(WASHINGTON) — A man who was arrested for parking his car illegally, for failure to obey and assault on a police officer, has returned and parked his Chevy Tahoe once again in front of the Supreme Court building Thursday, Capitol Police said in a tweet.
Dale Paul Melvin of Kimball, Michigan, was outside of the Supreme Court, when he was arrested in October also for illegally parking and refusing to leave, Capitol Police had said in a statement at the time.
U.S. Capitol Police say Melvin used some “concerning language” on public social media postings shortly before he showed up in font of the Supreme Court, a statement released by the agency said.
“Our officers and agents are focused on our critical mission,” said USCP Chief Tom Manger. “I applaud them for their keen observation and for not taking any chances when it comes to safety and security.”
Capitol Police says after some discussion the 58-year-old was not arrested and agreed to leave the area.
Melvin told Capitol Police in October: “The time for talking is over.” He then had to physically be removed from the car after speaking with Capitol Police investigators, authorities said.
Capitol Police said roads are back open after witnesses saw Melvin hold up a letter, then promptly drive away after he parked his car illegally in front of the Supreme Court.
Roads around the Supreme Court and U.S. Capitol are clear, police said.
(NEW YORK) — Days after two police officers were killed by a suspect using an illegal gun, President Joe Biden headed to New York City Thursday to meet with Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul and to announce new actions targeting gun violence that the White House says builds on his “comprehensive strategy” unveiled last June.
“Enough is enough because we know we can do things about this,” Biden said in afternoon remarks from NYPD headquarters. “But for the resistance we’re getting from some sectors of the government and the Congress and the state legislatures and the organizational structures out there — you know, Mayor Adams, you and I agree, the answer is not to abandon our streets, that’s not the answer.”
“The answer is to come together, the police and the communities, building trust and making us all safer. The answer is not to defund the police, it’s to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors and community needs you,” Biden said to applause. “Police need to treat everyone with respect and dignity.”
Senior administration officials said on a call with reporters Wednesday evening that Biden is visiting New York City “because it is a community where they continue, like many other cities across the country, to experience a spike in gun violence.”
Traveling with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Biden’s trip intends to highlight a set of new actions from the Justice Department which includes directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to increase resources dedicated to district-specific violent crime strategies, and increasing personnel and other resources to strengthen task forces that target the illegal flow of guns up the East Coast, similar to the one that was used in the recent fatal shooting of two NYPD officers.
Biden said the Department of Justice will also take steps “today” to prioritize federal prosecutions of those who “criminally sell or transfer firearms that are used in violent crimes” and launch a National Ghost Gun Enforcement Initiative to help bring cases against those who use so-called “ghost guns” to commit crimes.
“If you commit a crime with a ghost gun, not only are state and local prosecutors gonna come after you, but expect federal charges and federal prosecution as well,” Biden said Thursday.
The president introduced the new initiatives at a meeting on gun violence prevention before of heading to Queens with Garland, Adams and Hochul to discuss community violence intervention programs with local leaders.
“I’ll keep doing everything in my power to make sure that communities are safer, but Congress needs to do its part, too,” Biden said in prepared remarks. “Pass universal background checks, ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, close loopholes to keep out of the hands of domestic abusers weapons, repeal the liability shield for gun manufacturers.”
He also offered a word for the families of the fallen NYPD officers to begin the meeting.
“Detective Wilmer Mora and Jason Rivera are the who and what law enforcement ought to be,” Biden said, calling the stolen glock the suspect allegedly used “really a weapon of war.” “I’ve spoken to their families, and their loss for the city is also a loss for the nation.”
After a series of mass shootings at the start of his presidency last year and facing pressure to act, Biden issued a half dozen limited gun control executive actions in April, which included actions on “ghost guns” and pistol-stabilizing braces.
The president is limited in his authority to act alone on gun control reforms and is continuing to call on Congress to act legislatively, though after months of negotiations, the most recent talks on gun reforms failed in September.
