Ed Sheeran just can’t stop collaborating with other artists. This year alone, he’s put out singles featuring Taylor Swift, Lil Baby and J Balvin, and he also teamed with Camila Cabello for her hit “Bam Bam.” Now, he’s jumped on a single and video by Nigerian superstar Burna Boy.
The romantic track, titled “For My Hand,” appears on Burna Boy’s new album, Love, Damini — the artist’s birth name is Damini Ogulu. In the video, Ed and Burna Boy sing in an elevator, both solo and together.
But the elevator is magic, because at one point, it opens to reveal Ed standing on a slab of rock in the middle of an ocean, and on the ledge of a tall building, while Burna Boy is seen standing on a platform in the middle of the clouds. And when they’re not in the elevator, an attractive couple is dancing inside.
This is actually the second time Ed’s been on a track with Burna Boy: In 2019, they were both featured on the song “Own It,” by Ed’s good friend, British rapper/singer Stormzy.
Fivio Foreign is going worldwide for his new single, “Paris to Tokyo,” and after teaming up with Key Glock, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown and Polo G, among others, the New York City rapper has joined forces with The Kid Laroi.
“Paris to Tokyo” dropped at the stroke of midnight on Friday, exactly three months after the release of his highly anticipated debut album, B.I.B.L.E., and a week after the two performed at the Wireless Festival in London.
Fivio hasn’t announced the release date for the album’s deluxe edition, or whether it will include “Paris to Tokyo.”
The fourth Thor film from Marvel Studios, Thor: Love and Thunder, lands in theaters today.
The movie sees Chris Hemsworth‘s “space viking” going from “Dad bod to God bod,” shedding the pounds he was carrying in Avengers: Endgame and going on a journey of self-discovery.
Interrupting that is Christian Bale‘s Gorr the God Butcher, a formerly devout man whose god failed him, so he sets about slaying them all — including Thor.
Hemsworth recently admitted he was tiring of the character he’s portrayed onscreen since 2010 — until an infusion of fun came with writer-director Taika Waititi‘s 2017 Thor: Ragnarok. The movie made more than $854 million worldwide and reinvigorated the actor’s passion for the role.
“There was this sort of North Star, is about having fun…not getting bogged down in the serious sort of nature that we can when making films,” the actor said at a recent press event.
Hemsworth says of the director, “He loves it. He loves these stories. He loves these characters. He’s sitting there as a fan, would…telling you…what a fan would want to see…and everyone’s on board for it…”
Taika noted, “I’ve become friends with Chris. And I think just his personality and his energy and who he is the kind of person that I’d want to be on an adventure with,” adding, “I just want to tap into those qualities that he’s got and sort of make Thor more Chris, really.”
Thor: Love and Thunder implies we haven’t seen the last of the hero, about which Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige teases, “If we look at the comics as our guide, there are plenty of other incarnations of Thor that we’ve that we have yet to see.”
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.
Minari actor Steven Yeun has been tapped to star alongside Robert Pattinson in Oscar-winning Parasite filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s next movie, according to Deadline. The yet-to-be-titled film will be a science fiction story based on Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7, which followed an “expendable” — a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim — who refuses to let his replacement clone, dubbed Mickey8, take his place. Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette also star…
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reports Kazuki Takahashi, best known as the creator of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, was found dead Wednesday in Japan, according to Newsweek. He was 60. Takahashi’s body was found floating off the coast of Nago City in southern Japan’s Okinawa, wearing snorkeling equipment. The Coast Guard is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. A statement on the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game’s Twitter on Thursday said it was “shocked and saddened” by the news, adding that “Together with his countless fans,” the company will carry on the Yu-Gi-Oh! legacy “with all the love and care it deserves.” Newsweek reports the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise is estimated to have made some $17.1 billion…
The final season of NBC’s This Is Us leads all nominees in broadcast and cable for the 2nd annual Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards, revealed on Thursday. The show’s 12 nominations include broadcast network drama series, actress, actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, writing and directing. HBO’s Succession came in second place with 11 nominations, including cable drama series and six acting nominations, three directing nominations and one writing nomination. FX’s What We Do in the Shadows received eight nods, while ABC’s Abbott Elementary scored seven. FX’s Atlanta, Showtime’s Yellowjackets, HBO’s Euphoria and TBS’ Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail all landed six, and CBS’ Ghosts picked up five. The HCA’s broadcast network and cable awards will be held at The Beverly Hilton on Saturday, August 13, 2022, and stream the following night…
(NEW YORK) — As American basketball star Brittney Griner remains detained in Russia, Trevor Reed said he knows her grim reality all too well.
“They do not like Americans and they don’t try to hide that,” Reed, 30, told ABC News in an interview airing Friday on Good Morning America.
