(NEW YORK) — The Consumer Product Safety Commissions (CPSC) announced on Nov. 10 a voluntary recall on the “ABUS Mountz Youth Helmets,” citing that the products pose a risk of head injury.
The recall involves the ABUS ACM (MountZ) youth medium-sized helmets and were sold in “velvet black” and “polar white” color,” according to the ABUS press release.
ABUS ACM (MountZ) youth helmets are pictured in velvet black and polar white colors.
No injuries have been reported, but CPSC urged consumers to return the helmets for a refund.
“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled helmets and return them to ABUS’s Recall Administrator, Sedgwick, free of charge, for a full refund,” said the press release.
The helmets were manufactured in March 2020 or October 2020 and were sold at independent bike shops nationwide from April 2020 through October 2021 for about $81, according to CPSC.
The recall does not affect any other ABUS products.
(NEW YORK) — A nursing home in Connecticut is recovering from a significant coronavirus outbreak, after 89 residents and staff tested positive for the virus, facility leadership reported Monday.
The outbreak at Geer Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in North Canaan, Connecticut, began in late September. Eight residents with “serious underlying health issues” died as a result of the outbreak, nursing home leadership said in a statement.
They said 78 residents and staff have since recovered since testing positive, and there are now only three active cases within the community of individuals living within the nursing home.
“We are encouraged to see only 3 active cases of covid-19 remaining within our nursing home. Of the total 67 residents affected over the course of this outbreak, 56 are fully recovered and off isolation. Sadly, we have lost 8 individuals with serious underlying health issues to Covid,” Kevin O’Connell, the Geer Village Senior Community CEO, wrote.
Facility leaders said 87 of the 89 infected residents and staff were fully vaccinated, so leaders are “obviously concerned we experienced some level of waning immunity.”
The outbreak occurred prior to boosters being made available, O’Connell told ABC News.
“We had it scheduled for Nov. 2, and then that got put aside because of the pandemic,” O’Connell said, stressing that officials from the nursing home reached out to Walgreens “right away,” when they were told that the booster was made available to residents.
However, O’Connell said that scheduling booster shots can be logistically complicated, because it entails coordinating it for all the staff and residents. “It takes a while to get that all set up,” he said.
Booster shots will be made available to all eligible staff and residents when there are no new positive cases for two full weeks.
“We’re following the guidance of the Department of Health,” said O’Connell, “and they do not recommend providing booster to anybody with active infections for 14 days after the outbreak.”
The CDC currently recommends that all individuals, 18 and older, who live in long-term care facilities, receive a COVID-19 booster shot, given the fact that residents are likely to live closely together, and are often older adults with underlying medical conditions, which cause them to be at “increased risk of infection and severe illness from COVID-19.”
“We continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates for residents, staff, families and community stakeholders as the situation changes,” officials from the home said over the weekend.
Chris Daughtry and Hannah in 2010; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Despite early reports calling the death of Chris Daughtry’s daughter Hannah Price a “homicide,” the district attorney in the case says it would be “premature” to label it as such.
A statement from the District Attorney for Tennessee’s 8th District obtained by People says, “This is a death investigation and any attempt to classify it as a homicide investigation at this time is premature and irresponsible.”
It continues, “Further, no one has been arrested pertaining to the death of Ms. Price. Once the investigation into the death of Hannah Marie Price is complete, authorities will forward their findings to the Eighth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office for review.”
Hannah, 25, was found dead in her home by police on Friday; a cause of death has not yet been released. There were reports her boyfriend was taken into custody, but police have not confirmed whether it was related to her death.
Hannah is Chris’s adopted daughter; his wife, Deanna Daughtry, is her mother. On Instagram, Deanna initially posted that Hannah had sustained “injuries that caused her death.”
Post Malone and The Weeknd appear as rivals determined to murder each other in the video for their “One Right Now” collabo, which debuted Monday.
The two superstars each go on a frenzied killing spree of henchmen before they finally meet for a one-on-one battle, which results in both of them with a bullet in their head.
The song, which is closer to the ’80s-inspired sound that The Weeknd has been doing lately than Post’s past work, is about finding out that your partner has been unfaithful and showing her that infidelity is a two-way street.
“Don’t call me ‘baby’ when you did me so wrong/ But I got over what you did already/ Body for a body, so petty,” sings Post. “I got one comin’ over and one right now.”
As for The Weeknd, he makes reference to his 2013 song “You Belong to the World,” as he sings, “You’re a stain on my legacy/ We can’t be friends, can’t be family…I can’t let you next to me/ Oh, you belong to the world now/ So just me leave me alone now.”
