It’s rare to see Mariah Carey not wearing a dramatic gown — even in a hot tub. The diva did just that when celebrating the anniversary of her album The Emancipation of Mimi, which was released on April 12, 2005.
Taking to Instagram live Tuesday night, Mariah donned a sparkling red gown and some chunky diamond bangles before slipping into her hot tub to talk about the super-successful release, which she called “one of my favorite albums, ever.”
“That album meant a lot to me… It was a really tough road,” Mariah said. As for the tracks she loves most on the album, she hinted toward “Fly Like a Bird” and “Circles.”
Mariah also asked fans to share their thoughts about her joining Latto for a new remix of the rapper’s hit “Big Energy.” The connection is that both Mariah’s 1995 hit “Fantasy” and Latto’s “Big Energy” sample the same song: 1981’s “Genius of Love,” by Tom Tom Club.
Mariah also celebrated the remix hitting number one on the Billboard Digital Sales chart, cheering, “Can I get a yay?”
As for her future plans, the “Obsessed” singer hinted, “Just been in the studio doing a lot of stuff and some other projects that I think you know about.”
“It’s rare that I take a break. I’m still working even while I’m here,” she teased. “Don’t get me started about Christmas. I am very excited about something major — a new accomplishment that I’m really excited about and I hope you guys like it.”
Mariah also spoke about her Black Irish brand of liquor and her plans for Pride, as well as her upcoming MasterClass, where she’ll teach her students how to use their voice as an instrument. She also hinted that the class will feature “an amazing special guest,” later revealed to be Brandy.
(NEW YORK) — New York City police are still hunting for a gunman who opened fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people.
The alleged shooter, identified by the New York City Police Department as 62-year-old Frank Robert James, was initially deemed a person of interest in the investigation before being named a suspect Wednesday morning.
“At this time, based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that police now have probable cause to arrest James for the attempted murder of 10 people — a determination made overnight after more than 18 hours of investigation that included video, cellphone data and interviews with witnesses. The U.S. Marshals Service has joined the search for James — who is now considered a wanted fugitive — along with other federal and local agencies.
The “active shooter” incident unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, according to police.
A man mumbling to himself on the train donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing at least 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Three teenagers were among the 10 people shot. The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform as others attempted to administer aid.
Twenty-nine people suffered various injuries, hospital officials said. As of Wednesday morning, just four of the wounded remained hospitalized, according to the mayor.
A wanted poster released by police Wednesday morning described James as “armed and dangerous.”
“At this time, we still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Tuesday evening. “Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”
A senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News that authorities are concerned the shooting showed a level of planning and commitment to kill scores of commuters during rush hour.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that they have uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James and are studying them closely to see if they are relevant to the subway attack.
Sewell said she increased security for the mayor after investigators found what she called “concerning posts,” but declined to call them “threats.”
“There are some postings possibly connected to our person of interest where he mentions homelessness, he mentions New York and he does mention Mayor Adams,” Sewell told reporters Tuesday. “And as a result of that, in an abundance of caution, we’re going to tighten the mayor’s security detail.”
Police said James had rented a U-Haul van possibly connected to the violence. The key to the van and a credit card, which law enforcement sources told ABC News was used to rent a U-Haul, were among the gunman’s possessions recovered from the scene of the shooting. James had rented the same van in Philadelphia, according to police.
Police said the U-Haul van was found Tuesday afternoon, unoccupied and parked near a subway station on King’s Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, about 5 miles southeast of the 36th Street station. Nothing of investigative interest was discovered in the vehicle, apart from a pillow and other indications that James had been living inside, a law enforcement source told ABC News.
Other items discovered at the scene of the shooting include the Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun used in the attack, three extended magazines, a hatchet, gasoline, four smoke grenades and a bag of consumer-grade fireworks. The gun wasn’t stolen, according to police.
None of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of Tuesday’s shooting, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.
However, the cameras at the Kings Highway subway station in Gravesend were transmitting live feeds in real-time. That’s where investigators believe James entered the subway Tuesday morning, just blocks from where the U-Haul van was parked and eight subway stops away from the 36th Street station.
Police were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cellphone video, a law enforcement official told ABC News. Investigators are looking through video from other witnesses and surrounding businesses, hunting for any clues.
