As if she didn’t already have enough to celebrate, Britney Spears turns the big 4-0 today, December 2. Within the past few weeks, Britney’s 13-year-long conservatorship was finally ended, and it appears that wedding plans with fiance Sam Asghari are proceeding quickly. The mom of two is even thinking about having another baby.
A few days ago, Britney teased on Instagram, “Guess what???? My b-day is coming soon!!!!” And while we don’t know how she’s planning to spend her special day, let’s celebrate her by highlighting just a few of her many accomplishments.
–Last year, Rolling Stonenamed Britney’s “…Baby One More Time” the Greatest Debut Single of All Time.
–Britney has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She’s also the best-selling female albums artist of the 2000s.
–Britney’s scored five number-one singles and six number-one albums. Her second album, Oops!…I Did It Again, set the record for the highest debut-week sales by a female artist, with 1.39 million. That record stood until Adele‘s 25 broke it in 2015.
–Her honors include an American Music Award, eight Billboard Music Awards, a Grammy, six MTV VMAs, six People’s Choice Awards, 12 Teen Choice Awards and the GLAAD Vanguard Award, among dozens more.
–Britney’s line of signature perfumes, now numbering more than 20, has made over $1.5 billion.
–Britney’s Las Vegas residency Piece of Me grossed nearly $138 million and won multiple awards.
–Among the TV shows Britney has appeared in over the years: Will & Grace, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, The Simpsons, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Jane the Virgin. She was also a judge on The X Factor‘s second season.
Asked to send Britney a birthday wish, her old pal Joey Fatone from *NSYNC tells ABC Audio, “To Britney: Happy 40th birthday! Have fun, enjoy, be safe. You need to party your a** off!”
“Not too crazy,” he adds. “But party your a** off in the sense of, to have your freedom, to have fun, to be able to enjoy yourself and do what the hell you wanna do…obviously, within reason! So Britney, happy 40th birthday and enjoy!”
–Britney’s first movie, 2002’s Crossroads, written by Shonda Rhimes and co-starring Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning and Dan Aykroyd, was a box-office hit.
–Britney is a doting mother to her teenage sons Sean Preston and Jayden James, and wrote this year, “I’m so incredibly blessed to have these two little men in my life.”
In September, The Scorpions announced that their long-awaited new studio album, Rock Believer, was due out on February 11, 2022, but the release date recently was pushed back to February 25.
This week, Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine and guitarist Rudolf Schenker shared some details about the album during a Zoom interview with Chile’s Radio Futuro.
Asked what fans can expect when they hear the new material, Meine said, “Well, you can expect an album that is dedicated to all the rock believers in the world…The goal was to make a rock album — to make an album with lots of attitude, power and focus on the good old times and really enjoy the music and have some fun with the music.”
Talking about the meaning of the album’s title, Schenker said, “Look, we [have been] around the world since 50 years or more. And [if] somebody can say he’s a rock believer, then this is us. And of course, we meet our rock believers in front of us, our audience.”
Meine told Radio Futuro that “Peacemaker” exemplified a lot of the tunes on the new record, noting, “It is an uptempo rock song, and this album really rocks…There are many uptempo songs and, believe it or not, there are even faster songs than ‘Peacemaker.'”
In addition, the singer revealed, “There’s also a very beautiful ballad on the album, and I’m sure there are fans out there [who] especially love the Scorpions ballads, and they will enjoy this record as well very much.”
Lars Niki/Getty Images for New York Women in Film & Television
Wendy Williams appears to be doing well amid her on-going health issues.
In a video clip published by The Shade Room on Wednesday, the talk show host is barefoot and wearing a red Versace robe as she exits a Miami wellness facility and makes her way to a black SUV with the help of her driver.
Although Williams, 57, stays mum about the status of The Wendy Williams Show and if it’s cancelled, she does say “thank you,” when the paparazzi says “everyone does hope you feel better.”
When asked about her recovery, she responds in third person stating, “Wendy is doing fabulous” and adds that fans can look forward to “lots more Wendy stuff.”
As previously reported, Williams has been absent from her show since it was originally expected to return on September 20 for the start of its 13th season. Her return was delayed due to ongoing health issues, which included testing positive for a breakthrough case of COVID-19.
Since then, numerous guest hosts have filled in for her, including Sherri Shepherd, Leah Remini, Michael Rapaport and Jerry Springer.
Williams previously addressed her absence from the show in a statement shared on November 8.
“HOW YOU DOIN’? I MISS YOU ALL! As everyone knows, my health has been a hot topic,” the statement reads. “I’m making progress but it’s just one of those things that’s taking longer than we expected.”
