(WASHINGTON) — Three-time U.S. Olympian David Hearn told ABC News that police arrested him on Friday after he touched a piece of blue coating that was partially detached from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Hearn said he went on a bike ride on Friday afternoon and stopped by the Reflecting Pool as a “curious, concerned citizen”. Given his background in materials science, Hearn says he was interested to see the situation for himself after reading about reports of algae in the water and paint peeling off.

“I saw a piece of this loose end of this blue coating … I reached out and touched the end of that piece that was loose but still attached to the bottom,” Hearn told ABC News. “I was able to reach out and touch the edge of that that was still attached at the bottom and handled it a little bit.”

Hearn, who represented the U.S. in canoeing, said he was able to feel and bend the coating a bit.

“I did not remove, I did not damage, I did not rip, tear, break, destroy or harm any part of the Reflecting Pool,” Hearn said.

“The condition of that part and all other parts of the Reflecting Pool were in the same condition after I walked away as they were before I walked up to it.”

Hearn said as he was touching the material, a National Park Service employee told him to stop touching it. He said he then walked back to his bike where National Guardsmen told him that the Park Police wanted to talk to him.

“I had no idea I was about to be arrested,” Hearn said. “They didn’t say they were charging me, but they did start to handcuff me. They did not ever read me my rights. They did not allow me any phone calls for the ensuing five hours, and they did not detail the charges that were going to be leveled against me.”

The National Park Service has not replied to a request from ABC News about Hearn’s arrest or any others.

Hearn is set to appear in court on July 9.

Hearn said he was “fully cooperative” the whole time, did not resist and was held for five hours before being released Friday night.

Asked whether he is worried about what will happen to him next, Hearn said: “I am concerned. I’m very wary of our current government; I’m a single citizen being singled out in this way by my government. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.”

The Reflecting Pool has been plagued with algae and peeling paint in the days since the Trump administration completed a $14.65 million renovation. Visitors have been flocking to the pool over the weekend and some have taken to social media with photos and videos showing the algae and peeling paint.

President Donald Trump claims, without evidence, that the damage was committed by vandals, saying Saturday in a lengthy post on his social media platform that the pool would need to be partially drained to repair the peeling lining.

Trump said multiple people had been arrested for vandalism and blamed the condition of the pool on someone pouring “corrosive and destructive chemicals” into the pool and that “They took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250 foot long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.”

An administration official said on Sunday that as of Saturday night, five individuals had been arrested for vandalism, and five others had been issued citations.

The official added that 14 police reports had also been filed for alleged vandalism, including the alleged crime Trump described.

Hearn said he has “a lot of support.”

“I have several very respectable law firms who are offering to provide pro bono counsel, and we will be vigorously defending against these charges,” he said.  

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ken Carson is ready to deliver a new album to his fans. He’s announced that his project, xperiment, is scheduled to release on July 3. Vinyl variants, merch and more are already available on his website for preorder.

Ken’s last studio album, More Chaos, was released on April 11, 2025, featuring the bonus track and only song with a guest appearance on the track: “Off the Meter” with Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely.

He is set to headline ComplexCon in Los Angeles on Oct. 3, following sets at Roskilde Festival, Splash! Festival, Openair Frauenfeld, Clout Festival and Frequency Festival. Tickets and more information can be found at kencarson.xyz.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Billboard has compiled a list of the 50 greatest R&B groups of all time, with several classical acts leading the charge. Earth, Wind & Fire takes the #1 spot, followed by The Temptations, Sly and the Family Stone, The Isley Brothers and The Supremes, which round out the top five.

“The band’s innovative mélange of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, rock and world rhythms have kept its legion of fans mesmerized … while simultaneously luring next-gen fans over the last half century,” Billboard says of EWF.

It highlights Temptations’ “rich harmonies and dynamic stage presence,” calling the group “one of the most influential vocal groups in music history.” The publication also credits Sly and the Family Stone with reshaping music and “rewriting the definition of mainstream pop.”

Of The Isley Brothers, Billboard notes that the group “yielded a series of classic hits that have left an indelible mark on the musical landscape” from the time they came out in the 1950s.

As for The Supremes, Billboard writes that they “weren’t the first girl group. But The Supremes are — fitting of their name — the ultimate standard.”

