Paul Wesley has joined the cast of Icebreaker. The Vampire Diaries star will play Coach Neil Faulkner in the Netflix series adaptation of bestselling novel by Hannah Grace. The new college romance drama series follows the connection between a figure skater with her eyes set on Olympic gold and a campus hockey star gunning for the NHL …

The 2027 Film Independent Spirit Awards have its hosts. Kate Berlant and John Early are set to host the awards show at the Hollywood Palladium in LA on March 6. The comedy duo have been collaborating for over a decade, including the projects Would It Kill You to Laugh and Maddie’s Secret …

Live from New York, Druski brought Saturday Night Live its best viewership numbers in years. The Nov. 7 episode of the long-running late night sketch comedy series brought in 5.6 million viewers to NBC, ABC Audio has confirmed. This beats the 5.2 million viewers the Halloween episode hosted by Inde Navarrette brought in and marks the most viewers Saturday Night Live has seen in two years …

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Best believe she’s still bejeweled.

Taylor Swift will be awarded the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award by The Hollywood Reporter during its annual Women in Entertainment breakfast gala.

Director Greta Gerwig will present the music superstar with the award at the magazine’s marquee event in LA. The gala will be attended by 600 industry leaders and VIPs and will coincide with the release of The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment issue.

This award is named for Sherry Lansing, the first woman to head a Hollywood studio. Lansing is the former CEO of Paramount Pictures. The award recognizes trailblazers and philanthropists in entertainment and media. Former recipients of the honor include Gwyneth Paltrow, Adele, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Viola Davis, Barbra Streisand, Shonda Rhimes, Oprah Winfrey, Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep.

“Taylor Swift took on an industry that has long underestimated women and won on every front: artistically, commercially and on the question of who owns her work. She reclaimed her catalog, set new terms for the artists who follow her and became the most popular musician in the world while doing it—and helping scores of other artists along the way. We’re proud to honor her with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award,” The Hollywood Reporter editor-in-chief Maer Roshan said in a press release.

Lansing said she is so pleased to recognize Swift with the award that bears her name.

“Taylor has paved the way for women in music, demonstrating what is possible when a woman takes ownership of her work, her career, and her future. Equally impressive is her generosity and commitment to giving back. She is an extraordinary talent and a remarkable role model, and I could not be more proud to see her receive this award,” Lansing said.

Gerwig is a four-time Oscar-nominated director known for helming the successful 2023 blockbuster Barbie. Her next film, Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, arrives in theaters on Feb. 12, 2027.

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Democrat Scott Colom will upset Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, The Associated Press projected Wednesday, flipping a Republican seat in a ruby-red state.

With 99% of the expected vote reported, Colom leads with 49.2%, and Hyde-Smith has 48.7% of the vote, with Colom leading by about 4,700 votes.

Mississippi does not have a recount process, the secretary of state’s office told ABC News, meaning candidates can’t request a recount and there is no mechanism to trigger one in a tight race. Mississippi’s deadline to certify its election results is Friday, Nov. 13.

See live election results below:

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Imagine if every time you flew somewhere, the airline had to throw away the plane when you landed and replace it with a new one. Or if your car was only good for one trip. 

As absurd as that sounds, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told the audience at the X Takeover 2025 event that’s how it goes for rocket launches.

“If every time you drove somewhere you had to throw away the car, you’d be ‘wow’ that’s a crazy car where you have to throw away after every time you drive it. But that’s how it works for rockets,” Musk told the crowd.

Or that’s how it used to work. Blue Origin and SpaceX, along with a growing number of new rocket companies, are developing fully reusable space launch systems that could fundamentally change the economics and sustainability of space missions.

“The cheap part of a launch, relatively speaking, is the fuel. And so being able to do reusability, particularly quickly, with a minimum of refurbishment, allows you to really drive down the cost of launching things into space and allows you to increase the amount of stuff you can send into space, which SpaceX has really been leaning into,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, told ABC News.

