(NEW YORK) — Three-time Olympic medalist Elana Meyers Taylor revealed that she tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday after arriving in Beijing ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor said on Tuesday she is staying at an isolation hotel away from her husband, fellow Olympic bobsledder Nic Taylor, and their one-year-old son, Nico, who traveled with her to the games.
The decorated athlete, who has won a medal at each game, is now racing against time to overcome the illness and test negative before the bobsledding events begin on February 13.
“This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey,” the 37-year-old athlete wrote in a social media post. “So I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
In addition to being a top contender for the U.S. women’s bobsledding team, Taylor is hoping to vie for the gold in the women’s monobob event, one of seven sports making its debut in Beijing.
She has been training intensively around the clock over the past several years for what may be her final time at the Olympics.
“Every day, it feels like I’m on my feet from sunup to sundown,” she said in an interview with “Good Morning America” before her trip to Beijing.
Getting to the Olympics as a new mom
Training for the Olympics for the very first time as a new mom amid a global pandemic brought a new set of challenges.
Ahead of Beijing, Taylor said her one-year-old son, Nico, whom she welcomed in 2020, was her ultimate inspiration. After giving birth to Nico, Taylor said she faced severe back pain and found it difficult at times to maintain a steady workout plan with most gyms closed down in the early days of the pandemic. However, having Nico motivated her to continue on her Olympic career on the women’s bobsledding team and to train for the monobob event.
“After my 2018 games, I was very happy with my performance and wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue bobsledding,” she said. “But after I had him, I knew I wanted to continue and show that it’s possible to overcome any adversity and continue pursuing your goals.”
She also credits her credits her husband, Nic, for his support on their shared journey.
“None of this would be possible without him and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner, both on and off the ice, and a better father to my son,” Taylor said about her husband, who is also a bobsledder and an Olympic alternate for the U.S. men’s team.
In addition to maintaining her own intense bobsled training, Taylor said that a lot of planning was done with her son’s doctors to ensure he could accompany the family to Beijing. Nico was born with Down syndrome and has profound bilateral hearing loss that’s now aided by cochlear implants. Taylor worked closely with Nico’s doctors to ensure the toddler was medically-stable to travel to Beijing and could receive speech, physical and hearing therapies during her competition.
“It’s really been a balancing act of trying to make sure we’re giving him what he needs because at the end of the day, I love the bobsled, I love what I do, but he’s going to come first in every sense of the way,” she told “Good Morning America.”
Taylor has also become a proud advocate for families of children with special needs.
“Yes, there are hard days, and yes, it’s not always easy. But there’s also so many highs. We live a life that has so much joy and we wouldn’t trade our son for anyone in the world,” she said. “And and we’ve been able to do some incredible things.”
“We just want to encourage people out there that if you get a diagnosis before, during pregnancy or after pregnancy, like it’s going to be OK and you will still live a very happy and joyful life, regardless of what diagnosis they have….A diagnosis is just that. It’s a medical diagnosis. It doesn’t tell you who your kid is,” she added.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — The family that owns Purdue Pharma is “close” to an agreement that substantially increases its financial contribution to a nationwide opioids settlement, according to a new court filing.
The filing from Judge Shelley Chapman, who is mediating a dispute between Purdue Pharma and states that objected to its bankruptcy reorganization plan, asked for an extra week to reach a deal. Tuesday had been the original deadline.
Descendants of Raymond and Mortimer Sackler initially agreed to contribute $4 billion to resolve private and public claims against the bankrupt maker of OxyContin and fund opioid relief and education programs.
“The Mediation Parties are close to an agreement in principle that provides for substantial additional consideration incremental to the $4.325 billion provided for in the Plan – an incremental amount that would be used exclusively for abatement of the opioid crisis and related matters,” the filing said.
An agreement could end a legal challenge that has prevented Purdue Pharma from exiting bankruptcy and reconstituting itself as a public benefit corporation.
“The proposed settlement requires the agreement of all Mediation Parties. In order to conclude the negotiations and address a number of remaining issues, the Mediator respectfully requests an extension of the Termination Date to February 7, 2022,” the filing said.
The mediator’s filing described intense negotiating sessions, including scores of phone calls, “hundreds of emails and text messages” and two days of in-person mediation on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 that each ran more than 12 hours.
The initial reorganization plan had been hashed out over two years. Members of the Sackler families agreed to contribute $4 billion and give up ownership of Purdue, which would become a new company with profits used to fight the opioid crisis.
In exchange for the contributions, Sackler family members were given protections from lawsuits over opioids.
Approval of that plan was rescinded by a federal judge because it released the Sacklers from legal liability even though they’re not part of the bankruptcy.
