A new offer from the Travel + Leisure Club will soon let Star Wars fans step foot on two of the planets made famous by the movie series. Well, sort of.
To help fans celebrate Star Wars Day on May 4th, the club has cooked up two itineraries that will let fans visit Tozeur, Tunisia and Abu Dhabi, the two real-world locations that stood in for, respectively, Luke Skywalker’s desert planet Tatooine in Star Wars: A New Hope, and Jakuu, the planet on which Rey scavenged in The Force Awakens.
The Tunisia trip for two will set you back $1,120, excluding flights, and you can get to visit the still-preserved desert domiciles as seen in A New Hope and The Phantom Menace.
Seven days in Abu Dhabi will be just under $1,800 for two people. However, in both cases, “Prices will vary depending on occupancy, length of stay, itinerary options selected and date availability.”
Abu Dhabi’s trip will not only offer sightseeing opportunities from the film, but also the chance to ride a camel, go sandboarding, or jumping dunes in a 4×4. Or, you can always beat the heat at the United Arab Emirates capital’s man-made oasis, and its luxe St. Regis Saadiyat Island.
Members of the club can also opt for its concierges to set up an al fresco feast, or musicians “who will play music reminiscent of their favorite movie scores” during their stays.
Sure beats watching Star Wars on your couch for the umpteenth time.
The “Mask Off” rapper gave just a little taste of what to possibly expect on his ninth studio album, when he revealed the “brutally honest,” as Billboardcalls it, title for the project.
I NEVER LIKED YOU is the name of Future’s upcoming album, which is set to drop this Friday, April 29.
When the “best rapper alive,” as he was called in Future’s recent GQ cover story, unveiled the title on Monday, fans weren’t that surprised by its direct message. The rapper is well-known for speaking his mind publicly, even when it comes to personal issues.
For example, the lyrics “Magic City, I’m the owner // Tell Steve Harvey I don’t want her,” his verse on 42 Dugg‘s “Maybach,” were subliminally aimed at his ex-girlfriend, Lori Harvey, after it was announced that she and Michael B. Jordan were dating. Future also shaded ex-fiancé Ciara and her husband, Russell Wilson, for their relationship dynamic.
I NEVER LIKED YOU is highly anticipated by the hip hop world. Future told GQ it’ll feature Drake, Kanye and Gunna.“[I’m] sharing my pain with the world. Sharing my ups, sharing my downs with the entire universe,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — West Virginia had the highest opioid overdose death rate per capita in the country last year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
OxyContin, a prescription drug that helped fuel the crisis, was heavily marketed in towns across the state and its use spread among residents of all ages, experts said.
“Nobody was prepared. Nobody knew that they were going to get a drug that was supposed to help alleviate pain,” Maegan Malcomb, a woman recovering from addiction in West Virginia, told ABC News.
While first responders and doctors in the state scramble to save people from these decades of danger, they also are fighting a new phase of the crisis as fentanyl overdoses have jumped in the area.
Doctors and medical experts said there is a straight timeline from the rise in opioid prescriptions to fentanyl overdoses in places like West Virginia.
When OxyContin was first introduced into the market, Purdue Pharmaceuticals misled medical professionals contending the company’s pain killer drug was far less addictive than other opioids. In 2007, the company paid $600 million in criminal penalties after admitting to misbranding OxyContin.
Two years ago, Purdue admitted that it marketed dangerous opioids to health care providers despite having reason to believe those providers were diverting drugs and that often led to abuse, according to the Department of Justice.
Lou Ortenzio, a former West Virginia doctor, told ABC News he has been feeling guilt for the years that he prescribed OxyContin.
“I never envisioned prescribing somebody with pain would have this catastrophic tidal wave effect,” he said.
Ortenzio himself became addicted to prescription pain pills, taking as many as 30 pills a day before he got help. Today, he helps run a recovery clinic in West Virginia for other people living with addiction or in recovery.
Malcomb told ABC News that she got addicted to opioids by the time she was 16. The mother of three said by the time she was 18, she didn’t know one person who wasn’t addicted to opioids.
“All I’ve ever known is addiction. And most of the people that I love, the people that I grew up with, that’s all they’ve known, too,” she said.
Even though OxyContin and other related pills are harder to prescribe, there is a population of West Virginians who are still suffering from addiction and have found an alternative to those prescription pain pills – primarily heroin, health experts said.
But by substituting a new drug, those suffering from addiction are putting themselves at a bigger risk, the experts warned.
Fentanyl has been found in as much as 70% of the nation’s heroin supply, according to the CDC. In many cases, those who use heroin have no idea that fentanyl has been added until it’s too late.
