Pete Townshend is teasing fans with new music. The Who rocker revealed on social media that he has a new solo single “coming soon.”
Although he didn’t reveal the title of the track, he says it was written by his wife, Rachel Fuller, and shared the artwork, which was by artist Damien Hirst.
The song is expected sometime this month, with proceeds being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust.
Pete did note in his announcement that he’s only releasing a single, not a solo album. His last solo studio album was 1993’s Psychoderelict.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team turned over a folder with classification markings found last month at his Mar-a-Lago resort to federal agents, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
It is unclear what type of classification markings the folder had or what material had previously been inside.
Additionally, sources tell ABC News that a laptop belonging to a current aide of the former president was also provided to federal agents.
Sources said the discovery occurred in mid-January as Trump’s team was searching through additional boxes amid the Department of Justice’s ongoing efforts to have Trump’s attorneys verify that Trump no longer still has classified documents in his possession.
The material was discovered in the Mar-a-Lago complex, and not in a storage facility within the complex that housed hundreds of classified documents prior to them being seized in August 2022, the sources said.
During the August search, investigators seized 46 folders with classified banners that were empty.
Trump attorney James Trusty turned over the folder with classification markings to federal investigators, and also informed agents that it had been electronically copied to a laptop of a current Trump aide, the sources said.
ABC News has also learned that after the information was recovered, federal agents retrieved the laptop from the aide. The laptop was not retrieved on the Mar-a-Lago grounds, the sources said.
“It is customary in circumstances such as this for investigators to search the computer to see if classified material is still on that computer,” said John Cohen, former acting undersecretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security and now an ABC News contributor. “They will also seek to determine if classified material was transmitted electronically to other computers or devices via that computer.”
Neither Trusty nor a spokesperson for Trump immediately responded to a request for comment from ABC News.
The special counsel’s office also did not immediately respond.
The development comes as a separate special counsel is probing the handling of classified materials by President Joe Biden after he left the vice presidency. There have subsequently been multiple recoveries of documents from various locations tied to Trump, Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Federal investigators have reported mounting frustration with Trump, who some believe could still be unlawfully holding on to classified documents even after the FBI’s unprecedented August search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
ABC News reported in December that Trump had an outside team conduct a deeper search for any government documents at four properties, which turned up at least two more documents marked classified.
As ABC News previously reported, the Justice Department sought to hold Trump in contempt for not complying with their initial June subpoena for all documents with classification markings that were in his possession.
In December, a federal judge in Washington declined to hold Trump or his legal team in contempt of court and instead urged the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to resolve the dispute themselves, sources told ABC News at the time.
Chief Judge Beryl Howell did not rule out the possibility that Trump could be held in contempt if their talks broke down further.
(NEW YORK) — Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, have recently come under fire and are at the center of political battles being waged by Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis.
These initiatives, seen in businesses, schools or government agencies, are intended to address inequities against historically marginalized groups that may be found within an organization.
ABC News spoke to DEI experts and consultants about what DEI is and what these initiatives look like.
What is DEI?
“Diversity” refers to the representation of people from a variety of backgrounds – particularly referring to people of different races, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, religions and more – at all levels in an organization, including the leadership level.
“Equity” focuses on fairness and justice, particularly referring to compensation and whether people are being paid or treated fairly, DEI experts told ABC News.
“Inclusion” is about whether people feel like they belong, and whether they feel heard or valued in an organization, experts say.
DEI initiatives focus on three main areas: training, organizational policies and practices, as well as organizational culture, according to Erica Foldy, a professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Initiatives focusing on policies, practices and culture exist to correct inequities within an organization, said Tina Opie, a DEI consultant and professor at Babson College.
This includes addressing discriminatory hiring practices, pay inequity, or rectifying issues that cause poor employee retention rates among marginalized groups.
DEI training is meant to encourage people to be more aware and reflective about inequities and discrimination on an individual level, Foldy said.
What’s DEI’s purpose?
DEI has its roots in the 1960’s anti-discrimination legislative movement when laws like the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 addressed labor issues based on protected classes.
Companies had to comply with these anti-discrimination laws, and the DEI movement stems from these efforts to continue to create equitable workplaces and schools.
