With less than two weeks until the MTV Video Music Awards, details about the big show continue to be revealed. The latest update: Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow will serve as emcees on the big night.
The selection of three anchors puts “a more innovative and unique” spin on hosting as we know it, but their duties are no different from those of previous emcees. As usual, the stars will guide the crowd through the night, announcing performers, presenters and awards along the way.
The 2022 VMAs will air live from the Prudential Center in New Jersey on Sunday, August 28, at 8 p.m. ET. Jack, Lizzo and Nicki, who is also set to receive the Video Vanguard Award, are expected to hit the stage.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 18, 12:04 PM EDT
Russia rejects calls to create demilitarized zone around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
The international calls and proposals for Russia to create a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine are “unacceptable,” according to Ivan Nechayev, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department.
“Their implementation will make the plant even more vulnerable,” Nechayev said at a press briefing on Thursday.
Moscow is expecting experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, to visit the Zaporizhzhia plant “in the near future,” according to Nechayev.
The secretary-generals of the U.N. and the IAEA have called for the establishment of a demilitarized zone around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the Zaporizhzhia plant, near the town of Enerhodar, on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. The Ukrainian workers have been left in place to keep the plant operating, as it supplies electricity across the war-torn nation. However, heavy fighting around the site has fueled fears of a catastrophe, like what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine over 36 years ago.
Aug 18, 9:34 AM EDT
Firefighter describes destruction after deadly strikes in Kharkiv
A Ukrainian firefighter who responded to the Russian missile attacks in Kharkiv overnight told ABC News that the scale of the blasts was “one of the biggest” he’s ever seen.
One of the rockets struck a large apartment block on Wednesday night, killing at least nine people and injuring another 16, according to Ukrainian authorities.
“It went through all four floors and hit the ground and almost blew up everything,” the firefighter, Roman Kachanov, told ABC News during an interview on Thursday. “All the buildings around were without windows.”
“There was a dormitory, and the building was almost completely ruined,” he added. “There was a playground that was smashed like a big titan blew it up.”
Kachanov is among the rescue workers searching for survivors amid the smoldering rubble.
“I’ve seen three bodies on the floor covered by objects,” he said. “We tried to extract them and while we tried, the other wall started to fall and we had to run away as fast as we can.”
Kachanov said another missile hit the city before dawn Thursday, not far from where he and his team were working. He said the blast “was very loud” and “sounded close.”
“Everyone had to lay down,” he recalled. “The team had to split — fire truck had to leave to go to that other fire.”
Aug 17, 5:40 PM EDT
Large apartment block struck in Kharkiv, at least 7 dead
At least seven people are dead and another 13 injured by strikes on a large apartment block in Kharkiv, officials said.
Based on recovered shrapnel, authorities determined an Iskander-M missile system was used in the strike, said Ivan Sokol, Ukraine’s director of the regional Department of Civil Defense.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing at the three-story residential building, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine said.
-ABC News’ Tatiana Rymarenko
Aug 15, 1:49 PM EDT
Shelling resumes near power plant, both sides claim the other is firing
More shelling was underway Monday in city of Enerhodar, which is under Russian control and where the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is located.
Enerhodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov urged residents to stay inside. He said Russian forces seized another government facility in Enerhodar, a lab where 30 of the employees are refusing to cooperate with the Russian-appointed administration.
Meanwhile, Russia’s semi-official Interfax reported that Ukrainian forces opened fire in Enerhodar.
Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator Energoatom said the plant remained occupied and controlled by Russian forces on Monday. The Ukrainian staff continues to work and make every effort to ensure nuclear and radiation safety, but Energoatom warned that periodic shelling by Russian troops with multiple rocket launchers since last week caused a serious risk to the safe operation of the plant.
Aug 15, 5:53 AM EDT
Griner to appeal Russian conviction, lawyer says
Brittney Griner’s defense team filed an appeal for the verdict by Khimky City Court, according to Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners law firm.
The WNBA star was found guilty on drug charges in a Moscow-area court this month.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Aug 14, 4:44 PM EDT
1st UN-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian wheat set to depart for Africa
The first UN-chartered ship loaded with Ukrainian wheat is set to head for Africa from the near the port city Odesa, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.
