(NEW YORK) — Severe weather caused “significant damage” and wide-spread power outages in Oklahoma Wednesday, officials said.
Seminole got hit especially hard after a reported tornado touched down in the city, located about 65 miles east of Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security reported late Wednesday that there was “significant damage” to structures, including businesses, in Seminole, and that the Red Cross was setting up a shelter for displaced residents there.
The National Weather Service of Norman, Oklahoma, had warned residents of a “damaging tornado” on the ground near Seminole County earlier Wednesday.
Aerial footage from Oklahoma City ABC affiliate KOCO-TV showed widespread damage to structures in Seminole after the storm.
The extent of any casualties is unclear.
The City of Seminole warned residents about multiple downed power lines during the severe storm system.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it responded to Seminole in the wake of the storm damage, including protecting drivers from the downed power lines.
There are some 12,400 power outages reported throughout the state, while storms and flooding are forecast to continue overnight, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said.
A tornado watch remains in effect across much of Oklahoma and West-Central Texas Wednesday overnight.
There have already been at least seven reported tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma — including Crowell, Texas, and Maud, Oklahoma.
The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center had said there was the potential for “significant” — EF2 or higher — tornadoes in parts of Oklahoma and Texas on Wednesday.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 05, 4:39 am
Russian shelling on residential areas of Kramatorsk injures 25, officials say
At least 25 civilians were injured by Russian shelling on residential areas and the central part of Kramatorsk on Wednesday night, according to the local city council.
Six of the wounded required hospitalization, and at least nine homes, a school as well as various civilian infrastructure sustained damaged, the Kramatorsk City Council said in a statement via Telegram.
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko confirmed in a statement via Facebook that a kindergarten was seriously damaged.
Kramatorsk is a city in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk Oblast.
May 05, 3:50 am
Over 300 civilians evacuated from Mariupol, surrounding areas
More than 300 civilians have been evacuated from the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and surrounding areas, officials said late Wednesday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it facilitated the safe passage of the civilians in coordination with the United Nations and both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The evacuees arrived Wednesday in Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian government-controlled city about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol.
“We are relieved that more lives have been spared,” Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Ukraine, said in a statement Wednesday night. “We welcome the renewed efforts of the parties with regards to safe passage operations. They remain crucial and urgent in light of the immense suffering of the civilians.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed that 344 people were evacuated to Zaporizhzhia from the Mariupol area, Manhush, Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka.
The evacuation did not include civilians trapped inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
There’s a whole lot of Mike Myers in the new Netflix comedy series The Pentaverate, which debuts Thursday. It’s about a secret society that has been controlling the world for centuries. So as a powerful man in media, is Myers himself part of a real-life secret society?
“Well, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of any secret society that I am or not in,” Myers tells ABC Audio, adding, “I’ve been obsessed with secret societies my whole life. My mom was in the Royal Air Force and had a top security clearance, so I knew that there were secrets in the world.”
Myers plays eight characters in The Pentaverate, the most he’s ever done in one project. While that sounds exhausting, he says it’s more of a release for him.
“I always have characters in me that are kind of circling the airport and looking for a place to land,” he shares. “I love performing…and I love playing characters. And that has its own energy that gets you going.”
Citing previous works like Austin Powers, the actor adds, “I’m kind of used to multiple characters.”
In The Pentaverate, instead of being evil or power hungry, the secret society’s five leaders are known for being nice. Myers says the show comes during an interesting time in comedy and “it’s good that people are being conscious of not saying things that marginalize, disempower or ridicule.”
Myers himself is known for his trademark brand of humor that is often silly but never mean, which he uses to uncover truths.
“The truth shall set you free, but at first it’s going to upset you…And it’s important that the truth be told,” Myers expresses. “Now I love speaking the truth faster with kindness, but that’s just me.”
Season two of Sara Bareilles‘ Emmy-nominated Peacock comedy Girls5Eva arrives today, and it finds the main characters doing something that Sara is very familiar with in real life: making an album.
