Lorde has surprise released a new EP called Te Ao Mārama.
The set features new renditions of songs from the “Royals” artist’s new Solar Power album, sung in te reo Māori, the language of the Indigenous New Zealand Māori people. Selections include the Solar Power lead single and title track, as well as “The Path,” “Stoned at the Nail Salon,” “Fallen Fruit” and “Oceanic Feeling.”
The sweet song finds Sam observing “real love” and “real life” as he reflects on a relationship when he was 23 years old, a moment frozen in time. Throughout the song, the singer reflects on the former couple’s first trip to New Orleans and a visit to Folly Beach while looking ahead to the future, imagining his past love working at an office job and longing for their past adventures.
Though the singer tells his lover that she’s free to move on in life, the two will always have the memories made together when they were 23.
“No matter where I go/No matter what I do/I’ll never be 23 with anyone but you/You can marry who you want/Go back to Tennessee/But you’ll never be 23/With anyone but me,” Sam professes over a summery guitar melody.
“23” is Sam’s first single since “Breaking Up Was Easy in the 90s” topped the country charts earlier this year. He also released an acoustic version of “23,” recorded at Ocean Way studio in Nashville.
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has announced plans for a solo tour of his U.K. homeland this fall.
The 12-date “Who Was I” trek is mapped out from a November 7 show in Birmingham through a December 2 concert in Bournemouth, and will feature Daltrey performing well-known and rare songs from his various solo projects and by The Who, as well as sharing stories about the tunes.
According to a message on TheWho.com, Daltrey’s concerts will offer “a unique mix of music and conversation,” and will encompass “nearly every style imaginable — including blues, rock, country, soul and metal.”
“Throughout my life I have sung with so many great musicians, from the heavy rock of The Who and Wilko Johnson, to the Irish lilt of The Chieftains,” Roger says in a statement. “On this tour I want to take the audience on a musical journey through my career as a singer, with a show of songs and sounds that explores and surprises. I look forward to having closer contact with my audience than festivals and arenas allow. Leaving time to chat.”
He also notes, “It’s important to get our road crew working again, without these guys the halls would go silent.”
Daltrey adds, “It’s also clear that live music is an important part of all our lives, something to free us from the groundhog days that life has become. This pandemic has brought home to me what an important part of me singing is and it’s made me determined to get back onstage asap.”
Earlier this year, Daltrey scheduled a series of solo concerts in the Western U.S. in August and September, but he canceled them in June because of ongoing travel issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Check out Daltrey’s full schedule at TheWho.com. Tickets go on sale Friday.
Rick James‘daughter, Ty James, says there are still plenty more projects in the works about her famous father following the release of Sacha Jenkins‘ new Showtime documentary film, B*tchin: The Sound and Fury of Rick James.
“We have probably over a hundred or so tracks that have not been released and we’re excited to share those too,” James tells ABC Audio. “We just want to make sure the timing is right. I never wanted to do something because he’s gone. And I feel like I see a lot of that happening.”
Ty says for her to release new music from her father, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 56, “it needs to be special.”
“So, we’re actually working on his biopic now and we plan on definitely using some of those tracks for that,” she says of a yet-unannounced feature film. “And also a new EP.”
While a new documentary, a forthcoming biopic and a potential EP with James’ music may feed fans’ appetites, Ty says she’s also working on an official musical production using her father’s songs.
“I just inked the musical stage play,” James reveals. “We’re doing that with [producer] Je’Caryous Johnson. So he’s a good friend of mine. We’ve been pretty much going back and forth for about a year and a half or so. And we just wanted to make sure that everything was right.”
(TEXAS) — Texas’ new abortion ban is notable for several reasons — chief among them how it is enforced.
The statute, which is the most restrictive abortion law in the country, bars physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat — technically the flutter of electrical activity within the cells in an embryo. That can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women even know they’re pregnant. There is an exception under the Texas law for abortions in cases of medical emergencies.
The law — which is enforced civilly, rather than criminally, by members of the public — can potentially have very broad applications and could result in numerous lawsuits over one suspected illegal abortion, experts told ABC News.
Here’s a look at how the law, known as SB 8, might work in practice.
Who can sue, and be sued
Under SB 8, private citizens — including those who live outside of Texas — can sue a person they “reasonably believed” provided an illegal abortion or assisted someone in getting it in the state, up to four years after the act. Government officials are expressly prohibited from enforcing the law.
“This is a very unusual way to enforce abortion prohibitions, or almost anything else,” Seth Chandler, a law foundation professor at the University of Houston Law Center, told ABC News. “We either criminalize the conduct or we give people who are actually injured by the conduct the right to sue.”
