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Beyoncé‘s newest single, “Break My Heart,” is expected to drop at midnight ET, per the singer’s updated social media accounts.
News of the release comes after the Grammy-winning artist changed her Instagram and Twitter bios to read, “6. BREAK MY SOUL midnight ET,” and only a few days after she announced her forthcoming seventh studio album, Renaissance. The long-awaited projected, which is expected July 29, will feature both dance and country tracks, according to Variety, with contributions from Raphael Saadiq, who executive-produced Beyoncé’s sister Solange Knowles‘ 2016 album, A Seat at the Table, as well as Ryan Tedder who co-wrote Beyoncé’s 2008 hit, “Halo.”
Renaissance will be Beyoncé’s first solo studio album since her 2016 award-winning project, Lemonade. It also follows the critically acclaimed Homecoming, the live album of her 2018 Coachella headlining performance.
Upon the Renaissance announcement last Thursday, fans immediately speculated it would be a multi-part album, considering the information shown on her official website and merchandise which reads “act i.”
Bey also covers British Vogue, which got an early listen to the album. While there are no quotes from the star in the article posted online, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, writes of Beyoncé, “The creation [of the album] has been a long process, she explains, with the pandemic giving her far longer to spend thinking and rethinking every decision. Just the way she likes it.”
The Zombies have revealed that their two main members — co-founding singer Colin Blunstone and keyboardist Rod Argent — both contracted the COVID-19 virus about three weeks ago. The band has since decided to cancel the first two dates of its new North American summer tour.
The shows had been scheduled for June 21 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada, and June 22 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
A note posted on The Zombies’ Facebook page explains, “[Blunstone’s and Argent’s] cases were relatively mild, and they were determined to recover in time for the tour. Frustratingly, although both felt well enough to go forward, Rod was still showing a faint positive the day before their flight from London to Toronto. Out of concern for everyone’s health and safety, we decided it was best to give them a few extra days recuperation at home, and delay the start of the tour.”
The new leg of the band’s 2022 Life Is a Merry-Go-Round Tour is now scheduled to begin with their concert this Friday, June 24 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.
The message adds, “We are making every effort to reschedule the Ontario shows, and will announce more information soon. Refund requests can also be made at your point of purchase. Our thanks to all the fans in Ontario for your understanding.”
The trek is mapped out through a July 28-30 engagement in Park City, Utah. You can check out the British Invasion band’s full schedule at TheZombiesMusic.com.
Steve Albini just added to his lifetime poker winnings in a big way.
The acclaimed producer and engineer, perhaps best known for his work on Nirvana‘s 1993 album, In Utero, won the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event at the 2022 World Series of Poker over the weekend.
The win, which as all WSoP events do, comes with a gold bracelet as well as a prize of roughly $196,000.
Albini now has two WSoP bracelets to his name following his win at the $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament in 2018.
“The first one felt like a fluke,” Albini tells WSoP.com. “This one also felt like a fluke. I was all-in a million times in this tournament.”
“In the Stud tournament, the bracelet that I won in 2018, I was never all-in in that tournament,” he adds. “I was never short of chips. But it still felt like I kind of fluked it because I beat a table full of really great players that I didn’t expect to beat. This time it felt like a fluke because I was so short on chips so often, and I kept getting all in, and I kept surviving.”
Perhaps Albini will use his new earnings to produce that Dolly Partonrock album.
On her first Father’s Day without her famous dad, Bob Saget, the beloved comedian’s daughter, Lara, remembered him on Instagram with a sweet message.
With a throwback photo of the pair together, 32-year-old Lara Saget noted, “My dad wasn’t just my dad, he was my best friend. He wore his heart. He didn’t hide it; he wasn’t afraid of love. My dad simply wanted to share laughter and love with this world.”
She continued, “I have noticed how scary it can be to love that big, to open so fully. It can be easier to be angry, fearful, negative. Maybe because love has an infinite quality, it is boundless.”
“My dad taught me that it doesn’t matter what life throws, how hard, how painful, how seemingly impossible,” she continued. “It doesn’t stop that love. He chose love, always.”
“I commit to doing the same,” Lara added, calling it “my responsibility to give it to myself and share by living in the love.”
She concluded the post with, “I love you infinitely, dad. Happy Father’s Day.”
Saget was found dead in his Orlando, Florida hotel room on January 9 after suffering head injuries blamed on an unspecified fall.
