Jason Sudeikis and Jean Smart won the 2021 Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a comedy series during Sunday night’s ceremony.
Both winners accepted their awards during the show, which was held in-person for the first time in two years and hosted by comedian Cedric the Entertainer from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Smart, who won for her leading role in Hacks, began her speech on an emotional note, crediting her late husband, Richard Gilliland, for aiding in her success. He died in March after a brief illness at the age of 71.
“I have to acknowledge my late husband, Richard Gilliland, who passed away six months yesterday, and I would not be here without him, without his kind of putting his career on the back burner so that I could take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities that I’ve had,” she said while holding back tears. She then thanked her “two incredible unselfish children.”
Other talented nominees for the Outstanding Lead Actress category included Aidy Bryant for her role in Shrill, Kaley Cuoco for The Flight Attendant, Allison Janney for Mom, and Tracee Ellis Ross for Black-ish.
Snagging another award for the hit series Ted Lasso was Sudeikis, who went up against Anthony Anderson‘s role in Black-ish, Michael Douglas in The Kominsky Method, William H. Macy in Shameless, and Kenan Thompson in Kenan.
Gillian Anderson‘s remarkable transformation into former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown earned her the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Anderson squared off against two colleagues for this award — Helena Bonham Carter and Emerald Fennell.
She dedicated her win to her manager of 20 years, Connie Freiberg, who “believed in me when no one else would and believed I had talent, when I didn’t even think that I had talent, who always advised me to take the high road, who was one of the best friends that I’ve ever had in my life.”
The Crown also nabbed the win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, with Tobias Menzies collecting the award for his prickly portrayal of Prince Philip.
He was not in attendance and his award was accepted by presenter Kerry Washington on his behalf.
Mare of Easttown stars Evan Peters and Julianne Nicholson snagged the Emmys for Best Supporting Actor and Actress in a Limited Series during Sunday night’s ceremony.
Other nominees in Nicholson’s category included her Mare of Easttown co-star Jean Smart,Kathryn Hahn from WandaVision, Phillipa Soo and Renee Elise Goldsberry both from Hamilton, and Moses Ingram from The Queen’s Gambit.
Peters beat out Hamilton’s Jonathan Groff and Anthony Ramos, Thomas Brodie-Sangster from The Queen’s Gambit, and Paapa Essiedu from I May Destroy You.
The awards, which were held in-person for the first time in two years, was hosted by comedian Cedric the Entertainer from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
After collecting the first award of the night, Ted Lasso kept the momentum going with Brett Goldstein, who plays the cantankerous Roy Kent, picking up the night’s second award — Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
“I was very, very specifically told I’m not allowed to swear,” he started off his speech before paying homage to his foul-mouthed character by letting out a loud bleep.
“It has been one of the greatest honors, privileges, and privileges, I just said that twice… but it is a double privilege. It is the most privilege privilege and pleasure of my life,” the 41-year-old actor expressed. “This is [profanity] thank you very much, thank you, thank you!”
Like Hannah Waddingham, who was pitted against her fellow Lasso co-star, Goldstein was in a tight race with his two colleagues — Brendan Hunt and Nick Mohammed, who respectively play Coach Beard and Nate.
The first award of the night went to British actress Hannah Waddingham, for her breakout performance as Rebecca Welton in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso.
The actress screamed in delight upon collecting her award, exclaiming, “Jesus Christ, oh my god, I’m not responsible for anything that falls out of my face.”
She then shouted out her Lasso co-star Jason Sudeikis, “You saved my life with this, and more importantly my baby girl’s…I’m honestly so privileged to work with you. I really am. Oh my god.”
Waddingham squared off against her Lasso co-star Juno Temple in her respective category.
(MIAMI) — When a condo building suddenly collapsed in the Miami Beach area earlier this summer, killing 98, it shocked the nation.
Rescuers worked for days at the Champlain Towers South in Surfside to try to find survivors in the rubble. But hope faded after all surviving victims were rescued and the mission shifted to recovery.
In the wake of the collapse, profound grief and questions about how a massive concrete structure could just fall to the ground lingered.
As federal investigators piece together evidence, a trail of documents indicated the 12-story, 136-unit oceanfront condo building had substantial concrete structural damage to its pool deck area and was overdue for repairs.