On Thursday, Biden will ask them to reach a bipartisan agreement on an appropriations bill that includes $300 million to expand community policing and $200 million for evidence-based community violence interventions.
(WASHINGTON) — The United States said Thursday it had intelligence that showed Russia is planning to create a video depicting a fake Ukrainian attack, that it could release in order to justify its own invasion of Ukraine.
One of a number of options Russia has been allegedly planning, U.S. officials said, was to “stage a fake attack” against Russia or Russian-speaking people.
“As part of this fake attack, we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses, and actors that would be depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
The United States took the rare step of making this intelligence public in order to dissuade Russia from moving forward or, if it did move forward, to make it more difficult for it to spread disinformation after the fact, according to Jon Finer, the principal deputy U.S. national security adviser.
“We don’t know definitively that this is the route they’re going to take,” Finer said in an interview with MSNBC.
“But we know that this is an option under consideration,” he continued, “that would involve, you know, actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event that they would have created themselves, that would involve the deployment of corpses to represent bodies purportedly killed in — people reportedly killed in an incident like this.”
The U.K. said later Wednesday that it had conducted its “own analysis of the intelligence,” and that it had “high confidence that Russia is planning to engineer a pretext blaming Ukraine in order to justify a Russian incursion.”
“This is clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilize Ukraine,” Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said.
It is not the first time in recent weeks that the United States had accused Russia of “fabricating a pretext” to justify invading Ukraine.
The Kremlin on Wednesday denied the new allegations.
“This is not the first such promise,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Russian state news agency TASS “Earlier, similar things were also voiced. But nothing ever occurs.”
Last month, the White House said the U.S. had intelligence that Russia had prepositioned a group of operatives in eastern Ukraine in order to create a “false-flag operation” there. The administration said the group was trained in urban warfare and the use of explosives.
A spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council declined to say whether those the United States is accusing of being involved in creating a fake video were part of this same group.
The U.S. believes Russia has already recruited the people who’d be involved with the fake “attack” video and that “Russian intelligence is intimately involved in this effort,” according to the senior administration official.
The U.S. thinks that “the military equipment used in this fabricated attack will be made to look like it is Ukrainian or from allied nations” – and that it was “possible” that Bayraktar drones, which Ukraine has, would be used to make it look like Ukraine carried out the attack, according to the official.
U.S. officials have repeatedly said, as recently as Wednesday, that they do not believe Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had yet decided whether to invade Ukraine.
But if he did want to move forward, the senior administration official said, one trigger could be Russia recognizing separatist regions in Ukraine as independent, rather than as part of Ukraine. Russia’s parliament is advancing legislation that would do so.
The U.S. believes that if Russia formally recognized the regions as independent, Russia could then release the video showing a fake Ukrainian “attack” – that it could portray as in response to the independence recognition – or Russia could just invade without releasing the video, according to another administration official.
“In line with its previous interventions, Russia would portray its actions as defending ethnic Russians and coming at the request of a sovereign government for assistance,” the senior administration official said.
ABC News’ Matt Seyler, Patrick Reevell and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
The sophomore effort from the band, led by 13 Reasons Why actor Dylan Minnette, will arrive March 25. It includes the previously released song “I Don’t Want to Talk,” as well as a just-premiered tune called “Especially You,” which is available now for digital download.
“It’s about when you’re in the early stages of a relationship and you get so worried that the other person’s mind will change at the flip of a switch,” Minnette says of “Especially You.” “It’s about stressing over the smallest things for no reason, but it’s definitely self-aware about the fact that I’m doing this all to myself.”
Tell Me That It’s Over follows Wallows’ 2019 debut, Nothing Happens, which features the hit Clairo collaboration “Are You Bored Yet?”
Wallows will launch a North American headlining tour in support of Tell Me That It’s Over in April.
