Category: Entertainment News Feed

BOOM, Belgium (AP) — Fans roared in excitement and organizers sighed with relief as the Tomorrowland music festival kicked off Friday — just two days after a massive fire engulfed the main stage and threw one of Europe’s biggest summer concert events into doubt.

Workers labored around the clock to clear out the debris from the elaborate backdrop that was consumed in Wednesday’s fire.

Shouting ‘’We made it!”, the festival’s opening performers, Australian electronic music group Nervo, were able to take to the main stage Friday after a last-minute scramble and slight delay. Some charred frames were still visible behind them.

No one was hurt in the fire, organizers said. The causes are being investigated.

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world attend Tomorrowland’s annual multi-day festival outside the Belgian town of Boom. Some 38,000 people were camping at the festival site Friday, Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said.

’’Maybe there are some few people that say, OK, we would like to have a refund, but it’s only like a very small percentage because most of them are still coming to the festival,” she told AP.

“It is all about unity, and I think with a good vibe and a positive energy that our festival-goers give to each other and the music we offer, I think they will still have a good time,″ she said. ’’We really tried our best.″

Australian fans Zak Hiscock and Brooke Antoniou — who traveled half the world to see the famed festival as part of a summer holiday in Europe — described hearing about the fire.

“We were sitting having dinner when we actually heard the news of the stage burning down. We were very devastated and shattered, quite upset because we travelled a long way,” Hiscock said.

Ukrainian visitor Oleksandr Beshkynskyi shared their joy that the festival went ahead as planned.

‘’It’s not just about the one DJ or two DJs you’re looking to see, but about all the mood and about the dream being alive,” Beshkynskyi said. ___

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his wife, Marilyn, for an enduring and loving partnership that produced such old-fashioned hits as “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “It Might Be You” and the classic “The Way We Were,” has died at 99.

Bergman died late Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, family spokesperson Ken Sunshine said in a statement Friday. The statement said Bergman had, in recent months, suffered from respiratory issues “but continued to write songs till the very end.”

The Bergmans married in 1958 and remained together until her death, in 2022. With collaborators ranging from Marvin Hamlisch and Quincy Jones to Michel Legrand and Cy Coleman, they were among the most successful and prolific partnerships of their time, providing words and occasional music for hundreds of songs, including movie themes that became as famous as the films themselves. Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett and many other artists performed their material, and Barbra Streisand became a frequent collaborator and close friend.

Sunshine said that there will still be a centennial celebration of Alan Bergman as planned at Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, with guests including Michael Feinstein, Jackson Browne and Patti Austin. Feinstein, among the many artists who posted tributes Friday, wrote that the Bergmans were “kind, talented and principled artists” who “lived from a place called Love.”

Blending Tin Pan Alley sentiment and contemporary pop, the Bergmans crafted lyrics known by millions, many of whom would not have recognized the writers had they walked right past them. Among their most famous works: the Streisand-Neil Diamond duet “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” the well-named Sinatra favorite “Nice ’n’ Easy” and the topical themes to the 1970s sitcoms “Maude” and “Good Times.” Their film compositions included Ray Charles’ “In the Heat of the Night” from the movie of the same name; Noel Harrison’s “The Windmills of Your Mind,” from “The Thomas Crown Affair”; and Stephen Bishop’s “It Might Be You,” from “Tootsie.”

The whole world seemed to sing and cry along to “The Way We Were,” an instant favorite recorded by Streisand for the 1973 romantic drama of the same name that co-starred Streisand and Robert Redford. Set to Hamlisch’s tender, bittersweet melody, it was essentially a song about itself — a nostalgic ballad about nostalgia, an indelible ode to the uncertainty of the past, starting with one of history’s most famous opening stanzas: “Memories / light the corners of my mind / misty watercolor memories / of the way we were.”

“The Way We Were” was the top-selling song of 1974 and brought the Bergmans one of their three Oscars, the others coming for “Windmills of Your Mind” and the soundtrack to “Yentl,” the Streisand-directed movie from 1983. At times, the Academy Awards could be mistaken for a Bergman showcase. In 1983, three of the nominees for best song featured lyrics by the Bergmans, who received 16 nominations in all.

