Alliance for Women in Media Foundation/Getty Images for Alliance for Women in Media Foundation
Taylor Swift thanked the fans — and her medical team — Tuesday night while accepting a Gracie Award, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
Taylor received the Gracies’ Grand Award for her Disney+ documentary folklore: the long pond studio sessions, which came out last November and featured Taylor performing every song on her folklore album with collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles presented Taylor with the award virtually. In her acceptance speech, Taylor responded by saying, “I wanted to say, first of all, thank you Simone Biles for presenting this award to me. I absolutely adore you and that just really made my heart skip a beat.”
“Making this film really was a new experience for me in so many ways — it was in the middle of the pandemic when this was really the first time that most of the people who worked on it had left our houses,” Taylor continued. “So I want to, first of all, say thank you so much to our medical team, our COVID team, who tested everyone and made sure that we knew that we were in a safe space to create music again.”
Of course, Taylor then thanked her loyal fans for “caring about all of this.”
“Thank you for being the reason why we why we could come together in this way,” she added. “You made this album into what it is and you continue to just blow me away all the time.”
Folklore, released in July 2020, went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. Less than a month after the long pond studio sessions aired last year, Taylor surprised-released folklore‘s sister album, evermore.
Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner has shared more about the scary health issue that necessitated emergency heart surgery late last month.
In a statement posted to the band’s website, Faulkner explains that he felt something was off during Priest’s performance of “Painkiller” during their set at September’s Louder than Life festival.
“As I watch footage from the Louder than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing ‘Painkiller’ as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity,” Faulkner writes. “I was having what my doctor called an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection.”
Indeed, if you look at fan-shot footage of the performance, it does appear that Faulkner grabs his chest towards the end of the song.
Faulkner was immediately rushed to the local Rudd Heart & Lung Center — which, luckily, was only four miles away — where he underwent over 10 hours of open heart surgery.
“It could have all ended so differently,” Faulkner muses. “We only had an hours set that night due to Metallica‘s performance after us — and it does cross my mind if it was a full set, would I have played until total collapse…? If it hadn’t happened in such a high adrenaline situation would my body have been able to keep going long enough to reach the hospital…?”
“We can always drive ourselves crazy with these things but I’m still alive thankfully,” he adds.
Faulkner is now on the road to recovery, and notes that several parts of his chest were “replaced with mechanical components.”
“I’m literally made of metal now,” he says.
Due to Faulkner’s surgery, Judas Priest postponed the remainder of their 2021 U.S. tour.
The film, a companion piece to the singer’s latest album of the same name, recently had a sold-out limited theatrical run in IMAX theaters. It features the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-produced album as its soundtrack and follows the story of the young and pregnant Queen Lila, played by Halsey.
Directed by Colin Tilley and written and produced by Halsey, the film is described as an “evocative, horror-tinged fairytale” that “explores the labyrinth of sexuality and birth.”
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power hits HBO Max on October 7.
(NEW YORK) — Holiday shopping season has kicked off earlier than ever.
Amazon announced Monday it is offering “Black Friday-worthy deals” and early access to deep discounts across every category.
Target launched its own “Deal Days” promotion from Oct. 10 – 12 that boasts savings on thousands of items online, through their app and in nearly 2,000 stores. The major retailer also launched a holiday price match guarantee, according to its website.
Jennifer Smith, a logistics and supply chain reporter for the Wall Street Journal said retailers are in a unique position this holiday shopping season.
“They’re balancing, on the one hand, the need to make sure they have items in stock when people do start shopping with wanting to make sure that they have plenty of time to get them because it could take a little bit longer, particularly for e-commerce, for things to arrive at your home,” she told Good Morning America.
October typically marks the busiest shopping month of the year as retailers stock up for Black Friday, but with just three months ahead of Christmas, the supply chain in the U.S. has faced massive pandemic-related shipping issues, shortages and delays.
Microsoft reported issues getting parts needed to build its new Xbox consoles.
“There are multiple kind of pinch points in that process. And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year,” XBOX’s head of gaming Phil Spencer said in a statement.
Nike has felt the recent supply crunch and as first reported by NBC, is working to shift footwear production out of Vietnam where factories remain closed due to COVID restrictions to places like China and Indonesia in an attempt to prevent further delays.
