Hilary Swank announced on Good Morning America that she is preparing for the biggest role of her career: mom.
The two-time Academy Award winner revealed at the end of her GMA interview Wednesday that she and husband Philip Schneider will soon be parents.
“I’m going to be a mom — and not just of one, but of two,” Swank announced. “I can’t believe it!”
While Swank awaits the arrival of her two little ones with Schneider, whom she married in 2018, she is gearing up for her return to network TV with ABC’s Alaska Daily.
The show, premiering Thursday, comes from Tom McCarthy, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind 2015 Best Picture, Spotlight.
Swank said she and McCarthy had a meeting, and he sent her a 2019 article called “Lawless” by Anchorage Daily News reporter Kyle Hopkins “about true crimes in Alaska.”
“It was eye-opening, horrifying — all things at once, things you can’t believe are happening,” Swank said. “I want to shine a bright light on these issues, especially the missing [and] murdered Indigenous women that, I mean, no one’s doing anything about. It’s an extra responsibility, you know, to do justice for the underdogs, for the underserved,” she added. “It’s just something that I’m passionate about.”
Swank plays Eileen, a New York journalist who moves to Alaska to work for a daily newspaper in Anchorage, looking for a clean start both personally and professionally.
Hilary recently told ABC Audio how she relates to her character. “I feel like being an actor is being a journalist because you’re like digging into this character,” she said. “You’re asking a lot of questions about who this person is in order to tell a story.”
Alaska Daily premieres Thursday, Oct. 6 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.
(NEW YORK) — Just weeks before Halloween, law enforcement officials are warning about a deadly drug packaged in pills that “look like candy.”
So-called rainbow fentanyl began showing up on the streets on the West Coast in February and has gradually made its way across the country.
This week, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and law enforcement partners announced the first significant seizure of rainbow fentanyl. It happened on Sept. 28 when agents and officers stopped a vehicle on the Manhattan side of the Lincoln Tunnel that contained 15,000 multicolored pill with an estimated street value of $300,000.
The multicolored pills are similar in look to party drugs and meant to be more appealing to young people, according to the DEA’s Frank Tarrentino, who called it “newly packaged poison.”
“Fentanyl is everywhere and it is on everything,” Tarrentino said, noting some of the pills seized in the car were discovered in a yellow Lego box.
“The pills look like candy,” said New York City’s special narcotics prosecutor Bridgette Brennan. “We believe it is critically important to educate the public about this new form fentanyl is taking.”
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is one of the primary drivers of the significant increases in drug overdose deaths in recent years. More than 56,000 people died of from overdoses involving synthetic opioids in 2020, an increase of 56% from the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The pills are often made to resemble real prescription opioid medication like Oxycontin, Vicodin and Xanax, or stimulants like Adderall, according to the DEA. Most are made in Mexico, with China supplying the chemicals.
In a warning issued in August, the DEA said that brightly colored fentanyl is being distributed not just in pill form but also “powder, and blocks that resembles sidewalk chalk.”
According to the agency, 2 milligrams of fentanyl, the equivalent of 10 to 15 grains of table salt, is “considered a lethal dose.”
“Without laboratory testing, there is no way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder,” the DEA said. “Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug threat facing this country.”
Amid all the recent warnings, statistics about rates of overdoses by so-called rainbow fentanyl are not available yet.
In response to the growing threat and the recent rise in deaths due to fentanyl, school districts in Florida, Texas and California have announced new plans to fight the crisis.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, announced last month that naloxone, a medicine used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, would be available at all K-12 schools in the district in the coming weeks, provided for free by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
The announcement comes after several suspected overdoses in the last month, with one juvenile dying at Bernstein High School in Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Here are questions about fentanyl and the growing crisis, answered:
Why does fentanyl exist?
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is used frequently in medical settings. Developed for the pain management treatment of cancer patients, it is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the DEA.
“It is a very good and effective medicine at relieving pain in appropriate quantities managed by anesthesia,” Dr. Kimberly Sue, medical director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition and an addiction specialist at Yale University, told ABC News last year. “What we’re seeing in the opioid overdose deaths in this country is related to fentanyl that is obtained outside of the context of medical prescriptions, usually on the street.”