She continues, “I’m a woman of a certain age, and I know enough to listen to my doctors and will return to my purple chair as soon as we all agree I’m ready. I want to thank all of my staff and our guest hosts for stepping up and stepping in while I can’t be there.”
(WASHINGTON) — Global health authorities are urging against the use of “blanket” travel bans in response to the threat of new coronavirus variants, as some nations have rushed to shutter incoming travel from southern African countries where the omicron variant has been detected.
The same health officials also warn that travel bans could have a negative effect on global efforts to respond to the pandemic, as nations may not wish to report new data and variants if they worry they could be seemingly punished for it by other countries barring their nationals from travel.
“Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” the World Health Organization said in a statement Tuesday. “In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.”
Rather than blanket travel bans, the United Nations’ public health body urges countries to apply an “evidence-informed and risk-based approach” when implementing new travel restrictions.
The WHO’s advice comes after it said some 56 countries were reportedly implementing travel measures aimed at potentially delaying the importation of the omicron variant.
In the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday that travel bans could “slow things down,” but they won’t prevent a new variant from coming into the country.
“What you can do is you can delay it enough to get us better prepared,” Fauci said. “And that’s the thing that people need to understand. If you’re going to do the travel ban the way we’ve done now and that we’re implementing right now, utilize the time that you’re buying to fill in the gaps.”
Fauci’s remarks notably came before the U.S. confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in California on Wednesday.
“Travel bans are a very weak measure at best, but they’re most valuable very, very early on in the emergence of a new variant,” said Dr. John Brownstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Travel bans can “buy you a little time,” he said, but only if they are implemented quickly and uniformly.
“The problem that we have here is that detection doesn’t mean being the epicenter of where the outbreak is,” Brownstein said. “Just because South Africa had incredible capacity to detect sequence doesn’t mean that necessarily this is where the most amount of cases occur.”
Some South African officials and scientists are calling the travel bans aimed at their country discriminatory and punitive.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed the WHO’s sentiments in remarks to reporters while traveling to Nigeria on Tuesday, saying South Africa should not be “punished” for travel bans after being transparent with its omicron detection and research.
“These bans must be removed, they must be lifted,” Ramaphosa said. “And in fact, we have advanced in the world to a point where we now know when people travel, they should be tested like I was tested last night, and I’m happy to be tested when I arrive again. We’ve got the tools we’ve got the means to be able to deal with this.”
Ramaphosa added that the open travel is critical for the tourism industry around the world, which he said has been “really devastated.”
“And for us, the tourism industry is one of the key industries for southern Africa as well,” he said. “So, this is unfair, this is discriminatory against us, and they are imposing a very unfair punishment.”
One of the South African scientists who helped identify the omicron variant similarly blasted the travel bans imposed on southern African countries as a result of their discovery.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in Stellenbosch, South Africa, tweeted Monday night that he had “spent a big part” of his day speaking with genomic and biotech companies because “soon” his team “will run out of reagents as airplanes are not flying to South Africa.”
In a series of tweets last week, de Oliveira urged the world to “provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it.”
“We have been very transparent with scientific information. We identified, made data public, and raised the alarm as the infections are just increasing. We did this to protect our country and the world in spite of potentially suffering massive discrimination,” he tweeted.
In an interview with the New Yorker, de Oliveira added that he was “very upset” with the events that took place after the discovery, specifically related to travel bans.
“The U.K., after praising us for discovering the variant, then put out this absolutely stupid travel ban, and it has hoarded vaccines for the last year,” he told the outlet. “It’s trying to put the blame on vaccine hesitancy. It’s looking for a reason to fault Africa.”
Brownstein, who also noted that countries would feel penalized, rather than incentivized, for reporting new variants, suggested that testing pre- and post-travel and “intense surveillance” would be “incredibly helpful and probably more valuable than the travel restrictions.” Travel bans, he said, are “not the best tool.”
“We have really robust testing, we have other tools at our disposal,” he said. “We should be in a position where we don’t need to implement these things.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said in remarks Tuesday that it was “deeply concerning” that countries “are now being penalized by others for doing the right thing.”
“I well understand the concern of all countries to protect their citizens against a variant that we don’t yet fully understand,” he said. “But I am equally concerned that several Member States are introducing blunt, blanket measures that are not evidence-based or effective on their own, and which will only worsen inequities.”
Ultimately, Ghebreyesus called on nations to take “rational, proportional risk-reduction measures, in keeping with the International Health Regulations.”
