(NEW YORK) — A 12-year-old Massachusetts girl is being credited with helping save her twin brother’s life.
Amelia Loverme was eating lunch with her twin brother Charlie and their classmates in the school cafeteria this month when Charlie began choking on a slice of cheese.
“I was just really scared because I didn’t know if I would be able to get it out of my throat or if it would just be stuck there,” Charlie told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “I thought I was going to pass out, or like die.”
Surveillance video from the cafeteria shows Charlie stumbling and pointing to his mouth as he seeks help.
As other students back away, seemingly unsure of what to do, Amelia runs in to help her brother, wrapping her arms around him and performing the Heimlich maneuver.
“I just knew that I needed to help him, or try and help him,” Amelia told GMA. “I didn’t know how to do it either. I just did what I thought was right.”
The Heimlich maneuver is designed to be used on people ages 1 and older, specifically when a person is not able to speak, cough or breathe, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.
When performing the maneuver, the ACEP says to first reach around the waist of the person who is choking, placing one clenched fist above the navel and one below the rib cage.
Then, holding the two fists together, push “backward and upward under the rib cage six to 10 times quickly,” according to the ACEP.
In the surveillance video of Charlie and Amelia, Charlie is able to remove the cheese from his mouth after just a few abdominal thrusts.
Christy Ruth, Charlie and Amelia’s mom, said she is “grateful” that Amelia was looking out for her brother.
“This is the stuff you hope and pray never, ever to happens to one of your children,” Ruth said. “Kids need to pay attention and look out for one another, and I’m just grateful that Amelia did.”
Megan Thee Stallion has been reproduced into two wax figures that will be placed in different Madame Tussauds locations. The rapper unveiled the new statues in a post shared to her Instagram on Sunday.
“I honestly wanted to kiss myself. Hotties we are officially legendary,” she captioned photos of her and her wax figure twins. “Go see me @madametussaudsusa.” One of the figures will be placed in the New York location, while the other will find its way to Las Vegas.
“We couldn’t have hoped for more good news than the addition of not one but two Megan Thee Stallion wax figures into our Las Vegas and New York attractions,” Matthew Clarkson, Madame Tussauds head of marketing, said in a statement. “Everybody here at Madame Tussauds loves her music, confidence, style, and star power, which serves as an inspiration to so many.”
Megan Thee Stallion is the latest celebrity to be made into a wax figure. Her post was met with comments from celebrity peers who marveled at the similarities between Meg and the statues.
“First slide I dead ass couldn’t tell which was a doll,” wrote SZA. City Girls‘ JT shared similar sentiments, writing, “I couldn’t tell which one was you! Both perfect dolls.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration has reached a landmark deal with states dependent on the Colorado River to conserve water amid the decades-long drought.
The three Colorado River lower basin states — California, Nevada and Arizona — will be required to conserve an unprecedented 3 million-acre-feet of water through 2026, the White House announced in a press release Monday.
The deal is voluntary among the states and will prevent the need for federal intervention to mandate cuts. Representatives from the seven Colorado River Basin states have agreed to the conservation proposal, according to the White House.
The vast amount of water conservation will take place in exchange for about $1 billion in federal funding
Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed a plan to cut water allotments to states to combat dwindling water levels along the Colorado River. It gave the seven Colorado River states the options of no intervention — allowing the states to come to their own agreement; cutting the amount of water released from the Glen Canyon Dam based on water rights — with California being the priority; or water cuts spread evenly among the states.
The Interior Department is temporarily withdrawing the proposal published last month in light of the states’ voluntary conservation proposal, the White House said.
The Colorado River Basin supplies drinking water to 40 million people in the U.S., as well as two states in Mexico, fuels hydropower resources in eight states and remains a crucial resource for 30 tribal nations as well as agriculture communities across the West, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
The proposal comes with a decades-long mega drought reducing water levels in the Colorado River, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the two largest reservoirs in the world — to record-low levels.
The federal government aims to build long-term system efficiency and prevent the Colorado River system’s reservoirs from falling to critically low elevations that would threaten water deliveries and power production, according to the White House.
