(LONDON) — Mass protests have broken out in Kazakhstan, triggered by a sharp rise in fuel prices in the Central Asian country.
Videos posted on social media show thousands of people gathering in cities across the country on Tuesday, in some places clashing violently with police and trying to storm government buildings, as authorities deployed security forces to try to disperse them and a state of emergency was declared in two parts of the country.
The internet was reportedly partially shut down in parts of the country, including in the former capital, Almaty, as Kazakhstan’s president appealed for calm and pledged his “government will not fall.”
The scenes on Tuesday were extraordinary in the repressive former Soviet country, where opposition is tightly controlled. For most of its independent history, Kazakhstan was ruled by the same authoritarian leader.
The protests began three days ago in the western region of Mangystau after the price of liquified natural gas, used in vehicles, roughly doubled overnight. But on Tuesday, the demonstrations swelled, spreading to cities across the country.
The government on Tuesday promised to reverse the fuel price rise, but the protests continued to grow, appearing to escalate Tuesday night as protesters in some cities sought to storm administrative buildings.
In Almaty, videos showed dozens of riot police using tear gas and stun grenades to clear demonstrators who reportedly tried to seize the mayor’s office.
Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared a state of emergency in Almaty and the Mangystau region.
In a video address, Tokayev called for dialogue, saying the government would address the protesters’ legitimate demands but warned it would not fall.
“Calls to attack government and military offices are absolutely illegal,” Tokayev said. “The government will not fall, but we want mutual trust and dialogue rather than conflict.”
He said the government would hold a working meeting Wednesday to discuss the issues raised by the protesters.
Tokayev was hand-picked by Kazakhstan’s long-time ruler Nursultan Nazarbayev to be his successor in 2019, when Nazarbayev stepped aside after ruling the country since it gained independence from the USSR in 1991. Nazarbayev, 81, stood down as president to become chairman of Kazakhstan’s security council but is still believed to have retained significant power.
A major energy exporter, Kazakhstan is one of the world’s largest countries and a key neighbor for Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Unrest in the country is likely to alarm the Kremlin, which maintains strong influence in the region.
Large protests are very rare in Kazakhstan, where political opposition is barely tolerated and demonstrations must receive permission from authorities to take place legally.
The western city where the fuel protests were initially focused, the oil hub Zhanaozen, saw Kazakhstan’s last major protests in 2011. Those protests ended then in a massacre when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
The eighth and final season of black-ish debuts Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. ET on ABC, featuring a very special guest: Michelle Obama. Tracee Ellis Ross, who portrays Dr. Rainbow Johnson in the series, explained to the Wall Street Journalthat Michelle is her friend, she invited her to appear on the show, and Obama accepted.
“It felt really fun to welcome someone so special who’s been so important in our world, in our culture, in the kinds of stories we told on black-ish,” the nine-time NAACP Image Award winner says.
In the episode, Obama comes to the Johnson family’s home for dinner, and Dre Johnson, portrayed by Anthony Anderson, has to kick his son Junior, and his daughter, Olivia, out of the room. Zoey also crashes the party, and asks Michelle for her daughters’ sizes so she can send them samples of her fashion line.
Anderson recently revealed to Parade that prior to working with Ross on black-ish, she didn’t like him for a decade.
“We hosted the Vibe Awards [in 2005]. As we were walking onto the stage, there was a loud sound over the speaker, and I said, “Tracee? Did you fart?” The audience loved it, but what I did not know is how offended Tracee was by that comment.”
“She really didn’t start liking me until we were midway through the first season of black-ish,” Anthony added, “and so we laugh about it now.”
Finally, Varietyreports Lupita Nyong’o tested positive for COVID-19 and canceled interviews for her new movie The 355, which opens Friday
The Black Panther star tweeted, “I’m fully vaccinated and taking care in isolation, so I trust I will be well. Please do all you can to keep yourself and others protected from serious illness.”
(ATLANTA) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday clarified its guidelines around what to do when you get COVID-19, a move that comes after criticism last week that their newest guidance to shorten the isolation down to five days without calling for a negative test was confusing and lax.
The latest update still does not include a recommendation for people to get a negative COVID test before leaving isolation, but gives guidance for people who “have access” and “want to test” — language that reflects the challenges many Americans have faced in recent weeks trying to get their hands on them — while still holding ground that a negative rapid test isn’t an all-clear.
People who test positive after five days should isolate for another five days, the CDC says, while people who test negative should still follow the guidance for those who don’t test: until day 10, wear a mask, avoid high-risk people, don’t travel and don’t eat or drink around others.
The CDC said the decision was based on data that negative rapid tests do not necessarily mean someone has stopped spreading the virus, and PCR tests — the most accurate type — can’t be relied on either, because they continue to show positive results for weeks afterward even when someone isn’t contagious.
