(PARIS) — After 2 1/2 years of cleaning and consolidating — and a pandemic that halted French workers for a few months — the restoration phase of the Notre Dame cathedral is set to kick off this winter.
The night of April 15, 2019, a massive fire tore through the roof of world famous cathedral in Paris, collapsing the spire. The first block of wood to be used in the new spire — at the very base of a structure that should rise 255 feet above ground — was produced in a lumbermill in the western France town of Craon on Thursday.
Rebuilding Notre Dame is a colossal national project. Mickael Renaud, owner of a lumbermill called The Giants, told ABC News, he was proud to play a part, adding that his lumber mill had to expand storage capacity simply to house the huge blocks of wood required.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised in July 2020 that everything lost in the fire would be rebuilt in its original form — over 1,000 centennial trees were carefully selected from French forests and sent to sawmills across the country.
According to the head of the establishment for the conservation and the restoration of Notre Dame, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, the plan is to reopen the church to the public in 2024.
While hundreds of artisans are focused on reproducing an exact replica of the cathedral, there also are plans to change the interior lighting and liturgic design. Those plans include a different entrance for the public, adding holograms of biblical phrases in several languages and integrating contemporary art, changes that are causing a stir among some critics. The plan was partially validated by the National Commission for Heritage and Architecture on Dec. 9.
For Monseigneur Aumônier, the bishop in charge of the interior design of the cathedral on behalf of the Catholic Church, the updates are part of an effort to recognize the building’s value not just for France but the whole world.
“The Catholic liturgy will be celebrated in Notre Dame as ever,” he told ABC News. “But, naturally with the new visibility of Notre Dame, it’s very helpful for us to guide people who will visit.”
Art Historian Didier Rykner told ABC News that such major changes threatened the integrity of the medieval structure.
“Nobody wants this — we want Notre Dame back as before,” he said. Tourists “will want to see Notre-Dame like it was before, not like it will be now.”
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Just months after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident, Tiger Woods made his return to competitive golf on Friday.
Woods, who suffered comminuted open fractures to his right tibia and fibia in February, hit the links with his 12-year-old son, Charlie.
The father-son duo are participating in the PNC Championship, a tournament in Orlando, Florida, that allows former major champions to compete alongside their family members.
“To be out here with my son like this, it’s the best,” he said in an interview with the Golf Channel. “We’re here to have fun.”
Woods played with his son in the tournament for the first time last year, finishing seventh out of 20 pairs.
Woods, 45, told Golf Digest last month that the idea of playing with Charlie has been a motivating factor in his recovery. Charlie is the golfer’s youngest child with his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren; the former couple also share a 14-year-old daughter, Sam.
For Woods, who has won the Masters five times and the PGA Championship four times, seeing his son follow in his footsteps has been a gratifying experience. He’s also been able to impart some of the wisdom he’s picked up from his years as a golfer.
“I went to golf tournaments to watch him play, and I’m looking at some of these scores he’s shooting and I said, ‘How the hell are you shooting such high scores? I gotta go check this out,'” he said. “So I’d watch him play and he’s going along great. He has one bad hole, he loses his temper, his temper carries him over to another shot and another shot and it compounds itself.”
Woods continued: “‘Son, I don’t care how mad you get. Your head could blow off for all I care just as long as you’re 100% committed to the next shot. That’s all that matters. That next shot should be the most important shot in your life. It should be more important than breathing. Once you understand that concept, then I think you’ll get better.’ And as the rounds went on throughout the summer, he’s gotten so much better.”
(HARRISONBURG, Va.) — Police in Virginia said they believe an alleged serial killer whom they’ve dubbed the “shopping cart killer” may be responsible for the deaths of four people — and possibly more.
Authorities said Friday that a suspect who was previously charged with the murders of two women, whose bodies were found in a lot in Harrisonburg in November, is believed to be connected to the deaths of two more people whose remains were found this week in a wooded area of Alexandria.
“We’re here today to talk about a serial killer — and that is a phrase that I’ve used sparingly in my three decades in this profession,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a press briefing.