The U.S. Marine veteran was imprisoned in Russia for nearly three years. Reed, a Texas native, was arrested in Moscow in the summer of 2019 while visiting his Russian girlfriend. Russian authorities accused him of assaulting officers while being driven to a police station after a night of heavy drinking. He was convicted by a Russian court in mid-2020 and sentenced to nine years in a prison camp.
“There’s pretty horrible conditions there,” Reed said. “Some of those places don’t have a toilet — there’s just a hole in the floor for where the toilet should be.”
“There’s rats, [the] food there could be, you know, really bad,” he added. “In the summer, it’s very hot there. There’s no air conditioning obviously, or even fans inside of those cells.”
Reed was ultimately freed on April 27 as part of a prisoner swap agreed between the United States and Russia.
“The real fear that you have that just kind of sits on you like this weight the whole time, is that, you know, you could be there forever,” he said.
Griner, who plays professional basketball for the Phoenix Mercury, was returning to Russia to play in the off-season when she was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow on Feb. 17, after being accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in the country. On Thursday, the two-time Olympic gold medalist pleaded guilty to drug possession charges on the second day of her trial in a Russian court.
Griner, 31, also told the court that she had no “intention” of breaking Russian law, adding that she was in a rush when packing and did not mean to leave the cartridges in her bag. The trial was then adjourned until July 14.
Her detention has been extended repeatedly, most recently through Dec. 20, which was the expected length of her trial. If convicted, Griner faces up to 10 years in Russian prison and also has a right to an appeal.
The U.S. government has classified Griner’s case as “wrongfully detained,” meaning Washington will more aggressively work to negotiate her release even as the legal case against her plays out, according to the U.S. Department of State.
The White House said in a statement Wednesday that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have called Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, to discuss efforts to release her.
Griner had personally reached out to Biden in a handwritten letter that the White House received on Monday, when Americans were celebrating Independence Day. In the letter, she urged Biden to help her and other American detainees get out of Russia.
“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,” Griner wrote to the president. “It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate [the Fourth of July] because freedom means something completely different to me this year.”
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and Michigan-based corporate security executive, has been detained in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges, which both he and the U.S. government claim are false. Whelan, 52, was left out of the April prisoner exchange that led to Reed’s release.
Reed said the Biden administration is “not doing enough” to free Griner and Whelan.
“I hope that President Biden and his administration will do everything possible to get both, you know, Brittney and Paul out of Russia, and that they will do that immediately,” he told ABC News. “Because every day that, you know, they sit here and wait to make a decision is one more day that, you know, Paul and Brittney are suffering.”
Reed noted that freeing Whelan “needs to be the no. 1 priority there, just simply based off of the fact that he’s been there the longest.” He also criticized the Biden administration for contacting Griner’s family but not Whelan’s.
“They called Brittney’s family, and I’m extremely excited that they did that. I think that’s a step in the right direction,” Reed said. “But, at the same time, they did not contact Paul Whelan’s family and he’s been there for longer than I was even in Russia.”
During a news briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say whether Biden has plans to call Whelan’s family, telling reporters that she didn’t have a telephone call to “announce or preview.” But she described regular contact between the Biden administration and the Whelans.
“The president is getting regularly updated,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. “This is top of mind.”
She added: “We’re going to do everything that we can to bring home Brittney Griner safely, and to also make sure that we bring Paul Whelan back home as well.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. saw stronger than expected job growth in June, as the economy added 372,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The data shows moderately lower but robust job growth, despite aggressive borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve.
The leisure and hospitality industry continued to show strong growth, adding 67,000 jobs, though a slight dip from the positions added over the month prior. Jobs were also added in health care and professional and business services.
The labor force participation rate, a measure of working-age Americans who hold jobs or are actively looking for one, inched down to 62.2% in June, suggesting that workers still remain on the sidelines. That figure stands 1.2 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels seen in February 2020.
Wage increases — a key metric for observers of inflation focused on consumer demand — rose 0.3% over last month and 5.1% over the past year. Those measures are largely unchanged from the report released a month prior.
The new data arrives at a precarious moment. Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Fed pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risks tipping the economy into a recession. At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994.
“It’s amazing how head-spinning the predictions of the economy have been,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School for Social Resarch. “Inflation was the top issue before the Fed met last month and now it’s recession,” she added.
Heightening the sense of economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 suffered its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, falling 20.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further over that period, dropping more than 28%.
Economic data released this week presented a mixed picture of the job market. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in May, a dropoff from the peak of 11.8 million in March but far higher than pre-pandemic levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The statistics indicate that demand for workers dipped but remained strong in May.
On the other hand, data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed that jobless claims stood at 235,000 last week, an increase of 4,000 from the week prior and the highest seen since mid-January. The data suggests that the tight labor market may be loosening, a possible sign of an economic slowdown.
