(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was indicted by a grand jury on contempt of Congress charges Friday for defying subpoenas from the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, the Department of Justice announced.
“Former White House advisor Peter K. Navarro has been indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the United States Capitol,” the Justice Department said in a release.
The Strokes had to cancel their set at Spain’s Primavera Sound festival this week due to COVID-19, but the band’s music was still heard thanks to Tame Impala.
Kevin Parker and company performed a cover of Strokes classic “Last Nite” during their Primavera Sound set Thursday. You can watch fan-shot footage of the rendition, which inspired an enthusiastic crowd singalong, now via YouTube.
Primavera Sound announced earlier this week that The Strokes would be canceling their Friday headlining set due to an “ongoing positive COVID-19 case” within the band. A positive test also forced The Strokes to pull out of last weekend’s Boston Calling festival.
The Strokes expect to return to the stage next Wednesday, June 8, for a show in Stockholm, Sweden. They’re also scheduled to play the second weekend of Primavera Sound on June 10.
Luke Bryan has earned countless awards, accolades and honors for his work in the country music genre, but there’s one milestone he’s been waiting his whole life to reach — and he just hit it.
That big moment, of course, is catching a fish over 10 pounds. Luke’s an avid fisherman, so much so that he recorded a song called “Bill Dance” — named after the famed professional fisherman — for his Born Here Live Here Die Here album in 2020.
Luke posted video of the special moment with a clip of that song playing in the background when he finally caught the fish of his dreams — an 11.6-pound largemouth bass.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment,” he wrote in the caption of his post. “11.6 baby.”
Luke’s currently taking a well-deserved fishing break after wrapping the latest season of American Idol, where he serves as a judge.
Fans of the beloved sitcom The Golden Girls will soon get to live like Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sofia in their Shady Pines apartment, thanks to a new, full-service pop-up restaurant experience.
The Golden Girls Kitchen is being presented by the experience company Bucketlisters and was the brainchild of Derek Berry, the guy who brought to life interactive experiences based on Breaking Bad, Saved by the Bell and other fan favorites.
The Golden Girls Kitchen officially opens in July, but its website is currently taking reservations. For $50, you can sample items like The Dorothy: A Miami Style Sandwich, Sophia’s Lasagna, Blanche’s Georgia Style Cookies, Rose on Rosé and, as was often eaten in the girls’ kitchen, cheesecake.
Post Malone finally unleashed his fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache, and it is laced with collaborations.
The new album contains the previously released tracks “Cooped Up” featuring rapper Roddy Ricch and “One Right Now” with The Weekend. Posty also tapped Doja Cat to assist on the bouncy single “I Like You (A Happier Song)” and The Kid LAROI for the pensive track “Wasting Angels.”
The collaborations aren’t a surprise because during the three years fans waited for this new album, Post hopped on several collaborative tracks with artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, DJ Khaled and Big Sean.
The Grammy nominee previously told Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe that this album is a departure from his previous works. “I think this whole record is the most honest record I’ve made,” he said at the time. “Every song in there tells a story.”
He also declared that this new work is his favorite because he took his time perfecting it. He also said it reignited his love of making music. “We had enough time to work on it, that’s for sure,” he said. “At the beginning it was rough. But then I came into what I like to do and who I am and what makes me happy.”
Twelve Carat Toothache is the follow-up to 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding.
It’s no secret that fashion, beauty and fitness guru Keyshia Ka’Oir has held it down for her husband Gucci Mane for years. In the new single “Mrs. Davis” the Atlanta rapper pens a sweet love letter to his partner, thanking his lady for her love and loyalty over the course of more than a decade.
In the chorus of the song, Gucci references Ka’Oir’s sacrifice throughout the earlier years of their relationship. He raps, “I was at my worst, so you deserve my best / I treat you like a queen, ’cause you deserve the best / Said I’d get twenty years, she didn’t break a sweat / Went from kissin’ in the jail, to kissin’ on a jet.”
The rapper also dropped the official music video to match the catchy song, in which his wife is the leading lady. From a private jet, among other luxurious locations, the duo is seen loving on one another and rocking lots of ice, per usual.
