(PHILADELPHIA) — Missing mom Jennifer Brown has been found dead in Royersford, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced.
Investigators responded to an industrial complex on Wednesday, Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI-TV reported. It was unclear what led authorities to the site where they found the body.
Brown, 43, of Limerick Township, was last seen at 2 p.m. on Jan. 3 by a “friend and business associate,” according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. Authorities did not immediately release additional information or her cause of death.
Brown was scheduled to pick up her son from the bus stop the afternoon of Jan. 4 “but did not show up,” the district attorney’s office has said in a statement.
“Her vehicle was parked outside of her home, and her car keys, wallet, purse and work cellphone were found inside,” the district attorney’s office said.
Brown’s personal cellphone, which was not found, has been silent since the morning of Jan. 4, authorities said.
“It’s literally like we’re living in a movie that we watch on TV, it’s so surreal and unbelievable,” Tiffany Barron, a spokesperson for the family, previously told WPVI. “Jennifer would never ever just disappear, she would never abandon her son.”
(ATLANTA) — An officer is in the hospital and the man who shot him has been killed following a confrontation Wednesday in a wooded area near where a police training center is set to be built, police said.
The incident occurred at approximately 9 a.m. in a wooded area just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, at the site of a proposed law enforcement training center.
“As law enforcement was moving through the property, officers located a man inside a tent in the woods,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in a statement following the incident. “Officers gave verbal commands to the man who did not comply and shot a Georgia State Patrol Trooper.”
Police returned fire on the man — who died on scene — and the injured Georgia State Patrol Trooper who was hit in the shooting was evacuated to a safe area before being taken to hospital where he underwent surgery for injuries suffered during the incident.
Activists who are protesting the 85 acre and $90 million construction project — nicknamed “Cop City” — have been camping out on the site for months in an attempt to cease progress on the development.
In December, five people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism and other charges following a joint operation at the planned construction site.
Authorities said there are a litany of crimes being committed at the protest site following the five arrests last month.
“Some of the criminal activities include carjacking, various crimes against persons, destruction of property, arson, and attacks against public safety officials,” said the GBI. “Law enforcement continues to address the criminal acts committed by the individuals that continue to occupy the area of the proposed training site.”
The GBI even said that protesters threw rocks at police cars and attacked EMTs outside nearby fire stations with rocks and bottles in December.
A handgun and shell casings were located at the scene of the latest incident on Wednesday and the investigation into what happened is still active and ongoing, said the GBI.
Several other people were arrested and taken to the DeKalb County Jail after Wednesday’s shootout though the GBI did not confirm how many were taken into custody or confirm their identities. Charges against the individuals are now pending and the GBI said updates will be provided at a later time.
Meanwhile, the identity of the protester who was shot and killed by police is currently pending while his next of kin is notified.
A tweet published by the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” movement blamed the police for the shooting, saying “police killed a forest defender today, someone who loved the forest, someone who fought to protect the earth & its inhabitants.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also acknowledged the shooting in a tweet and said that his “thoughts remain with [the injured trooper] and his family, our resolve also remains steadfast and strong to see criminals brought to justice.”
Protesters say that, if constructed as planned, the police training center will only further militarize law enforcement and that the conflict between the protesters and authorities has been escalating in recent months.
“What is taking place is a classic example of tyrannical government overreach,” activists said in a statement published by the Atlanta Community Press Collective. “The public has a right to defend its interests. We are advocates of a free and peaceful society built on cooperation and mutual understanding. The government is escalating this situation pointlessly.”
(WASHINGTON) — Sometime Thursday, the United States is expected to reach its borrowing limit, teeing up a congressional showdown later this year with potentially devastating economic consequences.
The federal government can pay most but not all of its bills with the tax and other revenue it takes in, and it must borrow the rest of the money. But Congress enforces a limit on how much debt the government can incur and when that limit — currently about $31.4 trillion — is reached, lawmakers must increase it before the government can borrow more funds.