The Bergmans also won two Grammys, four Emmys, were presented numerous lifetime achievement honors and received tributes from individual artists, including Streisand’s 2011 album of Bergman songs, “What Matters Most.” On “Lyrically, Alan Bergman,” Bergman handled the vocals himself. Although best known for their movie work, the Bergmans wrote the Broadway musical “Ballroom” and provided lyrics for the symphony “Visions of America.”

Their very lives seemed to rhyme. They didn’t meet until they were adults, but were born in the same Brooklyn hospital, four years apart; raised in the same Brooklyn neighborhood, attended the same children’s concerts at Carnegie Hall and moved to California in the same year, 1950. They were introduced in Los Angeles while working for the same composer, but at different times of the day. Their actual courtship was in part a story of music. Fred Astaire was Marilyn’s favorite singer at the time and Alan Bergman co-wrote a song, “That Face,” which Astaire agreed to record. Acetate in hand, Bergman rushed home to tell Marilyn the news, then proposed.

Bergman is survived by a daughter, Julie Bergman, and granddaughter.

Bergman had wanted to be a songwriter since he was a boy. He majored in music and theater at the University of North Carolina, and received a master’s from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he befriended Johnny Mercer and became a protege. He and Marilyn at first wrote children’s songs together, and broke through commercially in the late 1950s with the calypso hit “Yellowbird.” Their friendship with Streisand began soon after, when they visited her backstage during one of her early New York club appearances. “Do you know how wonderful you are?” was how Marilyn Bergman greeted the young singer.

The Bergmans worked so closely together that they often found themselves coming up with the same word at the same time. Alan likened their partnership to housework: one washes, one dries, the title of a song they eventually devised for a Hamlisch melody. Bergman was reluctant to name a favorite song, but cited “A Love Like Ours” as among their most personal:

“When love like ours arrives / We guard it with our lives / Whatever goes astray / When a rainy day comes around / A love like ours will keep us safe and sound.”

NEW YORK (AP) — In every career, there are plenty of consequential decisions to be made. And they tend to get more consequential as time goes on.

So it was when Gillian Murphy, one of the most admired American ballerinas for nearly three decades, began contemplating not only when, but how to retire from American Ballet Theatre.

She knew she wanted to go out on a high note. Murphy, at 46, is in incredible shape; at a rehearsal earlier this week, she was leaping and twirling like colleagues in their 20s.

But in what role should she take her final bow, after 29 years at ABT? Should it be as Juliet? As Giselle? The first of these ends up stabbing herself to death. The other goes mad.

The best (and most athletic) option, it turned out, was to jump off a cliff. That’s what Odette, the swan queen, does at the end of ABT’s version of “Swan Lake” — followed in this dramatic leap by the prince who loves her, to be joyfully reunited in the afterlife. (In real life they leap onto a mattress offstage, dust themselves off and clamber back for the finale.)

Murphy, who’s known for her Odette/Odile — especially those fouettés, Odile’s fiendishly hard whiplash turns — will be retiring with “Swan Lake” on Friday night, ending her career in a blur of bouquets, hugs, tears and maybe confetti at the Metropolitan Opera House. “We will all miss her incredible work ethic, her exacting attention to detail, her strength and her joy of dance,” ABT head Susan Jaffe said in an email.

The day after, Murphy will sleep a bit late, hopefully, and start a new life focused on coaching other dancers. She’ll also have more time with her 6-year old son, Ax, whom she shares with husband Ethan Stiefel, himself a celebrated former ABT principal.

Murphy spoke to The Associated Press in the rushed moments between rehearsals, classes and delayed commuter trains in the days leading up to the big occasion. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

AP: You were only 17 when you joined ABT. Now you’re 46. Did you imagine such a long career?

MURPHY: I would have never expected to be dancing this long, honestly. I think in my mind I always had 40 years old as a time frame. But I didn’t expect to feel this good at this point! I’ve truly loved my career at ABT, and it’s given me the opportunity to dance all over the world. So I’m happy I’m still here.”

AP: Ballet takes a huge amount of athletic ability. But you need to be an actor, too. How have your abilities developed as you’ve gotten older?

MURPHY: I do feel that life experience really does come out in performances. And when we’re telling these stories about true love and forgiveness and loss, all the dramatic sort of themes that come out in these ballets, it does make a difference when you’ve experienced those things in your life.

