Kelly Clarkson may now be a Grammy-winning singer and an Emmy-winning talk show host, but she’ll always be known as the very first American Idol winner. On the 20th anniversary of her historic win — September 4, 2002 — Kelly took to her socials to reflect on what a moment like that — pun intended — meant to her.
“20 years ago today I won American Idol and it forever changed the course of my life,” Kelly wrote on Sunday. “That moment was the door that opened up so much access and opportunity, and the creative partnerships that I will be grateful for all of my days.
Kelly went on to praise “the family and friendships I have created over these 20 years in music and TV,” adding, ‘We only get so many trips around the sun and…I am most proud and grateful for those friends that have become family, and for their arms that have held me when I needed it and their hearts that listened to me when I felt lost.”
The star then thanked “every single person that voted 20 years ago,” repeating “Thank you!” three times. She wrapped up her note by expressing her hope that all those voters “have people in your lives that fill you with laughter, and hope, and happiness.”
“If you don’t feel like you have that, then keep searching because I promise they’re looking for you too,” she concluded.
(LONDON) — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, spoke on Monday at the One Young World Summit in Manchester, England, encouraging attendees to work at solving hard issues “now” in order to help build a better world for future generations.
The annual event, which brings together young leaders from across the globe to address pressing issues within topics such as health care, the environment and social change, takes place across several days at “various venues across the city,” according to the event website.
The duchess, who has appeared at past summits, delivered a keynote speech this year, addressing attendees at the event’s opening ceremony at Bridgewater Hall.
It was her first time speaking publicly in the U.K. since she and husband Prince Harry, who appeared onstage with Meghan at Monday’s event, stepped down from their roles as senior working royals.
“It was several years ago in 2014 that I was first invited to be a counselor at One Young World, and in many ways at the time … I was probably a lot like you,” she said, recalling her feelings of uncertainty at the time.
“The truth was, I wasn’t sure that I belonged. … But One Young World saw in me what I wanted to see fully in myself. They saw in me, just as I see in you, the present and the future.”
She emphasized that while many focused on the last part — the future — the present was in many ways more important. Too often, she said, society tends to neglect the importance of the work young people are doing now.
“You here, in this present moment, this is where it’s all beginning,” she said.
Meghan also applauded the young leaders’ commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society. “Earlier this afternoon we sat down with a few of you delegates, and it was incredibly inspiring the resounding themes that came up — about representation, about inclusion, about access, and about trying to shift the global perspective for all of us as a global community to one of curiosity over criticism,” she said.
She cited Harry’s past work on issues affecting youth, adding that she was “thrilled that my husband is able to join me here this time, to be able to see and witness firsthand my respect for this organization and all that it provides and accomplishes.”
“For both of us, bearing witness to the power that you hold in your hands, and the unbridled enthusiasm and energy that you have to see things come to fruition, it is just an absolute privilege,” she said.
“I’m incredibly humbled to not just stand before each of you, but to stand beside you,” she continued. “We often hear people say ‘The time is now,’ but I’m going to double down on that by saying ‘your time is now.’ The important work can’t wait for tomorrow. And this week, the world is watching as you cement your place in history by showcasing the good that you are doing today, in the present moment, as we embrace the moment of now to create a better tomorrow.”
One Young World first announced Meghan’s keynote speech in mid-August, noting that both she and Harry would also be meeting with a group of summit delegates “doing outstanding work on gender equality during the multi-day event.
“We’re delighted to announce Meghan and Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be attending the One Young World Summit in Manchester this September!” One Young World tweeted at the time.
In a separate tweet, One Young World noted that Meghan “has been a proud #OYWCounsellor since 2014.”
Meghan issued a statement through the organization at the time, expressing excitement for the upcoming summit.
“When I was asked to be a Counsellor at One Young World my response was a resounding yes!” she said.
“One Young World invites young adults from all over the world who are actively working to transform the socio-political landscape by being the greater good,” she continued. “They are delegates who are speaking out against human rights violations, environmental crises, gender equality issues, discrimination and injustice. They are the change.”
The duchess has been an advocate of gender equality and women’s rights for many years. In September 2019, she posted a personal message on the topic from the official @SussexRoyal Instagram account, following a meeting with “a group of women ranging from a legendary anti-apartheid activist, female parliamentarians, professors, educators and policy makers,” during a royal tour of several African nations.
