Shawn Mendes says he is still healing after breaking up with girlfriend Camila Cabello, but is thankful his music will always be there for him.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinelreports that in a phone call with reporters, the Canadian star said his first post-breakup song, “When You’re Gone,” was “a kind of good description of how I was feeling a month after my relationship ended.”
He added, “My music is always going to be a representation of where I am. It’s a healing process for me to write about how I feel and put it into music. It’s always been something that’s really helped me grow as a person.”
Shawn and Camila dated for two years before calling it quits in November 2021.
Aside from creating new music, the “Stitches” singer is currently out on his first arena tour in three years, and he hopes his music is bringing comfort to his fans.
“There’s no way to avoid the kind of suffering that’s happened over the last couple of years,” said Shawn, adding that he views music as “cathartic” and “a direct line to the heart.”
There’s also something else Shawn is looking forward to: his big screen debut in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, for which he provides the voice of the titular smiling reptile.
“Seeing my voice kind of come through the face of a CGI crocodile was bizarre,” he said. “I think it’s going to be something I’m so proud of, especially as I get older.”
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile arrives in theaters October 7.
On Thursday, Backstreet Boys announced they’ll release their long-awaited holiday album, A Very Backstreet Christmas, on October 14. Earlier this year, Backstreet’s Nick Carter told ABC Audio that not only does he think people will be impressed with the project, they’ll be “absolutely shocked.”
“It’s something that we have been working on for years, something that we’ve always wanted to do,” Nick said. “Christmas is a very special time for us as family … and for our families. And so, we have a lot of classic holiday songs … stuff that we’ve always listened to growing up … now we have our own versions of those [on the album].”
The album features classics like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Last Christmas” and “The Christmas Song,” as well as three originals. Nick said that because Christmas “is a special time,” he hopes that these new renditions of old songs will help them “become a part of” people’s holiday celebrations.
“We have had a couple Christmas songs, but not this kind of body of work,” Nick pointed out, adding that he thinks “people will be absolutely shocked” when they hear it.
“I know for a fact our vocals on the record are incredible,” he said. “The harmonies are unlike anybody else out there. Nobody else does harmonies like we do.”
Nick added, “We’re excited for people … to hear it for the first time. I think that people are going to be really impressed.”
The group is currently out on their DNA World Tour.
When rising rap star DreamDoll started rapping, it was mostly just for fun and games. The Bronx native said she got her start by making jokes or “cutting a**,” as New Yorkers would call it. Since hitting the hip-hop scene recently, DreamDoll’s career has seen rapid success. At the 2022 Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans, ABC Audio caught up with the rapper to discuss her music journey thus far.
“I’ve been rapping since college. I used to do a lot of freestyles,” she said.
She went into detail about the on-and-off again relationship she’s had with rapping, her decision to start back up and her lead 2017 single, “Everything Nice.”
“And from there, I just kept doing it,” she said. “I either had to stop working in the clubs or take my music serious. And look where I am today.”
DreamDoll said she was proud to be a part of Essence Fest, the annual Black music and arts festival known as the “party with a purpose,” where she performed for the first time this year.
“I’m proud to be on the stage with legends and just to be a part of the culture,” she said.
During the four-day event, the 30-year-old rapper spoke on a panel about plastic surgery and shared her own experience.
She told ABC Audio that she opened up about“the stigma people have about plastic surgery and things that I got done and that if I regretted anything and the misconception people have of plastic surgery and how addicting it is.”
Riding the wave of her recent track “You know My body” with Capella Grey, DreamDoll said to stay tuned for new music on the way.
Luke Combs and his wife Nicole are proud new parents to a baby boy, Tex Lawrence, who joined the family on Father’s Day, June 19. Like any other parents to a newborn, they’re figuring it out as they go, with help from lots of advice from their friends, family and fellow country artists. But there’s one piece of advice Luke’s received that he says he’s taking with a grain of salt.
“The number-one thing I’ve heard is — gosh, what do they call it, a night nurse? That’s a thing I’ve heard about,” he recalls. “That’s a thing that I’ve heard about, which I was just completely unaware of that existing.”
