Paramount Pictures’ fifth Scream film scared up an estimated $30.6 million at the box office to dethrone Spider-Man: No Way Home, which held the top spot for the past four weeks. The horror flick, with returning stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, is expected to deliver an estimated $35 million factoring in Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday.
The aforementioned Spider-Man: No Way Home slipped to second place — though the web-slinger has nothing to complain about. The film took in an estimated $20.8 million between Friday and Sunday, and by the end of Monday the latest Spider-Man film should pass $700 million stateside, good enough for fourth place on the list of highest-grossing domestic releases of all time, behind Avatar‘s $760.5 million, Avengers: Endgame with $858.4 million and Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens with $936.7 million.
Finishing in third place was Universal’s Sing 2 with an estimated $8.3 million between Friday and Sunday. It’s projected to finish the long weekend with $11 million. The animated musical has earned $119.4 million to date here in the States to go along with $96.3 million internationally, bringing its four-week worldwide total to $215.7 million.
The female-led thriller, The 335, continued to struggle, finishing fourth in its second week of release with an estimated $2.3 million. The film has collected a total of $8.4 million domestically, and $2.6 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $11 million.
Rounding out the top five was The King’s Man, finishing just percentage points behind with an estimated $2.3 million. It is projected to make $3 million by the end of Monday. The King’s Man’s domestic box-office total now sits at $28.7 million. The movie has grabbed $63.8 million overseas, putting its worldwide tally at $92.5 million.
(LONDON) — Two teenagers have been arrested in England as part of an ongoing investigation into Saturday’s hostage-taking incident at a synagogue in the United States, British authorities said.
The pair were detained in southern Manchester on Sunday evening and “remain in custody for questioning,” according to a statement from the Greater Manchester Police.
The arrests were made in connection with a 10-hour standoff between American authorities and a hostage-taker at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, about 27 miles northwest of Dallas. An armed man claiming to have planted bombs in the synagogue interrupted Shabbat services on Saturday just before noon local time, taking a rabbi and three other people hostage, according to Colleyville Police Chief Michael Miller.
One hostage was released uninjured at around 5 p.m. CT. An elite hostage rescue team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation breached the synagogue at about 9 p.m. local time and rescued the remaining hostages, Miller told a press conference Saturday night. The suspect, identified by the FBI as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, died in a “shooting incident,” according to Miller and FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno, neither of who provided further details.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the initial indication is that Akram was shot and killed by the FBI team. The FBI said in a statement Sunday that its Shooting Incident Review Team “will conduct a thorough, factual, and objective investigation of the events.”
A motive for the incident is under investigation.
Assistant Chief Constable Dominic Scally of the Greater Manchester Police said in a statement Sunday that counterterrorism officers are assisting their U.S. counterparts in the probe. Akram was from the Blackburn area of Lancashire, about 20 miles northwest of Manchester, according to Scally.
During the negotiations with law enforcement, Akram “spoke repeatedly about a convicted terrorist who is serving an 86-year prison sentence in the United States on terrorisms charges,” the FBI said in a statement Sunday.
“This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” the agency added. “Preventing acts of terrorism and violence is the number one priority of the FBI. Due to the continuing investigation we are unable to provide more details at this time.”
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the suspect was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who is incarcerated at Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, about 16 miles southwest of Colleyville. Siddiqui, who has alleged ties to al-Qaida, was sentenced to 86 years in prison after being convicted of assault as well as attempted murder of an American soldier in 2010.
President Joe Biden told reporters Sunday that he was briefed on the incident at the Texas synagogue by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Biden said the suspect had only been in the country for a couple of weeks and spent at least one night in a homeless shelter. The man was armed with a gun, which he allegedly purchased on the street, when he entered the synagogue, but investigators have found no evidence that he was in possession of explosives, according to Biden.
“This was an act of terror,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Meredith Deliso, Bill Hutchinson, Aaron Katersky and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
“Yo, I’m so happy right now,” the Yeezy designer, 44, said in an Instagram video on Saturday, per Hollywood Unlocked. “I just came from Chi’s party and I just gotta shout out to Travis Scott for sending me the address and the time and making sure that I was able to spend that birthday memory with my daughter to be there with the rest of the family.” He also thanked Kylie Jenner.
While Ye expressed his happiness for spending time with his youngest daughter on her special day, an insider who was close to the former couple told Page Six, “He was always having his own party for Chicago. He had it at 4 p.m. at his office downtown [in Los Angeles] that he planned, so it’s so frustrating he crashed Kim’s party and created this narrative that he wasn’t invited.”