“The fact that these cameras are not working is a large concern,” Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work to do in the city now to check every camera, make sure they’re all working, and also a deeper dive into what happened and what we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen.”
Subway service at the 36th Street station resumed Wednesday morning.
The bloodshed came amid a surge in crime within New York City’s transit system. The mayor said he has already doubled the number of police officers patrolling the city’s subway stations and is also considering installing special metal detectors in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.
But Reynoso said, “More cops is not necessarily going to solve for this problem.”
“I think there are root causes to this violence that exists, mostly mental health at this point, is what we’re seeing in New York City. And that’s where we should be spending resources and energy,” Reynoso said. “More cops to respond to a crime won’t necessarily stop the crime. In this case, this individual was inside a train car — unless you believe that you can put a police officer in every single train car in New York City, which is physically impossible … that’s not the way we’re going to solve that issue.”
Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.
L-R: Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Sophie Turner — HBO/Macall B. Polay
For eight seasons Maisie Williams played Arya Stark on the hit HBO show Game of Thrones and now she’s opening up about a time she “resented” the role.
In a recent interview with GQ UK, the 24-year-old actress got candid about her time on the fantasy drama, which spanned from 2011 until its finale in 2019, and revealed that growing up while on the show was a tough time.
“I think that when I started becoming a woman, I resented Arya because I couldn’t express who I was becoming,” she shared. “And then I also resented my body, because it wasn’t aligned with the piece of me that the world celebrated.”
With GoT now three years in the rearview mirror, is there anything Maisie misses?
“I don’t think it’s healthy [to miss it], because I loved it,” she said. “I look at it so fondly, and I look at it with such pride. But why would I want to make myself feel sad about the greatest thing that ever happened to me? I don’t want to associate that with feelings of pain.”
But, that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to doing a reboot or spin-off of some sort, adding, “I’m not saying [a revival] would never happen, but I’m also not saying it in this interview so that everyone goes, ‘The spinoff! It’s coming!’ Because it’s not.”
“It has to be the right time and the right people. It has to be right in the context of all the other spinoffs and the universe of Game of Thrones,” she said. “It has to be the right time for me.”
BTS made history again at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, confirms Guinness World Records.
According to the organization, the K-pop sensations defeated themselves as the act to win the most orange blimp trophies of all time. BTS took home the KCA for Favorite Music Group — their third straight win — bringing their total haul to six overall wins.
BTS also scored trophies in 2018 and 2021 for Favorite Global Music Star and, in 2021, they took home Favorite Song for “Dynamite.”
Not only that, BTS is officially the most-nominated act of all time in KCA history, with eight after securing their first nod in 2018.
Guinness adds this new victory is BTS’ overall fourth new record so far this year. In 2022 alone, the group managed to break records for “most followers on Instagram for a music group,” “most followers on Twitter for a music group” and “most followers on TikTok for a music group.”
Lucius is calling out Harry Styles over not properly crediting the duo after collaborating with the pop star on his 2019 song, “Treat People with Kindness.”
In an interview with theLos Angeles Times, the “Born Again Teen” outfit — made up of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig — broke down how the collaboration came to be, while asserting that they should have been properly credited as featured artists on the track.
Wolfe and Laessig said Styles asked them to sing on “Treat People with Kindness” as they were working on another song together.
“We were like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ If it’s just ‘oohs” and ‘aaahs,’ it’s not a big deal. And it’s a good opportunity for us,” Wolfe recalled. “But we started singing and we were singing the whole chorus.”
She continued, “Two weeks later, they sent us the track. And it was literally us. We start the song, we sing every chorus, just us. We trade off the bridge. It is us and Harry Styles.”
The singers are disappointed they didn’t receive significant credit and, furthermore, that Styles didn’t link their band when adding “Treat People with Kindness” to Spotify, which they say robbed them of critical exposure.
“It just hurt,” Wolfe said. “Here was an opportunity to spread the love a little bit, which he purports to do all the time. And it could’ve really helped us.”
The LA Times notes that when Styles sang “Treat People with Kindness” at The Forum in 2019, he told the crowd, “The fun part for me is that I don’t sing on the chorus.”
Styles has not yet publicly responded to Lucius’ claims. Lucius, meanwhile, just released a new album, Second Nature, last Friday.
