L-R: James Moore, Pink; Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Pink lost her father James Moore, a veteran, not long ago, and she paid tribute to him on his birthday with a photo showing his grave marker. Yesterday, Veteran’s Day, she wrote another loving post honoring his memory and his service.
Posting his official military photo, Pink wrote, “Look at my handsome Papa. Thank you to all the women and men for your sacrifice and your service.”
She also captioned two additional photos in the same post, writing, “The second picture is me and my Dad and brother marching in Washington. The third is his beautiful memorial box that holds his ashes.”
“They used to call him twinkle toes for dancing when he was meant to be marching in line,” Pink concluded. “Hug a veteran today. Consensually of course.”
For years, Taylor Swift fans have thought that the lyrics of her hit “Blank Space” mentioned “lonely Starbucks lovers.” But what if it was intentional, and Taylor was playing the long game with a seven-year-long Easter egg? Because now, she’s officially teamed up with the coffee chain to promote her new album, Red (Taylor’s Version).
Starbucks has been teasing the partnership for several days now by posting lyrics from various Red songs on social media and announcing, “It’s Red season.” According to People, starting Friday, you can order the star’s favorite drink — a Grande Caramel Nonfat Latte — by asking for “Taylor’s Latte” or “Taylor’s Version” in stores and on the app. The drink labels for those lattes will read “(Tay’s).”
Starbucks also will be playing Taylor’s music in stores, and the company’s put together a playlist as well. In addition, Taylor e-Gift cards are available.
Taylor first hinted at the partnership back in October, when she posted a video declaring her love of all things fall, which pointedly featured her drinking a Starbucks coffee.
Britney Spears‘ younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, recently announced that she’s written a memoir, Things I Should Have Said, which recounts the struggles she faced after becoming pregnant with her daughter Maddie in 2007 when she was just 16 years old. She claims those struggles included hiding the pregnancy from Britney.
At the time, Britney’s “condition” was “spiraling into something more concerning,” Jamie writes in an excerpt from the book, according to People. “They were concerned her instability at that time made her untrustworthy.”
“I went along with what my team told me to do because I was a minor and didn’t want to create any more issues,” Jamie continues. “Britney learned of the pregnancy when the article was released. To this day, the hurt of not being able to tell my sister myself lingers.”
The Zoey 101 star, now 30, announced the book in an Instagram post in October and explained that the idea for the memoir came to her in 2017 when her daughter Maddie was involved in a near-fatal ATV incident.
“I owe it to myself, my younger self, and to my daughters to be an example that you should never edit yourself or your truth to please anyone else,” Jamie Lynn explained in the post.
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, which originated in China in 2019, an increasing number of Asian-Americans have reported experiencing racist attacks. Gymnast Suni Lee, who won a gold medal at this year’s summer Olympics, revealed that she is no exception.
In an interview with PopSugar, the 18-year-old Dancing with the Stars contestant recalls a recent act of anti-Asian hate involving her and her girlfriends, who are also of Asian descent, as they were waiting for an Uber at night.
Lee says they were startled by a group speeding by in a car yelling racist slurs and epithets while insisting they “go back to where they came from.” One passenger, she claims, sprayed her arm with pepper spray as the car sped off.
“I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,” she adds. “I didn’t do anything to them, and having the reputation, it’s so hard because I didn’t want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it happen.”
Suni recently opened up about the bullying she’s received while in Los Angeles for Dancing with the Stars, noting, “I always see a lot of mean comments about me not being able to dance and I need to go home. I feel like they’re right. I let them get to me.”
Lee tells the outlet that it’s difficult to speak up about uncomfortable topics like racial injustice, especially at her age, but she believes that using her voice makes a difference.
(NEW YORK) — Tanner Vanvalkenburg is speaking out after he was shot on vacation in a popular resort area in Mexico late last week, caught in the crosshairs of gunfire by rival gangs.
“I was just like, man this is it, like I’m probably not going to make it,” he recalled to ABC News.
The tourist from America was with his partner and two friends when the incident began.
“We were kind of just eating tacos and that’s when I started hearing gunfire,” he said.
The gunmen headed ashore in front of a Hyatt Resort just south of Cancun and opened fire.
The shooting left two dead and four Americans injured. The armed suspects initially escaped, but local authorities confirmed to ABC News on Friday that they have five people in custody.
“We thought that they were fireworks and then more started going off and everyone started to panic and run,” Vanvalkenburg said. “That’s when I took off and all of us jumped into the pool.”
The mele sent tourists scrambling for cover as some hid under pool chairs.