AP: Speaking of true love: Some ABT ballerinas have chosen Juliet for their retirement performance. You’ve chosen a much more physically demanding role: “Swan Lake.” Just seeing you rehearse it was exhausting.

MURPHY: (laughing) It doesn’t get any easier, yeah. I have so many favorite roles, but “Swan Lake” includes two of my most favorite, Odette and Odile. It’s always been incredibly challenging, but also so fulfilling. When I was a kid, my dream role was the Black Swan (Odile), actually. So just in a full-circle moment, it feels special to finish with this ballet that I dreamed of doing as a kid, and first did as a young soloist with ABT 24 years ago.

AP: Let’s not forget that you’re known for Odile’s fouettés (32 whiplash turns on one leg that the Black Swan performs). Are you still throwing in double turns?

MURPHY: Well, I used to throw in triples, triple pirouettes in the middle of the fouettés. Anything could happen on Friday night, but I think I just want to finish strong … and take risks elsewhere. I’ll probably aim to do the 32, possibly with a few doubles in there.

AP: It’s such a tough call in any career — how did you make the decision to retire now?

MURPHY: It’s never an easy decision for any dancer. It’s a calling from a very early age … but I’ve always wanted to finish strong and with my own sense of agency. I really relish when that sense of imagination and life experience and artistry is integrated with the physicality, the athleticism, the technique. And I feel like I’m still in that place where I can do that. So I want to finish with that sense of fullness.

AP: How have you managed to keep your conditioning so strong, for so long?

MURPHY: I never knew what to expect in terms of how long I’d be able to do this job that I love so much. But I’ve always had strong feelings about getting plenty of sleep and rest. I try to keep a daily practice of class and sometimes several hours of rehearsal, but also to take at least one day off in the week to recover. And I’ve always put a priority on being as fit and strong as possible in terms of my nutrition. So, having a really balanced diet and also enjoying desserts and just good quality, good nutritious food, I think that has helped with longevity.

AP: It sounds like you’re talking about a healthy attitude toward food.

MURPHY: A healthy attitude towards food, and also a sense of humor about myself. You know, dancers are not robots. Like an athlete, we can have an off day and (we should) not let that be too discouraging. That’s par for the course.

AP: Have there been any major injuries or setbacks along the way?

MURPHY: I’ve been pretty fortunate about bouncing back from muscle strains and things like that. I’d say coming back from pregnancy and an emergency c-section was not easy … but I was able to get onstage and do a full-length “Giselle” when my son was 8 months old. And then, a couple of weeks after that, the pandemic hit. I had just gotten everything back together.

AP: So when you hang up those pointe shoes … how do you envision spending your time?

MURPHY: I’m going to lean into coaching and staging, especially (husband) Ethan’s choreography, for the immediate future. I also want to take some time to process this huge transition and consider options and think about what I really want to do. I would be really surprised if it doesn’t involve giving back or working in some way in the dance world, because it’s so meaningful to me. Clearly, this is a lifetime pursuit.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature.

“We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented.

No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats’ push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

“No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Inside the cuts to foreign aid

Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations.

Democrats argued that the Republican administration’s animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America’s standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill.

“This is not an America first bill. It’s a China first bill because of the void that’s being created all across the world,” Jeffries said.

The White House argued that many of the cuts would incentivize other nations to step up and do more to respond to humanitarian crises and that the rescissions best served the American taxpayer.

“The money that we’re clawing back in this rescissions package is the people’s money. We ought not to forget that,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee.

After objections from several Republicans, Senate GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under Republican President George W. Bush.

Looking ahead to future spending fights

Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation’s priorities.

Triggered by the official rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needed a simple majority vote to advance in the Senate instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines.

Two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process.

“Let’s not make a habit of this,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn’t providing enough information on what exactly will be cut.

Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows “enthusiasm” for getting the nation’s fiscal situation under control.

“We’re happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,” he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts — $9 billion — Vought said that was because “I knew it would be hard” to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is ’likely to come soon.”

___

Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval to President Donald Trump’s request to claw back about $9 billion for public broadcasting and foreign aid early Friday as Republicans intensified their efforts to target institutions and programs they view as bloated or out of step with their agenda.

