“WUBBA LUBBA DUB-DUB!” The absurdist, Emmy-winning animated series Rick and Morty will make its anticipated return for season six on Adult Swim on Sunday, September 4 at 11 p.m.
The show, co-created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the latter of whom voices its titular leads, has snagged a pair of Emmys and was just nominated for a third. The series has become “more than a hit show” but “truly a global phenomenon,” according to Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim and Cartoon Network.
Adult Swim points out that the series, about the universe’s most brilliant scientist Rick Sanchez and his ever-awkward grandson Morty Smith, has been viewed over 10 billion times all over the world, across broadcast airings, digital and streaming.
Series writer Mike McCann recently explained what it takes to bring the show to life. “Rick and Morty is really hard to write! Like, I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but it takes a while to make because it’s just really complex. And like, when you’re sitting down to write that show, it takes a lot of work!”
To get fans ready for the big launch, Adidas has teamed up with Adult Swim for an R&M-themed sneaker called the X SPEEDPORTAL.
Colored in the same day-glo green as the fluid in Rick’s dimensional hopping portal gun, the kicks promise to “open the gateway to multidimensional speed,” and give wearers “light-speed sprints and physics-defying sidesteps.” They come in both sneaker form and in cleats — or as people who call soccer “football” refer to them, “boots.”
Comic books might usually cover superheroes, but this one is all about a music superstar.
Stevie Nicks is the focus of a new 22-page comic book detailing the rocker’s life and career from TidalWave Comics.
The comic book is part of the brand’s “Female Force” series, which highlights impactful women from all around the world. As per its description, it explores Nicks’ “passion and unrelenting drive to succeed as an artist.”
Michael Frizell penned the story, with illustrations by artist Ramon Salas.
“There’s a popular meme that talks about how Taylor Swift writes sad songs about her exes, but Stevie Nicks makes her exes sing songs she wrote about them explaining how horrible they are, and every time I see it, I laugh,” notes Frizell. “Stevie’s fearlessness makes her a rock legend and explains her staying power and popularity.”
You can check out a preview of Female Force: Stevie Nicks at Tidal Wave Comics’ Twitter page.
Female Force: Stevie Nicks is available now in both print and digital formats.
Sister Kelly Williams pictured with her roommates, who are also becoming nuns, in Chicago, Illinois. – ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Across the United States, young adults are becoming less religious.
A 2018 and 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that the number of Americans who identify as Christians has dropped 12% over the past decade. The group who described themselves as Catholic, in particular, has also shrunk, leaving a crisis in the Catholic sisterhood. Nuns are growing older and there is a concern that there will be fewer young people looking to join the sisterhood.
According to a recent study, less than 1% of nuns in America are under 40 and the average sister is 80 years old.
Sister Joanne Persch just turned 88. She said that many of her friends who joined her in service in the early 1950s have died. Throughout the painful pandemic and societal upheaval, she said there is still a great need for nuns in America.
“Well, I think it’s a big mistake to say that religious life is dying,” said Persch. “And I look around me in our community and I see such vibrant, such life. It’s changing and growing into something we can’t even imagine.”
In 2022, there were reportedly fewer than 42,000 nuns in America, which is a 76% decline over 50 years. At the rate sisters are disappearing, one estimate said that there will be fewer than 1,000 nuns left in the United States by 2042, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Sister Kelly Williams is working toward becoming one of the few nuns still left in the life. She is 34 years old and started her journey nine years ago. She said people are often surprised that she is so “normal.”
“I think I’ve had people be surprised that I like to listen to music and not all of it is religious,” said Williams, who added that she and her roommates enjoy watching Netflix and Hulu together. “I don’t go to bars like I would when I was in college.”
Williams is a former college admissions counselor who lives in Chicago with four other sisters who are close to her age. She expects to take her final vows in a few years and officially become a Catholic sister with the Sisters of Mercy – one of the largest religious orders for Catholic women.
“God’s got big plans,” said Williams. “And hopefully, we follow them.”
