Ghost has premiered a new song called “Twenties,” which will appear on the band’s upcoming album, Impera.
The track finds frontman Tobias Forge declaring “In the twenties/We’ll be singing in a reign of pennies,” perhaps commenting on our current decade, which has gotten off to a, let’s say, shaky start.
You can listen to “Twenties” now via digital outlets.
“Twenties” is the third song to be released from Impera, following “Hunter’s Moon” and “Call Me Little Sunshine.” The whole album arrives March 11.
Ghost is currently on a co-headlining tour with Volbeat, which concludes Thursday in Anaheim, California.
Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Old Dominion and Kelsea Ballerini are just a few of the country A-listers headed north for the first-ever Lasso Montreal country music festival this summer.
The two-day festival is scheduled for August 12 and 13, with an additional event, Lasso in the City, set for August 11. Old Dominion and Dierks are headlining the first night, with acts like Ashley McBryde, Lily Rose and Tenille Townes also on the bill.
The next day, the lineup will include Breland and Riley Green, with Kelsea and Luke closing out the party.
Lasso Montreal will take place at Île Sainte-Hélène at Parc Jean-Drapeau, a two-island park that was once the site of the Expo 67 World’s Fair. Canadian country music will be well-represented, not only with the Grande Prairie, Alberta export Tenille Townes, but also with a bevy of talented local acts such as Five Roses, Brittany Kennell, Sara Dufour and Léa Jarry.
Tickets for the inaugural Lasso Montreal are on sale now. Fans can choose between GA passes and Gold Passes, the latter of which will offer access to fast-tracked entry, premium views and more.
California State Department Office of the Attorney General
(BAKERSFIELD, Calif.) — The more than yearlong search for two missing California toddlers took a disturbing twist Tuesday night when their adoptive parents were jailed on murder charges, authorities said.
Trezell West, 35, and Jacqueline West, 32, were being held without bail on Wednesday at the Kern County Jail, according to online jail records.
The couple was booked at the jail around 8 p.m. Tuesday on two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of willful cruelty to a child and a misdemeanor charge of making a false report of an emergency, according to jail records. They are expected to make their first appearance in court on Thursday.
The Wests reported their adopted children, 4-year-old Olson and his 3-year-old brother, Orrin, missing in December 2020 from the backyard of their home in California City near Bakersfield, setting off a massive search involving police and volunteers. A reward fund ballooned to more than $120,000 for information on the boys’ whereabouts.
Lt. Jason Townsend of the Bakersfield Police Department confirmed to ABC Bakersfield affiliate station KERO that the couple was arrested around 7 p.m. Tuesday. Townsend declined to release more information on the arrests except to say they were taken into custody in an unincorporated area of Bakersfield.
Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to discuss developments in the case.
Trezell and Jacqueline West reported the boys missing on Dec. 21, 2020, and have publicly denied being involved in their disappearance.
In an interview with KERO just two days after the boys vanished, Trezell West claimed he last saw them playing in their backyard.
“I realized that I left the back gate open and I panicked and came inside the house. [We] searched the house, me and my wife,” Trezell West said at the time. “Once that didn’t pan out, I got in the van. I looked down the street in both directions; it was getting dark, getting cold.”
Police investigators previously said the Wests were not suspects. It was not immediately clear what evidence led investigators to arrest the couple.
The whereabouts of Olson and Orrin remain a mystery. Since the outset of the search for the boys, police have said they suspect foul play was involved in their disappearance.
The Wests were initially foster parents to Orson and Orrin, who came to live with them in 2018. The couple officially completed the adoption process in 2019.
In addition to Orson and Orrin, the couple has four other children, including two who are adopted and two who are biological, investigators told ABC News. The Wests’ four other children had been moved into protective custody, police said.
In an interview with ABC News in February 2021, Trezell West’s mother, Wanda West, defended him and Jacqueline West as “really good parents as far as I’m concerned.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin and Zohreen Shah contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — One of the jurors who convicted Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking in December intends to take the Fifth Amendment at a hearing next week regarding his role on the jury, according to a letter from the juror’s attorney that was made public Wednesday.
“I write to inform the Court that Juror 50 will invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination at the hearing,” wrote Todd Spodek, a lawyer for the juror.
Spodek did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan last week ordered Juror 50, a 35-year-old Manhattan resident, to appear in federal court on March 8 for an inquiry focused on his responses during jury screening and on his post-trial interviews, in which he revealed his alleged personal experience as a victim of childhood sexual abuse.
