The 13th annual Global Beatles Day will be observed on Saturday, June 25.
The event, which was founded in 2009 by an Indianapolis-based Beatles fan named Faith Cohen, was established to honor the music and ideals of the Fab Four’s members and their many contributions to the world’s culture, including their promotion of peace and love.
June 25 was chosen as the date of the annual event because that was the day in 1967 that The Beatles’ performance of “All You Need Is Love” was part of Our World, a famous satellite broadcast that aired around the world.
This year, in addition to generally celebrating the band on June 25, Cohen is asking people to send a link to a video of the 1967 “All You Need Is Love” performance, which can be found at DailyMotion.com, to “10 people who matter” as a way to spread the message of peace and love around the world.
“This could be to family, friends and coworkers or elected officials,” Cohen says. “It could be kings, queens, princes, presidents, ambassadors, military leaders and law enforcement organizations.”
She adds, “We want them to send links to 10 people or organizations that matter in running our world and keeping it going. Then we want them to ask those 10 entities to send it on to 10 more and ask them to do the same. On and on … Send the link to those in power, from the local to global level, who keep the world running.”
You also can check out Cohen’s general suggestions for 10 ways you can celebrate Global Beatles Day at the event’s official site.
Interestingly, Paul McCartney‘s headlining set at England’s Glastonbury Festival coincides with the 2022 Global Beatles Day.
Former White Stripes frontman Jack White has shared a preview of his contribution to the soundtrack for the upcoming Elvis Presley biopic, Elvis.
The song is a combination of Presley’s 1969 recording of “Power of My Love” and White’s new vocals.
“It is an incredible honor to be a part of this ‘duet’ with the king of rock n’ roll,” White writes in a message posted on his social media sites, along with a video playing a clip of the track.
Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann, stars Austin Butler in the title role and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Both the film and its soundtrack, which also features Stevie Nicks, Chris Isaak, Rufus Thomas, Gary Clark Jr., Eminem, CeeLo Green and many others, will be released this Friday, June 24.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it is taking Juul Labs e-cigarettes and other products off the market.
It comes after the federal health agency completed a nearly two-year review of the manufacturer’s application to sell its vaping device and tobacco- and menthol-flavored pods.
Ultimately, the FDA decided to block Juul’s application.
“Today’s action is further progress on the FDA’s commitment to ensuring that all e-cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery system products currently being marketed to consumers meet our public health standards,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement. “The agency has dedicated significant resources to review products from the companies that account for most of the U.S. market. We recognize these make up a significant part of the available products and many have played a disproportionate role in the rise in youth vaping.”
Juul Labs said it would seek a stay of the decision and was “exploring all of our options under the FDA’s regulations and the law, including appealing the decision and engaging with our regulator.”
The company has long claimed it’s product is important as a tool to stop smoking cigarettes.
“We remain committed to doing all in our power to continue serving the millions of American adult smokers who have successfully used our products to transition away from combustible cigarettes, which remain available on market shelves nationwide,” Juul Labs said.
After hitting the market in the mid-2010s, Juul became the most popular brand of e-cigarettes available, in large part due to its wide variety of flavors, including creme, mango and mint.
Politicians and anti-tobacco advocates have accused the company of using these flavors — along with a sleek design resembling a USB flash drive — to market vaping to U.S. children and teenagers.
More than 2 million American middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2021 — with 8 in 10 students saying they use flavored e-cigarettes, according to the FDA.
The 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey found Juul was the most popular e-cigarette brand used by adolescents with 25.4% of high school e-cigarette users and 35.1% of middle school users saying Juul was their most used brand.
Nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes can hinder brain development in adolescents and young adults, which can continue into the mid-20s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just one Juul pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 traditional cigarettes, the manufacturer has said.
The CDC also says e-cigarettes can contain heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals that can damage the lungs.
The American Heart Association applauded the decision, saying in a statement, “We call on Juul to immediately comply with the FDA order so these products no longer threaten public health, and we urge the FDA to take swift and severe enforcement action if the company defies the order.”
Juul did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Stock in major tobacco firm Altria Group, which holds a 35% stake in Juul, fell 9% Wednesday morning after The Wall Street Journal reported the FDA decision was coming.
Parent company Pax launched the Juul e-cigarette in 2015. After success with initial sales, Juul spun out from Pax as a separate company in 2017.
