After Whitesnakecanceled the remainder of the European summer leg of its Farewell Tour because various band members had taken ill, frontman David Coverdale reports that he’s back home and trying to get well.
“Still not 100% but, very happy to be home,” Coverdale wrote in a Twitter message posted Tuesday. “Being sick in a hotel, on tour, just ain’t the ticket…I hope You & Yours Are Well, Wherever You Are…Know You Are Appreciated & Loved…XXX.”
The tweet is accompanied by four images, including ones with messages that read “When all else fails take a nap” and “Keep healthy and stay safe,” and another showing a drawing of a pair of hands holding a rose and captioned, “For you.”
Last week, before Whitesnake officially announced that the rest of the European shows had been canceled, the band reported that the 70-year-old rocker had been “diagnosed with an infection of the sinus & trachea” and that his doctor had recommended “5 days of no singing and bed rest.”
During the trek, drummer Tommy Aldridge and guitarist Reb Beach also battled illness.
Whitesnake is now scheduled to return to the stage for the North American leg of its Farewell Tour, which kicks off August 17 in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, and is plotted out through an October 21 performance in Las Vegas. Most of the shows will feature the band supporting The Scorpions.
Matt and Ross Duffer, the sibling creators of the phenomenon Stranger Things, are staying with Netflix in a big way.
Long story short, if you love Stranger Things, you’re in luck.
On Wednesday, the Duffer Brothers, as they’re professionally known, launched Upside Down Pictures, through which they’ll create film and TV projects. Included will be a live-actionStranger Things spinoff series, and a stage play set in the hit show’s universe, produced and directed by Billy Elliot veteran Stephen Daldry.
Also in the mix is a live-action TV adaptation of the hit anime series Death Note, and a series adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub‘s book The Talisman.
In a statement, the pair said they “aim to create the kind of stories that inspired the Duffers growing up – stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism.”
As reported, Stranger Things‘ just-wrapped fourth season racked up 1.15 billion hours viewed in its first 28 days — only the second show to do so, behind only the Korean-language smash Squid Game.
Travis Scott’s die-hard fans have helped him sell out his first major solo show since last year’s Astroworld tragedy. According to Complex, tickets for the rapper’s upcoming concert at London’s O2 Arena on August 6 sold out within hours of being released.
“Travis’ packed weekend performances and [the] fact that his O2 show in London sold out within two hours are just the latest signs that fan demand is sky high for the return of one of the world’s favorite artists,” Travis’ spokesperson told Complex. In an attempt to meet fans’ demands, the rapper’s added a second show, set to take place at the London venue on August 7.
As previously reported, Travis’ upcoming shows will be his first headlining performances since his Astroworld Festival ended in 10 deaths last November. He’s since taken steps toward increasing concert safety, launching Project HEAL — an initiative that aims to “take much needed action towards supporting real solutions that make all events the safest spaces they can possibly be” — and, most recently, stopping his Brooklyn concert to ensure that his fans were free from danger.
Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in “Star Wars: Episode II” — Lucasfilm
With an Oscar under his belt, a blockbuster in Thor: Ragnarok and another likely on its way with Thor: Love and Thunder, pretty much everybody wants to work with writer-director Taika Waititi.
So when it came to writing his anticipated Star Wars project, he figured he’d swing for the fences: He tells Rolling Stone he asked his fellow Academy Award winner and Thor sequel lead Natalie Portman if she wanted in.
“I said, ‘I’m trying to work on a Star Wars thing. Have you ever wanted to be in a Star Wars movie?'” Watititi recalled.
You might have noticed a problem with that, but Waititi apparently didn’t.
“She said, ‘I’ve been in Star Wars movies.’ I forgot about those ones,” Waititi admitted.
“Those ones” to which Waititi was referring — possibly sarcastically — are the Star Wars prequels, 1999’s Episode I – The Phantom Menace, 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. Portman played Padmé Amidala — the eventual wife of Anakin Skywalker, and mom to Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.
