Peter Jackson would have cast John Lennon as Gollum in ‘Lord of the Rings’.

The 60-year-old filmmaker – who is at the helm of new documentary series ‘The Beatles: Get Back’ – has opened up on the Fab Four’s nixed plans to make a live action musical movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, and he’s weighed on how the casting could have gone with Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison taking on the lead roles.

Appearing on ‘The Late Show’, he told host Stephen Colbert: “Obviously Paul is Frodo, isn’t he? Sam is obviously Ringo. So then you’ve got, well, John is Gollum obviously.

“They cast themselves, and they did it right. Gandalf is George the mystic, magician, that’s perfect. I mean you’d have to age him up a bit.

“And I guess if you had have Gollum, and you had the four Beatles, John Lennon is the obvious one, absolutely, slam dunk.”

In the end, the ‘Hey Jude’ hitmakers didn’t get the rights to the movie, and Jackson would later go on to direct the big screen trilogy.

Meanwhile, the director explained who Apple film producer Denis O’Dell originally had the idea, but it didn’t get off the ground.

He told the BBC: “Ultimately, they couldn’t get the rights from Tolkien, because he didn’t like the idea of a pop group doing his story. So it got nixed by him.

“They tried to do it. There’s no doubt about it. For a moment in time they were seriously contemplating doing that at the beginning of 1968.”

Jackson admitted he was in “two minds” about the quartet’s version never getting made.

He explained: “Paul said, ‘Well I’m glad we didn’t do it, because you got to do yours and I liked your film.’

“But I said to him, ‘Well, it’s a shame you didn’t do it, because it would have been a musical.’ What would The Beatles have done with a Lord of The Rings soundtrack album?

“That would have been 14 or 15 Beatles songs that would have been pretty incredible to listen to. So I’ve got two minds about it.

“I would have loved to hear that album, but I’m also glad I got the chance to do the films. But those songs would have been fascinating.”

Billy Porter thinks of himself as “spiritual” after becoming unsure about his belief in God following his upbringing around the church.

The ‘Pose’ star reflected on his relationship with religion despite his agnostic position upsetting his mother – who raised him in the Pentecostal Church – as he noted he does believe in “a higher power”.

The 52-year-old actor told the ‘Table Manners’ podcast with Jessie and Lennie Ware: “I don’t know. I don’t know. That hurts my mother’s feelings. I know it hurts her feelings. It hurts her heart so much. And I don’t know. I don’t know,

“I do believe in something in something, I do believe in a higher power. I don’t know any more if that is simply out of habit. Because I don’t know anything else.

“And I’m afraid to not believe in something. Because, like my grandmother said, ‘If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything. You gotta believe in something, or you’ll fall for anything.’ “

Billy labelled himself and his wedding five years ago to eyewear entrepreneur Adam Smith as “spiritual” instead of religious.

He explained: ”It was a was a legal ceremony. Yeah. But it wasn’t religious. It was spiritual. Yeah, you know, I’m spiritual. I really do believe in spirit, I do believe in a higher calling, a higher level of consciousness. You know, I do believe that, you know, God is the word that we most know.

“I do believe that energy is inside of all of us. Personally, how we access that, how we share that is our life’s work. You know, that’s my life’s work, is how I share that energy. You know, I try to be the change that I want to see.”

The ‘Cinderella’ star said the church was “what I grew up with”.

He added: “You know, so coming out in the church, being young, when that was happening. And then, you know, I mean, I can talk about this because I talk about it in my book, but I was molested by my stepfather.”

Billy also recognised that much of who he is comes from “those teachings” however expressed disgust at hypocrisy after he experienced negative aspects of it.

He said: “The human being that I am is because of those teachings. A lot of those teachings. My problem is, so many of those people don’t live by those teachings. So many of those people don’t practice what they preach. I stand at the intersection of holding that community accountable. Your language is murderous, you’re killing people.

“I have a Bible too. I know what it says. And you are not practising what that book says. And somebody needs to call you out for that. All of you evangelicals who stand behind that Bible and act like [President Donald] Trump is the saviour, f*** you. Somebody needs to say it.”