The MV Brave Commander is loaded with 23,000 tons of wheat that will be shipped to Ethiopia as part of a mission to relieve a global food crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has halted grain exports for months, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov announced at a news conference.
Kubrakov said the UN-chartered ship is scheduled to leave the Pivdenny port near Odesa on Monday.
“When three months ago, during the meeting of the President of Ukraine (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kyiv the first negotiations on unlocking Ukrainian maritime ports began, we have already seen how critical it is becoming a food situation in the world.” Kubrakov wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “This especially applies to the least socially protected countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, for whom Ukraine has always been a key importer of agro-production.”
He said Ethiopia is in desperate need of Ukrainian grain.
“This country has been suffering from record drought and armed confrontation for the second year in a row,” Kubrakov said. “Ukrainian grain for them without exaggeration — the matter of life and death.”
He said he hopes the MV Brave Commander will be the first many more grain shipments under the U.N. World Food Program.
Aug 12, 2:28 PM EDT
‘They treat us like captives’: Exiled Zaporizhzhia manager on conditions at plant
An exiled manager at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant told ABC News that the Ukrainian staff is treated “like captives.”
Oleg, who asked to be referred by a pseudonym, said he felt threatened by the Russian soldiers.
“They didn’t say, ‘I’m going to shoot you now,’ but they always carry guns and assault rifles with them,” said Oleg, who managed one of 80 units at the plant but was able to leave last month. “And when an assault rifle or a gun has a cocked trigger, I consider it as a threat.”
Amid reported shelling in the vicinity of the plant, Oleg said he was primarily concerned about its spent fuel containers, “which are in a precarious position, and they are not shielded well.”
Aug 11, 4:43 PM EDT
UN secretary-general calls for all military activities around nuclear power plant to ‘cease immediately’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “calling for all military activities” around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant in southern Ukraine “to cease immediately,” and for armies not “to target its facilities or surroundings.”
Ukraine’s nuclear regulator Energoatom said Russian forces shelled the plant for a third time on Thursday, hitting close to the first power unit. Earlier on Thursday, Energoatom said five rockets struck the area around the commandant’s office, close to where the radioactive material is stored.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed interim governor of Zaporizhzhya Oblast, issued a statement claiming Ukrainian forces struck the plant, hitting close to an area with radioactive material.
Guterres said he’s appealed to all parties to “exercise common sense” and take any actions that could endanger the physical integrity, safety or security of the largest nuclear power plant in Europe.
“Instead of de-escalation, over the past several days there have been reports of further deeply worrying incidents that could, if they continue, lead to disaster,” he said, adding that he’s “gravely concerned.”
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, pleaded with the U.N. Security Council Thursday to allow for an IAEA mission to visit the plant as soon as possible. He said the situation at the plant is deteriorating rapidly and is “becoming very alarming.”
This year’s MTV VMAs will have not one but three emcees: Jack Harlow, Nicki Minaj and LL Cool J.
Jack and Nicki will be pulling double duty on the show: both will also be performing. In addition, Jack has seven nominations, including Video of the Year and Artist of the Year, while Nicki is set to receive the 2022 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. She’s also nominated in the category of Best Hip Hop Video for the Lil Baby-assisted “Do We Have a Problem?”
As for LL Cool J, he received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 1997, but he’s also had lots of experience hosting music award shows — most notably, the Grammys.
In addition to Nicki and Jack, Lizzo,Måneskin,BLACKPINK,Anitta, J Balvin, Marshmello, Khalid,Panic! At The Disco and country star Kane Brown will all be performing at the 2022 MTV VMAs, airing August 28 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
As previously reported, the leading nominees are Jack, Lil Nas X and Kendrick Lamar, all of whom have seven nods. Doja Cat and Harry Styles each have six. Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd have five apiece.
If you’re feeling bad about that text message you sent that got left on read, it might be comforting to know that even Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t always get an answer back.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, the Prince of Darkness shares that he reached out to Jimmy Page to appear on his upcoming new solo album, Patient Number 9, only to get crickets from the Led Zeppelin legend.
