As Nick Cannon continues to mourn the passing of his five-month-old son, Zen, he dropped the trailer for his new VH1 holiday movie, Miracles Across 125th Street. Nick directed, produced and stars in the film about a Harlem rapper who returns to his family’s church after battling drug addiction.
As part of VH1’s “Naughty or Nice” holiday programming, the movie also stars Lil Kim, Teyana Taylor, Chrisette Michele, Akon, Jim Jones, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Tommy Davidson, Fred Hammond, Karen Clark Sheard, Marsha Warfield and more.
“I’m excited to bring all the uplifting elements of gospel, hip-hop and comedy together with such an inspiring and talented cast,” the TV host said in a statement. Miracles Across 125th Street premieres on December 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.
Finally, Keke Palmer is hosting the new competition series Foodtastic, premiering December 15 on Disney+. The show features food artists competing to create sculptures of Disney characters and objects from Disney films.
“We always see the food competition shows that are like, the food tastes good and this that and the third, but I’d never seen [one] where people are actually taking the food and making actual constructs and really turn it into this miraculous piece of art,” Palmer tells Essence. As host, the 28-year-old Emmy winner will dress up as characters from the films Beauty of the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean and more.
(NEW YORK) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is expected to plead guilty on federal civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd on Wednesday, Dec. 15, according to a court filing added to the case docket Monday. He had previously pleaded not guilty.
Former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were also charged, and the three of them have pleaded not guilty.
A grand jury indicted the four of them for depriving Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force when they saw him lying on the ground “in clear need” of medical care but “willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm.”
They were attempting to place him under arrest on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.
During the encounter, Chauvin held his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed and in a prone position on the pavement, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, before falling unconscious and losing a pulse, according to evidence presented at Chauvin’s state trial. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Video footage — from police body cameras, security cameras and civilian witnesses — played at the trial, showed Kueng and Lane helping Chauvin hold Floyd down, and Thao keeping away witnesses who were expressing concerns for Floyd.
In April, Chauvin, 45, was found guilty on three counts in Floyd’s death — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes.
(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 798,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 60.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-US reaches 50 million confirmed cases
-US daily cases up 85% since October
-Omicron appears to spread faster and vaccine less effective against it, WHO says
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Dec 13, 4:09 pm
164,000 new pediatric cases reported last week
Last week, another 164,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19, up by 24% from the week prior, according to a report released Monday from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
COVID-19 cases among children are “extremely high,” the organizations wrote.
Last week the Northeast saw its highest number of pediatric cases since the onset of the pandemic, with nearly 40,000 new cases.
So far, 21 million children ages 5 to 17 — about 39.6% — have received at least one vaccine dose.
Severe illness due to COVID-19 remains “uncommon” among children, the two organizations wrote in the report. But AAP and CHA continue to warn that there is an urgent need to collect more data on the long-term consequences of the pandemic on kids, including the physical, emotional and mental health impacts.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 13, 3:28 pm
US reaches 50 million confirmed cases
A total of 50 million COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. has reported more cases than any other nation in the world. The U.S. currently represents nearly one-fifth of the globe’s total 270.5 million cases.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 13, 2:59 pm
US daily cases up 85% since October
In the weeks following Thanksgiving, the COVID-19 resurgence in the U.S. has escalated rapidly.
The U.S. is averaging more than 118,000 new cases each day — up by about 41.8% in the last two weeks and up nearly 85% since late October, according to federal data.
Six states with some of the nation’s highest vaccination rates are also among the states with the highest new case rates: New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and New York. Experts say cases could be rising in the Northeast partially due to people heading inside in the cold weather.
Daily COVID-19-related hospital admissions increased by 14.4% in the last week and jumped by 48% in the last month, according to federal data.
Pediatric admissions are up by 23.8% in the last week.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Dec 13, 1:07 pm
Omicron expected to be dominant variant in London within 48 hours
Omicron is expected to be the dominant variant in London in the next 48 hours, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, warned in a statement to Parliament Monday.
Omicron represents 20% of England’s cases and 44% of London’s cases, Javid said.
“No variant of COVID-19 has spread this fast,” Javid said.
Ten people with omicron are in U.K. hospitals.
“Hospitalizations and deaths lag infections by around two weeks,” Javid said, “So we can expect those numbers to dramatically increase in the days and weeks that lie ahead.”
“In preparation, the UK’s four Chief Medical Officers raised the COVID Alert level to 4, its second-highest level, this was done over the weekend. And NHS England has just announced it will return to its highest level of emergency preparedness: Level 4 National Incident,” Javid said. “This means the NHS response to Omicron will be a coordinated as a national effort, rather than led by individual trusts.”
Javid also urged people to get booster doses, stating that 40% of adults in the U.K. have gotten boosters so far.
