(LONDON) — Australia is coming together as a nation following Thursday’s bouncy castle tragedy in which five children were killed.
A gust of wind lifted the castle into the air, causing several children at the Devonport school in north Tasmania to fall from about a height of about 32 feet.
Police identified the victims as 11-year-old Addison Stewart and 12-year-olds Peter Dodt, Zane Mellor, Jye Sheehan, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones and Jye Sheehan.
Three other children are still in critical condition, while one child who was injured has been discharged from hospital.
There are still more questions than answers over what happened. Police said they would be investigating whether the bouncy castle was properly tethered to the ground.
“There’s no doubt this incident will leave its mark and I know people are sending their thoughts and prayers from right across the country and even further afield,” Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine said.
He added, “Tasmanians are already coming together to support each other at this very difficult time.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gave his deepest sympathies to families and the people of Devonport, a city of fewer than 30,000 people.
“This is a tight-knit community,” Morrison said. “There would be few people, if any, in Devonport, that would haven’t had a connection to one of those families, to that school, to the first responders those impacted by this terrible, terrible tragedy.”
Hillcrest Primary School posted a message on Facebook on Friday, saying that “no words can truly express how we are all feeling” and advising anyone struggling with what happened to seek counseling.
Hundreds of flowers, soft toys and cards have been left at the entrance of the school, with one note saying: “May you five angels be surrounded by sunshine.” A candlelight vigil has been held and Christmas lights were switched off in honor of the young victims.
An online crowdfunding page for the victims’ families has raised more than $740,000.
BTS is used to performing before throngs of screaming, adoring fans, but what happens when they sing and dance in front of a line of impatient commuters sitting in traffic? As expected, things got a little hairy.
We finally know what happened when the K-pop sensations joined TheLate Late Show with James Corden‘s perennial bit, “Crosswalk Concert” bit, which saw them take over West Hollywood’s Beverly Boulevard as traffic waited at the red light.
To help psych the singers up, James assured they were about to perform at “the biggest venue of your life” as he gestured to the busy intersection, calling it “the hottest ticket in town.”
RM deadpanned, “We just played for 50,000 people at SoFi Stadium. Now, he wants us to play next to some gas station?” Despite the group’s initial apprehension — Jimin even declared, “I don’t think this is safe,” — they decided to give it a shot.
The septet took to the sidewalk to perform over-the-top renditions of their hits “Butter,” “Permission to Dance” and “Dynamite,” which included backup dancers, people jumping on trampolines and smoke bombs. Thankfully, they successfully entertained the rush hour traffic. Some commuters whipped out their smart phones and danced along.
However, there were some hiccups during BTS’ performance — most notably when V slipped and fell when the signal turned green. Thankfully, he jumped right back up and made it to safety in time.
As for James, he accidentally summoned the Los Angeles Fire Department after becoming a little too enthused when promoting “Dynamite” by saying they were “going to blow this place up.” The British host apologized to one of the firemen and promised to “choose my words more carefully next time.”
The Late Late Show airs at 12:30 a.m. ET on CBS every weeknight.
Phil Chen, a Jamaican-born session bassist whose long list of credits include recordings with Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck and members of The Doors, died on Tuesday, December 14, after “a long battle with cancer” at age 75.
Chen’s passing was announced on his official Facebook page in a message that reads, “He spent his final days surrounded by family and close friends and cherished time with his grandchildren who always brightened his day. He will be missed greatly and his contagious passion for music and positive energy on and off the stage will be remembered always.”
Phil played on Beck’s acclaimed 1975 album Blow by Blow, and on three albums by Stewart during the late 1970s and 1980. He also was a member of Robby Krieger and John Densmore‘s post-Doors project The Butts Band, and later joined Krieger and Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek in some of their post-Doors groups.
Krieger recently told ABC Audio that he’d been working with Chen on a new reggae-flavored instrumental album featuring various cover tunes.
Regarding the project, Robby said, “[Phil’s] been down with mesothelioma lately, so we wanted to do something that would make him happy.”
