Weezer has shared more details about the band’s upcoming SZNZ project.
Originally announced last year as a set a four albums corresponding with each of the year’s four seasons, it now appears that SZNZ will consist of four EPs, instead.
“This year we’re releasing 4 EPs inspired by magic, Pagan myths, religious rituals, Vivaldi‘s The Four Seasons, Shakespeare & more (so much more),” the “Buddy Holly” rockers explain. “Each one will take you on an enchanting journey.”
The first entry in said enchanting journey will be the song “A Little Bit of Love,” which premieres next Wednesday, March 16. That’ll be followed by the release of the SZNS: Spring EP, which drops the first day of spring, March 20.
“Lots more coming soon, so mark your sundial for the coming solstices and equinoxes,” Weezer says.
SZNZ follows Weezer’s two 2021 albums, OK Human and Van Weezer.
(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.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance, coming within about 9 miles as of Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 11, 12:15 pm
Russia claims more than 34,500 people evacuated to Russia from Ukraine in past 24 hours
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday claimed more than 34,500 people were evacuated from Ukraine to Russia in the last 24 hours, without help from Kyiv authorities.
People were evacuated from various Ukrainian regions, including Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said at a press briefing.
“In the past 24 hours, 34,555 people, including 3,562 children, were evacuated from dangerous zones in various Ukrainian regions and the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics without Ukraine’s involvement,” Mizintsev said.
He added, “In total, more than 223,000 people, including 50,258 children, have already been evacuated since the launch of the special military operation.”
Mizintsev claimed Ukrainian authorities are refusing humanitarian corridors in Russia’s direction and prohibiting local authorities from having contacts with the Russian side.
According to Mizintsev, the city of Volnovakha is under control of the Donetsk militia and residents are reluctant to evacuate. He claimed the troops “are already establishing a return to peaceful life in Volnovakha.”
“Relevant humanitarian events involving the population are underway, and none of the residents are going to leave their homes,” Mizintsev said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also claimed that Ukrainian officials are disrupting evacuations from Izium to Lozova.
“The travel itineraries are planted with landmines, and parts of the road are being shelled with small arms and mortars by Ukrainian territorial defense units on approaches to Lozova,” he said.
Mizintsev claimed Mariupol is blocked. “All bridges and approaches to it are destroyed, the main roads have been mined by nationalists, and gunmen are roaming the streets, firing indiscriminately, thereby forcing the civilian population to stay in,” he said.
Mizintsev also claimed Ukrainian forces blew up “a building of the institute of physics and technology in Kharkiv to hide nuclear research” and that up to 50 of its employees might be missing.
Mar 11, 11:26 am
Ukrainian air force claims Russia carried out false flag airstrike in Belarus
Ukraine’s air force claimed Friday that Russia carried out an alleged false flag airstrike in a Belarusian village near the border with Ukraine.
In a post on Facebook, Ukraine’s air force claimed Russian jets took off from a base in Belarus and entered Ukraine’s airspace, then a fire started in the village of Kopani.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksy Reznikov earlier claimed in a Facebook post that Russian forces would launch a strike against Kopani to “pull the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus into the war with Ukraine.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 11, 11:15 am
US Restricts the export of luxury goods to Russia, Belarus
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Friday that it will restrict the export of U.S. luxury goods to Russia and Belarus, as well as “certain Russian and Belarusian oligarchs and malign actors located worldwide,” as a result of their actions in Ukraine.
The Department of Commerce said it will impose restrictions on the export, reexport and transfer of luxury items including certain spirits, tobacco products, clothing items, jewelry, vehicles and antique goods.
“Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine continues to take a devastating toll on innocent civilians in Ukraine, fueling one of the worst humanitarian crises Europe has seen in decades,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
Raimondo added, “Putin and the oligarchs who fund him have gotten rich off of Putin’s rampant corruption and the exploitation of the Russian people. We will not allow Putin and his cronies to continue living in opulence while causing tremendous suffering throughout Eastern Europe. Today’s action takes away another source of comfort and reminds them that Russia is increasingly isolated.”
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Mar 11, 10:16 am
WHO advised Ukraine to destroy pathogens to prevent ‘accidental spill’
The World Health Organization said Friday that it is urging Ukraine to now destroy its pathogen samples because Russia’s war in the country risks an “accidental spill,” according to WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević.
“This is part of us providing a public health advice to every country to try to ensure there is a minimized risk of any harm to population because of any possible accidental leak of pathogens,” Jašarević said Friday from Lviv.
The track, titled “Compliance,” will arrive next Thursday, March 17, and is available to pre-save now. It follows the single “Won’t Stand Down,” which dropped in January.