Mariah Carey is adapting her memoir into a TV series alongside director Lee Daniels.

The ‘All I Want For Christmas is You’ hitmaker is planning to bring her life story to television via an eight-part series, and she’s been collaborating the writer behind the likes of ‘Monster’s Ball’, ‘Precious’ and ‘Empire’.

The 52-year-old singer – who released ‘The Meaning of Mariah Carey’ last year – shared an update with Z100 with host Garrett Vogel, who asked if she would ever consider doing a musical.

Mariah said: “We did the book, And we are getting it together. I’m working with my friend Lee Daniels. And we are talking about the adaptation of my book. I would rather do that that’s why we wrote the book first. Broadway is a great thing, I just want to do something.”

However, she said a musical was less likely, noting the project was “probably” going to be a television show.

She added: “Lee is probably going to hear this and kill me but it’s probably going to be an eight-part series.

The ‘Without You’ singer – who is mother to 10-year-old twins Moroccan and Monroe with her rapper ex-husband Nick Cannon – emphasised the importance of the show being “gritty, grimy, beautiful, specular and real”.

She said: “I need it to be gritty, grimy and beautiful, spectacular and real!”

In the book, the ‘We Belong Together’ singer was incredibly frank about her life, including detailing the abuse she witnessed as a child.

Her memoir read: “By the time I was a toddler, I had developed the instincts to sense when violence was coming. As though I was smelling rain, I could tell when adult screaming had reached a certain pitch and velocity that meant I should take cover.”

Mariah said the pending project was so “difficult now” because of the on-going pandemic – and the ensuing problems – but that paperback was due to hit shelves soon.

She explained: “It’s so difficult now because of COVID and we don’t know what’s going on. First things first I wrote my memoir last year and now it’s coming out in paperback.”

Will Smith has asked Lin-Manuel Miranda to “help” him with a one-man stage show.

The ‘King Richard’ actor couldn’t resist asking the ‘Hamilton’ creator to give him a hand on a project he’s wanted to make “for years” as he hailed the actor and director as “the one of one in this business”.

With both stars appearing on Friday’s (26.11.21) episode of ‘The Graham Norton Show’, he said: “This is probably a terrible thing to ask at this time, but I want to do a one-man show and I would love you to help me do it.

“I have had it in my mind for years and I think you are the one of one in this business.”

Lin-Manuel – who was on the programme via video link – seemed shocked but didn’t turn down the offer.

He replied: “You heard it here first!”

There’s not likely to be anything too racy in the production, as Will admitted elsewhere during the interview that he hates doing “sex scenes”.

He explained: “Sex scenes are the worst part of acting – when you watch it in a movie there is music and wine but on set there is some big dude holding the microphone, chewing and watching you.”

Whether or not Lin-Manuel does get on board with Will’s show, he’s already got experience after making his directorial debut with new musical drama ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’

Opening up on the film, he explained: “It’s about Jonathan Larsen and an amazing portrait of an artist.

“He would go on to write ‘RENT’, which, when I saw it as young man gave me permission to write musicals. When I saw ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ it clarified that this was my calling.”

Regarding Andrew Garfield in the lead role, he added: “I didn’t know if he could sing or not. I saw him on stage at The National and left feeling that he could do anything – he had all the superpowers and I hoped he could sing.

“He told me he had always wanted to, so he trained. We gave him all the resources and he was like a brand-new instrument coming into its power over the course of a year.”

‘The Graham Norton Show’ airs on BBC One on Friday (26.11.21) and will be available on BBC iPlayer.

Lady Gaga has shared her delight at Tony Bennett, who has Alzheimer’s, understanding her every word when she told him the news they are up for six Grammys.

The ‘Stupid Love’ hitmaker, 35, and the 95-year-old Jazz legend have been showered with nods for their acclaimed second duets album, ‘Love For Sale’, including the prestigious Album of the Year prize.

And the ‘House of Gucci’ star has been left “utterly speechless” after finding out they are up for several accolades for the follow-up to 2014’s ‘Cheek to Cheek’.

The duo are also in contention for Record of the Year for ‘I Get a Kick Out of You’, and best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Traditional Pop Vocal Album, Music Video, and Engineered Album Non-Classical.

