Eric Holder has been convicted of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of rapper Nipsey Hussle.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted voluntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm. He was found not guilty of attempted murder against Kerry Lathan, who was wounded in the 2019 shooting attack.
The reading of the verdict took place Wednesday at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles.
Holder faces up to life in prison. He had pleaded not guilty.
Hussle, the Grammy-winning rapper whose birth name was Ermias Asghedom, was gunned down in March 2019 outside of his clothing store in South Los Angeles.
Hussle was standing in a parking lot when Holder allegedly approached and shot him multiple times, police said. Hussle was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two other people were wounded.
The coroner determined the rapper died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso, ruling the manner of death a homicide.
Blue skies, dreamy pastels and feel-good, breezy pop vibes: It’s all part of the world that Kelsea Ballerini is dreaming up for her next album.
The singer shared another clue about the forthcoming project on social media on Tuesday, posting a shot of herself standing on a diving board in the clouds, wearing a gauzy, light blue gown.
“Jump right in,” she wrote in the caption, a nod to one of the lyrics of her current single, “Heartfirst.”
On a recent visit to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kelsea explained that it’s no accident that “Heartfirst” exemplifies so much of the album’s visual aesthetic. “First single off the next record is always kind of, I’m particular about it, because I want it to set the tone,” she says.
The album gets its up-tempo, catchy positivity from her love of ‘90s country, the singer goes on to say.
“So I was really heavily influenced the last few years by going back to ‘90s music, the music I grew up on,” Kelsea adds. “Whether it’s Shania [Twain] or Sheryl Crow, so I wanted this to feel breezy, warm and inviting, and with a little ‘90s flair. So it feels like the first step in the new situation, the new era.”
Britney Spears is letting everyone know — even her haters — that she is head over heels in love with husband, Sam Asghari. To prove it, she filmed herself making out with the Iranian actor.
“Playing the role of How To Lose A Guy In 10 days,” she captioned the video of her enjoying a boat ride on a picturesque beach. “Am I obnoxious enough ??? Do you guys think its real ????” In the video, the two are engaging in heavy PDA and enjoying the scenery.
The Grammy winner then revealed the video was taken during her tropical honeymoon by sharing another clip of herself running topless on the beach. She captioned that post, “Part 2 of the Honeymoon here in this unbelievable tropical piece of paradise … No this is not a girls gone wild campaign … It’s simply me living my life !!!”
“this is what happens when you do a two week yacht island vacation … jumping from island to island is literally insane !!!,” Britney continued. “Girls if you want to lose weight, fly in a helicopter and you lose all your fluid from being nervous … I MEAN I think I dropped 4 pounds in a day.”
The “Toxic” singer closed out the update, “Enough shallow talk right ladies ??? That’s too offensive … oh well.”
Britney and Sam tied the knot on June 9. The couple first began dating in 2016 after meeting on the set of her “Slumber Party” music video. Sam popped the question in September 2021 with a four-carat diamond ring.
(NEW YORK) — Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield is being held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with subpoenas for information related to its business relationship with the Trump Organization, a judge in New York has ruled.
The subpoenas were issued by the New York Attorney General’s office as part of its civil investigation into how former President Donald Trump and his family business valued their holdings.
Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a $10,000 daily fine starting Thursday for every day that the real estate giant does not comply with the subpoenas.
“Cushman & Wakefield’s work for Donald Trump and the Trump Organization is clearly relevant to our investigation, and we’re pleased that the court has recognized that and taken action to force Cushman to comply with our subpoenas,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “No person or company, no matter how powerful, is above the law.”
A Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson said the company will appeal the decision.
“The ruling to hold Cushman & Wakefield in contempt demonstrates a failure to understand the extreme lengths Cushman has gone to comply with the Court’s order,” the company spokesperson said. “We have gone to great expense and effort to quickly identify, collect, review and produce the massive set of documents requested by the OAG, and we have now produced over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and over 650 appraisals since the last subpoena was issued in February 2022.”
“Cushman disagrees with any suggestion that the firm has not exercised diligence and good faith in complying with the Court’s order, and we will be appealing this decision,” the spokesperson said.
The attorney general’s office filed a motion to compel the company to comply with subpoenas in early April, and the motion was granted the same month.
Cushman & Wakefield provided real estate services for Trump Organization properties for many years, including appraisals and brokerage services for properties that have been subject of the AG’s probe.
The company has refused to comply with subpoenas for information related to its appraisals of three Trump-owned properties — 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, and the Seven Springs estate in Westchester, New York — as well as information about Cushman’s larger business relationship with the Trump Organization, according to court documents.
