Heeeere’s Benji! Deadline reports A new London stage adaptation of Stephen King‘s horror classic The Shining is in the works with Ben Stiller in talks to play the role of crazed, haunted dad Jack Torrance, portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 film. Rehearsals are set to begin in the fall, in anticipation of a January 2023 opening. The play is expected to eventually move to Broadway…
Betty Gilpin will reunite with Damon Lindelof, co-writer of the 2020 film The Hunt, for the Peacock drama series Mrs. Davis. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the streamer confirms it’s “an exploration of faith versus technology -— an epic battle of biblical and binary proportions.” Lindelof’s previous credits include HBO’s Watchmen and The Leftovers, as well as ABC’s Lost, all of which he co-created and directed. Gilpin will next be seen starring alongside Julia Roberts and Sean Penn in the Starz anthology series Gaslit, premiering April 24…
American Housewife‘s Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger have been cast as the leads in a pilot for The Winchesters, the CW’s prequel to the hit series Supernatural, according to Variety. Donnelly and Rodger will play Mary Campbell and John Winchester, respectively, the parents of Supernatural protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester, played respectively by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Per Variety, Ackles will narrate Dean’s parents’ love story, detailing how they put it all on the line to not only save their relationship, but the entire world…
The Suicide Squad‘s Daniela Melchior has joined the cast of Fast and Furious 10, according to Deadline. She joins Jason Momoa and franchise stars Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Michelle Rodriguez and Sung Kang, who all are expected to return. Diesel will co-produce with Justin Lin, who’s also on board to direct…
(NEW YORK) — Phil Mickelson won’t be on the green when the 2022 Masters kicks off at Augusta National Golf Club next month.
Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, was expected to play in the golf tournament but his name was moved to the list of “past champions not playing” on the Masters’ website Monday.
Had he participated, it would have been the 51-year-old’s 30th Masters start. Instead, his absence will mark the first time since 1994 that Mickelson hasn’t competed in Augusta, Georgia.
The news comes after Mickelson received backlash last month over comments he made supporting a Saudi Arabia-backed golf tour.
In the comments, which the pro golfer made to author Alan Shipnuck in November but were released in February, Mickelson expressed no reservations about working with the Saudis despite the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which a United Nations probe determined was a “premeditated execution” for which Saudi Arabia was responsible.
“They’re scary … to get involved with,” Mickelson told Shipnuck about working with the Saudis on the new league. “We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”
Mickelson later apologized for his comments but not before they cost him one of his biggest sponsors, global tax firm KPMG.
Pharrell Williams’ non-profit Black Ambition has announced that applications for its second annual Black Ambition Prize are now open.
The company, founded by Williams in 2020 to empower Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, is looking to fund and support ventures in consumer products and services, media and entertainment, healthcare, technology and Web 3.0.
To enter, ventures must have at least one founder or co-founder that identifies as Black or Latinx. The grand prize winner will receive a $1 million prize. At least six additional teams will receive smaller prizes.
Black Ambition is also offering the HBCU Prize, in which current and former students at HBCUs have the chance to win prizes and mentorship as they develop ideas and launch companies. The grand prize winner will receive a $100,000 prize, while at least seven other teams will receive smaller prizes.
“When you realize how lucky you are to be in the constellation of the universe and when you learn how it really works, you stop buying vehicles and you create vehicles to drive you. That’s what Black Ambition is, it’s a vehicle for impact,” Pharrell says in a statement. “At Black Ambition, we find you and then we fund you.”
This season’s breakout hit network comedy is back tonight with new episodes.
Quinta Brunson created and stars in ABC’s Abbott Elementary, which is basically a workplace comedy set in a Philadelphia public school, and when they say write what you know? She tells ABC Audio that’s exactly what she did.
“My mom was a teacher for 40 years in the Philadelphia school district. I was a Philadelphia public school student for most of my, you know, years,” she explains. “I rode to school with her in the morning. I stayed with her after school…I heard about every student and every decision the school district was making or a principal…that was going to make her job a little bit harder that year.”
Despite that, Brunson had to beg her mother to retire when it was time, recalling, “She was driving me nuts because she wouldn’t.”
