It appears Doja Cat might be retiring from music after all. The “Say So” singer rebuked claims that she’s returning to music after making nice with her Paraguayan fans.
Last week, the Grammy nominee said she “quit” music after becoming embroiled in a nasty Twitter row with her South American fans. They were upset she didn’t interact with those who gathered outside her hotel in the rain and for not consoling disappointed fans that the country’s music festival she was set to perform was cancelled.
She later declared music “is dead to me” and followed up with, “This s*** ain’t for me so I’m out. Y’all take care.”
Doja apologized to her South American fans on Monday and, although she never addressed her previous comments about quitting music, it sparked theories that she wasn’t serious about the threat.
Well, it appears those theories were wrong. When outlets began reporting she wasn’t retiring, she fired back, “yes the f*** i am.” Doja didn’t elaborate, which only intensified fans’ reaction to the news.
While some fans begged her to reconsider, others insisted she still had more music to put out before she hangs up the microphone. Some even told Doja she wasn’t allowed to retire until she collaborated with certain artists, such as Azealia Banks.
Eventually, one follower asked, “genuine question..what are you gonna do when you quit lol,” to which another commented, “prolly interior design.”
Doja has not reacted to anyone else since doubling down on her retirement claims.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.” Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 30, 11:46 am
Zelenskyy warns Norway of Russia’s military buildup in Arctic
Ukraine warned Norway on Wednesday that Russian forces have “amassed in the Arctic region” and will ultimately pose a threat to Europe.
“I think you are experiencing new risks near your border with Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to Norwegian lawmakers via video link from Kyiv. “A number of Russian troops that has no normal explanation has already been amassed in the Arctic region. For what? Against whom?”
“The future of Europe — the whole continent from north to south, from west to east — is being decided right now,” he added. “On our land, on Ukrainian soil, in Ukrainian air, in Ukrainian sea. So that your soldiers do not have to defend NATO’s eastern flank, so that Russian mines do not drift to your ports and fjords, so that your people do not have to get used to the sound of air alarms and so that Russian tanks are not amassed at your border, we must stop the aggression of the Russian Federation together and only together.”
Zelenskyy said Russian forces are continuing to carry out relentless and indiscriminate attacks on his country. Although Ukrainian troops are holding off Russian advances, he warned that “the columns of Russian armoured vehicles are not decreasing.”
“There are no forbidden targets for Russian troops. They attack everything,” he told Norwegian lawmakers. “Ukraine’s losses are enormous.”
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko and Christine Theodorou
Mar 30, 11:18 am
Lavrov meets with Chinese Foreign Minister
During a meeting in China, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi doubled down on increasingly close ties between the two nations despite the invasion of Ukraine.
Wang acknowledged the “Ukraine problem” but stopped short of offering support.
Chinese officials have said repeatedly in the past weeks that they are “not a party” to the conflict but “support Russia and Ukraine in overcoming difficulties.”
-ABC News’ Karson Yiu
Mar 30, 9:55 am
Putin advisers ‘afraid to tell him’ about Russian military performance
U.S. intelligence said it believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisers on his troops’ performance in Ukraine “because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth,” a U.S. official told ABC News.
Based on declassified intelligence, the official said, “We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military. There is now persistent tension between Putin and the MOD [Ministry of Defence], stemming from Putin’s mistrust in MOD leadership. Putin didn’t even know his military was using and losing conscripts in Ukraine, showing a clear breakdown in the flow of accurate information to the Russian President.”
The official continued: “We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisors are too afraid to tell him the truth.”
Mar 30, 8:30 am
Poland plans to abandon Russian hydrocarbons by year’s end
Poland announced Wednesday its plan to stop buying Russian oil, gas and coal by the end of 2022.
“Today, we present the most radical plan in Europe to abandon Russian hydrocarbons — oil, gas and coal. This plan is necessary for the recovery of Europe,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference.
According to Morawiecki, Poland “will impose a total embargo on Russian coal in April, at the latest in May.” He said his country has already largely reduced its dependence on oil from Russia and “will do [its] best to abandon Russian oil by the end of the year.” He added that he is also expecting a decline in gas imports in May.