“As such, regardless of the test result, wearing a well-fitting mask is still recommended,” the guidance said.
While more detailed, the updated guidance is not significantly different from last week’s guidelines, which changed the recommended isolation period for a person with COVID from 10 days down to five, followed by five days of masking around other people. It applies to everyone, vaccinated or not, who gets COVID, so long as people are largely clear of symptoms by Day 5.
But the decision rankled public health experts who thought a shorter isolation without a negative test would lead to more spread.
“CDC’s new guidance to drop isolation of positives to 5 days without a negative test is reckless,” Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief scientific officer at eMed tweeted last week following the initial announcement. “I absolutely don’t want to sit next to someone who turned [positive] five days ago and hasn’t tested [negative].”
Federal officials pushed back in the criticism, insisting that the new recommendations were based on science and not on social pressure.
“You can get people safely back out in a five-day period so long as they wear a mask if they are without symptoms. That is the science,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, told ABC News last week. “The impact of that is to try and not be in a situation where we essentially have to shut down the entire country.”
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky also defended the guidance, saying it was based on behavioral studies showing that only one-third of people were following the previous guidelines, and data showing up to 90% of COVID spread occurs in the first five days that someone has it.
“It really had a lot to do with what we thought people would be able to tolerate,” she said in an interview last week with CNN.
And on Tuesday, the guidance largely stuck to that stance, though it further clarified what people should do in all scenarios, including if they decide to test.
Here’s the latest:
If you get COVID, you should isolate for five days, the CDC says.
Day 0 is the first day of symptoms and day 1 is considered “first full day after your symptoms developed.” For example, if you have symptoms on Monday, Tuesday is Day 1 and Saturday is Day 5.
If your case is asymptomatic, Day 0 is the day you tested positive. But the CDC’s guidance on Tuesday clarified that if people test positive without any symptoms, and then develop symptoms in the days afterward, they should reset their isolation clock back to zero on the day they have symptoms and isolate for another five days.
After five full days, you can leave isolation if you are mostly all better. What does that mean? Fever-free and on the mend.
“You can end isolation after 5 full days if you are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and your other symptoms have improved,” according to CDC guidance.
Loss of taste and smell, two common COVID symptoms, can last “for weeks or months after recovery” and do not qualify as symptoms that should keep you in isolation.
Then, after five days, you should wear a “well-fitting mask around others at home and in public for 5 additional days (day 6 through day 10) after the end of your 5-day isolation period,” the guidance says.
If you’re unable to mask, or if you can mask but will be around high-risk people, opt instead for the isolation, the CDC says.
“If you are unable to wear a mask when around others, you should continue to isolate for a full 10 days. Avoid people who are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease, and nursing homes and other high-risk settings, until after at least 10 days,” according to the CDC.
If you still want to test, and can find one
As for the testing component, the CDC recommends that people who can and want to test should do so around day five, if they have been fever-free for 24 hours.
“If your test result is positive, you should continue to isolate until day 10,” the guidance says.
And, importantly, a negative test is not an all-clear, according to the CDC.
“If your test result is negative, you can end isolation, but continue to wear a well-fitting mask around others at home and in public until day 10,” the guidance says.
The CDC recommends against traveling, going anywhere where you are unable to wear a mask like restaurants and gyms, and avoid eating around people — both at home and in public — “until a full 10 days after your first day of symptoms,” even with a negative test.
Walensky, asked about the guidance in an interview with “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert on Monday night, said she would interpret even a negative test as possibly having “some transmissibility ahead of you.”
“If you have access to a test, and if you want to do a test at day five, and if your symptoms are gone and you’re feeling well, then go ahead and do that test,” Walensky said.
“But here’s how I would interpret that test. If it’s positive, stay home for another five days. If it’s negative, I would say you still really need to wear a mask. You still may have some transmissibility ahead of you,” she said.
“You still should probably not visit grandma. You shouldn’t get on an airplane. And you should still be pretty careful when you’re with other people by wearing your mask all the time.”
While the rollout of the guidance has been met with much criticism, experts have noted that its ultimately a fast-paced environment with no easy one-size-fits-all solution.
“The CDC is sending a mixed message — but I don’t think there’s any way around that,” Dr. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“And I don’t think we should be too quick to judge mixed messages in the context of a rapidly evolving situation. We want our guidelines to reflect the most recent knowledge we have, meaning that those guidelines are going to change, sometimes quickly,” he said.
On the same day it emerged that the beleaguered Hollywood Foreign Press (HFPA) is reportedly having trouble booking celebrity presenters for its upcoming Golden Globes, come details from the organization about the awards show.
