(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Oakland 17, Cleveland 0
Seattle 3, Texas 1
Detroit 6, Baltimore 4
Tampa Bay 8, Boston 1
Chi White Sox 9, NY Yankees 8
LA Angels 6, Toronto 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NY Mets 4, Washington 1
NY Mets 5, Washington 4
St. Louis 7, Pittsburgh 6
Philadelphia 2,LA Dodgers 1
Milwaukee 17, Chi Cubs 4
Cincinnati 12, Atlanta 3
San Francisco 7, Colorado 0
Arizona 12, San Diego 3
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Seattle 79, Connecticut 57
When Dan + Shay‘s 2018 album came out, Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney kept it simple: the cover’s nothing more than their name on a blank background.
Fast forward to Good Things, their new record out today. The pair’s gone all out, heading to California’s Joshua Tree for the photo shoot — even jumping in the water for what turned out to be the cover art.
“There was a swimming pool there,” Dan explains, “and it was 110 degrees out in the desert. We’re like, ‘Man, it would feel pretty good to go in that pool. Maybe we could get a picture while we’re in there. It might be the thing.'”
“You think about all these iconic album covers,” he reflects, “and they’re always just some random spur-of-the-moment, unplanned thing.”
“We dipped our toes in first,” he continues, “It was like, ‘What if we, like, put our jeans in?’ And then we just kept going in further. The photographer just jumped in, in his clothes… and he’s underwater shooting these photos.”
Sure enough, out of 11,000 shots, a pool photo turned out to be the one.
“It was just that magic moment,” Dan says. “We weren’t staged… we were just… laughing and having a good time.”
“We’re like, ‘How’s it look? Does it look sick? Is it anything?'” he recalls. “[The photographer] said ‘Honestly, man, I can’t see any of these photos. I’m underwater.'”
“It wasn’t until we got back to Nashville that we were able to see those,” Dan reveals. “And there was something magical about that unplanned moment… We were at peace… at ease. And I feel like there’s kinda that thread throughout the album.”
Good Things features the hits “10,000 Hours,” “I Should Probably Go to Bed,” and “Glad You Exist,” plus nine new tracks.
In addition, a 10-inch vinyl version will follow on November 19.
Starr first announced details about Change the World during a livestream event Thursday at TalkShop.Live that featured an interview with the former Beatles drummer while giving fans the chance to pre-order the EP’s various versions.
Coinciding with the announcement, Ringo has released the EP’s lead track, “Let’s Change the World,” digitally. The uplifting pop-rock song was co-written by Toto‘s Joseph Williams and Steve Lukather, the latter of whom also is a longtime member of Ringo’s All Starr Band.
The second track is a reggae-flavored tune titled “Just That Way,” which Ringo co-wrote with his longtime engineer Bruce Sugar, and features veteran reggae guitarist Tony Chin.
Track three is the country-influenced “Coming Undone,” which was penned by hit-making songwriter/producer Linda Perry. Perry also plays on the tune, as does acclaimed New Orleans musician Trombone Shorty.
Closing out Change the World is Ringo’s homage to the early rock ‘n’ roll that served as such a big inspiration to him, a cover of Billy Haley & His Comets‘ classic “Rock Around the Clock.” Eagles guitarist — and Starr’s brother-in-law — Joe Walsh lends his talents to the track.
Like Zoom In, Ringo recorded Change the World at his home studio, Roccabella West.
“I’ve been saying I only want to release EPs at this point and this is the next one,” notes Ringo. “What a blessing it’s been during this year to have a studio here at home and be able to collaborate with so many great musicians.”
After multiple pandemic delays, the action comedy Free Guy is finally in theaters.
Ryan Reynolds plays Guy, a wholesome bank teller who learns that he’s actually an NPC — or a non-player-character — in a violent online game called Free City.
The mysterious LadyMolotov — the online avatar for Jodie Comer‘s programmer Millie — opens his eyes.
Along with Joe Keery‘s character Keys, who exists outside of the game, they fight to bring down Taika Waititi‘s odious dudebro Antwan, who stole Millie and Keys’ A.I. game design that turned Guy self-aware, which threatens Antwan’s successful Free City franchise.
At a recent press event, Reynolds joked of his alter-ego, “Well, you know, my default is just pure trash on the inside, so this is sort of slightly new for me.” He added, “You know, there’s something really wonderful about playing a character who’s kind of naive and innocent…it’s even said in the movie, he’s in a sense…like a four-year-old adult.”
Reynolds also noted, “There’s something I think really fun about exploring…everything with new eyes, which is what this character gets to do.”