Not exactly a bit part.
By and large, the films were met with a lukewarm critical reception at the time, but have since warmed in the hearts of Star Wars fans.
Lest the filmmaker’s faux pas be too concerning to fans of that galaxy far, far, away, he also told the magazine of the forthcoming project, “I don’t want to rush.”
“It’s something I wouldn’t want to just leap into and not feel that ‘it’s unique, it’s my film and it makes sense.’ Because that would be a disaster. So I’m gonna do my best to come up with an idea that everyone loves.”
Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters Friday from Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(RICHMOND, Va.) — News of the thwarted attack comes after seven people were killed and dozens more injured in a mass shooting at a July Fourth parade in a Chicago suburb on Monday.
“There is no telling how many lives this hero citizen saved from one phone call,” Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith told reporters Wednesday.
Richmond police received a tip from a citizen on July 1 who “overheard a conversation that there was a mass shooting being planned here,” Smith said.
Acting on the tip that day, police began an investigation along with Homeland Security, Smith said. Officers responding to an apartment in Richmond “saw evidence in plain view that corroborated the hero witness’ statement,” Smith said.
Officers seized two assault rifles, one handgun and 223 rounds of ammunition, Smith said. The suspect, Julio Alvarado-Dubon, 52, was taken into custody and charged with possessing a firearm as a non-U.S. citizen.
Police surveilled Alvardo’s roommate, identified as Rolman Balacarcel, 38, for several days before he was arrested on Tuesday in Albemarle County, Virginia, on the same charge. Additional charges could be possible for both suspects, Smith said.
Authorities allege the two were plotting a mass shooting at a Fourth of July celebration at the Dogwood Dell Amphitheater. The Diamond baseball stadium was another area of concern, Smith said.
“They were planning to actually shoot up our Fourth of July celebration,” the chief said. “We know what their intent is, but we don’t have their motive.”
The two suspects were not previously known to Richmond police. They are being held in jail on no bond, Smith said. It is unclear if the suspects have an attorney.
Investigators are working to trace the weapons seized, Smith said. The FBI is also involved in the investigation, he said.
The chief did not provide any further details about the tip, though lauded the man who contacted the police.
“We owe several lives to that one person,” Smith said.
News of the alleged mass shooting comes after the 21-year-old suspect in Monday’s Highland Park shooting confessed to the massacre, prosecutors said Wednesday. The suspect allegedly contemplated another attack that day in Madison, Wisconsin, authorities said.
“The success of this particular investigation can only be juxtaposed against the horrors in which the rest of the country has seen,” Smith said.
Richmond also experienced a mass shooting early on July Fourth at an after-hours club, where six people were wounded.
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney called gun violence in the city and nationwide an “epidemic” and urged state and federal lawmakers to change U.S. gun policies.
“We need more — more policies that will keep people safe, so that these firearms and weapons of war don’t get into the hands of the wrong people,” Stoney told reporters Wednesday.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — When Sara Kruzan was 16 years old, she shot and killed the man who she says had abused her and trafficked her for sex since she was 13. Almost 30 years later, she has been pardoned by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In 1995, Kruzan was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder plus a four-year consecutive firearm enhancement after being tried as an adult. She later had her sentence commuted twice until she was released after almost two decades in prison.
Since then, Kruzan has become an advocate for policy reform, protecting sex trafficking victims and ending juvenile life without parole sentencing nationwide.
“Having experienced layers of trauma, I know there is deep value and appreciation in healing, and having the desire and courage to heal,” she wrote, according to the legal advocacy group Uncommon Law where she has worked as a parole justice advocate.
Newsom issued the pardon due to her work in advocacy and her journey toward healing.
“She has provided evidence that she is living an upright life and has demonstrated her fitness for restoration of civic rights and responsibilities,” Newsom said in a statement. “Ms. Kruzan committed a crime that took the life of the victim. Since then, Ms. Kruzan has transformed her life and dedicated herself to community service.”