Why is fentanyl so deadly?
Fentanyl is dangerous because it “depresses” a person’s respiratory function and central nervous system, and can cause a person to stop breathing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If fentanyl is inhaled, consumed or injected it can be deadly, but a person cannot overdose by touching it.
How does a person know if they’ve taken fentanyl?
There is no way to know whether a pill or powder contains fentanyl by simply looking at it, and fentanyl has no distinctive taste or smell.
“In the case of a pill that you buy off the street, people should assume there is fentanyl present even if it is labeled as some other medication,” said Sue. “I’ve taken care of many patients who think they’re buying oxycodone or heroin and there’s nothing in it. It’s just fentanyl.”
Fentanyl test strips are one tool people can use to test for the drug before consuming something that could be laced with fentanyl, like a pill, powder, nasal sprays or eye drops.
To use the strips, a person dissolves a small amount of the substance in water, and then dips the test strip into the water. The strips can give results in as little as five minutes, according to the CDC.
Is there a way to reverse a fentanyl overdose?
Naloxone, the medication being made available at all Los Angeles public schools, is the main tool used to reverse an overdose.
The medication, also known under the brand name Narcan, can restore normal breathing within two to three minutes in someone who has overdosed, according to the CDC.
Naloxone is available in all 50 states, can be used without medical training and can be delivered by either nasal spray or injection.
In most states, naloxone can be purchased from a pharmacy without a prescription, according to the CDC.
Where does illicitly manufactured fentanyl come from?
Police and other experts say fentanyl and fentanyl-laced pills have been illegally imported from as far out as China and even smuggled through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Of the more than 11,000 pounds of fentanyl that made its way into the U.S. last year, more than half of it came through the border between Mexico and San Diego, according to investigators.
In some instances, Chinese drug suppliers send the ingredients to make fentanyl to cartels in Mexico. After creating the fentanyl, either in raw powder or pill form, the cartels would ship them across the border in trucks, according to investigators.
Border patrol agents have stepped up their searches for the pills and other related fentanyl contraband, officials told ABC News in May.
What do I do to help a person who is overdosing?
If you think a person is overdosing but are not sure, the CDC says to treat it like an overdose.
Signs that a person is overdosing may include small and constricted pupils, slow and shallow breathing, choking sounds, falling asleep or losing consciousness and pale, blue or cold skin, according to the CDC.
The first thing to do is call 911 immediately.
Next, the CDC says to administer naloxone to the person if it is available.
While administering help, try to keep the person awake and breathing and lay them on their side to help prevent choking.
If you or someone you love is in need of help, call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit http://www.samhsa.gov/find-help to reach SAMHSA’s 24-hour helpline that offers free, confidential treatment referral and information about mental and/or substance use disorders, prevention and recovery.
Charlie Puth‘s new album, Charlie, is coming out on Friday, and he wanted to reflect on how far he’s come as an artist.
Sitting down with Allure, Charlie reviewed his past music videos — starting with 2015’s “See You Again” with Wiz Khalifa. “I was actually not supposed to be in this music video,” the hitmaker recalled. He said it goes a step further, explaining, “I wrote this song for Sam Smith, Adele, Eminem, Skylar Grey, Chris Brown, Lil Wayne — they all auditioned to sing it. I was never intended to be the artist on this song.”
Another standout music video was “Attention”; Charlie admitted he threw up on the set while filming. The singer has a super sensitive tummy — as evidenced in James Corden‘s 2017 bit “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” — and that got the better of him.
He revealed the actress “portrayed a crazy ex-girlfriend so well” in the glass-smashing scene that he forgot they were acting, adding that scene was a reenactment of what actually happened in real life.
Looking back at the “How Long” music video, Charlie admitted it makes him cringe because it “showed the whole world that I really couldn’t dance.” “I can’t look at it. It’s so bad,” he said.