While federal authorities have not yet concluded the investigation to determine the cause of the fall, a number of experts and engineers believe prolonged structural damage, delayed repairs and environmental issues over four decades could have contributed to the building’s deterioration.
Here is what we know:
‘Independent spirit’
The Champlain Condominium Towers North and South were built in 1981 in Surfside, Fla. a neighborhood that sits just north of Miami.
“Surfside always had an independent spirit. The Surf Club was really the center of Surfside and it was built in 1930. The owners and the members of that club. wanted to have their own neighborhood and didn’t want to be part of Miami Beach,” Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, told ABC News.
During the 70’s and 80’s, Miami city leaders were looking to transition into a higher-end market, according to the New York Times at the time.
But at that time, a quarter of South Beach Miami was made up of mostly retired residents, many of whom protested the idea of rebuilding the city as many feared displacement.
“In 1973, a building moratorium was imposed partially due to a decaying Miami and concerns about the sewage system,” Ciraldo said. To rectify this, the condominium developers fronted at least half of a $400,000 bill to fix the sewage issue and resume construction, according to a Miami Herald report from 1979.
The Champlain Towers were the first condominiums built once the moratorium was lifted.
Early signs of damage
Signs of structural damage to the Champlain Towers South’s pool deck and garage ceiling were reported as early as 1996. Western Water Co., a local contractor, noted in a report the pool deck of the Champlain condo building and the ceiling of the underground parking garage beneath needed “concrete structural repair.”
The work was later completed and certified to the city in November 1997, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
“The most common problems are weather intrusions. The way you combat that is with good quality solid weatherproofing and paint; and those repairs need to be identified when they happen and repaired in order to maintain the strength and integrity of the building,” Peter Dyga, the president and CEO of Associated Builders & Contractors, Florida East Coast Chapter (a national construction industry trade association), told ABC News.
40-year recertification underway
After a Miami-area building collapse in 1974, county lawmakers enacted a mandatory inspection for commercial and residential buildings 40 years after they’re constructed. The Champlain towers were in the process of recertification when part of the building came crashing down.
Morabito Consultants, a structural engineering firm, was hired by the condo association in 2018 to conduct the inspection and reported, among other things, concrete structural damage to concrete structural slabs on the pool deck due to failed waterproofing. They estimated repairs would cost more than $9 million, but those repairs were never completed.
Frank Morabito, a consultant and engineer from Morabito Consultants, declined to comment to ABC News.
‘Very good shape’
Despite the structural engineering report and the detailed construction plan from Morabito, Rosendo “Ross” Prieto, the former Surfside building inspector, told residents at Champlain Tower South at a board meeting in November 2018 that their building was “in very good shape,” according to records released by the city of Surfside.
“When things happen related to building construction, builders are generally the scapegoats and it may be the quality of the building,” Dyga told ABC News. “On the other end of the problem is with a building. One that is most common that we see is failing to maintain. One of the most important things about building maintenance is weatherproofing,” Dyga added.
In April, two months prior to the collapse, Champlain condo owners received an itemized bill from the board, a two-page letter obtained by ABC News shows.
The estimated repair costs was nearly $15 million, $6 million more than what Morabito assessed three years before. The owners were expected to begin making payments beginning July 1.
Following the collapse, Prieto, who was no longer Surfside’s building inspector, was placed on a “leave of absence,” according to a statement from the city of Doral, where he had been listed as interim building inspector but has since been removed.
He has not responded to ABC News’ repeated requests for comment.
‘The future’
In the wake of the collapse, Miami-Dade County inspected more than 500 buildings that were approaching the 40-year recertification deadline to identify any obvious structural concerns.
Buildings in Surfside that are more than 30 years and more than three stories high were notified to begin recertification. Surfside operates as its own city and has its own building department.
“The future is what is the capacity of a small town when we’re talking about really large development projects?,” Ciraldo said. “And the corollary of what is the ability of a volunteer condo association to be the permanent stewards of these properties,” he continued.
In late July, a Florida judge ordered the families who suffered losses from the collapse to be compensated $150 million — $50 million in insurance and nearly $100 million in proceeds upon the property sale.
At the conclusion of the federal agency National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) investigation, which could take several years according to NIST experts, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has pledged to bring the matter to a grand jury, which will gather evidence and hear testimony and could recommend criminal charges or needed reforms.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie’s acknowledgement that the Aug. 29 drone strike near the Kabul airport was “a mistake” was the correct response.
