Eugene Levy doesn’t like to travel — at all. So of course his new show on Apple TV+, The Reluctant Traveler, premiering Friday, has him traveling all around the world, having once in a lifetime experiences.
So what is it that makes Levy, 76, such a homebody? He tells ABC Audio, “When you’re away and you’re traveling and you’re away from home and your body is going kind of through things, you either sleep or you don’t sleep or you’re not getting sleep.”
“And then, you know, every day you’re kind of working on 45 percent capacity level,” he continues. “And just getting through an airport is enough to make you want to just kind of go home these days.”
Despite his aversion to traveling, Levy says the safari experience was great.
“I never really wanted to go on safari. I mean, it’s a long trip to see animals that you’ve already seen. And I didn’t quite get the fact that seeing them in the wild, in their natural habitat was going to make it any more exciting,” he shares. “But I did find once I was there, it only took a few days before I started kind of developing an affinity for the country, for the landscape and the wildness that was in it, in a way that I never thought I would.”
Ultimately though, all the great things he got to do while filming, like going on safari and visiting Venice, didn’t turn Levy opinion around on travel.
“I think my headspace is still the same headspace,” he explains. “I will say what it’s done for me, which is a very positive thing, is that I’m now trying things I probably wouldn’t have tried before, so I can now form an opinion.”
(WASHINGTON) — Making semiconductors in the U.S. is critical for national security, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo told reporters on Wednesday, ahead of a speech she’ll give on supporting domestic manufacturing.
Raimondo’s remarks at Georgetown University on Thursday will focus on the importance of semiconductors after Congress passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act last year. The Commerce Department is responsible for implementing the bipartisan legislation, in what Raimondo said Wednesday was an effort to bring back more of the semiconductor industry to the U.S., where it began.
“Over the past few decades, we as a country have taken our eye off the ball and let chip manufacturing [go] overseas,” she said.
In 2001, the U.S. had more than 300,000 semiconductor jobs but has lost one third of those in the past 20 years, Raimondo explained. She cited lower labor costs in other countries and a lack of private investments in manufacturing.
Semiconductors are essential computer chips for numerous everyday items, such as refrigerators, dishwashers, cars, smartphones and more. They are primarily made internationally right now, largely in Taiwan.
But the CHIPS and Science Act gives the U.S. an opportunity to make investments that are “consequential for America’s future,” Raimondo said. The legislation directs tens of billions to spur research in and development of the domestic semiconductor industry.
Raimondo linked the need for the chips to the shortage of them seen during the supply chain crunch in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think that when people needed product, whether it was chips or anything else that we couldn’t get during the pandemic, and then realized how utterly reliant we are — in the case of chips, on a single company in Taiwan; or in the case of other things, China — we realized that’s just not good for our security and stability,” Raimondo said. “And so we’ve decided we had to make some changes.”
The semiconductor shortage had broader economic effects in the U.S., hurting other kinds of manufacturing, Raimondo said.
“Last year, because Ford didn’t have access to enough chips, even for simple things like windshield wipers, their workers in places like Michigan and Indiana only worked a full week three times in the year,” she said.
But by 2030, the secretary wants to make America the largest producer of semiconductors in the world, and she said she intends to help do that by increasing production capabilities and increasing research and innovation.
Raimondo, echoing other administration officials, said that the CHIPS Act has moved into a key phase of being implemented well so the law is effective.
“What we’re out to do here is to ensure that at the end of implementation, the United States of America is the only country in the world where every company capable of producing leading-edge chips will have a significant research and development and high-volume manufacturing presence in our country,” she said.
Next week, the Commerce Department will roll out the application process for companies to apply for federal funds allocated in the CHIPS and Science Act.
(WASHINGTON) — Federal investigators are set to release a preliminary report into the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy and Director of the NTSB’s Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Robert J. Hall will hold a press conference Thursday afternoon at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to share their initial findings into the incident.
The agency released an investigative update last week saying that through surveillance video it identified and examined a rail car with “what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment.”
Thirty-eight rail cars derailed in the incident, NTSB said. Eleven of those cars contained hazardous materials, five of which contained vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses.
The preliminary report will not offer a cause of the derailment but will document factual evidence during the on-scene portion of the investigation.
The release of the report also coincides with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s first visit to the derailment site.
Buttigieg — who will visit East Palestine Thursday — has faced criticism from Republicans for not traveling to the site sooner. The secretary defended his decision, saying on Twitter he “followed the norm of staying out of the way of the independent NTSB.”