One of the first to comment on Lara’s post was one of Saget’s Full House daughters, Jodie Sweetin, who wrote, ” Beautiful, Lara. Sending you lots of love today.”
Could Taylor Swift be readying the “Taylor’s Version” release of 1989?
The Grammy winner raised some eyebrows at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards on Saturday. The award show is hosted by comedians Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers and based on their comedy podcast of the same name.
Pop Crave reports fans took notice of a peculiar message written on a chalkboard in Taylor’s first acceptance speech, which reads “1989 secret session Nashville” with four stars drawn on it. There were other Easter eggs hidden in the speech, with one fan pointing out on Twitter, “Blue vest, 1989 era bangs, obvious shorter hair (despite it being tied back), 1989 SS wall thing, lifting the tray out of the oven in the same way/filmed on the same angle as in the 1989 SS video, Wildest Dreams mention… 1989 TV is coming.”
Also during the pre-recorded speech, Taylor walks toward her oven to show off her latest batch of cookies. Noting she “worked hard on” them, she pulls out a glass of white wine and says she is “going to enjoy it now.”
In her second pre-recorded message, the “Willow” singer jokes, “Finally! Somebody spelled my name right, which is T-A-Y-L-A, S-W-I-F-F.”
It is unknown when or if 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is coming. Details about the Nashville secret session are also unknown at this time.
Brett Eldredge is heading out on tour this summer in support of his new album, Songs About You. But over the years, the singer has learned that stress and anxiety can impact his ability to perform.
“I’ve felt broken at time where I couldn’t even get on stage, hardly,” he tells Billboard. “I had to sit down on stage ‘cause I lost my breath or maybe I was having a panic attack in the middle of an interview.”
Over the years, Brett’s been open about his mental health journey, and he’s realized that he’s far from alone. For example, Brothers Osborne’s John Osborne recently spoke about a period of severe depression he went through before the duo put out their Skeletons album. In fact, that’s something that Brett says he and John have bonded over.
“He and I have talked about it through the years,” the singer says. “And I have talked about that in writing sessions, even with strangers.”
An important part of Brett’s mental health care regimen is therapy, and he says he’ll continue to do therapy sessions over Zoom while he’s on tour. Plus, he says, he’s set hard and fast rules about how he uses social media.
“I lock myself out. I can’t look at my phone until 9 o’clock in the morning, and I can’t be on it after 8:30 p.m.,” he continues. “And I only have social media for like an hour and a half, all platforms. So if I want to use those platforms to tell my story, I have to be mindful of how I use it.”
Tickets for Brett’s Songs About You Tour are on sale now.
The Baja California Department of Culture has identified Raymundo Garduño Cruz and Juan Francisco González Aguilar as the two actors from the Brazilian Netflix series The Chosen One who were killed after the van they were riding in crashed near Mulege on the Baja California Sur peninsula Thursday of last week. Six other cast and crew members were also injured when the van flipped after running off the road in a desert area. The crew had apparently been working in the nearby Santa Rosalia area at the time. The accident did not occur on set and the van was in transit from Santa Rosalía to the local airport when the crash took place. TRedrum, the production company behind The Chosen One, has temporarily paused production on the series…
The 2022 Daytime Creative Arts & Lifestyle Emmy Awards took place on Saturday, June 18, at the Pasadena Convention Center, where the big winners included the syndicated talk shows The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Drew Barrymore Show, which picked up five and two trophies, respectively. Netflix was the big single network winner with Penguin Town, Cat People, Headspace: Guide to Meditation and You vs. Wild: Out Cold picking up a combined total of nine awards. CBS’ The Young and the Restless received the most Daytime Emmy nominations, with 18, followed closely by ABC’s General Hospital, with 17. The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s final season also landed a Daytime Emmy for outstanding writing team for a daytime non-fiction program. Winners of the remainder of the Daytime Emmy Awards will be revealed on Friday…
Fast and Furious actor Paul Walker will be posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced on Friday. Other performers getting stars include rapper/actor Ludacris, Bill Pullman, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, filmmaker John Waters, and the late Juanita Moore. On the TV side, Mindy Kaling, Jon Favreau, Martin Lawrence, Ralph Macchio, Ellen Pompeo and original Saturday Night Live cast member Garrett Morris will be honored. You can check out a video of the Walk of Fame’s class of 2023 honorees being announced on Variety‘s official YouTube channel…
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve’s strongest weapon in its fight against skyrocketing inflation is raising interest rates.