Elsewhere in the top 10 are Parliament-Funkadelic, The Jackson 5, New Edition, Boyz II Men and Destiny’s Child.

Billboard based its rankings on several factors, including discography, chart success, staying power, influence on the genre, culture significance and overall legacy.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(EUREKA, Utah) — Mandatory evacuations are underway for hundreds of people on Sunday in a central Utah town being threatened by a wind-driven, out-of-control wildfire, officials said.

The Iron Fire is burning in Juab County, about 28 miles southwest of Provo, and officials said on Sunday that flames are bearing down on Eureka, Utah, a small town in the East Tintic Mountains.

The wildfire, which started on Friday night, had burned more than 13,300 acres by Sunday morning and remains 0% contained, according to Utah Fire Info.

The wildfire, according to Utah Fire Info, was human-caused, but details of what sparked the blaze have not been released.

Shifting winds and dry vegetation fueled the wildfire on Saturday and sent it in the direction of Eureka, where authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders on Saturday. Fire officials said flames were threatening “numerous structures” in the area.

The fire rapidly grew from about 5,000 acres on Saturday to more than 13,000 overnight.

“That’s way closer than anybody wants it to be,” Daylan Hermanson, a Eureka resident, told ABC Salt Lake City affiliate station KTVX, as he watched flames creep over a mountainside headed for Eureka.

Kelly Wicken, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Forestry, said the blaze started on private land and has now spread across Juab and two other counties, crossing onto federal land and shutting down a highway.

Before the fire, the National Weather Service had issued red flag fire danger warnings for a large part of the state.

Utah is also in the middle of a severe drought that has dried out vegetation, providing fuel for any fires.

“With June temperatures rising, Utah is facing a deepening drought that has accelerated the drying of soils and vegetation across the state,” the Utah Department of Natural Resources said in a June 11 statement. “Wildfire season has already been active with over 230 fires so far this year, a majority of which were human-caused.”

The Iron Fire is the biggest of 11 wildfires that have ignited across the state since Friday.

The Hastings Fire, which started on Saturday west of Salt Lake City, had burned 2,500 acres by Sunday morning and was 0% contained, according to Utah Fire Info.

The Middle Fork Fire near Ogden and the Boonville Fire, just east of the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, had both burned more than 300 acres since starting on Saturday and were both 0% contained on Sunday.

“Utah is facing multiple wildfires across the state today, and we are using every available resource to support response efforts,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in a social media post on Saturday evening. “Conditions remain dry and dangerous. Please use extreme caution, follow evacuation notices, and do your part to prevent new fires.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Ne-Yo gives another preview of his country-inspired Highway 79 album with “Thinking What I’m Thinking.” The song “explores the fragile space between two people growing apart,” according to a press release. The accompanying visualizer premieres on Tuesday. 

Masego has released a new song titled “Breathe.” It’s “an actual real-life story about me trying to process a death in a family, but then having to go into a meeting, and then a studio session, and then travel, and then some other industry s***,” he says of the song. 

Tierra Whack invites you to WHACK’s MUSEUM on her new mixtape. According to a press release, it’s her self-described “first true rap project.” “WHACK’S MUSEUM isn’t meant to just be heard. It’s meant to be examined,” she says in a statement. The video for “SIREN” is now available.

Chlöe and Timbaland came together for 13 tracks now featured on her mixtape Resurrection. “so grateful for what we created,” she wrote to Timbaland in the caption announcing the project’s release. The video for “Talking Deep” is on YouTube.

PJ Morton’s double album, Saturday Night / Sunday Morning, is out now. Each half includes nine songs, with Saturday Night featuring R&B songs and Sunday Morning giving you some gospel music.

The final track from Big Freedia and SOPHIE’s three-track EP, Released at Last, has dropped. “[‘Let Me See Ya‘] was fire when SOPHIE & I worked on it ten years ago,” Freedia said of the song, which also features MUNA. “And now to have MUNA on it, who also are repping for our community so brilliantly… it’s really a dream.”

Other releases:

Syd, “2 Many Days“

Arin Ray, “Sweet Thang“

YG, The Gentlemen’s Club

Chaka Khan & Snoop Dogg, “Boogie’s in My Soul“

Tasha Cobbs Leonard, “Final Say“

Elmiene & Fujii Kaze, “Comets + Gold“

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Chris Brown has released the deluxe edition of his album Brown.