For Killing Eve Emmy winner Comer, she’s playing both the kick-butt LadyMolotov and her softhearted real-world alter-ego. “It was a huge part of what attracted me to the piece, having this girl Millie and Molotov being a creation of her,” she said. “But that Molotov was also very, very different.”
As for Taika’s “control freak” character, he said, “I’ve met a lot of people like this.” Jabbing Hollywood agents, the Oscar winner noted, “Whenever I think of villains, I think of Americans who I’ve met at CAA parties.”
“Totally. Totally,” Reynolds agreed.
Free Guy was produced by 20th Century Studios, which is owned by ABC News’ parent company Disney.
The wresting drama Heels enters the ring this Sunday on Starz and star Stephen Amell said something very unexpected happened on the first day of filming — he broke his back.
Amell, who stars as an amateur wrestler trying to keep tradition alive in a small town, told ABC Audio that he injured himself on a stunt gone wrong.
“I overshot it coast to coast on our first day of filming wrestling stuff and suffered a compression fracture,” the actor confessed, explaining that the injury was between his mid and lower back.
However, he assured that breaking his back wasn’t quite as catastrophic as it sounds.
Said Amell, 40, “I’m very fortunate and lucky that it was an injury that sounds scary, but didn’t require surgery. [It] just sort of healed on its own.”
On the other hand, he says his colleagues freaked out over his broken back.
“I certainly scared a lot of people,” said Amell, noting his phone blew up with people worried about his recovery — including a showrunner who was planning to “shift stuff around” to give him ample time to recover.
“He said, ‘Don’t you worry about it, because we’re going to shift stuff around. We’re going to write you out until Thanksgiving and then we’ll take a break, come back in the New Year,'” he described. “I was like, ‘No… I’ll see you in a couple days.”
After taking “a little bit of time off work,” he was back to the grind… because he loves his job.
Said Amell, who dabbled in the pro-wrestling world, “Anyone who thinks that I’m going to give up the life of hair and makeup and drivers and someone making my breakfast, lunch and dinner, for life on the road in professional wrestling is out of their [expletive] mind!”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 618,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 58.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Friday. All times Eastern:
Aug 13, 5:27 am
Alabama children’s hospital sees rise in patients
Children’s of Alabama reported a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive patients being treated at the hospital in recent weeks.
As of Thursday, the hospital said it is treating 22 COVID-19 positive patients, five of whom are on ventilators.
The hospital said in January, at the height of the last surge, their highest number of patients was 13.
“There are three proven ways to slow the spread of this highly transmissible strain of the virus: Vaccination for everyone 12 and up, masking, especially when indoors, and social distancing,” the hospital wrote in a Facebook statement.
Aug 12, 11:48 pm
FDA authorizes booster shot for immunocompromised
Immunocompromised Americans will be able to get a third shot of either of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer or Moderna, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced late Thursday.
The booster will be targeted specifically for people who did not have an ideal immune response to their initial vaccines, which has proven to be the case for many cancer patients, transplant recipients, people with HIV and people on immunosuppressant drugs.
“The country has entered yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. “After a thorough review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group may benefit from a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna Vaccines.”
(LAS VEGAS) — As many Americans hesitate to get vaccinated against COVID-19, NBA legend Spencer Haywood is teaming up with a medical school in Las Vegas to tackle the mistrust of the health care system prevalent in some communities of color.
The Basketball Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist has joined the dean’s advisory committee at Roseman University College of Medicine to work on programs increasing diversity in medicine to tackle this issue.
In an interview with ABC News Live on Thursday, Haywood said that his daughter Shaakira, who is a doctor, inspired him to lend his voice to this cause.
“This crisis that we are facing in the African American community, in particular, in the Hispanic community — we are not being vaccinated because of the fear. There’s misinformation that’s going out, you know, about the vaccine,” Haywood said.
Experts share best masking tips to protect against COVID-19 delta variant
According to Haywood, a lack of diversity in medicine is one of the factors that leads communities of color to mistrust the system and one that he hopes to tackle through his partnership with Roseman.
“It helps when you have a person of your own ilk and your color to come to you and say, ‘Hey, you know, it’s OK to get the vaccine,'” Haywood said, adding that it’s important to train more doctors of color who can serve their own communities.
Dr. Pedro “Joe” Greer Jr., founding dean of Roseman University’s College of Medicine, told ABC News in a statement that the college is grateful to partner with Haywood in “increasing diversity in medicine through programs that inspire youth to pursue medical education and serve their community.”