“He preys on the weak and preys on the vulnerable,” Davis added. “Our shopping cart killer does unspeakable things with his victims, and it’s our collective duty and responsibility to bring justice and closure to all of our communities.”
Two missing Virginia women — Allene Elizabeth “Beth” Redmon, 54, of Harrisonburg, and Tonita Lorice Smith, 39, of Charlottesville — both were found dead on Nov. 23 near each other in an open lot in the commercial district of Harrisonburg, police said.
Authorities allege that both women connected with the suspect, Anthony Robinson, 35, of Washington, D.C., through dating sites and met him on separate occasions at a hotel. Their bodies were found with blunt force trauma, and investigators believe they were transported to the scene in a shopping cart.
“After he inflicts trauma to his victims and kills them, he transports their bodies to their final resting place, literally in a shopping cart, and there’s video to that effect,” Davis said.
Robinson was arrested last month based on video surveillance and cellphone records that connected him to the two victims, according to Harrisonburg Police Chief Kelley Warner. He’s been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two felony counts of concealing, transporting or altering a dead body.
More charges are forthcoming in connection with the deaths of two people found Wednesday in Alexandria near the Moon Inn, Fairfax County police said.
One victim is believed to be a missing woman from Washington, D.C. Police said cellular data placed Cheyenne Brown, 29, and Robinson at the same location on Sept. 30, the night of her disappearance.
Authorities are awaiting DNA confirmation, but believe the remains to be Brown’s based on a distinct tattoo positively identified by her family.
The remains of a second person found in a large plastic container along with Brown’s have yet to be identified, police said. A shopping cart also was found next to the container.
Robinson has a “remarkable absence” of any criminal history, Davis said. He’s being held without bond at the Rockingham-Harrisonburg Regional Jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 27. His attorney, Louis Nagy, declined to comment on the charges and latest allegations when contacted by ABC News.
Authorities said they’re coming forward with their findings because they believe there may be additional victims.
“We need to act right now with our law enforcement partners to figure out who else our killer has had contact with, and what’s his M.O. — dating sites, motels, blunt force trauma, shopping cart, final resting place,” Davis said. “He’s killed four already. And we suspect that he has more victims.”
Jimmie Allen saw his star skyrocket in 2021, capping off a big year with a Grammy nomination in the all-genre Best New Artist category.
In a new interview with Billboard, he says the magnitude of that mention didn’t fully hit him until much later, during a conversation with a songwriter friend in the pop and R&B worlds.
“He said, ‘This nomination is bigger than you because you are a Black man from Delaware having success in country music,’” Jimmie remembers his friend saying. “‘Your Grammy nomination came from your success in country music, a genre of music that [people] don’t really associate Black people with too much. Win or lose, you have the ability here to inspire people that want to do something [similar], but they don’t see a lot of people that look like them.’”
Jimmie’s profile in the genre and beyond has also risen due to versatile collaborations. For example, the deluxe edition of his Bettie James album features guest spots from the likes of R&B singer-songwriter Babyface and pop/soul star Monica, as well as country stalwarts like Brad Paisley, whose duet with Jimmie, “Freedom Is a Highway,” is a country radio hit.
He’s not planning to slow his collaborations game down, either: Jimmie would love to team up with other out-of-genre artists like Will Smith and Stevie Wonder, plus country legends like Shania Twain.
“Beyoncé and Jay-Z are definitely two dream people on my list,” he adds. “There were rumors about her wanting to do a country song or a country record. Listen, Beyoncé: I’m here. Let’s get cracking.”
(DALLAS) — Mercedes Clement was last seen in surveillance video on Oct. 11, 2020, walking across the parking lot of the Koko Apartments in Dallas, Texas, with a man.
She hasn’t been seen or heard from again.
“In the beginning, it didn’t matter if it was a street lead or if it was an anonymous tip or if it was a psychic, we followed the lead,” said Clement’s mother, Alicia Gazotti.
