When Stevie Nicks canceled all of her scheduled 2021 performances a few months back over concerns about COVID-19, one of the shows was a headlining appearance at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass festival. Well, the Fleetwood Mac singer has now been announced as one of the headliners for next year’s edition of the Colorado fest, making it her first confirmed concert of 2022.
Nicks is one of three headliners announced for Jazz Aspen Snowmass’ 2022 Labor Day Experience, set for September 2-4 in Snowmass, Colorado. The other two headliners are country star Chris Stapleton and R&B singer Leon Bridges.
Early bird three-day passes will go on sale starting Monday, December 20, at 10 a.m. MT. In addition to general admission passes, you can buy Deck Passes, which entitle you to complimentary grille food, as well as access to a private bar and restrooms.
The Labor Day Experience was reinstated last year following a COVID-19 pandemic-related cancellation in 2020. As of now, Jazz Aspen Snowmass plans to require attendees show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, or a negative test result taken within 72 hours.
Jazz Aspen Snowmass is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that aims to “present and preserve jazz and related forms of music through world-class events, performances and education programs,” according to its website.
Meanwhile, Nicks is featured on a track called “Stolen Car” on Elton John‘s new collaborative album, The Lockdown Sessions, which debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The recently announced archival Chuck Berry album Live from Blueberry Hill was released today on CD and digital formats.
The album features 10 performances recorded between July 2005 and January 2006 at the shows that the legendary rock ‘n’ roll pioneer and his backing band played regularly at the Blueberry Hill restaurant and club near his hometown of St. Louis.
Live from Blueberry Hill boasts renditions of many of Chuck’s most famous tunes, including “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Around and Around” and, of course, “Johnny B. Goode.”
Berry’s backing group at the Blueberry Hill shows included his daughter Ingrid on harmonica and his son Charles Berry Jr. on guitar.
In a new interview with the St.Louis Post-Dispatch, Charles says the album is “a serious bonus prize for us and for any fan of my father,” adding, “My whole family is very excited for there to be a non-bootleg release of the Blueberry Hill recordings.”
Chuck’s son notes that his father and the band were in great form at the concerts and that the recordings are “real deal, high quality.”
During his later years, Berry performed 209 times at Blueberry Hill’s The Duck Room, named after Chuck’s famous “duck walk” stage move.
“Out of all the places Dad liked to play, Blueberry Hill was his favorite,” Charles tells the newspaper. “He loved it. We all loved it. It’s an intimate venue, and he could just relax and do what he wanted.”
Regarding whether there are plans for more archival releases, Charles says, “I can’t reveal. But there’s always the possibility of something new and exciting.”
Vinyl versions of Live from Blueberry Hill will be released on April 15, 2022, and can be pre-ordered now.
Denzel Washington directed A Journal for Jordan starring Michael B. Jordan, and the two-time Academy Award winner says it’s an emotional film for the holidays. Michael stars as First Sergeant Charles Monroe King, deployed in Iraq, who keeps a journal of love and advice for his infant son, Jordan.
“It’s just a beautiful love story,” Washington tells Entertainment Tonight. “I don’t want to say sappy, but it’s a real tear-jerker.”
A Journal for Jordan opens on Christmas Day, and Denzel stars in the title role of another film premiering on December 25, The Tragedy of Macbeth. The 66-year-old entertainer has been acting for over 40 years, and as he leans more toward directing, he says his next role has to be very special.
“It’s gonna have to be an extreme challenge for me to be interested,” Denzel says. “I’ve been talking to one or two of the top directors in the business, and we’re talking about maybe doing something. There’s not that much left for me to do as actor. Maybe [Shakespeare‘s King] Lear.”
In other news, Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg will hilariously comment on the biggest stories of the year in their comedy special, 2021 and Done with Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart. Michael Strahan, Stephen A. Smith, Loni Love, William Shatner, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Killer Mike and D-Nice will be their guests for the show, which premieres Tuesday, December 28, on Peacock.
Finally, Deadline reports that Spike Lee has signed a multi-year creative partnership with Netflix. The School Daze filmmaker and star’s previous credits for the streaming service include Da 5 Bloods, the She’s Gotta Have It series, and the film version of Roger Guenveur‘s one man-show, Rodney King.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Around two dozen U.S.-trained former Afghan Air Force pilots are still trapped in Afghanistan and pleading for the United States government to evacuate them from the country, where they fear they face execution if found by the Taliban.
The pilots belong mostly to two helicopter squadrons and have been in hiding since the Taliban seized Kabul in August. According to several of the pilots who spoke to ABC News, they are living on the run in safe houses and struggling to feed themselves while frantically trying to find a way out of Afghanistan as the Taliban continue to search for them.
