Sting is very proud of his songwriting, and he worries that one day artificial intelligence will try to replace songwriters like him.
“The building blocks of music belong to us, to human beings,” he tells BBC News. “That’s going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI.”
While songs using AI to mimic famous voices have been turning up on the internet lately, Sting doesn’t think much of it.
“It’s similar to the way I watch a movie with CGI. It doesn’t impress me at all,” he says. “I get immediately bored when I see a computer-generated image. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music.”
He adds, “Maybe for electronic dance music, it works. But for songs, you know, expressing emotions, I don’t think I will be moved by it.”
(NEW YORK) — Americans can likely expect summer temperatures to be even more sweltering than usual, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hotter-than-normal temperatures are possible for much of the U.S., with all of the East Coast, the South, the West Coast and Rockies forecast to sustain scorching conditions, according to the NOAA’s Summer Outlook, released on Thursday.
Overall, 2023 is likely to fall under the top 10 warmest years on record, perhaps even the top five, Karin Gleason, monitoring section chief for the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, told reporters during a call on Thursday.
The only regions in the U.S. that will see near normal summer temperatures will be in the Plains, the Great Lakes and the Midwest.
A large portion of the country experienced record-high temperatures to start the year, according to NOAA. Seven states on the East Coast that had its warmest start to the year include Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
Maryland also had the driest start to the year on record, according to NOAA.
Drought conditions in the West are also expected to persist, but improve, Gleason said.
“Drought coverage and intensity have steadily decreased since October 2022,” Gleason said.
Forecasts for the West favor a drier-than-normal summer, especially in Arizona, Utah, Colorado. New Mexico and western Texas, according to NOAA.
Washington, Oregon and parts of Idaho could also be on the drier side, forecasts show.
In the East, there could be more than the normal amount of precipitation. Summer is forecast to be wet and humid on the East Coast from New York to Mississippi and even toward southern Wisconsin.
Global sea surface temperature was also the warmest on record for April, which could exacerbate the effects of a strong El Nino that could develop later in the year.
A transition to El Nino is expected in the next couple of months, just in time for the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.
El Nino tends to suppress hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, but due to warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures, any tropical cyclones that develop could potentially rapidly intensify.
El Nino could also bring more heavy rain to Southern California during the wet season, which will further alleviate the megadrought.
There is a 90% chance that El Nino could persist into winter for the Northern Hemisphere, which typically means a warmer winter for northern states and wetter and cooler winter for southern states.
(CLEVELAND) — The charges against a man accused of stalking Cleveland EMT worker Lachelle Jordan were dropped on Thursday, according to officials.
Stennett was charged earlier this month with one felony count of menacing by stalking and one felony count of violating a protection order. He was taken into custody on May 8 and held on $100,000 bond.
“A joint motion to reduce the bond was filed because at this point we have inconsistent evidence to substantiate the stalking complaint against Michael Stennett. Today, that case was dismissed and the investigation will continue,” Lexi Bauer, a spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, told ABC News in a statement. “Any further charging decisions will be made after a thorough investigation is complete. Numerous law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation. We decline to comment further at this point.”
Stennett’s case gained national attention amid news reports that Jordan had gone missing days before she was expected to testify in a pre-trial hearing against Stennett.
Jordan’s father, Joseph Jordan, previously claimed in an interview with ABC News that his daughter was being stalked by Stennett and had violated a restraining order she filed against him multiple times.
Jordan was found safe last Thursday. The circumstances around her disappearance remain unclear.
In a surveillance video obtained by Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS, Jordan can be seen walking into a convenience store barefoot with torn clothes, where she asked to make a phone call to police. The convenience store, Open Pantry, is roughly three miles from where she was last seen.
Her father spoke out in a press conference on Saturday but did not provide any details on what happened to her.
“We want [details] just like you,” he told reporters. “We don’t know him yet because the investigation is ongoing.”
Joseph Jordan said his daughter was hospitalized with unspecified injuries and is getting medical treatment but “she’s gonna be OK, as can be expected.”
