Alicia Keys made husband Swizz Beatz’s 44th birthday on Tuesday very special with an indoor party and a nighttime beach celebration.
“Happy born day my KING!!!!@therealswizzz. The most incredible mind, man, and soul,” the 15-time Grammy winner captioned a series of Instagram photos from the festivities.
“I celebrate your life!! I can’t get enough of you!! I just want to kiss u forever! Here’s to the best years ahead of us,” Alicia added.
Swizz also posted several pics, including a childhood photo with the comment, “44 years of the Zone and I didn’t even start yet. Blessings and love to everyone.” He added a highlight video showing him enjoying champagne while flying on a private jet. Beatz wrote, “Thank you my love and friends.” The clip ended with the caption, “The sky is not the limit. it’s just the view.”
The couple celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary on July 31. Alicia and Swizz have two sons together, Egypt Daoud, 11, and Genesis Ali Dean, 7.
(EL DORADO, CA) –A wildfire that has destroyed dozens of homes in California is now the largest in the state this year.
The Mosquito Fire has burned through nearly 64,000 acres and gutted 70 structures in El Dorado and Placer counties since it sparked on Sept. 6, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Of the structures that were destroyed, at least 25 have been single-occupancy residences, fire officials said.
The fast-moving fire has exploded by more than 15,000 acres since Monday and is just 20% contained, according to Cal Fire. It has now surpassed the McKinney Fire as the largest in the state in 2022.
The smoke is so intense that it has produced hazardous air quality in states farther north and east, such as Oregon and Wyoming, and it is billowing farther east toward the Midwest. Combined with other wildfires in the West, heavy smoke is causing poor air quality as far east as Billings, Montana, and moderate air quality as far east as Rapid City, South Dakota — and the smoke is expected to continuing traveling toward the East Coast.
This is not the first time smoke from wildfires in the West has traveled to cities more than 1,000 miles away.
Last year, smoke from more than 100 large wildfires from California to Montana drifted toward Denver and the Rocky Mountains.
However, humidity is on the rise for the majority of the area covered by the Mosquito Fire, which will assist firefighters in containing the blaze, fire officials said.
Nationwide, more than 6.7 million acres of land have burned this year, with most of the fires concentrated in the Northwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 43,000 of those fires were sparked by people, while just 6,341 were sparked by lightning, according to the agency.
Bone-dry landscapes as a result of a decades long megadrought in the West is exacerbating the fire danger, causing dehydrated vegetation to act as fuel for the flames.
(NEW YORK) — The New York City Parks Department has again rejected calls by members of the city council to terminate the Trump Organization’s license to operate a city-owned golf course in the Bronx.
Council members on Thursday called for the “immediate termination” of the Trump Organization’s license to operate the golf course at Ferry Point Park, a month before it’s scheduled to host a women’s tournament underwritten by Saudi Arabia.
City officials previously said they could not “unreasonably withhold approval” for the course to host the October event.
“The Trump-operated golf course hosting a golf tournament sponsored by the Saudi government just weeks after the 21st anniversary of this country’s most devastating event ever is insensitive to say the least,” Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Thursday.
The tournament, part of the women’s Aramco Team Series, has close ties to the Saudi government but is separate from the LIV Golf tour that has poached players from the PGA Tour.
Council member Shekar Krishnan called the tournament “so offensive to the families of 9/11.”
But a New York City Parks Department representative said the city would continue to honor its contract with former President Donald Trump’s namesake company.
“As we’ve told Chair Krishnan and his colleagues in the City Council, ending the contract we inherited would require the city to pay up to tens of millions of dollars to the Trump Organization, an outcome no one wants,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. “We agree with the chairman on the desired outcome to cancel both this tournament and the overarching license agreement, and hope in the future he seeks a productive partnership on the issue.”
In April, a New York state judge upheld Trump’s right to continue to operate the course after former Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to terminate Trump’s operating license following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump Organization called the effort to terminate the company’s operating license “nothing more than a political vendetta.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will meet Friday at the White House with the families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two American citizens who remain detained in Russia.
