Jennifer Anistontook to Instagram Stories to defend herself against fans who took issue with her recent interview comments that she cut off “a few people” in her life who “refused or did not disclose” that they’d gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.
One fan opined of Aniston, “But if [she’s] vaccinated she’s protected correct? Why be worried about [having unvaccinated people] around her?”
Showing a picture of herself wearing a mask apparently in her home, Aniston replied Thursday, “Because if you have the [Delta] variant, you are still able to give it to me I may get slightly sick but I will not be admitted to a hospital and or die. BUT I CAN give it to someone who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised (or has a previous existing condition) — and therefore I would put their lives at risk.”
She added, “THAT is why I worry. We have to care about more than just ourselves.”
The 52-year-old former Friends star then displayed a picture of a cross stitch embroidery that read, “What doesn’t kill you mutates and tries again.”
Before 2014, only hard-core comic fans ever heard of an obscure, late ’60s comic book team called Guardians of the Galaxy. Fast-forward to today, and Star-Lord, Groot, Gamora, and a talking Raccoon named Rocket are household names, thanks to James Gunn‘s blockbuster Marvel Studios adaptations.
Nathan Fillion, who can be seen this weekend in theaters and on HBO Max in his longtime friend Gunn’s new Warner Bros. movie The Suicide Squad, said audiences have learned by now to trust the writer/director.
“When he told me…’Hey guys, I got Guardians of the Galaxy!’ I said, ‘I hated that comic. That was a dumb comic — that’s like the worst.’ He goes, ‘I know. I know just what to do with it. It’s going to be amazing.'”
“‘All right. Good luck,'” Fillion said, recalling his disbelief with a laugh.
He adds of frequent collaborator Gunn, “We know what he can do with a property. We know how he can see the possibilities and the potential. So we’re giving him this incredible Suicide Squad property. We know what’s going to happen.”
The actor, who plays the DC Comics character The Detachable Kid, adds, “From the horse’s mouth, James told me, ‘This is the best movie I’ve ever made.'”
The Suicide Squad also stars Idris Elba, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, John Cena, Jai Courtney, Pete Davidson, Daniela Melchior, Peter Capaldi, and Guardians series veterans Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, and Sylvester Stallone.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. employers added a higher-than-expected 943,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labor said Friday, and the unemployment rate declined by a fraction of a percentage point to 5.4%.
A recent surge in virus cases in the U.S., propelled largely by the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, casts a shadow over the data collected in the earlier part of the month.
While the latest figures indicate the economic recovery is gaining steam, the unemployment rate still remains well above the pre-pandemic figure of 3.5% seen in February 2020.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Providence Police DepartmentProvidence Police Department
(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) — A woman has been arrested in connection to the brutal beating of another woman who was attacked by a mob of ATV riders and dirt bikers in Providence, Rhode Island, police said in a statement Thursday.
On Thursday evening, Providence Police detectives apprehended Shyanne Boisvert, 24, of North Providence, “related to the assault that occurred on Valley Street on August 3,” the police department said.
Providence Police were notified of Boisvert’s whereabouts by the Cranston Police Department, when she reported to their station regarding an unrelated matter, they said.
Boisvert was charged with one count of simple assault and one count of disorderly conduct. She will soon appear in court.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
On Tuesday night, a mob of about 10 ATV and dirt bike riders in Providence allegedly pulled a woman out of her car and beat her.
According to a copy of the police report obtained by ABC News, the 35-year-old victim had honked her horn at the group after they failed to move through two green lights.
As she drove away, some of them opened the driver’s side door, pulled her out of the car and began beating her on the street, the report said.
The incident was captured on a cellphone video which was obtained by Providence ABC affiliate WLNE.
It’s unclear as of now what role Boisvert played in the assault.
The incident is just the latest in a string of violent crimes that have taken place in Providence this year.
Last Friday, Providence City Council President John Igliozzi sent a letter to Gov. Dan McKee requesting that Rhode Island State Police troopers be deployed to the city to assist police in confronting the crime wave. Igliozzi also pointed out the lack of staffing in the local police department.