“One Right Now” is from Post’s fourth album, which we’re told is “coming soon.” It’ll be the follow-up to his 2019 triple-platinum release Hollywood’s Bleeding.
KISS has just introduced its Drink It Up brand of liquors to the U.S. The alcoholic beverage line, which already was available in Europe, Australia and Japan, features three varieties of premium rum and a premium gin, all named after songs or albums by the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers.
Currently, only two of the Drink It Up rum varieties can be purchased: KISS Black Diamond Premium Dark Rum and KISS Detroit Rock Premium Dark Rum, which are being sold in 25 states across the U.S., as well as at DrinkItUpbyKiss.com. Coming soon will be KISS Premium Distilled Cold Gin and the limited-edition Monstrum Ultra Premium Dark Rum.
“From Monstrum to Cold Gin, we wanted each spirit in the portfolio to reflect the energy of our band,” says KISS frontman Paul Stanley. “We didn’t just slap a label on and call it a day, we’re proud to say that each bottle in the Drink It Up by KISS portfolio was carefully curated and each unique spirit has earned its name.”
The gin, of course, is named after KISS’ 1974 song “Cold Gin,” while the rums’ monikers were inspired by the band’s tunes “Black Diamond” and “Detroit Rock City, and their 2012 album, Monster.
To produce the Drink It Up line, KISS partnered with the Epic Rights licensing company and the award-winning Swedish spirits producer Brands for Fans.
Each variety was created by an in-house master blender.
Sesame Street has a new friend, and it’s the long-running show’s first Asian Muppet. Sesame Workshop announced that Ji-Young is a seven-year-old Korean American character, performed by Sesame Workshop puppeteer Kathleen Kim.
The “spunky” character will make her first starring appearance opposite Shang-Chi star Simu Liu in See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special.
“See Us Coming Together continues Sesame Street‘s proud legacy of representation with an engaging story that encourages empathy and acceptance and uplifts Asian and Pacific Islander communities,” the show’s producers said.
“[Ji-Young] is extremely close with her family and is proud of her Korean heritage,” according to her official bio. “She loves playing music with her grandma and cooking her favorite food — tteokbokki. Her family eats dinner together at the kitchen table every night, chatting in both Korean and English.”
The new special also features celebrity guests including Anna Cathcart, comic-book artist legend Jim Lee, Padma Lakshmi and tennis star Naomi Osaka.
See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special will debut on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25, on multiple platforms, including Cartoonito on HBO Max, PBS KIDS and Sesame Street‘s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.
As part of Monday’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the XBox console, Paramount+ has dropped a teaser-trailer for its much-anticipated upcoming TV show based on the hit Halo game series.
The new show, bound for the streaming service in 2022, was co-produced by Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Television company, and stars American Gods‘ Pablo Schreiber as the game series unstoppable super soldier designated Spartan-117, known as Master Chief.
The clip shows Master Chief’s scarred back before he dons his characteristic green armor. When he puts on his helmet, we hear the voice of the game’s A.I. assistant, Cortana.
“Hello, Master Chief,” she greets him.
Jen Taylor reprises her role as Cortana from the game, which first launched in 2001 and has sold some $6 billion worth of copies.
Set in a 26th century that sees mankind entrenched in a life-or-death war against an alien threat known as the Covenant, the show “will weave deeply drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future,” according to a press release.
Halo will also star Designated Survivor‘s Natascha McElhone as super soldier program creator Dr. Halsey, as well as Spider-Man: Homecoming‘s Bokeem Woodbine, The Witcher‘s Natasha Culzac, Reef Break‘s Yerin Ha, and Penny Dreadful‘s Danny Sapani, among others.
L-R: Glover, Donner, Gibson in 2017 — VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
While series director Richard Donner died in July at 91 years old, his longtime friend and Lethal Weapon star, Mel Gibson, is reportedly looking to pick up the baton.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker and star of Braveheart and Oscar-nominated director of Hacksaw Ridge is in talks to direct the in-development fifth film in the buddy cop series, Deadline reports.
As Gibson previously told ABC Audio, he, Danny Glover and Rene Russo were all excited about the idea of returning to the franchise with Donner at the helm; the filmmaker had been actively developing a fifth movie at the time of his passing.
According to Deadline, Gibson “let it slip” that he wanted to stand in for Donner for the film, which is being developed for HBO Max. As Deadline reports, Gibson “saw it right to continue the development of the film as a proper tribute to his friend and the late director of the franchise.”
If he does direct, Gibson would be doing double duty as both director and reprising his role as loose cannon Det. Martin Riggs, opposite Glover’s Det. Roger Murtaugh.
