Following Daniel Craig‘s final outing as James Bond in the film No Time to Die, several names — including Idris Elba, Tom Hardy and Regé-Jean Page — have been tossed around as possible replacements. Now Dwayne Johnson is throwing his name in the hat.
Johnson told Esquire that he already has a connection to the franchise, noting that his grandfather, Peter Maivia, played a Bond villain in 1967’s You Only Live Twice, alongside Sean Connery.
However, the Red Notice star is setting his sights a little higher, declaring, “I don’t want to be a villain. Gotta be Bond.”
While The Rock is enjoying the fact that Red Notice just had Netflix’s biggest weekend opening ever, he’s not resting on his laurels. He’s got a number of film projects already in the works: He just wrapped the upcoming superhero film Black Adam, due out next summer, and his upcoming projects include The King and San Andreas 2.
(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” Co-Anchor George Stephanopoulos, Vice President Kamala Harris defended her job performance, insisting she and President Joe Biden have been able to deliver for the American people.
“Vice presidents always face chatter about their role and their relevance. You’re no exception to that. Even your close friends and allies like the lieutenant governor of California, Eleni Kounalakis, have expressed some frustration because they think you can be more helpful than you’ve been asked to be. Do you share that frustration? What do you say to your friends who are frustrated?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“This was a good week, and this week, when we got this Bipartisan Infrastructure Act passed and signed by the president, makes a statement about all of the hard work that has gone into it, month after month after month. I’ve traveled around the country, as has the president,” Harris answered. “We have convened members of Congress, we have convened people around our nation, asking, ‘what do you want?’ And this is a response to what they want. And it’s actually going to hit the ground in a way that is going to have direct impact on the American people. We’re getting things done, and we’re doing it together.”
“So, you don’t feel misused or underused?” Stephanopoulos followed up.
“No,” Harris said. “I don’t. I’m very, very excited about the work that we have accomplished. But I am also absolutely, absolutely clear-eyed that there is a lot more to do, and we’re gonna get it done.”
Harris’ defense comes in the wake of a CNN report that alleges the West Wing has grown frustrated with Harris and her staff, describing dysfunction within her office and frustration with her lack of visibility with the American people.
Her chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders, pushed back on the depiction of Harris in the report, saying in a statement, “It is unfortunate that … some in the media are focused on gossip — not on the results that the President and the Vice President have delivered.” Harris’s team members echoed solidarity with their boss, saying they were “honored” and “proud” to work for her.
The negative report comes as the White House is eager to tout passage of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending package. Harris was front and center at Biden’s signing ceremony for the bill Monday, introducing the president and standing over his shoulder as he signed the bill into law.
But even as the White House celebrates that victory, Americans continue to feel the effects of the steepest rise in inflation in 30 years.
“It’s real. And it’s, it’s rough. Groceries — the cost of groceries — has gone up, the cost of gas has gone up. And, as this is all happening, in the context of two years of a pandemic. Over 700,000 lives lost much less the loss of livelihoods and, and a sense of normalcy. So, it’s a lot. And it’s one of the highest priorities actually, for the president and for me,” Harris said of the challenge inflation poses.
“Essentially what we need to do is, we need to bring down the cost of living and so we’re dealing with this issue in a number of ways,” she said. “The short-term issue, and the long-term issue.”
“We passed this week, the infrastructure bill, bipartisan infrastructure bill, and that’s going to be about repairing roads and bridges and bringing internet and high speed internet to all families. But also we need to deal with the cost of child care, the cost of prescription drugs, the cost of housing, and that’s what we intend to do when we get the Build Back Better agenda passed,” Harris said, referring to Biden’s next major priority — the $1.75 trillion social spending package.
“I know you hope to get that passed, but as you know, several people including Senator Manchin, who could be the key vote on Build Back Better, believe that the bill is actually going to make inflation worse,” Stephanopoulos said. “That’s why they’re holding back.”
Harris responded, “So, here’s the thing, talk tot 17 Nobel laureates who are economists, who actually have studied the issue and have indicated that we’re not looking at a contribution to inflation, but actually we’re going to bring prices down. In fact, today Moody’s and a number of others have said, listen, when you look at the numbers, the whole point about inflation and why it hurts us is because prices go up. With the Build Back Better agenda, it’s gonna bring the cost down, again, cost of child care, elder care, housing. These are very critical issues for American families, who have to make very difficult choices about whether they can afford to pay for child care, or prescription drugs, or, or pay the rent. So, that’s what we’re going to actually accomplish, accomplish with this, is to bring the prices down.”