In addition, he had the police called on him because they filmed the video until 7 a.m., and people were tired of hearing his music. “There’s a lot of drama surrounding my music videos,” he laughed.
Charlie also had some love for “Left and Right” with BTS‘ Jungkook, adding the colors they wore represented the two sides of the brain. He called Jungkook “a trooper” because his schedule was incredibly stacked. Despite flying straight from South Korea, Jungkook powered through jet lag to shoot the video in a day.
(STOCKHOLM) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Wednesday for their work in making molecules “click.”
Two Americans, K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University in California, and one Dane — Morten Meldal at the University of Copenhagen — received the prize.
Sharpless and Medal — independent of each other — “laid the foundations of click chemistry,” a field in which molecular building blocks are snapped together “quickly and efficiently.”
Bertozzi then used this field to develop bioorthogonal chemistry, in which scientists modify molecules in cells of living organisms “without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell.”
“This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said in a statement.
Sharpless previously won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, making him only the fifth person to win two Nobel prizes and the second person ever to win the award twice, according to the committee. His first award was for developing three types of chemical reactions.
Last year, scientists Benjamin List and David MacMillan won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a new tool in molecular construction.
Each Nobel prize is worth 10 million kronor — the equivalent of about $900,000 — and is given to laureates with a diploma and a gold medal on Dec. 10, the date the creator of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel, died in 1896.
StaceyAbrams, one of the most pivotal voices on voting rights, lands on the cover of Essence Magazine‘s October issue.
With the 2022 midterm elections quickly approaching on November 8, the Georgia politician opens up about the importance of voting and shares a fearful part of the election process.
“What is the most devastating response to me is when someone says, ‘My vote doesn’t matter.’ Of course it matters,” she says. “You may not win with your vote every time, but you make them work for it every time. That’s the point. If somebody’s got to work for something, they’re not going to be as mean to you as they were. They’re not going to ignore you the way they do.”
For the month’s Paint the Polls Black issue, Abrams delves into ideas pertaining to the Black vote, the meaning behind the Black community voting in their best interest and the younger generation’s beliefs. A vital part of the voting process, she says, is electing those who care about the Black community.
“We must elect candidates who see us, hear us, represent us, and have a commitment to passing legislation that ensures our communities have the opportunity to thrive,” she expresses.
Abrams is currently running to become the first Black woman governor of Georgia and the first ever in U.S. history. Her passion for community service, voting rights and equality helps fuel her, but she’s also driven by her upbringing and the values instilled in her at an early age.
“[My parents] always reminded us that our faith should be a shield to protect and not a sword to strike down,” she told Essence. “This belief still guides me today as I fight to ensure that Georgians of all backgrounds are seen [and] heard.”
(STOCKHOLM) — A Swedish scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this week for his work in evolution.
The committee awarded Svante Pääbo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”
Pääbo sequenced the genome of the bones of a Neanderthal, the ancestor of modern-day humans.
By extracting and studying the DNA, which was widely believed to be impossible, it led to the discovery of a hominin — a type of human species — that was previously unknown, called Denisova.
This work also helped traced the migrations of extinct species and how they influenced the physiology of modern humans, particularly how our immune systems work.
“Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics,” the committee said in a press release. “By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.”
Pääbo’s father is biochemist Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for the discovery of prostaglandins, compounds in the body that have hormone-like effects.
Each Nobel prize is worth 10 million kronor — the equivalent of about $900,000 — and is given to laureates with a diploma and a gold medal on Dec. 10, the date the creator of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel, died in 1896.
In 2021, scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian jointly received the prize “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
Blake Shelton is a staple in modern country music, but he appreciate all types of music, as evidenced by the music that shows up on his playlists.
When he has a date night with wife Gwen Stefani, Blake says the couple is likely listening to ’80s love songs by Phil Collins, R.E.M. and REO Speedwagon.
On a day of relaxation with Gwen and her sons, Kingston, Zuma and Apollo, the playlist spans generations — the boys repeatedly request the 1987 hit “Walk the Dinosaur,” while Blake and Gwen have introduced them to “Never Gonna Give You Up” singer Rick Astley.