She and her husband, Clement’s stepfather Emiliano Gazotti, have been searching for their 26-year-old daughter for a little over a year. They haven’t given up.
“Mercedes, she was just a gift. She was always saving her money for the homeless people, always just had this huge heart of gold, always,” said Alicia Gazotti.
On the night her daughter went missing, Gazotti said that around 10:30 p.m., Clement made some worrisome phone calls to friends.
“She called a couple of her friends and she told one girl in particular she was scared, she needed a ride to her car. Her friend said it was just eerily quiet,” said Gazotti. “And the phone disconnected and that was it. About the fourth day, when there’s no anything. Then I got worried.”
“The next day we got a piece of mail that her car had been towed and a lot of alarm bells went off for me then,” said Gazotti.
Gazotti said she went to the tow yard that same day to pick up the car, and she was alarmed to find most of her daughter’s belongings still inside.
“Her purse was in her car, her wallet was in her car, her car key was on the front seat, her bra was on the passenger seat,” said Gazotti. “We just knew something was wrong.”
In the following days, she said she tried to retrace her daughter’s steps and visited the Koko Apartment Complex where her daughter’s car had been towed from. She found crucial surveillance video she would later provide to the police.
On Oct. 26, 2020, Gazotti said she and her husband officially filed a missing persons report.
“Mercedes Clement’s case victimology, that’s very important in an investigation,” said Patty Belew, a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department.
After nearly nine months, Belew was assigned ro Clement’s case after it was transferred from a missing persons case to homicide. She said the case was transferred because investigators suspect foul play.
“A missing persons is a warrant to locate and usually they’ll canvas a little bit and then that’s pretty much it and then they’ll move on. When it’s a homicide, then we’re out just constantly digging, trying to get information,” said Belew. “I believe that [what] we’re looking at is something has happened to her.”
During their investigation, detectives found that the surveillance camera, which captured the last time Clement was seen, had stopped recording the night of her disappearance for seven hours.
“The video we had, we’re told that it had a glitch in it. So it stopped recording, unfortunately,” said Belew.
According to Belew, she had asked the camera’s video company if glitches were normal and they said, “Not so much.”
Also in the surveillance video, detectives said they noticed the purse Clement is seen with while walking into the apartment complex is the same purse that was later found in her car.
“So either she brought it back or the people who took her put it in the car, and their intentions were to come back to the car, but the car was towed before they were able to do that,” said Belew.
The detectives with the Dallas Police Department said they are currently investigating multiple people of interest, including acquaintances from her past she knew when she was involved in drug use. They’ve also identified the man Clement was last seen with as 36-year-old Tanner Losson.
“We’ve tried to question him and he’s basically refused to speak with us,” said Belew.
Losson is currently in Dallas County Jail on unrelated charges. He did not respond to a request for comment.
“The guy that she was with, he’s not talking. He’s not talking to anybody. He maintains he doesn’t know anything,” said Gazotti.
Gazotti said she’s afraid her daughter’s case may run cold.
“I think that the media, police, missing persons units- there’s always a stigma around certain people, if they look a little different or if they’re living a different life,” said Gazzotti. “They don’t get treated with that same urgency or that same consideration or that same care.”
Of the 500,000 reported missing persons, almost half were people of color, according to the FBI.
The Dallas Police Department told ABC News that shining a spotlight on Mercedes Clement’s case could bring in tips they need to solve it and that if anyone has information about Mercedes Clement, they can call the North Texas Crime Commission at 1-877-373-TIPS.
Gazotti said she refuses to give up the search for her missing daughter.
“My daughter’s life mattered,” she said. “Everyone deserves to be found. Everybody deserves closure.”
(WASHINGTON) — The White House’s chief coordinator for the U.S. coronavirus response has a strong warning for unvaccinated Americans ahead of a projected surge in cases over the next few weeks.
If you’re vaccinated, “we’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this,” White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said.
“For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.”