The aviators are among thousands of former Afghan military personnel who were left behind during the mass evacuations in August and who, for now, have no route out.
Former and current U.S. military officers who are lobbying to have the pilots evacuated say they are frustrated, because they believe the U.S. government’s current refugee policy treats them as a low priority despite the clear danger to them.
“They’re not really being given any kind of priority right now,” said David Hicks, CEO of Sacred Promise, an NGO created by current and former American military officers trying to help Afghan military personnel leave.
“They’re U.S.-trained, they know English, have worked with the U.S. and have fought the Taliban directly,” Hicks, a former brigadier general, told ABC News. “One would think individuals of that caliber would get some level of prioritization in the big-picture process. And here they are, just sitting in the back of the line right now.”
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Robert Lodewick told ABC News it was aware that former members of the Afghan Air Force remain in Afghanistan and said “we are working all available options to facilitate their departure.”
He said the State Department has helped over 800 Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing personnel begin the resettlement process since Aug. 31.
Since taking power, the Taliban have rounded up former Afghan military personnel it believes are a threat or useful to them and, in some cases, have imprisoned or killed them. Human Rights Watch found that Taliban forces have summarily executed or disappeared over 100 former police and intelligence officers in four provinces since August. The total such killings is likely higher.
The pilots say their squadrons killed hundreds of Taliban fighters during the war, including senior commanders, meaning they will almost certainly face harsh retribution.
“Maybe they will cut our skin from our body,” one of the pilots told ABC News by phone from hiding. ABC News is not identifying him or other pilots for their security.
The pilot, a former captain, flew helicopters as part of two squadrons that were based in Kabul and Kandahar. The squadrons’ pilots were highly trained, with many receiving instruction abroad, including in the U.S., and they worked closely with American military advisers.
They were unable to get onto U.S. evacuation flights from the Kabul airport amid the city’s chaotic fall in August. Since then, the Taliban have closed Afghanistan’s borders. Commercial flights from Kabul are stopped, and chartered evacuation flights have slowed to a trickle.
Now scattered across Afghanistan, some with their families, the pilots say they are largely unable to go outside for fear of falling into the Taliban’s hands. Unable to work, their money is running out and they are increasingly struggling to feed their families amid a humanitarian catastrophe in the country, several of the pilots said.
“They left us in the really bad situation. Because even we don’t have money to buy food for our kids,” another pilot said. He has four children, ages 2 to 9, and one has a serious blood disorder.
“We fought years for U.S. goals, but in the end they left us behind alone in poverty,” he said.
More than 500 Afghan Air Force personnel were able to escape Afghanistan in August by flying their aircraft to neighboring Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. After they spent weeks in detention, the U.S. succeeded in airlifting them to Dubai, where they will be processed for resettlement to the U.S.
But the pilots trapped in Afghanistan said they have been told there is little prospect of getting them out in the short term.
One or two charter flights facilitated by the U.S. government or organized by private charities continue to leave Afghanistan most weeks, but they are mainly carrying civilians. The number of flights has greatly fallen since August, and those being approved for seats on them has slowed. Only around 3,000 Afghans have been evacuated since late September.
U.S. military officers lobbying to help the pilots said they believe, while difficult, it should be possible to get the pilots onto evacuation flights if they are given the right priority.
Hicks, of Sacred Promise, said he thinks many former Afghan military personnel are currently lower priority than civilians, despite having strong claims for refugee status.
The State Department has been prioritizing the evacuation of so-called Special Immigrant Visa or SIV holders, which are Afghans who worked directly for the U.S. mission. In early August before the Afghan government collapsed, the Biden administration created another type of refugee status, known as Priority 2, or P2, for Afghans deemed at-risk but who had not worked for the U.S. government directly. It was meant for women’s rights activists, journalists and former Afghan military personnel, but applicants must depart the country first — too high a hurdle for many.
Hicks said that system has created a situation where Afghan military personnel, despite often being in more danger than some SIV evacuees, are still stuck behind, with no prospect of fast rescue.
“I don’t understand how literally someone — no offense to anybody — but how someone could be a janitor working at the U.S. Embassy has a higher priority than an Afghan Air Force or Special Mission Wing pilot who’s been fighting the Taliban,” Hicks said.
Sacred Promise’s staff includes current military officers who for years worked as mentors with the pilots in Afghanistan and who are able to verify their identities. Hicks said the NGO has already vetted 2,000 former Afghan military personnel, who he said could immediately start being processed for asylum if evacuated.
