Lainey Wilson will be back on the road this weekend after taking some time off due to a family emergency surrounding her father’s health.
“I just want you to know that I have seen the power of prayer start to work miracles,” the “Heart Like a Truck” singer told fans in a video update. “Every single prayer, every single heart has been felt by me and my family.”
When she first canceled shows, Lainey asked fans to pray for her family, subsequently posting a picture of herself with her father. In response, the “support and outreach has been unreal,” she goes on to say in her update.
Lainey’s dad is still in the ICU in Houston, so he’s got a long road to recovery ahead of him, but the singer says the best way she can honor him is by going back to doing what she does best.
“As much as I want to spend time, every minute of every hour, by my daddy’s side, and my family’s side, I know that he takes pride in hard work. So that’s what I’m gonna do,” she continues. “So I’ll be back out on the road this weekend, singing every note for him and making him proud.”
Lainey has a busy calendar ahead of her: She’s scheduled to perform with Jon Pardi through the fall and will pick up with Luke Combs’ Middle of Somewhere Tour in October.
If you’re a Stranger Things fan, you’ve probably just recovered from the show’s fourth season finale — but now, there’s some news that might have you hyperventilating all over again.
In a post on their official Twitter account, the writers for the Netflix phenomenon showed a photo of a white board, blank save for one critical element: A hand-drawn logo reading “Stranger Things 5.”
While revealing absolutely nothing else, the post has been “liked” nearly 700,000 times in less than 24 hours, as of this story.
The show’s fifth season will be its last, creators Matt and Ross Duffer have previously said. While that whiteboard may have been blank, the Duffer Bros. know how the story of Eleven and her pals will end: “We do feel good about the ending,” Matt Duffer told Collider.
“I’m insecure about a lot of things, but I feel like this ending feels good.”
Further, the pair told The Wrap that the wrap-up is emotional — at least according to the executives they briefed about it.
Ross explained, “I mean, it was hard. It’s the end of the story. I saw executives crying who I’ve never seen cry before and it was wild. And it’s not just to do with the story, just the fact that it’s like, ‘Oh my God, this thing that has defined so many of our lives, these Netflix people who has been with us from the beginning, seven years now,’ and it’s hard to imagine the journey coming to an end.”
Stranger Things is Netflix’s second-most popular show ever: Season four saw 1.4 billion hours viewed, bested only by Squid Game‘s 1.7 billion.
After opening for Halestorm, The Warning will be going home with one more instrument than they started with.
The rising rock trio — which is made up of sisters Dany, Pau and Ale — has been supporting the “I Miss the Misery” outfit on their summer tour. During Tuesday’s show in Irving, Texas, Lzzy Hale made a surprise appearance during The Warning’s set to give Dany a brand new guitar.
In an Instagram post, Dany shared a video of the moment when Hale surprised her with the hard-rocking gift alongside the caption, “I cannot even begin to explain what this means to me.”
“You are my biggest inspiration and I can’t believe I get to share this tour and these moments with you,” Dany added of Lzzy.
Hale then responded in the post’s comments, writing, “Darling, I cannot even tell you how long I’ve been waiting for someone to ignite me with passion and inspiration on the guitar. You have done that for me.”
The “Freak Like Me” singer also shared that the gift was part of her way to “pay it forward” after ex-Shinedown guitarist Jasin Todd had done the same thing for her back in 2005.
“You and your sisters are going to take over the world,” Hale wrote to Dany. “Rock is in very good hands.”
“Don’t let anyone take your crow or try to make you into anything you’re not,” she continued. “Keep your eyes up and your heart ablaze. You are a bright light in such a dark and crazy world.”
The Warning’s summer tour with Halestorm concludes August 12 in Portsmouth, Virginia. The bill also includes The Pretty Reckless and Lilith Czar on select dates.
You can also catch The Warning open for Halestorm on their fall tour, beginning in September.
Denise Truscello/Getty Images for The Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio Las Vegas
Congratulations are in order for Leona Lewis, who welcomed her first child with husband Dennis Jauch. The “Bleeding Love” singer announced she gave birth to their daughter last month.
The Grammy nominee took to Instagram to share the happy news, posting a photo of her cuddling with her bundle of joy while holding hands with her partner. “And then there were three,” she captioned the post. “Our little Carmel Allegra arrived 22.7.22.”
Leona’s famous friends — such as Jessie J, Keri Hilson, Calum Scott and Dancing with the Stars pro Keo Motsepe — flooded the comments with an outpouring of congratulatory remarks and celebrations.