In a briefing with reporters on Friday, Zients and the White House COVID-19 task force, which includes Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci, highlighted the importance of initial vaccines, which offer strong protection against severe illness, but strongly emphasized the need for fully vaccinated Americans to go out and get their booster shots, which offer the best protection against the new omicron variant.
“The optimum protection is fully vaccinated plus a boost,” Fauci said.
“So the bottom line of what we’ve been telling you all along: It is critical to get vaccinated. If you are vaccinated, it is critical for optimal protection to get boosted,” he said.
Asked if the task force is considering recommending people get boosters earlier than six months after their final shot, the current standard, Fauci said it’s “on the table.”
“You still get protection that’s reasonably good against hospitalization [with two shots]. We want to make that better with the booster,” he said.
“Whether or not we’re going to change what the time interval between your last vaccination and your boost, we always have these on the table for discussion, but right now there has not been a decision on that,” Fauci said.
Only 30% of fully vaccinated Americans have been boosted so far, and about half of fully vaccinated seniors over the age of 65 have been boosted.
But Zients said those numbers are slightly higher among eligible Americans — people who are six months past their final shot.
“The right way to think about the percent boosted is those eligible. And we’ve now boosted about 60 million Americans. That’s about 40% of the eligible Americans. Importantly, of those over 65 we are now more than 60%. And that’s important because they are the most vulnerable,” Zients said.
Still, that means the percentage of boosted Americans with optimal protection against omicron is quite low, at about four in every 10 vaccinated people. And around 40% of the country still remains completely unvaccinated.
The warnings from the White House come in the lead up to Christmas and New Year’s — the first since vaccines became widespread in the US. The holiday season has coincided with the presence of omicron, the most transmissible variant to date.
Yet the holiday guidance from the White House COVID task force continues to be that Americans can and should gather, given the existence of vaccines — a powerful mitigation tool against the virus.
But vaccines alone are not sufficient to ensure full protection, the CDC director warned, and Americans should return to the basics to steer clear of a holiday outbreak among family members.
That includes indoor masking in all public places, ruling out indoor dining or bars, social distancing, hand-washing and spending time in well-ventilated areas. But historically, the country has had a hard time sticking to these measures and is particularly fatigued two years in — circumstances that do not bode well for avoiding a surge this holiday season.
“I think we’re in a very different place this year than we were last year, and we really do want people to be able to gather and gather safely,” Walensky said.
“We have the tools now to do it and what we’re really saying is please rely on those tools. Get vaccinated. If you’re eligible for a boost, get boosted. And importantly, a week before the holidays, indoor mask in these areas that have — 90% of our counties have substantial or high transmission,” Walensky said.
“Use the next week to make sure you’re practicing those safe prevention mitigation strategies, so that when you come together for the holidays, that people have been not exposed to the virus because in fact they’ve been vaccinated, boosted and masked. And for that extra reassurance as we have more disease in this country right now, do a test and make sure that you’re negative before you mix and gather in different households,” she said.
Roddy Ricch LIVE LIFE FAST album cover courtesy Atlantic Records
Roddy Ricch dropped his second studio album, LIVE LIFE FAST, on Friday, featuring Future, 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Ty Doll $ign, Lil Baby, Gunna, and Takeoff from Migos. The 18-track project is the follow-up to his 2019 RIAA double-Platinum debut album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial. The Grammy winner also debuted the video for “25 million” from the album. The 23-year-old rapper recently celebrated “The Box” from Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial being RIAA-certified Diamond for ten million sales.
The Weeknd served double duty Friday, dropping two tracks with separate artists. The three-time Grammy winner is featured on the latest posthumous release by Aaliyah, “Poison.” The song is the first single from her upcoming album, Unstoppable, due in 2022. The Toronto star previously sampled her 2002 hit “Rock the Boat” on “What You Need,” from his 2011 mixtape, House of Balloons. The Weeknd is also featured on FKA Twigs’ new song, “Tears in the Club”. The new tracks follows the “Blinding Lights” singer’s previous release, “One Right Now,” with Post Malone, which dropped on November 5
Also, Gucci Mane is celebrating the holidays with his So Icy Christmas compilation album. The “Trap God” recorded five solo tracks on the project, which also features several of the artists from his 1017 Global Music label, including BigWalkDog, BiC Fizzle, and Hotboy Wes.