Titled Brown (The Chocolate Edition), the project features 10 new tracks, including a guest appearance from Tyga and Ty Dolla $ign on “Just the Bro” and Wizkid on “Man on a Mission.”

Coinciding with the release, Chris has shared a new music video featuring songs “It Depends” and “Obvious,” which appear on both the original and deluxe editions.

He is set to kick off the R&B Tour with Usher on June 26. The theme for the tour, as he previously revealed on Instagram, is “JUST BEAUTIFUL INSIDE AND OUT.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Horse-drawn carriage rides will be suspended in Central Park until next week following the death of an 18-year-old Indian tourist who was in a runaway carriage with his family.

The move comes after growing calls from advocates and elected officials to fully ban the rides following a string of incidents over the last year where people and the horses were put in danger.

The Transport Workers Union announced Thursday, a day after Romanch Mahajan was killed, that rides would be suspended while they assess safety protocols. The union announced on Friday that the suspension would continue until at least Tuesday.

The 18-year-old victim was with his parents and younger brother in a carriage Wednesday afternoon when the driver got out to take a picture of the family and suddenly the horse took off “for unknown reasons,” according to the TWU and police.

The carriage clipped the wheel of another carriage and toppled, according to TWU Local 100 Administrative Vice President Alexander Kemp.

Mahajan fell out of the carriage, and died at the hospital later in the afternoon, police said.

Deepak Mahajan, the victim’s father, told the New York Times Thursday that his son jumped out of the carriage to help his wife, Priya, who fell out of the carriage first.

This was the first time the family had visited New York City, Deepak Mahajan told the Times.

The other family members suffered minor injuries, police said. This is the first time a person has been killed during a carriage ride in the park, according to the union.

An investigation is ongoing, police said.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Friday refused to issue a signed declaration from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche verifying that it no longer intends to pursue President Donald Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”

The DOJ’s refusal comes after a federal judge last week gave the administration seven days to verify in a declaration that it wouldn’t create the controversial fund.

“Such declarations are unnecessary and the compelled testimony of senior officials from the Executive Branch implicates serious separation of powers concerns,” the DOJ said in a court filing Friday to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who last week issued an injunction indefinitely blocking the administration from creating the fund.

Brinkema had given the Trump administration seven days to verify in a declaration from acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that it wouldn’t create the fund, which she said would likely lead to the dismissal of the lawsuit she was overseeing against the fund.

But in their filing Friday, the department argued that Brinkema’s offer was a potentially unconstitutional infringement of the executive branch by effectively requiring “testimony” of top officials on a matter that the administration has repeatedly said would not be moving forward.

The fund, which was announced last month by the DOJ to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration, was proposed in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate — sparking accusations of self-dealing and a bipartisan uproar over the possible use of taxpayer money to pay rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In her ruling last week, Judge Brinkema pointed repeatedly to President Trump’s own shifting statements in recent weeks about the fund, including his pointed attack on Brinkema herself after she had temporarily paused the fund earlier this month, in which he referred to her as a “radical left judge.”

“When the president of the United States says he’s disappointed that something is not going forward,” Brinkema said, that would only add to the evidence that the fund might “rear its head” in the future. 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — From calling it “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades” to calling President Donald Trump’s memorandum of understanding with Iran “out of step” with his stated objectives, several Republican senators have broken with the president over the agreement.

Core concerns from some of Trump’s closest Hill allies have revolved around the significant economic opportunity for Iran to rebuild with few concessions in return outlined in the short-term agreement Trump signed on Wednesday.

“I do have concerns that certain aspects of this deal are stepping in the wrong direction,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Fox News on Thursday.

“[Trump] deserves enormous credit for making Iran weaker than it’s been in decades, and we need to make sure that we don’t squander the leverage that we built across six years,” the Arkansas senator said.

Cotton’s comments are notable as he has been one of the Senate’s most hawkish voices on the war in Iran and has pushed the president to continue to attack the Iranian regime.

Others Republican senators had similar views of the deal, arguing that it gives Iran immediate relief on oil revenues and pledges to work to unfreeze $24 billion in Iranian assets and help create a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran.