Republicans in the House say they will insist on deep spending cuts in exchange for their cooperation in again raising the debt ceiling. But Democrats, led by the Biden administration, want a so-called clean hike without concessions on spending and they are publicly signaling they won’t negotiate on the matter.
Thursday’s deadline isn’t yet an economic calamity. But it does mean that the Treasury is going to begin stretching its funds by implementing what Secretary Janet Yellen last week called “extraordinary measures” to keep the federal government fully funded and to avoid a default on its debts.
A full default has never happened — the Congressional Research Service cited a “mini-default” in 1979 that was linked to delayed payments to some investors — but if one did occur, it would likely downgrade the nation’s credit rating, damage its ability to borrow and cause markets around the globe to roil.
Treasury’s newly enacted measures, like cutting contributions to employees’ retirement plans, are expected to stave off bigger problems through sometime this summer, according to a letter Yellen sent to congressional leaders on Friday, giving Congress just a few months to act.
“The use of extraordinary measures enables the government to meet its obligations for only a limited amount of time,” Yellen wrote in her letter. “It is therefore critical that Congress act in a timely manner to increase or suspend the debt limit. Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and the global financial stability.”
With the clock ticking on the divided Congress, political brinkmanship on raising the federal debt limit — a move that has come to be seen as politically poisonous in recent years, after fiscal fights under President Barack Obama — is already reaching an all-time high.
Republicans now hold the gavel in the House, and they have said they’ll look to extract major concessions from Democrats in exchange for their necessary cooperation to raise the federal cap. Newly minted Speaker Kevin McCarthy holds the reins on negotiations in the chamber.
To secure the speakership, McCarthy made major promises to the conservative wing of his conference, including seeking to reduce federal spending to fiscal year 2022 levels. The Republicans who supported McCarthy will expect him to use the debt limit as leverage for these cuts.
McCarthy said he wants to negotiate directly with President Joe Biden.
“I had a very good conversation with the president when he called me, and I told him I’d like to sit down with him early and work through these challenges,” McCarthy said during a press conference last week. “We don’t want to put any fiscal problems on our economy and we won’t. But fiscal problems would be continuing to do business as usual.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has side-stepped questions on whether the two men will meet.
“Congress is going to need to address the debt without conditions. And it’s just that simple. There should be no hostage-taking here. There should be no attempts to exploit the debt ceiling or to leverage it,” she said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“As you’ve heard us say before, we will not be doing any negotiation over the debt ceiling,” she said last week. “It’s not and should not be a political football. … And that’s how we see this process moving forward.”
On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre told reporters that the White House has been “reaching out to all members from both sides of the aisle” but said again that the administration didn’t want to compromise on the debt ceiling. She said both parties have repeatedly voted to raise the limit in the past, including under President Donald Trump.
“It is essential for Congress to recognize that dealing with the debt ceiling is their constitutional responsibility. This is an easy one. This is something that should be happening without conditions,” she said.
While the debt limit fight will likely be heightened in the House, Senate Republicans have a bargaining chip of their own: They remain the minority party in the chamber but at least 60 votes are needed to enact any legislation raising the ceiling.
The last time the limit had to be raised, in late 2021, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted Democrats increase it on their own. McConnell cut a deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer which saw a group of Senate Republicans approve a one-time change to the chamber rules, allowing that debt hike to occur with just 50 votes — all from Democrats.
But that was before Senate Democrats passed Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act a few months later without any Republican support. This time, McConnell might be less inclined to bargain.
Some Senate Democrats wanted to raise the debt limit before House Republicans took control of the lower chamber in January. But they ran out of time to do it during the lame duck session at the end of the last Congress.
Schumer said on CNN last week that he doesn’t regret leaving the debt limit to this term.
“It should be done in a bipartisan way. It always has been,” he said.
He pointed to the 2021 deal he struck with McConnell.
“I think Republicans learned their lesson,” he said. “They suffered, we won the election after that [the 2012 midterms], and they will hopefully come and work with us and get this done in a bipartisan way. That’s what we look to do, no brinkmanship.”