Finally, Nick Cannon released the soundtrack for his holiday film Miracles Across 125th Street, which he directed, produced, and in which he stars. The 13 tracks feature Cannon, as well as several of the cast members, including Teyana Taylor, Fred Hammond, Lil Kim, Jim Jones, Karen Clark-Sheard, Kierra Sheard, and Kiki Sheard. Miracles Across 125th Street premieres Monday, December 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.
As previously reported, Ed Sheeran and Elton John have reworked their holiday hit “Merry Christmas” into a new song called “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” — a charity collaboration with the British couple who call themselves LadBaby. Now, all four of them are starring in a new music video for the song, which has them dressing as sausage rolls, eating sausage rolls and singing about sausage rolls, all in an attempt to raise money for the hungry.
In the clip, the male half of LadBaby, Mark Hoyle, smuggles Elton and Ed into the recording studio dressed as giant sausage rolls. They start the song, with Ed playing a guitar decorated like a sausage roll. Mark, his wife and musical partner Roxanne and Ed are sporting Santa hats and Elton-style glasses, while we see Elton behind the mic chomping away on a sausage roll.
The whole project — the song and the video — raises money for The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports food banks throughout the U.K. and works to end hunger.
“Every pound for this song goes to helping the people along/Sausage rolls for everyone,” they sing. At the end, Elton says, “I haven’t had a sausage roll for years!”
Now, “Sausage Rolls for Everyone” will be directly competing with Ed and Elton’s original version of “Merry Christmas” for the coveted title of the U.K.’s Christmas Number One — the song that will be on top of the chart on Christmas. The winner will be revealed December 24.
If the LadBaby track wins, they’ll be the first act ever to score four Christmas number ones in a row. Their three previous songs were also charity singles with funny lyrics about sausage rolls, set to the music of pre-existing hits like “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.”
“Write what you know,” the old saying goes, and nobody takes that more seriously than Thomas Rhett: He’s known for writing songs so autobiographical that they mention his wife and daughters by name.
After welcoming baby Lillie Caroline last month, Thomas now has four kids aged six and under at home, so he has plenty of material to draw from when he’s writing songs about parenthood and family. The singer debuted one such song on Instagram this week, singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.
“It’s 5 a.m. and they’re tugging on the covers / You and me baby, looking at each other like / Whose turn is it this time? / Well, I guess it’s mine,” Thomas sings, looking off-camera as the sound of one of his toddler’s voices grows in intensity.
Appropriately, Thomas’ song about toughing out the more grueling parts of parenthood while simultaneously trying to soak up every moment got interrupted by his real-life “tornado in the living room,” in the form of one of his four daughters.
“One needs a nap,” he sings pointedly, nodding at the chaos going on offscreen, “And the other needs a changin’…I pick her up, put her on my shoulder / Better hold her while she lets me hold her.”
In a mix of comedic timing and tear-jerking tenderness, Thomas sums up the young parents’ plight in his new song. He didn’t share any more details about it, or whether it’ll be on either of the two albums he’s got planned for 2022.
His first project of the new year, Where We Started, is due out first; its lead single is “Slow Down Summer.” Later on, in the fall, Thomas will release Country Again: Side B.
Incubus frontman Brandon Boyd has released a new solo song called “Petrichor.”
“It’s a weird and wonderful thing to have a song swimming around in your head for months at a time and then a moment later it’s born into the wild world,” Boyd says of the tune. “Happy birthday little song.”
You can download “Petrichor” now via digital outlets.
“Petrichor” is set to appear on Boyd’s upcoming solo album Echoes and Cocoons, due out next year. It also includes the previously released single “Pocket Knife.”
Incubus, meanwhile, just last week announced a U.S. tour, set to kick off in March 2022.