Morawiecki called on other European countries, including Germany, to follow suit. He urged the European Commission “to establish a tax on Russian hydrocarbons so that trade and economic rules in the European single market are fair.”
Mar 30, 8:06 am
Enrollment in Poland’s national guard grows sevenfold
In the Polish village of Zegrze, about 20 miles north of Warsaw, cars line the small street outside a facility belonging to Poland’s Territorial Defense Force (TDF). Officials said interest in training with the TDF has increased sevenfold in the last month, following Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine — creating an unintended traffic backup in the facility’s tiny public parking lot.
The TDF is the fifth military branch of the Polish Armed Forces, behind the Land Forces, Army, Navy and Special Forces. The group is made up of volunteer and part-time privates, and is comparable to the National Guard of the United States.
ABC News got exclusive access into the TDF facility in Zegrze and spoke with several new trainees, all of whom were women. Each one spoke about their underlying interest in the military and wanting to feel confident in protecting themselves and their families. But several said they became motivated to enroll after watching average Ukrainian citizens defend their country. They were inspired to be prepared in the same way.
ABC News’ cameras were allowed to follow a group of trainees — men and women of all ages — as instructors took them into a nearby forest on Tuesday morning. The trainees were clad in army fatigues and their faces were marked with camouflage paint as they crawled along the ground, guns in hand. The training was a grueling, real-life instruction that left them exhausted within an hour.
The program lasts for 16 days, with at least 12 hours of training required each day. At the end, the trainees take a military oath and then are allowed to return home. Many know there is a chance they will soon be called on to help the Polish military as the Russian invasion grinds on in neighboring Ukraine. While they won’t likely see combat, their main objective is to enhance national defense capabilities and protect their local communities.
Mar 30, 7:39 am
Ukrainians attempt to save animals from abandoned zoo near Kyiv
Ukrainians are attempting to rescue exotic animals from an abandoned zoo near the capital.
Vitaly Mukhanov told ABC News that he had volunteered to help bring supplies to Ukrainian soldiers when he came across the Yasnohorodka family ecopark, about 30 miles outside Kyiv. The park appeared to have been damaged by shelling and the animals, including camels and ostriches, were left with no food. Some were injured, while others were dead.
Videos and images Mukhanov took of the scene and posted on Facebook on Monday quickly went viral and he said he was subsequently contacted by the zoo’s owner, who asked if he could help.
In one of the videos, Mukhanov comes across a wounded ostrich. The bird appeared to be taking its last breaths as he gently stroked its head.
“You can see from the images that the animals were in a very bad way,” Mukhanov told ABC News. “The town nearby was liberated from the Russians two days ago, so the owner is now returning to the zoo and they hope to evacuate the animals in the next couple of days.”
Mukhanov said he has since returned to western Ukraine to get more supplies, but he was told that veterinarians were due to visit the Yasnohorodka family ecopark on Tuesday to provide care to some of the animals.
Mar 30, 7:18 am
Explosion rings out near Russian city of Belgorod
A missile hit a temporary Russian military camp near the border with Ukraine late Tuesday, according Russian state-owned news agency TASS.
TASS, citing a source, reported that preliminary data shows the camp, just outside the Russian city of Belgorod, was fired on from the Ukrainian side. However, Ukraine has denied responsibility and instead blamed the incident on Russian error.
Belgorod Oblast Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement that blasts occurred in the village of Krasny Oktyabr, about 19 miles southwest of Belgorod. He did not cite a cause of the incident, saying he was awaiting a report from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Video circulating online and verified by ABC News shows an explosion in Krasny Oktyabr on Tuesday night. The cause of the blast was unknown.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk alleged that “an unauthorized detonation of ammunition” took place at a warehouse of the Russian Armed Forces in Belgorod.
“This is an example of typical for Russians neglect of safety precautions and mass use of dangerous ammunition of the Second World War,” Vereschuk said at a press briefing Wednesday.
Belgorod is about 50 miles north of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which Russian forces have shelled heavily in recent weeks.