While the Biden administration prepares to go toe-to-toe with Republicans, some members of the House GOP conference are crafting a plan to address what might happen if they and Democrats don’t reach a deal to lift the borrowing limit.
The Republican proposal, if it becomes law, would require the Biden administration to prioritize paying back certain debts over others. News of the deal was first reported by The Washington Post.
Sources familiar with the ongoing talks said McCarthy, R-Calif., committed to conservatives that the House would pass the deal and send it to the Senate in the first quarter of 2023 as part of his larger agreement to secure votes to become speaker.
A spokesperson for McCarthy did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
Lauren Fine, a spokesperson for Majority Leader Steve Scalise, told ABC News that discussions around the plan “are ongoing with the conference, and the Leader remains a strong proponent of this legislation.”
Even if this legislation passes the House, it almost certainly will not be taken up by Schumer in the Senate.
The Treasury has previously pushed back on the feasibility that it could prioritize certain bills over others, citing legal and logistical issues.
(BOSTON) — Mohammed Chowdhury’s alleged plan to hire contract killers to murder his wife and her boyfriend was finally coming into place on Tuesday, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities said that Chowdhury, 46, had shared their work and home locations, photos and work schedules with contract killers, along with clear instructions to kill them and ensure the evidence did not link back to him. His last step was to meet with the contract killers to pay a $500 downpayment, officials said.
However, rather than securing the down payment, the contract killers had been federal agents all along and Chowdhury left their meeting in handcuffs, officials said.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts charged Chowdhury with one count of murder-for-hire on Tuesday. The arrest occurred the same day another Massachusetts man, Brian Walshe, was charged with the murder of his wife, Anne Walshe, who had been missing since the start of the new year.
According to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office, Chowdhury began soliciting someone to murder his wife around November 2022. When the original individual hired to conduct the murder took Chowdhury’s money but did not follow through with the crime, Chowdhury allegedly asked another person to complete the murder.
“…Chowdhury subsequently told the individual that he needed the murder done as soon as possible and that he would get the money to do so, even robbing a store if necessary to obtain the funds,” the press release noted.
That individual provided Chowdhury’s phone number to law enforcement, the release said.
Over the last two months, undercover agents posing as contract killers meet with Chowdhury to plan the murder. The release noted that Chowdhury was explicitly interested in covering up the murder and ensuring the crime did not link to him.
“So how we gonna disappear his, uh, body?” he asked, according to the release. “No evidence. No evidence. No evidence from like, you know, that, uh, I did something, you know?”
Chowdhury allegedly explained to the undercover agents that his wife did not allow him to see their children and left him for her boyfriend, who Chowdhury also wanted to be killed. The release noted that his wife had an “abuse protection order” in place which prevented him from contacting her, which Chowdhury was charged with violating in Oct. 2019.
To facilitate the murder, Chowdhury provided photos of his wife and her boyfriend, their work schedules, and the location of their work and home, prosecutors said.
Chowdhury allegedly agreed to pay $8,000 for both murders, with a down payment of $500, according to the release.
If found guilty, Chowdhury faces up to ten years in prison.
(NEW YORK) — Rep. George Santos this week denied a Navy veteran’s claim that he allegedly ran a fundraiser for the veteran’s ill dog in 2016 — and then never shared the thousands raised.
Santos, R-N.Y., has faced mounting criticism and calls to resign, including from some in his party, over a string of lies and exaggerations about his background. He has admitted to “embellishing” some details, but has said he will not step down, suggesting he’ll defer to his constituents to either reelect him or vote him out in the next election.
Navy veteran Richard Osthoff added to the string of accusations against Santos when he told Patch, in a story published Tuesday night, that Santos strung him along rather than provide the money for his dog’s care that was raised via an online fundraiser.
Osthoff is disabled and was discharged from the Navy in 2002, according to Patch. He said that he was living out of a tent and his service dog, Sapphire, was sick with a tumor in 2016 when he was referred to Friends of Pets United, which he believed was a pet charity that Santos was running at the time, when Santos was going by the name Anthony Devolder.
