After “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” shot up to the top of the Billboard charts, it was only a matter of time before Kidz Bop got its hands on the sexually-charged song. However, Lil Nas X apparently wasn’t expecting just how far the music brand would go to make his X-rated anthem “child friendly.”
The Grammy winner took to Twitter and shared a peek at the super-sanitized lyrics, which read, “I wanna lie on the beach in Hawaii/ I want that jet lag from livin’ and flyin’/ Put a smile on your face whilst we’re dinin’.”
Of course, those who know the song by heart know the actual lyrics are way more explicit.
A further look at the clean edition shows that the brand also shifted the R-rated lyrics “Cocaine and drinking with your friends” to a watered down “Singin’ and dancin’ with your friends.”
Fans had a blast poking fun at the lyrical changes, especially over the inclusion of words like “whilst” and “dining.”
For those who prefer a squeaky-clean version of this year’s top songs, you can pre-order Kidz Bop 2022 for $12 on the brand’s official website. The album also includes child-friendly versions of “Astronaut in the Ocean,” “Save Your Tears,” “Peaches,” “Mood” and more.
Understandably, Cardi B‘s “Up” and Ariana Grande‘s “34+35” did not make the cut.
On the latest installment of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the eponymous host reacted to her friend Jason Sudeikis‘ SNL sketch spoofing her, called Mellen.
The conceit of the skit was that with more men sitting at home during the pandemic, network executives “took 10 seconds” to come up with a male-skewing alternative for DeGeneres’ long-running program.
The result of the execs’ poor planning was dressing Sudeikis like Ellen, dubbing him Mellen, and ripping off her show. “All the fun daytime energy of Ellen with a hard, masculine edge,” according to the SNL sketch.
The result is an admittedly poorly thought-out combination of vests, “awkward male dancing,” and fistfights in the audience. “Ellen’s lawyers called the series, ‘cease and desist,'” the sketch says.
On her show, the real Ellen explained she was surprised by the sketch, when she and wife Portia de Rossi were watching SNL “as we do every week.” She screened the SNL version for her own audience, and then admitted with a laugh, “I would actually watch that show.”
She then called out Sudeikis, saying, “Jason, when you’re ending Ted Lasso, we should do that show.”
Charlie Puth is giving fans a tease of an upcoming song, but not before providing some insight.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the singer explained, “I’m very bad at expressing my feelings, which is why I usually just hide them in music, but as I write this next part to this song, I feel like I should tell you why I’m singing it so it’s not random when you hear it.”
Puth, 29, explained, “I went through a very bad breakup one time, and I felt like I lost a year of my life.”
He then played a snippet of the track while he bobbed his head to the beat and lip-synced on camera.
In the teaser, Puth slings some pretty intense lyrics at his ex, singing, “You took away a year of my f****** life, and I can’t get it back no more/ So, when I see those tears coming out your eyes, I hope it’s me.”
After a beat drop, the song continues, “You didn’t love when you had me, but now you need me so badly/ You can’t be serious. That’s hilarious.”
The “We Don’t Talk Anymore” singer captioned the video, ” I was scared to post this,” but fans were happy that he did.
“I need thissss,” one user commented, while another urged, “Release it already!”
(NEW YORK) — The NAACP on Thursday called on members of the NBA, WNBA, NFL, NHL and MLB to consider not signing with teams in Texas as a protest against several controversial laws passed recently in the state.
In the two-page letter given first to ABC News, the NAACP took jabs at state lawmakers, calling the state “a blueprint by legislators to violate constitutional rights for all, especially for women, children and marginalized communities.” The NAACP noted the state’s controversial laws on abortion, voting rights and coronavirus mask mandates as reasons for free agents not to sign with Texas teams.
“As we watch an incomprehensible assault on basic human rights unfold in Texas, we are simultaneously witnessing a threat to constitutional guarantees for women, children and marginalized communities,” NAACP National President Derrick Johnson and NAACP Texas State Conference President Gary Bledsoe wrote in the letter. “Over the past few months, legislators in Texas have passed archaic policies, disguised as laws, that directly violate privacy rights and a woman’s freedom to choose, restrict access to free and fair elections for Black and Brown voters, and increase the risk of contracting coronavirus.”