Fast fashion clothing companies like H&M and BooHoo said their profits are likely to suffer because of rising supply chain costs and bottlenecks in major ports coast to coast.
Other retailers have attempted to alleviate product shortages by flying in goods by air freight, while Target, Walmart and Home Depot have chartered their own ships to avoid backlogged ports and to make sure they’re stocked for holidays.
The CEO of MGA Entertainment Inc., one of the world’s largest toymakers, said supply issues are the worst he’s seen in over 40 years.
“You have the jams you have all the backlog, logistic problems and inflation, they’re all gathered up,” Isaac Larian told GMA. “So it’s going to be a tough couple of years, in my opinion.”
Like many other experts have urged, Larian added, “my kind of advice is — please shop early.”
Shakira says she has no regrets about performing at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show with Jennifer Lopez, which was mired in controversy after several high-profile acts declined the opportunity to perform.
Rihanna, Cardi B and others refused to perform at the Super Bowl, saying they stood in solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who claims the NFL blacklisted him because he knelt during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.
But Shakira told Cosmopolitan that she and her halftime show partner saw the opportunity in performing on one of the nation’s biggest stages.
“J.Lo, as a Latina born in the U.S., and me, as a Latin American woman in the U.S., had a huge responsibility and opportunity to represent all different minorities through our performance,” she said. “In my case, I also wanted to pay homage to my Middle Eastern culture. I feel that we did it.”
The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer continued, “I really thought it was a great opportunity to make a strong statement about what an important part of the American fabric the Latino community is.”
“There was a lot of work behind it, a lot of stress,” Shakira admitted, adding, “But it was one of the highlights of my career.”
Lopez previously defended her decision to perform at the Super Bowl when speaking to Variety.
“I think it’s important in this day and age for two Latin women to be standing on that stage — when Latinos are being treated a certain way in this country, or looked at a certain way — to show that we have a really specific and beautiful culture and worth and value, and we bring something to this country that’s necessary,” Lopez said, noting that their performance was “a celebration.”
(NOTE LANGUAGE)Making a surprise appearance opposite fellow comic Dave Chappelle Sunday night in New York City, Chris Rock joked about his recent battle with COVID-19.
The pair popped up at musician Robert Glasper‘s “Robtober” residency at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club, according to Page Six.
“I’m back from the dead!” Rock told the audience. “I had motherf***ing COVID. God****it.”
Rock tweeted last month that he’d tested positive for the virus, urging fans to get vaccinated. Onstage, he joked, “It wasn’t quite as hard as being black, but it was close….That’s why everyone’s trying to avoid it…”
Rock and Chappelle, who has also recovered from COVID-19, mentioned where the vaccinated Rock may have been infected. “I think I got it on this Civil Rights movie,” Rock noted, to which Chappelle riffed, “That’s a noble way to get COVID.”
The movie in question could be director David O. Russell‘s as-yet-untitled film in which Rock will appear with a number of A-List stars, including Robert De Niro, Christian Bale and John David Washington.
Page Six says the famous comics were also joined at the Blue Note by actors Jeffrey Wright and Hill Harper. Recording artist Talib Kweli, who was celebrating his birthday, also joined Rock and Chappelle on stage.
Later, the stars decamped to The Stand Comedy Club, to keep the birthday festivities going, along with SNL‘s Michael Che, Busta Rhymes and Kanye West, the latter of whom the publication noted showed up without any security.
Kweli posted a snap with West, Chappelle and Glasper, noting, “Birthday party was magical… legendary night… thank you.”
(NEW YORK) — From Texas to Tehran, women have been fighting to protect their right to have an abortion — some by taking over the streets and others by taking over social media.
While a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy sparked protests across the United States, a letter from an official judicial body in Iran has mandated that local laboratories report on women with positive pregnancy tests to prevent “criminal abortions.”
The letter, issued by the crime prevention deputy at the judiciary in Iran’s Mazandaran province, was leaked on Twitter by health and medical journalist Mahdiar Saeedian.
“One of the ways to prevent abortion is … by connecting laboratories and the clinical centres to introduce mothers with positive pregnancy test results,” the letter states.
