Disney+’s next small-screen MCU spin-off, Hawkeye, is coming to the streaming service on November 24.
The series, which was teased in an end-credits scene in Black Widow — setting up Florence Pugh‘s character Ylena’s hunt for Jeremy Renner‘s archer Avenger — stars Hailee Steinfeld as his protégé.
In an exclusive, Entertainment Weekly just posted a “first look” photo at Renner’s Clint Barton meeting Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop, who eventually takes up the Hawkeye mantle.
The cat was let out of the bag last year that Steinfeld was starring in the series, when photographers caught the pair seemingly running for their lives on a New York City subway platform. Laughing about that, Steinfeld told ABC Audio, “We were just trying to get somewhere and a couple of pictures were taken and now here we are.”
On a more serious note, the Dickinson producer and star said she was “so, so honored obviously to be part of the MCU and be playing alongside Jeremy,” calling the experience “amazing.”
As for his onscreen trainee, Renner tells EW, “Outside of acting in the thing, I was protecting her and giving her the CliffsNotes on how it goes with this kind of filmmaking: Green screen, superhero life, all that stuff. I just wanted to protect her, because there’s a lot of physical stuff.”
He added, “She’s a wonderful actress, a wonderful human, and I can’t wait to see all the cool stuff that she’s able to do.”
After the debut, a new episode of Hawkeye will drop every Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) —The Senate swiftly passed the $2.1B emergency security supplemental bill Thursday in a rare unanimous vote.
The bill now heads to the House for expected passage this week. Then it heads to the president for his signature.
The move staves off critical funding cuts that both the U.S. Capitol Police and National Guard were expected to enact following weeks of congressional inaction. Both forces were crushed by the emergency needs in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, each relying on Congress to reimburse them in the months after the attack.
But some Republican lawmakers argued that after spending trillions to battle the pandemic, it would be irresponsible to spend billions more without enacting spending cuts to cover the expenses.
The emergency supplemental bill also has $1.125 billion to cover the Afghanistan Special Immigrant Visa program — a little less than what the White House requested — to provide asylum to allies there who aided the U.S. mission and now face retribution from a resurgent Taliban.
Sen Mike Braun, R-Ind., said, “We need to protect our National Guard — and we will. And we need to protect our allies who kept our troops safe, and we will. Emergencies arise and the biggest threat to dealing with them in my opinion is fiscal irresponsibility in D.C. We could have easily paid for the major parts of this legislation with offsets within the DOD.”
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
for KING & COUNTRY recently announced their first arena tour in two years, and now they’re adding on to it with a Christmas tour.
The “Amen” duo’s A Drummer Boy Christmas Tour will kick off November 27 in Grand Rapids, MI, before wrapping up in Nashville, TN with a livestream concert event from that city’s iconic Grand Ole Opry House. Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
The holiday tour will feature Joel and Luke Smallbone performing their album A Drummer Boy Christmas live in concert for the first time. That album, which features a guest appearance by Gabby Barrett, came out last October.
In a statement, the Australian duo says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…. and one of our favorite shows to perform! We’re thrilled to be bringing A Drummer Boy Christmas to you, in person and indoors for the very first time.”
“We’ll be bringing the lights, the stage, and all the holiday cheer,” they add. “And in the spirit of giving, we’ll be supporting our friends at The Salvation Army to help families in need throughout the tour. Looking forward to ringing in this Christmas season with you!”
(NEW YORK) — Investing platform Robinhood officially became a publicly-listed company Thursday, making its Wall Street debut on the Nasdaq under the trading ticker $HOOD.
Robinhood co-founders Vlad Tenev (the current chief executive officer) and Baiju Bhatt (the chief creative officer) rang the Nasdaq’s opening bell in Times Square on Thursday morning, surrounded by colleagues and family members. Tenev carried his young daughter on his hip as his company made its initial public offering.
Trading opened to the public at $38 per share, giving it a valuation of some $32 billion. By mid-day the stock fell slightly, trading at around $35 per share.
Robinhood exploded in popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic as swaths of retail investors turned to its commission-free trading services. It became embroiled in controversy amid the GameStop short-squeeze, when an army of retail investors attempted to take on Wall Street firms that were betting against the video game retailer.
As individual investors pushed the price of GameStop shares up, Robinhood and other trading platforms abruptly halted trading of the stock — leading to allegations they were doing so at the urging of hedge funds and short sellers. The company has denied this, saying the temporary halt was due to clearinghouse-mandated deposit requirements that skyrocketed amid the volatility.
Still, Robinhood’s Tenev was called to testify before lawmakers and the fallout of the GameStop saga left Wall Street reeling for months.