The IRS’ online records do not currently list a charity under that name.
Santos opened a fundraiser for Sapphire on GoFundMe and raised $3,000 but later became uncooperative and unresponsive and didn’t provide the money to treat Sapphire, Osthoff alleged to Patch.
Osthoff never managed to get Sapphire the proper treatment, he said, and she died in January 2017.
According to Patch, a screenshot of a November 2016 post from Osthoff’s Facebook page shows him writing that “we were scammed by Anthony Devolder … and Friends of Pets United.”
Patch reported that it was given texts and Facebook screenshots corroborating Osthoff’s account but could not find an archived version of the since-deleted GoFundMe page that he described.
The online news outlet Semafor found an April 2016 tweet from another user apparently referencing a fundraiser for Sapphire by an “Anthony Devolder.”
Osthoff told Patch that Santos told him he “didn’t do things my way” and Santos redirected the money “for other dogs.”
Santos denied Osthoff’s allegations to Semafor, texting a reporter there that it was “fake” and he has “no clue who this is,” in reference to Osthoff.
Texts that Osthoff provided to Patch from “Anthony Devolder” show he was told by Devolder in November 2016: “Sapphire is not a candidate for this surgery [and] the funds are moved to the next animal in need.”
“We will make sure we use of resources [sic] to keep her comfortable!” Osthoff was texted by Devolder, according to what Osthoff shared with Patch.
ABC News has reached out to Santos for comment and has not received a response.
In a statement to ABC News, GoFundMe spokesperson Jalen Drummond said the platform received a “report of an issue with this fundraiser in late 2016.”
“Our trust and safety team sought proof of the delivery of funds from the organizer. The organizer failed to respond, which led to the fundraiser being removed and the email associated with that account prohibited from further use on our platform,” Drummond said. “GoFundMe has a zero tolerance policy for misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing.”
A source confirms it was Santos running the GoFundMe in 2016.
In an interview on Wednesday with ABC’s WABC-TV in New York and other local news, Osthoff recalled the end of Sapphire’s life.
“I grabbed her by the paws. I put my mouth up to her nose and I inhaled her last breath because I wanted her soul inside of my body,” he said.
Osthoff said “of course” he’s still angry over what happened.
“More, just, I’m at a loss. This is the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me,” he said. “I can’t believe that I was so vulnerable that I allowed myself to be used like that. I’m more ashamed, I think, that I let that happen than I am angry.”
When he reached out to Santos after being referred to the charity, he told WABC, “I took his help. I needed it. I needed that dog to survive. And I didn’t have any inkling of idea that it was a scam at first; had no clue.”
Osthoff said Sapphire was a major support for him: “She knew when my moods were changing. She knew when I was depressed … She pressed herself up against me; she would climb on me; she knew something was happening. So I would put all my concentration on her, and whatever was triggering me went to the back of my mind.”
Osthoff said his only interactions with Santos were through phone calls and texts. He said he did not know who Santos really was until he saw him on television a few weeks ago outside the Capitol being chased by reporters.
“I got a sick feeling in my stomach when I saw his face,” Osthoff told WABC.
New Jersey Veterans Network President Michael Boll, a veteran and retired police sergeant, said he tried to help Osthoff and intervene in the situation.
“It really just hurts us so much to know that people are out there taking advantage of veterans that are in need,” Boll told WABC on Wednesday.
Boll also confirmed Osthoff’s service with the Navy, telling WABC he had served on the USS Nimitz.
Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to advocacy group and PAC VoteVets, said in a statement: “There is not much that’s lower in this world than stealing from a disabled veteran with a terminally ill dog … Santos must be referred to the [House] Ethics Committee and must face an eventual expulsion vote, if he will not step down.”
Santos has previously apologized for some of his fabrications but cast them as more routine resume embellishments. He told The New York Post last month, “I am not a criminal.”
ABC News on Wednesday also obtained documents showing Santos’ mother was not in New York during the Sept. 11 attacks, as he claims.
