Chris Brown‘s tenth studio album Breezy is finally here.
After much anticipation, the R&B singer dropped the 24-track project Friday, which includes his previously released Normani-assisted song “WE (Warm Embrace),” as well as “Iffy,” which appears as a bonus track.
Brown’s new album is a star-studded affair, with features from some of the hottest names in R&B and hip-hop. Ella Mai contributes her vocals to the track “Sex Memories,” while Jack Harlow appears on “Psychic,” and both Lil Wayne and BLEU contribute to “Possessive.” The album also has features from Fivio Foreign, Lil Durk, Capella Grey, Lil Baby, H.E.R., Bryson Tiller, EST Gee, Blxst, and Tory Lanez.
Breezyis Brown’s first album in three years. His last album, Indigo, was released in 2019.
Talk about a real estate boom! The real estate reality show Selling Sunset has been renewed for seasons 6 and 7, Netflix announced Thursday. The streaming platform will also be debuting a spin-off series, Selling the OC, on August 24. Netflix also announced a bunch of new home renovation programming, including How to Build a Sex Room, which features an interior designer helping couples spice up their space. The series debuts July 8 …
The Spy Kids reboot has found its stars. Deadline reports Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Everly Carganilla and newcomer Connor Esterson are set to star as the spy family in filmmaker Robert Rodriguez‘s new adaptation of the franchise, which he’s on board to write, direct and produce. The original Spy Kids debuted in 2001 with Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino in the adult roles, and Alexa PenaVega and Daryl Sabara as the kids …
Chrissy Teigen will be returning for more Chrissy’s Court on the Roku Channel, Varietyreports. Her show has been renewed for a third season after its second season broke viewership records for Roku. “The cases in Season 3 of ‘Chrissy’s Court’ are wilder, the people are more fun than ever, and no claim is too petty for my courtroom,” Teigen said in a statement to Variety. The new season will debut on October 21 …
(UVALDE, Texas) — One month has passed since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and a series of new revelations about the May 24 shooting has done little to abate the frustrations of Uvalde’s residents as they continue to heal.
State and local officials have spent weeks trying to reconcile incomplete and, at times, conflicting reports on the shooting and the questionable police response. And while multiple investigations remain ongoing — including one being conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice — some critical facts remain elusive following one of the deadliest school shootings in the nation’s history.
Some information emerged this week when Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, whose agency is conducting one of the probes, testified before the Texas state legislature. McCraw, who presented an updated timeline of events that he said was based on video surveillance and police communications, characterized the police response as an “abject failure,” and offered what appeared to be the most complete account of what occurred during the deadly rampage.
In McCraw’s telling, enough officers and equipment arrived on the scene within three minutes to “neutralize” the 18-year-old shooter. He also made the stunning assertion that the door to the classroom containing the gunman might have been unlocked all along — even as officers waited more than an hour to find a key that would open it.
“One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in rooms 111 and 112 to be rescued,” McCraw said. “And while they waited, the on-scene commander waited for radios and rifles. Then he waited for shields. Then he waited for SWAT. Lastly, he waited for a key that was never needed.”
Police officers arrived on-scene almost immediately, but failed to overcome logistical and communications challenges in time to limit the carnage. McCraw said officers had difficulty communicating because their radios had no reception inside the building, contributing to a leadership vacuum that crippled the police response.
McCraw reserved his harshest criticism for Pete Arredondo, the embattled school district police chief who was the on-scene incident commander. McCraw called Arredondo “the only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering” the classrooms and killing the gunman.
“[Arredondo] decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children,” McCraw said.
McCraw’s condemnation of Arredondo has added to a growing chorus of outrage over the police response on May 24. Emotional accounts from survivors and first responders before Congress and in the press have cast a critical eye on law enforcement.
“They’re cowards,” teacher Arnulfo Reyes, who lost 11 students and sustained multiple gunshot wounds, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “They sit there and did nothing for our community. They took a long time to go in … I will never forgive them.”
Meanwhile, after several weeks of community members calling for Arredondo’s resignation, the Uvalde school superintendent on Wednesday placed Arredondo on administrative leave. Arredondo has not responded to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.
“He should never be allowed to work in law enforcement again,” one member of the Uvalde community told ABC affiliate KSAT on Wednesday. “My personal opinion.”