Krieger posted a tribute message about Chen on his Facebook page that reads, “Aside from his extraordinary musical talent, Phil was an incredible human being who would do anything for a friend and always brought a smile to whatever situation he was in.”
Among the many other artists with whom Chen collaborated are Donovan, Pete Townshend, Jackson Browne, John Fogerty, Eurythmics and Queen‘s Roger Taylor.
(NEW YORK) — For centuries the world has been fascinated by serial killers. Who are they? What makes them tick? What do they choose to kill?
To try to answer those questions the authorities turned to one woman: Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess.
Now a celebrated criminal psychologist, forensic nurse and researcher, Burgess began her seasoned career researching and gathering data about victims of sexual assault and the lasting trauma in rape victims.
In the early 1970s at Boston College, Burgess met Linda Lytle Holmstrom. The two began working together and set up a program at Boston City Hospital. Their goal was to meet with as many rape victims as possible.
“[Holmstrom] had wanted to study rape, but hadn’t had any success in finding rape victims,” Burgess said. “It’s no different now than it was back then. They really are hidden. They’re really silent.”
Holmstrom’s and Burgess’s deep dive eventually led to procedures that focused on a victim’s response to rape. But for Burgess, this important initial research provided her with the structure and knowhow to dig into something much deeper.
An “aha” moment happened during a small conference in Worcester, Massachusetts. Holmstrom and Burgess were focusing their research solely on victim impact while another colleague presented information about perpetrators. At that moment, Burgess was struck with the power of putting the two together.
She describes the moment in her new book, “A Killer By Design”: “I realized if I wanted to fully understand the nature of a crime, I’d have to see both the victim and the perpetrator as two halves of the same story.”
These findings were first published in the American Journal of Nursing as “The Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward.”
And then the FBI called.
Supervisory Special Agent Roy Hazelwood had read her article and he wanted her to present a lecture on her research to FBI personnel at Quantico.
“That was a frightening moment for me,” Burgess told ABC News. “And then I thought, ‘I’ve never really talked to a bunch of males before. It’s always been female nurses. So he made arrangements and the rest is history.”
Thus began Burgess’ work with the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (“BSU”) — the “Mindhunters” popularized over the last several years by a Netflix series loosely documenting their work.
“BSU was a cast of outsiders,” Burgess explains in her book. “They were the rogue agents, the idealists with big ideas, and they wouldn’t let the limits of convention or bureaucratic traditions stand in their way.”
And because she was an outsider to the FBI with a nonconventional background, FBI agents saw Burgess as an ally. Eventually she was introduced to two agents, John Douglas and Robert Ressler, who were working on an extremely unique side project: interviewing serial killers.
“Of course the content was fascinating,” Burgess said, recalling the first time she listened to the interview tapes. “It became clear to me that they had a wonderful opportunity to get all kinds of information. But they didn’t have a plan. And that’s where I came in and suggested that they really needed to have some kind of methodology to it.”
And so she set out to do just that. Initially, there was a lot of distrust in the profiling process. But once Burgess’ evolving methodology began to show results, everything changed.
Over the next two decades, Burgess worked with the BSU to develop and create a criminal profiling framework that revolutionized the way criminals were identified, interviewed and tracked. Through her continued work, Burgess and BSU agents were able to analyze some of the nation’s most notorious offenders, including Henry Louis Wallace (“The Taco Bell Strangler”), Dennis Rader (“The BTK Killer”) and Ed Kemper (“The Co-Ed Killer”).
“The work alone stands by itself,” said Steven Matthew Constantine, who began working with Burgess as a cowriter for her book. “But the fact that she was one of the very few women in the FBI at the time to be doing this type of work and be trusted to do that type of work, I think that’s really impressive. And I think it’s an important piece of history that needs to be shared.”
He went on, “It was sort of funny when we first started. I remember asking Dr. Burgess, ‘How did you deal with this?’ It’s definitely very disturbing to know it’s out there and still goes on. I tried to take on a little bit of her mentality of looking at it as data and information. If you can get to the bottom of it and you can parse all this information quickly, hopefully that’s preventing future victims.”