The lack of Hollywood enthusiasm notwithstanding, the HFPA just released details about its 79th annual event that will be held on January 9 at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. In short, they seem even more odd than the concept of a showbiz awards show without celebrities.
There will be no audience, no red carpet, and no media credentials provided for journalists to cover the event.
And as previously reported, the event won’t be televised, after longtime broadcast partner NBC severed ties with the awards show, following a racial controversy.
Instead, the organization explained, “In addition to recognizing 2021’s best in film and television, the Golden Globe Awards will shine a light on the long-established philanthropy work of the HFPA, showcasing a range of grantees during the program.”
Furthermore, the HFPA reported, “Kyle Bowser, Senior Vice President of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau, will further discuss the ‘Reimagine Coalition,’ a joint five-year initiative to increase diversity, equity and inclusion across the global entertainment industry.”
It’s not exactly clear that Kristen Bell is spoofing a previous Netflix movie, but it sure sounds like it, judging by the title of her new series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.
In a new trailer for the film, Bell certainly seems to be going through the same motions as Amy Adams in the streaming service’s 2021 release The Woman in the Window: Drinking too much, taking pills, possibly witnessing a murder from across the street — Check, check and check.
However, although the series is being described as a spoof by various outlets, the trailer plays things very straight: Nobody believes Bell’s character — and she even doubts herself — as she tries to unravel the mystery in her neighborhood as well as she can considering her booze and chemical intake.
That said, consider its creators: Bell, a comedy veteran, co-produces, along with Will Ferrell, and the show was created by Mike Tyson Mysteries alumna Rachel Ramras and Robot Chicken writer Hugh Davidson.
Check it out for yourself when all eight episodes of The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window debut on January 28.
The cast also features Michael Ealy, Mary Holland, Shelley Hennig, Cameron Britton, Christina Anthony, Benjamin Levy Aguilar, and Samsara Yett.
Netflix premieres all eight episodes of The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window on January 28.
Last year, Five for Fighting — aka John Ondrasik — released a new song called “Blood On My Hands,” which summed up his anger about the U.S. withdrawal strategy from Afghanistan. After many veterans thanked John for writing the song, he’s now expanded it into a video, as well as a charity initiative.
An acoustic version of the song, “Blood On My Hands (White House Version),” has now been released on Spotify, iTunes and Apple Music, and it comes with a “docu-music video” that shows John performing the song in front of the White House, interspersed with a montage of news reports on the devastating effects that the withdrawal has had on the people of Afghanistan, particularly women, children and artists.
The video ends with an interview John did with Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president of Afghanistan, and includes a donation link to John’s charity site, WhatKindofWorldDoYouWant.com. The money from that, as well from sales from the two versions of the song, will go to various charitable organizations.
In a statement, John says, “This music video…is call to action… to demand accountability where there has been none; to fiercely fight for Afghan women and children facing the greatest human rights setback of our generation; to support freedom of expression for artists in hiding; and to recognize and assist [the] heroic organizations rescuing [those] who still, to this day, are abandoned to Taliban atrocity.”
Following a blistering racial controversy last year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is pressing ahead with this year’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony — minus a broadcast partner and now, apparently minus celebrity presenters.
According to Variety, the organization has been trying to book its usual cadre of famous people to present the awards at the podium but, unlike years past, is coming up empty.
The reason? In February of last year, a Los Angeles Timesexposé revealed the HFPA hadn’t included a Black member in 20 years. Following the controversy — and the ouster of one of its heads over racially insensitive emails — Hollywood shunned the organization. Tom Cruise even went so far as to return his three trophies in protest. The HFPA’s longtime broadcast partner NBC later said it wouldn’t carry the show.
In August, however, the HFPA vowed to carry on, announcing reforms to its bylaws and membership rules with the intention of bringing diversity to its ranks. In December, the organization tapped Snoop Dogg to read its usual list of nominees. However, also for the first time, most of the nominees didn’t even acknowledge the honor.
Variety obtained a copy of the email the HFPA sent to try to secure some star power for the event. “The Golden Globes will move forward with a small event on January 9th that will not only award the best performances in television and film for 2021, but also on recognizing the importance of supporting diverse creatives across the industry,” the pitch reads in part.
The organization also insisted, “The event this year will celebrate and honor a variety of diverse, community-based programs that empower inclusive filmmakers and journalists to pursue their storytelling passions.”
Following the release two weeks ago of “Poison,” featuring the late Aaliyah and The Weeknd, the former’s posthumous Unstoppable album will be released later this month with more all-star collaborations.
