Before The Wanted‘s frontman TomParker passed away, he penned a memoir titled Hope: My Inspirational Life, which is set to arrive on May 26. According to an excerpt of the posthumous autobiography, the “Glad You Came” singer revealed how Ed Sheeran stepped up in a big way for him.
British tabloidThe Sunobtained an excerpt of Hope, which reads, “I’ve never publicly said this before (and he’ll probably be mad that I’m doing it now) but Ed is a very special man. He even helped out with my medical bills when I was seeking other treatment options and having private immunotherapy.”
“He didn’t need to do any of that, but my wife Kelsey and I are so grateful to him for his support,” the memoir adds. “It meant the world.”
Parker also revealed, “Pretty much from the moment I was diagnosed, Ed Sheeran reached out to me with an offer to do anything he could to help.” The late artist added he had been friends with the “Shivers” singer for over a decade and they always “had a great relationship.”
As previously reported, Parker was diagnosed in October 2020 with an inoperable glioblastoma, a stage four brain tumor, after experiencing seizures. His wife confirmed his passing on March 30.
Ed paid tribute to Parker after the tragic news broke, writing on Instagram, “So sad to hear of Tom’s passing. Thoughts and love are with Kelsey, his children and his family. Very sad day, what a lovely guy.”
Parker and The Wanted achieved fame in 2012 with their hits “Glad You Came” and “Chasing the Sun.” He leaves behind his wife and their two-year-old daughter, Aurelia, and one-year-old son, Bodhi.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority Monday struck down a 20-year-old campaign finance limit aimed at curbing corruption in politics, delivering a win to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who had challenged the federal law.
Chief Justice John Roberts, in an opinion joined by the five other conservative justices, said that caps on a candidate’s use of campaign contributions to repay a personal loan to his or her campaign violate First Amendment rights to engage in political speech.
Cruz loaned $260,000 to his reelection campaign in 2018, one day before the vote. After the election, he was unable to recoup the full amount from campaign coffers because the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 set a $250,000 limit and imposes a strict 20-day post-election grace period for repayment.
“This limit on the use of post-election funds increases the risk that candidate loans over $250,000 will not be repaid in full, inhibiting candidates from making such loans in the first place,” Roberts wrote.
“The First Amendment ‘has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office,'” Roberts wrote, quoting from a 1971 court decision. “It safeguards the ability of a candidate to use personal funds to finance campaign speech, protecting his freedom ‘to speak without legislative limit on behalf of his own candidacy.'”
“This broad protection, we have explained, ‘reflects our profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,'” Roberts continued. “This provision, by design and effect, burdens candidates who wish to make expenditures on behalf of their own candidacy through personal loans.”
The decision means Cruz can legally recover the remaining $10,000.
Justice Elena Kagan, in a dissent joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer, blasted the decision as a blow to public integrity, opening the door to self-enrichment by politicians.
“Political contributions that will line a candidate’s own pockets, given after his election to office, pose a special danger of corruption. The candidate has a more-than-usual interest in obtaining the money (to replenish his personal finances), and is now in a position to give something in return,” she wrote. “The donors well understand his situation, and are eager to take advantage of it. In short, everyone’s incentives are stacked to enhance the risk of dirty dealing.”
“At the very least—even if an illicit exchange does not occur— the public will predictably perceive corruption in post-election payments directly enriching an officeholder,” Kagan added. “Congress enacted Section 304 to protect against those harms. In striking down the law today, the Court greenlights all the sordid bargains Congress thought right to stop.”
Justin Bieber performed in Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, a city that is reeling from a mass shooting at a local supermarket. Ten people were killed in what authorities describe as a “racially motivated hate crime.”
In a clip shared on Instagram before he took the stage, Justin addressed the tragedy. “You guys probably heard what happened. Pretty horrible stuff,” he said as part of a group prayer, adding he is looking forward to “bringing joy to the city. It’s much needed.”
Justin later posted a video showing him leading the audience into a moment of silence to remember those who died in the shooting. “There’s been [a] tragedy in the city. But what we’re going to do tonight is we’re going to honor those people and I would love if we could just take a moment of silence,” he told the crowd. “That would mean a lot to me.”
He also singled out some people in the crowd in the caption, which read, “To the people who couldn’t stay silent to honor the lives that were so tragically lost, I urge you to ask yourself why?”
Justin shared another video in which he expressed, “There’s so much division in this world. So much racial injustice. You and I both know racism is evil and it is diabolical.”
He urged his fans to take a stand, adding, “We get to be the difference makers. We get to be the people who continue to have the conversations with our friends and our families and our loved ones, who continue to be allies.”
