Patti Smith and New Order‘s Bernard Sumner will perform during the 2023 Tibet House US Benefit Concert, taking place March 1 at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
The annual event, which will return to an in-person celebration in 2023 after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to go virtual the past two years, raises money for Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 that works to preserve Tibetan culture.
Other artists on the lineup include Laurie Anderson, Gogol Bordello, Allison Russell and artistic director Philip Glass.
For more info, visit the Tibet House US website, THUS.org.
In the early ’90s, Michael Jackson appeared in an Advanced System-1 motion simulator game for Sega — and now rare footage of his participation has turned up online.
According to Forbes, the footage was discovered after a man named Ben Bizley found a tape of it at a car boot sale (sort of a British version of a flea market where people sell things out of the trunk of their car). Jackson appears as the narrator of the arcade game, called Scramble Training, which was created in 1993 for Sega World theme parks.
The tape was reportedly sold by a relative of someone who worked at Sega Amusement Europe. After sharing a picture of the tape on Facebook, fellow fans helped him identify its contents. He then spent money to have it digitized. It can now be seen on YouTube in 14GB of high resolution.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have stepped up in order to try to save a beleaguered Broadway play from closing.
The Hollywood Reporter notes the couple has purchased an entire performance of playwright Jordan E. Cooper‘s show Ain’t No Mo’, which received critical acclaim, but is facing an early close on December 18 — just two weeks after it opened.
According to Playbill, the Lee Daniels-produced “high octane comedy” at the Belasco Theatre asks the question, “What if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?”
The Palm Springs, California, house where Elvis and Priscilla Presley spent their honeymoon in the ’60s is now on the market. The over 4,000-square-foot, midcentury modern home, which Look magazine called the House of Tomorrow in 1962, is for sale with a price tag of $5.6 million.
According to the Compass listing, the home, which was once dubbed the Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway, has a space-like exterior, with a winged roof and four circular pods surrounding the center of the house. It has four bedrooms and three bathrooms, and amenities that include an in-home spa, indoor kitchen grill, vacuum ports, wall-mounted radios, a pool and hot tub.
According to People, Elvis and Priscilla leased the place in 1967 after their wedding and lived there for one year, spending $21,000 on the stay.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it will work to close gaps in the physical barriers along the southwest border and fix environmental and other issues with the Trump-era wall construction amid growing concerns about the federal government’s ability to handle high levels of unauthorized migration.
Officials said the latest work, authorized by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will focus on Texas and is aimed at addressing safety and environmental concerns brought on by the building of new or upgraded barriers along the border with Mexico.
Installing drainage systems, adding safety features to roadways and remediating some construction sites will take place in various areas between San Diego and El Paso, Texas. The work will also include closing gaps between incomplete sections of barrier and finishing access gates used by Border Patrol.
Over the past year, the Biden administration has worked to address a series of environmental concerns and has shored up faulty and incomplete work at border sites across California and Texas.
“Prior to work, the Department of Homeland Security will work closely with stakeholders, including impacted landowners, tribal, state, and local elected officials, and federal agencies to seek input and help on prioritizing potential remediation activities within each Sector,” the department said in a statement.
While many of former President Donald Trump’s promises about a U.S.-Mexico border wall never materialized — including that the Mexican government would cover the cost — Border Patrol agents across the southwest have stressed the importance of physical infrastructure to aid in controlling unauthorized migration.
Border Patrol agents stretched thin by periodic surges in migration have long relied on barriers, especially in high-density urban areas, to prevent illegal crossings.
The rate of migration across the southern border into Texas has recently spiked again with the looming end of a pandemic-era restriction first implemented under Trump known as Title 42.
Local and federal officials have repeatedly expressed concerns in interviews with ABC News that the end of Title 42 — which allowed the removal of asylum-seekers in light of concerns over COVID-19, drawing outcry from advocates — could make it more difficult to handle waves of unauthorized migration. U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent personnel and resources to the El Paso area to handle the illegal crossings over the weekend.
Border Patrol in El Paso said they are stopping migrants around 2,400 times a day on average, compared to roughly 1,700 a day in prior months.
As president, Trump vowed to construct an expansive southern border wall — but repeatedly ran into legal, logistic and legislative obstacles. By the end of his term, administration officials said hundreds of miles of barriers were built, though the vast majority of those were upgrades of existing structure. For example, sections of old fencing were replaced by towering steel barriers accompanied by access roads, lighting and surveillance systems.
That work was largely halted and ordered reviewed at the beginning of the Biden administration, which found a variety of environmental threats and safety risks. Some barrier sections started during the Trump-era caused irreparable environmental damage and threatened cultural landmarks, Biden officials said.
In 2020, construction crews working on the border conducted a series of detonations along a stretch of land in southern Arizona considered sacred by the local indigenous tribe.
