Rob Thomas, Alessia Cara and Norah Jones are among the artists who’ll help ring in the holidays this year on NBC’s annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special.
Rob and Norah both have new Christmas albums out this year, while Alessia released a Christmas EP last year and has a new version of “Jingle Bell Rock” out this year via Amazon Originals. One of Rod’s Rockefeller Center performances will be a duet with country star Brad Paisley, singing “Santa Don’t Come Here Anymore,” their duet from Rod’s album Something About Christmas Time.
Other artists who’ll be making the show merry and bright include Harry Connick Jr. and country stars Carrie Underwood and Mickey Guyton.
Christmas in Rockefeller Center will also include the annual lighting of New York City’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which this year is a 79-foot tall Norway Spruce from Maryland that weighs about 12 tons. It’ll be decked out with more than 50,000 multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lights and topped with a Swarovski star.
The two-hour special will air on NBC on December 1 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will stream live on Peacock. During the broadcast, viewers will have the opportunity to donate to Red Nose Day to help with homelessness, food insecurity and learning loss among children and families who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carrie Underwood, Mickey Guyton and Brad Paisley are all representing the country genre at this year’s Christmas in Rockefeller broadcast. They’re joining a dazzling all-genre lineup that will also include performances from acts including Norah Jones and Alessia Cara.
Brad will take the stage for a duet with rocker Rob Thomas, the Matchbox Twenty frontman who has also toured with country upstart Abby Anderson.
It isn’t yet clear what Mickey and Carrie will be performing during the event, though Carrie has recent experience with a number of holiday songs. Her Christmas album, My Gift, came out in 2020, and this year, she followed it up with the light-hearted and festive “Stretchy Pants.”
“Christmas in Rockefeller” will kick off the annual tree lighting ceremony, which takes place in New York City at Rockefeller Plaza. This year, the tree will be a 79-foot tall Norway Spruce weighing about 12 tons, decked out with multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lights and topped with a Swarovski star.
The two-hour special will air on NBC on December 1 at 8 p.m. ET. During the broadcast, viewers will have the opportunity to donate to Red Nose Day in support of children and families who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with homelessness, food insecurity and lack of access to education.
Emotions were flying high, and so did some chairs, when Lil Nas X took over the Mauryshow on Wednesday. The parody episode served as a “what if” continuation of the singer’s “That’s What I Want” music video, where he falls in love with his football teammate — only to discover the love of his life is married to a woman.
Lil Nas X, going by his birth name Montero Hill in the episode, told the show host he “felt like a fool” for catching feelings for the lying Yai and attests he never knew his lover was married to a woman named Ashley and had a son.
But, true to Maury‘s salacious formula, Lil Nas X believes that Yai is not the child’s father and demands a paternity test — in addition to confronting Ashley about her husband’s double life.
The episode has it all: Ashley’s mental breakdown after learning of her husband’s infidelity, Lil Nas X playing the role of the jealous ex, tantrums, tears, explosive DNA test results, and…a proposal.
Maury reveals Yai “is not the father” of four-year-old Noah and further vindicates Lil Nas X with a lie detector test, which finds that Yai was telling the truth that he had fallen in love with the Grammy winner.
But just as Yai gets down on one knee and proposes, Maury reveals that the lie detector also found he had been unfaithful to Lil Nas X and Ashley, apparently sleeping with “10 different people.”
The episode ends with Lil Nas X running out of the studio and breaking things off with Yai before dashing down the city streets as “Thats What I Want” booms in the background.
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Travis McMichael returned to the witness stand on Thursday and under cross-examination from the prosecutor repeated that Ahmaud Arbery never verbally threatened him or brandished a weapon during the five minutes he, his father and their neighbor chased Arbery before McMichael fatally shot him.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski attempted to undermind the 35-year-old McMichael’s credibility by getting him to concede to inconsistencies between what he told police the day of the shooting and what he told the Brunswick, Georgia, jury during his direct testimony on Wednesday.
“Not once in your statement to police did you say that you and your father were trying to arrest Mr. Arbery?” Dunikoski asked after inquiring about the defendant’s training on probable cause during his time in the Coast Guard.