Eric Clapton has postponed the first two dates of a new run of European concerts this week because he recently contracted the COVID-19 virus.
The affected dates were scheduled for Tuesday, May 17 in Zurich, Switzerland, and Wednesday, May 18, in Milan, Italy.
According to a post on the official Where’s Eric website, Clapton, 77, tested positive for COVID-19 after playing his most recent show, a May 8 performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and he decided to postpone the concerts after his medical advisers told him that “if he were to resume travelling and performing too soon, it could substantially delay his full recovery.”
The message adds, “Eric is also anxious to avoid passing on any infection to any of his band, crew, promoters, their staff and of course, the fans.”
Clapton is now hoping to launch the trek with his two scheduled shows in Bologna, Italy on May 20 and 21. The outing is mapped out through a June 17 concert in Tampere, Finland.
The plan is to rescheduled the postponed Zurich and Milan shows sometime in the next six months, and tickets that have already been purchased will be valid for the new dates.
Clapton has been a vocal critic of vaccine mandates, reporting last year that he had an adverse reaction after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In other news, Clapton has announced a seven-date series of U.S. concerts taking place this September, according to Ticketmaster.com. The trek begins with a September 8 show in Columbus, Ohio, and runs through a Septmber 18-19 engagement at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Eric also will perform in Detroit on September 10, in Chicago on September on September 12 and 13, and in Pittsburgh on September 16.
Visit Ticketmaster for details about on-sale dates.
(WASHINGTON) — Top Republicans in the House of Representatives are facing new scrutiny as critics, including within their own party, contend they failed to condemn the same racist rhetoric espoused by the suspected gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket on Saturday.
The far-right conspiracy that white Americans are being intentionally replaced by minorities and immigrants — known as the “great replacement theory” — was included in a 180-page screed posted online by the alleged shooter.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, a frequent critic of her own party, on Monday singled out what she called a parallel between those beliefs and the behavior of some fellow conservatives.
“The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-semitism,” she wrote in a tweet. “History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. @GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them.”
Cheney was notably replaced last year from her No. 3 post in the House’s Republican leadership after saying she would “not sit back and watch in silence” as former President Donald Trump continued to falsely claim he won the presidential election.
In the wake of the Buffalo shooting, New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Cheney’s successor, has become a primary target of criticism over how members of the GOP have voiced ideas similar to “replacement theory.”
“Radical Democrats are planning their most aggressive move yet: a PERMANENT ELECTION INSURRECTION. Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington,” Stefanik said in a Facebook ad for her reelection, which launched last August.
According to Facebook, the ad, pushed out repeatedly, reached hundreds of thousands of people.
When Stefanik first tweeted condolences to her home state on Saturday, Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the only other House Republican to sit on the Jan. 6 select committee with Cheney, said in a tweet, “Did you know: @EliseStefanik pushes white replacement theory?”
“The #3 in the house GOP. @Liz_Cheney got removed for demanding truth. @GOPLeader should be asked about this,” Kinzinger added.
Fueling the criticism on social media was a 2021 editorial from Stefanik’s hometown newspaper, The Albany Times Union, which blasted her last September in a piece titled “How low, Miss Stefanik?”
The editorial board had focused on Stefanik’s “despicable” Facebook ads that echoed elements of “replacement theory.” Her ads didn’t mention the conspiracy theory by name, but they insisted, in part, that Democrats were looking to grant citizenship to immigrants who entered the country illegally in order to somehow gain an enduring majority — or, in Stefanik’s words, a “permanent election insurrection.”
With the piece recirculating on social media in the wake of the shooting, Stefanik and her team are pushing back on the renewed focus on her campaign ads.
Her office said Monday that making any link between her past comments and the shooting was a “new disgusting low” for Democrats and “Never Trump” Republicans as well as the media.
“Despite sickening and false reporting, Congresswoman Stefanik has never advocated for any racist position or made a racist statement,” Alex DeGrasse, a senior adviser, said in a statement.
“The shooting was an act of evil and the criminal should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he added.
Stefanik, DeGrasse said, “opposes mass amnesty for illegal immigrants …. She strongly supports legal immigration and is one of the national leaders credited with diversifying the Republican Party through candidate recruitment and messaging.”
ABC News previously reported that evidence points to the Buffalo shooting being a calculated, racially-motivated execution by the suspect, an 18-year-old white man, according to multiple sources and a review of FBI cases and testimony. The teen gunman allegedly wanted a race war and livestreamed his attack in an apparent effort to spur others to kill minorities, sources said.