“Right when I jumped into the water, I went to dive and that’s when the bullet hit. And as soon as the bullet hit me, I came up … and I was holding the gunshot wounds as I was bleeding, kind of putting as much pressure as I could because I knew that I had just been hit,” Vanvalkenburg explained.
“I honestly thought that I was gonna die because I thought the gunmen were going to basically come and just kill everyone [who] was there at the resort,” he said.
Vanvalkenburg was taken to a local hospital and later released.
Hyatt told ABC News “the safety and wellbeing of guests and colleagues is always a top priority.”
Now as he recovers back home in Utah, Vanvalkenburg said this incident has left him reconsidering how he travels.
“I never in a million years thought that I would have to worry about my life sitting in a resort,” he said. “So it’s going to be very different now if I travel again.”
(WASHINGTON) — As it again masses troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine, the Russian government is “looking for the opportunity to move further” into Ukrainian territory, the country’s foreign minister warned in an exclusive interview.
“We do not want to scare anyone, but we have to remain vigilant,” Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba told ABC News. “We are extremely worried, but listen — when you live next to Russia for seven years in an armed conflict, you kind of learn to be worried. You get used to it.”
Kuleba just wrapped up a high-profile visit to Washington, meeting Wednesday with President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy aides, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The visit was just the latest exchange between Biden’s administration and that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was infamously urged by former President Donald Trump to announce an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.
Kuleba noted the “turbulence” in U.S.-Ukrainian relations during the Trump years, but eagerly looked to turn the page — saying ties were “revived, restored, relaunched, whatever word we use.”
U.S. officials have tried to demonstrate that, too, expressing growing concern about Russia’s military movements in recent weeks. Blinken said the U.S. commitment to Ukraine remains “ironclad” and warned Moscow that “any escalatory or aggressive actions would be of great concern by the United States.”
As many as 100,000 Russian troops have been moved to its western border with Ukraine, Zelenskiy said Thursday. Satellite images published by the firm Maxar Technologies last week showed large ground forces deployed 140 miles from the border with heavy equipment, while the defense firm Janes said the buildup was largely covert, with elite ground units and often taking place at night, according to Bloomberg News.
Russian government officials denied the movements, then dismissed concerns about them and accused the U.S. and NATO of aggression.
Ukrainian officials have swung between raising alarm at Russia’s recent actions and downplaying them as a tactic by Russian leader Vladimir Putin meant to create hysteria.
“Russia’s psychological pressure has not worked on us for a long time. Your panic will definitely not help, but it can help the enemy. It can become part of the information war and bring no less harm to the country than the fighting,” Zelenskiy said Thursday.
Standing alongside Kuleba on Wednesday, Blinken said, “We don’t have clarity into Moscow’s intentions, but we do know its playbook,” recalling Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s territory, Crimea, which it still occupies, and incursion into eastern Ukraine. That still-smoldering war between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government has claimed 14,000 lives and counting.
That playbook can be swiftly executed, Kuleba warned, because a similar military buildup in April ended with troops departing, but the infrastructure and equipment largely remaining in place.
“With this infrastructure in place along our border, it will not take Russia a lot of time to resort to an offensive action if it decides to do so, and our goal and our objective is to make everything, everything possible to prevent Russia from making that decision,” he told ABC News.
Part of that effort is boosting U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, which both Kuleba and Blinken called for after their meetings Wednesday. Blinken declined to offer specifics, but Kuleba called for greater intelligence sharing, air defense systems and more.
The Biden administration has been “very specific and very committed” in responding to Russian aggression, he told ABC News, taking a “proactive stance” and walking the walk.
“What is even more important from my conversations here in Washington, I see that the United States are ready not only to talk, but also to act, to act in order to deter Russia and to strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to defend itself,” he said. “This is even more important.”
Selling Ukrainian lethal weapons was at the heart of Trump’s first impeachment and the infamous call between him and Zelenskiy. As the newly elected Ukrainian leader asked Trump for more Javelin anti-tank missiles, Trump turned the conversation to ask for a “favor” and announce a probe of Biden, his son Hunter and Hunter’s time on the board of the Ukrainian state-owned energy company Burisma.
While there was no announcement about new weapons sales, Kuleba said he was “leaving Washington, D.C., in a good mood because this is exactly what we were working for.”
“The truth is, there has been some turbulence in our bilateral relations under the previous administration. There was some hesitations of how this relationship will proceed further in the early days of this administration. But I think that it will not be an exaggeration to say that the quality and the number of contacts between our presidents, between me and foreign secretary, and at all other levels of our teams has been unprecedented,” he told ABC News.
But that’s not to say there aren’t critical differences now, even on the potential threat from Russia. During their joint press conference Wednesday, Blinken refused to say Russia is using energy as a weapon, while Kuleba clearly said it already is, including by halting coal shipments to Ukraine and withholding greater natural gas imports through Ukraine to Europe amid an energy crisis across the continent.