“The kids are just now discovering Rick Astley,” Blake shares. “That’s pretty much it, back and forth those two songs.”
As for what gets him hyped up before hitting the stage, Blake blends his love for country and rock ‘n’ roll, listening to Hank Williams Jr.’s classic “A Country Boy Can Survive,” along with AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses. “Something that will really get me pumped up,” he says of the tone.
As for what he’s listening to while working out, the singer can’t help but chuckle at the thought.
“Did you just ask me if I’m exercising and working out?” he says laughing, adding that his “go-to” track is “Hot Hot Hot” by Caribbean singer Arrow.
According to BeatlesBible.com, the Fab Four had first recorded the song with original drummer Pete Best on June 6, 1962, at London’s EMI Studios — later Abbey Road Studios. Then, after Ringo Starr had replaced Best, the band took a second crack at the song at EMI on September 4 of that year.
Producer George Martin wasn’t happy with the quality of Ringo’s drumming on that version, so The Beatles reconvened once more time at EMI, on September 11, 1962, with session drummer Andy White sitting in and Starr on tambourine.
Initial copies of the “Love Me Do” single actually featured the version with Ringo, although the one with White was included on The Beatles’ debut U.K. album, Please Please Me, and The Beatles’ Hits EP, which were released in 1963 in March and September, respectively.
The “Love Me Do” single peaked at #17 on the U.K. chart. The version with White on drums also appeared on the Fab Four’s debut U.S. album, Introducing The Beatles, which was released in January 1964. Issued as a U.S. single in April ’64, it spent one week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May of that year.
As previously reported, The Beatles Story in Liverpool, U.K., is marking the 60th anniversary on Wednesday by inviting fans to bring their Beatles or Beatles-era memorabilia to the popular Fab Four-themed attraction, where experts from a specialist Beatles auction house will appraise the items for free.
Another day, another one of Taylor Swift‘s Midnights Mayhem with Me. Thanks to this unique TikTok series, fans now know the title of the ninth track off her upcoming album, Midnights.
Taylor maintained her ’70s theme as she once again spun the bingo cage to pluck a brand new ball out of the pile. This time, fate told her to reveal the title for song number nine.
“Track nine is called… ‘Bejeweled,'” Taylor revealed while speaking into her signature red phone. Unfortunately, that was all the information she was willing to part with at this time.
The last track reveal yielded ball number three, so Taylor disclosed that “Anti-Hero” is the name of the third track. She also revealed a little bit about that particular number.
Taylor said on Instagram that “Anti-Hero” is one of the favorite songs she’s ever written and that it is about “delving into her insecurities.”
“I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized and, not to sound too dark, but I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person,” she had explained. “This song really is a real guided tour throughout all of the things I tend to hate about myself.”
“I think it’s really honest,” she noted further.
Other previously revealed titles include track 13, “Mastermind”; track eight, “Vigilante S**t”; track seven, “Question…?”; track six, “Midnight Rain” and finally, track two, “Maroon.”
Midnights arrives in a little over two weeks — on Friday, October 21.
(WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.) — A 20-year-old Purdue University student was killed in his dorm room early Wednesday and his roommate is in custody, school officials said.
Varun Manish Chheda, a senior majoring in data science, was found dead in his room at McCutcheon Hall, a residence hall on the school’s campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, after the suspect called 911 to report the incident at 12:44 a.m. local time, Purdue University Chief of Police Lesley Weite said at a news conference Wednesday.
The suspect, 22-year-old Gji Min Sha, a junior majoring in cyber security, is in custody on a charge of murder, Weite said. He is an international student from Korea, she said.
No other roommates lived with the victim and suspect, Weite said.
A university spokesperson said, with the suspect apprehended, “there is no threat to the community.”
“This is as tragic an event as we can imagine happening on our campus and our hearts and thoughts go out to all of those affected by this terrible event,” Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We do not have all the details yet. Our Purdue University Police Department is conducting a thorough investigation of this incident so that we all may learn more about what transpired.”
