The longtime Van Halen frontman’s statement, which EW.com received via his manager, reads, “Sometimes you win…Sometimes you lose…We got rained out…Covid cancelled…Future shows? When the benefit concerts for Colorado, Farm Aid, and hospital workers ‘everywhere’ come up; Call me.”
Accompanying the note was a photo of a road case that features multiple images the singer wearing a red top hat and holding a microphone, along with the message, “To be continued…”
As previously reported, Roth had announced in an October 2021 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he planned to retire after his Vegas shows. David scheduled nine concerts at the House of Blues, on New Year’s Eve and January 1, 5, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21 and 22, all of which were canceled in recent days.
Another celebrity has unfortunately tested positive for COVID-19, this time it was Lupita Nyong’o.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday the Oscar winner announced, “I too have tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fully vaccinated and taking care in isolation, so I trust I will be well.”
“Please do all you can to keep yourself and others protected from serious illness. #StayMaskedAndVaxxed,” she concluded.
Lupita’s diagnosis and consequent isolation forced her to drop out of virtual interviews for her upcoming film The 355, where she was set to join co-stars Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz,Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing, Sebasitan Stan and director Simon Kinber to promote the spy film.
The 355 hits theaters this Friday.
I too have tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fully vaccinated and taking care in isolation, so I trust I will be well. Please do all you can to keep yourself and others protected from serious illness. #StayMaskedAndVaxxed
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Toronto 129, San Antonio 104
Memphis 110, Cleveland 106
New York 104, Indiana 94
Phoenix 123, New Orleans 110
LA Lakers 122, Sacramento 114
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 7, Columbus 2
Florida 6, Calgary 2
Boston 5, New Jersey 3
Detroit 6, San Jose 2
Colorado 4, Chicago 3 (OT)
Winnipeg 3, Arizona 1
Anaheim 4, Philadelphia 1
Nashville 3, Vegas 2
Washington at Montreal (Postponed)
NY Islanders at Seattle (Postponed)
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Baylor 84, Oklahoma 74
Duke 69, Georgia Tech 57
Kansas 74, Oklahoma St. 63
Auburn 81, South Carolina 66
Texas 70, Kansas St. 57
LSU 65, Kentucky 60
Marquette 88, Providence 56
Colorado St. 67, Air Force 59
Seton Hall 71, Butler 56
Xavier at Georgetown (Postponed)
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) — An FBI dive team is assisting in the search for missing 3-year-old Lina Sardar Khil, authorities said.
The investigation has led the FBI’s underwater search and evidence response team to an area not previously searched, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
“We don’t want to leave anything to chance,” McManus told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday evening at the scene of the search. “Everything that we get that has any kind of potential at all, we follow it up. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
The area is located near the family’s apartment complex, according to ABC San Antonio affiliate KSAT.
The chief said he couldn’t provide any additional information on what led detectives to the area, but noted the search will continue Tuesday until it gets dark, and pick up again Wednesday.
“I wish there was more uplifting information I could give you to at least provide some hope, but I don’t have any of that information, unfortunately,” he said.
Lina Sardar Khil was last seen on Dec. 20 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. at a park on the 9400 block of Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, according to police. The park is located near the family’s home at the Villa Del Cabo apartment complex.
Lina has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing a black jacket, red dress and black shoes. Police issued multiple Amber Alerts and said she could be in “grave danger.”
Lina’s family is part of the Afghan refugee community in San Antonio and speaks Pashto. Police have issued alerts in multiple languages to the community, urging anyone with information to come forward.
FBI joins ‘aggressive’ search
McManus said Tuesday Lina is still considered a missing person.
“Our Missing Person’s Unit is working tirelessly at receiving leads and tips on little Lina’s case,” a spokesperson for SAPD told ABC News. “We will continue to follow every lead, no matter how small, until Lina is located.”
The FBI said it is accepting any tips, video footage or insight on Lina’s whereabouts.
Agent Justin Garris of the FBI’s Justin San Antonio field office told reporters on Dec. 28 the investigation into Lina’s disappearance is “aggressive,” adding that the FBI has utilized its child abduction rapid deployment team, behavioral analysis unit, intelligence response teams and forensic examiners.
Authorities are asking anyone who has information on the case to call SAPD Missing Person’s Unit at 210-207-7660.
Community rallies behind the family
As the search continues, the community is rallying around the family by joining search crews and raising money to help find the child.
The Eagles Flight Advocacy & Outreach organization, a nonprofit in San Antonio, joined the search over the weekend with about 150 people from the Afghan community showing up.
“We can’t sit still. We have to do something,” Pamela Allen, CEO of Eagles Flight Advocacy and Outreach, told ABC News.
