In “bound to make you feel old” news, South Park has aired for some 25 years. And in related “bound to make you feel poor” news, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone just signed a reported $900 million deal to continue the show.
The massive agreement the pair just inked with Viacom’s MTV Entertainment Studios will bring 14 South Park movies exclusively to Paramount+, while also keeping the show on the air on Comedy Central through 2027.
“Comedy Central has been our home for 25 years and we’re really happy that they’ve made a commitment to us for the next 75 years,” joked Parker and Stone in a statement.
The animated series had been on hiatus for most of the pandemic, though the pair managed to produce two specials during the lockdown. “When we came to ViacomCBS with a different way to produce the show during the pandemic [key executives] were immediately supportive and enabled us to try something new that turned out to be really well received,” Parker and Stone said.
March’s The South ParQ Vaccination Special scored 3.5 million total viewers, and last September’s Pandemic Special also scored massive numbers, as well as the show’s 19th Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Animated Program category.
Parker and Stone commented, “We can’t wait to get back to doing traditional South Park episodes, but now we can also try out new formats. It’s great to have partners who will always take a chance with us.”
Papa Roach has premiered the video for “Swerve,” the band’s new, collaborative single with FEVER 333‘s Jason Aalon Butler and rapper Sueco.
The clip finds Jacoby Shaddix and company leading a motorcade down a sunny neighborhood street, much to the confusion of the residents. You can watch it now streaming on YouTube.
“Filming this music video with Jason and Sueco was one of the most fun experiences we’ve had,” Shaddix says. “I am so excited to share it with the world.”
“Swerve” premiered earlier this week. It’s the first preview of the next Papa Roach album, the follow-up to 2019’s Who Do You Trust?
Taylor Swift knows just how to send her Swifties into a tizzy.
She posted a teaser video Thursday of a vault opening to reveal a series of jumbled letters. A distorted song, possibly playing backwards, can be heard in the background.
Taylor captioned the clip, “*presses post* *cackles maniacally*,” and then added, “Level: casually cruel in the name of being honest.”
Fans recognized that last part as a lyric from “All Too Well.” Taylor has already teased that an extended version of the fan-favorite track will appear on her next re-recorded release, Red (Taylor’s Version).
As for the jumbled letters — 13 phrases, to be exact — Swifties were already hard at work decoding. According to Variety, the puzzle appears to reveal song titles and album guests.
Some of the letters apparently spell out “All Too Well Ten Minute Version.” The names Chris Stapleton, Ed Sheeran and Phoebe Bridgers have also been pulled out of the puzzle so far. Ed was an album guest we already knew — he’s confirmed that he and Taylor had re-recorded their 2012 duet, “Everything Has Changed,” for the album.
Red (Taylor’s Version), which contains 30 tracks, will be released on November 19. It’s available for pre-order now.
(New York) — The availability of food and how crops will fare as a result of climate change has long been of interest to environmental researchers, but scientists are now finding other threats to food supplies that can severely impact global food security.
Climate change may pose an increased risk for crops to become infected with pests and pathogens, leaving the yields inedible and risking quantities of the world’s food supply, according to a study published Thursday in Nature Climate Change.
Researchers at the University of Exeter in England studied models for the production of four major commodity crops — maize, wheat, soybean and rice — as well as eight temperate and tropical crops, to predict how the crops would respond to future climate scenarios.
The researchers found that, overall, the yield of the crops will increase at high latitudes, such as North America and parts of Europe and Asia. However, the findings also suggest that risk of infection from 80 fungal and oomycete, or fungal-like, pathogens will increase at high latitudes as temperatures increase, according to the paper.
As global temperatures warm, pest outbreaks are common, and pathogens can more easily attack crops, scientists said. Temperature is a “major determinant” of disease risk, and global distribution of plant pathogens have already shifted with the current warming, according to the study.
Climate change will not only affect the number of pathogens able to infect crops, but the composition of how the pathogens are assembled as well, the scientists said.
The higher temperatures also pose the possibility of major shifts in species composition within pathogen communities in some regions, such as the United States, Europe and China.
