(New York) — The devastating drought in Southern California is expected to continue or worsen this winter, with drier-than-average conditions forecast for the hard-hit Southwest, including Southern California, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday in its winter weather outlook.
NOAA predicts drought conditions to continue in the Southwest, Plains and Missouri River Basin. But drought improvement is possible in Northern California, the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and Hawaii, NOAA said.
Drier-than-average conditions are also forecast for the Southeast this winter. Wetter-than-average conditions are forecast in areas including the Pacific Northwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, NOAA said.
NOAA predicts a warmer-than-average winter in the Southeast and much of the eastern U.S.
Temperatures may fall below average from the Pacific Northwest through the northern Plains.
But more-than-normal snow and rain is forecast for the Ohio Valley and some of the inland Northeast, from western Pennsylvania to western New York to parts of Vermont.
Adele hugs Celine Dion; Kevin Winter/Getty Images for NARAS
Most Adele fans know that the singer just loves Celine Dion, but you may not be aware of the depths of her obsession…until now.
Adele submitted to Vogue‘s “73 Questions With…” video feature, in which a star is filmed walking around their home while answering a series of rapid-fire questions. In response to the question, “What’s the proudest possession that you own?” Adele, who’d been sitting on her patio, takes the interviewer into her house, plucks something off a table and hands it to him.
It’s a small black frame, and within the frame is a chewed-up wad of gum stuck to a piece of paper. Written on the paper are the words “Celine Dion’s gum.”
“James Corden, who’s a friend of mine but also does Carpool Karaoke, which I did, he did it with her and knew how much a fan of her I was,” Adele explains. “And so he made her spit her gum into a piece of paper and he framed it for me. And it’s my proudest possession!”
Also in the video, which actually lasts for 95 questions, Adele reveals that:
-At the 2012 Grammys, she was pregnant with her son.
-Her dream duet partner is country star Chris Stapleton.
-Her favorite lyricist is the late Leonard Cohen.
-She’s been bingeing the Apple TV+ comedy Ted Lasso.
-She wishes Barbra Streisand would record one of her songs.
-She prefers Prince Harry over Prince William, and the Spice Girls over The Beatles.
-Her fashion icon is Cate Blanchett.
-She’d choose either Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors or Idris Elba to be the next James Bond.
(CAIRO) —A man attempting to demolish one of four ancient sphinxes adorning the Tahrir square in Cairo was caught by security personnel, an eyewitness reports.
“I and my friends were in Tahrir when we saw someone climbing up to the head of one of the sphinxes. He was wielding a big hammer and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ before starting to hit it,” Abdallah Elbarawy, a 22-year-old law student at Cairo University, told ABC News.
“He was then captured by security guards, who took him away,” Elbarawy said.
Local media said the man, who was not identified, was being questioned.
An antiquities ministry source told ABC News that no damage was sustained to any of the sphinxes.
Last year, Egypt relocated the four ram-headed sphinxes to Tahrir in the heart of Cairo from the southern city of Luxor — a move criticized at the time by many archaeologists, who feared the artifacts could be damaged because of their exposure to air pollution and heat in the congested square.
The sphinxes were previously located in a courtyard behind the first pylon of the famed Karnak temple in Luxor.
After being transferred to Tahrir, the sphinxes were kept in wooden crates before being unveiled last April, shortly before Egypt held a procession for 22 royal mummies from the iconic square. They lie beneath a 90-tonne obelisk that dates back to the era of famous New Kingdom pharaoh Ramses II.
Egypt said it will soon re-open the Grand Avenue of Sphinxes, a 3,000-year-old road that connects Karnak Temple with Luxor Temple, to the public after completing excavation and restoration works in the ancient pathway.
The avenue is flanked by hundreds of ram-headed sphinxes, similar to the ones that were moved to Tahrir.