Some senators, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) have called for the Biden administration to step up its efforts to get at-risk Afghans out, saying it is not doing enough.
Hicks and the pilots acknowledged that the U.S. government is facing a gargantuan challenge in getting people out. But he said he believes that since his organization is able to help vet the pilots — and considering the urgent danger to them — it makes sense to move faster on them.
“That’s the thing that frustrates us the most, and we’re trying to get the discussion why that prioritization can’t get tweaked or adjusted in this situation,” he said.
The pilots still in Afghanistan fear time is running out for any evacuation. They said they have become particularly alarmed since they now believe the Taliban has found a database that holds their personal details and biometric data, including finger prints.
Trapped at home, one of the pilots has little to do but worry. He finds himself watching videos on social media of executions of ex-Afghan military members.
“As we give them more time, they have more chance or opportunity to find us,” he said. “If I stay in Afghanistan, they will definitely arrest me one day.”
(NEW YORK) — As rates of COVID-19 infections rise during the holidays and omicron cases surface across the United States, drug companies Pfizer and Merck are preparing to launch the first COVID-19 pills. If authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, these at-home treatments could be prescribed by doctors and picked up at your local pharmacy to reduce the risk of becoming severely ill.
“In early clinical research studies, both [drugs] demonstrated a significant decrease in the progression of COVID-19 in high-risk patients,” said Dr. Roy M. Gulick, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Both drug companies emphasize that their medications will likely be effective against the omicron variant.
Public health officials remain concerned about a pending winter surge. People with higher risk factors — the unvaccinated, immune compromised, elderly and those with chronic conditions — need the pills most and may benefit the most, said Dr. Arthur Kim, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
But with both pills on the cusp of potential FDA authorization, physicians have expressed concern about uptake and access. One concern is that the pills need to be taken early — within the first three to five days after diagnosis.
They are most effective “before a person becomes critically ill,” said Dr. Paul Currier, director of the Respiratory Acute Care Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Once a patient becomes critically ill, the virus has already caused a lot of inflammation in the body that likely cannot be stopped by medicines that only target the virus itself.”
That could pose a logistics challenge, experts said, as people with mild symptoms are currently encouraged to stay home to avoid spreading COVID-19 to others.
At first, the pills will only be available with a doctor’s prescription, and with health care resources still strained, “delays in testing and capacity will reduce their effectiveness in the real world,” Kim said.
Both treatments require patients to take several pills twice per day for five days.
But pharmaceutical executives are optimistic that the pills will make a significant dent in the pandemic.
Pfizer’s pill has the “potential to save the lives of patients around the world,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
Bourla estimated that 1,200 deaths and 6,000 hospitalizations would be prevented for every 100,000 COVID-19 patients who take the pills.
But pharmaceutical companies say emphatically these pills should be used as a last resort and for patients who are already sick. Getting vaccinated is by far the safest and most effective way to prevent getting COVID-19, or becoming severely sick if you do.
“I want to emphasize that no one should use the existence of the pill as an excuse to avoid vaccination,” Bourla said.
“The best way to prevent getting seriously ill from COVID-19 is to use the strongest preventative measures we have: wearing masks and getting vaccinated,” Currier said.
When taken early, Pfizer’s treatment was 89% effective at reducing the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and/or death from COVID-19, according to the company. Merck’s pill, meanwhile, reduced the risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death by 30%, it said.
If authorized by the FDA, Merck and Pfizer’s COVID-19 pills could be available as early as next month.
Dr. Navjot Kaur Sobti is a cardiovascular disease fellow physician, rising interventional cardiology fellow and board-certified internal medicine physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Friday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Miami 115 Orlando 105
Denver 133 Atlanta 115
Golden State 111 Boston 107
OT New Orleans 116 Milwaukee 112
San Antonio 128 Utah 126
Portland 125 Charlotte 116
Memphis 124 Sacramento 105
Minnesota 110 L.A. Lakers 92
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
OT Pittsburgh 3 Buffalo 2
SO Vegas 3 N-Y Rangers 2
Washington 5 Winnipeg 2
St. Louis 4 Dallas 1
OT Nashville 3 Chicago 2
OT Arizona 6 Anaheim 5
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Creighton 79 (9)Villanova 59
(NEW YORK) — New York State reported 21,027 positive COVID test results on Thursday, a new single-day record, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday.
This brings the positivity rate in New York to 7.98%. The state also reported 60 new COVID-related deaths over the last two days.