(NEW YORK) — Seventy-eight million Americans across 18 states will face dangerous heat and severe weather throughout the end of the week.
The National Weather Service reports that temperatures ranging from the upper 90s to the low 100s are expected across Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, eastern Tennessee and Arkansas on Wednesday and Thursday.
There have been more than 250 damaging storm reports from Montana to South Carolina, including three tornadoes in Virginia, Maryland and Colorado, according to the NWS.
In South Dakota, winds have neared 100 miles per hour, coupled with softball-sized hail.
Heavy rain in Minnesota contributed to flash flooding on Tuesday night near Albert Lee, where cars have been reported to be submerged in floodwaters. Local rains reached 2 to 4 inches in a matter of hours.
Washington, D.C., is under a flood watch, which has also been enacted in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana. A flood warning has been enacted in Fort Wayne, in particular.
Washington, D.C., is also projected to have a heat index of 100 degrees on Wednesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, two regions are marked by severe weather, one from Indiana to North Carolina, including Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Raleigh.
The biggest threat to the region are damaging winds that could reach 70 miles per hour.
Severe weather will also mark Montana, where damaging winds and large hail is expected to increase.
Dangerous heat will continue to rise from Texas to Ohio and Virginia, where heat alerts have been issued.
Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis and Louisville are expected to have indexes into the 110s on Wednesday. Excessive heat warnings have been issued in those areas.
Record or near record highs are expected throughout the South into the weekend.
The NWS warns that such heat across the country will most impact vulnerable populations, particularly those aged 65 and older, infants and children, those with chronic health conditions, those with low income, athletes and outdoor workers.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, it is essential for people in these groups to drink plenty of fluids and seek cool shelter when possible.
Specifically for infants and children, hot cars pose a great risk to health. To learn more about keeping your child safe in a hot car, read here.
Oscar and Emmy winner Viola Davis plays General Nanisca in the fact-based epic The Woman King, and the new trailer shows she’s not taking any prisoners.
According to Sony Pictures, “The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen.”
John Boyega plays a king forced to deploy his trusted general “as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.”
She pleads with the ruler, “The Europeans wish to conquer us…We must fight back for our people.”
His character replies, “You are asking me to take them to war!”
“Some things are worth fighting for,” Davis’ character insists.
Among the new recruits is No Time to Die and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ Lashana Lynch.
“We fear no one,” Davis’ character tells her charges. “I offer you a choice: We fight or we die.”
We finally have our first look at the upcoming movie Amsterdam, which stars Taylor Swift.
The first trailer dropped Wednesday. According to the trade, the “original romantic crime epic” is set in the 30s and that centers on three characters played by Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie who “find themselves at the center of one of the most secret plots in American history.”
The group forges a bond to protect one another as they get swept up in a conspiracy where they are falsely accused of murdering an important individual. As the trailer promises, you find out how they “altered the course of American history.”
While Taylor isn’t shown much in the first Amsterdam trailer, we do get a brief glimpse of her. The Grammy winner is seen toward the end of the two-minute clip, in which her richly dressed character is looking distraught.
This marks her first big-screen role following 2019’s critically panned movie musical, CATS.
Amsterdam, also starring Robert De Niro, Mike Myers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Rami Malek and Zoe Saldaña, arrives exclusively in theaters on November 4.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 06, 10:02 am
Blinken to urge G20 to press Russia on grain deliveries
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 countries to put pressure on Russia to make it support the U.N. initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and allow grain exports, according to local media reports.
“G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it supports ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery,” said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.
Toloui referred to a U.N. campaign aiming to expedite Ukrainian and Russian exports of harvest and fertilizer to global markets.
Around 22 million tons of grain remain blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the threat of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Ukraine is in active negotiations with Turkey and the U.N. to solve the grain export stalemate, Zelenskyy added.
Blinken is also expected to once again warn China against backing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“[The upcoming G20 summit] will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 06, 8:42 am
Russia aims to seize territory far beyond the Donbas, Putin’s ally suggests
Russia’s main objective in its invasion of Ukraine is still regime change in Kyiv and the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev suggested in a speech on Tuesday.
Patrushev said the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian official added that Ukraine must remain permanently neutral between Russia and NATO. Petrushev’s remarks nearly mirrored the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the onset of the war to justify the military invasion.
Patrushev, a close Putin ally, repeated the Russian President’s stated ambitions despite Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine and previous hints at a reduction in war aims following those defeats, the ISW pointed out.
Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin’s initial objectives “strongly indicates” that Russia does not consider its recent territorial gains in the Luhansk region to be sufficient, the ISW experts said.
Russia “has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas” and “is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine,” the observers added.