A spokesperson for the Cleveland Police Department told ABC News on Thursday that “there is no new information” on the investigation into Jordan’s disappearance.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous, Meredith Deliso and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — When Ashtin Gamblin remembers the night she was shot nine times, she can picture herself lying in the ambulance and worrying about whether she could afford it.
“That’s how the American medical system is,” she told ABC News. “I just got shot and I’m concerned about how I’m going to pay for the ambulance ride.”
Gamblin worked at the front door of Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs where an attack last November left five dead and dozens injured. Bullets pierced Gamblin’s arms and chest, sending her to the hospital for an emergency surgery and a six-day hospital stay, she said.
After returning home, Gamblin received a letter telling her that the health care costs totaled $300,000 and her private insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Gamblin is one of hundreds injured in mass shootings each year. As of May, the nation had played host to 184 mass shootings this year, which left 248 dead and 744 injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
While data for the cost of mass shooting-related injuries is limited, the treatment for health care tied to gun violence totals billions each year, drawing on public and private insurance ultimately paid by the nation’s taxpayers and employers, experts told ABC News.
“The human toll but also the financial toll that results from these types of injuries is massive,” Patrick Carter, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan and co-director of the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, told ABC News.
Treatment for the first year after a gun attack raised medical spending for survivors by an average of $30,000, a fourfold increase from the costs incurred by a given individual over a typical year, according to a study released last year by Zirui Song and a group of colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Accounting for roughly 85,000 gun violence survivors each year, the added cost of the initial treatment totaled $2.5 billion, the study found.
“These are costs that society has to incur,” Song told ABC News.
Ninety-six percent of the added health care costs fell to public insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and other insurance programs such as workplace compensation, as well as private insurance coverage offered by an employer, Song said, noting that the remaining 4% came out of pocket from victims who lacked insurance or opted to cover the health care themselves.
Between 2010 and 2022, the cost of initial hospital treatment for gun violence victims in New York City was borne primarily by Medicare and Medicaid, which covered at least 70% of the costs, according to a study published in December by Gina Moreno, a senior research analyst at the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College.
Since Medicare and Medicaid receive funding from the federal government, the costs fall on taxpayers nationwide, Moreno told ABC News.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a person in a small town in Utah, you as a taxpayer are covering someone who gets hurt in Queens,” Moreno said.
Such findings account for only a portion of the costs, however, since they exclude long-term treatment as well as indirect effects, such as lost income or resources required to support family members, experts said.
In an effort to account for the broader range of costs, advocacy group Everytown found in a report last year that gun violence costs the U.S. $557 billion each year, which amounts to about 2.6% of the country’s gross domestic product. Roughly $12.6 billion is paid by taxpayers, the group found.
The study incorporated short-term and long-term health care costs, as well as resources required for the criminal justice system and a monetary equivalent for pain and suffering, the organization said.
“Regardless of the firearm injury, there are long-term consequences that persist for a lifetime,” said Carter. “Those fall largely on our health insurance system.”
The health effects of mass shooting injuries extend to family members, too. Over a year-long period after a gun-related injury, family members of the victims experienced a 12% increase in psychiatric disorders, Song and his colleagues found.
“These firearms have a breadth of ripple effects across families, employers and society,” Song said. “This touches everyone.”
After the attack at Club Q, Gamblin had doctor appointments five days a week, she said. Currently, she receives 20 hours of weekly in-home care as well as psychiatric treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, she added.
She estimates that her health care costs since the attack total more than $1 million. Ultimately, she received coverage from workers compensation and private insurance but the process has taken a toll, she said.
“In a perfect world, I wouldn’t be concerned about paying for this,” she said. “I didn’t ask for this.”
CMA Fest has announced its two-day Fitness at Fest lineup.
TRUMAV Fitness trainer Wirth Campbell will kick off the sweat fest HIIT style on Friday, June 9, alongside podcaster, influencer and former Bachelorette star Kaitlyn Bristowe.