The British singer first revealed she was going to be a mom back in March when she posted a glamour shot of her posing in a form-fitting black dress. She’s turned to the side in the snap, which showed off her growing pregnant stomach. She captioned the sentimental post, “Can’t wait to meet you in the Summer.”
This is the first child for Lewis, 37, and Jauch, 33. The couple wed in 2019.
Drake has dropped a new video for his Honestly, Nevermind track “Sticky.”
In the jet-setting Theo Skudra-directed clip, we see Drake living it up in various locations – from partying on a yacht to a dinner party in a mansion to camping in the woods. The visual also prominently features an off-road Maybach, designed by late fashion icon Virgil Abloh, as well as a shout-out to jailed rappers Young Thug and Gunna.
The video drop comes after Drake announced he tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to postpone Monday night’s Young Money reunion show in Toronto.
(NEW YORK) — Risk management strategies for floods and drought may not reduce the effects of unprecedented extreme weather events as they become more frequent due to climate change, researchers are warning.
In the past, even with effective risk management efforts that reduced global vulnerability to floods and drought, the regions affected still suffered dire consequences, researchers at the German Research Center for Geosciences stated in a study published Wednesday in Nature.
Those events are already increasing in severity in many parts of the world. If the planet warms by 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution started, the worst-case scenario presented in the Paris Agreement and many climate change studies, flooding events may double globally and even triple in some places, according to the study.
The planet has already warmed a little more than 1 degree Celsius, according to scientists.
The researchers analyzed a dataset of 45 pairs of flood or drought events that occurred in the same area at different time points — about 16 years apart on average — and found that, in general, risk management reduced the impact of floods and drought.
However, when the events were at magnitudes that have not been previously experienced, the effectiveness of the risk management strategies may not as successful, regardless of the approaches taken and whether they had worked in the past, the researchers found.
This may be due to aging infrastructure that was designed to manage a hazard much less menacing than the extreme weather events that are occurring today, such as levees or water reservoirs being exceeded, according to the study.
In addition, flaws to human risk perception, especially for rare extreme events, might hinder efforts to anticipate them and lessen their effects, the researchers said.
In the past two weeks, the U.S. has experienced heat waves in regions that had rarely reached triple-digit temperatures, such as the Pacific Northwest, and back-to-back devastating flooding events in regions that are not built or equipped to handle such an influx of precipitation that modern day storm systems are carrying, such as the record flooding that occurred in Missouri and the catastrophic flooding that claimed dozens of lives in eastern Kentucky.
The researchers did note successful responses from two events in which the second event was more hazardous but the effects were less than those of the first event — flooding in Barcelona in 1995 and 2018 and Danube catchment floods in Austria and Germany in 2002 and 2013.
They hypothesized that the lessened damage from the second event was due to improved risk management investment and integrated management approaches, which then led to improved early warning and emergency responses.
The findings highlight the difficulty of managing such extreme events as warming global temperatures increase the frequency and intensity of not just floods and drought but storm systems and wildfires as well, the researchers said.
The successful responses can serve as an example for risk management efforts for future unprecedented weather events, the authors concluded.
Tony Bennett turns 96 today, and he was presented with an unexpected birthday gift from the Television Academy — a belated Emmy nod!
He and Lady Gaga have been confirmed as official Emmy nominees for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) thanks to their show One Last Time: an Evening with Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, which premiered last year. CBS Network was previously named the sole nominee for the special.
Gaga and Bennett have both been named co-nominees since they not only performed that night, they also hosted the special. In addition, they will also share the award with the show’s five executive producers, three producers and one supervising producer, who were also confirmed as official nominees for the award.
One Last Time was filmed at two sold-out shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in August 2021, which served as both Bennett’s 95th birthday celebration and his last hurrah. The legendary crooner has since retired from performing, and the shows marked his final public concert performance.
Bennett has since revealed he has been battling Alzheimer’s since 2016.
Gaga spoke to 60 Minutes after of the show’s taping and expressed she was nervous for Tony because of his health. “I wasn’t sure if he knew who I was…when that music comes on, something happens to him, he knows exactly what he’s doing,” she recalled to host Anderson Cooper. “When I walked out on that stage and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga!’ — my friend saw me and it was very special.”
Find out if Bennett and Gaga will add a new Emmy to their trophy case when the 74th annual Emmy Awards air on Monday, September 22 on NBC. The ceremony will also stream on Peacock.
(WASHINGTON) — A leading House Democrat on Wednesday backtracked on comments she made Tuesday that she doubts President Joe Biden will renew his bid for the presidency in 2024 — a highly unusual break from the party’s standard-bearer.
The White House has said repeatedly Biden intends to run for reelection.
