(BERLIN) — A massive aquarium inside a Berlin hotel burst on Friday, causing “absolute destruction” and resulting in the loss of some 1,500 tropical fish, officials said.
The AquaDom, a 50-foot-tall cylindrical glass aquarium with a built-in elevator located inside the Radisson Collection Hotel, Berlin, collapsed shortly before 6 a.m. local time, officials said.
“The causes are not yet clear, but you have to say, that was a veritable tsunami that has poured over the hotel premises, the adjacent restaurants,” Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey said in a statement.
Two people — a hotel employee and guest — were injured in the incident and were being treated at a hospital, the Radisson Hotel Group said.
“We offer our full support to the injured guest and our colleague and wish for a speedy recovery,” the company said in a statement. “Members of our leadership team are on site, and, together with the authorities, are looking into the cause of the incident.”
Giffey said none of the fish could have been saved.
“If the whole thing had not happened at 5:45 a.m. but only one hour later, then we would probably have to report terrible human damage here now,” Giffey said. “This is a situation that really means absolute destruction. “
Footage in the wake of the aquarium bursting showed water filling the lobby and smoke in the hotel. Debris also littered the sidewalk and street outside the hotel as well.
The hotel is closed until further notice and guests are being relocated, Radisson Hotel Group said.
SEA LIFE Berlin, which operated the AquaDom, billed the attraction as the “largest, cylindrical, free-standing aquarium in the world.”
“Due to the recently reported incident in regards to the AquaDom, SEA LIFE Berlin is unfortunately temporarily closed,” the company said on its website. “We ask for your understanding and will announce as soon as we are open again.
(NEW YORK) — Despite fears of a potential “tripledemic,” at least one of three viruses circulating in the United States seems to be trending downward.
Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, appear to have peaked in mid-November and are now declining, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Because RSV appeared much earlier than usual in the season, filling up beds — particularly in pediatric hospitals — it seemed poised to continue.
But RSV is petering out while cases of the flu continue to increase, and COVID-19 infections rise after months of holding steady.
“What we have to remember is that, at some level, even if we have an earlier season, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a longer season,” said Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “Virus will spread but, once it runs out of susceptible hosts, at some point transmission is going to die down as part of that surge.”
Brownstein says RSV cases rose rapidly due to children not being exposed to the virus over the last two years due to lockdowns and those who were born during the pandemic.
However, so many have been infected that the virus is running out of people to infect, he said.
“So, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing a sort of a downturn,” Brownstein said. “Now, whether that downturn is permanent or we’ll see another surge this winter is still, I think, yet to be seen.”
Although some of the major impact of RSV might be over with, the same can’t be said for either flu or COVID-19.
Over the last four weeks, weekly flu cases have risen from 16,081 to 35,704, according to CDC data. Meanwhile, over the same period, weekly COVID-19 infections have increased from 281,270 to 455,466, data shows.
Brownstein said neither of these is unexpected considering that cases have historically risen after Thanksgiving during the last two years of the pandemic, as people gather in crowded indoor spaces without mitigation measures.
“We absolutely recognized that Thanksgiving would be an accelerator, almost like a mass super-spreading event and that’s exactly what happened,” he said. “Now, we’re about to have a second mass super-spreading event as part of the holidays and so we’ll have to see how these virus cycles play out as a result of that.”
Brownstein also theorized another reason for the surge in flu and COVID-19 while RSV decrease is what is known as viral interference, which occurs when one virus either prevents or reduces infection from another virus.
This means that while RSV was widely circulated, it may have helped stave off infection from other viruses.
“Now, we don’t know it for sure, but there is a theory that our immune systems are already so revved up from RSV, that doesn’t allow room for other viruses,” he said. “That shift in RSV downward, potentially, is giving room for other viruses to make more headway, and here we’re seeing the rise of flu and COVID taking place now.”
However, no matter which viruses are circulating, Brownstein said the message is still the same: for people to get vaccinated and boosted against flu and COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
As of Thursday, only 14.1% of Americans aged 5 and older have received an updated bivalent booster.
“We are only nine days out from Christmas right now,” he said. “We’re at people entering the holiday season. There’s still time to get that protection and that’s the single biggest thing people can do right now.”
(NEW YORK) — The new bivalent COVID booster this fall was relatively 80% effective at keeping older adults out of the hospital due to complications from the virus compared to seniors who were fully vaccinated with at least two shots but had let several months pass, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new study is the latest in real-world assessments of the newly formulated shot and confirms what researchers have been saying for months: Immunity wanes with time. It also highlights the dire warning from doctors that people who were vaccinated early in the pandemic but opted to forgo boosters this fall are vulnerable this winter.
While the benefits are most dramatic with people 65 and older, there was a benefit for all adults in keeping them away from emergency rooms, according to the CDC.