Mar 30, 6:11 am
Russia bombards Chernihiv hours after claiming to curb assault
Air raid sirens sounded off across almost all of Ukraine overnight and into early Wednesday, hours after Russia said it would scale back its military operations around Kyiv and Chernihiv.
Russian forces bombarded the besieged northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv as well as Khmelnytsky Oblast in western Ukraine, while several missiles were shot down over the capital, Kyiv, according to Vadim Denisenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister. The damage and any casualties were still being assessed Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, the Luhansk Oblast has been under heavy shelling for days, Denisenko said.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed Wednesday that the Russian military continues to withdraw part of its troops from near Kyiv and Chernihiv, and are possibly “regrouping units to concentrate the main efforts in the eastern direction.” However, the General Staff said it believes the real goals of the so-called withdrawal are a rotation of individual units, misleading Ukraine’s military leadership and creating an erroneous idea about Russia’s refusal from the plan to encircle Kyiv.
Mar 30, 5:27 am
Over four million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than four million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 9% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 35 days.
More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 30, 3:41 am
Russian authorities may ‘single out and detain’ Americans in Russia and Ukraine, US warns
The United States is warning that Russian authorities “may single out and detain U.S. citizens” in both Russia and Ukraine.
The warning came Tuesday as the U.S. Department of State issued new travel advisories for the two warring countries.
The State Department previously warned Americans in Russia that they could be targets for harassment by Russian authorities. But the latest advisory makes it explicit that U.S. citizens could be “singled out,” “including for detention.”
The State Department has also previously warned Americans against traveling to Ukraine to join the fight against Russian forces, pointing to statements from Russian authorities that anyone detained while fighting will not be considered a lawful combatant. That could mean mistreatment or worse, according to State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
“There are continued reports of U.S. citizens being singled out and detained by the Russian military in Ukraine and when evacuating by land through Russia-occupied territory or to Russia or Belarus,” the latest advisory for Ukraine states.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been on the State Department’s “Travel Advisory Level 4 – Do Not Travel” for months, as tensions ratcheted up and with little to no diplomatic presences on the ground.
Joe Maher/Disasters Emergency Committee/Getty Images for Livewire Pictures Ltd
Camila Cabello and Ed Sheeran sang for a cause when performing their new collaboration “Bam Bam” live for the first time.
The duo came together for Tuesday night’s Concert for Ukraine, which aimed to raise money and awareness for ongoing humanitarian efforts in the war torn country. The stage was flooded with blue light and decorated with sunflowers, which has become a global symbol of solidarity for Ukraine.
“We’re all praying tonight for the peace and the safety of the people in the Ukraine. Thank you guys so much for being part of this super important fundraiser and please continue to give anything you can,” Camila said.
“I’ve got a surprise for you guys tonight,” she announced, which caused the audience to erupt in cheers as she invited Ed onto the stage. “This is me and this person’s first time singing this song together.”
The “Havana” singer revealed how singing their song together that night was “a full circle moment for me.” She reminisced about meeting Ed for the first time and confessed, “I cried the first time I met him, like, I’m such a huge fan of his.” She added, “Us getting to do a song together is really fun. I’m so excited. I might forget the lyrics! If I do, sing them for me!”
Prior to singing her new hit, the Grammy nominee covered Coldplay‘s “Fix You.”
As for Ed, he performed “Perfect” and “Bad Habits” during the benefit concert, using his signature loop station to create his sound.
If you missed Concert for Ukraine — which also featured performances by Anne Marie, Emeli Sandé and others — ITV has uploaded the concert in full to their YouTube channel and has included a link where you can donate to ongoing humanitarian efforts.
(DZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakstan) — NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei returned to Earth Wednesday, after spending a record-breaking 355 days in low-Earth orbit. Vande Hei shared a spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts as tensions between the Russia and the U.S. continue amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Vande Hei returned in a Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, making a parachute-assisted landing at 7:28 a.m. in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The trio had departed the International Space Station at 3:21 a.m. ET.
Vande Hei broke the record for the longest spaceflight by a NASA astronaut by 15 days. The record was previously held by retired astronaut Scott Kelly.
On this spaceflight, Vande Hei completed 5,680 orbits of the Earth and a journey of more than 150 million miles, roughly the equivalent of 312 trips to the Moon and back, according to NASA.
