In Brief: ‘Blindspotting’ vet heads to ‘Loki”s second season, and more

In Brief: ‘Blindspotting’ vet heads to ‘Loki”s second season, and more
In Brief: ‘Blindspotting’ vet heads to ‘Loki”s second season, and more

Blindspotting‘s Rafael Casal has landed a major role in Loki‘s upcoming second season, according to Deadline. The outlet cites a photo of Casal walking alongside stars Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, who play the titular character and Mobius, respectively. Loki, the most-watched Marvel series on Disney+ to date, became the first Marvel series for Disney+ to get a second season renewal, with season-one regulars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E. Grant also set to return. Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News…

Daniel Kaluuya recently offered an update on his upcoming Barney movie. The Get Out actor, who will produce and star in the film based on the beloved kids TV character Barney the Dinosaur, tells The Hollywood Reporter it’s still in early development and the script is being reworked. So why a film about a big purple dinosaur? “My last number of films have been so aligned to kind of what I stand for as a man,” he explains. “But there are a whole lot of things that I do as a man. I love kids’ films. How did everyone get into films? Watching kids’ films. I don’t want to restrict myself to the limitations of what I’m perceived as.” Kaluuya will next be seen in Jordan Peele‘s upcoming thriller, Nope, opening on Friday…

Venom: Let There Be Carnage star Woody Harrelson is in talks to join the cast of Lionsgate’s 70s-themed musical Sailing, from Rock of Ages creator Chris D’Arienzo, according to Deadline. The movie, per the outlet, “follows a bunch of musicians in the late 1970s as they discover the smooth sounds and smoother lifestyle that is yacht rock, the soft rock music genre that took over FM radio during that era”…

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UK braces for record-high temperatures during summer heat wave

UK braces for record-high temperatures during summer heat wave
UK braces for record-high temperatures during summer heat wave
AFP via Getty Images

(LONDON) — The U.K. is preparing for record-breaking temperatures this week, with unprecedented health warnings being issued as a national emergency has been declared.

Temperatures are expected to rise to 98 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, but the highest and potentially record-breaking temperatures will be seen on Tuesday. For the first time, the Met Office has issued a “Red warning” in response to the extraordinary heat.

The heat wave in Britain, which has been linked to climate change, follows a weekend of wildfires and soaring deadly temperatures in France, Portugal and Spain.

Thousands have been forced to flee wildfires in southern France and Spain, and more than 1,000 deaths have been linked to the heat wave in Portugal and Spain since earlier in July by the countries’ respective health ministries. France could experience its hottest day on record on Monday, according to local media.

The previous hottest day on record in the U.K. stands at 38.7 C (101.6 F.) But that is expected to be surpassed on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 40°C (104 F) in parts of the U.K.

“Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas,” the Met Office’s Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said in a statement. “This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure. Therefore, it is important people plan for the heat and consider changing their routines. This level of heat can have adverse health effects.”

Government scientists have warned that the frequency, intensity and duration of similar heat waves will increase in the coming century as the world continues to experience the effects of climate change.

 “We hoped we wouldn’t get to this situation but for the first time ever we are forecasting greater than 40°C in the U.K.,” Dr. Nikos Christidis, a climate attribution scientist at the Met Office, said. “Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the U.K. The chances of seeing 40°C days in the UK could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.”

Despite the heat, schools are expected to remain open. However, there are concerns that U.K. infrastructure is ill-equipped to deal with such weather events. While offices are generally equipped with air-conditioning, only a small number of homes have air-conditioning units.

One Met Office meteorologist, Steven Keates, warned that the heat was not something to celebrate.

“This is not just another heatwave,” Keates told The Telegraph. “This is dangerous heat, because we’re not used to it. It’s simple –our infrastructure is not geared up for weather like this.”

“Do as little as possible,” he added. “Because heat is fatiguing and we are in slightly uncharted territory.”
 

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At least 3 dead after shooting at Indianapolis-area mall

At least 3 dead after shooting at Indianapolis-area mall
At least 3 dead after shooting at Indianapolis-area mall
Getty Images

(INDIANAPOLIS) — At least three people were killed and two others were injured in a shooting at an Indianapolis-area shopping mall on Sunday evening, police said.

Multiple people called 911 at around 6:05 p.m. local time to report an active shooter at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana, some 14 miles south of Indianapolis. An unidentified gunman had walked into the mall’s food court and opened fire, according to Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison.