SB 8, rather, “gives virtually anyone on the planet the right to sue, regardless of whether they suffered any injury from the abortion,” he said.
Under the law, plaintiffs can file in the county where they reside, if they live in Texas; where the alleged illegal abortion took place; or where any of the defendants live.
Since anyone can sue, there could potentially be a lawsuit filed in all 254 Texas counties against one doctor for the same abortion, Chandler said. The law also prohibits the consolidation of lawsuits or a change of court venue, which could further burden defendants, he said.
However, doctors found in violation of the law would only have to pay damages once if there were multiple lawsuits filed over a single abortion.
“The pro-SB 8 forces can make life completely miserable for the doctor that they believe has performed an unlawful abortion,” Chandler said. “If you lose once then you can make the other cases go away. But in the meantime, you’re going to have to incur potentially large litigation expenses defending yourself against multiple lawsuits.”
Doctors aren’t the only potential defendants; as stated in the law, they could also be anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise.”
That opens it up to any number of defendants, Priscilla Smith, a senior fellow at the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, told ABC News.
“It could be somebody’s mom who gives them a phone number” for an abortion provider, she said. “It could be your best friend who drives you to the clinic. It could be anybody.”
The law further states that a lawsuit can be brought against someone “regardless of whether the person knew or should have known that the abortion would be performed or induced” — a broad interpretation of which experts say could further widen the scope of potential defendants to, for instance, an unwitting ride-share driver. In fact, days after the law went into effect, the CEOs of Uber and Lyft both announced they would cover all legal fees for drivers sued under SB 8 while driving on their platforms.
Determining standing
In federal court, only the injured parties may sue, though “those rules need not apply in state court,” Chandler said. “A state’s constitution could give a broader class of citizens the right to sue.”
There is a debate if Texas law is in fact broader than federal law, he said.
“That’s the initial step — there’s a question as to whether they have standing or not,” he said.
If the case proceeds, a defendant might be able to file a lawsuit in federal court to enjoin proceedings in the state court, Chandler said. Normally federal intervention in state courts is not permitted, but an SB 8 lawsuit could be a strong case for an exception, he said.
The defendants would raise the defense of Roe v. Wade and argue that SB 8 is unconstitutional, and the court would decide if it protects them, Smith said.
Burden of proof
The plaintiff would have to show that a doctor performed an illegal abortion. That could involve the medical records — protected health information under HIPAA — of the person who received the abortion, who wouldn’t be a party in the lawsuit.
There is some precedent in requesting medical records for parties not named in a lawsuit, Kelly Dineen, an associate professor of law and the director of the health law program at Creighton University School of Law, told ABC News. For example, that could arise during a dispute over a non-compete clause, with medical records requested to show proof of a violation, she said.
“HIPAA does provide a couple of ways that that could, in theory, happen,” Dineen said.
In the case of SB 8, one way could be by the court issuing an order to the abortion provider to disclose the information, she said.
“Let’s say that the person bringing the lawsuit says that an abortion was provided on X date to X person — then that could be specified in the court order,” she said.
The information could also be released during discovery, if the woman the health records are about received notice and didn’t raise any objections, or any objections raised were resolved and the court permitted the disclosure, Dineen said.
The health records could also be obtained through a qualified protective order, which has restrictions on how the information is used, she said.
“The HIPAA requirements make it very unlikely that you could just have generalities,” Dineen said. “You’d have to have pretty good information, and then it would be subject to all those protections as well.”
Lawsuits may come from people with personal knowledge of what happened, Chelsey Youman, the Texas director for the pro-life group Human Coalition Action, told Austin ABC affiliate KVUE.
“It could be the unborn child’s father who knows that there was an abortion conducted and he’s sad he lost a child,” she told the station.
Financial impact, and beyond
There are significant financial penalties at stake, should a plaintiff prevail. Each defendant would be subject to paying $10,000, as well as cover the costs and attorney’s fees of the plaintiff.
“The risk to somebody who just wants to help their friend get an abortion is financially huge,” Smith said. “The risk to a provider is also financially huge.”
There are licensure penalties that can apply as well, which could result in providers losing their license, Smith said.
The law also creates a “retroactive liability” should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade within the four-year statute of limitations that someone can sue, according to Charles Silver, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and co-author of “Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care.”
“The history of Republican legislatures has been to eliminate or narrow causes of action,” Silver told ABC News. “But here, the legislature is going in exactly the opposite direction.”