While Harris has been involved in negotiations on the spending packages, making phone calls to lawmakers and hosting groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, she has also lately been bolstering her credentials on the world stage, traveling last week to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron and participate in multiple international conferences. The trip abroad was her third as vice president, after a trip to Asia overshadowed by the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and a thorny trip to Guatemala and Mexico to discuss the root causes of migration.
Addressing historic levels of illegal border crossings, Harris told Stephanopoulos it will not be a quick fix.
“It’s not going to be overnight. We can’t just flip a switch and make it better,” she said. “The reality is that we inherited a system, an immigration system that was deeply broken, and it’s requiring us to actually put it back together in terms of creating a fair, um, process that is effective and efficient.”
Stephanopoulos asked Harris about reports the Department of Justice was weighing making payments of as much as $450,000 to migrant families forcibly separated at the southern border under a Trump administration policy. Biden has indicated the payments won’t be that large, but that he does support payments to the families in general.
“Is there going to be compensation? How much is it going to be?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Well, as you know, there’s, there’s apparently some litigation around that, and that will be resolved in court,” Harris said.
“So, but, but the White House is open to it?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“Well, the, usually courts rule on that kind of thing,” Harris demurred.
Stephanopoulos asked Harris whether Biden has told her whether he’s going to seek reelection in 2024. Harris maintained that she and Biden are focused on infrastructure, national security and other priorities.
“So, you’re not discussing 2024 yet?” Stephanopoulos asked.
(WASHINGTON) — Reeling from Republican wins in elections earlier this month, Democrats are pounding the pavement ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
But President Joe Biden’s success passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill is bumping up against the facts that the country’s inflation rate has reached a 30-year high and Americans increasingly feel the economy is in trouble.
A new ABC News / Washington Post poll found that 70% say the economy is in bad shape, a 12-point increase since last spring. More than half of those polled — 55% — disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy while 39% say they approve. But that approval number has plummeted six points since September and 13 points since the spring.
While only 50% blame Biden directly for inflation — which has now reached a 6.2% increase compared with the same period last year, 3% of Democrats say the economy is excellent, 47% say it’s good, 35% say it’s not so good and 14% say it’s poor.
In a series of ABC News follow-up interviews with poll respondents who were Biden voters but expressed disappointment with the state of the economy, people expressed a range of views about what they think went wrong and who is to blame.
Judith Steele, a registered Democrat from California, told ABC News she feels the Biden administration did a bad job in preparing for economic woes faced by certain Americans.
“His administration has been behind the curve in anticipating how bad this was going to get for lower- and middle-class families — that they tend to take a ‘wait and see approach,’ or, ‘this is going to pass,’ and then it’s too late,” Steele, who plans to switch her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, said in an interview.
Steele assigns some of the blame for the poorly-performing economy to legislative squabbles in Congress.
“They should have gotten the infrastructure bill done months ago. They had the votes to do it. But they had to push. I do like the second bill, but they should have gotten the first one passed and signed, and started putting people back to work at decent union jobs,” she said. “I don’t know what they’re ever going to get done with this. And they’re always consumed with investigations and committee work and not getting anything done.”
Although Biden’s overall approval rating reached a new low (41%) in a new ABC/ Washington Post poll, his legislative plans have majority approval among respondents, with 63% support for the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress and 58% support for the now nearly $2 trillion social spending bill still under debate.
The White House is set to launch a nationwide tour to continue pitching Biden’s plans to voters and Democrats are rolling out 1,000 events before the end of the year to promote the Biden agenda.
Still, disapproval of Biden on the economy is six points higher than former President Donald Trump’s highest disapproval rating on the same issue, which came in September 2017, nearly the same amount of time into his presidency as Biden is now. In November 2018, Republicans relinquished control of the House, with 68% of the country overall saying in exit polls they felt the economy was in good shape.