“If you are a woman, avoid Texas. If you are Black, avoid Texas,” the letter continued. “If you want to lower your chances of dying from coronavirus, avoid Texas.”
Texas’ SB8, the strictest anti-abortion law in the country, has caused protests nationwide and a current legal fight between the state and Department of Justice. The law bans abortions after a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy and often before a person knows they are pregnant.
Republicans in the state also spent months trying to overhaul the voting system in the state, even though Democrats say the new rules will make it harder for minority voters to take part in elections. Although there was no evidence of widespread fraud in Texas following the 2020 election, Republicans claim they are seeking to restore voter confidence in the state’s elections.
Gov. Greg Abbott, the only politician who is mentioned by name in the NAACP’s letter, has also been a vociferous opponent of mask and vaccine mandates to fight COVID-19.
There are nine Texas teams playing the leagues mentioned by the NAACP: the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets; the NHL’s Dallas Stars; the WNBA’s Dallas Wings; MLB’s Texas Rangers and Houston Astros; and the NFL’s Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys.
With the NHL, NFL and NBA seasons less than halfway over, the leagues won’t welcome free agency until well into 2022. MLB free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series, where the Astros are currently playing.
The letter comes just a few months after MLB took a stand against Georgia’s voting overhaul this past baseball season when it moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest.
The civil rights group is calling on athletes to “seek employment with sports teams located in states that will protect, honor and serve your families with integrity.”
The group added, “Until the legislation is overturned, Texas isn’t safe for anyone.”
(NEW YORK) — The summer surge of COVID-19, fueled by the delta variant, raised alarm bells among scientists and citizens alike that unlike prior variants of the virus, this one was different.
Those fears solidified in July, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, among mostly vaccinated people. This early data hinted, alarmingly, that the delta variant could be equally likely to spread among the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.
Prior to the emergence of the delta variant, the risk of spreading the virus while vaccinated appeared to be so low the CDC said it was safe for vaccinated people to ditch their masks. But CDC Director Rochelle Walensky described the Provincetown findings as “concerning,” and she promptly reversed the agency’s mask guidelines for vaccinated people, prompting renewed fear and uncertainty about the efficacy of vaccines against variants.
“I think the people who are really concerned are parents with children under 12 who are concerned that even if they’re vaccinated, they could have a breakthrough infection and transmit it to their unvaccinated children,” said Dr. Anna Durbin, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “I get that.”
But reassuringly, experts told ABC News, new studies show those fears may have been overblown.
“Data are coming out that it’s the opposite,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, an infectious disease physician and director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic.
The CDC’s Provincetown study relied on something called viral load — the amount of virus in a person’s body. Researchers found that viral load levels were the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated people, prompting speculation the virus transmits just as readily among a vaccinated person. But viral loads change over time.
“The problem with the Provincetown study is they just looked at one early point in time,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel member and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“That’s just the first time point,” Goepfert said. “If you keep following them, they’re much less infectious more rapidly.”
Experts said there’s no doubt the delta variant is among the most hyper-transmissible versions of the virus to have emerged. That hyper-transmissibility makes it possible to spread between vaccinated people. But that risk is still low. Even if the delta variant is transmissible among vaccinated people, new data suggests “it’s for a shorter period of time” compared to the unvaccinated, said Durbin.
In late July, researchers following patients in Singapore who had breakthrough infections with the delta variant after vaccinations with mRNA vaccines — such as Pfizer and Moderna — showed this exact decrease in infectivity. The study compared viral load counts during the first few weeks of each breakthrough infection. The delta variant caused the same peak viral load in all infected individuals — a sign of active infection and risk of infectious spreading — but the vaccinated group cleared the infection faster.
Research by a separate group found similar results with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is authorized in many countries outside the United States. In that study, researchers found that being vaccinated also appeared to shorten the time of breakthrough infection by the delta variant, according to an abstract presented at the Infectious Disease Society of America’s conference in early October.
Both studies have yet to be peer reviewed, but vaccine experts said they offer reassuring evidence that being vaccinated still dramatically reduces the risk of spreading the virus to a friend or loved one — even the highly-transmissible delta variant.
As families prepare for the 2021 holiday season, those who are vaccinated can rest assured that there’s increasing evidence that being vaccinated remains the best defense against the spread of infection, especially in the event of an unlikely breakthrough case.