“I don’t even know if he plays anymore, but I thought getting Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page meant having the greatest guitarists on the planet,” Ozzy shares. “But I never heard from him. Maybe he’d lost his phone or something!”
Osbourne’s comments follow an interview Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who plays on Patient Number 9, gave to the Talk Is Jericho podcast earlier this year, during which he said that there was an attempt to recruit Page for the album.
While the potential Page collaboration didn’t come to be, Patient Number 9 features a ton of other guests, including Clapton, Beck, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
If you’re feeling bad about that text message you sent that got left on read, it might be comforting to know that even Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t always get an answer back.
In an interview with Metal Hammer, the Prince of Darkness shares that he reached out to Jimmy Page to appear on his upcoming new solo album, Patient Number 9, only to get crickets from the Led Zeppelin legend.
“I don’t even know if he plays anymore, but I thought getting Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page meant having the greatest guitarists on the planet,” Ozzy shares. “But I never heard from him. Maybe he’d lost his phone or something!”
Osbourne’s comments follow an interview Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who plays on Patient Number 9, gave to the Talk Is Jericho podcast earlier this year, during which he said that there was an attempt to recruit Page for the album.
While the potential Page collaboration didn’t come to be, Patient Number 9 features a ton of other guests, including Clapton, Beck, Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses, Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Since Kane Brown became a dad in 2019, he’s learned to roll with the punches.
During an appearance on Apple Music 1, the singer tells Zane Lowe that parenthood has had a dramatic — and positive — impact on how he views the world. “It’s been amazing,” he says.
“It’s definitely changed me on the outlook of life,” he continues. “I used to care what everybody thought of me, and now I just care what my daughters and wife think, so I think that’s been a huge weight off my shoulders.”
Kane and his wife, Katelyn, are parents to Kingsley Rose, who will turn 3 years old this October, and Kodi Jane, who was born at the end of 2021. As he juggles a busy music career — including a new album, Different Man, set to arrive September 9 — the singer’s first priority is always his family.
“Just being there for them right now is everything to me,” he adds.
He’s made that clear on his social media, too: Kane regularly shares adorable videos of his little girls, including one recent video of Kingsley’s adorable giggles as she and her country star dad goof off and make silly faces during her bedtime routine.
Congratulations are in order to Dustin Lynch: He’s one step closer to fulfilling his dream of becoming a pilot.
“Set a goal, and when you get there…man it always feels good! First solo flight today,” the singer wrote on Twitter earlier this week.
Dustin has been studying to get his pilot’s license for several months, so his first solo flight is a big step toward accomplishing his goal. Once he’s officially a pilot, he’ll be in good company. The singer is actually one of several country stars who know how to fly a plane.
Lots of fans know that Dierks Bentley is a licensed pilot — a fact he spoofed in the music video for his song “Drunk on a Plane” — but did you know that Tim McGraw can fly, too? In 2019, he even shared video proof as he piloted a Cirrus Aircraft vision jet during a trip to a music festival.
Alan Jackson also has his pilot’s license, but according to his website, he doesn’t use it much these days. “[My wife] Denise got tired of my flying and worrying about me,” he writes.
But the most impressive story of a pilot/country superstar might come courtesy of Kris Kristofferson. Before he made it in the music business, he was a helicopter pilot while serving in the military.
Legend has it that while Kris was struggling to make it as a country star in Nashville, he made a big impression on Johnny Cash by landing a chopper on the country legend’s lawn and hand-delivering a work tape of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” to his doorstep.
The prospect of South Korea’s mandatory military service has been looming over BTS for quite some time now. Despite a 2018 law allowing certain K-pop musicians to postpone their military service until the age of 30, the group’s oldest member, Jin, will hit that milestone in December. But now, a Korean government official has proposed another way.
The mayor of the South Korean city of Busan recently appointed BTS as PR ambassadors for promoting that city’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo. Now, Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reports that the mayor has asked the office of the president of South Korea to allow BTS to do “alternative military service.”
The mayor’s idea is to have the group’s work as Busan’s PR ambassadors stand in for their military service. He said, “If BTS is allowed alternative military service, its members will be assigned with national duties as heavy as military service and will serve the nation in their unique capacity.”
