(NEW YORK) — A new red flag warning has been issued from Nevada to Oklahoma where 60 mph winds and very dry conditions could create a dangerous fire situation.
The Southwest will continue to be hammered by gusty winds until the end of the week.
The critical fire weather in the Southwest continues with red flag warnings in effect across seven states from Nevada to Texas. Dry airmass remains in place across the region with relative humidity in the single digits and surface winds 20 mph or higher; isolated gusts could reach to 60 mph.
A cold blast brought wind chills in the teens and 20s from the Midwest to the Northeast Thursday morning.
Another cold morning is expected on Friday in the Northeast, with winter-like conditions expected.
The weather will be warmer in the Northeast over the weekend.
Gusty winds and a cold air mass across the Northeast region will make it feel like temps are in the 20s and 30s.
These dry gusty winds are elevating fire danger across parts of the Northeast Friday, with red flag warnings in effect from Delaware to Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia and much of New Jersey.
A new storm system is headed into the Heartland on Friday with severe weather possible, including tornadoes, from Northern Texas to Nebraska, with an enhanced risk in place just north of Oklahoma City, across eastern Kansas and into southeastern Nebraska.
Oklahoma City, Wichita and Tulsa are some of the cities in the bull’s-eye for possible tornadoes and huge hail.
This severe weather threat moves east into the Midwest by Saturday.
Paducah, St. Louis and just south of Chicago are the areas in the bull’s-eye for damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornados on Saturday.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump said his head of security “did nothing wrong” during a 2015 protest at Trump Tower at which five Hispanic men allege they were assaulted.
Trump called the protesters “troublemakers” during a deposition last October, according to a transcript made public Wednesday in Bronx Supreme Court, where Trump, his campaign, and his head of security, Keith Schiller, are being sued by Efrain Galicia and other demonstrators who say they were “violently attacked” during a protest over Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
“I think they were troublemakers, yes I do. I think they were,” Trump said of the plaintiffs during the deposition.
“He did nothing wrong,” Trump said of Schiller. “He went out — I didn’t know about it — but he went out, he heard there was a disturbance and he went out.”
Video of the altercation showed Schiller smacking a protester in the face after he appeared to reach for a sign that said “Trump: Make America Racist Again.”
“And he went out, he took the sign down. He then walked away. And he was attacked from behind, and they tried to get his gun. I don’t even know if he was carrying a gun. But if he was, they were obviously trying to get it,” Trump said.
Trump denied having any knowledge of the protests in real time, despite attorneys for the demonstrators saying they have evidence to the contrary.
Toward the end of the deposition the questioning turned to a 2016 Trump campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during which Trump told the crowd, “If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, just knock the crap out of them, would you?”
The plaintiffs’ attorney asked whether Trump meant to incentivize the crowd to engage in violence.
“No,” Trump replied. “I wanted to have people be ready because we were put on alert that they were going to do fruit. And some fruit is a lot worse than — tomatoes are bad, by the way.”
Trump said it would be OK with him for his security to use force to stop someone from throwing fruit.
“To stop somebody from throwing pineapples, tomatoes, bananas, stuff like that — yeah, it’s dangerous stuff,” Trump said, according to the transcript.
Carly Rae Jepen is back and getting ready to release her new music, promising fans will not have to wait too much longer to hear it.
The “Call Me Maybe” singer announced her song, “Western Wind,” drops March 6 and shared the link where you can pre-save it before it goes live. She also showed off several promotional photos, one of which is a black and white image of her dressed in a lace dress and staring contemplatively at the camera. The other is of her in a flowing, golden gown standing on top of a large tree branch.
Carly Rae teased some of the song lyrics on Instagram, writing, “But could you give me peace of mind if I return to you in time my golden arrow.” This isn’t the first time she leaked a few verses. She also tantalized fans on Tuesday with some more lyrics and an additional promotional shot of her in a saffron-colored dress and overlooking what appears to be an orchard.
Carly previewed “Western Wind” when she performed at Coachella, but she remains coy on whether or not this is the first single of a new album or just a standalone.
The “Good Time” singer’s last album was Dedicated Side B, which she released in May 2020. “Western Wind” arrives next Friday, May 6, at midnight ET.
David Bowie‘s landmark 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was released 50 years ago this June, and to commemorate the milestone, two special vinyl collections will be issued that month.
The first is a limited-edition half-speed-mastered Ziggy Stardust LP, while the second is a picture disc featuring the same master and packaged with a replica promotional poster. Both discs are due out on June 17, one day after the 50th anniversary of the Ziggy Stardust album’s original U.K. release.
The new master for LPs was created using restored masters of the original master tapes from Bowie’s sessions at London’s Trident Studios.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars was Bowie’s fifth album and his first to break into the top 40 of the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at #21. While the record yielded no hit singles in the U.S., it features many of classic Bowie songs, including “Moonage Daydream,” “Starman,” “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City.” The record is a loose concept album focusing on the Bowie-created Ziggy Stardust character, a bisexual alien rock star, and his mythical backing group, The Spiders from Mars.