Travis McMichael acknowledged that in none of his statements did he tell police that he and his father were attempting to make a citizens’ arrest of Arbery. He also conceded that he had suspected another individual of stealing a pistol from his truck on Jan. 1, 2020, and that he had also surmised that person, not Arbery, was the one responsible for a spike in crime in his Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.
Dunikoski grilled Travis McMichael on why he suspected Arbery of burglarizing a home under construction on the day of the killing, writing on a flipchart a series of assumptions and statements in which he said “maybe” a neighbor had seen him in the unfinished home, “maybe” he had broken in, “maybe” he was running from a crime, “maybe” Arbery had been caught in the act.
Travis McMichael testified that he based his suspicions on a totality of circumstances, including a brief encounter at the construction site in his neighborhood he had on Feb. 11, 2020, with a man that turned out to be Arbery, whom he thought was armed because he reached into his pants.
Travis McMichael, his 65-year-old father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
Complaint about Rev. Jesse Jackson
During Travis McMichael’s testimony on Thursday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the courtroom gallery with Arbery’s parents, raising the latest of several recent objections from Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, that the presence of prominent Black ministers in the court was an attempt to intimidate the jury.
Judge Walmsley said he has already ruled twice on Gough’s motions to bar the Black ministers from the courtroom, finding that they have not been disruptive to the proceedings.
In an apparent reaction to Gough’s complaints, hundreds of Black ministers held a prayer vigil outside the courthouse on Thursday as the trial was going on.
The chase
Dunikoski directed Travis McMichael’s attention to the pursuit of Arbery that he and his father, Gregory McMichael, initiated after his dad saw Arbery running past their home on Feb. 23, 2020, causing them both to grab their guns.
During his direct testimony on Wednesday, Travis McMichael testified that he walked out of his house with his shotgun and saw a neighbor pointing in his direction as if signaling where he saw the young Black man running.
Travis McMichael testified on Thursday that at no time did he go and speak to the neighbor about what had occurred before he and his father jumped in his truck with their guns and set out after Arbery.
He testified that he drove close enough to Arbery on three separate occasions to ask him to stop running so he could speak to him, but in each instance, Arbery kept running, never said a word to him and altered his course in an apparent attempt to get away from the McMichaels.
“When you first see him, he’s not reaching into his pockets?” Dunikoski asked.
Travis McMichael answered, “No, ma’am.”
Dunikoski continued her line of questioning, saying, “And he never yelled at you guys, never threatened you at all?”
Travis McMichael responded, “Did not threaten me verbally.”
He agreed that Abery never brandished a knife, gun, or had anything in his hands at any time during the pursuit, testifying, “He was just running.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House could vote as soon as Thursday evening on the second piece of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure improvement agenda — the largest expansion of the nation’s social safety net in 50 years — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
As Democrats barrel ahead towards a vote, with the chamber already starting debate on the “Build Back Better Act” Thursday morning, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would release its final estimate on the cost of the total package in the afternoon.
Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference that the outstanding information would “hopefully” be released by 5 p.m., clearing the way for a vote on final passage later in the evening. Democratic moderates had promised progressives they would commit to voting for the social spending bill the week of Nov. 15 if the CBO provided more “fiscal information” to satisfy their cost concerns.
The social spending bill contains $555 billion for climate and clean energy investments. It would reduce the cost of some prescription drugs, extend the child tax credit, expand universal preschool and includes electric-vehicle tax credits, paid leave, housing assistance and dozens more progressive priorities.
The vote on the package could be pushed to Friday so to give lawmakers more time to review the cost estimates, but Pelosi presented a timeline that could send House lawmakers home to their Thanksgiving recess as scheduled.
“As soon as we get the scrub information we can proceed with our manager’s amendment to proceed to a vote on the new rules, the manager’s amendment, reflecting the scrub, not any policy changes, but just some technicalities about committee jurisdiction, etc.,” she said. “And then we will vote on the rule and then on the bill. Those votes hopefully will take place later this afternoon.”
The House vote would then send the package to the Senate, which is expected to amend the proposal in the coming weeks after the Thanksgiving recess as Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have not committed to the package in its current form.
Since Democrats plan to pass the measure through reconciliation, a lengthy budget process that would not require them to have any Republican support since Democrats have a narrow majority in both chambers, the legislation — months in the making — still has a long way to go, including back to the House, before it would even hit Biden’s desk.