“Issues of gender inequality affect women throughout the world, independent of race, color, creed, or socioeconomic background,” she wrote in part. “… In sitting down with these forward thinkers, it was abundantly clear – it is not enough to simply hope for a better future; the only way forward is ‘hope in action.'”
The One Young World summit marks Harry and Meghan’s first return trip to the U.K. since Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebration in June.
The family will stay at Frogmore Cottage, their home on the queen’s Windsor estate, while in the U.K. The queen herself is currently at Balmoral Castle in Scotland preparing to appoint her 15th prime minister, Liz Truss, who won the Conservative Party leadership election Monday to replace outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson, whose premiership ends on Tuesday. It is unclear whether Meghan and Harry will visit the queen while in the U.K.
The pair are headed next to Dusseldorf, Germany, where Harry will deliver remarks on the “one year out” countdown to the Invictus Games before returning to London on Thursday for the WellChild Awards, which recognize “seriously ill” children and their families. The couple will then return home to Montecito, California, where they reside currently with their children Archie and Lilibet. The family moved there in June 2020, just a few months after announcing their plans to “step back as senior members of the Royal Family” and divide their time between the U.K. and the U.S.
The couple formally announced they would not be returning to their roles as senior working royals in February 2021.
Harry and Meghan’s trip to the U.K. comes one week after Megan opened up about the couple’s decision to leave the U.K., in an interview with The Cut.
According to the duchess, pressure from tabloid stories attacking them, oftentimes “under the guise of public interest” — or taxpayers footing the bill for a royal lifestyle, in other words — along with racist commentary and “allegedly” true rumors, became too much and was taking a toll on her mental health. At one point, she said she suggested the couple be allowed to work to make their own money. “Then maybe all the noise would stop,” she recalled thinking.
Exiting the U.K. and starting a new life elsewhere was one part of their eventual solution, she said. “Anything to just … because just by existing, we were upsetting the dynamic of the hierarchy. So we go, ‘Okay, fine, let’s get out of here. Happy to,’ ” she said.
Meghan also said that, despite the things she’s been open about in the past, regarding her time in the U.K., she’s kept a lot to herself. “It’s interesting, I’ve never had to sign anything that restricts me from talking. I can talk about my whole experience and make a choice not to,” she said, noting that she’s “still healing” from the experience.
“I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive,” she added. “But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I’ve really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.”
According to ABC News royal contributor Omie Scobie, the royal family “will have no doubt been bracing themselves” for Meghan and Harry’s U.K. visit, given Meghan’s recent revelations, as well as her comments in The Cut, “but for the Sussexes this is very much about the work.”
“These are the kinds of trips they wanted to do ever since they stepped back, but the pandemic prevented them from doing so until now,” Scobie added.
(NEW YORK) — A mysterious outbreak that sickened 11 people in Argentina, killing four, has been solved.
Health authorities said the illness was likely caused by Legionella, the bacteria that leads to Legionnaires’ disease.
The outbreak has been contained to a health clinic in San Miguel de Tucumán, which is the capital city of Tucumán province and is located 670 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.
Minister of Health Carla Vizzotti said during a press conference Sunday that four samples — including blood, respiratory and tissues samples — of the deceased patients tested positive for the bacteria.
“The genome of the Legionella bacterium was detected,” she told reporters. “The suspicion is that it is Legionella pneumophila.”
However, she said the results are preliminary and further testing is being conducted.
Legionnaires’ is a severe form of pneumonia caused by inhaling the bacteria in small droplets of water or accidentally swallowing water containing Legionella.
The disease is not contagious, but outbreaks can spread if the bacteria get into a building’s water supply including in shower heads, sink faucets, hot water tanks, heaters and other plumbing systems.
Although most people recover from Legionnaires’ with antibiotics, certain patients — including those who are immunocompromised or who suffer from chronic lung diseases — can develop complications that can be fatal.
According to the World Health Organization, the cases appeared between Aug. 18 and Aug. 25 with patients complaining of fever, muscle aches, abdominal pain and difficulty breathing along with pneumonia symptoms.
Of the 11 cases, eight were among the clinic’s health workers and three were among patients. Three of the four deaths occurred among health workers.
The median age of the cases is 45 and seven are male, according to the WHO. Ten people had underlying conditions that put them at risk for severe disease, including the four deaths.
As of Sept. 3, four people remain hospitalized and three are recovering at home.
Argentinian health authorities said they are conducting contract tracing to prevent further spread of the disease. Of the contacts that have been identified so far, none have developed symptoms.