Netflix has released a new trailer for Red Notice, and in this one, we get a better idea of the plot.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recruits Ryan Reynolds‘ character, noted as the “second-most wanted art thief in the world,” in an effort to nab the best one: Gal Gadot‘s character, known as The Bishop.
However, while she’s on the titular list, this trailer notes a twist: Gadot uses some computer wizardry to frame Johnson’s FBI agent John Hartley, landing him on Interpol’s Red Notice, and they both get locked up.
The situation sets up a death-defying prison escape sequence seen in an earlier trailer.
“If we catch her together, I can clear my name, and I’ll make you the number-one art thief in the world again,” Hartley promises Ryan’s Booth.
“Trusting a thief can be dangerous,” Bishop warns the FBI agent, a comment by which Booth gets comically offended.
The trailer not only shows the two men tangling with assorted bad guys, but the character played by Johnson — who had a wrestling nickname The BrahmaBull — is actually fighting a real bull.
In the home video-style clip, Olivia spends a night out with friends to distract herself from feeling the betrayal of an ex. They hit up an arcade and break into a high school to take a dip in the pool and run on the football field.
“It took you two weeks/To go off and date her/Guess you didn’t cheat/But you’re still a traitor,” she sings on the track.
“Traitor” appears on Olivia’s debut album, SOUR, along with “Drivers License,” “good 4 u” and “deja vu.”
While Zac Brown Band have lots of classic country hits, the band’s also known for musical experimentation, especially in projects like their 2019 record, The Owl. But frontman Zac Brown tells People that on their newest album, The Comeback, they were focused on making classic music for their fan base.
“I’ve tried to capture little shades of the human condition on this album,” he says. “I hope we made a really classic album, and people find something they can really personally relate to that makes them feel something. That’s my wish.”
The singer adds that, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and deepening cultural divides in America, it was important to him to present a message of unity in songs like the title track and the first single, “Same Boat.”
“I’m not going to take a political stance as an artist because that’s just going to create enemies on one side or the other,” Zac explains. “Philosophically, if I have something that’s meant something to me, or in rebuttal to all this division that’s happening, I wanted to create something that would remind people of how we’re the same. I just wanted to throw some light out there for people.”
The Comeback came out earlier this month. Its current single, “Same Boat,” is inside country radio’s Top 10.
Coheed and Cambria has shared an acoustic version of the band’s new single, “Shoulders.”
Even without the electricity, the song’s main riff still brings the heavy, now with a twangy, more Western feel. The unplugged version also puts a greater spotlight on guitarist Travis Stever and bassist Zach Cooper‘s harmonizing backing vocals.
You can watch Coheed’s acoustic performance streaming now on YouTube.
The original “Shoulders” dropped in July. It currently sits in the top 20 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
Meanwhile, Coheed has been working on a new album to follow 2018’s Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures.
(NEW YORK) — Eight Nigerians have been charged in the U.S. with running widespread internet scams for at least a decade from their base of operation in Cape Town, South Africa, federal prosecutors in New Jersey announced Wednesday.
The suspects, who were arrested in Cape Town and are awaiting extradition, have suspected ties to a transnational organized crime syndicate originating in Nigeria known as Black Axe.
From 2011 through 2021 the defendants allegedly ran schemes that involved their telling victims in the United States false narratives about traveling to South Africa for work and needing money after a series of unfortunate and unforeseen events, according to the indictment.
Other Americans fell victim to the defendants’ romance scams, believing they were in romantic relationships with someone using an alias and, when requested, the victims sent money and items of value to South Africa, the indictment said.
“The Co-conspirators often used aliases not only of the purported love interest of a victim, but also of other people involved in that person’s life, including a purported child, a business partner, or a friend, to bolster the perceived legitimacy of the stories portrayed, as a part of the Romance Scam or Advance Fee Scheme and to further induce the victims to send money on behalf of the purported love interest,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors quoted messages the defendants allegedly sent to victims, in one instance seeking a loan to fix a crane for a construction project:
“Honey, i don’t know how you will take this, i hate doing it but i have no other option, with profound sense of sadness and disgrace i am begging you to please loan me the balance, if possible a little bit more for upkeeping, i promise i will reimburse you once they come for inspection and give me the part-payment and that cannot be more than sometime next week.”
