Judas Priest canceled their concert on Monday, April 4, at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts, because of a reported “non-[COVID] related illness,” and now comes word that the cancellation was due to frontman Rob Halford battling a cold.
Blabbermouth.net reports that in an interview Tuesday with East Coast Live, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner explained that the band was “resting up,” and that “the reason for [the cancellation] is so that we can preserve our health and get better,” while noting, “Rob’s got a bit of a cold.”
Faulkner added that the band is now aiming to “get back on track and do the rest of the shows in Canada.”
The North American leg of Judas Priest’s 50 Heavy Metal Years tour has four more concerts scheduled, all in Canada — on April 7 in Halifax, Nova Scotia; April 10 in Quebec City; April 11 in Laval, Quebec; and April 13 in Hamilton, Ontario.
Faulkner also told East Coast Live, “[W]e all get sick from time to time. It’s gonna happen. When you’re on the road, it’s a rigorous schedule. And even pre-COVID, now post-COVID, so to speak, you’re gonna catch bugs and stuff like that; it’s just part of the life we lead.”
He continued, “[I]f it was me or [bassist] Ian [Hill] or [drummer] Scott [Travis] or [guitarist] Andy [Sneap], I think we could maybe just hammer through it, but obviously when your instrument’s your voice, it’s a bit harder to do. So [Rob is] resting up, he’s resting his voice, he’s on some meds, and he’s gonna get through it.”
Fans who had tickets to the Lowell, Massachusetts, concert can get refunds at the point of purchase. Judas Priest also says they’re “hooping to make this show up in the near future.”
Zac Brown has nothing but kind remarks for Luke Combs, with whom he co-wrote two songs for Zac Brown Band‘s latest album, The Comeback.
Zac shares that Luke traveled to his home in Georgia for a co-writing session that resulted in a pair of songs that made the album: the current radio single, “Out in the Middle,” and “Old Love Song.” It was the first time the two hitmakers spent time together, and Zac has fond memories of the experience.
“Luke is such a great singer and great artist, but he’s also a great writer,” the ZBB frontman praises. “I brought him down to Georgia and we sat in the kitchen while the kids were at school, and we hammered out a couple of songs in a few hours. I’m really proud of those songs. I love them. They’re two of my favorite ones on there.”
Part of what made the experience special was the fact that neither one of them brought any ego to the table, which Zac says is crucial to the songwriting process.
“When you’re writing something to serve the song, you want to have people that are there in service of it. And when there’s ego involved, it’s about your idea winning rather than listening and trusting the people in the group,” Zac explains. “When that right idea pops up where everyone agrees, that’s the positivity that you need when you’re collaborating.”
Last year, ZBB celebrated their 14th #1 hit with “Same Boat.”
Michael Bublé‘s video for “I’ll Never Not Love You” has Michael and his wife Luisana recreating scenes from romantic films like Casablanca, Titanic, Jerry Maguire, Love Actually and The Notebook. But Michael says he initially had some very different movies in mind.
“At first, the films I came up with were…like, Star Wars and Spider-Man and all these sort of sci-fi things,” he tells ABC Audio. But he was afraid that if he did that, people would think it was a satire.
“It’s just really a beautiful and, in ways, a sad, almost a morose song,” he explains. “So I wanted to make sure that I had these moments that could reflect that.”
After recruiting Luisana to co-star, Michael realized he could make the video a sequel to 2009’s “Haven’t Met You Yet,” because she was in that video, too.
“The second she said yes, I started to think about ‘Haven’t Met You Yet,’ and what we’d done,” he explains. “And…I thought, ‘Y’know what? Why can’t I go through these films and why can’t I get to the end and wake up, and realize this is all part of the cinematic universe of our love story?'”
That led to the idea of the couple using the clip to reveal that they’re expecting their fourth child.
Michael says, “We knew we were pregnant, so we said, ‘Why don’t we put that as the Easter egg in the video? We won’t even say anything. We’re just going to have it there, and people will either discover it or not.”
Unfortunately, TMZ “discovered” it first.
“Somehow, TMZ found out before we released the video,” Michael groans. “So at this point, I just check TMZ every day to see if I’m dead or not. ‘Cause I have a feeling they’re going to find out before I do!”
Guitarist Joe Messina, an original member of Motown’s famous collective of session musicians The Funk Brothers, died Monday, April 4, in Northville, Michigan, at age 93, the Detroit Free Press reports.