After launching their comeback in season one, the Girls5Eva members — Sara’s Dawn, Renée Elise Goldsberry‘s Wickie, Busy Philipps‘ Summer and Paula Pell‘s Gloria — get a record deal, but with only six weeks to record, they go into “album mode.”
“Dawn takes it really seriously…embracing her role as songwriter and trying to really be the voice for the group that she didn’t feel like she got to explore when they were younger,” Sara says of her character. But there are plenty of distractions: Dawn fights with the producer, Gloria tries to reunite with her ex-wife, Summer wants a divorce and Wickie wants to find love.
“They get messy with each other and with their relationships,” Sara laughs. “And I’m here for that. I love that they’re becoming more and more three dimensional as we go.”
But in real life, Sara says her “album mode” isn’t much fun.
“I mean, to me, it means going [into] sort of hermit mode and getting very self-reflective and self punishing,” she explains. “For me, it can be a little bit of like a downward spiral. I think the best times of album mode have to do with collaboration. And…this season, we really get to see the workings of [the group’s] collaboration.”
Sara also reveals that her character “gets in a little bit of trouble because of her ambition this year,” which rings true to her.
She notes, “Album mode is like, you’re kind of dancing with your own ambition the whole time, and ‘what can I make?’ and ‘is it true?’ and ‘what are you willing to give up for what you want?'”
In a tweet Wednesday, the “Soul Meets Body” band confirmed that their next record is “done.” They also revealed that new music is set to drop next Wednesday, May 11, and is available to pre-save now.
The most recent Death Cab album is 2018’s Thank You for Today, which features the singles “Gold Rush” and “Northern Lights.” Since then, they released The Blue EP in 2019, and a covers EP in 2020 to support voting rights. Meanwhile, frontman Ben Gibbard curated a tribute album to Yoko Ono, which was just released this past February.
You can catch Death Cab for Cutie live on their upcoming U.S. tour, kicking off in July.
On Wednesday, Live Nation launched its 2022 Concert Week promotion, which offers $25 tickets to shows by more than 200 artists taking place across North American throughout the summer.
In total, over 3,700 concerts will be discounted as part of the promotion, which runs through Tuesday, May 10. Among the many participating tours is REO Speedwagon, Styx and Loverboy‘s Live & UnZoomed package trek, which kicks off May 31 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Founding REO Speedwagon keyboardist Neal Doughty says he and his band mates are excited to be returning to full-scale touring following two years where the number of shows they played was reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re thrilled that live music is back, of course, because that’s our entire life,” he tells ABC Audio. “But we just want to really let people know that, hey, come out of your house, it’s safe now. Live music is back and Live Nation is gonna kick-start the whole thing.”
Doughty notes that REO and Styx have toured many times together many times over the years, and the two bands really complement each other.
“[I]t just really works well,” Neal maintains. “Like our manager says, ‘One plus one equals three when it’s Styx and REO.’ And then, of course, you put somebody like Loverboy on the show, and who would not go to a show like that? I don’t know.”
Doughty also points out that his band and Styx both deliver a balanced show that offers up “the right mix between the love songs and the hard-rock songs.”
The Live & UnZoomed tour is mapped out through a September 18 concert in Bangor, Maine.
For full details about the Concert Week promotion, including a list of participating artists and venues, visit LiveNation.com/ConcertWeek.
There’s a whole lot of Mike Myers in the new Netflix comedy series The Pentaverate, which debuts today. It’s about a secret society that has been controlling the world for centuries. So as a powerful man in media, is Myers himself part of a real life secret society?
“Well, I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of any secret society that I am or not in,” Myers tells ABC Audio, adding, “I’ve been obsessed with secret societies my whole life. My mom was in the Royal Air Force and had a top security clearance, so I knew that there were secrets in the world.”
Myers plays eight characters in The Pentaverate, the most he’s ever done in one project. While that sounds exhausting, he says it’s more of a release for him.
“I always have characters in me that are kind of circling the airport and looking for a place to land,” he shares. “I love performing…and I love playing characters. And that has its own energy that gets you going.”
Citing previous works like Austin Powers, the actor adds, “I’m kind of used to multiple characters.”