Eight objecting states also argued the $4 billion is insufficient to hold the Sackler family members accountable. They have denied wrongdoing.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden began what he has said would be a bipartisan process to pick his Supreme Court nominee, hosting meetings at the White House on Tuesday amid Republican criticism of his history-making move to nominate the first Black woman to the bench.
Biden met with Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the committee’s top Republican Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Tuesday afternoon to consult with them on the nomination and confirmation process. Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden has said will advise him on his selection, was also on hand for the Oval Office event.
“The Constitution says ‘advise and consent, advise and consent,’ and I’m serious when I say I want the advice of the Senate as well as the consent,” Biden told reporters at the top of the meeting.
“I’m looking for a candidate with character, with the qualities of … a judge in terms of being courteous to the folks before them and treating people with respect. As well as a judicial philosophy that is more one that suggests that there are unenumerated rights to the Constitution and all new members mean something including the Ninth Amendment,” Biden said.
He also reiterated his intention to announce his nominee by the end of the month.
“I think I’ll be courteous to the president and try to answer his questions,” Grassley told reporters on the Hill earlier Tuesday morning. “I don’t know what those questions are going to be, but I’m going to take the approach that we need somebody that’s going to interpret the law and not make a law because that’s Congress’s job.”
While some in the GOP have criticized Biden’s campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the court, arguing all nominees should be considered for their qualifications, Grassley said he wouldn’t enter that debate until he sees the nominee.
“The president makes a nomination. That’s his privilege,” Grassley said.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, meanwhile, doubled down on his belief to reporters that Biden’s pledge is “offensive” to Black women and claimed Tuesday that Democrats are “very comfortable discriminating based on race.”
“When Joe Biden throws out a quota that the only people he will consider for this nomination are African American women. He is number one rejecting regardless of merits everybody else, whether they are white or Black or Hispanic or Native American,” Cruz said.
Despite some Republican opposition, the White House has dug into the commitment, pushing back on the idea of Biden choosing a candidate just to get bipartisan support.
“The president is going to select a woman, a Black woman, who is qualified, who is prepared, who has impeccable experience to serve on the court,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. He’s going to do that based on her credentials, of course having a discussion with her and not through gaming out the system.”
Psaki said Biden will also begin consulting with legal experts and scholars on the decision this week.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer applauded the president for his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the high court in an earlier floor speech and called on members from both sides of the aisle to embrace his efforts to diversify the court.
“Every single member of this chamber regardless of party should embrace the president’s commitment to make sure that our courts and especially the Supreme Court better reflect our countries diversity. And nominating a Black woman as justice is a long-overdue step to achieving that goal,” Schumer said.
“The more our judges reflect our nation’s vibrancy and diversity, the more effectively they will be able to administer equal justice,” he added.
Biden has not yet named a nominee but said he anticipates making a formal nomination before the end of February. Supreme Court nominees only require a simple majority of senators to vote for confirmation, which means there is little Republicans can do to block a Biden nominee if all Democrats — holding 50 seats in the Senate, and Vice President Kamala Harris acting as a tie-breaking vote — stick together.
No Black woman has ever been nominated or served on the U.S. Supreme Court. Two Black men and five women, in total, have served on the bench. There have been 115 justices.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 886,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 01, 3:24 pm
Unvaccinated 23 times more likely to be hospitalized with omicron than those vaccinated, boosted
A new study from Los Angeles County’s health department estimates that during the city’s omicron surge, people who were unvaccinated were 3.6 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 23 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated and boosted.
The unvaccinated were 2 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated but not yet boosted, according to the study, which was published in the CDC’s weekly journal, MMWR.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Feb 01, 2:55 pm
US daily case rate drops below 500,000 for 1st time in weeks
The U.S. daily case rate has dropped below 500,000 for the first time in nearly one month, falling by 37.4% in the last two weeks to an average of 497,000 cases per day, according to federal data.
However, experts continue to caution that case levels remain much higher than previous surges, with the U.S. still reporting millions of new cases every week.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Kentucky, Washington, Oklahoma, Minnesota, California and North Dakota.
The number of COVID-19-positive Americans requiring hospitalization continues to steadily fall, with now under 129,000 virus-positive Americans currently receiving care — down by about 31,000 patients from 12 days ago, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 01, 1:21 pm
FDA advisory committee to review Pfizer vaccines for kids under 5 on Feb. 15
The FDA’s advisory committee will meet on Feb. 15 to review the Pfizer vaccine for use in children under the age of 5. The advisory committee is an independent group whose vote is non-binding, but the FDA takes it into consideration when making a final decision.