A pardon does not expunge or erase a conviction, the governor’s office stated in a press release, and is intended to remove “counterproductive barriers to employment and public service, restore civic rights and responsibilities, and prevent unjust collateral consequences of conviction.”
It is also intended to correct unjust results in the legal system, according to the governor’s office, as well as address the health needs of incarcerated people.
Newsom said he has granted 16 other pardons, 15 commutations and one medical reprieve.
(LOS ANGELES) — Helen Jones has been searching for answers since her son died in 2009 while in custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
Jones said she was initially told by law enforcement that her 22-year-old son, John Horton, had died by suicide, but a forensic pathologist from the medical examiner’s office showed her that Horton’s medical report included evidence of physical trauma.
Jones filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2015. The case was settled in 2016, and Jones was paid $2 million by Los Angeles County. She is currently trying to get a murder case reopened, according to her lawyer Dennis Wilson.
Horton’s autopsy report currently states suicide as well as “undetermined factors” for cause of death, following an additional investigation by the coroner performing the autopsy.
“He didn’t die from natural causes,” Jones told ABC News Prime’s Morgan Norwood. “He didn’t take his own life. His life was stolen.”
The death of George Floyd in May 2020, which was eventually ruled a homicide, has cast the profession of medical examiners into the spotlight as differing autopsy reports and allegations of racial bias prompted a prolonged debate among members of the profession.
Researchers say there are long-standing flaws in the “science of death,” that disproportionately impact Black and Latinx inmates.
In a report published earlier last month by two labs at UCLA, the Carceral Ecologies Lab and the BioCritical Studies Lab, researchers reviewed the autopsies in 59 cases of death in Los Angeles County jails between 2009 and 2019. Of those, 26 “natural death” cases that were reviewed, 65% were Black and 23% were Latinx.
They found that 85% of the “natural death” cases involved inmates with an alleged history of mental illness and more than half included evidence of “physical violence on the body.”
The alleged mental illness ranged from medical histories of depression or schizophrenia to officials noting that the inmate demonstrated mental confusion or aggressive behavior, according to lead researcher on the study Dr. Terence Keel.
The study, the researchers write, “shows that the majority of Black and Latinx men are not dying from “natural causes,” but from the actions of jail deputies and carceral staff.”
They draw this conclusion based on the presence of evidence of physical violence on the body, as well as the fact that the inmates’ alleged mental illness could have been a precipitating event or factor.
In John Horton’s case, it was the evidence of physical violence on his body that led his mother to file the lawsuit.
Yet another factor researchers assert is the intertwinement of law enforcement and forensic science.
The UCLA researchers found that law enforcement officials were present during the autopsies of 51 of the 59 cases they reviewed. (The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner disputed in a statement that it withheld other autopsies requested by the researchers.)
“These are either detectives from the sheriff’s department or officers themselves that are in the room during the effort to actually do the autopsy and we see this as a conflict of interest,” Keel told ABC News.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner also disputed this allegation in their statement, writing that “the allegation that DMEC and its personnel are unduly influenced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is false.”
“The DMEC is separate from any law enforcement agency in the county and exercises its own independent judgment when conducting death investigations and concluding the cause and manner of death without any influence from other agencies.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement to ABC News that “LASD does not make determinations on manner and cause of death but does conduct extensive internal inquiries into every death which happens within one of its jail facilities.”
Los Angeles is one of 10 counties in California in which the coroner’s office and sheriff’s office are separate. A new bill waiting to be considered by the California State Senate would separate the medical examiner’s office from the sheriff’s office in the remaining 48 counties.
“The best system of death investigation is one in which medical examiners and coroners are independent from law enforcement,” Dr. Kathryn Pinneri, the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, told ABC News.”I personally would support the separation of medical examiners/coroners from law enforcement in any jurisdiction.”
Another bill, AB-2761, waiting to be considered by the California State Senate would require a death certificate to state whether the person died in law enforcement custody and whether it was at the hands of law enforcement officials.
