(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Boston 15, Kansas City 1
Seattle 7, Toronto 2
Chi White Sox 8, Minnesota 5
Texas 8, Oakland 3
Houston 7, Cleveland 2
LA Angels at NY Yankees (Postponed)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LA Dodgers 6, Washington 2
Atlanta 4, NY Mets 3
Milwaukee 7, Pittsburgh 2
Cincinnati 5, San Diego 4
Colorado 5, St. Louis 2
Arizona 5, San Francisco 3
Miami at Philadelphia (Postponed)
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Milwaukee 123, Atlanta 112 (Milwaukee leads series 3-2)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Connecticut 86, Indiana 80
Lady A sets the Fourth of July holiday weekend in motion today, playing Good Morning America‘s Summer Concert Series on ABC.
From there, well, they’ve got some serious celebrating to do.
“It’s America’s birthday, and then the next day is Dave [Haywood]’s birthday,” Hillary Scott explains. “And it’s actually the anniversary of my engagement to [my husband,] Chris. The second was the day that we got engaged… And then your anniversary is the…”
“Sixth,” Charles Kelley interjects.
For all those reasons, you’ll usually find Lady A kicking back like lots of Americans around the Fourth.
“We always take that week off,” Dave points out. “I’ll be with my wife’s family in Alabama at the beach…just kind of enjoying outdoor cookouts.”
The three agree: Nothing sets up the Independence Day mood quite like the country standard “God Bless the USA.”
“It’s a great celebration and a reminder of this great country we get to live in,” Charles says of the holiday. “And every time I think the Fourth of July, all I can think of is Lee Greenwood. I don’t know why.”
He continues, “I’m proud to be American. It’s like always, like, right when you say it, I smell barbecue and I’m hearing Lee Greenwood over and over and over.”
Adds Hillary, “Yeah. And fireworks.”
Lady A’s new collection, What a Song Can Do (Chapter One), features their top-25 hit “Like a Lady.”
Pentatonix is one of the acts performing on this year’s edition of A Capitol Fourth, airing on PBS on Sunday, July 4, at 8 p.m. ET. The group will be performing in downtown Los Angeles, along with a choir, and will sing “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway musical Rent. Pentatonix’s Scott Hoying explains why the group chose a distinctly non-patriotic song.
“I think it’s a song that everyone needs to hear right now; it’s a really uplifting song — ‘measure your life in love,'” Scott tells ABC Audio. “And I think we’re all reuniting, and as things start to open up, we’re all feeling the love for each other.”
He adds, “We’re feeling the love for music and a love for our country. And so it felt really appropriate. And the performance is very epic, too. So it has a grandeur about it.”
It’s not the first time the a cappella group has done A Capitol Fourth — they’re pretty much a fixture at these high-profile events, like last month’sKennedy Center Honors. Why do these shows have Pentatonix on speed-dial?
“Y’know, singing a cappella is a really difficult thing. And so I think that the people…who book these gigs have a respect for us,” explains Scott. “Which is amazing, because we get to perform alongside…legends, which is really surreal.”
While celebrating the birth of our country, Pentatonix also is celebrating their 10th anniversary: Last month marked a decade since they first sang together. And Scott says they already have the next decade mapped out.
“We definitely have a 10-year plan…we feel like we’re just getting started,” he gushes. “We’re going to go bolder. We’re going to go bigger. We’re going to tour a lot. We’re going to take everything to the next level.”
The Cadillac Three celebrate their love of skateboarding in the new video for their song “Bridges,” which finds the band converting Nashville venue Exit/In into a pop-up skate park. The video also features a number of skaters, including pro Jake Wooten.
Alan Jackson is joining forces with Cornerstone Building Brands to provide relief for those affected by the spring tornado that hit Alan’s hometown of Newnan, Georgia. Cornerstone is donating $500,000 in supplies to Habitat for Humanity and $100,000 to the Coweta Community Foundation to aid in recovery efforts.
Travis Denning and Jon Langston join newcomer Noah Hicks for his new single, “Drinkin’ in a College Town.”
