“Policing plays a key role in maintaining structural inequalities between people of color and white people in the United States,” lead researcher Frank Edwards said.

Members of Black Lives Matter protest on the fifth anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, a day after federal prosecutors announced their decision not to prosecute NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo or other officers on charges related to his death, in New York on July 17, 2019.Michael A. McCoy / ReutersAug. 13, 2019, 11:25 AM EDTBy Gwen Aviles

Young American men are at a high risk of being killed by a police officer, according to a recent study.

Police killings — which can include shootings, choking and other uses of force — are the sixth-leading cause of death among men of all races ages 25-29, according to the study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

Accidental death, a category that includes drug overdoses and car accidents, was the biggest cause at 76.6 deaths per 100,000, followed by suicide (26.7), other homicides (22.0), heart disease (7.0), and cancer (6.3).

The risk of being killed by the police is more pronounced for black men, who are 2.5 times more likely than white men to be killed by police, while black women are 1.4 times more likely than white women to be killed by police.

According to Frank Edwards, lead researcher of the study and an assistant professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, the numbers “may be an undercount.”

While the killings of Michael Brown, 18, Charleena Lyles, 30, and other black men and women at the hands of law enforcement have brought national attention to the role race plays in police violence against Americans, researchers lack basic estimates of the prevalence of police-involved deaths, in large part because of an absence of official and authoritative data.

Edwards told NBC News that the federal government “never collected adequate data” speaking to racial, gender-based and age disparities among victims of police violence and that researchers cannot rely on police departments to self-report such cases.

“Police departments have very little incentive to record the number of deaths, nor are they mandated to do so,” Edwards said.

In conducting this research, Edwards and his team instead relied on data from Fatal Encounters, a journalist-led effort that uses news reports, public records requests and crowdsourced information to document police-induced fatalities.

Edwards said that he hopes the study shows the need for a “multi-pronged approach” to collecting data that doesn’t require exclusively relying on media reports. He also hopes the numbers will lead to others understanding police-involved deaths and police brutality as public health issues.

“There’s clear evidence that shows the harmful and distinct ways police violence expands inequality,” Edwards said, citing other research that shows “stop and frisk” and aggressive policing can affect both mental and physical health. “Policing plays a key role in maintaining structural inequalities between people of color and white people in the United States.”

Almost exactly a year ago, on Aug. 16, 2018, I visited Jeffrey Epstein at his cavernous Manhattan mansion.

The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Mr. Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it. He also claimed to know a great deal about these people, some of it potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.

So one of my first thoughts on hearing of Mr. Epstein’s suicide was that many prominent men and at least a few women must be breathing sighs of relief that whatever Mr. Epstein knew, he has taken it with him.

During our conversation, Mr. Epstein made no secret of his own scandalous past — he’d pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from underage girls and was a registered sex offender — and acknowledged to me that he was a pariah in polite society. At the same time, he seemed unapologetic. His very notoriety, he said, was what made so many people willing to confide in him. Everyone, he suggested, has secrets and, he added, compared with his own, they seemed innocuous. People confided in him without feeling awkward or embarrassed, he claimed.

I’d never met Mr. Epstein before. I had contacted him because my colleagues and I had heard a rumor that he was advising Tesla’s embattled chief executive, Elon Musk, who was in trouble after announcing on Twitter that he had lined up the funding to take Tesla private.

The Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into Mr. Musk’s remarks, which moved markets but didn’t appear to have much basis in fact. There were calls for Mr. Musk to relinquish his position as Tesla’s chairman and for Tesla to recruit more independent directors. I’d heard that Mr. Epstein was compiling a list of candidates at Mr. Musk’s behest — and that Mr. Epstein had an email from Mr. Musk authorizing the search for a new chairman.

Mr. Musk and Tesla vehemently deny this. “It is incorrect to say that Epstein ever advised Elon on anything,” a spokeswoman for Mr. Musk, Keely Sulprizio, said Monday.

When I contacted Mr. Epstein, he readily agreed to an interview. The caveat was that the conversation would be “on background,” which meant I could use the information as long as I didn’t attribute it directly to him. (I consider that condition to have lapsed with his death.)

