Sean “Diddy” Combs is hosting and executive-producing this year’s Billboard Music Awards.
His involvement in the ceremony comes 25 years after he won his first Billboard Music Award in 1997 for his album No Way Out. The music mogul last appeared on the BBMAs stage in 2017, when he made a surprise appearance to commemorate The Notorious B.I.G.
“This will be unlike any awards show – I’m bringing the love and setting the frequency at an all-time high,” Diddy says in a statement. “The Billboard Music Awards truly represent the artists and where music is today, so I’m excited to curate the biggest live performances and surprises. The world has to tune in to see.”
The BBMAs air live from Las Vegas Sunday, May 15 at 8 P.M. ET / 5 P.M. PT on NBC. As previously reported, Mary J. Blige will be honored with the Icon Award. Burna Boy, Latto and Megan Thee Stallion are among the performers.
(NEW YORK) — As millions take to the skies each day and airlines forecast what could be the most profitable summer ever, Americans should prepare for higher prices, more cancellations, and smaller airports losing all scheduled flight service.
Never before have U.S. airlines been more desperate for pilots. The massive pilot shortage affects not only the airlines but also the millions who fly each year.
Prepare for higher fares
U.S. airlines hope to add 13,000 pilots just this year, but America produces only between 5000 and 7000 pilots annually, according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby. With fewer pilots, supply will be limited and ticket prices will continue to climb with demand.
“The pilot shortage for the industry is real and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plan because there simply aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the next five plus years,” Kirby said. “The other really large airlines will also probably be able to attract enough pilots, but for anyone else, I just don’t think it’s mathematically possible to meet the pilot demand for the capacity plans that are out there.”
The U.S. will lose about half of its pilots to retirement in the next 15 years, according to the Regional Airline Association. American Airlines expects more than 5,000 of its 15,000 pilots to retire in the next seven years.
Earlier this month, American Airlines announced it would begin busing passengers from smaller cities to its hub in Philadelphia. JetBlue will cut its spring and summer flight schedule by 10 percent. In an earnings call Thursday, United’s Kirby said its regional partners have grounded 150 planes because of the pilot shortage.
“The airlines are underwater and trying to breathe through a straw,” American 737 Captain and Union spokesperson Dennis Tajer told ABC News. “Airlines are poaching each other’s pilots. It’s stunning the level of aggression.”
Mark Stinson is in flight school in Florida and still at least a year away from being qualified to join an airline, but the 31-year-old already has two job offers with regional airlines. Stinson says despite not having earned his commercial pilots license, one airline has offered to allow him to accrue vacation time the moment he signs a contract.
“The airlines are so hungry that they are taking just about anyone into these programs, and after pilots build enough hours they are applying directly into the majors,” Stinson says referring to the nation’s largest airlines. “Two of our instructors got hired directly with Spirit Airlines and will be going to training here shortly. They only have about 2 years’ experience. It’s insane. They will be airbus pilots in no time.”
American says it’s hiring 50-70 pilots each week in 2022, more than at any time in its history. United plans to hire more than 2000 pilots this year. United, Delta, American and Southwest pay among the highest salaries in the industry with United’s most senior pilots earning roughly $450,000 annually.
“The pilot shortage is real and it is grave. Larger airlines are able to recruit, but midsize and smaller airlines are having problems. Regional airlines, the airlines that operate the 50 to 75 seat airplanes that we see many airlines operate to small towns, they are really struggling and airlines have had to scale back or drop service to a lot of smaller communities,” Henry Harteveldt, president of travel analytics firm Atmosphere Research told ABC news.
Airline recruiters under extreme pressure to find pilots
Envoy Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, tells applicants they can earn up to $182,000 a year if a candidate promises to stay for at least two years and is certified to fly its Embraer regional jets.
“They’re reaching out to me, sending me emails. They don’t care. They just want to see that, you know, you’re getting your flight hours. They’ll do an interview with you and ask you a few HR questions, but then they just offer you the job automatically. So that’s how much in need they are of pilots,” Stinson said.
Why a shortage?
For several reasons: The FAA mandates pilots retire at 65, fewer pilots leaving the military, high cost and lengthy training times, and thousands of early retirements at the start of the pandemic.