The vaccine would still need to go through several other approvals before it can be used on children under the age of 5. It would need to be authorized by the FDA, then the CDC advisory committee would need to meet for recommendations and it would need to be approved by the CDC.
Feb 01, 11:35 am
WHO: ‘Worrying’ increase in COVID deaths in most regions
Since omicron was first identified 10 weeks ago, nearly 90 million COVID-19 cases have been reported around the world — more than all the COVID-19 cases reported in 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
Now most regions of the world are “starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths,” WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Tuesday.
“This virus will continue to evolve, which is why we call on countries to continue testing, surveillance and sequencing. We can’t fight this virus if we don’t know what it’s doing. And we must continue to work to ensure all people have access to vaccines,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Feb 01, 10:18 am
Vaccines for kids under 5 might come this month: Report
Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to ask the FDA to authorize their vaccine for kids under 5 as soon as Tuesday. If the FDA grants authorization, the vaccine may be available for children ages 6 months to 5 years by the end of February, The Washington Post reported.
Pfizer is expected to ask for authorization with two doses as the company continues to wait for data on three doses, the report said.
Vaccines are currently authorized for people 5 and older.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss and Cheyenne Haslett
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Feb 01, 6:19 am
American bobsled star Elana Meyers Taylor tests positive for COVID-19
American bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor has tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Taylor, 37, announced her positive test in a statement posted on social media Tuesday. The three-time Olympic medalist and mother to a 1-year-old son revealed that she tested positive on Saturday, just two days after arriving in the Chinese capital.
“I am asymptomatic and currently at an isolation hotel — and yes I am completely isolated,” Taylor said. “Getting to the Olympics is never easy, and this time, as a new mom, it has been the most challenging, but also, incredibly rewarding, to be able to show that it can still be done.”
“So many people, especially other moms from all walks of life, have been so supportive of my efforts to get back to the Olympics,” she continued. “It’s been an incredible wave of positivity that I’ve been riding to a while so I’m going to continue to do that. This is just the latest obstacle that my family and I have faced on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be able to recover quickly and still have the opportunity to compete.”
The Winter Games kick off Friday with the opening ceremony. Bobsled competition doesn’t start until Feb. 13.
Jan 31, 5:00 pm
Pediatric cases drop for 1st time since Thanksgiving
New COVID-19 cases among children dropped last week for the first time since Thanksgiving, according to a new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. About 808,000 children tested positive last week, down from a peak of 1,150,000 cases reported the week ending Jan. 20.
However, the organizations warn that pediatric cases remain “extremely high,” still triple the peak level of the delta surge in the summer of 2021.
AAP and CHA noted there is an “urgent” need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants as well as potential longer-term effects. The two organizations note in their report that a small percentage of pediatric cases have resulted in hospitalization and death.
More than 28 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal and census data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jan 31, 3:30 pm
Novavax asks FDA for emergency use authorization for its vaccine
Novavax on Monday submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
Novavax uses a more traditional protein-based vaccine platform, which is different from Pfizer and Modena’s mRNA technology and Johnson & Johnson’s viral vector technology.
Novavax’s vaccine exposes a person to a lab-based piece of coronavirus to build immunity.
Novavax’s studies — conducted before the omicron variant — showed an approximately 90% efficacy.
Novavax was one of the early contenders for a COVID-19 vaccine; Operation Warp Speed allocated $1.6 billion for 100 million doses if the vaccine was authorized by the FDA.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Jan 31, 12:00 pm
Only 5 states reporting jump in cases
After weeks of surging cases, many U.S. states continue to see impressive declines in their national case averages.
The U.S. is reporting an average of about 543,000 new cases per day, down by about 32.2% in the last two weeks, according to federal data. Two weeks ago the nation was reporting more than 800,000 new cases every day.
Only five states are seeing at least a 10% increase in new cases: Idaho, Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Washington.
But case levels still remain much higher than the nation’s previous surges. Experts point out that many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, case totals may be higher than reported.
Alaska now leads the nation in new cases per capita followed by Washington state, Kentucky and Oklahoma, according to federal data.
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — At least one law enforcement officer has been shot in a gun-related incident at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Deputies from the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office are responding to reports of an active shooter at the college, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
The shooter is in custody, according to a tweet from Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“I have been briefed on the situation at Bridgewater College. The shooter is in custody and state and local police are on the scene. I will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement,” Youngkin said.
The Harrisonburg Police Department has also responded to the scene. The FBI is also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
India.Arie has joined a growing group of musicians who are pulling their music from Spotify, but unlike them, she’s got a different reason for doing so.
Rock legend Neil Young started the movement, pulling his music from the streaming service because it hosts Joe Rogan‘s wildly popular podcast, and Young feels Rogan is spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccine.