When asked if Burgess believed the perpetrators she interviewed and studied were monsters, she said no. Instead, she described the violent offenders as atypical and remarked on the importance of trying to understand the mind of a person who commits serial assaults or homicides.
“I think, as the book says, it’s a quest to understand,” said Burgess. “Because if we can understand [perpetrators] and how early [their tendencies] started, maybe we could stop it or intervene or do something.”
We got the first official trailer on Thursday for How I Met Your Father, premiering January 18 on Hulu. The How I Met Your Mother spinoff is set “in the near future” as Sophie, played by Hilary Duff, tells her son the story of how she met his father, catapulting us back to the year 2021, where Sophie and her close-knit group of friends “are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options,” according to the show’s logline. Besides Duff, How I Met Your Father stars Christopher Lowell, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, Suraj Sharma, Daniel Augustin and Ashley Reyes. Sex and the City‘s Kim Cattrall will narrate and Drake & Josh‘s Josh Peck appears in a recurring role…
Netflix has landed a drama series based on the life of singer and actor Frank Sinatra, from Twilight writer/director Bill Condon and executive-produced by Frank’s daughter, Tina Sinatra, according to Deadline. The series will feature music and performances from the legendary crooner, whose rags-to-riches story was marred by an FBI investigation into his alleged Mafia ties, and a string of high-profile romantic relationships with some of the biggest stars of the day, including Ava Gardner, Mia Farrow, Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson. Condon, an Oscar winner for writing Gods and Monsters, will be directing a film adaptation of the musical Guys and Dolls, which was previously made into a 1955 movie starring Sinatra and Marlon Brando…
Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee has cut a deal with Netflix which will see him directing and producing narrative features for the streamer under a multi-year deal, according to Deadline. As part of the deal, Netflix has also committed to invest in and provide financial support for Lee’s ongoing mission to develop new talent and increase representation across the entertainment industry. Lee has previously partnered with the streaming service on the Vietnam War drama Da 5 Bloods, the series She’s Gotta Have It, the film version of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show Rodney King, and the Stefon Bristol sci-fi film See You Yesterday…
(NEW YORK) — Breonna’s Garden is an augmented reality app memorializing Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old who died in her own apartment on March 13, 2020 when police unleashed a barrage of 32 shots.
A self-professed CEO and founder of a “cryptomedia” company who is known online as Lady Pheonix told ABC News that she created the app. The founder, who asked that her real name be withheld for privacy reasons, said she was inspired to help Ju’Niyah Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s sister, through her greiving process.
The app has a 3D rendering of Taylor in a garden surrounded by tulips — the late medical worker’s favorite flower, according to Palmer. It features a montage of Taylor’s life. The app’s users can also share voice memos that turn into crystal flowers which play their messages.
Lady Pheonix says that the app’s users are sharing their own stories of grief and loss.
“At first I was a little standoffish,” Palmer told ABC News about being approached with the idea for the app. She said that she was wary of a stranger messaging her “out of the blue” on an Instagram live. But her mom convinced her to hear out Lady Pheonix’s idea, she said.
“I actually fell very in love with it,” said Palmer of the augmented reality project.
“The greatest kind of healing and well-being happen in nature,” Lady Pheonix told ABC News about using the setting of a garden in the app. The tulips in the app also have a special significance: Palmer said her sister wanted a house and a garden to plant tulips everywhere.
Lady Pheonix said that tulips are also a way to contrast beauty with what she called the “tragedy” of Taylor’s story. “The tulip was held in beauty, and Brianna’s story … is held in tragedy. For me, I wanted to invert that and focus on the beauty,” she said.
People use the Breonna’s app to overlay her virtual memorial with her physical memorial in the Miami garden.
Palmer said that she struggled with PTSD after her sister’s shooting, and while she got help from a therapist and medication,she said the app helps her feel like she could still talk with her sister.
“It feels like in the moment I do get to be able to visualize her as if she was here in the moment for me,” said Palmer.
Breonna Taylor’s sister, Ju’Niyah Palmer, Kenneth Walker and Tamika Palmer stand in mourning in a garden honoring Breonna Taylor and anyone else who needs to grieve.