He insisted that I meet him at his house, which I’d seen referred to as the largest single-family home in Manhattan. This seems plausible: I initially walked past the building, on East 71st Street, because it looked more like an embassy or museum than a private home. Next to the imposing double doors was a polished brass plaque with the initials “J.E.” and a bell. After I rang, the door was opened by a young woman, her blond hair pulled back in a chignon, who greeted me with what sounded like an Eastern European accent.

I can’t say how old she was, but my guess would be late teens or perhaps 20. Given Mr. Epstein’s past, this struck me as far too close to the line. Why would Mr. Epstein want a reporter’s first impression to be that of a young woman opening his door?

The woman led me up a monumental staircase to a room on the second floor overlooking the Frick museum across the street. It was quiet, the lighting dim, and the air-conditioning was set very low. After a few minutes, Mr. Epstein bounded in, dressed casually in jeans and a polo shirt, shook my hand and said he was a big fan of my work. He had a big smile and warm manner. He was trim and energetic, perhaps from all the yoga he said he was practicing. He was undeniably charismatic.

Before we left the room he took me to a wall covered with framed photographs. He pointed to a full-length shot of a man in traditional Arab dress. “That’s M.B.S.,” he said, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The crown prince had visited him many times, and they spoke often, Mr. Epstein said.

He led me to a large room at the rear of the house. There was an expansive table with about 20 chairs. Mr. Epstein took a seat at the head, and I sat to his left. He had a computer, a small blackboard and a phone to his right. He said he was doing some foreign-currency trading.

Behind him was a table covered with more photographs. I noticed one of Mr. Epstein with former President Bill Clinton, and another of him with the director Woody Allen. Displaying photos of celebrities who had been caught up in sex scandals of their own also struck me as odd.

Mr. Epstein avoided specifics about his work for Tesla. He told me that he had good reason to be cryptic: Once it became public that he was advising the company, he’d have to stop doing so, because he was “radioactive.” He predicted that everyone at Tesla would deny talking to him or being his friend.

He said this was something he’d become used to, even though it didn’t stop people from visiting him, coming to his dinner parties or asking him for money. (That was why, Mr. Epstein told me without any trace of irony, he was considering becoming a minister so that his acquaintances would be confident that their conversations would be kept confidential.)

If he was reticent about Tesla, he was more at ease discussing his interest in young women. He said that criminalizing sex with teenage girls was a cultural aberration and that at times in history it was perfectly acceptable. He pointed out that homosexuality had long been considered a crime and was still punishable by death in some parts of the world.

Mr. Epstein then meandered into a discussion of other prominent names in technology circles. He said people in Silicon Valley had a reputation for being geeky workaholics, but that was far from the truth: They were hedonistic and regular users of recreational drugs. He said he’d witnessed prominent tech figures taking drugs and arranging for sex (Mr. Epstein stressed that he never drank or used drugs of any kind).

I kept trying to steer the conversation back to Tesla, but Mr. Epstein remained evasive. He said he’d spoken to the Saudis about possibly investing in Tesla, but he wouldn’t provide any specifics or names. When I pressed him on the purported email from Mr. Musk, he said the email wasn’t from Mr. Musk himself, but from someone very close to him. He wouldn’t say who that person was. I asked him if that person would talk to me, and he said he’d ask. He later said the person declined; I doubt he asked.

When I later reflected on our interview, I was struck by how little information Mr. Epstein had actually provided. While I can’t say anything he said was an explicit lie, much of what he said was vague or speculative and couldn’t be proved or disproved. He did have at least some ties to Mr. Musk — a widely circulated photoshows Mr. Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s confidante and former companion, at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars party.

“Ghislaine simply inserted herself behind him in a photo he was posing for without his knowledge,” Ms. Sulprizio, the spokeswoman for Mr. Musk, said.

It seemed clear Mr. Epstein had embellished his role in the Tesla situation to enhance his own importance and gain attention — something that now seems to have been a pattern.

