target, who heads the agency that regulates railways, has been singled out by not only East Palestine residents, but also by conservative news outlets and on social media.
“What happened in East Palestine is unacceptable,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Fox News this week before blasting Buttigieg — just one of many critics saying he waited 10 days before addressing the disaster on Twitter.
“And I gotta say, Secretary Buttigieg has been nowhere to be found on this issue,” Cruz continued. “You know, it really is a remarkable thing that he hasn’t gone to East Palestine to see what happened there. He hasn’t come to Congress to explain what happened … I know he’s got aspirations, but he actually has a day job — he has a job he’s been appointed to do that is incredibly important. And we need serious leadership.”
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has written to President Joe Biden, calling on Buttigieg to resign.
The criticism has also come from the political left.
Democratic Reps. Rashida Talib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota called directly on Buttigieg to “address the tragedy” and ensure it “never happens again.”
And West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, whose state borders Ohio, on Thursday called the delay in a top-level administration response “unacceptable.”
“While I am glad EPA Administrator Regan will visit the site today, it is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior Administration official to show up. I urge President Biden, Administrator Regan, and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg to provide a complete picture of the damage and a comprehensive plan to ensure the community is supported in the weeks, months and years to come, and this sort of accident never happens again,” he said in a statement.
During a town hall Wednesday night, when a local resident asked Conaway, “Where’s Pete Buttigieg? Where’s he at?” the mayor answered, “I don’t know — your guess is as good as [mine]. Yesterday was the first day I heard anything from the White House.”
At his East Palestine news conference on Thursday, Regan defended the federal response, saying the Biden administration had put boots on the ground since “day one” to do testing and promising that Norfolk Southern would be held accountable.
“Let me be clear,” Regan said, “EPA will exercise our oversight and our enforcement authority under the law to be sure we are getting the results that the community deserves.” He asked for the community’s trust and said federal help would be available as long as it takes.
A Transportation Department spokesperson told ABC News that “within hours of the derailment,” DOT staff were on the scene to support the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the cause.
The department’s role is to support the NTSB — the independent agency that will issue preliminary findings and eventually, a final report — Buttigieg has said, calling also for a reduction of “constraints on the USDOT in this area,” while asking Congress to work with him on safety improvements.
“The residents of East Palestine deserve accurate information and it’s unfortunate to see certain media outlets trying to cause misplaced outrage in an ongoing and serious investigation,” a DOT spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News, noting that Buttigieg has spoken with both Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro about the agency’s support.
“When the investigation is finished, Secretary Buttigieg asked about joining the governors in East Palestine to collaborate on steps to improve rail safety and hold Norfolk Southern accountable,” the spokesperson said, noting that the Transportation Department will likely become more involved in the process when discussions of future regulatory improvements begin.
The White House on Thursday expressed “absolute confidence” in Buttigieg.
“I can answer that very quickly and very, with confidence from here that we do have absolute confidence in Mayor Pete — in secretary — I always say that — Secretary Buttigieg,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Regan, the DOT spokesperson said, is the correct administration representative in the situation. While no injuries were reported from the crash, chemicals in the rail cars — including hazardous materials and vinyl chloride which was burned off in the area last week prompting a temporary evacuation — created outsize environmental and health-related concerns.
On Thursday, DeWine, for the first time, requested federal assistance during a conversation with White House officials, according to his office. Just two days ago, the second-term Republican told reporters that he had earlier been contacted by President Joe Biden with offers of assistance, but he declined.
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, appearing with Regan Thursday, said, “Tell me what they need from the Senate and from the House. And from the federal government. I’ve been working with the White House — I spoke to the new chief of staff to President Biden just yesterday about his policy and it was literally the top of his agenda and my agenda when we spoke on five, six different things.”
On Friday, in response to DeWine’s request, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were deploying a team of medical personnel and toxicologists to conduct public health testing and assessments in East Palestine.
Officials said the administration had secured Norfolk Southern’s commitment to cover clean-up costs.
“We are committed to supporting the people of Palestine every step of the way and we are going to be on the ground helping them as long as it’s needed,” Jean-Pierre said at Friday’s White House briefing.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Noah Minnie contributed to this report.
While the members of Queen have been touring with Adam Lambert since 2011, they have yet to put out any original music together, and guitarist Brian May says there’s a good reason for it.
