Tool‘s Adam Jones has announced a new signature guitar with Gibson.
The 1979V2 Les Paul Custom is an update on the previously launched Adam Jones 1979 Les Paul Custom, which is based on Jones’ own beloved Silverburst 1979 Gibson Les Paul. Only 79, hand-signed models were made, all of which are currently sold out.
On the off chance more become available, stay tuned to Gibson.com.
Jones previously announced a partnership with Gibson last fall. To mark the collaboration, Jones released a new instrumental piece called “The Witness,” which he recorded with his Tool band mates Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor.
If you can’t get your hands on a 1979V2 Les Paul Custom, you can still see Jones play one on Tool’s upcoming 2022 tour, which kicks off in January.
(NEW YORK) — A COVID-19 vaccine is now available for kids ages 5 to 11, marking a major milestone in the nearly two-year coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Tuesday signed off on recommendations made earlier in the day by an independent CDC advisory panel, making the Pfizer vaccine available to the approximately 28 million children aged 5 to 11 in the United States.
“We know millions of parents are eager to get their children vaccinated and with this decision, we now have recommended that about 28 million children receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” Walensky said in a statement. “As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated.”
Here are five things parents should know about COVID-19 vaccines and kids under the age of 12:
1. The vaccine will be distributed to kids through pediatricians, pharmacies, health clinics and more.
Shipping has already begun on the first batch of 15 million Pfizer pediatric vaccine doses after the White House purchased 65 million doses, more than enough to fully vaccinate all kids ages 5 to 11 in the U.S.
The vaccinations are expected to become widely available the week of Nov. 8. They will be accessible at pediatricians’ offices, children’s hospitals, pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid, and school and community-based clinics.
Parents can search for appointments at Vaccines.gov to find a local provider.
Once they receive their first shot, children will be given a vaccine card, just like adults and adolescents.
2. The Pfizer dose is different for kids under age 12.
Kids ages 5 to 11 will be given a 10-micrograms dose, one-third of the adolescent and adult dose.
Like with adults and adolescents, the pediatric vaccine will be delivered in two doses, three weeks apart.
A child will be considered fully immunized two weeks after their second dose.
To troubleshoot any confusion in the distribution of Pfizer’s vaccine, orange-capped vials will contain doses for kids aged 5 to 11, while purple-capped vials will contain doses for adult and older adolescents.
3. The new dose is because of kids’ immune systems, not their size.
Children have different immune systems than adults, so it should be reassuring for parents the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be safe in kids.
Differing immune systems among people of different ages also help explain why the cutoffs for vaccine eligibility rest on age and not body size.
In addition to the COVID-19 vaccine, other immunizations are also scheduled and administered based on age and not weight. This is partially due to the fact that the body’s immune responses to vaccinations and infection are known to be different based on age.
4. The FDA will decide later on full approval for the vaccine.
Following normal protocol, the FDA will continue to review data to decide whether to grant full FDA approval for the vaccine in kids ages 5 to 11.
The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16 and older in August. It is currently authorized for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15.
The two other vaccines currently available in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older.
Moderna announced in late October that it plans to submit data to the FDA soon showing its vaccine for children ages 6 to 11 produces a strong immune response and appears safe.
5. Families need to remain vigilant against COVID-19.
Unvaccinated children can not only become ill from COVID-19 themselves, but they can also spread the virus to more vulnerable family members and other adults with whom they interact.
Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend universal mask-wearing in schools to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Experts said that in addition to unvaccinated children wearing face masks, parents and siblings who are vaccinated should also continue to wear face masks indoors because of the rates of breakthrough infections in the U.S.
Families should also continue to follow other safety guidelines shared throughout the pandemic, including social distancing and hand-washing.
Even Shakira admits she’s having a hard time comprehending how she was ambushed and mugged by wild boars.
Speaking to Glamour UK, the Colombian singer reflected on the bizarre September incident, saying she was walking in Barcelona, Spain, with her eight-year-old son, Milan, when two wild boars “attacked” her in broad daylight.
“It’s just crazy,” she remarked. “I was taking my son, Milan, for a walk in the park and I got him a little ice cream. We sat on one of those park benches and we were just minding our own business. And then two huge wild boars came from the back and ambushed [us] and took my purse!”
