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BOSTON – Massachusetts-based rock band Aerosmith has announced that they’re retiring from touring and cancelling their farewell tour due to lead singer Steven Tyler’s vocal injury.
“Heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision”
In a statement posted on social media, the band said, in part, “We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible. We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision – as a band of brothers – to retire from the touring stage.”
Tyler sustained the vocal injury during a concert last September and initially said he wouldn’t be able to sing for the next 30 days. But Aerosmith later had to announce that the tour would have to be put on hold because the injury was “more serious than initially thought.”
The band was supposed to resume their farewell tour on Sept. 20 in Pittsburgh with stops after that in Philadelphia, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and New York. They were also set to perform a “hometown show” last New Year’s Eve at Boston’s TD Garden to ring in the new year before it was cancelled due to Tyler’s injury.
“We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time. Grateful to our expert crew, our incredible team and the thousands of talented people who’ve made our historic runs possible. A final thank you to you – the best fans on planet Earth. Play our music loud, now and always. Dream On. You’ve made our dreams come true,” the band continued in their statement.
What happens to my Aerosmith tickets?
The band said anyone who purchased concert tickets through Ticketmaster will be refunded automatically. Those who bought their tickets through sites like StubHub or SeatGeek need to contact their point of purchase for more information.
The Biden administration has paused a migrant sponsorship policy it set up to discourage illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border due to concerns about fraud among sponsors, officials said Friday.
The policy allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to fly to the U.S. legally each month if American sponsors agree to support them financially. The administration first started the program in late 2022 and expanded it in early 2023 to dissuade migrants from those crisis-stricken countries from traveling to the U.S. southern border.
The Department of Homeland Security said it stopped issuing travel documents to people applying for the program while it investigates applications filed by U.S.-based sponsors.
“Out of an abundance of caution, DHS has temporarily paused the issuance of advanced travel authorizations for new beneficiaries while it undertakes a review of supporter applications,” the department said in a statement Friday. “DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”
Fox News first reported DHS’ decision to halt travel permits under the program.
DHS first stopped granting travel authorization to Venezuelans under the policy, known as CHNV, in July and then extended the pause to the other three nationalities, two people familiar with the internal steps told CBS News.
The pause, the sources added, was triggered by concerns raised by the fraud detection branch of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which noted a significant number of would-be sponsors were applying to sponsor multiple migrants.
The fraud concerns being investigated relate to the people in the U.S. applying to sponsor migrants, not the migrants themselves, the sources said. Public reports have suggested that some people have been advertising sponsorships online. Would-be sponsors need to be American citizens, residents or otherwise have a legal status in the U.S.
In its statement, DHS said it refers instances of immigration fraud to the Justice Department for potential criminal prosecution. It also stressed it has not “identified issues” around the vetting of migrants who are eligible for the sponsorship initiative.
Tennessee Rep. Mark Greene, the Republican chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the program’s pause “vindicates” his concerns about it.
“This is exactly what happens when you create an unlawful mass-parole program in order to spare your administration the political embarrassment and bad optics of overrun borders,” Greene said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration should terminate the CHNV program immediately.”
Since its inception, the CHNV policy has allowed more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to fly to U.S. airports after rounds of security vetting, according to government data.
While arrivals of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to the U.S. southern border reached record highs in past years, they dropped dramatically after the Biden administration created policies specific to those nationalities. The administration has paired the CHNV program with a policy of returning migrants from these countries to Mexico if they enter the U.S. illegally.
Republican-led states have challenged the CHNV initiative in federal court, arguing it violates the intent of the humanitarian parole law that the Biden administration has invoked to admit migrants under the program. Earlier this year, a federal judge in Texas dismissed the red states’ lawsuit, ruling that they had not been harmed by the policy. The states are appealing that decision.
Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border soared to record levels in 2022 and 2023. But they have plunged this year, reaching the lowest level in nearly four years in July. Officials have attributed the massive drop to a crackdown on asylum by President Biden, scorching summer temperatures and efforts by Mexico to stop migrants.
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U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel breaks down in tears after failing to defend his gold in solo events
U.S. swimmer Caeleb Dressel broke down in tears after he failed to defend his Olympic gold medals Friday in the 100-meter butterfly and 50-meter freestyle events.
Dressel —who has 8 gold Olympic medals— was favored to clinch the top spot on the podium at the Paris Games after nabbing gold in both events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He made it to the Paris Olympic finals in the 50-meter freestyle but placed sixth in the race with a time of 21.61 seconds, more than 35 seconds behind Australia’s Cameron McEvoy, who took gold.
Less than an hour later he got knocked out in the semi-finals of the men’s 100-meter butterfly. Dressel came in fifth with a time of 51.57 seconds, more than a minute behind France’s Maxime Grousset’s first-place finish of 50.41.
That is when photographers captured the 27-year-old Florida resident crying, perhaps overcome by the disappointment elite athletes often feel when they don’t perform their best under extreme pressure.
Dressel did win a gold medal in Paris in the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay with Team USA – the county’s first in this year’s Games– on Saturday.
Dressel nabbed a gold medal in 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a world-record time of 49:45 seconds in the men’s 100-meter butterfly, and set an Olympic record in the men’s 50-meter freestyle of 21.07.