Food scarcity is a “continuous concern” as global populations expand, the amount of arable land decreases and the threat of climate change increases.
The researchers concluded that plant pathogens represent a “major threat” to crop production and food security, which reinforces the need for “careful crop management.”
Finneas has announced the details of his debut album.
The first full-length effort from Billie Eilish‘s brother/producer is called Optimist, and will arrive October 15. It follows Finneas’ 2019 EP Blood Harmony, which spawned the single “Let’s Fall in Love for the Night.”
Optimist includes the previously released song “What They’ll Say About Us.” A second track from the record, the fittingly, optimistically titled “A Concert Six Months from Now,” is available now for digital download.
You can watch the video for “A Concert,” which finds Finneas in an empty Hollywood Bowl, streaming now on YouTube.
Here’s the Optimist track list:
“A Concert Six Months from Now”
“The Kids Are All Dying”
“Happy Now?”
“Only a Lifetime”
“The 90s”
“Love Is Pain”
“Peaches Etude”
“Hurt Locker”
“Medieval”
“Someone Else’s Star”
“Around My Neck”
“What They’ll Say About Us”
“How It Ends”
(WASHINGTON) — With the delta variant surging, some businesses have begun announcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees with some exceptions on religious and medical grounds.
The announcements have led to relief for some and strong opposition and protests for others as well as a handful of states introducing legislation to block them.
While there may be opposition to those policies, ultimately the mandates — which also come as efforts stagnate to reach the remaining unvaccinated Americans — are on solid legal ground, public health experts contend.
In the last two weeks, private companies big and small, such as Google, the NFL and Disney (the parent company of ABC News) and many public offices, have announced that vaccines are mandatory for staff before they return to offices in the fall.
In addition, the federal government and some states are issuing testing mandates for any of their public employees who aren’t vaccinated.
In a few localities, such as New York City, proof of vaccination is required for indoor activities such as movies and restaurants — actions that take a harder line to incentivize vaccination.
The subject is tricky given that the vaccines are not fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said vaccines will not be federally mandated and public health officials have largely been trying to incentivize inoculation rather than making it compulsory given the hesitancy in the population.
Dr. Howard Koh, a former assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told ABC News that there will be more organizations that follow suit given the rise in coronavirus cases among the unvaccinated, and they have solid arguments for the policies.
“Businesses want to go forward and they know that their status quo isn’t working,” he told ABC News.
Here’s what to know:
Long-standing legal precedent
States have over a century of legal precedent for mandating vaccines, according to Koh, who currently serves as a professor of the practice of public health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
The courts have not determined if the federal government can issue a vaccine mandate, however, the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1905 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts gave state governments the power to issue such a mandate.
The 7-2 decision ruled that Massachusetts’s smallpox vaccine mandate was constitutional stating, “it is for the legislature, and not for the courts, to determine in the first instance whether vaccination is or is not the best mode for the prevention of smallpox and the protection of the public health.”
All states and the District of Columbia have mandated vaccines for ailments such as measles, rubella and polio, for school-age children, although requirements differ by state. There are also a range of exceptions, most commonly medical and religious reasons.
As of June, 44 states and Washington, D.C., grant religious exemptions for people who have religious objections to immunizations, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks the state regulations. Fifteen states that allow philosophical exemptions for children whose parents object to immunizations because of personal, moral or other beliefs, the NCSL found.
The situation is largely different for adults, for whom vaccines are generally not required for employment or in other forums. However, in certain states, such as New York, there is a requirement for health care workers, for instance.
Koh added things get tricky when it comes to a federal mandate.
“The president, from what I can tell, can not announce a federal mandate. No federal vaccination mandate has ever been tested in court,” he said.
More leeway for private businesses
There is some legal uncertainty around the current batch of COVID-19 vaccines because they are being administered under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, Koh said. Opponents to vaccine mandates have argued states or businesses cannot enforce mandates unless the inoculations have received full approval.
But a ruling by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel last month, ruled that Section 564 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act doesn’t prohibit private businesses from mandating vaccines. States and local municipalities, however, still have the power to prohibit a vaccine mandate within their own offices.