“Sporadic outbreaks of legionellosis pneumonia have been reported in Argentina before,” the WHO said in a statement. “There are robust surveillance activities being implemented in the affected health facility.”
The statement continued, “Nonetheless, in the absence of an identified source of Legionella bacteria, the risk of developing Legionellosis for people working or hospitalized at the same health facility is currently moderate.”
(KYIV, Ukraine) — In an exclusive interview with ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated he’s not interested in negotiating with Russia to end Moscow’s invasion.
“It’s a question of dialogue with terrorists. We cannot — you cannot discuss anything with terrorists. The majority of the world — majority of the countries — understand that we are dealing with a terrorist state after what they’ve done to our people, to civilian people,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy cited suspected instances of rape and torture by Russian troops in areas outside of Kyiv during a retreat earlier this year. Images of tortured and bound bodies littered across neighborhoods like Bucha spread across the world.
“After rapes, after tortures, after murders, after we discovered a lot of dead bodies … it’s not a war, it’s pure and clear terrorism, which Russia is doing against our nation and occupation of our land,” the Ukrainian president said. “So, we cannot have any compromises with terrorists. We cannot have any dialogue with the terrorists.”
When pressed by Muir over the alleged atrocities, Zelenskyy said Putin was a war criminal and should be prosecuted.
“As any civilized person, any civilized man, I think that those responsible should not just go to hell, no, they should have fair trials — fair, independent trials,” Zelenskyy said.
The comments come as Ukraine wages a counteroffensive to regain territory in the southern and eastern parts of the country that were lost to Russia.
The main counteroffensive is focused around the port city of Kherson, which was the first major city Russia conquered in its invasion. However, Zelenskyy hinted to Muir that more than one counteroffensive is taking place.
“I won’t say that it’s only counteroffensive in Kherson. … There is a direction or directions — plural — and we have to move forward,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — In a win for Donald Trump, Judge Allen Cannon has granted a request from the former president’s legal team to appoint a special master to review documents seized from the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
The ruling will also halt all reviews of the documents by the Department of Justice.
(SASKATCHEWAN, Canada) — Two suspects in a Canada stabbing rampage that left 10 people dead and 15 injured in an Indigenous community in Saskatchewan remained on the run Monday morning as a massive search for them continued into its second day, authorities said.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Saskatchewan identified Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson as the two suspects in the massacre. They are believed to be driving a black Nissan Rogue with SK license plate 119 MPI, according to police.
“Let me be clear, we are still looking for the two suspects. We are asking residents across Saskatchewan and our neighboring provinces to be vigilant. At this stage in our investigation, we believe some of the victims have been targeted by the suspects and others have been attacked randomly,” Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, the commanding officer of Saskatchewan RCMP, said in a statement issued late Sunday night.
The Sandersons, whose relationship to each other was not immediately disclosed, are considered armed and dangerous, and Blackmore advised anyone who spots them to call police immediately and refrain from approaching them.
The stabbings occurred between James Smith Cree Nation and in the village of Weldon, located northeast of Saskatoon, police said.
Blackmore said the massacre started around 5:40 a.m. Sunday when the Saskatchewan RCMP Divisional Operational Communications Center received the first call reporting a stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation. Blackmore said numerous calls began coming into the center from multiple locations.
“At this point in our investigation, we have located 10 deceased individuals and are investigating 13 locations in the communities of the James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon in Saskatchewan,” Blackmore said.
A motive for the attacks remains under investigation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement Sunday, saying, “I am shocked and devastated by the horrific attacks today in James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon, Saskatchewan, that claimed the lives of 10 people and injured many more.”
“As Canadians, we mourn with everyone affected by this tragic violence, and with the people of Saskatchewan. We also wish a full and quick recovery to those injured,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden, a pro-union president, on Labor Day kicks off the the unofficial start of the fall campaign season ahead of the midterm elections with two cross-country stops in battleground states.
Biden, the White House says, will deliver remarks “celebrating Labor Day and the dignity of American workers,” in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, after a string of legislative victories and a slight bump in approval ratings.
In both swing states, Democrats are facing high-stakes, heavily-funded midterm races.
Biden travels first to Milwaukee to speak about 1:00 p.m. at the city’s Laborfest, with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — up for reelection in November against Republican Tim Michels — expected to make an appearance.
It was unclear whether Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes — a Democratic Senate hopeful embattled in a tight race against incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson — would also accompany Biden.
Ahead of his visit, Republican National Committee and the Wisconsin Republican Party hosted a Zoom call, slamming the president’s Thursday primetime speech in Philadelphia and his recent moves to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt.