“I thought what Gen. McKenzie did was right,” Mullen told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Ten civilians were killed in the strike, which the U.S. believed was targeting a terrorist, but instead killed an aid worker, seven children and others in the area.
“We now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle and those who died were associated with ISIS-Khorasan or were a direct threat to U.S. forces,” McKenzie said Friday.
“I offer my profound condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed,” he added.
“How can such a huge mistake happen?” Raddatz asked the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“We’ve done this for years … we’ve had drone strikes that were very effective over many years and didn’t kill any civilians and we’ve also had drone strikes which did,” Mullen said.
He added that the over-the-horizon-capability — or airstrikes that don’t require troops to be based in the country — is there, but the strike’s execution being in a “confused environment” contributed to the difficulty of the situation.
“And should there be accountability for this?” Raddatz asked Mullen.
“I absolutely think there should,” Mullen responded.
He also added that there should be accountability for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, adding, “I hope that there is.”
Separately, Mullen also spoke about the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley in light of revelations in Washington Post journalists, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s new book, “Peril.” According to the book, Milley secretly reached out to China‘s military leaders in the waning months of Donald Trump’s presidency and assured them that Trump would not attack to stay in office.
Mullen echoed other leaders who said that communicating “with counterparts around the world is routine” and he added that he was encouraged the line of communication with China remained open during the tumultuous time.
“There was a time when we had no communications with China, or we’d have a problem with China, they’d cut off all mil-to-mil connections,” Mullen said.
However, Mullen said that the reported assurance Milley gave to China that he would call them in the event of a strike, wasn’t routine, and on that point, he told Raddatz, “Yes, well, I’m hopeful that actually — that part of it isn’t true.”
Mullen said that he was more concerned China would be worried about a U.S. nuclear attack.
“It speaks to the need to have these open communications, so that we don’t miscalculate,” he said.
Milley reportedly went so far as to make sure he was alerted if Trump ever took steps to launch an attack on China. As a military adviser to the president, he’s otherwise outside of the chain of command.
Mullen cited the extra precaution as “fairly routine … for something this serious.”
Mullen also said that he sympathized with the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“I don’t know if anyone has been in a more difficult situation than Mark Milley,” Mullen said. “I know him well enough to know that he would really try to do the best thing for our country. And I think he did that.”
(MIAMI) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was carted off the field with a rib injury during Sunday’s game against Buffalo.
During the second drive for Miami, Tagovailoa was hit by Bills defensive end AJ Epenesa on fourth down after an incomplete pass. The second-year quarterback walked off the field with trainers, before being carted to the locker room.
Jacoby Brissett took over for Tagovialoa.
Miami declared Tagovialoa as questionable to return.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Wildfires swirling around California’s giant sequoia trees are prompting more evacuations as they spread toward communities surrounding the forests.
Residents in Ponderosa and Quaking Aspen in Tulare County have been ordered to evacuate immediately now that the Windy Fire had fanned to more than 18,000 acres surrounding the Sequoia National Forest and was 0% contained on Sunday morning.
Other communities in Tulare County, such as Johnsondale and Camp Whitsett, had been ordered to evacuate several days earlier due to the Windy Fire, while the KNP Complex Fire, which is also threatening the historic sequoia forests, prompted evacuations in the Three Rivers community.
The KNP Complex Fire had grown to nearly 22,000 acres by Sunday morning and was also 0% contained.
Fire crews were seen earlier this week wrapping cabins and other structures in Sequoia National Forest in foil to protect them as the wildfires continue to spread. The historic trees are thousands of years old and grew to be hundreds of feet tall.
The sequoia trees are increasingly being threatened by drought, climate change and extreme fire.
Last year, the Castle Fire wiped out 10% of the world’s native sequoias, according to the National Park Service.
Firefighters faced high temperatures and dry conditions as they battled the blaze over the weekend, and the dangerous fire conditions are expected to continue in the region.
Parts of Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Park are closed to the public due to the fires.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(LAKE WORTH, TX.) — Two homes have been heavily damaged after a military training aircraft crashed in Lake Worth, Texas, according to the Fort Worth Fire Department.
Two to three patients are being treated at this time, fire officials said.
Additional details were not immediately available.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