About a week after that interview, Mr. Epstein called and asked if I’d like to have dinner that Saturday with him and Woody Allen. I said I’d be out of town. A few weeks after that, he asked me to join him for dinner with the author Michael Wolff and Donald J. Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon. I declined. (I don’t know if these dinners actually happened. Mr. Bannon has said he didn’t attend. Mr. Wolff and a spokeswoman for Mr. Allen didn’t respond to requests for comment on Monday.)

Several months passed. Then early this year Mr. Epstein called to ask if I’d be interested in writing his biography. He sounded almost plaintive. I sensed that what he really wanted was companionship. As his biographer, I’d have no choice but to spend hours listening to his saga. Already leery of any further ties to him, I was relieved I could say that I was already busy with another book.

That was the last I heard from him. After his arrest and suicide, I’m left to wonder: What might he have told me?

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball is optimistic that Merriweather Post Pavilion could host anniversary event, though many obstacles remain

The countdown clock on Woodstock 50’s website continues to subtract days, minutes, and hours until August 16th, when the festival would ostensibly kick off. In recent weeks, its harried organizers have been denied permits four times in Vernon, New York, where they attempted to move the beleaguered fest from its original proposed site of Watkins Glen International. And with no venue in place, they have yet to put tickets on sale.

But much like the original Woodstock, they may be granted a reprieve at the 11th hour. On Thursday, with a mere three weeks to go, Columbia, Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion emerged as the fest’s possible savior. But there are still a few italicized question marks that may continue to put the festival in jeopardy.

Dead & Company Drop Out of Woodstock 50 as Artists Flee Beleaguered Festival

Inside Woodstock 50’s Last-Ditch Maryland Attempt

“It definitely could happen here,” Howard County Executive Calvin Ball tells Rolling Stone. Ball serves in a role similar to a mayor for the county, whose city of Columbia is situated between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. “It’s up to the promoter and Merriweather.”

Ball, in particular, is excited to potentially have Woodstock 50 in his backyard. He learned last week that the festival organizers were in talks with the Merriweather venue — which opened in the summer of 1967 and hosted a Janis Joplin gig three weeks before the original event in 1969. “Woodstock is an icon of peace and music,” he says. “I think when you combine that with the history and foundation of Columbia, focused on peace, inclusion, diversity, and our shared interest in the arts, I thought it was a great opportunity to have a conversation.”

This past Tuesday, he sent a letter to Greg Peck, one of the principal organizers of Woodstock 50, expressing his excitement. “When we heard that there was an opportunity to save this festival and bring a piece of American history to our community this summer, we jumped at the chance,” he wrote. “Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia is a jewel of Howard County and one of the top music venues in the nation. It felt like such a natural fit to host a historic festival on our storied stage.”

If all goes well with shoring up the venue, Ball says the county has the framework in place to put on the show. The police, fire, and transportation departments fall under his purview, as does the necessary permitting; these have previously been bugbears for Woodstock 50 at the New York State venues they originally scouted for the festival. “We’ve had Jazz Fest, Virgin Freefest and many other festivals here that have brought tens of thousands of people,” he says. “We have the infrastructure in place.” And he adds, “We have a history here in Howard County of being efficient and making things happen on very short order when needed.”

But those newly involved in Woodstock 50 have cautioned to say with absolute certainty that the festival will occur. When a reporter asked Ball, “So you’re absolutely positive that Woodstock 50 is going to take place?” at a press conference Thursday night, Ball demurred, replying, “Howard County is absolutely positive that we are in talks with the promoter and with Merriwether.”

Merriweather Post Pavilion was equally cautious in their official statement, sounding almost passive-aggressive in their punting to the Woodstock 50 organizers. “Woodstock 50 approached Merriweather about hosting their event here in Columbia, Md.,” Seth Hurwitz, chairman of I.M.P. and operator of Merriweather Post Pavilion, said in a statement Thursday. “The Woodstock folks are working on securing the artists now. If the bands come, we’ll produce the show. We’re looking forward to getting an update as soon as Woodstock 50 has one.”