Officials commended the seven basin states for demonstrating leadership to achieve the substantial water conservation.
“Today’s announcement is a testament to the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to working with states, Tribes and communities throughout the West to find consensus solutions in the face of climate change and sustained drought,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
The Interior Department has pledged about $1 billion in funding for Colorado River states, including $281 million for 21 water recycling projects, up to $233 million in water conservation funding for the Gila River Indian Community, more than $73 million for infrastructure repairs on water delivery systems, $71 million for 32 drought resiliency projects to expand access to water through groundwater storage, rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge and water treatment, and $20 million in new small surface and groundwater storage investments.
Tool‘s set at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida, appeared to protest the bills Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed targeting the LGBTQ community.
One of the bills bans minors from seeing “adult live performances,” which has been criticized for restricting drag show performances. “Adult live performances” are defined, in part, as depicting “the lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation … breasts.”
During Tool’s Welcome to Rockville set, frontman Maynard James Keenan wore just that, as well as a blond wig and lipstick. You can see photos from the performance via Consequence.net.
The Florida legislation also allows the state to take temporary custody of transgender people under 18 who receive gender-affirming care and requires transgender people to use the bathrooms for the gender they were assigned at birth. Additionally, education on gender identity and sexual orientation will be restricted from prekindergarten through eighth grade, with instruction in further grades limited to being “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Tim Scott, who grew up in working-class poverty to become South Carolina’s first Black senator, and now the Senate’s lone Black Republican, was set to declare his candidacy for president on Monday, coming into the 2024 race with more cash on hand than all of his competitors — and a story that he says embodies the American dream.
The 57-year-old senator is holding the official announcement event inside the Buccaneer Fieldhouse on Monday morning at his alma mater, Charleston Southern University.
“We live in the land where it is possible for a kid raised in poverty by a single mother in a small apartment to one day serve in the People’s House and maybe even the White House,” Scott will say, according to an excerpt of his speech.
“When I cut your taxes, they called me a prop. When I re-funded the police, they called me a token. When I pushed back on President Biden, they even called me the N-word,” he is expected to say. “I disrupt their narrative. I threaten their control. The truth of my life disproves their lies.”
Scott on Friday filed official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to enter the race, setting into motion a $6 million ad-buy in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states of the Republican nominating contest, which will air starting Wednesday and run through the first GOP primary debate in late August.
Choosing to take on the president as opposed to any primary opponents, Scott offered a more positive outlook than others to say “America is not a nation in decline,” but under President Joe Biden, he said it has become “a nation in retreat.”
John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, endorsed Scott and was set to deliver the opening prayer at his announcement in Charleston.
Scott will travel to Iowa and New Hampshire later this week, adding to a handful of visits he’s already made this year. His official campaign committee, Tim Scott for America, will be based in the Palmetto State, where he will return for Memorial Day weekend.
While he’s polling in the low single digits, major donors, including Oracle founder Larry Ellison, are banking on the senator’s optimistic disposition breaking through — and allowing him to overtake former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both ahead of him in voter surveys.
Scott’s campaign has touted his joining the race with $22 million in campaign cash, which they say is the most of any presidential candidate in American history.
The official campaign launch follows a season of courting voters including his “Faith in America” town hall series after forming a presidential exploratory committee, a step which allows for candidates to start raising money. Staffers say his campaign for president really came to light after he won 63% of the vote in his reelection to the Senate in November, despite an increasingly polarizing climate.
The junior senator rolled out his exploratory committee on April 12, which he noted marked the anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. His announcement video was filmed at Fort Sumter, where he once again called for Americans to overcome deep political divisions.
A source close to Scott said he had not spoken to Trump ahead of his announcement. The two share a cordial relationship, but Scott sparingly condemned Trump during his presidency for racially-charged comments, such as after Trump expressed support for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Scott responded, “Racism is real. It is alive.”
Scott has declined to say whether he would support Trump if Trump were to win the GOP nomination, while Trump’s team has painted the primary as a race for second place.