According to WhatToExpect.com, a night nurse is a newborn care expert who helps with in-home care during the first few weeks of a baby’s life, specifically at night, so that exhausted new parents can get some much-needed rest. But Luke says he and Nicole haven’t hired one — at least, not yet.
“You know, I think we’re gonna give it a run for a while and just kind of do it on our own,” Luke explains.
“This child didn’t have a choice to be born. You know, it was our choice to bring him into the world,” the singer reasons. “So I think it would be super selfish of me to go, ‘Oh, now I don’t have time to do this thing.’ And I think trying to do that on our own is something that we’re looking forward to.”
Still, Luke admits that the tough realities of caring for a newborn might change his mind. “Maybe a month of no sleep will change my outlook on that. Who knows,” he admits.
The late Ronnie James Dio would’ve celebrated his 80th birthday on Sunday.
Dio was born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942, and died of stomach cancer May 16, 2010. His career included fronting Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979 and forming his own, namesake band, Dio, releasing the classic album Holy Diver in 1983. Along the way, he popularized the iconic “metal horns” gesture.
In honor of the milestone occasion, Holy Diver has been reissued as a deluxe box set, including remastered and remixed audio, live recordings, outtakes and B-sides. For original Dio drummer Vinny Appice, the reissue allows him to reminisce about the “ball” he, Ronnie and the rest of the band had recording the now double-Platinum album.
“It was a fun time in everyone’s life, and that shows in the music,” Appice tells ABC Audio. “The music’s pretty kick-a**.”
For Appice, having fun recording an album was the most he expected out of the Holy Diver experience.
“I remember one of my drum techs saying, ‘It’s gonna go Platinum, man!'” Appice recalls. “I said, ‘Come on, nah’… And then sure enough.”
“Album comes out, we start playing theaters,” he continues. “Then about three months, four months later, we’re playing arenas. It’s the typical rock story.”
The remix for the Holy Diver reissue was done by Joe Barressi, who’s worked with bands including Tool and Slipknot. He worked from the original analog tapes to put a new spin on the audio, such as including an ending on the song “Holy Diver,” which just fades out on the original released recording.
“I don’t know what else [Barressi] might’ve found on those tapes,” Appice laughs. “Probably a lot of cursing and swearing.”
Journey‘s first new studio album in 11 years, Freedom, was released today.
The 15-track collection, which was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the first Journey album to feature drummer Narada Michael Walden, who also co-produced Freedom with guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain.
Freedom also marks the return of bassist Randy Jackson, who previously played with Journey from 1985 to 1987. Walden and Jackson joined the band after longtime Journey drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory were fired in 2020.
“There’s a different strut to this record altogether,” Schon tells ABC Audio. “[M]any people probably can imagine that…replacing a whole rhythm section is gonna change the overall rhythm, feel in the band. And personally, I love it…I think it’s got a new vibe, and even some of the ballads are…coming from a different place than what we’ve done before.”
Freedom includes songs that sound like they could have come from various eras in Journey’s history, and features a mix of power ballads, hard-rocking tunes, sensitive love songs and even a funk-influenced track.
“I just think the album is very musical,” Neal maintains. “I feel like, for me, it goes back to maybe the Infinity era, when I first started writing with Steve Perry, to what we are now…and what we’re becoming.”
Schon says an important factor in the album’s sound was that, while most of the band contributed their parts remotely, he and Walden worked together laying down guitar and drums tracks live in the studio.
“I personally like [cutting] drums and guitar live…even if there’s no other instruments,” Neal says, “because it breathes new life. You know, there’s a lot of life to the music then.”
Here’s Freedom‘s full track list:
“Together We Run”
“Don’t Give Up on Us”
“Still Believe in Love”
“You Got the Best of Me”
“Live to Love Again”
“The Way We Used to Be”
“Come Away with Me”
“After Glow”
“Let It Rain”
“Holdin On”
“All Day and All Night”
“Don’t Go”
“United We Stand”
“Life Rolls On”
“Beautiful as You Are”
(DETROIT) — Sonja Bonnett and her family built their lives in a home a few blocks south of Eight Mile in northeastern Detroit. The family spent years dreaming of owning the property, but then a letter arrived that quickly tore that life apart.
