Shawn Mendes has released his first new song since the March 2022 single “When You’re Gone.” It’s from the soundtrack of the upcoming movie Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, in which he voices the title character.
The song is called “Heartbeat,” and it comes with a lyric video. In the upbeat love song, Shawn sings, “Heartbeat/It speeds up whenever you want me/What you got, I want it like all week/I need that, I wanna be wherever you are, wherever you are.”
The soundtrack to the movie, based on the beloved children’s book, is out October 7, the same day the movie hits theaters. As previously reported, it features original songs by Oscar-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting team who brought you The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land.
Shawn sings quite a few numbers on the album. There are also some classic hits sprinkled in like Stevie Wonder‘s “Sir Duke” and naturally, Elton John‘s “Crocodile Rock.”
Former NBA star Dwyane Wade is taking the necessary steps to try and shield his transgender daughter, Zaya, from hateful comments on social media.
On Twitter Thursday, Wade responded to a fan who seemingly inquired about the accessibility of Zaya’s comment section to explain his reasoning behind the protected social accounts. The original fan tweet can no longer be viewed.
“For Zaya’s mental health and privacy we’ve decided not to allow the hate into her comments,” Wade wrote. “Thank you for wanting to spread and send her love.”
Earlier this month, Zaya, 15, made headlines after sharing first-look images of her Tiffany & Co. campaign, where she debuted new, flowing tresses in a half-up, half-down hairstyle — a completely different look than her normal low-cut afro.
“dreams become reality,” she captioned the Instagram post.
In supportive father-like fashion, the loving dad gushed over his daughter’s images, posting diamond emojis in the comments section.
Wade has shown unwavering support for his daughter since publicly announcing her gender identity in 2020.
“As blessed as it is for my daughter to have parents who can support her, I’m still afraid every moment she leaves our house,” he said during an interview at aTime magazine summit earlier this year. “And not just because of gun violence, but because of the way people perceive her in this world.”
(WASHINGTON) — For months, the U.S. has warned that the Kremlin would move to annex occupied areas of Ukraine. But now that Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday has certified the annexation of four territories into the Russian Federation, all eyes turned to the Western response to the provocation.
Within minutes of Putin’s action, President Joe Biden shot back.
“The United States condemns Russia’s fraudulent attempt today to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory. Russia is violating international law, trampling on the United Nations Charter, and showing its contempt for peaceful nations everywhere,” he said in a statement.
“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy. The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically, including through the $1.1 billion in additional security assistance the United States announced this week,” he said.
He announced new sanctions, in conjunction with Western allies and partners.
“These sanctions will impose costs on individuals and entities — inside and outside of Russia — that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory. We will rally the international community to both denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable. We will continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs to defend itself, undeterred by Russia’s brazen effort to redraw the borders of its neighbor. And I look forward to signing legislation from Congress that will provide an additional $12 billion to support Ukraine,” Biden said.
The European Union has already moved to implement a host of new trade restrictions. At the United Nations, a U.S. sponsored resolution condemning the land grab will soon be introduced before the organization’s Security Council.
But so far, financial restrictions and public shaming have done little to constrain Putin’s imperialistic goals, prompting Ukrainian officials to call for a shift in strategy.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed the U.S. to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, which installs secondary sanctions — penalizing any business or entity that does business with the country. So far, the Biden administration has been adamantly against it, saying it could inhibit efforts to move aid to Ukraine and other needy countries, as well hinder any future peace talks.
Still, Kyiv has been undeterred.
David Arakhamia, one of Zelenskyy’s closest advisers, during a visit to Washington on Thursday, said that he felt “more optimistic” after meeting with lawmakers, saying he felt Congress was continuing to “put political pressure” on the White House to shift its policy.
“We want to see as much financial impact on Russia as possible,” Arakhamia said during a press conference. “If we make Russia poor, that means we increase our chances for Ukraine to win.”
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, argued at the same event that the administration also needs to specifically say how it will punish Putin.
“It is very important for us that the United States exactly what they’re going to do before Putin makes the next steps,” Ustinova said. “Because he’s a bully. He’s testing how far he can go.”
Ustinova said Ukrainian officials had directly pushed the U.S. government to “state how hard you’re going to hit him” and to crack down harder on Russian financial institutions.
“That would make him think twice,” she said.
When it comes to Putin’s nuclear threats, the administration has been especially stringent, sticking to its policy of “strategic ambiguity” — declining to say just how the West might respond to the ultimate aggression — as an attempt to walk the line between deterrence and escalation.