In 2018, when Altria acquired its stake in Juul, the e-cigarette company represented 75% of the tobacco vaping market, according to a Wells Fargo analysis of Nielsen data. By 2021, Juul’s share of the market had fallen below 50%, The New York Times reported.
Juul CEO Kevin Burns stepped down in 2019 as the company faced sharp scrutiny over the health effects and the addictive nature of its products. He was replaced by longtime tobacco executive K.C. Crosthwaite, who currently leads the firm.
In 2009, Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of tobacco products.
E-cigarette manufacturers, including Juul, were required to submit their products to the FDA to review by September 2020 but were able to sell products while the FDA review was under way.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Thursday’s hearing of the Jan. 6 committee focused on the pressure then-President Donald Trump and his allies put on the Justice Department to help overturn the 2020 election.
Jun 23, 5:56 pm
Previewing next hearing, chair calls Jan. 6 attack ‘backup plan’ in a ‘political coup’
Summing up the hearing, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Trump continuing to push the lie of a stolen election and pressure his officials to break the law was “about protecting his very real power and very real fragile ego — even if it required recklessly undermining our entire electoral system by wildly casting faceless doubt upon it.”
“In short, he was willing to sacrifice our republic to prolong this presidency. I can imagine no more dishonorable act by a president,” he said.
Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., closed by previewing the focus of hearings to come in July, calling the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol Trump’s “backup plan of stopping the transfer of power” if he couldn’t get away with a “political coup.”
“We are going to show how Donald Trump tapped into the threat of violence, how he summoned a mob to Washington and how — after corruption and political pressure failed to keep Donald Trump in office — violence became the last option,” he said.
Jun 23, 5:42 pm
Trump considered ‘blanket pardons’ for everyone involved in Jan. 6
In a taped deposition, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office John McEntee said he witnessed Trump having conversations about the possibility of a “blanket pardon” for all those involved in Jan. 6.
When asked by the committee if Trump thought about pardons for his family members, McEntee said Trump had hinted at a blanket pardon “for all the staff and everyone involved” before he left office.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger responded to that by saying, “The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you have committed a crime.”
Jun 23, 5:45 pm
Trump WH officials testify which GOP representatives asked for presidential pardons
In a series of stunning taped testimony, former White House officials said several Republican members of Congress — including Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Scott Perry, Rep. Louie Gohmert, Rep. Andy Biggs, Rep. Paul Gosar, and Rep. Mo Brooks — asked the White House for pardons in some form in the final days of the Trump administration following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Every Congressman and Senator who voted to reject the electoral college vote submissions of Arizona and Pennsylvania,” read an email from Brooks, requesting pardons for himself, Gaetz and others involved in election objections.
Former aide to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson, also said Rep. Jim Jordan talked with the White House about pardon updates for members of Congress but did not specifically ask.
“The general tone was, we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the president’s positions on these things,” recalled former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann.
“I know he had hinted at a blanket pardon for the January 6 thing for anybody, but I think he had all the staff and everyone involved, not January 6, but just before he left office,” said former Trump White House aide John McEntee in a taped deposition. “I know he had talked about that.”
“The only reason I know that you ask for a pardon is that you think you committed a crime,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
Jun 23, 5:15 pm
Official recalls asking DOJ head of national security to stay on amid mass resignation planning
Former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue illustrated how serious discussions were of mass resignations at the Justice Department as Trump threatened to replace his attorney general with a lower-level official who supported his plan to overturn the election, describing his fears of the potential impact that it could have in the final days of Trump administration.
Donoghue said he pleaded separately with the head of DOJ’s national security division, John Demers, to not be among those who would resign.
“I prefaced the call by saying, ‘John, we need you to stay in place. National security is too important and we need to minimize the disruption,'” Donoghue said in the hearing.
Donoghue said while Demers showed a willingness to resign, he agreed with Donoghue’s assessment, as they imagined what would happen to the nation’s top law enforcement agency should all the top officials resign.
“As Steve Engel noted, the goal was to make clear to Trump he would leave Clark leading a “graveyard,” a comment that “clearly had an impact on the president,” Donoghue said.
Jun 23, 5:13 pm
Trump on trying to change DOJ leadership: ‘What do I have to lose?’
While discussing whether to fire a top official in the Department of Justice in a 2.5 hour meeting at the Oval Office on Jan. 3, 2021, Trump turned to officials in the room and asked them a question, former deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue testified Thursday.