The birthday debacle wasn’t the only drama for the Donda rapper this weekend. The day before, on Friday, he and fellow rapper Game‘s new collaboration leaked and in it Ye makes reference to his divorce from Kim and her new beau Pete Davidson.
“We havin’ the best divorce ever / If we go to court, we’ll go to court together / Matter of fact, pick up your sis, we’ll go to Kourt’s together” he raps on the track. Elsewhere he adds, “God saved me from the crash, just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s a**.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea Monday morning, its fourth test in less than a month.
“South Korea’s military detected two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles launched into the East Sea to the northeast from the Sunan Airfield in Pyongyang, North Korea, around 08:50 a.m. and 08:54 a.m.,” South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff told reporters Monday.
The missiles traveled about 236 miles and reached an altitude of about 26 miles, said South Korea’s military, which was analyzing details of the launch.
It was the fourth missile launch this year, following two self-claimed hypersonic missile tests on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11 and last Friday’s short-range ballistic missile that the secluded regime’s state news agency, KCNA, claimed was launched from a rail car.
Pyongyang’s consecutive showcases of its military capabilities came as the United States discussed sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear program.
“North Korea probably believes they pulled out a response from the U.S. by firing hypersonic missiles in the new year because the U.S. acted with new sanctions,” Moon Keun-sik, a military expert at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, told ABC News. “North Korea claims that ballistic missile test-launch is a part of the training, but it also acknowledges that their action is a UN violation.”
North Korea has said its weapons development is a rightful act of self-defense. The country blames the U.S. for escalated tensions.
“The DPRK’s recent development of new-type weapon was just part of its efforts for modernizing its national defense capability. Nevertheless, the U.S. is intentionally escalating the situation even with the activation of independent sanctions, not content with referring the DPRK’s just activity to the UN Security Council,” KCNA said on Friday, citing North Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
North Korea expressed open discontent about the sanctions imposed last Wednesday on North Korean individuals and entities who support the country’s ballistic-missile program.
“We could say that the situation has escalated as the United States took out the sanctions card in response to North Korea’s recent missile test launch,” Kim Yong-hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Seoul-based Dongguk University, told ABC News. “Through missile experiments, Kim Jong Un intends to highlight North Korea’s presence while the United States is mainly taking care of Ukraine issues, and at the same time maintain solidarity among their people.”
Some experts saw the recent tests as planned drills on North Korea’s side. Kim Jong Un announced at the 8th Party Congress in January 2021 that the country planned to strengthen its weapon systems, including hypersonic missiles.
“Pyongyang’s missile tests will take rounds and rounds for the next three years, not mainly intended to send a political message, which is only part of the motivation,” Bong Young-shik of Yonsei University told ABC News. “It would be a mistaken belief to think that the North Korea military can be bought out with massive immediate concessions because North Korea is moving on its own schedule by military capability.”
Analysts in South Korea agreed that North Korea was following its own schedule to ramp up military capabilities in a time when there’s a slim chance of negotiating with other countries in person.
“North Korea is in the direction of enhancing the technical completeness of their missile program and knocking on the United States, trying to persuade them they should reach out to North Korea in any way,” Kim told ABC News.
It isn’t the first time North Korea has scaled up in its weapons experiments. Back in 2019, North Korea fired over 20 short-range ballistic missiles between May and November.
ABC News’ Chae Young Oh contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., on Sunday asked his colleagues in the Senate who are set to vote on voting rights legislation Tuesday: “Which side are you on?” referencing the iconic union organizing song often sung during the civil rights era.
“You know, this is Martin Luther King Jr.’s weekend. I first met Martin Luther King Jr. back in 1960. And I can remember a song, if you think back, back then, ‘Which Side Are You On?'” the majority whip told ABC This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “That song comes to mind today when I look at these senators. Which side are you on?”
“So let’s have the vote so we can get a definitive answer to the question,” he added.
Despite the House passing voting rights legislation Thursday, the outcome of the effort is still a seemingly foregone conclusion with Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., opposed to removing the filibuster provision to pave a path for voting rights legislation to pass the Senate.
“Senators Sinema and Manchin have said ‘no’ to changing the filibuster rules. Do you have any hope things might change before Tuesday?” Raddatz asked.
“You know, South Carolinians live, by and large, by our state motto, ‘As I breathe, I hope.’ Yes, I do have hope,” Clyburn said. “I know that these two Democrats have decided that it is much more important to them to protect the voting rights of the minority on the Senate floor than to protect the voting rights of minorities in this great country of ours, this great country, the minorities that made it possible for them to be in the position that they’re currently in. So, I hope, but I don’t think that we will change their mind. But we will see.”
