Tyla is ready to take over the world: “There's no way to stop me”

ABC/John Argueta

Tyla‘s goal is to become Africa’s first pop star, and she’s well on her way with a Grammy for Best African Music Performance, her global smash “Water” and her self-titled debut album. Though she had to postpone her planned tour due to an injury, she still has plans for world domination.

In addition to music, Tyla tells Billboard that she’d like to branch out into fashion, beauty and acting. “People are going to see me everywhere,” she says. “So if you don’t like me, I’m sorry.”

Even her injury isn’t going stop her from bringing her music to fans. “I’m really confident in what I’ve created. Now’s a time where I can showcase a performance style where I’m not really dancing as much,” she tells Billboard. “Maybe I strip back a little bit more and I’m just serving vocals.”

“But there’s no way to stop me,” she continues. “I’m always going to find a way.”

Right now, you can see Tyla showing off her dance moves in the spring campaign for GAP.

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Masked Speaker: Prank Queen

20 years ago an immature prank went so horribly wrong, that it made the news and today’s Masked Speaker has lived with that regret ever since. We’re the first people she’s ever told about it and you can hear it all in the podcast!

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Phone Tap: Motel Cheater

One of our listeners asked us to prank his wife who runs the front desk at the motel they own! She hates awkward confrontation so we’re gonna make our personal issues her business in a brand new Phone Tap!

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TikTok Click Shock (03/28/24)

There’s a mystery going on in high school’s across the nation right now… but one teacher shared what she finally figured out… Plus, and 8 year-old from the Midwest id going viral for what he did at a reccent tractor show… You’ll see why when you hear the audio of it in a brand new TikTok Click Shock!

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Say Yes To The Ex: Say Yes To The Trio

We’re doing our best to reunite a listener with one of their previous romances… only if we don’t screw it up first. Catch an all new “Say Yes To The Ex!”

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Win Brooke’s Bucks (3/28/24)

Have a knack for trivia? Well, so does Brooke… Try to answer as many questions right as you can in 30 seconds. If you answer more correctly than Brooke, you win 100 bucks! Good luck!

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Billie Eilish takes issue with the “biggest artists in the world” selling “wasteful” vinyl variants

Disney/Chris Willard

When Billie Eilish‘s most recent album, Happier Than Ever, came out, she offered it in eight different vinyl versions, but all the vinyl was recycled, and the shrink wrap was made from sugarcane. That’s why Billie, who’s all about sustainability, has a problem with artists who go crazy with vinyl variants without thinking about the environmental impact.

Speaking to Billboard, Billie says, “We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging… which ups the sales and ups the numbers and gets them more money … I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is.”

“It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable,” she continues. 

“And then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f****** 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” Billie adds. “It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that s***.

Billie’s mom, Maggie Baird, even tells Billboard that she would like the publication to have “limits, like no more than four colors” of vinyl for each release.

Among the artists who most recently offered or are offering different vinyl versions of their albums: Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Shakira, Olivia Rodrigo, Pearl Jam and Justin Timberlake.

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Biden teaming up with Obama, Clinton in New York City for major campaign fundraiser

Alex Wong/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden is teaming up with two of his Democratic predecessors — former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — to ramp up enthusiasm for his reelection campaign at a star-studded fundraiser Thursday night in New York City.

The evening is expected to rake in more than $25 million, a “historic” sum for a single event, according to the campaign. It will begin with a virtual pre-program featuring Biden, Obama and Clinton, and hosted by Biden’s campaign manager.

Afterward, actress Mindy Kaling will host the program inside Radio City Music Hall featuring musical guests Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele. They will make appearances in front of a sold-out audience of 5,000 people. The campaign sent fundraising emails to supporters offering a link to tune in virtually in exchange for a donation.

First lady Jill Biden is scheduled to kick off the evening of performances that culminate with the main event: an armchair conversation with Biden, Obama and Clinton moderated by late-night comedian Stephen Colbert.