The vote marked the first time in decades that a president has successfully submitted such a rescissions request to Congress, and the White House suggested it won’t be the last. Some Republicans were uncomfortable with the cuts, yet supported them anyway, wary of crossing Trump or upsetting his agenda.

The House passed the bill by a vote of 216-213. It now goes to Trump for his signature.

“We need to get back to fiscal sanity and this is an important step,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

Opponents voiced concerns not only about the programs targeted, but about Congress ceding its spending powers to the executive branch as investments approved on a bipartisan basis were being subsequently canceled on party-line votes. They said previous rescission efforts had at least some bipartisan buy-in and described the Republican package as unprecedented.

No Democrats supported the measure when it passed the Senate, 51-48, in the early morning hours Thursday. Final passage in the House was delayed for several hours as Republicans wrestled with their response to Democrats’ push for a vote on the release of Jeffrey Epstein files.

The package cancels about $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and nearly $8 billion for a variety of foreign aid programs, many designed to help countries where drought, disease and political unrest endure.

The effort to claw back a sliver of federal spending came just weeks after Republicans also muscled through Trump’s tax and spending cut bill without any Democratic support. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that measure will increase the U.S. debt by about $3.3 trillion over the coming decade.

“No one is buying the the notion that Republicans are actually trying to improve wasteful spending,” said Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.

A heavy blow to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

The cancellation of $1.1 billion for the CPB represents the full amount it is due to receive during the next two budget years.

The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense.

The corporation distributes more than two-thirds of the money to more than 1,500 locally operated public television and radio stations, with much of the remainder assigned to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to support national programming.

Democrats were unsuccessful in restoring the funding in the Senate.

Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced particular concern about what the cuts to public broadcasting could mean for some local public stations in their state.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the stations are “not just your news — it is your tsunami alert, it is your landslide alert, it is your volcano alert.”

As the Senate debated the bill Tuesday, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck off the remote Alaska Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings on local public broadcasting stations that advised people to get to higher ground.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he secured a deal from the White House that some money administered by the Interior Department would be repurposed to subsidize Native American public radio stations in about a dozen states.

But Kate Riley, president and CEO of America’s Public Television Stations, a network of locally owned and operated stations, said that deal was “at best a short-term, half-measure that will still result in cuts and reduced service at the stations it purports to save.”

Inside the cuts to foreign aid

Among the foreign aid cuts are $800 million for a program that provides emergency shelter, water and family reunification for refugees and $496 million to provide food, water and health care for countries hit by natural disasters and conflicts. There also is a $4.15 billion cut for programs that aim to boost economies and democratic institutions in developing nations.

Democrats argued that the Republican administration’s animus toward foreign aid programs would hurt America’s standing in the world and create a vacuum for China to fill.

“This is not an America first bill. It’s a China first bill because of the void that’s being created all across the world,” Jeffries said.

The White House argued that many of the cuts would incentivize other nations to step up and do more to respond to humanitarian crises and that the rescissions best served the American taxpayer.

“The money that we’re clawing back in this rescissions package is the people’s money. We ought not to forget that,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee.

After objections from several Republicans, Senate GOP leaders took out a $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a politically popular program to combat HIV/AIDS that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under Republican President George W. Bush.

Looking ahead to future spending fights

Democrats say the bill upends a legislative process that typically requires lawmakers from both parties to work together to fund the nation’s priorities.

Triggered by the official rescissions request from the White House, the legislation only needed a simple majority vote to advance in the Senate instead of the 60 votes usually required to break a filibuster. That meant Republicans could use their 53-47 majority to pass it along party lines.

Two Republican senators, Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, joined with Democrats in voting against the bill, though a few other Republicans also raised concerns about the process.

“Let’s not make a habit of this,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who voted for the bill but said he was wary that the White House wasn’t providing enough information on what exactly will be cut.

Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the imminent successful passage of the rescissions shows “enthusiasm” for getting the nation’s fiscal situation under control.

“We’re happy to go to great lengths to get this thing done,” he said during a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

In response to questions about the relatively small size of the cuts — $9 billion — Vought said that was because “I knew it would be hard” to pass in Congress. Vought said another rescissions package is ’likely to come soon.”

___

Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

CBS is axing “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” in May 2026, the host told an audience at a taping Thursday.