“What do I have to lose?” Trump asked, according to Donoghue.
“It was actually a good opening,” Donoghue said. “And I began to explain to him what he had to lose, and what the county had to lose and what department had to lose, and this was not in anyone’s best interest.”
Donoghue said no one in the room supported Jeffrey Clark taking over as the department’s top official, describing him to the president as unqualified. Clark at the time was a Trump-appointed Justice Department official overseeing the department’s Civil Division and environmental enforcement matters.
Jun 23, 5:08 pm
Former DOJ leader tells Trump that attorneys general across US would resign ‘en masse’
According to call logs displayed by the committee, the White House had already begun referring to Jeffrey Clark as “acting attorney general” on Jan. 3, 2021 — despite Jeff Rosen, who wouldn’t fall in line with election fraud conspiracies, actually serving as acting attorney general.
Trump also met with the aforementioned officials in the Oval Office on Jan. 3, and said, according to Rosen, “‘Well the one thing we know is you’re not gonna do anything. You don’t even agree that the concerns that are being presented are valid. And here is someone who has a different view, so, why shouldn’t I do that?'”
Former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue recalled asking attorney generals across the country what they would do if Clark was put in charge.
“All essentially said they would leave,” he told the panel. “They would resign en masse if the president made that change in the department leadership.”
Jun 23, 4:54 pm
Inside GOP Rep. Scott Perry’s role in the DOJ pressure campaign
A hard-right conservative member of the House and leader of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress.
As the Jan. 6 committee laid out Thursday, that support continued after the 2020 election, when he was among the Republicans who met with Trump at the White House on Dec. 21, 2020, on how to continue challenging Joe Biden’s victory and push claims of voter fraud.
The next day, Perry introduced Jeffery Clark to Trump in a White House meeting. Clark did not work on election issues at the Justice Department, and he met with the president without the knowledge of his superiors in violation of DOJ rules.
“So, for criminal matters, the policy for a long time has been the only the attorney general in the deputy attorney general from the DOJ side can have … conversations with the White House,” Jeffrey Rosen, the then-acting attorney general, told the committee.
Why was Clark recommended? Here’s how Rudy Giuliani explained it, in his recorded interview with the committee: “I do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isn’t frightened of what is going to be done to their reputation.”
Richard Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general at the time, said Perry wanted Clark to “take over” the Justice Department, and pushed Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff and his former House colleague, to make it happen.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jun 23, 4:46 pm
Trump, in emergency meeting, urged DOJ to seize voting machines, former officials say
Former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and his former deputy Richard Donoghue described Thursday how Trump tried to get the Department of Justice to seize voting machines in late 2020.
Donoghue said an “agitated” Trump called an emergency meeting on New Year’s Eve to make the request.
“There was nothing wrong with them so we told him no,” Rosen told the committee. “There was no factual basis nor was there any legal authority to do so.”
“Toward the end of the meeting, the president, again, was getting very agitated,” Donoghue recalled. “And he said, ‘People tell me I should just get rid of both of you, I should just remove you and make a change in leadership, put Jeff Clark in, maybe something will finally get done.’”
After detailing an effort by Jeffrey Clark to replace acting attorney general Jeff Rosen in order to help Trump overturn the election, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., turned to former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel on other efforts by Trump to pressure the department.
After Trump sent a proposed draft lawsuit, done outside the department, to top DOJ attorneys that he wanted to send to the Supreme Court, Engel called it a “meritless lawsuit” and an “unusual request” that the department would never bring.
“Obviously, even the person who drafted this lawsuit didn’t really understand in my view the law, and or how the Supreme Court works or the Department of Justice,” Engel said.
Trump and the White House also asked the Department of Justice if it could point a special counsel to look at widespread election fraud — which did not exist — with Engel detailing why “that was not legally available,” before Kinzinger claimed Trump even offered the position of special counsel to campaign attorney Sidney Powell, as his pressure campaign continued.
Jun 23, 4:18 pm
GOP congressman fought for Clark’s ascension: ‘We gotta get going’
The committee outlined how Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., played a role in trying to elevate Jeffrey Clark, then an obscure DOJ official, to department leadership amid the resistance from other DOJ officials to Trump’s efforts to undermine the election.
