(NOTE LANGUAGE) Kathy Griffin underwent successful surgery following her lung cancer diagnosis.
On Monday morning, Griffin, 60 revealed that she was about to have half of her left lung removed because of the cancer. Later that day, a rep for the comedian told People, “She is now out of surgery and everything went well, per her doctor.”
Before surgery, Griffin elaborated on her diagnosis and treatment plan on social media, writing, “Yes, I have lung cancer even though I’ve never smoked!”
“The doctors are very optimistic as it is stage one and contained to my left lung,” she explained. “Hopefully no chemo or radiation after this and I should have normal function with my breathing. I should be up and running around as usual in a month or less.”
“It’s been a helluva 4 years, trying to get back to work, making you guys laugh and entertaining you, but I’m gonna be just fine,” Griffin declared.
The comedian recently sat down with ABC News’ Juju Chang to discuss her reaction to her diagnosis, admitting she was “in shock.”
“Once a day, I’ll just turn to nobody next to me and go, ‘Can you believe this s—? Is this a b—- or what?” she said.
(NEW YORK) — While states like Missouri end a second month enduring a surge in COVID-19 cases as the more contagious delta variant spreads, public health officials across the country are hearing the same story from an increasing number of people getting the vaccine: someone they know recently caught the virus and the experience was unsettling.
“We don’t want to see more people getting sick as a driving force to get people vaccinated, but we know the case counts and more people in the hospital will play a role in that conversation,” Dr. Sam Page, St. Louis county executive, told ABC News.
Missouri has seen an increase of nearly 560% in new cases, 205% virus-related hospitalizations since early June — staggering increases, which have been exacerbated by the low number of residents — just over 41% — who are fully vaccinated.
“We really need higher vaccination penetration in our communities to slow this down,” Page said.
However, Missouri is one of the many states in the nation which has experienced a significant, newfound demand for COVID-19 vaccinations in the last several weeks. Vaccinations statewide increased by approximately 100% in the last two weeks of July.
While the uptick in shots has been most notable in the states that have been recently hardest hit by the coronavirus, the entire country is experiencing a rising vaccination rate.
According to an ABC News analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from the last three weeks, every state has reported an increase in its average number of first doses administered, with the national rate of Americans receiving their first dose up by more than 73%.
Similarly, in the last week alone, vaccination rates have increased by nearly 20% in young Americans, ages 12-17, and by more than 25% in adults.
And on Sunday, the White House reported more than 800,000 vaccine doses administered, including first and second doses, marking the fifth consecutive day with more than 700,000 doses were reported administered. The uptick pushed the national vaccination average to more than 637,000 doses administered each day — up by more than 24% in the last two weeks.
There are many factors at play — fear of the delta variant, incentives from the government and the rising popularity of vaccine requirements for school or work — but regardless of why it’s happening, Page said the increase in vaccinations could not come soon enough.
“The delta variant is a whole new virus,” Page said.
Slowly but surely, officials have started to see their public urgings translate into shots in arms, data showed — a sobering silver lining to the immeasurable grief that has accompanied the virus.
But Page urged other states and counties to get ahead of the delta variant while they could, pulling out every stop to increase vaccination rates before the virus hits their community, because when it does, it’s too late.
The uptick in vaccinations in Missouri, for example, will only begin to give ample protection beginning around September, since full vaccination requires two shots and then about two weeks for the antibodies to kick in.
“We just wish that we could get people vaccinated sooner because the illness has an unfortunate loss of life associated with it. And that’s just a terrible thing to watch,” Page said.
In the final weeks of July, 14 states saw an increase of 100% or more in their first-dose average. All of those states have vaccination totals below the national baseline of eligible Americans who have had one at least shot — 67.6%.
The five states which have seen the most significant increases in their vaccination rates — Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma — are also among the states with the current highest seven-day case rates per capita. Louisiana, which currently has the nation’s highest case rate, has experienced a nearly 335% increase in individuals receiving their first vaccine dose. Similarly, Arkansas, which has the nation’s second highest case rate, has seen a 193% increase in recent weeks.