Ghilarducci, the labor economist, cautioned that the persistence of a low unemployment rate in June may not mean that the economy remains in good shape, since the unemployment rate often lags behind overall economic trends.
“The unemployment rate is a note from a different time,” she said.
Still, the White House and the Federal Reserve are watching closely to see if jobs data reveals anything about their difficult tight-rope walk of fighting sky-high prices by slowing down demand, while simultaneously avoiding the type of steep slowdown that could cause a recession.
In recent months, strong hiring had turned the monthly jobs report into a recurring indicator of the hot U.S. labor market.
Prior to May, the U.S. enjoyed a streak of 12 straight months in which it added at least 400,000 jobs. Meanwhile, for the past three months of jobs data — from March to May — the unemployment rate has stood at 3.6%, a tick above the 3.5% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw in February 2020.
On Friday, April and May numbers were revised to show 74,000 fewer jobs added in those months.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As recession fears grow, officials on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., will be watching employment data on Friday to see if aggressive borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve have slowed a monthslong stretch of robust U.S. hiring — suggesting economic activity may be quieting down.
The jobs report is expected to show that U.S. employers hired 273,000 workers last month, a marked slowdown in payrolls from the 390,000 jobs added during the month prior, according to a survey from Bloomberg. The survey predicts that the unemployment rate will remain at 3.6%.
The new data arrives at a precarious moment. Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Fed pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risks tipping the economy into a recession. At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994.
“It’s amazing how head-spinning the predictions of the economy have been,” said Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School for Social Resarch. “Inflation was the top issue before the Fed met last month and now it’s recession,” she added.
Heightening the sense of economic uncertainty, the S&P 500 suffered its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970, falling 20.5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further over that period, dropping more than 28%.
Economic data released this week presented a mixed picture of the job market. Employers posted 11.3 million job openings in May, a dropoff from the peak of 11.8 million in March but far higher than pre-pandemic levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Wednesday. The statistics indicate that demand for workers dipped but remained strong in May.
On the other hand, data released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed that jobless claims stood at 235,000 last week, an increase of 4,000 from the week prior and the highest seen since mid-January. The data suggests that the tight labor market may be loosening, a possible sign of an economic slowdown.
Ghilarducci, the labor economist, cautioned that the persistence of a low unemployment rate in June may not mean that the economy remains in good shape, since the unemployment rate often lags behind overall economic trends.
“The unemployment rate is a note from a different time,” she said.
Still, the White House and the Federal Reserve will be watching closely to see if the data reveals anything about their difficult tight-rope walk of fighting sky-high prices by slowing down demand, while simultaneously avoiding the type of steep slowdown that could cause a recession.
In recent months, strong hiring has turned the monthly jobs report into a recurring indicator of the hot U.S. labor market.
Prior to May, the U.S. enjoyed a streak of 12 straight months in which it added at least 400,000 jobs. Meanwhile, for the past three months of jobs data — from March to May — the unemployment rate has stood at 3.6%, a tick above the 3.5% unemployment rate that the U.S. saw in February 2020.
(NEW YORK) — Days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a slew of major U.S. companies said they will cover travel costs for employees who cannot access an abortion where they live.
High-profile brands like Apple, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Disney, ABC News’ parent company, are among those that vowed to help employees afford such travel, as 26 states are “certain or likely” to ban abortion in the aftermath of the court ruling, the Guttmacher Institute predicted in October. In several states, abortion bans have already taken hold.
But the new policies position companies as a key bulwark for abortion rights in states banning the procedure, raising concerns over the privacy of employees who may share intimate details of their personal lives in order to access the subsidy for travel costs. Fear of retribution or discrimination based on the desire to access the employee benefit could dissuade women from using it, experts told ABC News.
Assessing such privacy concerns is difficult in the early days of these policies, when companies are still figuring out exactly what implementation will require and the state-by-state legal environment remains in flux, the experts said. They added that federal law offers robust, albeit incomplete protection for the confidentiality of medical information, urging companies to administer the plan through a health insurer rather than deliver the benefit directly.
“Women should not assume with these policies that their privacy is absolutely 100% guaranteed,” said Wendy Parmet, a professor of health law at Northwestern University. “On the other hand, there are protections.”
“We risk the situation in which the fear itself becomes a more formidable barrier to access to needed care than the actual laws,” she added.
A central question for the new policies covering travel for abortion procedures hinges on whether companies administer the subsidy through an insurer or do it themselves, experts said.
If the benefit is provided through an insurer, then employees will retain the strong privacy protections that they receive whenever pursuing a medical procedure or health benefit through employer-provided health insurance, said Sharona Hoffman, a health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. In such cases, HIPAA prevents the release of medical information about a patient, she added.