As delta variant surges, COVID hospitalizations rise 30% over previous week
“As far as the African American community, we have so much fear about getting health care,” said Haywood, who played in the ABA and NBA from 1969 to 1983 and averaged more than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game for his career.
“We need to get out and get vaccinated. It’s so important,” he added. “Otherwise we’re not going to pull out of this as fast as we should here in America.”
The NBA Summer League kicked off in Las Vegas this week after Nevada reinstated an indoor mask mandate.
Clark County, where Vegas is located, has experienced a 26% increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past 14 days, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Meanwhile, the Southern Nevada Health District reports that as of Aug. 6 in Clark County, approximately 55.26% of adults age 18 and older are fully vaccinated. That is just shy of the national figure of 61.3%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And as the more transmissible delta variant surges, COVID-19 cases and deaths are up nationwide by more than 20% compared to last week’s seven-day average, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday, and hospitalizations are up over 30% over the previous week.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan is urging Washington to evacuate Afghans who are under threat because of their work with the U.S. government — warning they cannot get out on their own and are in desperate need, according to an internal cable obtained by ABC News.
In an urgent and emotional appeal to State Department leadership, Ambassador Ross Wilson called for help for the thousands of Afghans who served the U.S., but will not be evacuated in the coming weeks by the administration.
President Joe Biden has said he is committed to helping Afghans who helped the U.S. But his plans only call for relocating Afghans who have received approval for a special immigrant visa — a program created by Congress for interpreters, guides and other contractors who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic missions for two years.
With nearly one third of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals now captured by Taliban fighters, Afghans, U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups are urging the administration to increase the tempo of evacuation flights and the scope of who qualifies for a coveted seat on one.
“They fear being watched walking in and out of the Embassy and lay awake at night fearing the Taliban will knock on their doors,” Wilson wrote of two Afghan staffers who spoke with U.S. officials.
Last week, the State Department announced that Afghans who did not qualify for the special immigrant visa program could instead apply for refugee status under a new initiative. That includes Afghans who didn’t meet the two-year employment requirement, who worked for a U.S.-funded program or a contractor instead of directly for the government, or who worked for a U.S.-based media outlet.
But that new program requires that these Afghans flee the country first — a barrier too high for the vast majority of them, according to Wilson.
“Any assumption that Afghan refugees can make their way to safety on foot does not reflect the new reality,” Wilson wrote — noting Taliban forces exercise control of more than half of the country’s border crossings, neighboring countries Iran and Pakistan are closing their borders to more refugees and other countries around the world are not offering Afghans visas to enter.
Instead, these Afghans embassy employees and close contacts are “under threat because of their work with the U.S. government … but cannot get out,” he added.
That group includes prominent women’s rights activists that the U.S. itself “raised as examples of progress toward gender equality” and are now threatened because of it, according to Wilson.
There are 2,000 Afghan embassy employees and their families, along with thousands more with U.S. ties who are seeking this new refugee status, according to the cable.
The administration, however, has already said it is not planning to help evacuate these Afghans.
“At this point in time, unfortunately, we do not anticipate relocating them, but we will continue to examine all the options to protect those who have served with or for us, and we will review the situation on the ground,” a senior State Department official told reporters last week.
Instead, it may struggle to evacuate all those special immigrant visa applicants, along with their families, that it has already committed to helping.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Thursday that despite the evacuation of a significant number of U.S. diplomats, the embassy will continue to process visas in Afghanistan.
The administration also announced Thursday that is is moving 1,000 U.S. troops to Qatar shortly to help process evacuated Afghans there, as it increases the number of flights of Afghans directly to the U.S., too.
Some 4,000 Afghans — 1,000 interpreters and their family members — are being evacuated to Fort Lee, a U.S. Army post in central Virginia, and those flights will become daily in the coming days, Price said. These applicants have been approved for U.S. visas by the embassy and cleared security vetting, according to U.S. officials.
“We have a solemn, a sincere responsibility to these brave Afghans,” Price told reporters Thursday. “We’re going to honor that responsibility and increase the pace of those relocation flights.”
In total now, 1,200 Afghans have been relocated to Fort Lee, according to Price. Roughly 90% of them have been processed and cleared to depart the installation, moving to their new homes across the U.S., a State Department spokesperson told ABC News on Wednesday.
In addition, the administration has said it plans to evacuate 4,000 more interpreters, plus their family members, who have been approved by the embassy, but not yet vetted.
This group — estimated to be approximately 20,000 Afghans in total — will be relocated to safe third locations, such as Qatar, Kuwait or the U.S. territory Guam, but it’s unclear whether the administration has any agreements to host them yet.