(NEW YORK) — The tornadoes that barreled through the South and the Midwest Friday night have claimed at least 88 lives, mostly in Kentucky.
So many survivors have lost loved ones, homes, belongings, and sense of security.
Here are the stories of some Kentuckians who survived the storm and are picking up the pieces.
In hard-hit Mayfield, Kentucky, Steve Sasseen huddled in the basement with two neighbors, putting laundry baskets and blankets over their heads when the twister closed in.
Sasseen said the tornado “sounded like someone picked the house up and dropped it — extremely loud.”
It was over within a few minutes, and Sasseen said all he could see was “haze and dust.”
Once he went outside, the neighborhood “looked like a war zone,” Sasseen said.
“I’ve lived here all my life, and this is the worst thing I’ve ever had to go through,” he said. “I keep thinking it’s a nightmare and I’ll wake up.”
Dakota, who did not share his last name, was working at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory when the tornado hit.
“The top of the building got ripped off. And then we told everyone, ‘Get down,'” Dakota told ABC News. “I started pushing people under the water fountain. We were trapped. I was trapped under the water fountain for like two hours.”
He said he was then able to wedge a fire hydrant under the fountain and he and a colleague dug their way out.
“We started pulling the rest of our team out and then we were able to get first responders to the areas that were needed,” Dakota said. “I found people [with] broken legs, pulling them out. Some were non-responsive. It was rough.”
Meanwhile, Dakota’s fiancée, Brandi, was in agony waiting for news. Dakota had texted her to say “we’re hit” by the twister, but then she said, “his phone just dropped and I couldn’t get ahold of him.”
“A while later, he called me and he said that he’s trapped, that he’s under all the debris,” Dakota said. “He didn’t know if anyone was gonna be able to find him. I could hear people screaming.”
“He called me and he said, ‘I love you. Tell mom I love her. I’m sorry, I tried.’ And in that moment I collapsed because I thought he was gonna die,” she said. “I thought my worst nightmare was coming true, and I didn’t hear from him for hours, not knowing he was OK.”
“The moment that he called me when he got out of the rubble, you know, it was just instant relief,” she said. “He said that he wasn’t gonna go get checked out, he had to go back for his people. He had his people back there. He had to go save them.”
Several factory workers died from the tornado.
Mayfield resident Rick Foley said parts of his home collapsed on top of him.
“I heard it coming,” he told ABC News. “My ears popped and everything just hit all at once. And I ducked down and just everything piled on top of me — all the debris.”
Covered in insulation and dirt and overwhelmed with shock, Foley spent the night in his bed after the tornado tore the walls apart.
“I’m 70 years old and I got to start over,” he said, holding back tears.
In Gilbertsville, Kentucky, miles of homes are completely leveled.
At what used to be the two-story home of 88-year-old Wilbert Neil and his son, 63-year-old Jerry Neil, all of their belongings, cars and clothes are buried in debris.
“Everything is destroyed,” Jerry Neil said. “We almost didn’t make it.”
Jerry Neil said if he and his father didn’t move to the basement when they did, they wouldn’t have survived.
When they went to survey the damage on Sunday, they managed to find a safe with cash, their wallets, a few spare clothes and their guns.
Wilbert Neil was visibly emotional when volunteers found old photographs and the belongings of his 85-year-old wife. She has Alzheimer’s and has no idea the house is destroyed, according to the family. Wilbert Neil said he couldn’t bring himself to tell her.
The Neils bought the house in 2000, one year after they retired. It was the place where their grandchildren gathered during the holidays.
“This was the dream house for my wife,” he said tearfully. “We got it. She loved it. She’ll never see it again.”
ABC News’ Marcus Moore, Elwyn Lopez, Briana Stewart contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A woman was killed and 13 people were injured when a drive-by shooting erupted at a candlelight vigil Sunday evening in a suburb of Houston, officials said.
An unidentified gunman opened fire on a crowd of about 50 people, including children, participating in a celebration of life for a recent homicide victim in Baytown, a community about 25 miles east of Houston, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a news conference near the scene of the shooting.
A Harris County sheriff’s sergeant told ABC station KTRK in Houston that a mother was holding a vigil for her son who was killed at his home a couple of weeks ago. Gonzalez said the shooting happened around 6:40 p.m.
“Right as they were releasing the balloons up in the air was when the vehicle came, and almost at that exact time is when they opened fire into the crowd,” Gonzalez said.
On Monday morning, Gonzalez identified the woman killed in the shooting as Disha Allen, who he said was in her mid-20s.
He said three of the people wounded were in critical condition.
Sidney Williams, a witness who attended the vigil, told KTRK-TV he heard 20 to 30 gunshots.
“People were screaming and running to their cars,” Williams said.
Witnesses said two of the victims who were shot were a pastor and his wife who were in attendance at the vigil, according to KTRK-TV.