Robinhood has repeatedly said its mission is to “democratize finance for all.” The firm on Thursday celebrated what it saw as bringing its Main Street clientele to Wall Street via its Nasdaq listing. Some 50% of Robinhood users are first-time investors.
“The U.S. stock market is one of the world’s greatest sources of wealth creation. But for generations, it was out of reach for most people,” Tenev and Bhatt said in a joint statement Thursday celebrating the IPO. “Robinhood changed that — we’ve built investing products for everyday people, to put them in control of their financial futures.”
“Our listing day is a celebration of our customers — Generation Robinhood,” the statement added. “Through Robinhood, millions of everyday people have started investing in the stock market for the first time.”
Tenev and Bhatt said these new everyday investors are “making their voices heard through the markets, transforming our financial system in the process.”
Angels & Airwaves have released a new song called “Losing My Mind,” a track off the band’s upcoming album, Lifeforms.
“I wanted to write a song about a totally insane idea that would never happen, like, what if our own country was being torn apart by racists, a pandemic, and domestic terrorism, but all at the same time,” frontman Tom DeLonge says. “You know, just normal made up s*** that would never happen.”
The track, which is available now for digital download, is accompanied by a video that stars DeLonge alongside TikTok dancer Rampage. DeLonge plays Disco, who’s apparently the brother of the former Blink-182 guitarist’s character, Boomer, from the “First Date” video.
You can watch the “Losing My Mind” video, which DeLonge also directed, streaming now on YouTube.
Lifeforms, the sixth AVA album, is due out September 24. It also includes the previously released singles “Euphoria,” “Kiss & Tell,” “Restless Souls” and “Rebel Girl.”
Angels & Airwaves are performing this weekend at Lollapalooza. They’ll launch a headlining tour in support of Lifeforms in September.
Live concert series “Front and Center” will return to public television for its 10th season this August, giving viewers a front-row seat to intimate shows from the likes of Lady A, Brantley Gilbert, Maddie & Tae and many more.
The season kicks off with a new twist on the show’s usual format, presenting an archival concert from the late Glen Campbell, which was recorded in 2008 at storied West Hollywood venue the Troubadour. This month, that show also came out as a live album titled Glen Campbell: Live from the Troubadour.
Next up, the series will spotlight exclusive performances from a wide variety of country hitmakers and acclaimed singer-songwriters, featuring Dustin Lynch, John Hiatt with special guests Jerry Douglas and Tommy Emmanuel, Old Dominion, and operatic vocalist Sangeeta Kaur with Jon Anderson and Jake Shimabukuro.
The performances took place at Analog at Hutton Hotel, an intimate Nashville venue, and were filmed either pre-pandemic or with COVID-19 safety protocols in place.
The series kicks off August 1 and runs through September 19. The episodes will be distributed nationally by American Public Television; you can also watch them on “Front and Center”’s YouTube channel.
Nas has announced the sequel to his Grammy-winning album, King’s Disease,which he released last August.
“We’re back in business! King’s Disease II. 8/6,” the legendary rapper wrote on Instagram, sharing the album cover art of himself against an orange background.
Though little detail has been shared about the forthcoming project in the post, Nas did tag his label, Mass Appeal, Records and Hit-Boy, who produced the entirety of King’s Disease II.
“Run it back,” wrote Hit-Boy sharing the cover art on his Instagram.
Nas’ picked up his first-ever Grammy for his 13th studio album, King’s Disease, which won Best Rap Album. It features guest appearances from Charlie Wilson, Lil Durk, Anderson .Paak, Fivio Foreign, A$AP Ferg, Big Sean, Don Toliver and more, including an outro by the legendary Dr. Dre.
King’s Disease logs Hit-Boy’s fourth Grammy win, but his first for Album of the Year. He won Best Rap Song for Kanye West and Jay-Z‘s “N**** in Paris” in 2012 and again for Nipsey Hussle‘s “Racks in the Middle,” with Roddy Ricch, in 2020.
On Wednesday, Camila Cabello used boyfriend Shawn Mendes to create a hilarious TikTok video depicting the honeymoon phase of a relationship, “when you can’t fart or Poo or be a human.”
In the clip, Camila waves goodbye to Shawn, and as soon as he leaves the room, she lets one loose. Now Shawn has commented on Camila’s real-life gas-passing habits.
When Camila posted the video to her Instagram, Shawn wrote in the comments, “But u do fart tho.” Fans, of course, found this hilarious, but some took him to task for “exposing” Camila. “You threw her under the bus,” admonished one fan, while another added, “Poor Camila,” and a third wrote, “shut up Shawn girls don’t fart.”
