(NEW YORK) — Residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line who were told to evacuate after tanker cars derailed in a fiery crash days ago have still not been allowed to return home.
Crews conducted a controlled release and burn of toxic chemicals from five of the derailed cars that were in danger of exploding on Monday afternoon. A large ball of fire and plume of black smoke could be seen billowing high into the sky from the smoldering derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, as the controlled burn took place.
As of Monday night, a 1-mile mandatory evacuation zone remained in place around the site, with no timeframe for when residents will be let back in, according to East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway.
East Palestine is a small village in northeastern Ohio, near the border with Pennsylvania. It is home to roughly 4,700 residents, about half of whom had been warned to leave over the weekend before officials decided on Monday to conduct the controlled release.
About 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern Railroad train, traveling from Illinois to Pennsylvania, derailed in East Palestine on Friday at around 9 p.m. ET. Ten of the derailed cars were transporting hazardous materials, five of which contained vinyl chloride. No injuries were reported, officials said.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, two videos show preliminary indications of mechanical issues on one of the car’s axle. The train’s emergency brake was activated after crews said an alarm went off.
Efforts to contain a fire at the derailment site stalled on Saturday night, as firefighters withdrew from the blaze due to concerns about air quality and explosions.
Forced evacuations began in East Palestine on Sunday night and by Monday, residents in a 1-mile by 2-mile area surrounding the site — which includes parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania — were ordered to evacuate immediately.
“The vinyl chloride contents of five rail cars are currently unstable and could potentially explode, causing deadly disbursement of shrapnel and toxic fumes,” the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Monday.
The controlled release and burn went “as planned,” according to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“Thus far, no concerning readings have been detected,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a press conference on Monday evening, about three hours after procedure began. “For now, out of an abundance of caution, Pennsylvanians who live within two miles of East Palestine, where this derailment occurred, should just continue to shelter in place this evening and keep your windows and your doors closed.”
Crews monitoring air quality “have not seen anything” unexpected, according to James Justice of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“So far, so good,” Justice said at the press conference. “And we’re going to continue to monitor until the fire’s out.”
In a statement to ABC News, Norfolk Southern Railroad also called Monday’s controlled release a success and said materials were burning off according to plan.
“We have been, and will continue, monitoring air quality with the Ohio EPA,” the rail operator added. “Remediation work at the site can now safely continue.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address comes at a pivotal moment as he lays out not only his accomplishments and agenda, but makes the case for his leadership ahead of an expected announcement about whether he’ll run for reelection.
Unlike his first two years in office, though, Republicans now control the House of Representatives, determined to block his priorities — and already forcing a high-stakes battle over spending cuts that could cause the nation to default on its debt.
If he does run again, the president — at 80, the oldest in the nation’s history — will have to persuade voters, expressing record economic discontent, that they would be better off with him when even many Democrats have their doubts.
Pushing bipartisanship amid acrimony
In his remarks — which he worked on with advisers over the weekend at Camp David, according to the White House — he’s expected to call on Republicans to work together with him, underscoring “the progress the American people want us to make by working together in the year ahead,” a White House official said.
His prime-time speech, though, comes as he faces constant antagonism from those same Republicans — including over his possible mishandling of classified documents, for which he is under investigation by a special counsel. The White House has deflected questions about why it has not been more transparent throughout the saga.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have also criticized the president’s handling of the suspected Chinese spy balloon the U.S. military shot down off the Atlantic coast Saturday; many GOP politicians have said the administration should have taken it out before it traversed the country.
Whereas Biden devoted nearly a fifth of his State of the Union speech last year to the days-old Russian invasion of Ukraine, his remarks this year will likely focus more on his legislative accomplishments — how the federal government is “investing in America,” as he has said during recent remarks.
Whereas he declared during his speech last year that the U.S. had “reached a new moment in the fight against COVID-19,” in recent months Biden has focused less and less of his public remarks on the coronavirus pandemic, with Americans — and the economy — largely moving on.
The president, the White House official said, “will highlight the progress we have already made — and will keep fighting to make — on these and other commitments and priorities, illustrating in real terms how transformational his pieces of legislation are for Americans across the country.”