Buttigieg will be joined on the trip by Amit Bose, the administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, and Tristan Brown, the deputy administrator for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Detroit 3, Washington 1
Montreal 5, New Jersey 2
Carolina 4, St. Louis 1
Tampa Bay 6, Anaheim 1
Toronto 6, Buffalo 3
Minnesota 2, Los Angeles 1
Nashville 5, Vancouver 4 (SO)
Chicago 3, Vegas 2 (SO)
Edmonton 4, Philadelphia 2
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Texas 72, Iowa St. 54
Kansas St. 75, Baylor 65
Marquette 73, Creighton 71
Texas A&M 68, Tennessee 63
Miami 76, Virginia Tech 70
Villanova 64, Xavier 63
Michigan St. 80, Indiana 65
San Diego St. 77, Colorado St. 58
(WASHINGTON) — In the face of some harsh blowback, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia Republican, has tripled down on her proposal for a “national divorce”– splitting the country according to political ideology into “red” Republican states and “blue” Democratic states.
After the Civil War, the Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional for a state to secede, which would make it impossible for her plan to be implemented.
But Greene, who has been touting the idea since 2021 when she wanted to halt “brainwashed” Californians from moving to states like Florida, is gaining new attention for the concept, now that she has become a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene wrote in a separate tweet on Presidents Day.
“Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”
She’s been invited to explain how she claims it would work on Fox News’ “Hannity” program as well as on other conservative outlets.
“The last thing I ever want to see in America is a civil war,” she told Sean Hannity. “No one wants that — at least everyone I know would never want that — but it’s going that direction, and we have to do something about it.”
On conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s show on Tuesday, Greene laid out another part of her proposal: allowing red states to block Democrats from voting if they came from a blue state.
“Red states can choose in how they allow people to vote in their states,” Greene said. “What I think would be something that some red states could propose is: well, okay, if Democrat voters choose to flee these blue states where they cannot tolerate the living conditions, they don’t want their children taught these horrible things, and they really change their mind on the types of policies that they support, well once they move to a red state, guess what, maybe you don’t get to vote for five years.”
Her proposition was promptly dismissed by current and former GOP lawmakers, including Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, who told the Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, “I think Abraham Lincoln dealt with that kind of insanity …”We’re not going to divide the country. It’s united we stand and divided we fall.”
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., lambasted Greene on Monday, highlighting the unconstitutionality of Greene’s proposal.
“Our country is governed by the Constitution,” Cheney tweeted. “You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie.”
Another former Republican member of Congress, moderate Adam Kinzinger, who, like Cheney, was a member of the Jan. 6 committee and left Congress just over a month ago, asked his party:
“Every Republican elected official needs to be asked and must give an answer: do you support a “national divorce” aka a civil war? One word answer, no misdirect, not ‘this is what the media always does.’
“Do you agree with the leader of the party, MTG?”
McCarthy has not commented publicly on Greene’s proposal.
But the Georgia Republican has remained steadfast, lashing back at some of her most vocal critics.
“People agree with me and not the RINO governor of Utah,” MTG tweeted alongside a news story outlining remarks from Utah’s GOP Gov. Spencer Cox calling Greene’s rhetoric “evil.”
She also argued her “national divorce” idea was not equivalent to a “civil war.”
“People saying national divorce is a bad idea because the left will never stop trying to control us literally make the case for national divorce,” she said in a tweet on Wednesday.
“We don’t want a civil war. We’re not surrendering. We’re tired of complaining with no change and want to protect our way of life,” she said.
In recent years, there have been several succession efforts at the state level, including reorganizing state lines to accommodate outlier counties.
The Idaho House passed a bill in 2022 that would allow a conservative portion of eastern Oregon to join Idaho. Later, some Republican lawmakers in Maryland proposed three of the state’s three counties break off and join West Virginia.
In both those cases, proponents claimed the rural, conservative counties they said desired to secede felt disconnected to their states’ liberal leadership.
But the idea of succession has also been floated around by national leaders in the past.
In California, after Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown discussed furthering the state’s own foreign policy initiatives. During the days of the fiscally conservative “tea party” movement, similar ideas were floated by national figures.
“We’ve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to dissolve it,” Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry said in 2009, before adding, “But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what may come out of that?”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Two people have been shot and killed, including an Orlando news employee and 9-year-old girl, and multiple people were injured Wednesday in Pine Hills, Florida, police said.