One thing Williams said she won’t be giving up is her Facebook, Instagram or TikTok accounts. She is using social media to help spread awareness of the lifestyle of young nuns.
“I started making videos every Saturday… It’s called Saturday Sister Surprise and every Saturday I hide something in my hair and I pull it out. It has been religious items and silly items,” said Williams. “It’s something that has brought a lot of joy to people.”
She said she was drawn to the stability of the church and felt a “call” to be a part of it.
“It was a place where you could be educated, was a place where all of these things could happen for you and I think there are so many options that are available,” said Williams. “But you have to want this. This is about God’s call and responding to that.”
Williams and her roommates said that young people today are resistant to the structure of religious life and many have been put off by the scandals of the Catholic Church, which they struggle to work past themselves. They said that they pray every day for their future as a sisterhood and ask for strength that more young women will answer the call.
“The American memory is attached to the nun of yesteryear. It’s very hard for us now to kind of be breaking through those stereotypes that were established,” said Sister Jane Aseltine. “We are still fighting that battle as younger, religious women to say this is what a typical American nun looks like in today’s world.”
(WASHINGTON) – Nancy Pelosi was the guest speaker at the unveiling of a new statue at Statuary Hall of Amelia Earhart, the famous aviator born in Atchison, Kansas in 1897, who made history as the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
The speaker of the house described Earheart as “an American who personifies the daring and determined spirit of our nation.”
Following Pelosi’s opening statements, the national anthem and a prayer from Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Kansas’ Gov. Lauren Kelly took the stage.
“Who better than to represent our great state in Statuary Hall than Dwight D. Eisenhower and now a native daughter of Kansas, Amelia Earhart,” Kelly said. “A woman who showed all of us what it means to reach for the stars.”
The bronze statue took seven years for brothers George and Mark Lundeen to create. Because only two statues are allowed to represent each state, and only one can be placed in Statuary Hall, Earhart’s likeness replaced that of U.S. Senator John Ingalls whose statue has occupied the hall since 1907.
This is just the 11th statue of 100 that represents a woman. U.S. Representative from Kansas, Sharice Davids championed her as a pioneer of women’s rights.
“Female pilots used to be called ladybirds, sweethearts of the air, and because of Amelia Earhart back then, now, and into the future, women who fly planes are now called pilots,” said Davids.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., described the unveiled piece as “a statue of a determined woman with short cut hair, a curious smile, a bomber hat in hand and a sunflower on her belt buckle.”
(NEW YORK) — Country music superstar Shania Twain is sharing new details about the health battle she says she faced due to Lyme disease.
Twain, 56, said she thought she had lost the ability to sing after a tick bite she got while horseback riding in 2003 led to Lyme disease, a tick-borne infectious disease that, if left untreated, can affect the joints, heart and nervous system, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“My voice was never the same again,” Twain said in a new documentary about her life, Not Just a Girl. “I thought I’d lost my voice forever. I thought that was it, [and] I would never, ever sing again.”
Twain was in the height of her career when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She says in the documentary the condition affected her ability to perform.
“My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy. I was losing my balance. I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage,” she said. “I was having these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds.”
In a 2020 appearance on ABC’s The View, Twain said it took “several years” for doctors to connect the problems with her voice to her Lyme disease diagnosis.
She said the disease caused damage to her vocal cords in the three weeks between when she was bitten by a tick and when she started treatment for the infection.
“There were seven years where I could not, for example, yell out for my dog. My voice would just cut out in certain places,” said Twain. “And it took another several years to determine what it was. It wasn’t anything obvious. Nobody connected the Lyme disease to it. In the end, a neurologist finally connected that it was the nerve to each vocal cord.”
Twain said that although her voice was permanently impacted, she feels grateful the disease didn’t attack another part of her body, like her heart.
“It was just a very unfortunate, ironic problem since I’m a singer, but I feel so grateful and so lucky that it didn’t attack somewhere else because it’s so debilitating,” she said, adding that she now has a “grip” on the disease. “I have a different voice now but I own it. I love my voice now.”
What to know about Lyme disease
Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., according to the CDC, has impacted other celebrities including Amy Schumer and Justin Bieber.