“Somewhere around the late ’80s, early ’90s, people are realizing that simply trying to stop discriminating against different groups of people is not enough,” Foldy said. “The kind of ethos of those initiatives was to go beyond just avoiding discrimination and to actively changing organizations so that they were more welcoming and more inclusive.”
And though DEI is in the spotlight, Foldy says, these initiatives are efforted under a plethora of different acronyms or names.
Every DEI initiative may be run differently, experts say, but the overall goal is to make companies and leaders examine the way their company treats or serves marginalized groups.
“Historically, there have been some groups of people who have had more access and control over resources, money, time, other people and the ability to affect policies, procedures, law,” said Opie.
“Are you saying that you think across the United States … they’re the only ones who are best equipped to run these companies? Is it something about their DNA, genetics or is it something else?” she added.
Opie and Foldy say DEI makes people uncomfortable because they feel that correcting power inequities can be seen as “unfair” to the people with power or privilege.
Opie and Foldy believe critiques of DEI often frame these initiatives as unfairly giving something to marginalized people who “have not earned” it and are taking things away from people.
“Dominance and privilege – understandably, those things are hard to give up,” Foldy said. “For the greater good, of not just a workplace, but for our country, our democracy, we have to become a country that equally and passionately welcomes all the people who live in the country.”
Opie argues some critiques see diversity as not an “us” issue, but a “them” issue.
Why are conservatives attacking it?
DEI initiatives have come under attack by conservative legislators including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In a recent memo, Abbott told state agencies that DEI initiatives are “illegal.”
The memo, sent on Sunday by Abbott’s chief of staff, Gardner Pate, said these initiatives violate the law because they “expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others.”
It did not specify which groups were being harmed under such programs.
Pate claimed these programs “proactively encourage discrimination in the workplace,” and do the opposite of what they claim to do.
Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Gov. Abbott’s office, said in a statement: “The letter from the Governor’s chief of staff is a reminder that state agencies and public universities must follow federal and state law in their hiring practices.”
“The issue is not diversity—the issue is that equity is not equality. Here in Texas, we give people a chance to advance based on talent and merit,” Eze added.
The memo came days after DeSantis said he plans to bar state universities from funding DEI initiatives.
He argued that DEI is an “indoctrinating” program.
His administration requested data from colleges and universities throughout the state regarding race-related and DEI-related programs and courses, asking employees to “report the amount of money that they are using in things like DEI and [critical race theory] programs.”
“It’s a lot of money, and it’s not the best use of your money,” he said at a Jan. 31 press conference. “We are also going to eliminate all DEI and [critical race theory] bureaucracies in the state of Florida. No funding and that will wither on the vine.”
ABC News’ Armando Garcia and Max Zahn contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Adding to the Democratic chorus of condemnation for Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott’s proposal to “sunset” all federal legislation every five years — including Social Security — is Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
“I mean, it’s just a bad idea,” McConnell said as he spoke to Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners on Thursday. “I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own reelection in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any state in America.”
McConnell made clear Scott’s proposal isn’t being embraced by the party.
“It is clearly the Rick Scott plan. It is not the Republican plan,” McConnell said. “And that’s the view of the speaker of the House as well.”
Scott’s proposal, released last year, is back in the spotlight after President Joe Biden made it a target in his State of the Union address. Biden’s comments stoked the fiercest reaction from conservatives in the chamber, some of whom audibly booed him.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., went so far as to shout Biden was a “liar” — a comment she and other Republicans defended the next day.
Scott has defended his plan, stating he doesn’t want to cut the benefit program relied on by millions of Americans.
Under his “Rescue America” proposal, Congress would have to reauthorize legislation they want to keep funding — prompting Democrats to say Social Security would be “on the chopping block” every few years.
Biden only doubled down on the message after the State of the Union, criticizing Scott by name at an event in Wisconsin the day after.
He did so again in Florida on Thursday, when he traveled to the retirement haven (and Scott’s home state) to speak solely on the issue of Social Security and Medicare. There, he claimed it’s the Republican Party’s “dream” to cut Social Security.
“Well let me say this: If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare,” Biden said at the University of Tampa.