During the second half of the 20th century, the military pumped out far more pilots than it does today; and now many of those pilots are rapidly approaching retirement. Obtaining a commercial pilot’s license today can easily cost between $80,000 and $170,000.
To help offset the shortage, United Airlines recently opened its own flight school, Aviate Academy. United plans to train 5000 pilots by 2030 and will subsidize training costs in return for a commitment to flying for the company.
Pilot fatigue
As travel demand rapidly increased in the months following the release of vaccinations, many airlines scheduled more flights than they could staff. Since last summer, we’ve seen multiple airline meltdowns.
“The airline management teams are trying to fly more than they have pilot staffing for,” American Capt. Dennis Tajer said. “We are seeing more fatigue reports than we’ve ever seen.”
Pilots from all major airlines have complained that their duty days are unpredictable, often running hours longer than scheduled and sometimes not knowing what day they will arrive back home. At Southwest, pilots say it’s not uncommon to arrive in a destination only to find out there is no hotel available.
“We are human beings and this is pressuring the margin of safety,” Tajer said.
Last week, pilots at Southwest wrote a letter to management about the more than 300% increase in pilot fatigue calls. If a pilot tells the airline he or she is fatigued, the pilot is automatically removed from the flight with no questions. This often results in delays and cancellations.
“Fatigue, both acute and cumulative, has become Southwest Airlines’ number-one safety threat,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told airline management in a recent letter.
Delta Air Lines pilots echo that message and have begun picketing at airports.
‘We are being pushed to our limits’
“We’ve flown record amounts of overtime during the pandemic to help Delta operate its schedule and get our passengers safely to their destinations. In many cases, pilots are flying long after their day or trip was supposed to end. Delta cannot continue to operate the schedule at redline with no room for error,” Capt. Jason Ambrosi, chairman of the Delta Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association said in a statement. “We are being pushed to our limits as Delta tries to add back flying and capture revenue.”Delta, Southwest, and American all responded, saying they constantly evaluate their schedules and that safety is their highest concern.
“We continuously evaluate our staffing models and plan ahead so that we can recover quickly when unforeseen circumstances arise, and the resilience of the Delta people is unmatched in that regard. Pilot schedules remain in line with all requirements set by the FAA as well as those outlined in our pilot contract,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
Southwest told ABC News it has revised its flight schedule to better match pilot supply.
“The increase is expected, as it’s common to experience an elevated level of fatigue calls during irregular operations and in March, the industry faced weather and airspace delays that resulted in disruptions across the network. The March increase in Pilot fatigue calls is a result of the system working as designed, allowing Crew to determine if they are too fatigued to fly,” Southwest wrote in a statement.
Solutions?
There are no quick fixes. Scott Kirby told investors that United plans to hire at least half the 5000 new pilots each year, adding it will be at least five or six years before there might be relief for the mid-size and regional airlines.
“Pilots salaries are higher than ever, and there’s never been a better time to be a commercial airline pilot,” Faye Malarkey Black, the President and CEO of the Regional Airline Association said in an interview with ABC News. “I will say we’ve made the grass on the other side of the fence very, very green. This is an attractive career with a really high ROI on the training dollar. The problem is, if you can’t get over the fence, it doesn’t matter how green the grass is on the other side, you can’t access it.”
Student loans can be difficult to obtain and expensive, making it impossible for some aspiring pilots. “You’re allowed to use a student loan to cover flight training, but it’s not enough. Student loan is capped in an undergraduate environment, and it doesn’t come close to covering the actual cost of a flight training degree,” Malarkey Black explained. Airline trade groups are lobbying for fundamental policy changes to ensure any aspiring pilot has the ability to attend flight school. For now there is no legislation on the table.
Bottom line
Consumers should expect higher fares, fewer flights, and more cancellations in the coming years.
However, If you are looking for a lucrative career and ready to put in the time and money, you likely won’t have a problem finding a job as an airline pilot.
Joe Maher/Disasters Emergency Committee/Getty Images for Livewire Pictures Ltd
As promised, Ed Sheeran‘s brand-new remix and music video for for his single “2step,” featuring rapper Lil Baby, dropped at the stroke of midnight.