Many Uvalde residents say the shifting narrative has fostered an immense distrust of authorities — while the lack of information has provided little solace to relatives of the victims. A number of family members hope that an upcoming report from the county medical examiner will answer some of their most pressing questions.
“[The medical examiner] can tell us more or less what happened to our child. Was [her death] immediate or could she have been saved if [police] went in faster?” Kim Rubio, the mother of Uvalde victim Lexi Rubio, told ABC News’ Mireya Villareal. “I just think about how long she was there. Was she scared? Was she in pain? It just worries me.”
Demands for investigative documents also reached new heights this week, prompting a new round of infighting among officials.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Tuesday accused McCraw of “[having] an agenda, and it’s not to present a full report on what happened and to give factual answers to the families of this community.”
On Wednesday, a Texas state senator who represents Uvalde filed a lawsuit against McCraw’s agency seeking access to its investigative records. The Department of Public Safety did not respond to the lawsuit nor to McLaughlin’s criticism.
“From the very start, the response to this awful gun tragedy has been full of misinformation and outright lies from our government,” state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat, wrote in an eight-page complaint.
During his Tuesday appearance before the state legislature, McCraw said the district attorney who covers Uvalde, Christina Busbee, told him to cease contact with lawmakers and the press. McCraw pledged to release investigative records and video surveillance footage of the shooting once Busbee approves their release.
Uvalde residents say they hope they won’t have to wait much longer.
(NEW YORK) — The new Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will be the first LGBTQ+ visitor center within the National Park Service, and organizers are set to break ground on the new endeavor.
The center is set to open in the summer of 2024 and will take over the half of the Stonewall Inn that is no longer occupied by the bar on Christopher Street in New York City’s West Village.
The center will be led by Pride Live, a social advocacy and community engagement organization for the LGBTQ+ community.
“Our goal from the beginning has been to look at what can we do and how can we preserve, advance and celebrate the legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion,” said Ann Marie Gothard, president of the Pride Live Board of Directors, in an interview with ABC News.
The Stonewall Uprising of June 1969, which began as a police raid of a gay bar and turned into a dayslong protest, was the catalyst for the modern gay rights movement and is what Pride celebrations nationwide commemorate each year.
The Stonewall National Monument was designated as the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ rights and history by President Barack Obama in 2016.
Gothard hopes the visitor center can be a gathering point, a “welcoming location for all people to really explore and experience LGBTQ history and culture.”
Gothard said it “could help to really bring people of differing minds together to learn about the LGBTQ history, as well as culture,” in a time when LGBTQ rights are under legislative attacks.
The site is expected to feature historical and art exhibits, as well as events and lecture series, hosted by LGBTQ creators and figures. They plan on hosting in-person and virtual tours of the spaces, as well.
The center will serve as the home base for a dedicated group of National Park Service Rangers, who will be focused on preserving the Stonewall National Monument, but it will mainly be managed by Pride Live.
“The designation of Stonewall as a National Monument is an important step in memorializing an invaluable historical landmark that represents courage, hope and triumph for the LGBTQ community,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — A market drop, a price spike and a looming recession — this year has battered the finances of everyday Americans. But some can wait out the misery. Eventually, the market will likely improve, as will debilitating grocery and fuel costs.
Older people and retirees, however, lack the luxury of time. For them, the twin crunch of rising living costs and falling stock returns sounds an especially urgent alarm, straining their budgets while choking off supplementary funds from their portfolios, experts told ABC News.
Typically, financial advisors encourage older people to transition their holdings away from volatile assets like stocks to predictable assets such as bonds, since as one ages, the risk of a major downturn begins to outweigh the reward of sizable gains. Nevertheless, many older people and retirees retain significant stock holdings.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans aged 65 and older own stock either directly or through accounts like a 401(k), according to a Gallup poll updated in May. The share of older people invested in the stock market is slightly larger than the 56% measured in 2021 and the 55% in 2020, though the difference is not statistically significant, Gallup says.
Data on Fidelity’s 21.2 million 401(k) investors shows that — as of late March — more than a third of people aged 60-67 have at least 67% or more in stocks, the financial services firm told ABC News.
By necessity, some older people under financial stress need to sell stock to shore up their budgets, even if they stand to lose potential gains down the road by selling in a down market, experts said. But individuals should take steps to avoid such a choice, if possible, like drawing on other portfolio income like dividends or taking up additional work, they added.