Olivia Harding said she was at the Old Navy in the mall with her mom when they heard four gunshots and initially thought the nearby carousel was breaking down. But then they heard six more shots.

“I told my mom instantly to get down,” Harding recalled in an interview with ABC News on Sunday night.

A person who was lawfully armed — identified as a 22-year-old man from Bartholomew County — shot and killed the gunman, according to Ison.

“The real hero of the day is the citizen that was lawfully carrying a firearm in that food court and was able to stop that shooter almost as soon as he began,” Ison told reporters during a press conference on Sunday night.

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers also confirmed that the suspect was “shot by an armed individual,” whom he called a “good Samaritan.”

“This person saved lives tonight,” Myers said in a statement late Sunday. “On behalf of the City of Greenwood, I am grateful for his quick action and heroism in this situation.”

The victims include four females and one male. Among the injured is a 12-year-old girl whose parents brought her to the hospital with minor injuries after the shooting. The second injured victim was hospitalized and in stable condition as of Sunday evening, according to the police chief.

The suspect, who appears to have used a long-gun rifle with several magazines of ammunition, has not yet been identified, nor has a motive been determined, Ison said.

While the deadly shooting remains under investigation, Ison said there is currently no ongoing threat and SWAT teams have cleared the mall.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said Indiana State Police are assisting local authorities in the incident.

“Lives were lost today, and I’m thinking about all the victims of this horrible incident, now and in the days and weeks to come,” Holcomb said in a statement via Twitter late Sunday.

ABC News’ Ebony Peeples and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.

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Brothers Osborne share the story of how John Osborne responded when TJ came out to him as gay

Brothers Osborne share the story of how John Osborne responded when TJ came out to him as gay
Brothers Osborne share the story of how John Osborne responded when TJ came out to him as gay
ABC

TJ Osborne, one half of the duo Brothers Osborne, made country music history in 2021 when he came out as gay, becoming the first openly gay artist signed to a major country label.

But years beforehand, he came out to his brother and bandmate John. The duo shared that story in a recent interview on SiriusXM, and apparently when TJ officially shared the news, it didn’t come as a huge surprise.

“As his older brother, you just kind of know, but it’s not my place to ask,” John says.

TJ jokingly adds, “When you saw my Internet history you kind of knew.”

The singer goes on to say he came out to his brother around the time they signed their record deal, which was in 2012.

“I was like, ‘Hey, before we sign this and we get kind of tangled up, contractually entangled in something, you need to know that this is a thing I need to tell you about me that I think you might know, but I also want you to know that I do intend on coming out at some point,’” TJ remembers. “I don’t know when that is, but I don’t want to live my life closeted.”

John’s response was to make a joke. “To break awkward tension, I just remember saying, ‘Well, you don’t have to worry, TJ, because the other member in your band is a raging heterosexual, so I’m here to balance you out,’” he recounts.

All jokes aside, John immediately wanted to make his brother feel comfortable and accepted. “It was after that then we just had drinks and I felt so much happiness and joy for him,” John continues, “and it was a beautiful, beautiful night.”

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‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ repeats at #1 with $46 million weekend

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ repeats at #1 with  million weekend
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ repeats at #1 with  million weekend
Mravel Studios

Lighting has struck twice for Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which topped the domestic box office for a second straight week, earning an estimated $46 million. That brings the fourth Thor film’s total to $233 million domestic and $498 million worldwide.

Minions: The Rise of Gru held on to second place, grabbing an estimated $20 million. It’s three-week domestic haul of $262.6 million now matches its predecessor.

Where the Crawdads Sing, the romantic drama starring English actress Daisy Edgar-Jones came in third with a better-than-expected 17-million-dollar haul.

Top Gun: Maverick came in fourth, delivering an estimated $12 million haul in its eighth week of release. That brings its domestic tally to $618 million and a worldwide tally of $1.237 billion.

Rounding out the top five was Elvis, which added an estimated $7.6 million over the weekend. Its $106 million four-week North American take makes it the year’s biggest adult-led non-franchise film.

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, the animated comedy featuring the voices of Michael CeraRicky GervaisMel BrooksGeorge TakeiGabriel IglesiasMichelle Yeoh and Samuel L. Jackson, earned an estimated $6.2 million-dollar for a disappointing sixth place debut.