Palmer said that she hopes the garden app reaches more people in the coming years.
Lady Pheonix said that she hopes every hospital and every major city will have a physical garden to accompany the Breonna’s Garden app as places for quiet reflection and healing.
Toni Cornell honored her late father, Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, with a performance on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday,
Toni performed her own version of her dad’s Grammy-nominated cover of the Prince-penned classic “Nothing Compares 2 U,” which appears on the his posthumous covers compilation, No One Sings Like You Anymore Vol. 1. The two Cornells previously recorded a duet version of the song, which Toni released in 2018, a year after Chris’ death.
The 17-year-old teased the performance earlier this week, writing on Instagram, “So excited to perform a special song in honor of my dad on @fallontonight.”
Toni has previously honored her father with a cover of Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2017. She’s also performed his Temple of the Dog song, “Hunger Strike.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 803,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 61.2% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dec 17, 11:53 am
UK reports highest daily cases ever
The United Kingdom reported 93,045 new cases in the last 24 hours, breaking a daily record for the third day in a row.
The total number of cases over the last week now stands at 477,229, a 38.6% increase from the previous week.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Dec 17, 11:39 am
Rockettes canceled due to breakthrough cases
Friday’s four Radio City Rockettes shows have been canceled due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the New York City production.
Plans for future shows haven’t been determined.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 17, 11:35 am
CDC studies find schools can test kids rather than quarantine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday endorsed a practice in schools called “test-to-stay,” which allows unvaccinated kids and staff to test instead of quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.
The CDC says the practice can be employed in addition to other mitigation measures, such as vaccination and at least 3-feet of physical distance among students wearing masks.
The new guidance follows two studies out of Los Angeles County, California, and Lake County, Illinois. Both studies found no significant transmission in school when test-to-stay was used.
The studies were conducted before the omicron variant was detected in the U.S.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Dec 17, 11:01 am
Hospitals stretched thin in Wisconsin, Michigan
In Wisconsin, only 4% of ICU beds are available.
“This is getting really scary,” Dr. Jamie Hess, an emergency physician at the University of Wisconsin, told ABC News.
“We’re really reaching a crisis point where we have more patients to take care of then we have beds in the hospital or staff to care for them,” Hess said.
Michigan has been struggling through a similar surge for nearly three months, with the state reporting more than 6,500 new cases each day. On average, more than 500 patients are being admitted to hospitals each day.
“Where we are right now feels a lot like the first surge back in March of 2020,” Erin Dicks, a nurse manager at MICU Henry Ford Hospital, told ABC News. “We don’t have enough beds to be able to manage this.”
Dicks said so many patients are young.
“I think one of the biggest frustrating pieces for my staff is that they look at this as, this is preventable — people don’t have to die here,” Dicks said.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 17, 9:01 am
Harvard joins list of universities mandating boosters
Harvard University will require boosters for all eligible members of the community, school officials said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Harvard warned of an increase in cases, saying the rise can be contributed to social events following the Thanksgiving break.
Omicron is likely already on campus, university officials added.
Harvard joins a growing list of colleges and universities moving to require third doses next semester for those eligible. Other schools include Stanford, NYU, University of Notre Dame, Syracuse, Smith College and Wellesley College.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 17, 8:13 am
Illinois reports highest case number of the year
In Illinois, 11,858 new cases were reported on Thursday — the highest daily case number of all of 2021, ABC Chicago station WLS reported, citing state health officials.
Illinois confirmed its second omicron case Wednesday, detected in a suburban Chicago resident. That person is asymptomatic and vaccinated, WLS reported.
Dec 16, 8:52 pm
CDC recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J when there’s a choice
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has signed off on its advisory committee’s recommendation that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The updated recommendation comes after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to the J&J vaccine.
“Today’s updated recommendation emphasizes CDC’s commitment to provide real-time scientific information to the American public,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “I continue to encourage all Americans to get vaccinated and boosted.”