Speaking of “ice,” the video features cameos from their 1-year-old son, Ice Davis,whom the couple welcomed in December 2020. The birth of their baby boy preceded Gucci’s 15th studio album, Ice Daddy, named in honor of his son.
To hear all of Gucci Mane’s praise for his wife, download “Mrs. Davis” on any major streaming platform.
(NEW YORK) — As a disturbing string of mass shootings focuses the public spotlight on gun violence, the embattled National Rifle Association appears to have suffered another year of diminished membership revenue and cuts to core programs, according to an annual financial report obtained by ABC News.
The 31-page document, distributed to members who attended last week’s annual NRA convention in Houston, shows an organization reining in spending as revenue derived from its members fell 19% between 2020 and 2021.
Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University who tracks NRA spending, says the numbers suggest the NRA appears to be at a “real risk of entering a downward spiral.”
“By cutting back on core programs and legislative spending, the risk that the organization runs is that members will suddenly realize that they are paying the same dues for fewer benefits,” Mittendorf said. “If [the NRA] loses some of those members, revenues decline further, they will have to cut even more spending — and the trend continues.”
Mired in a series of lawsuits and scandals, the NRA’s standing as one of America’s most influential lobbying groups has waned in recent years.
Revenue from membership dues has plummeted nearly 43% from a record high in 2018, according to the 2021 financial assessment, pulling in just over $97 million — down from nearly $120 million in 2020. Spending on the areas of “safety, education & training” was cut roughly in half over the past three years, the document shows.
NRA spokesperson Andrew Arulanandam cited disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic for the organization’s reduced spending in 2021, and expressed confidence that the group would rebound in the coming year.
“Despite the global pandemic and the many challenges it created over the past two years, the NRA emerged financially strong and secure,” Arulanandam told ABC News. “NRA members are eager to return to our grassroots activities, participate in firearms education and training, and engage in events and competitions. All of this bodes well for 2022 and beyond.”
Meanwhile, the organization is fighting legal battles on multiple fronts — most notably in New York, where Attorney General Tish James has sued the organization for allegedly diverting money away from its charitable mission. As a result, the group’s legal costs continue to mount.
In 2021, according to its financial records, the organization devoted nearly a quarter of its total expenditures — $52 million — to legal fees. Arulanandam said that “naturally, the association expended significant resources to defend itself from the NYAG’s lawsuit. However, the NRA is winning that fight.” A judge blocked the attorney general’s bid to dissolve the organization in March, but the lawsuit remains active.
The organization’s legislative expenses, which include lobbying and electioneering activities, plummeted by $28.6 million between 2020 and 2021 — a 57% drop, according to the records, which were first reported by The Trace.
While it’s not uncommon for political organizations to spend substantially less during an off-election year following a presidential election, the NRA’s legislative spending cuts last year suggest a gradual downsizing of its legislative and political apparatus over the last few years.
Since the landmark 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case that allowed corporations and advocacy organizations to spend unlimited funds on elections as long as they’re independent from candidates, the NRA and its super PACs have funneled more than $140 million in independent expenditures into federal elections, according to campaign disclosure data compiled by Washington-based nonpartisan research group OpenSecrets. The organization’s federal election spending peaked in 2016, when the NRA and its committees spent $54 million in independent expenditures, including more than $30 million to support Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton, according to campaign disclosure records.
But the NRA’s political spending began to drop during the 2018 election cycle, when it reporting just under $10 million in outside spending — significantly less than the $27 million it spent during the 2014 midterms. Then, during the 2020 presidential election cycle, the NRA’s total outside federal election spending was just over $29 million — nearly half of what it had spent in 2016.
So far in the 2022 election cycle, the NRA’s political apparatus has barely reported any independent expenditures — only $9,600, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
Supporters, however, say that the slim prospects for sweeping gun control legislation — even in the face of the recent mass shootings — suggest that the NRA’s message has become so deeply engrained among gun rights advocates that the organization no longer requires a robust political operation.
The NRA’s influence “does not come from some guy sitting on K Street,” NRA board member Phillip Journey said in reference to Washington lobbyists — but instead from its place in the hearts of American gun owners.
Journey, a Kansas judge, has nonetheless waged an aggressive and public campaign to oust Wayne LaPierre, the longtime NRA chief who oversaw the organization’s rise over the past three decades. Journey said the organization’s financial position reflects years of mismanagement — and has opened the door for other gun advocacy groups to fill the void.