The Lesley ManvilleIsabelle Huppert and Jason Isaacs-led historical dramedy Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, which opened in 980 theaters, finished in ninth place with an estimated $1.9 million.

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Jason Aldean explains why Macon, Georgia is such a personal album title: “It all started there”

Jason Aldean explains why Macon, Georgia is such a personal album title: “It all started there”
Jason Aldean explains why Macon, Georgia is such a personal album title: “It all started there”
ABC

Jason Aldean kicks off his Rock N’ Roll Cowboy Tour tonight in Scranton, Pennsylvania, beginning an extensive string of dates that will give him a chance to introduce fans to the live version of his latest double album, Macon, Georgia.

That project — his 10th — is named after the singer’s hometown Macon, which Jason says had a massive impact on his eventual career as a country star.

“It all started there,” he recounts. “…That’s where I learned to play guitar and where I learned to sing and where I played bars for the first time.”

At the time, Jason wasn’t even old enough to drink, but he fell in with a group of older musicians who taught him everything he knows about jam sessions and playing late nights in bars on small stages.

“When I was a 15, 16 year old kid, guys — you know, other musicians in that town — kinda took me under their wing and would take me to these after-hours bars and have jam sessions,” he recounts. “When I had to be at school the next day. So I was getting home at three in the morning.”

Jason may have lost a little sleep, but he learned important lessons about his chosen career path during those long nights out.

“It was just kind of where I learned to be a musician. It’s just where it all started for me,” he says, explaining that it felt only fitting to mark that early memory in the title of his landmark 10th album. “It was me kind of paying tribute to where it all started from.”

Jason just released his latest country radio single, “That’s What Tequila Does.” The song comes off the Macon half of his double album.

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Chicago’s Lee Loughnane discusses band’s current chart hit, challenge of making group’s new album

Chicago’s Lee Loughnane discusses band’s current chart hit, challenge of making group’s new album
Chicago’s Lee Loughnane discusses band’s current chart hit, challenge of making group’s new album
BMG

Chicago‘s 38th studio album, Born for This Moment, was released on Friday.

The 14-track collection features the lead single “If This Is Goodbye,” which recently broke into the top 20 of Billboard‘s Adult Contemporary chart.

“‘If This Is Goodbye’ was one of the first songs I heard as a possibility to be on the album, and immediately I knew that this definitely should be a contender,” founding Chicago trumpet player Lee Loughnane tells ABC Audio. “And I think 15, 20, maybe even 30 songs came in, [but when I heard that one, I thought,] ‘Yeah, this has got…some legs on it.’ And turns out it does.”

The song is a showcase for Chicago singer Neil Donell, who joined the group in 2018.

“He is the latest tenor voice in the band. And he sings as well or better than [former member Peter] Cetera ever did…and Cetera was at the top of his game when he ended up leaving us,” Loughnane maintains. “So…it’s really good to have him in, and he’s enjoying it, we’re enjoying having him…The band is smokin’ right now.”

Lougnane says recording Born for This Moment was challenging, since most of the project was done remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We couldn’t even get into the same rooms together to speak with each other,” notes Lee. “[W]e missed being able to have that camaraderie, but I think it came out pretty good, despite not seeing each other all that much.”

Loughnane reveals that the entire band did record one song on the album together, a tune he co-wrote called “If This Isn’t Love.”

“We were on tour and I had us set up before the show,” Lee explains, “and we ran the song down…three or four times.”

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Jury selection set to begin in contempt trial of Trump ally Steve Bannon

Jury selection set to begin in contempt trial of Trump ally Steve Bannon
Jury selection set to begin in contempt trial of Trump ally Steve Bannon
AFP via Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of former President Donald Trump’s ally Steve Bannon over his defiance of a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Bannon, who previously served as Trump’s White House chief strategist but departed in August of 2017, was first subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee for records and testimony in September of last year. The committee told Bannon at the time it had “reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding activities that led to and informed the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

Last week, the committee revealed that it had obtained records showing Bannon twice spoke with Trump over the phone on the day before Capitol attack, with one call taking place before Bannon made comments on his podcast predicting “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

At the time of the Capitol riot, Bannon was already facing federal charges related to an alleged conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering over his involvement in a crowdfunding effort to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, to which he had pleaded not guilty. Trump pardoned Bannon on his final night in office, but declined to pardon two other men Bannon was initially charged with, both of whom recently pleaded guilty. A judge declared a mistrial in the case of another defendant after one juror refused to join in deliberations. The Justice Department has said it will seek to retry that case.