“This increase in vaccination rates in states that have been lagging is a positive trend. Americans are seeing the risk and impact of being unvaccinated and responding with action. And that’s what it’s going to take to get us out of this pandemic,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Monday at a briefing with reporters.
But experts caution that it will be critical for this trend to see even greater increases for the country to avoid more unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths.
“While the increasing caseload has had an impact on vaccine uptake, it has been minor, relative to the need,” Maureen Miller, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“Since the delta variant is so much more contagious, we’ll need to see more people vaccinated to get this pandemic under control — in the range of 85%-90% of the population.”
The introduction of the delta variant, which now results in 8 out of 10 new cases in the U.S., has resulted in a rapid and significant increase in infections across the country.
The United States’ daily case average is now up to more than 72,400 cases a day, a 532% increase since mid-June. On Friday alone, the country recorded more than 100,000 new cases, marking the highest single-day report in nearly six months.
Nationally, as of Friday, nearly 40,000 patients were receiving hospital care across the country, up nearly 190% increase in the last month.
Several states with the lowest vaccination rates are now seeing viral surges equal to or higher than the peaks they experienced last winter and spring.
“The combination of the new, highly transmissible delta variant and the lack of both vaccination and implementing preventive behaviors, such as mask wearing and social distancing, have ensured that the unvaccinated will continue to become infected, hospitalized, and a needless amount will die,” Miller said.
In Louisiana — reporting the nation’s highest case rate — the average number of first doses administered has tripled over the last three weeks.
“My hope and my prayer today, is that that slope — that trajectory of increases in vaccinations — will continue for a long period of time. Because when that happens, you will see that case growth lines start to come down,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said.
Edwards on Monday imposed an indoor mask mandate congruent with case numbers climbing and the CDC’s most recent mask guidance for everyone, including vaccinated people, to mask up if they’re in areas with a lot of transmission.
Health experts like Miller praised the increased restrictions, since mandating vaccines — considered to be the most effective way to reach herd immunity — isn’t currently an option.
“A current stumbling block to mandating vaccines is the (Food and Drug Administration) emergency use authorization status. Once the FDA provides full regulatory status, that will provide strong legal cover to institute mandatory vaccination,” said Miller.
But a piecemeal effort to mandate vaccines is underway, and quickly gaining momentum as the spread of the delta variant grows. The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) joined up with over 50 other health care organizations to call for mandatory vaccinations within their industry last week, citing rising COVID cases and the delta variant as reasons.
“Due to the recent COVID-19 surge and the availability of safe and effective vaccines, our health care organizations and societies advocate that all health care and long-term care employers require their workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement.
And last week, the U.S. government announced that federal workers must receive the COVID-19 vaccine or contend with regular testing. The announcement came as a growing list of companies are requiring shots for employees, including Walmart, Google and Disney, ABC News’ parent company.
Vaccination is the “primary way” to move out of the pandemic, the AMA wrote, without having to revert to state lockdowns and additional mitigation measures.
“This surge was preventable. Unfortunately, it takes dying loved ones begging their family members to get vaccinated. Some people are starting to listen,” Miller said.
Jennifer Hudson stars as the legendary Aretha Franklin in the upcoming biopic Aretha, out August 13. Unfortunately, the iconic soul singer died in 2018, but Hudson still remembers the last conversation she had with her.
“I definitely remember our last call,” Hudson told E!’s Daily Pop. “I miss hearing from her.”
“The last thing we spoke about was what she’d been eating and I was telling her about my son cooking. And he’s like, ‘Mother, is that Aretha Franklin on the phone?!’ I was so glad he was there to share that moment,” she expressed.
Hudson also recalled being hand-picked by the “Natural Woman” songstress for the leading role in Aretha, which she says gave her the “encouragement to get through it.”
“But it’s still adds pressure because you don’t want to let her down. It’s personal to me, for that reason,” she explained. “One minute it’s like, ‘oh my gosh, I’m so excited,’ and the next second it’s a bunch of anxiety.”