“This job that she had so many feelings on, she still didn’t want to leave,” she continues, “and I think that’s where the love of the field for me and the love of the show came from.”
So what does mom think of Abbott Elementary? “I think she enjoying the show. My mom’s a sitcom watcher. You know, her my dad they’re TV watchers…And I think it’s really cool because they’re watching Abbot almost as if I’m not their daughter. They’re just, it’s another show for them to enjoy.”
An added bonus — Quinta’s family now understands what she does for a living.
“At point I was making like, really good money working at BuzzFeed. And my mom just didn’t know what BuzzFeed was. So she was like, are you stripping? How are you paying for everything?” she recalls. “So this is a very concrete thing that is understandable to the whole family.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 22, 7:06 am
Over 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 27 days.
More than half of the refugees are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 22, 6:50 am
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, killed in Ukraine: OHCHR
At least 925 civilians, including 75 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Meanwhile, at least 1,496 civilians, including 99 children, have been injured, OHCHR figures show.
The tallies are civilian casualties that occurred in Ukraine from Feb. 24 to March 20 and have been verified by OHCHR, though the agency cautioned that the true numbers are believed to be “considerably higher.”
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” OHCHR said in a statement late Monday. “OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration.”
Mar 22, 6:43 am
Russia claims to have captured nine more localities in Ukraine
Russia claimed Tuesday that its troops have captured nine more localities in Ukraine.
According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense, units of the Russian Armed Forces have advanced another 6 kilometers (about 3.7 miles) and have taken control of the southeastern village of Urozhaine in the Donetsk oblast, some 65 miles north of the besieged port of Mariupol where many civilians remain trapped under Russia bombardment.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry said Russia-backed separatist forces of southeastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region have also advanced and captured eight more areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Mar 22, 6:28 am
Russia responds to Biden on biological, chemical weapons, claiming it has neither
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Tuesday denied allegations that Russia might be planning to use biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“We have neither of these,” Ryabkov told reporters in Moscow. “What the Americans are saying are malicious insinuations — we’ve heard them all the time and we’ve given exhaustive answers to them for a long time. The problem is, the U.S. has no habit of listening to anyone but itself.”
Ryabkov’s comments came after U.S. President Joe Biden accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of falsely claiming that the United States and Ukraine are developing biological or chemical weapons for use against Russia — rhetoric that Biden said shows Putin is considering using those types of deadly weapons in Ukraine.
“He’s already used chemical weapons in the past, and we should be careful of what’s about to come,” Biden said Monday during remarks at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Mar 22, 4:25 am
Russia-US relations ‘on the brink of a breakup,’ diplomat warns
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned Tuesday that the United States should stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and making threats to Moscow in order to “preserve relations” with Russia.
“They simply need to stop in their escalation, both verbal escalation and in terms of stuffing the Kyiv region with weapons. They need to stop producing threats to Russia,” Ryabkov said while answering questions from reporters in Moscow. “Meanwhile, if they do manage to somehow positively influence Kyiv, something that I not just doubt, but I am confident that it will not happen, unfortunately, then I think there will be a certain prospect for normalizing relations.”
“For now, we see a downward tendency in relations with our country through the fault of the U.S.,” he added. “We regret it, but it does not impact our determination to move toward accomplishing the goals of the special military operation and to adapt to the circumstances related to the American sanctions and the sanctions imposed by European satellites of the U.S. at its behest.”
When asked whether Moscow plans to recall its ambassador, Ryabkov told reporters that the future of Russia-U.S. relations depends on Washington.
“A note of protest was passed to the American ambassador yesterday. It said that the current developments put these relations on the brink of a breakup,” he said. “There is nothing here beyond what was said there: that the question is about a policy that the U.S. will choose.”
(NEW YORK) — While Russia’s attack on Ukraine has many serious humanitarian consequences, there are also financial ones.
Russia has collectively borrowed approximately $480 billion. Some of that money is sovereign debt — what the Russian government has borrowed either from Russian investors in rubles or from other investors from around the world, in other currencies including the dollar, the euro, the yuan, etc. Some of that debt is corporate debt — what Russian companies have borrowed to raise money.
When Western investors think of a potential Russian debt default, they are focused on a very small percentage: about $20 billion.