Fellow music legend Joni Mitchell then joined Young, citing the same reason. Young’s Crosby, Stills & Nash band mate Graham Nash said he agrees with Young and he’s requested that his “solo recordings” removed from Spotify.
But on Instagram, India writes, “Neil Young opened a door I MUST walk through. I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews. For me, it’s also his language around race.”
“What I am talking about is respect — who gets it and who doesn’t,” she continues. “Paying musicians a fraction of a penny? And him $100 [million]? This shows the type of company they are and the company that they keep. I’m tired.”
India captioned the post, “I wonder who else is tired.”
On Monday, Rogan posted a video in which he denies “trying to promote misinformation,” adding, “I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations.”
Slash and his solo band Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators have announced a streaming concert to celebrate the release of their upcoming new album, 4.
The virtual event, which will feature a live performance of 4 in its entirety, will premiere Friday, February 11, at 2 p.m. ET, via Slash’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. YouTube Premium subscribers can also tune in for a live Q&A session after the show.
4, the aptly titled fourth studio effort from the Conspirators, will also be released February 11. The record includes the lead single “The River Is Rising.”
Meanwhile, Slash is set to appear on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! this Wednesday, February 2, for an interview and performance with the Conspirators. The band will hit the road on a U.S. headlining tour February 8 in Portland.
Teen punk band The Linda Lindas have announced their debut album.
The record, titled Growing Up, will be released April 8 digitally, and June 3 on physical formats. You can listen to the title track now via digital outlets.
The Linda Lindas previously opened for Bikini Kill in 2019, but became an sensation last year with their Los Angeles Public Library performance of their song “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which earned raves from artists including Tom Morello, Flea and Hayley Williams. The group then got signed to long-running punk label Epitaph Records, and performed on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!
This Wednesday, The Linda Lindas will perform on CBS’ The Late Late Show. You can also catch them live in October performing at the much-hyped When We Were Young festival.
The Godfather, of course, is known as an Oscar-winning cinema classic, but the fact of the matter is Francis Ford Coppola struggled to get the movie to the screen. That battle to bring author Mario Puzo‘s saga of the Corleone family to theaters is the basis of Paramount+’s anticipated series The Offer, which now has a brand-new teaser.
Based on Oscar-winning producer Albert S. Ruddy‘s experiences of making the film, the series sees Miles Teller portraying the young, driven producer.
Law & Order and The King’s Man vet Matthew Goode plays producer Robert Evans; Ted Lasso‘s Juno Temple is famed agent Bettye McCartt; Giovanni Ribisi plays mobster Joe Colombo; and Dan Fogler portrays Coppola.
“This could become a cultural phenomenon,” Goode as Evans says in the teaser. “The likes we’ve never seen before.”
As mentioned, the filmmakers not only had to “beg, borrow, and steal” from Hollywood for the money to make the picture, but also had to deal with mobsters like Ribisi’s Colombo, who wasn’t happy in the least for the Mob to get the limelight. “This makes us look like a joke. And it’s bad for business,” he warns.
Meanwhile, Folger, appearing as the spitting image of ’70s-era Coppola, asks, “What is our opening line?…’I believe in America.'”
The series also stars Colin Hanks as skeptical producer Barry Lapidus and Patrick Gallo as Puzo.
The first three episodes of The Offer will premiere on Thursday, April 28, exclusively for Paramount+ subscribers, and the remaining episodes of the 10-installment limited series will be released on subsequent Thursdays. (VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE)
Country trio Lady A and blues singer Anita White, also known as Lady A, have come to an agreement.
Billboardreports that a settlement was reached in a Nashville court on January 31 between the group and White wherein both parties asked the judge to dismiss their respective lawsuits.
However, the details of the settlement, including how the name Lady A will be used going forward, have not been made public.
In June 2020, the country group of Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott and Dave Haywood changed its name from Lady Antebellum to Lady A in response to the racial justice protests taking place around the country in the wake of George Floyd‘s murder to disassociate the act from the name’s reference to the Antebellum South, which encompasses slavery.
“We are deeply sorry for the hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen or unvalued,” the group wrote in an Instagram post announcing the name change. “Causing pain was never our hearts’ intention, but it doesn’t change the fact that indeed, it did just that.”
Soon after, White came forward and shared that she had been performing under the name Lady A for more than 20 years and cited their ignorance to the use of her name as “pure privilege.”
After an initial meeting between the two acts, the group filed a lawsuit against White, asking the court to solidify their trademark to use the name Lady A. White launched countersued for $10 million, saying that some of the money would be used to support her rebranding to a different name, with $5 million to be donated to various charities, support for independent artists and Black Lives Matter.