Pelosi expressed confidence that with control of Congress hanging in the balance ahead of the midterm elections less than a year away, Democrats will be able to successfully sell their work to the American people — and do so more effectively than they did in 2010 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, due, in part, to Biden using the “bully pulpit.”
“Joe Biden is very committed to messaging this. As you’ve seen he’s already on the road,” she said. “There’s no substitute for the bully pulpit of the president of the United States reinforced by the events we will have across the United States.”
Democratic members of Congress are also planning to hold 1,000 events before the end of the year to make clear to Americans “what we’re doing in this package,” according to the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, speaking to part one of Biden’s policy agenda on infrastructure signed into law on Monday.
“The messaging on it will be immediate, and it will be intense, and it will be eloquent, and it will make a difference,” Pelosi said.
Giving remarks in Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Biden also endorsed Pelosi’s timeline to pass part two of his infrastructure agenda this week.
“I’m confident that the House is going to pass this bill. And when it passes, it will go to the Senate,” Biden said. “I think we’ll get it passed within a week.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in his quest to become the House speaker, blasted Pelosi at his press conference and said the reconciliation bill will “be the end of their Democratic majority.”
While the already-passed bipartisan infrastructure law itself and its individual components — rebuilding and repairing bridges, ports and roads, expanding broadband internet, and more — are widely popular, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Americans aren’t giving Biden credit for championing the law and getting it through Congress. The president’s approval rating is at an all-time low at 41%.
Democratic leaders and the White House continue to insist both pieces of legislation will be fully paid for, in part by imposing a 15% minimum tax on corporate profits that large corporations report to shareholders.
Pelosi on Thursday also tried to defend Democrats’ “Build Back Better” proposal from criticism over a key tax provision that has angered some in the caucus. Some moderates and leading progressives have criticized plans to undo a cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deductions — a reversal of Republicans’ 2017 tax law — popular in California, New York and New Jersey, given that the change would benefit wealthy suburban property owners.
The change would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $80,000 in state and local taxes from their federal tax returns after Republicans imposed a $10,000 cap on federal deductions four years ago.
A recent analysis from the Toxic Policy Center found the SALT cap increase would primarily benefit the top 10% of income-earning Americans. About 70% of the tax benefit would go to the top 5% of earners, who make $366,000 a year or more, the analysis said.
“That’s not about tax cuts for wealthy people. It’s about services for the American people,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t about who gets a tax cut, it’s about which states get the revenue they need to help the American people.”
ABC News’ Trish Turner and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — One of the men convicted in connection with the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X appeared in court Thursday where a judge cleared his name.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance moved to throw out the convictions of Muhammad Aziz, 83, and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, based on “newly discovered evidence and the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence,” according to a joint motion Vance’s office filed with the defense.
“We are moving today to vacate the convictions and dismiss the indictments,” Vance said. “I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust.”
Aziz, previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan, who served 45 years in prison, had long said neither man participated in killing the fiery civil rights leader.
Vance said that certain witnesses, acting under orders from then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, were ordered not to reveal they were FBI informants.
“Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongly convicted of this crime,” Vance said.
Aziz sat at the defense table wearing a white mask next to his attorney, David Shanies, who called Aziz and Islam “innocent young Black men” and accused the New York Police Department and the FBI of covering up evidence.
“Most of the men who murdered Malcolm X never faced justice,” Shanies said.
Aziz read from a statement in court, saying, “The events that led to my conviction and wrongful imprisonment should never have happened. Those events were the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar — even in 2021.”
“While I do not need a court, prosecutors, or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, I am glad that my family, my friends, and the attorneys who have worked and supported me all these years are finally seeing the truth we have all known officially recognized,” he continued.
The exoneration resulted from a nearly two-year investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Innocence Project that uncovered FBI documents that revealed a description of the killers that did not match Aziz or Islam, an admission that the only witnesses who fingered Aziz and Islam were FBI informants and a report that said sources reviewed photos of Islam and failed to place him in the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.
“In short, it is unknown whether the identification procedures used in this case were properly conducted,” the motion to vacate said.