This trip gave Vande Hei a lifetime total of 523 days in space.
“Mark’s mission is not only record-breaking, but also paving the way for future human explorers on the Moon, Mars, and beyond,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release. “Our astronauts make incredible sacrifices in the name of science, exploration, and cutting-edge technology development, not least among them time away from loved ones.”
Nelson added: “NASA and the nation are proud to welcome Mark home and grateful for his incredible contributions throughout his year-long stay on the International Space Station.”
According to NASA, Vande Hei contributed to dozens of studies from the hundreds executed during his mission, including six science investigations supported by NASA’s Human Research Program.
As NASA plans to return to the Moon, under the Artemis program, and prepares for the exploration of Mars, the agency said Vande Hei’s extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans.
After the crew goes through post-landing medical checks, they will be flown to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, on Russian helicopters. Vande Hei will then board a NASA plane to Cologne, Germany, for refueling, prior to his return home.
Shkaplerov and Dubrov will be flown home to Star City, Russia, on a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft.
It’s safe to say that Miranda Lambert is a fan of all the clothes and accessories available through her fashion line, Idyllwind, but even she has a few personal favorites.
Miranda has called attention to some of her favorite items in the Idyllwind closet that covers many of the fashion bases. One of her top selections is a denim skirt with faux suede lace patchwork, along with a sassy black tank top displaying the phrase “Girl Grit” in gold lettering.
It should come as no surprise that the country queen has selected multiple cowgirl boots among her favorite picks, including a couple pairs of snake skin boots, along with embroidered leather boots ranging from Sanded Sky print to Revenge Tan.
Miranda’s Favorites range in retail price from $34.50 – $229.50.
The multi-award winning country star launched Idyllwind in 2018. “It is a true picture of everything that I am about – built for the everyday girl who is also a bada**! A brand based on loving who you are – being who you are – being comfortable in your skin – and celebrating that at whatever age or size,” she describes in a statement.
Idyllwind products are available online and at Boot Barn.
Ah, the life of a rock star. Studio sessions, parties, tripping in the jungle on sacred hallucinogens…
Appearing Tuesday night on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Machine Gun Kelly shared his perspective on a visit he and fiancée Megan Fox paid to Costa Rica, during which they both tried ayahuasca [ah’-yuh-WAH-skuh], a plant-based hallucinogen used for millennia by indigenous peoples there.
While Jimmy Kimmel reminded Kelly that Fox, while visiting the show last summer, described the experience as “a trip to hell,” Kelly said his experience was much different — including how much of the drug he took.
Kelly says the shaman leading the ritual looked at him and declared he had a “big shadow of darkness” behind him, adding, “You need more.” As in four cups of ayahuasca, where everyone else only drank one. And this apparently went on for three consecutive nights. At one point, Kelly said he saw something that “looked like gray sand, coming from my body,” which the shaman appeared to suck out of him and then spat away.
“All jokes aside, it was one of the most important things that happened to me in my life,” Kelly said, more soberly.
As for Fox, Kelly said her first night was “rainbows and unicorns,” but her second was so intense that she skipped the third. “We were exorcising some things out of ourselves,” Kelly said.
Kelly also talked a bit about how he and Pete Davidson — who appears on MGK’s latest album, Mainstream Sellout — go way back, as well as meeting a very young Zendaya backstage during his first appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2012.
Mainstream Sellout dropped last Friday. Kelly will support the album with a summer tour that kicks off June 8, featuring Travis Barker, Avril Lavigne, Blackbear and others.
Fleetwood Mac singer/keyboardist Christine McVie has revealed that she has a new solo project that will be released in the coming months and will feature reworked versions of her best-known songs.
During an interview this past week with Take That singer Gary Barlow on his BBC radio programWe Write the Songs, McVie announced that she’s “just finished an album,” called Songbird, that’s due out in June.
She described the record as “a compilation of my biggest hits, but they’ve all been produced again by [acclaimed British producer] Glyn Johns,” adding that the tracks feature strings arranged by Grammy-winning composer and arranger Vince Mendoza, who previously has worked with Joni Mitchell, Sting, Chaka Khan and many others.