On Saturday, June 10, celebrity trainer Erin Oprea and Jana Kramer will lead country fans in a strength training workout that’ll leave them sweating and burning.
Both workouts will take place at the Maui Jim Reverb Stage on Bridgestone Arena Plaza. Registration for Fitness at Fest costs $15, with all ticket proceeds benefiting the CMA Foundation.
Additionally, Country on Court: Pickleball at CMA Fest, presented by LOCASH and DINK, the “official drink of pickleballers,” will take place on Thursday, June 8, at Fan Fair X inside Music City Center. The celebrity pickleball tournament will benefit the CMA Foundation, as well.
A still image from surveillance video shows what the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department describe as mass shooting suspect Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, inside The Covenant School carrying weapons in Nashville, Tenn., March 27, 2023. — Metropolitan Nashville Police Dept.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Arguing no one has suffered more than them, the parents of three children killed and those traumatized by a mass shooting in March at Covenant School in Nashville are asking a court to prevent the killer’s writings from being released
The request was filed Wednesday in Davidson County Chancery Court in response to three separate lawsuits asking that the journals of the shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, be made public to shed light on a possible motive for the massacre.
In their court filing, the parents asked a judge set a hearing in which they would be allowed to give victim impact statements on how the deadly rampage has affected their lives.
“No one was more traumatized or has suffered more, than the families of the victims and survivors of the Covenant School atrocity. No one,” the brief filed by the parents reads. “And no one can claim a remotely similar interest in whether the shooter’s writings be released.”
On March 27, Hale, a former student at the private Christian school, launched an attack on the campus, killing three 9-year-old students and three adults, police alleged. Hale used a legally purchased AR-15-style rifle and another gun in the rampage, firing 152 rounds in 14 minutes before being fatally shot by a police officer, officials said.
About a week after the shooting, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released a statement saying journals and maps were found in Hale’s vehicle and home, revealing the attack was planned over a period of months and that “Hale considered the actions of other mass murderers.”
The collective writings were reviewed by Nashville detectives and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia.
“The motive for Hale’s actions has not been established,” the police department said in an April 3 statement.
The brief filed with the court by the parents of the slain children said three-quarters of Covenant School parents support the motion to keep Hale’s writings under court seal.
“The parents see no good that can come from the release and wish to contend that the writings — which they believe are the dangerous and harmful writings of a mentally-damaged person — should not be released at all,” the brief argues.
However, if the court decides to make a redacted version of Hale’s writings public, the parents asked that it be done after the end of the school year on June 8 “so that the children of Covenant School might finish the school year in peace.”
“The parents humbly and respectfully request that the court spare them and their children additional pain that would be caused by the release of these documents until after the school year concludes,” according to the parent’s court brief.
The parents added that they fear Hale’s writings could inspire “copycat attacks.”
A hearing on the issue was scheduled for Thursday but has now been postponed until Monday.
The parents’ request came just two days after more than 60 members of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus signed a letter they sent to Chief John Drake of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, asking him to release Hale’s writings. The lawmakers wrote that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has called upon the General Assembly to hold a special session to consider public safety legislation in response to the shooting.
“In order for this special session to be successful, it is paramount we understand the behavior and motives of the Covenant School perpetrator,” the letter said.
Garth Brooks is continuing his Las Vegas residency in 2024.
The global country superstar has announced 18 dates for his 2024 Garth Brooks/Plus ONE residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
“When the 2023 shows went on sale, I felt extremely fortunate and blessed,” says Garth, who’ll kick off his long-awaited 2023 Las Vegas residency on Thursday, May 18. “To even think I would get do this for another year makes me happier than I can explain. Thank you for the chance.”
Tickets for the 2024 dates go on sale May 31. Fans can register until Thursday, May 25, at 5 p.m. PT for the Verified Fan Onsale, as well.
Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A fourth man involved in XXXTentacion‘s death will serve two more years in prison. According to the Miami Herald, Robert Allen was sentenced Wednesday, months after taking a plea deal and testifying against the other suspects in the case.