The Justice Department indicted Bannon last November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, roughly 20 days after the full House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt over his defiance of the Jan. 6 subpoena.

Bannon’s attorneys have repeatedly claimed that Trump had invoked executive privilege over Bannon’s testimony, which prevented him from cooperating — despite Trump’s status as a former president and the fact that Bannon was not a White House adviser at the time of their alleged communications about Jan. 6.

But the Justice Department revealed last week that in a recent interview with federal investigators, former President Trump’s current lawyer, Justin Clark, said that at no point did Trump actually invoke executive privilege over Bannon’s testimony.

Clark also told investigators that he had made clear to Bannon’s attorney Robert Costello, prior to Bannon’s indictment, that Trump was not instructing Bannon to refuse cooperation with the committee altogether.

As his trial date was nearing, Bannon signaled to the committee last week that he was prepared to testify before the committee in a “public hearing,” and provided a letter from Trump in which Trump claimed to have previously invoked executive privilege and said he would now waive it. However, members of the committee have said they won’t consider Bannon’s offer to testify until he first complies with their subpoena’s demand for documents.

Prosecutors questioned the timing of Bannon’s last-minute offer and suggested in a filing that his efforts in conjunction with Trump to offer to finally testify before the committee were no more than a stunt to try and make him more a sympathetic figure to the jury.

“[Bannon’s] continued failure to comply with the subpoena’s document demand while claiming he now will testify suggests his actions are little more than an attempt to change the optics of his contempt on the eve of trial, not an actual effort at compliance,” investigators said in the filing. “[Bannon’s] timing suggests that the only thing that has really changed since he refused to comply with the subpoena in October 2021 is that he is finally about to face the consequences of his decision to default.”

Ahead of the trial, Bannon unloaded on the committee during an episode of his “War Room” podcast last week, vowing to go “medieval on these people.”

“Pray for our enemies, OK? Because we’re going medieval on these people. We’re going to savage our enemies,” Bannon said. “So pray for them. Who needs prayers? Not MAGA, not War Room, and certainly not Stephen K Bannon.”

It’s unclear whether Bannon’s actions leading up to Jan. 6 will factor into his trial, as prosecutors focus on proving their relatively narrow case involving his defiance of the committee’s subpoena.

In a pretrial hearing last week, the judge overseeing Bannon’s case, Carl Nichols, entered a series of rulings that will significantly limit the lines of defense Bannon’s attorneys will be able to present to the jury.

Nichols said Bannon won’t be able to claim he defied the subpoena because Trump asserted executive privilege over his testimony, nor can Bannon claim he relied on the advice of his lawyer, or that he was “tricked” into believing he could ignore the subpoena due to internal DOJ opinions from previous administrations about executive branch officials’ immunity from complying with congressional subpoenas.

Nichols also rejected Bannon’s defense that prosecutors would need to show that he knew his conduct was unlawful, saying that prosecutors only need to prove that Bannon acted “deliberately” and “intentionally” to defy the Jan. 6 panel.

Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, questioned the judge’s rulings, asking the judge at one point, “What’s the point in going to trial here if there are no defenses?”

In a separate hearing on Thursday, Nichols left open the possibility that Bannon’s recent offer to testify before the committee could be presented at trial, noting that it could be relevant to a line of defense regarding whether Bannon believed the deadline for his compliance with the subpoena was flexible. But Nichols also publicly questioned the strength of putting forward such a defense.

Bannon’s attorneys are likely to fight vigorously to ensure that nobody seated on the jury has leanings that would make them critical or even aware of Bannon’s political activities.

Bannon’s attorneys have argued that widespread negative media coverage of Bannon, including the mention of him at last week’s Jan. 6 committee hearing, will effectively taint any jury pool — though assistant U.S. attorney Molly Gaston expressed confidence last week that they could seat a full jury that would potentially have no idea who Bannon is.

If convicted, Bannon would face a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison plus fines — though such sentences are rare and Bannon would likely appeal any conviction.

Prior to Bannon, the last time a criminal contempt case was brought by the Justice Department was in 1983 during the Reagan administration, against an EPA official who was eventually found not guilty by a jury at trial.