Reports of the lineup so far have been grim. Jay-Z, the festival’s highest-profile artist, will not perform in Maryland. And John Fogerty, one of a handful of Woodstock ’69 alumni, has said that he’s now opting to perform solely at the Woodstock “tribute” on the original festival site. “John Fogerty knows where he will be for the anniversary weekend of Woodstock,” his rep said in a statement. “At only one site … at the original one — the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.” On Friday, Woodstock 50 producers released all artists from their contracts, per Billboard, leaving the lineup very much in doubt.

A rep for Woodstock 50 declined to comment for this article. A rep for the Merriweather Post Pavilion declined to comment.

Hurwitz reiterated in a Pollstar interview Thursday that he’s just waiting to see which artists will come to the venue. “Right now, I am still waiting on them to present us with a show,” he said. “We are ready to do a show if they have one.”

The venue already has Smashing Pumpkins and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds booked that weekend and would have to consider working around that. (A rep for Gallagher did not reply to a request for comment. A rep for the Pumpkins declined to comment.) “We need to talk to them about maybe being involved [in Woodstock 50] or maybe we wouldn’t do it on that day,” Hurwitz said. The whole thing is a big “if,” but he’s cautiously optimistic. “Maybe [Woodstock] will end up one day or maybe it will end up being three days, who knows?” he said. “Let’s see who they tell me is playing. That’s what I’m waiting for at this point.”

Meanwhile, agents are working behind the scenes to figure out whether the dozens of other acts who are still listed on the festival’s lineup page (which still mentions Watkins Glen in the artwork) will commit to the move. Earlier this week, Woodstock 50 organizers put in a request to at least one major talent agency to see if they would perform at Merriweather. Rolling Stone has confirmed that numerous acts on the original lineup would still get paid even if they declined to perform, as artists contractually have the right to refuse to play the new venue.

“Once the promoter lines up the various acts with Merriweather, I am going to be prepared and ensure that we have a safe, fun, special event that not only celebrates our history, but sends a message to everyone right now who needs a little bit more peace, love, and unity,” Ball says.

One big question mark that remains is how many people not only would attend Woodstock 50, but could. Hurwitz has said that the venue could accommodate up to 32,500 people on weekend days — Ball says that’s because they have expanded the venue in recent years — but it all comes down to interest. “We’ll have to go through the permitting process, and we’ll have to see what that looks like,” Ball says about the prospect of tens of thousands of people coming to the venue. “It will depend on the acts, the time of the acts, when people are coming, but we’ll be well prepared.”

But the biggest question remains: will anyone actually come? With so much negative press surrounding Woodstock 50, the prospective number of attendees has dropped from an original estimate of 150,000 to 61,000 when it came to permitting at the original venue, Watkins Glen, to a cap of 32,500 people. The original Woodstock attracted between 250,000 people and 400,000 people. Woodstock ’94 brought in 300,000 to 350,000 people, and even Woodstock ’99 got 225,000 music fans to upstate New York. But it’s safe to assume that people have grown wary of Woodstock 50 as it has fumbled repeatedly over the past few months.

R. Kelly (R) appears in court with his attorney Steve Greenberg, for a hearing on state sex-crime charges against him, on March 22, 2019, in Chicago. (Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/via AP)

R. Kelly, who doesn’t like to fly, could be spending some time in the air in coming weeks, after a judge in Chicago ordered him to be transferred to New York for an Aug. 2 hearing on federal sex-crime charges there.

Judge Harry Leinenweber, who presided over a bond hearing for Kelly in Chicago on a different set of federal sex-crime charges there, issued the transfer order on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Kelly’s lead lawyer in Chicago, Steve Greenberg, told USA TODAY he won’t know when the actual transfer will take place.

“The Bureau of Prisons will move him at their leisure, without telling me,” he said in an email. “Then he will be back to Chicago” after the hearing in New York. 

Kelly has been held without bond at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, after being arrested July 11 on separate indictments by the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern District of New York, which is based in Brooklyn.

He pleaded not guilty to the federal charges in Illinois.

In addition, Kelly faces state sexual-abuse charges in Illinois; he has pleaded not guilty to those and a trial date has not yet been set. 