The FBI is investigating the mass shooting as a hate crime and a case of “racially motivated violent extremism” after Erie County Sheriff John Garcia described the attack as a “straight-up racially motivated hate crime.”
The suspect has pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
It’s official: The third season of the Netflix’s hit Bridgerton will focus on the love story between characters Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, played by Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton, respectively.
The announcement regarding the period drama, which is based on Julia Quinn‘s books, was made during Sunday’s FYSEE panel,Varietyreports, and is a change for the series, which previously followed the book order. The first two seasons of the show aligned with the first two novels, with season one focusing on the love story of Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Page Jean‘s characters, Daphne Bridgerton and Simon, and season two moving on to Anthony Bridgerton and Kate, played by Jonathon Bailey and Simone Ashley.
Penelope and Colin’s love story is actually the fourth installment in Quinn’s collection; the third novel dives into the love life of Luke Thompson‘s Benedict Bridgerton.
The season-three reveal, which ABC Audio predicted, comes after it was reported that Hannah Dodd will play Francesca Bridgerton in the bodice-ripper series, taking over for Ruby Stokes. Stokes, who played the dry-witted character for two seasons, left during production of the sophomore frame to star in a new Netflix series called Lockwood & Co., based on the Jonathan Stroud book series.
(NEW YORK) — Former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees created quite a stir Sunday night when he brought up the possibility of returning to the NFL in a tweet.
Addressing “speculation” from media outlets about his future, Brees, 43, said he is “currently undecided.”
“I may work for NBC, I may play football again, I may focus on business and philanthropy, I may train for the pickleball tour, senior golf tour, coach my kids or all of the above,” he tweeted. “I’ll let you know.”
Despite speculation from media about my future this fall, I’m currently undecided. I may work for NBC, I may play football again, I may focus on business and philanthropy, I may train for the pickleball tour, senior golf tour, coach my kids or all of the above. I’ll let you know
Set during the early 1920s, the new BET+ civil rights drama The Porter tells the story of two train porters and their families and friends, whose worlds collide amidst their fight for liberation. And while the show title alone depicts the long-sought-after freedom — in America, it was largely Black men who held the job, serving white railway passengers — the stars of the series say it isn’t a trauma showcase, it’s a celebration of Black history.
“I think when people hear [it’s] a civil rights-type of show, I think that they think it’s going to punch them in the gut for two hours,” Loren Lott, who plays showgirl Lucy Conrad, told ABC Audio.
Lott says by way of the many different character journeys and the rich history woven into the storylines, the inspired-by-real-events show is “actually a delicious, fun ride.”
Lott’s co-star, Mouna Traoré who plays community nurse Marlene Massey, says she appreciates the show’s foundation as historically factual. Considering its setting in Chicago, Detroit and Montreal, Traoré says The Porter provides an opportunity for people to learn “the experiences of Black people on both sides of the border.”
Speaking of the Black experience, Oscar and Emmy-nominated actress Alfre Woodard, who plays brothel worker Fay Robinson, said that while she always sees the beauty in Black stories, even the traumatic ones, the show elements of The Porter — “the striving, music, dance, sex, drama, fightin’, the purposeful organized and the disorganized crime” — will make viewers feel “alive.”
“That’s the power of storytelling,” Woodard says, adding that when Black people are the authors, “we get defined by our own narrative rather than the narrative that other people have put on screen about us.”
Season one’s eight episodes of The Porter are available now on BET+.
(WASHINGTON) — The gunman who opened fire on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities described as a “racially-motivated attack” has a “hate-filled soul,” President Joe Biden said Sunday.
While speaking at an event to honor law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2021, Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the victims and their families.
“A lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and hate-filled soul, shot and killed 10 innocent people in cold blood at a grocery store on Saturday afternoon,” the president told the crowd outside of the Capitol.
All 10 victims who died in the attack are Black, law enforcement officials said. One of the wounded victims was Black while the two others were white, they said.
Biden said the Justice Department has stated publicly that it’s investigating the matter as “a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.”
“As they do, we must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said. “Hearts are heavy once against but our resolve must never, ever waver.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Saturday that the Justice Department is “committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims.”
An 18-year-old male suspect, Payton Gendron, is in custody, according to the Buffalo Police Department. Authorities allege Gendron shot four people in the parking lot before moving inside the store, where he proceeded to shoot nine more people.
Gendron live-streamed the attack on social media and etched the names of previous mass shooters and racial epithets on the gun he allegedly used during the attack, a source familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph A. Gramaglia said during a new conference on Sunday afternoon that the evidence collected so far indicates “this is an absolute racist hate crime.”