Here’s the Tell Me That It’s Over track list:
“Hard to Believe”
“I Don’t Want to Talk”
“Especially You”
“At the End of the Day”
“Marvelous”
“Permanent Price”
“Missing Out”
“Hurts Me”
“That’s What I Get”
“Guitar Romantic Search Adventure”
After revealing earlier this week that her dream is to record with Rihanna and Adele, Megan Thee Stallion also has a 15-time Grammy nominee on her collabo wish list.
“Me and Jazmine Sullivan would definitely have some stuff to talk about,” the Glamour Woman of the Year honoree tells Billboard. “We’ll have the girls crying, we’ll have the girls screaming, we’ll have the girls dancing, we’ll have the girls sipping wine, [and] sitting in the backyard sipping cognac.”
She adds, “The men better go run and hide if me and Jazmine Sullivan do an EP. We need to get that in the works.”
The “Hot Girl Summer” star has been on fire over the past year, earning two Grammy nominations, and promoting several companies, including Coach and Popeyes, as well as starring in a Frito-Lay Super Bowl commercial.
Megan also signed a production deal with Netflix in 2021. She also graduated from Texas Southern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in health administration in December, and despite her busy entertainment career, the “Savage” rapper says she’s still committed to opening a health facility in her Houston hometown.
“I’m definitely manifesting that I will get these buildings together to open up my assisted-living facilities. I already manifested my Netflix deal, so you will see the results of my manifestations from that,” Megan says. “Whatever I say I’m gonna do, I definitely always do it.”
The second season of truTV’s Fast Foodies is here, allowing fans to watch the exciting combination of celebrities, cooking and, of course, fast food. If that wasn’t enough to grab your attention, star Justin Sutherland teased to ABC Audio, “Everything’s just taken up a notch this season.”
Sutherland, who’s one of the chefs tasked with recreating the celebrity guest’s favorite fast food and giving it a five-star remix, dished, “The celebrities that we’re having this season just run the gamut from athletes to top-end actors.” Among those he name-dropped were Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Baron Davis.
In addition, Sutherland says his fellow chefs have gotten into the swing of things. “I think we’re all doing way better food, not that last year’s food wasn’t good, but we just we know the format. We’re comfortable with each other,” he remarked.
And while he is responsible for fancying up fast food for his celebrity guests, one must wonder which drive-thru Sutherland likes to visit the most. “I love a beef and cheddar from Arby’s,” the Iron Chef champion revealed, noting that it’s his go-to when he’s “hung over and, like, you can’t stomach a lot of food.”
Sutherland also has a penchant for a particular condiment from a famous fried chicken chain. “I will put KFC gravy on anything,” he admitted. “Sometimes I will get [an] Arby’s beef and cheddar and then go across the street and get just a side of gravy from KFC. And then I call it a slutty French dip, and then just sit in the parking lot and shamefully shovel this gravy and make sure nobody’s looking.”
Fast Foodies season two airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on truTV.
Jennifer Lopez is counting down the days until her new rom-com, Marry Me, bows in theaters next Friday. Ahead of its February 11 release, the singer/actress opened up about the challenges of making the movie’s soundtrack.
She told Billboard it was “really difficult” to make the songs for the Marry Me movie. She plays pop superstar Kat Valdez in the film, but Jennifer said the main challenge was ensuring that Kat’s music did not come across as J. Lo songs.
“I wasn’t making it a J. Lo album. I was making a different character, and also, I was weaving the songs and writing them for the story,” she explained. In the end, she found those eight tracks — but only after combing through “a hundred” songs that “every producer and writer” sent to her.
The singer added that she’s a big fan of rom-coms and won’t tolerate critics besmirching their contribution to entertainment. “First of all, romantic comedies are not light movies,” said Jennifer. “They’re necessary, beautiful movies, and I don’t know why people feel like they have to put them down when everybody enjoys them so much. It’s like chick flicks. I don’t know guys who don’t love to go to the movies and watch a rom-com with me.”
Marry Me ties the knot in theaters on Friday, February 11. To help tide fans over, the movie’s eponymous lead single was released Thursday.
