Nine Inch Nails will headline the 2022 Boston Calling festival in place of Foo Fighters, who dropped off the lineup following the unexpected death of drummer Taylor Hawkins last month.
Trent Reznor‘s band is set to take the stage on Friday, May 27. As previously reported, the festival’s other headliners are Metallica and The Strokes, while the rest of the bill includes Weezer, Avril Lavigne, Glass Animals, Black Pumas, Modest Mouse, HAIM, Cheap Trick, grandson, KennyHoopla and The Struts.
Boston Calling 2022 takes place May 27-29. For the full lineup and all ticket info, visit BostonCalling.com.
Hawkins died March 25 ahead of a Foo Fighters show in Bogotá, Colombia, planned for that night. He was 50 years old.
On March 29, the Foos announced the cancellation of rest of their scheduled tour dates.
“We’re sorry for and share in the disappointment that we won’t be seeing one another as planned,” the band wrote. “Instead, let’s take this time to grieve, to heal, to pull our loved ones close, and to appreciate all the music and memories we’ve made together.”
Imagine Dragons has premiered the video for the band’s latest single, “Bones.”
The clip begins with frontman Dan Reynolds channeling his inner Gordon Gekko as he portrays a Wall Street bigwig. It then shifts into another ’80s homage when the trading floor is invaded by dancing zombies inspired by Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller” video.
“I’ve always loved that ‘Thriller’ was both scary and playful,” Reynolds says. “I didn’t know as a kid if I wanted to watch it again or not for fear of the ensuing nightmares, but I always came back for more with my eyes half-closed.”
He adds, “The idea of punishing Wall Street with a zombie infection felt like an enjoyable time. And it was.”
You can watch the “Bones” video streaming now on YouTube.
“Bones” follows ID’s 2021 album Mercury — Act 1. It’ll appear on an upcoming double album titled Mercury — Acts 1 & 2, which arrives July 1.
Imagine Dragons’ ongoing world Mercury tour picks up again this weekend with a run through Canada, followed by a trip to Europe in June. They’ll launch a summer U.S. leg in August.
John Autey / MediaNews Group / St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — No criminal charges will be filed in the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, announced Wednesday.
Locke was fatally shot by Minneapolis police officers in February as officers were executing a “no-knock” search warrant on the apartment he was in.
No-knock warrants allow officers to enter a private home without knocking or making their presence known.
Locke, a legal gun owner, had been sleeping under a blanket on the couch. Body camera footage shows a gun in his hand when he begins to sit up as police approach him.
An officer can be seen shooting him less than 10 seconds after entering the room.
Locke was not a suspect in the crime for which the warrant was issued and was not named in the document.
“Amir Locke’s life mattered,” read a statement from the Hennepin County Attorney. “He was a young man with plans to move to Dallas, where he would be closer to his mom and — he hoped — build a career as a hip-hop artist, following in the musical footsteps of his father.”
However, the attorney’s office stated that after a review of the case, there wasn’t enough evidence to file criminal charges.
The legal team representing Locke’s family said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“The tragic death of this young man, who was not named in the search warrant and had no criminal record, should never have happened,” the team said in a statement. “The family and its legal team are firmly committed to their continued fight for justice in the civil court system, in fiercely advocating for the passage of local and national legislation, and taking every other step necessary to ensure accountability for all those responsible for needlessly cutting Amir’s life far too short.”
His death reignited calls to end the use of “no-knock” warrants, which were sparked by the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020 after Louisville, Kentucky, officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend for allegedly dealing drugs.
In his statement, Freeman also called for a reconsideration on the use of no-knock warrants: “No-knock warrants are highly risky and pose significant dangers to both law enforcement and the public, including to individuals who are not involved in any criminal activity.”
He continued: “The fact that it is standard practice for paramedics to stand by at the scene when no-knock warrants are executed speaks to the foreseeably violent nature of this law enforcement tool.”
Several states have instituted bans on such warrants. Following Locke’s death, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his office will propose a full ban on no-knock and no-announce search warrants in the city.
“Amir Locke, a lawful gun owner, should still be alive,” said Bryan Strawser, the chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a nonprofit gun rights advocacy group, in a statement following Locke’s death.
“Black men, like all citizens, have a right to keep and bear arms. Black men, like all citizens, have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable search and seizure,” he added.