Tickets for the event ranged from $225 to $500,000. It could shape up to be the most lucrative event for Democrats in history.

Democrats are unified and energized behind President Biden’s reelection campaign — and that will be on full display this Thursday in New York City,” Biden-Harris spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. Munoz, in the statement, attacked Donald Trump, on the other hand, as lacking money and energy and facing challenges like reluctance from some GOP primary voters and criticism from his former vice president, Mike Pence.

The fundraiser is part of a major push by the campaign to raise a large sum of money before the end-of-month Federal Election Commission deadline to continue to show the president’s fundraising strength. The campaign said it and the Democratic National Committee, along with their joint fundraising committees, raised $53 million in February.

The event also comes as Biden continues to see protests while campaigning over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with a rally at a Virginia theater in January seeing at least 14 disruptions.

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, helped to spearhead the Thursday event along with movie mogul and Biden campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford and Biden Victory Fund finance chair Chris Korge, according to the campaign.

Select guests will have the opportunity to have their portrait taken with the three presidents by the famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. There will also be a virtual conversation with the three presidents and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, ahead of an after-party hosted by the first lady and featuring DJ D-Nice.

The star-studded evening comes as Biden ramps up campaigning for the general election with seven months to go. Since his State of the Union address, Biden has crisscrossed the country to visit battleground states in what the campaign is calling a “month of action.”

Last week, during a visit to the White House, Obama taped videos with Biden highlighting the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and for future fundraising. The former president has been featured in two of the campaign’s digital ads so far this cycle, with more recorded and ready to roll out soon, according to the campaign.

The former president, who remains popular among Democrats’ base, has already proved to be a lucrative asset.

Grassroots fundraising content signed by or featuring Obama has generated more than $15.4 million for Biden’s reelection this cycle, according to the campaign, with a “Meet the Presidents” event featuring Obama and Biden in December raising close to $3 million.

The Thursday fundraiser is the first joint public campaign event for Biden and Obama. The former president is expected to participate in major fundraising events and travel the country on behalf of Biden leading into November.

Given the stakes of this election, President Obama will do all he can to support President Biden’s reelection,” Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz said. “In fact, he looks forward to helping Democrats up and down the ballot make the case to voters this fall. Our strategy will be based on driving impact, especially where and when his voice can help move the needle.”

Trump, meanwhile, is also fundraising off of the event, sending several emails as the Biden event was being planned with the subject line, “Obama is back!”

“I have something better,” he said in a pitch last month. “I HAVE YOU & MILLIONS OF PATRIOTIC AMERICANS WHO WANT TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Katzenberg called Thursday’s event a “testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built.”

“Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the President’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election,” his statement continued. “The numbers don’t lie: today’s event is a massive show of force and a true reflection of the momentum to reelect the Biden-Harris ticket.”

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California State Bar recommends ex-Trump attorney John Eastman be disbarred for 2020 election efforts

Marilyn Nieves/Getty Images

(LOS ANGELES) — The California State Bar has recommended that former Trump election attorney John Eastman be disbarred, a judge said in a filing on Wednesday.

Eastman was charged with multiple disciplinary counts by the State Bar of California last January from allegations that Eastman engaged in “a course of conduct to plan, promote, and assist then-President Trump in executing a strategy, unsupported by facts or law, to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.”

“Eastman’s wrongdoing was committed directly in the course and scope of his representation of President Trump and the Trump Campaign,” State Bar Court Judge Yvette D. Roland said in Wednesday’s filling. “Eastman’s actions transgressed those ethical limits by advocating, participating in and pursuing a strategy to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that lacked evidentiary or legal support.”

“In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman’s misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred,” the judge wrote.

The judge found that Eastman exhibited an “unwillingness to acknowledge ethical lapses regarding his actions, demonstrating an apparent inability to accept responsibility.”

The lack of remorse shown by Eastman, Roland said, “presents a significant risk that Eastman may engage in further unethical conduct, compounding the threat to the public.”

