(SAN DIEGO) — Rising gas prices in the U.S. amid sanctions on Russian oil have some Americans feeling hesitant about any plans for a summer road trip. But tourism officials in one summer hot spot say they don’t think gas prices will hurt travel there much.
In San Diego, hotel owners like Bob Rouch say business has returned to pre-COVID levels. It appears that so many people want to travel and get out without masks that the desire to travel this summer outweighs any reluctance due to rising gas prices.
“I know some people refer to it as revenge travel,” Rouch said. “I think it’s people wanting to get out.”
Tourism officials say places like San Diego will likely fare well despite high gas prices because the city is a quick drive with minimal fuel burn from locations like Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Northern California.
As lawsuits amount gainst him and the other producers of the doomed film Western Rust, Alec Baldwin‘s attorneys filed a motion to try to absolve him from the fatal shot he fired at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins was mortally wounded on October 21 of last year an director Joel Souza was injured when a live round in a Colt-style pistol Baldwin aimed at her during rehearsal discharged. Baldwin insisted to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t pull the trigger, and claimed he was assured the gun was “cold,” or safe.
A criminal investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
“[S]omeone should be held legally culpable for the tragic consequences,” says Friday’s filing by Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas, but declares, “That person is not Alec Baldwin.”
“Baldwin is an actor,” the filing continues. “He didn’t announce that the gun was ‘cold’ when it really contained a live round; he didn’t load the gun; he didn’t check the bullets in the gun; he didn’t purchase the bullets; he didn’t make the bullets and represent that they were dummies; he wasn’t in charge of firearm safety on the set; he didn’t hire the people who supplied the bullets or checked the gun; and he played no role in managing the movie’s props. Each of those jobs was performed by someone else.”
Last month, Hutchins’ widower filed a wrongful death suit against Baldwin, one of the producers on the film. To NBC’s Today show, Matt Hutchins said, “The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me.”
As for Baldwin’s interview with Stephanopoulos, Hutchins said, “Watching him, I just felt so angry. I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her.”
It’s new music Friday, so let’s see who’s out with new tunes:
The Chainsmokers released “iPad” and its accompanying music video, which marks the next song off their highly anticipated fourth studio album. The breakup anthem, which is stuffed with hypnotic beats and synths, has the two pondering, “Isn’t it strange how we’re strangers again?”
Alanis Morissette dropped “Olive Branch,” which is about her taking the high road after a nasty fight with another, which leads her questioning, “How much salt could I pour in/ To think that I called myself a friend?” The extended mea culpa has her ready to accept the consequences of her actions.
Fresh off his collaboration with DNCE, Kygo dropped his remix of Coldplay and Selena Gomez‘s heartbreak anthem, “Let Somebody Go.” Kygo amps up the drums and adds an underlying beat to carry the track.
Latto is following the success of “Big Energy” with her brand-new single, “Wheelie,” which features 21 Savage. The suggestive track is about how the players — let alone men in general — are no match for Latto’s sexual energy.
Following the success of “The Motto,” Tiësto re-teamed with Ava Max to reshoot an all-new music video. The new black and white clip pays tribute to vogue style dancing and hired professional dancers to bust some iconic moves around Ava, who is rocking her classic platinum lopsided cut.
Jennifer Lopez released the music video for the ballad version of “Marry Me,” the title track of her new movie rom-com, starring both her and Maluma, who’s featured in the song. The video serves as a prelude to the events of the movie, showing the two happy and in love before Maluma’s character, Bastian, is caught cheating on JLo’s character, Kat, on the day of their wedding.
(NEW YORK) — Russia is doubling down on its false claims that the U.S. and Ukraine are developing chemical or biological weapons for use against invading Russian forces, bringing the accusation to the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
A web of disinformation, not only from Russian state media but also Chinese propaganda outlets and even some American voices, have increasingly spread the conspiracy theory this week.
That’s prompted heightened concern among U.S. and Ukrainian officials that Russia itself may be planning to deploy chemical or biological weapons against Ukrainian targets or as part of a so-called “false flag” operation.
“This makes me really worried because we’ve been repeatedly convinced if you want to know Russia’s plans, look at what Russia accuses others of,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a televised address late Thursday, a sentiment the White House first shared Wednesday.
Ukraine does not have biochemical weapons laboratories. Instead, there are public health and veterinary health labs operated with U.S. support in Ukraine and several other former Soviet countries that provide technical support to a government’s health ministry and study disease, like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. support originated with the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, launched in 1991 to help secure and dismantle the remnants of the former Soviet Union’s biochemical weapons program in newly independent states, including Ukraine.