In case you missed it, in an interview with Total GuitarMay says they believe that Queen’s fanbase simply won’t accept anyone but Freddie Mercury on a recording.
“I think if people see Queen on a record label, they still want it to be Freddie singing,” he shares. “It could be Jesus Christ on it, but they’d still want Freddie, and I don’t blame people for that.”
He adds, “There are people who feel like we shouldn’t even be going on stage without Freddie. But I think that would have been very sad, and it’s not what Freddie would have wanted either. He would have wanted us to continue developing. And of course, because we are continuing and developing, it keeps that legacy alive.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Federal hate crime charges have been filed in the shootings of two Jewish men in Los Angeles this week, according to a criminal complaint.
Jaime Tran, 28, has been charged with hate crimes in the separate shootings of two Jewish men as they were leaving religious services in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, according to the complaint.
The shootings occurred within 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday mornings as the victims left different synagogues within two blocks of each other, authorities said.
Both men were shot “at close range,” Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said during a press briefing Friday announcing the charges.
“The complaint alleges that Tran, motivated by hate, targeted the two victims because they were Jewish, or he believes them to be Jewish,” Estrada said, who noted that the victims were wearing clothing that “visibly identified their Jewish faith.”
The first victim was shot in the lower back, while the second was shot in the upper arm, Estrada said. Both are in stable condition, authorities said.
If convicted, Tran faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Estrada said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — As the cleanup and investigation continues into the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, concerned residents have been pushing government officials for more answers on the state of the surrounding environment.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan spoke with GMA 3 about the latest updates Friday.
GMA3: We have a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into it. Why are you so confident that it’s safe for residents to go back to their homes? And what do you tell people who are still skeptical?
MICHAEL REGAN: First of all, I tell them I’m thankful for state, local and federal coordination and our emergency responders. There have been no loss of life or serious injuries because of this derailment. I understand people’s anxiety. I’ve spent time on the ground with families just yesterday and in the community. And I’m confident because we’ve deployed some of the highest technologies we have to monitor the air. We have mobile vans in and out of the community. We have stationary air monitors and we’ve been in nearly 500 homes testing the indoor air quality. So for homes that have been tested, we are confident that if your home has been tested and you’ve been given the green light, the air is safe. The state is leading on the testing of the water quality. And I trust what Gov. [Mike] DeWine is saying, which is if the state has tested your water and you’ve been given the green light, then that water is safe. But if the state has not tested your water, he is advising and the state is advising that the residents continue to use bottled water.
GMA 3: So, Mr.Administrator, you were in East Palestine yesterday. You say that you trust the science here, but as a father, would you keep your family there if this was your town? And what were you hearing from residents yesterday?
REGAN: I spent time in [a resident’s] home yesterday listening to her talk about her experience. And she has aging parents that she’s taking care of as well. I understand the concerns as a father, as a husband, as a son who has parents over the age of 70. All families should feel that their water is safe to drink and the air is clean and breathable in the homes that have been tested. And looking at the data of our advanced technology in terms of air quality monitoring, if I were in the community, I would return if state, local and federal government had cleared me to do so. I would not drink the water if the water had not been tested. But if the water has been tested, I trust what the science is saying.
GMA 3: Sir, let’s talk about some numbers here. This train had 141 freight cars with some carrying, of course, those extremely hazardous materials. It had three people on board. You had two rail workers and one trainee. Do you believe that’s enough when you’re transporting toxic chemicals?
REGAN: I don’t want to get out in front of a very serious investigation by NTSB and the Department of Transportation. But I think there are a lot of folks asking that question. I know D.O.T. is leading a very thorough investigation, and I know Congress is reevaluating that as well. What we want to stress is that we’ve been there since Day One. The president has talked to the governor, and the White House has been in constant contact with the governor, offering resources that span HUD, HHS, EPA [and] D.O.T. And so while this investigation continues, I think we all have to be there for the residents and assure them that the air is safe and the water is safe.
GMA3: And we know the investigation is happening now, but I think a lot of people want to know how will the rail company, Norfolk Southern, be held accountable and what can the federal government do?
REGAN: I’ve said it a couple of times and I’ll say it again: We will use all of our oversight and enforcement authority to be sure that Norfolk Southern is on the hook for the full cleanup and reimbursement of this community. I’m not the only one that feels that way. You know, the governor of Ohio feels that way. I was on the ground with Congressman [Bill] Johnson, whose district this occurred in and Sen. Sherrod Brown. There is state, local and federal unanimity here in terms of Norfolk Southern will be held accountable for this disaster.
