You weren’t the only one who picked up a weird hobby during lockdown — Joe Jonas and wife Sophie Turner did too.
In a new interview with WSJ Magazine, Joe talks about the unexpected activity they became obsessed with while staying at home, and how it even led to arguments between the two.
“I got very into LEGO building,” he says. “My wife and I probably built 10 monstrous LEGOs.”
Joe adds, “It was also quite funny, because I was super focused on helping her but then I was getting easily distracted and playing Fortnite. At first we argued about it and then it was like, she loves her organization and it’s completely different from the way I would build it: ‘You do you; I’ll be here for support.’”
He says he began helping from more of a distance, making cocktails for the two of them as Sophie continued to build. Their biggest LEGO accomplishments included building the Batmobile and the Harry Potter Wizarding World.
Nowadays, Joe tells WSJ he starts his morning by meditating, learning Italian on the DuoLingo app, writing a gratitude list, listening to a news podcast and scrolling social media, all before starting his daily exercise routine.
(SUNRISE, Fla.) — The remains of the last victim of the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse have been identified, a relative confirmed to ABC News Monday.
Estelle Hedaya, 54, was the final person to be unaccounted for. The death toll from the June 24 collapse now stands at 98.
RedBull BC One brought back their annual break-dancing competition to the birthplace of hip hop with a star-studded event over the weekend in New York City.
The competition, which included top breakers from New York and around the globe, featured b-boys and b-girls who competed for a chance to battle at the National Finals in Orlando, Florida. New York winners included b-boy Frankie and b-girl Marta, who will later go toe to toe with other semifinal winners from Los Angeles, Boston and Houston. The Orlando winners will then compete for the opportunity to be crowned world champion at the RedBull BC One World Finals taking place in Gdansk, Poland, on November 5 and 6. For more information on how to get tickets, go to Redbull.com.
In other news, Vivica A. Fox has set another The Wrong series franchise film. Lifetime Movie Network has announced a date for The Wrong Cheer Captain, which will star 227 alum Jackée Harry. Executive-produced and starring Fox, the new thriller will premiere on August 29 at 8 p.m. ET on LMN. The film, also starring Claire Tablizo, Alexis Samone and Sofia Masson, follows a cheer captain who is suspected of killing two cheerleaders.
Finally, FOX has set the release date for Lee Daniels‘ upcoming drama series Our Kind of People. The show, which stars Morris Chestnut and Yaya DaCosta, will premiere on Tuesday, September 21, at 9 p.m. ET. As previously reported, the series follows Angela Vaughn, a single mother who “risks it all” by moving her family to Martha’s Vineyard with the hopes of taking her natural hair-care line to the next level.
Cole Swindell is back at the top of the charts with “Single Saturday Night.”
This gives the country star his 10th #1 single, the latest in a long line of hits including “Let Me See Ya Girl,” “Chillin’ It,” “Hope You Get Lonely Tonight,” “Ain’t Worth the Whiskey,” “Middle of a Memory,” “Flatliner” featuring Dierks Bentley, “You Should Be Here,” “Love You Too Late,” and the Grammy-nominated “Break Up in the End.”
“I can’t thank country radio, the fans, and my team enough for making this my 10th #1 song. Still hard to believe! I can’t wait to see everyone out on the road,” Cole says in a statement, adding on Twitter, “Damn. Unreal. I’ll find the words at some point.”
Among his famous friends congratulating him on the impressive feat is Chris Young, who celebrated with a photo of the two, alongside the caption, “I told ya @coleswindell !!! Congrats on the number one buddy! Always celebrate a friend’s successes #cheers.”
Cole is heading out on the road on Thomas Rhett‘s Center Point Road Tour beginning in August.
(WASHINGTON) — On the day before a House committee was set to open its investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy kept up his effort to dismiss the probe and attack the Republicans who’ve agreed to serve with Democrats.
When asked on Monday if he’ll punish the two Republican members — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — McCarthy said “we’ll see,” amid speculation their fellow Republicans might try to remove them from House committee assignments for accepting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation.