It’s a calculated political move that comes just before he may launch his reelection effort.
The next two years of his presidency will not likely see the same degree of legislative accomplishments he enjoyed during the first two, with Republicans in the House determined to put roadblocks in the way.
Persuading Americans they’re better off
As the fruits of those laws only now just begin to become tangible for Americans — shovels breaking ground on infrastructure projects, the price of insulin dropping, taxes falling on clean technologies — Biden is hoping to take credit and boost his perennially low approval ratings.
“Next week, I’ll be reporting on the state of the union,” he said Friday, as he celebrated the surprisingly large number of jobs created in January. “But today — today, I’m happy to report that the state of the union and the state of our economy is strong.”
But it’ll be an uphill battle persuading Americans he has helped improve their personal finances.
In a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, four in 10 Americans said they’ve gotten worse off financially since Biden became president — the most in nearly three dozen ABC/Post polls to ask the question since 1986. Just 16% said they were better off.
That said, Biden is helped by the way Americans view Republicans. In the same poll, the public took Biden’s side in the debt ceiling debate, with 65% backing his approach of handling debt payments and federal spending as separate issues; just 26% support that of the newly minted speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, who has threatened to let the U.S. default on its debt if the president does not agree to spending cuts.
Touting accomplishments as Americans don’t give credit
The economy is central to the president’s message — and Americans’ concerns about the future.
Biden aides argue the president has numerous monumental achievements to speak of — and that people are just now beginning to see the impact.
Biden has several positive indicators he can point to on Tuesday evening: High inflation is moderating, gas prices have fallen from their highs last year and the labor market remains strong.
In the past year, the president pushed through two significant pieces of legislation tackling his domestic priorities: a massive health, climate and tax bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act and a significant investment in semiconductor manufacturing, through the CHIPS and Science Act.
“On all three of the major pieces of legislation — on infrastructure, CHIPS and Science, and on the inflation Reduction Act, 2023 is the year in which the most significant impact will begin to occur,” Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, told reporters Monday.
Biden has also celebrated other bills passed by Congress in the past year, including the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, and the Safer Communities Act, which included a number of gun reform measures.
But broadly speaking, Americans see it very differently, according to the recent ABC/Post poll.
Just 36% of Americans said they thought Biden had accomplished a great deal or good amount as president; 62% said he had accomplished not very much or nothing.
Nor did Biden get much credit for a disparate list of items he might raise in Tuesday’s address. Unemployment has dropped from 6.3% when Biden took office to 3.4% now — a low since 1969 — and the economy added a robust 517,000 jobs last month — yet the public, by 60-34%, said he has not made progress “creating more good jobs in your community.”
In an effort to combat that perception, Biden hit the road three times last week, highlighting his infrastructure law’s investments in major train tunnel projects in Baltimore and New York and in replacing lead pipes in Philadelphia.
He also renewed a push for Congress to enshrine paid family and medical leave into law; Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, prevented that from happening in 2021.
“I want to talk to the American people and let them know the state of affairs — what’s going on and what I’m looking forward to working on from this point on, what we’ve done,” Biden told reporters Monday. “And just have a conversation with the American people.”
While Biden’s pitching himself to Republicans, he also needs to make the case to Democrats.
In the ABC/Post poll, just 31% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said the party should nominate Biden for reelection; 58% said it should pick someone else.
Will guns and policing reform take a backseat?
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how much of his speech Biden will devote to the issues of gun control and policing reform, two areas where Democrats have fallen short of reaching their lofty goals of reform.
Recent mass shootings in California and the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five police officers in Memphis have once again put pressure on Biden to use his bully pulpit to prioritize those issues.
Asked last week how much emphasis Biden would place on policing reform, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not say.
On Thursday, she told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce that Biden had “been working on his speech for some time” and that Americans could expect to hear from Biden about “how he is optimistic about the future of his country” and “the possibilities that we have as a country, especially as we look at our economy.”
McCarthy-Biden relationship to put bipartisanship push to the test
Like last year, Biden is expected to call for bipartisanship, underscoring “the progress the American people want us to make by working together in the year ahead,” the White House official said.