“What is unfolding in Europe now is a very complicated game with many elements in it,” Kuleba said at the State Department, accusing Russia and its ally Belarus of pressuring Europe using energy, propaganda and disinformation, cyber attacks, military buildups, and the migration crisis between Belarus and its neighbors.
Biden has called for stabilizing U.S. relations with Russia, including by holding his summit with Putin in June — a meeting that could have a sequel soon. Kuleba said he understands the sentiment and sees no “risks” that U.S.-Russian dialogue would be “done at the expense of Ukraine,” but he warned that Putin only responds to strength.
“Our experience of recent seven years demonstrates that Moscow understands and respects the language of strength. You do not have to threaten them, you do not have to act, to use force against them, but they respect you if you are strong with them, if you are tough with them,” he said.
One issue, however, where critics say the U.S. is not standing strong is Nord Stream 2, the nearly completed natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany and circumventing Ukraine, Poland and other U.S. partners. Biden waived congressionally-mandated sanctions on the German company constructing the pipeline and its CEO, saying he did not want to damage ties with a key ally. Instead, the U.S. and Germany issued a joint statement, committing to helping Ukraine diversify its energy resources and responding swiftly if Russia withholds gas to Ukraine.
But joined by Poland, Kyiv expressed anger and dismay at the non-binding agreement. Kuleba papered over that disagreement, saying what was most important is that they were talking — but urged action if needed.
“We have differences in seeing how the negative consequences of this project being implemented can be avoided or prevented,” Kuleba told ABC News. “We definitely want the United States to remain vigilant and ready, ready to take action if the current policy fails.”
Paris Hilton tied the knot with boyfriend Carter Reum on Thursday in Los Angeles, a source tells E! Online.
“Paris selected her dress late last night,” notes another insider. “There is a lot of love and support surrounding both Carter and Paris.”
The 40-year-old TV personality and Reum announced their engagement back in February, sharing on Instagram, “When you find your soulmate, you don’t just know it. You feel it.”
“There’s no one I’d rather spend forever with,” she added.
With Chlöe Bailey exploring a solo career and sister Halle Bailey starring in Disney’s upcoming live action The Little Mermaid, fans have been worrying if Chloe x Halle‘s days are numbered.
Chlöe, 23, sensed the mounting trepidation and assured her followers that neither she nor her sister have any intention of disbanding their musical partnership anytime soon.
“Just because we go off and do our own solo things doesn’t mean that we’re broken up,” she recently told Apple Music’s The Dotty Show. “When sis went to London we didn’t break up! In that time we both had separation anxiety and I was like, ‘I miss my sis. What do I do? What do I do?'”
The “Have Mercy” singer explained a lot of good has come from pursuing separate projects.
“I didn’t really know who I was without my sister,” said Chlöe, adding she “had to do a lot of soul searching” during that initial separation so she could “figure out what’s my purpose.”
Says the Grammy-nominated artist, “I had to really find that [purpose,] and… Music has literally saved my life. I say that every time.” What she means by that, she said, is “I found myself in the music and it’s been very therapeutic for me.”
Chlöe said she was “sitting on it and making music” while Halle was overseas, but because they “were apart for so long,” she thought to herself, “I can’t just have it sit on my hard drive… maybe it’s time.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products, some of which was sold at Trader Joe’s locations.
The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.
The products subject to recall include Chile Lime Chicken Burgers sold at Trader Joe’s, as well as Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were sold at other grocery stores. Both were shipped nationwide.
The items have an establishment number of EST. P-8276.
There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.
(NEW YORK) — State and local health officials are once again raising the alarm about the renewed threat of COVID-19 spread in communities across the country as people head indoors during the colder months and are set to gather for the holidays.
“Winter is coming,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned during a press conference on Tuesday. “COVID is not taking the winter off.”
For weeks throughout the early fall, the U.S. had seen steady declines in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, offering hope that perhaps the pandemic was finally subsiding in the U.S. after a significant summer surge across the South and a renewed push for vaccinations.
However, the U.S. appears to be once again at an inflection point, with cold weather setting in across much of the North, COVID-19 restrictions relaxed and gatherings growing more frequent. On average, the U.S. is reporting approximately 75,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, according to federal data, still significantly lower than the country’s most recent surge over the summer, but higher than at any point last spring.
Since mid-October, the average number of new COVID-19 cases has risen by approximately 17%, marking the first consistent increase in national cases in nearly 10 weeks. While some health officials caution that case numbers may not be the best indicator of the prevalence of COVID-19, hospitalizations are also on the rise in a number of states.