The illness, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted to humans via tick bites and is more likely to be contracted in the late spring, summer and fall. In most cases, the tick must be attached to the skin for at least 36 hours before the bacterium can be transmitted.
Symptoms generally appear after one week, with approximately 70% to 80% of people experiencing a classic “bull’s eye” rash which expands in size at the site of the bite.
Symptoms in the acute phase include fever, headache and fatigue. If left untreated, the infection can spread to joints, the heart and the nervous system. People also may experience lingering symptoms that last months or even years, such as muscle and joint pain, cognitive defects and sleep disturbances, according to the CDC.
Once confirmed with laboratory testing, most cases can be treated for a few weeks with antibiotics. According to the Mayo Clinic, Lyme disease should be treated immediately and may require intravenous antibiotics if the case is severe.
Lyme disease is most commonly found in the Northeast and upper Midwest, with 96% of all cases in 14 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to the CDC.
The CDC recommends preventive measures to avoid ticks including avoiding “wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter,” and walking in the center of trails.
When hiking or in wooded areas, you can also treat your clothes and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin, according to the CDC. They also recommend always doing a “tick check” after being outside and wearing insect repellent with Deet.
Ticks can also come into the home through clothing and pets, so the CDC recommends checking pets for ticks and tumble drying clothes on high heat for 10 minutes after coming indoors to kill ticks.
If you are ever in a situation where you are bitten by a tick, the Cleveland Clinic recommends tugging gently but firmly near the head of the tick until it releases its hold on the skin.
People who are outdoors in areas that may have ticks should also conduct a full body check when they return, including checking under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, in and around the hair, between the legs and around the waist, the CDC recommends.
John Smith, M.D., a psychiatrist and contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Leading gun manufacturing executives testified Wednesday morning before a House panel investigating the role of the firearms industry in the nation’s high rates of gun violence, maintaining that Americans — not firearms — cause mass shootings.
The hearing, beginning at 10 a.m. ET and helmed by House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, featured two top CEOs ahead of the consideration of legislation that would target the sale of semiautomatic weapons, a move that many gun rights supporters and Republicans oppose as unconstitutional.
Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense, said that he was at the hearing voluntarily but was “concerned” that the implied purpose of the hearing was to vilify and blame rifles for recent deadly shootings in Uvalde, Texas; Highland Park, Illinois; and Buffalo, New York, among others.
Two months ago, the Uvalde gunman used a Daniel Defense weapon to kill 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school.
Rep. Maloney asked Daniel if he had responsibility for the Texas shooting.
“Many Americans, myself included, have witnessed an erosion of personal responsibility in our country and in our culture. Mass shootings are all but what unheard of just a few decades ago,” Daniel said. “So what changed? Not the firearms. They are substantially the same as those manufactured over 100 years ago. I believe our nation’s response needs to focus not on the type of gun but on the type of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings.”
Maloney spoke with ABC News on Tuesday about the context of the hearing. She said it should be a “wakeup call” for Congress to act on gun reform “to hold these gun manufacturers accountable for the deadly weapons that they’re manufacturing that are killing innocent Americans.”
“Most industries have a responsibility for their products. We have liability on our cars. Every time there’s a car wreck, we study it. We should do the same thing with guns. We should have liability on guns. They’re far more dangerous than cars,” Maloney told “GMA3.”
Daniel and Christopher Killroy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., were confirmed witnesses ahead of the hearing.
Maloney told ABC News that a representative for a third gun manufacturer, President Mark P. Smith of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., was invited to the hearing. Smith is not confirmed to attend.
“I would say, ‘We have invited three manufacturers — CEOs — [and] two have accepted,'” Maloney said.
“One is dodging us and not responding to our requests for documents,” she contended. “And we intend to hold them accountable eventually in some form.”
The oversight committee sent letters on May 26 to Smith & Wesson, Daniel Defense and Sturm, among others, following mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
The letters sought further information on the companies’ sale and marketing of assault-style semiautomatic rifles and similar firearms, “including revenue and profit information, internal data on deaths or injuries caused by firearms they manufacture, and marketing and promotional materials.”