A graphic at the beginning of the video explains that it was filmed in the city of Kyiv, Ukraine before the Russian invasion. Ed goes on to declare his support for Ukraine and notes that the royalties from YouTube streams of the video over the next 12 months will benefit the DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
DEC charities and their local partners in Ukraine and in neighboring countries are working to provide food, water, shelter and medical assistance to those in need.
The clip shows Ed and a large group of people dancing in the streets, along with various aerial shots of the city.
Lil Baby shows up midway through the video and provides a rap to complement Ed’s wish for his lover to two-step with him all night long.
The original version of “2Step” appears on Ed’s latest album, = (Equals).
Season two of The Flight Attendant took off Thursday on HBO Max. Kaley Cuoco, Rosie Perez, and the rest of the gang are back, doing double duty as flight attendants who moonlight as government spies or double agents.
Griffin Matthews plays one of those doing double duty, joking with ABC Audio he now thinks all flight attendants he meets also work for the CIA.
“I’m not wondering. I’m sure of it,” he teases. “No, you think of them as different people now, you know, like now I really think about their lives back in that galley. They’re talking about passengers. Maybe there are some interpersonal dramas. I have a great respect for flight attendants these days.”
Perez also has a whole new respect for those who take care of us in the sky and the knowledge they have, including “having to know how a plane operates, having to be the people to keep calm just in case something goes wrong, having to deal with unruly passengers, you know, my heart just goes out to them.”
“It’s very, very different,” she adds. “Even when they come in and say ‘Ms. Perez we’re so happy’ and I say, ‘OK, thank you, I don’t want to bother you.’ And they’re like, ‘what?’ You know, because they have a lot to deal with.”
Although Perez’s character is a CIA agent, in real life, the spy life might not be for her.
“I think what would make me a good CIA agent is that I would, you would never assume that I’m a CIA agent. And what would make me a lousy CIA agent, I think, is that I’m just too much of a nervous wreck,” she says. “But I can keep a secret.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — Health officials in Philadelphia voted Thursday evening to drop the city’s indoor mask mandate, just days after the requirement officially went back into effect on Monday.
“Due to decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts, the city will move to strongly recommending masks in indoor public spaces as opposed to a mask mandate. Given the latest data, the Board of Health voted tonight to rescind the mandate,” a representative from Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s office told ABC News on Thursday.
It is still unclear exactly when the mandate will officially be lifted.
Philadelphia first ended its mask mandate in the beginning of March before reinstating it a little over a month later. The new mask mandate that went into effect Monday required masks in all indoor public spaces, including schools, childcare settings, businesses, restaurants, and government buildings.
“I sincerely wish we didn’t have to do this again. I wish this pandemic was over just as much as any of you but I am very worried about our vulnerable neighbors and loved ones,” Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said during a press conference when the new mandate was first announced April 11. “My hope that our actions today will slow the spread of COVID and help us avoid seeing our ERs, once again, gets so crowded, that people can’t get timely care when they need it.”
The abrupt shift comes just hours after Kenney had defended the decision to reinstate the city’s mask mandate during a Thursday interview with Washington Post Live.
“Our health professionals recommended that we do a mandate again, because their data have shown that mandates get people to wear them more than just highly recommended,” Kenney said in the interview. “Our case counts were 240% higher than they were when we got rid of the mask mandate a month ago. … Our belief is that wearing masks again will tamp down the case counts and hospitalizations … and allow us … to get back to more normalcy.”
The city’s mask mandate had drawn sharp criticism from some residents, with some local business owners going as far as to file a lawsuit against the city in an effort to overturn the requirement.
When asked about the pushback, Kenney insisted that he believes wearing a mask is the “simplest” action someone can take to keep their community safe.