Steele isn’t the only Democrat who supported Biden but doesn’t feel good about the economy. Norman Hall, an 82-year-old Pennsylvania voter who has been a Democrat since he was 21, is trying to stretch his social security checks and doesn’t think Biden is doing enough to address the issue.
“All them prices went up, my check disappeared real quick, my social security check. It’s usually around hundred-and-some dollars a month when I buy groceries. It was $217 for almost the same thing I buy all the time,” said Hall, who voted for Biden last year. “I have to cut down. I have to quit spending.”
“I don’t know who’s to blame for it, but he’s not doing anything to help it,” he added of Biden.
Hall said he plans to vote for Republicans on his midterm ballot unless he sees Democrats “do things differently.”
The ABC News / Washington Post poll found that if the midterm elections were held today, 51% of registered voters say they’d support the Republican candidate in their congressional district, 41% say the Democrat. That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981.
Tiffany Woods, a community health care worker from St. Louis, told ABC News she typically votes for Democrats and was excited to cast her ballot for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Since then, though, Cross said she hasn’t been impressed with Biden’s accomplishments in Congress and is seeing the economic effects of the pandemic continue to take a toll in her community.
Woods pointed to heightened utilization of her local food banks as her friends and family struggle to make ends meet with inflation and unchanged qualifications for government assistance programs.
“While these qualifications are not changing, the price of products are going up, and people can’t afford it,” she said. “People are depending a lot more on our food banks now. Now they need it for themselves.”
Woods lives in progressive Democrat Rep. Cori Bush’s Missouri district. She said if Biden and Harris are on the ticket again in 2024, she doesn’t think she’ll cast a ballot for them, but she does plan to vote next year for Bush, who fought into the summer to extend eviction moratoriums put in place due to the pandemic.
“I really do think that I will continue to vote Democrat because of people like her, who I do think are doing a wonderful job. I just don’t think that I would just vote for Biden, Kamala,” she said.
Margaret Johnson, a retiree in Georgia, was a lifelong Republican before Trump entered the party. She broke her dedication to the GOP in 2020 — casting ballots for Biden and both Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — but she regrets her decision.
“I went against my Republican instincts and voted for Biden, which I’m very sorry with. If I had to do it over again. I wouldn’t vote for either one of them. I would have just stayed out of it,” she said. “Everybody I know is having to pinch pennies. To me, more and more people are using less and less … But it’s not just groceries. It’s everything.”
Johnson said that despite her discontent with the GOP, she doesn’t think she’ll cast a ballot for a Democrat again, including for Warnock when he is up for reelection next year.
“I don’t think I would ever vote Democrat again. I really don’t think I would,” Johnson said.
ABC News’ Danielle DuClos contributed to this report.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — COVID-19 cases in New Mexico are “trending in a worrisome direction,” health officials said this week, as they called on residents to get vaccinated amid the surge.
New Mexico reported 1,530 new cases and 539 hospitalizations Wednesday, rivaling numbers last seen in December and January, during the state’s last COVID-19 wave.
“Things are not going well in our hospitals,” Dr. David Scrase, acting cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, said during a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, noting the state is “facing some very serious problems,” including with intensive care unit capacity.
“Last week, we had only eight ICU beds, now we’re up to 10 — still nowhere near enough ICU beds,” he said. “What this does mean is someone having a heart attack right now may or may not have access to ICU care in New Mexico, and frankly, as cases start rising again in other states, we may not find a bed there.”
Six hospitals across the state have activated crisis standards of care in recent weeks, including the University of New Mexico Health System’s and Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ Albuquerque metro hospitals, as they are being stretched to the limit in terms of space and staffing due to increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and a high volume of patients with acute conditions, officials said.
The decision means that nonessential medical procedures could be delayed by up to 90 days, and patients may need to get treated at different regional hospitals, or possibly out of state, hospital officials said.
Given the high risk for exposure and rising hospitalizations, New Mexico was one of the first in a growing number of states to urge all fully vaccinated adults to get boosters once they meet the six- or two-month thresholds, ahead of federal authorization.
“I want folks to get their boosters,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during the briefing. “Until we get to that 80, 85, 90% of individuals who are eligible for a booster, we are going to see these risks where we have breakthrough infections.”