On Monday, the Oscar winner shared a throwback photo of herself visiting Franklin’s childhood home with some of the singer’s family members, Diamond Franklin, Victorie Franklin, Tonja Franklin, Edward Franklin, Kecalf Franklin, Jordan Franklin and Grace Franklin.
“I enjoyed all of Detroit but my favorite moment was sitting on Aretha’s childhood porch with her beautiful family,” she wrote alongside a picture of the group. “As we reflected on the Queen, we listened to her grandbaby sing “Ain’t No Way” with her beautiful voice. The world needs to hear more from the Franklin family. I will never forget this sweet moment together!”
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of Spirit Airlines and American Airlines passengers faced cancellations and delays on Monday in the latest summer travel snag.
The airlines canceled more than 800 flights combined on Monday, and delayed more than 1,000.
A Spirit spokesperson told ABC News the cancellations are the result of a “perfect storm,” blaming weather, staffing shortages and crews reaching the hour limits in which they are legally able to fly.
In order to get their operations back on track, they proactively canceled 313 flights, which is around 40% of their daily operation. The cancellations gave Spirit “breathing room” to ensure crews and planes can get to the right locations, the spokesperson said.
Frustrated passengers took to social media tweeting that they were stranded, forced to wait in long lines, or rerouted.
“We’re working around the clock to get back on track in the wake of some travel disruptions over the weekend due to a series of weather and operational challenges,” Spirit said in a statement. “We needed to make proactive cancellations to some flights across the network, but the majority of flights are still scheduled as planned.”
American canceled 529 flights on Monday, almost 20% of its daily operation.
The carrier told ABC News it’s still recovering from inclement weather Sunday in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A spokesperson said severe thunderstorms moved in and at least 80 flights had to divert to other airports, adding that it is currently repositioning planes and crews to improve the operation. . The cancellations come as air travel continues to break pandemic records.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers screened more than 2.2 million people at U.S. airports nationwide Sunday — the highest checkpoint volume since the start of the pandemic.
All U.S. airlines and the TSA have struggled with staffing as air travel has rapidly jumped from historic lows to approaching pre-pandemic levels.
When air travel came to a halt in March 2020, thousands of employees were offered early retirements and buyouts, but now the airlines are desperate to fill these positions again.
Hundreds of American Airlines flights were cancelled in late June because of significant staffing and maintenance issues.
During its most recent earnings call, Southwest Airlines executives revealed they have had to double their hiring efforts because they are getting fewer applications than they are used to.
“If it’s not the number one focus, it is 1A, which is getting our hiring in place and our staffing in place,” Southwest’s Executive Vice President Robert Jordan said.
Simone Biles is back on the winner’s podium in Tokyo.
Following her withdrawals last week from individual competitions in vault, uneven bars and floor events, the Team USA gymnast took home the bronze medal in the balance beam finals at the 2020 Games.
The superstar Olympian posted a score of 14.000, which placed her behind Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing, both of China, who took home gold and silver, respectively. Biles’ teammate, Sunisa Lee, who won gold in the individual all-around competition, came in fifth in the balance beam event.
“I’m pretty happy. I wasn’t expecting to medal. I just came out here and tried to do a good beam set,” Biles said in a press conference. “To have these two next to me. I think they did absolutely amazing. I watched them train so hard so they are definitely deserving of one and two.”
She continued, “Just to have one more opportunity to compete at the Olympics is amazing.”
This marks Biles’ second straight Olympic bronze medal on beam after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This seventh medal also makes Biles tied with Shannon Miller for the title of most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast. However, Simone still holds the record for most Olympic Gold medals of any U.S. gymnast.
(NEW YORK) — Black women are typically paid only 63 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, which means they have to work seven months into 2021, Aug. 3, to earn what white, non-Hispanic men made in 2020 alone.
The gender wage gap has closed by only three cents for Black women over the last 30 years, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.
As a result of the wage gap, Black women, on average, lose $2,009 each month, $24,110 annually, and $964,400 over the course of a 40-year career, according to a new analysis by the NWLC.
Equal Pay Day for all women was marked on March 24, 2021, meaning that Black women have to work an extra five months to catch up.