Distressed debt investors such as Hans Humes, CEO of Greylock Capital, emphasize that the amount is small and that an initial default is already widely expected. If Russia were to default on some or all of its debt, there would probably be greater global market volatility on the news, but longer term, the greatest risks to the global economy and the U.S. economy are “the unintended consequences of sanctions placed against Russia and the resulting supply chain issues,” he said.
“U.S. inflation is not going to be affected by a default in Russia. What is going to affect inflation in the U.S. are the sanctions with the overlay of supply chain issues,” Humes explained.
To some investors’ surprise, Russia made its first interest payments on dollar-denominated debt earlier this week. As experts point out, this is the first page in the first chapter of a long book.
Even in non-war times, a country defaulting on its debt is a process-heavy event; there are intense conversions between the borrower and the lenders and potential suits and countersuits are usually filed in the country where most of the bonds have been issued. Usually, some sort of compromise in price can be found. Right now, most of Russia’s debt is trading between $.05 and $.25 on the dollar, according to Charlie Robertson, chief global economist at Renaissance Capital.
In war times, there are myriad extra wrinkles. Due to the sanctions the West has placed against Russia, the country is isolated from most of the global banking system. The U.S. Treasury has offered Russia a loophole to pay its dollar-denominated debt until the end of May; it is unclear what happens after that.
There are also certain debt contracts that Russia must pay in either dollars or euros; some investors think that Russia may pay in rubles, while playing the victim and playing up the fact that it is locked out of the Western banking system. It is true that two thirds of Russia’s $630 billion in reserves has been frozen by the West, but if Russia were to pay in rubles for certain bond contracts, an automatic default would be triggered. As Jay Newman recently wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, “If Putin owes you money, good luck collecting it.”
Will a potential Russian debt default affect the average American’s 401(k) retirement plan? The consensus answer is “no.”
The American banks that have Russian debt in their portfolios have very small amounts. The bonds are in specialty emerging markets funds and they are a small part of those funds. Additionally, American banks are reducing even these small amounts of exposure to comply with sanctions and avoid unnecessary risk.
System-wide, there are also serious stop gaps, some of which were put in place after Russia defaulted on internal, ruble-denominated debt in 1998 leaving hedge fund Long Term Capital Management exposed and sending shockwaves through the global market. The U.S. banking system has an additional number of guard rails in place as a result of the 2007-2009 credit crisis. In theory, the American banking system is at one of its most stable points in history.
In theory, a Russian debt default would have the most serious consequences on Russia itself; the ruble has lost more than half of its value since the war began. Russia’s GDP will drop -15% this year, according to Robin Brooks, chief economist at The Institute of International Finance, and a default on some or all debt would make that number worse.
The real worry for the global economy is not Russia’s debt levels or when or how it pays some or all of that debt back: it’s centered around sanctions. Pre-war, Russia and Ukraine exported about 25% of the world’s wheat. Russia and Ukraine were the top five exporters of many kinds of seeds and cereals, from barley to corn to sunflowers; humans and animals consume these products in different forms. Russia is also the biggest exporter of fertilizer, so farming all around the world becomes more expensive without fertilizer ingredients coming out of Russia, according to RBC Capital Markets.
Additionally, Russia is one of the world’s largest energy exporters, which implies even higher food prices, among other costs, since truck drivers use diesel to transport groceries.
(NEW YORK) — Since the war in Ukraine began, more than three million refugees have fled — by bus, train, car and foot — for neighboring countries. Some have destinations in mind, while others have no plan. But as these displaced citizens navigate different yet equally impossible conditions, doctors at the countries that border Ukraine say there’s a common thread: mental health is the most often reported medical problem.
Among the millions of refugees, acute stress disorder has been reported as a common ailment.
“Acute stress disorder is basically a fight-or-flight reaction that lasts a few days to a month and involves having been exposed to a threat to your life or limb and not being able to stop thinking about it,” Dr. Craig Katz, a clinical professor of psychiatry, medical education, system design and global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
In cases where people are in a fight-or-flight mode, “They’re highly likely to have problems sleeping, being extremely anxious and not having much of an appetite, because they need to focus on survival,” Katz said.
Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, exposing its citizens to death and destruction, as well as disruption to basic needs.
“It’s clearly a nation under stress,” Dr. Dan Schnorr, an emergency medicine physician with Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News. “Every child in [Ukraine] is now experiencing multiple adverse childhood events, and that is one of the uncounted casualties that will ripple throughout generations.”
Research suggests that firsthand exposure to traumatic events, such as the Ukraine war, can have lasting effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression and relapse of alcohol abuse. According to the American Psychiatric Association, prevalence of acute stress disorder ranges from 13%-50% depending on the type of event exposed to and about half of those individuals with acute stress disorder develop PTSD.
According to Katz, the risk of developing lasting effects of acute stress disorder increases depending on the extent of exposure to a traumatic event, prior trauma that was not well addressed previously, a history of psychiatric disorders and not having social support.
Alternatively, being spiritual, having social support, realistic optimism, being cognitively flexible and having a sense of purpose can all help to mitigate the effects of the acute stress.
“Psychological first aid is a way to attend to people’s mental health scratches and bruises so that they don’t become festering wounds,” Katz said. “You make sure people feel safe and secure, make sure they have meals to eat, you especially make sure they — as much as you can — they are together with loved ones or have some sort of communication that has support.”
At Palanca, the border crossing in Moldova, psychosocial clinics have been established to identify those struggling mentally and ease the effects of this trauma.
“It’s more about listening and giving a shoulder to cry on,” Dr. Axel Adolfo, an emergency medicine physician working with Doctors Without Borders, said. “It’s about having someone waiting there for them with arms fully open … They just want to let go of the two to three weeks they spent in fear or doubt and can feel that they are close to [safety].”
The challenge now becomes helping to integrate these populations into neighboring societies.
“People always say mental health is a good idea, but they need to start planning from now,” Katz said.
Refugees are at risk of forming lasting mental health effects. Eventually, according to Katz, screening will be important to identify who may need to be connected to a psychiatrist.
For now, though, “It’s about being here and saying, ‘The whole world is watching, and we are here to help you, and it’s OK to cry,'” Adolfo said.
(NEW YORK) — In the wake of a flurry of warnings from officials over a potential COVID-19 resurgence in the United States, there are growing concerns among health experts that dwindling access to public data, the shuttering of COVID-19 testing sites and with an increasing number of people using at-home tests instead, it could leave the nation vulnerable to unforeseen upticks.
“Comprehensive case data is critical to an effective response. As we have seen throughout the pandemic, lack of data leads to poor decision making and ultimately costs lives,” Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said.
Since last summer, dozens of states and the federal agencies have opted to scale back on regular data reporting. Few states still offer COVID-19 data reports seven days a week, with most now moving to weekly or alternate-day schedules.
“Federal public health has no statutory authority to direct what and how public health data are reported. As such, CDC relies on a patchwork of approaches to collect data voluntarily provided from state and local jurisdictions,” a spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “This pandemic demonstrated the inadequacies of the fractured patchwork system. Immediate and complete data are needed to make the best recommendations to keep people safe and to inform policy making.”
Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services also ended the requirement for hospitals to report several key COVID-19 metrics, including a daily total of the number of COVID-19 deaths, the number of emergency department overflow and ventilated patients, and information on critical staffing shortages.
The decision comes weeks after the CDC unveiled a new plan for determining COVID-19 risk in communities and updated its recommendations for face coverings, allowing nearly all of the country to go mask-free under the new guidelines.
Some health experts have criticized the guidance, suggesting it gives Americans a false sense of security, as it relies less on transmission-related data, and more on hospital bed availability.
In recent weeks, wastewater surveillance has become a critical metric. At this time, indicators suggest COVID-19 infection rates may be higher than initially thought; an uptick in the number of wastewater sites monitored by the CDC have seen an increase in the presence of the COVID-19 virus in their wastewater.
Although wastewater can be a helpful tool used as a preliminary indicator of COVID-19 trends in the U.S., experts said using it alone will not be sufficient in predicting data trends.
“While we have other surveillance tools like wastewater viral levels and hospitalization counts, testing data provides an understanding of the full extent of community transmission and ultimately risk to our health systems,” Brownstein said.
