If you got the chance to sing with the two biggest female stars in pop music, you’d want to tell everyone about the experience, right? Not if you’re country superstar Chris Stapleton.
Chris is the duet partner of choice for Taylor Swift and Adele: He sings with Taylor on “I Bet You Think About Me,” a “From the Vault” track on Red (Taylor’s Version), which comes out Friday; and with Adele on a bonus track on her album, 30, which comes out later this month. But backstage at the CMA Awards Wednesday night, when asked to reveal what that was like, Chris was a gentleman and kept his lips zipped.
“I can tell you very simply, they called and I answered,” Chris told reporters. “Y’know, those are calls that you, when you pick up, you’re like, ‘What do you want me to do? O.K. cool.’ Y’know, that’s how that goes.”
“So that’s what I can tell you about it,” he added, maddeningly. “The rest of it, they’ll have to tell you on their own time.”
Sure, Chris — because Taylor and Adele just love talking to the press.
By the way, Chris is also the duet partner of choice for another big female pop star: He sings with Kelly Clarkson on her new holiday album …When Christmas Comes Around. And Wednesday night, he sang with another American Idol alum, Jennifer Hudson.
And he doesn’t limit himself to female pop stars, either: Chris also sang with Justin Timberlake on JT’s most recent album, 2018’s Man of the Woods. That came after the two brought down the house at the CMA Awards back in 2015.
(DALLAS) — The impact of Texas’s near-total ban on abortions is being felt in states as far away as California and Maryland, according to new research.
In the weeks since SB8, which outlaws most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, went into effect, Texas residents have undergone abortions in more than one dozen states and Washington, D.C., according to research from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
In addition to traveling to states that border Texas to seek abortion care, residents have traveled to states that are hundreds or thousands of miles away. One abortion provider in Tennessee has had twice as many patients from Texas since September, when SB8 went into effect, than in all of 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“What we’re talking about is a total disruption of the abortion care network,” said Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher institute. “And if the Texas ban stays in effect and other states are able to follow suit, then we will continue to see a real disruption among abortion clinics across the country.”
The Texas law bans abortion once the rhythmic contracting of fetal cardiac tissue can be detected. That’s usually around six weeks, before some people may even know they’re pregnant.
Most of the abortions performed nationwide are after six weeks of pregnancy.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments earlier this month about SB8, which is enforced by private citizens who are allowed to bring lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an unlawful abortion.
The justices are expected to rule soon on whether abortion rights advocates and the federal government have the ability to sue Texas over the law given the way it’s designed.
In the meantime, abortion rights advocates say they worry that the far distances people are having to travel to seek abortion care means the most vulnerable people, such as those without the financial resources to travel, are being left behind.
Jessica Pinckney, executive director of Access Reproductive Justice in California, said the organization’s Healthline, which helps people with funding and logistics for abortion care, has only seen a small uptick in callers from Texas since SB8 went into effect.
The organization’s clinic partners in California, however, are reporting caring for two to three patients from Texas per day, according to Pinckney.
“This likely indicates that the people who are leaving Texas to access abortion care have the financial means to do so and, potentially, are not calling on Access for financial support,” Pinckney said, adding that her organization is preparing for even more of an influx of people from Texas as abortion care in closer states becomes harder to obtain, whether because of increased restrictions in those states or an increased demand for abortions.
An earlier Guttmacher Institute analysis found that when a person from Texas has to travel out of state for an abortion, it increases the trip by an average of nearly 3.5 hours each way.
The cost of some abortions can range anywhere from zero dollars to $1,500 based on where a person lives and what types of health insurance and financial support programs they may have access to, according to Planned Parenthood.
As the pregnancy progresses, it gets more expensive. Abortion in the second trimester can cost as much as $3,500 — and that is before factoring in costs like travel, child care and time off of work — according to Brigitte Winter, board vice president of the Baltimore Abortion Fund (BAF), a nonprofit organization that provides financial support to people seeking abortion care in Maryland.
“Over the last two years, BAF has seen the barriers to access for the people calling our confidential helpline get significantly steeper — even before the passage of SB8 in Texas — as more people struggle financially due to the ongoing public health crisis, and more abortion patients travel to Maryland from states with restrictive abortion regulations,” Winter said. “Many of our callers will have to call multiple abortion funds, coordinate needs like travel and child care, and do their own fundraising, telling their personal stories over and over again, in order to fully cover the cost of their abortion procedures, sometimes up until the day of their appointments.”