Records from the National Archives obtained by the committee showed Perry and Clark met Trump on Dec. 22, 2020. Perry later told a local television news network he had worked with Clark before and “obliged” when asked by Trump to introduce him.
The committee later displayed text messages which showed Perry advising White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to help with Clark’s ascension.
“Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going,” Perry wrote to Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020.
The next text, sent 30 minutes later, showed Perry telling Meadows to “call Jeff.”
“I just got off the phone with him and he explained to me why the principal deputy won’t work especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done.”
Jun 23, 4:14 pm
DOJ official warned Clark’s plan could lead to ‘grave, constitutional crisis’
Former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue said he tried to convey to Jeffrey Clark that a draft letter he circulated seeking to ask Georgia’s governor and other top state officials to convene the state legislature into a special session to investigate claims of voter fraud — which didn’t exist — could launch the country into a “constitutional crisis.”
“I had to read both emails and the attached letter twice to make sure I really understood what he was proposing — because it was so extreme to me, I had a hard time getting my head around it initially,” he recalled, adding he and former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen had “visceral reactions to it.”
“I thought it was very important to get a prompt response rejecting this out of hand. In my response, I explained a number of reasons that this is not the department’s rule to suggest or dictate [to] state legislatures,” he said.
“More importantly, this was not based on fact. This was actually contrary to the facts as developed by department investigations over the last several weeks and months,” he added. “For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think, would have had great consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled into a constitutional crisis — and I want to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation because he did not seem to really appreciate it.”
Jun 23, 4:03 pm
Trump: ‘Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us’
Drawing from handwritten notes, then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue documented that Trump told him to, “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen.”
When Donoghue told Trump he couldn’t change the outcome of the election, he recalled Trump “responded very quickly.”
“And said, ‘that’s not what I’m asking you to do — I’m just asking you to say it is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” Donoghue said.
He also said Trump told him the Justice Department was “obligated to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election,” despite officials repeatedly telling him no widespread fraud existed and that Biden was the legitimate winner.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger emphasized the gravity of Trump’s request.
“‘Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us,'” he said. “The president wanted the top Justice Department officials to declare that the election was corrupt, even though, as he knew, there was absolutely no evidence to support that statement.”
Jun 23, 3:47 pm
Taped testimony previews showdown Oval Office meeting with Trump
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., played previous video testimony ahead of questioning live witnesses to preview how the committee would reveal findings from what took place inside a heated Oval Office meeting on Jan. 3, 2021, between Trump and top Justice Department officials.
“The meeting took about another two and a half hours from the time I entered. It was entirely focused on whether there should be a DOJ leadership change,” former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue recalled in taped testimony. “I would say, directly in front of the president, Jeff Rosen was to my right. Jeff Clark was to my left.”
“He looked at me and he underscored,” said former acting attorney general Jeff Rosen, “‘Well the one thing we know is you’re not gonna do anything, you don’t even agree that the concerns that are being presented are valid. And here is someone who has a different view, so, why shouldn’t I do that, you know?’ That’s how the discussion went, proceeded.”
Former White House attorney Eric Herschmann underscored the purpose of the meeting, where “Jeff Clark was proposing that Jeff Rosen be replaced by Jeff Clark — and I thought the proposal was asinine.”
Donoghue recalled that Clark “repeatedly said to the president that if he was put in the seat, he would conduct real investigations that would, in his view, uncover widespread fraud.”
Jun 23, 3:46 pm
DOJ denied all of Trump’s requests ahead of Jan. 6: Rosen
Former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen told the committee that Trump made several requests to the Department of Justice after Bill Barr left his position in December 2020.
According to Rosen, Trump called him “virtually every day” between December 23 and January 3.
Trump wanted the DOJ to appoint a special counsel for election fraud, set up a meeting with Rudy Giuliani, to potentially file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, hold a press conference and to send letters to state legislatures furthering baseless claims of fraud.
“I will say that the Justice Department declined all of those requests that I was just referencing,” Rosen said, “because we did not think that they were appropriate based on the facts and the law as we understood them.”
Jun 23, 3:40 pm
Former White House attorney suggests Clark ready to commit felony
The committee played a video of former Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann recalling what he said he told Jeffrey Clark, a lower-level DOJ official overseeing environmental law enforcement, who supported Trump’s proposal to have him become acting attorney general to help overturn the election results.
“When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said ‘[expletive], congratulations. You just admitted your first step you would take as AG would be committing a felony,” Herschmann said. “‘You’re clearly the right candidate for this job.'”