Each year, 25 recordings are chosen for induction into the National Recording Registry, based on their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”
This year’s list includes Journey’s soaring 1981 power ballad “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Queen’s 1975 anthem “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Ronstadt’s 1987 album of traditional Mexican music, Canciones de Mi Padre.
Former Journey frontman Steve Perry, who co-wrote “Don’t Stop Believin,'” said, “That song, over the years, has become something that has a life of its own. It’s about the people who’ve embraced it and found the lyrics to be something they can relate to and hold onto and sing.”
Other notable recordings by veteran artists chosen for the registry include Bonnie Raitt‘s Grammy-winning 1989 comeback album Nick of Time, The Four Tops‘ classic 1966 hit “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Ricky Martin‘s 1999 smash “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” The Shirelles‘ 1961 album Tonight’s the Night, Nat King Cole‘s 1961 recording of “The Christmas Song,” and Andy Williams‘ enduring 1962 rendition of “Moon River.”
Playlists featuring this year’s inductees are available on most streaming services.
Here’s the full list of recordings selected for the National Recording Registry in 2022:
“Harlem Strut” — James P. Johnson (1921)
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Complete Presidential Speeches (1933-1945)
“Walking the Floor Over You” — Ernest Tubb (1941) (single)
“On a Note of Triumph” (May 8, 1945)
“Jesus Gave Me Water” — The Soul Stirrers (1950) (single) Ellington at Newport — Duke Ellington (1956) (album) We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite — Max Roach (1960) (album) “The Christmas Song” — Nat King Cole (1961) (single) Tonight’s the Night — The Shirelles (1961) (album)
“Moon River” — Andy Williams (1962) (single) In C — Terry Riley (1968) (album)
“It’s a Small World” — The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964) (single)
“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” — The Four Tops (1966) (single)
Hank Aaron’s 715th Career Home Run (April 8, 1974)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” — Queen (1975) (single)
“Don’t Stop Believin'” — Journey (1981) (single) Canciones de Mi Padre — Linda Ronstadt (1987) (album) Nick of Time — Bonnie Raitt (1989) (album) The Low End Theory — A Tribe Called Quest (1991) (album) Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) — Wu-Tang Clan (1993) (album) Buena Vista Social Club (1997) (album)
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” — Ricky Martin (1999) (single) Songs in A Minor — Alicia Keys (2001) (album)
WNYC broadcasts for the day of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001)
“WTF with Marc Maron” (Guest: Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010)
Each year, 25 recordings are chosen for induction into the National Recording Registry, based on their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”
This year’s list includes Journey’s soaring 1981 power ballad “Don’t Stop Believin'” and Queen’s 1975 anthem “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Former Journey frontman Steve Perry, who co-wrote “Don’t Stop Believin,'” said, “That song, over the years, has become something that has a life of its own. It’s about the people who’ve embraced it and found the lyrics to be something they can relate to and hold onto and sing.”
Other recordings by notable artists from the rock world chosen for the registry include Bonnie Raitt‘s Grammy-winning 1989 comeback album Nick of Time and Linda Ronstadt‘s 1987 album of traditional Mexican music, Canciones de Mi Padre.
Also being inducted: The Four Tops‘ classic 1966 hit “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Alicia Keys‘ 2001 debut album Songs in A Minor, Ricky Martin‘s 1999 smash “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” Nat King Cole‘s 1961 recording of “The Christmas Song,” and two landmark hip hop albums: 1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest‘s 1991 release, The Low End Theory.
Playlists featuring this year’s inductees are available on most streaming services.