According to Orange County Sheriff John Mina, the mother of the 9-year-old and another member of the Spectrum News 13 crew were also shot in the same area and are in critical condition.
The mother and child were shot in their nearby home. Mina said it was unclear why they were targeted.
The news crew was on the scene reporting on a 20-year-old woman shot and killed in the area this morning when they were shot at, police said.
Police arrested suspect Keith Melvin Moses, 19, in connection to the shootings. Moses was allegedly arrested while armed with a firearm that authorities believe will link him to the shootings, according to the sheriff.
According to Mina, Moses has a lengthy criminal history and is expected to be charged with each murder.
“I want to acknowledge what a horrible day this has been for our community and our media partners,” Mina said.
The victims were taken to the same regional hospital that cared for victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, according to ABC News Orlando affiliate WFTV.
(NEW YORK) — A new World Health Organization report found that maternal mortality rates have either increased or remained the same in nearly all regions of the world in the past five years.
“In 2020, we estimate that 287,000 women died globally from a maternal cause, and that’s equivalent to almost 800 deaths a day, or a death every 2 minutes,” said Dr. Jenny Cresswell, an epidemiologist and author of the WHO report, during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Experts say this trend is a stark reversal from previous significant progress in reducing maternal deaths between 2000 and 2015, revealing a major setback for global maternal health and highlighting disparities in healthcare access.
In the United States, maternal mortality rates increased by 75 percent over the past 20 years — from roughly 12 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 21 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020. The U.S. is one of the eight countries and territories the report flagged as having a significant percentage increase in maternal mortality rates. The list also includes Cyprus, Puerto Rico, Greece, and the Dominican Republic.
The report revealed large inequities between regions of the world. Maternal deaths continue to be largely concentrated in the lowest income areas of the world and the countries most affected by conflict. The highest maternal mortality was reported in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 545 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. Globally, an estimated 7 out of 10 maternal deaths take place in this region.
“Maternal mortality is a key indicator of how a health system is functioning,” said Dr. Lale Say of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO.
WHO experts say maternal deaths increase when women have less access to quality healthcare services, particularly around the time of delivery. Leading causes of maternal death include severe bleeding, high blood pressure, infection, and complications from unsafe abortion. With modern clinical knowledge and technology, the majority of maternal deaths are preventable. However, solutions may not be accessible or implemented in low resource settings, putting some groups at higher risk.
“No woman should die in childbirth. I think that’s a human right that should apply in every country, and that’s what every government should aim to ensure,” said Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director for the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO.
“An investment in women is an investment in the future of communities and countries,” said Say.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The Joe Perry Project is getting back on the road.
The Aerosmith guitarist’s solo band has announced a spring U.S. tour, running from April 15 in Mashantucket, Connecticut, to April 26 in Los Angeles, California.
For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit JoePerry.com.
The Joe Perry Project first began after Perry left Aerosmith in 1979, and went on to release three records. When Perry rejoined the “Dream On” outfit in 1984, the JPP went on hiatus and eventually reformed in 2009.
Perry also has touring plans with The Hollywood Vampires, which also features Alice Cooper and actor Johnny Depp. The group launches a European trek in June.
Aerosmith, meanwhile, hasn’t performed live since last year, when they were forced to cancel the remaining dates on their Las Vegas residency due to health issues affecting frontman Steven Tyler.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — After a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, more than two weeks ago, residents and health officials have expressed concern about the state of water in the area.
Homeowners in East Palestine have complained of symptoms that some in the town believe are tied to the release of chemicals from the derailed train cars.
The incident has also sparked environmental concerns. An estimated 3,500 fish — such as minnows, darters and sculpin — have died in creeks and rivers around the area, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
While many officials have said the town’s water supply appears to be free of harmful levels of contamination, Kuldeep Singh, an assistant professor of earth sciences at Kent State University, told ABC News that long-term testing needs to be done to ensure the water supply is safe.
Singh said locations that previously showed clear results may not produce the same results two or three weeks down the road.
“What happens today is only a diagnostic of that space and time,” he said. “What may not happen in one location might be another location, what may not be in one particular location in time could be in another location in time.”
Cleaning up derailment site
According to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, most contaminants did not enter local waterways but are rather “pooling at the derailment site in puddles and ditches.”
So far, Norfolk Southern said it has removed more than 1.5 million gallons of contaminated water from the site, with the company telling ABC News that 400,000 gallons of contaminated water were collected on Tuesday alone.