In March, the Fed raised its target federal funds rate by 0.25%, the first rate hike in more than three years. At its May meeting, the central bank hiked rates by 0.50%, and in June it got even more aggressive, raising rates by 0.75%, the largest increase since 1994. The Fed is warning of potentially more rate hikes to come as it tries to cool consumer demand and drive prices down from a 40-year high.
That has resulted in higher interest rates on credit cards, home and auto loans, home equity lines of credit and small business loans. For borrowers, that means those products are only getting more expensive. But the Fed’s rate hike campaign is not all bad news. There is a silver lining for savers.
“Rising interest rates represent a turn of fortunes for savers as interest earnings are finally on the rise, and eventually those higher interest rates will help reduce inflation,” Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst, told ABC News. “This is the opposite of what savers have endured the past three years when interest rates fell and then inflation took off.”
Early in the pandemic, when the Fed was cutting interest rates to stimulate the economy, the average rate for a typical savings account was around 0.06%, according to the FDIC. Now, with the Fed’s benchmark rate rising, banks are starting to follow suit, but don’t expect them to mirror those rate hikes exactly. What the Fed does with interest rates is only one factor banks consider when setting rates. They also take into account how much money customers have deposited and how much their competitors are offering.
Some banks, especially online banks, are starting to offer interest rates on savings accounts of 1% or more. But not all bank interest rates are created equal. McBride recommends doing some comparison shopping and considering switching banks to take advantage of the latest rate increase.
“You want to put your money where it will be welcomed with open arms and higher yields,” he said. “Online banks, smaller community banks, and credit unions offer higher yields than the large banks that already have a mountain of deposits.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell predicts the central bank could raise rates another 1.75% over the remainder of the year to bring inflation down from its current 8.6% to the Fed’s target goal of 2%. Experts say if the Fed proves to be as aggressive as they’re expected to be, the top-yielding online savings accounts could top 3% by year-end.
In addition to high-yield savings accounts, McBride said if you’re willing to commit your money for a few years, then a certificate of deposit or I-bond, which are also seeing rates rise, could be better suited to your financial goals.
“Evaluate the time horizon for when the money is needed and then pursue the appropriate savings instrument,” said McBride. “Don’t chase the yield and end up locking yourself into something incompatible with your liquidity needs. If you’re evaluating where to put your emergency savings, then you’ll need a liquid account above all else.”
Wherever you choose to keep your money, experts agree you should always make sure you’re dealing directly with a federally-insured financial institution.
“There are plenty of online savings accounts that offer competitive yields, federal deposit insurance, access to the money when needed, and do not require a large balance in the account,” said McBride. “There is literally something for everyone.”
Jurassic World: Dominion‘s estimated $58.7 million haul was enough to top the domestic box office for the second week in a row, thanks to a less than stellar showing from Disney-Pixar’s animated Lightyear. The Toy Story spinoff didn’t quite make it to infinity and beyond, only managing an estimated $51 million for a second-place finish. That’s significantly shy of the $70 million to $80 million debut pundits were forecasting.
Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick slid to third place with an estimated $44 million for a four-week total of $466.2 million at the North American box office. It also continued to perform well overseas, where it has collected $419 million. It’s worldwide total gross currently stands at $885.2 million.
Fourth place belongs to Disney-Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which earned $4.2 million. Its seven-week domestic tally now stands at $405.1 million, to go along with $537.4 million overseas. Its current global total gross now stands at $942.5 million.
Rounding out the top five is The Bob’s Burger Movie with an estimated $980,000. Its four-week domestic haul now sits at $29.8 million to go along with $2.1 million overseas, for a total gross of $31.8 million worldwide.
(NEW YORK) — The federal gun safety proposal announced last week by a bipartisan group of senators in response to the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, is “a step in the right direction,” according to several authorities — but the measures, had they already been in place, might not have prevented the Uvalde shooting, mental health and violence experts told ABC News.
The legislative framework, by 10 Republicans, nine Democrats, and one independent senator, contains six proposals focusing on mental health plus three gun-specific proposals that include targeting criminals who illegally evade licensing requirements and cracking down on those who illegally purchase and traffic guns.
The proposal does not raise the age limit to purchase semiautomatic assault-style weapons — but for buyers under 21 years of age, it “requires an investigative period to review juvenile and mental health records, including checks with state databases and local law enforcement.”