From coast-to-coast, dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites, as at-home COVID-19 tests have become more available in pharmacies, and offered to Americans through the federal testing program.
However, most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, and thus, experts said infection totals are likely undercounted.
Reported testing levels are now at their lowest point in eight months, with reported test numbers dropping by nearly 75% since the beginning of the year.
“Testing has always been a cornerstone of our pandemic response. Without this surveillance data, we are flying blind and are almost certainly going to repeat mistakes of the past,” Brownstein said. “When we close testing sites, we not only put individuals, their contacts and their communities at risk, we undermine critical public health infrastructure.”
Of additional concern is the potential for the CDC, which has compiled key COVID-19 metrics throughout the pandemic, to lose access to data, following the loss of federal funding.
“We are the compiler of the data, but we do not have the authority to collect it. And so we rely on states being willing to share it with us and the data use authorization, data use agreements, in order to do so,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CBS News earlier this month.
When the public health declaration lapses, the agency will no longer have access to many key data metrics.
“Data related to COVID-19 test results and hospitalizations are currently available because of the public health emergency declaration. When that declaration lapses, so does CDC’s access to this important information,” the CDC representative explained.
The CDC has embarked upon an aggressive data modernization effort, the agency told ABC News. With adequate funding, these efforts will allow the sharing of data and information across the public health ecosystem.
“System-wide modernization and change to benefit all of public health requires CDC to have the authority to coordinate and guide how data are reported and shared for evidence based decision-making,” the CDC representative said. “The nation can no longer continue with the current, fractured approach of collecting public health data to be better prepared for future pandemics.”
Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Some GOP members of Congress are calling on fellow Republican and former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens to drop out of his Senate race following accusations of physical abuse by his ex-wife, Sheena Greitens.
Sheena Greitens claimed that, following a 2018 argument, Eric Greitens “knocked me down and confiscated my cell phone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home in Innsbrook, Missouri,” according to court documents.
Sheena Greitens said when her mother confronted Eric Greitens about the incident, “he told her that he did so to prevent [Sheena] from doing anything that might damage his political career,” court documents obtained by ABC News said.
Sheena Greitens also alleged that in November 2019, one of her children “came home from a visit with Eric with a swollen face, bleeding gums, and a loose tooth,” the court documents said. Although the child said Eric Greitens hit him, “Eric said they were roughhousing and it had been an accident,” the documents said.
Eric Greitens has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment but in a statement on Twitter called the claims “completely fabricated” and “baseless.”
“Being a father is the joy of my life and my single most important responsibility,” he said, adding that he’s seeking full custody.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a fellow Missouri Republican, is calling for Greitens to end his campaign.
“If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate. It’s time for Eric Greitens to leave this race,” tweeted Hawley, who is not up for reelection this year.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Greitens should drop out of the race.
Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, agreed.
“Why you would want to continue the race in this case?” Thune said. “I mean, it just seems like with that coupled with all the other scandals, it’s hard to see how he could be a viable general election candidate.”
Eric Greitens resigned as governor in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and blackmail after he had a relationship with a hairdresser that allegedly included physical and sexual contact without her consent.
Glass Animals‘ “Heat Waves” is number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for a third week in a row. One reason for the song’s popularity may be that even though front man Dave Bayley specifically wrote it about a friend’s death, it’s general enough that any one who misses someone can relate to it — which Dave says is exactly the point.
“That’s always a goal,” Dave tells ABC Audio about giving “Heat Waves” a universal message. “I think a lot of my favorite songs that have kind of helped me get through things…all best songs in the world do that…they give you a way in.”
“I feel like they’re not so specific that you can’t fit part of your own life into them,” he notes. “You relate to them and you feel like that whoever’s written it is, like, on a similar page to you. And that’s always the goal.”
But Dave says that when fans reach out to him to tell them that “Heat Waves” has helped them get through their own hard times, or even saved their life, he’s quite overwhelmed by the idea of it.
“It really means so much. All of my favorite songs, the songs that really like saved me, I think about those when people say that to me,” Dave says.
He adds, “I think it’s so strange that I’ve maybe written something that did that for someone else. It’s hard to wrap your head around sometimes…maybe when I’m older, I’ll be able to digest all of it.”