Arakhamia said he was hopeful NATO would spell out specifically what it would do in that worst-case scenario and that Ukraine would receive collective defense guarantees, but either would mark a significant shift and one that could have weighty implications for the conflict.
A more likely and immediate response is expected to be an infusion of military and economic aid from Congress, which is set to pass a stopgap funding bill with more than $12 billion more for Ukraine on Friday. But already, some of the recent rounds of aid announced have included weaponry that still needs to be produced, meaning it won’t make it to the battlefield for months or years — and signaling surpluses in allies’ armories are running low.
“We think it’s high time the United States and other allies actually warm up production up to the scale of wartime,” urged Anastasia Radina, another member of Ukraine’s parliament. “Because it is now wartime for the whole civilized world.”
“No one has seen anything like this since World War II,” said Ustinova.
(NEW YORK) — The centerpiece for Thanksgiving tables across the country will cost more than ever this holiday season.
The American Farm Bureau Federation announced Wednesday that “families can expect to pay record high prices at the grocery store for turkey” due to bird flu and inflation.
The organization analyzed turkey costs in their latest Market Intel, finding retail prices on fresh boneless, skinless turkey breast reached a record high of $6.70 per pound in September, which is up 112% from 2021. The previous record high price was $5.88 per pound in November 2015, during the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak.
“This is particularly challenging for turkey production, because it takes a really long time to grow a turkey to its market weight of about 30 pounds. So when we saw these significant shocks to supply this spring, we’re now seeing it in grocery stores reflected in those prices today,” American Farm Bureau Federation senior economist Veronica Nigh told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
With inflation at a near 40-year high, retail food prices were up 11.4% in August compared to the same time last year.
Despite higher prices, farmers and retailers believe there should be enough turkeys to meet the holiday demand.
“All of us are feeling the pain of higher prices at the grocery store,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. “HPAI outbreaks in the spring and an uptick in cases in the fall are taking a toll, but farmers remain dedicated to ensuring America’s food supply remains strong.”
Over 40 states have confirmed cases of bird flu, which has wreaked havoc on 46 million birds in the U.S.
In Minnesota, the top turkey supplier in the U.S., the situation has gotten so dire with the deadly outbreak that Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order to waive trucking regulations in an effort to help fight the spread.
“If your turkeys end up with bird flu, any other poultry on the farm, whether it’s meat chickens, egg layers, they all have to be exterminated and that’s not only a huge financial loss that’s just a really sad situation,” Nellie Lovenduski of Slate River Farms told local affiliate WXXA-TV.
But farmers maintain that consumers can still find their Thanksgiving turkeys.
“I think at a minimum you’re going to see an increase in price in turkeys even in the big box turkey providers,” Lovenduski said.
But Nigh explained there’s still ways to save.
“We’re looking at ways to perhaps mitigate cheaper Thanksgiving dinner and maybe more side dishes to go along with that with that turkey and looking for substitutes at the grocery store,” she suggested. “Think about getting a frozen burger rather than a fresh turkey this year. Ways to really stretch that dollar and so that we can all be together but still have that traditional Thanksgiving dinner.”
Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro will not be joining the band on their upcoming tour with The Smashing Pumpkins due to continued effects from a bout of long COVID-19 that he’s been dealing with since last December.
“I had hoped for a full recovery by October but I am still very fatigued and will not be able to join this leg,” Navarro writes in a social media post.
Navarro adds that he’s “personally gutted” to miss the tour, which kicks off this Sunday in Dallas, especially since it will mark the return of original Jane’s bassist Eric Avery, who reunited with the band over the summer.
“We wanted to bring you the original lineup but that will have to wait until I’m recovered,” Navarro writes. “While the band is touring, I will be working on new new Jane’s material in the studio here in [Los Angeles].”
Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, who’s also played in A Perfect Circle and Failure, will fill in for Navarro on the tour.
“[Van Leeuwen] is a great guy and I am honored to have him help make this tour happen,” Navarro says. “Though I am saddened to not make this tour I am focused on making a full recovery and rejoining the guys when I am able.”
“I truly wish the band well on this tour and I am confident they will bring everything to make it a fabulous show,” he adds. “Go get ’em guys! Maybe I can get to a show one night and watch my own band for the first time.”
Navarro’s condition previously forced Jane’s to cancel their set at the Welcome to Rockville festival earlier this year, which led to the reunion of Perry Farrell‘s other band, Porno for Pyros.
