Denise Truscello/Getty Images for The Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio Las Vegas
Congratulations are in order for Leona Lewis, who welcomed her first child with husband Dennis Jauch. The “Bleeding Love” singer announced she gave birth to their daughter last month.
The Grammy nominee took to Instagram to share the happy news, posting a photo of her cuddling with her bundle of joy while holding hands with her partner. “And then there were three,” she captioned the post. “Our little Carmel Allegra arrived 22.7.22.”
Leona’s famous friends — such as Jessie J, Keri Hilson, Calum Scott and Dancing with the Stars pro Keo Motsepe — flooded the comments with an outpouring of congratulatory remarks and celebrations.
The British singer first revealed she was going to be a mom back in March when she posted a glamour shot of her posing in a form-fitting black dress. She’s turned to the side in the snap, which showed off her growing pregnant stomach. She captioned the sentimental post, “Can’t wait to meet you in the Summer.”
This is the first child for Lewis, 37, and Jauch, 33. The couple wed in 2019.
Drake has dropped a new video for his Honestly, Nevermind track “Sticky.”
In the jet-setting Theo Skudra-directed clip, we see Drake living it up in various locations – from partying on a yacht to a dinner party in a mansion to camping in the woods. The visual also prominently features an off-road Maybach, designed by late fashion icon Virgil Abloh, as well as a shout-out to jailed rappers Young Thug and Gunna.
The video drop comes after Drake announced he tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to postpone Monday night’s Young Money reunion show in Toronto.
(NEW YORK) — Risk management strategies for floods and drought may not reduce the effects of unprecedented extreme weather events as they become more frequent due to climate change, researchers are warning.
In the past, even with effective risk management efforts that reduced global vulnerability to floods and drought, the regions affected still suffered dire consequences, researchers at the German Research Center for Geosciences stated in a study published Wednesday in Nature.
Those events are already increasing in severity in many parts of the world. If the planet warms by 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution started, the worst-case scenario presented in the Paris Agreement and many climate change studies, flooding events may double globally and even triple in some places, according to the study.
The planet has already warmed a little more than 1 degree Celsius, according to scientists.
The researchers analyzed a dataset of 45 pairs of flood or drought events that occurred in the same area at different time points — about 16 years apart on average — and found that, in general, risk management reduced the impact of floods and drought.
However, when the events were at magnitudes that have not been previously experienced, the effectiveness of the risk management strategies may not as successful, regardless of the approaches taken and whether they had worked in the past, the researchers found.
This may be due to aging infrastructure that was designed to manage a hazard much less menacing than the extreme weather events that are occurring today, such as levees or water reservoirs being exceeded, according to the study.
In addition, flaws to human risk perception, especially for rare extreme events, might hinder efforts to anticipate them and lessen their effects, the researchers said.
In the past two weeks, the U.S. has experienced heat waves in regions that had rarely reached triple-digit temperatures, such as the Pacific Northwest, and back-to-back devastating flooding events in regions that are not built or equipped to handle such an influx of precipitation that modern day storm systems are carrying, such as the record flooding that occurred in Missouri and the catastrophic flooding that claimed dozens of lives in eastern Kentucky.
The researchers did note successful responses from two events in which the second event was more hazardous but the effects were less than those of the first event — flooding in Barcelona in 1995 and 2018 and Danube catchment floods in Austria and Germany in 2002 and 2013.
They hypothesized that the lessened damage from the second event was due to improved risk management investment and integrated management approaches, which then led to improved early warning and emergency responses.
The findings highlight the difficulty of managing such extreme events as warming global temperatures increase the frequency and intensity of not just floods and drought but storm systems and wildfires as well, the researchers said.
The successful responses can serve as an example for risk management efforts for future unprecedented weather events, the authors concluded.
Tony Bennett turns 96 today, and he was presented with an unexpected birthday gift from the Television Academy — a belated Emmy nod!