“I told Clark the only thing he knew was that environmental and election both start with “e,” and I’m not even sure you know that,” he added.
In audio testimony, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue also recalled telling Clark, “Go back to your office, we’ll call you when there’s an oil spill,” and calling the draft letter he wanted to send swing states to appoint alternate slates “a murder-suicide pact.”
Rosen and Donoghue were detailing a two-and-half Oval Office meeting where Trump repeatedly pressed but was eventually dissuaded from his plan to install Clark atop the Justice Department to pursue baseless allegations of voter fraud just days before Congress was set to convene to certify Biden’s victory.
Jun 23, 3:20 pm
Cheney: Public to hear about members of Congress who sought pardons
Vice-chair Liz Cheney focused her opening statement Thursday on teasing a draft letter that Trump and former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark wanted the department to send to Georgia officials citing already disproven allegations of fraud.
“As you will see, this letter claims that the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigations have ‘identified significant concerns hat may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of Georgia,'” Cheney said. “In fact, Donald Trump knew this was a lie. The Department of Justice had already informed the president of the United States repeatedly that its investigations had found no fraud sufficient to overturn the results of the 2020 election.”
ABC News obtained and published the draft letter in full last year. Read it here.
Cheney also said the public today will see video testimony by three members of Trump’s White House staff identifying certain members of Congress who contacted the White House after Jan. 6 to “seek presidential pardons for their conduct.”
Jun 23, 3:10 pm
Chair convenes hearing on Trump’s ‘brazen attempt’ to pressure DOJ
Three former top officials in the Justice Department — former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel — sat before lawmakers Thursday as Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., convened the fifth public hearing this month.
“Today, we’ll tell the story of how the pressure campaign also targeted the federal agency charged with enforcement of our laws, the Department of Justice,” Thompson said, going to call it “a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department to advance the president’s professional and personal agenda.”
All three witnesses are expected to detail how they resisted Trump and his allies’ repeated entreaties to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.
Jun 23, 2:51 pm
Rep. Adam Kinzinger to lead hearing
Rep. Adam Kinzinger will lead questioning in today’s hearing, committee aides confirmed to reporters. Kinzinger is one of the two Republicans on the nine-member committee.
“The threat to our democracy is real. And today, we’ll see just how close we came to losing it all,” Kinzinger tweeted ahead of the hearing. “Tune in as we uncover President Trump’s pressure campaign on [the Justice Department] in his desperate attempt to subvert the will of the people to stay in power.”
Jun 23, 2:27 pm
Filmmaker with new Trump footage sits for deposition
British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder sat for a deposition with the committee earlier Thursday after a subpoena commanded him to turn over documentary footage — never-seen publicly — filmed for a series on Trump’s final months in office.
“I have no further comment at this time other than to say that our conversation today was thorough and I appreciated the opportunity to share more context about my project,” Holder said in a statement to ABC News.
Holder was “given unparalleled access and exclusive interviews with President Trump, Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr., Jared Kushner as well as Vice President Pence; in the White House, Mar-A-Lago, behind-the-scenes on the campaign trail, and before and after the events of January 6th,” according to a statement from his spokesperson.
He received a subpoena last Thursday from the committee to turn over footage shot for his documentary series and submitted the materials requested earlier this week.
-ABC News Ali Dukakis
Jun 23, 2:37 pm
House GOP leader dodges questions on Trump, integrity of 2020 election
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a news conference Thursday dodged questions about endorsing Trump in 2024 and whether there was any widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.
McCarthy also said he had no regrets about not allowing Republicans to serve on the Jan. 6 committee. Trump has said McCarthy made a “foolish” mistake by refusing to allow Republican members to join the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked several of his picks.
“I do not regret not appointing anybody at all,” McCarthy told reporters.
There are two Republicans serving on the House panel: Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. The two outspoken Trump critics were appointed by Pelosi.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel
Jun 23, 2:14 pm
Federal agents search home of former Trump Justice Department official
Federal agents searched the Virginia home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark on Wednesday morning, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the activity told ABC News.
It was unclear which federal agencies conducted the search, just hours before the House Jan. 6 committee was set to hold a hearing on then-President Donald Trump’s effort to corrupt the Justice Department in what it says was his plot to overturn the election, but one neighbor who witnessed the law enforcement activity said they saw officials entering the residence early Wednesday.