Taylor Swift is offering her new album Midnights to fans in various colors of limited-edition vinyl, but she’s just added a new color to the mix.
Taylor went on TikTok for another edition of her ongoing series “Midnights Mayhem with Me,” during which she reveals the names of the songs on the album by spinning a bunch of ping pong balls in a bingo cage and pulling numbers out at random.
Last night, Taylor chose #2 and revealed that track number two on the album is called “Maroon.” Does Adam Levine know about this?
“Maroon” joins previous track titles “Midnight Rain,” “Question…?,” “Vigilante S**t” and “Mastermind.” The album arrives October 21.
Thomas Rhett has a big anniversary coming up: He and his wife, Lauren Akins, will celebrate 10 years of marriage on October 12.
Looking back, the singer says that it’s hard to believe how far they’ve come. That crazy, winding journey is one of the things that inspired the title of his Where We Started album, which came out back in April.
“I kinda look back to when I first started in this career, when I first got married, and just lookin’ at Lauren and being, like, ‘Dang,’” TR reflects in an interview with his record label.
“10 years ago, you and I were riding in a Sprinter van with eight other dudes in my band, and we were doing 300 shows a year,” he continues. “Looking at our life now with four children and by the grace of God, had a little bit of success in this business, and it’s kinda wild to look back and ask yourself — if I could tell my 21-year-old self, ‘This is where you’re going to be’ — this is crazy.”
In music news, Thomas is keeping busy with his Bring the Bar to You Tour, which will continue in the U.S. through mid-October. He’s taking the trek to Canada in early 2023.
(NEW YORK) — Government prosecutors in the case of Tom Barrack on Thursday read aloud hundreds of emails and texts sent by the former Trump fundraiser, who is on trial at a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, for allegedly illegally lobbying on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
The hours-long recitation included messages to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, her husband Jared Kushner, and Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
Barrack, a billionaire California-based businessman and longtime Trump associate, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he acted as a foreign agent for the UAE from 2016 to 2018 and failed to register with Justice Department, which prosecutors say constitutes a crime. The government alleges that Barrack illegally lobbied on behalf of the UAE while seeking investments from two UAE sovereign wealth funds — a charge his defense attorneys have dismissed as ridiculous.
“[The government’s] accusations are nothing short of ridiculous. Tom Barrack was never under anybody’s direction. Tom Barrack was never under anybody’s control,” said Michael Schachter, Barrack’s attorney. “Tom Barrack was his own man [and] said things because he wanted to.”
After several days of testimony, prosecutors on Thursday laid out communications from Barrack in an effort to prove their case. The messages largely focused on discussions surrounding an energy speech that Trump, who was then a presidential candidate, was set to deliver in early 2016.
Prosecutors have alleged that Barrack shared an early draft of the speech with UAE government officials for feedback, and then inserted language favorable to the UAE.
“Wow, I’m just stunned by how bad this is,” Barrack wrote in an email to Manafort in May, 2016, upon receiving a new draft of the proposed energy speech that did not include his earlier additions praising the UAE. “We better figure out a way to get one paragraph to balance foreign policy concerns for energy dependent allies in the gulf.”
“Send me an insert that will work for our friends. I will push to get it included,” replied Manafort, who was later pardoned by Trump after being sentenced in 2019 to seven years in prison for charges related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “This is easier than fighting to get the speech back to where it was.”
According to emails presented by prosecutors, Barrack, seeking feedback, had first sent a draft of the speech to Rashid Al Malik, whom the government describes as a UAE national who is also charged alongside Barrack. Al Malik then forwarded the speech to a member of the UAE government, and after much back-and-forth, language praising the UAE was inserted.
“Here is my latest draft, I will give it to him tomorrow,” Barrack wrote days later to Al Malik, in an email with the subject line “totally confidential.” Amidst more back-and-forth that followed, Barrack pushed back on some suggestions, writing to his aide, Matthew Grimes — who is also charged and has pleaded not guilty — “do not include any of their other comments please.”
On May 26, 2016, Trump delivered the speech — which included a pledge to “work with our Gulf allies.”
“Amazing speech!” Al Malik wrote to Barrack shortly thereafter.
“MBZ and MBS were watching,” added Al Malik, referring to UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and then-Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
Prosecutors also displayed emails from months before the speech, in which Barrack pushed to get Manafort hired by the Trump campaign.
“I think it’s really, really important and Manafort is a genius killer [sic] but the opposite of [Trump adviser Roger] Stone,” Barrack wrote in a Feb. 29, 2016, email to Ivanka Trump and Kushner.