Speaking with reporters after a bipartisan White House even celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, McCarthy called them “Pelosi Republicans.”
“Couldn’t tell you,” he said, when asked the last time he spoke to Cheney and Kinzinger.
When asked for his take on the first witnesses — law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol against the pro-Trump mob — McCarthy replied, “I don’t know.”
Back on Capitol Hill, Cheney shot back at McCarthy.
“We’ve got very serious business here. We have important work to do. And I think that’s pretty childish,” she told reporters.
Kinzinger on Monday slammed other Republicans in response to McCarthy’s dig.
“If the conference decides, or if Kevin decides they want to punish Liz Cheney and I for getting into the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us,” he said.
Kinzinger added his preference was the independent commission negotiated and then blocked by GOP leaders.
“It’s become obvious that there are some that just simply don’t want answers, and that to me is unacceptable,” he told reporters.
Earlier Monday, committee members checked out the Cannon Office Building hearing room ahead of Tuesday’s start at 9:30 a.m.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney will each deliver opening statements in Tuesday’s hearing before the police officers testify, according to a congressional aide. The committee will hear from Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Normally, the ranking member — or top Republican — would be given an opportunity to make opening remarks after the committee chair speaks. But Republican leaders have pulled their members from the panel, leaving only Cheney and Kinzinger as the only GOP members.
Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two House Republicans who voted to form a select committee after Senate Republicans killed a proposal for a bipartisan, independent commission. Like Cheney, Kinzinger is among the 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
Tuesday’s hearing is expected to go two to three hours and will feature video elements, according to an aide.
McCarthy has vowed that his GOP appointments won’t participate after Pelosi rejected two of them — Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio — citing statements made and actions taken, she said, would threaten the credibility of the committee.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing Monday that President Joe Biden will be “kept abreast” of Tuesday’s committee hearing.
“In his view, in our view, tomorrow’s hearing will be an opportunity to hear firsthand from the men and women in the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department who bravely protected our Capitol on that day. His goal is the same goal that Speaker Pelosi has, which is to get to the bottom of what happened and prevent it from happening in the future, and he trusts her leadership to do exactly that,” she said.
Dunn, one of the police officers who is scheduled to testify Tuesday, tweeted out Monday asking for “good vibes.”
Mark Zaid, the whistleblower attorney who is also representing Dunn, late last week posted this Twitter thread flagging that after Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Dunn on his show as an “angry left-wing political activist” he received “numerous vile/racist” messages, with some citing Carlson’s comments.
Fanone, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was brutally attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, video shows, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that he plans to testify in uniform Tuesday and said he won’t let politics hinder his appearance.
“I don’t get care what the vehicle is — as long as the truth comes out,” he said, when asked about Republicans who are throwing cold water on the committee. Fanone was at the Capitol Monday to prepare for the hearing.
He added, he supports any investigation that is looking for a “factual account” of what happened that day.
Back in May, Fanone and Dunn escorted the family of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick door-to-door on Capitol Hill pleading with Republicans for an independent commission.
ABC News’s Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Pfizer and Moderna are expanding the size of their COVID-19 vaccine studies in children ages 5 to 11, according to a new report.
The decision, which came after a push from the Food and Drug Administration, according to The New York Times, is intended to detect rare side effects in young people under the age of 30, such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the outer lining of the heart). The original size of the studies was too small to detect those rare side effects.
Pfizer declined to comment on The Times’ report to ABC News and pointed to a vaccine timeline the pharmaceutical company had previously released. Testing on 5- to 11-year-olds began in early June, Pfizer said, and on kids younger than 5 on June 21. The company anticipates having initial Phase 2 and 3 results for 5- to 11-year-olds in September.
Moderna told ABC News in a statement: “It is our intent to expand the trial and we are actively discussing a proposal with the FDA.”
It’s unclear what effect these changes might have on the timeline for emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines in children. “The objective is to enroll a larger safety database which increases the likelihood of detecting rarer events,” according to Moderna. “Timelines are regularly reevaluated based on agency discussions and requests.”
Moderna said it expects to seek emergency use authorization by the end of 2021 or in early 2022.