According to the newspaper, Messina passed away at his son Joel’s home after a 12-year battle with kidney disease.
Messina, who played with The Funk Brothers from 1959 until 1972, was featured on an impressive list of hits by artists including The Supremes, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and many more.
During his Motown tenure, Messina was part of a three-guitar attack alongside Robert White and Eddie Willis at the Detroit record label’s Studio A.
A tribute posted on the Motown Museum’s Facebook page notes, “As he was a part of the label’s earliest days, Joe became one of the principal guitarists, whose talents helped to develop and shape the world-renowned Motown Sound.”
Messina decided to remain in the Detroit area when Motown relocated to Los Angles in 1972. He was featured prominently in the 2002 Funk Brothers documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and was one of 13 members of the collective to be honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
The Funk Brothers also were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.
Joel Messina tells the Free Press that his father was proud but modest regarding his musical achievements with Motown.
“He never bragged about any of that,” says Joel.
Meanwhile, Motown arranger and Funk Brothers trombonist Paul Riser tells the newspaper, “[Joe] was the warmest human being — always a smile, always a good word, always a sunny disposition. He was anchored and assured, just a great spirit with music.”
FX has renewed its hit series Snowfall for a sixth and final season, Nick Grad, President, Original Programming announced Tuesday.
“FX first partnered with legendary writer/director John Singleton and the rest of the creative team six years ago to pursue their vision for an ambitious, powerful drama about the explosion of the crack epidemic of the early 80s,” said Grad in a press release. “Today, as the fifth season of Snowfall reaches new heights of acclaim and viewership, there is no question that this series has become an FX classic drama. We are thrilled to order a sixth season that will enable Dave Andron, Walter Mosley, and the rest of the producers to bring Snowfall to a climatic finale showcasing the brilliance of everyone involved, from the stellar cast led by Damson Idris, to the writers, directors, artists and crew.”
Idris, who plays drug kingpin Franklin Saint in the critically acclaimed drama expressed, “I’m incredibly proud of the history we have all made. Especially the impact Snowfall has had on the culture. Very rarely does a TV show get to the sixth season mark and saying goodbye to ‘Franklin Saint’ will be heartbreaking. But the family and relationships I’ve made on this journey will last a lifetime. I know John Singleton is looking down smiling proud.“
Snowfall is currently in its fifth season with episodes airing Wednesdays on FX and the next day on Hulu. The sixth season is set to premiere next year.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 06, 5:49 am
EU proposes new sanctions, readies Russian coal ban
European Union leaders said on Wednesday they were preparing a new round of economic sanctions against Russia, as outrage grew over civilian deaths in Bucha.
“We have all seen the haunting images of Bucha. This is what is happening when Putin’s soldiers occupy Ukrainian territory,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “They call this liberation. I call this war crimes. The Russian authorities will have to answer for them.”
The sanctions to be proposed may include a ban on importing Russian coal, bans on transactions with four Russian banks, and a ban on Russian ships at EU ports, among other measures.
The fifth round of sanctions “will not be our last,” von der Leyen said. U.S. officials are also expected to announce new sanctions on Wednesday, sources told ABC News.
Apr 06, 4:47 am
Mariupol airstrikes continue, deepening humanitarian crisis
Russian forces are continuing their airstrikes in Mariupol, the besieged Ukrainian port city, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
“The humanitarian situation in the city is worsening,” the ministry said. “Most of the 160,000 remaining residents have no light, communication, medicine, heat or water.”
Russian troops have prevented humanitarian access to the southern city, a move the ministry said was a part of a strategy to pressure Ukraine to surrender.
Apr 06, 12:11 am
US concedes Russia won’t be expelled from Security Council
Speaking with MSNBC Tuesday night, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said the U.S. could not remove Russia from the United Nation’s most powerful body, the Security Council.
“They are a member of the Security Council. That’s a fact. We can’t change that fact, but we certainly can isolate them in the Security Council,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
That’s separate from the push to remove Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which Thomas-Greenfield said earlier they hope to bring to the U.N. General Assembly for a vote.
“I know we’re going to get” the necessary two-thirds majority, she told CNN.
Thomas-Greenfield also described what it was like in the room Tuesday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s graphic video finally played for the Security Council. She told MSNBC it was the first time she saw the uncensored video of the war’s victims.