The nominations for the 2021 American Music Awards were announced Thursday morning and first-time nominee Olivia Rodrigo leads the pack with a total of seven nods.
Olivia scored a nomination in the coveted Artist of the Year category, where she’ll be up against Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake and The Weeknd. Taylor currently holds the record for the most career AMA wins, at 32.
The Weeknd is the second-most nominated artist this year with with six nominations, followed close behind by Bad Bunny, Doja Cat and R&B singer Giveon, with five apiece.
The 2021 American Music Awards will take place Sunday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. ET. The ceremony will broadcast live on ABC.
Here’s a list of the nominees in some of the major categories:
Artist of the Year
Taylor Swift
Ariana Grande
The Weeknd
Olivia Rodrigo
BTS
Drake
Favorite Male Pop Artist
Drake
Ed Sheeran
Justin Bieber
Lil Nas X
The Weeknd
Favorite Female Pop Artist
Ariana Grande
Doja Cat
Dua Lipa
Olivia Rodrigo
Taylor Swift
Favorite Pop Duo or Group
AJR
BTS
Glass Animals
Maroon 5
Silk Sonic
Favorite Pop Album
Ariana Grande, positions
Dua Lipa, Future Nostalgia
Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR
Taylor Swift, evermore
The Kid LAROI, F*CK LOVE
Favorite Pop Song
BTS, “Butter”
Doja Cat feat. SZA, “Kiss Me More”
Dua Lipa, “Levitating”
Olivia Rodrigo, “drivers license”
The Weekend & Ariana Grande, “Save Your Tears (Remix)”
New Artist of the Year
24kGoldn
Giveon
Masked Wolf
Olivia Rodrigo
The Kid LAROI
Collaboration of the Year
24kGoldn ft. iann dior “Mood”
Bad Bunny & Jhay Cortez “DAKITI”
Chris Brown & Young Thug “Go Crazy”
Doja Cat ft. SZA “Kiss Me More”
Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar & Giveon “Peaches”
(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden jets off to Europe to meet with allies, some of the United States’ closest partners are still wondering if America is truly “back” as Biden proclaimed earlier this year.
Cautious about Biden’s domestic standing, and smarting from his lack of coordination on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, they are concerned whether his presidency truly represents a break from the isolationist, confrontational foreign policies of his predecessor, President Donald Trump, according to U.S. foreign policy experts.
Biden’s second trip abroad as president will take him to Rome and Scotland, where he’ll attend international summits aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic, global finance and the climate crisis.
But the excitement over Biden’s arrival on the world stage has belied the fact that he’s continued some key Trump policies, such as tariffs on China and a general pivot — started under President Barack Obama — toward Asia and the Pacific. Congressional inaction on fighting climate change also has the potential to weaken Biden’s hand.
“I think there was probably too high expectation that we could just turn the page of the last four years, or maybe we attributed to Trump some policies that were more structural, such as the U.S. shift to China and to the Indo-Pacific,” Benjamin Haddad, the senior director of the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, told ABC News.
Is America really ‘back’?
When the president took to the world stage for his first trip abroad, with a June trip to the United Kingdom, Belgium and Switzerland, he and other world leaders celebrated the United States’ changed tone.
Biden preached multilateralism, which Trump had maligned for four years. And European allies rejoiced.
When Macron met the U.S. president during a summit in England, the French leader told reporters that he “definitely” believed “America is back.”
“I think it’s great,” Macron said, “to have the U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.”
But French-U.S. relations hit a major snag last month when the Biden administration announced it would sell Australia nuclear submarines — resulting in Australia canceling a major defense deal with France.
France recalled its ambassador from Washington in response to the so-called “sub snub,” and its foreign minister compared Biden’s style to Trump’s.
But since then, Biden and Macron have sought to repair ties: They held a phone call last week, have launched meetings between senior officials from both countries, and on Friday, plan to meet in Rome. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Paris next month, too, according to her office.
“In many ways, this is not just about the French,” Célia Belin, an expert on trans-Atlantic relations at the Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “It goes to the core of the conversation that the U.S. should be having with their allies, which is, what do you actually expect from European allies in the Indo-Pacific?”