“Some of the advisory committee members have said they’d like to see a longer median follow up time after vaccination – more than the 2 months used to support FDA’s emergency use authorizations for older age groups – in the trials in the younger ages, which is something that the agency intends to take into consideration, though it is not bound by the recommendations of advisory committees or statements from advisory committee members during the course of scientific discussions,” the FDA said to ABC News in a statement last week.
Silversun Pickups are returning to the road for a quick headlining tour this fall.
The five-date jaunt kicks off September 8 in Solana Beach, California, and will make its way up the Golden State while hitting Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Napa. In between, the band will also make a stop in Reno, Nevada, on September 15.
“Things took quite a tumble while we were out and about on our last tour,” says frontman Brian Aubert. “We were right there with everyone trying to make sense of the world before we folded it all up and hid in our homes.”
He adds, “I am definitely excited to be playing music again, but most importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and checking in with them. Hopefully our loud rumble can offer some lightness and some fun as we all crawl out and shake off the dust on our dancing shoes.”
Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 30, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit SilversunPickups.com.
SSPU’s most recent album is 2019’s Widow’s Weeds. Last year, they released a cover of the ’80s Martika hit “Toy Soldiers.”
Welcome to Gibson Records — they’ve got fun, games, and Slash.
According to Billboard, the famed guitar company is launching its own record label. The first Gibson Records release will be a new album from the Guns N’ Roses shredder and his solo band, Myles Kennedy& the Conspirators, due out in 2022.
Slash, of course, has long worked with Gibson on various signature guitars, and in 2017, he was named the company’s first Global Brand Ambassador.
“It’s an honor to be the first release on the new, Gibson Records,” Slash says in a statement. “It’s a zenith in our partnership for sure and having worked so closely with Gibson for so long, I know they will be a label that genuinely supports their artists creatively. Not just me, but all the artists they choose to work with. It’s perfect.”
The new Conspirators record will follow the group’s last effort, 2018’s Living the Dream.
The music world lost one of its great voices on May 29 when B.J. Thomaspassed away at age 78 of lung cancer. Now, in celebration of the hitmaking pop-country artist, a collection of updated versions of many of his classic songs will be released on vinyl for the first time this Friday, July 30.
The album, which was recorded in 2001, includes renditions of Thomas’ chart-topping singles “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” and “Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” as well as other hits including “Hooked on a Feeling,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing” and “I’m So Lonesome (I Could Cry).”
Here’s the full track list of The Very Best Of:
“Hooked on a Feeling”
“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”
“I Just Can’t Help Believing”
“I’m So Lonesome (I Could Cry)”
“Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song”
“No Love at All”
“Rock and Roll Lullaby”
“Back Against the Wall”
“No Other Baby”
“To Be Loved”
“What’s Forever For”
“Call It a Mountain”*
“Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”
“Ballyhoo Days”*
Bonus Track:
“100% Chance of Pain” — with T.G. Sheppard*
(DALLAS) — The University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have notified the Big 12 that they will not renew its grant of media rights in 2025, according to a joint statement.
“Providing notice to the Big 12 at this point is important in advance of the expiration of the conference’s current media rights agreement,” the statement said. “The universities intend to honor their existing grant of rights agreements. However, both universities will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving collegiate athletics landscape as they consider how best to position their athletics programs for the future.”
Multiple media reports have said Texas and Oklahoma are looking to move to the SEC.
“Although our eight members are disappointed with the decisions of these two institutions, we recognize that intercollegiate athletics is experiencing rapid change and will most likely look much different in 2025 than it does currently,” said Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby in a statement. “The Big 12 Conference will continue to support our member institutions’ efforts to graduate student-athletes, and compete for Big 12 and NCAA championships. Like many others, we will use the next four years to fully assess what the landscape will look like in 2025 and beyond. The remaining eight institutions will work together in a collaborative manner to thoughtfully and strategically position the Big 12 Conference for continued success, both athletically and academically, long into the future.”
According to ESPN, next up for Texas and Oklahoma will be to let the SEC know they want to join the conference. 11 of the conference’s 14 schools would then need to vote them into the league.