“Our plan increases needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons,” the 20 senators in a statement.
Officials caution that the framework, which members have been negotiating for weeks, is not yet in its final form. Although the backing of 10 Republicans would give the current framework enough votes to overcome its biggest hurdle in the Senate, it’s not clear if the final proposal will have the same support.
Some experts ABC News spoke with praised the current proposal for its focus on mental health, which includes making major investments to increase access to mental health and suicide prevention programs, as well as investments in programs that increase access to mental and behavioral services via telehealth, and support for state crisis intervention orders.
“The fact that it brings together a multi-tiered set of interventions in schools and communities and families as well as safety provisions … the comprehensiveness of this is what I feel most hopeful about,” said Dr. Andy Keller, president of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, who advised at least one of the senators who sponsored the bill.
But other experts said it’s far from certain that the measures, had they already been in place, would have prevented the deaths of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde last month.
Retired brigadier general Dr. Stephen Xenakis, a former army psychiatrist and senior adviser to the Defense Department, told ABC News that the proposal’s investment in children’s and family’s mental health services might have helped mitigate the attack, since there’s “considerable evidence” that accused shooter Salvador Ramos had mental health problems.
“Proactive outreach and engagement could have gotten him into treatment and avoided the deterioration leading to the shootings,” Xenakis said.
The same holds true for the proposal’s protections for victims of domestic violence and funding for school-based mental health support services and telehealth services.
“[If he was] a victim of abuse … had the mental health system and protective services engaged early, he may have been diverted from becoming a shooter,” said Xenakis. “He clearly had problems in school, and would’ve been helped by school-based mental health and wraparound services.”
James Densley, a professor of criminal justice who cofounded the Violence Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group that studies mass shootings, said that successful treatment comes from ease of access.
“You want to remove as many barriers as possible to getting people the help they need,” Densley, who called the legislative proposal a “step in the right direction,” told ABC News. “You put [a mental health clinic] right in the school, where that kid walks through the door every day and it’s right there, and if it’s accessible and affordable, then you’re going to get more of an uptake.”
But former FBI agent Mary Ellen O’Toole, a leading expert in profiling criminals’ brains, said that even with all the proposals in force, Ramos could still easily have fallen through the cracks.
“Where he would have fallen through the loop was, he was not in school — he was he was at work,” O’Toole told ABC News. “He wasn’t in a position where someone that knew him could have reached out and tried to get him mental health care … through the school system.”
In addition, said O’Toole, for him to have been directed toward mental health assistance that might have prevented the shooting, those around him would have needed to be aware of the warning signs.
Speaking about the people close to him — “whether they worked in that fast food restaurant with him, or if his grandparents were aware of it” — O’Toole said that “if you don’t have something specifically designed to teach people how to recognize the warning behaviors … he still could have gotten away with it.”
Xenakis praised the proposed funding for school safety resources, including additional training for school personnel and students, but said he would also like to see “expanded school violence prevention that includes identifying students at risk for such behaviors.”
Regarding the proposal’s gun-safety measures, Xenakis said that if Ramos had not availed himself of the proposed mental health services, it’s not clear they would have helped avert the attack.
For gun buyers under 21 years of age, the framework proposes an enhanced review process that requires an investigative period to review juvenile and mental health records, including checks with state databases and local law enforcement — but that would have only impacted Ramos’ ability to buy a weapon had he sought out mental health assistance or had a criminal record.
“This provision with background checks could’ve been protective … if he had had treatment and been involved in a mental health program,” Xenakis said.
And since Ramos purchased his AR-style weapon legally, the proposal’s crackdown on criminals who illegally evade licensing requirements would not have applied to him, said Xenakis.
School safety experts like Ron Avi Astor say that’s why more gun safety provisions are needed. Astor, part of a group of researchers who recently issued an eight-point plan for immediate government action to reduce gun violence, told ABC News that without a bill that focuses on responsible gun ownership, there is going to be little impact on the number of shootings that occur.
Astor, who supports gun education, safety training, and stricter licensure for gun owners, said “that’s where you’re going to get the biggest difference: if you implement even the licensing alone, not even background checks.”
“If we were willing to go for licensing like we do with cars, that would save potentially tens and tens of thousands of lives,” Astor said.
The current Senate proposal “is not a perfect solution that’s going to solve the problem,” said Densley. “It might make these types of mass shootings less frequent. It might make them less deadly in the coming years. But it’s not going to solve the problem.”