“The president wants to make sure their families know they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day,” said a senior administration official, who confirmed the meeting to ABC News.
The president will meet with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, who both spoke with Biden in July, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre detailed at a later briefing with reporters.
The Biden administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to have Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan returned to the U.S. but Jean-Pierre said no breakthroughs were expected at Biden’s meeting.
“So, while I would love to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer, and we are bringing their loved ones home, that is not what we’re seeing in these negotiations at this time,” she said.
“Look, as we have said, the Russians should accept our offer. They should accept our offer today. We will keep working diligently until the day we get to share that good news,” she added.
Still Jean-Pierre said Biden wanted to let the families know they remain “front of mind” for the administration.
“So one of the things that the president wanted to — to make clear is and one of the reasons he’s — he is meeting with families is that he wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely. One family member was already scheduled to be in town and the president wanted to meet with both of the families on the same day,” Jean-Pierre said.
Griner, the famous WNBA player, was arrested in February on drug charges and sentences to nine years in prison. Whelan, a corporate security executive, is currently serving a 16-year sentence for espionage charges that his family says are trumped up. The U.S. declared both to be wrongfully detained, a legal clarification that mobilizes federal resources to free Americans imprisoned abroad.
The talks between Washington and Moscow have been complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There have been few public signs of progress since Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a rare announcement in late July, revealed the U.S. had made the “substantial proposal” to secure the release of both Americans.
Sources told ABC News that offer included a prisoner swap that would exchange Viktor Bout — a convicted Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year sentence in a federal penitentiary in Illinois — for Griner and Whelan.
While U.S. officials say direct communication with the Kremlin continues at a regular clip, they acknowledge the slow pace is frustrating.
“Why this process has taken so long is a better question for Moscow,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday.
“I wouldn’t characterize the process as stalled, he said. “It certainly hasn’t moved with the speed we would like.”
Some observers speculate Russia will demand parity, demanding two prisoners for the American detainees. Others within the State Department have questioned whether the Kremlin is negotiating in good faith and genuinely interested in reaching an agreement.
As talks continue behind the scenes, the Biden administration has bristled at any outside influence. After former New Mexico governor and hostage negotiator Bill Richardson traveled to Moscow this week, officials warned such interference could jeopardize the delicate diplomacy underway.
“Our message is that private citizens should not be in Moscow at all right now and that private citizens cannot negotiate on behalf of the United States government,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday.
Richardson became involved in Griner’s case at her family’s request back in May and over many years has been involved in multiple successful efforts to free detained Americans.
“Of course, families are perfectly free to engage in to consult with outside voices, with outside entities,” Price said Wednesday. “But again, we want to make sure that any outside effort is fully and transparently coordinated with us.”
Price said the U.S. embassy is Moscow had not been involved in Richardson’s trip.
ABC News reached out to the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, but a spokesperson declined to comment or answer questions.
Anne, the only daughter of the queen and the late Prince Philip, was by her mother’s side as the queen’s coffin made its journey from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to Edinburgh and then to Buckingham Palace in London.
In Wednesday’s procession escorting the queen’s coffin from the palace to Westminster Hall, Anne, wearing military dress, was the only female member of the royal family to walk behind the coffin. She will do the same on Monday, when the queen’s state funeral is held at Westminster Abbey.
Anne, now 72, is 16th in line to the throne, even though she is the queen and Philip’s second-oldest child.
As a woman, Anne was leap-frogged in the line of succession by Andrew and Edward.
She was born decades before a law called the Succession to the Crown Act went into effect in 2013, ending the centuries-old practice of a younger son superseding an elder daughter in the line of succession.
As the princess royal, Anne also has a different title than the ones given to her brothers.
The title of princess royal is typically, but not automatically, bestowed to the eldest daughter of the monarch.
Anne, who was nearly 3 when her mom became queen, has carried the title for nearly her entire life, and she will continue to hold it after the queen’s death.
As the father of two sons, Charles will not bestow the title of princess royal during his reign.