If a company provides the benefit directly, then those same privacy protections will not apply. “HIPAA doesn’t apply to employers — there’s no HIPAA privacy coverage,” Hoffman said.
She noted that federal law does offer some confidentiality protections for sensitive medical information held by an employer through the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“If they learn somebody has HIV or cancer, they can’t disclose that to anyone else, unless they have to disclose it to a supervisor who has to provide accommodations to personnel,” she said, noting that it’s unclear how such protections will apply in the case of women seeking to use a company’s coverage for abortion-related travel.
Experts also emphasized the uncertain implications of potential legislation that may aim to prevent people from traveling to other states for an abortion. If such a law took effect and empowered law enforcement to subpoena information from companies or insurers that administer the travel subsidy, then they could be forced to turn over information.
“There’s a HIPAA exception for law enforcement,” said Hoffman, the health law professor at Case Western Reserve University. “Even health care providers have to respond to requests from law enforcement.”
Companies must establish guidelines for how they will respond to potential legal attacks on their policies, said Sonja Spoo, the director of reproductive rights campaigns at the feminist advocacy group UltraViolet.
“If you’re going to provide these benefits to workers, you need to make sure you have a plan in place to protect them,” she said. “Make sure employees are safe from attempts by whoever is in power to see information and weaponize it.”
ABC News posed questions about privacy concerns to 20 top companies that have announced policies that cover travel for employees who cannot access abortion nearby. Eight companies responded, of which seven provided a general comment about their policies but did not answer questions about privacy protections.
One company, Yelp, responded directly to questions from ABC News about privacy concerns regarding its policy.
“The privacy and safety of our employees were critical to how we would introduce this benefit, which is administered through our health insurance provider, ensuring confidentiality,” a Yelp spokesperson told ABC News. “Yelp will never receive any information on who incurred a claim and/or received reimbursement.”
Several companies responded to privacy questions about their policies covering employee travel with general statements on the new policies, including Bank of America, Lyft, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
“We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services,” a Meta spokesperson told ABC News. “We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”
As the political and legal terrain shifts, companies will need to constantly adapt to ensure employee information remains private, Kirsten Vignec, an employment attorney at the law firm Hill Ward Henderson, told ABC News.
“This is the beginning — not the end — of the transition as a result of the change in precedent,” she said.
Ciara is ready to make the world “Jump” with her brand-new single.
At midnight Friday, the singer released her new track “Jump” featuring Coast Contra, which she’s been teasing all week.
“I’m back on my mission to make the world dance! JUMP is OUT NOW,” Ciara captioned an Instagram post promoting the single.
She continued, “I wanna see you… Jump into the new YOU. Jump into LOVE (Loving on you:)) Jump into FUN. Jump into DANCE. What you waiting for?”
In addition to the new song, Ciara announced that the music video will premiere Friday, at 9 a.m.
“Jump” is the first release under Ciara’s label Beauty Marks Entertainment in partnership with Uptown Records and Republic Records. It’s also the first single from her forthcoming eighth studio album and follows 2019’s Beauty Marks, which featured the hit “Level Up.”
(LAS VEGAS) — The Las Vegas Raiders welcomed Sandra Douglass Morgan, the first Black woman ever to serve as team president in NFL history, on Thursday.
“It is the honor of a lifetime to join the Raiders at one of the most defining times in the team’s history,” Morgan said in a Raiders press release on Thursday.
Morgan is currently an attorney for Covington and Burling LLP and serves on the board of directors for Allegiant Travel Company and Caesars Entertainment.
Her appointment pioneers a new path of diverse leadership in the NFL’s history, but she has long made strides in diversifying various bureaucracies in her home state of Nevada.
Prior to changing the game in NFL administration, she was previously Nevada’s first Black city attorney for the city of North Las Vegas and the first Black woman to chair the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
The Raiders brought Morgan onboard at a challenging time, shortly after former team president Dan Ventrelle was fired in May.
His controversial termination followed other resignations seen across the board from senior roles, including chief financial officer Ed Villanueva, who was with the team for 18 years, and chief operations and analytics officer Jeremy Aguero, who maintained his role for seven months.
“I am thrilled that Sandra has agreed to join the Raiders family,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said in the press release.
Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler joined Davis in welcoming Morgan to the team in a joint message via Twitter.
Morgan’s leadership marks a significant change for leadership within the Raiders administration.
Thursday’s historic appointment is now the first intersectional advance with previous strides standing in its shadow, like the hire of Amy Trask in 1997, the first female CEO of an NFL team back when the team was still based in Oakland, California.
“This team’s arrival in Las Vegas has created a new energy and opportunities we never dreamed possible. I look forward to taking this team’s integrity, spirit and commitment to excellence on the field into every facet of this organization,” Morgan said.