The multiple new accusations against him involve multiple accusers, most of whom were underage at the time of the alleged crimes. Kelly is accused in the federal indictments of sex with underage girls, crossing state lines for sex with underage girls, racketeering, producing child pornography (by filming himself with underage girls) and obstruction of justice.

During his bond hearing on Tuesday in Chicago, Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Krull argued against allowing Kelly out on bond, describing him as a flight risk and “an extreme danger to the community, especially to minor girls.” 

In this courtroom sketch, R. Kelly, center, appears before U.S. Magistrate Shelia M. Finnegan in the Northern District of Illinois, on July 12, 2019, in Chicago. Also standing with Kelly is his attorney Steve Greenberg and an unidentified prosecutor. (Photo: Tom Gianni/ AP)

Greenberg unsuccessfully countered that Kelly had no means to flee because he has no money. And he’s no fan of flying. “Unlike his most famous song, ‘I Believe I Can Fly,’ Mr. Kelly doesn’t like to fly,” Greenberg told Judge Leinenweber.

It is not clear yet which set of charges Kelly will face first, whether the federal charges will be combined, for instance, and whether the federal cases will proceed ahead of the Illinois case, which is not uncommon when defendants are charged in multiple jurisdictions.

It’s also not yet clear whether Kelly will be hiring extra sets of lawyers to defend him on the federal cases, since he claims to be broke. So far, Greenberg has been his lead attorney of a team of six. 

With the news that rapper A$AP Rockyremains behind bars after an altercation in Sweden, his supporters have started a Change.org petition in hopes of setting him free.

Appearing to be created by A$AP Mob, the petition details that Rocky and his colleagues have been denied their right to counsel and could remain in jail until a trial is scheduled for mid- to late August.

READ MORE

Tyler, The Creator, T.I. and More Voice Their Support For A$AP Rocky Following His Arrest in Sweden

The petition also claims that Rocky acted out of self-defense and is being kept in “inhumane conditions,” including “24/7 solitary confinement, restriction of amenities for the most basic of human functions, access to palatable and life sustaining food as well as unsanitary conditions.”

A slew of big names have taken to social media to promote the movement, including A$AP Ferg, Post Malone, Miguel, Lil Yachty and Guess Jeans.

At the time of publication, the petition had surpassed its goal of 150,000 signees.

The late rapper Tupac Shakur in 1994 photo. Shakur’s estate is among the parties suing Universal Music over a 2008 fire in the label’s vaults.Steve Eichner/Getty Images

Several prominent bands, musicians and artist estates sued the world’s largest record company, Universal Music Group [UMG], on Friday after an investigation published by the New York Times earlier this month alleged that hundreds of thousands of master recordings, protection copies, unreleased music and other materials had burned in a massive fire at a UMG vault in 2008.

The suit, which seeks damages in excess of $100 million, was filed by the estates of Tom Petty and Tupac Shakur, the bands Hole and Soundgarden, and singer-songwriter Steve Earle; it is seeking class action status, so that any other “similarly situated,” UMG-affiliated musicians and estates may enter the suit as well. According to the Times report, the blaze allegedly destroyed the work of scores of top musicians over many decades, ranging from Louis Armstrong to The Roots.

From Chuck Berry To Tupac Shakur: Taking Stock Of The 2008 Universal Fire

The plaintiffs contend that UMG breached its contract with artists by failing to archive the materials properly, instead allegedly stowing masters and other materials “in an inadequate, substandard storage warehouse located on the backlot of Universal Studios [Hollywood] that was a known firetrap.” Moreover, they say that after the fire, “UMG concealed the loss with false public statements such as that ‘we only lost a small number of tapes and other material by obscure artists from the 1940s and 50s.’ “

The suit also claims that even as UMG allegedly hid devastating losses from their artists and the public, the company “successfully pursued litigation and insurance claims which it reportedly valued at $150 million,” and that the musicians are entitled to share in those claims.

The suit was filed in U.S. Central District Court in Los Angeles and is the first legal action taken since the Times published its investigation. The plaintiffs are being represented by three firms: King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano; McPherson LLP; and Susman Godfrey LLP.