But to get there, SpaceX has to demonstrate that both stages of Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket and spacecraft, can return to the launch site and be captured by the tower’s giant robotic “chopsticks.”

“This is a massive rocket, and so to be able to catch it is a huge point of demonstration and a critical step along their goal of reusability and rapid reusability, which is in a sense key to all of their future plans,” said Dreier. “They need to be able to turn these launches around within a couple of days, if not a day, and that doesn’t happen without catching the rocket.”

If the weather and the vehicles cooperate, SpaceX will attempt to achieve that milestone for the first time on Friday at 5:45 p.m. ET, when it launches Starship for the 15th time from its Starbase launch site in Cameron County, Texas. The company has 75 minutes to get the rocket off the pad before it has to scrub.

“You’re building this incredibly complicated, expensive machine, and then you just discard it. So why not find a way to reuse it and then be able to launch it several times,” said Austin Spiegel, a former SpaceX engineer and now the CEO of Sift, which helps rocket companies capture and analyze test data. 

Musk often reminds people that “rockets are hard,” but Spiegel says Musk also has a saying for why making them reusable is even harder.

“It’s like trying to land a toothpick in a hurricane,” said Spiegel.

The mission will begin like the previous Starship flights. The combined 407-foot Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft will lift off from the pad, and about six minutes later, the first-stage booster will return to the launch site for the tower’s mechanical arms to attempt a catch. While this is something SpaceX has done three times with a previous generation booster, it will be the first for the latest version.

Starship will then deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, adding capacity to SpaceX’s orbital communications network. 

During the mission, Starship will orbit Earth about 14 times during its more than 22-hour flight, with SpaceX monitoring the vehicle’s health throughout. The company says its flight profile gives it several opportunities to deorbit early over the ocean if any problems arise. 

If all goes well and the vehicle’s systems are healthy, the big moment will come Saturday afternoon around 4:15 p.m. ET, when Starship returns to the launch pad after a deorbit burn and then, for the first time, SpaceX will attempt to catch it using the launch tower’s robotic “chopsticks.” And if both catches are successful, Starship will become the first fully recovered orbital rocket in history.

But a successful Flight 15 doesn’t mean the company is about to turn spaceflight into something as routine as commercial airline flight. 

Dreier says the biggest hurdle for SpaceX in making Starship a rapidly reusable spacecraft is the vehicle’s heat shield, the tiles that keep the vehicle from burning up in the atmosphere during reentry. 

“You have a lot of heat to dissipate when you bring something that big back down to Earth,” explains Dreier. “You have to have these big tiles on it, and you want to make sure those are able to be both examined relatively quickly to make sure there are no cracks in them and then repaired very quickly so you don’t have to spend months going through them piece by piece to try to ensure that it’s ready for flight.”

Musk has acknowledged that developing a heat shield capable of rapid reuse is a considerable engineering challenge, as it’s never been done before.

“I think the lesson has been to not bet against SpaceX, particularly on these engineering issues. If any company can do it, it will be this company,” said Dreier.

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At least three people are dead and over a dozen others injured after a building collapsed in Brooklyn, according to New York City authorities.

Firefighters and police officers working at the building collapse site spent the night sifting through debris at the construction site from the collapsed three story building. The “dangerous” search and rescue operation is ongoing and there could be more victims, fire officials warned.

A three-story building at the intersection of Flatbush and Bedford Avenues in the Flatbush neighborhood collapsed into an adjacent excavation site, where workers were on scene, according fire officials. The wall of another three-story building that now stands next to the site was also shorn off, exposing apartments.

“This was a major technical response,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said at a press briefing. “Multiple people from the building and a construction site were trapped.”

Four people are in critical condition, four others have serious but non life threatening injuries and nine others suffered minor injuries, officials said.

The victims include seven children, Bonsignore said, without specifying if they were among the deceased.

It is unclear how many people may still be missing in the collapse, Bonsignore said, saying it will be a “prolonged operation” and that they expect there to be more victims.

“This was a devastating collapse,” Mamdani said at the press briefing.