This year, the official said, “the president will once again amplify his belief that Democrats and Republicans can work together, as they did in the last two years and as he is committed to doing with this new Congress to get big things done on behalf of the American people.”
Tuesday’s address will mark the first time a Republican, McCarthy, will sit in a position of power on the dais behind the president while he speaks.
How Biden’s relationship with McCarthy develops in the coming months will put his desire for bipartisanship to the test.
The president and the speaker met in the Oval Office last week as Republicans threaten a catastrophic default if the White House does not agree to broad, unspecified spending cuts. Afterward, both men called their talks “good.”
While Ukraine dominated his speech last year, it is unlikely to play such a major role. The White House official did say, though, that Biden will “outline the progress made on maintaining international alliances to defend Ukraine, compete with China, and assert American leadership in the world.”
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders plans to deliver this year’s official Republican response to the State of the Union address. She will likely paint a picture of an economy that has struggled under Biden.
Sanders, formerly President Donald Trump’s press secretary, has also made “culture war” issues a focus of her governorship since taking office last month.
“Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the youngest governor in the nation and a powerful advocate for the popular, commonsense conservative principles that will put our country back on a better course,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement last week.
(NEW YORK) — As U.S. intelligence agencies continue to investigate the situation around what the Department of Defense is calling a spy balloon from China, there are still several questions about how this aircraft was able to move across the globe and what its purpose was, according to government officials and intelligence experts.
But the one thing that is clear, according to an intelligence expert, is that the entire ordeal is showing how boastful Chinese officials are.
“What’s really concerning here is just the arrogance of the Chinese [government] to be able to say, we’re going to fly through your sovereign territory and you know that they’d be screaming bloody murder if we’d done that to them,” Col. Stephen Ganyard, an ABC News contributor and former State Department official, told “Start Here” Monday.
Authorities are working to recover what’s left of the balloon from the waters off South Carolina after fighter jets shot it down on Saturday and Chinese government officials have criticized the U.S. for striking down the aircraft that they claim was a private weather balloon.
Ganyard said that the situation is complicating matters between the U.S. and Chinese governments right before the anticipated meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“It chills an already chilly relationship,” Ganyard told “Start Here.” The U.S. had been looking forward to the Blinken-Xi meeting because it’s been the first time in years that any high-level U.S. official had been able to talk to any high-level Chinese official.”
Ganyard said even though Chinese intelligence agencies have access to satellites, planes and other advanced spy technologies, a low-altitude aircraft would give them some advantages. A balloon would be able to take higher resolution images from 11 miles up in the air versus a satellite in space, according to Ganyard.
While the balloon wreckage is still being analyzed, Ganyard said some Pentagon intelligence reports showed that the downed aircraft had solar panels, sensors and the ability to be steered remotely.
“It’s going to be really interesting to see when they’re able to pick up that debris offshore and see what’s actually in that package and what’s actually in the balloon,” Ganyard said.
Ganyard, a former Marine fighter pilot, said it was wise for the Air Force to wait until the balloon was out in the ocean before they shot it down, because of the huge risk to civilians on the ground.
“You don’t want to be the person that’s having a bad day and you might get hit on the ground. The gondola underneath – it apparently weighs a couple of tons,” he said. “If it comes apart, there were all sorts of potential for damage.”
Ganyard said the situation did reveal holes in communications within Western intelligence agencies as the balloon traveled through Japan, Alaska and Canada before being spotted in the continental U.S.
Although balloons like this are difficult to track, Ganyard said that there were reports that the Canadian Air Force did spot the balloon. U.S. intelligence had some information, but the White House was not informed until Tuesday, when the aircraft was spotted in Montana, according to Ganyard.
“What we have here is a failure to communicate,” he said.
Chinese government officials, however, have been adamant that the aircraft was not a spy device but instead a “civilian airship” that was used for meteorological purposes and malfunctioned. A second balloon was found in South America Friday but Chinese officials claimed that that was also a meteorological aircraft.
When pressed about why China has had difficulties in controlling their weather balloons, Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters Monday that she “was not an expert in the matter.”
She did condemn the U.S. government for shooting down the balloon.