“There’s blood in the water, and it comes from a self-inflicted wound,” Journey said. “NRA leadership has nobody to blame but themselves for the decisions they’ve made.”
The National Association of Gun Rights and the Gun Owners of America, two competing longtime gun-rights groups, have beefed up their operations in recent years and are gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections through their super PACs — while other gun advocacy groups like the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Safari Club International continue their active engagement in federal elections through campaign contributions.
Additional super PACs like the Gun Owners Action Fund and Hunter Nation Action — funded largely by top GOP donors such as the Ricketts family, Charles Schwab, Ken Griffith and Warren Stephens — popped up in late 2020 to promote pro-Second Amendment messaging while providing an 11th-hour boost for Republican incumbent Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the Georgia Senate runoffs in January 2021.
More recently, Donald Trump Jr. launched his own gun-rights group called the Second Amendment Task Force, with the aim of fighting Democratic gun control proposals and promoting Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections.
Still, compared to the NRA, all these groups have much smaller budgets and staffs. And some gun-control advocates say that could open the door for more compromise on gun control.
“The fact that in recent years it has been slashing spending on programs like safety and education while pouring tens of millions into legal fees shows exactly how deep this crisis is for the NRA,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Smaller groups might try to fill that vacuum, but they’re no match for a gun safety movement that is bigger, stronger, and louder than ever.”
Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The U.K. is throwing a once-in-a-generation celebration for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
The 96-year-old queen is the first British monarch in history to reach a Platinum Jubilee, which marks 70 years on the throne.
Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI.
Starting Thursday, the Platinum Jubilee celebration will include everything from the traditional Trooping the Color birthday parade for the queen to a star-studded concert led by Diana Ross to thousands of street parties across the country.
Here is how the news is developing Fridayday. All times Eastern. Check back for updates:
Jun 03, 11:01 am
Queen Elizabeth II will miss second Platinum Jubilee event
Queen Elizabeth II will be absent from a second Platinum Jubilee event after missing Friday’s National Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The 96-year-old queen, who is marking 70 years on the throne, will not attend the Epsom Derby on Saturday, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
The queen is instead expected to watch the horse race on television at Windsor Castle, according to the palace.
Elizabeth attended Thursday’s Trooping the Color and a beacon lighting ceremony later that night, but decided not to attend Friday’s service after experiencing “some discomfort” during previous events.
The palace has previously said the queen suffers from “episodic mobility problems.”
Jun 03, 7:25 am
The royal family head to Guildhall after service at St. Paul’s
The National Service of Thanksgiving has concluded after nearly an hour.
Following the service, the bells at St. Paul’s Cathedral will be rung for a continuous four hours with no breaks in between.
According to a press release, members of the St Paul’s Cathedral Guild of Ringers “will ring ‘Stedman Cinques'” and “will be joined by Great Paul, the largest church bell in the UK,” which weighs in at more than 16 tons.
The Great Paul bell was restored in 2021 and this will be the first time it has been rung for a royal occasion.
Royal family members will now head over to a reception at Guildhall, hosted by Vincent Keaveny, the Lord Mayor of the City of London and the City of London Corporation.
Jun 03, 6:25 am
Prince William and Kate, Prince Charles and Camilla arrive at St. Paul’s
Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have entered St. Paul’s Cathedral to attend the service.
Several minutes after their arrival, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, also made their way into the central London cathedral.
Once inside the cathedral, Charles and Camilla joined William and Kate to form a royal procession before they took their seats for the service.
Other royal family members who already arrived include the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, and her husband Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence; their children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, and Zara’s husband Mike Tindall; and Elizabeth’s youngest son Prince Edward and his family.
Prince Andrew’s children, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as well as their husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank, were also in attendance.
The royal family is attending the National Service of Thanksgiving — which includes Bible readings, prayers and hymns intended to give thanks for the queen’s 70-year reign — without Elizabeth herself. Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that the queen would not attend in person after experiencing “some discomfort” at the Trooping the Color parade earlier in the day.
Jun 03, 6:05 am
Prince Harry and Meghan reunite publicly with royal family
Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have arrived at St. Paul’s Cathedral, marking the first time the couple has appeared publicly with the royal family in two years.