This year’s Black Women’s Equal Pay Day comes as Black women are continuing to face the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, during which Black women have been hit disproportionately hard.
Over 1 in 12 Black women ages 20 and over were unemployed in June, an increase of 8% since May. And Black women’s unemployment rate remains nearly two times higher than their pre-pandemic unemployment rate, according to the NWLC.
In July, the median weekly earnings for a Black woman were $746, compared to $1,115 for a white man, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With Black women more likely to be the breadwinner for their family, the pay gap matters even more in a time of economic uncertainty like the pandemic, according to Nicole Mason, president and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
“When we have a pandemic and then the economic downturn, there’s less money to ride out an economic storm, less money that they’re bringing home, especially if their hours have been cut,” Mason told Good Morning America last year. “Some people think that the pay gap doesn’t exist or you don’t really feel it, but women feel it every day in their wallets, every day when they go to work and bring home less, or during an economic downturn or job loss. They don’t have the money they need to be able to provide for their families.”
Mason’s organization has released research that estimates Black women will not bring home the same earnings as white men for the same jobs until 2130 if the current rate of change persists.
When it comes to solutions for closing the pay gap for Black women, Mason said the federal government can play a role in passing legislation that promotes pay equity and pay transparency and works to end workplace discrimination.
She said employers can play a role, too.
“Employers have a role to play in terms of making sure there is pay equity and making sure that women across the board earn what they’re worth and the skills and talents they bring to the table,” Mason added. “And as a culture and a society, we have a lot of work to do in terms of breaking gender stereotypes around women in the workplace, their value and how much women should be paid for their work.”
(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — After a very public flop in 2019, Boeing’s chance at redemption for its Starliner spacecraft is finally here.
The second test flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the Florida coast on Tuesday at 1:20 p.m. ET, after a launch attempt last week was scrubbed due to an unplanned thruster-firing incident on the International Space Station. The first Starliner launch in December 2019 famously did not go as planned, and the spacecraft never reached the ISS.
NASA will carry live coverage of the uncrewed mission as it is a part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, in which the space agency tapped the private sector to help with missions in low-Earth orbit. Live coverage of the Starliner launch will commence on NASA’s website and social media handles at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Approximately 30 minutes after launch, the Starliner is set to perform its orbital insertion burn that kicks off its daylong trip to the space station. It is then scheduled to dock at the ISS at 1:37 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
The spaceship is bringing some 400 pounds of cargo and supplies to the space station crew.
While the test flight is unmanned, an anthropometric dummy dubbed “Rosie the Rocketeer” will be aboard the Starliner. The 180-pound test device will sit in the commander’s seat of the capsule for the test flight, and its sensors will be used to collect data on how the launch will impact eventual human passengers. The model human was named after the World War II icon Rosie the Riveter, and is meant to honor women pioneers in aerospace. The test device is clad in the iconic red polka-dot bandana.
Boeing also said it will be paying tribute to more than a dozen historically Black colleges and universities during the flight test. Among the cargo inside the spacecraft are flags, small pennants and other items “representing HBCUs from throughout the U.S.,” according to a statement from the company.
NASA and Boeing blamed errors in automation and software issues for the botched launch in December 2019, saying mission clocks were not in sync and thus timing errors prevented the Starliner from reaching the orbit it needed in order to get to the space station. Rather than reach the space station, the Starliner landed in White Sands, New Mexico.
Tuesday’s mission is seen as critical for Boeing, as it has yet to launch astronauts for NASA while its Commercial Crew program competitor SpaceX has flown multiple crewed missions to the space station in addition to numerous cargo flights. Boeing is also still reeling from the fallout related to issues with its 737 Max jets. If the Starliner launch fails again, it is difficult to see how it will be able to remain competitive against SpaceX for NASA contracts — especially as the private sector’s involvement in the budding commercial space industry has grown significantly over the past year.
Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Despite taking place during a politically off-cycle campaign year, a major intraparty battle heavy with national implications is brewing in Tuesday’s Democratic primary special election for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District.