It’s not clear if that proposal will be approved. According to Billboard, the members of BTS have said that they’re willing to serve in the military, and the South Korean parliament has considered a bill shortening K-pop stars’ military service from two years to three weeks.
(BENTONVILLE, Ark.) — Walmart, the Arkansas-based retail giant known more for value than flare, made a splash in Hollywood this week upon the announcement of a deal with streaming service Paramount+.
The retailer will provide the video content free of charge to Walmart+ subscribers, who pay $98 a year or $12.95 a month for a membership package that includes gas discounts, free two-day shipping on online purchases, and member-only deals, the company said in a statement on Monday.
The move marks a major departure for Walmart, which appears to have weathered sky-high inflation with better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter, as revenue climbed 8.4% compared to the same three-month period a year prior. However, the company had cut its second-quarter forecast just weeks earlier.
The new streaming content will help the retailer retain current Walmart+ subscribers and attract new ones, as the company vies with rival Amazon and continues to grow beyond its telltale big box stores with an e-commerce offering that gained emphasis during the pandemic, retail analysts told ABC News.
While the move highlights the digital value of Walmart’s subscription service, the company’s effort to improve the in-store experience exclusive to subscribers could translate the potential influx of members into more brick-and-mortar business, they added.
An assessment of the deal with Paramount+ — and its capacity to strengthen Walmart’s subscription service — should take into account the customer base that the company has already built, Steph Wissink, a retail analyst at Jefferies, told ABC News. Ninety percent of Americans shop at Walmart each year, the company said in March, adding that more than 150 million people shop with the company each week either in-store or online.
As Walmart strengthens its subscription service, that customer base affords it a wide pool of prospective members, enhancing the potential value of the Paramount+ offering for the company, Wissink said.
“That touch point element is meaningfully higher than what we would see for other retailers,” she said, acknowledging that “some portion of their household income distribution is not going to be able to afford” the subscription.
By comparison, as of last April, Amazon boasted more than 200 million Amazon Prime subscribers worldwide. Walmart has not released subscriber totals for Walmart+, but the expected figure is much lower, analysts said.
The deal with Paramount+, therefore, comes down to competition with Amazon, Joe Feldman, a retail analyst for Telsey Advisory, told ABC News.
“This is an effort to be more competitive with Amazon as a membership provider,” he said. “You’ve seen both companies increasingly compete with one another and almost mirror one another.”
The entry of Walmart into streaming parallels Amazon’s decision to jump into the in-store grocery business that Walmart had participated in for years, Feldman said.
Even though brick-and-mortar shopping has bounced back since the early months of the pandemic, e-commerce remains a key focus for Walmart, Wissink, said.
“Digital fluency went up substantially in 2020 because stores were closed,” she said. “Even your granny was ordering things online and having them delivered to the front door.”
But the focus on Walmart’s subscription service, brought to the attention of many by the partnership with Paramount+, also points to an advantage for Walmart that sets it apart from Amazon: the vast network of stores, Wissink said. Down the road, if Walmart improves the subscription service with further in-store benefits, it could compound the revenue from new digital subscribers with enticements for in-store shopping.
“Let’s say it’s my birthday and I go to Walmart, Walmart+ on mobile can prompt me with a free coffee or free cupcake at the bakery,” Wissink said. “Those are benefits for a Walmart+ member.”
“The partnership with Paramount+ isn’t a signal that Walmart thinks its stores are no longer relevant,” she added. “It’s the exact opposite.”
Looking ahead, Walmart could even form partnerships with additional streaming services to improve its subscription offering, Feldman and Wissink said.
“Walmart is likely to explore lots of different options,” Feldman said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Internal Revenue Service does not plan to use the nearly $80 billion it’s set to receive in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire 87,000 new agents in order to target middle class Americans, a Treasury Department official told ABC News, rejecting a claim widely circulated by Republican lawmakers and right-wing media personalities.
A sizable portion of the money will go toward improving taxpayer services and modernizing antiquated, paper-based IRS operations, Treasury Department spokesperson Julia Krieger said, in an effort to update the agency — well documented as being chronically starved of resources for decades.