“These studies show pretty unequivocally that the vaccines provide about 40 to 80% extra protection. So put another way that can cut an individual’s risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 and about half,” said Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles, program lead on a CDC task force examining vaccine effectiveness.
Early in the pandemic, the CDC considered a person “fully vaccinated” if they got the first two shots in a series, although it later recommended getting a third shot, and then a bivalent booster to shore up a person’s immunity.
But despite public health officials pleading with Americans to get “up-to-date” on their shots, many people remain skeptical on the effectiveness while others haven’t given much thought to going beyond those first two shots.
According to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation COVD-19 Vaccine Monitor, only about four in 10 adults say they’ve gotten the new bivalent booster or will get it as soon as they can. Among people 65 and older who haven’t gotten the booster, about a third of respondents said that they don’t think they need it and another third said they didn’t think the benefit of the updated booster was worth it.
About a quarter said they have been too busy or have not had time to get the new booster yet.
Link-Gelles said it’s not uncommon for someone to get COVID or the flu after getting a shot for it. But the focus is on preventing hospitalization, not infection.
“What we’re really looking for is does that vaccine keep people out of the hospital,” she said. “And what we know from the (flu) vaccine as well as from these COVID vaccines is that you may get infected, but your symptoms are likely to be a lot less severe. You’re much less likely to need to go to the hospital if you got your updated booster.”
The CDC study released Friday confirms unvaccinated patients are most at risk of hospitalization. It also looked at people who were fully vaccinated with at least two shots but had let months go by without a booster.
The biggest impact was in seniors: The relative effectiveness of the bivalent was 78% at keeping people 65-plus out of the hospital compared to patients who had gotten their primary series six to 11 months earlier. If the patient was fully vaccinated a year ago, the relative effectiveness of the bivalent was 83%.
The impact on adults was less dramatic but still there: Adults who got the bivalent within two to four months of their last dose — a timeline on par with CDC recommendations — were a third less likely to wind up visiting emergency room or at urgent care.
Justin Bieber has packed his bags and moved into a new home in New York City, the New York Post reports.
Apparently, the building he’s picked at 195 Hudson St. in the Tribeca borough once housed Beyoncé and Jay-Z. In fact, the building that was once the home of the United States Rubber Company is where Bey and Jay reportedly tied the knot.
As for Justin and his wife, Hailey Bieber, the pair snagged a fourth-floor rental that offers three bedrooms, two full baths and a half bath across its sprawling 2,312 square feet of living space.
The condo was reportedly a gut renovation and now offers white concrete floors, 9-foot windows that are double-paned, 11-foot ceilings, an open kitchen, and a spa-style bathroom with teak and marble elements, as well as sliding glass doors in the main bedroom.
As for how much it’s going to cost the Biebers in rent, the outlet notes the building last asked for $22,000 a month.
U2’s Bono and The Edge played an Irish pub this week: Ireland’s Daily World reports they took part in a St. Patrick’s Day special David Letterman was filming in Dublin Thursday.
The rockers were spotted entering the Westbury hotel through the back and were brought to the nearby McDaids pub for a jam session that also included Irish musicians Glen Hansard, Imelda May and Brian Kennedy. Letterman’s crew also reportedly filmed the U2 rockers performing for select guests at the Ambassador Theater Wednesday.
The paper reports the pub was closed down for production and that Letterman had been spotted in Dublin all week filming the Irish-themed show. While the paper didn’t say the filming was for Letterman’s Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, it did say it was expected to run on St. Patrick’s Day on “an American based streaming service.”
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk prompted backlash from lawmakers and figures across the political spectrum overnight in response to Twitter suspending the accounts of more than half a dozen journalists who cover Musk at The New York Times, The Washington Post and other prominent outlets.
The journalists were initially suspended on Thursday without warning but Musk later told reporters in a Twitter Spaces interview that the banned accounts had shared real-time location information, an apparent reference to accounts that track the planes of the well-known, like Musk.
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., who serves on the House committee on electronic communications and the internet, voiced concern over the bans.
“My team met with [Twitter] today,” Trahan said on Thursday. “They told us that they’re not going to retaliate against independent journalists or researchers who publish criticisms of the platform.”
“Less than 12 hours later, multiple technology reporters have been suspended. What’s the deal, @elonmusk?” she added.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who has 13.4 million followers on the platform and previously described threats on her life, sharply criticized the removal of journalists’ accounts.
“You’re a public figure. An extremely controversial and powerful one,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I get feeling unsafe, but descending into abuse of power + erratically banning journalists only increases the intensity around you.”
“Take a beat and lay off the proto-fascism,” she added. “Maybe try putting down your phone.”