Tony became the oldest artist in history to be nominated in the general categories.

Their first LP took home Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album seven years ago.

In a lengthy statement on Instagram, Gaga gushed: “Thank you so much to the @RecordingAcademy for these 6 nominations for Love For Sale. I am stunned and shocked and beyond grateful. I don’t know what to say. I just keep crying and am utterly speechless.

“This means so much to me, @itstonybennett, the Bennetts, my family, jazz music, and the great Cole Porter who wrote all these timeless classics. I’ll never forget today and congratulating Tony on his 6 nominations.”

On Tony’s reaction, she continued: “I’ll never forget that today he could track every word I was saying and understood the world was celebrating him and celebrating jazz – a genre that embodies the joy, abundance and imagination of Black music throughout history.

“Thank you to all the Grammy voters for recognizing me and Tony’s dedication to jazz music and for also recognizing it in major categories where this music is often not nominated. (sic)”

The ‘Born This Way’ singer admitted there is no better feeling than the “love and partnership” they share – despite their 60-year age gap.

Gaga concluded: “This album happened because it was Tony’s idea and I made him a promise that we would make it and we did.

“At 95 years old, he has more nominations than ever, I’m so honored to be his companion in music and his friend.

“Thank you to the public for loving us, we surely love each other, and you.

“Believe in love and partnership, even with 60 years between us, and Alzheimer’s, there is nothing like the magic of music. I love you Tony, and the world loves you too. How could they not?”

(Reuters) – The United States Department of Defense late on Tuesday said it will establish a new group to investigate reports on the presence of UFOs in restricted airspace.

The formation of the group comes after the government released a report in June, encompassing 144 observations, which said there was a lack of sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects.

The new group, Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, will be overseen by the Under Secretary Of Defense for Intelligence, the director of the Joint Staff and officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in a separate statement the presence of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) in restricted airspace poses a potential safety of flight risk to aircrews and raises potential national security concerns.

The new group which will succeed the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, will work to detect, identify and attribute objects, assess and mitigate any associated threats, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. military have spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers” dating back to the 1940s.

(Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Richard Carpenter believes The Carpenters would still be making music if his sister was still alive.

The 75-year-old musician is “certain” his late sibling and bandmate, Karen Carpenter – who died in 1983 from a cardiac arrest after struggling with anorexia – would have still had a “fabulous” voice even in her seventies and thinks their group would still be growing strong.

He told America’s Closer magazine: “She’d be like 71 one right, and I’m certain she would be absolutely fabulous. Perry Como sounded great at 75 because he sang properly. Karen was the same. We would have hundreds of recordings of the two of us already done, and we’d still be making more.”

Richard reminisced about how he and Karen would jam together in their childhood bedrooms with the first tracks they wrote when they were teenagers.

He shared: “I was 13 and Karen was 16. I was a budding songwriter, so I asked Karen to sing a couple of these songs I’d come up with. At the time, she didn’t have the marvellous voice that developed later.”

But the ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ hitmaker admitted Karen didn’t enjoy singing when she was younger and always agreed to his requests “begrudgingly”.

He said: “So every now and again, I would ask her to sing some new song that I’d written. She’d do it begrudgingly because she didn’t care to be singing at all.”

And Richard admitted he was in “shock” when his sister died as he was confident he was in a good place after kicking his own addictions and was looking forward to the future.

He recalled@ “After Karen passed away, I was in shock. I had gone to rehab, and I had gotten off the sleeping pills. I was healthy and full of life and full of desire to keep making records. So I polished up and finished as many [Carpenters] outtakes as I could.”

Beijing (AFP) – China and Russia reacted furiously Wednesday to US President Joe Biden’s planned democracy summit, which will exclude them, with Beijing angered over an invitation for Taiwan and the Kremlin branding it divisive.

The global conference was a campaign pledge by the US president, who has placed the struggle between democracies and “autocratic governments” at the heart of his foreign policy.

The inclusion of Taiwan, and not China, led to an angry rebuke from Beijing, which said it “firmly opposes” the invitation to “the so-called Summit for Democracy.” 

Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary.

Around 110 countries have been invited to the virtual summit, including the United States’ major Western allies but also Iraq, India and Pakistan. 

But Russia said the guest list, released Tuesday on the State Department website, showed that the United States “prefers to create new dividing lines, to divide countries into those that — in their opinion — are good, and those that are bad.”

“More and more countries prefer to decide themselves how to live,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Washington is “trying to privatise the term ‘democracy’.” 

“That can’t do so and should not do so,” he said.

Diplomatic coup

The invitation is a major coup for Taipei at a time when China is ramping up its campaign to keep Taiwan locked out of international bodies.

Taiwan said the gathering would be a rare opportunity to burnish its credentials on the world stage. 

“Through this summit, Taiwan can share its democratic success story,” presidential office spokesman Xavier Chang told reporters.

Only 15 countries officially recognise Taipei over Beijing, although many nations maintain de facto diplomatic relations with the island. 

The US does not recognise Taiwan as an independent country but maintains it as a crucial regional ally and opposes any change to its status by force.

China baulks at any use of the word “Taiwan” or diplomatic gestures that might lend a sense of international legitimacy to the island.

“I agree Taiwan more than qualifies — but it does seem to be (the) only democratic govt invited that the US govt does not officially recognise. So its inclusion is a big deal,” tweeted Julian Ku, a Hofstra University law professor whose specialties include China.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it would be represented at the summit by its de facto US ambassador Bi-khim Hsiao and digital minister Audrey Tang, who is one of the world’s few openly transgender national politicians. 

Scrutinised guest list

The long-advertised meeting will take place online on December 9 and 10 ahead of an in-person meeting at its second edition next year.

India, often called “the world’s biggest democracy”, will be present, despite increasing criticism from human rights defenders over democratic backsliding under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

So too will Pakistan, despite its chequered relationship with Washington.

Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was dubbed an “autocrat” by Biden, did not make the list. 

Neither did the city-state of Singapore, or Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populous democracies. 

In the Middle East, only Israel and Iraq were invited. The traditional Arab allies of the US — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — are all absent.

Biden also invited Brazil, which is led by controversial far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

In Europe, Poland is represented, despite recurring tensions with Brussels over respect for the rule of law, but Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not. 

On the African side, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Niger are invited.

‘Decline of democracy’

“For this kick-off Summit… there’s a case for getting a broad set of actors into the room: it provides for a better exchange of ideas than setting a perfect bar for qualification,” Laleh Ispahani of the Open Society Foundations told AFP. 

Rather than using the summit as an anti-China meeting, Ispahani urged Biden to address “the serious decline of democracy around the world — including relatively robust models like the US.”

This summit is being organised as democracy has suffered setbacks in countries where the US had placed great hopes. 

Sudan and Myanmar have experienced military coups, Ethiopia is in the midst of a conflict that could lead to its “implosion,” according to US diplomats, and the Taliban took power in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of US troops after two decades.

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Flights and airports across the United States are expected to be packed on Wednesday as millions of Americans fly to visit their families for Thanksgiving holiday.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) expects to screen about 20 million air passengers during the travel period, compared with nearly 26 million in the same period in 2019. On Monday, the TSA screened 2.1 million U.S. air passengers, the fifth consecutive day with checkpoint volume topping 2 million.

The holiday weekend is a test for carriers after a spate of flight cancellations marred travel over the summer. One in five Americans are concerned about delays and cancellations, according to a new American Pecans/YouGov survey.

But with the weather expected to remain calm for Thanksgiving on Thursday, airlines are sounding confident.

“We’re staffed and ready to get our customers to where they need to go safely, reliably and enjoyably,” a Delta Air Lines spokesperson said.

The Atlanta-based carrier has hired 8,000 new employees including 1,500 reservation agents. American Airlines has recalled 1,800 flight attendants this month, while Southwest Airlines has hired more than 4,500 employees in the past few months.

American, Southwest and JetBlue are also offering bonuses, higher pay and other incentives to ensure they have enough workers. Southwest has cut flight schedules to enhance ontime performance and bolstered its customer relations department.