“The global response must be calm, coordinated and coherent,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft Corp. shareholders voted on Tuesday to force the company to more transparently address sexual harassment claims via independent investigations and public reporting.
The proposal, approved during the company’s annual shareholder meeting, was brought by Arjuna Capital, an investment firm known for its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activism. The vote may be seen by some as a win for activist investors seeking to drive change from the inside out in the private sector.
Under the proposal, Microsoft would have to prepare and release a report “assessing the effectiveness of the company’s workplace sexual harassment policies, including the results of any comprehensive independent audit/investigations, analysis of policies and practices, and commitments to create a safe, inclusive work environment,” according to a statement released by the investment firm.
Microsoft’s board urged shareholders to strike down the proposal, citing existing policies and mechanisms in place to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace.
Still, some 78% of shareholders voted for the proposal, Arjuna Capital said after the meeting. The firm said that, immediately following the vote, Microsoft committed to a third-party, independent assessment of its sexual harassment processes, in addition to public reporting on them.
“A majority of Microsoft’s investors are now calling on the company to shine a bright light on sexual harassment. The fact that executives responded so quickly following the vote is a sea change from how Microsoft has dealt with this issue in the past,” Natasha Lamb, managing partner at Arjuna Capital, said in a statement.
Microsoft confirmed the proposal had been approved in a statement following the meeting, adding that, “Microsoft already shares with employees annual data on the volume of sexual harassment concerns raised and the results of harassment investigations and has adopted plans to begin annual public reporting.”
During the question-and-answer portion of the shareholder meeting, Microsoft’s President and Vice Chair Brad Smith said the issue of sexual harassment is “of enormous importance” to Microsoft.
“There are new steps that we are going to take that we were thinking about, and I think that the resolution and the dialogue we’ve had has helped us advance our decision-making,” Smith added. “So for one, we will take new steps to be more transparent as a company. We have been sharing more data internally. We recognize that there are shareholder interest, and so we’ll share more data externally as well. You’ll see us publish more reports, just to reflect where this is going.”
Smith also pledged to bring in a third party to do an “independent assessment of all of the work that we do to investigate” sexual harassment cases.
“We’ll share what that independent report says and we will listen,” he added. “And if there’s recommendations for change, we will think hard about making them.”
Eddie Vedder has announced a 2022 U.S. tour with his solo band, Earthlings.
The outing will begin February 3-4 with a two-night stand in New York City, and will wrap up with a pair of dates in Pearl Jam‘s hometown of Seattle February 21-22.
Tickets will only be available through the Pearl Jam Ten Club and the Ticketmaster Verified Fan program. Registration for either sale is open now through December 5 at 5 p.m. PT.
Along with Vedder, Earthlings includes Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, ex-RHCP guitarist and current Pearl Jam touring member Josh Klinghoffer, Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney, singer-songwriter and Once star Glen Hansard, and guitarist/producer Andrew Watt. The group made their debut at Vedder’s Ohana Festival in September.
Earthlings take their name from Vedder’s upcoming solo album Earthling, due out February 11, 2022. The record includes the previously released singles “Long Way” and “The Haves.”
Last month, The Black Crowes played a special two-night Las Vegas engagement at the House of Blues, and now the veteran rockers have announced plans to return to the venue in February 2022 for a pair of new concerts.
The band’s residency, dubbed The Black Crowes: Twice as Hard, will take place on February 11 and February 12, and will feature the group — led by brothers Chris and Rich Robinson — playing their biggest hits, as well favorites from the band’s 1990 debut album, Shake Your Money Maker. The concerts will be held just before Super Bowl LVI, which is scheduled for Sunday, February 13, at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles.
Tickets for the new Vegas shows go on sale to the general public this Friday, December 3, at 10 a.m. PT. Black Crowes band, Live Nation and MGM pre-sale offers are all available now. Visit the group’s official website and social media pages and Ticketmaster.com for more details.
Besides the Las Vegas gigs, Chris and Rich Robinson are scheduled to perform as their Brothers of a Feather duo incarnation on January 15 at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The Black Crowes also are part of the 2022 Stagecoach Festival lineup and are slated to play that event on May 1 in Indio, California.
(OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich.) — A fourth student has died following Tuesday afternoon’s shooting at a Michigan high school.
Justin Shilling, 17, died at about 10:45 a.m. Wednesday in the wake of the shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, sheriff’s officials said. Three other students, ages 14 to 17, died Tuesday. Seven people, including a teacher, were injured.
The suspected gunman, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, was taken into custody and is being charged as an adult, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said at a news conference Wednesday.