In a tweet announcing the new tune, Muse says, “Compliance is about the promise of safety and reassurance to us by powerful entities during times of vulnerability.”
“Gangs, governments, demagogues, social media algorithms and religions seduce us with misleading untruths and comforting fables,” the band continues. They want us to join their narrow worldview in exchange for obedience and turning a blind eye to our own internal voice of reason and compassion. They just need our Compliance.”
The “Compliance” news follows a teaser video released earlier this week, which features a group of masked soldiers in a desert tearing down giant statues of the three Muse band members while a chorus chants the line, “The will of the people.”
“Compliance” and “Won’t Stand Down” follow Muse’s most recent album, 2018’s Simulation Theory.
Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic / Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa smashed it out of the park with their new collab, “Sweetiest Pie,” and Meg revealed that was all by her design.
Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, the “Savage” rapper revealed how the hot track came to be. “I be seeing everybody making mashups of me and Dua songs and I’m like, ‘No, this sounds too good. We have to make a song,'” Meg explained. “So when I hit her up about it, I was like, ‘Dua, I really want us to do a song, but I got to find that right beat. It has to be perfect.'”
The Grammy winner continued, “I didn’t just send her no any track. I waited till I had the perfect one and I feel like we both came to a mutual agreement that it was greatness.”
Meg explained she wanted her collaboration to feel “organic,” too, adding, “I want us to both really thrive on it and really shine.”
Meg said working with Dua was a blast — even though she worried at first if the “Levitating” singer was unfriendly. “When I first saw her on Instagram, I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t know what it’s given. She really look kind of mean,” the rapper admitted, “When I met her, I was like, ‘Love, you might be my friend.’ She is so cool. She’s so chill.”
“It was just super easy the whole time, and I really liked that about her,” Megan said when describing what it was like working together. “Because she could be a diva, but she is just so humble. We are all divas in our own right… Shout out to a kind person in the industry because you don’t meet a lot of them.”
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A Texas judge is holding a hearing on whether to prevent state agencies from investigating gender-confirming care for transgender youth as child abuse.
District Judge Amy Clark Meachum will hear Friday from the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl who were under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Meachum will also hear from attorneys from the state.
According to the DFPS, there are at least nine similar investigations open as a result of the attorney general’s opinion on trans care.
The opinion written by state Attorney General Ken Paxton last month stated that “there is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted.”
He went on: “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”
The next day, Texas Governor Greg Abbott published a letter, ordering the DFPS to investigate such treatments as child abuse.
“Because the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is responsible for protecting children from abuse, I hereby direct your agency to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas,” Abbott said in the Feb. 22 letter.
Meachum has already blocked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from investigating the family of the 16-year-old girl. The family is part of a lawsuit against the state’s directive from the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal.
Several companies, including Ikea, Google, Apple, Meta, Johnson & Johnson, PayPal, Capital One and Electronic Arts have spoken out against the bill in a full-page ad in the Dallas Morning News.
“The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies,” a signed letter from the companies stated.
Cathryn Oakley, HRC’s state legislative director and senior counsel, said that misinformation is at the center of recent anti-LGBTQ efforts, including the Texas directive.
She told ABC News that she believes fear-mongering has painted a picture of trans youth that is “completely not true.”
She said that for many young children, transitioning means using a name and pronoun that feels right for them and presenting themselves in a way that feels right for them.
She says that when puberty hits is when medical intervention might begin through puberty blockers, which temporarily pause puberty while children and families assess their gender journey. “No one is performing surgery on kids. There’s no amputation happening,” she said.
“They’re literally putting trans kids lives on the line,” she said, referring to mental health conditions that trans youth face in the wake of discrimination.
“It’s incumbent on us to really educate folks about what it means to be a trans kid because I think the only reason people are buying into that kind of rhetoric is because even people who are fair-minded have questions about what it means to be a trans youth,” she said.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Since Cardi B recently pulled out as the star of the used-to-be-upcoming film Assisted Living, production company Paramount Players pulled the plug on the project until further notice.
According to Deadline, the $30 million film was just a week away from starting production, and the reason for Cardi’s pullout is that the Grammy-winning artist is overextended.
In Assisted Living, Cardi B was to play Amber, a small-time crook on the run after she’s wrongly accused of a crime. After struggling to find someone to take her in, Amber disguises herself as an elderly woman and hides out in the one place no one will look — her estranged grandmother’s nursing home.
Though legal action is often the follow-up in a situation like this, sources tell Deadline the hope is to put the pieces back together to begin production later this year.
The Batman has a whole lot of people listening to Nirvana‘s “Something in the Way.”
According to Billboard, streams for the Nevermind closer — if you don’t count the hidden track “Endless, Nameless” — have increased about 734% in the first four days since the Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz-starring film premiered last Friday.