When asked to elaborate on what the GOP plan is for Social Security amid Biden’s blitz, McConnell told Meiners that he shares House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s view that the program is “off the table” during debt ceiling negotiations but didn’t elaborate.
“We’re in a more authoritative position to state what the position of the party is than any single senator,” McConnell said, swiping at Scott.
The two have been at odds for months, first over their differing views in the lead up to the 2022 midterms and then over Scott’s challenge to McConnell’s leadership in the wake of the GOP’s election performance.
When asked Thursday by Fox News’ Bill Hemmer about his relationship with McConnell, and whether they were “cool” with one another, Scott deflected.
“Well, he just kicked me off a committee. So, that was pretty petty,” he said, referring to his removal from the Senate Commerce Committee.
Chris Hartline, a communications consultant for Scott’s 2024 reelection campaign, shot back at McConnell’s comments about his plan for Social Security.
“Some D.C. Republicans can keep parroting Democrat lies, but that won’t stop Rick Scott from fighting for conservative principles instead of caving to Biden every day,” Hartline tweeted on Friday.
It sure looks like U2 fans may finally be getting confirmation about the band’s much rumored residency at the new high-tech arena MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.
The Irish rockers are set to appear in an ad during Sunday’s Super Bowl, per their publicity team. They’ve also shared the new website U2xsphere.com, which so far only has a photo of the Las Vegas skyline, with a baby’s face in a bubble superimposed over it.
Reports of the U2 residency at MSG Sphere have been circulating since July, when Billboard first reported the rumors. Just last month, Bono commented on the alleged residency during an appearance on the SmartLess podcast, sharing, “If this happens it will be really extraordinary.”
(WASHINGTON) — Revoking the government’s decades-old approval of an abortion medication would represent a “dangerous attack” on public health, the attorneys general from 21 states and the District of Columbia told a Texas judge on Friday.
In a brief filed in the district federal court, the nearly two dozen state lawyers — each Democrats — objected to a lawsuit filed by conservatives challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s green light of the drug mifepristone more than 20 years ago.
If the judge agrees with the plaintiffs, mifepristone could no longer be prescribed for abortions, even in states where abortion is legal.
“Blocking access to this safe and effective medication is a dangerous attack on reproductive freedom and public health,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “Decades of medical and clinical research have proven that medication abortion is safe. Despite these facts and its widespread use, we know this is not a debate about science.”
The filing represents the latest legal escalation in courts over whether Americans should have access to medication abortion.
Half of abortions in the U.S. rely on medication abortion, a two-drug regimen that includes misoprostol and the tightly regulated prescription medication mifepristone.
According to the FDA, mifepristone is safe and effective if used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The drug was sold in Europe and China before becoming available in the U.S. in 2000, and federal officials say no serious safety concerns have emerged since then.
A 2008 congressional watchdog review found no wrongdoing in the FDA approval process involving the drug.
Still, the conservative legal group Alliance for Defending Freedom has fought for years to revoke approval of the drug on the grounds that the FDA’s approach was flawed and that regulators ignored safety concerns.
“The FDA has completely failed to protect America’s women and girls when it comes to chemical abortion drugs,” said Julie Marie Blake, senior counsel for the plaintiff in the case.
“Any court — to look at the law and to look at the science — should agree that the FDA has failed its responsibility to protect women and girls, and that it’s time to remove these drugs from the market or at a minimum to put back important safeguards on their use,” she said.
Blake said that while the lawsuit would ban mifepristone for abortion, it would still allow the drug to be used in miscarriage care and for other health reasons like Cushing’s syndrome.
If the judge agrees and revokes access to mifepristone, abortion providers say it’s likely they will turn to prescribing misoprostol only to induce an abortion. This drug, which is also used to treat stomach ulcers and is not tightly regulated, can cause an abortion without mifepristone, but is considered less effective.
Still, they say clinics already overwhelmed with patients seeking abortions will likely have to turn people away, and more patients will turn to illegal online pill sites.
“We have a lot of unknowns,” said Ashley Brink, Wichita Clinic Manager at Trust Women Kansas.
“We aren’t fully prepared for what might happen. We can only give information to people that we have at this time,” she added.
The case was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. A ruling is expected in coming weeks.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House said Friday that a ‘high-altitude object’ has been shot down over Alaska.