Over 21% of fully vaccinated residents have gotten a booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials have cited waning immunity among fully vaccinated residents as one of the factors fueling the surge in COVID-19 cases, along with transmission of the highly contagious delta variant, increased tourism to the region and colder weather driving people indoors.
Amid the surge, health officials are also focused on getting shots to people who have yet to get a first dose. Unvaccinated residents remain a major driver of transmission and make up the bulk of hospitalizations, with over 71% of new COVID-19 cases and nearly 80% of hospitalizations reported from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 in unvaccinated people, according to state data.
“Full vaccination is still New Mexico’s first priority,” Dr. Laura Parajón, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health, said during the briefing. “If you look at the whole of New Mexico, the whole population, 61.4% of all New Mexicans are vaccinated. However, we are having a surge, because 38.6% of people still remain unvaccinated.”
COVID-19 cases across New Mexico are currently “trending in a worrisome direction,” according to Dr. Christine Ross, the state epidemiologist, with the positivity rate at about 12.5%.
“What this means to us is there’s a very high burden of disease in our communities,” she said during the briefing, noting that transmission among school-aged children in particular is “very concerning.”
Over 25% of COVID-19 infections in the past week in New Mexico were pediatric cases, according to Ross. With children ages 5 to 11 newly eligible to get vaccinated, health officials urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
“We know that children are at low risk for serious outcomes, but they are not at zero risk,” Ross said. “These vaccines are safe and highly effective. This is the best tool to protect your kids and to prevent onward transmission of the virus and to help us end the pandemic.”
Scrase said he is excited by the prospect of outpatient oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, such as molnupiravir, though they’re not available yet.
For now, he urged people to continue to follow measures like social distancing and mask-wearing. New Mexico is one of a handful of states that still have mask mandates in effect. The state’s health department extended an order requiring masks while in indoor public settings through Dec. 10, due to the significant COVID-19 case counts and strained hospital capacity.
Scrase also warned against unproven treatments for COVID-19, noting that New Mexico saw a third death since August from ivermectin, an anti-parasite medicine that is not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. The man took 150 milligrams of a horse formulation of ivermectin and suffered from liver and kidney failure, according to Scrase.
Health officials said they’re continuing to work with community health workers and local organizations to combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.
“We’re really trying to meet people where they’re at,” Parajón said.
(PAUMA VALLEY, Calif.) — The key to helping curb greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry may be hidden just beneath the surface.
While in the past century farming has transformed to be faster and on a larger scale, the newfound efficiency came at a cost to the environment. Farmers extracted more nutrients from the soil than what was being replaced, and the fertilizers used to aid crop growth are responsible for one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from global agriculture industry, according to experts.
In the U.S. alone, the use of nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for about 195 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, comparable to the emissions of 41 million passenger vehicles per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Some farmers believe the solution to making the agriculture industry more environmental-friendly lies in revitalizing the soil in which they grow crops, rather than traditional methods, such as fertilizer and conventional tilling.
One of the ways to do this is the no-till method, an old practice where the soil structure is not disturbed, experts and officials say. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, continuous no-till practices can save money, improve soil health and conserve resources such as fuel and labor investments. Practicing no-till management for multiple years allows fields to have a higher water holding capacity than conventionally tilled fields, which is particularly important in areas prone to drought, according to the USDA.
And the agency has said that soil disturbance stimulates the microbes that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Adoption of the method, which the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has encouraged, has been increasing, about 8% from 2012 to 2017 according to the latest Census of Agriculture, and accounted for more than 100 million acres. Intensive tillage declined 35% during the same time.
‘Healing process’
It is important for farmers to look at their land and pay attention to “what it’s telling you,” Nan Cavazos, co-owner of Solidarity Farm in Pauma Valley, California, told ABC News. That includes looking at what kind of weeds are growing and improving the health of the soil based on that, he added.
“When you touch the soil, there’s a healing process that happens between soil and humans,” Cavazos said.
Workers at Solidarity Farm stopped plowing the soil in order to encourage more resilient arable land — so that the soil can “hold life” and create better quality crops, Cavazo said. Tilling destroys the soil structure, which makes it difficult for organisms in the soil to survive, Leah Penniman, co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm, a New York-based farm committed to social justice and ending racism in the food industry, told ABC News.
“And if the soil holds life, it’s easier for growing produce, and probably healthier produce,” he said.