The contest presents an early test case of whether progressives can gain traction ahead of a pivotal midterm election cycle by going up against establishment-backed candidates. A slew of high-profile figures even descended on the Cleveland area in the lead-up to election day — including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
With Republicans simultaneously vying in another heated primary in the suburbs of Columbus in the state’s 15th Congressional District, Tuesday’s race in the 11th district takes place in one of Ohio’s few reliably blue areas and features more than a dozen Democratic candidates. Whoever comes out on top is all but guaranteed to go on to fill the seat left vacant by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge when she joined the Biden administration.
Over the last several months, the field narrowed down to two candidates — Nina Turner, former state senator and top Sanders campaign aide, and Shontel Brown, who currently serves as chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
Regardless of who advances from the primary, either of the two candidates would continue the more than two-decade long tradition of Black women representing the 11th district in Congress. Although the pair of front-runners share the common cultural baseline in their goal of speaking on behalf of the majority-Black district in Washington, Turner and Brown approached the campaign trail from different ends of the Democratic political spectrum.
“I’ve talked to people, my team has talked to people, and although people … believe that things can change, they also say that they want a fighter, somebody that’s gonna push back,” Turner told ABC News in an interview.
As a former co-chairwoman of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, Turner cultivated a firebrand, national image and went into the race as the early front-runner. Turner’s political ties helped her campaign rake in more than $4 million overall throughout her primary run and earned her the endorsements from well-known progressive figures on Capitol Hill including all of the “Squad” members, as well as Sen. Ed Markey and Sanders.
Beyond the high-profile figures in Washington, the former state senator also earned dozens of local endorsements that Ohio political experts said bolster her campaign’s vitality on a local level.
“Turner is not just a progressive candidate. She’s someone that’s been around and known and been in Cleveland for a long, long time as a city council member, as a state senator, as someone who’s got a lot of ties and connections. You can see that in some of the endorsements that she’s getting like the Cleveland mayor (Frank Jackson),” said former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft.
In broader statewide terms, progressive Democrats also see Turner’s candidacy as a potential spark that could reignite the party’s voter base in a state that has largely shifted to the right following the 2016 election.
“You’ve got a Democratic Party that’s been largely gutted in Ohio. It was part of the blue wall that’s been crumbling. Nina and her campaign could point a way for Democrats to rebuild the blue wall in the industrial heartland,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive political action organization, Our Revolution.
Despite the sweeping endorsements and high hopes for the future, Turner appears to be aware of potential minefields her past comments about her own party members opened up on the campaign trail. Following Sanders’ 2016 presidential primary loss, Turner heavily criticized the Democratic Party and in a January 2020 op-ed, she accused President Joe Biden of betraying Black voters by working with Republicans throughout his career. After Biden won the nomination, Turner made a now-infamous comparison during an interview with The Atlantic, in which she compared voting for Biden over former President Donald Trump to eating half a bowl of excrement rather than eating the entire bowl.
Going into the primary, Turner told ABC News that she is looking “forward to working with Democrats across the spectrum” if she wins and hopes that people will see her as a “coalition builder” even though “people might not always agree with (her).”
“What we can see is that the Biden administration is moving in a more progressive direction and I believe that is because of the progressive movement, and progressives have been principal partners with this administration, so this is about the future and not relitigating old primaries, and the only people who benefit from relitigation of this, are the very people who don’t want to see the change happen,” Turner said.
Although Turner may want to leave the past behind, many Democrats are indicating that they would have a hard time letting bygones be bygones and are instead choosing to funnel their support toward Brown after a hard-fought general election year in which Black voters mobilized in favor of Biden. Brown also received the endorsement of Sanders’ 2016 primary competitor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who praised her for breaking barriers as the first Black woman to chair her county’s Democratic Party.
Among the nation’s heavyweight Black lawmakers who are rallying for Brown in the primary are members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who played a key role in landing Biden the presidency.