GMA3: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement yesterday that, quote, “While I am glad EPA Administrator Regan will visit the site today, it is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior administration official to show up.” Mr. Administrator, why did it take so long?
REGAN: I have to say that again, the emergency responders have done an excellent job, including my EPA staff, who have been on site since Day One, just hours after this disaster occurred. I think we have to be responsible here. And any time you send a senior official into a disaster area like this one, you take away resources from the emergency responders. You take away resources from the state highway patrol. You take away resources from state government. So we wanted to be sure that emergency responders stay focused on the task and ensure that no lives were lost and no serious injury occurred. And that’s what happened. And I was glad to be on the ground yesterday.
(NEW YORK) — Last month outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a full pardon to John Huffington, who spent years in prison for a murder that he didn’t commit.
Huffington and his attorneys worked for years to get his conviction overturned, especially after DNA evidence exonerated him. In 2013 he took an “Alford plea,” which is a special type of plea by which the defendant asserts his innocence and does not admit to the charged act while acknowledging that a plea is in his best interest, according to his attorneys.
Huffington and his attorney Chong Park spoke with ABC News Live Thursday about the governor’s pardon.
ABC NEWS LIVE: John, you were released back in 2013 on a plea agreement, but that agreement still left a felony conviction on your record. At long last, your record is now clear. How has that changed your life from a practical standpoint and also emotionally?
JOHN HUFFINGTON: Well, from a practical standpoint, it sort of removes the neon sign above my head. There’s a full declaration of innocence pardon the governor, Larry Hogan of Maryland, gave me. [It] was a long journey to get to that point.
It’s definitely changed, and I’m still sort of absorbing it right now, how to, how it affects me personally.
ABC NEWS LIVE: Understood. Tell us what you’re doing right now and how you are coping.
HUFFINGTON: Work-wise, I work for a construction company, Holdings Management Company, and I basically do business development for that. And we have our own community foundation, the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation. I guess my career pathway since I’ve come home has always been in the nonprofit arena. I work with returning citizens. I do a lot in the realm of workforce development and job training. And then with the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation, I’m able to do more and work with marginalized communities and try to deal with financial inequities and things like that. So it’s been my passion. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a career that lets me give back and have some impact, I guess you could say. And so that’s what I enjoy doing.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And Chong would like to bring you in here briefly. Give our viewers some background on John’s case. He was tried and wrongfully convicted on two counts of first-degree murder back in 1981. A year later, a Maryland court of appeals reversed his conviction. And then what happened?
CHONG PARK: And then he was tried a second time. And unfortunately, he was convicted, put on death row. He spent 10 years on death row. He was re-sentenced to life. And then what happened was, in 1999, the prosecutor received a memo from the Department of Justice talking about one of the key pieces of evidence that was used to convict John, which was the expert testimony of FBI analysts that had done what he called microscopic hair analysis that said the hair that linked John to the crime scene, to the murders was a 99.9% match. But then main justice sent this prosecutor a memo in 1999 saying there are some serious deficiencies and that the FBI expert had testified beyond his expertise. And what did the prosecutor do with that memo? Nothing. It wasn’t until 2011 that a Washington Post reporter sent that memo to us at Ropes and Gray.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And John’s pardon ultimately took more than 40 years, more than 160 attorneys dedicated to overturning his conviction and proving his innocence. Do you have a message for others who are dealing with wrongful convictions?
PARK: Fight. Fight for people and fight to do the right thing. In this case, the prosecutor did not do the right thing. It took legions, as you said, 13,000 pro-bono [attorneys], free legal hours dedicated to getting John the justice he needed. It took the attorney grievance commission to take our ethics complaint and to prosecute the prosecutor for ethics violations. The highest court in Maryland now, the Maryland Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeals, unanimously set forth a decision barring Joseph Castelli, the prosecutor, only the fifth prosecutor in U.S. history, to be disbarred. And then finally, in January of this year, Gov. Larry Hogan gave John a full innocent pardon. And so it took a long time and it finally took people doing the right thing to achieve justice for John.
ABC NEWS LIVE: And John, just want to give you the last word here. We just heard from Chong and the perspective from an attorney as far as what one should do. But for the many people who are behind bars, who said, like you, they could go free if they just admitted to guilt. But then they’re saying, “Look, I actually didn’t do this, and so I’d rather fight my way out.” What would you recommend to that person behind bars?