The records were first reported by The Forward, a Jewish news outlet, and The Washington Post. They were obtained by genealogist Alex Calzareth, who requested them under the Freedom of Information Act and subsequently provided them to ABC News and other news outlets.
According to the documents from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services, Santos’ mom, Fatima Devolder, applied in February 2003 for an immigrant visa from the American consulate in Brazil. The form states that she had not been in the United States since June 1999.
However, Santos wrote in a tweet in 2021 that “9/11 claimed my mother’s life…”
His campaign website currently states that his mother “was in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001, when the horrific events of that day unfolded. She survived the tragic events on September 11th, but she passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.”
An online obituary for his mother, reviewed by ABC News, states that she died on Dec. 23, 2016.
Santos’ team did not respond to a further request for comment about the discrepancies over his mother and 9/11.
(NEW YORK) — The Sebastian County jail in Arkansas is facing a lawsuit that accuses officials of letting a detainee die of starvation and neglect while in their care.
According to the complaint, Larry Price Jr., 51, was found by guards lying in a pool of his own urine and contaminated water, unresponsive in August 2021 after having been detained for more than a year. His once 6-foot-2-inch, 185-pound frame emaciated down to 90 pounds, the lawsuit states.
Price died of acute dehydration and malnutrition, according to the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
According to Sebastian County, Price was pronounced dead on Aug. 29, 2021, at approximately 1:35 A.M. In wellness-check documents obtained by ABC News, after Price had died, prison staff marked his log 10 different times with the same seven words, “Well-Being Check Inmate and Cell OK.”
Attorney Hank Balson, who is representing the Price estate in a lawsuit against Sebastian County that was filed Friday, said Price’s death was a failure on nearly every level of judicial process, starting from his detainment to his death.
“This is a jail. Its primary purpose is not to be a mental health facility,” Balson told ABC News. “And, yet, once the government takes somebody into custody, they are required to provide them with the basic necessities of life, food, water, and necessary medical care and mental health care to protect them from harm, to prevent them from deteriorating.”
Price was arrested in Fort Smith, Arkansas, after entering a police department on Aug. 19, 2020, and verbally threatening officers while using his empty hand to resemble a gun, according to the lawsuit.
Price was often homeless, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, hallucinations, and “a developmental disability that significantly impaired his intellectual and adaptive functioning,” according to his lawyers.
The officers were familiar with Price because he would often enter the police department and act out erratically and he seemed more agitated this time, the lawsuit states. According to the lawsuit, after officers couldn’t calm him down, they arrested him and charged him with terroristic threatening in the first degree.
Price was detained and placed almost immediately in solitary confinement because of his mental state and deteriorated quickly, the lawsuit states.
Price’s family’s said it was difficult to get access to him since the COVID-19 pandemic blocked visitations at the jail. His brother, Rodney Price, lived in California and said the jail wouldn’t help to facilitate communication between the siblings.
“I feel like the Sebastian County jail, and every employee that had contact with him, failed my brother,” Rodney Price said in a statement through Balson. “All it would have taken was one person to sound off. If one person stepped up to the plate, I feel like my brother would be alive today.”
ABC News reached out to Sebastian County jail for a comment but did not receive a statement.
An administrator with the Sebastian County Jail said in a statement Friday it had medical personnel available to treat inmates in need of care and was conducting an internal review of Price’s case, The Washington Post reported.
Turn Key Health Clinics, an independent contractor hired by Sebastian County to care for patients in the jail, and two of its employees were also named as defendants in the lawsuit. A lawyer representing Turn Key Health told ABC News that Turn Key was not contracted by Sebastian County jails to provide mental health evaluations when Price was in custody.
“Sebastian County initially contracted with Turn Key to provide eight hours a week of case management and service as a clinical liaison between Turn Key’s psychiatrist and the local community health providers,” Turn Key said in a statement to ABC News through its lawyer. “Effective January 1, 2020, Sebastian County amended its contract with Turn Key to eliminate the clinical liaison position, and all crisis management and mental health evaluations/assessments were to be contracted by Sebastian County and performed by an independent community mental health provider, not by Turn Key.”