Imagine Dragons has released a new song called “Wrecked.”
The tune will appear on the band’s upcoming album, Mercury — Act 1, which was announced earlier this week. The record, which is due out September 3, also includes the previously released songs “Follow You” and “Cutthroat.”
Dan Reynolds and company recorded Mercury — Act 1 with famed producer Rick Rubin. They describe the album as being about “love, faith, pain, passion and loss.”
Mercury — Act 1 is Imagine Dragons’ fifth studio effort. It follows the one-two punch of 2017’s Believer and 2018’s Origins.
Propelled by those hits and a fourth top-40 single, “Break It Up,” 4 became Foreigner’s only album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200, spending 10 non-consecutive weeks atop the chart from August 1981 to January 1982. 4 has sold over 6 million copies in the U.S.
Interestingly, “Waiting for a Girl Like You” set a Billboard record by spending 10 weeks at #2 on the Hot 100 tally without ever reaching the top. It was blocked from #1 by Olivia Newton-John‘s “Physical” and Hall & Oates‘ “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do).”
The title 4 also was a reference to the fact that Foreigner had become a quartet after the exit of founding multi-intrumentalist Ian McDonald and keyboardist Al Greenwood in 1980.
Founding guitarist and main songwriter Mick Jones co-produced the album with “Mutt” Lange, then famous for producing AC/DC‘s Back in Black and soon to become more famous for his work with Def Leppard.
4 was the first Foreigner album to make significant use of session musicians. Thomas Dolby, who had a big hit of his own in 1982 with “She Blinded Me with Science,” played synthesizers, while Motown sax legend Junior Walker contributed a memorable solo to “Urgent.”
Singer Lou Gramm told ABC Audio that while “Waiting for a Girl Like You” may be the tune that fans remember most from 4, he considers “Juke Box Hero” to be “the quintessential Foreigner song.”
Here’s 4‘s full track list:
“Night Life”
“Juke Box Hero”
“Break It Up”
“Waiting for a Girl Like You”
“Luanne”
“Urgent”
“I’m Gonna Win”
“Woman in Black”
“Girl on the Moon”
“Don’t Let Go”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says fans should be excited about the latest phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe… because he certainly is.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Feige opened up about the future of the MCU and what fans can expect.
“I hope what people have taken away from Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki, and seeing Black Widow soon, is how unique and different all the corners of the MCU can be,” he said before noting the MCU now has more storytelling freedom because it expanded onto the Disney+ streaming service.
“That’s what Disney+ has given us, is an ability to tell more deeper, further stories that will have ramifications across features and series,” he explained.
Feige also noted how the current Disney+ series Loki has allowed the MCU to feature lesser-known elements from the comic books, like the Time Variance Authority (TVA) that guards what is known as the “Sacred Timeline” and stops alternate universes from forming.
Feige said he is “so excited” by how receptive MCU fans are to the previously unknown TVA.
“Nobody outside of very, very particular comic nerds like myself had heard of the TVA [before Loki,]” he gushed. “And now that’s something that people are embracing and wondering, when will the TVA come back?”
Unfortunately, that is one question Feige will not be answering — including speculation over which characters will appear next in the MCU.
“Everything we make is hopefully with the intention of exceeding expectations and fulfilling surprises,” he teased. “Not every rumor you read about online is true, not by a long shot, but not every one is false either. So that’s the fun.”
As for when Feige can address those MCU rumors, he grinned, “I hope sometime in the near future.”
Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — In reassuring news for the more than 12 million Americans vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, a new study indicates the single-shot vaccine will likely offer good protection against the delta variant, according to the company.
The highly transmissible delta variant is now predicted to become the dominant strain in the United States.
The findings are preliminary but promising. In a laboratory experiment, researchers analyzed the blood of 10 people who had been vaccinated with the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and tested it against multiple concerning variants, including delta.
They found that the vaccine appeared to work against new variants, as indicated by so-called “neutralizing antibody titers” and other indications of immune system response.