ABC News’ Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
Weeknd: Rich Fury/Getty Images for dcp; SHM: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia will fill the Coachella headliner hole left by Kanye West‘s cancellation. They now join fellow headliners Harry Styles and Billie Eilish.
The music festival unveiled its adjusted lineup on Wednesday, with The Weeknd and SHM taking over Ye’s Sunday slots on April 17 and April 24.
In addition, the “Blinding Lights” singer will be appearing on the same nights as his upcoming tour buddy, Doja Cat, which now gives fans a taste of what’s to come when they hit the road together later this year.
The Weeknd previously collaborated with SHM on “Moth to a Flame” and also co-wrote two tracks with them on his newly released Dawn FM album.
Fans have taken to The Weeknd’s socials, asking him to play “Hurricane,” the Grammy-winning track he collaborated on with Kanye.
Ye exited Coachella on Monday, which is the latest in a string of cancelled performances. Previously, he was barred from performing at Sunday night’s Grammys after he dissed host Trevor Noah and others in a social media post.
Ye originally signed on to take over for Travis Scott, who bowed out of Coachella following the Astroworld tragedy in November, but that announcement was criticized from the start. Fans launched a Change.org petition demanding Ye be pulled from Coachella because of his actions toward estranged wife Kim Kardashian and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson.
Blair Getz Mezibov, Courtesy of Capitol Records Nashville
Little Big Town is gearing up for new music. This week, the group announced their new song, “Hell Yeah,” which marks their first new music since the Nightfall era.
The song was written by the two men of the group, along with Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard and songwriter/producer Corey Crowder. They got the title from the excitement they felt in the studio when they wrote it, LBT’s Jimi Westbrook says.
“I remember when Corey brought that hook in that day. He sang his idea, and when he turned that phrase at the end of the chorus, we were all like, ‘Hell yeah!” He recounts.
Band mate Philip Sweet adds, “This song is a classic breakup song, flipped upside down. It’s pure feel-good vibes.”
“Hell Yeah” arrives on April 11. It follows “Over Drinking,” “The Daughters” and “Wine, Beer, Whiskey,” all of which came off of the group’s 2020 Nightfall project.
Fans won’t have to wait long to see the band perform their new song live. Little Big Town will bring “Hell Yeah” to the stage at the 2022 CMT Music Awards, which airs the same day the song comes out.
(WASHINGTON) — Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is expected to appear Wednesday before the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol attack, according to multiple sources familiar with his scheduled appearance.
Herschmann and a committee spokesperson did not return ABC News’ requests for comment on the interview, which could be postponed or rescheduled.
A lawyer who defended former President Donald Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial and worked in the West Wing as a senior adviser, Herschman was involved in discussions and meetings in the White House and at Trump campaign headquarters regarding Trump’s legal and political efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, including attempts to pressure the Justice Department to take more aggressive actions to investigate claims of election fraud.
He was involved in a contentious Dec. 18, 2020, meeting first reported by Axios, where Trump allies Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne argued with Herschmann and other White House officials over invoking rarely used presidential powers to declare a national security emergency to seize voting machines — a plan that was ultimately rejected.
To date, the Jan. 6 committee has interviewed more than 800 witnesses and obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails, White House records, and phone records as part of its investigation.
A handful of witnesses have refused to comply with committee subpoenas. On Wednesday the full House will vote on whether to hold Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for defying committee subpoenas and refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges.
In the last week the panel has interviewed Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both of whom worked in the White House and were involved in Trump’s reelection campaign.
The committee is expected to begin another round of public hearings as early as next month, Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has told reporters.
Olivia Rodrigo just kicked off her sold out Sour world tour and threw it back to 2002 on opening night by belting out Avril Lavigne‘s “Complicated.”
NME reports the Grammy winner performed at Portland, Oregon’s Theater of the Clouds on Tuesday night and slipped the throwback tune into her 12-song set.
“Complicated” was the fourth song on Olivia’s set list, coming after “drivers license” and before an acoustic cover of “hope ur ok.”
Fans recorded the surprise covers, of course, and snippets of Tuesday night’s concert are already circulating online. According to one fan, Olivia introduced the track by telling the crowd, “This next song is a song I really love by the pop punk princess herself — Avril Lavigne!”
As previously reported, Olivia’s sold-out 40-date North American tour will take her across major cities in the U.S. and Canada — such as New York City, Las Vegas and Toronto — before concluding in Los Angeles on May 25, 2022. Olivia will then head across the pond for a brief European leg, starting with a show on June 11 in Hamburg, Germany.