For the occasion, Meghan wore a white belted coat dress, matching hat and gloves, and Harry wore a tailored black dress jacket featuring his military medals and pinstripe pants. They were greeted by a guard of honor and then the Very Reverend Dr. David Ison on the cathedral’s western steps.
The Sussexes stepped down from their roles as senior working members of the royal family in 2020 and later moved to California, where they live with their two children.
The couple watched the Trooping the Color parade Thursday alongside other royal family members at Buckingham Palace, but did not appear publicly.
Jun 03, 5:45 am
What to watch as royals head to church on day 2 of Platinum Jubilee celebrations
The British royal family and more than 400 invitees — including government and faith leaders, teachers, military members, and COVID-19 frontline workers — are gathering at a National Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne.
The 96-year-old queen will not attend the service after experiencing “some discomfort” at Thursday’s Trooping the Color parade, according to Buckingham Palace.
Other senior royals are expected to attend, including three of the queen’s four children — Princes Charles and Edward and Princess Anne. The queen’s son, Prince Andrew tested positive for COVID-19 and will not attend, a royal source told ABC News.
The service — led by the Very Reverend Dr. David Ison — is being held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which also hosted services for the queen’s Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees.
The service will include readings from the Bible, prayers and hymns that will “give thanks for the Queen’s reign, faith and lifetime of service,” according to the palace.
The Royal Marines’ band and trumpeters from the Royal Air Force and the Household Cavalry, which also performed at Prince Philip’s funeral, will play before and after the service.
A new song, titled “By Wisdom” and composed for the Platinum Jubilee, will also be performed.
After being presented an honorary doctorate by Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music virtually last month during the school’s 2022 commencement festivities, Ringo Starr got to accept the degree in person on Thursday at an intimate event held at Berklee’s David Friend Recital Hall.
The Boston Herald reports that the ceremony began with performances from Berklee students, followed by introductory remarks from the school’s president, Erica Muhl, and drummer Gregg Bissonette, a longtime member of Ringo’s All Starr Band.
Ringo then took the stage to accept the honor. During his speech, video of which has been posted on Berklee’s official YouTube channel, the former Beatles drummer thanked the school and declared, “The idea that I’m a doctor blows me away.”
He then commented, “I just hit the buggers, and it seems to be I hit them in the right place.” Ringo went over to a drum kit set up on stage and demonstrated a couple of simple lessons he’s given to fledgling drummers, including his son Zak Starkey.
Ringo also recalled how he developed a passion for drumming after he was given a little drum to play in a hospital while he was recuperating from an illness as a teenager.
“I just wanted to be a drummer from that moment on. It was my big dream,” Ringo said. “And it’s still unfolding.”
Ringo and the All Starr Band also played a concert in Boston Thursday night at the Wang Theatre. Their current North American tour continues Friday night in Worcester, Massachusetts.
At the May commencement, Ringo sent a prerecorded video featuring another acceptance speech that you can also watch at Berklee’s YouTube channel.
The Apple TV+ series Physicalis back for more heart-pumping drama, with season two launching Friday.
So what can fans look forward to this season? Rose Byrne, who stars as Sheila, tells ABC Audio, “Season two starts with Sheila slowly trying to set up her business as a fitness instructor, as a fitness guru…And this season really opens up the world.”
“It’s a lot more about the other characters and the other lives of characters. And Sheila is quote unquote, in recovery from her eating disorder,” she continues. “But we soon find out, you know, that’s far from the truth and far from the case. She’s just sort of replaced it with other things.”
Although the season will also explore more of the other characters, viewers will see plenty of Sheila as she has to “fight to be taken seriously.”
“She’s trying to get at the totem pole in this very conservative kind of conventional company that has taken her on as a personality,” Byrne explains. “And they’re just telling her to stay in her lane and she has bigger ideas and she has to kind of circumnavigate that and figure out a way out, and fight her way out again.”
One difference fans of Physical might notice is that there isn’t as much voiceover as the first season, even though Byrne raves about doing them.
“I love doing it,” she says. “I’m one of those weird beasts who enjoy going into the looping room and fixing the performance and finding the humor an