Barrack also forwarded an email he had previously sent to Trump saying that Manafort was “the most serious and lethal of managers.”
“Thank you for being such a great friend,” Manafort emailed to Barrack after Manafort was hired as the campaign’s GOP convention manager. No responses from Ivanka Trump or Kushner were included.
Other emails also appeared to show an effort by Barrack to prevent others from meeting with UAE officials. In early May, Barrack emailed Al Malik that a sheikh had “reached out to the Trump Organization to Jared … to try and set up a meeting.”
“I intercepted,” Barrack wrote in the May 5, 2016, email, which prosecutors read as a picture of Kushner was displayed for the jury.
“I told him to cancel that is bulls—,” Barrack wrote days later regarding a separate potential meeting.
Later, Barrack emailed Jared that the man he was supposed to meet with was a “mid level bureaucrat.”
“You are the only direct channel to the candidate and no one else,” Al Malik told Barrack in a later email.
(SILVER SPRING, Md.) — Foods that claim to be “healthy” on their packaging will soon be subject to a new set of labeling guidelines, part of an effort by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help educate consumers on nutrition literacy and align packaging language with current nutritional guidance.
The FDA announced the new rules on Wednesday.
The proposed update will ensure that food labels with “healthy” content claims are better aligned with current nutrition science, the updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
For example, foods like salmon, despite having higher fat content, can now be labeled as “healthy,” as it is a nutrient-dense food.
According to the FDA, “The proposed rule would update the ‘healthy’ claim definition to better account for how all the nutrients in various food groups contribute and may work synergistically to create healthy dietary patterns and improve health.”
“Diet-related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, are the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S. and disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minority groups,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D., said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today’s action is an important step toward accomplishing a number of nutrition-related priorities, which include empowering consumers with information to choose healthier diets and establishing healthy eating habits early. It can also result in a healthier food supply.”
The moves by the FDA are part of a broader anti-hunger push from President Biden. The changes were announced ahead of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The FDA also plans move nutrition labels from the back to the front of a food package to help consumers “with lower nutrition literacy.”
The newly proposed rule on healthy labels is part of the agency’s ongoing commitment to help improve nutrition and dietary patterns for consumers to ultimately help reduce the burden of chronic disease and advance health equity.
According to the FDA, 80% of Americans don’t eat enough vegetables, fruit and dairy, and most consume too much added sugars, saturated fat and sodium.
“Nutrition is key to improving our nation’s health,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Healthy food can lower our risk for chronic disease. But too many people may not know what constitutes healthy food. FDA’s move will help educate more Americans to improve health outcomes, tackle health disparities and save lives.”
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Another coastline known for its sensitivity to storm surge will feel Ian’s wrath as the storm system strengthens back into a hurricane and makes another landfall in a vulnerable region.
While Ian made a slow crawl through central and northern Florida on Thursday as a tropical storm, its sights will soon be set on the coast of South Carolina — specifically Charleston, which historically does not do well with storm surge.
After exiting into the Atlantic Ocean, the warms waters, combined with the Gulf Stream, could allow Ian to regain strength as it heads toward the South Carolina coast as a Category 1 or even Category 2 storm.
Charleston is extremely susceptible to storm surge due to its geography and proximity to the coast.
Nearly 90% of Charleston homes and businesses are vulnerable to storm surge, a 2020 report conducted by the City of Charleston found.
During a major flooding event, emergency responders would not be able to reach about 86% of properties citywide due to roadway flooding, the report found.
Many areas surrounding Charleston Bay could be flooded with even just over 3 feet of surge.
Meteorologists are forecasting a storm surge in Charleston topping 7 feet, putting those who live near the coast in peril. The all-time record for storm surge in the region is 9 feet after Hurricane Irma struck in 2017.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the entire coast of South Carolina, while parts of Georgia are now under hurricane watch advisories, and parts of North Carolina are under tropical storm warnings.
The system is expected to form back into a hurricane Thursday night and could make landfall in South Carolina Friday morning.
Ian had already threatened other regions particularly vulnerable to storm surge.
South Carolina will be Ian’s fourth landfall. The hurricane first made landfall as a Category 3 storm near La Coloma, Cuba, on the southwest side of the island, early Tuesday morning.
The system then traveled up the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall twice in Florida on Wednesday afternoon — first near Cayo Costa, near Fort Myers Beach, as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds and again 90 minutes later in Punta Gorda, near Pirate Harbor, with winds at 145 mph.
