Yung Bleu‘s new album, TANTRA, is days away from its scheduled release. Set to drop Friday, November 11, the project boasts 17 songs and a slew of guest appearances.
Among the features on the project are Fivio Foreign, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and French Montana. Pop star Zayn is on a song called “Fire Inside,” while Lucky Daye, Destiny’s Child‘s Kelly Rowland, Ty Dolla $ign and Ne-Yo are bringing some R&B flavor to the album.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Bleu says TANTRA sees him “kind of summing up what’s been going on with my career now.”
He adds that it’s “just one of those type of albums where I just take my time with it and just give people songs that’s gon’ last.”
Luke Sharrett for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY) — A female student who was caught on camera using racial slurs towards a Black student at the University of Kentucky will voluntarily withdraw from the university, according to her attorney.
Sophia Rosing, 22, the senior at the University of Kentucky, plans to withdraw Tuesday or Wednesday, her lawyer, Fred Peters, told ABC News.
The video, which was recorded early Sunday morning, shows Rising apparently drunk and saying derogatory, racial slurs to Kylah Spring, a first-year student who was working an overnight shift at the university’s front desk.
“It is our story,” Spring said at a demonstration held on campus grounds Monday night.
“There’s a whole video of “This is a recurring issue in and across American school systems no matter what age,” she added.
Rosing refused to give her name when authorities were called. She was taken into custody at the Fayette County Detention Center and registered as Jane Doe and has since been released from custody after her parents paid a cash bond of $10,000, according to Peters. Rising pleaded not guilty according to the Fayette County Sheriff’s office.
She faces two assault charges, one against Spring and the other towards a police officer. She was also given a disorderly misconduct charge and a public intoxication charge, according to her lawyer.
“She regrets everything and is humiliated and embarrassed,” Peters said about his client.
University President Eli Capilouto released a statement following the incident condemning the behavior and said the school “will not tolerate it under any circumstance. The safety and well-being of our community has been — and will continue to be — our top priority.”
ABC News sent a request for comment to the University of Kentucky.
Spring assembled a diverse crowd Monday night to address the situation during a peaceful demonstration. Many supporters including her parents surrounded Spring while she delivered a short, emotional speech describing her experience — encouraging the crowd to follow Michelle Obama’s famous philosophy of “when they go low, we go high.”
“I was physically, verbally and racially assaulted by Jane Doe, aka Sophia Rosing,” Spring said at the protest.
Spring said she was “deeply saddened” about the incident but is “grateful for the justice to come.”
“To Ms. Rosing, you will not break my spirit,” Spring said. “I only pray that you open your heart to love,” Spring said.
Rosing’s first court hearing is set for next Monday at 8:30 a.m., according to Peters.
There’s no word from ABC News’ parent company, Disney, or its subsidiary Lucasfilm, but Variety reports both companies have been meeting with writers to help get an Indiana Jones series off the ground for Disney+.
It’s not known whether the show will be a prequel series, as the Emmy-winning Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was in the early ’90s, or some kind of in-universe tie-in to 2023’s forthcoming fifth Indy adventure, the last starring Harrison Ford as the man in the hat.
Ford himself cameoed in an episode of ABC’s Young Indiana Jones series — specifically, “Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues” in 1993. Each episode of the show was bookended with an elderly — and eyepatch-wearing — Indy, played by the late George Hall, looking back at his earlier adventures. Corey Carrier and SeanPatrick Flanery both played the younger Henry Jones Jr., whose adventures took him from the trenches of World War I to the streets of India and beyond.
The fifth Indiana Jones adventure hits theaters June 23, 2023 — just before Ford’s 81st birthday.
(NEW YORK) — Filmmaker Cynthia Lowen began the process of making the new documentary film “Battleground” with a genuine curiosity about the anti-abortion movement.
Lowen wanted to understand how, despite being in the minority, anti-abortion movement organizers “were being so successful in advancing their agenda,” she told ABC News Correspondent Phil Lipof.
The new documentary “Battleground,” which was released this year in theaters and is now available on streaming platforms, began in the summer of 2019, a full three years before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Lowen said she started filming in Alabama, where the team was focused at first on documenting the abortion-rights movement.