Universal Music Group declined to comment to NPR on the class action lawsuit. In a previous statement on June 11, UMG said that the Times investigation contained “numerous inaccuracies, misleading statements, contradictions and fundamental misunderstandings.” Arnaud de Puyfontaine, the chairman of UMG’s parent company, Vivendi, told Variety on Thursday that the Times investigation was “just noise.”

Courtney Love Cobain — the former frontwoman of Hole (and the widow of Kurt Cobain, whose band Nirvana was another UMG group) — tweeted an anguished response to the Times investigation, writing: “Read [Times journalist] Jody Rosen’s devastating, frightening exposé on the UMG fire disaster. Our history has been ripped apart, what a terrible, sad tale this is.”

The president considered striking 3 sites as retaliation for the downing of a U.S. drone but decided the casualties would be too high.

An RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, in an undated photo released by the Air Force.Bobbi Zapka / U.S. Air Force/Reuters fileJune 21, 2019, 12:16 AM EDT / Updated June 21, 2019, 9:27 AM EDTBy Alex Johnson, Ali Arouzi and Kristen Welker

President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed that he was “cocked and loaded” to strike Iranian targets but deemed the loss of life would be disproportionate to the downing of a U.S. drone.

“On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International waters. We were cocked and loaded to retaliate last night on three different sites,” Trump said in a series of tweets.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrumpReplying to @realDonaldTrump

….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not….28.8K9:03 AM – Jun 21, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy12.9K people are talking about this

The tweets appeared to confirm The New York Times and The Washington Post reports Thursday night that said Trump had approved military strikes on Iranian targets but later backed away.

The Times quoted a senior administration official as saying the operation was under way in its early stages — with planes in the air and ships in position — when it was called off.

The developments came as the United States and Iran continued to fight over whether the high-altitude U.S. surveillance drone had violated Iranian airspace when it was shot down Thursday.

On Friday, a senior official from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed several warnings were issued before the drone was downed.

“We have had two stages of warnings,” Cmdr. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said on state television. “They did not respond.”

The aircraft was shot down after the last warning at 3:55 a.m. Thursday (7:25 p.m. ET Wednesday), he said. American officials did not respond to a request for comment on the Iranian claims.

The U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, said Friday it was “important we do everything” to de-escalate tensions.

“Our diplomacy does not give Iran the right to respond with military force, Iran needs to meet our diplomacy with diplomacy and not military force,” he told a news conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Hesameddin Ashena, an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in turn called on Trump to ease sanctions.

“Today’s crisis stems from Washington’s withdrawal from JCPOA, and obstructing real diplomatic overtures,” he said on Twitter,referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “But this process is reversible. Every tangible constructive step will be met in kind.”

The incident has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, to prohibit most U.S. civil aircraft from flying in Iranian-controlled airspace over the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

In a Notice to Airmen advisory, the FAA cited “heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region, which present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations and potential for miscalculation or misidentification.”

The notice applies to almost all U.S. carriers and commercial operators.

Other carriers also announced plans to halt flights over the Strait of Hormuz, including Dutch carrier KLM and Australian airline Qantas.

Trump changes course after approving attacks on Iran, according to report

JUNE 21, 201901:41

Trump signaled earlier Thursday that the United States was considering options for how to respond to the shooting down of the U.S. drone, an unarmed Global Hawk aircraft that can fly at up to 60,000 feet.

“Iran made a very bad mistake,” Trump said. “The drone was in international waters, clearly. We have it documented.”

The commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen. Hossein Salami, said Thursday that the strike served as a signal that Iran wouldn’t back down from threats.

“We have no intention of war, but we are standing strong,” he said.

But Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, called the strike “an unprovoked attack,” saying: “Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false.”

Defense Department releases video of U.S. drone shot down by Iran

https://www.nbcnews.com/e1652848-8c48-4c38-9ed6-6311082a842b

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on NBC’s “Today” show Friday that the planned military strike appeared to be “put together pretty quickly.”

“Frankly if you’re going to make a strike, at least in my experience, you want to proceed with the strike as opposed to suddenly having your planes in the air and having to pull them back, as that can result in even greater miscalculations,” he told the show.