Clyburn told Raddatz he would support overhauling the Electoral Count Act but thinks voting rights is a more pressing issue given the immediacy of the 2022 midterm elections.
With his sinking approval rating at an all-time low, Raddatz pressed Clyburn, a close confidant to Biden, on how the president can turn the current political tide ahead of the midterms this year.
“You’re credited with turning the tide for President Biden in 2020, but as he approaches this one year in office, his poll numbers are at an all-time low. A Quinnipiac poll recently showed a 33 percent job approval rating. How does he turn that around?” Raddatz asked.
“Now, if Joe Biden had quit after he lost those first two races — three races, he would not be where he is today. I tell people all the time, ‘three strikes and you’re out’ is a baseball rule and he — he should not live by baseball rules. He didn’t live by baseball rules then, he’s now the president,” Clyburn responded. “Keep pressing, and we’ll get to where we need to be.”
Biden delivered an impassioned speech on Tuesday, calling for a change to the Senate rules to pass voting rights legislation.
Raddatz asked Clyburn whether Biden’s speech went too far.
“I want to go back to President Joe Biden. He got very serious pushback after his speech on Tuesday,” Raddatz pressed. “Senator Dick Durbin said he took it ‘a little too far’ by comparing current voting restrictions to Jim Crow. Mitch McConnell called Biden ‘profoundly unpresidential’ for this divisive language. So, was that fierce tone counterproductive?”
Clyburn responded, “Absolutely not. I disagree with both of those statements. I know Dick; I like Dick a whole lot. But let me tell you something, that was what Jim Crow was all about.”
Thirty-four new laws that restrict voting rights have been enacted in 19 states across the country in 2021, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
“These are Jim Crow 2.0. That is one of the strongest points of the president’s speech that I agree with,” he added.
Raddatz also pressed Clyburn on the future of the Democratic Party ahead of the looming midterm election cycle.
“This is what Senator Bernie Sanders told The New York Times as we head into the midterms: ‘I think millions of Americans have become very demoralized. They’re asking what do the Democrats stand for? … Clearly, the current strategy is failing. And we need a major course correction.’ Do you disagree with that?” Raddatz asked.
“Well, I don’t know what he has reference to, but I think they’ll be progressing forward on an agenda. What do we stand for? We stand for the American Rescue Act…. We stand for Build Back Better that we had passed in the House,” Clyburn answered. “It is time for the senators to do what they need to do to get those bills across the finish line.”
“Come on, Senate, step up. Stand to upend rules and get these bills passed,” he added. “Everybody will know what we stand for.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 850,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.9% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 17, 4:58 am
Italian police arrest nurse accused of faking shots for anti-vaxxers
Italian police have arrested a nurse accused of pretending to inject COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of anti-vaxxers so they could benefit from vaccination certificates.
Investigators used a hidden camera to capture the nurse working at a vaccination center in Palmero. A clip from the footage, released Saturday by Italy’s State Police, purportedly shows the woman preparing a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and then emptying the syringe into a piece of gauze before pretending to inject it into an individual’s arm. She faces charges of forgery and embezzlement, according to police.
Police said the woman also faked her own booster shot so she could continue working at the vaccination center, in coordination with another nurse who was arrested last December on similar charges. The other nurse is accused of faking COVID-19 vaccinations for 11 people, including a well-known leader of an anti-vaccine movement, according to police.
New restrictions came into force in Italy on Jan. 10, barring people who aren’t fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from accessing restaurants, gyms, swimming pools, theaters, cinemas, sport events and public transport. Unvaccinated individuals who recently recovered from COVID-19 are exempt from the new rule, which will be in force until March 31. The measures were imposed amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections across the European country.
Last year, singer/songwriter Emmy Meli wrote some “little mantras” for herself, put them to music and posted it on TikTok. Now she’s got a hit on her hands…and she’s started a whole movement.
Emmy wrote the affirmations that she turned into her empowerment anthem “I Am Woman” — not a cover of Helen Reddy‘s 1972 hit “I Am Woman” — by picking “qualities about me that I thought were unique, that I wanted to pay some more attention to,” she tells ABC Audio. After adding a melody and a beat, she decided to share it online.
“I thought, ‘Hey, this is a really cool message, and I think there are probably women out there who need to hear this too,'” she explains. “And I posted it on a Tuesday night and then got up on Wednesday…and…my friends were texting me, ‘Emily! Emily! Open Tik Tok, look at what’s happening!'”
People started using the song in TikToks to illustrate the lyrics’ messages, like “I’m unbeatable” and “I’m creative.” Soon, Emmy realized what an impact it was having.