“As you know, the headlines regarding crime in the city of Providence over the last few weeks have been shocking — murders, drive-by shootings, stabbings, gang incidents and roving throngs of ATV and dirt bike riders terrorizing our neighborhoods,” Igliozzi wrote. “This wave of violent crime is unacceptable, and we need to act immediately to restore public safety and make our city’s residents once again feel safe walking and sitting outside in their own neighborhoods.”
(NEW YORK) — Life may be about to get tougher for the unvaccinated — and it’s not only because of their significantly increased risk of getting COVID-19 and becoming very sick.
A rising chorus of states, cities and private sector titans have implemented new vaccine requirements for their employees and patrons. It marks a new, less negotiable phase in the fight against the coronavirus, after months of cajoling and material goodies leading the vaccination campaign.
The new incentives aren’t financial. They draw motivation from immediate and tangible fears: of losing time to go get tested, losing a job, losing money or missing out on social events, as well as the ever more apparent pain of the pandemic hitting home through loss of life and loved ones. More than 97% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the country are unvaccinated, according to the White House COVID-19 Task Force.
Now, after months of vaccine rates tapering off, vaccination rates are heading back up with the recent surge of serious illness. On Thursday alone, the U.S. saw its highest vaccination numbers in over a month — 585,000 new vaccinations in a single day, the White House COVID-19 data director announced. Some of the most dramatic upticks in recent vaccinations have been in states with the highest surges in new cases and hospitalizations and some of the lowest vaccination rates.
“Watching more people dying in the ICU, kids getting sick? Yes, that motivates,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics and the founding head of New York University School of Medicine’s medical ethics division. “Free beer, fishing license, free marijuana, college tuition didn’t move many people to get vaccinated.”
Unvaccinated Americans must now weigh their own personal risk-benefit ratio: Take the vaccine or face restrictions.
“The carrots do not work much,” Caplan said. “Now, we’re seeing more pressure coming from the other side.”
That pressure is coming in the form of federal, state and local vaccine requirements.
Requirements that government employees get vaccinated or face regular testing, social distancing and masks were accompanied by a slew of major companies like Google, Facebook, Tyson Foods and Disney, which is the parent company of ABC News, now requiring the vaccine for their employees.
“I think we’ve taken significant steps to make it difficult to come back to work, or more difficult to come back to work, if you’re not vaccinated,” White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.
The Biden administration has made clear there will be no federal mandate; but its recent lean-in to vaccine requirements marks a shift in tone, going from removing barriers to getting the vaccine to making it harder to move about “normal” life for those who choose not to get it.
“There’s a bit of a hassle factor that plays into whether or not people are willing to get an exemption,” Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC. “And if it’s too difficult or more challenging, people might opt just to get vaccinated.”
As the NFL season gets into gear, the league informed clubs that it would not extend the season to accommodate a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players that leads to a game cancellation, the NFL Network reported, a stark turn from the season prior, when the league flexed the schedule to avoid missed games amid outbreaks. Additionally, players on both teams would forfeit pay for the lost contest, and the team responsible for the cancellation brought on by unvaccinated players would cover the financial losses and face potential disciplinary action.
Caplan suggests framing vaccination as the more appealing choice; opting out will make life harder.
New York is the first city in the country that will require proof of at least one dose of vaccination for some of the main modes of basic leisure — dining out inside, indoor entertainment and working out at the gym. All state employees will be required to get vaccinated or get tested weekly beginning Labor Day.
Major privately run hospitals in New York will impose a similar vaccine requirement. In internal emails obtained by ABC News, New York Presbyterian and Mount Sinai both notified staff that beginning in September, workers must show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing. State-run, patient-facing hospital workers will have no testing option.
“Please note that compliance — either by vaccination or exemption — will be required for your continued employment,” New York Presbyterian’s hospital president and vice president said in a letter to staff. “We want all of our team members to continue working with us, but we have to balance that with the imperative to protect our patients, employees and communities.”
