Does Luke Combs have a collaboration with Miller Lite in the works?
Luke took to Instagram to offer a look at a new beer can designed in his honor. In the video, Luke can be seen holding what appears to be a normal can of Miller Lite. “Wait for it …” he says. When he turns the can over, he reveals an elaborate illustration that shows the hit singer in his signature black collar shirt with a Miller Lite hat on his head, his name written in red lettering above.
The portrait is accompanied by sketches of a guitar, bass fish and the singer with a microphone in hand performing in front of a cheering crowd. “Nothing picks me up like a @millerlite beer can…,” Luke writes in the caption, referencing a line in his song, “Beer Can,” off his debut album This One’s For You.
The hitmaker is not shy about his love of the libation, as evidenced by his Platinum-selling, #1 hit “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
As the definition of “alternative” continues to shift over time, electronic band Bob Moses now has the #1 single on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart.
The duo, made up of Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance, grabbed the top spot on the ranking this week with “Love Brand New,” a track off their new album The Silence in Between. Speaking with ABC Audio, Vallance shares that “Love Brand New” was influenced by a “pioneer of mixing dance music with alternative”: Trent Reznor.
“He’s maybe one of the best people at it,” Vallance says of the Nine Inch Nails frontman. “I think we can’t help but be inspired by acts like him, or acts that inspired him, like Tears for Fears or New Order or Depeche Mode.”
In fact, Vallance describes the very beginning of “Love Brand New” as a “little nod” to Reznor and the NIN classic “Closer.”
“We were obviously locked away not playing shows, and so … we dug into records from the past as sources of inspiration,” Vallance shares.
“Love Brand New” is Bob Moses’ first #1 Alternative Airplay single, which is fitting, given it was one of the first Bob Moses songs to feature outside co-writers: Swedish duo John Martin and Michel Zitron.
Howie shares that he and Vallance were initially “nervous” about a songwriting collaboration — “Writing songs can kinda be an intimate thing,” he says — but found it to be a rewarding experience.
“Now that we feel that we’ve really created a strong identity as the two of us, I think that we feel comfortable … [with] being able to open ourselves up to that new spark of creativity without letting too much outside influence steer us away from what we know Bob Moses is,” Howie says.
Not only is John Mellencamp adept at painting a portrait of life in small town America with his words and music, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer also is literally a talented painter.
Now, a new book showcasing his artwork, titled John Mellencamp: American Paintings and Assemblages, is scheduled to be published on October 17. The 256-page volume, which the artist curated himself, features images of 170 pieces he created, including large-scale oil paintings and mixed-media assemblages.
The book includes self-portraits and portraits of such celebrities as Marlon Brando, Johnny Cash and Mellencamp’s one-time fiancee Meg Ryan, as well as an abstract homage to Martin Luther King Jr.
The book also features essays about Mellencamp’s art, penned by publisher Bob Guccione Jr. and acclaimed journalist and critic David L. Shirey.
“Although we may primarily know Mellencamp as a rock star, one of the highest-selling of all time and a Hall of Famer, he is also a great painter, as this book shows,” writes Guccione. “Not a musician who also paints … No, John legitimately belongs in the modern art pantheon.”
Mellencamp’s most recent studio album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, was released in January. It features three collaborations with Bruce Springsteen.
According to a post on his official website, he’s planning to return to touring in 2023.
Things aren’t always what they seem. Case in point, after pictures of Florence Pugh and Will Poulter hanging out sparked romance rumors, the English actress took to social media to set the record straight.
“Ooookay. Man. This is getting a little silly now. No, Will Poulter and I are not dating,” Pugh, 26, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Tuesday.
“We went to the beach with our friends, who are always about a half a metre away from us in every picture, but have been cleverly cut out/ framed out so that it looks otherwise,” she explained. “You can LITERALLY see my best friend in the corner of so many shots and Archie’s arms at the sides.”
The Midsommar star continued, “I understand that the nature of this job is that you sometimes get your privacy completely bulldozed by paparazzi, but to fabricate this stuff actually does more damage than good. Thanks for saying we look sexy..doesn’t mean we’re doing the sexy.”