On July 7, following the Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, Maloney sent additional letters to the CEOs of the three top gun manufacturers, requesting their appearance at Wednesday’s hearing.
Maloney’s request for the hearing with gun executives came ahead of the committee’s June 8 hearing with Uvalde and Buffalo survivors and victims’ relatives.
President Joe Biden a month ago signed into law a bipartisan gun safety package, which did not include the weapons ban he sought. House Democrats are pushing for more reforms.
Maloney told ABC News that she believed the additional legislation “will make America safer for our citizens.”
Shawn Mendes has canceled the rest of his Wonder Tour to prioritize his mental health.
He broke the sad news on Instagram Wednesday via a lengthy statement. “As you guys know, I had to postpone the past few weeks of shows since I wasn’t totally prepared for the toll that being back on the road would take on me,” the Grammy nominee explained.
He continued, “I started this tour excited to finally get back to playing live after a long break due to the pandemic, but the reality is I was not ready for how difficult touring would be after this time away.”
“After speaking more with my team and working with an incredible group of health professionals, it has become more clear I need to take the time I’ve never taken personally, to ground myself and come back stronger,” Shawn wrote. “I unfortunately have to cancel the rest of the tour dates in North America and the UK / Europe.”
The singer added, “We were hopeful that I might be able to pick up with the rest of the dates after some much needed time off, but at this time I have to put my health as my first priority.”
Shawn said he will also be using this time to focus on “making new music.” The “Stitches” singer apologized to his fans for pulling the plug on his Wonder Tour, adding, “I know you all have been waiting do long to see these shows, and it breaks my heart to tell you this but I promise I will be back as soon as I’ve taken the right time to heal.”
Earlier this month, the Canadian superstar announced he was postponing his tour for three weeks and said in a since-deleted post he “hit a breaking point.”
Drake has unveiled his latest capsule collection for NOCTA, his sportswear label in collaboration with Nike.
The basketball line features hoodies, t-shirts, fleece sweatpants, basketball jerseys, compression tights, headbands and more.
Drake touted the collection on social media and shouted out the Nike Elite Youth Basketball players, who modeled the new designs. “Sometimes You Sometimes Me Always Us…” he wrote, referencing the brand’s slogan. “The next generation of superstar athletes are family members already.”
Prices range from $12 to $120, and the collection is available on Nike.com and NOCTA.com.
Lollapalooza is expanding once again, this time to Asia.
The inaugural edition of Lollapalooza India will take place January 28-29, 2023 in the city of Mumbai. The festival will feature 40 acts spread across four stages.
The lineup and exact venue details will be announced at a later date. Until then, you can stay tuned to LollaIndia.com.
Lollapalooza was founded in 1991 by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell as a touring festival. In 2005, Lolla was retooled as a destination festival taking place in Chicago’s Grant Park, where it’s been held ever since.
Starting in 2011, Lollapalooza expanded internationally to South America with a festival in Chile and then in Brazil and Argentina. The festival has since widened to Europe with events in France, Germany and Sweden.
The U.S. Lollapalooza takes place this year July 28-31. The lineup includes Green Day, Metallica, Machine Gun Kelly, Glass Animals, Porno for Pyros, Måneskin, WILLOW and Royal Blood.
Luke Combs may have his next business venture in mind.
In a round of CMA’s “Ask Another Artist,” Thomas Rhett asked Luke now that he’s launched his own line of Crocs what he has in store for his next business idea.
“Probably more Crocs I think would be a good start,” Luke responds. While he’s considering expanding on his Crocs line, the “Beer Never Broke My Heart” singer is also open to putting his mark on other types of footwear.
“I’d love to do boots I think,” he said, showing off a pair of cowboy boots he was wearing that faded from golden yellow on top into dark brown on the foot. “These are pretty stylin,’ so maybe boots is the next play.”
Luke has had four collections of Crocs to date, the latest being a fuzzy-lined pair of white Crocs boasting a skull emblem.