Clark, a former assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, emerged as a key player in Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department in the wake of the 2020 election. He previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment in an appearance before the Jan. 6 committee and has declined to comment through an attorney when asked about specific details regarding his alleged coordination with Trump and others.
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr and Mike Levine
Jun 23, 1:56 pm
Hearing to detail Trump pressure campaign on DOJ
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what led up to it is set on Thursday to bring into focus Trump’s relentless post-Election Day efforts to enlist the Justice Department in his failed bid to overturn his election loss.
The committee’s fifth hearing this month will feature testimony from three former top officials in the department who say they resisted Trump and his allies’ repeated entreaties, former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former deputy acting attorney general Richard Donoghue and former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel.
All three have previously confirmed that they joined a group of top White House lawyers in threatening a mass resignation if Trump didn’t back away from plans to oust Rosen and replace him with another obscure official in the top echelons of the department who was sympathetic to the Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
Adele has announced the lineup for her two shows on July 1 and 2 at London’s Hyde Park, and she predicts it’s going to “blow your socks off!” The all-female bill includes Kacey Musgraves; Gabrielle — who Adele says is “one of my favorite artists of all time — and “new artists that I’m obsessed with.” Those include Mahalia, Self Esteem, Nilüfer Yanya, Tiana Major9, Chrissi,Bonnie Kemplay, Ruti and Tamzene.
Michael Bublé wants to know if other dads feel his pain when he’s alone with the kids in a hilarious new video. Lipsyncing Silk Sonic‘s “Leave the Door Open,” Michael’s kids overwhelm him as he pleads with his wife on the phone. “Any other dads feel like this when your wife leaves for 5 minutes,” he asked.
Dua Lipa was sued again for posting paparazzi photos of herself to Instagram, reports Billboard. Photographer Robert Barbera claims he shot the photos Dua posted online. He previously sued Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber for the same reason. This marks the second time in a year Dua was accused of copyright infringement.
Have you ever failed to recognize a celebrity in public? Leslie Jordan admitted to the Trailblazers Radiopodcasthe thought Lady Gaga was an extra when they starred in an episode of American HorrorStory: Roanoke together. He admits he told her, “Nice to meet you. Welcome aboard” when they met — and he walked away. Oops!
If you wonder whether those so-called cotton candy grapes taste any good, just know Joe Jonas is a fan of them. He took to his Instagram Stories to share a photo of his recent haul and raved, “My mind is blown!”
Don’t ever steal from Ed Sheeran because he might just stab you — if you take his new TikTok video seriously. He shared a clip of someone sneaking into his dressing room and snagging a cold one from his cooler before turning around to find Ed angrily posing with a knife. Ed joked he’s “always watching.”
Ellie Goulding says she’s “a nature nerd” in a new op-ed to The Guardian. She opened up about her climate activism and the repercussions she faced since speaking out. The “Love Me Like You Do” singer adds she is happy to use her platform to raise awareness of climate change.
Adele has announced the lineup for her two shows on July 1 and 2 at London’s Hyde Park, and she predicts it’s going to “blow your socks off!” The all-female bill includes Kacey Musgraves; Gabrielle — who Adele says is “one of my favorite artists of all time — and “new artists that I’m obsessed with.” Those include Mahalia, Self Esteem, Nilüfer Yanya, Tiana Major9, Chrissi,Bonnie Kemplay, Ruti and Tamzene.
Don’t ever steal from Ed Sheeran because he might just stab you — if you take his new TikTok video seriously. He shared a clip of someone sneaking into his dressing room and snagging a cold one from his cooler before turning around to find Ed angrily posing with a knife. Ed joked he’s “always watching.”
Have you ever failed to recognize a celebrity in public? Leslie Jordan admitted to the Trailblazers Radio podcast he thought Lady Gaga was an extra when they starred in an episode of American Horror Story: Roanoke together. He admits he told her, “Nice to meet you. Welcome aboard” when they met — and he walked away. Oops!
The Kid LAROI‘s “Stay” and “Without You” weree among Australia’s top songs of 2021, according to The Music Network. “Without You” was number one, while “Stay” was the fourth-most popular song on Australian radio.
Selena Gomez has another Rare Beauty drop on the way, called “Use Kind Words.” She previewed a new lipstick color and shared a new makeup tutorial soundtracked to bestie Taylor Swift‘s “The Man.” The new line drops July 7.