The U.S. has talked openly about the program throughout its history, working with 26 facilities in Ukraine on issues like biosafety and scientific mentorship training, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an independent nonprofit dedicated to science and global security.
But in recent years, Russia, as well as China, has escalated accusations that these labs constitute a secret U.S. biochemical weapons program, at one point even claiming in state-run media outlets that they created the COVID-19 pandemic. In bitter irony, these labs have helped detect and stop the spread of COVID-19, according to public health officials.
Those false claims have skyrocketed this week, with Russia now bringing them to one of the world’s brightest spotlights — the U.N. Security Council. Russia’s mission in New York called for an emergency meeting Friday, 24 hours after its defense ministry falsely claimed it uncovered “U.S. secret military biological projects in Ukraine,” per state-run media.
“We’re not going to let Russia get away with gaslighting the world or using the U.N. Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation,” Olivia Dalton, the spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the U.N., told ABC News Thursday.
It’s unclear if the U.S. will try to stop the meeting, currently scheduled for 10 a.m. ET. Procedural matters, like holding a meeting, require nine of the chamber’s 15 envoys to vote in favor, and no country can veto a meeting being held.
While the false claims have escalated this week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ranted back in December that Ukraine, with U.S. mercenary help, was preparing a chemical weapons attack.
In 2018, Russia also made similar accusations against Georgia, the small former Soviet state that the Kremlin invaded a decade earlier as its government, like Ukraine’s, sought NATO membership. Russian forces still occupy two regions of the country, recognizing them as independent states — just as it did last month in eastern Ukraine before launching its invasion.
“The Russian allegations appear to be part of a disinformation campaign that has grown in response to scrutiny of Moscow for using and enabling the use of chemical weapons,” the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reported in 2018 when Russia’s claims about Georgia were proven false.
The Kremlin record of “using and enabling the use of chemical weapons” runs deep, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, especially against individuals deemed enemies.
No one is higher on that list right now than Alexey Navalny. The opposition leader and anti-corruption activist was poisoned in August 2020 with the nerve agent Novichok by agents from the FSB, Russia’s principal security agency. He was flown to Germany and recovered before returning in January 2021 to Moscow, where he was almost immediately arrested.
Another notable example before Navalny were the Skripals. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian officer who was a double agent for the United Kingdom, was also poisoned with Novichok in March 2018 in Salisbury, England. His daughter Yulia and a police officer were also hospitalized by the attack, but all three recovered.
In contrast, Ukraine has been in full compliance with the chemical and biological weapons conventions since signing them in 1972 and 1993, respectively, according to the State Department.
Asked about Ukraine’s biomedical facilities, CIA Director Bill Burns told the Senate Thursday, “In any public health system around the world, there’s going to be work done in the interests of wider public health, to ensure that we have a grip on issues like that. But that’s in no way threatening. That’s not something that can be weaponized in the way that the Russians have clearly demonstrated — by their own actions against their citizens and people outside their country — their willingness to use.”
It’s unclear whether U.S. intelligence has any evidence that Russian forces are preparing for a chemical or biological attack. The White House, State Department and Pentagon publicly pointed only to “Moscow’s track record” and “increasingly concerning rhetoric,” in the words of State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
But a senior Pentagon official told reporters, “We have picked up indications that the Russians could be making these claims — these false claims — about us and Ukrainian work in bio defense as a way of creating a pretext of their own, to perhaps use these kinds of agents in an attack.”
Pressed on what “indications” they were referring to, they added, “I have to leave it with you with indications, and [I’m] not going to be at liberty to go in more detail than that today.”
For those in Ukraine, where Russian forces have shown there’s little they won’t do to subjugate the country, the fear is real.
“The manic obsession with which various Russian officials fantasize about non-existent biological or chemical weapons or hazards in Ukraine is deeply troubling and may actually point at Russia preparing another horrific false flag operation. This tweet is for the record,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Thursday.
Another new track off Maren Morris’ upcoming Humble Quest album is here. Called “Nervous,” the groove-heavy new track delivers grungy guitars and spicy lyrics about the kind of love that leaves a person “out of control,” with their “inhibitions exposed.”
It’s the latest in a series of teaser tracks off Humble Quest, which is due out in full March 25. Maren already shared the song’s first single, “Circles Around This Town,” plus another love song called “Background Music.”
“Circles Around This Town” chronicles Maren’s journey to the top of her game as a country artist in Music City. Meanwhile, she’s said that another song, “Hummingbird,” is an ode to her nearly two-year-old son, Hayes.
Maren also recently announced a tour in support of her new batch of songs. Beginning in June, she’ll hit amphitheaters and arenas across the country, bringing a crew of Americana acts including Ruston Kelly and Brittney Spencer along for the ride.
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.