Even if there aren’t any lawsuits filed under SB 8, “the intimidation factor is huge” for medical practitioners, Silver said. “I don’t think we want laws that operate through intimidation, when those laws are themselves unconstitutional.”
Some state lawmakers have already said they will attempt to mimic the near-total abortion ban. Though there could be broader applications if it is successful, law experts said.
“The recipe that SB 8 has developed is not restricted to abortion,” Chandler said. “It can be used for any constitutional rights that people don’t like. And that’s why this bill is so pernicious.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Svokos contributed to this report.
(CHICAGO) — A Black woman said she was walking out of a closed park in Chicago, adhering to police instructions, when a white police officer attempted to tackle her, allegedly unprovoked.
On Aug. 28, Nikkita Brown said the officer drove up to her as she was walking her dog in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago and told her to leave the area immediately.
Brown agreed, but the officer insisted on driving behind her as she walked out of the park, and eventually got out of his vehicle to follow her on foot, she told ABC News in an exclusive interview airing Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
Brown said she consistently told him, “I am leaving” and “I am walking away,” as she actively walked toward the exit.
The officer got out of his car and told her, “You can go to jail,” according to a video taken by Brown who recorded part of the encounter. Brown said he also allegedly told her she would never see her dog again.
Brown said she took her cell phone out to record the altercation and call for help.
“Even if somebody didn’t answer,” she said, she wanted to “at least leave a voicemail and say, ‘if you call me in the morning and you don’t reach me, I’m in jail, or worse.'”
The unmasked officer continued to approach Brown, ignoring her request to stay 6 feet away, videos show.
In one clip, the officer can be heard saying, “I don’t need a mask on, I’m outside,” shortly before attempting to tackle Brown, appearing to restrain her by kicking her legs and knocking her phone out of her hands.
After a 2-minute-long physical altercation during which Brown remained on her feet and screamed for help, Brown and the officer separated and both left the scene without the officer making an arrest.
“I knew if he got me on the floor, I would be dead,” Brown told ABC News.
According to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the group inquiring into the incident, the investigation is ongoing.
“We have a responsibility to investigate allegations of police misconduct and determine if they are well founded based on the facts and evidence of each case,” interim COPA chief Andrea Kersten said in a statement. “If violations did occur, COPA will hold the officer accountable.”
A Chicago Police Department spokesperson told ABC News that “the officer in question has been placed on desk duty as the COPA investigates the video.”
Brown said there were others in the area that night, and she felt profiled because of her race.
“I walked past four kids that were behind me… white males. As soon as I saw the car pull up, I looked behind me to see if he said anything to the kids. He didn’t,” Brown said.
At a press conference on Aug. 30, the CPD Superintendent David O. Brown said the investigation into the incident was opened in the Bureau of Internal Affairs and had since been transferred to the COPA.
If COPA determines that the officer violated a policy, a disciplinary recommendation will be forwarded to David O. Brown, at which point he is given the choice to agree or disagree with COPA’s recommendation, the superintendent said during the press conference. If he disagrees with COPA, the incident goes to the Chicago Police Board for adjudication.
The officer has not been identified yet due to privacy reasons, a COPA spokesperson said. Brown’s attorney, Keenan Saulter, is requesting the identity of the officer be released in order to file a formal complaint against him.
“There were other individuals in the park that night. So we still have to come back around to the question of ‘why her?'” Saulter said. “The worst scenario would have been that he writes her a ticket for being in the park after 11:00 p.m.”
The officer has allegedly been involved in previous cases of racial profiling, Saulter said, and should be fired from the force.
Now, Brown said she feels anxious leaving the house.
“If anything, I should feel even more protected by a police presence as a single woman walking at night, not be fearful that I’m going to die at the hands of an officer,” Brown said.
(NEW YORK) — The last memory Scott Larsen has of his late father is eating breakfast together on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
He was only 4 years old when his dad, a New York City firefighter, left home for what would be the last time.
Joshua Powell, another son of a New York City firefighter who was in carnage of the 9/11 terror attacks, said he used to eat Cap’n Crunch with his father every morning.
Florence Amoako was eight months pregnant with her second child when she said goodbye to her husband as he went to work at the World Trade Center that day. Paulina Cardona, Katy Soulas and Lisa Reina were also pregnant at the time. Their husbands never made it home.
Over the past 20 years, ABC News has periodically gathered with this group of women who were pregnant when they lost their partners in the terror attacks. Their children, born after the attacks, grew up without meeting their fathers.
Our most recent gathering took place in late June of this year, where this group shared their perspectives on loss, grief and resilience.