The announcement came two days after Colbert spoke out against Paramount Global, parent company of his network CBS, settling with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” story.

“I am offended,” Colbert said in his monologue Monday night. “I don’t know if anything — anything — will repair my trust in this company. But, just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help.”

He said the technical name in legal circles for the deal was “big fat bribe.”

Paramount and CBS executives said in a statement the cancellation “is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”

The most recent ratings from Nielsen show Colbert as winning his timeslot, with about 2.417 million viewers across 41 new episodes. It also said his late night show was the only one to gain viewers so far this year.

And this week, “The Late Show” was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding talk show for the sixth time. It also won a Peabody Award in 2021.

The news of the show being canceled was also announced in a press release sent Thursday from CBS with a link to a clip of Colbert’s announcement on Instagram.

The comedian and TV personality began by telling the audience he was sharing something he learned the night before, that “Next year will be our last season. The network will be ending the Late Show in May… it’s the end of the Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away.”

Colbert’s “bribe” reference was to the pending sale of Paramount to Skydance Media, which needs Trump administration approval. Critics of the $16 million deal that ended Trump’s lawsuit over the newsmagazine’s editing of its interview last fall with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris suggested it was primarily to clear a hurdle to that sale.

Colbert followed “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart’s attack of the Trump settlement a week earlier. Stewart works for Comedy Central, also owned by Paramount.

Colbert took over “The Late Show” from David Letterman in 2015, after becoming a big name in comedy and news satire working with Stewart on “The Daily Show.”

Bruce Springsteen will take the stage as both performer and a guest of honor at one of Hollywood’s most prominent fundraising events, the Academy Museum Gala.

The 75-year-old rock legend is being honored alongside actors Penélope Cruz and Bowen Yang and filmmaker Walter Salles at the Oct. 18 celebration hosted by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The high-fashion get-together, now in its fifth year, has been positioned as a West Coast version of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Met Gala. It features a massive red carpet with a slew of celebrities from Hollywood and beyond, raising money for the Los Angeles museum’s exhibits and education programs.

Gala co-chairs include Jon M. Chu, Common, Jennifer Hudson, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey. The host committee includes Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, Adrien Brody, Zoë Kravitz, Demi Moore, Colman Domingo, Ke Huy Quan, Meg Ryan and Amy Adams.

Last year’s event honored Quentin Tarantino, Rita Moreno and Paul Mescal and raised more than $11 million.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Lauren Adams, general manager for KUCB public radio in Unalaska, Alaska, didn’t have much time to reflect on Congress, 4,000 miles away, stripping federal funding for public media this week. She’s been too busy working.

Sirens blared in the Aleutian Islands community Wednesday warning of a potential tsunami, with a voice over public loudspeakers urging the community’s 4,100 residents to seek higher ground immediately and tune into the radio — to Adams’ station.

At the same time in Washington, the Senate was voting on a measure that would eliminate nearly $1.1 billion that had already been appropriated for NPR and PBS — a process that didn’t end until early Thursday morning. The House completed the process in time for President Donald Trump to sign it before a Friday deadline.

Trump had called for the cuts, saying public media’s news programming was biased against him and fellow Republicans, and threatened GOP members of Congress with primary challenges if they didn’t fall in line.

Adams, her news director, a reporter and an intern kept broadcasting and updating KUCB’s social media feed until the danger passed. Then she made time for one more task — texting U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and urging her to vote against the bill. Murkowski was one of two Republican senators, along with Susan Collins of Maine, to publicly dissent.

“I thought that it was such a telling story of why her constituents have a different relationship to public radio than maybe some other regions of the United States,” Adams said.

Hard decisions ahead for stations across the country

The federal money is appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes it to NPR and PBS. Roughly 70% of the money goes directly to the 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country, although that’s only a shorthand way to describe its potential impact.

The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it’s likely some won’t survive. Katherine Maher, NPR’s president and CEO, estimated as many as 80 NPR stations may face closure in the next year. Some stations are already fielding offers from commercial entities to buy their broadcast licenses, she said.

“Many of our stations which provide access to free unique local programming and emergency alerts will now be forced to make hard decisions in the weeks and months ahead,” said Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO. “There is nothing more American than PBS. Despite today’s setback, we are determined to keep fighting to preserve the essential services we provide to the American public.”