“One day, I get a letter in the mail that says there’s a $5,000 tax debt,” said Bonnett.
In 2011, Bonnett and her family entered a contract to become full owners and made monthly payments that they thought were covering property tax. The Bonnett family soon discovered multiple years of unpaid property taxes.
Bonnett and her husband could not afford to pay those back taxes and, in 2017, the couple, along with their seven children, were forced out of their home.
“The trauma of losing the house, and the way I lost it, killed a lot of how I felt about the neighborhood and the house,” said Bonnett. “But I still care about the people.”
City records showed that the unpaid taxes owed on Bonnett’s home from 2012 and 2013 added up to less than $5,000. A 2020 investigation by the Detroit News estimated Detroit residents, like the Bonnetts, were overtaxed by $600 million from 2010 to 2016.
Based on estimates by the Detroit News investigation, Bonnett’s former home was overtaxed by more than $1,500 in 2012 and 2013.
For years the city of Detroit greatly over-assessed the value of Bonnett’s home and many others like it. From 2011 to 2015, one in four Detroit homes went into foreclosure because of failure to pay property tax, according to a 2018 study.
Alvin Horhn is the deputy CFO and assessor for the city of Detroit. According to city records, the assessed value of the Bonnetts’ home in 2011 was $22,838, but when the property was reassessed in 2017 – it fell to $10,4000 – less than half of what it was valued before.
“There is no question the city lost control of its assessment roll,” said Horhn.
At the time, Horhn said that the city didn’t have the resources for a citywide reappraisal. In 2013, the city filed for bankruptcy and reportedly $18 billion in debt.
“There’s 400,000 properties in the city of Detroit, over 200,000 houses. I would never tell anyone that every single one of them is valued correctly, but that’s why we have a review,” said Horhn.
According to Michigan’s state constitution, property cannot be assessed at more than 50% of its marketable value.
Bernadette Atuahene is a property law scholar who works with the Coalition for Property Tax Justice and is fighting to end over-assessments in Detroit and to get compensation for affected residents. She said her research found that 53% to 84% of Detroit homes were assessed in violation of that rule from 2009 to 2015.
“We find that the burden of these illegally inflated property taxes is being borne on the most vulnerable homeowners, the ones in the lowest valued homes,” said Atuahene.
While Detroit acknowledges the over-assessment problems in past years, the city told ABC News that the problem is no longer happening.
“There are no systemic over-assessments in this city. If I were to tell you that 95% of the assessment roll is correct, that’s still 5% [or] 20,000 houses that could possibly be overvalued,” said Horhn.
But Atuahene and other housing advocates would argue otherwise. A 2020 study from the University of Chicago found that while fewer Detroit homes were being assessed in violation of the constitution, the city’s lower-valued homes were still being over-assessed.
The problem is not unique to Detroit. A 2021 study found that property rates are 10%-13% higher for Black and Hispanic residents nationwide. In recent years, investigative reports have uncovered disproportionate assessments in Cook County, Illinois, and Philadelphia.
“Detroit is just ground zero for a national problem. We see these inflated property taxes. It’s a national racial justice issue that our country has yet to come to tackle with,” Atuahene said.
In 2020, Detroit proposed a plan offering benefits for homeowners affected between 2010 and 2013, including discounts for properties owned by the Detroit Land Bank, authority and priority access to affordable housing and city jobs. The plan was voted down by Detroit’s city council, with critics saying it didn’t go far enough.
“The city does not have the money to hand people cash. It’s against state law and the city is not going to do anything that could bring the FRC back in control of their finances,” said Horhn.
Residents like the Bonnetts said if the city can admit it was wrong, they have the obligation to make it right.
“I want the world to take a look at what’s going on here… When you talk to Detroiters who went through this, we want our money back,” she said. “Why am I just accepting whatever they can give me?”
(WASHINGTON) — As the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline prepares for the launch of its new three-digit number, 988, on July 16, experts said Thursday they’re excited about the opportunity to reimagine crisis care in the U.S., but building out the system will take time.
“We know that the 16th is the start of a transition, and not an end,” Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittmon said during a press call hosted by the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Delphin-Rittmon is the assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse at SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done, we know, to strengthen and transform the crisis-care continuum,” she said.