Joshua Powell was 5 years old when his father, New York City firefighter Shawn Powell, was killed in the terror attacks.
“Although I was a kid, you realize one day, he’s not coming back, and sometimes when I was in class, I used to just look over at the door and in my head just imagine him walking through, and coming to pick me up to take me home. And nothing had happened, as if everything was OK,” Powell told ABC News.
Now at 25, Joshua Powell says he’s trying to make his father proud.
”I wanted to follow in his footsteps… I wanted to face danger fearlessly,” he said.
Powell said he didn’t become a firefighter because his mother was afraid to lose him the way she lost his dad. He has decided to pursue a career in medicine instead.
“Being a doctor, for me, or even being a surgeon, would be that same thing: running into the burning building. Running toward something that people are running away from,” he said. “Like when this pandemic happened, a lot of people were running away, but there were many people who ran toward it. I think that’s what I want to do.”
How nervous was Camila Cabello before her first date with Shawn Mendes? So nervous that she had to get drunk and sing a special song to build up her courage.
Camila appeared in the “Carpool Karaoke” segment of The Late Late Show with James Corden Wednesday night with her Cinderella co-stars Idina Menzel and Billy Porter, and revealed that “in preparation for dates” and “for life,” she would sing “Defying Gravity,” Idina’s big number from the Broadway show Wicked.
“I swear, before Shawn and I’s first date, I was so nervous, I took two tequila shots and sang ‘Defying Gravity’ over and over,” Camila admitted. Explaining that while she and Shawn were friends at the time, they weren’t “together,” and there were a lot of “stakes” — including when they’d have their first kiss.
“So he’s about to come over and I’m, like, so nervous I just can’t take it,” Camila continued. “My dad is there and I’m like, ‘Pour me two tequila shots — just do it!’ and I sang ‘Defying Gravity!'”
Of course, James, Billy, Idina and Camila then burst into a rendition of the song, as the audience cheered wildly.
“Oh my God, if Shawn Mendes knew the second he walked in the door that that was happening….” James began.
“…He’d be terrified!” replied Camila.
Things seem to have worked out O.K. for the couple, though: They’ve been together for more than two years.
ABC/Eric McCandless / Disney Channel/Image Group LA
Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood shine in spite of heartbreak in the video for “If I Didn’t Love You.”
The visual follows Jason as he sits alone in an empty house, the remaining items covered in white sheets to hide the memories of a past love. Meanwhile, his duet partner finds him singing inside the lavish Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, where the two belt out the song onstage between clips of Jason bringing some music back into the house again, letting out his emotions as he plays the piano.
“Carrie was made for this song, but also for this video,” Jason says in a statement. “I’m glad that she was down to get together to make it. It’s something that turned out a little outside of what I’d normally do, which is always cool.”
“If I Didn’t Love You” is racing up the charts, currently inside the top 10 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and the top 15 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
As promised, Warner Bros. today dropped the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, and for fans of the original film, it looks like a mind-bending return to form, after the divisive final two Matrix movies.
Set to Jefferson Airplane‘s “White Rabbit” — itself a nod to the 1999 original — the film sees Keanu Reeves‘ Thomas “Neo” Anderson back inside the simulation, but knowing something’s off.
In a therapy session with Neil Patrick Harris, he laments having “dreams that weren’t just dreams.”
“Am I crazy?” Reeves asks.
“We don’t use that word here,” the therapist replies.
Reflecting the technology difference between our world in which the original film debuted, this trailer shows mankind pacified by their cellphones, while Reeves’ character is kept in check by handfuls of prescription blue pills.
But when he meets Carrie Ann Moss‘ character, Trinity, at a coffee shop, his doubts are confirmed.
“Have we met?” his former Matrix love interest asks him, as their hands touch.
As he did in the first movie, Anderson follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole and embraces his inner Neo, thanks to the as-yet unnamed character played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who’s clearly a take on Laurence Fishburne‘s Morpheus.
As before, it’s this guide who offers Anderson the red pill, which shows him the real world inside the machine-created simulation and who helps Neo re-awaken his power.
“Time to fly,” he tells Neo.
The trailer gives glimpses of the over-the-top action the first film pioneered, with physics-defying martial arts and gunplay enhanced by today’s cutting-edge CGI.
The film, which also stars returning Matrix co-star Jada Pinkett Smith, features series newcomers Jessica Henwick from Iron Fist, Christina Ricci, Mindhunters‘ Jonathan Groff, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
Directed by Lana Wachowski, The Matrix Resurrections opens December 22.