The measure will cost PBS and NPR stations in Mississippi roughly $2 million, about 15% of the budget, said Royal Aills, executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

Already, Mississippi Public Broadcasting has decided to eliminate a streaming channel that airs children’s programming like “Caillou” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” to the state’s youngsters 24 hours a day, said Taiwo Gaynor, the system’s chief content officer.

“This is important for families, to have access to content that they don’t have to pay for,” Gaynor said. “That is a sad thought, to think that we … might not be able to provide that for a generation of children.”

Maine’s public media system is looking at a hit of $2.5 million, or about 12% of its budget, for the next fiscal year, said Rick Schneider, president and chief executive officer of Maine Public. He said he’s not ready to identify specific cuts, but the system is preparing to reinvent itself to make certain it continues serving the state’s residents.

Maine’s rural residents rely heavily on public media for weather updates and disaster alerts, said Molly Curren Rowles, executive director of ACLU of Maine. Rowles said public media was a “lifeline” to her growing up off the grid.

Bracing for trouble at stations that take pride in music discovery

NPR’s Maher fears what the cuts might mean for the system’s journalism, not just in rural areas where local news can be hard to come by, but in telling the rest of the country what is going on there. Less funding will also mean less support for popular television and radio programming, although it’s too soon to tell which programs will be affected.

NPR stations also use millions of dollars in federal money to pay music licensing fees. Now many will have to renegotiate these deals, which could mean less music, or a more limited variety of music, on outlets where music discovery is a big part of their identity. For example, Maher estimates that some 96% of all classical music broadcast in the United States is on NPR stations. “That is essentially taking an entire art form out of public access,” she said.

The affair transcends violins and piccolos. NPR received support Thursday from the heavy metal band Gwar, whose lead singer Blothar the Berserker posted a call on social media for fans to pay attention to what is going on with public media.

Already, public media is seeing an increase in donations from reader and viewers to support its mission, and stations are actively sounding the alarm. In a plea to listeners on its website Thursday, Philadelphia’s WXPN radio pointed to its legacy in helping people discover new music. “The most important thing you can do is support WXPN and the public media system in a way that is meaningful to you,” the station urged on its website.

But donations aren’t going to fill the hole left by the loss in federal funding, Maher said. The public media leaders have already turned to lobbying Congress to restore some of the funding through the appropriations process for next year’s budget. They don’t know how much time they have; Maher said it would be inordinately costly, and perhaps prohibitive, to reopen a radio station that is forced to close.

Public media isn’t getting any help from states, either. At least five states have reduced their own outlays for public media this year, either for budget or political reasons.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, vetoed nearly $6 million that Florida lawmakers had set aside for public broadcasters the day before the state’s budget took effect on July 1. “Done in Florida,” DeSantis responded on social media to a Trump post calling public broadcasting a “monstrosity” that should be defunded.

Meanwhile, back in Alaska …

Back in Alaska, KMXT public radio station’s general manager, Jared Griffin, called the Senate vote a “devastating gut punch.” He estimated that the cuts would amount to 22% of KMXT’s budget. Griffin said the station’s board has already agreed on a plan to furlough staff members one day a month, and he’s taking a 50% pay cut.

The station covers Kodiak Island, home to one of the nation’s largest U.S. Coast Guard bases.

“We have to dip into our savings while we figure out what KMXT is going to look like over the next six months, Griffin said. ”At least for the next year we’ll be fine but we’re probably going to have to look at leasing space in our building to other organizations to help fill that gap.”

Unalaska resident Nikki Whittern said KUCB plays a vital role in the community during emergencies like the tsunami warning.

“They broadcast everything, and they make sure that everybody knows and everybody’s safe,” said Whittern, a bartender. She spoke while preparing to open the Norwegian Rat Saloon — known to local fishermen simply as “the Rat” — on Thursday morning.

___

Bauder reported from New York. AP correspondents Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia; Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan; and Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

Bands behaving badly? It’s only rock ’n’ roll.

Members of alternative rock band Jane’s Addiction filed dueling lawsuits Wednesday over singer Perry Farrell’s onstage scuffle with guitarist Dave Navarro at a Boston concert last year, a fracas that prompted the cancellation of the rest of their reunion tour and a planned album.