In The Pentaverate, instead of being evil or power hungry, the secret society’s fiv leaders are known for being nice. Myers says the show comes during an interesting time in comedy and “it’s good that people are being conscious of not saying things that marginalize, disempower or ridicule.”
Myers himself is known for his trademark brand of humor that is often silly but never mean, which he uses to uncover truths.
“The truth shall set you free, but at first it’s going to upset you…And it’s important that the truth be told,” Myers expresses. “Now I love speaking the truth faster with kindness, but that’s just me.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Detroit 3, Pittsburgh 2
St. Louis 10, Kansas City 0
San Diego 5, Cleveland 4
Pittsburgh 7, Detroit 2
Cleveland 6, San Diego 5
Texas 2, Philadelphia 1
Chi White Sox 4, Chi Cubs 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Houston 7, Seattle 2
Tampa Bay 3, Oakland 0
Baltimore 9, Minnesota 4
Toronto 2, NY Yankees 1
LA Angels 10, Boston 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Arizona 8, Miami 7
Final Atlanta 9, NY Mets 2
Colorado 5, Washington 2
Milwaukee 18, Cincinnati 4
LA Dodgers 9, San Francisco 1
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Miami 119, Philadelphia 103 (Miami leads 2-0)
Phoenix 129, Dallas 109 (Phoenix leads 2-0)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Carolina 5, Boston 2 (Carolina leads 2-0)
Tampa Bay 5, Toronto 3 (Series tied 1-1)
Minnesota 6, St. Louis 2 (Series tied 1-1)
Edmonton 6, Los Angeles 0 (Series tied 1-1)
(WASHINGTON) — State governments across the country are taking steps to firm up abortion rights if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that granted protections for a woman’s right to an abortion.
A leaked Supreme Court draft opinion published by Politico on Monday apparently shows that the court will overturn Roe. Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft and ordered an investigation into its release.
More than half of Americans oppose abortion bans. A new ABC News-Washington Post poll found that 57% of Americans oppose a ban after 15 weeks. Fifty-eight percent said abortion should be legal in all or most cases and 54% said the court should uphold Roe.
State legislatures have introduced a range of legislation to end existing restrictions, protect the right to abortion and increase access to abortion care, according data from the Guttmacher Institute, which studies sexual and reproductive health and rights.
While overturning Roe would not criminalize abortion at the federal level, experts said it would be left to states to regulate abortions.
“In the absence of a federal right to abortion, then each state could determine for itself whether to protect and expand abortion rights and access or whether to prohibit abortion entirely,” said Elisabeth Smith, the director for state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Smith added, “Roe, for the last almost 50 years, has provided essentially a federal floor and states are not allowed to go beneath the protections of Roe, but states were always free to create more protections and more access than Roe affords. If Roe is overruled, essentially that federal floor would be removed and all abortion policy would be up to each state.”
This map shows where abortion will remain legal in the U.S. if Roe is indeed overturned.
ABC News
The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that up to 25 states could outlaw abortion entirely. Of the remaining, 22 states have a state right to abortion established in a state constitution or state statute, while three do not have state protections for abortion.
“So regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision, abortion will remain legal in at least 22 states,” Smith said.
Abortion is not protected in New Mexico, Virginia and New Hampshire. Smith said women in these states will still likely have access to abortion in the future.
“In New Mexico, they very recently repealed their pre-Roe ban. Virginia, two years ago, repealed many medically unnecessary abortion restrictions that had been in statute for a long time. New Hampshire does not have many of the abortion bans and restrictions that we see in the states that we term ‘hostile’ to abortion rights,” Smith said.
Live Action, a nonprofit anti-abortion group, told ABC News that 22 states already have anti-abortion laws that would kick in if Roe falls.
“Nine states in this group have pre-Roe abortion restrictions still on the books; 13 states have a so-called ‘trigger ban’ that is tied to Roe being overturned and five states have laws passed after Roe restricting nearly all abortions,” Live Action told ABC News.
Another dozen states have six- or eight-week restrictions there are not currently in effect, while Texas’ six-week restriction is in effect. Four states have constitutions that ban the right to abortion, according to Live Action.