“When callers aren’t able to fully fund their abortion care, they have to reschedule, making their procedures exponentially more expensive and less accessible the longer they have to fundraise,” she said.
Winter said BAF has received only a handful of calls from Texas residents since SB8 went into effect, though she said that does not show the full picture of people likely accessing care.
“Traveling all the way from Texas to Maryland for an abortion procedure is expensive and logistically challenging, especially factoring in costs like air travel, lost wages, hotel accommodations, meals and child care,” she said. “Because we only hear from patients who have a financial need, it is very unlikely that we have spoken to every person coming to a Maryland abortion clinic from Texas since the passage of SB8.”
Nash, of the Guttmacher Institute, said the fallout in other states from SB8 has shown how one state’s abortion law can “have an impact across the entire country.”
She said clinics in states where abortion access is available are reporting being so inundated with out-of-state patients that local residents have to drive somewhere further away for care.
The impact of the Texas law is also being felt as U.S. Supreme Court Justices are scheduled to revisit Roe v. Wade in a separate case from Mississippi set for December.
“This feels like a very precarious time for abortion rights,” Nash said. “In states across the country, there is already very limited access to abortion. To add more patients is a real stressor on this network.”
(NEW YORK) — Pamela Millwood isn’t against getting vaccinated. But at the federal prison where she works in Jesup, Georgia, many of her coworkers are skeptical or downright opposed to getting a shot.
The result, she predicts, will be an exodus of some 30% to 40% of staff this holiday season, when prison employees will fall under a sweeping mandate that requires the nation’s 2 million civilian workers to become fully immunized against COVID-19.
That type of mass resignation hasn’t happened at other employers with mandatory vaccinations, such as Tysons Foods, United Airlines and New York City firefighters and teachers. The U.S. military, too, already has required COVID vaccines.
In each instance, personnel eventually complied, even after some raucous protests, with 90% or more of those workers now vaccinated.
But Millwood said she’s not so sure that will be the case at the Jesup prison, where working conditions are particularly stressful and employees are living in a state with some of the lowest COVID vaccination levels despite high transmission levels.
“We’ve got some very strong-minded staff who are going to stand their ground on it,” said Millwood, who also serves as the local union president in Jesup, some 60 miles south of Savannah. “And we’re going to lose some staff over this.”
After initially dismissing a vaccine mandate as the wrong approach, President Joe Biden this summer switched gears. Vaccination rates had stalled out earlier than anticipated, and COVID cases again began ticking upward. Children too young for the vaccine began crowding pediatric ICUs, and hospitals warned of potentially having to ration care as beds overflowed with mostly unvaccinated patients.
In September, Biden announced a new plan: Anyone working for or doing business with the federal government would have to get vaccinated, without the option of testing for the virus. Health care workers at facilities that accept federal money through programs like Medicaid and Medicare also would be required to get their shots. Additionally, private businesses with 100 or more employees would have to impose mandates of their own, although those workers would be given the option of weekly testing.
As the separate mandates face multiple lawsuits, Biden has argued that office spaces and assembly lines aren’t safe without widespread vaccinations, and that it’s up to employers to protect workers against COVID-19 the same as they would asbestos exposure or any other occupational hazard.
“I waited until July to talk about mandating because I tried everything else possible,” Biden said last month at a CNN Town Hall. “The mandates are working.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated people are six times more likely to test positive and 11 times more likely to die. When vaccinated people test positive, they also tend to recover and clear the virus more quickly, making them less contagious and protecting those around them.
Research also has found that “natural immunity” isn’t enough. One study of 7,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19 across nine states found that unvaccinated people who had been previously infected still were five times more likely to be re-infected than those who were vaccinated.
Still, as the holiday season approaches and employers complain of a worker shortage, Biden’s mandates are now at the forefront of a nationwide debate on whether the government is going too far.
Under Biden’s plan, the estimated 2 million civilians who work for the federal government — the vast majority of whom reside outside the Washington, D.C., area — were supposed to have gotten their last shot by now in anticipation of a Nov. 22 deadline. The CDC considers a person “fully immunized” two weeks after their last dose.