“Tim Scott’s entrance, and aggressive media purchase, doesn’t only kneecap DeSantis, but Scott sees the same thing as Youngkin, Sununu, Burgum, Christie and others: the path to 2nd place is wide open,” said Taylor Budowich, CEO of the Trump-aligned Make America Great Again Inc. PAC. “They smell Ron DeSantis’ blood in the water and no longer see him as an obstacle.”
Scott’s personal story
Not only is Scott coming into the race with a heft of cash on hand, but his campaign also says he brings a different personal story to the race.
Scott credits his mother, who he says worked 16-hour days as a nursing assistant to support him, and a Chick-fil-A store operator, who helped Scott get his first job at a movie theater at age 13, with enabling him to pave a path from working-class poverty to the U.S. Senate.
“Those 16-hour days put food on our table. And kept our lights on. They empowered her to move her boys out of a place filled with anger into a home full of love,” Scott is expected to say Monday.
He also cites his experience at South Carolina’s Palmetto Boys State program as influential in his decision to pursue public service. After working in insurance and financial services post-college, Scott ran for Charleston County Council and the South Carolina House of Representatives.
Scott was first appointed to the Senate in 2013, plucked from the U.S. House of Representatives by then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — who he’ll now face in the primary. This after another senator, Jim DeMint, resigned to lead the Heritage Foundation. Scott retained his seat in a 2014 special election and glided to victory again in 2016 and 2022, with more than 60% of the vote in both cycles.
Long seen as a rising star in the GOP, Scott delivered the Republican Party’s rebuttal to Biden’s inaugural joint address to Congress in 2021.
Scott’s signature legislation creating “opportunity zones” was passed as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under Trump. In 2020, he was tapped by Republican leaders to negotiate on police-reforms but those bipartisan talks collapsed.
He’s starting off his campaign with multiple colleagues’ endorsements, with South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds joining Thune. Fellow South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is among 11 Senate Republicans already endorsing Trump, although back in 2016 he infamously said, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”
Scott joins a primary field that includes Haley, Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Others are expected to officially enter in the coming days, including DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Paul McCartney & Wings hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Silly Love Songs,” which spent five weeks on top of the chart.
The tune, from the 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound, was McCartney’s answer to critics who suggested he only wrote lightweight love songs.
“Silly Love Songs” was McCartney’s fifth number one as a solo artist and his 27th number one as a songwriter, which was a new record. McCartney still holds the record for the most number ones by a songwriter with 32.
After its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, tickets to the final Indy adventure, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, are now on sale.
To commemorate, Fandango has released an interview with co-stars Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who give a sneak peek.
“He is now being forced to retire … and they’re bringing someone else in to be the head of the archeology department,” Ford says of his whip-cracking alter ego. “He has no real future in mind for himself,” Ford says, explaining, “I thought it would be really interesting to see him at the end of his career. Older, not necessarily wiser, but still capable of one last hurrah.”
As reported, Ford describes how the movie begins with an extended look backward, with the 80-year-old actor digitally de-aged to 35. “It’s not like a Photoshop kind of thing,” Ford says of the digital wizardry that will take fans back in time. “They have used all of the footage that Lucasfilm has acquired … 35 or 40 years of footage … and then transfer his current expressions to his younger face,” the actor explains. “It’s really my face. It’s spooky.”
He calls the opening “action-packed” and a good “transition” to the present day in the film, 1969, and describes playing the hero, “in the twilight of his life,” a “great joy.”
Emmy winner Waller-Bridge calls the script “breathless” and says her character, Helena, Indy’s goddaughter, is “manipulative, and that’s always fun to play.”
The Fleabag actress says Helena is a survivor, but “her luck is running out … to save herself from this terrible situation she’s gotten herself into is to hit up her old godfather.”
The movie opens June 30.
Lucasfilm is a subsidiary of ABC News’ parent company, Disney.
This year’s Cruel World festival unexpectedly turned into a two-day event over the weekend.
Toward the end of the festival’s originally scheduled day on Saturday, the venue was evacuated on account of “unsafe weather conditions and lightning strikes in the area.” Iggy Pop‘s performance was cut short, while Siouxsie‘s headlining set, which was set to mark the Siouxsie and the Banshees frontwoman’s first U.S. performance in 15 years, was canceled.