Charles’ eldest son, Prince William, the heir to the throne, may choose to bestow the title on his only daughter, Princess Charlotte, when he becomes king.
Anne chose not to give her two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips Tindall, royal titles when they were born, an option she would have been given by the queen had she wished to do so.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” she said. “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Phillips and Tindall, whose father is Anne’s first husband, Mark Phillips, are the only two of the queen’s eight grandchildren to not have royal titles.
Tindall, a mother of three, shares a love of horses with the queen and Anne, who competed in equestrian for Great Britain in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Tindall competed in the same event at the 2012 London Olympics and won a silver medal, which was presented by Anne.
Phillips, the queen’s eldest grandchild, is a father of two.
He walked side by side with his cousins William and Prince Harry in Wednesday’s procession for the queen.
ABC Audio has confirmed that the headline-making defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife, Amber Heard, has been made into an original movie for the Fox-owned Tubi streaming platform.
Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial will star Mark Hapka as Depp and Megan Davis as Heard. It’s slated to debut Friday, September 30.
Station 19 star Melissa Marty will play Depp’s tenacious — and ultimately victorious — lawyer Camille Vasquez; Law & Order True Crime‘s Mary Carrig joins for the defense as Heard’s attorney Elaine Bredehoft.
“‘Hot Take‘ [is] in the title for a reason,” explained Adam Lewinson, chief content officer at Tubi, in the announcement. “With our partners at MarVista, this Tubi Original was fast-tracked into production to capture a timely take on a story that became part of the cultural zeitgeist, painting a unique picture of what millions watched play out in the headlines over the summer.”
In June, a Virginia jury agreed with the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s legal team that there was “clear and convincing evidence” Heard had defamed him in a Washington Post op-ed in which she described being the victim of domestic and sexual abuse without naming him.
Depp was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, but the latter was capped to $350,000 due to Virginia law.
Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages for statements made by Depp’s former attorney, but was awarded no punitive damages.
Mariah Carey celebrates the 25th anniversary of Butterfly on Friday and is releasing a special anniversary edition of the album to mark the milestone.
Mariah told Variety what the album symbolizes. “I didn’t have a thing with butterflies when I was a kid … It is just something that happened,” she said. “When I made that album, I was leaving a point in my life that was extremely stifling and I had to go through an actual metamorphosis to become a grown woman who was strong enough to get out of that situation. It was me breaking through, to become free enough to fly.”
The Grammy winner divorced Columbia Records executive Tommy Mattola during that time of “metamorphosis.” She hinted he was a key player in making her continually churn out pop music. Mariah also said she kept seeing butterflies at the time and adopted them as her symbol of power.
“It was then and there I was able to gain my freedom. There’s no price you can put on that. There is nothing more valuable than freedom,” she expressed.
Butterfly was Mariah’s entry into R&B and hip-hop and — as she says — proof of her liberation. “You can hear a sense of emancipation there before I ever did The Emancipation of Mimi,” she dished in reference to her 2005 studio album. “This album, Butterfly, consists of slivers of my life back then.”
Butterfly 25 arrives Friday and includes a cover of Prince‘s “The Beautiful Ones.” Mariah said Prince was instrumental in releasing Butterfly because her label wanted her to stay pop.
“He defended me to record executives who didn’t understand my decision to make an album like that. The execs didn’t understand me veering from a successful formula. But Prince understood,” she said.
(TUPELO, MS) — A Mississippi man faces federal charges after allegedly stealing a plane and threatening to crash it into a Walmart earlier this month.
Cory Patterson, 29, was arrested by local authorities on Sept. 3 after the small plane landed in a field after circling over Tupelo for several hours. Tupelo police had warned residents early that morning that the plane’s pilot was threatening to intentionally crash into a Walmart.
Patterson, an unlicensed pilot, allegedly stole the small plane from the Tupelo Regional Airport, where he worked as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, police said.
He was charged on Sept. 3 with grand larceny and making terroristic threats by local authorities.