“Market risk is particularly important if you need money soon, as is the case with many soon to retire or already living in retirement,” Rob Williams, the managing director of financial planning and retirement income at Charles Schwab, told ABC News.
“Markets, global-political risk, and inflation are clearly concerning many investors,” he added. “There’s a general fear.”
Retirees typically carry two types of exposure to the stock market: 401(k)s and other accounts sponsored by their employer as well as IRA and other brokerage accounts held away from their employer, Williams said. Americans largely rely on retirement funds, since the share of employers that provide pensions has declined in recent decades.
Oftentimes, investors peg 401(k) accounts to the S&P 500, which has fallen more than 20% so far this year. Investors flocked to funds that tracked the S&P because of its incredible run during bull market that began in 2009 and lasted more than a decade.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq — which also drew considerable investment due to years of outsized returns — has fallen nearly 30% over that period, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped about 16%.
Difficult times for the market and the economy may continue, experts said. The Federal Reserve last week raised borrowing costs significantly, hiking its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, the largest increase since 1994. Additional rate hikes will likely follow, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said.
In theory, the moves should slash inflation by slowing the economy and eating away at demand. But the strategy also risks tipping the economy into a recession.
Even though such economic prospects pose a challenge for older people and retirees, they shouldn’t panic, experts said. “At some point, the business cycle and the market cycle play out,” Mona Mahajan, senior investment strategist at Edward Jones Investors, told ABC News. “You’ll get a down year in equities. Volatility should be expected if you’re exposed to equity markets.”
Whenever possible, older people and retirees should try to weather the potential downturn without a major sell off, experts said.
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“It’s always better to be in the market than trying to time yourself in and out of the market,” Mahajan said. “Investors are notoriously poor at picking market bottoms — or tops, for that matter.”
But older people who rely on their portfolios for regular income will find it more difficult to weather a downturn, said Williams, the managing director at Charles Schwab. For them, it’s of paramount importance that they diversify their holdings, so their day-to-day finances do not depend on volatile assets or segments of the market, he said.
“The less time you have to recover, the more critical it is to have a diversified allocation that limits exposure to individual securities or sectors of the market and with exposure to a mix of cash, bonds, and stocks,” he said.
Older people also benefit from a portfolio that provides alternative sources of income beyond gains in stock price, Williams said. “Investment income in the form of interest and dividends can create a floor of cash flow to avoid having to sell investments, in particular in bear markets,” he added. Dividends from U.S. companies held for at least 60 days are taxed at the capital gains rate, which runs anywhere from 0% to 20%, depending on one’s tax bracket; as opposed to the higher tax rate for personal income.
To be sure, the economy may avert a recession altogether. And the stock market may have fallen nearly as far as it will go, since many investors have already acted in anticipation of additional rate hikes from the Fed.
For now, older people can draw solace from the possibility that the worst in markets has already passed, said Mahajan, the senior investment strategist at Edward Jones.
“In our view, we’re closer to the bottom than we are to the top,” she said.
Miranda Lambert is a passionate advocate for shelter pets and animal welfare, but she doesn’t just encourage her fans to adopt shelter pets — she adopts plenty of her own, too.
The most recent addition to Miranda’s “farmily” is Ravioli, a gray and white cat the singer adopted from Nashville-area shelter Metro Animal Care and Control. Ravioli makes an appearance in a new video that Miranda posted to her social media this week, reminding fans to consider adoption if they’re looking to add a furry companion to their household this summer.
“I guess I’m just having a summer reminder to visit your local shelters, especially your metro shelters that kind of take every single thing that comes in, daily,” Miranda says in the clip. “Summertime is a great time to add a new friend to your family, which I’m doing today. He’s coming home with me.”
Miranda added that Nashville MACC is “very full” right now, encouraging Nashville residents who are looking to adopt a new pet to come visit the shelter.
Ravioli is not the only animal to find a home at Miranda’s farm in recent days. She and her husband, Brendan McLoughlin, also adopted a horse named Cowboy last weekend.
When Austin Butler signed on to play Elvis Presley in Elvis, the new biopic about the musician’s life, he knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park to step into the King of Rock & Roll’s blue suede shoes.
“I’ve never felt a responsibility like this,” Butler told ABC News. “Anytime you take on somebody who’s actually lived their life, there’s a responsibility. But with Elvis, it’s something I’ve never felt before.”