Nathan last week denied Maxwell’s motion for a new trial based on the current record, but ordered the juror to court to answer questions under oath. The court also unsealed the juror’s responses to a written jury questionnaire, showing that the juror answered “no” to a question asking if he had ever been a victim of sexual harassment, assault or abuse.
In response to the letter from the juror’s lawyer, federal prosecutors informed the court that they are “in the process of seeking internal approval” to grant the juror immunity, thereby compelling him to testify at the hearing. Subject to that approval, the government says it will submit a proposed order to the judge in advance of the hearing, according to a letter from prosecutors that was filed with the court.
Juror 50 granted several interviews in the days following Maxwell’s convictions in late December. Identified in media reports using his first and middle names, Scotty David, told media outlets that during a critical stage of deliberations, he shared his experiences of being sexually abused as a child.
He claimed in interviews that his personal reflections helped convince some skeptical jurors that key prosecution witnesses — the four women who testified about Maxwell’s role in their sexual abuse — could be believed.
“I know what happened when I was sexually abused. I remember the [color] of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video,” he said in an interview with the Independent. “But I can’t remember all the details, there are some things that run together.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted on five felony counts, including sex trafficking and conspiracy to entice minors to travel for illegal sexual activity between 1994 and 2004. Prosecutors portrayed Maxwell and Epstein, the millionaire financier who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges, as “partners in crime who sexually exploited young girls together.”
Maxwell’s lawyers, who structured her defense largely on challenges to the reliability of her accusers’ memories, contend that if Juror 50 had disclosed his history of child sexual abuse during jury screening, he almost certainly would have been removed from consideration.
Maxwell has been detained at New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since her arrest in July 2020.
Royal Blood and Biffy Clyro are the latest artists to drop off the lineup for Moscow’s Park Live festival following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Due to the invasion of Ukraine, we will not be appearing at Park Live Festival in Moscow,” Royal Blood says. “We stand united with all Ukrainian and Russian citizens who want peace.”
Similarly, Biffy Clyro states, “Our thoughts and prayers are with all Ukrainian citizens and Russian people who desire peace.”
Earlier this week, Iggy Popannounced he was canceling his Park Live headlining set, calling the decision “necessary.” Additionally, a rep for The Killers tells Billboard that the “Mr. Brightside” rockers have pulled out of the festival, as well.
Park Live takes place over multiple weekends throughout June and July. Other listed headliners include My Chemical Romance, Placebo, Gorillaz, Deftones, Five Finger Death Punch, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Wednesday released a sweeping new 96-page plan on COVID, marking a new era in the pandemic in which the virus is still circulating but can hopefully be managed so that Americans can return to daily life without disruption.
The strategy, that President Joe Biden previewed Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, calls for making available more free rapid tests online starting next week, as well as setting up pharmacy clinics later this month that will hand out free antiviral pills to people who test positive.
The plan also promises the ability to mass produce 1 billion doses of vaccine each year so that a new formula can be delivered within 100 days in the event of an aggressive new variant. The administration also vows to continue its efforts to provide vaccinations globally to help prevent future mutations.
“We are not going to just ‘live with COVID,'” states the new strategy called the “National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.”
“Because of our work, we are no longer going to let COVID-19 dictate how we live,” it adds.
The White House notes in its plan that these efforts will require more money, in addition to the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package Biden pushed through last year. That money has mostly either been spent or obligated through contracts. Officials have not said yet how much would be needed.
“Without these investments, many of the activities described below cannot be initiated or sustained,” the White House wrote.
ABC News last week first reported efforts by the White House to revise its strategy to signal a new era in the pandemic. The effort has involved private meeting with business leaders, governors and the nation’s top pandemic experts to consider the various paths the virus could take in the coming months.
The updated strategy comes after significant voter pressure to reopen fully the country and curb disruptions. Democratic strategists have warned candidates they would fare better focusing on other issues like controlling inflation.
But federal health officials defend the shift as not merely political. Case numbers and hospitalization levels have plummeted in recent weeks, easing pressure on health care workers.
Officials also note that the vaccine held up throughout the omicron wave. The vast majority of people in hospitals have been unvaccinated, while vaccinated people mostly experienced mild symptoms that did not require medical help.
Paul McCartney has joined the many artists and other celebrities voicing his support for Ukraine as the country is being invaded by the Russian military.
McCartney has posted a note on his official website and social media pages that reads, “Remembering playing for our friends in Ukraine in Independence Square in 2008 and thinking of them in these difficult times. We send our love and support.”