‘An exceptionally bad idea’

“History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea, and I think unfortunately the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said of the reconstruction fund. “I don’t want to see us send a penny to the ayatollah, and I hope that we don’t.”

“I support President Trump, and I think his leadership on Iran has been extraordinary. I believe he is getting poor advice, and I think sending billions of dollars to Iran is a mistake,” he added.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Roger Wicker, of Mississippi, issued a bruising statement about the MOU, saying the proposal to create a $300 billion account to fund the rebuilding of Iran “would make Iran’s payoff under President Obama’s 2015 deal look like a pittance by comparison.”

The memorandum says the U.S. and Middle East partners would develop a $300 billion account for reconstruction and economic development, but Trump said the U.S. wouldn’t be contributing to it.

“We’re not putting up 10 cents,” Trump said Wednesday. “People can decide to do that, but that’s up to them.”

Wicker also said he opposes lifting sanctions on Iran, unfreezing Iranian assets or forcing Israel to stand down against Hezbollah.

“The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — death to America, death to Israel. The regime wiill invest every penny it receives to further that aim,” Wicker said.

Additionally, while the agreement calls for the toll-free reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, senators said the future of the strait is unclear and could potentially open the door for Iran to impose fees for safe passage.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said whil. “some important things” have been accomplished by the campaign against Iran, “I’m afraid we will look back at this and see a missed opportunity to basically eliminate the threat going forward because there is nothing to stop the regime from beginning to block the Strait of Hormuz again basically at will.”

No demands of Iran on nuclear weapons

Senators also had concerns over the MOU not demanding that Iran destroy its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and that it doesn’t doesn’t provide a mechanism to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons in the future, which was one of Trump’s main objectives.

Instead the MOU says Iran reaffirms a longstanding commitment not to pursue a nuclear weapon and to negotiate what to do with the country’s nuclear stockpile.

“Since Day 1, I have supported President Trump’s efforts to end Iran’s 47-year threat to the United States and our partners. I am concerned that the memorandum of understanding negotiates away the victories of Operation Epic Fury in ways that are completely out of step with the President’s goals,” Wicker said in his Thursday statement.

“The terms of the MOU that have been released start off at the outset with 10s of billions of dollars immediately being released to Iran before they make a single nuclear concession. I think that’s a mistake,” he said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also expressed doubts about the agreement, saying, “Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed.”

Graham: Upside outweighs the downside

Other Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham, voiced initial skepticism over the agreement but said he was cautiously optimistic that a possible future deal would ease his initial concerns.

While Graham said some of the criticism of the MOU is valid, without it “there’s no pathway to diplomacy to end the nuclear ambitions of Iran. What does that leave you with? War continuation of the status quo, so the upside of signing the MOU was greater, I think, than the downside.”

“Time will tell, but I’m glad we’re on the course on the path to diplomacy, and we’ll know in the coming weeks what kind of deal we will get.

Graham said he told Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff “Pursue a good deal, but be ready to walk away.”

The administration has pushed back on some of those criticisms saying the sanction relief and asset access it has made to Iran is tied to “very concrete nuclear commitments” Iran has made, as well as saying that there will be further negotiations toward a final agreement, calling the memorandum a framework, not a final agreement.

Vice President JD Vance addressed skeptics during a White House press briefing on Thursday.

“People say the Iranians will never change their behavior. Well, maybe that’s true,” he said. “And if so, they don’t get any of the benefits of the bargain. But isn’t it worth trying? Isn’t it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that the president of the United States has put the Iranians under, whether that motivates them to change their behavior, not just vis-a-vis the West, but vis-a-vis the Middle East.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Peabo Bryson’s family has announced arrangements for his Celebration of Life.

Peabo, known for his hit songs and duets, including “Beauty and the Beast,” died June 2 surrounded by family and friends.

His family will hold a private ceremony on Father’s Day to honor and reflect on his life, followed by a private homegoing service on Monday at 10 a.m. ET, according to an official statement.

The service will feature musical performances by Regina Belle, BeBe Winans and Ruben Studdard in tribute to the late star. Attendance is invitation only; however, fans may watch the service via livestream.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Mr. Robert “Peabo” Bryson Student Scholarship Endowment Fund at Morris Brown College or Antioch Urban Ministries, Inc.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.