Johnson was on the Zoom, calling the president “no moderate” and that he has become a “divider-in-chief.” Johnson noted that his Democratic opponent has been “in hiding” and that Barnes has not been doing any recent press conferences. One of Barnes’ most recent events was a meet and greet with seniors on Aug. 29 on the subject of Social Security and Medicare, in response to recent Johnson comments on potentially cutting those programs.
From Milwaukee, Biden travels to Pittsburgh where he is scheduled to make more Labor Day remarks at 5:30 p.m at United Steelworkers of America Local Union 2227 — the third time the president has visited the commonwealth in one week.
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is in a contentious battle for retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s Senate seat against Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In a tweet, Fetterman’s director of communications said that the candidate will also be marching with Biden — the first time the candidate has joined the president during his weeklong span of the state — with plans to discuss marijuana decriminalization.
“John will be marching in the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh next week, and he looks forward to talking to the President there about the need to finally decriminalize marijuana,” wrote Joe Calvello.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro is also facing a tight race against Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano for governor. Shapiro will also march with Biden on Monday, following his appearance with the president at Wilkes University on Tuesday.
In Pittsburgh, Shapiro will be “marching with the hardworking men and women of labor on Monday,” Manual Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, said in a statement. “As always, we welcome President Biden back to his home state of Pennsylvania.”
On Thursday in Philadelphia, Biden, in a fiery speech, warned about what he called threats to American democracy, presenting himself and Democrats ahead of the midterms as a clear contrast to Trump and MAGA Republicans.
He pummeled Republicans who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and those who refuse to accept the 2020 election results and want to strip away abortion rights.
“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” he said. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at the Greater Boston Labor Council Annual Breakfast on Monday, echoed Biden’s remarks Thursday in Philadelphia, criticizing “extremist, so-called leaders” for their attempts to “turn back the clock …To a time before workers had the freedom to organize. To a time before women had the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. To a time before all Americans had the freedom to vote.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Toronto 4, Pittsburgh 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Oakland 5, Baltimore 0
Boston 5, Texas 2
N.Y. Yankees 2, Tampa Bay 1
Kansas City 3, Detroit 2
Minnesota 5, Chicago White Sox 1
Seattle 6, Cleveland 3
Houston 9, L.A. Angels 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Colorado 8, Cincinnati 4
Atlanta 7, Miami 1
Washington 7, N.Y. Mets 1
St. Louis 2, Chicago Cubs 0
Cincinnati 10, Colorado 0
Arizona 5, Milwaukee 1
San Francisco 5, Philadelphia 3
L.A. Dodgers 9, San Diego 4
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Chicago 76, Connecticut 72
Las Vegas 110, Seattle 98 (OT)
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Portland 2, Atlanta 1
Colorado 0, D.C. United 0
CF Montreal 4, Toronto FC 3
Sporting Kansas City 2, LA Galaxy 2
Orlando City 0, Miami 0
New England 3, New York City FC 0
Seattle 2, Houston 1
San Jose 2, Vancouver 0
Los Angeles FC 2, Real Salt Lake 0
Waldo was an avid skier and taught skiing on the weekends. – Courtesy Victoria Waldo
(WASHINGTON) — Less than a month after Victoria Waldo recovered from COVID, she woke up feeling drunk.
Dizzy and slurring her speech, she went to the emergency room only to be sent home after routine blood work turned up negative.
The newly engaged 26-year-old, who worked long days in finance at a start-up and taught skiing on the weekends, would spend the next several months in a haze on her couch in her Washington, D.C., apartment.
Unable to focus, she lost her job. At one point, she stumbled upon a pair of slippers she liked and asked her fiancé who they belonged to. They were hers, he said, a Christmas gift from his sister.
Another time, she forgot what her wedding planner looked like and introduced herself to the woman as if the two had never met.
“I had no idea what was going on. Nobody diagnosed me with anything. Everyone said I was fine based on my labs. Someone asked me if I was on my period,” she said.
Now, at an age when many young professionals consider financing a home, traveling or starting a family, Waldo is weighing her options. Her employer didn’t offer disability insurance with her job — a benefit she didn’t think she’d need as a healthy twenty-something. So she’s waiting to see if her condition improves with time — and burning through her cash savings in the meantime.
“I think in a parallel universe where none of this happened, we would be doing that now,” she said of house hunting. But “instead, I’m kind of like, ‘Oh, I want to see if we can get away with this cheap rent again.”