“It wasn’t just, ‘Oh, here are some photos of me that I feel beautiful in,'” she notes. “It was people sharing their art…It was female athletes. It was mothers sharing their stories. It was sexual assault survivors sharing their stories. And it was way more than just a random TikTok trend.”
Even celebrities got involved:Ashley Graham, Jada Pinkett Smith and Gabrielle Union are just some of the stars who used “I Am Woman” in TikToks. So which one was she most excited about?
“At first, Ashley Graham,” says Emmy. “I was like, ‘O.K. no way!’ because I’ve looked up to her for a long time.”
She laughs, “And then Jada Pinkett Smith — like, that’s just surreal…So, honestly, all of them!”
John Mellencamp‘s latest studio album, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack, gets its release this Friday, January 21, and the lauded singer/songwriter shares some details about the project in a new interview with Forbes, including how he wound up collaborating with Bruce Springsteen on three songs.
Mellencamp says the collaboration came about “quite by accident,” after he and Springsteen played together at the 2019 benefit concert for Sting‘s Rainforest Fund.
“Bruce and I…met each other years ago, but we just knew each other enough to say hi. But we did a rainforest thing for Sting and…all of a sudden he was like my big brother, and he treated me like I was his sibling, and I treated him with respect,” John explains. “And then we became really good friends, and it just kind of happened. He came to Indiana, he stayed at the house. It was great.”
Springsteen appears on the songs “Wasted Days,” “Did You Say Such a Thing” and “A Life Full of Rain.”
Mellencamp tells Forbes that rather than a collection of disconnected individual songs, Strictly a One-Eyed Jack features 12 tunes he wrote from the perspective of a specific character.
“[A]ll the songs are really one guy speaking,” John notes. “It’s just one guy talking about his life, his future, his self.”
Mellencamp also addressed how his singing voice has changed as he’s gotten older, admitting he’s pleased with its weathered quality.
“I was happy when I heard me sing [the new song] ‘Gone So Soon,’ that I sounded like Louis Armstrong,” the 70-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer maintains. “It wasn’t anything I tried to do, it’s just that cigarettes take their f***ing toll on your vocal cords…But I’m happy that I sound that way.”
Ariana DeBose, star of Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story, hosted this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, which opened with James Austin Johnson’s President Joe Biden blaming the COVID-19 surge on the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home.
“There’s one simple thing you can do to make this whole virus go away: Stop seeing Spider-Man,” Johnson’s Biden said at a press conference addressing the rise in COVID cases.
“Now think about it, when did Spider-Man come out? December 17. When did every single person get omicron? The week after December 17,” he explained, adding, “Stop seeing Spider-Man. That’s really all I have to say.”
During her opening monologue, DeBose shouted out Afro-Latinas and was joined by SNL‘s Kate McKinnon for a West Side Story medley featuring “Tonight,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Something’s Coming” and “America.”
Later DeBose showcased her song and dance skills in a spoof of another popular musical, The Sound of Music, featuring appearances from McKinnon, Bowen Yang, Chris Redd, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman and Kenan Thompson.
SNL also poked fun at Peacock’s dark reimagining of the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with a parody that featured Redd as Jaleel White‘s Steve Urkell character from Family Matters given the same dark spin.
Musical guests Bleachers, subbing for scheduled Roddy Ricch, performed “How Dare You Want More” and “Chinatown,” from their 2021 album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night.
SNL alum Will Forte hosts January 22’s show with musical guest Måneskin.
Betty White is being honored today on what would have been her 100th birthday.
The Golden Girls TV icon passed away December 31, just a few weeks shy of the milestone birthday on January 17.
Over the weekend, her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois celebrated her life with various “Be Like Betty” festivities around town, according to ABC-TV affiliate WLS. There were some special guest speakers as well, including the singer of The Golden Girls theme song, Cindy Fee.
In honor of her official birthday, the Illinois Senate has announced that Monday will officially be known as Betty White Day in Illinois.
If you weren’t in Betty’s hometown over the weekend, there are still plenty of ways to pay tribute. A previously-planned documentary, Betty White: A Celebration, has been revamped to include Betty’s final video message to fans. The film will have a one-night showing at 1,500 theaters nationwide Monday.
The Hallmark Channel, meanwhile, is featuring a Golden Girls marathon, plus a special presentation of Betty’s 2011 Hallmark movie The Lost Valentine at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Meanwhile, NatGeo Wild is airing a special about the star’s animal advocacy work, called Betty White Goes Wild, at 9 p.m. ET. And speaking of her animal advocacy, the #BettyWhiteChallenge is encouraging people to donate $5 to animal rescue organizations in her name today. More than $550,000 has already been raised for the challenge since it was announced earlier this month.