Earlier, the FDNY said several construction workers were being transported to the hospital for treatment, and firefighters were trying to get a count of all the workers on the job site.

Excavation work had been underway at the construction site, which has been approved for a three-story building, officials said. Plans for a nine-story, mixed-use building there had yet to be approved, officials said.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation by the Department of Buildings and law enforcement, authorities said.

The first 911 call on the collapse came in at 4:01 p.m., according to the FDNY.

Firefighters could be seen among the debris in the construction pit. After several hours, search-and-rescue canines could also be seen at work.

Mamdani called the rescue operation “incredibly challenging” as crews navigated “precarious wreckage.”

“The units are performing dangerous and heroic work,” Bonsignore said.

Amid the massive response, at least two people could be seen being rescued from the rubble, pulled out on stretchers. In one dramatic scene, a woman was rescued more than two hours into the rescue operation, as night fell on the site.

A man who had been frantically looking for his pregnant wife told reporters, “I have an update from my wife, she is alive,” before boarding an ambulance with a victim.

The NYC Department of Buildings said its inspectors “are on scene at a major building collapse near Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn assisting with recovery operations and conducting structural stability inspections of nearby buildings.”

NYC Council Member Farah Louis, who represents Flatbush, called the images from the site “heartbreaking.”

“We are devastated to learn that at least one life has been lost, with multiple people reported trapped and several injured as emergency personnel work urgently to reach everyone in the rubble,” Louis said in a statement.

“My immediate priority is the safety of everyone impacted, and my team is actively working to reach affected families to connect them with critical information and support during this frightening time,” the statement continued.

Mamdani urged people to avoid the area amid the rescue response.

“As emergency operations continue, please join me in holding our neighbors and the members of this community in our hearts,” he said in a statement.

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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer accused of fatally shooting a Colombian national in July made what his sister considers anti-immigrant statements more than five years earlier, a copy of the emails shared with ABC News shows. 

Relatives have previously identified David Brouillette as the ICE officer who fatally shot Johan Sebastián Duran Guerrero during an immigration enforcement operation in Biddeford, Maine, on July 13.

In an email dated Jan. 5, 2021, Elizabeth Emen, Brouillette’s sister, invited him to record a video wishing her child a happy birthday. 

Two days later, Brouillette responded, “you said that ‘[REDACTED] doesn’t need a racist uncle in his life.'” 

“Now you would like me to send your son a video for his birthday to be a part of that memory. YOUR choices affects YOUR kids,” Brouillette added, according to one of the emails shared with ABC News. 

Emen said Brouillette was referring to previous comments he had allegedly made about her former partner, a Colombian national, who was living in the country legally and with whom she has two children. The partner was a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D and at the time and had been dating Emen for five years, Emen said. 

Emen shared the emails with ABC News. Names are redacted and they contain several typos. The emails were first reported by the New York Times. 

According to one email, Emen responded that Brouillette had made “racist/xenophobic” comments about her partner “not being a citizen.” 

In a response dated Jan. 11, 2021, Brouillette said that the partner “can takes his non citizen ass back to his country and enjoy his third world luxuries.” 

“He does not emulate what it means to be an American..rather he emulates what it’s like to be entitled and think he has a seat at a table that has no room for his (or your ignorance),” Brouillette wrote, according to the email. 

Brouillette added that the partner’s “bloodline knows nothing about what it takes to earn and then CHERISH the freedom America offers. He sure doesn’t have a problem with freeloading off of our country, not claiming to be part of it..and then criticizing it,” according to the email provided by Emen. 

A friend of Emen’s told ABC News they recalled speaking to her about her brother’s comments soon after the exchange.

ABC News has been unable to reach David Brouillette for comment. A number belonging to him appears to have been disconnected. He did not respond to a request for comment sent to his last known email address. 

Emen said that exchange ended her relationship with her brother.

“That was a very overt and excessive expression of his beliefs,” she told ABC News in an interview. “When I saw his actions on July 13, I just couldn’t believe that it had been allowed to get to that point. I can’t believe that he was onboarded into a federal agency and provided a weapon.” 