“We should stress that this is an unexpected incident caused by the force majeure. And the U.S. Department of Defense also said it will not present any military explanation. This use of force is [an] overreaction and this is an unexpected, isolated incident,” Mao said.
Ganyard warned that the political fallout from the incident is still to chill “an already chilly relationship,” between the East and West.
“You have the Chinese [government], who knew that they were deliberately violating the airspace above the United States and really didn’t care. So that probably tells you how much they really cared about the Blinken-Xi meeting. They don’t,” he said.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Karson Yiu contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden delivers his second State of the Union on Tuesday, he’ll no doubt tout a list of what he considers his greatest accomplishments.
But that raises the question: What did he promise last year, and was he able to achieve what he laid out?
Among the top priorities he outlined last March were rallying American support for Ukraine in its effort to repel the Russian invasion and efforts to fight record-setting inflation.
Ultimately, he said, the State of the Union was strong “because you, the American people, are strong.”
Yet, a new ABC News/Washington Post shows just 36% of Americans think Biden has accomplished a great deal or good amount as president; 62% say he’s accomplished not very much or nothing at all.
And with Biden appearing poised to run for a second term — and looking to use this year’s speech to make his case — nearly six in 10 Democratic-aligned adults don’t want to see him nominated again — and his approval rating after two years in office is well below average compared with the previous 13 presidents. Only one, former President Donald Trump, has lower numbers.
Here are highlights of what Biden said last year and how things turned out:
War in Ukraine
Just six days before Biden’s first State of the Union address, Russia invaded Ukraine and he spent a large portion of his speech, not on usual domestic concerns, but condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin has unleashed violence and chaos — but while he may make gains on the battlefield, he will pay a continuing high price over the long run,” Biden vowed, receiving bipartisan applause.
Biden said the Justice Department was assembling a task force to go after the crimes of Russian oligarchs and that the U.S. would join allies in closing off American air space to all Russian flights “further isolating Russia and adding an additional squeeze on their economy,” he said.
“Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and corrupt leaders who have bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime no more,” he continued. “We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts your luxury apartments your private jets. We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
It’s a warning the U.S. delivered on. Week after week in the months to follow, the U.S. announced new sanctions on Russia, targeting banks and individuals including Putin’s adult daughters. As of last summer, the U.S. had frozen more than $30 billion of Russian oligarchs’ assets.
The U.S. has also committed more than $24.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine over the last year, but it has not sent American troops to the war — a promise Biden made and has, so far, kept.
“Let me be clear, our forces are not engaged and will not engage in conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine,” he said last year. “Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in Ukraine, but to defend our NATO allies.”
While everyday Americans have appeared to rally around Ukraine’s people, Biden holds just a 38% approval on his handling of the war, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.
US economy
Tempering expectations on the cost of war at home, Biden transitioned to the U.S. economy saying, “To all Americans, I will be honest with you, as I’ve always promised. A Russian dictator, invading a foreign country, has costs around the world.”
Biden said his “top priority is getting prices under control.”
But one year later, according to new ABC News/Washington Post, four in 10 Americans say they’ve gotten worse off financially since Biden became president, the most in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 37 years. Only 37% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy
Biden attempted to brace Americans for the war causing gas prices to go up, announcing the U.S. would release 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Biden later expanded that release to 180 million barrels — a move Republicans condemned as driven by politics.
“These steps will help blunt gas prices here at home. And I know the news about what’s happening can seem alarming. But I want you to know that we are going to be OK,” Biden said at the time.
But gas prices did continue to rise, peaking over the summer and concerning Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.
Addressing inflation, Biden pitched his plan to cut costs by promoting some of the pillars of “Build Back Better” — capping prescription drugs, lowering energy costs, and instituting free, universal pre-K, among other initiatives — all without ever using the plan’s name.
“I have a better plan to fight inflation,” he said. “Lower your costs, not your wages.”
As the year went on, it wasn’t looking promising for Biden’s Build Back Better plan, but after a closely-guarded deal was made between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin over the summer, everything changed.
Democrats, with Republican support, passed the CHIPS and Science Act, aimed at countering China, just before Manchin joined his party to pass a stripped-down Build Back Better plan, newly-rebranded as the Inflation Reduction Act — in a major victory for Biden.