Aaliyah’s uncle, Barry Hankerson, confirmed the news Monday on The Geno Jones Show. Hankerson owns Blackground Records, which controls the rights to Aaliyah’s music. “Poison” will be on the album, and Hankerson says in addition to The Weeknd, there will be more collabos on the project.
“Because of that success, we think it’ll only get better with people such as Ne-Yo and Snoop Dogg, Future, and Drake — one of her biggest fans,” said Hankerson. “Those are the features that’ll be on the record and that’ll be out in January.”
Hankerson did not specify an Unstoppable release date.
Two Aaliyah albums that were released after her death became available on digital platforms for the first time in October. I Care 4 U, from December, 2002, features 14 tracks, including Aaliyah’s hits “Back & Forth,” “Are You That Somebody?,” “One in a Million” and “Try Again.” It also has songs that were previously unreleased, including “Miss You,” “I Care 4 U” and “Come Over.” The compilation debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart.
Ultimate Aaliyah originally arrived in May 2005 as a posthumous box set. The first disc is a greatest hits collection. The second, titled Are You Feelin’ Me?, has songs from the Romeo Must Die soundtrack and additional tracks produced by Timbaland. The third disc is a DVD documentary titled The Aaliyah Story.
August 25, 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of Aaliyah’s death at the age of 22. She died in 2001 with eight other people in a plane crash after shooting the “Rock the Boat” video in the Bahamas.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is expected to ask Fox News host Sean Hannity to cooperate with its investigation, a development first reported by Axios.
A conservative media star and close ally of former President Donald Trump, Hannity was one of the many prominent Trump associates who texted Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, during the Capitol riot last year.
“Can he make a statement?” Hannity asked Meadows of Trump, according to text messages Meadows voluntarily turned over to congressional investigators. “Ask people to leave the Capitol.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., revealed the exchanges in a Dec. 14 committee meeting, reading them and others aloud.
Hannity later defended the messages on his nightly Fox News program — where he frequently criticizes the select committee investigation and accuses the panel’s lawmakers of trying to politically damage Trump.
“Surprise, surprise, surprise: I said to Mark Meadows the exact same thing I was saying live on the radio at that time and on TV that night on Jan. 6 and well beyond Jan. 6,” Hannity said.
Jay Sekulow, Hannity’s attorney, tells ABC News they have not been contacted by the panel.
“If true, any such request would raise serious constitutional issues including First Amendment concerns regarding freedom of the press,” Sekulow told ABC News.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., confirmed the committee’s plans in an afternoon MSNBC appearance, suggesting the missive to Hannity could be released as early as Tuesday evening.
(NEW YORK) — Some state-run vaccine lotteries did not help increase COVID-19 immunization rates, a new study suggests.
Over the spring and summer, at least 19 states — including California, New York, Ohio and West Virginia — tried to incentivize unvaccinated individuals to get shots, offering cash prizes, free tickets, guns, college scholarships and trucks.
However, research from the Boston University School of Medicine found some of these prizes had little to no effect on convincing residents to get vaccinated against COVID.
For the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the team compared vaccination rates between 15 states that offered lotteries with cash prizes and 31 states that did not between May 24, 2021 and July 19, 2021.
Data of daily rates of first doses came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study found that about four weeks before the lottery announcement, the lottery states were vaccinating an average of 225 per 100,000 people with their first doses.
Immediately after the lottery announcement, the rate increased by 1.1 per 100,000 people.
However, by the fourth week following the lottery, the rate had fallen to fewer than 100 per 100,000 people receiving their first shots.
The trend was similar among U.S. states without lotteries, which experienced a decline in rates nearly mirroring those seen in the lottery states.
Vaccine lotteries had initially been deemed a success after reports that vaccination rates had significantly boosted, such as in Ohio, where officials said they saw a 55% increase in vaccinations for young adults following the state’s Vax-A-Million lottery.
However, it appears the boosts were likely temporary.
One limitation of the study is the small number of states analyzed. Because researchers only looked at 15 states with lotteries, small increases in vaccination rates may not have been detected.
The team insists, however, that the findings are strong and that more research should be conducted on vaccine incentives that work.
“This study did not find evidence that vaccine lottery incentive programs in the U.S. were associated with significantly increased rates of COVID-19 vaccinations,” the researchers wrote.
“Given the lack of a strong association between state lottery-based vaccine incentives and increased vaccination rates, further studies of strategies to increase vaccination rates are needed.”
A previous study from Boston University found similar results when researchers looked at Ohio, specifically comparing vaccination rates from one month before the lottery started — April 15 to May 12 — and one month after the lottery was announced — May 13 to June 9.
They found the daily vaccination rates declined from 485 shots for every 100,000 adults prior to the lottery to 101 for every 100,000 by early June.