“We were all speechless. We had all seen various videos showing atrocities. But they all covered up the real, you know, the real people that were there – they were all blurred,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This was the first time I’ve seen that video without the bodies being blurred. And it was horrific. And there was silence in the room. I can tell you that people were horrified.”
Apr 05, 9:26 pm
US sending $100M in new anti-tank missiles
The U.S. will be sending an additional $100 million in Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, a White House official confirmed to ABC News. The weapons will be coming from existing military stockpiles.
The White House later released a memorandum from President Joe Biden saying he would be using drawdown powers to release “an aggregate value of $100 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Ukraine.”
Pentagon officials have said anti-tank weapons provided by the U.S. and other partner countries have been very successful in staving off Russian troops and bogging down vehicle movement.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Orlando 120, Cleveland 115
Philadelphia 131, Indiana 122
Toronto 118, Atlanta 108
Brooklyn 118, Houston 105
Miami 144, Charlotte 115
Oklahoma City 98, Portland 94
Washington 132, Minnesota 114
Milwaukee 127, Chicago 106
San Antonio 116, Denver 97
Utah 121, Memphis 115 (OT)
Final New Orleans 123, Sacramento 109
Phoenix 121, LA Lakers 110
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
NY Rangers 3, New Jersey 1
Buffalo 4, Carolina 2
Columbus 4, Philadelphia 2
Ottawa 6, Montreal 3
Colorado 6, Pittsburgh 4
Florida 7 Toronto 6 (OT)
Detroit 5, Boston 3
Nashville 6, Minnesota 2
Final Dallas 3, NY Islanders 2
Edmonton 2, San Jose 1 (OT)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House is attempting to speed up the nation’s response to long COVID by establishing a new task force to coordinate research efforts across the government.
President Joe Biden appointed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra as the interagency task force leader in a memorandum issued Tuesday.
The task force will deliver two reports over the next four months, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The first report will lay out existing government services for people struggling with long COVID. The second report will plan for further research needs.
“The interagency will take 120 days to put forward a comprehensive action plan that will lay out all of the work that’s ongoing, the lessons that have been learned and the plan moving forward to make sure we continue to accelerate and move as fast as we can,” the senior administration official said.
Biden’s directive also called on the National Institute of Health to accelerate its ongoing $1.15 billion research project, moving quicker to fulfill its slow-moving pledge to enroll 40,000 Americans in long COVID studies.
Other White House efforts would require about $45 million in funding, all of which depends on congressional approval, which is expected to be an uphill battle for Biden. About $25 million would go toward long COVID research, and about $20 million would be allocated to fund centers that are making headway in long COVID treatment.
But experts who advocate for the government to do more on long COVID say money is not the chief concern. The government has already made a huge investment in long COVID research with the over $1 billion NIH project called the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative.
And Biden’s memorandum on Tuesday didn’t add many new policies to the federal response.
The top priority, experts say, is moving quickly on research that is already underway to get a clear picture of how widespread long COVID is and how urgently the country needs to respond.
“I think the frustration is they’re taking their time,” said former White House Health Policy Advisor Dr. Zeke Emanuel, reacting to Biden’s announcement.
Emanuel, who co-wrote a recent report on the path out of the pandemic, called for NIH to enroll people quicker in its studies and “turbocharge” the process. Recent reporting found the NIH had so far enrolled 1,366 people, or just 3% of its goal.
“This is not rocket science. These are desperate people and it should be easy to enroll hundreds of thousands of them,” Emanuel said.
He criticized the four-month timeline, though commended the White House for announcing Becerra as “the point person” and “realizing they have to do more.”
The White House, for its part, said on Tuesday that results would come out “every day” of the four-month period.
“We’re not going to wait 120 days to share our results. We’re coming out with our results every single day, as soon as we have them,” a senior administration official said.
“We feel the urgency of this moment. We want to make sure that we’re sharing lessons and learnings as we have them and that is our commitment,” the official added.
Gerard Bottino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Nationwide distribution of one of the last remaining monoclonal antibody treatments is being paused “effective immediately” since it has shown to be ineffective against the COVID-19 BA.2 subvariant now dominating every region of the country, an internal letter sent Tuesday afternoon from the federal government to states and obtained by ABC News said.
States and stakeholders should not expect any further shipments of sotrovimab, from GSK and Vir Biotechnology, from which the Food and Drug Administration has pulled authorization nationwide.
Sotrovimab was one of two monoclonal therapies in the U.S. arsenal that worked against previous variants. Now, the omicron subvariant has shown to chip away at its efficacy.