Shakira, 44, said she began screaming because her purse had “my phone in it, my car keys, everything!”
Thankfully, she recovered her bag and confessed that the animals may have been interested in scoring a free meal.
“They started digging inside my purse,” she recalled. “Obviously my son’s sandwich was inside the purse, so that’s why they were so interested. So they took the sandwich and walked away and left my purse. It was wild.”
The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer first spoke about the strange incident via a string of Instagram stories and showed off her torn-up purse.
Apparently, Spain has been grappling with increasingly aggressive boars, meaning Shakira’s incident is not isolated. The BBC reports that in 2016, Spanish police received 1,187 phone calls about wild boars attacking dogs and running into traffic.
It’s estimated that over 10 million wild pigs live across Europe. They’re listed as an invasive species.
Adele has already recorded her upcoming CBS TV special, and now she’s doing one for the folks back home.
An Audience with Adelewill be recorded at London’s legendary Palladium and will air on Britain’s ITV and stream on its on on-demand ITV Hub on November 21. The show will feature Adele performing new songs from her upcoming album, 30 — due out November 19 — plus her “classic hits.”
What’s interesting about this particular concert is that the audience, according to ITV, will include Adele’s “own personal heroes and heroines, fellow musicians, artists, actors, sportsmen, sportswomen and more.”
Does that mean that Drake, Beyoncé, Nicole Richie, Jennifer Lawrence, Aaron Paul, James Corden and other celebrities with whom Adele is known to hang out might be in attendance? Adele has also, in the past, spoken about her admiration for I Will Destroy You creator Michaela Cole, actor Jonathan Majors, and author Glennon Doyle.
Perhaps members of We Are Grenfell United, a charity devoted to demanding justice for the victims of the deadly 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London, will attend as well. Adele is devoted to the cause, because the fire happened just around the corner from where she used to live in London.
We’ll just have to wait for media reports of the show to leak. Stay tuned.
(GLASGOW, Scotland) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.
The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”
All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
Here’s how the conference is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 03, 7:33 am
New climate targets announced for sports worldwide
The United Nations has announced a number of ambitious emissions reduction targets as part of its Sports for Climate Action Framework.
The goals include reaching net zero by 2040 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
Organizations such as the International Olympic Committee, FIFA, Athletics Kenya, BBC Sport, the Premier League, Formula E and Munster Rugby have signed up for the new targets.
Moreover, signatories will submit plans on how to implement these targets as well as report on overall progress each year.
“Four years since we launched the Sports for Climate Action Framework, more than 280 sports organizations have committed to the overarching objectives of aligning sport with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said Wednesday.
Nov 02, 3:59 pm
‘America showed up,’ Biden says of time at summit
Biden said the U.S. was able to make “real progress” at COP26 on methane reduction and reforestation strategies, including convincing countries on “the sideline” to commit to ambitious goals in those arenas as well.
Biden criticized China, the world’s biggest emitter, and Russia for failing to show up in Glasgow.
“The rest of the world is going to look to China and say…are they providing?” Biden said. “And they’ve lost the ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP.”
When asked by a reporter how he would respond to “skeptical” and “angry” protesters at the conference, Biden said, “I think anyone who cares about the environment should be worried.”
“There’s a reason for people to be worried,” he said. “I’m worried.”
Biden continued, “But I’m optimistic….what I feel is that the populations of each of our countries have a different perspective that they did at COP25.”
Biden added that people are starting to recognize the disasters that have been exacerbated by climate change, such as deadly flooding from hurricanes and wildfires burning in the western U.S., which has been experiencing a megadrought.
“I think there’s a whole different attitude,” Biden said.
Nov 02, 3:44 pm
Biden, Prince Charles meet at summit
Although not a part of his official schedule, Biden met with Prince Charles at COP26, a senior administration official said.
Biden spoke on the importance of collaboration between the two nations.
“They underlined the need for ambitious commitments and concrete actions among partners worldwide and discussed Prince Charles’ initiatives to engage the private sector on sustainability,” the official said.
Biden thanked the U.K. for hosting COP26 and commended the royal family and Charles’ dedication to environmental activism over the past 50 years.