COVID pandemic
Congress dropped its mask mandate last year just one day ahead of Biden’s optimistic address, so the president notably spoke before a crowded and mostly mask-free chamber.
“Because of the progress we’ve made, because of your resilience and the tools we have, tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines,” Biden said. “We’ve reached a new moment in the fight against COVID-19, with severe cases down to a level not seen since last July.”
But it’s dangerous to predict the unpredictable, and COVID deaths went on to peak for the year over the summer as cases increased with the more transmissible Omicron variant.
More than 267,000 people died of COVID last year, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with the disease continuing to be a leading cause of death in the U.S., despite Americans moving away from mitigation measures.
This year’s address comes as the Biden administration has confirmed it will end both the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency on May 11. The current public health emergency is in place through April, while the national emergency is in place until March.
“I know some are talking about ‘living with COVID-19.’ Tonight, I say that we will never just accept living with COVID-19,” Biden said last year.
Lawmakers were required last year to have a negative COVID test to enter the chamber. Several Republicans boycotted the speech by refusing to test — and in a sign the virus was still virulent at least four positive cases turned up afterward.
Gun violence and policing
Biden took a moment last year to talk about policing too, prompting Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans to stand up and applaud.
“We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to FUND the police with the resources and training they need to protect our communities,” Biden said.
He then briefly called on Congress to pass gun-safety legislation, saying the laws wouldn’t infringe on the Second Amendment but “save lives.”
“I ask Congress to pass proven measures to reduce gun violence. Pass universal background checks. Why should anyone on a terrorist list be able to purchase a weapon? Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” he said. “Repeal the liability shield that makes gun manufacturers the only industry in America that can’t be sued.”
Congress did, in May, pass gun safety legislation following mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, though the legislation fell far short of what he asked.
As the administration continues to call on lawmakers to renew the long-expired ban on assault weapons, the public appears more divided on the question: 47% support such a ban, and 51% oppose it, according to the latest ABC/Post poll. That reflects a nine-point drop in support since 2019, despite recent gun violence.
While it’s unclear how the president will address gun violence and policing in this year’s address, in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ beating and death, it’s clear that compromise on gun violence and policing legislation is increasingly rare.
Infrastructure
Biden took a victory lap last year in touting the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law, which he’s hailed as landmark to his presidency.
“Now our infrastructure is ranked 13th in the world. We won’t be able to compete for the jobs of the 21st century if we don’t fix that,” he said. “That’s why it was so important to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — the most sweeping investment to rebuild America in history.”
He said the U.S. was “done talking about infrastructure weeks” and moving forward to “have an infrastructure decade.”
Biden spent the week ahead of this year’s address by touting his infrastructure agenda around the country, a tour he plans to continue later this week as money from the legislation starts to flow and projects can be started.
‘Unity agenda’
Near the end of his address, Biden ticked through broad ideas with bipartisan support in proposing “a unity agenda for the nation.”
Beating the opioid epidemic, focusing on mental health in children, supporting U.S. veterans, and ending “cancer as we know it,” he said, were the pillars of the unity agenda.
While those initiatives earned applause on both sides of the chamber, they’re longstanding, long-term issues without a clear end-game established.
In terms of unity in Washington, Biden will address a newly-empowered Republican House majority for the first time on Tuesday, and while Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to block Biden’s agenda, the two appeared to have a cordial meeting at the White House last week.
(WASHINGTON) — When President Joe Biden delivers his second State of the Union speech Tuesday night, two guests are expected to be in the audience: the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols.
Nichols died after being beaten during a violent encounter with Memphis police last month. His death has sparked calls for police reform at the federal level. His parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, will sit in the first lady’s box on Tuesday.
RowVaugh made a tearful plea for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act at his funeral last week.
“We need to get that bill passed, because if we don’t, that blood, that next child that dies — that blood is going to be on their hands,” she said.
It’s a topic Biden is likely to address as he speaks to lawmakers and the nation in what could be his largest audience of the year. But how far he’ll will go in calling for reform, and how far his comments will go in a divided Congress, remains to be seen.