Prior data has indicated that other vaccines, including those made by Pfizer and Moderna, are likely to hold up against the delta variant. But some experts worried the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which unlike the others, only includes one dose, might not fare as well.
“I would say it’s reassuring,” Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who helped lead the research, told ABC News. “We found the J&J vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies.”
In fact, Barouch said another reassuring finding of the study was that people vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson shot appeared to have a strong immune system response up to eight months later.
“We saw surprisingly good durability of responses,” Barouch said. “We followed these individuals for eight months, and over eight months, the antibody and T cell responses were very stable.”
A growing body of evidence suggests that COVID-19 vaccines may offer longer-lasting protection than some scientists initially anticipated. That’s because other parts of the immune system, cells called memory B cells, continue to mature over time, and retain their ability to fight infection.
Barouch cautioned there are limitations to this research, which offers researchers helpful clues from laboratory experiments rather than real-world evidence from thousands of people.
“Our findings show that a single shot of the J&J vaccine raises robust neutralizing antibody levels against the delta variant. Our study does not show clinical protection,” he said.
But for those who were vaccinated with the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, this study is a reassuring indication that the vaccine is likely to work just as well against the delta variant as it does for other circulating variants.
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Merrick Garland has ordered a temporary halt to the Justice Department advocating any scheduling of further executions of federal inmates, according to a memo.
Garland in a memo to senior officials at the department Thursday echoed his own recently stated reservations about use of the death penalty, noting a number of defendants who were later exonerated as well as statistics showing possible discriminatory impact on minorities.
“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” he wrote in the memo. “That obligation has special force in capital cases. Serious concerns have been raised about the continued use of the death penalty across the country, including arbitrariness in its application, disparate impact on people of color, and the troubling number of exonerations in capital and other serious cases.”
“Those weighty concerns deserve careful study and evaluation by lawmakers. In the meantime, the Department must take care to scrupulously maintain our commitment to fairness and humane treatment in the administration of existing federal laws governing capital sentences,” he continued.
The new directive comes after Garland’s predecessor in the job, William Barr, had resumed the department’s use of capital punishment against inmates a year ago, after a nearly two-decade lapse. He also pushed for executions of several federal prisoners during the transition period before President Joe Biden — who opposes the death penalty — took office.
The federal government in 2020 executed more people than all 50 states combined, according to a year-end report from the Death Penalty Institute, a non-partisan, death penalty information center that tracks death row inmates and executions.
The directive, however, is not expected to impact the department’s position taken recently in the case of Boston bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, a person familiar with the matter told ABC News. Officials last month urged the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling and reinstate Tsarnaev’s death penalty despite Biden’s stated opposition to capital punishment.
This is a developing news story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Richard Branson announced Thursday he will be joining the crew of his next spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, besting fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to space.
The first fully crewed spaceflight for SpaceShipTwo Unity will take place July 11, pending weather and technical checks.
Branson, 70, will join the crew to “evaluate the private astronaut experience and will undergo the same training, preparation and flight as Virgin Galactic’s future astronauts,” according to a press release. Branson announced last week that Virgin Galactic was given the OK by the Federal Aviation Administration to launch customers into space.
“I truly believe that space belongs to all of us,” Branson said in a statement. “After 17 years of research, engineering and innovation, the new commercial space industry is poised to open the universe to humankind and change the world for good. It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality.”
The mission, dubbed Unity 22, will be a 20-second test flight for VSS Unity. It’s the company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. Unity’s pilots will be Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, both of whom have flown Unity previously.
Unity is launched from a separate “mothership” aircraft called VMS Eve.
Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is expected to join the crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft’s first flight on July 20.
Bezos announced on Wednesday that accompanying him, and his brother, on New Shepard will be pioneering female pilot Wally Funk.
Joining Branson on his flight will be Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, the company’s lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, the company’s vice president of government affairs and research operations. Moses was also on the ship’s first test flight.
The British-born Branson founded Virgin Group in the 1970s and has delved into everything from music to cellphones and airlines.
Branson will turn 71 exactly one week after the flight.
ABC News’ Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.
