The rapper has been honored with an RIAA plaque commemorating 95 million units certified throughout the course of his career. This makes him one of the top-achieving gold and platinum-certified rappers of all time.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate that Future now has 95 million RIAA certified units spanning 9 albums and 68 separate singles!” COO of RIAA Michele Ballantyne says in a statement.
She adds, “He’s in an elite group – very few artists have achieved this level of success in the history of our nearly 65 year old program. Congratulations to Future and his incredible Epic Records and Freebandz teams!”
Future was also presented with a plaque for his latest album, I Never Liked You, reaching gold status.
“I’m not as strong as I used to be,” Sylvester Stallone tells a young fan in the trailer to his new action movie Samaritan.
The project has the 76-year-old Rocky series star playing a retired superhero looking to put his past behind him, even though he’s still cleaning up the streets … as a garbage man.
However, a chance meeting with a kid — and a whupping of his bullies — leads the young man to realize that the lowly garbageman is actually The Samaritan, the world’s greatest hero who was thought to have been killed in action 25 years prior.
Stallone’s character tries to deny it, of course, until he gets rammed by a car and suffers no damage.
However, his reluctant return to superheroism comes just as crime has reached an apex in the city. “I stopped caring a long time ago,” he says, but sure enough, he decides to suit back up.
ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — In a sharp reversal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that he will hold a call with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov “in the coming days,” which will mark the first time the two have spoken since the war in Ukraine began and will be a meaningful step toward reopening high-level diplomatic channels between the two countries.
Blinken told reporters during a press briefing that a critical topic of discussion will be securing the freedom of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, both of whom are held in Russia.
The secretary revealed that the U.S. has already put forward a plan to accomplish that and is hopeful for a breakthrough on their cases.
“[They] have been wrongly detained and must be allowed to come home,” Blinken said. “We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution.”
Blinken has not spoken to Lavrov — or indeed, any top Russia officials — since January, when they were locked in a flurry of talks as the U.S. tried to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The men were in the same room during the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia earlier this month but had no direct contact.
Blinken was asked at the time if there was a cost to pay for the Americans wrongfully detained in Russia by freezing out Lavrov.
“The problem is this: We see no signs whatsoever that Russia is prepared to engage in meaningful diplomacy,” he responded, adding that the U.S. would seize the opportunity should it detect a shift from the Kremlin.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve significantly raised its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, the latest in a series of hikes meant to tackle sky-high price increases last seen more than four decades ago.
But rate hikes at the Fed risk widespread financial pain. An increase to the benchmark interest rate raises borrowing costs for consumers and businesses, which in theory should slash inflation by slowing the economy and eating away at demand.
That means borrowers will face higher costs for everything from car loans to credit card debt to mortgages. More alarmingly, the approach risks tipping the economy into a recession.
These significant risks, however, come along with potential financial benefits, experts told ABC News. First, the hike in borrowing costs directly benefits savers, who stand to gain from an uptick in the interest yielded by accounts held at banks, they said.
Plus, the effort to bring down inflation holds financial promise, since lower prices would relieve economic hardship and enhance spending power, especially for low- and middle-income households, they added.
“When interest rates rise and money becomes more scarce, people can receive payments for the money they keep on hand at a bank,” James Cox, a financial advisor and managing partner of Virginia-based Harris Financial Group, told ABC News.
“Many Americans will like to have interest on their savings for the first time in many years,” he added.
The series of rate hikes so far this year has spurred an increase in interest rates for savings accounts at banks, Greg McBride, the chief financial analyst at the research firm Bankrate, told ABC News. The top-yielding savings accounts at the beginning of the year maxed out at 0.55% — now they stand above 2%, he said.
“They’re still climbing,” he added. “Another big rate hike from the Fed this week — that only sustains the upward momentum.”
Online banks and small banks, especially, have raised interest rates on savings accounts as they try to win over customers, McBride said. He contrasted those banks with the larger brick-and-mortar players, which feel less pressure to raise interest rates in this environment because of their strong market position.
“Online banks are among the most competitive out there,” he said. “That’s where we see banks leapfrogging each other as they continually raise their payouts.”
To be sure, the interest rates on savings accounts that hover around 2% still fall far short of the inflation rate, which as of June stood at 9.1%. That means that the increasingly strong returns on savings accounts continue to be heavily devalued by skyrocketing price increases, the experts said.
In theory, however, as interest rates rise, inflation should come down and savings accounts should yield better returns, improving their prospects as a financial option, they added.
“Much of the benefit is illusory at a time when inflation is running north of 9%,” McBride said. “But savings accounts are on the rise.”
U.S. adults on average hold $62,000 in personal savings, according to a study released by Northwestern Mutual in May. The savings grant many individuals a sizable cushion and potential for taking advantage of rising interest rates on savings accounts.
But high prices have already taken a toll on savings. The average savings have fallen 15% since last year, when they stood at $73,000, Northwestern Mutual found.