President Joe Biden ordered the shootdown, spokesman John Kirby said, adding that the origin of the object has yet to be determined.
Responding to reporters’ shouted questions about the shootdown Friday afternoon outside the White House, Biden called the operation a “success.”
It comes just days after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon last Saturday, following a political firestorm.
Kirby said the object was about the size of a small car and was at flying about 40,000 feet.
He said because it posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight, that out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, Biden ordered the military to down the object.
ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz first reported that when fighters were scrambled, the pilots did visuals, got images and said there was no sign the object had propulsion.
It was described as “cylindrical and silver-ish gray” and seemed to be floating, a U.S. official said.
Asked if was “balloon-like,” the official said, “All I say is that it wasn’t ‘flying’ with any sort of propulsion, so if that is ‘balloon-like’ well — we just don’t have enough at this point.”
“It came in, inside our territorial waters, those waters right now are frozen, but inside territorial airspace and over territorial waters. Fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command took down the object within the last hour,” Kirby said.
“We don’t know who owns this object,” he said. The object came to U.S. attention Thursday evening, Kirby said.
It did not appear to have maneuverability capability, he said.”It was virtually at the whim of the wind.”
Fighter aircraft checked if it was manned and determined and he said it wasn’t. “We were able to get some fighter aircraft up and around it before the order to shoot it down. And the pilots’ assessment was that this was not manned.”
“It was difficult for the pilots to glean a whole lot of information,” he said, adding, “There was a limit to how much they could divine.”
Kirby told ABC’s Karen Travers Biden was briefed last night. “He was as soon — as soon as the Pentagon had enough information.”
Fighter aircraft first saw it late last night, it was a small object, and they were flying at high speed, he said. They did another flight “early this morning” to try to learn more. The flight early this morning “ended in a shootdown,” Kirby said.
Biden gave order to shoot it down Friday morning. Hew said the “predominant” reason Biden ordered it shot down was the “safety” of flights traveling at that altitude. And the fact that it was at the mercy of prevailing winds made its flight path less predictable. “And the president just wasn’t able to take that risk.”
“We do expect to be able to recover the debris since it fell not only within our territorial space, but on what we what we believe is frozen water, ” Kirby said. “So. a recovery effort will be made, and we’re hopeful that it will be successful and then we can learn a little bit more about it.”
At the Pentagon, Brig Gen. Patrick Ryder said the object was detected by ground radar. He said it was shot down at 1:45 p.m. ET.
Recovery resources are moving to the site, according to Ryder, including an HC-130, which is the search-and-rescue version of the C-130 plane, HH-60 and CH-47 aircraft.
Biden has come under fire from Republicans — and some Democrats — for not acting sooner to shoot down a Chinese surveillance balloon flying at 60,00 feet that first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska. It eventually flew over the lower 48 states before being taken out off the South Carolina coast.
Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said statement he was briefed by Pentagon officials Friday morning.
“As I’ve been doing for the past week, including in a classified briefing with senior Pentagon officials yesterday, I strongly encouraged the NORTHCOM Commander this morning to shoot down this latest unidentified intrusion into Alaska air space. I commend them for doing so today,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the actions taken help to “re-establish deterrence” toward China.
ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ROMAN FOREST, TEXAS) — A Texas mother is wanted for abandoning her two children for nearly two months late last year, according to police.
Roman Forest, Texas, police said Thursday they have issued an arrest warrant for Raven Yates for two counts of abandoning/endangering a child without intent to return.
The father of one of the children, a 12-year-old girl, reported to police on Nov. 14, 2022, that she had been left home alone with her 3-year-old brother since Sept. 28.
They allegedly did not have food or supplies for much of this time and the two children were not registered in school.
The father, who lives out of state, flew in from California in November after his former mother-in-law saw her daughter, Yates, alone in Mobile, Alabama, police said. He came to realize the two children were alone because his daughter had been asking him to send them food regularly.
He alerted police and met them at the house where the two children were staying. The father does not live at the house, but he pays the rent, Roman Forest Police Chief Stephen Carlisle told ABC News in an interview.
Police did not find any food in the cabinets or fridge, but the kids were both healthy.