Two of the nation’s top Black lawmakers, Clyburn and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Joyce Beatty, rallied across the district in the last weekend before the election, painting Brown as an inherent ally of the White House. During a campaign event on Sunday, Clyburn appeared to issue a veiled jab at Turner by saying Brown is the kind of candidate who is “interested in making headway than making the headlines” and “much more interested in getting results than spewing insults.”
“We need somebody from the 11th district here in Ohio who will work with Joe Biden, somebody who believes in his agenda that he’s put forth, not somebody who is going to insult the president,” Clyburn added to cheers and applause from supporters, while adding that he would not have to be concerned about counting on Brown’s positions as the majority whip if she were elected to Congress.
Biden has not issued an endorsement in the primary, but a recent ad from the Brown campaign that features Fudge’s mother, Marian Saffold, indicates the candidate’s intended ties to the administration.
“Marcia now serves in President Biden’s cabinet, so she can’t endorse in the race for Congress, but I can,” Saffold says in the ad.
“Shontel Brown is Marcia’s protege. She shares Marcia’s values and will continue her legacy in Congress. On August 3rd, we’re voting for Shontel Brown,” Saffold adds.
While the dueling endorsement camps set up high stakes for election day for both candidates, Tuesday’s outcome is likely to further direct the path Democrats forge beyond Ohio in 2022 and beyond.
“It’s a question of, do progressive politics only work in coastal cities, be they the East Coast, West Coast or the North Coast? And here we have a state that is certainly purple, and we have a city that is ripe territory for some of these progressive politics, but it also does have those suburbs and some of those more conservative regions,” Ben Bates, a professor at Ohio State University told ABC News.
(TOKYO) — Climbing gyms have been filling up across the U.S. in recent years, and now, the sport is making its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
This is the first time climbing will be in competition at the Olympics, with events scheduled to start Aug. 3, so it makes sense if you don’t know exactly how it all works yet.
Here’s a quick guide so you can keep up with all the beta, crimps and dynos.
What is in competition at the Olympics?
What you’re seeing is called sport climbing, which helps explain why you do not see favorites like Alex Honnold or Emily Harrington represent the U.S. While there are obviously similar techniques in use in big wall climbing, it’s a very different expertise.
Honnold even told the Olympic Channel, in 2019, “I wish I could compete at that level but basically I am too old and too weak so I will settle for watching and enjoying.”
And there’s plenty to watch and enjoy. Sport climbing is essentially what happens indoors at gyms and in competitive scenes. The Olympics will feature three disciplines: bouldering, lead and speed.
What is speed climbing?
The speed discipline is the easiest to understand: it’s a race to the top. Two climbers compete at the same time on identical “routes” — climbing paths — to reach the top first.
It’s like the “Spider-Man” of the Olympics, with races ending in less than 10 seconds. Admittedly, it’s a little controversial in the scene as it’s less traditional.
You’ll see climbers attached to ropes, but that’s just to catch them if they fall and to get down from the top. And yes, there are machines called auto belays so you don’t need someone on the ground belaying.
Scoring: Winners of each race move on to the next round until an overall winner is found.
What is lead climbing?
Lead climbing is a much more traditional discipline. Here, a climber has six minutes to climb as far as they can on a route.
Again, you’ll see climbers attached to ropes, but this time, the ropes are part of the challenge. Lead climbing involves clipping the rope into carabiners along the route to secure your place (it helps if you fall, but doesn’t assist the climb). If a climber misses a carabiner, they don’t get credit for any further they go.
Figuring out how to climb a route — figuring out the “beta” — is tough. Before anyone gets on the wall, climbers have six minutes to study the route, which is the first time they see it, and they’re not allowed to watch each other’s attempts.
As much as it is a physical challenge, it also takes mental work and planning to be successful, and the routes designed for lead climbing competition are ridiculously hard to ensure it’s not just a tie with everyone making it to the finish.
Scoring: The further they get, the more points they score, and the highest score wins.
What is bouldering?
Bouldering is a lot of what you see in a climbing gym. No ropes, just figuring out and “sending” — completing — routes.
Climbers have a few minutes to finish as many routes as they can. Each route has a set starting and ending point. Each route also has a marked “zone” hold, which is somewhere around halfway through it.