On social media, women reacted to the letter by protesting what they say is an attempt to control their bodies.
“I think we are outpacing ‘The Handsmaid’s Tale.’ Protecting patients’ privacy is meaningless,” one Twitter user wrote.
In Iran, abortion is illegal unless there’s proof that giving birth would endanger the life of the mother or child, or pregnancy screening tests show the child will have serious physical or mental disabilities. This law only applies to pregnant women who are legally married. Women who get pregnant from extramarital affairs have no legal options for abortion in Iran. While some 9,000 legal abortions are performed annually in Iran, a country of 82 million people, more than 300,000 illegal abortions are also performed there each year, according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
Now, conservatives in Iran are trying to restrict abortions even further by requiring a medical team’s diagnosis as well as the approval of two “faqihs” — or religious experts — and a judge. The controversial bill has yet to be ratified.
“Just imagine a woman who has got pregnant in an extramarital affair. They would never dare refer to a lab for a pregnancy test if they know their information is being reported,” an Iranian women’s rights activist told ABC News, under the condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Sima, who asked ABC News to use a pseudonym to protect her privacy and security, said she was a 29-year old engineer who had just started a new job when she got pregnant from an affair she had with her boss three years prior.
“I managed to illegally get some pills to terminate pregnancy,” Sima told ABC News. “I took them, and I started to bleed severely and could not abort. Despite my friends’ insistence, I was afraid to go to the hospital for the fear of arrest.”
Sima’s friend ultimately took her to an underground abortion center for help, which was unsupervised.
“I was even afraid of telling my boss about it. He might have fired me,” she said, explaining how helpless women can feel when they seek an abortion.
In response to the backlash on social media, the official Mazandaran IRIB News published an interview with the crime prevention deputy of the provincial judiciary, saying the command in the letter was just to prevent “unprofessional abortions.”
The Iranian women’s rights activist told ABC News that the letter shows the “perspective” of what officials plan.
“Our experience proves that denials are just to soothe the backlash,” she added. “Consider the internet restriction plan — they say it is not in practice, but we see every day that our VPNs stop working one after another. So, this official denying the letter cannot put our minds in peace. They have serious plans to have more control on pregnancies.”
She said such laws show the Islamic Republic’s desire to maintain control over women’s bodies, while enforcing policies aimed at increasing the population of the country.
According to data from the Statistical Center of Iran, the country’s population growth rate between 2011 and 2016 was 1.24%. That has since dropped to 1.15%, according to data collected by the World Population Review.
“The solution to overcome a low population rate is not policing people’s relations and affairs, or their access to safe abortion or contraceptives,” the activist said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 705,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65.6% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 06, 9:41 am
Nearly 200K rapid at-home antigen tests recalled
Ellume is recalling nearly 200,000 rapid at-home antigen tests out of concerns over an abnormally high rate of false positives.
Roughly 427,000 test kits, including thousands sent to retailers and some provided to the Department of Defense, were impacted. About 195,000 of these kits are still unused and subject to the recall, and about 202,000, have already been used. Of those, there were about 42,000 positive results, of which as many as a quarter, or perhaps fewer, of those positives could have been inaccurate, though it’s difficult to determine an exact ratio.
CEO Sean Parsons said in a statement, “I offer my sincere apologies — and the apologies of our entire company — for any stress or difficulties they may have experienced because of a false positive result,” Parsons said.
Ellume said it identified the root cause as an issue in variation with one of the kit’s components. The company said it has “implemented additional controls” and is “continuing to work on resolving the issue that led to this recall.”
Ellume is notifying affected customers and urging confirmatory tests.
Oct 06, 9:24 am
More Americans died of COVID this year than all of 2020
More Americans have died from COVID-19 this year than from the virus in all of 2020, according to newly updated data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 353,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported since Jan. 1, compared with 352,000 COVID-19 deaths in the first 10 months of the pandemic.
Over the last month, the U.S. has reported more than 47,000 deaths.
Oct 05, 8:06 pm
2,200 Kaiser Permanente employees on unpaid leave due to vaccine mandate
Over 2,000 Kaiser Permanente employees are on unpaid leave following the health care system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline, the company said Tuesday.