The move earned protest from the largest health care union in the U.S. Members of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East said they shouldn’t have to be vaccinated to keep their jobs — especially if it risks losing front-line health workers at a time they’re most needed. That mirrored some national unions’ concerns about protecting individual freedoms — and not forcing their workers to pay for government-enforced testing.
Experts note there’s a fine line between requirements being “part of what’s going to nudge more people to get vaccinated,” as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told ABC’s Start Here podcast, and pushing them away.
A full federal mandate might make hesitant and unvaccinated Americans “dig in their heels” further, Morita said.
“Generally, with mandates of any kind, you want to do everything else possible before you mandate something,” she said. “But when the vaccine is free, it’s accessible, and you’re still struggling, then mandates make sense. But you really want to give people the chance to do it on their own.”
The advent of more local mandates looms on the imminent horizon as soon as the vaccine is fully FDA-approved, which could come as soon as early September, a senior White House official familiar with the FDA approval process told ABC News.
Dr. Anthony Fauci called that moment a “game-changer,” one that will possibly provide more legal cover for companies to implement vaccine imperatives.
“‘My body, my choice’ is not an ethic for a plague,” Caplan said. “The ethics of plague are, ‘my body, vaccinated’ — more choices for everybody.”
Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
The sun finally rose of a new music era for The Weeknd on Friday, when he dropped his brand new single “Take My Breath” as well as its psychedelic music video.
The Grammy winner celebrated his new release all day Thursday, teasing on billboards across the nation that “The dawn is coming…” Well, at the stroke of midnight on Friday, the message changed to “the dawn is here!”
“Take My Breath” is a frisky departure from The Weeknd’s After Hours era, as the song explores how far he and his object of affection are willing to go behind closed doors.
“You tell me things you wanna try/ I know temptation is the devil in disguise/ You risk it all to feel alive, oh yeah/ You’re offering yourself to me like sacrifice,” his falsetto croons in the opening lyrics before delving into the impassioned chorus where he’s told to “Take my breath away/ And make it last forever, babe.”
As for the music video, it starts with The Weeknd walking away from the rising sun and into a dark nightclub that’s lit by a series of strobe lights. Once inside, he catches the eye of a mysterious woman who gets him hooked on oxygen — the club’s drug of choice — which causes his surroundings to blur as he’s trapped in a state of euphoria.
That high comes crashing down when the mysterious woman wraps her long braids around his neck and chokes him, causing him to black out — he comes to on the dance floor, surrounded by sea of revelers dancing around him.
“Take My Breath” is the apparent first track off The Weeknd’s fifth studio album, of which he has yet to reveal a title and release date.
(NEW YORK) — United Airlines announced Friday that all U.S.-based employees will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and upload their vaccination card to a company site by this fall.
It is the first major U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines for all employees. Delta Air Lines announced earlier this year that it is requiring all new employees to be inoculated.
United joins a growing list of companies that have mandated vaccines for employees in some capacity: Uber, DoorDash, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Walmart and many more.
The airline’s deadline for employees to upload their vaccine card is five weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced it has fully approved a COVID-19 vaccine or five weeks after Sept. 20, whichever comes first.
“For those employees who are already vaccinated — and for those employees who get vaccinated and upload their records to Flying Together before September 20th — we’ll offer an additional day of pay,” United CEO Scott Kirby and United President Brett Hart wrote in a memo to employees.
The executives added, “We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees. But, we have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when you’re at work, and the facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.”
United’s decision comes as fears mount about the highly-contagious delta variant.
“Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19,” the executives wrote. “We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter.”
Last year, major U.S. airline CEOs pointed to low infection rates among their employees in an attempt to prove that air travel is safe.
“At United, but also at our large competitors, our flight attendants have lower COVID infection rates than the general population, which is one of multiple data points that speaks to the safety on board airplanes,” Kirby said during a Politico event in September.
At the time, the largest flight attendant union in the U.S. that represents United flight attendants among other airlines — the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO — said they saw a little over 1,000 flight attendants across the industry contract the novel coronavirus. That represented less than 1% of the roughly 120,000 flight attendants that were employed at the end of last year, and was lower than the reported general infection rate of 2%.