During that time, Bowie and his real band took on the personas of Ziggy and The Spiders from Mars in concert, until David dramatically declared onstage at the end of a July 1973 show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon that the group had played its last gig.
Today’s announcement of the upcoming vinyl discs coincides with the 50th anniversary of release of the album’s first single, “Starman,” which reached at #10 in the U.K.
Here’s the full Ziggy Stardust track list:
Side One
“Five Years”
“Soul Love”
“Moonage Daydream”
“Starman”
“It Ain’t Easy”
Side Two
“Lady Stardust”
“Star”
“Hang On to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Suffragette City”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”
(GILBERT, Ariz.) — The winning ticket for the $473.1 million Powerball jackpot was sold in Arizona, officials said.
Just a single ticket claimed the grand prize — which has a cash value of $271.9 million — after matching all six numbers in Wednesday night’s drawing. The winning white ball numbers were 11, 36, 61, 62 and 68, and the Powerball number was 4.
Lottery officials said that due to strong ticket sales, the jackpot climbed past the estimate of $454 million that was announced after Monday night’s drawing had no winner.
“This is the biggest ever jackpot won on a single ticket in our state and it is a life-changing moment for this winner,” Arizona Lottery Executive Director Gregg Edgar said in a statement. “It also means millions of dollars to our state’s economy, to this winner’s community, and to the vital programs and services funded by Arizona Lottery ticket sales.”
The winning ticket was sold at a QuikTrip in Gilbert, according to the Arizona Lottery. No one has come forward yet to claim the prize, according to Arizona Lottery spokesperson John Turner Gilliland, who noted that people usually take a few days “to get their affairs in order first.” The winner, who can elect to remain anonymous, has 180 days to come forward.
The winner can either accept an estimated annuity of $473.1 million — which is paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years — or a lump sum payment of $283.3 million. Both values are before federal and state taxes.
Beyond the jackpot, more than 1.4 million tickets won cash prizes in Wednesday night’s drawing, including a $1 million winner in Indiana who matched all five white balls, Powerball officials said.
This marks the third time this year the Powerball jackpot has been won. In January, two tickets sold in California and Wisconsin split a grand prize of $632.6 million — the seventh-largest jackpot ever. In February, a ticket sold in Connecticut won a $185.3 million jackpot.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to Powerball officials. The overall odds of winning a prize in the game are 1 in 24.9.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and all flavors in cigars, a move that could further drive down smoking rates in the U.S.
The FDA will solicit comments from the public before finalizing the rule, a process that could take years. But advocates say it’s a step in the right direction, pointing to one research model that estimated banning these flavors could lead to a 15% decline in tobacco use by 2026.
Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.S., menthol cigarettes represent over a third of cigarette sales, with almost 19 million users. Black Americans have disproportionately high rates of menthol smoking, a consequence of years of racially targeted advertising.
In fact, 85% of Black smokers use menthol cigarettes compared to 30% of white smokers, according to the FDA. Moreover, other groups have been successfully targeted with various marketing strategies including young people, women, low-income and LGBTQ communities, according to Dr. Andrea Villanti, associate professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy at Rutgers School of Public Health and deputy director of the Center for Tobacco studies.
Menthol added to cigarettes and cigars results in a cooling effect when inhaling smoke, said Villanti.
“It actually dampens any sort of respiratory response to smoke being an irritant. So it kind of makes the smoke go down easier,” she explained. “Especially for a young person or someone who hasn’t used the product before.”
She added, “[Menthol] helps people start, it makes it harder to quit.”
Menthol cigarette smokers, especially Black American smokers, are less likely to successfully quit smoking compared to non-menthol cigarette smokers, according to an FDA report. Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative, a nonprofit public health organization committed to tobacco cessation, said nearly half of Black smokers would try to quit if there was a rule banning menthol.
Multiple countries and governing bodies, including the European Union, Canada, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Turkey, as well as some U.S. states and municipalities, including Massachusetts and Washington, D.C., already have menthol bans in effect.
Canada, which banned menthol cigarettes in 2017, is already seeing effects. Research led by a team at the University of Toronto found high levels of quitting behavior in menthol smokers, with 24% of daily menthol smokers quitting by one year and 12% by two years.
“The Canadian experience shows that removing menthol and other additives from cigarettes is certainly feasible,” said Dr. Michael Chaiton, associate professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
According to Chaiton, a U.S. ban is “likely to save hundreds of thousands of lives.”
But in the U.S., the menthol and other flavor ban won’t take effect overnight. The rule-making process and implementation of the ban could take up to several years, according to Kevin Schroth, an associate professor at the Rutgers University Center for Tobacco Studies.
During this time, education and good communication to the public will be important to “reduce misperceptions about the goal of the ban,” according to Vallanti, as well as provide the resources for patients to quit.
“Tobacco companies are the target … not communities,” said Vallanti.
Koval said a comprehensive ban that includes not only menthol cigarettes but flavored cigars as well would reduce “loophole” options in getting around the ban.
Because youth and Black Americans are the primary smokers of menthol and other flavors, a ban “has the potential to improve health equity,” said Vallanti.