Kaiser Permanente’s 240,000 employees had until Sept. 30 to respond to the requirement. As of Monday, 2,200 people — about 1% of the company’s workforce — had been placed on unpaid leave for not complying, the company said.
That number has more than halved in the days since the deadline. On the morning of Oct. 1, roughly 5,000 employees were on unpaid leave.
Those on unpaid leave have until Dec. 1 to get the vaccine or secure a qualified medical or religious exemption, at which point they may return to work. If they do neither, they may be eligible for termination, Kaiser Permanente spokesperson Marc Brown told ABC News.
“We hope none of our employees will choose to leave their jobs rather than be vaccinated, but we won’t know with certainty until then,” Brown said. “We will continue to work with this group of employees to allay concerns and educate them about the vaccines, their benefits, and risks.”
Oct 05, 5:47 pm
FDA could authorize vaccine for young kids soon after Oct. 26 meeting, vaccine chief says
The Food and Drug Administration could issue an emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 soon after Oct. 26, when the agency’s advisory committee plans to discuss Pfizer’s data, the FDA’s vaccine chief said Tuesday.
Dr. Peter Marks couldn’t give an exact day, but said the FDA has “a track record of trying to move relatively swiftly” after these committee meetings and feels the weight of the world — and then some — to get this done.
“When we did the adult approval, we felt the weight of the world,” Marks told ABC News during the Q&A portion of a town hall hosted by the COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project. “Here, we feel like the weight of the world, plus the weight of Mars on top of us, or some other planet as well.”
“This is clearly one of the most important issues to get done so we’re not going to be wasting any time,” he added.
Marks said he’s confident that the FDA will would have all necessary data from Pfizer in time for the meeting.
Last month, Pfizer said data shows its vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11.
Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
We are officially one step closer to hearing The Weeknd‘s new album. The “Blinding Lights” singer confirmed that he’s finished recording his fifth studio album, which might be called The Dawn Is Coming.
Speaking on his Apple Music 1 show Memento Mori, the singer teased, “I hope you had a great summer. Some exciting features coming out in the fall — before the album drops.”
In the one-and-a-half-minute clip, the Canadian star explained, “A lot has been going down, a lot of moving pieces.”
Some of those “moving pieces” include “shooting videos” and “working on pre-productions,” among other things — like moving into a new house and “taking time to myself so I don’t completely lose my mind.”
However, the biggest reveal came at the end of his update, with the singer confirming, “Some Dawn updates — album is complete. Only thing that’s missing is a couple of characters who are key to the narrative.”
Those characters include “some people that are near and dear to me, some people who inspired my life as a child, and some who inspire me now.”
While not much else was said about the forthcoming album — like a release date — the singer promised that fans won’t be waiting in the dark for too long because he has “more to come in the following months.”
The Weeknd most recent album, After Hours, came out in March 2020, and spun off the smash hits “Save Your Tears,” “Heartless,” “In Your Eyes,” and “Blinding Lights.”
In support of his new album, The Weeknd released the promotional track “Take My Breath” on August 6.
Britney Spears is letting fans know exactly how she feels about her family amid her contentious battle to end her 13-year conservatorship.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the singer seems to level even more accusations against her family, citing the conditions under which she was allegedly forced to live.
Britney wrote, “I suggest if you have a friend that’s been in a house that feels really small for four months … no car … no phone … no door for privacy and they have to work around 10 hours a day 7 days a week and give tons of blood weekly with never a day off … I strongly suggest you go pick up your friend and get them the hell outta there !!!!!”
Spears hinted that she may have asked her family members to help her escape those conditions, but they allegedly told her, “Sorry, you’re in a conservatorship.”
In a June court hearing, Britney made several damning claims about the conservatorship and her father, Jamie Spears. Last week, Judge Brenda Penny suspended Britney’s father from her conservatorship, citing a “toxic environment.”
The singer closed out her eye-opening Instagram post by declaring, “Thankfully I found an amazing attorney Mathew Rosengart who has helped change my life!”
As previously reported, Rosengart said the ruling to remove Jamie Spears from the conservatorship was “a great day for justice.” The next hearing, set for November 12, will focus on terminating the conservatorship itself.