They can try any given route over and over again until they send, although they have to start from the beginning each time, and each attempt hurts their score. The ideal goal is to “flash” a boulder, or successfully complete it on your first try.
Like in lead, it takes mental work to solve a boulder route — that’s why they call them “problems.”
Scoring: This is a combination system, taking into account how many routes were completed, in how many attempts (fewer attempts is better), and climbers get some points if they reached a “zone” but didn’t complete a route.
Who wins?
After each discipline is done, final scores are calculated by multiplying the ranking in each, and the athlete with the lowest score wins. For instance, if an athlete comes first in speed, second in lead, and first in bouldering, their overall score is 2 (1x2x1).
Who’s competing for the U.S.?
The U.S. team includes two women and two men: Kyra Condie, 25, Brooke Raboutou, 20, Nathaniel Coleman, 24, and Colin Duffy, 17.
For most of these athletes, the games are a long time coming. Raboutou, who’s known for her ingenuity in problem solving, Condie, who’s super strong, and Coleman, a bouldering pro, qualified for Tokyo in 2019.
Bonus terminology to impress your friends
Dyno: A dynamic move to reach a hold, like a leap
Static: The opposite of dyno, using slow movement to get to the next hold
Crimp: A very small hold that will hurt your fingers
Sloper: Usually a big, roundish hold with little obvious space to grip that will hurt your fingers
Jug: A big, easy hold that probably won’t hurt your fingers
Chalk: It’s chalk! For your sweaty fingers
Heel or toe hook: Literally using your heel or toe to hook around a hold to get into position to reach the next hold
Top rope: What you see in a gym when someone’s on a rope climbing a tall wall; not competed at the Olympics
Pumped: The downside of being pumped up; your muscles, usually forearms, are too worked up and tighten up, making it difficult to do anything
So get pumped — but not too pumped — for climbing at the Olympics.
(NEW YORK) — A major lifeline for millions of Americans was precipitously cut off over the weekend, leaving many families that are still reeling from the economic shock wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic now also at risk of losing their homes.
Notwithstanding last-minute scrambles from some lawmakers to extend it, the federal eviction moratorium instituted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expired at midnight on Saturday.
The lapse in the pandemic-era protection that shielded vulnerable Americans from homelessness during the health crisis also comes as coronavirus cases resurge across the country. Millions of renters are now bracing for what happens next.
“It’s more than stress, it’s depression — this is rock bottom,” Jim Shock, 53, a West Virginia native who lost his job amid the pandemic and now faces eviction, told ABC News. “I don’t see an upside, and I don’t mind being humbled, being humbled doesn’t bother me. Struggles give you strength, and I’m all about all that. But yeah, this is probably as bad as it’s been, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Terriana Julian Clark, 27, a mother of two from Harvey, Louisiana, said the past year has been marked by sickness, unemployment and homelessness before she moved into a home in February. In April, she became sick and suddenly unable to work at her in-person job. As bills and back-rent have piled up, she said she’s now waiting for an eviction notice from her landlord with the moratorium expired.
“He already told me, if I don’t have any type of money for him on the first day, he’s going to put out a 5 to 10 day eviction notice,” Clark said in an interview with ABC News’ “Start Here.”
“I slept in my car from January 2020 to January 2021,” she said, adding that she expects to move back into her Ford Mustang if she loses her home again — though she said she doesn’t want to put her children through that experience again.
“It was really hard,” Clark said, “to get gas, food, water. Making sure they have clothes on their back — because we couldn’t wash every day. So, like, having clean clothes is not like a necessity, not an option for us. I literally could feel the weight of the sweat from us in the seats.”
“I literally filled out 64 job applications in one month and only heard from two people,” the mom said, adding, “I’m trying to do the best that I can to stay up and not ever go back to where I was.”
More than 15 million people live in households that are currently behind on their rental payments, which puts them at risk of eviction, according to a report released last week by the nonprofit Aspen Institute think tank. Broken down further, researchers said that figure includes 7.4 million adults — which is in line with separate census data that says some 7.4 million adults are not caught up on rent payments as of July 5.