The Lifeline has been in operation using a 10-digit number since 2005 and has been underfunded and understaffed since its inception, advocates say. Ahead of the launch of the new number, which experts anticipate will create a dramatic increase in call volume, workforce capacity issues continue to be a concern.
As of December 2021, the Lifeline was only able to answer about 85% of calls coming through nationwide, according to an appropriations report from SAMHSA.
Answer rates vary from state to state, but those calls are answered at the local level when possible. When a local call center isn’t able to answer a call, it gets forwarded to one of the national backup call centers.
The Biden administration has allocated $272 million in federal grant money for states, territories and the national backup centers to help fund the implementation of the new number. An additional $150 million was recently added to that effort as a part of the gun violence legislative package passed by Congress in late June.
That federal funding, hailed by advocates as an unprecedented investment, has already made a difference, Delphin-Rittmon said Thursday.
She explained that the Lifeline’s ability to respond has increased amid the wave of federal funding.
In May, Delphin-Rittmon said, the Lifeline was able to answer 27,000 more calls, 27,000 more chats and 3,000 more texts, compared to February.
Despite the increases in capacity, experts say more state-level investment is needed to ensure this system holds up long-term.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra echoed this sentiment last Friday while speaking with reporters, saying the new number, “will work, if the states are committed to it.”
“It is up to states to step up to the plate and create the funding [to increase capacity],” said Angela Kimball, senior vice president for advocacy and policy for the mental health policy coalition, Inseparable.
Four states have passed cell phone fees to help fund the call centers and crisis response at the state level, and some others have allocated funds from their yearly budget. But, Kimball said, “a lot of states have allocated insufficient resources to actually build a system that has the capacity to respond like people need.”
“That’s going to take people stepping up and demanding that elected officials invest,” she added. “It’s not going to happen for free.”
In addition to the federal funding, SAMHSA has developed a jobs portal for call center jobs across the country to try to help address the workforce issues in the states.
“Crisis care is a priority as it hasn’t been in the past,” said Colleen Carr, director of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
“988 is really a transformational moment in our nation’s response to mental health and suicide prevention,” Carr continued. “And to achieve its full promise, it’s going to require long-term commitment and resources to ensure that anyone in crisis has access to quality and compassionate crisis care, when and where they need it.”
The long-term goals for crisis care response, advocates say, includes not just call centers but mobile crisis response teams and crisis stabilization units for people experiencing issues that cannot be deescalated over the phone. Experts say this continuum, as it’s called, will take even longer to develop than a consistent call response.
These sorts of resources, when available, can provide a professional, compassionate response, Kimball said.
Her own son has struggled with his mental health, she explained, and once needed the help of a mobile crisis team, which was able to deescalate the situation and get him the help he needed.
“This, honestly, is the kind of respectful, humane recovery-oriented response that everyone in crisis needs and deserves,” she said.
988 is the first step in making that continuum a reality, she added, saying, “No one’s worst day should ruin their chance to live their best life.”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(LONDON) — After more than 50 resignations from government ministers and aides, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday.
For a moment on Tuesday evening, it seemed as though the prime minister, who had vowed to carry on despite the collapse of his authority and allies deserting him on all sides, would remain in office, sparking a potential constitutional crisis. But outside Downing Street on Thursday, Johnson caved into the pressure.
Soon enough, from within their ranks, the Conservative Party, who still hold a sizeable majority in the U.K. Parliament, will elect a replacement, and that person will become the fourth prime minister in the six years since the Brexit referendum of 2016.
What happens next?
While he did not specifically use the word “resign,” Johnson said, “The process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.”
In the election process, Conservative MPs nominate their preferred candidate. There is then a run-off with the two most popular candidates, and then Conservative Party members (of the card-carrying, fee-paying kind), vote on who they want to be the next leader.
As the Conservatives have a majority in Parliament (thanks to Johnson’s big election win in 2019) — the winner of their leadership will become the next prime minister.
Reported polls in the U.K. have suggested Ben Wallace, the U.K.’s current secretary of state for defense who has been widely praised for his handling of support for Ukraine, as an early favorite in the race.
