Starz has released an epic first trailer to the second season of their hit crime-drama Power Book II: Ghost.
The new promo teases Michael Rainey Jr.‘s original Power character, Tariq, and his deeper dive into the world of crime following the events of season one. As previously reported, Power alum Larenz Tate has been upped to a series-regular role for the second season of the Power spinoff. He joins Mary J. Blige, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Woody McClain and others, who will also return. Season two of Power Book II: Ghost premieres November 21 on Starz.
In other news, Kevin Durant‘s Apple TV+ series, Swagger, has dropped its first trailer. Inspired by Durant’s childhood experiences playing basketball in Washington, D.C., the series follows the young athletes, families and coaches as they “walk the fine line between dreams and ambition, and opportunism and corruption.” Swagger stars O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isaiah Hill, Quvenzhané Wallis, Tristan Mack Wilds, Jason Rivera and others. The series hits Apple TV+ on Friday, October 29.
Finally, John Boyega has teamed up with Converse for The Create Next Film Project, a new initiative that will help nurture the next generation of Black filmmakers. As part of the project, Boyega will work with five London filmmakers, who will receive funding to create a five-minute short film, as well as be supported through mentoring from Boyega and a team of creatives. The program’s design is to help “highlight issues people of color face working in the industry.” Boyega shared the news on his Instagram with the message, “The next generation deserves a proper shot ! Let’s do this.”
According to a press statement, the Hard Rock Live concert will be the most intimate performance The Stones have given in more than a decade. Tickets go on sale to the general public this Monday, October 18, at 10 a.m. ET, and will be available at MyHRL.com.
“[W]e are honored to have the privilege of hosting perhaps the most iconic rock band of all-time on the final date of their North American tour,” says Hard Rock International executive Keith Sheldon. “With what will be by far the most intimate performance on the No Filter Tour, we know this will be an incredibly special evening at our 6,500 seat Hard Rock Live venue.”
The Rolling Stones next concert will take place Sunday, October 17, in Los Angeles at SoFi Stadium, the second of two shows the band has scheduled at the venue.
Just Announced – The Stones will bring the No Filter tour to Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida on November 23. Tickets go on sale this Monday, October 18 at 10am ET. pic.twitter.com/0KMk1PDkmp
Rob Thomas‘ holiday album Something About Christmas Time is out next week, but you don’t have to wait to hear a preview of one of the duets that’s featured on the project.
Ingrid Michaelson joins Rob for a version of “Christmas Time,” a 1985 holiday tune by Bryan Adams, a snippet of which is posted right now on Ingrid’s Instagram Story. The album’s title is taken from the lyrics of the song. The project also includes collaborations with Bebe Winans and country star Brad Paisley, as well as an updated version of “A New York Christmas,” which Rob originally put out in 2003.
Ingrid also has her own holiday release: a deluxe version of her 2018 album Songs for the Season, due November 5. That project includes collaborations with, among others, Jason Mraz and actress/singer Zooey Deschanel.
Here’s the track listing for Something About Christmas Time:
“Save Some Christmas for Me”
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
“Christmas Time” (Ft. Ingrid Michaelson)
“That Spirit of Christmas” (Ft. Bebe Winans)
“Small Town Christmas”
“New Year’s Day”
“Santa Don’t Come Here Anymore” (Ft. Brad Paisley)
“I Believe In Santa Claus” (Ft. Abby Anderson)
“A New York Christmas ‘21”
“Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas (Samy’s Song)”
(WASHINGTON) — As the U.S. economy struggles to fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic, supply-chain disruptions across the country are driving up prices and leading to a growing shortage of goods.
The supply chain bottlenecks — around the world — have caused record shortages of many products that American consumers are used to having readily available, from household goods to electronics to automobiles.
Moody’s Analytics has warned that problems “will likely get worse before they get better.”
“As the global economic recovery continues to gather steam, what is increasingly apparent is how it will be stymied by supply-chain disruptions that are now showing up at every corner,” Moody’s wrote in a report.
Here is how experts answer some key questions:
What’s causing the disruptions?
Analysts say that the lingering effects of COVID-19 mitigation strategies essentially reduced the production of goods and services, and the supply chain shortages now happening are the result of struggles to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“The result of that imbalance between supply and demand eliminated all the inventory and eliminated all the grease that allows the wheels of commerce to work smoothly,” said Steve Ricchiuto, chief U.S. economist at Mizuho Securities.
Not enough warehouse workers, truck drivers
Economists believe there are several issues at work behind the supply chain shortages, including a growing number of workers quitting jobs key to keeping things running smoothly.
