Jonathan Majors and Zazie Beetz take a calculated step into the Old West with their new film The Harder They Fall.
Directed by Jeymes Samuel, the film follows Majors as real-life cowboy Nat Love, who, in a fictionalized story, reassembles his former gang to seek revenge against the man who murdered his parents. Majors tells ABC Audio that to authentically take on the role of Love he had to “surrender” to the character.
“I was reminded and then…[it] was concretized that…the quiet surrender to the world, to the character is what’s going to save you,” he says. “If I allowed myself to think about riding the horse like that, I’d probably go, ‘Yeah… I could do it.’ But that’d be a lot of ego…But if I go, ‘Let me surrender to Nat’…I know Nat can do it.”
That surrender, Majors says, was not only something he enjoyed, it was something that invigorated him.
“I was addicted to it,” he admits, before sharing how he channeled Love on set. “‘OK, so what are we gonna do now, Nat?’ You know, ‘Let’s bang, bang, bang. Grrr, grr, grr…Let’s do it.'”
Majors co-star Zazie Beetz agrees, explaining that she too “enjoyed” preparing for her role as Stagecoach Mary, Love’s romantic partner and fellow gunslinger.
“It was a little bit more…technical training and getting really comfortable with how to handle these antique weapons…and making it look like it’s second nature,” she says of using a shotgun.
Aside from guns, Beetz says that training to look “natural” on horses was also another unexpected challenge.
“We had to build relationships with our horses,” she says. “They had to learn to respect you and you respect them.”
(WASHINGTON) — It’s likely to become President Joe Biden’s most hotly contested COVID policy yet: a sweeping new nationwide safety standard for the American workplace that demands large businesses require their employees to either get the vaccine or test regularly.
The temporary emergency rule would apply to every U.S. private business that employs 100 workers or more — from grocery clerks to meatpacking plant employees — impacting some 80 million Americans.
It would be the first time Washington has set a federal standard that regards a respiratory virus as an occupational hazard outside of the health care sector, essentially putting COVID in the same category as other workplace safety concerns as asbestos and dangerous machinery.
Details were expected to be released as early as Wednesday or Thursday on the rule, drafted by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
“It’s the biggest thing OSHA has ever done in terms of the number of workers it will cover,” said Jordan Barab, a longtime top official at the agency during the Obama administration.
Union and industry groups say they have yet to see a draft of the new rule. Among the most pressing questions is when employers would have to comply, with Republicans warning that mandates ahead of the holidays might exacerbate the nation’s worker shortage.
It’s also unclear how long the temporary standard would be in place and if it would apply to short-term “gig” workers, like freelancers and Uber drivers, or smaller franchises that are part of nationwide chains, like small restaurants or gyms.
How employers will be expected to enforce the standard is another question mark.
“We don’t know what they’re looking it. It’s a black box,” said one industry official involved in recent discussions with the administration.
Since taking office, the Biden administration had avoided imposing nationwide vaccine mandates, focusing instead on incentives for businesses and individuals. But with the arrival of the delta variant, a surge in pediatric cases and pockets of the country remaining hesitant to get a shot, Biden’s COVID strategy shifted in recent weeks.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said of unvaccinated Americans on Sept. 9 when announcing his plan to draft the rule.
Federal contractors now have until Nov. 22 to become fully vaccinated, while contractors that work with the government have until Dec. 8.
Testing for these workers is not an option.
Biden also has required that health facilities like hospitals and nursing homes that accept federal dollars mandate vaccines for their workers, a total estimated at 17 million workers.
The latest OSHA rule would significantly expand that pool of Americans, putting two-thirds of the nation’s workforce under a kind of mandate.
Once divided on how to address the pandemic, Republican governors have united against the plan, insisting it represents dangerous federal overreach and would cripple business owners already dealing with worker shortages.
“Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian,” tweeted the South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster when Biden on Sept. 9 promised to draft the rule.