Neither Norfolk Southern nor the Environmental Protection Agency revealed which contaminants were found in the water, or the levels of contaminants found.
Several of the train cars were carrying dangerous materials on board, including vinyl chloride, ethyl acrylate and isobutylene, are considered to be very toxic — possibly carcinogenic — and could be unsafe for both residents and the environment.
“These are hazardous chemicals and have potential health impacts if they contaminate our air and water,” Miranda Leppla, director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Law, told ABC News. “And so, it’s really important that we make sure that the cleanup efforts are really looking at this on a long-term basis.”
The risk is not just to humans. ODNR said the deaths of the fish in nearby creeks and rivers likely occurred from the immediate release of contaminants following the crash, although the agency does not believe there is currently any risk to aquatic life.
Testing water wells
According to the EPA’s latest update Sunday, results from sampling municipal well water don’t show quality concerns. The Columbiana County Health District has so far sampled 52 private water wells.
On a trip to East Palestine Tuesday, Gov. DeWine and EPA Administrator Michael Regan drank tap water while visiting a woman’s home to prove the water is safe to drink, although some residents are encouraged to use bottled water until their well water testing results return.
Singh said it’s possible the public supply wells are never contaminated because the aquifers — which are the water-bearing rocks that transmit water to wells — are deep underground and separated by hundreds of feet of sedimentary rock.
However, private water wells might be contaminated because their aquifers are shallower.
However, he added that to detect whether or not the private wells are contaminated, inspectors cannot examine them at random.
“If it’s random testing, you might be testing in a direction where you would never go, for example, but if nothing shows up in their well, does not mean contaminants are not there and that’s what my point is,” Singh said. “Random testing does not ensure that they are not contaminated. It has to be mapped from the site where contamination started, and then move outwards.”
Sampling groundwater
About a week after the accident, Norfolk Southern submitted an action plan to the Ohio Protection Agency saying it will install a number of monitoring wells to test groundwater.
“If you think about it, anything that spills, with simple gravity, would go into the soil and percolate down to the groundwater,” Singh said. “That part is not visible. Often, our choices and fears are dictated by the visible components, not the invisible.”
No reports have been released stating groundwater is contaminated but, if it is, it could feed to streams and rivers.
Additionally, because so much of groundwater is deep below the surface, “the effects of that contamination may take a longer time to appear,” Leppla said.
Unlike cleaning soil, which is much easier because it can be picked up and moved, groundwater takes longer to be decontaminated.
“Groundwater is the most important being that is the most pristine freshwater abundant available to us,” Singh said. “And once contaminated, may take forever. For example, cleanup, of…groundwater contamination might take 10 years. That takes a lot of costs on taxpayers.”
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — More than 8 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded across Europe as of Tuesday, nearly one year since Russia invaded, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
Poland has seen the largest numbers of Ukrainian refugees, estimated to be around 1.5 million, followed by other European countries like the Czech Republic and Slovakia, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Celina Kretkowska-Adamowicz, director of program operations for Save the Children in Poland, told ABC News that, as of now, “the biggest need is financial support.”
Save the Children has been operating in Poland since February 2022, when Ukraine was first invaded, Kretkowska-Adamowicz said.
Though people are still crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland, “now, the situation is more stable, the movement of people is also more stable, and the needs are more longer-term,” she said.
Kretkowska-Adamowicz said “child protection, education and the provision of emergency assistance through cash voucher[s]” are among some of those longer-term needs that Save the Children has been helping with.
Some refugees have also attempted to move back to Ukraine, Kretkowska-Adamowicz said.
“But then after a while, they find out that they are not able to live like this,” she said, “and then they decide to go back to Poland.”
Of the more than 17,000 people surveyed by the U.N. from October 2022 to February that have been displaced because of the war in Ukraine, 24% said they have visited home at least once since they initially left.
Some of the top reasons listed included visiting relatives and obtaining documents.
“Many people from Poland go to Ukraine for a short period of time, for example, to see their family or to attend to some formal issues,” Kretkowska-Adamowicz said.
Others, however, do the opposite, Kretkowska-Adamowicz said.
“There are many cases of people who are crossing to Poland, for example, just to do shopping on the Polish side and then they come back to Ukraine,” she said.
As more refugees are settling in host countries, education and mental health have become more prominent issues, she added.
“Access to inclusive and equal education is difficult,” Kretkowska-Adamowicz said. “We are seeing as well, now, increasing issues related to mental health.”