Allen said the group has been in touch with police and was actively searching surrounding areas that are points of interest in the case.
“Yesterday we had about 150 Afghani men and children come out and look for this baby,” Allen said, adding that seeing the community come together has been “the most amazing thing.”
The Islamic Center of San Antonio is also supporting the family by offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who can help police find Lina.
The Crime Stoppers of San Antonio has offered an additional $50,000 for information resulting in the arrest or indictment of a suspect accused of any involvement in the disappearance.
Lina’s family moved to the U.S. in 2019, her father, Riaz Sardar Khil, told KENS5 through a translator.
Khil said at first they believed that their daughter could be with another Afghan family in the community but now they believe she may have been abducted.
“During our entire lives we have not been as saddened as we were yesterday and today,” he said.
Culturingua, a San Antonio nonprofit that has been helping with the search for Lina, is a leader of the Afghan refugee response collaboration, a citywide effort to support the large influx of Afghan refugees in San Antonio.
Culturingua CEO Nadia Mavrakis told ABC News on Tuesday the organization’s programs include community development in low income and moderate income areas with a high percentage of refugees, including Lina’s family.
“There is tremendous pressure placed on the refugee resettlement agencies as this high influx of Afghans are coming into the community,” Mavrakis said, adding that the coalition seeks to support the integration of Afghan families in the community through services that go “beyond the scope and capabilities of the case workers.”
Nader Mehdawi, COO of Culturingua, told ABC News one of the “biggest challenges” that families like Lina’s face is the language barrier.
“A lot of the Afghan refugees coming here, they only speak Pashto or Dari,” he said, adding that this is one of the reasons many refugees “struggle to find work.”
Mavrakis, who visited the family on Friday along with other staff members, said that Culturingua is one of the organizations that has offered translation support to the family as they communicate with police and navigate the legal system.
The Afghan community started a GoFundMe account for the Khils so they can focus on the search for Lina and Culturingua has been working to get the word out to the Afghan community and the organizations within their network, she added.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats are using the impending one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to put a fine point on their efforts to shore up the nation’s election system.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in floor remarks Tuesday, said the same misinformation and malice that led a mob seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election to storm the Capitol is fueling voter suppression laws in GOP-controlled statehouses.
“As we remember January 6 this week and as we confront state level voter suppression, we must be clear they are not isolated developments. They are all directly linked to the same anti-Democratic poison of the big lie,” Schumer said, referencing misinformation about the election results espoused by former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters.
Democrats have for months been trying to push some sort of voting reform through the chamber, citing research from the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan independent organization that analyzes election rules, that found that 19 states have enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote.
But those legislative efforts have faced an unrelenting blockade from Republicans, who oppose federal election reform because they say it is unnecessary and takes power away from the states to control their own elections.
“There’s been a lot of talk about big lies, the big lie on the other side is that state legislators controlled by Republicans are trying to make it difficult for people to vote,” Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said at a press conference Tuesday. “If you actually read the legislation that has been passed that’s clearly not the case.”
On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.
Multiple attempts at passing legislation have fizzled because of the Senate filibuster rule requiring 60 votes to begin debate on a piece legislation. Continued Republican blocks have prompted Democrats to up the ante and many, including Schumer, are calling for a revision to the rules to allow voting reform to pass with a simple majority.
This is far from the first call for a change to the filibuster rules made by Democrats in the evenly divided Senate, but a rule change would require unanimous support from all Senate Democrats, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have been clear they won’t support a carve out, even for voting rights.
But on Tuesday, Manchin moved slightly off his hardline stance, refusing to rule out a Democratic-only solution on voting rights if Republicans refused to negotiate. Manchin called passing a change to the Senate rules a “heavy lift” while speaking to reporters and emphasized that his “preference” would be Republican buy-in, but he stopped short of calling Republican support a “red line”
“That’s my preference,” Manchin said when asked if GOP support was necessary. “I would have to exhaust everything in my ability to talk and negotiate with people before I start doing things that other people might think need to be done.”
It was enough to give some Democrats a sliver of hope that the West Virginia moderate might be softening his position after months of talks.
But later in the day, after a one-hour, closed-door meeting with Schumer and a handful of key Democrats on voting rights and rules changes, Manchin insisted, “The filibuster needs to stay in place in any way, shape or form that we can do it.”
The senator did, however, express support for making it easier to begin debate on a bill.
(AURORA, Colo.) — Taniya Freeman, 14, was found on Tuesday in Aurora, Colorado, after being reported missing over the weekend. A spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department said that she’s now home safe with her mother.
