Frederic REGLAIN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — The upcoming Whitney Houston biopic has landed a studio, and a tentative release date.
According to Deadline, Sony’s TriStar Pictures has won the bidding for I Wanna Dance with Somebody and is laying claim to a Thanksgiving, 2022 release date. Sony reportedly beat out around six streaming companies and studios to score the project.
Music producer and Whitney’s mentor Clive Davis is producing the film, which has the blessing of the Whitney Houston Estate. Stella Meghie, whose most recent film is The Photograph, is on board to direct, with Bohemian Rhapsody scribe Anthony McCarten writing the script and co-producing.
The producers previously described the movie as a “joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration,” while still being “very frank about the price that super-stardom exacted” from Whitney.
ABC/Image Group LAKacey Musgraves has a new creative venture for all the “lonely” people.
The Grammy winning singer-songwriter has unveiled the Lonely Weekend Self-Care Kits that provide a series of relaxing activities fans can do as people remain apart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All of the items are connected to Kacey’s Grammy-winning album Golden Hour, with nods to such songs as “Lonely Weekend,” “Rainbow” and “Oh, What a World.”
Items featured in the kits are a 500-piece rainbow puzzle made from recyclable materials and biodegradable ink, along with vibrant yellow “shooting star” bath balms with a bergamot and sea salt scent, which dissolve into rainbow hues when placed in water.
There is also a tie dye kit that comes with a white T-shirt with the “Rainbow” lyric “it’ll all be alright” printed on the front, and a pair of white socks with the phrase “Lonely Weekend” written in multi-colored lettering.
Kacey announced the new product with a series of Instagram posts accompanied by lyrics from the songs. The kits are priced at $99.99.
Kacey ventured into the retail world earlier this year with the release of a candle called “Slow Burn” — also named after a song on Golden Hour — in partnership with Boy Smells, a non-binary-friendly candle-making company based in Los Angeles.
ABC NewsBy DANIEL MANZO, EMILY SHAPIRO and MELISSA GRIFFIN, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Isaias is racing up the East Coast, battering New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania with heavy rain, flooding, tornadoes and rough winds.
One person in Maryland and two others in North Carolina have died.
Over 1.8 million customers are without power in North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.
There have already been at least 16 reported tornadoes from North Carolina to New Jersey. Here is the latest: New Jersey, Pennsylvania
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has declared a statewide state of emergency.
“Do not be on the roads unless absolutely necessary,” he tweeted.
Long Beach Island on New Jersey reported a wind gust of 109 mph.
By Tuesday morning, the streets in Philadelphia suburb Bryn Mawr looked like a river.
Maryland
In coastal St. Mary’s County, Maryland, a driver was killed Tuesday morning when a massive tree fell on the car, according to the county sheriff’s office.
Over eight inches of rain have been reported in Talbot County, Maryland.
At Maryland’s Charles County-Prince George’s County line, two cars were swept off a flooded road, leaving people clinging to trees and on the roof of cars, reported ABC’s D.C. affiliate WJLA.
Rescuers brought rafts and an airboat and it did not appear anyone was seriously injured, WJLA reported. New York, Connecticut, New England
In New York City, Lower Manhattan is especially vulnerable to flooding, said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Between the rain, possible flooding, gusty winds and tornadoes, New Yorkers should “take it seriously,” de Blasio warned Tuesday.
Powerful winds will overtake Long Island and Connecticut while tornadoes will be possible in southern New England.
By Tuesday night, the tornado threat will move to northern New England as Isaias heads toward Canada. Carolinas, Virginia
Isaias made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane around 11 p.m. Monday, lashing the coastline and leaving a trail of damage in its wake.
At least two people in North Carolina have died, according to ABC Raleigh station WTVD.
“All in all, this storm got in, got out pretty quickly and that’s a good sign for potential river flooding which we hope will not be serious,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told “Good Morning America” Tuesday. “The damage was not in any way as great as it could have been.”
In South Carolina, storm surge caused streets to turn to rivers, homes to flood and cars to end up buried under sand.
As Isaias moved north, multiple homes were damaged by downed trees in Suffolk, Virginia, city officials said.
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 695,000 people worldwide.
Over 18.3 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 4.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 155,942 deaths.
Here’s how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Please refresh this page for updates.
1:30 p.m.: Indianapolis 500 to take place without fans
This year’s Indianapolis 500 will take place on Aug. 23 without fans, Indianapolis Motor Speedway said Tuesday.