Last month, the Justice Department indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro on two counts of contempt of Congress, over his similar defiance of a subpoena from the Jan.6. committee. Navarro has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in November.

The same day Navarro was taken into custody, the DOJ informed the Jan. 6 committee it was declining to prosecute former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former top Trump adviser Dan Scavino, both of whom had provided some cooperation with the committee but were held in contempt by the full House over their refusal to testify.

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“We did it!” Jennifer Lopez announces she and Ben Affleck got married in Las Vegas

“We did it!” Jennifer Lopez announces she and Ben Affleck got married in Las Vegas
“We did it!” Jennifer Lopez announces she and Ben Affleck got married in Las Vegas
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

In a post to her Instagram story showing the star in bed, and sporting a brand-new wedding ring, Jennifer Lopez has announced she and Ben Affleck tied the knot in Las Vegas.

Pointing to the full story on her official website, OnTheJLo, Lopez posted a lengthy statement that began with, “We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient.”

The singer and actress said she and the two-time Oscar winner got “Exactly what we wanted,” a wedding ceremony at Sin City’s famous Little White Wedding Chapel.

“Last night we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world,” Lopez recounted. “…all of us wanting the same thing,” she said of her fellow lovebirds, “…for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.”

J. Lo admitted “We barely made it to the little white wedding chapel by midnight. They graciously stayed open late a few minutes, let us take pictures in a pink Cadillac convertible, evidently once used by the king himself (but if we wanted Elvis himself to show, that cost extra and he was in bed).”

Lopez explained she changed in a waiting room, and Affleck changed in the men’s room.

“So with the best witnesses you could ever imagine, a dress from an old movie and a jacket from Ben’s closet, we read our own vows in the little chapel and gave one another the rings we’ll wear for the rest of our lives.”

“[I]n the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined,” Lopez says. “One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.”

“They were right when they said, ‘all you need is love,’ Lopez also added, signing the message, “Mrs. Jennifer Lynn Affleck.”

Of course, Ben and Jen were supposed to be married in 2003, but postponed their nuptials and ultimately went their separate ways. Affleck went on to marry Jennifer Garner in 2005; they divorced in 2018. Lopez married her third husband, singer Marc Anthony, in 2004, but they divorced in 2014.

In April of this year, following J Lo’s breakup with fiancé Alex Rodriguez, she and Affleck rekindled their relationship.

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Families of Uvalde victims react with anger, disappointment over report on school shooting

Families of Uvalde victims react with anger, disappointment over report on school shooting
Families of Uvalde victims react with anger, disappointment over report on school shooting
Oliver Helbig/Getty Images

(UVALDE, Texas) — The loved ones of those killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, are reacting with anger and disappointment Sunday after a committee of state lawmakers investigating the massacre released a 77-page report that said law enforcement officers who responded to the rampage “failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety.”

The public release of the report came as the joint committee of the Texas Legislature met Sunday afternoon with the families of the victims and just days after security video footage from inside Robb Elementary School showing the delayed police response to the attack was leaked and obtained by two Texas news outlets.

The committee’s report laid out in detail the lapses in preparation, training and judgment in connection with the police response to one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

“It’s a joke. Texas failed the students. Law enforcement failed the students. Our government failed the students. What else do you want me to say? The truth is out there. Everybody saw the truth,” Vincent Salazar, whose 11-year-old granddaughter, Layla Salazar, was killed in the attack, told ABC News.

Salazar said he wasn’t going to attend the meeting with the committee at Uvalde Junior College and was only there to pick up a copy of the report to take home and read through it thoroughly.

He said he believes the killer should have never made it into the school, let alone been allowed nearly 77 minutes to kill as numerous state, federal and local law enforcement officers waited in the hallway outside the classrooms where the shooter was holed up.

“If I were these officers, I would leave town,” Salazar said. “They don’t deserve to be here.”

Sergio Garcia, whose 10-year-old son, Uziyah Sergio Garcia, was also killed in the mass shooting, agreed.

“I get paid at my job to do my job. If I didn’t do my job, I wouldn’t be working,” Garcia said told reporters Sunday. “Now, they took an oath, had a badge, they had unlimited resources and they need to pay for what they did not do.”

Garcia said he was “mad at everybody” who appeared to do nothing to save the 19 children and two teachers from being killed.