Some construction sites including an unfinished section of what Trump called his “border wall” in Del Rio, Texas, have sat mostly abandoned since early 2021 while the Biden administration conducted its review.
“CBP intends to prioritize remediation projects needed to address life and safety issues – including the protection of individuals, [Border Patrol] Agents, and nearby communities from potential harm – and avert environmental damage or degradation,” the Department of Homeland Security said in its statement.
ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.
An undated photo of the Atrevida II, the U.S. Coast Guard is searching for the sailboat and its crew Kevin Hyde and Joe DiTommasso. – U.S. Coast Guard
(NEW YORK) — The United States Coast Guard is looking for two missing sailors who were last seen on Dec. 3 in North Carolina.
Kevin Hyde, 64, and Joe DiTommasso, 76, departed Cape May, New Jersey, late last month on their 30-foot sailboat, the “Atrevida II,” according to the Coast Guard. The pair was last seen aboard their boat as it left the Oregon Inlet in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
According to the Coast Guard, family and friends contacted officials on Sunday after last speaking with the pair on that same day.
“We’re continuing to search for the ‘Atrevida II,’ a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson told ABC News. “We have several assets, both aircraft and vessel, searching.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has attempted urgent broadcasts. It said it let the boating public know via radio transmission that it’s looking for the two men and have reached out to both commercial and recreational boats to be on the lookout, a spokesperson said.
According to officials, the pair left port at Cape May on Nov. 27 and were traveling to Marathon, Florida.
The Coast Guard described the boat as having a bluish-purple hull, while structure and sails.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Energy on Tuesday announced a scientific breakthrough in nuclear fusion at a national lab in California, marking a major step toward developing a new, sustainable form of energy that releases virtually no carbon dioxide or other types of air pollution.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully generated a fusion reaction between two hydrogen atoms and maintained that reaction in a controlled setting, marking the potential to use such reactions to generate huge amounts of energy without burning fuels.
The announcement could mark a major step in creating a form of energy that would not release the gases that are warming the planet and contributing to climate change, but is still decades away from being ready for large-scale application.
“This is a great day,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a Washington news conference, adding that the achievement “will go down in the history books.”
“Today, we tell the world that America has achieved a tremendous scientific breakthrough. When that happened it was because we invested in our national labs and we invested in fundamental research, and tomorrow will continue for a future that is powered, in part by fusion energy,” she said.
“This milestone moves us one significant step closer to the possibility of zero carbon abundant fusion energy powering our society,” Granholm said. “If we can advance fusion energy, we could use it to produce electricity, transportation, fuels, power, heavy industry so much more. It would be like adding a power drill to our toolbox and building a clean energy economy.”
The reaction itself was done on Dec. 5 at the National Ignition Facility, the world’s largest laser system at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The lab’s director, Kim Budil, joked that the lab’s acronym, LLNL, stands for “lasers, lasers, nothing but lasers.”
The experiment pointed 192 lasers at a container holding a small pellet of fuel the size of a peppercorn, specifically made up of deuterium and tritium – both isotopes of hydrogen.
Those lasers generated 2.05 megajoules of energy within that container that hit the fuel pellet and ignited the reaction, briefly heating it to over 3 million degrees Celsius — creating the conditions of a star — and generating 3.15 megajoules of energy.
That increase is why the experiment is being called such a success because by generating more energy than they put in it proves the potential that this kind of reaction could be a source of power someday, if they can scale it up and make it much more efficient outside of a lab setting.
The lasers themselves required 300 megajoules to power, which Budil said is in part because the lasers are based on older technology. But they believe it can be made more efficient to potentially create much more power than was represented by the lab experiment with decades more research and significant private sector investment.
“This demonstrates it can be done. That threshold being crossed allows them to start working on better lasers, more efficient lasers, on better containment capsules, etc. The things that net are necessary to allow it to be modularized and taken to commercial scale,” Granholm said.
Granholm and other officials emphasized that the announcement is also a benefit to US national security. The reaction created by the scientists at the California lab is a controlled version of the same reaction that takes place in nuclear weapons without the mass destruction, so this could allow the government to research deterrents for nuclear weapons without the need for real world weapons testing.
The idea is frequently represented in science fiction coming to life, said Paul Dabbar, a distinguished visiting fellow at Columbia University and former Department of Energy undersecretary for science, who oversaw the national labs in his role at the department. He said fusion power has been featured in films like “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” which filmed at the lab announcing the new development, and “Iron Man” who uses a form of fusion power in the Arc Reactor that keeps him alive.
“What was just accomplished was a goal of science that can hopefully lead to having the ultimate power source, nature’s power source, on Earth, which is a contained fusion reaction,” Dabbar told ABC News.