“Taking flavors off the market, overall, will prevent the initiation of another generation into becoming addicted to nicotine and lifelong customers of the tobacco industry,” Koval said. “Eliminating menthol cigarettes will have significant effects on health, especially for populations … who are most vulnerable: young people, people of color.”
Hulu’s Emmy-winning prescription drug drama Dopesick, and Issa Rae‘s acclaimed HBO series Insecure are among this year’s winners of the Television Academy Honors.
For the past 15 years, The Television Academy has spotlighted programming “across numerous platforms and genres that raise awareness about complex issues facing society.”
Other winners this year included FX’s Reservation Dogs; HBO’s documentary Black and Missing; HBO Max’s early AIDS crisis-set series It’s a Sin; Padma Lakshmi‘s travel foodie series Taste the Nation: Holiday Edition on Hulu; and BBC Studios and Apple’s COVID-19 exploration The Year Earth Changed.
“Now more than ever, television informs and galvanizes audiences around the world,” said Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma in the announcement. “These seven remarkable programs have enlightened viewers and advocated for some of the most significant issues facing our global community.”
The Honors recipients will be honored at a celebration this summer, the Academy notes.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden formally asked Congress on Thursday for $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next five months to help counter Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion over the long term.
“The cost of this fight is not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen,” Biden said. “It’s critical this funding gets approved and approved as quickly as possible.”
“We’re not attacking Russia. We’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression,” he added. “And just as Putin chose to launch this brutal invasion, he could make the choice to end it, this brutal invasion. Russia is the aggressor, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Russia is the aggressor, and the world must and will hold Russia accountable.”
Biden said the supplemental budget request will allow weapons and ammunition to flow “without interruption to the brave Ukrainian fighters” and the U.S. to continue delivering economic and humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people, whom he said are paying the real price of this fight with their lives.
Over $20 billion of the $33 billion would be for military and other security systems, the White House said. Biden is also asking for an additional $8.5 billion in economic assistance to help provide basic services to the Ukrainian people and $3 billion in humanitarian assistance and food security funding.
Part of the package also includes targeted funding to address economic disruptions in the U.S. as a result of the war in Ukraine, like helping increase U.S. production of wheat and soybeans, “and funding to allow the use of the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of critical reserves — of reserves of critical minerals and materials that have been disrupted by Putin’s war and are necessary to make everything from defense systems to cars,” a senior administration official said ahead of Biden’s remarks.
Biden said he was also sending lawmakers another comprehensive package to enhance our effort to sanction Russian oligarchs and “take their ill-begotten gains.”
As billions in additional COVID funding remains stalled in Congress, asked if that funding should be tied to the Ukraine aid, Biden said, “I don’t care how they do it — I’m sending them both up.”
The 73-year-old Black Sabbath legend’s wife Sharon Osbourne revealed the news in an interview on the U.K.’s Talk TV Thursday. Sharon, who’s currently in the U.K. while Ozzy is in Los Angeles, said that she spoke to her husband and that he’s “OK,” while adding that she’s “very worried” about him.
“We’ve gone two years without him catching COVID,” Sharon said through tears. “It’s just Ozzy’s luck he would get it now.”
She added that she’s returning to L.A. to be with Ozzy so that she can “hold him and kiss him with about three masks on.”
Sharon had just started a new show on Talk TV called The Talk, not to be confused with the CBS show The Talk that she used to co-host before her controversial exit in 2021. In returning home to Ozzy, she says she’ll miss a week before returning to the U.K. The Talk.
“I know my husband,” Sharon said. “We’re gonna get him back on his feet and we’re going to get a negative test by next week.”
Various members of the Osbourne family have contracted COVID-19 over the pandemic, including Sharon and several of her and Ozzy’s grandchildren.
Ozzy received his first COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021.
In an interview with Metal Hammer last October, Ozzy joked that being a “devil worshipper” helped him avoid catching the virus.
(GULFPORT, Miss.) — Four people were gunned down across two neighboring Mississippi cities Wednesday morning, allegedly by the same gunman, according to police.
The first shooting was reported at about 9:11 a.m. Wednesday at a Broadway Inn Express motel in Biloxi, police said.
Three victims — two men and one woman — were found dead at the scene, police said.
They were identified by the coroner’s office as Mohammad Moeini, 51, Chad Green, 55, and Laura Lehman, 61.
The suspect, 32-year-old Jeremy Reynolds, allegedly fled the motel in one of the victim’s cars and drove to nearby Gulfport, police said.
The second shooting — which left 52-year-old William Waltman dead — was reported in Gulfport at about 9:27 a.m. Wednesday, according to Gulfport police and the coroner’s office.
Witnesses said Reynolds fled that scene in a stolen car belonging to the city of Gulfport, police said.
Police tracked down the car and said Reynolds fled on foot to a convenience store. Two employees escaped the store as Reynolds barricaded himself inside, police said.
After multiple attempts to contact him, a SWAT team entered the store where they found Reynolds dead inside “from unknown circumstances,” police said. His autopsy has not been conducted yet, according to the coroner’s office.
