After winning her Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her work in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Angela Bassett was asked backstage if she ever considered skipping the ceremony in light of the controversy surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The organization vowed reforms after a 2021 Los Angeles Times expose revealed, among other ethical concerns, the HFPA didn’t have a single Black member.
Backstage, Bassett, who many think is on her way to winning an Oscar for the film, addressed if she had any reservations. “No, I didn’t have any. I was, you know, just very pleased that my performance and my colleagues, cast, crew, the film, Wakanda Forever — for which I am enormously proud — was being recognized,” she said. “And I think it should be, and I think it should win everything. So I wasn’t about to, you know, stay home.”
She added, “Hollywood Foreign Press has made strides to do what they know needs to be done.”
Bassett also expressed, “…[T]onight is the beginning of that season where we celebrate our industry and our colleagues, and we embrace them with great joy. And it is our hope that people will always love…going to the movies.”
(NEW YORK) — Tens of thousands of Americans have reported a COVID-19 test result to the National Institutes of Health’s website that launched in November.
The site, MakeMyTestCount.org, allows people to anonymously report the results of any brand of at-home COVID-19 test.
In updated data exclusively provided to ABC News, 24,000 people have reported a test result to the site. Additionally, three-fourths of the results are a positive test and women were more likely to report a test result than men.
“I think there’s a greater number of people who are testing for COVID at this time than are being reported on this website. So, this is just sort of a small raindrop in a huge storm,” Dr. Sarah Elisabeth Waldman, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at UC Davis Medical Center, told ABC News.
When asked about the discrepancy in women- and men-reporting levels, “I don’t think it’s specific to COVID. I think this is more specific to women in general, having higher rates of self-reporting on voluntary websites and other programs,” she added.
Public health experts said it’s great that there is a place for people to import test results and that more people are doing so than expected — but questions remain about self reported data that could give scientists a better idea of where the virus is spreading and who is most affected.
They also warned that there may be a bias in who is inclined to report test results.
“The fact that we’re seeing three out of four reported tests as positive definitely doesn’t mean that three out of four people are actually positive. Likely, it means that people are more inclined to report a positive than a negative result,” Andrew Weitz, Ph.D., a program director at the NIH and co-lead of the project, told ABC News.
But that doesn’t mean reporting of at-home test results is not beneficial to health officials. In fact, the more results that are provided, the clearer their understanding of COVID in the community is.
“The absolute numbers may or may not tell the whole story, but what I think the public health community is going to start getting a better handle on is how the trends can help us understand that story,” Dr. Krishna Juluru, a presidential innovation fellow at the NIH and co-lead of the project, told ABC News.
Experts also urged the public to report their at-home test results regardless of whether positive or negative to provide health officials with a better sense of what is going on in the community.
“Without the negatives, we don’t have a good idea of what the overall positivity rate might be, and where we’re seeing real significant increases,” Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the clinical virology laboratory at Mayo Clinic, told ABC News. “We need to be able to determine where COVID is most prevalent, where we’re experiencing a surge [and] we need to have the total number of tested including positive and negatives to really get a good sense of that.”
The NIH is also launching a pilot program in one county in Pennsylvania that will provide free COVID-19 health services entirely virtually. Up to 8,000 eligible residents are anticipated to participate in the program.
Under the program, a patient sick with COVID-19 could receive at-home rapid tests, telehealth sessions and at-home treatments like Paxlovid without leaving their house.
“It’s largely focused on a home setting, but we also allow individuals to have options so if they want to pick up a test at a local community center, after a telehealth consultation if they want to go pick up their medications at a local pharmacy, we allow that as well,” said Juluru.
Since anti-viral drugs, such as Paxlovid, cannot be taken with some other medications, patients must meet with a clinician before any therapeutics are sent to their home.
There are plans to expand the program to multiple other sites throughout the year.
“This is a pilot program, so we’re kind of doing it in the spirit of learning as much as possible,” said Weitz.