Dabbar said nuclear fusion is essentially harnessing the power of the sun, or at least the same power that creates stars. He said the basic physics of the reaction has been understood for decades but scientists haven’t been able to keep the reaction going because it requires a tremendous amount of heat and pressure to maintain.
“If we could bring a star down to earth, right. You’ve got a bunch of stars, basically controlled stars in buildings around the Earth. And we’re taking the most abundant element in the universe and converted into energy, just like the sun but in boxes here. And no environmental impact and we have literally unlimited energy based on the amount of hydrogen there is,” he said.
Dabbar said that while generating and controlling this reaction was the hardest step, there’s still a lot of work to do to figure out how to contain and maintain it outside a lab setting, including designing a power plant that can handle that amount of heat and energy created by the reaction and still last at least 10 or 20 years.
But he said the advantages are huge. A fusion power plant could produce a lot of power from one facility and would emit no carbon, no air pollution, and generate very little waste compared to the nuclear power plants in use today. It’s also fueled by hydrogen, which is incredibly abundant.
“It literally has all the advantages of many of the alternatives it with none of the disadvantages of all the alternatives. And so it could be you know, if a power plant can be made it would be incredibly positive,” Dabbar said.
The first look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is finally here.
The film, a sequel to 2018’s smash hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, will see Miles Morales/Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) on another web-slinging adventure across the multiverse with Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) and a team of other Spider-people, including another returning hero, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson).
By the looks of the trailer, however, there are a whole lot of other wall crawlers in a different dimension who aren’t exactly out to be friendly neighbors to Spider-Man.
“We are supposed to be the good guys!” Gwen exclaims at one point. “We ARE,” Miles growls in response, as he is shown getting slammed to the ground by Spider-Man 2099, a future version of the hero who is voiced by Oscar Isaac in the film — a payoff from a post-credits tease from the Oscar-winning original.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premieres in theaters June 2, 2023.
The stars were out in London Monday to celebrate the premiere of the new Disney+ Abbey Road documentary, If These Walls Could Sing.
Yahoo reports Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, accompanied by wives Nancy Shevell and Barbara Bach, attended the London premiere, along with Elton John and David Furnish, Stella McCartney, Spice Girls member Melanie Chisholm, Twiggy and more.
If These Walls Could Sing is directed by McCartney’s daughter Mary McCartney and is described as the “first feature-length documentary” on London’s Abbey Road studios. Many of the Beatles’ classic albums were recorded at the studio, including Abbey Road, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, offering fans “exclusive access to these famously private studios.” In addition to interviews with Paul, Ringo and Elton, the film features Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Oasis’ Liam Gallagher and more.
If These Walls Could Sing is set to premiere on Disney+ Friday, December 16.
(NEW YORK) — Maintaining a healthy weight has numerous health benefits, but primary care doctors may not always give specific, effective weight loss advice to their patients, according to a new study in Family Practice.
The study, which was led by researchers in the U.K., analyzed over 150 audio recordings from primary care visits, finding doctors often vaguely encourage patients to “eat less” or “do more” rather than recommending tried-and-tested weight loss strategies. Only 20% of visits included specific, actionable instructions for patients.
Although the study was based in the U.K., doctors say it has broad implications in the United States and beyond. In both countries, roughly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.
Dr. Selvi Rajagopal, an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics who specializes in obesity medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said telling patients they need to lose weight by moving more or eating less is not helpful and can be harmful.
“It puts a lot of the blame on the patient. And it also gives them no really clear tangible action plan of what to do,” Rajagopal told ABC News.
The study authors suggest that more specific clinical guidelines on effective weight loss counseling would better support primary care doctors who are trying to help their patients lose weight.
The National Institute of Health encourages health care providers to partner with their patients who want to lose weight to make an individualized plan together, but a study in 2020 also found that primary care providers often said they have a lack of confidence in weight loss treatments and lack of knowledge about effective weight loss methods. Doctors also have a lot of time-constraints that can limit adequate patient counseling.
“There’s just so little time. There are so many other tasks, [doctors] feel overwhelmed,” Rajagopal said.
Research has shown that setting goals can be an effective weight loss method that health care providers can incorporate into patient visits. Weight loss goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-sensitive (S.M.A.R.T.) as opposed to advice that is too broad or vague.
An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal is telling someone who drinks two sugary beverages a day to aim for just one sugary beverage a month. This is more actionable than simply making it a goal to drink less sugary drinks. But Rajagopal also emphasized that only the individual can decide what is realistic and achievable for them.
“If it’s something that just isn’t within their bandwidth for whatever reason, whatever life circumstances, telling them to do something unachievable is not going to happen,” said Rajagopal.
Jade A Cobern, MD, a board-eligible in pediatrics and MPH candidate, is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit and general preventive medicine resident at Johns Hopkins.