The lengthy statement comes days after photos of Pugh and Poulter hanging out in Ibiza went viral. To further prove her point, Pugh shared a few photos of other friends who were along on the friendly trip, before sharing a message urging people to be mindful of what they say online.
“Another note, a very important note. There’s no need to drag people through this,” she wrote. “Regardless of your opinion on who I should or shouldn’t be with, at the end of the day, if you’re complimenting someone by trolling another person…you’re just bullying. There’s literally no need to be horrible online- no need.”
“Think about what you write. Think about who it affects,” Pugh added.
Prior to the recent link to Poulter, Pugh has been romantically linked to actor Zach Braff, 47, since 2018.
On May 25, 2020, the world watched in shock as George Floyd laid on the ground, restrained under Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin‘s knee for nearly 10 minutes. Floyd was gasping for air and repeating his final words, “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death sparked a nationwide reckoning around social justice, police reform and systemic racism but the authors of a new biography say they set out to tell the story of the man behind the movement.
“We knew that he was much more than the 10-minute video that everyone had seen … no one should be reduced to that,” Olorunnipa told ABC Audio. “He was a human being. He loved people. He was loved by people. And it was important for us to show his full humanity.”
With access to Floyd’s family members and close friends, and drawing on over 400 interviews, the authors’ findings include personal life details such as Floyd’s relation to a formerly affluent great-great-grandfather.
“I was surprised that there was actually great wealth in his family history,” Olorunnipa said, noting there were many revelations he found interesting. He described the grandfather’s story from “one of the wealthiest people in eastern North Carolina” to a poverty-stricken man whose descendants suffered the consequences of systemic racism.
Through that example and countless others, the authors were able to draw a direct line between Floyd’s life and the book’s other main focus: institutional racism in America.
As for Olorunnipa’s wishes for the book on the second anniversary of Floyd’s death, “We need to remember what it was about George Floyd’s death … that caused so many people to say, ‘This is not right.'”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Tampa Bay 4, Miami 0
Toronto 8, St. Louis 1
Arizona 8, Kansas City 6
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Minnesota 2, Detroit 0
NY Yankees 7, Baltimore 6
Houston 7, Cleveland 3
Boston 16, Chi White Sox 3
LA Angels 5, Texas 3
Oakland 7 Seattle 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Chi Cubs 11, Cincinnati 4
Colorado 2, Pittsburgh 1
LA Dodgers 9, Washington 4
Atlanta 6, Philadelphia 5
Milwaukee 4, San Diego 1
San Francisco 13, NY Mets 12
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Dallas 119, Golden State 109 (Golden State leads 3-1)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
NY Rangers 4, Carolina 1 (Series tied 2-2)
Edmonton 5, Calgary 3 (Edmonton leads 3-1)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Washington 70, Atlanta 50
Dallas 85, Connecticut 77
Minnesota 84, New York 78
Chicago 95, Indiana 90
(NEW YORK) — The highest court in Massachusetts ruled Tuesday the state attorney general can pursue a civil lawsuit that accused Exxon Mobil of misleading investors about its products and their impact on the climate.
The unanimous opinion, written by Associate Justice Scott Kafker, rejected Exxon Mobil’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit on grounds it violated a state law that protects the company from lawsuits meant to silence Exxon Mobil’s public advocacy on energy policy.
The opinion said the so-called anti-SLAPP law in Massachusetts does not apply to the attorney general.
“Importantly, she is entrusted with the enforcement of the Commonwealth’s laws, in large part through bringing civil enforcement proceedings,” Kafker said. “Construing the anti-SLAPP statute to apply to the Attorney General would place significant roadblocks to the enforcement of the Commonwealth’s laws.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey accused Exxon Mobil in a 2019 lawsuit of failing to disclose to investors material facts about climate change and misleading consumers about the harm Exxon Mobil’s products cause to the environment.
“Exxon Mobil is misleading Massachusetts consumers through so-called “greenwashing” campaigns that wrongly imply that Exxon Mobil is taking steps to solve climate change and reduce carbon,” according to court records.
Exxon Mobil has denied wrongdoing. It cast the lawsuit as political and an unlawful attempt by the attorney general to quash energy policies with which she disagrees.
“The First Amendment reflects the principle that when the government objects to speech, ‘the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence,’” Exxon Mobil said.