Of course, Shawn may have just been paying Camila back for a TikTok she made earlier this month in which she trolled him for a super-awkward video he made. In his original TikTok, Shawn couldn’t quite get the hang of editing, and ended up with abrupt jump cuts and scenes where he’s just staring at the camera. Camila filmed herself lip-syncing to Shawn’s clip, and mimicking his stares and weird edits.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers could set the groundwork for more private sector organizations to follow along. But it also is likely to trigger an avalanche of lawsuits from those who say required vaccinations infringe on the civil liberties of Americans.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce on Thursday a plan requiring all federal workers to be vaccinated or comply with “stringent COVID-19 protocols like mandatory mask wearing — even in communities not with high or substantial spread — and regular testing.”
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that employers can require their employees to be vaccinated with exceptions being granted for religious and medical reasons.
Federal law does not bar organizations from mandating coronavirus vaccines even as the publicly available vaccines have yet to receive full authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, according to a Justice Department memo.
But some legal scholars say that full approval from the FDA would give companies increased legal cover from employees who refuse to comply with a vaccine mandate.
“There are many companies that are worried about pushback litigation and are waiting for full FDA approval,” said Larry Gostin, a professor of global health law at the Georgetown University Law Center and director of the World Health Organization Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights.
Full FDA vaccine approval is expected in September, according to a federal official. Normally, full approval takes up to a year following the submission of all required data.
Gostin added that employers also have the right to terminate employees who do not comply with their company’s vaccine mandate.
“A worker doesn’t have a legal or ethical entitlement to go unvaccinated or unmasked in a crowded workplace,” he said. “They can make decisions for their own health and well-being, but they can’t pose risk to others. Somebody who is unvaccinated and isn’t tested and unmasked poses a very substantial risk of transferring a very dangerous, if not deadly, disease.”
Similar to the legal arguments over state mask mandates, the debate surrounding vaccine mandates is an issue widely expected to end up in court.
“America is a very litigious society and there will be lawsuits,” said Gostin. “But employers and particularly hospitals are on very firm legal grounding and will win those lawsuits.”
While the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal workers could inspire similar moves from large employers to local governments, some states are taking offensive measures.
Several states including Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah, and Montana have already passed legislation banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.
And with return to school quickly approaching for millions of U.S. students, some legislatures have even sought to prohibit required COVID-19 vaccines for school attendance.
The Federal Law Enforcement Officer’s Association, which consists of FBI agents and U.S. Marshalls, however, sees the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for federal employees as an attack on civil liberties.
“Forcing people to undertake a medical procedure is not the American way and is a clear civil rights violation no matter how proponents may seek to justify it,” said Larry Cosme, the association’s president, in a statement.
The idea of employer vaccine mandates is something that many public health experts increasingly agree on. A large number of companies are still allowing employees back to the office based entirely on voluntary employee disclosure of vaccination status as opposed to requiring actual proof of vaccination.
“An honor system can work in a situation where you don’t have an epidemic,” said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. “We need to realize that we are in an emergency, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that the vast majority of people get vaccinated.”
Google, Apple and Facebook all postponed their return to office plans for mid-October as the delta variant continues to drive a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations nationwide.
Google’s decision to require staff in their offices to be vaccinated comes after similar announcements impacting government workers in New York and California to curb the spread of the delta variant.
“The timing for these vaccine mandates is right and it’s actually a bit long overdue,” said El-Sadr.
Move over, tattooed Joker: Jared Leto‘s latest film role might be his most unrecognizable look yet.
The Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman and Oscar-winning actor shared the character poster for his part in the upcoming film House of Gucci, which details the assassination of real-life fashion mogul Maurizio Gucci.
For his role as Paulo Gucci, Maurizio’s cousin, Leto appears covered in prosthetics to make him look him older and heavier, complete with a bushy mustache and, perhaps most surprisingly, a bald head surrounded by hair on the sides.
Naturally, the photo has been receiving quite the reaction, causing Leto to trend on Twitter on Thursday afternoon. One commenter compared Leto’s look to Jeffrey Tambor, while another quipped, “Clearly, Jared Leto visited the beach that makes you old” — a reference to the new M. Night Shyamalan film, Old.
Along with the poster, Leto tweeted, “Stasera” — Italian for “tonight” — suggesting the House of Gucci trailer might be dropping before the day is over.
House of Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott, is due out on November 24. It also stars Adam Driver as Maurizio, and Lady Gaga as Gucci’s ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani, who was convicted of arranging his killing.