Allen had pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder and armed robbery. He then took the stand in February, sharing the details of what transpired on June 18, 2018, the day they robbed and killed XXX. He said co-defendants Dedrick Williams, Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome had planned to commit robberies that day and made XXX their target after seeing him at the Riva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, Florida. They attacked the rapper after he left the shop, shot him to death and took his money-filled Louis Vuitton bag.
Police identified Boatwright as the primary shooter, Newsome as a gunman and Williams as the getaway driver. They’ve since been found guilty of the rapper’s murder and are currently serving life sentences.
Allen was sentenced to seven years in state prison as part of his plea deal. With five years already served during the trial, he’s required to serve two more, plus 20 years of probation after he’s released.
Def Leppard is playing a very special hometown show Friday, May 19, and now fans who couldn’t snag tickets will be able to experience the event.
The band is playing an intimate club show at The Leadmill in Sheffield, England, to celebrate the release of their new album, Drastic Symphonies, which drops Friday. They just announced they are making the performance available to livestream on Veeps.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Famers promise the concert will feature “a unique set list,” with portions of the proceeds going to Music Venue Trust, a charity that aids grassroots music venues.
And Def Leppard will be sticking around their hometown after the gig. The European leg of their Stadium tour with Mötley Crüe kicks off May 22 at Sheffield’s Bramall Lane. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.
(ATLANTA) — The mpox vaccination campaign after an outbreak swept the United States last year was highly effective at preventing infection, new federal data showed.
One dose of the JYNNEOS vaccine was 75% effective and two doses of the vaccine were 86% effective, a new study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Among patients who are immunocompromised, one dose of the vaccine was 51% effective and two doses were 70.2% effective.
CDC officials said the results showed the importance of at-risk populations getting vaccinated or getting a second dose among those who’ve only been partially vaccinated ahead of summer.
As of March 31, nearly 31,000 mpox cases and 42 deaths have been reported since the outbreak struck last year, according to the report.
During the height of the outbreak, cases were, in some instances, doubling every week. Although anyone — regardless of sexual orientation — is at risk if they have direct contact with an infected patient, the outbreak was primarily concentrated in men who have sex with men, a group that includes people who identify as gay, bisexual, transgender and nonbinary.
In response, health officials began advising anyone with known exposure to mpox or who might be at risk of exposure to get vaccinated with the JYNNEOS vaccine, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019.
To increase the number of JYNNEOS doses available, the FDA authorized a proven strategy in August to inject the vaccine intradermally, just below the first layer of skin, rather than subcutaneously, or under all the layers of skin.
This allows one vial of vaccine to be given out as five separate doses rather than a single dose.
Since summer 2022, more than 1.2 million doses have been administered. However, there has been limited data on the effectiveness of the vaccine, so the CDC conducted a study comparing vaccine effectiveness among sexually active men who have sex with men or transgender people between ages 18 and 49.
Between August 2022 and March 2023, a total of 309 patients who were vaccinated were compared with 608 patients who were not.
Not only was the vaccine shown to be effective, but also there was little difference in vaccine effectiveness when it came to the method by which the shot was administered, whether subcutaneously or intradermally.
“Vaccination is an important tool for preventing mpox, and this report demonstrates that the JYNNEOS vaccine is effective at reducing risk for mpox,” the report said. “However, additional pre-cautions to reduce exposure should be considered, particularly among immunocompromised persons” including limiting the number of sexual partners and one-time sexual encounters.”
The study comes as the CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health reported a recent outbreak of mpox.
Twenty-one cases in Chicago have been diagnosed, with most among gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men, the CDC said during a press briefing with reporters Thursday morning.
Some cases did occur among previously vaccinated individuals, but there could be explanations including decreased immunity over time or infected patients being immunocompromised, the officials said.
This demonstrates “the ongoing risk for new cases and outbreaks and the need for continued vigilance and prevention efforts,” Dr. Christopher Braden, the CDC mpox response incident manager, said during the briefing.
