Disney celebrates 43rd anniversary of Make-A-Wish
Disney Parks around the world made dreams come true for Make-A-Wish kids this weekend.
Disney Parks around the world made dreams come true for Make-A-Wish kids this weekend.
The Senate on Thursday night passed legislation to lift the nation's debt ceiling and stave off what would've been an economically disastrous default days before Monday's deadline. The bill will now go to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature. Biden heralded the Senate vote passing the budget agreement as a "big win" for the economy.
A judge on Thursday set preliminary hearing dates for Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, 2023 in Lester's case, according to ABC affiliate in Kansas City, KMBC. Yarl's family said that he has been experiencing migraines after suffering a traumatic brain injury that has restricted his ability to participate in activities he loves like playing music.
A South Carolina teenager who police say was fatally shot by a gas station owner who they say had falsely accused him of shoplifting was remembered by his middle school as a well-liked student who was "intelligent" and "humorous." Cyrus Carmack-Belton, 14, died after being shot in the back on Monday, authorities said. The teen was chased from the gas station by the owner and the owner's son after they wrongly believed he had shoplifted several bottles of water and was shot during the pursuit, according to the Richland County Sheriff's Office.
With just days until the deadline for the nation to default, the Senate now is racing against the clock to pass a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement and avoid what would be an economically catastrophic failure to pay the country's bills. Debate began Thursday morning as the chamber's leaders urged swift passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, with critics voicing their concerns with the bill. "Time is a luxury the Senate does not have if we want to prevent default," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks from the floor.
Five people were rescued after a private plane crashed into waters near the Bahamas on Thursday, the Bahamas' Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority told ABC News. The plane was en route to Florida when it crash-landed into the water about 10 nautical miles north of Andros, an island in the Bahamas, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said during a press conference Thursday. Two pilots and three passengers were aboard the flight, according to Volunteer Pilot Group, a Florida-based organization that connects volunteer pilots with passengers in need and said it had arranged the flight.
In particular, Trump took issue with a comment the Florida governor has used on the campaign trail in recent days, when DeSantis has said he's gunning for "eight years" in office in order to deliver on a myriad of conservative promises -- an implicit contrast with Trump, who can only serve one more term. "You don't need eight years, you need six months," Trump said Thursday morning during a breakfast with the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale.
As debate grows over how gender identity is handled in schools, many employees at educational institutions have said that they feel caught in the middle, and some also say that they've been disciplined because of it. Houghton University is a private Christian college in upstate New York that is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, a Methodist denomination. "While the details of individual personnel matters are confidential, Houghton University has never terminated an employment relationship based solely on the use of pronouns in staff email signatures," a university spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News.
The case against the Marine veteran charged in the chokehold death of a homeless man aboard a New York City subway train is now before a grand jury, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Prosecutors are currently trying to secure an indictment after Daniel Penny, 24, was charged with second-degree manslaughter last month in the death of Jordan Neely, 30. Penny's lawyers have said the veteran is prepared to testify before the grand jury but no decision had been made.
The family of Marvin Gaye's co-writer on "Let's Get it On" intends to appeal a verdict in Manhattan federal court for Ed Sheeran, according to a court filing Thursday. The family of Ed Townsend filed a notice of appeal after it lost a copyright infringement case involving Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" last month. The document did not say on what grounds the Townsend family would appeal but it did signal the family would challenge the outcome and several rulings made by the judge.
The federal judge in New York who will decide whether to move former President Donald Trump's criminal case from state court to federal court previously did work for a Trump entity while he was in private practice, according to a court filing Thursday. The Manhattan district attorney has charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to a hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Trump has argued that the case belongs in federal court because the alleged crimes occurred while he was president.
A federal judge sentenced two Oath Keeper defendants Thursday for their roles in disrupting the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. Edward Vallejo was sentenced to three years in prison while Roberto Minuta received a term of four years and six months. Prosecutors argued Minuta was a key leader of the "second wave" of Oath Keepers who stormed the Capitol.
Paramilitary organizations making the largest cross-border attack inside Russia since the war began have maintained they're fighting for Ukraine and reportedly claimed to have conducted another operation Thursday. The incidents raise questions about whether they put at risk the main U.S. strategic goal of avoiding escalation with Moscow -- "World War III" as the White House has warned -- and they come just when the conflict appears poised to intensity with Ukraine's long-awaited spring offensive. Any assessment from Washington on whether the groups are operating within the Ukrainian government's chain of command could have significant impact in determining whether any end-use violation or breach of agreement occurred if the fighters were given access to the equipment or pave the way for Kyiv to openly outfit the fighters with donated weaponry, while the persisting lack of clarity raises questions about how effectively these arms are monitored.
France is now the first country in Europe to regulate influencer marketing on social media, cracking down on what people can monetize and promote online with a new law passed on Thursday. "The law was passed in record time and unanimously, which shows how much support it had in both government and parliament," Stéphane Vojetta, one of the French legislators who championed this new bill, told ABC News. Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves people leveraging their reputation to endorse products or services in exchange for money.
Dwayne Johnson is returning to the "Fast & Furious" franchise and says that he and Vin Diesel have put the past behind them. In a video he shared from Hawaii on Thursday, the actor said that fans will see him as his "Fast" character, Luke Hobbs, in a film that will serve as a "new chapter & set up for FASTX: Part II." "The secret of Hobbs being back in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise, that was a secret that was hard as hell to keep," he added.
Despite separating in 2012, Rhea Perlman said she and Danny DeVito are still married and have a "pretty decent understanding and relationship with each other" now. The "Cheers" alum confirmed that she and the "Taxi" actor are still legally husband and wife in an interview with fellow actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the May 30 episode of Lemonada Media's "Wiser Than Me" podcast. "We are still very good friends and we see each other a lot," Perlman said.
Ken Featherstone, the mayor of Indianola, Mississippi, urged his community to "trust the process" amid an investigation into the police shooting of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry after he reportedly called 911 for help during a domestic disturbance at his home. Featherstone spoke out about the incident, which has drawn national attention, in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday after the shooting rocked Indianola – a small town with a population of less than 10,000 located in the northern part of Mississippi in Sunflower County.
Blackjack players say they've been noticing a difference at the tables in Las Vegas lately. Blackjack and casino experts, like Mike Aponte, who was part of the infamous MIT card-counting team, say this is no fluke, as casino owners have found ways to get more money from gamblers. Aponte spoke with "Start Here" Thursday about the latest trend.
The Pentagon informed Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base that a previously approved drag show slated to take place on the base on the first day of Pride Month could not take place because it was not in line with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent comments, according to two defense officials. The drag performance would have been held at the Officer's Club at southern Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base on Thursday, June 1, and had been approved by base commanders, just as it had been over the previous two years.
A 6-year-old Louisiana girl recently went viral after a photo of her looking confident and poised at her kindergarten graduation was shared tens of thousands of times on social media. DeLexus Sims shared her daughter Taylor's photo in a May 24 Facebook post, and in just a week, it had garnered more than 13,000 shares and 22,000 likes.
At one Wednesday morning event in the western town of Salix, Iowa, DeSantis and his wife, Casey, engaged in a living room-style conversation, swapping anecdotes about their three young kids that sought to give voters a rare glimpse into the home life of Florida's leader, who has generally avoided the mainstream press. The governor joked that when he and Casey, a former TV reporter, brought two of their children to Japan in April on a trade mission, "We never got on a schedule time wise, so they'd be up at 2 in the morning."