But the process is by no means instant. To put the transition into perspective, when Theresa May announced her resignation on the steps of Downing Street on May 24, 2019, Johnson, her successor, did not take office until July 24 — a gap of two months.
Johnson as caretaker?
Boris Johnson has already appointed new ministers to fill some of the gaps left by the dozens of resignations from his government, in a sign that he will attempt to hold true on his promise to stay in charge until a new leader is elected.
However, his resignation speech has not gone down well with embittered members of his party. He has already been accused of arrogance and blaming others for his own faults, instead of facing up to any of the mistakes that led to his departure.
And such is the nature of Johnson’s acrimonious departure, and his defiance in the face of so many calls to resign, that some lawmakers — both Conservative and in the opposition Labour Party — want him gone now.
The Conservative Party may feel that they need a clean slate, and, even on his way out, Johnson may hurt their chances of re-establishing trust with the country. There are indications already that the prime minister sees himself staying in office until the fall. A former Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, has already expressed that Johnson should be removed as soon as possible.
The opposition Labour Party have said they will call for a vote in Parliament to eject him from if Johnson’s removal does not happen.
In that event, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, would take over as prime minister interim until they appoint a new leader.
A divided legacy
Johnson will always be known at home and on the international stage as one of the main architects of Brexit. He was the face of the campaign to leave the EU in 2016, and as prime minister, secured Britain’s exit from the bloc by winning a huge majority in 2019.
His election victories and unconventional style resonated with the public on the campaign trail, exemplified by the two terms he served as Mayor of London before his time in parliament, surprising in a Labour city.
But controversy has always followed him. “Partygate” proved a further stain on his reputation, presiding, to many, over a culture of drinking and lawbreaking while the country was locked down and families were separated from their loved ones, even after he spent time in the ICU with COVID himself. When he was fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending one of those gatherings he became the only sitting British PM in history to have been censured for breaking the law while in office.
Johnson also denied that he had knowledge of a lawmaker’s alleged past misconduct, which he had been told about in 2019, and then promoted him anyway, only for that colleague to repeat his offence.
Johnson’s authority was wounded by “Partygate,” but the latest scandal proved to be the straw the broke the camel’s back.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said protecting Supreme Court justices from threats has been a key part of his agency’s mission even before the leaked draft of the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in May, noting there were more than 4,500 threats to federal judges last year, including against those on the nation’s high court.
“It is something that is a top priority of the agency,” Davis told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in an interview set to air on ABC News Live “Prime” on Thursday.
“To allow judges to be intimidated, to allow judges to be threatened with violence, to influence those kind of decisions is a threat to our very democracy,” he said. “So we have to make sure that the third branch of government can operate without the threat of violence and can do without fear.”
When a California man allegedly traveled to the Washington, D.C., area with the intent to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, it “sent a chill” through him, Davis said, adding he was proud of the deputy U.S. Marshals who first spotted the man and dissuaded the man from carrying out his alleged attack attempt.
“And it would be horrific to think that we could have had a Supreme Court justice assassinated in his home,” he said.
That man has pleaded not guilty.
Amid demonstrations outside of Supreme Court justices’ homes before and after the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Republican governors and members of Congress have urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to enforce a 1950s law prohibiting anyone “with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice,” near a judge’s residence.
Davis said enforcing the law prohibiting picketing outside federal judge’s homes is not a “priority” but rather the safety and security of the justices is the Marshals Service’s mission.
“If so, directed, as you know, we would enforce the laws if directed to do so,” he said. “As far as the enforcement of that, that’s not our priority. That’s not our role right now, because we’re focusing on the residents and the justices at home and in travel.”
Last weekend, Supreme Court marshal Gail Curley wrote to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Montgomery County, Maryland, executive Mark Erlich, Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin and Fairfax County, Virginia, Board chairman Jeff McKay asking them to enforce state and local laws that prohibit picketing outside justices’ homes.
“I am writing to request that the Virginia State Police, in conjunction with local authorities as appropriate, enforce state law that prohibits picketing outside of the homes of Supreme Court Justices who live in Virginia,” the letter to Youngkin said.
In her letter to Hogan, Curley cited threatening language and over 100 protesters who gathered outside the home of a Supreme Court justice in Maryland.