Gendron is believed to have written a 180-page document which fixated on “replacement theory,” a white supremacist belief that non-whites will eventually replace white people because they have higher birth rates, authorities said.
Other racist and anti-Semitic tropes were reportedly included in the document, which the suspect appears to have posted online before the attack.
HENRIK MONTGOMERY/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Sweden will apply to formally join NATO, following in the footsteps of neighboring Finland, the country’s prime minister said, ending long-held positions of neutrality in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The best for our country’s security is that Sweden applies for membership in NATO and that we do it now together with Finland,” Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Monday. “And following today’s debate in Parliament, the government is ready to make a decision about an application. That will be the starting point for a process that includes ratification in all the NATO member’s parliaments and after that, the government will return to Parliament with a proposal for ratification for Swedish membership of NATO.”
“As nonaligned countries, Sweden and Finland have been contributing to stability in our region, but that changed when Russia invaded Ukraine,” she added.
President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland announced their intention to apply for NATO membership on Sunday, with the country’s Parliament expected to endorse the proposal as a formality.
Leaders in both Sweden and Finland had long been expected to apply to join the military alliance, as the war in Ukraine continues to have unintended consequences for Russia by potentially pushing two more of its neighbors into NATO.
Last week, Dmitry Peskov, Russia’s presidential press secretary, said that “another enlargement of NATO does not make our continent more stable and secure.” Peskov reiterated that stance on Monday, saying that although Russia had “no territorial disputes” with Sweden and Finland, unlike in Ukraine, Russia believed it to be a “serious issue” that they are following “very closely.”
Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde said last week that Finland’s leaders had delivered an “important message,” adding that her country “will decide after the report from the security policy consultations has been presented.”
The Scandinavian countries have long held neutral status when it comes to European conflict. Finland became a neutral country after the Second World War, while Sweden has resisted military alliances long before that.
Yet fears that Russia could do to other non-NATO countries what it has done to Ukraine has sparked a rapid shift in public opinion in both countries, one of which, Finland, shares an 830-mile land border with Russia.
Both could be on the cusp of joining NATO. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has publicly said the Nordic countries would be welcomed into the alliance, however the process could take months once their formal applications have been sent in.
Ahead of any official announcement from both countries for NATO membership, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously signed mutual security assurances in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO’s expansion would be yet another unintended consequence for Russia, as they continue to be met with fierce resistance in Ukraine and a more united West than their intelligence assessments anticipated. Part of Russia’s security demands ahead of the invasion in Ukraine included reverting NATO forces to 1997 positions.
Since NATO was founded in 1949, the alliance has expanded to include 30 member countries, including three former Soviet republics, and the inclusion of Sweden and Finland would further expand the alliance’s influence in the Arctic and in the areas around Russia.
Stoltenberg said just days ahead of the invasion “if Kremlin’s aim is to have less NATO on Russia’s borders, it will only get more NATO. And if it wants to divide NATO, it will only get an even more united Alliance.”
This prediction now appears to be coming true — although Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov last month said that NATO is a “tool sharpened for confrontation” and it is “not an alliance that ensures peace and stability” when asked about Sweden and Finland. Experts say the expansion will be evidence of yet another strategic blunder on Russia’s part.
Even as public opinion has shifted, there are still those that opposes NATO membership for the Nordic countries, fearing it would lead to increased tensions with Russia.
“I’m afraid that NATO membership will increase actually the tensions in the Baltic Sea region and also will increase the tensions in Finland, especially regarding the eastern border,” Veronika Honkasalo, one of the few members of Finland’s parliament who doesn’t believe the country should join, told ABC News.
Furthermore, there are concerns that Sweden and Finland could be vulnerable to Russian attacks during the application process, though State Department spokesperson Ned Price moved to reassure both countries last week, saying: “I am certain that we will find ways to address concerns they may have regarding the period between the potential application and the final ratification.”
However, polling reported in both countries appears to show a significant majority are in favor of NATO membership.
“[Putin] has for years said Finland and Sweden joining is a red line,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak, lead researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told ABC News. “He’s managed to drive both Finland and Sweden towards NATO. So I think a massive miscalculation for him, but I think a positive thing for the rest of Europe.”
“It’s very clearly the population that changed its opinion in, say, six months, radically so,” he said, adding that the shift in public opinion had a snowball effect into Sweden, as fears grew about what could happen without the umbrella protection of NATO membership as the war in Ukraine continued.
“Now Russia has gone so far that joining NATO seems to be the only genuine solution here,” he said.