When asked during a debate if he should run again, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is currently seeking reelection for the Empire State’s 12th Congressional District, told debate moderators from NY1: “I don’t believe he’s running.”
Maloney is in a hotly contested primary, in part due to redistricting that pits her against another Capitol Hill veteran, Rep. Jerry Nadler. The pair face off on Aug. 23.
Nadler told debate moderators on Tuesday that it was “too early to say” if Biden would run again in 2024, adding that such speculation “doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to deal with that until after the midterms.”
Maloney’s answer was quickly seized on by the Republican National Committee and circulated on social media.
Maloney is no political novice. The chair of the House Oversight Committee has served in Congress for nearly 30 years, and her prognosis of Biden’s prospects are at odds with some others in the party: The Democratic National Committee and the White House — as well as congressional leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer — have aligned on another potential Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. The president previously told ABC News’ David Muir that he would run as long as his health remained good.
Maloney tweaked her remarks somewhat Wednesday morning, tweeting that she would “absolutely support President Biden, if he decides to run for re-election.”
“Biden’s leadership securing historic investments for healthcare, climate & economic justice prove once again why he is the strong and effective leader we need right now,” she said.
Still, Maloney is not alone in her reservations: Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., recently told local media that he doesn’t believe Biden should seek a second term. “I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats to step up,” Phillips said.
Later, in a statement to The Minnesota Star Tribune, he added: “Under no condition can we afford another four years of Donald Trump, and while Joe Biden was clearly the right candidate at the right time two years ago, it’s my hope that both major parties put forward new candidates of principle, civility, and integrity in 2024.”
Minnesota House colleague Angie Craig then cited Phillips this week when she said that there needs to be a “new generation of leadership.”
At 79, Biden is the oldest-ever serving president — breaking a record set by his predecessor, Donald Trump, now 76.
Biden last month defended his popularity among Democrats, telling ABC News that a New York Times/Siena College poll showing a majority of his party preferring another 2024 nominee also found that 92% of Democrats said they’d vote for him in another race with Trump.
And among all voters, the poll found, Biden would best Trump 44% to 41%.
Biden told ABC News in December that the prospect of such a rematch was appealing.
“You’re trying to tempt me now,” Biden told Muir then, laughing. “Why would I not run against Donald Trump for the nominee?” he added. “That’ll increase the prospect of running.”
Carly Pearce is reflecting on the passing of her grandfather.
Carly’s beloved grandfather, from whom she gets her last name, passed away in 2008. She says she still gets messages from him, as evidenced by the lightning bug that paid her a visit on the anniversary of his death.
“My grandpa has been gone 14 years today. I have been thinking about him so much, and then this little lightning bug appears in my house randomly…which if you knew us, is such a sign,” she writes on Instagram Stories alongside a clip of the bug climbing up the wall, accompanied by a teary-eyed and heart emoji.
As a young girl raised in Kentucky, Carly’s grandparents helped instill a love of country music in her when they listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. Once she became a country star herself, Carly wrote a song inspired by her grandparents’ love, “It Won’t Always Be Like This,” that’s featured on her 2020 self-titled album.
(NEW YORK) — The parent company of department store chain T.J. Maxx has agreed to pay a $13 million fine for the sale of roughly 1,200 recalled products over a five-year period, including products determined to have put infants at risk of suffocation and death, a federal agency said on Tuesday.
TJX Companies Inc., which also oversees retail chains Marshalls and HomeGoods, sold the recalled products at brick-and-mortar stores belonging to the three subsidiary brands from 2014 to 2019, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, said.
Sales of the recalled products also took place online, the agency said.
In addition to paying the fine, TJX will maintain a set of internal controls to ensure that the company complies with law that prohibits the sale of recalled products, the CPSC said. TJX has agreed to file annual reports on its compliance program for five years, the agency added.
Most of the recalled products sold by TJX were recalled due to the risk of infant suffocation and death, including the Kids II Rocking Sleepers, Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleepers and Fisher-Price Inclined Sleeper Accessory for Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yards, the CPSC said.
“At TJX, product safety is very important to us and we prohibit the sale of recalled items in our stores,” TJX said in a statement. “We deeply regret that in some instances between 2014 and 2019, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place.”
“We have made a significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen our processes, and have cooperated fully with the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” the company added.
In 2019, CPSC and TJX jointly announced that TJX had sold 19 separate recalled products. After the announcement, TJX reported to staff that it subsequently discovered previous sales of three additional recalled products, CPSC said.
TJX reported $11.4 billion in revenue over a three-month period that ended on April 30, which amounted to an increase of 13% over the same three-month period a year prior. The company reported $587 million in profit over the three-month period that ended in April.
