The rapper Travis Scott will not face criminal charges over a deadly crowd crush during his concert, a Texas grand jury has decided.
Scott, 32, was performing at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas, in 2021, when 10 people were killed in a crowd crush.
His lawyer, Kent Schaffer, confirmed that a grand jury had decided not to indict the rapper on any criminal charges stemming from the event.
“He never encouraged people to do anything that resulted in other people being hurt,” Schaffer said, adding that the decision is “a great relief”.
Police and federal officials have been investigating whether Scott, the concert promoter Live Nation, and others had sufficient safety measures in place.
Schaffer said he feels sympathy for those who were killed at the festival and their families. “But Travis is not responsible,” he said. “Bringing criminal charges against him will not ease their pain.”
Image: Travis Scott is father to Kylie Jenner’s two children, Stormi and Aire
The rapper, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster, has two children with Kylie Jenner. The Kardashians star and Scott officially renamed their son this week, 16 months after his birth.
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Scott had previously said he didn’t know fans were injured during the crush.
“It wasn’t until minutes until the press conference [after the show] until I figured out exactly what happened,” he told radio star Charlamagne Tha God on his YouTube channel in 2021.
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“Even after the show you are just hearing things but I did not know the exact details.
“And even at that moment you’re like, ‘wait, what?’ People pass out, things happen at concerts, but something like that…”
Image: Ezra Blount, 9, was the youngest person to die from injuries suffered during the crush. Pic: AP
Nine-year-old Ezra Blount was the youngest person to die from injuries suffered during the crush.
The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27.
Some 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were admitted to hospital.
Scott still faces multiple civil suits over the deaths and injuries.
Kanye West’s Yeezy online shopping platform has been taken down after selling T-shirts featuring a swastika.
The rapper, also known as Ye, used a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday to send people to his website to buy the clothing emblazoned with the Nazi symbol – an image often used by the extreme-right.
The ecommerce platform Shopify, which hosts many online shops and businesses, has deactivated his site and his domain name yeez.com is being sold for $98,999 (£79,692).
Shopify said in an emailed statement to Sky News’ sister channel NBC News: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”
West’s representative is yet to respond to a request from NBC for comment.
The white T-shirts featured a black swastika on the front and were the only items for sale on the front page of yeezy.com.
No text or explanation accompanied the item, just the letters “HH-01.” They were available for $20 (£16).
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Initially, West’s site showed a notice from Shopify which said the store was “unavailable”.
Image: yeez.com was taken offline by Shopify, the e-commerce platform which was hosting his shop
But the site now redirects to the registrar GoDaddy, the platform which manages yeez.com, where a page shows the domain name is for sale.
GoDaddy has not yet responded to questions about the sale and whether it was enforced by the company or initiated by West.
Image: The domain name yeez.com can be bought for $98,999 (£79,692)
The decision to sell the T-shirt triggered widespread criticism, including from the Anti-Defamation League (ADF) which posted a statement on X on Monday, describing the shirt sales as further proof of West’s antisemitism.
The organisation, formed to combat anti-Jewish bigotry and discrimination, explained that the swastika was adopted by Hitler and “continues to threaten and instil fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy”.
The ADF also said the T-shirt was labelled on Kanye’s website as ‘HH-01’ – suggesting this was code for “Heil Hitler”.
West has in recent days been posting antisemitic messages on X, as well as writing “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”. His account then had a “sensitive content warning” added to it before he posted a final message.
“I’m logging out of Twitter,” he wrote. “I appreciate [X owner] Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent.”
After his account was deactivated on Monday, his spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos issued an explanation.
“Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being,” he said in a statement.
One of the most successful figures in hop-hip, West built up a fashion brand called Yeezy which began as a collaboration with Adidas. But the German sportswear giant cut ties with him in 2022 over his antisemitic remarks and eventually reached a settlement in October.
Lisa Riley has reacted to reports that Peter Kay likened a heckler to her, insisting she’s “not offended”.
The Bolton comedian was performing his Manchester gig on Saturday night when a woman was removed by security guards after shouting “We love you Peter”. Kay is said to have likened her to Riley as she was being taken out.
The audience member has said she is “annoyed and upset” about the comments.
“To go to a show and feel like you’re having the mick taken out of you because of your weight, I was just a bit shocked,” she told the Manchester Evening News.
“The whole arena was laughing, I think they thought it was part of the show but there was a nastiness to his voice. It was like he was trying to get the crowd against me – it just wasn’t nice, to be honest.”
Riley, 48, is best known for playing Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale and also fronted You’ve Been Framed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Appearing to respond to her impromptu mention during the show, Riley posted a picture on Instagram on Monday which read: “Keep calm and laugh”. She added the message: “It’s a laugh, it’s funny!!!”
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She then followed it up on Tuesday with a post on Instagram which said: “Please draw a line under this now. I am not offended, never was offended. I love Peter Kay to pieces. Laughter is my favourite medicine”.
Kay was also understood to have thrown two men out of the same gig after one repeatedly shouted “garlic bread,” which is one of Kay’s catchphrases.
Kay told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he had taken action against hecklers as they were ruining the show for others, and it was “no longer fair” to the other audience members.
In response to his likening of one audience member to Riley, he said in a statement to the show: “I didn’t realise it was an insult. She did look remarkably like Lisa Riley, I didn’t realise that was an insult”.
One audience member told the Manchester Evening News that Kay had “shouted” at the hecklers for “a good three to five minutes” during the show.
They said the audience was mixed in their reaction: “Some couldn’t believe it and were obviously annoyed and others were laughing, either thinking it was part of the show or going along with it.”
Kay, 51, who has been performing his record-breaking Better Late Than Never Again tour since 2022, recently performed his 100th show at the AO Arena – the same venue the three hecklers were expelled from.
Tickets to watch the show start at £35, but go up to about £350 for top-notch seats.
Sky News has contacted representatives for Kay for comment.
Kay is currently scheduled to perform his tour into spring 2026.
A pilot has died after a private jet owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil crashed into another plane at an airport in Arizona.
Neil was not on board at the time of the collision, which happened off the runway at Scottsdale Airport on Monday afternoon.
Neil’s girlfriend Rain Andreani and her friend suffered injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.
They were taken to hospital with the jet’s co-pilot, who was also injured.
Image: Emergency responders work on Vince Neil’s plane after the collision. Pic: AP
“While details are still emerging, our hearts go out to the families of both the pilot who lost his life and the passengers who suffered injuries,” Motley Crue said in a statement.
“Motley Crue will announce a way to help support the family of the deceased pilot – stand by for an announcement very soon”.
Rain Andreani broke five ribs in the crash and the dogs the women were travelling with survived, TMZ reports.