While several states have moved to limit or ban access to abortions, many states have also moved to expand access and increase protections for them.
Progressive states are expanding access for their residents and enacting measures to support people from other states who may need to cross state borders to receive access to abortion services due to new restrictions or bans in their home state, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
State legislatures have introduced 231 protective measures in 29 states and the District of Columbia between Jan. 1 and April 14, according to Guttmacher.
Only 11 protective measures have been enacted in seven states in that time frame, according to Guttmacher.
The governor in Colorado signed a bill in April codifying the right to abortion. A Connecticut bill passed in April that protects women who get abortions, those who assist them and abortion providers, and prevents state agencies from assisting interstate investigators seeking to hold people liable. Vermont passed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion which will be on the ballot in November, according to Live Action.
Despite efforts by Maryland’s governor to veto a bill that expands who can provide abortions, state lawmakers were able to override his veto in April.
Efforts to protect access to abortion include provisions expanding the types of health care professionals who can provide abortion care; legislation to assist patients with paying for an abortion; and earmarking state funds for abortion services.
Three states — Colorado, New Jersey and Washington — have enacted rules that establish or expand statutory protections for the right to abortion. Two states, Maryland and Washington, have authorized advanced practice clinicians to provide abortion care, according to Guttmacher.
California, Maryland, New York and Oregon have enacted legislation that requires health plans to cover abortion or establish a state fund to assist with abortion costs, according to Guttmacher.
(NEW YORK) — For the first time in months, daily hospital admission levels and new COVID-19 related deaths in the United States are both projected to increase over the next four weeks, according to updated forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The projected increases come after weeks of steady upticks in infections across the country, subsequent to the removal of masking requirements and mitigation measures in many states and cities.
The forecast now predicts that approximately 5,000 deaths will occur over the next two weeks, with Ohio, New York, and New Jersey projected to see the largest totals of daily deaths in the weeks to come.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic, to be sure—there’s no confusion about that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told Foreign Policy last week.
The forecast models show that 42 states and territories in hospital admissions across the country, including New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Florida, are projected to see increases in the next two weeks.
Nationally, a growing number of COVID-19 positive patients have already been admitted to hospitals, requiring care, federal data shows.
Since late last month, daily hospital admission totals have been slowly increasing, particularly in the Northeast, according to CDC data. And in the last week, admissions have jumped by 20%, with emergency department visits also up by 18%.
On average, more than 2,200 virus-positive Americans are entering the hospital each day — a total that has increased by 20% in the last week, the CDC reports. This also marks the highest number of patients requiring care since mid-March.
Overall, there are about 18,300 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospitals across the country, up by 18% in the last two weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services reports.
Although totals remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic, admission levels are now on the rise in every region of the country.
Nationally, new infection rates have reached their highest point in nearly two months. More than 60,000 new cases are being officially reported each day, up by 27% in the last week, according to the CDC.
In the Northeast and New York-New Jersey region, infection rates have risen by 64.8% and 54.8% respectively, over the last two weeks.
Since last summer, dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites, with more at-home COVID-19 tests now available. Most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, and thus, experts say infection totals are likely significantly undercounted.
Health experts say a confluence of factors is likely driving the nation’s latest viral resurgence, including the easing of masking requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions as well as highly contagious omicron subvariants, which have been estimated to be between 30% and 80% more transmissible than the original omicron strain.
The BA.2 subvariant, BA.2.12.1, first discovered domestically last month, in New York state, continues to steadily increase in the U.S., newly released federal data shows. The subvariant now accounts for 36.5% of new COVID-19 cases nationwide, while in the New York — New Jersey area, it accounts for the majority — nearly 62% — of new cases.
With vaccine immunity waning and the presence of variants of concern growing, health officials continue to urge the public to get vaccinated and boosted to prevent the risk of severe disease and hospitalization.
“We hope that we don’t see a major uptick [in cases] as we get into the fall, but that remains to be seen. We’re going to have to wait and see, which is the reason why we’re still encouraging people to get vaccinated,” Fauci said last week. “If you’ve not been vaccinated or if you have been vaccinated and are eligible for a booster, make sure to get it now.”