As the effects of climate change intensify and threaten future food supplies, young farmers are reimagining their farms to withstand the increase of natural disasters, Sophie Ackoff, co-executive director of the Young Farmers Coalition, told ABC News. They think about conservation as they build their businesses, such as capturing water in the soil to prepare for a hotter and drier future, Ackoff added.
“Young farmers are imagining farming their entire lives in climate change conditions,” Ackoff said. “They’re already experiencing climate change on their farms.”
The variable climate in Southern California, which can include days ranging from 60 to 100 degrees, depending on the time of year, can have a detrimental effect on number and quality of crops, Cavazos said.
“Which makes it really hard for certain crops, you know?” Cavazos said. “The crops are all happy and then at a sudden, like, the sun comes out, and you’re like, ‘Whoa. What just happened?”
‘Cushion’ of protection
Beds of soil that are well-nourished can resist harsher temperatures and are more resilient to the heat because there is a “cushion” of protection, Cavazos said.
Diversifying the number of crops also makes for healthier soil, Cavazos said, adding that his farm grows between 50 and 60 different types of vegetable crops every year.
MORE: Eating sustainably is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change, experts say
Industrial and corporate agriculture prioritize efficiency, and the current food and much of the agriculture system in the U.S. is a result of decades of federal farm policies that incentivized industrialization and consolidation, Ackoff said.
“As soon as you take a step back and look at a five or five year or more timespan, you’ll see that this system is not very resilient,” Penniman said. “If there’s a drought, if there’s a flood or hurricane, heat wave, pest outbreak, that system starts to break down because it has such a narrow margin of conditions in which it can be successful.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Regenerative agriculture is an indigenous practice of farming that improves the land that is being utilized, Penniman said. The methodology involves leaving the soil better than it was found, she added.
“Take care of your soil, take care of your place, and it will take care of you,” he added.
(VACAVILLE, Calif.) — Emily Johnson had planned on giving birth to her second child in a hospital, with an epidural.
Instead, Johnson, 31, of Vacaville, California, gave birth to her son, Thomas Alan, on Nov. 4, on her front lawn, with no pain medication.
Johnson told “Good Morning America” she and her husband, Michael Johnson, announced their son’s birth on Facebook by posting, “Thomas is here and there is Ring footage.”
“He’s a pretty quiet and chill little dude,” Emily Johnson said of her son, noting the contrast with his “chaotic arrival.” “He just stares and watches the world go by or sleeps.”
Thomas’s unconventional birth story began around 6:30 p.m., a week before Emily’s Johnson’s due date, when she started feeling contractions that were around 10 minutes apart.
Remembering the 18-hour labor she’d had with her 3-year-old son, Emily Johnson said she and her husband thought they had plenty of time and kept monitoring the contractions.
When the contractions began to quicken just after 9 p.m., the Johnsons said they called Emily’s mom to come watch Blake, and called the hospital to tell them they were on their way.
“While Mike was getting the car packed up, the contractions went from three minutes to two minutes to one minute very rapidly,” said Emily Johnson. “And then when I was standing at the car door, I just couldn’t get in the car.”
Though the hospital was just five minutes away, Emily Johnson said she knew she wasn’t going to make it.
She moved herself to the front lawn of her home, and her husband and her mother, Kristy Sparks, who had arrived to care for Blake, began to deliver the baby while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher.
“The dispatcher really helped with the process,” said Emily Johnson. “She really guided Mike and my mom through as they were trying to keep me as calm as possible because I was having a baby on the lawn.”
At 10:42 p.m., just two minutes after paramedics arrived, Thomas Alan was born — a healthy 7 pounds, 11 ounces.
“I was right there by her side with one hand on the speakerphone and one hand with a flashlight,” said Michael Johnson. “Her mom was there to catch the baby”
Michael Johnson was able to cut the umbilical cord on the front lawn, and then paramedics transported baby and mom to the hospital.
It was there that the Johnsons said they realized their Ring camera captured Thomas’ birth.
“When Michael got to the hospital, he started looking at the footage and showing it to the nurses,” said Emily Johnson, adding that they were able to figure out how Thomas’s birth took less than 30 minutes.