(TOKYO) — Each day, ABC News will give you a roundup of key Olympic moments from the day’s events in Tokyo, happening 13 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time. After a 12-month delay, the unprecedented 2020 Summer Olympics is taking place without fans or spectators and under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. beach volleyball takes home the gold
U.S. beach volleyball players April Ross and Alix Klineman beat Australia 21-15, 21-16 to win the gold medal and complete the set of Olympic medals for April Ross, who won a silver in 2012 and a bronze in 2016.
In the last 48 hours, the U.S. has faced Australia in the women’s basketball quarterfinals, the men’s basketball semifinals, the women’s soccer bronze medal game and the beach volleyball gold medal game. The U.S. has won every match.
U.S. women’s basketball advances to gold medal game
The United States women’s basketball team beat Serbia 79-59 in the semifinals and will advance to the gold medal game. The effort was led by Brittney Griner, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds. The team is after its seventh consecutive gold medal and will take on the winner of Japan and France, who play later this morning.
COVID-19 cases at Olympics rise to 387, Tokyo hits record high again
There were 29 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the Tokyo Olympics on Friday. No new cases involved athletes. The total now stands at 387, according to data released by the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
The surrounding city of Tokyo reported 4,515 new cases on Friday, a new record for the second straight day. The seven-day average increased by 152.7%, according to data from the Tokyo metropolitan government.
Belarusian coaches removed from Olympics
The International Olympic Committee announced it was investigating the actions of Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich surrounding the incident with sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. The two coaches had their credentials canceled and were removed from the Olympics.
The incident started when Tsimanouskaya criticized her coaches on social media. She was quickly removed from her event and taken to the airport against her will to depart for Belarus. Tsimanouskaya said team officials intimated she would face punishment upon her return and, fearing for her safety, she hailed airport police.
Tsimanouskaya was granted a humanitarian visa at the Polish embassy in Tokyo and is currently in Poland.
(NEW YORK) — Some major cruise lines will now require pre-boarding testing and masks to be worn in certain indoor areas — even for vaccinated guests.
“We have seen a number of ships report some isolated cases of COVID,” said Cruise Critic Editor-in-Chief Colleen McDaniel. “And what we’ve seen is these have been mostly among vaccinated passengers, and certainly the delta variant seems to be having an effect on that.”
Despite at least 95% of guests and crew being vaccinated, Carnival Vista, which departed out of Galveston, Texas, reported a “small number of positive cases” this week — prompting the cruise line to change their policy.
The positive cases are in isolation, but the new mask-wearing rule will begin immediately on the Vista.
Carnival’s policy will go into effect after Aug. 7 through Oct. 31 for other sailings.
“These new requirements are being implemented to protect our guests and crew while on board, and to continue to provide confidence to our homeports and destinations that we are doing our part to support their efforts to protect public health and safety,” Carnival Cruise Line President Christine Duffy said in a statement. “We expect these requirements will be temporary and appreciate the cooperation of our guests.”
Holland America and Princess Cruises, which are both owned by Carnival Corporation, announced the same new cruising requirements.
In addition to masking, all fully vaccinated guests will be required to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of their embarkation.
“I think the requirements are going to continue to shift based on how we’re seeing the delta variant affect our day-to-day lives, both at home and also as we travel,” McDaniel said. “I think this is going to stick while we figure out how the delta variant is going to affect us, day to day.”
But some experts don’t believe the new rules will deter future passengers.
“What we have found is that cruise passengers want to cruise and that they want to cruise safely,” Cruise Critic Managing Editor Chris Faust told ABC News. “So no matter what they’re doing, they’re going to be following the cruise line protocols in order so that they can stay safe and feel like they’re having a great vacation.”
Dr. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, recommended people determine what their risk threshold is before deciding to take a cruise in light of the growing number of cases.
“You have to think very carefully,” she said. “Do you have someone in your household, who isn’t vaccinated, that is at risk? Do I have small children that could become infected if I get infected?”
She said to keep in mind how contagious the delta variant is, and that it is easier to get COVID now than it has ever been.