Dec 16, 7:54 pm
Omicron now makes up nearly 100% of strains found in Orlando wastewater samples
The new omicron variant makes up nearly 100% of the strains found in wastewater samples in Orlando, Florida, officials said Thursday.
“It escalated rapidly,” Orange County Utilities spokeswoman Sarah Lux told ABC News.
In its first test for the variant last Thursday, the department found no evidence of omicron in the community’s wastewater, she said. On Saturday, it represented about 30% of the strains found in the samples, and by Tuesday, nearly 100%.
“So, we’re talking about zero to nearly 100 in a matter of a week,” Lux said.
All parts of the county are seeing an increasing presence of the omicron variant, she said. The southern area, home to the theme parks, has seen the highest amount of virus remnants, followed by the eastern area, which is home to the University of Central Florida.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 3:53 pm
CDC committee recommends opting for Pfizer or Moderna over J&J if given choice
The CDC’s advisory committee recommended Thursday that people who have a choice should get an mRNA vaccine, either Pfizer or Moderna, over the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after a review of new CDC data on rare blood clots linked to J&J.
The vote was unanimous.
The rare blood clots are not a new safety concern and the vaccine has already become far less common in the U.S. after it was given an FDA warning label about the clotting condition. But more data that confirmed a slightly higher rate of clotting cases and deaths than was previously reported caused the CDC and FDA to take another look at the data this week.
The CDC has confirmed nine deaths and 54 cases from the severe clotting event, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia.
There could also be more cases and deaths because TSS is under-diagnosed and could be underreported, the CDC said.
The clotting is more common among women in their 30s and 40s but has been seen in adult men and women of all ages.
The experts said J&J should not be taken off the shelves and is still far more beneficial than not getting any vaccine at all.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Dec 16, 3:22 pm
Several Northeast states nearing peak levels
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, while daily cases in Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are nearing peak levels, according to federal data.
Five of those states — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — have the highest full vaccination rates in the country.
In Florida, which has been largely spared from the latest COVID-19 wave, daily cases have increased by 92% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 16, 2:47 pm
NYC cases have tripled in the last month
COVID-19 cases in New York City have tripled in the last month, officials warned Thursday.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a six-point plan to fight the surge, including increasing testing capacity, doubling down on business inspections and distributing 1 million KN95 masks and 500,000 rapid home tests.
“We need to stop this variant,” the mayor said. “This variant moves fast. We need to move a lot faster.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Dec 16, 8:04 am
Omicron will be dominant variant in US ‘very soon,’ Fauci says
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, warned Thursday that omicron will become the dominant variant of the novel coronavirus in the United States “very soon.”
“It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread,” Fauci, the chief medical advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“It has what we call a doubling time of about three days and if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it’s going to be the dominant variant,” he explained. “We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the U.K. and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to “absolutely” get vaccinated against COVID-19, if they haven’t already, and to also receive a booster shot when they become eligible.
“At this point, we don’t believe you need an omicron-specific boost,” he added. “We just need to get the boost with what you got originally for the primary vaccination.”
Dec 16, 6:14 am
France to ban non-essential travel with UK over omicron surge
France announced Thursday that it will ban non-essential travel to and from the United Kingdom due to the country’s surge in cases of the omicron variant.
Starting Saturday, France will require people to have “a compelling reason” to travel between the two countries. Travel for tourism or work will not be allowed. French citizens, however, can return to France, according to a statement from the French prime minister’s office.
All travelers from the U.K. will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken less than 24 hours before departure. Upon arrival in France, they must self-isolate for a week, but that period can be ended after 48 hours if they test negative for COVID-19 again.
The new rules apply to people regardless of their vaccination status.
“Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the requirement for tests on departure and arrival,” the French prime minister’s office said in the statement Thursday. “The Government is also calling on travelers who had planned to visit the United Kingdom to postpone their trip.”
Dec 16, 4:24 am
Indonesia confirms 1st case of omicron variant
Indonesia announced Thursday its first confirmed case of the omicron variant.
The case was detected in a janitor who works at the COVID-19 Emergency Hospital of Kemayoran Athletes Village in Jakarta, according to a statement from Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.