HUFFINGTON: Well, to keep fighting, I mean, you know, you have to stand on your truth. That’s all we have. And my battle, you know, I could have taken the plead guilty deal and it would have been over. I could have let it stay with the [2013] plea, and it would have been over. But my quest was for my name. That was it’s kind of unfathomable to explain that to somebody that hasn’t experienced it. But when they take your name, they take everything. And I just, I had to keep fighting.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their tour to Austin, Texas, Thursday night, which kicked off with a very special introduction. Rolling Stone reports that when The Boss walked out onstage at the Moody Center he was accompanied by none other than country legend George Strait.
“Austin, Texas!” Strait said. “It’s my honor tonight to introduce to you a band that really needs no introduction, right? Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!”
Bruce responded, “Thank you, George. Good evening, Austin!”
As for the show, Bruce played a 27-song set, opening with “No Surrender,” as he has most nights of the tour. The set included tracks like “Cadillac Ranch,” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” “Out in the Streets” and “Thunder Road.”
The show was down one E Street Band member, however, with saxophone player Jake Clemons, nephew of original E Streeter Clarence Clemons, out with COVID.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s next stop is Kansas City, Missouri, Saturday night.
Legendary actress Judi Dench has been living with age-related macular degeneration for years now, but in a new appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she explains her conditioned has worsened to the point that reading new roles “has become impossible.”
According to People, Dench said she has a photographic memory and noted, “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”
Dench explained in a 2021 Guardian interview that she’s had to come up with other strategies to compensate for her eyesight, including having others read her lines to her. “I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless,” she said.
On Friday’s installment of Norton’s chat show, she joked, “I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page.”
In spite of her issues, the stage and screen star and former James Bond series lead continues working, recently appearing in a cameo as herself in Ryan Reynolds‘ holiday musical Spirited. In 2022 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in longtime friend and collaborator Kenneth Branagh‘s drama Belfast.
Her latest film, the play-adapted dramedy Allelujah, is about to be released in the United Kingdom.
Friday evening’s The Graham Norton Show with Dench also features Tony winner Hugh Jackman, Creed III star and director Michael B. Jordan, Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.
Based on the comics following the same unlikely superhero duo, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comes to Disney+ Friday.
In the animated series, she’s a 13-year-old super genius named Lunella Lafayette and he’s a red T. rex named Devil Dinosaur that Lunella accidentally teleported into our time, who team up to fight evil in New York’s Lower East Side.
Diamond White plays the motor-mouthed teen, and the actress explained to ABC Audio that took a little getting used to. “In my everyday life, I speak very slowly because I have to get the words — I’m not as smart as Lunella. Lunella’s superpower is her brain, OK? My superpower is not my brain, but it’s my voice,” she laughs.
The actress adds, “I came to getting the vibe from this role through kind of looking at my 9-year-old self. Lunella’s 13, but I had to go a bit younger to get the whole, like, spazzy kind of like Moon Girl magic vibe.
Veteran voiceover actor Fred Tatasciore [TAHta-SHORE] has voiced everything from the evil Transformer Megatron to Yosemite Sam, but here he has to communicate only as a cartoon dinosaur can.
“Pretty soon you start to develop a lexicon, you know, and I mean a little language going on, you know?” the actor says. He demonstrates Devil’s speaking voice, which is a series of snarls, snorts and growls.
“It’s a wonderful vocal challenge,” he noted. “Peter Cullen, he actually invented the Predator voice, right? From an actor’s point of view and a vocal artist point of view, it’s the most fun to be able to try to paint colors and nontraditional colors with that texture.”
He adds with a laugh, “I call it a broken saxophone.”
The full lineup for England’s Glastonbury Festival has yet to be announced, but it looks like Blondie will be on it, at least according to their drummer, Clem Burke.
During an appearance on Foxy Radio, Burke was talking about Blondie’s July show with Iggy Pop at Crystal Palace Park in London when he let it slip that the band’s booked for the famed festival.
“We’re also doing Isle of Wight and we’re doing some other festivals,” Burke said. “I guess it hasn’t really been announced, the full list of artists to be playing Glastonbury, but we are going to be playing Glastonbury, so maybe you got an exclusive there.”
Glastonbury Festival is happening June 21 to 25. So far the only artist officially confirmed for the festival is Elton John, who is headlining June 25.