He was additionally charged in federal court on Monday with destruction of aircraft and threats involving the destruction of aircraft.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Patterson’s attorney to an email seeking comment on the federal charges.
According to the affidavit, Patterson had previously taken flying lessons and claimed to have watched YouTube videos to figure out how to fly.
He allegedly called 911 on his cellphone and “threatened to crash the airplane” into the Tupelo Walmart, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.
When the 911 operator asked if it was intentional that he was about to crash the plane, Patterson reportedly responded, “Oh yeah,” the affidavit stated.
“When asked what his motive was, Patterson stated, ‘l just don’t want to live anymore and want to cause chaos while I’m at it,'” the affidavit continued.
Patterson reportedly told the 911 operator “he did not want to hurt anyone else,” according to the affidavit.
Police said that negotiators spoke to Patterson and were able to convince him to land the aircraft at Tupelo Regional Airport.
Patterson received “instruction” over the phone on how to land the plane from a professional pilot, the affidavit stated. Patterson was able to lower the landing gear and made an approach to the airport but aborted the landing, it stated.
He eventually crash-landed the plane — a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin-engine aircraft — in a soybean field in Ripley, Mississippi, authorities said.
No one was harmed and only the pilot was on board the aircraft, police said.
An instructor pilot who saw the plane after it landed assessed that the aircraft was a “total loss” and would likely be sold for parts, according to the affidavit.
Patterson appeared in Oxford federal court on Wednesday and was remanded to U.S. Marshal custody pending a preliminary and detention hearing or psychiatric evaluation, court records show.
His attorney has filed a motion for a psychological exam, court records show.
(LOS ANGELES) — Family, friends, fans and hip-hop stars are mourning the tragic death of rapper PnB Rock, who was shot and killed on Monday afternoon during a robbery in South Los Angeles. He was 30.
His brother, rapper PnB Meen, expressed heartbreak and grief in an Instagram tribute, along with a photo of the brothers as kids.
“I can’t stop crying bro,” PnB Meen wrote. “… I can’t even write , I’m shaking my stomach tight, I can’t see I can’t eat I’m die’n slow bro.”
“Rock I love you big brother with my whole entire Heart an soul … Im sorry it wasn’t me . Why they take The one that provides for the whole family,” he added and pledged to take care of his late brother’s two young daughters.
The rapper, whose legal name is Rakim Allen, was fatally shot during a robbery at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles while dining with his girlfriend. According to police, a suspect demanded jewelry and other valuables before getting into a struggle with Allen and opening fire.
The Philadelphia-born rapper was a force on the East Coast and collaborated with some of the biggest artists in the hip-hop industry as an artist and a producer.
Hip-hop stars from Drake and Young Thug, to Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj posted tributes to Allen on social media, with some reflecting on the violence that has continued to plague the hip-hop community.
“Rip dawg you didn’t deserve that…. Every time I see one of my friends bleed out on camera or killed on camera, I feel a sick feeling I can’t even really explain… it puts me more and more back in survival mentality!” Meek Mill tweeted.
According to a May 2022 report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Gun violence is a growing public health issue in the U.S. and disproportionately impacts Black people.
According to the report, Black people are at least four times more likely to be shot and killed than the overall U.S. population.
“My heart is hurting for the MOTHERS OF THESE KIDS that tried to make something better of their lives!!!” Nicki Minaj tweeted after PnB Rock’s death.
Chicago rapper Smokepurpp, who collaborated with Allen, shared a heartfelt tribute to PnB Rock on Instagram, calling him a “pure heart and soul,” and reflected on the dangers of being in the hip-hop industry.
“I know y’all have heard it many times but being a rapper really is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have,” he wrote.
Most recently, 21-year-old New York rapper Lil TJay survived a June 22 shooting during an attempted robbery in Edgewater, New Jersey.
Memphis rapper Young Dolph was shot and killed in his hometown on Nov. 17, 2021, while visiting Makeda’s Homemade Butter Cookies, a bakery in South Memphis. He was 36.