The Sour tour concludes July 7, 2022 in London, England.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday expressed outrage over the “horrible images” of killed civilians in Ukraine and said the U.S. is working with international partners to identify those responsible.
“This Department has a long history of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes,” Garland said. “We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine.”
Garland said investigators are in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution and he is not calling for anything similar to the Nuremberg Trials at this point, but he notably said the Justice Department has a “long history” of helping to hold accountable those who perpetrate war crimes.
“One of my predecessors — Attorney General Robert Jackson — later served as the chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials,” he said.
Garland told reporters he personally spoke on Tuesday with the Justice Department’s chief prosecutor in Paris who has been meeting with the French war crimes prosecutor.
On Monday, Garland said prosecutors from the department’s Criminal Division met with prosecutors from Eurojust and EUROPOL to “work out a plan for gathering evidence with respect to Ukraine.”
“At the same time, the United States is at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor assisting in the collection of information with respect to the atrocities that took place in Ukraine and that are still taking place,” Garland said.
“The world sees what is happening in Ukraine.”
Following images out of Bucha and other Ukrainian cities, AG Merrick Garland says U.S. is “assisting international efforts to identify and hold accountable those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine.” https://t.co/GyjVQ5rYNApic.twitter.com/yItmo9sEkj
His remarks come as the Justice Department on Wednesday announced a myriad of actions against Russian oligarchs and Russian darknet operations.
DOJ charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev as one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea, and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture Task force, established last month and is aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to DOJ, Jack Hanick a former U.S. television producer, was arrested last month in the United Kingdom where he had been living for violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, which DOJ says the Russians have used similar infrastructure to attack the Ukrainians and were able to shut the system down before it was able to be used against thousands of network devices it had reportedly infected.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was behind some of most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory — including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
“We’re going to act as soon as we can with whatever partners are best situated to help,” Wray said. “The Russian government has show that it has no qualms about conducting this kind of criminal activity and they continue to pose a threat.”
Garland echoed Wray’s comments, saying, “We were then able to disable the GRU’s control over those devices before the botnet could be weaponized.”
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties that’s being held at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
“It does not matter how far you sail your yacht. It does not matter how well you conceal your assets. It does not matter how cleverly you write your malware or hide your online activity. The Justice Department will use every available tool to find you, disrupt your plots, and hold you accountable,” Garland said.
Bobby Rydell, the teen idol who scored a series of hits during the late 1950 and early ’60s, died Tuesday, April 5, at age 79.
The singer and actor, who was born Robert Ridarelli, passed away at a Philadelphia area hospital from complications of non-COVID-19-related pneumonia, according to a press release.
Rydell’s singing career was launched when he was discovered on the Philadelphia television talent show TV Teen Club. He scored his first hit single in 1959 with “Kissin’ Time,” which peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Over the next five years, Rydell reached the Hot 100’s top 20 over a dozen times, with hits including “We Got Love,” “Wild One,” “Swingin’ School,” “Volare,” “Good Time Baby,” “The Cha-Cha-Cha” and “Forget Him.”
In 1963, Bobby made his film debut in the hit movie musical Bye Bye Birdie, playing the love interest of Ann-Margret‘s character. He went on appear in many more films and TV shows over the course of his long career.
In 1978, Rydell’s name was immortalized when it was used as the moniker of the high school in the smash hit film Grease.
Beginning in 1985, Rydell teamed up with two other Philly-area singers from the teen idol era — Frankie Avalon and Fabian — as “The Golden Boys,” who frequently toured over the next decades.
Rydell survived a double organ transplant in 2012, and became an advocate for The Gift of Life, a charity that helps the families of people who have undergone organ transplants.
Bobby is survived by his wife, Linda J. Hoffman; his son, Robert Ridarelli; and his daughter, Jennifer Dulin; as well as five grandchildren. His family is encouraging people to become an organ donor in his memory and to donate to The Gift of Life.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Already missing their flight to Canada, Zainab Merchant held her then 6-month-old baby inside a cold room in an airport in September of 2016 while she waited for her husband’s screening to be over after her family was detained for a random security check by Transportation Security Administration agents.
Merchant said her family was stopped for one reason; because she’s Muslim.