In a statement to ABC News, Eastman’s attorney Randall Miller said that Eastman maintains that the “handling of the issues he was asked to asses after the November 2020 election was based on reliable legal precedent.”

“The process undertaken by Dr. Eastman in 2020 is the same process taken by lawyers every day and everywhere — indeed, that is the essence of what lawyers do,” Miller said. “To the extent today’s decision curtails that principle, we are confident the Review Court will swiftly provide a remedy.”

Investigators for the California bar said Eastman made “demonstrably false and misleading statements” with the memos he drafted that became the framework for the “legal strategies” aimed at having then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of the 2020 election.

The disbarment proceedings, which began in June, featured testimony from Pence’s legal counsel Greg Jacob, state election officials from several states, and experts who Eastman relied on for his false claims of widespread election fraud.

Eastman is also one of six alleged co-conspirators in the federal election interference indictment that special counsel Jack Smith brought against former President Donald Trump in August.

Separately, Eastman has been charged alongside Trump and other co-defendants in the separate criminal election interference case in Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Prosecutors seeking 2.5-year prison sentence for former Spain soccer chief over World Cup kiss

Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

(LONDON) — Prosecutors are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for Spain’s former soccer chief, Luis Rubiales, who may stand trial over a nonconsensual kiss at the Women’s World Cup last year, the Madrid prosecutor’s office confirmed to ABC News.

Rubiales kissed Spanish soccer player Jennifer Hermoso on the lips without her consent during the team’s trophy ceremony following Spain’s 1-0 win against England on Aug. 20, 2023. The incident was captured on video and in photos.

The former Spanish soccer federation president was banned in October 2023 from national and international soccer activities for three years after the organization found he violated an article of FIFA’s disciplinary code with the kiss incident.

Earlier this year, a judge said enough evidence existed to propose a trial for Rubiales and three other former executives with the Royal Spanish Football Federation.

Prosecutors confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that they have asked for a two-and-a-half-year sentence for Rubiales, arguing he was holding the head of Hermoso without her consent and that the nonconsensual kiss had personal and professional consequences for the soccer player. He could also face a fine of at least 50,000 euros ($54,000), they said.

Prosecutors said they are also requesting that Rubiales be prohibited from getting within a 200-meter radius of Hermoso and be barred from communicating with her.

Rubiales, who was charged with sexual assault and coercion, has claimed the kiss was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.

The prosecutor’s office said it also requested one-and-a-half years in prison for the three former executives. The judge said they may have put pressure on Hermoso to say it was a consensual kiss.

A trial has not yet started in the case.

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TV magic: Data shows some 'Sex and the City' characters would have trouble affording NYC IRL

HBO/Newsmakers via Getty Images

With Sex and the City episodes now on Netflix, new fans are enjoying seeing what Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte were up to in New York City back in the day. 

However, their glam life as seen on TV would have run into some harsh financial realities in real life, according to data crunched by online casino company Nieuwe-Casinos.

Using various sources like the job site Glassdoor, the company put the salary of Sarah Jessica Parker‘s columnist Carrie Bradshaw at around $49,300 per year back when the show premiered 1998.

However, her “lifestyle costs” — which include everything from those Cosmos with the gals to smoking and of course her outfits — were more than $38,500 per year. 

At one point, the company points out Carrie says she spent 40 grand on shoes alone, meaning for all the glamour of the show, her character in reality could never afford it.

As an attorney, Cynthia Nixon‘s Miranda Hobbes’ salary in 1998 would be nearly $90,000, so while her lifestyle expenses would be steep at more than $38,000, she’d have her head above water. 

Kim Cattrall‘s sassy Samantha Jones would be pulling in around $55,000 as a publicist in 1998, though all those drinks, hair appointments and we assume birth control would run her more than $38,400. This doesn’t account for her extensive clothing collection. 

Finally, Kristin Davis‘ Charlotte York was an art gallery owner in 1998, pulling in around $53.5 a year, but minus brunches, taxis and drinks, she’d be left with just nearly $16,000. 

Methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

'This is the beginning, not the end': Republicans brace for continued abortion rights fallout

Grant Faint/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Republicans accomplished a longtime goal in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, scrapping constitutional protections for abortion. They’ve been faced with seemingly monthly electoral setbacks ever since, with no end in sight.

Democrats have made defending reproductive rights a rallying cry, seizing on it to defy expectations in the 2022 midterms and hoping it offers a life raft this year to a President Joe Biden, whose approval rating hit a new low in January, and down-ballot candidates running in his wake. And the fallout from the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision has appeared ceaseless, sparking just recently a controversy over in vitro fertilization access in Alabama and this week’s Supreme Court hearing on a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of mifepristone, a widely used drug used in medication abortions.

That dynamic has many Republicans bracing for further electoral consequences, with few saying that they see an off ramp to the now routine flareups in the debate over abortion.

“This is the beginning, not the end. This issue is not going away anytime soon. There are many facets to this that are layered in federal policy, state policy, there’s going to be court cases, there’s going to be things that come up. We’ve had already this year an IVF challenge, we’ve had, now, the pill challenge. There’s gonna be more of this,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard.

To be fair, reproductive rights are not the only issue that could move the needle this November.

Israel’s war in Gaza is dampening enthusiasm among Democrats’ base; inflation, while declining, is still a major concern for voters, according to an early March ABC News/Ipsos poll of adults that found Americans grade Trump more favorably than Biden on inflation (45%-31%); immigration has been a constant thorn in the White House’s side, with voters telling pollsters they trust Republicans more than Democrats to clamp down on unauthorized border crossings.”

GOP operatives who spoke to ABC News frequently tied their conundrum around abortion to Democrats’ struggles to convince voters that the parties share the blame over immigration concerns.

But on those other issues, there are at least action items, even if they may not ultimately succeed: diplomatic pressure could tamp down hostilities in Gaza, possibly ending the war months before Election Day; the Federal Reserve could lower interest rates to ameliorate inflation concerns; Biden could take already-teased executive actions on the border.

Republicans said they’re still searching for action items on abortion that would prevent such flashes as the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on IVF and the resulting controversies.

“It is the challenge that we have on a daily basis, and you never know what’s next and what state or what member of Congress or state legislator’s going to do something that rocks the boat on it,” said one veteran GOP strategist who spoke anonymously to comment on such a hot-button issue.

“Just like we take advantage of the more liberal side of the Democrat Party, the Democrats are going to try to highlight some of the more conservative people on the right. That’s the cards we’re dealt, we’re just gonna have to deal with it as it comes.”

The electoral potency of the issue was put into sharp relief again Tuesday, when Democrat Marilyn Lands won a swing state House seat in Alabama. Lands focused much of her campaign around abortion and IVF, while Republican Teddy Powell centered much of his campaign around the economy.

Lands’ win was in part attributed to a backlash to the state Supreme Court’s IVF ruling. And while many Republicans privately and publicly lambasted that decision as beyond the pale, including by GOP standards, operatives conceded there’s little that can be done to prevent a ruling or bill from making a splash in the future, even if it’s widely viewed as unacceptable.

“The states have just started wrestling with one of the most intractable issues in American politics. And some state legislatures are going to overreach, and some state judicial rulings will overreach, and then they’ll get corrected,” GOP consultant Whit Ayres said. “We saw that with the IVF issue in Alabama, where the legislature and the governor rushed to confront and overturn a Supreme Court decision.”

When asked if Republicans have to make peace with a pattern of overreach and correction, Ayres replied, “Yeah. That’s the way the process works.”

Republicans’ challenge is rooted in a fundamental disagreement over how the party should approach abortion, with some advocating for some kind of federal policy like capping abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and concerns for life of the mother, and others pushing a leave-it-to-the-states approach, keeping the party on the defensive.

“When you have inconsistencies across the country, it’s easier for the other side to paint that in one broad stroke,” Blizzard said.