A record 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August — the most since the Department of Labor started tracking this data in 2000.
“You have a bunch of sectors that just pay minimum wage and labor is just going to veer over to where it finds the most profit,” said Vidya Mani, an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
The Labor Department in July reported that the warehouse industry had a record 490,000 job openings. Companies such as Walmart, Target and Amazon are going to great lengths to attract warehouse workers with attractive benefits, including free college tuition.
With growing inflation jitters, many large retail employers are increasing their wages to keep up with rising prices, intensifying the competition among companies to make their most compelling job-offers amid the pre-holiday rush to hire workers.
The American Trucking Association in 2019 estimated that it would be short some 60,000 drivers, but those shortages increased due to retirements, and new truck drivers being trained due to COVID-19 closures.
“There is a shortage of drivers, and it is one of several issues contributing to problems in the overall supply chain,” said Sean McNally, an ATA spokesman. “However it is a reflection of the strong demand for goods – and everything consumers buy is delivered in a truck.”
At the same time, economists say large employers preparing to bring their staffs back to work in larger numbers had led to large purchases of bulk items.
So, what happens now?
Supply chain experts say that the best option for consumers right now is to wait and start tapering their demands for goods, or they may ultimately end up paying a higher price once those long-awaited products become available.
“It’s good to be aware of the fact that when we make our purchases that whatever we order is going to land at some point in time,” said Mani. “We see these immediate shortages and we just keep ordering and ordering. A lot of those consumer goods companies are going to just pass on those price increases to you.”
The Biden administration has made a concerted effort to try to close supply chain gaps and has pushed the president’s infrastructure plan as a means of addressing systemic supply chain issues. President Joe Biden announced that the port of Los Angeles would begin 24/7 operations to ease bottlenecks ahead of the holiday season.
“Strengthening our supply chains will continue to be my team’s focus,” said Biden. “If federal support is needed, I will direct all appropriate action, and if the private sector doesn’t step up, we’re going to call them out and ask them to act.”
But experts believe that untangling supply chain woes could take much longer.
How long before things return to normal?
“We are in for at least four to six months for it to actually catch a break,” said Nick Vyas, executive director at the Kendrick Global Supply Chain Management Institute at University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.
“So I think we’re going have to go through the peak seasons with this bottlenecks, and although the bottlenecks may actually move from the ports into the inland, but the delay is, I do anticipate to be continued through the holiday season.”
Disruptions to the supply chain at the pandemic’s onset, which caused months of shortages in PPE including N95 respirators, gloves, cleaning supplies and other critical care hospital equipment took nearly a year to resolve.
The federal government, specifically FEMA, had no clear guidance on the distribution of supply to the states leading to an oversupply of goods in some portions of the country while others experienced severe shortages.
Though the supply crunch is driving up prices, companies now have an opportunity to begin figuring out solutions, given the vulnerabilities that recent supply chain crises have exposed, including the deepening cargo ship gridlocks at the world’s busiest ports.
Gooten, a U.S. based supply chain company, facilitates brands and retailers in using on-demand manufacturing to grow their retail and e-commerce businesses on a global basis.
Companies that utilize on-demand production begin producing products only once they are purchased by a consumer, as opposed to forecasting what the demand for a product might be and then producing a set number of those products.
“We have to start that same just-in-time manufacturing model with everything else we produce, whether its apparel, wall art, home goods, toys we just have to shift our thinking,” said Mark Kapczynski, chief marketing officer at Gooten.
“If you’re a retailer, or you’re a brand and you have ten thousand pieces of, let’s say t-shirts, sitting on a box in a boat how do you sell anything?” he said.
It’s The Velvet Underground as you’ve never seen them before. A new documentary from acclaimed indie-film director Todd Haynes about the hugely influential rock group debuts today on Apple TV+.
Haynes tells ABC Audio that the film, like the band itself, is different from other rock documentaries.
“This band…and the whole culture from which the band arose, is kind of an invitation to look at what this whole experimental attitude,” he explains. “And not just in terms of music making…but in the sort of the language that was being swapped from medium to medium.”
Titled simplyThe Velvet Underground, the documentary features new interviews with surviving members John Cale and Maureen Tucker, as well as other people associated with the band. There are also archival conversations with the late artist Andy Warhol, who managed and helped promote the group during its early years. What you won’t see in this film is the typical archival material, because it doesn’t exist.
“There is no live concert footage…no promotional record label material, there aren’t interviews of them at the time on film,” notes Haynes. “What you see is what’s in the film, which is films from Andy Warhol, where they were kind of part of an art project.”