What’s at stake in Rome and Glasgow
Before those major hiccups, Biden’s reception in Europe stood in stark contrast with the constant spats — both personal and policy-wise — between U.S. allies and Trump.
Calling his foreign policy “America First,” Trump actively sought to lessen American commitments abroad.
He pulled the United States out of international organizations and treaties and publicly called on allies to pay more for defense. His fights with foreign leaders marred the international summits he did attend.
Biden campaigned in large part on reversing the damage he said Trump had caused, and when he won the presidency, U.S. allies rattled by years of instability from Washington had high hopes of a return to the pre-Trump years.
“The decisions that the administration has taken, very much and consistent with the domestic mood and polarization, have left them quite disappointed,” Heather Conley, the director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
Allies are now facing the decision of whether to work independently of the United States on certain issues, uncertain whether Biden’s young administration will truly restore America’s relationship with the world, Conley said.
“I think the question for me is, moving forward, has the administration understood that these decisions have profoundly challenged and questioned our allies as far as our credibility?” she said. “Can we restore that trust?”
Biden planned to arrive in Rome late Thursday ahead of a Friday meeting with Macron, and another meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
In the Italian capital, the president also planned to attend a summit of the leaders of rich and developing nations known as the Group of 20, or G-20, where he plans to formalize an international agreement on a 15% minimum tax for corporations. The global response to the coronavirus pandemic and other global finance issues are also expected to take center stage.
Biden then plans to travel to Glasgow, Scotland, where on Monday and Tuesday, he is scheduled to attend the U.N. climate change conference known as COP26. The U.S. is pushing countries to cement emissions-reduction targets they had set as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
He won’t have the opportunity to meet in person with two leaders who play a key role on climate and security issues: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They plan to attend the summits virtually, citing the COVID-19 situation in their countries.
‘It’s nice to have a win’
Biden had hoped to travel abroad with two major pieces of legislation in his pocket: his bipartisan $1 trillion physical infrastructure bill, which has already passed the Senate, and his larger social package — which he calls the “Build Back Better” bill and is full of Democratic priorities like universal pre-kindergarten, expanded healthcare, guaranteed paid leave and programs to combat the climate crisis.
Strong climate provisions, in particular, could lend him credibility at COP26, showing the United States put its money where its mouth is as it hectors developing nations to commit to lowering emissions — and others to fulfill their pledges.
A recent report by the New York-based research institute Rhodium Group — frequently cited by the White House — found that the only way the U.S. could meet its goal of halving its 2005 emissions levels by 2030 would be with congressional action. Experts have questioned whether the climate provisions in the “Build Back Better” bill will have enough teeth to help the U.S. meet that target.
“I’m presenting a commitment to the world that we will, in fact, get to net zero emissions on electric power by 2035 and net zero emissions across the board by 2050 or before,” Biden said last week during a town hall hosted by CNN, referencing COP26. “But we have to do so much between now and 2030 to demonstrate what we’re going to — that we’re going to do.”
Twin legislative victories would also show allies that Biden had political strength and could push through the policies he champions when abroad. They could also help him with sagging poll numbers at home.
“For messaging purposes, it’s nice to have a win when you’re abroad that you can brag about a little bit,” Amanda Rothschild, who served as a speechwriter on the Trump White House’s National Security Council, told ABC News.
Putting money where his mouth is
The president had made clear that he wanted his $1 trillion physical infrastructure deal to pass Congress by the time he departed, and that he also wanted a deal on his larger social bill — which is expected to contain massive climate-related investments.
When it became clear in recent days that might not be possible in time for the trip, the White House has emphasized, instead, that Democratic lawmakers’ negotiations seem to be coming to a conclusion soon.
Biden’s top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters Tuesday that U.S. allies are “excited” about the investments the president is pursuing in climate change, clean energy, infrastructure, and domestic economic growth.
“They want to see the United States making these investments,” Sullivan said. “They also recognize that the United States has a set of democratic institutions, has a Congress; that this is a process; that it needs to be worked through.”
Sullivan, though, said world leaders understood the ups and downs of policy-making.
“I think you’ve got a sophisticated set of world leaders,” he said, “who understand politics in their own country, and understand American democracy, and recognize that working through a complex, far-reaching negotiation on some of the largest investments in modern memory in the United States — that that takes time.”