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said the 1,000 service members — medical personnel, military police and engineers, among others — will support processing applicants, who could spend months at U.S. military installations in Qatar as they await their applications to be adjudicated. But a State Department spokesperson later told ABC News they have no announcements yet on third-country relocation sites.
(NEW YORK) — As universities prepare to welcome droves of students back to campus, some have announced additional fees for those who are not vaccinated — to help foot the bill for their supplementary COVID-19 testing — in a move that has courted controversy among the vocal faction of Americans resisting the shot.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, are imploring Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and those around them from the virus that has left more than 600,000 dead in the U.S.
“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” the CDC states on its website. “Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.”
Still, vaccine requirements or penalties for refusing the jab have emerged as a hot button issue in a nation that has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases.
West Virginia Wesleyan College, a private liberal arts college with about 1,500 students in Buckhannon, West Virginia, made national headlines when it announced it was charging a “non-refundable $750 Covid fee” for students who do not provide proof of vaccination by Sept. 7.
The college said it was not mandating the vaccine, but would as soon as the Food and Drug Administration formally approves it for use beyond the current emergency-use status.
“Students who do not submit a proof of vaccination status or who are not vaccinated will be required to undergo weekly surveillance testing,” the university stated on its website. “This testing will be conducted by WVWC officials. The cost will be covered by the Covid Fee charged to all unvaccinated students.”
Some 42.94% of the population of West Virginia is fully vaccinated, compared to the national benchmark of 50.3%, according to the CDC.
Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, similarly announced a $500 charge for students who are unvaccinated. The college cited the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant, and implored students to get vaccinated to protect community members.
“Due to the lack of federal funds for pandemic precautions this term, all students will initially be charged $500 for the fall term to offset continual weekly antigen testing and quarantining,” the university stated on its website. “Students who are fully vaccinated prior to the beginning of the fall term will receive an immediate $500 rebate.”
Despite being a campus of just 1,283 students, the local backlash to the update was swift and aggressive in the state that CDC data indicates has the lowest vaccination rate. Just 35% of the population in Alabama is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
The College Republican Federation of Alabama called the small campus’ decision a “blatant attack meant to shame students who are not vaccinated,” in a statement on Twitter. The group called vaccines a “vital tool” in the fight against COVID-19, but added, “We are still a free society where one should not be held at ransom to the tune of $500 if they do not feel the vaccine is the best course of action for them.”
Alabama lawmakers have been especially resistant to vaccines, and had already implemented a law prohibiting vaccine requirements at universities.
Shortly after the university’s website update was posted, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office issued a “Public Notice.” The notice did not name Birmingham-Southern College, but stated that the burden of paying a fee essentially rises to the level of requiring proof of vaccination and violates the state law.
The university did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the notice.
At Indiana University, a group of students sued to block the school’s vaccine mandate. On Thursday, Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied the plea, the first case pertaining to vaccine mandates to come before the Supreme Court, without comment.
“IU students are adults entitled to make medical treatment decisions for themselves, unless IU can prove in court that their COVID vaccine mandate is justified, which they have not done and that the courts have not required them to do,” attorney James Bopp Jr., who is representing the students who sued, said in a statement. He vowed to continue to fight the mandate.
More than 700 college campuses in the U.S. are requiring vaccines of at least some students or employees, according to data compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. A handful have separately announced vaccine incentives programs. Alabama’s Auburn University, which also isn’t able to mandate the shot, is offering prizes ranging from an unlimited meal plan upgrade to a $1,000 scholarship through its COVID-19 Vaccination Incentive Program.
In the private sector, a growing number of employers from Google to Disney have announced vaccine requirements. Late last month, President Joe Biden announced a vaccine requirement for all federal government employees, and said anyone not fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask, social distance and get tested once or twice a week.
Iggy Pop stars in a pair of new ads for the electric scooter company Unagi. One clip finds the “Lust for Life” rocker riding his scooter while suggesting “Maybe the should rename it Un-Iggy” as The Stooges‘ “Down on the Street” plays in the background. In the other, Pop posits that Unagi scooters allow you to “experience euphoria without the psychedelics.”
“Like Iggy, Unagi values personal freedom and individuality,” says Unagi founder and CEO David Hyman. “That’s why we built the ideal personal liberation device with our Model 1 e-scooter.”
“As a challenger brand, Iggy represents the spirit of Unagi,” Hyman adds. “We’re happy to debut this campaign as part of an ongoing collaboration.”
By the way, Pop isn’t the only musician you’ll see riding an Unagi. Billie Eilishpreviously collaborated with the company to create her own custom scooter.