In other J. Lo news, the “On the Floor” singer celebrated the second anniversary of her groundbreaking Super Bowl Halftime show with Shakira on Wednesday in an Instagram post.
“A lot has happened since then…the world has changed…that’s why I’m especially thankful to my#JLovers for being so incredible and being by my side through it all,” she wrote.
Coldplay‘s latest album, Music of the Spheres, features a collaboration with Selena Gomez called “Let Somebody Go,” and now it’s being released as a single.
The ballad — and possibly a music video — are coming on Monday, according to Coldplay’s socials. The announcement came with a pic of Selena and Coldplay’s Chris Martin embracing on the set of a video directed by Dave Meyers. According to the photo, it appears as though the video was filmed last October.
Coldplay recently performed the song without Selena on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Coldplay’s collaboration with BTS on another Music of the Spheres single, “My Universe,” gave the British band its second U.S. number-one hit — more than 13 years after its first, “Viva La Vida,” in 2008.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill appeared on back-to-back nights of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week, each offering separate perspectives on their 1883 roles and more.
During Faith’s stop on the show, she looked back on her “terrifying” experience singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, saying that it was “the most extraordinary amount of pressure ever.”
By the time she sang at the Super Bowl, she knew first-hand the perils of what could go wrong: Early on in her career, she sang the national anthem at a Dallas playoff game, and completely blanked on the lyrics.
“I’m walking out to the center of the field, with this…very generous woman that was walking me out, and I say to her, ‘Would you happen to know just the first word of the national anthem?’” Faith remembers.
“And she said, ‘Seriously?’ And I said, ‘I’m serious. I’m very serious,’” she continues. “She said, ‘Honey, I don’t know.’”
Fortunately, once the spotlight hit and it was Faith’s time to sing, the words came to her. But she had a back-up plan — if she couldn’t remember the words, she was going to pivot and sing “Amazing Grace.”
“I thought I would sing ‘Amazing Grace’ and be forgiven!” she adds.
This year’s Super Bowl is coming up, and another rising country superstar will sing the national anthem in 2022: Mickey Guyton was just announced as the performer, much to Faith’s excitement.
“I am such a huge fan and supporter. She is going to slay it,” Faith adds.
After Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine co-founded Beats Electronics in 2006, they focused on creating educational opportunities for minority youth in Los Angeles. In 2013, they donated $70 million to the University of Southern California to create the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation.
Now they are collaborating with Adidas to design a new education program in South Los Angeles that blends fashion, technology, and entrepreneurship, according to Rolling Stone. Adidas says in a statement, “Design and creative hobbies have become more than just that – they are an opportunity for youth to explore a future that can become a career.”
In addition to the new program with Adidas, Iovine, and Dre, who is performing in the Super Bowl halftime show, are launching a magnate school in South LA, set to open on September 22, 2022. Many youth in South LA come from low-income families, however Iovine says they can overcome their obstacles.
“A lot of these kids, they have all these words for them: under-served, disadvantaged,” the entrepreneur says. “But what they really have is superpowers.”
Iovine and Dre have become a super duo, producing several multi-platinum albums, and launching Beats by Dre. They were the subject of the 2017 Grammy Award-winning HBO docuseries, The Defiant Ones.
“We come from two different cultures, and we’ve collaborated for 30 years now,” the Interscope Records co-founder says. “We really complement each other.”
Following their success in music and audio, they hope for similar results in affecting education. “I grant that it’s a big idea, but we also believe that if you were to create a spark that’s powerful enough, a fire will happen,” Iovine says. “We think that this will catch on.”
![Megan Thee Stallion wants to record with Jazmine Sullivan: “We’ll have the girls crying…screaming [and] dancing”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2022-02-03/Getty_MeganTheeStallion_020322.jpg "Megan Thee Stallion wants to record with Jazmine Sullivan: “We’ll have the girls crying…screaming [and] dancing”")