Sometimes victims were allegedly convinced to open financial accounts in the United States that the conspirators would then be permitted to use themselves to launder money.
Internet-based scams like the ones described in the indictment cost victims $600 million in 2020, according to the FBI.
“If you continue to be able to have a scheme that works you’re going to keep going back to it,” said George Crouch, special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s Newark Field Office.
He said the schemes allegedly perpetrated by the Nigerians charged this week were particularly insidious because they played on people’s emotions.
“Widowers, widows, divorcees, they really target those folks in a vulnerable state, pulling at their heart strings, all with the intent of separating them from their money,” Crouch told ABC News in a phone interview.
“Americans are too often victimized by criminal organizations located abroad who use the internet to deceive those victims, defraud them of money, and, many times, persuade the victims to wittingly or unwittingly assist in perpetuating the fraudulent schemes,” acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said. “The public should be on guard against schemes like these.”
The defendants are charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.
Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney were among the stars who took part in the 2021 edition of the Robin Hood Foundation‘s annual charity gala, which was held Wednesday night at New York City’s Jacob Javits Center.
According to Rolling Stone, Springsteen was introduced by the event’s host, Saturday Night Live‘s Cecily Strong, and proceeded to deliver a short acoustic set that featured renditions of “Working on the Highway,” “Dancing in the Dark” and “Thunder Road.”
“For over 30 years, Robin Hood has been finding, fueling, creating, impactful solutions to lift families out of poverty here in New York City,” the Boss told the crowd of an estimated 3,000. “The funds raised tonight translate into real results for New Yorkers living in poverty. We appreciate your support.”
The Robin Hood Foundation has been supporting poverty-fighting programs in the New York area for over 30 years, and also helped organize the star-studded post-9/11 event The Concert for New York City, which McCartney famously headlined.
The gala took place on the 20th anniversary of the concert, and to mark the occasion, McCartney — who also helped put together the 2001 show — was honored with a special award.
Alicia Keys performed the classic Beatles ballad “Let It Be” before McCartney took the stage.
“I love New York,” he told the audience. “Many years ago, when I was a little kid in Liverpool, we saw New York in the movies. I never dreamed that I would be here getting an award like this from you fantastic people. But then years later, we did show up at JFK with my buddies, the Beatles. We went on The Ed Sullivan Show and, boy, that was something.”
The event, which raised $77.5 million, also featured a performance by the Jonas Brothers.
In a little skit they played out on Instagram, Courteney Cox busted her Scream co-star Melissa Barrera for being a little too obsessed with Friends.
The episode Cox posted online started with a guitar riff and a tilt up to a building, specifically 90 Bedford street in Lower Manhattan — more specifically, the building that was used as the exterior shots of Monica Gellar’s apartment on the hit sitcom.
The musical interlude, with the camera tilting up at the building, perfectly imitated the show’s trademark scene transitions. But in this case, Barrera walks towards the famous facade.
“Melissa, how are you?” Cox stops the actress in her tracks. “Where are you going?”
Barrera replies, “I’m just going home.”
Cox says, “Hm, that’s weird. I don’t think that’s your home,” before adding, “I’m actually really happy you joined the Scream cast, but this is not OK. This is off limits.”
“No, Melissa. No,” Cox continues. “There’s only so much. Come on, go back to the Heights,” snarkily referencing the younger actress’ role in In the Heights.
Barrera storms off, with a Monica-like “I KNOW!”
“Stop imitating me!” Cox yells, before huffing to herself, “Oh, so pathetic!”
The cute exchange got more than 560,000 likes on Instagram in less than a day.
The pair will share the screen again when the fifth Scream film comes out next November.