Luckily, organizers were able to reschedule full Siouxsie and Iggy sets for Sunday at the same venue.
Prior to the evacuation, Cruel World featured sets from Love and Rockets, Echo & the Bunnymen and Billy Idol.
Those who bought Cruel World tickets but could not attend the Sunday makeup show can receive partial refunds.
Doobie Brothers, L-R: Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston, Michael McDonald, John McFee; Photo by Clay Patrick McBride
Tom Johnston will be able to listen — but not sing — to the music for a while: The Doobie Brothers‘ lead singer and guitarist is undergoing surgery to address his severe back pain.
This means Johnston will be sitting out the upcoming leg of the band’s 50th Anniversary Tour, which is set to kick off May 25 at the Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida. The other band members — including Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald and John McFee — will continue the tour so as not to disappoint the fans.
“I hope for a speedy recovery and can’t wait to get back on the road and continue doing what I love,” Johnston says in a statement. “I would like to thank Pat, Michael, John, and the entire Doobie Brothers band for covering for me while I recover from back surgery…I’m sure they will bring it every night as they always do.”
The Doobie Brothers’ 50th anniversary tour is set to run through October. A complete list of dates can be found at thedoobiebrothers.com.
(NEW YORK) — Ride-sharing company Uber is launching a new service for teenagers in several major cities and ABC News’ Good Morning America has an exclusive look with one family who has been testing out the service.
Ruth Stern is a mom of two and like many parents, she usually has to figure out the different transportation needs each family member requires for their busy schedules.
“One kid needs to be picked up from school. Another kid needs to get to an activity. There’s a doctor’s appointment that you didn’t anticipate, so it’s a constant juggle,” Stern told ABC News consumer correspondent Becky Worley.
So when the opportunity came up recently, Stern decided to give Uber’s pilot program for teenagers a try.
“I couldn’t be two places at once and I could get my child home safely from a location and still be with my other child,” Stern said.
Stern used the pilot program from Uber to get a ride for her 15-year-old daughter Izzy while she herself went to drive her 10-year-old son to one of his activities.
Stern and her family have so far been a part of the pilot program for a few months.
Now, the ride-sharing company is formally launching the program to a wider customer base, letting parents and guardians add teenager riders to their Uber accounts under a family profile. Teens ages 13 to 17 are included in the program.
Uber’s Vice President of Product Management Sachin Kansal told GMA the process all begins through a parent’s phone.
“You open your Uber app, you go to the account tab at the bottom. Now with this new feature, you can add a teen,” Kansal explained.
To develop this new feature, Uber partnered with the nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide to address safety concerns around the service.
“There are some nonnegotiables as they roll out this platform of making sure kids buckle up every ride, every time,” Safe Kids Worldwide President Torine Creppy said.
For parents and guardians, the thought of putting a child in a car with a stranger can still be daunting.
“I was nervous. Would the car show up? Would it be somebody she felt safe with?” Stern recalled thinking.
Stern’s daughter Izzy said she also felt nervous the first time she took an Uber ride by herself.
“As a girl, it’s scary. And sometimes, you don’t know what’s going to happen but I felt really comfortable once getting in,” Izzy said.
Uber said it has safety measures in place for teenage riders, including background checks on drivers. The company said it only selects tenured drivers with high ratings for the teen service and drivers are required to ask for a pin number at the start of a ride to make sure teens are getting into the correct Uber car.
Parents can also track their teen’s trip in real time and contact the Uber driver at any time. Families can also choose to opt into an encrypted audio recording of the entire trip with a teen rider. If anything were to happen, Uber said it can access that audio recording to determine what is going on.
With past news stories highlighting the potential dangers of an Uber ride gone wrong, Kansal said the company is committed to riders’ safety.
“I think it’s a high bar and we take the safety of every step very seriously. That’s something that I always ask myself and my team. Are we ready to meet that bar of a parent who’s going to be concerned about the safety of their child?” Kansal said.
Uber for teens is launching in 28 metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.