The hospital’s cleaning staff are routinely tested and the results for three people were positive for COVID-19 on Dec. 10. Those samples were then sent to a genome sequencing lab, which identified the omicron variant in one of the samples on Wednesday, according to the statement.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Health has also identified probable cases of omicron among five travelers who were in quarantine — two Indonesian citizens who had just returned from the United Kingdom and the United States, and three foreigners from China. Their test samples are being sequenced and the results will be known in a few days, according to the statement.
The health minister urged Indonesians “not to panic and to remain calm,” and to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they haven’t already.
“The arrival of new variants from abroad, which we identified in quarantine, shows that our defense system against the arrival of new variants is quite good, we need to strengthen it,” Sadikin said. “So it’s normal to stay 10 days in quarantine. The goal is not to make it difficult for people who came, but to protect the people of Indonesia.”
Dec 15, 4:46 pm
Forecast: US could see up to 845,000 deaths by early January
Forecast models used by the CDC suggest weekly death totals and hospital admissions will rise over the next four weeks.
The U.S. could reach a total of 845,000 deaths by Jan. 8, according to the forecasts from the COVID-19 Forecast Hub at UMass Amherst.
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub team monitors and combines forecasting models from the nation’s top researchers. They then create an ensemble, usually with a wide cone of uncertainty. Nicholas Reich, a biostatistician who runs the forecasting model, told ABC News Wednesday that he doesn’t think the forecasts included omicron in their predictions because the majority of data isn’t publicly available yet in a format that can be easily incorporated into a model.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 15, 4:20 pm
US cases up 45% in the last month
The U.S. is now reporting nearly 118,000 new cases each day — up by 45% in the last month, according to federal data.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions have leapt by 46% in the last month.
Maine and New Hampshire are now averaging more new cases than at any other point in the pandemic, according to federal data.
New Hampshire currently holds the nation’s highest case rate, followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Today, December 17, marks the 50th anniversary of the U.K. release of David Bowie‘s fourth album, Hunky Dory, and two special releases are planned to celebrate the milestone.
First off, a new alternative mix is being made available as a streaming single today of the classic Hunky Dory track “Changes” created by Ken Scott, who co-produced the album with Bowie. The updated song was mixed using the original multi-track recordings.
“The new version of ‘Changes’ is a fresh look at David’s classic,” says Scott. “When listening to the original multi-track I discovered a few things that I had eliminated from the original mix and also a completely different sax solo at the end. It was those things that led me to try a new mix, trying for a slightly harder, more contemporary edge to it.”
The second release is a limited-edition 50th anniversary Hunky Dory vinyl picture disc that will be available on January 7, 2002, a day before the late Bowie would’ve celebrated his 75th birthday. The picture disc, which you can pre-order now, will feature the 2015 vinyl remaster of Hunky Dory, as well as a poster of the original version of the album’s annotated back cover image.
Meanwhile, a new lyric video for “Changes” has premiered on David’s official YouTube channel. The clip features a variety of pics from the Hunky Dory cover photo shoot, including some previously unpublished images.
Hunky Dory, which was released December 4, 1971 in the U.S., initially had little commercial success in the U.K. and the States, despite featuring such enduring songs as “Changes,” “Life on Mars?” and “Oh! You Pretty Things.”
“Changes” eventually reached #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1975, while “Life on Mars?” became a #3 U.K. after it was reissued in ’73.
Here’s Hunky Dory‘s full track list:
Side One
“Changes”
“Oh! You Pretty Things”
“Eight Line Poem”
“Life on Mars?”
“Kooks”
“Quicksand”
Side Two
“Fill Your Heart”
“Andy Warhol”
“Song for Bob Dylan”
“Queen Bitch”
“The Bewlay Brothers”
(PLAISTOW, N.H.) — Since the start of the school year, some teachers in New Hampshire said they’ve been on edge due to a new policy that they said punishes those who teach about oppression in America’s past and present.
“If you raise a generation without a moral backbone to recognize oppression, to recognize exclusion, to recognize a racial supremacy, then you raise a generation that will be amoral when they become the leaders,” said Ryan Richman, a teacher in Plaistow, New Hampshire.