Here’s the full list of recordings selected for the National Recording Registry in 2022:
“Harlem Strut” — James P. Johnson (1921)
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Complete Presidential Speeches (1933-1945)
“Walking the Floor Over You” — Ernest Tubb (1941) (single)
“On a Note of Triumph” (May 8, 1945)
“Jesus Gave Me Water” — The Soul Stirrers (1950) (single) Ellington at Newport — Duke Ellington (1956) (album) We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite — Max Roach (1960) (album) “The Christmas Song” — Nat King Cole (1961) (single) Tonight’s the Night — The Shirelles (1961) (album)
“Moon River” — Andy Williams (1962) (single) In C — Terry Riley (1968) (album)
“It’s a Small World” — The Disneyland Boys Choir (1964) (single)
“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” — The Four Tops (1966) (single)
Hank Aaron’s 715th Career Home Run (April 8, 1974)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” — Queen (1975) (single)
“Don’t Stop Believin'” — Journey (1981) (single) Canciones de Mi Padre — Linda Ronstadt (1987) (album) Nick of Time — Bonnie Raitt (1989) (album) The Low End Theory — A Tribe Called Quest (1991) (album) Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) — Wu-Tang Clan (1993) (album) Buena Vista Social Club (1997) (album)
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” — Ricky Martin (1999) (single) Songs in A Minor — Alicia Keys (2001) (album)
WNYC broadcasts for the day of 9/11 (Sept. 11, 2001)
“WTF with Marc Maron” (Guest: Robin Williams) (April 26, 2010)
The treasured 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival – a series of events and music concerts held to celebrate Black culture – will make a triumphant return to its hometown next Summer, according to Billboard.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson‘s Oscar- and Grammy-winning film Summer of Soul, about the 1969 festival, inspired the new annual Harlem Festival of Culture (HFC), which is founded by Harlem community leader Nikoa Evans, entrepreneur Yvonne McNair and Ambassador magazine editor Musa Jackson, who attended the original festival back in the day.
“Being rooted, watered, and grown in this village of Harlem, I believe HFC is our moment to show the world the vibrancy of today”s Harlem — the music, the food, the look, all of it! The original event was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that I will never forget,” Jackson said in the announcement. “With this initiative, we want to create something that evokes that same sense of pride in our community that I felt on that special day in 1969. We want to authentically encapsulate the full scope: the energy, the music, the culture. We want people to understand that this festival is being built by the people who are from, live and work in this community.”
Like that of the past festival, HFC will host indoor and outdoor live music performances and events over the course of multiple days, doing so from Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park, formerly Mount Morris Park. HFC will also host events leading up to to the inaugural celebration next year, including A Harlem Jones open mic night at the Museum of the City of New York in tribute to the 1997 Black classic film, Love Jones.
HFC founders have also established the HFC Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will provide resources for Harlem’s next generation of leaders in music.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A middle school teacher in Texas is making sure no student has to miss class time due to or feels ashamed of their menstrual cycle.
Kylie DeFrance, an English as an additional language (EAL) teacher at a charter school in Austin, keeps “pad bags” filled with feminine hygiene products at her desk in her classroom so that any student can take them at any time.
It’s a practice she said she began in her first year of teaching eight years ago when she saw female students, or, as she calls them, scholars, missing instruction time due to their periods.
“I’ve had scholars that were missing school constantly or were disappearing in the bathroom for 30-plus minutes,” DeFrance told Good Morning America. “Or I’ve had scholars that say, ‘I have to go to the bathroom,’ or ‘to the office,’ and they’re gone for half the day.”
When DeFrance started providing free pads and tampons and heating pads to her students, she said she saw they were able to stay in class and focus on learning.
“It is such a huge difference to see how much instructional time that they are not missing that they were before,” she said. “I had one scholar who would literally disappear into the bathroom for 30 minutes, five days a week, once a month, who is now not disappearing in the bathroom at all, and her grade went from a ‘D’ to an ‘A.’ She’s an excellent scholar.”
DeFrance continued, “That just goes to show that having your period should not conflict or cause a difficulty with your learning if you’re provided with the things that you need to be provided with.”
When DeFrance started a new teaching job last August at Austin Achieve, a public charter school, she said she purchased feminine hygiene products at her own expense to store in her classroom.
As word spread at the school that DeFrance had easy-to-access period supplies in her classroom, she said the demand grew and she was soon spending over $100 per month on her own on supplies.
DeFrance said she quickly realized that for many of her students, her classroom was their only access point for supplies. Over 90% of students at Austin Achieve, a year-round school, qualify for free or reduced lunch, according to the school’s website.
“A lot of the scholars go home and they’re the parents for their siblings because their parents are at work,” said DeFrance. “Or maybe their parents can’t take them to the store because they’re having to choose between food and this.”
“I’m not ever going to say no and turn a scholar away,” she said. “So I started keeping multiple pad bags and started asking scholars, ‘Do you need to take this home?’”
Period poverty, when people cannot afford even the most basic of period supplies like pads and tampons, is an issue that affects women around the world, including the United States. A lack of access to menstrual products and education affects 1 in 10 college students in the U.S., according to a study released last year.