Patrushev’s comments dampened hopes for a “compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains,” the experts concluded.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 06, 6:06 am
Eastern town in Donetsk could become next ‘key’ battleground
The town of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast will likely become the next “key” battleground in Russia’s push to seize the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“Russian forces from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces are likely now around 16 km north from the town of Sloviansk,” the ministry said. “With the town also under threat from the Central and Southern Groups of Forces, there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas.”
In the meantime, Russian forces likely continue to consolidate control over the town of Lysychansk and the wider Luhansk Oblast, about 45 miles east of Sloviansk.
“To the north, it has committed most of the remaining available units from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces to the Izium axis,” the ministry added. “Over the last week, Russian forces have likely advanced up to another 5 km down the E40 main road from Izium, in the face of extremely determined Ukrainian resistance.”
Jul 05, 8:43 am
NATO completes negotiations with Sweden and Finland
NATO announced on Monday it has concluded negotiations with Sweden and Finland on their accession to the organization.
“Finland and Sweden have completed accession negotiations at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as agreed last week by the leaders of the countries at the summit in Madrid,” a NATO press release said.
“Both countries have officially confirmed their desire and ability to fulfill their political, legal and military obligations as NATO members,” the NATO press service added.
The countries will sign their accession protocols on Tuesday. All member countries will then have to ratify the documents according to their national laws.
Finland and Sweden jointly submitted applications to join NATO on May 18, ending decades of neutrality in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — The 21-year-old man accused of opening fire at a suburban Chicago Fourth of July parade, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others, plotted another attack in Madison, Wisconsin, after the first shooting, authorities said Wednesday.
After fleeing the scene of the parade, Robert “Bobby” Crimo III “was driving around, saw a celebration in Madison,” and “contemplated another attack,” with “60 rounds on his body at that point,” authorities said at a news conference Wednesday.
But he “had not done enough planning” and decided not to do it, authorities said.
Crimo is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in the wake of Monday morning’s mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois. More charges are expected, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said.
Crimo, who appeared in court via Zoom for his first appearance Wednesday, showed no emotion as a prosecutor outlined the attack and read the victims’ names.
Prosecutors said that Crimo confessed to Monday morning’s parade massacre.
Crimo is accused of taking his legally purchased high-powered rifle and opening fire on paradegoers from a roof of a business.
A witness reported seeing an individual with a gun on a building rooftop “scanning the ground with a gun,” Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said.
On the rooftop, police discovered three empty 30-round magazines and 83 spent shell casings, prosecutors said.
Crimo told police he wore women’s clothing during the shooting and used makeup to hide his facial tattoos and blend in with the crowd, prosecutors said. Crimo was apprehended at at traffic stop in Lake Forrest, Illinois, Monday evening. A second weapon, also purchased legally by Crimo, was found in the car, police said.
Crimo was ordered held without bond. He is set to return to court for a preliminary hearing on July 28.
He did not enter a plea during the appearance and was appointed a public defender.
When the gunfire began at Monday’s parade, revelers fled in panic, leaving behind empty strollers, overturned chairs and half-eaten sandwiches.
“Bodies were horribly, horribly, horribly injured from, you know, guns and bullets that were made for war — not for parades,” witness Dr. David Baum said of some of the victims.
“The paramedics went quickly and assessed the damages — saw bodies that were blown apart and put a blanket over them quickly. And then went on to try and help other people,” Baum told ABC News. “These are injuries that nobody should have to see.”
Authorities believe the massacre had been planned for weeks.
No motive is known, police said. When asked by reporters if the gunman targeted anyone specifically, police said the “shooting appears to be completely random.”
A self-described “people-pleaser” who doesn’t like to upset his fans, Luke Combs found himself in uncertain territory in 2021 when he released “The Great Divide” — a duet with bluegrass artist Billy Strings — and faced some backlash over the song.
Americana artist Margo Price, for example, pointed out that though Luke said he didn’t want to be political, a photo with him showed a Confederate flag decal on his guitar. Luke subsequently apologized for his past use of the flag, saying that he didn’t understand its harmful implications as a young person growing up in North Carolina.
“The Great Divide” speaks to the cavernous understanding gap between Americans on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but Luke says that the backlash to the song’s release underscores its point.
“Everything is so contentious and heated, and that’s always been super frustrating to me,” he said in an interview with The Independent. “I think what makes our country great is people’s ability to have their own opinions and have the ability to disagree.”
Without a bridge of understanding, though, he says it’s near-impossible for people to find common ground.
“Right now, everyone is just so hot about everything,” he adds. “And that adds to the tension that was going on.”