A main goal for the scientists at the NIH is, “to understand what’s working, what’s not and how can we improve things if there were to be a larger scale rollout of this program,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration said it is “making progress” after ordering a nationwide pause on all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Wednesday following a computer failure that has impacted flights around the country.
Departures were resuming at about 8:15 a.m. ET at two of the nation’s busiest hubs — Newark, New Jersey and Atlanta — FAA officials said on Twitter, adding, “We expect departures to resume at other airports at 9 a.m. ET.”
The affected Notice To all Air Missions, or NOTAM, system is responsible for sending out flight hazards and real time restrictions to pilots, administration officials said earlier.
“The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage,” said the FAA announcing the temporary grounding of all planes nationwide. “The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
A senior official briefed on the FAA computer problems tells ABC News the software issue developed late Tuesday night and led to a “cascading” series of IT failures culminating in Wednesday morning’s disruption. As has been reported, the disruption is confined to the commercial side of aviation.
Engineers are feverishly working to fix the problems and, separately, identify precisely what happened. As of now, the assessment is the failures are the result of a “glitch” and not something intentional. All possibilities are being looked at to ensure that the FAA systems were not breached.
Notably, the FAA system that failed is overdue for replacement.
The official compared the current outage to the crisis that crippled Southwest Airlines during the holidays: antiquated software overdue for replacement inside a critical IT network. If one thing goes down, the system can become paralyzed.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed in a tweet that President Joe Biden has been briefed and said “there is no evidence of a cyberattack at this point.”
“I just spoke with [Transportation Secretary Pete] Buttigieg,” Biden said addressing the media on the South Lawn of the White House. “They don’t know what the cause is. But I was on the phone with him about 10 minutes. I told him report directly to me when they find out. Aircrafts can still land safely, just not take off right now. We don’t know what the cause of it is expected to be able to — in a couple hours we’ll have a good sense of what caused it. And we’ll respond at that time.”
“THE FAA is experiencing an outage that is impacting the update of NOTAMS. All flights are unable to be released at this time,” the FAA said in a statement announcing the problem.
An update was issued shortly after their initial announcement saying that they are working to fix the problem.
“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress,” said the FAA.
American Airlines also made a statement following the computer failure.
“The Federal Aviation Administration is experiencing an outage with its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which provides critical flight safety operation information,” said American Airlines. “We are closely monitoring the situation, which impacts all airlines, and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers. We encourage customers to check aa.com for the latest flight information.”
United Airlines corroborated the current technical problems with a statement of their own.
“The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards & restrictions to all commercial airline pilots – Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) – is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA,” said United Airlines.
Southwest Airlines also confirmed that they are suffering through delays due to the technical issues occurring at the FAA.
“We are closely monitoring a data issue with FAA systems which may impact the start of operations today on Jan 11, 2023,” Southwest Airlines said in their statement released early Wednesday morning. “Please check your flight status in the Southwest app or website to watch for any flight status changes. If your flight status changes substantially we will message the day of travel contact listed on your reservation by their preferred contact method.”
Marvel movie star Jeremy Renner remains in the ICU at a Reno, Nevada hospital following a New Year’s Day snowplow accident, but his sister says the two-time Oscar nominee is “crushing” his recovery goals.
“We are so thrilled with his progress,” Kym Renner says in the new issue of People. “If anyone knows Jeremy, he is a fighter and doesn’t mess around. He is crushing all the progress goals. We couldn’t feel more positive about the road ahead.”
Renner suffered “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” when his 14,300-pound Snowcat ran him over in the mishap. He underwent emergency surgery, and two days after the accident posted an update to fans and famous friends to thank them for their well-wishes. “Im too messed up now to type,” he tweeted, showing a photo of his bruised but smiling face, “But I send love to you all.”
The actor himself most recently updated fans on January 6 — a day before his 52nd birthday — with a photo of hospital staffers with him. “Thank you renowned medical ICU team for beginning this journey,” the actor expressed in an Instagram Story.
(NEW YORK) — The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered a nationwide pause on all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Wednesday following a computer failure that has impacted flights around the country.