Christine noted that among the songs on the album is a “fantastic version” of her 1977 Fleetwood Mac ballad “Songbird,” which she said has been recut “with a complete string orchestra and it sounds beautiful.”
She also pointed out the the new recordings “sound completely different” from her original versions.
Asked whether she might schedule some concerts in support of the upcoming album, the 78-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer replied, “That I daren’t comment on yet! I’m very cagey about things like that.”
Christine’s last new music project was her 2017 collaborative album with Lindsey Buckingham, which was simply titled Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie.
(NEW YORK) — Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, mental health challenges still impact youth.
But in a new one-hour ABC News primetime special anchored by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said children have struggled with mental health long before the pandemic.
“The pandemic’s been more challenging for some children,” Murthy told ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. “If we wanna address this, we’ve got to listen to kids.”
In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics found “soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents, and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Two months later, Murthy issued an advisory on the youth mental health crisis, emphasizing that mental health challenges are present among children and young adults.
To help young people heal, Murthy has been doing listening tours with youth across the country.
In the ABC News primetime special “24 Months That Changed the World,” Ashton sits down with Murthy and kids at Ida B. Wells Middle School. in Washington, D.C.
“I felt like that little kid in me disappeared and I started worrying about stress,” said Daylan Joya, a student at Ida B. Wells Middle School.
Added student Machi Brooks: “Don’t just treat us like, ‘Oh, you’re a child.’ Treat us like what we’ve been through is as equal to what you’ve been through.”
At a high school in Mason, Ohio, the Hope Squad was created to help students with their mental health.
“Tons of people needed help during the pandemic,” Kaya Rossey, a member of William Mason High School’s Hope Squad, told ABC News.
In one exercise, students role-played how to handle self-harming behavior when they spot it.
Dr. Alok Patel, a physician at Stanford Children’s Health and ABC News contributor, said a “silver lining” of the pandemic is that it’s opened the conversation on mental health.
“One silver lining that has come is the amount of discussion and awareness that has happened to talk about their own mental health struggles,” said Patel.
“24 Months That Changed the World” airs on a special edition of 20/20 on Wednesday, March 30, on ABC. It will air the next day on Hulu.
One of Sunday night’s Oscars hosts, Amy Schumer, has broken her silence about the so-called “slap heard ’round the world.”
“Still triggered and traumatized,” she said on Instagram. “I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend @questlove and the whole thing was so disturbing.”
Schumer continued, “So much pain in @willsmith.”
The stand-up and actress added, “I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. Im proud of myself and my cohosts. But yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”
In case you’ve been under a rock for the past 48 hours, Will Smith stormed the stage, slapped, and then cursed Chris Rock after he took a swipe at Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, likening her close-cropped hair to Demi Moore‘s Navy SEAL bald cut in G.I. Jane. Pinkett-Smith shaved her head because she suffers from hair loss as a result of alopecia.
After the incident, Smith tearfully collected his Best Actor trophy for King Richard.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday it “condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show.” The organization further announced it has “officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
Miranda Lambert is the newest country star signing on for a residency in Las Vegas.
The singer announced her Velvet Rodeo residency on Wednesday. The 24-date string of shows kicks off September 23, and will take place at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood.
By the time the residency begins, Miranda will have added another album to her collection of hits. Palomino, featuring her current single “If I Was a Cowboy,” is due out at the end of April. The singer also has a large variety of past songs to choose from: Her catalog ranges from rough and rowdy classics like “White Liar” and “Gunpowder & Lead” to her more recent, introspective acoustic project, The Marfa Tapes.
There’s also some rock ‘n’ roll in the mix, as Miranda joined forces with Elle King last year for the hit song “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home).”
Miranda’s Vegas shows start with dates on September 23, 24, 28 and 30. She’ll return October 1, 5, 7, 8, followed by a set of dates on November 26, 27 and 30 and December 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11.
Tickets go on sale April 7, but members of the singer’s RanFans fan club can access a special pre-sale starting April 1.
Other country acts setting up camp in Vegas this year include Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.