“As dedicated as we were to running the race this year with 25 percent attendance at our large outdoor facility, even with meaningful and careful precautions implemented by the city and state, the COVID-19 trends in Marion County and Indiana have worsened,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway said in a statement. “Since our June 26 announcement, the number of cases in Marion County has tripled while the positivity rate has doubled.”
“We said from the beginning of the pandemic we would put the health and safety of our community first, and while hosting spectators at a limited capacity with our robust plan in place was appropriate in late June, it is not the right path forward based on the current environment,” the statement said.
1:03 p.m.: Birx says US is making progress but deaths likely to rise for next 2 weeks
On a weekly call with governors and Vice President Mike Pence, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said “test-positivity is going down” but the U.S. will still likely see a rise in deaths over the next two weeks.
Birx urged governors who are battling outbreaks “to not let your citizens get discouraged that they’re not seeing progress,” according to an audio recording of the Monday meeting obtained by ABC News.
“Because you are seeing progress,” Birx continued, “it’s just the whole [cycle] takes about six to eight weeks to move through that increased test positivity, increased cases, and then increasing mortality.”
Birx called out the success of Arizona’s actions on masks and bars that helped pull the state back from the brink.
Birx and Pence both said that states in the heartland — particularly Missouri and Tennessee — still have time to avoid a crisis.
12:15 p.m.: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey add Rhode Island to travel quarantine list
Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have added Rhode Island to their travel quarantine list, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday.
Delaware and Washington, D.C., have been removed from the list, Lamont said.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have a travel advisory in place for states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a week average, or any state with 10% of higher positivity rate over a week average. Travelers arriving in the Tri-state area from those states must quarantine for two weeks.
Over two dozen states are on the list.
11:37 a.m.: NYC health commissioner resigns following clashes with mayor
New York City’s health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, submitted her resignation Tuesday morning to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who immediately named a replacement as the city continues its battle against the novel coronavirus.
In her resignation letter, Barbot criticized the de Blasio administration’s handling of the city’s outbreak.
“I leave my post today with deep disappointment that during the most critical public health crisis in our lifetime, that the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been,” wrote Barbot, who served as commissioner since 2018. “Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. The city would be well served by having them at the strategic center of the response not in the background.”
The city’s new health commissioner is Dr. Dave Chokshi, a Rhodes Scholar who served at the Louisiana Department of Health during Hurricane Katrina. He was also a principal health adviser to the secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Obama administration and was a practicing physician at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
10:54 a.m.: 45 Florida hospitals have reached ICU capacity, data shows
The intensive care units of at least 45 Florida hospitals have reached capacity and don’t have any free beds, according to data released Tuesday by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
The data also shows 39 Florida hospitals with just one ICU bed available. Two Florida counties, Jackson and Nassau, have zero ICU beds available in their hospitals.
Meanwhile, the percentage of adult ICU beds available statewide was 16.5%, according to the data.
The Sunshine State has emerged as a major new hot spot in the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with confirmed cases recently eclipsing New York and now second only to California.
The Florida Department of Health recorded 5,446 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the statewide count to 497,330. There were also an additional 245 coronavirus-related deaths, making the total 7,524.
The number of coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the state was up 586 from the previous day.
7:42 a.m.: ‘We have to take this seriously,’ FDA commissioner says
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that the novel coronavirus outbreak is still not under control, as he urged Americans to “take this seriously.”
“This virus is still with us, and it is around the country and we’re seeing these cases come not just in the United States but around the world,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
“That’s really the message we want the American people to know, that we have to take this seriously,” he added. “We need to get these case numbers down.”
Hahn called on Americans to continue practicing the “common sense public health measures” to prevent the further spread of the virus, including frequent hand washing and social distancing.
“These measures appear to be working in the areas that are hotspots,” he said.
When asked whether political considerations will be at play when the FDA takes on the role of determining whether a vaccine is both safe and effective, Hahn said they “will make that decision based upon the science and the data from the clinical trials that are going.”
“The science and data are really going to guide this decision and nothing else,” he added.
The FDA has the ability to authorize emergency use of a vaccine before the normal approval process is completed. Hahn said the agency will “expeditiously” review the data from the clinical trials as soon as its available, “whether we use the emergency use authorization path or the regular approval path.”
“Both are available to us, but our rigorous standards that we will use the safety and efficacy will be done,” he said.
The FDA will also tap a vaccine advisory committee, which Hahn said is “a standard approach.”
“We will be using that to help us make this decision,” he noted. “These are outside experts from around the country.”