In addition to prompting higher yields on savings accounts, Fed rate hikes should eventually deliver lower prices, which will improve the financial outlook of Americans straining under the weight of high costs, the experts said.
In the meantime, rate hikes could cause substantial financial harm, they added. As the central bank slows down the economy and chokes demand, it could bring layoffs that put millions of people out of work and force households to draw down whatever savings they had set aside.
While rate hikes at the Fed address the upward pressure that consumer and business demand places on prices, the hikes do not affect the supply shortages behind some of the cost increases, which owe to COVID disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine war. This dynamic could limit the effect of rate hikes and prolong the downturn.
Highlighting the limitations of rate hikes, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Sunday called them “largely ineffective against many of the underlying causes of this inflationary spike.”
But the risk of entrenched inflation outweighs the costs of short-term financial pain, said Cox, the managing partner of Harris Financial Group.
“It’s either raise rate hikes very fast to bring down the rate of inflation, or inflation becomes anchored in the economy and all of your personal savings get eaten away by it,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it’s not without pain,” he added. “But it’s far less painful to take your medicine upfront than to let the disease take hold.”
Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik are sticking around as Jeopardy! hosts.
The pair will continue to share hosting duties on the flagship version of the iconic quiz show “moving forward,” executive producer Michael Davies said in a note posted to the Jeopardy! website Wednesday afternoon.
“In Mayim and Ken, we have two outstanding hosts at the beginning of their Jeopardy! hosting careers who connect with their own unique fanbases, new fans, and the traditional ‘Jeopardy!‘ viewer,” he noted.
According to Davies, Jennings will kick off season 39 and will host the first “Second Chance” competition and the next “Tournament of Champions” — featuring Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, Ryan Long and more — which takes the show through December.
In the meantime, Bialik will host Celebrity Jeopardy! on ABC and take over hosting duties for the flagship show in January. She will also host “a couple new tournaments,” as well as the Jeopardy! National College Championship while fitting in filming for her show, Call Me Kat.
“Mayim and Ken are both extraordinarily talented and simply lovely humans,” Davies added. “They support the staff and each other. They love and respect this institution of a television program. In return, the staff and I are honored to work alongside them.”
He ended the note by congratulating the two, saying they “have both been a joy to work with” thus far.
Jennings, who holds the record for consecutive games won (74), as well as highest winnings in regular-season play ($2,520,700), and Bialik have been alternating behind the podium since August 2021.
That whirlwind month saw former executive producer Mike Richards named as the official replacement for Alex Trebek, following the longtime host’s tragic death, only for him to step down and exit the franchise entirely days later, following online controversy over his past behavior and disparaging comments he had made about women. Richards later apologized for the comments.
Trebek hosted Jeopardy! from 1984 until his death from pancreatic cancer in November 2020 at the age of 80.
Post Malone is the latest subject of an hourlong music documentary, which will be yours to stream in just a few weeks.
Post Malone: Runaway will hit Amazon Prime’s Freevee streaming platform on August 12. The flick will explore the Grammy nominee’s journey to stardom, from his first concerts to becoming a Diamond-certified artist, over the course of his massively successful Runaway Tour from 2019.
Those who made the doc argue that tour is what turned Post into a rock star.
Throughout the documentary, fans will get to hear stories from Post’s inner circle and from those who have been with him from the start. “The film takes viewers into the eye of the touring storm, while digging deep into the stories, songs, and characters that made up this now-legendary tour,” teases the official press release.
The “Sunflower” singer shared the official trailer on Instagram and simply captioned it “August 12 [devil emoji] Runaway.”
Post Malone: Runaway streams soon on Amazon’s Freevee.
(NEW YORK) — Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri doubled down on recent changes to the app Tuesday, despite backlash from scores of users, including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian – two of Instagram’s most prominent users.
In a video posted to social media Tuesday morning, Mosseri said the company is “experimenting with a lot of different changes to the app, and so we’re hearing a lot of complaints from all of you.”
On Monday, Jenner, who has 361 million Instagram followers, and Kardashian, with 326 million Instagram followers, shared a post from photographer “@Illumitati” urging the platform to stop “trying to be tiktok,” and to “Make Instagram Instagram Again.”
“History shows that when a Kardashian or a Jenner talks about your platform, you should probably listen,” Jack Appleby, author of Morning Brew’s “Future Social” newsletter, told ABC Audio.
The complaints come as the company – launched in 2010 as primarily a photo-sharing app – continues to push new types of posts to the app’s main feed, including Reels videos from recommended creators. Reels, introduced in 2020, mimics TikTok’s app, presenting users with a vertical scrolling feed of videos. Appleby said Reels are often from accounts recommended by Instagram – not from accounts users themselves follow – and this changes the app’s “value proposition.”