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The fatal shooting of a Black teenager by a white man in Columbus, Ohio, who claimed self-defense was officially ruled a homicide in an autopsy report.
According to a police complaint in October, a witness to the shooting saw Krieg Butler, 36, shoot and kill 13-year-old Sinzae Reed outside of an apartment complex on Oct. 12. The witness said Butler exited his truck, fired shots at Sinzae and drove off, the complaint said.
Butler was arrested days after the shooting and charged with murder, but those charges were dropped pending completion of the investigation after prosecutors said Butler claimed self-defense in the shooting during his arraignment in October, according to a statement from the Columbus Police Department.
The Franklin County autopsy report released Tuesday said the teen was shot twice, once in the hand and once in the chest, concluding the manner of death was a homicide.
The county prosecutor’s office told ABC News on Wednesday, “The matter is under internal review and as such no statements will be made at this time.”
The Columbus Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the autopsy results.
“In Ohio, the self-defense law changed and the legal part of that is the burden changed,” Channa Lloyd, criminal attorney and managing partner of The Cochran Firm, has said. “Previously, if a shooter said ‘I shot someone in self-defense,’ they had to prove it was self-defense. Now that the law has changed, it changes that burden and shifts it to the prosecution.”
According to Lloyd, the self-defense rule is a byproduct of the Stand Your Ground laws and is controversial because it protects the shooter as opposed to the victim.
“The Krieg Butler case is under review for potential presentation to the grand jury as evidence is gathered and reviewed,” the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office previously said in a statement to ABC News. “Because this is an active case, we cannot comment further at this time.”
Columbus Police said in a statement on Dec. 31, “The investigation continues and the Division will not be providing any more statements on the case. Once the investigation is complete, it will be presented to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. Any further questions regarding this case should be directed towards them.”
The mother of Sinzae, Megan Reed, told ABC News’ Linsey Davis earlier this month that she is seeking justice for her son and that she herself asked Ohio law enforcement officials to provide answers as to why her son was killed.
“I need justice for my son. My son’s no longer here,” Megan Reed told Davis. “I’m going to continue this war, and I will be his voice until he gets justice.”
Megan Reed said she believes race played a part in the death of her son and that if her son was white, he probably wouldn’t have been killed that day.
“I’m very frustrated because I know if it was the other way around,” she said, “if it was a Black man and my child was white, the Black man would be in jail and my son would have justice.”
Attempts to reach Butler or an attorney for him were unsuccessful.
Megan Reed previously told ABC News a detective on the case called her and asked her why she allowed her son to carry a gun, even though the police report never stated that Sinzae was in possession of a firearm. Reed said she would never allow her son to carry a gun.
Court documents obtained by ABC News show no record that Sinzae had a weapon during the encounter with Butler. Dejuan Sharp, a community activist in Columbus, Ohio, who said he is helping the teen’s mother search for answers regarding the death, said witnesses have told them that her son did not have a weapon during the time of the shooting.
“We have people in the community…we found witnesses that seen it, that said Sinzae didn’t have a gun, that Krieg had the gun,” Sharp said.
(NEW YORK) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced in an emotional press briefing that she will step down, saying “it’s time.”
Ardern said Thursday she will not be seeking reelection this year and that her term will end by Feb. 7.
“This has been the most fulfilling 5 1/2 years of my life, but it has also had its challenges,” Ardern said, citing crises from the COVID-19 pandemic to the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history.
“But I’m not leaving because it was hard,” she said. “I am leaving because with such a privilege comes responsibility — the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead, and also, when you are not.”
Ardern, 42, said she had hoped she would have found a way to prepare for another term over the summer to lead on a “full tank,” but that was not the case.
“I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she said. “It’s that simple.”
Ardern said people may try to determine the “real reason” for her decision, but that this was it.
“I am human, politicians are human,” she said. “We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”
Ardern outlined the next steps for her Labour Party, saying that a caucus vote will be held on Sunday to elect a new leader. If a leader is successfully elected with more than two-thirds of the caucus support, she will issue her resignation “soon after” and a new prime minister will be sworn in.