“Something in the Way” is used multiple times in The Batman, and was also heard in the movie’s trailer. In fact, the song heavily influenced writer-director Matt Reeves‘ interpretation of the comic book icon.
“Early on, when I was writing, I started listening to Nirvana, and there was something about ‘Something in the Way’…which is part of the voice of that character,” Reeves toldEsquire magazine.
“When I considered, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless, drug addict?'” the filmmaker explained. “And the truth is that he is a kind of drug addict. His drug is his addiction to this drive for revenge. He’s like a Batman Kurt Cobain.”
Cole Swindell and Josh Turner are two of the latest country acts to join the 2022 Amp at Dant Crossing concert series lineup.
The multi-month event, spanning from May through October, is a series of shows that take place at a 2,000-seat amphitheater in the hills of Kentucky’s bourbon country. Cole will kick off the event with a performance on May 6, while Josh is its final scheduled artist, with a show on October 7.
A host of other country stars will also appear on the stage in the dates in between. Tracy Lawrence, Lee Brice, Justin Moore and Sara Evans are all also slated to appear, along with rock, Americana and blues acts including Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Marshall Tucker Band and Mary Chapin Carpenter.
The album is a 25-track collection featuring new, unplugged versions of songs spanning Joan Jett‘s entire career, from her work with the trailblazing 1970s all-female group The Runaways through to some of her most recent songs with The Blackhearts.
In advance of Changeup, Jett and the Blackhearts have released the lead track, a rendition of “(I’m Gonna) Run Away,” a song from Jett’s third album, 1981’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, the first featuring The Blackhearts. It’s available now via streaming services, and you also can check out a lyric video on YouTube.
Among the other tracks are acoustic versions of Jett’s early hit “Bad Reputation” and “Androgynous,” her cover of Tommy James and the Shondells‘ “Crimson and Clover,” the Runaways classic “Cherry Bomb,” the Bruce Springsteen-penned “Light of Day,” and a wide variety of deeper cuts.
Fans got their first taste of Changeup last year, when the unplugged rendition of “Bad Reputation” was released via digital outlets.
Changeup initially will be avaiable as a digital download, at streaming services and in the immersive audio formats Sony 360 RA and Dolby Atmos. A vinyl version will be released at a later date.
Meanwhile, Jett and the Blackhearts have a series of spring U.S. headlining dates scheduled lading up to the group’s stint on the major summer trek dubbed The Stadium Tour, which also features Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Poison. That outing kicks off June 16 in Atlanta. Visit JoanJett.com for her full itinerary.
Here’s the complete track list of Changeup:
“(I’m Gonna) Run Away”
“You’re Too Possessive”
“Long Time”
“Victim of Circumstance”
“Coney Island Whitefish”
“Love Is Pain”
“Oh Woe Is Me”
“You Drive Me Wild”
“Frustrated “
“Bad Reputation”
“Fake Friends”
“Fresh Start”
“Soulmates to Strangers”
“Make It Back”
“Fragile”
“I Love Playin’ with Fire”
“Cherry Bomb “
“I Want You”
“Crimson and Clover”
“A 100 Feet Away”
“Androgynous”
“You Don’t Know What You’ve Got”
“School Days”
“Good Music”
“Light of Day”
Season four of the hit Freeform show Good Trouble is here! The first episode is streaming now, and it’s already spicing things up with some big changes.
One of those changes will include seeing a lot more of Priscilla Quintana, who was promoted to a series regular this season. She plays a pregnant Isabella in the series, and for those wondering if she’ll finally give birth, she tells ABC Audio, “we will just have to wait and see.”
“Fingers crossed, but you never know,” she teases.
What Quintana will dish, though, is that viewers will get to see Isabella find her own voice and learn to love herself.
“This season, she’s exploring more of who she is. She’s finding her own voice,” she explains. “And one of the most important things that she does is she’s growing a life inside of her and realizing that,” the actress adds. “If you if you want to be able to fully love this human, you’re growing inside of you, you have to love yourself first, and she has never truly done that before.”
Also this season, Good Trouble introduces a new mysterious character — an investigative journalist named Joaquin — played by Bryan Craig.
“[Joaquin] has come to L.A. and to the coterie on kind of like secret personal mission,” he shares. “Along the way he obviously creates relationships with these people and I’m hoping even after he gets what he wants and finds his answer that he sticks around.”
Unfortunately, whether or not Joaquin will stick around, is a question even Craig doesn’t know the answer to just yet.
“It’s funny because everyone thinks that we have answers and we really never have answers past the script that’s in front of us,” Craig says, before adding, “I think some interesting stuff is coming up.”