The Thanksgiving week is shaping up to be the busiest travel week in two years as rising COVID-19 vaccination rates have made Americans more confident to travel again.

Travel group AAA estimates 53.4 million people will travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, up 13% from 2020, with air travel recovering to about 91% of pre-pandemic levels.

Rising gas prices are the biggest concern of American this holiday season, the YouGov survey found.

(Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Stephen Coates)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol said on Tuesday it issued five subpoenas to far-right extremist groups that have backed former President Donald Trump and individuals associated with those groups.

Among others, the Select Committee said it issued subpoenas seeking testimony and documents to the Proud Boys group and to Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was its chairman, as well as to the Oath Keepers and its president, Elmer Stewart Rhodes.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Chris Reese)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans with incomes over $1 million would see their taxes rise under President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, the U.S. Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation said on Tuesday, correcting an earlier analysis that their taxes would fall.

Under the bill passed last week by the House of Representatives and now being considered by the Senate, those with incomes of $1 million and more would be taxed at an average rate of 33.1%, up from the current 29.9%, the committee said.

A previous analysis pegged the proposed average tax rate dropping to 28.2%.

For those earning $500,000 to $1 million a year, taxes would fall to 27.2% under the bill, from the current $28.1%, instead of the previously reported reduction to 26.8%.

Some Democrats have criticized the $1.75 trillion bill expanding social programs and attacking climate change because it would reduce taxes on some wealthy Americans, even as it would raise them for other high-income earners and corporations to cover the cost of the measure.

Representative Jared Golden, the lone Democrat to vote against the House bill, expressed his opposition even with the corrected scoring.

“I objected and continue to object to the fact that the single largest part of this bill is a $275 billion tax giveaway to millionaires and the wealthy. Regardless of the net tax change, there’s no excuse for that provision being in this bill,” Golden said on Twitter.

The Democratic bill, which is expected to be opposed by all Republicans in Congress, would loosen a $10,000 cap on the deduction of state and local taxes, known as SALT. The change would mainly benefit wealthy taxpayers in coastal states that are heavily Democratic.

The SALT cap was imposed under a tax reform law enacted in 2017 when Republicans controlled Congress and fellow Republican Donald Trump was president.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is aiming to pass Biden’s domestic investment bill by the end of this year. But first, moderate Democrats, including Senator Joe Manchin, are pushing for some revisions of the House-passed bill.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)

San Francisco (AFP) – A consortium of US unions called Monday for Amazon’s buyout of the legendary Hollywood studio MGM to be blocked, citing concerns about the tech giant’s growing power over the subscription video streaming sector.

“Amazon’s influence on the health and diversity of the film-making industry is likely to be negative if the company is permitted to grow larger,” said the Strategic Organizing Center, a federation of four major labor unions that represents some four million workers.

The group called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block the takeover, which was announced in May.

Amazon has offered $8.45 billion dollars for more than 4,000 films, including the James Bond series, “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Robocop,” “Basic Instinct,” “Raging Bull” and “Thelma & Louise,” as well as an extensive catalog of TV series including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Fargo” and “Vikings.”

“Amazon’s current control over massive amounts of streaming content means the merger is likely to give Amazon greater incentive and power to exclude and discriminate against its competitors,” the group said in its statement.

It argued that the buyout will give Amazon control of some 56,000 titles, far ahead of Netflix, which would have just under 20,000. 

The unions further argued that Amazon’s market power is not just “horizontal” but also “vertical,” with the sale of electronic devices for video streaming (the company’s “Fire” line) and cloud services for storing the content of its competitors, starting with Netflix, the most popular of the platforms. 

Questioned by AFP, Amazon highlighted the variety of choices currently available to consumers, citing in particular Netflix, Disney +, Apple TV +, HBO Max and Peacock. 

The company also noted that neither MGM nor Amazon were involved in the production or distribution of any of the 20 most successful films around the world in 2018, 2019 and 2020. 

The FTC and many US states have launched investigations and lawsuits against Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, which they accuse of abusing their dominant position in their own markets, from social networks to digital advertising and online commerce.

Amazon has come to broadly lead the cloud services sector, but it is its towering dominance of e-commerce that raises the hackles of its critics.