Cardi B called out hair bias, and opened up about her journey with her natural hair, in a viral Instagram post Sunday, telling her millions of fans, “there’s no such thing as bad hair.”
“Why every time I post my natural hair I hear ‘you’re MIXED you’re supposed to have long hair’? That’s not true and very misleading,” the Grammy-winning rapper wrote in the post, along with a series of photos of herself rocking her natural hair.
The hip hop superstar, whose given name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, was born to a Dominican father and an Afro-Trinidadian mother and grew up in the South Bronx neighborhood of New York City. She said that there’s a misconception about the hair textures of Black women who have mixed heritage and opened up about her hair care routine — a topic that she has been documenting on her pinned Instagram story, “HAIR DAY.”
“Being mixed don’t mean your hair is always long and curly, that wasn’t my case,” Cardi wrote, sharing a photo of herself with an afro as a child.
Cardi said there’s a misconception that women with her hair texture can’t have long, natural hair and encouraged her fans to check out her Instagram story documenting her hair care routine, where she shares some tips that she learned over the years.
The rapper, who has more than 114 million followers on Instagram, shared an uplifting message to celebrate natural hair, telling her fans, “I want women of color with tighter curl patterns to know that you don’t have ‘BAD HAIR’ there’s no such thing as bad hair. [And] ‘good’ hair don’t mean a certain texture. ALL HAIR IS GOOD.”
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of migrants moved to a crossing point on the border between Belarus and Poland on Monday, encouraged by Belarusian security forces in what Poland’s government said was another attempt by Belarus’ authorities to exacerbate the migration crisis there.
Over 2,000 migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have been trapped in a makeshift camp at the border since last week, caught up in what European Union countries say is an effort by Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko to orchestrate a humanitarian crisis on its borders.
On Monday, hundreds of migrants packed up their belongings and moved toward the border crossing point itself at the Polish town of Kuznica in another attempt to cross. Polish guards in riot gear again blocked their path and the crowds halted.
Videos released by Poland’s authorities showed hundreds of people sitting on the road at the crossing in front of a razor-wire barrier and Polish police.
“An attempt is being made to force the border through, all under the supervision of Belarusian services,” Poland’s border service wrote on Twitter.
Belarus’ Lukashenko is accused of luring thousands of migrants to Belarus over recent months and funneling them to the border with Poland and neighboring Lithuania, in a form of retaliation against those countries for supporting Belarus’ pro-democracy movement that came close to toppling him last year.
Poland and Lithuania have blocked the migrants, and hundreds of people have become trapped in the forests along the border, often for weeks in freezing temperatures and without food.
The campaign blew up into a major European crisis last week after Belarus marched the 2,000 migrants up to the border close to Kuznica. For seven days, the migrants have been living in the open air in a make-shift camp pressed up against the border’s razor-wire fence and blockaded by dozens of Polish police and border troops.
Polish authorities over the weekend had accused Belarus of preparing to stage a fresh attempt to escalate the standoff at the border.
Activists from Polish refugee rights groups that have been providing humanitarian aid to migrants in the woods also accused Belarusian authorities of spreading misinformation to encourage the migrants to try to cross in the hope of inciting clashes.
“For several days now we have witnessed the migrants being subjected to a professionally prepared disinformation action,” Grupa Granica, an umbrella group for the activists said in a statement Sunday. It accused Belarus’ authorities of telling the migrants false information that Germany and Poland were preparing to settle them.
“This suggests attempts at raising the migrants’ hopes for a safe passage to western European countries, to then keep them in the camp at the Polish border, all in order to exert further pressure on the EU,’ the group said.
A Syrian man in the camp on Sunday told ABC News people there believed the EU on Monday would consider a plan for evacuating them, something that is not true.
The man, who asked to be identified as Yousef, said Belarusian guards had stopped handing out food and firewood on Sunday, in what he believed was an attempt to make people desperate.
“They are trying to make people crazy,” he said by phone. Yousef said he and nine Syrians with him had not eaten for four days and that they had been trapped in the forest for nearly a month.
“They treat us like animals,” he said.
Belarus has blamed the crisis on Poland and European countries, accusing them of failing to observe human rights.
EU foreign ministers were meeting on Monday for a planned summit where it was expected they will announce expanded sanctions against Belarusian individuals and entities involved in the migration crisis.
The EU has been seeking to cut off the flow of migrants to Belarus by threatening sanctions against airlines flying them there. Those efforts appear to have borne some fruit in recent days.
Turkish Airlines has announced it will no longer fly Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens from Istanbul to Belarus’ capital Minsk, and the Syrian carrier Cham Wings Airlines has also said it is halting its flights.