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest suspensions came days after Twitter banned accounts that had shared publicly available information on plane travel. The company imposed a new rule on the same day prohibiting the spread of real-time location information on the platform, after a stalker allegedly followed a car carrying Musk’s son, Musk said.
Musk posted a poll on his Twitter account on Thursday night asking followers whether the suspensions of journalist accounts should be lifted “now” or “in 7 days.” As of Friday morning, nearly three million people had voted, preferring that the ban be lifted immediately by a margin of 58% to 42%.
Vera Jourova, European Commission vice president, characterized the bans as “worrying” and said they violate measures recently enacted by the European Union that regulate content moderation procedures on social media platforms.
The Digital Services Act, an EU law that takes effect in 2023, slaps offenders with fines of up to 6% of global revenue.
“There are red lines,” Jourova said on Friday. “And sanctions, soon.”
The journalists suspended from the platform include The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, as well as independent journalists Keith Olbermann and Aaron Rupar, among others.
In a statement, CNN said: “The impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.”
“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” the statement added. “We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response.”
Similarly, a spokesperson for the New York Times voiced disappointment over the bans.
“Last night’s suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times’s Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate,” the spokesperson said.
“Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of the journalists’ accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action,” the spokesperson added.
The moves elicited criticism from prominent commentators across the political spectrum.
Ben Shapiro, a conservative pundit with 5.2 million followers on Twitter, opposed the bans, even as he sympathized with Musk’s safety fears and criticized some of the reporters who were subject to the bans.
Meanwhile, Will Cain, a conservative host of the Fox News program Fox and Friends, expressed disagreement with the ban of Rupar.
“I haven’t seen a compelling case for his suspension from Twitter,” Cain said.
Musk, a self-avowed defender of free speech who acquired Twitter in October, previously said that he would not ban the account tracking his flight activity.
“My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” he said on Twitter on Nov. 6.
Earlier this month, Musk framed previous content moderation at Twitter as censorship after he gave some journalists access to internal Twitter communications pertaining to the restriction of messages linking to a New York Post report about Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
The journalists called an ensuing set of stories about the internal communications the Twitter Files.
Wesley Lowery, an independent journalist and a former reporter at the Washington Post, criticized Twitter’s suspension of accounts belonging to journalists as a restriction of speech that exceeded previous efforts revealed in the internal communications.
“The owner of twitter targeting and suspending reporters who shared accurate reporting about him is much more troubling and much more in violation of the spirit of twitter as a public square than anything exposed in the so-called #twitterfiles,” Lowery said.
Travis Scott will be in full-blown festival mode in 2023. The rapper, who’s already headlining Rolling Loud festivals in Portugal, Rotterdam and California, will now headline Rolling Loud Thailand, as well.
Set for April 13-15, the festival will be Rolling Loud’s first event in Asia. It’s slated to take place in Pattaya, Thailand, a city known for its beaches and 24-hour clubs.
Rolling Loud Thailand will feature over 60 artists, including popular Asian stars, international acts and two other headliners who have yet to be announced. Tickets for the event are currently on sale.
Travis’ future festival performances continue his comeback following the tragedy that struck at his Astroworld Festival last year. Ten people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in a stampede that became the subject of multiple lawsuits.
Power Book II: Ghost is coming back to Starz in 2023. The network announced that the Power sequel will officially make its return on Friday, March 17, and released a trailer teasing the twists and turns of the third season.
Season 3 will see Tariq St. Patrick, Brayden Weston and the Tejadas grappling with the news of Zeke’s murder. “Everyone is grieving, but they won’t get much time as a new set of problems and questions arise,” a press release reads.
Power Book II: Ghost will debut on Starz at 8 p.m. ET/PT in the U.S. and Canada, and at midnight on the Starz app, and all Starz streaming and on-demand platforms.
Returning for season 3 are cast members Michael Rainey Jr. (Tariq), Mary J. Blige (Monet Stewart Tejada), Shane Johnson (Cooper Saxe), Gianni Paolo (Brayden Weston), Cliff “Method Man” Smith(Davis MacLean), Larenz Tate (Rashad Tate), Berto Colon (Lorenzo Tejada), Woody McClain (Cane Tejada), Lovell Adams-Gray (Dru Tejada), LaToya Tonodeo (Diana Tejada), Alix Lapri (Effie Morales) and Paton Ashbrook (Jenny Sullivan).
Newcomers include Monique Curnen as Detective Blanca Rodriguez; Keesha Sharp as Professor Harper Bennet; David Walton as Lucas Weston; and Moriah Brown as KeKe Travis.
The song goes “The Times They Are A-Changing” — and you could say that theme looms large in the next chapter of the Dutton family saga, which started with Paramount’s monster-hit Yellowstone and continued with 1883 on Paramount+.
Now, the needle moves to 1923, set against the backdrop of one of the most volatile times in American history: drought, pandemics, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression looming.