As for what the Iranians’ were aiming to do, Panetta said he was not sure either side has an “end game.”

“That makes it even more dangerous because as it ratchets up on both sides, the danger of a serious miscalculation, bad judgement, could really produce a military confrontation,” he said.

U.S. officials have also blamed Iran for what they said was an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. Iran has denied any involvement.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced Monday that the United States would send 1,000 additional troops to the region to address what he called air, naval and ground-based threats.

(CNN)Ten people were injured in a shooting early Thursday outside a lounge in the eastern Pennsylvania city of Allentown, and police are looking for what they believe are several shooters, authorities said.Several people — likely three — opened fire just before 2 a.m. outside the Déjà Vu nightclub, Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin and Allentown Police Chief Tony Alsleben said in a joint statement.”This does not appear to be an indiscriminate shooting; it appears that at least one individual was a target,” the joint statement reads, without saying who the target was.No further details were immediately available about who fired the shots, Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake said. No arrests in the case have been reported.All 10 people who were shot are expected to survive, Lake said.Shots were fired from a white Cadillac Escalade SUV around the time the establishment was closing, the nightclub’s owner, Osiris Guzman, told CNN.Witnesses described a chaotic scene, saying several people ran as the shots were fired, CNN affiliate KYW reported.The lounge owner first noticed the Escalade at 1:51 a.m., he told CNN. Guzman saw it on surveillance video, pulling up to the club. It drove around and made U-turns on the block twice, he said.Gunfire rang out around 1:55 a.m., as most patrons were leaving the lounge, he said.The vehicle had no license plate, he said.Witnesses and some shooting victims have been uncooperative with the police investigation, Martin and Alsleben said.

Twitter CMO Leslie Berland hosted a live conversation at Cannes Lions Festival on Tuesday (June 18) with the “Mayor of Twitter,” Chrissy Teigen. The event celebrated female leaders and voices bringing the same spirit of discussion and connectivity of Twitter to real life.

About halfway through the discussion, the model played a game of word association, in which she sweetly connected the word “love” to her husband, John Legend. Teigen then revealed that the couple had been “fighting all day,” admitting that it was one of “those days where every little thing annoys you.”

Legend then surprised the crowd by joining his wife of almost six years on stage. “I stepped on her foot twice and I spoke without knowing my schedule and said I could go to an event with her but I couldn’t go to it once I looked at my schedule. I was wrong!” Legend admitted. After a bit of banter over pretending to be happy when they’re pissed off, the duo responded to questions on Twitter and by the audience. 

Chrissy Teigen & John Legend Get Matching Tattoos With Their Children’s Names

“Have you ever been mad at me for something I said on Twitter?” Teigen asked Legend. “What’s the closest you’ve ever been?”

“She trolls me on Twitter sometimes, but I feel like it’s all in good fun,” the crooner replied. “I don’t get offended by it. She’s really funny and that’s why I love her.”

Teigen then responded to a question by April Reign, who asked if John has changed after achieving EGOT status. “There’s a bit of laziness for sure,” the model quickly replied, met by laughs from her husband. “It’s all in good fun now, there’s no more—nothing’s on the line. It’s like I’m not going to do this, I’m going to go on vacation.”

“He never changes, he’s always boring,” she jokingly concluded.

Watch the full interview here.

At last weekend’s 2019 KROQ Weenie Roast at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, Calif., Snoop Dogg shared the bill with The Lumineers, Limp Bizkit, 311, Silversun Pickups and more to play a DJ set as DJ Snoopadelic. It’s not the typical place you might expect to see Snoop, who has a new album due July 12, which he excitedly told Billboard about when we spoke backstage. But playing to new audiences — especially young ones — is a big part of the fun for Snoop these days.

We spoke with Snoop about how playing to families here reminds him of his own childhood, the song from the new album he is most excited to play live, and his predictions for NBA free agency and his beloved Lakers (this interview was done before the Anthony Davis trade to Los Angeles).