‘A mass disabling event’
More than two years after COVID began, millions of survivors say they still don’t feel right. Brain fog, difficulty breathing, and intense fatigue are among the symptoms they say are still lingering in their bodies — upending their ability to work and derailing their financial independence.
The government estimates as many as 7 million to 23 million people are impacted by long COVID, and a Census Bureau survey suggests that among people who have been infected, one in five still experience lingering symptoms.
Vaccination is expected to significantly reduce a person’s chance of developing long COVID. That immunity though wanes with time and doctors say some people — like Waldo who was fully vaccinated but days away from a booster shot when she caught the virus — can still be young and healthy when they get sick.
Advocates have called this phenomenon a kind of “mass disabling event” that both insurers and the federal government have yet to reckon with. Data on disability claims with private insurers tied to long COVID aren’t publicly available. And while disability claims with the federal government’s Social Security program currently remain flat for now, at least one economist says that might not last for long.
“This is a $3.5 trillion problem,” said David Cutler, a professor of economics at Harvard University, whose calculations factor in lost earnings, medical care and lower quality of life.
“And there are very few 3.5 trillion problems that we know as little as we know about this,” he said.
‘This is not in their heads’
Doctors and scientists have long suspected that viral infections might be to blame for other chronic or debilitating diseases and conditions with mysterious origins, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Then came COVID, triggering a wave of 93 million viral infections in the U.S. in just two years. Hospitals quickly began to see patients like Waldo show up at emergency rooms and doctors’ offices with symptoms they couldn’t explain.
Dr. Alba Azola, who helps run the post-acute COVID team at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, said she might consult with a half a dozen other specialists or more to rule out other causes before diagnosing someone with long COVID. After that, she said, her team will have to go back-and-forth several times with insurers and employers to help their patients secure job accommodations.
“This is not in their heads,” Azola said of her patients. “This is not something that is just to get out work or a disability scam. These patients just want to be themselves again.”
One of Azola’s patients, Jazmin Holcombe, is among the luckier ones when it comes to her work life. After four months in the hospital with COVID, the 29-year-old was able to return to her job working from her home office in marketing. She hadn’t been vaccinated when she contracted the virus last year because, she said, she had been nervous about a new vaccine and she mostly stayed at home.
But she’s still far from her old self. Now, rather than planning trips or going to concerts like she used to, Jazmin spends much of her time doing physical therapy at the hospital, carrying with her an oxygen tank wherever she goes. She said her doctors hope to have a better idea by the end of the year what her prognosis will be.
“No one knows yet,” she said.
‘No man’s land’
That uncertainty in the lives of young long haulers and its impact on the economy has caught the attention of senior government officials and scientists.
The National Institutes of Health has launched a $1.5 billion study to identify the causes and find treatments for long COVID. And, the Biden administration has added long COVID as a condition that qualifies as a disability under the American Disability Act — a move that requires employers to grant work accommodations.
Also, the Labor Department has teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Surgeon General’s office to crowdsource ideas from the public on “workplace challenges” tied to long COVID.
Taryn Williams, assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy, said she hopes to have an analysis of that effort in coming months. In the meantime, she said, people can go to www.covid.gov/longcovid to see what benefits they might be eligible for. They also can get free counseling through the Job Accommodation Network at askjan.org, she said.
“We do not know yet the full extent of the impact of long COVID on the economy or the workforce. But we do know that public health and safety are critical to a healthy economy, which is why we are so focused on this,” Williams said.
For now though, employer accommodations can still be scarce, especially without legal help.
Mark DeBofsky, a disability attorney and law professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago John Marshall Law School, said people should know that many lawyers — including himself — won’t bill their clients until they win a case. He said he advises his clients to save any medical documentation they have and collect statements from family members about how they might have changed.
Keeping detailed journals of their symptoms can be a good idea too, he said.
“I think it’s still a mixed bag,” DeBofsky said about insurance companies and employers responding to long COVID patients.
“Every disability claim is very complex, and I don’t begrudge the insurance companies for really doing their due diligence,” he added.
But even people who keep detailed records can get rejected, like Frantz Dickerson, a 55-year-old sales executive who worked during the pandemic for a company that sold and fixed elevators. Dickerson’s job was to drive into Philadelphia where he would stand on rooftops or climb into the elevator shafts of high-rise buildings and hospitals to ensure safety and order fixes.