She quickly realized, she told ABC News, how crucial it would be to frame the film from a minority perspective by including multiple important voices from the anti-abortion movement.
A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 62% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A 2017 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that nearly 1 in 4 women will have an abortion in their lifetime.
“Battleground” features three women in influential positions within the anti-abortion movement: the president of an influential anti-abortion lobbying organization, the founder of the largest anti-abortion youth organization in the country, and the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco.
Part of the goal of the film is to challenge assumptions and notions about the anti-abortion movement by showing organizers that are neither religious nor conservative about other beliefs.
“What I discovered that really surprised me is that there are a lot of women who are leading the anti-abortion movement,” said Lowen.
One example is Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco, who identifies as an atheist, a feminist and a Democrat with progressive values. “[She] is a very different face of the anti-abortion movement than many people expect,” Lowen said.
“She represents,” Lowen added, “what the movement is trying to do in terms of appealing to young people as single-issue voters.”
“If they don’t grow their base and appeal to non-religious people, to young people and cultivate those single-issue voters,” she added, “they may not continue to have the kind of success and inroads that they’ve had legislatively.”
Despite representing a minority opinion, the anti-abortion movement has been very successful. Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, opening up the opportunity for dozens of states across the country to restrict access to legal abortions.
One of the scenes in the documentary includes audiotape of Lowen’s team obtained from a conversation between evangelical leaders and former President Donald Trump, who was a presidential candidate at the time.
“You really hear this deal being made,” Lowen said, “which is that if Donald Trump will advance the agenda and the priorities of Christian right, the Christian white right will rally their base to get out and vote for him.”
Trump’s success in appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices was instrumental in the anti-abortion movement’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade.
The documentary also includes interviews with leaders from the abortion-rights movement, including President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson.
Lowen told ABC News she personally disagrees with the anti-abortion movement, saying it “deprives other people of their rights and other people of the opportunity to make health care decisions for themselves that are in their own best interests.”
Jeff Cook, the legendary country guitarist known for being a founding member of hitmaking group Alabama, has died.
According to a statement from his publicist, Cook died on Tuesday, November 7, at his beach home in Destin, Florida. He was 73 years old and had been living with Parkinson’s disease for a decade, a diagnosis that caused him to retire from touring in 2018.
Together with his Alabama bandmates Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry, Cook played on some of the group’s biggest and most enduring hit songs, such as “Dixieland Delight,” “Tennessee River,” “Love in the First Degree” and “Mountain Music.”
Cook is survived by several family members, including his wife of 27 years, Lisa. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that anyone wishing to commemorate Cook’s life do so with a donation to The Jeff and Lisa Cook Foundation, which works to house orphaned children worldwide.
Arrangements for a memorial service will be announced at a later date.
(NEW YORK) — A COVID-19 outbreak has hit a U.S. station in Antarctica, despite being in one of the most remote areas of the world.
According to the National Science Foundation, which manages McMurdo Station — the largest base on the continent — at least 98 people have tested positive since the beginning of October out of 993 workers.
Of the cases, 64 are active. The NSF said most of the employees have mild symptoms and are isolating in their rooms. It’s unclear how the outbreak began.
To contain the outbreak, the NSF is pausing all inward travel to Antarctica for the next two weeks except for essential travel required for health and safety reasons.
In a statement, the foundation said this is “to lower the density of the population to reduce the possibility of transmission” during which time it will “reassess the situation.”
It’s unclear if the travel pause will affect any research projects. It comes as many scientists head down to the continent for their summer field season, where they work for two to three months.
It is also unknown if the pause will be extended past two weeks.
Those who test positive are required to isolate for five days and then wear a mask for an additional five days.
They are allowed to return to work after receiving two negative tests.
What’s more, the foundation said that its “expert epidemiologist” highly recommends all workers on the base wear KN-95 masks at all times and NSF “will ensure these are available to all residents at McMurdo.”
This is not the first instance of a COVID-19 outbreak occurring in Antarctica.
In December 2020, at least 11 of 33 workers at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Polar Station tested positive for the virus.
Additionally, during the same month, 36 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among staff members at Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins research station on the Antarctic Peninsula.
McMurdo Station was established in 1955 and is one of three year-round science facilities in Antarctica run by the United States.