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Limp Bizkit, Snoop Dogg, The Lumineers, 311 & More Bring KROQ Weenie Roast to the Beach for the First Time

Though you have had so many accolades and experiences, it still has to be fun for you to be here and have another first time.

I like the energy that I get from the kids, believe it or not. There was a lot of kids that was here today. I seen like some 4-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and when they look at me, that’s what I’m looking for — the energy I get from them. Are they in amazement? Are they in tune? Are they energetic? Or are they just watching? The ones I seen today were into it. It’s like their parents was teaching them about good music and not having no boundaries and just playing good shit for kids, like my parents did for me. That’s why I’m so universally accepted when it comes to music, ’cause I listened to everybody’s music as a kid. I grew up with rock music, rap music, reggae music and whatever sound was in my neighborhood. If it was some Latinos that lived right here, we heard some Latino music. If it was some rockers I went to school with, we heard some rock music. And it was like all of that collectiveness. And then coming to an event like today and seeing parents with their kids and seeing kids get a dose of it, it’s only gonna breed the kid that understands music is the universal language of all people. And there are no boundaries on music.

That diversity has come back with festivals. So how does it inspire you musically to do these festival gigs where you might play with Gorillaz, Kacey Musgraves, Foo Fighters and Odesza all on one bill?

A hip-hop crowd is different than this crowd. The energy level is different. So if you know anything about good music, sometimes you want to make music to fit every crowd. So when I leave events like this, I think about “How can I make a song that can affect this crowd but still be me?” How do I do that? And by me being able to DJ and come here and mix and match and hear what the crowd reacts to and is feeding off of, it gives me a better perspective on what I need to be making and how I need to be aiming for a certain sound if I’m looking for this crowd.

When you think back to being a kid and that artist that for you fit all styles and everyone loved, who comes to mind?

Probably Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together.” That record right there, ’cause everybody has a relationship or everybody break up and it’s hard to stay together, and it’s like that record as a kid, whenever it would come on, everybody would react to it, no matter what color they was, where they was from, and even to this day, still, when that record comes on… [Starts singing “Let’s Stay Together”] That’s cold right there. “I’m so in love with you,” that’s cold right there, man. That line is cold. Al Green, man.

How crazy is it for you to have created songs that have that same effect on people that “Let’s Stay Together” had on you?

I don’t ever even think about it like that. That’s crazy that you put it in that equation. I don’t never compare myself to the greats. 

But certainly you know you have those songs like “Gin and Juice” that have crossed over?

You know what, it’s kind of like an out-of-body experience. You see it better than I do. I walk around with it, so it’s hard for me to look at it. Like I was telling one of my homies; he’s like, “Man, Snoop, you this, you that.” I’m like, “I can’t watch my highlights when I got a game to play tomorrow.” So I can’t really bask in none of that shit when I’m so steadily trying to make some shit. I got an album coming out July 12. I’m back on it like I want it. It’s the shit I do.

Does not thinking about it allow you to stay humble?

Most people make hit records when they’re not successful. So when you become successful, it becomes, “Do you keep the same formula, or do you make adjustments and do you enhance?” But as long as I’ve been doing this shit, it’s like there’s a method to your madness. Certain producers I work with, I get different shit out of and then certain energies that I project when I’m looking for certain projects, but at the same time, if it’s good music, everybody gonna understand it and they gonna get it. And if your voice is on right, you’re saying the right thing, you got the right people that’s listening, the ears are gonna be open for whatever you deliver.

What song from the new record are you most excited to play live?

It’s a song I got called “Let Bygones Be Bygones.” That’s a real musical song, very musical, where I’ll probably have a proper band up there playing the musical pieces and give it an array of sound that normally you don’t see in a hip-hop show.

Who is going where in NBA free agency?

I think we’re [the Lakers] gonna get a couple of good guys. I don’t know what LeBron [James] is cooking, but I know he’s a got a lot of relationships, so hopefully LeBron will be able to pull something out of his hat and get some deals done based off of people wanting to play with him and wanting to try and win a championship with him. In my ideal mind, I would love to see a Kawhi Leonard or an Anthony Davis, somebody like that join LeBron and make it easy on us.