“If no one is able to garner this level of support within caucus, the leadership contest will go to the wider membership,” she said.
Ardern said she plans to remain a member of the New Zealand Parliament for Mount Albert through April to help the Labour Party “navigate this next phase.”
Ardern became New Zealand’s youngest female prime minister when she was sworn in in 2017 at the age of 37.
She cited among the party’s accomplishments the “most significant increases in welfare and the state housing stock that we’ve seen in many decades,” as well as setting ambitious targets on climate change and making progress on “issues around our national identity.”
“I believe that teaching history in schools and celebrating our own indigenous national holiday will all make a difference for years to come,” she said.
Ardern said she doesn’t know what’s next for her, though is looking forward to spending time with her family.
“Arguably they’re the ones that have sacrificed the most out of all of us,” she said.
Ardern shares a 4-year-old daughter with her partner, Clarke Gayford.
The prime minister ended her speech by thanking New Zealanders for the opportunity to serve in the “greatest role of my life.”
“I hope in return I leave behind the belief that you can be kind but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused,” she said. “That you can be your own kind of leader, one that knows when it’s time to go.”
Long ago, Luke Bryan proclaimed Dustin Lynch the mayor of Crash My Playa, and today, Luke and Dustin gather their kingdom together for the annual getaway vacation in Riviera Cancun, Mexico.
Of course, the “Party Mode” hitmaker will once again host the pool party that forever cemented his title.
“First kickoff, yeah, [of] New Year’s is Crash My Playa,” Dustin tells ABC Audio. “You know how that’s gonna go: a week of pirating in Mexico. We’ll need a month vacation after that thing.”
“The pool situation down there,” he continues, “we started having phone calls and meetings about that show, the pool party, in July. A lot goes into putting this production on, so we don’t take it lightly. It’s a couple hours and a half of craziness, but there’s a lot of intention as it goes.”
If you’re not lucky enough to be at Crash My Playa, Dustin plans to take his famous water party from the Caribbean to Sin City.
“We’re gonna announce another Pool Situation in Vegas,” he reveals. “We’re bringin’ that monster from Mexico and putting it in Vegas for a weekend. And that’s gonna be popping off in ’23 for sure.”
Previously, Dustin’s Pool Situation in Vegas has been a sell-out.
This weekend, he’ll be hanging out with Chris Stapleton, Cole Swindell, Lionel Richie, Ashley McBryde, Carly Pearce, Chase Rice and Dylan Scott, just to name some of the Crash My Playa talent.
A$AP Rocky released a new single, “Same Problems,” Wednesday. The song is a dedication to hip-hop’s fallen soldiers, one he wrote when he was feeling remorseful about the role his music may play in the deaths of the genre’s artists.
“I think I was feeling plight. I think I was also feeling a sense of guilt, because every time we lose somebody in our community, we all, especially me, have a habit of just saying things like, ‘It’s messed up. It’s wrong. Why do these kind of things happen?’ … I never took time out to really understand that I was part of the problem because I was contributing those kind of lyrics and whatnot to songs.”
“I just kind of wanted to express myself and tell how I felt without preaching,” he continued. “And I think we can all relate. We all got the same problems.”
“Same Problems” will appear on Rocky’s new album, Don’t Be Dumb, which he confirms is complete. “We just putting the finishing touches on it. It’s coming for sure,” he said. “The new stuff is me being vulnerable, and it’s just no filter, and just where I’m at, at my stage. My age and how I see things, my peers, the younger kids, the older cats, it’s just my perspective.”
Rocky’s girlfriend, Rihanna, has also been keeping busy. She’s performing at the Super Bowl next month and Rocky says he’s “more excited than everybody else.”
“This is incredible. I’m so glad that my lady’s back making music again and whatnot, and getting back out there,” he said. “It’s just incredible. Especially for both of us, it is a good year for both of us to be more active and be out there … she [is] going to bring it.”