How much of the federal workforce will meet that deadline remains to be seen. The White House won’t release estimates yet because it insists workers still have time to report their vaccinations, even though guidance to the federal agencies has said disciplinary action could begin as early as this week.
Of particular concern are workers essential to national security and law enforcement, including the more than 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees at airports tasked with screening an estimated 4 million air travelers over Thanksgiving.
As of last month, some 40% TSA workers remained unvaccinated. The White House and TSA haven’t updated those figures, but did say Thanksgiving travel shouldn’t be greatly affected because potential terminations won’t be immediate.
If workers refuse a vaccination, they would be subject to an initial counseling session, followed by a warning, after which they’d be subject to termination.
But it’s unclear how long that could take. Federal guidelines posted online suggest counseling efforts are limited to five days, to be followed by a 14-day suspension during which workers would be required to initiate getting a shot.
White House officials said agencies are being given discretion on how to implement the mandate, and they’re insisting Biden’s Nov. 22 deadline isn’t a “cliff.”
“The purpose, I think, most importantly, is to get people vaccinated and protected, not to punish them,” Jeff Zients, the White House coordinator on COVID-19, said at a recent press briefing.
At the same time, the administration appears to be slow-walking the mandate while simultaneously arguing that getting vaccinated is urgent.
When asked why the deadline for federal workers can’t be moved to Jan. 4 to align with the private sector, as suggested by union officials, a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said: “The vast majority of the federal workforce wants to know they’re safe in the workplace because their coworkers are vaccinated.”
In Jesup, Millwood said protests and employee attrition are inevitable. Two coworkers already have left, stretching thinner an already strained staff, she said.
Millwood acknowledged that her husband agreed to get vaccinated only when faced with the mandate. She said she’s still not sure about her coworkers.
“There are a lot of people,” Millwood said, “who are absolutely either going to wait to the last minute, or are just [saying], ‘You’re going to have to fire me.’ And that’s just the way it is.”
ABC News’s Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
After previously announcing he will pay for funeral costs, on Thursday, Travis Scott provided an email address for victims of the Astroworld tragedy to reach out to him for assistance.
The statement, obtained by ABC News, reads:
“Over the last week, Travis Scott and his team have been actively exploring routes of connection with each and every family affected by the tragedy through the appropriate liaisons. He is distraught by the situation and desperately wishes to share his condolences and provide aid to them as soon as possible, but wants to remain respectful of each family’s wishes on how they’d best like to be connected.
“To those families who would like to reach out directly to his team, please send an email to the below address where we will have a team on hand to assist: AW21information@gmail.com“
As previously reported, the “Highest in the Room” MC announced Monday that he will pay all funeral costs for those who died during the Astroworld festival last Friday in Houston, Texas. Full refunds will also be issued to all attendees who bought tickets to the event.
Scott, who organized and headlined the festival, is also providing free one-on-one online therapy for those in need. BetterHelp is offering free counseling sessions with a licensed therapist for those who sign up on its website.
The National Alliance on Mental Health, NAMI, has also established a hotline, available Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET. This hotline can be reached at 1-844-CJ NAMI 1, 844-256-2641.
Nine people died and hundreds were injured when the crowd of 50,000 rushed the stage during Scott’s performance. The ninth victim died Wednesday night, according to a statement from the victim’s family attorney, obtained by ABC News.
At least 46 people have filed lawsuits accusing Scott and promoter Live Nation of negligence in operating the Astroworld festival, according to Billboard.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 758,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Cases on the rise in 20 states
-Over 900,000 kids 5-11 will have 1st shot by end of day, White House estimates
-Pfizer asks FDA to amend booster authorization to include all adults
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 11, 2:26 pm
US COVID hospitalizations increase for 3rd consecutive day
Thursday marked the third consecutive day where COVID hospitalizations rose nationwide.
Fourteen states reported a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week. The states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Total hospitalizations are down nearly 55% since mid-August.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 10, 9:21 pm
COVID-19 deaths expected to continue to fall in weeks to come
COVID-19 forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are currently predicting that weekly death totals will likely continue to fall in the weeks to come, though thousands of Americans are still expected to lose their lives.