“The FAA is still working to fully restore the Notice to Air Missions system following an outage,” said the FAA announcing the temporary grounding of all planes nationwide. “The FAA has ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”
The affected system is responsible for sending out flight hazards and real time restrictions to pilots known as NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions).
A senior official briefed on the FAA computer problems tells ABC News the software issue developed late Tuesday night and led to a “cascading” series of IT failures culminating in Wednesday morning’s disruption. As has been reported, the disruption is confined to the commercial side of aviation.
Engineers are feverishly working to fix the problems and, separately, identify precisely what happened. As of now, the assessment is the failures are the result of a “glitch” and not something intentional. All possibilities are being looked at to ensure that the FAA systems were not breached.
Notably, the FAA system that failed is overdue for replacement.
The official compared the current outage to the crisis that crippled Southwest Airlines during the holidays: antiquated software overdue for replacement inside a critical IT network. If one thing goes down, the system can become paralyzed.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed in a tweet that President Joe Biden has been briefed and said “there is no evidence of a cyber attack at this point.”
“THE FAA is experiencing an outage that is impacting the update of NOTAMS. All flights are unable to be released at this time,” the FAA said in a statement announcing the problem.
An update was issued shortly after their initial announcement saying that they are working to fix the problem.
“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress,” said the FAA.
American Airlines also made a statement following the computer failure.
“The Federal Aviation Administration is experiencing an outage with its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which provides critical flight safety operation information,” said American Airlines. “We are closely monitoring the situation, which impacts all airlines, and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers. We encourage customers to check aa.com for the latest flight information.”
United Airlines corroborated the current technical problems with a statement of their own.
“The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards & restrictions to all commercial airline pilots – Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) – is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA,” said United Airlines.
Southwest Airlines also confirmed that they are suffering through delays due to the technical issues occurring at the FAA.
“We are closely monitoring a data issue with FAA systems which may impact the start of operations today on Jan 11, 2023,” Southwest Airlines said in their statement released early Wednesday morning. “Please check your flight status in the Southwest app or website to watch for any flight status changes. If your flight status changes substantially we will message the day of travel contact listed on your reservation by their preferred contact method.”
Photography by Keith Getter (all rights reserved)/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Dangerously stormy weather continues to wallop California, drenching the drought-stricken state with a sudden and near constant onslaught of rain and snow, leaving a trail of destruction.
The National Weather Service has warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” in the West Coast over the coming week. President Joe Biden has issued an emergency declaration for California, while local authorities have ordered thousands of residents to evacuate.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 11, 7:49 AM EST
The latest forecast for the West Coast
Yet another storm is expected to hit the West Coast on Wednesday, dumping more rain and snow over Northern California while offering some respite to Southern California.
Parts of coastal Oregon could see waves as high as 35 feet from this storm.
As of Wednesday morning, 12 U.S. states in the West were under severe weather alerts for high winds, floods, avalanches and heavy snowfall.
But any break this storm provides will be brief, as a much larger weather system is in the forecast for this weekend, bringing torrential rain, heavy snow and gusty winds to the entire state of California, from San Diego to Redding.
Over the next seven days, the deluge will impact Oregon and Washington state as the storms move farther north and become more widespread.
Part of the western storm that hit California on Tuesday will sweep across the country, bringing severe weather to the South on Thursday with threats of damaging winds and an isolated tornado. This storm will move into the Northeast on Thursday night with mostly just rain.
Jan 10, 6:39 PM EST
Santa Barbara lifts all evacuation and shelter-in-place orders
Santa Barbara County announced Tuesday that it’s lifting all its evacuation and shelter-in-place orders but warns that flooding may be present in certain parts of the county.
On Monday, Santa Barbara received a record 4.12 inches of rainfall.
Jan 10, 6:23 PM EST
At least 17 people dead due to weather, over 142,000 customers without power
At least 17 people are confirmed dead in California because of the powerful storms slamming the state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
More than 44,000 people are under evacuation orders, Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Over 142,000 customers are without power throughout the state.
“We are not out of the woods,” Newsom said.