In the next two months alone, approximately 3.6 million American reported that they will likely face eviction, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Aspen researchers also said the threat of eviction disproportionately impacts communities of color. Some 22% of Black renters and 17% of Latino renters are in debt to their landlords, compared to 11% of white renters and 15% overall, the report said.
Shock lamented how the moratorium is ending despite the pandemic not being over in the U.S., saying, “the COVID compassion disappeared so quickly.”
“It’s not over,” he added of the health crisis. “It’s probably going to get worse if people don’t get vaccinated because of the delta strain.”
Data suggests the nation is grappling with a new summer surge in cases. The seven-day moving average of daily new cases in the U.S. shot up more than 64% compared with the previous week’s, the CDC said in data released last Friday. Presently, the U.S. is averaging some 66,606 new cases of COVID-19 per day.
Moreover, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, the CDC last week reversed course on its indoor mask guidance — recommending everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission wear a face covering in public indoor settings whether they are vaccinated or not.
Diane Yentel, the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), told ABC News via email that a vast majority — an estimated 80% — of families currently behind on rent live in communities where the delta variant is surging.
“Having millions of families lose their homes would be tragic and consequential at any time,” Yentel said. “It will be especially so as COVID surges and with abundant resources to pay the rent that may not reach them in time.”
“This urgent situation demands immediate action by policy makers and stakeholders at all levels,” she added, calling on Congress and the Biden administration to extend the moratorium and local governments to improve and expedite getting assistance to tenants who need it to stay housed.
Moreover, Yentel called on the Department of Justice to direct courts to stop evictions for renters who are applying for emergency rental assistance, and on the Treasury Department to eliminate barriers that prevent emergency rental assistance from flowing where it needs to go. Finally, Yentel said the CDC should require landlords provide 30-days notice to renters before beginning eviction actions.
The NLIHC implored the Biden administration to “prevent a historic wave of evictions” in a June letter, arguing that with COVID-19 still present the expiration could lead to a rise in cases and virus deaths.
Research released from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab similarly argued in a June report that neighborhoods with the highest eviction filing rates have had the lowest levels of COVID-19 vaccinations. The researchers said their findings suggest “those most at risk of being evicted are still at high risk of contracting and passing the virus.”
Shock said another major concern about the eviction ban lifting is that, “Once you’re homeless, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to get a home.”
Aspen Institute policy researchers stated in their report that rental housing debt is “uniquely toxic” due to its lingering consequences in addition to eviction.
“People evicted on the basis of rental debt are likely to face a series of cascading consequences,” the report stated. “These may include civil legal actions or debt collection to recover outstanding balances, negative credit reporting that makes it difficult or impossible to rent a new home, short-term or extended homelessness, and a significant decline in physical and mental health.”
Researchers added that these long-term consequences can be particularly acute for children.
A majority (57%) of Americans say the eviction and foreclosure moratorium is still needed, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, though support divides sharply based on partisan lines as 75% of Democrats say this compared to 34% of Republicans.
Some Republican lawmakers have argued the moratorium unfairly punishes landlords, and could have unintended consequences such as higher rents if landlords account for the possibility of these moratoriums occurring again in the future. Others, including the Biden administration, have argued that the rental assistance meant to go toward landlords needs to be more efficiently dispersed by state and local governments.
Still, local authorities and renters are now bracing for the fallout of the protections expiring.
Shock said that many Americans who weathered the pandemic and financial downturn may be acting like everything is now going back to normal, but he predicts the nation is now on the precipice of a new housing crisis. The unemployment rate in the U.S. was 5.9% as of the most-recent Labor Department report, still well above the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020.
“I think that the worst is yet to come. I think you’re going to see a homeless problem spike, you’re going to see food banks strained beyond anything that they can imagine,” he told ABC News. “After the COVID compassion wears off, then people are going to start bickering about homelessness: ‘Where are we going to put them? Where are we going to send them?'”
“It’s just the beginning,” he added. “I think we’re going to see just a surge of homelessness, and all the things that come with that.”