Healey, who is now running for governor, lauded the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
“Once again, Exxon’s attacks on my office and our case have been rejected by the courts. Today’s ruling is a resounding victory in our work to stop Exxon from lying to investors and consumers in our state,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
The results should give more insight into the strength of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as the conservative appetite for the “big lie.”
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 24, 9:20 pm
Ken Paxton projected winner of Texas attorney general runoff
ABC News projects that in the Texas Republican primary runoff, incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton will win. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, with 29% of the expected vote in, Paxton leads with 66% of the vote, while George P. Bush follows with 34% of the vote.
This race was both a test of Trump’s endorsement and the power of political dynasties, in this case: the Bushes.
Paxton received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in July 2021 but went into the runoff engulfed in scandals that include indictment for securities fraud, FBI investigations into malfeasance and marital infidelity, among others. He denies all allegations.
His opponent was Bush, who is George H. W. Bush’s grandson and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He is the only member of his famous family still in public office, currently serving as commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.
May 24, 9:04 pm
Marjorie Taylor Greene projected GOP winner in Georgia’s 14th district
ABC News projects that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the winner of the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Greene edged out five Republican competitors and overcame a legal challenge to her reelection despite her turbulent tenure in Congress.
As ABC’s Hannah Demissie reported, a group of Georgia voters said that Greene was not eligible to run for reelection due to her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, citing the 14th Amendment. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger agreed in early May with the court’s recommendation that Greene is allowed to stay on the ballot.
May 24, 9:03 pm
All polls are now closed
The final polls of the night have closed in Arkansas and Montana.
In Arkansas, voters are picking their party’s nominees for governor and Senate. In Minnesota, there is a special election to choose a replacement for Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February.
May 24, 8:31 pm
Brian Kemp projected winner of gubernatorial primary
ABC News has projected that sitting Gov. Brian Kemp will win the Republican nomination in Georgia, defeating former President Donald Trump’s pick David Perdue.
Trump personally courted Perdue to challenge Kemp after the governor refused to indulge his baseless claims about the 2020 election. Despite the former president’s backing, Perdue consistently lagged in polling and fundraising against Kemp.
Kemp’s presumptive victory sets up a rematch between him and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ABC News has projected to win the Democratic nomination for Senate. Their bitter 2018 race for the governorship was decided by less than 55,000 votes. Abrams admitted defeat but said she refused to call it a “concession,” citing tactics she said were used to suppress the vote.
May 24, 8:13 pm
Polls close in Alabama, most of Texas
Polls are now closed in Alabama and most of Texas.
In Texas, all eyes are on a runoff election between Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar and immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros in the state’s 28th Congressional District. Cisneros is backed by the progressive wing of the party, while Cuellar has maintained support from the Democratic establishment despite his anti-abortion stance.
In Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby’s retirement has resulted in a competitive Republican primary between Rep. Mo Brooks, attorney Katie Britt and former Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant. Brooks initially won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race, but later lost it after suggesting it was time to move on from the 2020 election. Trump has not made another endorsement in the contest.
May 24, 7:19 pm
Stacey Abrams projected to win Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia
In the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary, ABC News projects Stacey Abrams will win.
Abrams’s victory in the primary means November’s general election could be a rematch between her and Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Abrams in 2018 by a very narrow margin that she claimed was influenced by tactics that suppressed the vote.
Following her election loss, Abrams turned to advocacy and founded a voting rights group in Georgia. She’s credited as a main figure in helping Democrats flip the state from blue to red in the 2020 election cycle.
May 24, 7:07 pm
Polls close in Georgia
Polls have closed in Georgia, where voters are picking their party’s nominees in several highly-watched Senate, House and gubernatorial primary elections. Anyone already in line as of the 7 p.m. close will still be able to cast a ballot.
The Peach State has a fraught history of long lines and voting issues on Election Day, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “everything so far has been smooth sailing.”
Candidates must receive more than 50% of the vote to win the nomination, or they will face a runoff race on June 21.
May 24, 6:54 pm
Georgia elections are biggest test yet for Trump’s “big lie”
Former President Donald Trump has gone all-in on Georgia, where he’s desperately trying to oust sitting Republican officials who pushed back on his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election.