First responders in the town of Clarksburg, West Virginia, told ABC News that they respond to calls related to fentanyl-related overdoses daily. In one day they responded to three overdose calls.
“It’s poison, it’s pure poison. You don’t know what it is, ” Michael Veltri, a Clarksburg EMS, told ABC News.
Last year, fentanyl was the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, according to the CDC. And some fear it’s only going to get worse.
Dr. Stephen Loyd, also developed an opioid addiction, but is currently in recovery. He runs a recovery center in Nashville, and told ABC News that his facility loses several patients a week due to fentanyl.
“There are not weeks that go by that we don’t,” he told ABC News.
Loyd said there is a direct link between the rise of OxyContin prescriptions in the 1990s and 2000s and the current fentanyl crisis in the country.
“These folks that are coming in with fentanyl, 98% of them got started with pain pills,” he said.
Loyd and other experts said that the country will have to work harder to help those living with addiction , particularly in places like West Virginia that were the hardest hit during the crisis.
Malcomb told ABC News that the only way to deal with a drug problem is to deal with people directly and persevere.
“I have no choice if I don’t want to die,” she responded when asked if she’d continue her recovery. “[I’m] surprised I’m not dead now.”
The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images/ Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
PSY is making his musical comeback after introducing Western radio to K-pop a decade ago with “Gangnam Style,” and he’s tapped BTS‘ Suga to produce lead single from his upcoming album.
The “GENTLEMAN” rapper recently unveiled his upcoming studio work, PSY 9th, which will be his first album in about five years. PSY has been teasing a crop of new music over the past few days to excite fans about the upcoming effort and, on Monday, unveiled the track “That That” on Twitter.
PSY also shared the promotional artwork for the new song, which is second on the track list, and confirmed it is also the “title track.”
The 44-year-old rapper then shared a video explaining how this collaborative work with Suga came to be, in which he speaks about his excitement to work with younger artists and attests he doesn’t “want to be someone who’s hard to approach.”
Suga, who is 29, also appeared in the promotional video and said he was “quite nervous” to collaborate with PSY, explaining, “He’s many years my senior and someone who’s so well-respected in the business.” He quickly learned that his fears were misplaced and described, “It felt like working with a childhood friend, so it made the songwriting process that much more fun… We became besties in a way!”
PSY joked being upgraded to “bestie” status is “great for me” because, as he remarked, “How much younger does that make me?”
The two then teased just a few seconds of their new song, but fans won’t have to wait too long to hear it. “That That” drops Friday at 6 p.m. Korean time.
Chris Stapleton is feeling the impact of giving back to his home state.
Over the weekend, the singer headlined A Concert for Kentucky, a show he put together two years ago but that had been repeatedly postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While performing for more than 55,000 people at Kroger Field at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Chris used the opportunity for good, raising more than $1 million for he and wife Morgane Stapleton‘s Outlaw State of Kind Hometown Fund to donate back to local causes close to their hearts.
Among the charities receiving grants are Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, UK Healthcare Kentucky Children’s Hospital, the Community Foundation of Western Kentucky’s Disaster Relief Fund, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“Every night we walk on a stage, we do our best to help people forget their troubles or celebrate or remember or hope or heal. As a musician I can’t think of a greater honor than reaching a point where we can play a show for 40,000 people and give all of the profits back to a community that has been so unfailingly loyal and supportive,” Chris shared in a reflective Instagram post. “It is a tremendously pure and rewarding moment to get to provide the medicine that is music in that space.”
This marked the first show ever at Kroger Field, with Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow and Madeline Edwards also on the bill.
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — A 3-month-old baby boy has been found safe Tuesday after he was taken from his Northern California home in what police believe was a premeditated kidnapping.
One suspect is in custody, police said.
Brandon Cuellar’s kidnapping was reported around 1 p.m. Monday by his grandmother, who was watching the baby while the mother was at work, San Jose Police Sgt. Christian Camarillo said at a news conference.
The grandmother said she came home, took Brandon inside the apartment and went back to the car to unload groceries, Camarillo said.
In that “short amount of time,” a man went into the apartment and took the little boy, he said. Police released footage of the man they say was seen on surveillance video leaving with the 3-month-old.
Camarillo said the suspect brought a baby carrier with him to the home.
“We believe this was planned. It’s not some random act,” he said.
Camarillo said Tuesday that police are speaking with a female person of interest, but added that she’s not been “formally charged yet.”
“This is a person that was with the grandmother yesterday when they went shopping. She was present at the apartment complex when this happened,” Camarillo said.
“That person has changed their story a couple of times — a lot of inconsistencies,” Camarillo said.