The film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, echoed his sentiment, saying it was important to both of them that Butler did not do an impersonation of Presley. “Elvis is the most impersonated person in history. We had to have a person,” he said. “Austin really did fuse his spirit with that of Elvis’. He shows the man, not the icon, you know.”
Butler’s performance as Presley tried to combat “all the misconceptions” of those impersonations – the caricatures and the Halloween costumes – that Butler says make people look “up to him almost in a godlike way” and, in turn, take the singer’s “life out of context.”
“I was just so fascinated by stripping all that away,” Butler said.
Elvis hits theaters on June 24, but it premiered at Cannes Film Festival last month – where it was treated to a 10-minute standing ovation during and after the end credits.
“I’m getting to now see people responding to all the work that we did,” Butler said. “And it just feels so good that people are appreciating and getting to see him in a way they haven’t maybe before.”
If you’ve been following Old Dominion on social media, you might have noticed that the band is trying something different this year. While on the road as openers for Kenny Chesney’s Here and Now Tour, they’ve been making some surprise stops at small venues.
Those pop-up shows were the result of a brainstorming session on how to make the summer even more fun, the group’s Matthew Ramsey explains.
“It’s actually kind of a lighter year for us, to be on the Kenny tour, because we just play on weekends,” Matthew says. “We’re used to playing a lot more. And we were just trying to figure out how to get the most out of it. So we thought, you know, maybe we should try and do some surprise shows here and there.”
That idea has led them to small stages in Nashville, Tampa, Atlanta and more. “And so far, it’s been really fun,” the singer adds.
It’s been fun for the fans, too, although the bandmates can’t resist making a crack at the running joke they have about being mistaken for duo Brothers Osborne on social media.
“They are a little let down when they get in there and realize that the Brothers Osborne aren’t playing,” band member Brad Tursi says dryly, leading the whole band to break into laughter.
But in all seriousness, it’s extra fun because the fans camp out before free pop-up shows, Matthew says. “They wait outside these clubs all day long. I mean, they show up at 10, 11 in the morning.”
Old Dominion aren’t slowing the pop-up shows down anytime soon. They’ve got one planned for Chicago this Friday night, before Kenny’s Here and Now tour stop in the city Saturday.
Ozzy Osbourne has premiered a new solo song called “Patient Number 9.”
The track, which features guitar icon Jeff Beck, is available now via digital outlets. An accompanying video, directed by famed comic book artist Todd McFarlane, is set to premiere Friday at 10 a.m. ET on YouTube.
“Patient Number 9” is the first preview off Ozzy’s next solo album, also titled Patient Number 9, the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man. Beck is one of the many guests to be featured on the upcoming record, along with Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready, Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo.
Patient Number 9, the album, is due out September 9.
The new song arrives amid a rough couple of health months for Ozzy, who tested positive for COVID-19 in April and underwent surgery earlier in June. The 73-year-old rocker has since returned home from the hospital and is “recuperating comfortably.”
The new Disney+ film Rise, out Friday, tells the true story of the Antetokounmpo family, who, after years of hard work and struggle, found incredible success in the world of professional basketball.
Actor Dayo Okeniyi plays patriarch Charles Antetokounmpo in the film, and he shared with ABC Audio how much he admired his character’s strength.
“The great thing about Charles is he never wore that on his sleeves,” Okeniyi said. “He always remained, you know, a man of strong self-esteem … I think that’s a really great leadership quality he had.”
Not only did Okeniyi admire his character’s strength, he also related to his story.
“I’m also an immigrant from Nigeria, moved to America when I was 15,” Okeniyi said. “It’s constantly debating what is the best thing to do for our children, you know … Just imagine not being able to put food on the table for your family or not being able to give your sons the dream they want to become.”
Director Akin Omotoso says he took cues from Giannis Antetokounmpo’s speech at the 2019 NBA Awards where he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. “He speaks about when you were a kid, you can’t see the future and your parents see the future for you,” Omotoso said.
“I hope that when people watch it, they follow that journey and recognize themselves in that journey.”
After the Antetokounmpo family watched the film for the first time, they told Omotoso it really “captured the essence” of what they went through.
“That’s what we really wanted to do,” Omotoso said. “When you’re making something about someone’s life, you want to be sure that they see things that trigger other things. It’s like, ‘Ah, we remember that.’”