“Criminal justice reform and fears about racism have been top issue concerns for Black Americans and Black voters for several cycles,” Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton adviser, told ABC News.
“I think given that Tyre Nichols’ parents will be in the audience, we should expect that the president will talk about that,” Finney added.
Biden said he was “outraged and deeply pained” when graphic footage of Nichols’ fatal confrontation with police was released last month showing officers striking and kicking Nichols. He’s called on Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing reform bill to his desk, and met last week with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss possible paths forward.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks delivered at Nichols’ funeral, said the beating of the 29-year-old Nichols was “not in pursuit of public safety.”
“When we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form,” the vice president said. “Tyre Nichols should have been safe.”
The country’s confidence in police practices have hit new lows, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. Just 39% of Americans expressed confidence that the police are trained to avoid excessive force, and 41% were confident the police treat Black and white people equally.
“People are going to be listening very closely for what’s the vision for what public safety and reforms look like,” Finney said of Biden’s speech, “because it’s got to go hand in hand.”
What police reform advocates want Biden to address
“I sincerely hope he doesn’t double down on throwing more police at the problem because the calculus of that would be very wrong,” Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told ABC News ahead of the State of the Union address.
Last year, Biden, as part of his administration’s crime prevention proposal, called for nearly $13 billion to hire 100,000 police officers around the country over the next five years.
Hewitt said he hopes to hear Biden call for comprehensive legislation, noting the odds of passing a police reform package may be slim but “that doesn’t mean that any member of Congress, regardless of party affiliation, should be let off the hook.”
The George Floyd policing bill passed the Democrat-controlled House in 2020 and 2021 but stalled in the Senate. It now faces bigger hurdles now that the House is controlled by a Republican majority.
Rashad Robinson, the president of civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, told ABC News he wants to see Biden talk about the need to end qualified immunity, create a database of police misconduct, more power to the Department of Justice for policy and practices, and more policies.
But he also said it’s even more important for the president to use the national address to speak more directly to the American people to inspire them to get more organized around police reform.
“People don’t remember all of the list of demands, or the things that the president wants on his desk,” Robinson said. “But it is an opportunity to tell a story … He needs to tell a story about why we haven’t actually gotten change, and who is standing in the way.”
“It’s something that I think is going to be necessary to actually build the momentum to win something real,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — One person in Washington has won the Powerball jackpot prize of $754.6 million — the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and the ninth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot in history, according to Powerball.
If the winner chooses to receive their winnings in a lump sum payment, they will receive a total $407.2 million.
The winning numbers for the jackpot were 5, 11, 22, 23, 69 and the Powerball 7.
Five tickets — two in Michigan and three in New York — matched all five white balls to win the $1 million prize. One ticket in Texas won $2 million with the Power Play option. There were also 58 tickets nationwide that won $50,000 prizes and 16 tickets that won $100,000 prizes.
“The Powerball jackpot that has eluded players since last November was finally hit on the 34th drawing of the jackpot run,” Powerball said in a statement following the winning draw. “Final ticket sales pushed the jackpot beyond its earlier estimate to $754.6 million at the time of the drawing, making it the fifth-largest Powerball jackpot and ninth-largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever won.”
Monday night’s drawing is the first time that the Powerball jackpot has been won in 2023, according to Powerball. The jackpot was previously hit more than 11 weeks ago on Nov. 19, last year by a ticket in Kansas that won a grand prize of $92.9 million.
“Other Powerball jackpots won in 2022 include a $632.6 million jackpot hit on January 5 and split by winners in California and Wisconsin; a $185.3 million jackpot won on February 14 in Connecticut; a $473.1 million jackpot won on April 27 in Arizona; a $366.7 million jackpot won on June 29 in Vermont; a $206.9 million jackpot won on August 3 in Pennsylvania; and the world record $2.04 billion jackpot won on November 7 in California.,” said Powerball.
The overall odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
Darius Rucker hasn’t put out a full-length album since 2017’s When Was the Last Time. So what’s the holdup on the follow-up that’s been more than five years in the making?