Nov 02, 3:11 pm
‘No doubt’ progress has been made over past 2 days, Boris Johnson says
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the energy in Glasgow is different than six years ago when the Paris Agreement was signed.
At COP26, world leaders are starting to “tick the boxes” on how to reduce emissions, Johnson said, adding that he now has “no doubt” that progress has been made over the last two days.
“There was no road map, there was no very clear sense of how you could do it,” he said of the Paris Agreement. “I think what you’re starting to see here, in COP26 in Glasgow, is a sense of how actually you can deliver those cuts.”
But the world leaders must also guard against false hope, he added.Johnson said he understands that leaders from developing countries don’t have the same “cautious optimism,” admitting that “in the remaining days of this COP we have a lot more to do.”
(NEW YORK) — The Maldives are well known as a bucket list getaway. Hearing the country’s name conjures up images of luxury huts overlooking an aqua blue ocean. But climate change may cross the country off the map completely.
The archipelago, which is made up of over 1,100 coral islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, is the lowest lying nation in the world. Therefore, sea level rise caused by global climate change is an existential threat to the island nation. At the current rate of global warming, almost 80% of the Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2050, according to multiple reports from NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Our islands are slowly being inundated by the sea, one by one,” Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, the president of the Maldives, told the U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP26, earlier this week. “If we do not reverse this trend, the Maldives will cease to exist by the end of this century.”
The islands that are home to local Maldivians, not the resort islands, stand to lose the most. Mohammed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives and a leading voice for climate change equity, told ABC News that more than 90% of islands in the Maldives have severe erosion, and 97% of the country no longer has fresh groundwater.
Ibrahim Mubbasir and his family live on the island of Dhiffushi. It is suffering from severe erosion, and flooding has increased from two or three times a year to twice a month. Four years ago, the family’s well became unusable because of salt water contamination, leaving them to rely on collecting rainwater. Mubbasir said they only have enough fresh water to last for three more months.
“Things that we thought would happen towards the end of the century, we are experiencing now,” Aminath Shauna, the Maldives’ minister of environment, climate change and technology, told ABC News’ Ginger Zee.
Shauna said that more than 50% of the national budget is spent on adapting to climate change. When asked what the Maldives will look like in 2050, Shauna responded, “Are you willing to take the Maldives as climate refugees? I think that’s the conversation that needs to happen.”
And it’s not just the Maldives. Island countries around the world have been asking developed nations for funds since 2009. Countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions — China, the United States and India — are mostly responsible for the rapid sea level rise.
Maldives’ coral reefs
At the center of the Maldives’ culture are their coral reefs.
In 2016, the Maldives lost their front line of defense when a bleaching event affected about 60% of the coral reefs, according to Aya Naseem, a marine biologist and co-founder of the Maldives Coral Institute.
Without coral reefs, the islands are wide open to the rising waters. Naseem said they have one realistic choice: They need to build back and protect the reefs, “because IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is predicting that by 2050 if the temperature rises 1.5 degrees Celsius we can lose 70 to 90% of corals in the whole world.”
Research has previously shown that a healthy coral reef can absorb 97% of wave energy, dramatically reducing erosion, and it’s affordable, Naseem said.
“It’s much cheaper than building a seawall. I think it costs something like $3,000 to grow a meter of sea wall where for the coral a meter of it is about $300, including monitoring and everything,” she said.
Bebe Ahmed, founder of “Save the Beach,” travels island to island in the Maldives with the mission of teaching kids about restoring and protecting coral. He told ABC News that his dream is to inspire young Maldivians to want to start their own projects to restore coral reefs.
What’s next in the fight?
Technology, like 3D-printed coral structures or a floating city, may have to be part of the solution.
The Maldives is home to the Modular Artificial Reef Structure, or MARS, a coral-forming project on the resort island of Summer Island. to the coral forming project, MARS. The project has 3D-printed bases that are placed in the water with transplant corals attached to them. The hope is that the system is designed with the specific needs of the coral farm in mind, providing a permanent structure for coral to grow.