At the time of the shooting, an ICE spokesperson said the agency was in Biddeford “conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal,” and when an “illegal alien departed the residence in a vehicle,” ICE agents “attempted to conduct a vehicle stop.”

 “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” ICE said.

Maine Sen. Angus King told reporters Duran Guerrero was not the target of the operation.

Emen, a licensed therapist, said she grew up with her brother until she moved away to college. Most of their adult relationship was long distance through phone and video calls up until 2021, she said. 

She first learned her brother was an ICE agent when she recognized him from a photo in an article about the shooting, she said. She’s now calling the agency’s hiring practices into question. 

“If it was rigorous, I imagine they might have talked to the people close to him about his behavior, about his motivation to join, and whether or not he could do what was asked of him and use the least amount of force possible in his role,” she said. 

The Maine Attorney General’s Office is investigating the shooting. Brouillette has not been charged with a crime. 

In a social media post earlier Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers on the House Homeland Security said they will investigate the emails. 

“Democrats will investigate who approved this hire and why ICE ignored the serious red flags,” the lawmakers said.

DHS has not identified the officer. A spokesperson said the agency “will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers.” 

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson did not identify the officer and defended the agency’s hiring practices. 

“Incoming ICE officers, many already with years of law enforcement experience, are onboarded in accordance with applicable policies and standards. Any claims of substandard training or vetting are FALSE. This administration is preserving ICE’s reputation as one of the most elite law enforcement agencies not only in the U.S., but the entire world,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson did not comment on Brouillette’s alleged remarks. 

In a statement, an attorney representing Duran Guerrero’s family said his death was the result of the “government’s failure to properly screen” ICE agents.

“David Brouillette is the poster child for what happens when our government chooses to recruit agents to carry out a campaign of hate against immigrants, hires those agents without adequate screening and places them on the street without basic training,” attorney Sean P. Murphy said.

Emen says she’s now coming forward about her brother in an attempt to seek justice and support for Duran Guerrero’s family. 

“I’ve watched their speaking out after learning about my brother’s actions and repeatedly my thoughts and prayers have been with them and I’ll do what I can to support an investigation,” she said.

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The Nvidia board is reportedly planning to oust CEO Jensen Huang amid reports he engaged in two extramarital affairs, including one with a Chinese businesswoman and alleged spy and another with an executive at his tech company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to meet as soon as Wednesday to determine Huang’s future with the technology giant he founded.

ABC News has reached out to Nvidia for comment.

On Sunday, Nvidia said that its board launched an independent investigation “in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort.”

The development on Wednesday comes after The New York Times reported nearly two weeks ago that Huang had “a close relationship” with an alleged Chinese government agent, identified as Alice Huang, a top executive at Singapore-based data company Megaspeed. He later admitted in an internal statement to Nvidia staff that he had been “unfaithful to his wife.”

Amid the fallout from the allegations and the letter, The Times reported on Wednesday that Huang also allegedly had an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia executive who allegedly reports to him.

The outlet, citing sources within the company, reported that Huang and his colleague were allegedly captured on video being affectionate at a hotel during an Nvidia conference in March. The New York Times said it had not seen the video.

ABC News has not been able to verify the reporting or the alleged video.

Following the reporting about Jensen Huang and Alice Huang, who are not related, the Chinese government denied the allegations, calling them “baseless and purely slanderous smears against China.”

Neither Alice Huang nor her employer, Megaspeed International, responded to ABC News’ request for comment after the New York Times story broke.

“Jensen’s interactions with Ms. Huang are not unusual or unexpected” and are part of Jensen Huang’s job, an Nvidia spokesperson told ABC News at the time.

On Sunday, Nvidia shared with ABC News the internal message Jensen Huang sent to employees, in which he said he was “unfaithful,” apologizing for hurting his wife and family.

“My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” the message said, in part. It did not name Alice Huang nor any other person.