Republicans in support of a federal policy like a 15- or 16-week limit with exceptions argue that could walk the line of taking action while not alienating too many voters.

“I think it’s 15 weeks with exceptions on the federal level — with states allowed to go further if they wish to. And I can’t for a minute say that the entire movement has coalesced around that, but I think that’s a winning proposal,” said GOP strategist Bob Heckman.

Heckman added it would be “helpful” if former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive White House nominee and de facto party leader, declared where he stands as a sign to the broader party.

The former president has floated capping abortion at 15 or 16 weeks of pregnancy, though he has declined to definitively lay out his stance — a strategy that some predicted would change precisely because of the unpredictability of upcoming controversies around reproductive rights.

“I think for Trump, it’s not feasible to not have a position. If you just say, ‘leave it to the states, and I have no opinion beyond that,’ I don’t think that’s feasible, because then you’re stuck with anything that any state does,” said Republican strategist Scott Jennings.

“What [Trump] could say is, ‘look, I’m signaling my position. I think it’s a reasonable position. I think it’s where the Republican Party should be, and I think if you support me, you’d do well to take this position.’ So, maybe that’s where they’re headed,” Jennings added. “When he talks, Republicans listen, and they tend to adopt his views on issues, and so, I think it’s likely that this will become the de facto position of the Republican Party.”

Republicans who support a state-by-state approach, though, point to the existing lack of consensus and the ambitions of other lawmakers or conservative state courts to suggest that such federal policy isn’t a panacea to the GOP’s messaging woes.

“You’ve got a presidential campaign that usually sets the tone, and then you’ve got everybody else running in their Senate seats or congressional seats or even state legislative seats or statewide officeholders that are trying to be the most conservative on this issue or that issue. And even if there was a consensus at the federal level, that doesn’t mean the state guys are gonna fall in line,” said the veteran GOP strategist.

“There will never be an abortion policy that will be considered legitimate in both Massachusetts and Mississippi,” Ayres added. “The idea that you’re going to find some kind of national solution that will be accepted as legitimate around the country is a mirage.”

When asked if he could think of any historical parallels of an issue that had such little consensus with such significant electoral repercussions, Ayres cited one of the country’s most historically divisive issues: slavery.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Hugh Grant as Tony the Tiger, Amy Schumer and more in trailer to Jerry Seinfeld's 'Unfrosted'

Netflix

Jerry Seinfeld‘s near-obsession with breakfast cereals on Seinfeld was channeled into his directorial debut, Unfrosted, the Netflix film about the birth of the Pop Tart.

The trailer for Unfrosted: The Pop Tart Story, also starring Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Christian Slater, Hugh Grant as Tony the Tiger and Bill Burr, among many others, has just popped up online.

Set to David Bowie‘s “Rebel Rebel,” the snippet starts with a dramatic rocket launch countdown from the point of view of a Pop Tart heating up inside a toaster.

The visual syncs with what Jerry previously revealed about the 1963-set project: The story of the pastry’s invention “is told like The Right Stuff.”

“I believe we have split the atom of breakfast,” Jerry’s Kellogg executive Bob Cabana exclaims of the discovery.

There’s a space race of sorts going on between “sworn cereal rivals” Kellogg’s and Post “to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever.”

To help their chances of beating Amy Schumer‘s Post president, Cabana “stacks the deck with ringers,” including Chef Boyardee (Bobby Moynihan) and fitness icon Jack LaLanne (James Marsden).

The race “to reinvent breakfast” goes all the way up to the White House, with Burr playing JFK. “You have to win,” he says, asking for a progress update. McCarthy’s character unveils a “not to scale” sketch of the Pop Tart.

“What are you guys, five years old?” JFK blasts back. “Little John-John draws better than that, and I think there’s something wrong with him.”

Netflix calls the film “a wildly imaginative tale of ambition, betrayal and menacing milkmen — sweetened with artificial ingredients.”

The movie, which also stars Sebastian Maniscalco, Peter Dinklage and Cedric the Entertainer, pops up May 3.

 

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