Hoping to be able to provide more supplies to more students at her middle school, DeFrance added feminine hygiene products to her Amazon wish list, which she said typically consists of books she needs for her classrooms.
In addition to sharing the link on her Instagram page, DeFrance also posted her wish list on Nextdoor, a social networking service for neighborhoods.
Within hours, according to DeFrance, Amazon boxes filled with period supplies began showing up at her doorstep, all donated by strangers through her wish list.
“It blew my mind,” she said of the response to her post. “I had never met any of these people. I don’t know any of these people, but I had hundreds of boxes at my door.”
The boxes have continued to pour in, according to DeFrance. She said that since February, people have donated over 6,000 pads and 3,000 tampons, in addition to other supplies, like disposable heating pads.
DeFrance has also been able to upgrade her “pad bags” from plastic sandwich bags to reusable, zipper bags thanks to strangers’ donations. This week, she also received donations of two portable carts that she said she plans to turn into “menstruation stations” in her classroom.
She said she organizes the “pad bags” based on students’ preferences, adding that students will often return the bags with notes on what types of supplies they need.
DeFrance said that because her school has students in fifth through eighth grades, she is often meeting students as they are starting their menstrual cycles. She focuses on keeping supplies in her classroom and easily accessible in hopes of “normalizing” the conversation around periods.
“If a scholar can say, ‘I need a pencil,’ and I can give them a pencil and it’s not a problem, why can’t it be, ‘I need a pad.’ Why is that any different?” DeFrance said. “I would not send a scholar to an office for a pencil, so why do I need to send a scholar to the office for a pad.”
Advocates for menstrual equity say the taboo around menstruation and the lack of access to menstrual products hurts women economically because it costs them money for products and may keep them from jobs and school. Poor menstrual hygiene poses health risks for women, including reproductive issues and urinary tract infections.
On average, a woman will spend around seven years in their lifetime on their period, according to UNICEF.
Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law requiring that public schools and colleges provide free menstrual products in classrooms.
DeFrance said that in her case, due to the surplus of donations, she has plans to put free period supplies in her school’s bathrooms and has already provided period products to teachers at nearby schools to distribute for free. She said she is also meeting this week with the leaders of Austin Achieve’s high school to discuss making supplies more accessible to students there.
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has decided to extend the federal mask mandate for planes and trains until May 3, the agency announced on Wednesday.
The current mandate was set to expire this coming Monday, April 18. Citing the rapid spread of an Omicron subvariant, BA.2, which now makes up more than 85% of COVID cases in the US, the CDC said it needed more time to monitor a recent uptick.
“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC Order will remain in place at this time,” the agency stated.
Many of the nation’s airlines have pushed hard to have the government lift the mandate.
Last month, CEOs of all major U.S. airlines wrote to the administration to stop requiring masks on planes.
“It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do,” the business executives wrote.
The group said the burden of enforcing the mask mandate has fallen on their employees, saying, “This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being.”
There’s political pressure too. Several Democratic senators last March joined Republicans in a 57-40 Senate vote to overturn the requirement, although that bill hasn’t been taken up in the House.
The CDC decision to keep the status quo for just a little longer comes as the nation has entered an unprecedented phase in the pandemic. Much of the country is still exhibiting substantial spread of the virus, but hospitalizations and deaths have dropped since January.
The CDC though has argued that travel on airplanes, trains and buses presents a unique risk, including the possible rapid introduction of a dangerous new variant from overseas.
“There’s a lot of mixing, a lot of international travel that it’s hard to disentangle,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told ABC’s “Start Here” last March. The mandate also applies to all public transportation hubs, including airports.
Also, she noted that many people don’t have a choice but to use shared transportation to get to work. An estimated 3% of Americans are estimated to be immunocompromised and potentially at serious risk of the virus, even if vaccinated.
The number of unruly passengers on planes spiked during the pandemic. This year alone, the Federal Aviation Administration has received 1,150 reports of unruly passengers — 744 of which were related to face masks.
Just before the extension was announced, the head of the group that lobbies on behalf of all major U.S. airlines, doubled down on the call for getting rid of mask and pre-departure testing requirements.
“Neither restriction is currently supported by data and science in today’s public health environment,” Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, said in a letter to administration officials.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Eric Strauss contributed to this report.