There’s no indication that the victims were specifically targeted, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Wednesday.
McDonald said she is confident prosecutors can prove the shooting was premeditated “well before the incident.”
A law enforcement official told ABC News that investigators are actively pursuing information that, Monday night, an undetermined number of students appeared to see a Snapchat video warning of a shooting on Tuesday. Some students who saw the video stayed home from school, though no calls were placed to police regarding the video, the official said.
According to the sheriff’s office, “the suspect had been involved in a meeting over behavior issues the prior day and the day of the shooting.”
“Nothing of concern was noted in his school file prior to the first meeting,” the sheriff’s office said. “There are also no documented cases of bullying of the suspect with the school.”
Crumbley has been charged with one count of terrorism causing death; four counts of first-degree murder; seven counts of assault with intent to murder; and 11 counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, she said. Additional charges are possible, McDonald said.
A judge entered a not guilty plea for Crumbley in his first court appearance Wednesday afternoon. He will be moved to Oakland County Jail and held in isolation with bond, the judge said. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 13.
The teen allegedly took his father’s semiautomatic handgun, a 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol, with him to school, officials said.
The teen allegedly came out of a bathroom and began shooting. He never went into a classroom and was apprehended in a hallway, Bouchard said.
Thirty spent shell casings have been recovered, the sheriff said. The suspect had 18 live rounds left, he said.
The suspect’s father purchased the weapon on Black Friday and officials are looking into how the family stored its guns and how much access the teen had to them, according to a source briefed on the investigation. The suspect had apparently used the gun prior to the school shooting, the source said.
McDonald said prosecutors are considering charges against both of the suspect’s parents.
The first three students killed in the Tuesday shooting were Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, and Hana St. Juliana, 14.
Four of the seven injured victims remained in the hospital on Wednesday, the sheriff said. Among those in the hospital is a 17-year-old girl who is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest, he said.
Maxwell croons for an erotic encounter with the lady he’s missing as he finds himself alone in a vast desert in the video for his new single, “Off.” The sensual track is the first release from his upcoming BLACKsummers’NIGHT album, coming out spring of 2022.
As previously reported, the three-time Grammy winner received the Legend Award at the Soul Train Music Awards, which aired Sunday night on BET. In accepting the honor, he said, “The radio was the window to my dreams. And to be able to stand here before all of you and to be part of the community of R&B and soul music is truly the award that I’ve always wished for, but this literally is blowing my entire mind.”
Maxwell also performed a medley of his hits on the show, including “… Til the Cops Come Knockin’,” “Bad Habits,” “Lifetime,” “Sumthin’ Sumthin’,” “Ascension,” and “Off.”
The “Fortunate” singer will headline the NIGHT tour in 2022 featuring Anthony Hamilton and Joe. They will perform 25 shows, beginning March 2 in Dallas. Other cities will include New Orleans, Charlotte, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland, and the tour will wrap up in Miami on May 8. Tickets are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com.
(BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.) — The wife of a famed music executive was killed during a possible home invasion in Beverly Hills.
Officers from the Beverly Hills Police Department responded to the 1100 block of Maytor Place just before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, where they found a victim with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the department. The suspects were no longer on the scene, police said.
The victim was identified by a source close to the family as Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music executive and film producer Clarence Avant. Jacqueline Avant was transported to the hospital, where she later died, police said.
Jacqueline Avant, 81, may have been killed as the result of a home invasion, the source told ABC News. A back sliding glass door was shattered, Beverly Hills Police Chief Mark Stainbrook told ABC News.
It is unclear if anything was taken from the home, Stainbrook said. It is unclear who broke into the home, how the events unfolded and how long the suspects were there.
Clarence Avant, who is featured in the 2019 Netflix documentary “The Black Godfather,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October. Clarence Avant, 90, was popular among A-list celebrities such as Oprah, Jay-Z and even former President Barack Obama.
Police read a statement from the Avant family Wednesday afternoon during a press conference, which described Jacqueline Avant as “an amazing woman, wife, mother, philanthropist, and a 55-year resident of Beverly Hills.”
Beverly Hills Police detectives will use all available investigative methods to follow up on leads, Stainbrook said.
Additional information surrounding the incident were not immediately available.
![Scorpions’ Klaus Meine says band wanted new album ‘Rock Believer’ to have “lots of attitude [and] power”](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2021-12-01/M_ScorpionsRockBeliever630_120121.jpeg "Scorpions’ Klaus Meine says band wanted new album ‘Rock Believer’ to have “lots of attitude [and] power”")