6:12 a.m. UN chief warns of ‘generational catastrophe’ amid school closures
School closures due to the coronavirus pandemic in over 160 countries in mid-July affected more than one billion students, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, at least 40 million children have missed out on education “in their critical pre-school year,” according to Guterres, who warned that the world faces “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities.”
The U.N. chief urged schools to reopen once the local transmission of the novel coronavirus is under control.
“We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,” Guterres said in a video message Tuesday. “The decisions that governments and partners take now will have lasting impact on hundreds of millions of young people, and on the development prospects of countries for decades to come.”
5:05 a.m.: Russia reports lowest daily increase in cases since April
Russia reported 5,159 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, its lowest day-to-day increase since April 23.
The country’s coronavirus response headquarters also recorded 144 additional coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, another 7,878 patients had recovered from the disease.
Overall, Russia has reported 861,423 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14,351 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The country has the fourth-highest number of diagnosed cases in the world, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
3:24 a.m.: US records under 50,000 new cases for second straight day
More than 45,000 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in the United States on Monday, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the second straight day that the daily caseload is under 50,000 — a low that the country hasn’t seen for weeks. The latest day-to-day increase is also down from the country’s peak of 77,000 new cases, identified on July 16.
A total of 4,717,568 people in the United States have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 155,469 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country’s cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up and crossing 70,000 for the first time in mid-July.
Many states have seen a rise in infections in recent weeks, with some — including Arizona, California and Florida — reporting daily records.
However, an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows an 8.8% decrease in new cases across the United States over the last week compared with the previous week.
That same seven-day span saw a 24% increase in deaths, according to the memo obtained by ABC News.
Patrick Smith/Getty ImagesBy KARMA ALLEN, ABC News
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Louisville’s top police officers walked out of a committee hearing on Monday, refusing to answer questions amid an ongoing investigation into the city’s handling of the case of Breonna Taylor, a young Black medical worker who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers.
Louisville Metro Police Chief Rob Schroeder and the city’s chief of public safety Amy Hess left the hearing without answering queries from city lawmakers on Monday, citing a pending lawsuit against the police department and the city.
The officials had agreed to testify before the Government Oversight and Audit Committee about the city’s response to ongoing protests over Taylor’s death.
It was the first scheduled hearing related to the Metro Council’s investigation into Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration and its handling of the large-scale protests that followed the 26-year-old woman’s death.
Attorneys for Schroeder and Hess argued that they couldn’t answer the questions due to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and the NAACP. It names Schroeder, Mayor Fischer, Louisville metro government and the police department among the defendants.
“If we’re compelled to proceed today and we’re here voluntarily and prepared to proceed, the law requires it be done in closed session,” David Gaurnieri, an attorney for Hess, said.
Schroeder’s attorney, Joey Klausing, made a similar argument, saying a testimony in open court this early on in the case could jeopardize the officers’ defense.
“He [Schroeder] has been named in a 47-page civil rights lawsuit, which I haven’t even had the opportunity to talk to him about,” Klausing said, noting that the suit came in late Thursday night. “He’s not just been named in his official capacity. He’s been named in his individual capacity as well.”
“To have him be compelled to testify here today would be in contradiction to the statutes that have been promulgated by our legislature,” he added.
The four-hour hearing was supposed to focus on how the police department handled protests in the wake of Taylor’s death in March, but the attorneys claimed there was too much overlap between the topics on the hearing agenda and those mentioned in the excessive use of force lawsuit.
After their departure, council members voted 10-1 to issue subpoenas to compel the officials to testify.
Taylor’s death on March 13 sent shock waves around the country. Louisville police officers had executed a no-knock search warrant and used a battering ram to forcefully enter the young woman’s apartment.
Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, got out of bed around midnight when they heard a commotion outside. After a short exchange with police, Walker fired his gun in self-defense, saying he thought his home was being broken into, according to police.
The plainclothes officers returned gunfire, firing several shots and fatally hitting Taylor, police said.
It was later revealed that the police had been looking for two men who they believed were selling drugs out of a house located near Taylor’s home. Police obtained a no-knock warrant to search Taylor’s apartment because they had reason to believe the men had used her apartment to receive packages.
One of the officers, Brett Hankison, was fired in June amid intense pressure from the public. Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, the other officers involved, were placed on administrative reassignment, but civil rights activists say all three men should be charged.
Frederic REGLAIN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — The upcoming Whitney Houston biopic has landed a studio, and a tentative release date.