“At that moment, I honestly feared for us, because when I think the three-hour mark hit, you’re just sitting there waiting,” Merchant told ABC News. “We don’t know what’s going on with us. I just remember being very fearful about what was going on. It’s a few officers and yourself, and nobody is there. No other person was there with us. So just [a] very lonely, cold, dark experience.”
Merchant, an American citizen, is among the many people on America’s terrorist screening watchlist, a database containing information about individuals targeted as known or suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, according to the FBI.
The watchlist was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, and since then, has collected over 1.6 million identities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. There’s no due process for people added to it, nor any official way to find out who has been added, according to human rights lawyers.
The random security checks started happening more frequently after her first detainment, according to Merchant. Hourslong detentions, fear and extensive questioning have become a familiar experience for Merchant and her family when traveling.
“[Since the Canada trip], we had always been detained, we’d always been questioned and it stopped being random when you knew that every time you travel, my entire family, including the children, were asked to step aside, escorted by the TSA officers,” she said. “It just ended up becoming this traumatic thing for us to ever fly again.”
Unlike the “no-fly” list, the watchlist still allows people to fly. They are, however, subject to extra security, extensive questioning and hourslong detentions when flying or crossing the border.
Merchant said she was not aware she was added to the watchlist until the screenings and processes became even more frequent, and she knew that, regardless of where they were headed, the whole family would be pulled aside.
She said that even her three small children were being targeted and taken away from them during the screening process.
“They were being treated as criminals, no matter how little they were. It wasn’t just my husband and I. They were also screening these little children,” she said.
“I remember just guiding them through it and teaching them … ‘this is what’s going to happen. You have to cooperate, smile, just be friendly.’ Imagine teaching a young toddler this way; you don’t even know how toddlers are going to react.”
Such screenings would happen whenever the family traveled, Merchant says, but the situation became even more intense when the FBI allegedly contacted her with a proposal.
A few months after that initial detention, Merchant was allegedly contacted by FBI agents seeking information about her mosque and community. She said they offered a chance to be removed from the list if she agreed to be an informant.
“I said, ‘absolutely not. You know, I’m a mom. I’m not a spy. I don’t care if I’m going to be on this [a long time]. I’m just not going to do this,'” Merchant said.
In response to an ABC News request for comment, the FBI said the Terrorist Screening Center could neither deny nor confirm whether an individual is on the watchlist.
After the conversation, Merchant said the situation got progressively worse.
“There was a time when they took my laptop and they released the whole bomb squad on me at the airport. There was a time when dogs were unleashed on me. They took out a whole team of dogs to search me,” Merchant said.
The most traumatic and humiliating experience for Merchant, however, was at the Boston Logan International Airport — when she said she had her period and the TSA officers forced her to remove her pants during a private screening.
“That day, they were trying to strip me of my dignity when they didn’t believe that I was on my period. Even though I went on through the scan, everything was clear,” she said.
“I said my final prayers as a Muslim … I had nowhere [to go], no one to call and no one to say anything to stop feeling of utter helplessness. I was ready to die. They removed my pants and they saw the blood everywhere. And they quickly just scurried out of the closet.”
Merchant, however, is not the only one. Many others are on the watchlist without knowing the reason behind it.
Abdulkadir Nur, who goes by Eno, is a 69-year-old U.S. citizen from Somalia who said he is also on the watchlist.
Nur travels often due to his humanitarian work with the United Nations, but every time he leaves the country, he said he undergoes extensive questioning and screening.
“You know, when I fly worldwide, I’ve never had any problems,” Nur said. “Actually, I’m being respected and welcomed everywhere. But when I’m coming to my country, the U.S., I feel like I’m [a] criminal.”
While the TSA says a typical enhanced screening process takes 10 to 15 minutes, both Nur and Merchant said they had to miss multiple flights due to secondary questioning at airports.
With all of the challenges faced, Nur has filed a lawsuit against the FBI with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, in hopes to have his name removed from the watch list. The process, if successful, could take years, according to his lawyer.
Merchant says she was able to get her name off the list after she confronted TSA and FBI officers during a closed-door meeting she was invited to in Orlando in 2018.
Now, Merchant hopes to use her experience to help others and shine a light on the issue.
“I don’t fear this anymore,” she said. “It built me up to be that voice for people who don’t have any. Even though I might be off the system, I am not really free until every one of them gets justice.”