In the late ’90s, the Maldives began construction on the island of Hulhumale through the process of land reclamation. Hulhumale is 6.5 feet above sea level, more than double the height of Male, the current capital of the Maldives. It is possible this island may be a future site for relocation of Maldivians suffering from sea level rise. Maldivians call their manmade island the City of Hope.
The future of the Maldives could also come in the form of a floating city. In 2022, just a few miles from the dense, capital city of Male, construction and assembly will begin on the world’s first true floating city. The unique solution will not have to worry about sea level rise, because it will always be on top of the sea.
The project is being developed and led by Dutch Docklands in the Netherlands. Lead architect Koen Olthuis gave ABC News an inside look at how the floating city is designed and what it should eventually look like.
The floating city has a unique pattern, modeled after the brain, both human and coral.
The entire city will shift up and down on a pile drilled into the sea floor. It will also take advantage of its environment to better provide for those living on the floating city.
“By being on the water we want to take advantage of the water — and using the coolness of the water — so these are water-cooled cities, for which you take cool water outside the atoll and pump water through the route and activate the air conditioning systems,” Olthius said.
Since the floating city is sustainable and leaves no footprint, Olthuis called the floating cities “scarless” and said they are “renting space from nature.”
Jennifer Lopez is still Jenny from the Block, and she proved it by recreating her “All I Have” video for a Coach collaboration.
The ad starts out with the scene from Lopez’s 2002 video as she hurriedly packs and heads out into the cold and snow-filled New York streets. As the video continues, it cuts to the 2021 version of her walking down the street carrying a host of Coach bags, just as she did in the original — but with the latest styles, of course.
The recreation is part of the “Give a Little Love” campaign for Coach, which Lopez has been the face of since 2019.
“All I Have,” which features LL Cool J and was released on December 14, 2002, was JLo’s second single off of her third studio album, This Is Me… Then. The song was a huge hit, reaching number one on the Billboard charts and remaining there for four weeks.
Shannon Lee, the sister of actor Brandon Lee, who was killed in 1993 by a revolver being used as a prop when filming The Crow, is rallying for increased gun safety measures on movie sets.
Shannon made her concerns known while attending Los Angeles’ Asian World Film Festival on Monday, where she spoke to France 24 about what she feels Hollywood needs to do in the wake of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins‘ death. Hutchins was killed last month on the Rust movie set when actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun that was apparently loaded with live ammunition.
Lee, who is the daughter of martial artist Bruce Lee and was at the ceremony to present an honor in her father’s name, believes gun safety should extend beyond the movie’s crew and involve the cast, as well.
“I think that mandatory gun safety training [should be required] for the actor so that they can check the guns themselves and know how to use them appropriately,” Lee said, “and so that they can keep others safe.”
“It shouldn’t happen again,” the 52-year-old remarked, calling the current standards “frustrating.” She believes protocols should have changed when her 28-year-old brother was killed nearly 30 years ago.
Actor Michael Massee accidentally shot Brandon Lee when filming The Crow, believing the revolver he fired was loaded with blanks. Similarly, Alec Baldwin believed he had been handed a “cold” gun, meaning one that’s unloaded.
Le says she never spoke to Massee, who died in 2016, but said she did feel sorry for him.
“I felt really sorry, because it is a horrible thing to cause someone else to die. And I also feel sorry for Alec Baldwin,” she remarked. “It’s really tough what he’s going through, he has to take care of himself.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 748,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 67.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 03, 8:24 am
CDC director: ‘We’ve taken the time to get this right’
“We’ve taken the time to get this right,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told “Good Morning America” Wednesday, the day after she signed off on the Pfizer vaccine for young kids. “It’s taken us almost a year compared to where we had a vaccine for adults.”
Parents should have peace of mind with the vaccine’s safety, she argued. “We reviewed the evidence, we reviewed the safety profile,” she said.
“You may have questions, and we are here to answer your questions,” she said. “Go talk to your pediatrician, your trusted health care provider, your pharmacist, and get the information that you need.”
Nov 02, 8:46 pm
Biden calls CDC greenlight for child vaccinations ‘a major step forward’
President Joe Biden called Tuesday’s move by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old “a turning point.”
“It will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others,” he said in a statement. “It is a major step forward for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus.”
The president said his administration has secured enough pediatric vaccines for every child in America and has begun shipping out doses.