The ensemble model expects just under 15,000 more virus-related deaths to occur in the U.S. over the next two weeks, with a total of around 781,500 deaths by Dec. 4.
The model estimates that 13 states and territories of the U.S. have a greater than 50% chance of having more deaths in the next two weeks compared to the past two weeks.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 10, 9:15 pm
Federal judge strikes down Texas ban on school mask mandates
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting local mask mandates, including in schools, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Since the order was issued in late July, state Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed lawsuits against more than a dozen school districts for issuing mask mandates, according to the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel. In August, advocacy group Disability Rights Texas filed the lawsuit against the state on behalf of several students with disabilities who faced an increased risk from COVID-19, alleging it denied them equal access to in-person learning.
“The evidence presented by Plaintiffs establishes that Plaintiffs are being denied the benefits of in-person learning on an equal basis as their peers without disabilities,” Yeakel wrote in his ruling.
Yeakel also said the executive order “interferes with local school districts’ ability to satisfy their obligations under the ADA” by placing all authority with the governor.
Yeakel enjoined the state from enforcing the mask mandate ban and ordered that the plaintiffs recover their court costs from the state.
Paxton has said the state is “protecting the rights and freedoms” of residents by banning mask mandates.
Nov 10, 6:43 pm
States sue over vaccine mandate for health care workers
Ten states are suing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate targeting health care workers.
About 17 million health care workers who are employed at places that get funding through CMS are required to get vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022. They do not have the option to test.
“The mandate is a blatant attempt to federalize public health issues involving vaccination that belong within the States’ police power,” stated the suit, which was filed by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, a Republican who is running for Senate.
The attorneys general of Nebraska, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota and New Hampshire have joined the lawsuit, which is one of many filed against different parts of the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements but the first to target the health care worker mandate.
Twenty-six states are suing over the mandate that applies to businesses, while another handful are suing over the federal worker mandate. Last week, a federal court temporarily blocked the business vaccine rule.
As seen in the trailers to the upcoming Disney+ MCU series Hawkeye, the adventures of Captain America and his heroic friends made it to Broadway, in the form of a make-believe production called Rogers: The Musical.
However, the songs in the play-within-a-show are very real, and were brought to life by two real-life, award-winning Broadway legends.
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman were tapped by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to craft music for the Rogers musical, according to Marvel.com. The pair were veterans of smashes like Hairspray and Mary Poppins Returns.
“[We] were at an Academy Award dinner, and I’m sitting there and someone taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Excuse me, Kevin Feige would love to meet you,” Shaiman recalls to the website.
“Turns out Kevin is a film score nerd. He started talking about [the scores I’ve written] one by one, and I was like, ‘I cannot believe this is happening.'”
He continues, “I guess when this idea came up for Hawkeye, for there to be a musical on Broadway, he luckily thought of us, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic about it.”
While the pair admit they weren’t well-versed in the MCU, they caught up quickly, mostly thanks to Marc’s husband, Lou, who Shaiman calls, a “total Marvel nerd.”
The fruits of their labor was a show-stopper based on the Battle of New York as seen in the climax of The Avengers.
“I never knew that Scott and I would write a song with the word ‘Tesseract’ in it,” Shaiman jokes about the MCU’s time-bending MacGuffin.
Starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld, Hawkeye debuts on Disney+ on November 24.
Last year, Lindsey Stirling couldn’t do her annual Christmas tour so instead, she did a special livestream performance called Lindsey Stirling: Home for the Holidays. This year, you will be able to see her live in concert — but you can also catch her in a movie theater near you throughout this holiday season.
Home for the Holidays, now featuring exclusive bonus content, will be shown as a theatrical presentation in cinemas nationwide starting Sunday, November 28, and running through December. You can visit LindseyStirlinginTheaters.com to find out where it’s playing near you, and buy tickets.
Home for the Holidays features Lindsey performing Christmas songs from her album Warmer in the Winter — like “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” — as well as her hits, in a variety of stylized settings, with costumes, dancers and choreography. At one point, Lindsey even plays while hanging by her hair.