Addressing Nvidia staff, partners and shareholders, Huang went on to say, “My responsibility is to serve you and be worthy of your trust. I have fallen short of that responsibility. I am fully committed to NVIDIA and will work to earn back your confidence.”

“I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American,” Huang’s message said.

Following the New York Times report, congressional Republicans on the Select Committee on China sent a letter to Jensen Huang requesting that he appear for a closed-door briefing Nov. 18 concerning his relationship with Alice Huang.

The Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Brian Mast, told ABC News on Tuesday that he’s prepared to subpoena Huang if he does not respond by Wednesday to a request from several House Republicans.

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he spoke with Huang that day about the allegations.

“I asked him that question — ‘Did you have any idea that she was a spy?’ He said, ‘I had no idea that she was a spy,’ and I really believe him,” Trump told reporters.

In its statement on Sunday, Nvidia said that a “committee of independent directors, assisted by outside independent counsel, will oversee the investigation.”

Huang “fully supports the review” and will cooperate with it, the Nvidia statement further said.

“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” according to the statement.

“The Board prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” the statement further said.

“The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team,” according to the statement.

Nvidia has grown to be one of the most important chip makers in recent years due to its components being key to AI computing servers.

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To mark 20 years of the annual Stand Up for Heroes event to support veterans, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir spoke to Bob Woodruff and veterans who are members of the American rock band The Resilient.

“Twenty years in — we’re really proud, Bob,” Muir said to Woodruff as they met at New York City’s Lincoln Center on Monday ahead of the event.

“It’s remarkable — you’ve been there since the very beginning, my friend, from the beginning,” Woodruff said to Muir. “So I think I appreciate you for it.”

Back in 2006, Woodruff was injured while on assignment in Iraq. From that moment on, Bob and his wife Lee have made it their mission to help wounded soldiers.

Since its founding, Stand Up for Heroes has raised millions to support veterans and military families.

In 2013, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters performed for the charity at Madison Square Garden – and he invited wounded veterans to join him. Those veterans later came together again to form American rock band The Resilient.

The Resilient is made up of severely wounded U.S. combat veterans who first met at Walter Reed, and now use music for emotional healing, trauma recovery, and inspiring others.

Tim Donley, a retired U.S. Marine Corporal and lead vocalist of the band, was injured by an IED in Afghanistan in 2012, losing both his legs above the knee and seriously damaging his right arm. He spoke to Muir about how music has helped him on his recovery journey.

“I’d say the main thing is it’s allowed for the ability to connect again,” Donley said. “Just that ability to even feel connections again, it’s made all the difference.”

Marine Corps veteran Dom Dominguez, who lost his legs and an arm in combat, is a drummer for the band and spoke to Muir about how much support he has gained from being in the band.

“For me, it’s like I’ve gotten so much support and help on my road to recovery,” Dominguez said.

U.S. Army veteran Nate Kalwicki, a guitarist for the band, spoke to Muir about the parallels between being a part of the military and a band. Kalwicki lost his right leg in Afghanistan while deployed there in 2011. He was inspired to start playing the guitar while recovering at the Walter Reed military hospital.

“Being in the military, you’re part of the team, and you go on missions, you train,” Kalwicki said. “I think a band is similar.”

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Democrat Scott Colom will upset Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, The Associated Press projected Wednesday, flipping a Republican seat in a ruby-red state.

With 99% of the expected vote reported, Colom leads with 49.2%, and Hyde-Smith has 48.7% of the vote, with Colom leading by about 4,700 votes.

Colom’s win is the eighth Democratic pickup in the Senate with the race in Alaska yet to be decided.

Colom is a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama state line and a former nominee to become a U.S. district judge. He is Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator elected since Reconstruction in the 1870s.

Speaking to supporters in Jackson on Wednesday night, Colom tied his projected victory to the state’s long history of racial injustice and civil rights activism, as he also looked forward toward what he framed as his service for all of the state’s residents.

In his speech, he referenced Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first Black U.S. senator in American history, and civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who both hailed from Mississippi.

“God didn’t want us to get it the easy way. He wanted us to get it … the Mississippi way,” Colom said of the hard work he said went into his campaign, pledging to work for all Mississippians.