Koh noted that the Justice Department’s ruling has given private and public businesses the legal backing to order their own mandates.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently issued an executive order Tuesday that required vaccination for certain indoor activities, such as the gym, movie theaters and concerts.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” that similar requirements will be popping up.
“I think it’s not only reasonable, but I think it’s part of what’s going to, I think, nudge more people to get vaccinated while making it even safer for those who are vaccinated to be able to get back to their way of life, which is what we all want,” he told ABC News.
Once the vaccines get full approval, there will be more push from all sectors to mandate the vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. Pfizer’s approval could come as early as September.
“You’re not going to see a central mandate coming from the federal government, but you’re going to see more universities, colleges, places of business who, once they get the cover of an officially approved vaccine, they’re going to start mandating vaccines,” Fauci said.
There have been some signs that governors would change their rules once the vaccines get the full approval. During a virtual town hall Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told residents he would do just that.
“It would be my expectation that once full authorization or sometimes it’s called licensure is granted, then that vaccine will be added to the list, and then it will work just like the current mumps, measles, rubella, and other vaccines,” he said.
Attempts to block mandates
When it comes to local public government offices, rules for vaccine mandates differ and in a handful of states, mandates on the COVID-19 vaccines have been banned outright until full approval.
As of Aug. 4, six states have enacted legislation in the last year that would block state and municipal offices from mandating a COVID-19 vaccine among staff members. Those six states and another six also have laws that prevent schools from issuing mandates.
Only one state, Montana, has banned private businesses from issuing a vaccine mandate.
Some of the states with bans, such as Alabama, North Dakota and Arkansas, have lagged behind the rest of the country when it comes to vaccinations and seen a jump in cases, according to the CDC. Alabama’s seven-day average of new cases has jumped from nearly 200 at the beginning of July to over 2,500 this week, CDC data shows.
During a news conference Tuesday, President Biden urged governors to lift restrictions on businesses and schools so they could increase vaccination numbers.
“I say to these governors, please help. But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way,” he said.
Another way: Testing mandates
Koh noted that the vaccine order that Biden borrowed from New York and other states that required unvaccinated public employees to get tested weekly.
Koh and other experts contend the rule from the president and other leaders would ensure that workspaces would have fewer outbreaks and give those unvaccinated workers a bigger push to get their shots.
It also gives the states firmer legal standing because the testing mandate doesn’t lead to a termination or penalty for the unvaccinated employee, they noted.
“The goal is to make vaccine the norm and the goal is to make vaccine the healthy choice,” Koh said.
Ultimately, Koh said the biggest motivator for vaccine mandates will be from the private businesses. Their efforts will force the public sector to enact stricter measures, he argued.
“Our country has been trying to tame this pandemic for 18 months and counting. The other [vaccination] measures until now have not been completely successful in getting us through this,” Koh said.
This report was featured in the Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
Efren Landaos/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Ice-T and Coco Austin are a united front when it comes to the topic of breastfeeding their five-year-old daughter, Chanel.
After critics came after Coco for still breastfeeding the child, given Chanel’s age, Ice hit back at his wife’s haters in a tweet on Wednesday, writing, “News Flash! We feed Chanel FOOD.”
“She just likes to suck mom’s boob every now and then,” the Law & Order: SVU star wrote, adding, “Me Too!!!”
Coco revealed in Us Weekly’sParenting Do’s and Dont’s video on Monday that she still breastfeeds their preschooler. “Chanel still likes my boob. She’s 5 years old,” the 42-year-old actress said.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, you’re not getting the nutrition after 2 years old. Why do it?’ “And I’m like, ‘My child’s eating steak and hamburgers,'” Coco continued. “She just likes a little snack every now and then and more of the bonding [with] the mother.”.
“Why take that away from her?” Coco asked. “If she doesn’t want it, all right, that’s where you stop it. But I’m not just going to say no.”
Coco and Ice have been married for 19 years. Chanel is their only child.
A star-studded concert celebrating the career and philanthropic work of ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons that was held in May at Nashville’s famous Grand Ole Opry House will premiere on various U.S. television stations on different dates in August and September.