“The mask issue … has become such a politicized issue. It’s the most simplest thing you can do to keep yourself safe and to keep people safe. And the politicization of this issue … has just made everyone crazy about it. It’s not a big burden to wear a mask,” Kenney told Washington Post Live. “I’m sad to say that this nation has devolved into a selfish bunch who want what they want for themselves and are sometimes not willing to help each other out as Americans.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has pulled the plug on CNN+, just a month after its launch. “As we become Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN will be strongest as part of WBD’s streaming strategy which envisions news as an important part of a compelling broader offering along with sports, entertainment, and nonfiction content,” Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, said in a statement on Thursday. “We have therefore made the decision to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN’s core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital. Licht said the move was “not a decision about quality,” but that their customers and CNN would “be best served with a simpler streaming choice”…
Paramount has announced the title of its forthcoming movie based on the beloved role playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will star Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridgerton vet Regé-Jean Page, Sophia Lillis, Justice Smith, Chloe Coleman, and Daisy Head, and will debut March 3, 2023. Pine previously called the movie’s tone a cross between Game of Thrones and The Princess Bride, with a little of Monty Python and the Holy Grail thrown in for good measure…
In a post on social media, 90 Day Fiancé stars Robert Springs and Anny Francisco confirmed their seven-month-old son Adriel has died. “I am devastated and [so is] my family,” Anny wrote, adding, “I never thought I would lose my son. He was a fighter… his heart couldn’t take it… my heart is broken it’s a big pain…so difficult.” The pair, whose courtship was followed by the reality series, also have a 20-month-old daughter, Brenda Aliyah…
Robert Morse, who played Bertram Cooper on AMC’s Emmy-winning series Mad Men, has died at the age of 90,The Hollywood Reporter notes. A two-time Tony winner, Morse was remembered by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski on Twitter as a “good pal,” and “a huge talent and a beautiful spirit”…
Freeform’s Cruel Summer is returning as an anthology series, the cable outlet announced on Thursday. The second season will feature a new mystery, along with a new cast, including Sadie Stanley, Eloise Payet, Griffin Gluck and KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore. Additionally, Power Book IV: Force co-exec producer Elle Triedman is the new showrunner, replacing Tia Napolitano. Napolitano replaced creator Bert V. Royal after disagreements with the network. Set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest, the next chapter of Cruel Summer “follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship,” approached from “three different timelines surrounding Y2K,” according to press materials…
(WASHINGTON) — GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday will become the first member of Congress to publicly testify under oath about the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Monday night, a federal judge allowed a legal challenge by a group of Georgia voters to move forward as they seek to disqualify Greene from running for reelection, citing her alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The voters argue a provision of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment known as the “disqualification clause” prevents Greene from holding federal office.
Passed shortly after the Civil War, the Disqualification Clause bars any person from holding federal office who has previously taken an oath to protect the Constitution — including a member of Congress — who has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States or “given aid or comfort” to its “enemies.”
An avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, Greene has denied any involvement in the attack and said she is appealing.
Judge Charles Beaudrot will preside over Friday’s hearing and witnesses will also be called to testify.
The time frame for the judge to render his decision on whether or not Greene should remain on the ballot is tight. Early voting for the Georgia primary begins May 2 and the primary itself is on May 17.
In an interview Tuesday with ABC News affiliate WTVC, Greene called the legal challenge a “scam.”
“All I did was what I’m legally and allowed to do by the Constitution as a member of Congress, and that was I objected to Joe Biden’s Electoral College votes from a few states,” Greene said.
Greene also said she was a “victim” on Jan. 6.
Mike Rasbury, one of the voters challenging Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection, said in a statement that Greene “took an oath of office to protect democracy from all enemies foreign and domestic … However, she has flippantly ignored this oath and, based on her role in the January 6 insurrection, is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution from holding any future public office.”
Rasbury will be in the courtroom when Greene testifies.
Ron Fein, a lawyer representing the voters and legal director of Free Speech For People, told ABC News in an email that the Georgia “voters who filed this lawsuit have a right to have their challenge heard” and that he looks forward to questioning Greene under oath.
James Bopp, Greene’s attorney, told ABC News Tuesday that the challenge to Greene is “absurd” and that it shouldn’t be up to judges to decide who represents Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Bopp also represents GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who is facing a similar challenge against his reelection from a group of voters in North Carolina.
Cawthorn’s lawsuit to dismiss the challenge to his reelection is set for oral arguments May 3 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaking on Fox News Monday night, Greene told host Tucker Carlson that Democrats are trying to keep her name off the ballot, maintaining she had nothing to do with the attack on the Capitol.
“I have to go to court on Friday and actually be questioned about something I’ve never been charged with and something I was completely against,” Greene said.
The challenges against Greene and Cawthorn are part of a larger legal effort to prevent anyone allegedly involved in the events surrounding Jan. 6 — or who supported it — from running for reelection.