“Why does it seem like rappers and black men in general are under attack and caught off guard by predators?” she wrote on Instagram.
In 2019, Jaye launched the “Black Men Deserve to Grow Old” campaign after the shooting death of her brother to support families who have lost husbands and fathers to violent crime.
“All this s— is disturbing, out of control and heartbreaking,” Jaye wrote after PnB rock’s killing. “How will the narrative change?”
Days after Dolph was killed, Compton rapper Slim 400 was fatally shot in Inglewood, California, on Dec. 9, hours after he shared a tribute to Dolph on Instagram. He was 33.
And on Dec. 18, 28-year-old Los Angeles rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed backstage during the Once Upon a Time in LA festival.
On Nov. 11, 2020, rapper Mo3 was killed in Dallas only a few days after King Von, another rising star in the industry, was shot and killed in Atlanta.
Earlier that year, Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was fatally shot on Feb. 19 during an attempted robbery at his rental home in Hollywood Hills, California, after reportedly sharing his location on social media. He was 20 and was killed months before his debut album, “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon,” would be released. It was certified double platinum.
Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed on March 31, 2019, at the age of 33 at his Marathon Clothing store in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles.
And in June 2018, rapper XXXTentacion was shot and killed during an armed robbery in Deerfield, Florida. He was 20.
“After Pop Smoke there’s no way we as rappers or our loved ones are still posting locations to our whereabouts,” Nicki Minaj tweeted. “[PnB Rock] was such a pleasure to work with. Condolences to his mom & family. This makes me feel so sick.”
According to social media posts, Allen’s location at Roscoe’s was reportedly tagged on social media in a since-deleted message. Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that the LAPD is investigating whether the geotagged post led to the attack.
LAPD detectives are aware of a social media post where his location was tagged, sources told ABC News and police said they are examining surveillance video to identify potential suspects.
Allen reflected on previous robbery attempts that he experienced in Los Angeles during a Sept. 2 interview on the podcast “Off the Record with DJ Akademiks,” saying he was targeted while he was out with his girlfriend and their daughter.
“Somebody shot me on Fairfax, like, mid-pandemic,” he said, while DJ Akademiks noted that robberies in Los Angeles are “bold” and can happen “broad daylight.”
“It’s just a new generation. Everybody is on some demon s–,” Allen said.
The rapper was an independent artist who gained popularity on the SoundCloud platform and released a number of hits that charted on the Billboard Hot 100. He was featured in XXL Magazine’s Freshman Class of rappers to watch in 2017.
He is known for songs like “Selfish” and “Cross Me,” featuring Chance the Rapper, which have hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify. He released his latest single, “Luv Me Again,” on Sept. 2.
Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, is criticizing his bandmates for allegedly trying to make money off the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Lydon, whose lyrics for the classic 1977 Sex Pistols song “God Save the Queen” sneeringly mocked the monarch, has posted a message on his social media pages declaring he “wishes to distance himself from any Sex Pistols activity which aims to cash in on Queen Elizabeth II’s death.”
The note continues, “The musicians in the band and their management have approved a number of requests against John’s wishes … In John’s view, the timing for endorsing any Sex Pistols requests for commercial gain in connection with ‘God Save The Queen’ in particular is tasteless and disrespectful to the Queen and her family at this moment in time.”
The message concludes, “John wrote the lyrics to this historical song, and while he has never supported the monarchy, he feels that the family deserves some respect in this difficult time, as would be expected for any other person or family when someone close to them has died.”
Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook responded to Lydon’s comments by issuing a statement, which was shared with Blabbermouth.net: “We cannot understand what he would be referring to. Other than a couple requests for use of imagery or audio in news reports on The Queen and her impact on culture, there’s nothing new relating to ‘God Save The Queen’ being promoted or released in any way.”
The song features the infamous line, “God save the Queen/ she ain’t no human being,” but Lydon has recently praised Queen Elizabeth in the press.
Following her death last week, Lydon posted a tribute on Facebook that reads, “Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II. Send her victorious.”