Gonzalez said many of the shooting victims were taken in private cars to an area hospital, where a fight broke out and required sheriff’s deputies to intervene.
The sheriff said no arrests have been made. He said the assailant or assailants were in a small, dark-colored sedan.
He said a motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
“Bullets don’t have eyes,” Gonzalez said, “so it puts everyone at risk.”
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
The 15th annual Jazz in the Gardens festival is returning to Miami in 2022 with an all-star lineup led by H.E.R., Mary J. Blige, The Isley Brothers and Rick Ross.
After being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, the two-day event will be held March 12 and 13 at Hard Rock Stadium. The list of performing artists also includes SWV, Stokley, Jonathan McReynolds, Mike Phillips, Mark Allen Felton, and The Roots featuring T-Pain. Local performers will be announced at a later date.
“We are excited about bringing talented, award-winning artists to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the festival that showcases music and the culture and diversity of Miami Gardens,” Miami Gardens Mayor Rodney Harris said in a statement. “We look forward to celebrating with our residents and people from all over the world on March 12 and 13.”
For tickets information, access the Jazz in the Gardens website.
Thomas Rhett and Parker McCollum joined forces for a sing-a-long around the campfire this weekend.
In a series of photos and videos taken by athlete Aaron R Davis that were re-shared by Thomas on Instagram Stories, it appears that the hit country singer had an adventurous weekend outdoors that included duck hunting and backyard football with friends.
But a highlight of the experience came when Thomas and fellow country star Parker gathered for a fireside performance of Ryan Bingham‘s “Southside of Heaven,” with Parker playing guitar while he and Thomas sang, “‘Cause I’ve been lost on them back roads/ And many times, I’ve gone blind/ Losing faith in my family/Had drew me out my damn mind.”
“Southside of Heaven” is featured on Ryan’s 2002 album, Wishbone Saloon. Ryan is an Academy Award-winning singer and songwriter who appears as the character of Walker in the hit series Yellowstone.
When they’re not harmonizing together around a bonfire, both Thomas and Parker are currently climbing the charts with their respective hits, “Slow Down Summer” and “To Be Loved by You.”
Tool drummer Danny Carey has been arrested for assault, TMZ reports.
According to the gossip site, Carey got into a fight with two other individuals at the Kansas City airport Sunday night. Carey was then arrested and taken to a nearby police station, where he was booked on misdemeanor assault. He’s since been released on bond.
TMZ adds that charges could be filed against Carey should prosecutors decide to proceed.
A rep for Tool had no comment on the report when contacted by ABC Audio.
Carey, a native of Lawrence, Kansas, was in the airport after returning from attending a Kansas University basketball game over the weekend, during which he played drums alongside the student band.
Tool is scheduled to launch a U.S. tour in January 2022.
Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images for Louis Vuitton
Joe Jonas is ready to celebrate the holidays and is already dreaming about the feast he and wife Sophie Turner will eat on Christmas.
Speaking to E! News, the 32-year-old singer said he plans on stuffing his face this year. “There are a lot of different varieties of food. There are quite a few meals,” Joe explained.
“I’ll be having my English dinner this year, which is usually a Sunday roast. As long as there’s some Yorkshire pudding and a big turkey or chicken, I’m thrilled,” he continued. “And all the trimmings on the side and my mom’s sweet potato casserole that she makes every year… Obviously, food is more of the event than even the day.”
So, what other Christmas traditions does Joe have? The Jonas Brother admits he cozies up for a holiday movie marathon.
“You got to watch all of the Christmas movies,” he explained. “Now, as I have married an English gal, I like to watch Harry Potter. They are very Christmas-y. We just watched Home Alone last night, so Home Alone 2 is next.”
While Joe and his brothers Kevin and Nick Jonas are resting up after recently wrapping their sold-out Happiness Begins tour, he reveals that the trio already has big plans for 2022.
“There’s a lot of projects I’ve been writing and recording for,” Joe hinted. “Before you know it, you’ll see it or hear them.”
Joe will also star in the war drama Devotion, due out next year. He tells E! News that he “really enjoy[s] acting” and teased it is “definitely something I want to do more of.”
System of a Down and Korn have announced two more concerts together for 2022.
The newly added dates will take place January 31 in Phoenix, and February 1 in San Diego. Tickets go on sale this Friday, December 17, at 10 a.m. local time.
Meanwhile, SOAD and Korn are finally set to play their long-delayed concerts at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles on February 4 and 5. Those shows were first scheduled for May 2020 before being postponed to May 2021, and then to October 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as they were about to happen in the fall, System frontman Serj Tankian contracted COVID-19, forcing the dates to be delayed again.
Faith No More was also originally on the LA bill, but canceled due to frontman Mike Patton‘s mental health.