“It was a friend-to-friend network. Now it is a – I am seeing content from people I did not elect to follow, and that effects how users view the platform,” he said.
Instagram may have good reason to worry about what the stars of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” have to say. In 2018, Kylie Jenner tweeted that she was no longer using Snapchat — sending shares of the app plunging 7% and erasing over $1 billion of value, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, which also owns Facebook and WhatsApp, is set to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday after the closing bell.
Despite the backlash, Mosseri said his company remains committed to video content.
“I got to be honest, I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time,” Mosseri said in the video.
“If you look at what people share on Instagram, that’s shifting more and more to video over time. If you look at what people like and consume and view on Instagram, that’s also shifting more and more to video over time – even when we stop changing anything. So we’re going to have to lean into that shift.”
“The reality is that Instagram is going to be able to make more money based on more video content than static or photo content,” said Appleby. “It’s really that simple.”
Whether that explanation will be enough to change Instagrammers’ feelings about the new features remains to be seen.
“I just want to see cute pictures of my friends,” the original post shared by Jenner and Kardashian goes on to read. “Sincerely, everyone.”
(NEW YORK) — Travelers reeling from a summer of hectic travel — with busy airports, scores of cancellations and soaring airline fees — might see some relief in the coming months, as fall approaches.
Travel experts expect flight prices to drop as the summer months wane, with some predicting domestic round-trip ticket prices could drop below $300 on average this fall.
“Airfares really did shoot up in the spring. [They] went up 12% in March, 19% in April, another 12% in May, it wasn’t just your imagination,” Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, told ABC News. “But the good news: In the last inflation report, airfare actually fell 2%, and I think it’s going to fall even further in the next one.”
According to data from travel booking platform Hopper, average domestic ticket prices could fall almost $150 in the coming months. The average price of a domestic roundtrip flight right now is about $348, but come mid-September, that average could fall to about $298.
For example, Hopper estimates at a round-trip ticket from New York to Los Angeles right now would cost $475, but in mid-September, it is only expected to cost $326.
And these deals can be found for international travelers, too. Scott’s Cheap Flights says that a round-trip fare from Chicago to Paris now is almost three times more expensive than the $489 you would pay in October.
Keyes recommends that travelers looking to get those prices book soon, because one to three months before your trip is the “Goldilocks window” for scoring good deals.
“If you hold off until the final couple of weeks before your trip, chances are you’re going to be stuck with some pretty expensive flights,” Keyes said. “But if you book a month in advance, two months in advance, ideally even three months in advance, [you’re] much more likely to see one of those great deals.”
Another way to get the best deal according to Keyes is to be flexible with your travel plans. He says to always check other airports close to your destination and be flexible with days you travel.
Hopper also recommends that you check different carriers for good deals and to book early in the day in case of cancellations or delays.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
According to a statement on his Facebook page, his reps noted, “We have received confirmation from Christopher, Tony’s son, that Tony passed away earlier this morning, with his loving family at his side to see him through this journey.”
The statement continued, “We know that the world is collectively saddened by the loss of this incredible man. He gave so much to us all and was loved by so many. One fan said it best — ‘It is rare when there is a person who is so universally loved like Tony.'”
The statement continued, “Christopher has stated: ‘Although this is a very sad day, I have comfort and peace that he is in a better place. He was the best Dad anyone could ask for. He was my coach, my mentor, my voice of reason, my best friend, my best man in my wedding, and my hero.'”
(WASHINGTON) — A West Virginia man charged in the Jan. 6 assault of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges.
George Tanios was arrested two months after the Jan. 6 attack, along with Julian Khater, who investigators identified in videos as having deployed bear spray against three officers outside of the Capitol, including Sicknick.
Sicknick died the day after the riot of natural causes after suffering at least two strokes, according to the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office.
Tanios pleaded guilty Wednesday to entering and remaining on restricted grounds, and disorderly and disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Khater has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges stemming from the alleged assault, and is set to go on trial in October.
Prosecutors said in Wednesday’s hearing they have also extended a plea offer to Khater and they continue to negotiate with his counsel, but they warned that the offer will expire by Aug. 17.
Khater could face between 78 and 97 months behind bars as part of his sentence if he were to accept the plea deal of two counts of felony assaults on officers, prosecutors said.
That amount would be more than a year longer than the two harshest sentences given to any Capitol rioters thus far.
As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, Tanios faces a potential range of 0-6 months behind bars, though he has already served five months in pre-trial detention following his arrest, for which he would receive credit.
In their original affidavit against Khater and Tanios, investigators cited open source videos that they said showed Khater at one point telling Tanios “Give me that bear s—” before reaching into a backpack Tanios was wearing.
Tanios then responded, “Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet … it’s still early.”
“This verbal exchange between Khater and Tanios, together with Khater’s retrieval of the spray can from Tanios, reveals that the two were working in concert and had a plan to use the toxic spray against law enforcement,” the charging documents said.