Experts say a confluence of factors is likely driving the country’s recent uptick besides cold weather — largely the more than 107 million Americans who remain completely unvaccinated and continue to account for the majority of new infections and hospitalizations.
People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to federal data.
But there is also the factor of waning immunity for those who are fully inoculated, something that other countries have seen as well.
“Lowering temperatures, increased population mixing, reduced masking, fully open schools and the more contagious delta variant all contribute to the increases in cases and hospitalizations in many parts of the country. Despite widespread availability of the vaccine, we still have pockets of under-vaccinated communities that consistently provide opportunities for the virus to spread,” said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While we should all be more optimistic than this time last year, we are not yet in a position to declare victory on the pandemic,” Brownstein said.
COVID-19 cases on the rise in nearly 2 dozen states
Over the last two weeks, 22 states — many of them with colder temperatures — have seen an uptick in daily cases of 10%.
Similarly, 14 states — Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin — have seen an increase of about 10% or more in hospital admissions over the last week.
And after nearly 10 weeks of declines, national hospitalizations have also begun to increase. Although hospitalizations have declined significantly from the country’s summer surge, when more than 104,000 patients were hospitalized at one time, 47,000 patients currently in the hospital with COVID-19 — an increase of 2,000 from last week.
“We need to stop talking as though covid is over,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, tweeted last week. “More than 40% of the country remains unvaccinated. That’s a lot of warm water for hurricane delta. I’m concerned about yet another surge beginning after Thanksgiving (just like last year).”
Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiology lead at the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, called the stall in the national decline “worrisome.”
“We’re stalling at a level of weekly case numbers that are still well above what we saw at the lower periods at the end of June and in early July,” Nuzzo said during a briefing last week. “There are a number of states where these increases have persisted for two or more weeks, and that’s usually the metric we look for to say a trend is happening. So there are some early signs that we’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Even states with high vaccination rates see upticks
Despite states across the Northeast boasting high vaccination rates, with several jurisdictions reporting full vaccination rates above 70%, several states are struggling through their worst surge yet.
In Maine, COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have been steadily rising across the state, despite the fact more than 70% of the state’s total population fully inoculated.
Since the onset of the pandemic, LifeFlight of Maine, which provides critical care transport across the state, has not seen a decline in the steady stream of patients in need of urgent care.
“The number of COVID patients we’re transporting is remaining the same as it was for the last 19 months. We’re continuing to say the hospitals are full to capacity,” Thomas Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, told ABC News.
This issue is not unique to Maine, Judge explained, adding that his colleagues across the country, and in the Northeast, are all still struggling.
“Because the hospitals can’t absorb all these patients, they’re just under such pressure for beds, especially the ICU beds,” Judge said.
Judge explained that they are frequently flying patients out of state, at times, as far away as Connecticut or New York, depending on bed availability.
“We’re taking patients across state lines routinely. Just because of these challenging beds, and we’re taking patients much further than we would normally take them which you can imagine,” Judge added. “The patients we’re seeing are primarily unvaccinated and the vast majority of patients in the ICU, and on ventilators are unvaccinated, and that continues to be the challenge.”
Vermont sees record surge in COVID-19 infections
In neighboring Vermont, which has the highest vaccination rate of any state with nearly 72% of the population fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases increased by 50% over the last 14 days. According to a recent report by the Department of Financial Regulation, people who are not fully vaccinated continue to report infection rates 3.7 times higher, per capita, compared to people who are fully vaccinated.
Further, according to the report, 67% of hospitalizations, over the last seven days, are among the unvaccinated.
The patterns observed in communities with current spikes in infections and hospitalizations suggest that they are driven not only by those still unvaccinated, but also the decline of vaccine efficacy over time.
“Waning immunity likely is also contributing to increases in cases especially among those with increased vulnerability because of underlying conditions. Boosters can at least play a supporting role in averting a larger surge this winter,” Brownstein said.
Experts say the key to getting through the winter will ultimately be to get more Americans fully vaccinated and boosted when eligible.
“As we go into the winter months with the challenge of a respiratory infection being worse in the winter months, we can get through this if we really put a lot of effort into getting as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in an interview with NPR, this week.
Health experts also say that it will also be critical for people to get the flu vaccine, in addition to their COVID-19 shots, as both vaccines only protect against their respective diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is safe to get the COVID and flu vaccines during the same visit.
At this time, booster shots are recommended for anyone over the age of 18 who has received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer recipients are encouraged to get a booster shot six months after receiving their second dose, if they are over the age of 65, have an underlying medical condition or are at high risk for exposure. On Tuesday, Pfizer requested the Food and Drug Administration allow all Americans over 18 to be eligible for booster shots.