“We’ll have no sense of right or wrong, because we have deemed that even looking at ourselves in the mirror and recognizing that the realities of the past are criminal.”
The legislation says educators cannot teach that someone’s race, sex, gender identity or other social status is inherently superior to someone else, or that someone is inherently racist or sexist, among other restrictions. Teachers can be reported by fellow teachers, parents or others and disciplined for potentially violating this policy.
Some educators, teachers union members and parents have filed suit, saying that the vague language limits their ability to teach on racial and gender-based oppression, and may impede on discussions about U.S. history and literature.
“We’re supposed to be engaging and challenging students to think about the wider world, helping them connect to ideas and expand their horizons,” said Deb Howes, president of the union American Federation of Teachers in New Hampshire. “They need to allow for honest teaching, history, current events and literature too.”
She added, “You could lose your career because you say something wrong or someone thought you said something wrong.”
In the lawsuit, AFT-NH is joined by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, “teachers in the New Hampshire Public Schools” and “parents or guardians of children in the New Hampshire public schools.”
This new law is one of many that have popped up across the country and have been touted by conservative activists targeting “critical race theory” in K-12 schools. However, critical race theory is a discipline taught at the college and graduate school levels, according to law experts and academics.
It analyzes U.S. legal systems and how they have been shaped by racism and continue to impact the progression of racism in America. Educators across the country have told ABC News that critical race theory is not part of their curriculum.
New Hampshire state Representative Jess Edwards, who co-sponsored the bill, said that legislators saw what was going on across the country concerning critical race theory.
GOP lawmakers said it makes classrooms feel divided or children feel bad about their race. Supporters of this law and similar legislation, including Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Texas state House Rep. Steve Toth, also claim that some lessons on race can make white students feel guilty or offended.
“I think just our experience with our fellow legislators, made us realize that something bad is going on in society,” Edwards said.
The legislation does not mention “critical race theory” — a strategic choice to avoid inflammatory arguments against the policy, Edwards said.
He said New Hampshire legislators found a parent who has been trying to oppose critical race theory in schools individually, and said the school was “not really interested in listening to his position.”
Edwards said that some schools were rolling out materials “along the line of: Minorities will always be oppressed in this nation, whites will always be oppressors.”
A national conservative organization, Moms for Liberty, tweeted in November that it would offer $500 to the first family in New Hampshire who successfully filed a complaint.
Moms for Liberty has not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.
“It’s very chilling,” Richman said. “You have this messaging coming down from the commissioner of education, restricting what we’re allowed to talk about the kinds of lessons that we’re allowed to talk about, what our students are allowed to talk about and the kinds of honest discussions that we can have about race and inequality and power. And then it’s snowballed.”
According to the New Hampshire Department of Education, the Commission for Human Rights and the Department of Justice, the law does not prohibit teachers from teaching U.S. history, and they are allowed to teach students historical concepts related to discrimination.
The policy also states that nothing in it “shall be construed to prohibit discussing, as part of a larger course of academic instruction, the historical existence of ideas and subjects identified in this section.”
However, the lawsuit argues that teachers have been targeted and intimidated due to this growing controversy about race and gender-inclusive education in schools under the guise of student protection.
“Teachers, including a Plaintiff in this action, have been made the subject of online harassment, obscenities and vicious attacks as a direct result of the climate of political intimidation created by and with the facilitation of various Defendants,” reads the lawsuit.
Some educators argue that not only are their jobs on the line because of New Hampshire’s new policy, but the education and future preparedness of their students are also at risk.
“If we’re not teaching them that, then they are ill-prepared to deal with the world around them,” Howes said. “They won’t understand why things are working or not working in the larger society, and they won’t be able to either change things that aren’t working or support things that are. They’ll have a harder time making their way through life.”
In a message to students, Richman added: “We see you. We see your value, and we see that you have the right to have the conversation about race, about injustice, about history that you deserve, and we are going to fight for you so that you can be the kind of leaders that our country deserves.”