His picks include fellow election deniers David Perdue, a former senator running against Gov. Brian Kemp; Rep. Jody Hice, who is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; celebrity football star Herschel Walker, who’s seeking a Senate seat; and John Gordon, a businessman trying to unseat Attorney General Chris Carr.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(NEWARK, N.J.) — A United Airlines employee was fired and a former NFL player was arrested following a physical altercation at Newark Liberty International Airport last week.
Brendan Langley, former player for the Denver Broncos, was charged with simple assault and released on his own recognizance following the incident, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The fight broke out after the United employee asked Langley to return a wheelchair he was using to carry his luggage, sources told ABC News. The employee was attempting to retrieve the wheelchair for another passenger who was disabled, the source said.
It is unclear who initiated the fight. Portions of the incident were caught on camera and posted to social media.
United Airlines said it fired the employee after investigating the incident and reviewing video from a bystander.
The Calgary Stampeders football club, for whom Langley currently plays, said it was aware of the incident and “is currently looking into the matter in order to learn the full details and will have no further comment until the investigation is complete.”
The incident comes ahead of the Memorial Day Travel period, which is expected to be the busiest since the start of the pandemic.
ABC News’ Anthony McMahon contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Every single mass shooting in America is not just a tragedy, Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy said, it is a political — a moral — failing by the country’s leaders who must choose anew after each killing to do nothing about the violence.
That was Murphy’s impassioned argument on the Senate floor to his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon, hours after authorities said an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot at least 18 students and a teacher at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
“What are we doing?” Murphy asked the chamber, repeating the question several times throughout his speech, for dramatic effect. “There have been more mass shootings than days in the year,” he said. “Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?”
Little more than week had passed since a suspected white supremacist was accused of killing 10 shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Murphy said. “Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African-American patrons, we have another Sandy Hook on our hands.”
And so again he asked: “What are we doing?”
“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority? If your answer is that as this slaughter increases as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing — what are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this?”
Murphy, the lead Democratic negotiator on so many stalled legislative solutions to gun violence, has become perhaps Congress most outspoken voice on the continued toll of shootings across the country; he was motivated to take up this cause by the killings of Sandy Hook elementary school children in his home state in 2012.
He has urged — and continued to urge — action on the issue even as it has become increasingly polarizing in Congress, where conservatives have little appetite to enact new bills.
In his speech on Tuesday, Murphy invoked the trauma for the surviving Sandy Hook children: “They had to adopt a practice in which there would be a safe word that the kids would say if they started to get thoughts in their brain about what they saw that day, [if] they started to get nightmares during the day, reliving stepping over their classmates’ bodies as they tried to flee the school.”
“Sandy Hook will never ever be the same,” Murphy said. “This community in Texas will never ever be the same.”
And so again he asked: “Why? Why are we here — if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fear communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde is going through?”
There were legislative solutions, Murphy told his fellow senators. There had to be, he said.
“Our heart is breaking for these families,” he said. “Every ounce of love and thoughts and prayers we can send we are sending I’m here on this floor to beg to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”
“I understand my Republican colleagues will not agree to everything that I may support,” he continued, “but there is a common denominator that we can find. There is a place where we can achieve agreement.”
The latest episode of mass gun violence has prompted a familiar timeline of events among politicians: With the president set to address the nation, various lawmakers have spoken out to share their grief and horror and suggest that there be come future bipartisan compromise to reduce gun violence.
Past efforts to enact such legislation, on various scales of reform, have all died in Congress.
In addition to Sen. Murphy, Texas’ congressional delegation began speaking out on Tuesday in the hours after the killings.
John Cornyn, a leading Republican in the Senate and a Houston native, has been at the center of discussions about gun violence that have failed — including background checks reform. He told reporters on Tuesday he was headed back to Texas after his own floor speech and was being briefed by officials, including the Uvalde mayor.
“We’re still trying to get a clearer picture of what’s going on what happened and what the motivation was But it’s clearly horrible,” Cornyn said.
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election on Tuesday for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements of their own.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also spoke on the Senate floor, standing in sharp contrast to Murphy’s emotional appeal.
“Inevitably when there’s a murderer of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens,” he said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