Troye Sivan is the next U.S. ambassador of Yves Saint Laurent and will help promote its new “Nu Lip & Cheek Balmy Tint” offering. Troye, who will star in a series of beauty campaigns, said in a statement he’s happy to rep YSL because it’s a brand that “emboldens and inspires boundary-breaking edge, community and attitude.”
(WASHINGTON) — American nuclear scientist John Spor escaped from Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine this week with the help of a rescue organization called Project Dynamo, a Tampa-based nonprofit group run by U.S. veterans.
Spor, a Texas native and founder of Texas Photonics Inc., had been living in Mariupol for several years before the Russia invaded Ukraine last February. He reportedly went into hiding during the siege.
The group said that Spor was considered a high-value target because of the sensitive nature of his work in laser-guided weapons systems and that Chechen-Russian forces “have been actively hunting him.”
Project Dynamo claims Spor was able to pass through more than 30 Russian checkpoints in Eastern Ukraine and was then driven nearly 20 hours straight across the rest of the country and into Poland.
ABC News has not been able to independently confirm the details of the escape but the State Department said Wednesday they’re “aware of the reports” and reiterated that all U.S. citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately.
In Poland, Spor was reunited with his son and his sister, who had contacted the rescue group.
“Project DYNAMO has been with our family every step of the way through this nightmare. DYNAMO has been the answer to our family’s prayers,” said Lauri Weigle, Spor’s sister said in a statement released by Project Dynamo. “We are in amazement that he is finally on his way to us and safe after months of hoping and praying.”
Project Dynamo said it had been working on this complex and dangerous mission to rescue Spor for more than a month. Due to the ongoing nature of the missions, some details and locations are being withheld, according to the statement released by the group.
“I’m so grateful for Project DYNAMO and the support they have provided to me and my family during this time,” said Sean Spor in a statement, who flew to Europe to reunite with his father. “They’ve rescued my dad from harm’s way, and I am eagerly awaiting his arrival.”
Paul McCartney turned 80 on Saturday, June 18, but the former Beatles star has even more to celebrate: He recently surpassed the $1 billion mark in total grosses over the last 30-plus years as a solo touring act, according to Billboard.
In addition, Sir Paul landed at #1 on Billboard‘s Top Tours chart for May, according to data reported to Billboard Boxscore from nine concerts that McCartney played last month as part of his Got Back Tour. His tour brought in $52.4 million and sold 206,000 tickets.
Macca’s full U.S. trek featured 15 dates, running from an April 28 show in Spokane, Washington, through a June 16 performance in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The outing grossed $101.7 million with 416,000 tickets sold.
After his May 31 concert in Knoxville, Tennessee, McCartney’s reported total career grosses increased to more than $1 billion. Paul becomes just the 11th artist to reach the $1 billion mark in the 30-plus-year history of the Billboard Boxscore.
Meanwhile, McCartney’s May 13 show at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, brought in over $12 million alone, making it the second-highest-grossing concert event last month, according to Billboard‘s Top Boxscores. In addition, the rock legend’s May 28 show in Orlando, Florida, landed at #6 on the list, while his May 2-3 stand in Seattle was at #8; his May 6 and 8 engagement in Oakland, California, was at #9; and his May 21 show in Charlotte, North Carolina, was at #10.
In other news, McCartney just announced that he’ll be playing an intimate show on Friday, June 24, at the Cheese & Grain venue in Frome, England, as a warm-up gig for his headlining performance Saturday at England’s famed Glastonbury Festival.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — When she opened the door that one day in April, Sgt. Bishop Evans’ aunt, Felisha Pullen, said she knew instantly that her family’s worst fears had been realized. The 22-year-old Bishop they knew and loved was dead.
“The military doesn’t show up without the soldier, if they know where the soldier is,” Pullen said.
Evans, a sergeant with the Texas National Guard, died while assigned to Operation Lone Star, a border security joint initiative launched by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021 to curb the influx of migrants entering the U.S. Abbott has dispatched thousands of state troopers and service members to dozens of counties near the border, with authorization to arrest migrants on trespassing charges if they are caught on private property in Val Verde and Kinney counties.
Evans, upon seeing two migrants drowning in the Rio Grande River one day, jumped into the water to attempt to rescue them, going beyond his duties. But he was swept away by the river’s current.