Freeman’s father, Nigel Freeman, said the family had no additional comment but that they appreciated everyone who shared the posts about their missing daughter on social media.
Taniya left her father’s home between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 2, her mother, Tiana Wilder, told ABC News earlier on Tuesday.
Wilder urged her daughter to come home.
“We miss her. We love her, of course, and the safest place for her to be is here with us,” she said.
The Aurora Police Department said Taniya has long hair with pink streaks and may have a backpack with her. Wilder said that she believed her daughter was wearing a black hoodie and red pants.
Wilder previously said her daughter didn’t have a history of running away and that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, as far as arguments or yelling, that night.
“I have no idea who she is with; where she is at and that’s my concern,” Wilder said prior to her daughter being found. “So as far as any harm coming, yeah, I am worried.”
Agent Matthew Longshore, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, had told ABC News that the department was working with limited information. “Our investigators are still following up on different leads and we’re trying to find her,” he said.
“If her friends know something, tell us. And [don’t] think that they are snitching on her or getting her trouble,” Wilder had said. “Whatever they know that could be helpful is what we need to know.”
Jim Spellman/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rush pinball machine has arrived.
Last month, the company Stern Pinball teased that a game dedicated to the Canadian prog legends was in the works. Now, Stern has officially revealed the details of the machine.
Not only will the game feature 16 Rush songs, such as “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “2112” and “Fly By Night,” but it also includes custom-recorded dialog by surviving band members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson.
In a behind-the-scenes video, you can watch Lee and Lifeson recording their parts alongside pinball enthusiast and fellow Canadian rocker Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies.
“I particularly love it when a pinball machine taunts you,” Robertson tells Lifeson while coaching his voiceover performance.
The Rush pinball machine will be seen in action for the first time during a virtual event at the 2022 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, taking place January 5-8.
A collection of rare tracks recorded by late pop and country singer B.J. Thomas titled In Remembrance: Love Songs & Lost Treasureswill be released on February 4.
The 18-track collection features 13 previously unreleased recordings. Among the tracks are eight unreleased tunes from the Warner-Reprise Records vault, four songs from a limited-edition “direct response” album that was available in the 1990s, and outtakes that Thomas recorded with veteran songwriter and producer Steve Dorff.
The album, which also features some rare photos, can be pre-ordered now on CD at BJThomas.com.
Thomas died of lung cancer in May 2021 at the age of 78. He’s best known for his chart-topping singles “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” as well as such other hits as “Hooked on a Feeling” and “I Just Can’t Help Believing.”
Here’s the full track list of In Remembrance:
“Expression of Faith”
“Meet at My Heart”*
“I Like Livin'”*
“When the Hero Dies”*
“The Best Things in Life”*
“Rock and Roll Lullaby”*
“Hands on Me Again”
“This Ain’t a Song (It’s a Prayer)”
“Think About Me”*
“No One Else on Earth”*
“Our Younger Hearts”*
“That’s the Thing About Love”*
“Red Letter Days”
“When a Woman Talks”*
“Love by Any Name”*
“Memory in the Making”*
“Wings of a Dove”*
“America the Beautiful”
(WASHINGTON) — The family of Guy Reffitt, who has been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, says it is not the same family as a year ago.
Extremism has torn the Reffits apart, they say, stirring up feelings of fear, loss and anger among family members.
Authorities say Reffitt attended former President Donald Trump’s rally and protest at the Capitol on that fateful day, and is now awaiting trial among the more than 700 who have been indicted in connection with the insurrection.
He has pleaded not guilty. Reffitt’s attorney, William L. Welch, III, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Watch the full story airing on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7 and 9 p.m. EST.
On Jan. 6, ABC News Live will provide all-day coverage of events marking one year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol and the continuing fallout for American democracy.
Reffitt is accused of obstructing an official proceeding, aiding and abetting; obstructing justice by hindering communication through physical force or threat of physical force; entering and remaining in a restricted building; and civil disorder, according to court documents.
“There were clearly signs he was getting involved with a lot of different people and a lot of bad people,” said Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, in an interview with ABC News’ Mireya Villareal.
“Hearing my father was there — it was absolutely disgusting. And pretty much demoralizing. And I really lost all respect for him in that moment,” Jackson added.
Reffitt’s wife, Nicole, said that her husband is a member of the Three Percenters, a group the Anti-Defamation League calls “anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement.”
Jackson said he went to the FBI with concerns about his father in the days leading up to the insurrection. “If something is to really happen, then I do not want this on my shoulders as the only one that actually sees what he’s doing right now,” Jackson said he felt at the time.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, professor and director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University, told ABC News she’s seen an increase in polarization among families in recent years.