“The company has a long history of leveraging its dominance to gain a foothold in new markets by using practices we believe are unfair and anticompetitive,” the unions said.

“This merger would allow Amazon to use the same playbook against the streaming video industry, inevitably impacting producers and consumers of video content and squeezing diversity as it gains market share,” the unions said. 

Los Angeles (AFP) – “The Beatles: Get Back,” the eagerly awaited new Disney+ documentary from Peter Jackson, aims to dispel persistent myths about the Fab Four’s breakup, offering a more positive take on their final months as a band.

The three-part series finds John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in January 1969, preparing for their first concert in more than two years.

Using hours of unseen archive footage, it charts how the Beatles had set out to write and record 14 new songs for the occasion, giving themselves a deadline of just three weeks.

The time period is familiar territory for viewers of “Let It Be,” the 1970 documentary from British director Michael Lindsay-Hogg that famously emphasized tensions and acrimony within the band, which split that same year.

But Jackson — best known for his “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and an avowed Beatles obsessive — does not dwell on arguments and creative disagreements among the Liverpool quartet. 

“Get Back” attempts to reshape the popular image of their later years as a time of resentment and fracture, instead showing the bandmates joking around and spontaneously creating classics that are still played regularly today.

“The best bit of us always has been, and always will be, when we’re backs against the wall,” says a young McCartney in the film, which hits Disney+ from Thursday.

Jackson’s series contains the Beatles’ final public appearance together, a 40-minute concert on the roof of their company building on London’s Savile Row — shown here for the first time ever in its entirety.

That company — Apple Corps — granted Jackson some 60 hours of archival video that had remained under lock and key for decades.

“I think there’s always been this misconception that my father was the cause of the Beatles breaking up, and he wasn’t,” McCartney’s daughter Stella told AFP at a Los Angeles event for the series.

“You can see it very clearly through this amazing insight of unseen footage.”

Her father remained “heartbroken” over the Beatles’ breakup for “most of my life,” as is clear from the series, she added.

“You just see him desperately wanting to keep this alive and wanting to make this work and his brotherhood to stay intact.”

– ‘The coolest’ –

Stella McCartney, a renowned fashion designer, has created a limited collection inspired by the band’s aesthetic during the documentary’s period.

She told AFP she watched the documentary not just as the daughter of a Beatle, but as a fan.

“You watch it and you’re like, ‘This is the best band in the world, this is the greatest music, they are the coolest people,'” she said.

“There are very few moments in the history of the Earth that you can compare,” Stella McCartney added.

Part of the band’s influence stems from their fashion, the designer said.

“When I look at the Beatles, I’m always really surprised by the amount of fashion that they crammed into a very short period of time and hugely iconic fashion moments.

“If you look at Sergeant Pepper, you know exactly what they were wearing.”

But while a proponent of her father’s music, Stella McCartney admitted that she cannot work on her clothing while listening to the Beatles or other bands.

“I just prefer silence when I work. It is weird, I’m very aware of that. And I think it’s very much from being surrounded by music my entire life,” she said.

“My ear is so trained… And I can’t focus.”

Miami (AFP) – The US Justice Department is expected to pay $130 million to the families of victims of the 2018 Parkland shooting in Florida because the FBI failed to investigate two tip-offs about the gunman who went on kill 17 people at the high school, the New York Times said Monday.   

Armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz went on a shooting rampage in the Marjorie Douglas Stoneman school on Valentine’s Day 2018. 

Six weeks before that, a woman had phoned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s tip line after seeing his social media post about stockpiling weapons and ammunitions.   

“I know he’s going to explode,” she said, citing fears the young man was “going to slip into a school and start shooting the place up.”

And five months before the shooting, the owner of a YouTube channel had reported a comment left under one of his videos in which a user by the name of “nikolas cruz” had claimed that he would become “a professional school shooter”. 

Just days after the shooting, the FBI admitted it had not followed up on the two pieces of information they had received.

The FBI’s admission of its error devastated the victims’ families, who sued the bureau for negligence, the newspaper said. 

Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder last month and said he was “very sorry.” He is awaiting sentencing and prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.