He and Lady Gaga have been confirmed as official Emmy nominees for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) thanks to their show One Last Time: an Evening with Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, which premiered last year. CBS Network was previously named the sole nominee for the special.
Gaga and Bennett have both been named co-nominees since they not only performed that night, they also hosted the special. In addition, they will also share the award with the show’s five executive producers, three producers and one supervising producer, who were also confirmed as official nominees for the award.
One Last Time was filmed at two sold-out shows at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in August 2021, which served as both Bennett’s 95th birthday celebration and his last hurrah. The legendary crooner has since retired from performing, and the shows marked his final public concert performance.
Bennett has since revealed he has been battling Alzheimer’s since 2016.
Gaga spoke to 60 Minutes after of the show’s taping and expressed she was nervous for Tony because of his health. “I wasn’t sure if he knew who I was…when that music comes on, something happens to him, he knows exactly what he’s doing,” she recalled to host Anderson Cooper. “When I walked out on that stage and he said, ‘It’s Lady Gaga!’ — my friend saw me and it was very special.”
Find out if Bennett and Gaga will add a new Emmy to their trophy case when the 74th annual Emmy Awards air on Monday, September 22 on NBC. The ceremony will also stream on Peacock.
(WASHINGTON) — A leading House Democrat on Wednesday backtracked on comments she made Tuesday that she doubts President Joe Biden will renew his bid for the presidency in 2024 — a highly unusual break from the party’s standard-bearer.
The White House has said repeatedly Biden intends to run for reelection.
When asked during a debate if he should run again, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is currently seeking reelection for the Empire State’s 12th Congressional District, told debate moderators from NY1: “I don’t believe he’s running.”
Maloney is in a hotly contested primary, in part due to redistricting that pits her against another Capitol Hill veteran, Rep. Jerry Nadler. The pair face off on Aug. 23.
Nadler told debate moderators on Tuesday that it was “too early to say” if Biden would run again in 2024, adding that such speculation “doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to deal with that until after the midterms.”
Maloney’s answer was quickly seized on by the Republican National Committee and circulated on social media.
Maloney is no political novice. The chair of the House Oversight Committee has served in Congress for nearly 30 years, and her prognosis of Biden’s prospects are at odds with some others in the party: The Democratic National Committee and the White House — as well as congressional leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer — have aligned on another potential Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. The president previously told ABC News’ David Muir that he would run as long as his health remained good.
Maloney tweaked her remarks somewhat Wednesday morning, tweeting that she would “absolutely support President Biden, if he decides to run for re-election.”
“Biden’s leadership securing historic investments for healthcare, climate & economic justice prove once again why he is the strong and effective leader we need right now,” she said.
Still, Maloney is not alone in her reservations: Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., recently told local media that he doesn’t believe Biden should seek a second term. “I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats to step up,” Phillips said.
Later, in a statement to The Minnesota Star Tribune, he added: “Under no condition can we afford another four years of Donald Trump, and while Joe Biden was clearly the right candidate at the right time two years ago, it’s my hope that both major parties put forward new candidates of principle, civility, and integrity in 2024.”
Minnesota House colleague Angie Craig then cited Phillips this week when she said that there needs to be a “new generation of leadership.”
At 79, Biden is the oldest-ever serving president — breaking a record set by his predecessor, Donald Trump, now 76.
Biden last month defended his popularity among Democrats, telling ABC News that a New York Times/Siena College poll showing a majority of his party preferring another 2024 nominee also found that 92% of Democrats said they’d vote for him in another race with Trump.
And among all voters, the poll found, Biden would best Trump 44% to 41%.
Biden told ABC News in December that the prospect of such a rematch was appealing.
“You’re trying to tempt me now,” Biden told Muir then, laughing. “Why would I not run against Donald Trump for the nominee?” he added. “That’ll increase the prospect of running.”
Carly Pearce is reflecting on the passing of her grandfather.
Carly’s beloved grandfather, from whom she gets her last name, passed away in 2008. She says she still gets messages from him, as evidenced by the lightning bug that paid her a visit on the anniversary of his death.