Gibbons himself took part in the benefit event, which was presented by America Salutes You and raised money for several charities that aid military members, veterans and first responders.
The show’s lineup included country stars Brad Paisley, Eric Church, Ronnie Milsap and Travis Tritt, ex-Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, lauded singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams, and actor/musician Dennis Quaid.
The show featured a house band led by keyboardist Martin Guigui, who played in Gibbons’ solo backing band The BFG’s, and also included ex-Black Crowes guitarist Audley Freed, as well as trombonist Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg and trumpet player Mike Pender of The Max Weinberg 7 and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes.
Fans who want to view the concert are encouraged to donate to America Salutes You via the organization’s website.
“A sold out audience at the Grand Ole Opry House enjoyed an amazing show honoring Mr. Gibbons,” says America Salutes You executive producer Bob Okun. “Now a national TV audience can enjoy the same dynamic concert special while supporting charities assisting our veterans and first responders with their generous on-line donations.”
Gibbons recently released his third solo album, Hardware, and he’s currently on tour with ZZ Top, whose longtime bassist, Dusty Hill, sadly passed away on July 28 at age 72.
Daryl Hall & John Oates haven’t performed live since February 2020 — the longest break they’ve ever taken in their careers — so they’re more than ready to hit the stage tonight as they kick off their new tour in Mansfield, Massachusetts, with opening act Squeeze.
There’s only one problem: How will the duo fit all their hits into a two-hour show? As John Oates admits, “We can’t!”
“We have the greatest problem in the world that we have so many hits,” Oates tells ABC Audio. “And we have, I think, a professional responsibility to play the hits that people expect to hear.”
As he explains, “You have to remember that every show we do, there may be a hardcore group of fans who have followed us over the years in that audience. But there may also be people who have never seen us and people who might be experiencing our music for the first time. So we can’t ignore either of those groups.”
Luckily, playing those songs — from “Sara Smile” and “Maneater” to “You Make My Dreams” and “Rich Girl” — isn’t a burden for Daryl and John. “We like the songs that we’ve written, we’re proud of them and it’s still fun to play them,” says John. “And we reinvent them on stage with the live arrangements and keep them fresh.”
So which of the duo’s countless hits do they look forward to performing the most?
“The first song!” laughs John. “That way, I’ll know immediately where we’re at: It’s either going downhill from there or uphill from there or staying the same!”
The tour’s second show, this Saturday, is the duo’s own HoagieNation music and food festival in their Philadelphia hometown. In addition to Daryl, John and Squeeze, it’ll feature Kool & The Gang, The Wailers, comedian Craig Robinson and more.
(TOKYO) — Team USA’s Matthew Centrowitz, the defending Olympic champion in the men’s 1500, will not repeat after failing to make it out of the semifinal round in Tokyo.
Centrowitz became the first American to win the men’s 1500 since 1908 during the 2016 Rio games. He won in 3:50.00, the slowest 1500 meter final since 1932.
Centrowitz finished ninth, 3:33.69, in a blistering fast second semifinal, which saw the Olympic 1500 meter record fall with Kenya’s Abel Kipsang taking the win in 3:31.65.
Team USA’s Cole Hocker made the final after finished second in the first semifinal with a time of 3:33.87.
Hocker edged out Centrowitz to win the USA trials.
The final will be at 7:40 am ET on Saturday.
Finalists
Kenya’s Abel Kipsang: 3:31.65
Norway’s Jacob Ingrebristen: 3:32.13
Great Britan’s Josh Kerr: 3:32.18
Spain’s Adel Mechall: 3:32.19
Australia’s Stewart McSweyrn: 3:32.54
Great Britain’s Jake Heyward: 3:32.82
Luxembourg’s Charles Grethen: 3:32.86
Great Britain’s Jake Wightman: 3:33.48
Team USA’s Cole Hocker: 3:33.87
Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot: 3:33.95
Australia’s Oliver Hoare: 3:34.35
Spain’s Ignacio Fontes: 3:34.49
Poland’s Michael Rozmy: 3:54.53* Advanced To Next Round By Referee