Evans’ body was found four days later on April 24, 2022.
“These things can happen even if he’s not in the military, but my heart hurts that he’s not with us,” Jo Ann Johnson, Evans’ grandmother, said. “That he had so much potential.”
Members of Evans’ family said they have yet to receive a report on the details of what exactly transpired.
“What I remember is him explaining that he was going down to guard the border,” Pullen said. “We knew the location that he was going to and what the mission pertained to. But that was pretty much it.”
An already controversial program, Operation Lone Star is now under increasing internal scrutiny for what critics are calling its unclear delineation of responsibilities, as well as insufficient training and resources for service members.
The Texas National Guard wrote in a statement to ABC News that water operations training was not provided because water rescues did not fall under the “purview” of the soldiers at security points.
“Because of the selflessness of Texas Guardsmen, the necessity for throw-ropes became apparent and were ordered,” they wrote. “Unfortunately, that equipment had not been delivered in time for Sgt. Evans to use it in his attempt to rescue the drowning migrants.”
Jason Featherston, a former senior enlisted leader in the Texas Guard who retired just as the operation was underway, said he is now speaking out about the program on behalf of the soldiers who would risk severe consequences if they did so themselves.
“It was a rush to put a number of soldiers on the border,” he said. “The magnitude of problems with pay and equipment with Operation Lone Star is more than I’ve ever seen.”
“I couldn’t plan to do a mission this bad ever,” he said.
The program also has taken a toll on service members’ mental and emotional health, according to Featherston. He said in January alone, 14 soldiers expressed thoughts of self-harm, though this went unreported.
Not long after Evans’ death, the Texas Legislature held a three-hour hearing with the program’s leaders, who requested additional funding and more mental health resources like behavioral health specialists.
To date, Texas has allocated nearly $4 billion in taxpayer funds to the operation, including an additional $500 million in funds approved by Abbott in late April.
A soldier recently deployed under Operation Lone Star, who spoke to ABC News on the condition that ABC News not name him or show his face, said the program is a “very political mission.”
“We’re here so the government can say, I put X amount of soldiers on the border to keep Texas safe so that he [Abbott] can get votes,” he said.
The governor’s office has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment about the initiative. But Abbott claims it has successfully taken illegal drugs and criminals off the street.
Still grieving the loss of Evans, Pullen said her family now has a “new mission” to push for change.
“If it could happen to Bishop, then certainly it could happen to anyone,” she said. “Our military or any servicemen, and women that are down there for the purpose of this mission, let’s make sure they have what they need. Make sure it’s as safe as possible.”
(AUSTIN) — U.S. Marshals found the black Jeep Grand Cherokee registered to Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, the Austin woman suspected of killing professional cyclist Anna Moriah Wilson in May, the law enforcement agency said Thursday.
Investigators with the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force discovered that Armstrong sold the car to a CarMax dealership in Austin on May 13 for $12,200. Armstrong received a check from CarMax just one day after she was questioned by police, they said.
Wilson was found bleeding and unconscious at a friend’s house on May 11 after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, according to police. Despite first-responders performing life-saving measures, she was pronounced dead. Police issued a warrant for Armstrong’s arrest and have been looking for her since last month. She faces a first-degree murder charge.
Colin Strickland, who has been dating and living with Armstrong for three years, dated Wilson during a brief break in their relationship. Strickland and Armstrong resumed dating after that. The day Wilson was killed, she had met with Strickland to go swimming, according to police.
Investigators said Armstrong went to Austin International Bergstrom Airport on May 14, where she boarded a flight to Houston Hobby Airport. Shen then took a connecting flight to New York LaGuardia Airport. Her last known location is the Newark Liberty International Airport where she was dropped off on May 18, according to U.S. Marshals.
Investigators say a source told them Armstrong was provided with transportation to the Newark airport on May 18, but upon searching outbound flights from the airport they found no flight reservations under her name.
The U.S. Marshals Service has elevated the case to “major” and is offering a reward of up to $5,000 in addition to the $1,000 reward from the Capital Area Crime Stoppers, for any information that leads to her arrest. An anonymous donor is also offering up to $15,000 in reward money for her arrest, according to the agency.
Investigators put out a warrant out for Armstrong’s arrest on May 25 for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
U.S. Marshals described Armstrong as 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds. She has long, curly light brown hair and hazel eyes.