According to the NSF, the station is made up of 85 buildings including laboratories, dormitories, repair facilities, a power plant, a firehouse and a water distillation. It also contains a harbor, two landing areas and a helicopter paid.
Scientists focus on research at McMurdo in many fields including biology, geospace sciences, glaciology and climate systems.
Mötley Crüesold its catalog for a reported $150 million last year — and it appears bassist Nikki Sixx has decided what to do with at least some of that windfall.
The real estate website Dirt reports that Sixx and his wife have purchased a huge estate in Lake Sherwood, California, for $6.9 million. The main home on the property, featuring five bedrooms and six bathrooms, has nearly 8,000 square feet of living space. There’s also an attached four-car garage, a pool house with its own kitchen and bathroom, an outdoor kitchen and bar, and a huge pool, fire pit, spa and sundeck.
As Dirt points out, this mansion isn’t even Sixx’s primary residence: his main home is in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Either way, Sixx won’t be spending a lot of time in his new house come 2023. For much of the year, he and Crüe, along with Def Leppard, will be touring Mexico, South America, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Rihanna recently welcomed a baby boy with partner A$AP Rockyand has since opened up about how it’s changed her relationship with her body.
Speaking with InStyle, the singer was asked to reveal what body part she enjoys showing off the most — and if her answer this year differs from what she said in the past.
“Oh yeah, girl, it changed. I guarantee you it changed. I had a baby! Let’s be real,” Rihanna joked. “Now it’s my booty — because I got one.”
The publication noted they asked Rihanna the same question a decade ago and, as it turns out, she gave the exact same answer.
The singer was also asked if she had anything to tease about her upcoming Super Bowl halftime show. Although she remained coy, she may have provided some clues.
She revealed designer Adam Selman might be taking charge of the looks she’ll sport that night. “He just might, he just might! We actually haven’t gotten there yet, but Adam has been designing my performance looks forever,” she teased.
Selman serves as the new executive design director of Savage x Fenty and is assisting in the upcoming Savage X Fenty Vol. 4 show.
As for what fans can expect with the new offering, said Rihanna, “Oh, this show is obnoxious … This one takes the cake. THIS is going to be the show to beat.”
The show will stream November 9 exclusively on Prime Video.
Craig Morgan will appear on The Kelly ClarksonShow on November 11 — Veterans Day — to discuss his new memoir and share stories from his military service.
Speaking of The Kelly Clarkson Show, Kelly took on Cody Johnson’s megahit “‘Til You Can’t” in the latest installment of the Kellyoke segment on her talk show.
David Nail shares his mental health journey in the latest installment of The Check-In, a video series from ACM Lifting Lives.
Former Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Redd flashed back to the time Kanye West came to the show and ranted in support of former President Donald Trump.
For context, West was a guest on the show’s season 44 premiere in 2018 and performed his song “Ghost Town.” When cameras stopped rolling, he started addressing the crowd.
“The Blacks want always Democrats … you know it’s like the plan they did, to take the fathers out the home and put them on welfare … does anybody know about that? That’s a Democratic plan,” Kanye, who was wearing a MAGA hat, said. “There’s so many times I talk to, like, a white person about this and they say, ‘How could you like Trump? He’s racist.’ Well, uh, if I was concerned about racism I would’ve moved out of America a long time ago.”
Redd apparently knew Ye was preparing the rant. Speaking to Daily Beast, he said he overheard the rapper rehearsing backstage.
“He came in there wanting to shoot everybody — verbally — and I just felt that was disrespectful, because we’re all grown adults,” says Redd. He says that at the time his thought was, “I’m not going to entertain this.”
Four years after that memorable SNL appearance, Redd says of West, “Now all of us don’t like [him].”
In other Kanye news, the rapper’s being sued for his unauthorized use of the sample for Boogie Down Production’s “South Bronx.” As Rolling Stone reports, Phase One Network, the asset management company overseeing Boogie Down’s catalog, accuses Ye of copyright infringement, alleging he sought licensing permissions to use the sample on Donda‘s “Life of the Party” and later retracted his request. The song dropped on Stem Player, leading the production company to believe Ye and the app “have direct financial interest” in the unauthorized record.