The government and FDA had already been incrementally limiting sotrovimab distribution in pockets of the country where BA.2 had been creeping up as the prevailing COVID strain. Tuesday, the FDA announced it would pull back authorization completely.
The agency said it will continue to monitor BA.2’s spread across the country, and that doctors and patients should use one of the other treatments that have held up against BA.2 — the one other monoclonal that still works, bebtelovimab from Eli Lilly; Paxlovid, or the antiviral pills from Pfizer; or molnupiravir from Merck.
Monoclonals have become a mainstay in our COVID medicine cabinet. Their ability to curb hospitalization rates, particularly among unvaccinated high-risk patients, has made them a key component in Biden’s COVID plan.
But new evolving strains of the virus have forced health care officials to recalibrate existing treatments — and this is not the first time the U.S. has seen COVID treatments get shut down when a new variant of concern stymies its efficacy.
GSK tells ABC it is prepping further data on whether a higher dose would hold up better against the omicron subvariant, which it’s sharing with relevant health and regulatory bodies.
The internal letter urges health care providers to make sure they are up to date with which variants impact what treatments, since it’s constantly shifting — and for providers to be aware of the variant makeup in their region in order to “guide treatment decisions” in an optimal way for their patients.
Meanwhile, the national COVID-19 medicine cabinet is once again getting whittled down by new variants and by limited supplies.
Weekly allocations of many COVID therapies had already been scaled down while further COVID relief funding stalled in Congress, and the government cut back on the amount of treatments shipped to states.
Though Senate negotiators had struck a deal for $10 billion in additional funding, its passage is far from guaranteed. It is unclear if this slimmed-down version of what the White House wanted will cover the country’s needs should another infection surge emerge. Without sufficient funding, the White House previously said the U.S. supply of the antiviral pills like Paxlovid could run out by September.
(NEW YORK) — As the nation approaches the grim milestone of 1 million lives confirmed lost to COVID-19, a new report reveals the “devastating and disproportionate” impact of the virus on low-income communities in the U.S., offering an initial analysis of the deadly consequences of poverty, economic insecurity and systemic racism.
“Poverty was not tangential to the pandemic, but deeply embedded in its geography,” researchers wrote. “Poverty and widespread inequality increases vulnerability to crises. While vaccines will prevent the worst impacts of COVID-19, they will not inoculate against poverty.”
The report, produced by the The Poor People’s Campaign in collaboration with the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, found that death rates in the lowest income group were double the death rates of those in the highest income group.
In addition, counties with disproportionately more Black residents had a significantly higher COVID-19 death rate than counties that did not.
The pandemic exacerbated preexisting social and economic disparities that existed prior to the emergence of COVID-19, the report found.
“Crises do not unfold independently of the conditions from which they arise,” researchers said. “The pandemic exacerbated preexisting social and economic disparities that have long festered in the US, including a deeply divided society, widespread poverty, a weak social safety net, inadequate living conditions, and a lack of trust in science that predated COVID-19.”
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, there were 140 million low-income people living in the U.S., accounting for approximately 40% of the population — including more than half of children in the country.
“Widespread and unequal distribution of wealth, income and resources prior to the pandemic created the conditions for many of the negative outcomes associated with the virus,” researchers wrote.
Death rates have varied throughout the pandemic, in each of the various surges. Researchers found that the two deadliest waves were the winter surge of 2020-2021, accounting for nearly 40% of all deaths to date, and the recent omicron surge, accounting for nearly 20% of deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
With the exception of the first COVID-19 surge, U.S. counties with the “lowest median income had death rates at least two times higher than that of the counties with the highest income.”
Preexisting disparities in health care access, wealth distribution and housing insecurity created “disastrous effects” for some Americans, as the virus exacerbated gaps in access that “caused increased harm to populations based on their class, race, gender, geography, and ability.”
Findings also suggested that pandemic job losses were concentrated among low-income workers, and that Americans living in poverty were the most likely to miss work due to COVID-19. Furthermore, Black and Hispanic women were most likely to lose full-time jobs.
Researchers stressed that adequate living wages, shared economic prosperity and inclusive welfare programs can address some of the concerns discussed in the report. In addition, ensuring universal and affordable health care, housing, water, access to utilities, quality public education and guaranteeing a robust democracy “will establish a more equitable foundation upon which we can build back better from the pandemic.”