“My grandpa has been gone 14 years today. I have been thinking about him so much, and then this little lightning bug appears in my house randomly…which if you knew us, is such a sign,” she writes on Instagram Stories alongside a clip of the bug climbing up the wall, accompanied by a teary-eyed and heart emoji.
As a young girl raised in Kentucky, Carly’s grandparents helped instill a love of country music in her when they listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio. Once she became a country star herself, Carly wrote a song inspired by her grandparents’ love, “It Won’t Always Be Like This,” that’s featured on her 2020 self-titled album.
(NEW YORK) — The parent company of department store chain T.J. Maxx has agreed to pay a $13 million fine for the sale of roughly 1,200 recalled products over a five-year period, including products determined to have put infants at risk of suffocation and death, a federal agency said on Tuesday.
TJX Companies Inc., which also oversees retail chains Marshalls and HomeGoods, sold the recalled products at brick-and-mortar stores belonging to the three subsidiary brands from 2014 to 2019, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, said.
Sales of the recalled products also took place online, the agency said.
In addition to paying the fine, TJX will maintain a set of internal controls to ensure that the company complies with law that prohibits the sale of recalled products, the CPSC said. TJX has agreed to file annual reports on its compliance program for five years, the agency added.
Most of the recalled products sold by TJX were recalled due to the risk of infant suffocation and death, including the Kids II Rocking Sleepers, Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleepers and Fisher-Price Inclined Sleeper Accessory for Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yards, the CPSC said.
“At TJX, product safety is very important to us and we prohibit the sale of recalled items in our stores,” TJX said in a statement. “We deeply regret that in some instances between 2014 and 2019, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place.”
“We have made a significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen our processes, and have cooperated fully with the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” the company added.
In 2019, CPSC and TJX jointly announced that TJX had sold 19 separate recalled products. After the announcement, TJX reported to staff that it subsequently discovered previous sales of three additional recalled products, CPSC said.
TJX reported $11.4 billion in revenue over a three-month period that ended on April 30, which amounted to an increase of 13% over the same three-month period a year prior. The company reported $587 million in profit over the three-month period that ended in April.
If you were ever hoping to visit the house where the video for Jimmy Eat World‘s “The Middle” was filmed, you’re unfortunately out of luck.
In a tweet responding to a fan asking about the house, the emo rockers shared, “Sadly that house was torn down.”
The band also posted a Google Maps view of where the house used to stand, on the corner of E Lincoln Drive and N 40th Place in Paradise Valley, Arizona, a Phoenix suburb near Jimmy Eat World’s hometown of Mesa, Arizona.
The video for “The Middle” features an awkward outsider who stumbles upon a house party filled with people dancing in their underwear. The clip’s been viewed over 89 million times on YouTube.
While you’re mourning the loss of “The Middle” house, you can listen to Jimmy Eat World’s latest single, “Something Loud,” which premiered in June. You can also catch the band live on tour in September and at the much-anticipated When We Were Young festival in October.
Another Wendy Williams headline has left fans scratching their heads: Did she just get re-married?
That’s purportedly what she claimed to Hollywood Unlocked podcast host Jason Lee, who said she told him she tied the knot with an NYPD officer named Henry.
Lee recalled on his Tuesday night installment, “She says, ‘I’m married.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ She’s like, ‘I got married.'”
“I’m like, ‘You got married when?’ And she’s like, ‘I got married last week,'” he continued.
However, Page Six reached out to the former talk show host’s rep William Selby, who threw cold water on the reported wedding news, calling it “inaccurate.”
“She is excited about a new relationship and probably got carried away in conversation,” he explained.
The publication points out it’s not the first time Wendy has apparently gotten ahead of herself in the romance department. In 2019, she was dating a former cop-turned-criminal justice expert Dr. Darrin Porcher.
He called her comments “flattering to hear” but told Page Six, “it’s not the case,” explaining he was in another relationship and had merely worked for Wendy “for a couple of weeks” after she’d filed for divorce from her ex-husband, Kevin Hunter.
