Celebrity
The Plot To Attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna Shows Was Intended To Kill Thousands, A CIA Official Says
BERLIN — The suspects in the aborted conspiracy to assault Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month intended to murder “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA discovered intelligence that derailed the operation and led to arrests, according to the agency’s deputy director.
The CIA warned Austrian officials about the plot, which allegedly had links to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests resulted in the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour events, which devastated fans who had traveled worldwide to watch Swift perform.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen discussed the thwarted plot at this week’s annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland.
The Plot To Attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna Shows Was Intended To Kill Thousands, A CIA Official Says
“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen told ABC News on Wednesday. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”
Austrian officials stated that the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was motivated by the Islamic State group. He allegedly intended to assault outside the stadium, where up to 30,000 spectators were expected to assemble, with knives or homemade explosives. Another 65,000 spectators were expected to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemicals and technical gear during a raid on the suspect’s residence.
Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, has stated that assistance from other intelligence agencies was required since, unlike certain foreign services, Austrian investigators cannot legally monitor text communications.
The 19-year-old’s lawyer has stated that the claims were “overacting at their best ” and that Austrian police were “presenting this exaggeratedly” to obtain greater monitoring capabilities.
Swift broke her silence on last week’s cancellations after her London gigs ended.
“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she stated in an Instagram statement. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”
She thanked authorities—”Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she said—and stated that she would wait to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour was completed to prioritise safety.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she said.
Swift’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Barracuda Music, the concert organizer, said it canceled the three-night Vienna run, which was scheduled to begin August 8, because the arrests in connection with the conspiracy occurred too close to showtime.
The primary suspect and a 17-year-old were arrested on August 6, the day before the cancellations were announced. A third suspect, aged 18, was apprehended on August 8. Austrian privacy regulations do not reveal their names.
The gigs in London, the following destination after Vienna, followed a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance lesson that killed three young girls in the United Kingdom. Swift claimed in a statement following the Southport incident that she was “just completely in shock” and “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.” According to news reports, Swift visited with some survivors backstage in London.
The Vienna plot was also compared to a suicide bomber’s 2017 attack on an Ariana Grande performance in Manchester, England, which killed 22 people. The bomb exploded at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of teenage admirers were leaving, making it the worst extremist act in the United Kingdom in recent years.
The Plot To Attack Taylor Swift’s Vienna Shows Was Intended To Kill Thousands, A CIA Official Says
Cohen applauded the CIA’s efforts to avert the planned violence on Wednesday, noting that other counterterrorism “successes” in foiling schemes are sometimes overlooked.
“I can tell you that within my agency, and I’m sure in others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” he remarked, alluding to the CIA headquarters. “And not just the Swifties in my workforce.”
The record-breaking tour is on hiatus until the autumn.
SOURCE | AP
Celebrity
Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone
Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.
In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.
As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.
Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.
“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”
“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”
Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.
Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg
— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024
Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.
Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.
“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.
The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.
The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.
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Celebrity
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.
On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.
“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.
However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.
Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.
Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”
He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.
Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.
Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold
“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.
According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.
“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.
The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.
SOURCE | CNN
Celebrity
Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79
Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.
Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”
Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.
Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.
She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.
In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.
Teri Garr, a comedian
Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”
She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”
Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.
“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.
The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”
Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.
A gift for spontaneous humor
Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.
She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.
Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.
During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.
Source: AP
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