Though Thomas’s birth didn’t unfold exactly as planned, it did happen on a special day: He was born on the same day as his late paternal great-grandfather, Alan, from whom he gets his middle name. And he was born two days before the 82nd birthday of his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas, from whom he gets his first name.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Charlotte 97, Washington 87
Detroit 97, Indiana 89
Atlanta 110, Boston 99
Brooklyn 109, Cleveland 99
Orlando 104, New York 98
Milwaukee 109, LA Lakers 102
Miami 113, New Orleans 98
Oklahoma City 101, Houston 89
Minnesota 107, Sacramento 97
Phoenix 105, Dallas 98
Portland 112, Chicago 107
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Colorado 4, Vancouver 2
Chicago 4, Seattle 2
Washington 2 Los Angeles 0
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UCLA 98, North Florida 63
Texas 62, N. Colorado 49
Baylor 92, Cent. Arkansas 47
Arkansas 93, N. Iowa 80
George Mason 71, Maryland 66
UConn 93, LIU 40
U2‘s Achtung Baby album celebrates its 30th anniversary today. Released on November 18, 1991, the album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and has been certified eight-times platinum by the RIAA.
Achtung Baby was the follow-up to the companion album to the Irish rocker’s 1988 documentary Rattle and Hum. Moving away from the Americana sounds of Rattle and Hum, the band went back to more of an alternative-rock sound for Achtung Baby, while also adding industrial and electronic music elements. The new sound was prevalent in songs like the funk-rock-inflected “Mysterious Ways” and the hip-hop-influenced “The Fly.”
U2 began recording Achtung Baby in Germany’s Hansa Studios just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though the band hoped to be inspired by German reunification, Achtung Baby became a very dark and personal album. U2’s members fought throughout the recording sessions, though things started to really come together when they wrote “One,” which has become one of the band’s most well-known songs.
Two singles from the album reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, “Mysterious Ways” and “One,” which peaked at #9 and #10, respectively. Achtung Baby also yielded two other top-40 hits — “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.”
U2 supported Achtung Baby with the Zoo TV tour, which used elaborate visuals and other multimedia to emphasize the theme of “sensory overload.” Throughout the trek, Bono dressed up as different characters, and the band embraced a more humorous and ironic tone.
Considered by many to be one of U2’s greatest works, Achtung Baby returned the band to critical favor, and paved the way for the group’s continued musical exploration during the 1990s.
Here’s Achtung Baby‘s full track list:
“Zoo Station”
“Even Better Than the Real Thing”
“One”
“Until the End of the World”
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”
“So Cruel”
“The Fly”
“Mysterious Ways”
“Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”
“Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”
“Acrobat”
“Love Is Blindness”
Huzzah! The Great is finally back for season two on Hulu after a long break, starting Friday!
The show stars Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult as fictionalized versions of Catherine and Peter The Great, and Fanning tells ABC Audio the new season picks up with Catherine about to take her place on the throne.
“She’s about four months [pregnant] when season two starts…it opens with, they’ve been in a standstill,” she explains. “They’re battling kind of back and forth to who’s going to get the throne. And Peter finally abdicates in the first episode because he’s hungry. So I just kind of, you know, shove a roast pig — waft it — and hey, you’ll you have to watch the show. You’ll see.”
Fanning adds there’s a little bit of “be careful what you ask for” this season.
“Basically season one, I think, was her trying to get the power. Season two, she’s in power and it’s now, OK, you have the power, how are you going to use it? And is she even going to be a good leader? Is she gonna to get everything done that she wants to?” notes the 23-year-old actress. “She’s someone who has a lot of ideas, and she talks a lot about her amazing ideas. But is she able to implement them um, in a country that is kind of not wanting to change.”
Thomas Rhett‘s now officially a father of four, after his newest daughter arrived on Monday.
“Lillie Carolina Akins, born November 15th. 7.5 pounds of pure joy,” he announced late Wednesday night on his socials.
“[Lauren Akins] you are my hero,” he added, along with a photo of mom and dad with the little one.
“Watching a child being born is legit a miracle,” he continued. “4 under 6 here we go!”
TR and Lauren started their family by adopting now 6-year-old Willa Gray from a Ugandan orphanage in 2017. Ada James was born in August of that same year, followed by the arrival of Lennon Love in February of 2020.