Supporters counter that many large businesses have already embraced vaccine mandates to both entice employees who want a safe workplace and end a pandemic that has hobbled the economy. They argue too that whenever employees are
“This is not a vaccine mandate. It’s a safe workplace mandate — getting vaccinated or tested,” said Barab, the former deputy assistant secretary of labor for OSHA.
“You want to do it as soon as you can to protect as many people as you can,” he added.
A Labor Department spokesperson and the White House declined to discuss the specifics of the rule ahead of its release, other than to confirm that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review on Monday.
“The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days,” a Labor Department spokesperson said.
As an emergency standard, the rule would take effect immediately. But the administration was widely expected to give businesses at least some time to comply, although it’s not clear how long. Several industry groups were pushing for a 60-day implementation period that would push any enforcement into 2022.
The rule was expected to call on employers to give workers time off to get the shot and recover from any side effects.
It’s unlikely that workers would be required to get booster shots — at least as of now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a person “fully immunized” as one shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or two shots of Moderna or Pfizer. CDC officials warn, however, that definition could change as new research develops.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that the rule also would allow employers to force workers who refuse to get the COVID shot to pay for any weekly tests and masks.
ABC News producer Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) Ryan Reynolds was in New York City Monday evening to accept his WSJ. Magazine Innovator Award, and at the event held at the Museum of Modern Art, he gave a shout-out to his fellow honorees, including Kim Kardashian, Lil Nas X and Lewis Hamilton, as well as his wife, Blake Lively.
“To be in this room with these honorees, let alone whatever category this is, is just completely and utterly insane,” Reynolds said at the podium.
The Deadpool series star and producer also thanked those behind his Group Effort Initiative, a nonprofit that he and Blake created that gives people of color opportunities to work in the entertainment community.
Ryan thanked “Renaissance woman” Lively for how she, “pushes me in ways that I never imagined I’d be pushed,” quipping in retrospect that the compliment sounded “like a police report.”
Ryan also thanked his team at his production company Maximum Effort, which produces everything from movies like his recent hit Free Guy, to clever marketing campaigns for his companies Aviation American Gin and Mint Mobile, among others. “I’m lucky enough to work with people who honor the idea that you can’t make anything great without enthusiasm. I know how lucky I am to have that,” Reynolds expressed.
On that note, their recent effort just used Reynolds’ gin brand to celebrate the seasonal return of “America’s favorite rib-shaped sandwich,” McDonald’s McRib.
In another now-viral ad, Reynolds combined Aviation with barbecue sauce, tomato juice, lemon juice, and a pickle and onion garnish for the Gin Riblet.
Calling it “a Bloody Mary’s hotter cousin,” Ryan toasted the 40th anniversary of the sandwich. “Bring back Grimace, Godd*** it,” he added of McDonald’s former purple mascot.
Talk about girl power! Halle Berry just shared that the soundtrack for her upcoming Netflix film, Bruised, will be the first “all female” project.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday evening, Berry shared a screenshot of an interview she did with Varietyregarding the effort, and wrote, “SURPRISE! Can’t wait for the world to finally experience my dream come true – the first all female Hip-hop project, the music of Bruised, featuring [Cardi B] [Saweetie] [H.E.R.] [City Girls] [Young M.A] [Flo Milli] [Latto]and more! [fire emoji] these ladies killed it! Project drops Nov. 19.”
“I can’t wait to show it,” the 55-year-old actress raved to Variety. “I have to tell you, one of the things I’m most excited about is the title song that H.E.R. sang… and she killed it,” Berry added. “So I can’t wait to share with everyone and am super excited.”
In addition to the A-list artists already mentioned in Berry’s social media post, the soundtrack, which was executive-produced by the actress and Cardi, also features appearances from Baby Tate, Dream Doll, Erica Banks, Rapsody, and Big Bottle Wyanna.
The first single off the record will be from Yung Miami and JT, who make up the rap duo City Girls. It’s set to be released on Friday, November 5 and is featured during a “key sequence” of the film.
The full Bruised soundtrack will be available November 19, with the film hitting Netflix November 24.
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.”