“People were of huge courage and fortitude and had the ability to survive,” says Helen Mirren,who plays family matriarch Cara Dutton, an Irish immigrant dedicated to protecting her land and family at all costs.
At her side is Jacob Dutton, head of the Yellowstone Ranch, played by Harrison Ford.
Mirren tells ABC Audio shooting Taylor Sheridan’s ambitious series had its challenges, but working with Ford put things at ease: “It was a bit like he was a member of family. Not so much my husband. I’ve got one of those! But like a brother … someone that I felt I utterly trusted.”
It’s the first time they’ve been paired onscreen since 1986’s The Mosquito Coast, and Mirren says 36 years later, all is well between the two. “I can’t believe that Harrison has had the life and the experience on the level that he had and stayed the really warm, kind, generous human being that he is,” she says.
As for what viewers can expect from 1923, Ford says simply trust in Sheridan: “I always am ambitious for pretty much the same thing, and that is an emotional storytelling connection. Taylor’s writing is so tight and so well developed that it’s a great pleasure to just be part of the project.”
The first episode of 1923 arrives on Paramount+ Sunday, December 18.
(NEW YORK) — A new NGO report released Thursday claims TikTok’s algorithm targets “vulnerable teens” and recommends “harmful” content to them, sometimes as rapidly as every 27 to 39 seconds.
The report, from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, defines harmful content as content about topics like eating disorders, weight-shaming, self-harm and sexual assault.
The center’s researchers conducted the study by signing up eight new accounts in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, setting them to a minimum age of 13, and watching and liking videos that discussed body image and mental health. Half of the accounts had usernames with “loseweight” in them and were deemed “vulnerable” accounts by the researchers, while the other half were deemed “standard” accounts without a “loseweight” username.
“For each account, we recorded the first 30 minutes of algorithmically recommended content on each account’s ‘For You’ feed, watching and liking any videos about body image, mental health or eating disorders. The resulting recordings were analyzed to examine the frequency of recommendations for body image, mental health, selfharm and eating disorder content,” they noted.
According to the researchers’ findings, once the social media app’s algorithm kicked in, content about suicide surfaced on the “standard” accounts’ feed as early as 2.6 minutes in, and content about eating disorders popped up within 8 minutes. “Vulnerable” accounts, meanwhile, were recommended three times as many harmful videos and 12 times as many self-harm videos as the “standard” accounts.
“The harmful content TikTok recommended to the Vulnerable Teen Accounts was more extreme than content shown to the Standard Teen Accounts,” the researchers added. “An increase in videos about eating disorders was accompanied by an increase in self-harm and suicide content, which included thinspo, methods to self-harm, and videos of teens discussing plans to commit suicide.”
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, called the results “every parent’s nightmare.”
When reached by ABC News’ Good Morning America, TikTok pushed back on the report, pointing out the study’s small sample size and argued researchers’ use of the app did not reflect users’ real-world behavior patterns and activities on TikTok.
“This activity and resulting experience does not reflect genuine behavior or viewing experiences of real people,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement. “We regularly consult with health experts, remove violations of our policies, and provide access to supportive resources for anyone in need. We’re mindful that triggering content is unique to each individual and remain focused on fostering a safe and comfortable space for everyone, including people who choose to share their recovery journeys or educate others on these important topics.”
The company reiterated that content about disordered eating and similar topics violates the app’s community guidelines and is taken down once identified by its keyword detection systems or flagged by community members or external partners to TikTok’s moderation team.
TikTok also said it worked with partners such as the National Eating Disorders Association to provide resources to users, for example, redirecting any searches for topics such as self harm or eating disorders to the 988 suicide and crisis phone and text lines or the NEDA phone and text lines.
TikTok has come under scrutiny in the past as it has grown into one of the most popular social media apps. Last December, mental health professionals spoke out when a trend had teen users attempting to diagnose themselves with mental disorders using TikTok, and earlier this spring, the National Institutes of Health launched research into how apps like TikTok could be linked to addiction and impact teenagers’ brains.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate called for more government regulation and accountability from social media companies in the report’s conclusion.
Earlier this year, Senate lawmakers introduced the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to allow users more privacy options, the ability to disable addictive features and the ability to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. It would also require them to provide parents with tools to track app usage and limit app purchases, and would force companies to “prevent and mitigate the heightened risks of physical, emotional, developmental, or material harms to minors posed by materials on, or engagement with, the platform,” among other things.
The legislation has not yet passed out of committee or been brought to a vote.
The state of California also passed new legislation in August, called the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, requiring apps and websites to boost safety precautions for children specifically, and threatening them with fines if companies do not adhere to the law.
If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, substance use or other mental health crises, please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If you or someone you know is battling an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or NationalEatingDisorders.org.