“The winter surge in COVID-19 cases is a reminder that the pandemic is not over yet, and we must take extra care to keep ourselves and each other safe,” Hochul said in a statement. “The vaccine is still our best weapon to defeat the virus and ensure we are safe from serious illness. Get the shot if you haven’t yet and the booster if you have, mask up, and wash your hands.”
The state also reported 178 confirmed omicron cases. It’s likely there are more because only a fraction of positive results are sequenced to determine which strain of the virus it is.
Last week, as the number of cases began to rise, the state reinstated its indoor mask mandate for businesses or venues that don’t implement a vaccine requirement.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, more than 5.3 million people have died of COVID around the world. The approximately 805,000 Americans are the most in a single country.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan on Thursday to help fight this latest surge. Measures will include distributing half a million rapid home tests through community organizations in addition to 1 million KN95 masks.
“We have seen a very substantial increase in COVID cases in the past few days,” the mayor said. “It is clear that the omicron variant is here in NYC, in full force.”
“This variant moves fast — we need to move a lot faster,” de Blasio added.
Legendary British Invasion band The Dave Clark Five‘s 1964 debut U.S. album Glad All Over was reissued today as a limited-edition white vinyl LP.
This marks the first time Glad All Over has been available on vinyl since 1964.
The album reached #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, and yielded three hit singles — the title track, “Bits and Pieces” and “Do You Love Me,” which peaked at #6, #4 and #11, respectively, on the Billboard Hot 100. The song “Glad All Over” also was a #1 hit in the U.K.
In 1965, the Glad All Over album was certified gold by the RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies in the U.S.
The reissue was remastered at London’s Abbey Road Studios by band leader and drummer Dave Clark himself.
The Dave Clark Five went on to score six more top-10 hits during the 1960s — “Can’t You See That She’s Mine,” “Because,” “I Like It Like That, “Catch Us If You Can,” “You Got What It Takes” and the chart-topping “Over and Over. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
Here’s the full Glad All Over track list:
Side A
“Glad All Over”
“All of the Time”
“Crying Over You”
“Stay”
“Chaquita”
“Do You Love Me”
Side B
“Bits and Pieces”
“I Know You”
“3406”
“Time”
“Who Do You Think You’re Talking To”
(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — Police in Fort Myers, Florida, issued a missing child alert for 12-year-old Edilsy Roca from Lee County.
According to police, Edilsy was last seen in Fort Myers at approximately 10:30 pm Monday walking in the area of Gardenia Ave.
In an updated alert, the Fort Myers Police Department said Friday afternoon that detectives believe Edilsy could be with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend in Lehigh Acres, an area in Lee County, and if the child is found in her mother’s custody, “she could potentially be in danger.”
Along with a photo of the child, police released pictures of her mother, Imilsy Medina, and her boyfriend, Fabio Miguel Costa Araujo, on the Fort Myers Police Department Facebook page and urged anyone with information about Edilsy’s whereabouts to contact the police.
Medina, 30, has brown hair and brown eyes, while Araujo, 31, has brown hair and gray eyes.
Police said that Imilsy Medina may be wearing glasses and urged members of the public not to approach either Medina or Araujo but to contact police immediately.
According to the missing child alert, Edilsy was wearing a gray crop top, black sweatpants and black sandals when she was last seen.
Edilsy, who is Black, has brown hair and hazel eyes, is 5 feet tall and weighs 110 lbs.
It is unclear who reported Edilsy missing and when police were first notified.
A spokesperson for the Fort Myers Police Department told ABC News on Friday afternoon that no further information is available as this is an ongoing investigation.
Anyone with information about Edilsy’s location can contact the Fort Myers Police Department at (239) 321-7700 or SWFL Crime Stoppers.
On Sunday afternoon, VH1 is airing an encore presentation of its recent release, Hip Hop Family Christmas, as we get closer to the big day. If you miss it then, it’s also playing on Christmas Eve, and streaming on demand on VH1.
Double-platinum recording artist Keri Hilson explains that like most plans during the holidays, her character’s big family plans go sideways.
“Hip Hop Family Christmas is about a family who is royalty in hip hop,” Hilson tells ABC Audio. “My character, Jessica Nixon, I work in television and I get this bright idea to help our family, who is in the midst of a lot of turmoil in the public eye, a lot of negativity and bad press. So I get the bright idea to create a special, you know that we can…I guess, show our family in a new light.”
MC Lyte plays my mother, Redman plays my dad, Serayah and [Demetrius Shipp, Jr.] play my sister and brother, Ne-Yo plays my fiancée, and we get to see how this family reacts to my idea.”
Keri adds with a laugh, “It’s a quite it’s quite a regrettable idea that my character…has, and we get to just watch it all ensue.”