The agency also is planning on hiring auditors who can enforce the tax laws against high-income Americans and corporations, not the middle class, along with employees to provide customer service to taxpayers, the official said. The majority of hires will fill the positions of about 50,000 IRS employees on the verge of retirement, Krieger said, which will net about 20 to 30-thousand workers, not 87,000.
“The resources to modernize the IRS will be used to improve taxpayer services — from answering the phones to improving IT systems — and to crack down on high-income and corporate tax evaders who cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars each year. The majority of new employees will replace the standard level of staff departures over the next few years,” Krieger said in a statement.
“New staff will be hired to improve taxpayer services and experienced auditors who can take on corporate and high-end tax evaders, without increasing audit rates relative to historical norms for people earning under $400,000 each year,” she said.
The IRA, the wide-ranging tax, climate and health care bill signed into law by Biden on Monday and touted as a major legislative achievement for Democrats, includes roughly $78 billion for the IRS over the next 10 years.
The heightened funding will also act as a key part of how will provisions under the IRA will be paid for — increased tax enforcement of the wealthy and large corporations is expected to raise revenue by $204 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Congress has cut funding for the IRS for most of the past decade, leaving the agency with technology systems dating back to the 1970s and as of July, a backlog of over 10 million unprocessed individual returns, according to the IRS.
“Bringing IRS technology into the 21st century is long past due. Our technology system is over 60 years old, the oldest in government, and fuels both taxpayer frustration and government waste,” said Executive Director Chad Hooper of the Professional Managers Association – formed in 1981 by IRS managers.
Republicans, ahead of the midterm elections, have been denouncing the package as irresponsible spending while inflation reaches record highs. They’ve hammered the claim that the bill’s IRS provisions would would bad news for the middle class.
“Do you make $75,000 or less?” tweeted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you—with 710,000 new audits for Americans who earn less than $75k.”
The 87,000 new agent number that GOP leaders have been circulating is in reference to a year-old report released by the IRS, which described what the agency could do with nearly $80 billion in new funding if Congress would pass the American Families Plan.
In a table in that report, the IRS shows by 2031 the IRS could increase the size of its workforce by 86,852 full-time employees. But most of those hires would not be IRS agents and wouldn’t be new positions, according to the Treasury official, and the report is not in reference to IRA funding.
The claims appeared to have been ramped up after last week’s FBI search of Trump’s Palm Beach residence, with GOP leaders capitalizing on current Republican mistrust of bureaucratic agencies.
The search is said to have been part of a wider investigation into whether Trump took classified documents from the White House at the end of his presidency, with no reports of a connection to the IRS.
“After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?” tweeted Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, after news of the raid broke.
GOP voices have also claimed that the hypothetical IRS agent hiring splurge would include armed tax enforcers. Fox News host Tucker Carlson and guest U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. on Aug. 4 claimed the government is beginning to treat “the IRS as a military agency.”
“Well, Joe Biden is raising taxes, disarming Americans, so of course they are arming up the IRS like they are preparing to take Fallujah,” Gaetz said.
Treasury officials rejected the claim that agent hires would be carrying weapons — saying the faction of armed agents are an “extremely critical but small” piece of the IRS, representing less than 3% of its total workforce.
The armed agents do not interact with average Americans, they focus only on specialized issues like narcotics, money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act violations, they said. Recently, they’ve been involved in the task force that is tracking assets of Russian oligarchs.
But the widely debunked claims may have begun to have an impact on some American voters.
“Even the Democrats, they heard, they just hired 85,000 IRS agents, they’re not not happy about it,” said John Ellingson, an Iowa GOP strategist, noting that the claims have been widely discussed since the information has been circulated by leading Republican voices.
Democrats have attempted to quell concerns over assertions that average Americans might be targeted by the federal government.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia refuted GOP claims on Twitter, telling Americans they are “being lied to.”
“In typical fashion, Republicans have chosen to lie and embellish in order to scare the American people. There is no army of 87,000 new IRS agents. It’s entirely made up. The truth is that the Republican Party hollowed out the IRS and has repeatedly slashed its budget over the years. Rich tax cheats run wild, meanwhile the average American can’t even get someone from the IRS on the phone. The Inflation Reduction Act will restore the IRS so it actually works for the American people,” Connolly said in a statement to ABC News.