The storms are expected to impact the state until Jan. 18, according to the governor.
Jan 10, 2:59 PM EST
Search continues for 5-year-old swept away by floodwaters
Rescuers have resumed the search for a missing 5-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters near San Miguel, California, after they were forced to halt the search on Monday as the extreme weather made it unsafe for first responders to continue their efforts, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
Underwater search and rescue, as well as air operations, will continue the search during a break in the intense storms, but warned that conditions continue to be extremely dangerous, the sheriff’s office said.
“The water level is high and continues to be fast moving. The public is strongly cautioned not to conduct self-initiated searches and put themselves in harms way and become a victim requiring resources that would otherwise be used for searching,” the sheriff’s office said in a release.
Jan 10, 1:59 PM EST
At least 16 people dead due to weather, over 195,000 customers without power
At least 16 people are confirmed dead due to California’s most recent band of storms.
Over 195,000 customers are without power throughout the state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office confirmed 14 deaths as of Monday afternoon. Two more deaths were confirmed on Tuesday. Lightning struck a tree that fell on top of a truck, killing its driver. A motorcyclist also died after hitting a tree on the road.
-ABC News’ Alyssa Starr
Jan 10, 8:03 AM EST
Over 224,000 customers without power in California
More than 224,000 customers were without power across California early Tuesday, as storms unabatedly battered the Golden State.
As of 4:56 a.m. PT, there were 224,470 Californian customers without power, according to data collected by the website PowerOutage.us. A majority of those — 64,057 customers — were located in Santa Clara County.
Jan 10, 7:56 AM EST
California sees record rain, snow
Storms have dumped copious amounts of rain over California in recent days.
Santa Barbara received a record 4.12 inches of rainfall on Monday alone.
In the past two days, Ventura County counted 16.34 inches, Santa Barbara County 16.05 inches, Los Angeles County 7.12 inches and Monterey County up to 10.71 inches.
Meanwhile, the highest wind gust in the last 24 hours — up to 88 miles per hour — was recorded in the mountains near Santa Clarita.
Another 5 to 10 inches of rainfall is expected across California through the weekend, with the possibility of more flooding. An additional 4 to 6 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range is also in the forecast.
Jan 10, 7:47 AM EST
The latest forecast for California
An unusually long and powerful jet stream is bringing tropical moisture all the way from Southeast Asia to California. It’s been parked over the Pacific Ocean for weeks, with no end in sight.
The latest forecast shows parts of these Pacific storms moving into the Rocky Mountains on Tuesday, with heavy snowfall and gusty winds.
The next storm is already arriving in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday morning and will last through the day. Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California will also get more rain with this new storm, according to the forecast.
California will have some respite on Tuesday night before a new storm arrives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday morning.
This pattern of stormy weather will not end there. The forecast shows yet another system arriving at the end of the week and lasting through the weekend, bringing even more rain from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Jan 10, 7:12 AM EST
Tornado warnings for parts of Central California
The National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for parts of Central California early Tuesday morning.
The first lasts until 4 a.m. PT and includes the areas of Rancho Calaveras, Valley Springs and San Andreas. The second lasts until 4:15 a.m. PT and includes the areas of Modesto, Ceres and Riverbank.
Jan 10, 6:47 AM EST
Over 192,000 customers without power in California
More than 192,000 customers were without power across California early Tuesday, as storms unabatedly battered the Golden State.
As of 3:37 a.m. PT, there were 192,426 Californian customers without power, according to data collected by the website PowerOutage.us. A majority of those — 85,314 customers — were located in Santa Clara County.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Dr. Jill Biden will undergo an outpatient procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Wednesday to remove a small lesion found above her right eye.
The lesion was discovered during a routine skin cancer screening and doctors have recommended it protectively be removed and analyzed for any signs of cancer through a procedure called Mohs surgery.
“Mohs surgery is considered the most effective technique for treating many basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), the two most common types of skin cancer,” according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. “Sometimes called Mohs micrographic surgery, the procedure is done in stages, including lab work, while the patient waits. This allows the removal of all cancerous cells for the highest cure rate while sparing healthy tissue and leaving the smallest possible scar.”
