BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's police raided the Buenos Aires hotel where ex-One Direction singer Liam Payne stayed before dying last week after falling from a third-floor balcony, a government official said Thursday.
A police special investigations unit went to the Casa Sur hotel Wednesday night on orders from the public prosecutors’ office. Officers seized items including computer hard drives and footage from hotel cameras, a government official told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
The singer died Oct. 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony in the up-market, touristy Palermo district. According to the autopsy, Payne died from multiple injuries as well as both internal and external bleeding caused by the fall. His body was found in the hotel’s internal courtyard.
Initial investigations suggest that the musician was alone and experiencing a “breakdown” due to consumption of substances that have not yet been determined. Following Payne’s death, police found substances in his hotel room, as well as several destroyed objects and furniture, according to the public prosecutors’ office.
The British boyband star had cocaine in his system, according to a preliminary toxicology report published by local press Monday and confirmed to the AP by a source familiar. Definitive results aren’t expected to be made public for several weeks.
The Casa Sur hotel has become a place for Payne’s fans to pay their respects. They have left flowers, candles and photos of the singer in a makeshift shrine around a tree at the hotel’s entrance.
The singer’s father, Geoff Payne, is in Buenos Aires arranging the repatriation of his son’s body, which is expected to be released around Oct. 28.
Payne’s family — which includes his mother Karen Payne and his two sisters Ruth and Nicola — have expressed their devastation over the loss, as have his former bandmates. Artists and celebrities from various countries continue to share their grief.
One Direction was among the most successful boy bands of recent times. It announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and Payne — like his former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson — pursued a solo career.
The singer had posted on his Snapchat account that he traveled to Argentina to attend Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires on Oct. 2. He shared videos of himself dancing with his girlfriend, American influencer Kate Cassidy, and singing along in the stands. Cassidy had left Argentina after the show, but Payne stayed behind.
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Geoff Payne, right, the father of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, visits a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel where the British pop singer fell to his death from a hotel balcony, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mario De Fina)
CLARKSTON, Ga. (AP) — Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama lent their star power to Kamala Harris’ quest for the presidency on Thursday, as the vice president implored Georgia voters to consider the “brutally serious” consequences if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.
The use of Springsteen, an iconic performer whose career spans five decades, and former President Obama, still one of the biggest names in Democratic politics, highlights how Harris’ campaign is in an all-out sprint ahead of Election Day, leaning on some of the most noteworthy names in the party to both help her deliver her closing message and lambast her opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up, but what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump would shake things up in ways that are good for you,” Obama told the audience outside Atlanta.
Harris echoed that message in her speech, attacking Trump by comparing him to the “predators, fraudsters and repeat offenders” she prosecuted early in her career and arguing she is focused on Americans while her Republican opponent is focused on himself.
“I took them on and I won,” Harris said. "Well, Georgia, in 12 days, it’s Donald Trump’s turn. It’s his turn.”
“It’s either Donald Trump in there stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list,” she added of the work either would both in the Oval Office. “You have the power to make that decision.”
“Someone who says we should terminate the Constitution of the United States of America should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States of America,” Harris said. “Never again.”
“The consequences of him being president again are brutally serious,” she added.
The lengthy event, which ran behind schedule, seemingly took a toll on attendees. While the vast majority of seats remained full, hundreds of people streamed out of the event early as Harris spoke after hours of programming.
The other speakers wasted no time attacking Trump.
Obama argued his successor was always “trying to sell you stuff,” was someone who only cares about "his ego, his money, his status,” and regularly gives lengthy speeches that are “just word salad."
“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator,” Obama said before touting Harris as someone “ready for the job.”
After arguing Trump is focused on himself, Obama said, “If you elect Kamala Harris ... she will be focused on you."
Springsteen, too, focused on Trump.
After a performance of “The Promised Land," a ballad off his 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Springsteen told the Georgia audience he was backing Harris because he wants “a president who reveres the constitution.”
“There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant," Springsteen added before playing "Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Dancing in the Dark.”
Harris' rally in Clarkston — an eastern Atlanta suburb — was at a high school football stadium where the audience reflected the suburb’s reputation as the “most diverse square mile in America.” The community has taken in waves of immigrants and refugees, and 40% of its population was foreign-born in 2020.
The DJ working the crowd before the event started called out not only to graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, but to West Indians. Among those in the snaking line to enter were people of Asian descent and women in hijabs.
Many attendees said they were trying to push their relatives and neighbors to the polls to vote for Harris, either through formal volunteer efforts or on their own. “I decided to go volunteer because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” said Beverly Payne, who lives in Cumming, a Republican suburban stronghold north of Atlanta.
Payne said she is still working on persuading her mother but has already swung one Georgia vote to Harris. “My 85-year-old father has gone Democratic for the first time in his life,” she said.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry also spoke at the start of the event.
“No matter what kind of shenanigans, skullduggery and subterfuge, the okie-doke, we’re not going back,” Lee proclaimed.
Harris' run of events with celebrities will continue Friday when she travels to Texas for a Houston rally with Beyoncé, according to three people familiar with the matter. The singer is a Houston native, and her 2016 song “Freedom” has become Harris’ campaign anthem.
While the Friday rally is in a red state that even the most optimistic Democrat knows the vice president is unlikely to turn blue in November, the event Thursday in Georgia highlights that state's prominent place in her possible path to defeating former President Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by then-former Vice President Joe Biden and Harris, won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential campaign to win the Southern state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Harris’ campaign is hopeful she can keep the state blue in 2024.
Polls of likely voters in Georgia from NYT/Siena to Fox News to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show a tight race between Trump and Harris.
Thursday's event is the first in the campaign’s “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to encourage Harris supporters to vote before Election Day.
Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, has events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.
Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary. He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020. The New Jersey artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the "most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”
Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.
But Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.
Harris campaign advisers, though, see events like those in Georgia and Texas as major moments to mobilize voter enthusiasm and get out the vote before Election Day.
According to the Associated Press count, 2,025,645 people in Georgia have already voted early in-person, while an additional 134,336 mail-in ballots have been submitted in the 2024 general election.
Merica reported from Washington. Jeff Amy contributed to this report from Clarkston.
Spike Lee holds signs while on stage at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Spike Lee holds signs while on stage at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Samuel L. Jackson speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Spike Lee speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Vice waves as she boards Air Force Two at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, en route to Atlanta. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