“My commitment to you, each and every one of you, is that first: I’m going to treat your children like I want my children to be treated,” he said. “I’m going to treat your parents the way I want my parents to be treated. I’m gonna treat your future the way I want my future to be.”

Earlier Wednesday, Hyde-Smith has called Colom to concede, a campaign spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

In a video posted on her campaign account Wednesday evening, Hyde-Smith said, “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters. I want to congratulate Scott Colom and wish him well as he takes on the tremendous responsibility of representing our great state.”

While his campaign had initially been seen as a long shot, Colom built up more buzz in the last few months of the campaign, appearing with major party figures such as former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Kamala Harris. He also went viral with a campaign video where he mocked Hyde-Smith over comments she made about choosing other options for proteins because of high beef prices.

Hyde-Smith, who was running for a second full term, campaigned with President Donald Trump during a rally in October and insisted she was the right choice for the state.

Colom and Hyde-Smith had some history even before Colom’s Senate run, as she blocked his nomination for federal judge in 2023, although Colom has said he has forgiven her for doing so.

Colom told ABC News in an interview after Election Day that his campaign didn’t get much attention or resources outside Mississippi until about a month ago because some in his party couldn’t fathom that Democrats could flip a Senate seat in the Magnolia State.

He says that forced him to build a ground game which took him to many areas of the state and put him face-to-face with a lot of voters. He said many of those voters gravitated towards him because they were tired of broken promises in Washington.

“The voters were betrayed. That gave us an opportunity to compete everywhere. And for me, I wasn’t afraid to call that out, and I wasn’t also afraid to say what I was going to do,” he said.

Both campaigns and their associated political parties had indicated after Election Day, as the margin between them remained tight, that they were ready for potential litigation in the race, particularly over provisional ballots that both sides estimated could number in the thousands.

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Floating among the clouds, ABC News’ Bob Woodruff and comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias peered down at a stunning view of Japan’s Mount Fuji.

The pair was heading to Yokoto Air Base, one of the largest Air Force bases in the world. It served as a key launch point for U.S. military missions in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Woodruff and Iglesias, along with three other comedians, traveled to join up with the United Service Organizations (USO), a nonprofit organization founded in 1941 that aims to uplift the spirits of U.S. service members abroad. The USO has been active at Yokoto and other U.S. military bases around the world for decades, and this Veterans Day, the organization celebrates its 85th anniversary.

A Veterans Day series, “American Valor,” premieres Wednesday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, with the first episode exploring service members in Japan.

Subsequent episodes will stream on Nov. 18 and Nov. 25, taking audiences to South Korea and Alaska, respectively.

Iglesias performed a stand-up show at Yokoto before the group traveled to Misawa Air Base, the next stop on their Japanese tour celebrating the USO.

“I do enjoy being able to give my time and bring smiles to people that are missing home,” Iglesias told Woodruff. “I know what it’s like to be away, and these people are out there, and they’re not going home for a while.”

As American service members and their families moved into the bases and surrounding neighborhoods, they changed local Japanese communities. Americans built houses, frequented local businesses and even took over the military’s Pacific radio waves.

While Americans’ presence and their impact on local economies were welcomed by some, others expressed hope that Japan’s military would be less dependent on the U.S.

Strolling the streets surrounding Yokoto and Misawa, Woodruff spoke with a number of locals — from a noodle shop owner to a tattoo artist to a motorcyclist — who have been drastically impacted by Americans’ culture and economic activity in their own backyards.

The cultural crossover has led service members to call Misawa, a joint American-Japanese base, the home to “two cultures, one community.”

G. Reilly, a comedian and U.S. Navy veteran, accompanied Woodruff on the Japanese tour. Reilly recalled his enjoyment of USO entertainers’ performances while he was serving in the Navy himself.

“It’s a moment of comfort,” Reilly told Woodruff. “The goal here is clear: create a unifying moment of relief for our service members abroad just like the USO has always done.”

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