Similar challenges are being brought against GOP Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and theoretically could be brought against Trump if he decides to run for office again in 2024.
According to the CPSC, Best Buy has received 68 reports from U.S. consumers and 36 reports from Canadian consumers of the air fryer or air fryer ovens catching fire, burning or melting.
These include seven reports of minor property damage and two reports of injuries, including an injury to a child’s leg.
Consumers are advised to immediately stop using the recalled product and return it to Best Buy for a refund in the form of a store credit, Best Buy said. The company said it is also contacting known purchasers directly to arrange returns.
(COVINGTON, Ga.) — A small plane crashed in the lot of a General Mills plant in Georgia shortly after takeoff Thursday evening, killing all aboard, authorities said.
The plane took off from the Covington Municipal Airport around 6:45 p.m., Covington Police Department Captain Ken Malcom said during a press briefing.
Witnesses told police it appeared that the aircraft, believed to be a Cessna twin-engine propeller plane, was having trouble gaining altitude and that it sounded like there was engine trouble.
Malcom said the plane then suddenly veered and crashed into the lot of the General Mills plant, located about a mile from the airport. The plane went down in an isolated area that stored tractor-trailers, some of which caught fire, he said.
There were no survivors, Malcom said. It is unclear how many people were aboard the plane, and police are working to determine who the victims are, he said.
No one was injured on the ground, according to Malcom, who noted that many lives were potentially saved since the plane didn’t crash directly into the plant.
Fire personnel was still working to put out the fire at the scene several hours after the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
ABC News’ Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
(DULUTH, Minn.) — A family of four, including two children, were fatally shot while sleeping in their Minnesota home in what police believe to be a murder-suicide incident, authorities said.
The suspected gunman, a relative of the family, was found dead in the home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Duluth Police Department Chief Mike Tusken said.
“It’s just a sad day,” a visibly shaken Tusken said during a briefing on the incident Thursday.
“In 32 years, we haven’t seen anything like this, when we’ve had four victims of a homicide,” he said.
The victims were publicly identified by police following next-of-kin notification as Riana Lou Barry, 44; Sean Christopher Barry, 47; Shiway Elizabeth Barry, 12; and Sadie Lucille Barry, 9.
Duluth police had responded to the home in the East Hillside neighborhood shortly after noon on Wednesday, stemming from a request for a welfare check in neighboring Hermantown regarding an individual experiencing a mental health crisis.
A family member had provided the Hermantown Police Department with a message the suspect allegedly sent to them and later posted on social media indicating that he intended to harm himself and other family members, authorities said.
Hermantown police were unable to locate or make contact with the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Brandon Taylor Cole-Skogstad. They provided Duluth police with the address of the Duluth home owned by the suspect’s aunt and uncle, authorities said. Duluth police had also received information that the suspect had access to a weapon, Tusken said.
Duluth police who responded to the home heard what they believed to be a single gunshot as they knocked on the door, authorities said.
After securing the scene, police initially used robots and drones to search the premises, though the devices were unable to enter all the rooms, Tusken said. A room-by-room search by a tactical team found the victims in their beds dead from apparent gunshot wounds, he said. A family dog was also found dead, he said.
A 9mm handgun was found near the suspect, the chief said.
A 911 call history search did not indicate any prior concerns involving Cole-Skogstad, police said.
“This is a tragedy for Minnesota, a tragedy for, certainly, the city of Duluth and for this community,” said Tusken, who added that he hopes getting the facts out will provide some “closure and healing.”
No further details were provided amid the ongoing investigation.
Duluth City Council President Arik Forsman told reporters he knew the family, who was known for selling Girl Scout cookies at an East Hillside church.
“No family or community should have to go through what has been happening over the last 24 hours,” he said. “It’s hard to put into words the sadness that I feel as a councilor, as a Duluthian and as a father.”
“That was compounded when the names were released, because these folks were my neighbors in Lakeside,” he continued.
Duluth Mayor Emily Larson said the incident is “deeply painful” for the community.
“As a parent and member of a family, it is wrenching to consider what the Barry family might be feeling,” she said in a statement. “There is only loss to every part of this story. To the Barry family: our community mourns with you and we share in your pain. Because your loss is our community’s loss.”