“What we’re facing here in this country — both related to a lot of the things that happened on Jan. 6, but more broadly — whenever you have rising political violence or extremism or hateful acts or other kinds of violent crimes, families are shattered,” Miller-Idriss said. “The family that’s left behind needs a lot of support and therapeutic intervention.”
Shortly after Reffitt returned from the Capitol, he allegedly threatened his son and daughter over his involvement in the attack, according to court documents. Around Jan. 11, Reffitt told his children that the FBI was watching and ordered them to “erase everything.”
“My father brought up that, ‘if anyone turns me in, like, you know what happens to traitors, traitors get shot,'” Jackson said. “And that spooked me and my sister.”
According to court documents, Reffitt allegedly told Jackson that if he “crossed the line and reported Reffitt to the police, putting the family in jeopardy, Reffitt would have no option but to do Reffitt’s duty for Reffitt’s country, and ‘do what he had to do.'”
Reffitt’s daughter and wife have both denied that he meant anything threatening by that language and the daughter said she did not feel threatened, according to the documents.
Reffitt was arrested on Jan. 16 at the family’s home, as his wife, daughter and son watched. Soon after, Jackson said that he finally decided to leave home.
“I don’t really feel like he’ll forgive me or really take into consideration what he’s been a part of,” Jackson said.
For the rest of the family, they say the insurrection and Reffitt’s arrest has continued to affect their daily lives.
“It has been so difficult,” Nicole said. “The void that’s been left by Jackson and Guy, the girls and I have a very hard time.”
Peyton, Reffitt’s youngest daughter, says she’s “ready to move on” and heal from the situation.
“I have anger, but I love him,” she said of her father.
Reffitt spoke to ABC News from jail in December, saying, “This has been disastrous for me and my family, especially for my girls, my son — actually, all of my family.”
He added: “I never expected anything like this to happen.”
Reffitt says he believes he’ll be exonerated.
“It’s not that hard to prove that I didn’t do anything,” Reffitt said. “It should be pretty easy.”
He said he hopes to have a relationship with his son, someday.
But a full family reunion will take place in federal court when Reffitt’s trial begins in February.
“The whole situation is just going to be so nerve-wracking,” Jackson said. “Once it’s all set in stone, we can go back and really start, I guess, hanging out and getting back together and catching up.”
ABC News’ Seiji Yamashita contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Mass protests have broken out in Kazakhstan, triggered by a sharp rise in fuel prices in the Central Asian country.
Videos posted on social media show thousands of people gathering in cities across the country on Tuesday, in some places clashing violently with police and trying to storm government buildings, as authorities deployed security forces to try to disperse them and a state of emergency was declared in two parts of the country.
The internet was reportedly partially shut down in parts of the country, including in the former capital, Almaty, as Kazakhstan’s president appealed for calm and pledged his “government will not fall.”
The scenes on Tuesday were extraordinary in the repressive former Soviet country, where opposition is tightly controlled. For most of its independent history, Kazakhstan was ruled by the same authoritarian leader.
The protests began three days ago in the western region of Mangystau after the price of liquified natural gas, used in vehicles, roughly doubled overnight. But on Tuesday, the demonstrations swelled, spreading to cities across the country.
The government on Tuesday promised to reverse the fuel price rise, but the protests continued to grow, appearing to escalate Tuesday night as protesters in some cities sought to storm administrative buildings.
In Almaty, videos showed dozens of riot police using tear gas and stun grenades to clear demonstrators who reportedly tried to seize the mayor’s office.
Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in Almaty and the Mangystau region.
In a video address, Tokayev called for dialogue, saying the government would address the protesters’ legitimate demands but warned it would not fall.
“Calls to attack government and military offices are absolutely illegal,” Tokayev said. “The government will not fall, but we want mutual trust and dialogue rather than conflict.”
He said the government would hold a working meeting Wednesday to discuss the issues raised by the protesters.
Tokayev was hand-picked by Kazakhstan’s long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev to be his successor in 2019, when Nazarbayev stepped aside after ruling the country since it gained independence from the USSR in 1991. Nazarbayev, 81, stood down as president to become chairman of Kazakhstan’s security council but is still believed to have retained significant power.
A major energy exporter, Kazakhstan is one of the world’s largest countries and a key neighbor for Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Unrest in the country is likely to alarm the Kremlin, which maintains strong influence in the region.
Large protests are very rare in Kazakhstan, where political opposition is barely tolerated and demonstrations must receive permission from authorities to take place legally.
The western city where the fuel protests were initially focused, the oil hub Zhanaozen, saw Kazakhstan’s last major protests in 2011. Those protests ended then in a massacre when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