Lee also revealed that Williams told him she had her publicist keep her “entire family away,” except her son Kevin Hunter Jr., “for at least a year” and reiterated her claims that her finances are still locked because Wells Fargo bank has frozen them.
As previously reported, Wendy claims the company helped enact a conservatorship against her will, declaring her “incapacitated” and unable to manage her finances.
The company has denied any “improper actions” regarding the situation.
(OVERLAND PARK, Kan.) — Abortion rights opponents in Kansas vowed to keep fighting after voters here decisively rejected removing the right to abortion from the state constitution in the first state-level test since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections.
“This setback is not going to stop us. Our resolve has never been stronger than in this very moment,” Peter Northcott, executive director of Kansans for Life said following Tuesday’s defeat.
Coming just weeks after the Roe v. Wade decision, organizers on both sides said voters were more energized and engaged, leading to record turnout despite the issue being decided in a primary in a midterm year when numbers are historically lower.
As of Tuesday morning, more than 298,618 Kansans had cast ballots compared to the 2018 primaries during which only 89,449 had voted early, according to the Kansas secretary of state’s office.
The “Value them Both” amendment centered on a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion under the state constitution.
If the amendment had passed, it would have given the state’s GOP-controlled legislature the power to pass new abortion restrictions.
With 99% of the expected vote counted as of 8:31 a.m. Wednesday, “No” led with 59% to “Yes” at 41%
Kansas currently permits abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, although regulations include requirements for counseling, parental consent for minors, and a waiting period.
“I think that Kansas can make a statement to other states and show them that, even though we are normally Republican, we are not letting this be a political choice,” Jackie Clapper told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott while canvassing with Kansans for Constitutional Freedom ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
“We are making this to be a health care choice a right to be able to preserve your choice to make choice decisions for your own body,” she said.
Abortion rights opponents say the issue is far from settled.
“If the last 50 years haven’t shown anything we’ve been fighting we’re not going to stop fighting until every woman is supported, every every father is supported, every child is supported. There’s nobody that’s unwanted and nobody wants to ever give up,” Mary Kissel, told ABC News at the Value them Both coalition watch party.
The ballot question read, in part, “Shall the following be adopted? Regulation of abortion. Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.”
It continued, “A vote for the Value Them Both Amendment would affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and would reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion. A vote against the Value Them Both Amendment would make no changes to the constitution of the state of Kansas, and could restrict the people, through their elected state legislators, from regulating abortion by leaving in place the recently recognized right to abortion.”
Following Tuesday’s defeat, the coalition claimed “misinformation” and “confusion that misled Kansans about the amendment.”
“As our state becomes an abortion destination, it will be even more important for Kansans to support our pregnancy resource centers, post-abortive ministries, and other organizations that provide supportive care to women facing unexpected pregnancies. We will be back,” the coalition said in a statement to ABC News.
Voters waiting in line also expressed confusion about the amendment, many saying that while they eventually understood what they were voting on, they had to make an extra effort to figure it out.
Celia Maris, a Democrat who voted “no” on the proposed amendment, said she had to read the wording multiple times, saying, “I think they need to explain it because not everybody can understand the terminology.”
At the same time, she said the confusion made her want to turn out. “I made a point to come and vote today even more.”
Christine Matthews, a “yes” voter, said it wasn’t clear what the amendment would do and wouldn’t do.
“I do think that some people think that if you vote no, then you will totally go back to having a national legal abortion situation. I also think that people think if you vote “yes,” that that is just going to completely wipe out abortion completely. I know neither of those was true.”
Tuesday’s vote was seen as a bellwether in a post-Roe world and will set a precedent for other states considering similar abortion measures.
President Joe Biden used Kansas’ ballot amendment defeat to call on Congress to “listen to the will of the American people and restore the protections of Row as federal law.”
“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and show have the right to make their own health care decisions,” he said in a statement.