“California is one of the few states that allow the coroner’s duties to be combined with the sheriff’s duties,” the fact sheet for AB-2761 states. “This presents a potential conflict of interest, particularly when a coroner is tasked with investigating a death that occurred at the hands of law enforcement in custody.”
A study released last year in the scientific journal The Lancet found that 55% of fatal encounters with the police between 1980 and 2018 were misclassified in the U.S. National Vital Statistics System. Misclassified in this context means the cause of death was recorded incorrectly. The study cross-referenced the National Vital Statistics System with three crowd-sourced databases which record police violence.
The margins were noticeably higher in deaths of non-Hispanic Black people, with a misclassification rate of 59.5%.
“AB 2761 would ensure greater transparency in the recording of death when it occurs at the hands of public safety officials,” the bill’s fact-sheet states.
Some researchers have also found racial bias among medical examiners which may impact the results of autopsy reports.
A study published last year examined the question of racial bias in medical examiners by evaluating two sets of data. First, they looked at 10 years of death certificates for children under 12 in Nevada, in which the cause of death was “unnatural“ and characterized as either accidental or homicide. They found that forensic pathologists, which in some states are interchangeable with medical examiners, more frequently ruled in those cases that the cause of death was “homicide” versus “accident” in Black children compared to white children.
The researchers, who published the study in the peer-reviewed publication Journal of Forensic Sciences, also conducted an “experimental” survey of more than 100 medical examiners. They found that examiners, who were given identical medical information about a child’s death yet different contextual clues to their race, were five times more likely to rule the cause of death as a “homicide” versus an “accident” when told the child was African-American and that the primary caretaker was the mother’s boyfriend.
“Even highly trained professional scientists can be biased in their decisions” and the cognitive bias can emerge from context such as the race of the child, the researchers concluded from evaluating both the death certificate and experimental survey data.
(WASHINGTON) — Popular e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs, Inc. has been left in limbo after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it is temporarily pausing a ban on the company’s products.
The federal health agency announced Tuesday on Twitter that it was issuing an administrative stay because “there are scientific issues unique to the Juul application that warrant additional review.”
This means the ban of Juul’s products is temporarily suspended, not rescinded.
The order was initially issued on June 23 but was blocked one day later by a federal appeals court. The FDA’s stay will continue throughout the appeals process.
For Juul to keep its e-cigarettes and other products on store shelves, the manufacturer must show that its products benefit adult smokers — meaning helping them quit or reduce their use of traditional cigarettes — and are unlikely to have underage users addicted.
At the time the ban was issued, the FDA said Juul had provided the federal agency with insufficient and conflicting data about any potential health risks or that Juul products benefited public health.
Juul has previously stated it believes it submitted enough information to “address all issues raised by the agency.”
It’s unclear if Juul will be able — or be required — to submit any further data while the FDA conducts the additional review.
“With this administrative stay from the FDA now in place, we continue to offer our products to adult smokers while we pursue the Agency’s internal review process,” Joe Murillo, chief regulatory officer at Juul Labs, said in a statement to ABC News. “We remain confident in the quality and substance of our applications and believe that ultimately we will be able to demonstrate that our products do in fact meet the statutory standard of being appropriate for the protection of the public health.”
The statement continued, “We now look forward to re-engaging with the FDA on a science- and evidence-based process to pursue a marketing authorization for Juul products.”
Politicians and anti-tobacco advocates have accused the company of using flavors such as creme, mint and menthol — along with a sleek design resembling a USB flash drive — to market vaping to U.S. children and teenagers.
More than 2 million American middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2021 — with eight in 10 students saying they use flavored e-cigarettes, according to the FDA.
The 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey found Juul was the most popular e-cigarette brand used by adolescents with 25.4% of high school e-cigarette users and 35.1% of middle school users saying Juul was their most used brand.
Nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes can hinder brain development in adolescents and young adults, which can continue into the mid-20s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just one Juul pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 traditional cigarettes, the manufacturer has said.
The CDC also says e-cigarettes can contain heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals that can damage the lungs.
In 2009, Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of tobacco products.
E-cigarette manufacturers, including Juul, were required to submit their products to the FDA to review by September 2020 but were able to sell products while the FDA review was under way.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris called Brittney Griner’s wife to discuss efforts to release the WNBA star, who has been detained in Russia since February, according to the White House.
“The president called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney’s release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world,” the White House said in a statement, adding that Biden will respond to a letter from Griner on Wednesday. “He also read her a draft of the letter the president is sending to Brittney Griner today.”
Biden received a handwritten letter from Brittney Griner on Monday, expressing her fear that she may be in Russian custody “forever.”
“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Brittney Griner wrote.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday that Brittney Griner’s letter was “very personal” to the president.
Russian officials took Brittney Griner into custody at Sheremetyevo International Airport on Feb. 17 after she was accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which are illegal in the country. Her trial, which began on July 1, is expected to run through Dec. 20.
While National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been in communication with Cherelle Griner, she has been vocal about her push for the president to get involved.
“There is one person that can go get her, and that’s our president,” she said in an interview with ESPN.
In May, Cherelle Griner sat down with Robin Roberts to discuss her fight to bring her wife home.
“You say she’s top priority, but I want to see it. And I feel like to see it would be me seeing BG on U.S. soil,” Cherelle Griner said in an interview.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford, Ben Gittleson, and Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.
(MOSS POINT, Miss.) — A 16-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero after he helped rescue four people when a car drove off a boat launch and into a Mississippi river.
The incident happened Sunday at around 2:30 a.m., when the car, which had three teenage girls inside, drove into the Pascagoula River in Moss Point, floated about 20 feet away from shore and started sinking, the Moss Point Police Department said in a statement.
“The driver of that vehicle stated she was following her GPS and did not realize she was going into the water,” police said.
Corion Evans, 16, said he immediately ran over, took off his shoes and shirt and went into the water when he saw the car sinking and heard the three occupants shouting for help.
“I was just like, ‘I can’t let none of these folks die. They need to get out the water,'” Evans, a Pascagoula High School student, told Biloxi, Mississippi, ABC affiliate WLOX. “So, I just started getting them. I wasn’t even thinking about nothing else.”
One of Evans’ friends also jumped in and helped get the girls to the top of their vehicle, according to WLOX.
“I was behind them trying to keep them above water and swim with them at the same time,” Evans told the station.
Along with Moss Point Police Officer Gary Mercer, who responded to the scene, Evans helped bring the three teens to shore.
At one point Mercer was bringing one person to shore “who began panicking and caused him to go under swallowing some water,” police said.
When Mercer started struggling in the water, Evans helped rescue him, too.
“I turned around. I see the police officer. He’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!'” Evans told WLOX. “So, I went over there. I went and I grabbed the police officer and I’m like swimming him back until I feel myself I can walk.”
The officer and three teens were taken to the hospital following the incident and were recovering, WLOX reported.
“The police department and I commend Mr. Evans’s bravery and selflessness he displayed by risking his own safety to help people in danger,” Moss Point Chief Brandon Ashley said in a statement. “If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely.”
On Tuesday, Moss Point city officials presented Evans with a certificate of commendation for his heroism in rescuing the four people. They also recognized Mercer for his “bravery in the rescue.”
Evans’ mother expressed relief and spoke proudly of her son in the wake of the rescue.
“I’m glad nothing happened to him while he was trying to save other people’s lives,” Marquita Evans told WLOX. “I was really proud of Corion because he wasn’t just thinking about himself. He was trying to really get all those people out the water.”
Evans told WLOX he has been swimming since he was 3 years old and didn’t hesitate to jump in the river.
“Twenty-five yards out, so it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after,” he told the station. “Anything could’ve been in that water, though. But I wasn’t thinking about it.”