The doc offers an inside look at the group and its classic lineup — the late Lou Reed on lead vocals and guitar, Cale on bass and viola, Tucker on drums and the late Sterling Morrison on lead guitar — as well as their life inside Warhol’s studio, The Factory.
“They were making art all day long…because Andy was a taskmaster…And then they’d go out partying all night,” adds Haynes. “And you’d go to a party and then you’d go wake up the next morning, do some more speed, and start making art again…it was a…ludicrously pleasurable time.”
A contestant on NBC’s spin-off America’s Got Talent: Extreme was hospitalized Thursday evening after a stunt went terribly wrong.
A source for Freemantle Media, which produces the daredevil competition show, tells ABC Audio that escape artist Jonathan Goodwin was injured while performing his act. “He was responsive and was immediately taken to the hospital, where he is continuing to receive medical care,” producers said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family as we await further updates on his condition.”
TMZ reports Goodwin was suspended 70 feet off the ground, attempting to escape from a straitjacket, when he was crushed between two suspended, swinging cars, which exploded. He reportedly fell and hit his head, says the gossip site, which noted Goodwin was airlifted to a trauma unit.
TMZ claims those who witnessed the “horrifying” accident “thought he was dead.”
America’s Got Talent: Extreme will be hosted by Terry Crews, and judges will include WWE star Nikki Bella, extreme sports champ Travis Pastrana,and Simon Cowell when the show debuts as part of NBC’s upcoming midseason roster.
(WASHINGTON) — A day after voting in support of Moderna booster shots for certain at-risk Americans, an independent Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Friday voted to move forward with Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine boosters.
The panel’s decision on J&J was broader then it was for Moderna and Pfizer as it applies to all J&J recipients 18 and older. The timing is also different: It can be administered two months after the initial shot.
For the two mRNA vaccines, the panel agreed they should be authorized for a narrower group: seniors and everyone 18 or older if they have underlying conditions or could be exposed to the virus at work. They also agreed on a timeline of six months after the second shot.
The FDA has not found an increase in concerning side effects from any of the three vaccines’ booster doses.
The conversation around boosters focuses on whether Americans vaccinated over six months ago need a boost of protection against breakthrough infections in the face of the more transmissible delta variant, though all of the three vaccines authorized in the U.S. are still proving effective against hospitalization and death.
Experts on the FDA panel were quick to highlight that success, emphasizing that the conversation around boosters should not overshadow the vital campaign to get the 66 million unvaccinated Americans vaccinated.
“The people who are in the ICU aren’t there because they haven’t gotten the third dose, they’re there because they haven’t gotten any dose,” Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA advisory panel member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said in Thursday’s meeting.
Another pertinent debate that the FDA panel will take on Friday is the potential benefits of mixing and matching vaccines for booster shots. Many J&J recipients who feel the single-shot vaccine didn’t perform as well as the mRNA vaccines have been clamoring for data on their options for switching.
Early results from a highly anticipated National Institutes of Health study found that boosting with a shot different from what people got the first time appears to be safe and effective.
The non-peer reviewed study evaluated all three vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna and J&J — and found that no matter the booster, all study participants saw a “substantial” uptick in antibody levels after a booster shot.
The study also found that for J&J vaccine recipients, antibody levels were higher if they were boosted with Moderna or Pfizer than with J&J. This could indicate stronger protection in the short term, but experts also point out that antibody levels are not the only part of the immune response.
Though promising, more research is likely needed on mixing and matching.
For now, the process will formally move forward with authorizing additional booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots for those who received the same original vaccine, as was the case with the Pfizer booster authorization.
This week’s meetings are the first step in that process for Moderna and J&J.
The FDA is expected to issue an authorization in the coming days, and then an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet to further discuss recommendations about who should get boosters and when.
That panel has scheduled a meeting for next Wednesday and Thursday to discuss boosters for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Once that happens, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky must sign off, which typically happens within 24 hours of the panel’s recommendations. That decision is expected by next Friday at the earliest.
(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been arrested and charged with obstruction of justice over allegations he encouraged an alleged participant of the Jan. 6 riot to delete social media posts that showed the person joining the pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol, authorities said Friday.
Michael Riley, an officer with more than 25 years of experience, was not on duty inside the Capitol building itself during the riot — but afterward messaged an unidentified individual over Facebook who allegedly had posted selfies and other videos showing themselves inside the Capitol, an indictment said.
“Hey [Person 1], im a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance,” Riley allegedly wrote. “Take down the part about being in the building they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to [be] charged. Just looking out!”
The person then exchanged dozens of more messages with Riley showing them inside and outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the indictment.