“I guess the 12-year-old was very resourceful. But she shouldn’t have had to do that,” Carlisle said.
The father of the 12-year-old took the two kids to stay with their grandmother in Mobile, Alabama.
Police also discovered that a few weeks before she allegedly abandoned the children in September, Yates reported that her third child, a 14-year-old, had run away. Somehow, the child was able to make it to their grandmother’s house in Mobile as well.
The three children are now safe with their grandmother in Alabama.
Yates is believed to still be in the Mobile area, and she has been posting regularly on her social media accounts, Carlisle said.
Police have been unable to locate Yates since first issuing a warrant for her arrest on Dec. 6. Police hope members of the public will come forward with information that could help them apprehend Yates.
Mobile police did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Florida lawmakers on Friday approved a bill that would give Gov. Ron DeSantis the ability to appoint a board to run Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District – the self-governing region that encompasses the company’s theme parks outside Orlando.
The bill, HB 9B, passed 26-9 in the GOP-controlled state Senate while the Republican-controlled House approved the plan Thursday in a 82-31 vote. The bill now heads to DeSantis’ desk for signing.
According to the legislation, none of the appointees to the oversight board can be recent Disney employees or have had a contractual relationship with a theme park within the past three years.
The bill would also rename the district the “Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.”
Last year the state legislature passed a bill to eliminate the current district, which has granted Disney expansive authority over the area around its parks. Instead of eliminating the district, HB 9B gives the governor authority over who runs it.
The changes come after Disney publicly criticized a controversial DeSantis-backed law banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in certain K-12 classrooms last year.
The Parental Rights in Education Law has been dubbed by critics as “Don’t Say Gay,” while its supporters say it ensures age-inappropriate topics are kept out of class.
A Disney spokesperson, citing concerns of discrimination, said it “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of ABC News.
During the Senate floor discussion, Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo said HB 9B was brought to the floor for a vote because “someone’s feelings got hurt,” referring to DeSantis.
“I think every business that’s considering coming to Florida needs to be concerned,” Democratic Sen. Geraldine Thompson said. “I think that private businesses need to be concerned that if they exercise their First Amendment rights to speak up on an issue that they’re going to be punished by government. That’s what this is.”
Meanwhile, other state senators have sided with DeSantis.
“It was Disney’s decision to go from an apolitical safe 25,000 acres and try to be involved in public policy,” Republican Sen. Doug Broxson said.
DeSantis’ office insisted earlier this week that the changes to the district were an effort to ensure corporate accountability.
“Florida is dissolving the Corporate Kingdom and beginning a new era of accountability and transparency,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ press secretary, said in a statement.
Griffin explained that the bill would end the district’s self-governing status and Disney’s exemption from state regulatory reviews.
The legislation would also keep the district’s current financial obligations in place, including outstanding debts. DeSantis has promised that neighboring Orange and Osceola counties would not be responsible for the district’s $1 billion debt despite the legal changes.
Katee Sackhoff couldn’t help but jump on Instagram to share her “overwhelmed” reaction to Empire magazine‘s feature covers promoting the third season of her show The Mandalorian.
“Oh my God, it’s so cool,” the actress enthused.
One cover captures her and Pedro Pascal‘s Din Djarin looking serious in their Mando armor.
Sackhoff was raised a lifelong Star Wars fan — by a Star Wars fan dad, in fact — and told ABC Audio back in 2021 she would have played a rock for Lucasfilm if given the chance. An opportunity came in 2012, in the form of the voice role of Bo-Katan Kryze, a steely Mandalorian fighter, in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
On that show, her character fought with — and later against — another Mando, Pre Viszla, who was voiced by none other than The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau. Favreau and Dave Filoni, the Emmy-winning Clone Wars co-creator, then cast Sackhoff as Bo-Katan in live action form in The Mandalorian season 2.
The character became a fan favorite before she donned the armor for real. Sackhoff explained to ABC Audio, “She translated so well to The Mandalorian. And that’s just one of those things: You never know what’s going to work and [when] the audience is going to go, ‘Oh my God, we love this!'”
An “overwhelmed” Sackhoff also told her followers Friday, “I can’t wait for you guys to see this season! I feel so honored to play this character and be a part of this show and a part of this universe.”