“You know, [hit songwriter] Ross Copperman produced a bunch of tracks and now [longtime producer] Frank Rogers is finishing it up,” Darius reveals. “We’re doing some stuff, so it’s gonna be [coming out in] early ’23. I’m really excited for this record.”
Darius’ seventh album will be named after his beloved mother.
“We’re gonna name it Carolyn’s Boy, and it’s just a record that — it’s a personal record. It means a lot to me, and I think that’s one of the reasons I’m taking so much time with it is because I want the right songs to be on it,” he says.
So far, Darius has put out the new tracks “Same Beer Different Problem” and “Ol’ Church Hymn” with Chapel Hart.
Yes, they’re both female singer/songwriters, but GAYLE and Taylor Swift now have something else in common: They both lost the Song of the Year Grammy to Bonnie Raitt. But that’s OK — Taylor’s got her record-breaking Eras Tour to look forward to and GAYLE, her opening act, is tailoring her set accordingly.
“I asked her if I could bring my band [on tour with me] and she was like, ‘Sick,’ and I was like, ‘Cool,'” GAYLE told reporters on the red carpet Sunday. She’s aware that many of Taylor’s fans may come to see the tour multiple times, so she’s going to try to be twice as entertaining.
“My goal is to have two sets, like an A set and a B set,” she explains. “So if there’s people going multiple days in a row, they can get a bit of a different show.”
GAYLE’s busy year also includes some dates with Pink, so she’s started training so she can have the stamina to “run all over these stages.” As for trying to match Pink’s aerial tricks, she laughed, “I wanna learn how to do a cartwheel or something. I wanna do something.“
The “abcdefu” singer’s first show with Taylor is March 17 in Glendale, Arizona.
Even though she lost at the Grammys, GAYLE had a good time: She posted photos of herself at the event hanging out with Jack Harlow, Olivia Rodrigo and Camila Cabello, among others.
Chris Brown is apologizing to pianist Robert Glasper for his reaction to losing at the 2023 Grammys.
On Monday, Brown shared a screenshot of a direct message he wrote to Glasper on Instagram that read, “Congratulations my brother… I would like to apologize if you took offense to my reaction at the Grammys. You were not the intended target and I know I came off really rude and mean.”
“After doing my research I actually think you’re amazing,” Brown continued. “The organization isn’t doing us Blacks our due diligence. You and I should never be in the same category… two totally different vibes and genres. So from one Black man to another, congratulations. Hope you are able to feed your family for life. God bless my G.”
Brown’s Breezy (Deluxe) album was nominated in the Best R&B album category alongside Glasper, PJ Morton, Mary J. Blige, and Lucky Daye.
After receiving news of who won the award on Sunday, the “Under The Influence” artist shared a series of Instagram Stories mocking the pianist.
“Who the f*** is Robert Glasper,” he wrote. “Ima keep kicking y’all a**! Respectfully.”
“I gotta get my skills up,” he added. “Ima start playing the harmonica.”
Harry Styles won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammy Awards for his smash hit Harry’s House, which he’s spent the past year promoting during one of the most successful tours of the year. But backstage at the ceremony Sunday night, he gave his loyal fans all the credit for his now-legendary live concerts.
“I think the kind of atmosphere that is created in live music … y’know, when there’s someone onstage it feels like, ‘Oh, that’s what that person is doing,'” he explained. “And in reality, I very much feel like the fans create that atmosphere for me.”
“The room [has] this energy that almost feels, like, too magical for me to kind of take any responsibility for,” Harry continued. “I think it’s probably the thing I’m proudest of in my life is this feeling that is in the room, that I get to experience every night when I go onstage.”
“I mean, playing for an amazing group of people every night is my favorite, favorite thing to do,” he concluded.
And Harry got up close and personal with one of his fans on Sunday night. Reina LaFantaisie, a Harry super fan, was part of a segment on the Grammy telecast where fans explained why their favorite artist should win Album of the Year. When the winner was announced, host Trevor Noah let LaFantaisie give the trophy to Harry.
“I hugged him as hard as he hugged me,” she told ET Canada. “I just could not believe that he was there … And I kept saying, ‘I just, I got to keep it together. I got to keep it together.’ Like, my knees are getting weaker by the minute.”