Dr. Biden’s office hasn’t released a schedule so it is currently unclear what time the procedure will take place on Wednesday.
(NEW YORK) — A computer failure at the Federal Aviation Administration has the potential to impact flights nationwide, including a possible nationwide grounding, ABC News has learned.
The affected system is responsible for sending out flight hazards and real time restrictions to pilots known as NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions).
“THE FAA is experiencing an outage that is impacting the update of NOTAMS. All flights are unable to be released at this time,” the FAA said in a statement.
An update was issued shortly after their initial announcement saying that they are working to fix the problem.
“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System. We are performing final validation checks and repopulating the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress,” said the FAA.
American Airlines also made a statement following the computer failure.
“The Federal Aviation Administration is experiencing an outage with its NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) system, which provides critical flight safety operation information,” said American Airlines. “We are closely monitoring the situation, which impacts all airlines, and working with the FAA to minimize disruption to our operation and customers. We encourage customers to check aa.com for the latest flight information.”
United Airlines corroborated the current technical problems with a statement of their own.
“The FAA system that sends out important real-time flight hazards & restrictions to all commercial airline pilots – Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) – is currently suffering a nationwide outage. United has temporarily delayed all domestic flights and will issue an update when we learn more from the FAA,” said United Airlines.
(NEW YORK) — The formula for success with Super Bowl commercials in the past has ranged from outrageous and funny to nostalgic, but this year one brand is betting big on fans for a creative twist to play out during the big game.
Doritos announced its return to the Super Bowl for the 23rd year with a “mystery superstar and one lucky customer” to make their debut during Super Bowl LVII.
The brand previously enlisted A-list talent like Lil Nas X for its 2020 cowboy and Cool Ranch campaign, as well as actors Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman in its 2016 fire and ice ad.
“A bag of Doritos BBQ, paparazzi and a mysterious person walk into a bar…” the brand tweeted alongside an image of screaming fans looking into a car window where an unidentified eater is about to enjoy a chip.
Now, Doritos has asked fans to create a bold and energetic “triangle-inspired dance on TikTok” inspired by the one from @vibin.wit.tay.
To submit a dance, users can upload the video on TikTok along with hashtags “DoritosTriangleTryout” and “entry.”
The competition is underway and three finalists will be selected by Jan. 13, with the winner announced the following week.
The commercial will air on Sunday, Feb. 12 during the game featuring the new Doritos Sweet & Tangy BBQ, which hit store shelves this month.
Fox, the network broadcasting the Super Bowl, has already sold ads for above $7 million for the 2023 broadcast, according to Variety, which represents a possible record-breaking price for a 30-second in-game spot.
Last year during a conference call ahead of the game, Dan Lovinger the now-president of ad sales and partnerships for NBC Sports Group, said 30-second Super Bowl ad spots were selling in record time for upwards of $6.5 million.
Fox has yet to declare whether ads are sold out for the to-be-determined NFL match-up.
(NEW YORK) — Mega Millions players will have another shot at winning one of the largest prizes in the game’s history after no winner was announced Tuesday night.
The winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing were 7, 13, 14, 15 and 18, and the gold Mega Ball number was 9.
The jackpot for Friday night has now climbed to an estimated $1.35 billion, with no winner since Oct. 14. The cash option would be $707.9 million.
While Tuesday’s jackpot was the third-largest prize in Mega Millions history, it was the fifth-largest in U.S. lottery history. The largest prize in lottery history came in November 2022, when a single Powerball winner took home $2.04 billion.
The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
The lucky winner can opt for either an annuity or the cash option.
The Mega Millions annuity is paid out as one immediate payment, followed by 29 yearly payments with each payment growing by 5%.
“This helps protect winners’ lifestyle and purchasing power in periods of inflation,” according to the Mega Millions website.
Or, the winner can opt for the cash option: a one-time, lump-sum payment of the cash in the Mega Millions jackpot prize pool.