ABC News’ Bonnie McLean contributed to this report.
Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — After years of failed attempts to reform Rikers Island, a federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday will consider whether to put New York City’s sprawling and troubled jail complex under control of the court.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain in 2014 appointed a federal monitor but Rikers, part of the New York City Department of Correction, remains plagued by staffing problems, physical deterioration and violence.
Fifteen inmates died in custody last year and three have died so far in 2022.
There were more than five dozen stabbings in March alone.
Damien Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, expressed alarm at the level of violence. He raised the possibility of federal receivership to force change.
“The jails are in a state of crisis, inmates and staff are being seriously injured, and action is desperately needed now,” Williams said in a letter to the court. “Based on our experience over the last six years and the sustained non-compliance with key Consent Judgment provisions and the three subsequent Remedial Orders entered by this Court, our Office is very concerned about whether the Department and City have the ability, expertise, and will to swiftly make the changes necessary to bring true reform to this deeply troubled agency.”
The administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in its own letter to the court, insisted it is making progress and asked for more time.
“The extraordinary measure of ordering a receivership is not merited and DOJ’s reference to it, less than four months into Commissioner Molina’s term, is unfair,” said Kimberly Joyce of the New York City Law Department. “The commissioner has taken more far-reaching action than has previously been demonstrated.”
Swain has ordered Correction Commissioner Louis Molina to attend the afternoon hearing, marking the first time all the stakeholders will convene since the possibility of a federal takeover was raised.
ABC News has previously documented the horror at Rikers. Exclusive material from Diane Sawyer’s project aired as a full episode of Nightline.
A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel has revealed the details of his upcoming debut solo album.
The record is titled What Normal Was, and arrives June 10. It includes the previously released single “Poison Flowers,” which now has an official video.
“This is me stepping back into my early teen self and making the record I would’ve made if I had the means and the knowledge when I first picked up a guitar — just in 2022,” Howerdel says. “It’s that moment as a kid when you hear a record, close your eyes, and go somewhere else. That was the time I found my lane, so to speak.”
Along with the album news, Howerdel has announced a full-length solo U.S. tour, running from June 11 in Ventura, California, to July 20 in Phoenix. Tickets go on sale this Friday, April 29, at 10 a.m. local time.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit BillyHowerdel.com.
As previously reported, Howerdel will also be opening for two dates on Puscifer‘s upcoming tour. Puscifer, of course, is fronted by Howerdel’s APC band mate, Maynard James Keenan.
Here’s the What Normal Was track list:
“Selfish Heart”
“Free and Weightless”
“Ani”
“Beautiful Mistake”
“The Same Again”
“Poison Flowers”
“Follower”
“Bring Honor Back Home”
“EXP”
“Stars”
Fans of the The Wire, buckle up. The new series We Own This City, which premiered Monday night on HBO, is almost a sequel. It comes from The Wire creator David Simon, and it’s set back in Baltimore, this time focusing on the true story of the Baltimore Police Department’s elite Gun Trace Task Force, and the corruption scandal that grew out of it.
The story wasn’t a complete surprise to Simon, who tells ABC Audio, “The idea that it would get to this dystopian point where you literally have a heralded police unit that was…robbing regular people of money and robbing drug dealers of drugs and then selling the drugs back on the street…was a generation removed from where we were in The Wire, but it was in some respects where we were headed.”
We Own This City comes at a time where stories about police are being looked at a lot closer, but Simon says this series is about truth, not slogans.
“This is a bad, systemic dynamic. [It’s] a mission that can’t possibly succeed. It can only destroy anything it touches. That’s not covered by all cops are bastards,” he explains. “Nor do you get at it in any way if you decide that police have to be defended…that failure to do so makes you soft on crime.”
Jon Bernthal plays the unit’s ringleader Wayne Jenkins, who is currently in prison. He was able to do ride-alongs with the Baltimore PD and talk to a lot of officers while preparing for the role because of what he calls “the respect and reverence [The Wire] creators have for telling the truth…not to make it just one side or the other, but to tell the truth…That what they’re after.”
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for COVID-19 via rapid and PCR tests on Tuesday, according to her office.
Harris, who received her second booster shot on April 1, doesn’t have any symptoms.
Harris will isolate and work from home, Harris’ press secretary, Kristen Allen, said in a statement.
“She has not been a close contact to the President or First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules,” the statement said. “She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative.”
Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive for COVID-19 last month.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., also tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
He said he felt “mild symptoms overnight.”
“I’m sure if I wasn’t fully vaccinated I would be feeling a lot worse. So remember to get your booster!” he tweeted.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