Haddad, of the Atlantic Council, said European allies were less interested in the nitty gritty of legislating and more on practical matters like Republicans blocking the confirmation of most of Biden’s ambassadorial nominees.
“I don’t think the day-to-day negotiations in Congress are really being noticed in Europe,” Haddad said. “But the domestic political paralysis does have an impact on U.S. leadership.”
But if Biden arrives in Europe without those pieces of legislation in hand, “it’s going to be much harder for him to make the case, you know, the U.S. is back,” Matthew Goodman, an expert on international economic policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.
Still, Biden’s not Trump — and even if allies are nervous, the fledgling administration still has time to gain its footing on the international front, after spending much of its time focused on the domestic economic recovery, according to Goodman, who served in the White House and State Department under President Barack Obama.
“I think the rest of the world is going to be relieved that, you know, it’s not Donald Trump at the table, frankly,” Goodman, who served in the Obama administration, said. “He was considered a very disruptive force, and so I think, by comparison, Biden’s going to be well received in that sense.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has seemed to have lost 44 pounds in the past two years, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by the country’s intelligence agency in a closed-door meeting.
The massive weight loss has prompted rumors and conspiracies that North Korea was using a Kim Jong Un body double, which South Korea said is untrue.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service conducted the assessment “based on various scientific methods including artificial intelligence” using super-resolution video analysis and a stereometry analysis model that gauges facial fat and weight, Rep. Kim Byung-Kee of the ruling Democratic Party told reporters.
Kim’s often-reported health problems do not pose any serious issues, South Korea said. The analysis also concluded that the conspiracy theories suggesting North Korea may have been exposing a Kim Jong Un look-alike are not credible.
The most noticeable change was the disappearance of the official portraits of his father and grandfather, former leaders Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung, from the main walls of official meetings. Instead, the communist regime religiously hung the two portraits in all public areas and individual homes.
“Kim seems to have been working on building a people-friendly image by releasing photos of him drinking beer and smoking together with high-level officials,” Byung-Kee said.
Kim has been more active in public appearances this year compared to the year before. So far, he has been seen through North Korean state media for a total of 70 days in 2021. In contrast, he appeared 49 times during the same time in 2020.
One soon-to-be-wed couple not only enjoyed a nice sunny day for their beachside nuptials — they also received the surprise of their life when actor Tom Hanks crashed their ceremony.
Diciembre and Tashia Farries tell KTTV they were exchanging vows on Santa Monica beach in California when the actor unexpectedly walked up to congratulate the happy couple and their one-year-old son, who was also part of the big moment.
The Farries recall Hanks telling them their nuptials were beautiful and that he had been admiring their ceremony from afar. The actor also asked to take a photo with the couple, telling them he thought they were beautiful.
Tashia, who works as a private celebrity chef, said she was shocked by Hanks’ arrival, even though her job has her working with big-name stars.
However, it was Diciembre who discovered there may have been a special reason why the 65-year-old actor felt compelled to say hello. They told the outlet that their brother had tragically passed away, so they placed his photo on one of the chairs so he could still be part of the moment.
When talking with the actor, Diciembre learned both Hanks and their brother were born on July 9. They told the outlet, “It was like that was a message that he was there!”
Following last Thursday’s deadly accidental shooting involving Alec Baldwin on the set of the film Rust, the actor’s daughter, Ireland Baldwin, has broken her silence.
“Amongst some of the most abhorrent and threatening comments, emails, text messages, and voicemails I’ve been getting… this beautiful comment stands alone. I know my dad, you simply don’t. I love you, Dad,” Ireland shared Wednesday on Instagram, along with a user’s memory of her dad that portrayed him as an unpretentious actor and loving father.
The comment read, “So about a million years ago I was working in the production office in Toronto of the company that was making the Thomas the Tank Engine movie that he did. I’d dealt with typing up some pretty goofy celebrity riders in my day but NOT your dads.”
“He only wanted to make sure he had milk and cereal in his hotel room for when his daughter was visiting. That was it. That was the whole rider. I’ll always remember that,” the woman concluded.
Ireland previously announced that she will be stepping away from social media while her family deals with the tragedy.
Last week, while rehearsing a scene on the set of Rust, Baldwin fired a pistol allegedly containing a live round or other projectile that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. The incident is currently under investigation.