“I get it… it was a total sh** show!!!” Riley allegedly wrote. “Just wanted to give you a heads up… Im glad you got out of there unscathed. We had over 50 officers hurt, some pretty bad,” the indictment said.
The two continued to converse over Facebook direct messaging for several days after, according to charging documents. In one exchange, Riley joked the alleged rioter could come stay with him in D.C. at a later date and he could arrange a tour for him so he could “legally” see it, authorities said.
The alleged rioter was later arrested on Jan. 19, according to the charging documents, and the individual told Riley “the fbi was very curious that I had been speaking to you” and warned him they would likely be reaching out to him, according to the indictment.
Riley then allegedly deleted all of his Facebook messages to and from the rioter, the charges said.
Later, according to the indictment, Riley sent a message to the rioter saying a mutual friend sent him a video showing the man smoking weed in the Capitol, and said it made him so “shocked and dumbfounded” that he deleted all of their prior messages.
Riley made his first appearance in court Friday afternoon following his arrest on two counts of obstruction of justice.
The government did not seek his detention and he was ordered released on several conditions, including that he remove any firearms from his home.
He did not enter a plea in the case. His attorney said they expected he will be arraigned on both charges sometime later this month.
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger called the allegations “very serious” and said the officer is being placed on administrative leave pending the completion of the case. The officer will also be subjected to an administrative USCP investigation.
The officer had worked most recently as a K-9 tech.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily block the most restrictive abortion law in the country, after a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the Texas statute can remain in effect amid an ongoing legal challenge.
The law, known as SB8, bans physicians from providing abortions once they detect a so-called fetal heartbeat, which can be seen on an ultrasound as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
The law, which went into effect on Sept. 1 after the Supreme Court refused to block it, was briefly paused after a federal judge issued a temporary injunction last week barring its enforcement. Days later, the law was reinstated after a panel of judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary administrative stay.
In the latest ruling in the high-profile case, the court rejected the Justice Department’s request to again halt Texas’ ability to enforce the law. In a 2-1 order Thursday night, a panel of judges granted Texas’s request to continue to stay the preliminary injunction while it pursues its appeal.
The court’s order did not detail its reasoning behind the ruling, which was expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Next stop, #SCOTUS,” University of Texas constitutional law professor Steve Vladeck said in a post on Twitter following the ruling.
Indeed, on Friday, DOJ Spokesman Anthony Coley confirmed in a statement to ABC news that the department “intends to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the preliminary injunction against Texas Senate Bill 8.”
Under the law, private citizens can sue a person they “reasonably believe” provided an illegal abortion or assisted someone in getting it in the state, and is crafted to prevent any state official, other than judges, from being responsible for enforcement.
In a 113-page ruling initially granting the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman was scathing in targeting the state in how he says it schemed to evade judicial review.
“A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established,” Pitman wrote. “Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the State contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that.”
After the injunction was issued, some abortion providers in Texas briefly resumed providing abortions after cardiac activity was detected, only to have the ban back in effect within 48 hours.
Since the law went into effect, women have had to travel hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion out-of-state, inundating neighboring states’ abortion clinics. Abortion providers in Texas have that some clinics may have to close permanently because of the law.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse have revealed complete official details about their recently announced forthcoming studio album, Barn, which will be released on December 10.
According to a press release, the 10-track collection was recorded “this summer under a full moon, in a restored off-grid 19th century barn high up in the Rockies,” and features “stunning love songs, reflective ballads and powerhouse rockers.”
You can check out the album’s first track, “Song of the Seasons,” now at NeilYoungArchives.com and Young’s YouTube channel. The song is a lilting folk-rock tune showcasing Young’s acoustic guitar and harmonica playing, as well as Crazy Horse multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren‘s accordion talents.
Barn will be released on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats. A deluxe box set version of the album also will be available featuring a CD, a vinyl LP and a Blu-ray disc. The Blu-ray will feature a film directed by Neil’s wife, actress Daryl Hannah, offering a look at the making of Barn. The Blu-ray also will be available as a standalone release.
Vinyl versions of Barn purchased at The Greedy Hand Store at Young’s website and at independent record shops will come with six behind-the-scenes photos. The pics also will be included in the box set.
All versions of Barn bought via The Greedy Hand Store will come with a free hi-res digital download of the album.
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“Song of the Seasons”
“Heading West”
“Change Ain’t Never Gonna”
“Canerican”
“Shape of You”
“They Might Be Lost”
“Human Race”
“Tumblin’ Thru the Years”
“Welcome Back”
“Don’t Forget Love”