They join a long and storied tradition of bandmates suing one another, taking interpersonal and legal troubles from the recording studio to the courtroom. Here’s a look at a few very famous cases.

Jane’s Addiction

WHAT HAPPENED: Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery sued Farrell in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking at least $10 million, alleging that Farrell’s behavior on their recent tour had ranged from erratic to out of control, culminating in an assault where Farrell punched Navarro both onstage and backstage.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: It hasn’t been; it’s just getting started. Farrell and his wife, Etty Lau Farrell, sued the three bandmates in the same court Wednesday, blaming them for the conflict and the violence.

The Beach Boys

WHAT HAPPENED: How much time do you have? The late, great Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ leader, feuded with his cousin and bandmate Mike Love over songwriting credits dating back decades. Love had sued Wilson several times, beginning in the 1990s.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: Wilson often wasn’t the victor — except in 2007, when U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins threw out one of Love’s lawsuits against Wilson. In it, Love alleged that a free, 2004 promotional CD of re-recorded Beach Boys songs cost him millions of dollars and violated Love and Wilson’s partnership.

Oasis

WHAT HAPPENED: The sibling rivalry between Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher is well established. Their brawls not only led to the band’s dissolution in 2009, before their 2025 reunion, but also a legal upset. In 2011, Liam sued Noel for saying Liam’s hangover caused the cancellation of a 2009 festival performance. He said in a statement that the lawsuit was not about money, but that he wanted an apology and for Oasis fans “to know the truth” — that laryngitis prevented him from performing.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The lawsuit was dropped.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

WHAT HAPPENED: The post-breakup decades of Creedence Clearwater Revival were marked by so much legal and personal infighting that you might think CCR stands for Conflict, Clash, Repeat. In 1996, singer-songwriter-guitarist John Fogerty sued ex-bandmates Doug Clifford and Stu Cook for performing under the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited. That case settled in 2001, but the bandmates sued Fogerty in 2014, alleging he was violating the settlement by continuing to publicly slag off the Revisited name. And they said Fogerty himself was now illegally using Creedence Clearwater Revival in concert advertising. Fogerty sued back in 2015, saying Cook and Clifford weren’t paying him proper songwriting royalties for their performances.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: A federal court merged the two cases, and the resulting hybrid was settled under confidential terms in 2017.

Fleetwood Mac

WHAT HAPPENED: Fleetwood Mac and feuds are practically synonymous. Breakups and divorces between members are essential to some of their best songs. The conflict resumed in the 2010s when the band kicked lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham off their 2018 tour, and he sued. Buckingham claimed he was told five days after the group appeared at Radio City Music Hall that January that the band would tour without him. He says he would have been paid at least $12 million for his share of the proceeds.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: Later that year, Buckingham said they had settled the lawsuit.

Journey

WHAT HAPPENED: At some point, two key members of Journey stopped believin’ in each other. And all over an Amex. Longtime guitarist Neal Schon sued longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain in 2022, saying Cain was refusing to let him use the band’s American Express card. A counterclaim came from Cain, who said that Schon was running up enormous personal charges on the band’s account.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: A judge in 2024 appointed a custodian over the band’s financial decisions, specifically empowered to settle disagreements between Schon and Cain.

Hall & Oates

WHAT HAPPENED: In 2023, Daryl Hall sued his longtime music partner John Oates, arguing that Oates’ plan to sell off his share of a joint venture would violate the terms of a business agreement the Hall & Oates duo had forged long before. The move quickly prompted a judge to temporarily block the sale.

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The lawsuit and arbitration are ongoing.

The Beatles

WHAT HAPPENED: Their artistic partnership had been over for months, but the Beatles had to break out the barristers to break up their business. Paul McCartney went to London’s High Court of Justice in 1970 to dissolve the Fab Four’s 1967 contractual partnership, which included the Apple record label. McCartney above all wanted to get rid of manager Allen Klein, whom John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr wanted to keep as overseer of their business. “The only way for me to save The Beatles and Apple,” McCartney told British GQ in 2020, “was to sue the band.”

HOW IT WAS RESOLVED: The court ruled in McCartney’s favor and appointed a receiver to oversee their ventures in 1971. But negotiations and wrangling continued until a long-term solution that would become known as “The Beatles Agreement” was signed by all four members in 1974.