“Vaccinated or not, you have to think about your risk, you have to think about where you are, who you’re around and mask accordingly,” she explained.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 615,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 58.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
Aug 06, 7:42 am
United to require all US employees be vaccinated by September
All U.S.-based United employees will be required to get vaccinated for COVID-19 by September and must upload their vaccination card to the company website, the airline announced Friday. The move is the strongest vaccination requirement a U.S. airline has taken so far.
“For those employees who are already vaccinated — and for those employees who get vaccinated and upload their records to Flying Together before September 20th — we’ll offer an additional day of pay,” Scott Kirby and Brett Hart, the CEO and president of United, wrote in a memo to employees.
Employees will have until five weeks after Sept. 20 or five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration fully authorizes a COVID-19 vaccine to upload their cards. All three vaccines in the U.S. are currently being used under emergency use authorization.
Aug 06, 4:31 am
Tokyo sees 4,515 new positive cases
There are 4,515 new positive coronavirus cases in Tokyo as of Friday, according to the city’s COVID-19 information website.
It’s a 152.7% increase since last Friday.
Of the new cases, 141 are severe and four have turned fatal.
Aug 06, 1:53 am
There are now 387 positive cases at the Tokyo Olympics
As of Friday, there are 387 positive COVID-19 cases at the Tokyo Olympics, according to the Tokyo 2020 coronavirus positive case list.
This is an increase of 29 positive cases since Thursday.
All of the cases are either Tokyo 2020 contractors, Games-concerned personnel or media.
“Of the 726 U.S. Olympic delegates in Japan on Aug. 5, no COVID tests were confirmed positive based on daily results,” the International Olympic Committee tweeted.
Aug 05, 8:53 pm
Hawaii issues vaccine rules for state, county employees
Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced Thursday that all state and county employees must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Aug. 16 — or be subject to weekly testing.
Those who don’t comply “could be subject to termination,” Ige said.
It is unclear how many state and county workers are already vaccinated.
The mandate comes as the number of cases and hospitalizations in the state are “trending up dramatically,” Ige said.
Maryland and Virginia announced similar measures earlier Thursday.
Aug 05, 4:12 pm
Delta ‘sweeping over Mississippi like a tsunami’: Official
Mississippi is facing “a phenomenal increase in daily reported cases of COVID, and this is entirely attributable to the delta variant, which is sweeping over Mississippi like a tsunami,” state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Thursday.
Dobbs said 97% of new cases are among the unvaccinated, and that 89% of hospitalizations and 85% of deaths are unvaccinated.
Dobbs pleaded with the public to get vaccinated, stressing that the unvaccinated population is driving the current surge, but that vulnerable, vaccinated people are suffering the fallout.
“There is going to be some collateral damage, unfortunately, even folks who’ve done everything they can to protect themselves,” Dobbs said.
“The minority of folks who are vaccinated and hospitalized are overrepresented by the older and those with weaker immune system, so we’re seeing a pretty dramatic spillover effect from the transmission in the community to more vulnerable parts of our population,” he said.
Aug 05, 3:51 pm
New state employee vaccination rules issued in Virginia, Maryland
In Virginia, all 120,000 state employees must be vaccinated by Sept. 1, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday.
About 72% of employees are already vaccinated.
Anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated must get tested weekly, he said.
In Maryland, state employees at 48 state facilities must be vaccinated by Sept. 1, “or adhere to strict face covering requirements and submit to regular, ongoing COVID-19 testing,” Gov. Larry Hogan said.
The 48 facilities on the list include the Department of Health, Department of Juvenile Services, Department of Public Safety and Corrections and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Aug 05, 2:28 pm
Only 2 states not experiencing high or substantial community transmission
Nearly every state in the country is now experiencing case and hospitalization increases. Only two states — Vermont and Maine — are not reporting high or substantial community transmission, according to federal data.
The U.S. is now experiencing its steepest increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations since the winter. More than 61,000 patients are now hospitalized across the country with COVID-19, according to federal data. About one month ago, 12,000 patients were in U.S. hospitals.