Sir Paul also included link to three organizations aiding in relief for Ukrainians in need — UNICEF, Save the Children and the Red Cross.
Accompanying the message is a photo of Sir Paul waving a Ukrainian flag while onstage at the aforementioned concert, which took place in June 2008 in the capital city of Kyiv. According to PaulMcCartney.com, the former Beatles legend’s show was free, was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, and was broadcast live on Ukrainian television.
The mega-yacht “Dilbar” is completely shrouded while docked in the harbor in Hamburg, Germany. The 156-meter-long ship is said to belong to a Russian oligarch. – Markus Scholz/picture alliance via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a task force to target the assets of Russian oligarchs after President Joe Biden previewed the move in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs,” Biden said. “We are joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets. We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
The U.S. says the oligarchs have ties to President Vladimir Putin and he uses them to launder or hide hundreds of millions of dollars obtained through corruption.
Dubbed Task Force KleptoCapture, the group will investigate and prosecute new sanctions, combat unlawful efforts to undermine restrictions taken against Russian financial institutions by Russians who flout the restrictions, go after oligarchs who use cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions and seize the assets of Russian oligarchs.
The department says it will bring “cutting edge” resources from the deputy attorney general’s office and will be led by a career prosecutor out of the Southern District of New York.
“The Justice Department will use all of its authorities to seize the assets of individuals and entities who violate these sanctions,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a press release. “We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war. Let me be clear: if you violate our laws, we will hold you accountable.”
The Task Force is designed to ensure the “full effect” of sanctions leveled against the Russian government, “which have been designed to isolate Russia from global markets and impose serious costs for this unjustified act of war, by targeting the crimes of Russian officials, government-aligned elites, and those who aid or conceal their unlawful conduct,” the Department says.
Even if Russian oligarchs can’t be prosecuted in the United States, DOJ will still seize assets including personal real estate, financial and commercial assets. DOJ says they will work with their European counterparts around the world to ensure these objectives are met.
The move has bipartisan support.
Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., floated the idea of a DOJ task force seizing Russian assets, calling it the “number one priority” of the supplemental funding bill.
“It is now time for that crowd to lose their yachts loose their luxury apartments, and to pay a price for being part of a thuggish group,” Graham said.
ABC News Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
Actresses Nia Long, Quinta Brunson, Aunjanue Ellis and Chanté Adams will be honored at the 15th Anniversary Black Women in Hollywood Awards, ESSENCE announced on Wednesday.
The highly coveted event, hosted this year by “SnowFall” star Damson Idris, honors Black women for their extraordinary achievements in the entertainment industry.
“For a decade and a half, ESSENCE has spotlighted and honored the Black women who curate and shape Hollywood and the entertainment ecosystem from a variety of roles and positions. We are proud to again commemorate their achievements at our signature awards luncheon and throughout the year,” ESSENCE CEO Caroline Wanga said.
The star-studded affair was commemorated in ESSENCE ’s March/April print issue, which hit stands on Tuesday and features newly-married couple Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts.
“We proudly continue celebrating actresses championing for authentic portrayals and diverse storytelling across film, television and streaming,” said Cori Murray, ESSENCE deputy editor. “Much like our theme, the Black Cinematic Universe, the power in our presence is infinite.”
The Black Women in Hollywood Awards falls during Oscar week and is part of the larger ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood celebration. The awards will air as a virtual experience on Monday, March 28 from 7-10 p.m. on EssenceStudios.com.
The third annual Essence Hollywood House, an experience developed to provide compelling content and conversation, will be held on March 25.
Sean Paul is ready to hit the road after a two-year pause and, on Wednesday, unveiled his multi-stop Scorcha Tour that kicks off later this month.
The “Temperature” rapper kicks off his 10-stop tour on March 11 at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida. He will then hit the nation’s largest metro areas, such as New York City and Las Vegas, before wrapping on May 29 at California’s Monterey Fairgrounds.
This tour fulfills the promise Sean made to fans about returning to the road by the spring. Prior to this, he hadn’t left Jamaica since the pandemic all but shut down the touring industry and halted his plans.
“While a digital platform may keep you connected, it is no substitute for being physically interactive with fans,” the Dancehall star said in a statement.
The Scorcha Tour will support Sean’s upcoming eighth studio album of the same name, which is the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated album, Live N Livin. The tour also coincides with the 20th anniversary of Sean’s breakthrough album, Dutty Rock, which produced the hits “Baby Boy,” “Gimme The Light” and “Get Busy.”