“In certain schools, they have police, sheriffs in the front. Why don’t they protect our kids like they protect money in a vault at a bank?” Garcia said. “Our kids are more valuable than that money. This is not the first time a school has been shot up and kids have lost their lives. This need to be the last time this happens. It shouldn’t happen anymore. Nobody should ever go through this.”

The report paints the most complete portrait to date of the massacre, which was described a series of “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement.”

But committee members said they do not know whether a faster or more competent response could have saved lives in the face of a heavily armed gunman who appeared bent on killing everybody in his sight with a high-powered assault rifle.

In addition to making its report public, the committee released video that captured the police response inside the schools.

The official release of the video comes after footage from inside the school as the attack was unfolding was leaked and obtained by Austin ABC affiliate KVUE and the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

KVUE released a statement, saying, it and the Austin-Statesman elected to publish that footage “to provide transparency to the community, showing what happened as officials waited to enter that classroom.”

KVUE and the American-Statesman both published an edited portion of the never-before-seen footage on Tuesday, ahead of Sunday’s planned release of the video by state lawmakers. The outlets also published the unedited 77-minute version footage online.

Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who expressed anger over the video being leaked and aired before the families first had a chance to review it.

Following Sunday’s meeting, committee members are expected to hold a news conference and make the video public along with its report on the shooting.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, the committee chairman, said the committee had planned to give the families the opportunity to see the video in private before it was released to the public and expressed disappointment that the two media outlets preempted those plans.

The leak of the video infuriated some of the victim’s family members. Some saw it as the latest source of frustration with the investigation that has included inaccurate information from investigators and elected leaders, including an initial statement from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that the school’s police immediately engaged the gunman before he got into the school. Abbott later said he was “misled” about the circumstances of the shooting.

“They weren’t supposed to do it without our consent,” Javier Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter, Jackie, was killed in the attack, told ABC News after the video was leaked.

Several of the families were meeting with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, when the video was aired on television and online. Despite the family members and some elected leaders, including Abbott, repeatedly calling for the video’s release, the local district attorney denied the requests.

“We’ve been asking the DA for this video for a while and she refused to let us see it,” Nikki Cross, the aunt of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia, who was killed in the rampage, told ABC News. “So once again, the world got to see it before us. Just like the day of the shooting when Gov. Abbott announced to you all that our children are dead and we have no idea. It’s like reliving that day all over again.”

Christina Mitchell Busbee — the 38th Judicial District Attorney, whose jurisdiction includes Uvalde County — defended her now overridden decision not to release the video in an interview over the weekend with the Uvalde Leader-News, saying the move threatens to jeopardize the investigation, which she said is ongoing and could lead to possible criminal charges if anyone is found to have aided the suspect in planning the attack.

“My goal is to secure justice for the victims, their families, and the citizens of the 38th Judicial District,” Busbee told the newspaper. “This goal cannot be accomplished unless there is a thorough investigation buttressed by fairness, integrity and impartiality free from political and media pressures.”

Burrows said the committee’s release of the video and report are intended to provide transparency to the families of those killed despite guidance from the local district attorney that the footage remain under wraps.

The video published by the news outlets and now released by the committee, including police body-camera video and footage from a surveillance camera mounted in a hallway of the school, shows dozens of law enforcement officers waiting in the hallway outside the adjoined classrooms where the gunman was committing the mass shooting. The officers — including some with protective shields, wearing tactical armor and armed with high-powered rifles — didn’t breach the classroom for more than 70 minutes, even as additional volleys of gunfire could be heard on the video from the classrooms 45 minutes after police arrived on the scene, the footage released by the news organizations shows.

The video began by showing the 18-year-old suspect, wearing tactical gear and wielding a high-powered AR-15 style weapon, entering the school unabated at 11:33 a.m. on May 24 and walking down the hallway to the classrooms. A barrage of gunfire could be heard on the footage soon after the gunman entered the school.

Three minutes after the killer entered the school, three police officers, wearing bullet-proof vests and guns drawn, are seen running down the hallway toward the classrooms where the gunman was holed up, while at least four other officers entered the school and took cover, the video shows. Moments later, the three officers who charged down the hallway are seen in the video retreating after coming under fire.

Police eventually breached the classroom and killed the gunman 77 minutes after he entered the school, authorities said.

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