In a statement, Lindsey says she’s “thrilled” that her extravaganza is heading to theaters, adding, “Honestly, I’d love to see the show become part of an annual tradition – experiencing an old favorite while making new memories – which is part of what the holidays are all about. Music is such an important part of the holidays and so is gathering with friends and family.”
If you want to see Lindsey in person, her 2021 holiday tour, The Lindsey Stirling Christmas Program, kicks off November 26 in Memphis, TN and wraps up December 23. Visit Lindseystirling.com/tour for tickets.
(NEW YORK) — A political newcomer who beat New Jersey’s veteran state senate president in a surprise election upset met with a local Islamic group Wednesday after apologizing for a previous anti-Muslim tweet.
Edward Durr, a commercial truck driver, beat Stephen Sweeney in the state senate race for New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District.
Soon after his victory, Durr came under fire for past social media posts, including a 2019 tweet where he called the prophet Mohammed a “pedophile” and Islam a “cult of hate.”
ABC News station WPVI-TV also uncovered statements from Durr comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust. Durr has since deleted some of his social media pages.
“I’m a passionate guy and I sometimes say things in the heat of the moment. If I said things in the past that hurt anybody’s feelings, I sincerely apologize,” Durr said last Friday, according to WPVI. “I support everybody’s right to worship in any manner they choose and to worship the God of their choice. I support all people and I support everybody’s rights.”
After his election victory, the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization, condemned his tweet but invited Durr to meet with the organization’s local chapter.
Durr accepted the group’s offer and met with CAIR-NJ members. WPVI-TV reported that Durr’s meeting with local Islamic leaders at Al-Minhaal Academy in Sewell lasted nearly two hours.
“I think we had a very productive conversation and I think it’s going to be one of hopefully many,” CAIR-NJ Executive Director Selaedin Maksut said in a joint appearance with Durr on Wednesday.
“I stand against Islamophobia and all forms of hate and I do commit to that,” Durr said at the media appearance.
“Our New Jersey chapter had a productive meeting with State Senator #EdDurr. He expressed commitment to opposing #Islamophobia. We welcome this outcome and hope to have more productive dialogues in the future,” the national CAIR tweeted later.
Jacci Vigilante, Gloucester County GOP chair, defended Durr last Friday, saying, “Ed is a passionate guy. He was a little bit of a keyboard warrior at the time. Certainly he’s made an apology. He didn’t intend to offend anyone’s religion and certainly believes that everyone has the right to practice their religion of their choice.”
Sweeney, Durr’s opponent, was the longest-serving state senate president in New Jersey history. He did not concede the race until Wednesday.
“I of course accept the results. I want to congratulate Mr. Durr and wish him the best of luck,” Sweeney said during a speech at the statehouse complex, according to local news reports. “It was a red wave,” he added.
Two OGs of the boy-band genre, New Kids on the Block and New Edition, will face off against each other on the American Music Awards later this month.
The AMAs is introducing a series of segments called “My Hometown,” which will feature the places and people that helped shaped music’s biggest names. For both New Kids and New Edition, that place is Boston, so the two will share the stage for the first time in what the show has dubbed the “Battle of Boston.” The last time New Kids performed on the show was 2010; New Edition was last featured in 1997.
Another performance will feature Kane Brown, the country/pop star who’s recorded hits like “Be Like That,” “Memory” and “One Thing Right.” He’ll perform at Tennessee State University, and talk about his roots in that state and in Georgia.
Hosted by Cardi B, the 2021 American Music Awards will air on November 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Previously announced performers include Olivia Rodrigo, BTS with Megan Thee Stallion, and Bad Bunny.
Rise Against has released a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic “Fortunate Son.”
“We actually used to cover ‘Fortunate Son’ in our early basement days,” the Chicago punks say. “To me, the song represents one of the best examples of mixing music and politics together so seamlessly that nobody questions it.”
“Fortunate Son” has a long history of being misunderstood as a patriotic, flag-waving anthem. It was originally written amid the Vietnam War as protest song about wealthy people avoiding the draft at the expense of the poor. Perhaps not coincidentally, the cover arrives on Veterans Day.
Rise Against’s “Fortunate Son” will appear on their upcoming EP, Nowhere Sessions, which drops Friday. The collection also includes live-in-studio recordings of tracks off the band’s new album, Nowhere Generation.