“The program will ramp up over the coming days, and fully up and running during the week of November 8,” he said.
Nov 02, 8:21 pm
CDC director signs off on child vaccinations
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky approved the agency’s recommendations for administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children between 5 and 11 years old.
MORE: In promising milestone, Pfizer vaccine soon available for kids 5 and up
Vaccinations for this age group, which includes over 28 million children, can begin as early as Wednesday morning.
The two-dose vaccine has been approved for an emergency use for children 12 to 15 years old and for full authorized use for patients above 16 years old.
Hartford HealthCare was one of the first locations in the country to administer the vaccine to kids Tuesday evening. The young patients cheered and gave doctors high fives after they received their shots.
Nov 02, 7:14 pm
Pharmacies readying COVID shots for young children
Two major pharmacy chains announced Tuesday evening they are getting ready to offer Pfizer COVID-19 shots to children 5 to 11 years-old.
Pending signoff from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, which could happen as early as Tuesday night, Walgreens told ABC News it expects to begin administering shots to that age group starting Saturday.
Walgreens said its online scheduler for children’s appointments will be available starting Wednesday.
The Pfizer pediatric vaccine will arrive “later this week in select locations throughout the country,” CVS said in a statement. Appointments will be available at individual stores after each receives vaccines.
(LOS ANGELES) — Thousands of Los Angeles County employees are being put on notice in the weeks after a COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline passed.
County employees had by Oct. 1 to submit proof of their vaccination status. The order, announced by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in early August, encompasses sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, hospital staff, social workers and others.
As of Tuesday, 77.7% of the county’s 101,575 current employees are fully vaccinated, county data shows. A dozen departments are reporting vaccination rates of at least 90%, while nearly half of the departments are reporting vaccination rates between 80% and 89%. Seven departments are below 80%.
Nearly 10% of all county employees have yet to register to submit their vaccination status.
Those who fail to get vaccinated or submit a request for a medical or religious exemption could face disciplinary action, including termination.
In the weeks since the vaccine mandate deadline passed, the county has been sending notices in waves to non-compliant employees, advising them that they have 45 days to register as fully vaccinated or request an accommodation. After that point, the employees will be put on a five-day suspension and have 30 days upon return to comply.
Failure to comply within that time period “may result in disciplinary action and continued noncompliance may result in further disciplinary action, up to and including discharge from County service,” the notice states.
As of Oct. 12, unvaccinated employees are also required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing until submitting proof of vaccination and could face disciplinary action for failing to get tested.
The sheriff’s department has the lowest rate of compliance, with 52% of members fully vaccinated, the county data shows. Over 20% of the 16,070-person department has yet to register to submit a vaccination status.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who has been a vocal critic of the vaccine mandate, warned in a letter to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week that the department stands to lose a “substantial” number of employees over the policy.
“People are not happy with the vaccine mandate,” Villanueva told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday, attributing hesitancy among sworn staff to a lack of “faith in a vaccine.”
“Some of it is driven by a political ideology. Some of it might be irrational, some people have legitimate reasons why they don’t trust the vaccine,” he said.
As notices are rolling out, the county has continued to address vaccine hesitancy.
“We’re encouraging vaccination through an extensive internal communications campaign, including town hall meetings with experts, weekly fliers, messages from County leaders, meetings with our labor partners and other messaging that we are continuing to expand,” Jesus Ruiz, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office, told ABC News in a statement.
County employees are not the only ones subject to a vaccine mandate. Workers in adult and senior care facilities and in-home direct care settings must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 30 under a state order. In the city of Los Angeles, city employees, including police officers, as well as public school staff and students, have vaccine requirements.
Proof of vaccination is also required to enter or work in indoor portions of bars, lounges, nightclubs, breweries, wineries and distilleries in Los Angeles County.
County health officials stressed the importance of vaccination Tuesday, as COVID-19 transmission remains “substantial” heading into the holiday season.
“While transmission is substantial, we need to continue layering on protections, understanding that significant spread of the virus affects unvaccinated individuals and increasingly results in post-vaccination infections among those vaccinated,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “Substantial spread also creates a fertile breeding ground for new variants that can threaten our progress to date.”