The district attorney’s office stopped short of proclaiming the actual innocence of Aziz and Islam, citing the deaths of witnesses, co-conspirators and police officers, the missing identification and physical and other evidence.
Underoath frontman Spencer Chamberlain has released the first single with slo/tide, his newly launched solo project.
The track, titled “Neck High,” is available now for digital download. Recorded with the alternative band Sir Sly, “Neck High” sounds very much not like Underoath, and that isn’t an accident.
“I’ve been writing music since I was a kid, and 9 times out of 10 it’s not the heavy music the world knows of me with Underoath,” Chamberlain says, adding that slo/tide is meant to show “how the other side of my brain works.”
“In [‘Neck High’] I’m singing to myself in a hopeful tone about how no matter how bad things seem, I’ve always found a way to swim through it — a theme that seems even more poignant now,” he says.
You can look forward to more slo/tide music in the future, along with the forthcoming Underoath album Voyeurist, due out January 14. For an advance preview of the record, be sure to tune in to Underoath’s upcoming streaming concert premiering December 3, during which they’ll be playing Voyeurist in full.
John Phillips/Getty Images for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Universal Pictures
Lady Gaga sees no harm in singing in movies. Then again, she won an Oscar for doing exactly that in A Star Is Born. So when a disgruntled movie fan shared his thoughts on the matter, Gaga respectfully disagreed.
Gaga was doing a bit with BBC Radio 1, where listeners are invited to call in and share their unpopular opinions. She saw both sides of the movie musical argument.
“I do love singing in movies,” Gaga admitted, “and also I think it’s done really badly a lot, so I don’t completely disagree with you so I have a slightly unpopular opinion, I guess.”
However, the gloves came off when the caller came for Mary Poppins and said he cringes when a character starts singing because it makes them look weak and stupid.
“How could you be mean to Mary Poppins?” Gaga exclaimed, before joking that Emily Blunt, who most recently played the magical nanny in Mary Poppins Returns, will “pay for some therapy for you and your traumatic experience with singing in movies.”
Gaga added she will “take note” of the caller’s grievances and sarcastically promised to “never take another film with singing, as I would not want to traumatize you further.”
It was all in good fun, though. After sharing some good-natured jabs, the caller gave Gaga his blessing to continue to sing in movies because of her talent.
Cole Swindell taps Lainey Wilson for a fiery new duet, “Never Say Never,” which chronicles the kind of love story that keeps you coming back for more. Cole wrote the song in 2018 alongside mainstay Nashville songwriters Jessi Alexander and Chase McGill.
“I am so excited to release ‘Never Say Never,’” Cole explains. “…I have been a fan of Lainey Wilson’s for a while now and what she brings to this song is everything it needed. So glad it’s finally out!”
Lainey’s just as excited as Cole is to share the song with fans, especially on the heels of her first-ever number-one song, “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
“It makes the journey that much more special that I get to share it with a friend this time around — I’m looking forward to playing it for y’all and I’m sure Cole is too!” Lainey adds.
Cole’s on a winning streak at country radio, too. Prior to releasing “Never Say Never,” he had two back-to-back chart-toppers with 2018’s “Love You Too Late” and 2020’s “Single Saturday Night.”
Lizzo is one of three women appearing on the split cover of Essence‘s November/December The Year of Radical Self-Care issue. The “Truth Hurts” rapper/singer is joined by Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and “1619 Project” founder Nikole Hannah-Jones.
“There’s an ebb and flow in the Black experience. I find myself somewhere between blissful forgetfulness and painful remembrance everyday,” Lizzo commented on Instagram about her Essence cover story, which is titled “Simply Being.”
She adds, “I take it in stride. It’s heavy right now, I’ve felt it for weeks. I am protective and prayerful these days. So here I am again, so excited to be the @essence holiday cover star!”
Also in her Instagram message, the three-time Grammy winner asked her supporters to demand that today’s scheduled execution of Julius Jones in Oklahoma be stopped. Her wish was granted, as Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt commuted Jones’ death sentence for a 1999 murder that Jones insists he did not commit, as reported by ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV.
“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a statement.
Kim Kardashian and J. Cole are among the other celebrities who have been involved in the #justiceforjulius campaign.