After being diagnosed with long COVID — a mental state he describes as feeling as though his brain went from a 10-lane highway down to two lanes — his doctors suggested he take time off to rebuild his cognitive and physical abilities.
But according to his employer’s disability insurer, Dickerson could still work in sales. That’s because the insurer defined a sales job as mostly sitting at a desk, even if that wasn’t an accurate description of what he did. His former employer did not respond to requests for comment, and his insurer said it won’t discuss individual cases due to privacy concerns.
“I was kind of in this no man’s land,” Dickerson said of his rejection. “Insurance says that I’m not disabled, but my work says, ‘no, you can’t come back until your doctor fully releases you.’ And my doctors were not fully releasing me because they understood long COVID.”
Dr. Benjamin Abramoff, who treated Dickerson as head of PennMedicine’s post-COVID care clinic and confirmed the details in his case, said he oftentimes will spend hours filling out paperwork for patients. Abramoff said he knows of other doctors and clinics that have pulled back from the specialty because they don’t have the staff or resources to do it.
Abramoff said he wants more data on effective treatments and is watching ongoing studies closely. But he also would like to see insurers agree to use the same standardized forms.
“It is a big administrative burden,” he said. Insurers “send in the forms and the forms get rejected for technicalities (such as) a box that wasn’t filled out quite right. And then it has to come back to be filled out again or edited.”
Dickerson eventually switched sales jobs to one that’s fully remote. After several months of therapy, he says he’s doing better now that he’s learned how to pace himself and take breaks if he needs it, including playing his guitar — something he was encouraged to do by his doctor.
As for Waldo, she eventually landed an official diagnosis of long COVID: “Post COVID-19 Condition ICD10 code U09.9” — a medical code that didn’t exist until about a year ago.
But she’s close to draining her once-impressive cash savings of $70,000 to pay for medical treatments and living expenses – money she had hoped to use to buy a house someday and maybe travel.
In the meantime, she’s still planning to get married next year. But everything else, including starting a family, is on hold for now.
“I just don’t know what my body can handle,” she said.
ABC News producers Vika Aronson, Kelly Terez, Iru Ekpunobi and Cate Barbera contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The United Kingdom’s Conservative Party announced Monday that it has selected Liz Truss as its new leader, putting her in line to be confirmed as the country’s prime minister.
Truss beat rival Rishi Sunak in a leadership election, in which only the 180,000 dues-paying members of the ruling party were allowed to vote. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is scheduled to formally name Truss as prime minister on Tuesday.
In a speech following her victory, Truss said it was an “honor” to be elected and paid tribute to her “friend” Boris Johnson, whom she will be succeeding. She will become the U.K.’s fourth prime minister since 2016 and the country’s third female premier ever.
Truss previously served as the foreign secretary under Johnson’s Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the exchequer whose resignation helped bring about Johnson’s downfall in July.
Members of the Conservative Party cast their votes after eight weeks of campaigning, with Truss — a supporter of Johnson’s who said she did not back his resignation — emerging as the overwhelming favorite.
The leadership campaign was dominated by questions about what both candidates would do to tackle a looming economic crisis, with household energy bills set to skyrocket this winter and inflation, already at a four-decade high at 10.1%, is expected to rise further according to the Bank of England. The leadership hopefuls clashed most fiercely on the issue of tax, with Truss saying she would not raise taxes, while Sunak has supported a windfall tax on energy companies’ profits to help ease the burden on households.
Truss has promised action on the energy crisis within a week of taking office, though she has not spelled out her plans in any detail and refused to elaborate when questioned by the BBC on Sunday.
Truss will also have the task of uniting a divided Conservative Party. Johnson’s tenure in office was dogged by scandal – most notably with the issue of ‘Partygate’ – the illegal gatherings held in government residences while the country was under lockdown. While his supporters will remember him for securing a huge election victory, Brexit and support for Ukraine, his detractors say Johnson’s conduct and flexible relationship with the truth damaged the Conservative Party brand.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, said that the appointment of a fourth Conservative prime minister in recent years did not mark a “new dawn” for Britain.
“As summer turns to autumn, the shadows of crisis are lengthening, looming over the whole country,” he wrote. “There is no sign that either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss have grasped the scale of what is facing us, let alone possesses the answers to it.”
Truss will not be formally installed as the new prime minister until Tuesday after Johnson formally submits his resignation to the Queen at Balmoral and his successor is then invited to form a government.
“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said on the steps of Downing Street when he announced his resignation. “I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world… But them’s the breaks.”
