Los Angeles health official: ‘What we do need is help’; Pandemic turns iconic Times Square ball drop into socially distanced event; By the Numbers: China 1 year after the coronavirus
A key plant in the U.K.'s vaccine supply chain was forced to evacuate on Wednesday after receiving a "suspicious package," which authorities have recovered and now are analyzing. The plant in the Wrexham Industrial Estate in north Wales is owned by the Indian pharmaceutical company Wockhardt, which has a partnership with AstraZeneca to manufacture vaccines in the U.K. "Wockhardt UK in Wrexham this morning received a suspicious package to site," the company said in a statement to ABC News.
An army of amateur traders loosely organizing on Reddit have shaken up all preconceived notions about the stock market as they fueled the meteoric rise of GameStop stock. Shares for GameStop, the electronics retailer that has largely struggled in recent years, have skyrocketed by nearly 2,000% since the beginning of the year. On Wednesday alone, the hot stock jumped by more than 100% after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk further fanned the flames on Twitter after markets closed Tuesday.
"Without Me" singer Halsey announced Wednesday on Instagram she is pregnant with her first child. Sharing a series of three photos showing off a baby bump, the 26-year-old performer -- born Ashley Frangipane -- kept the caption simple as she wrote "surprise!" and included emojis of a baby bottle, a rainbow and a cherub. In the first photo, Halsey is seen wearing jeans and a colorful crocheted bra.
Your mail will soon feature characters from a galaxy far, far away thanks to a new line of stamps coming from the United States Postal Service. In an official release, USPS said its latest collection of stamps will salute "Star Wars" droids such as C-3PO and R2-D2 for the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm. The beloved BB-8 from the latest "Star Wars" trilogy will, of course, make an appearance alongside other fan favorites: IG-11, C1-10P (aka "Chopper"), K-2SO, D-O, L3-37, a GNK (a power droid) and a 2-1B (a surgical droid).
Old Navy has launched a line of activewear face masks for adults and children: Active Face Masks. The new protective face coverings have been redesigned to include a sporty, contoured fit with an adjustable nosepiece. The children's Active Face Masks retail for the same price and are available in six colors with fun names such as "Neon Poppin'."
Sea shanties have seemingly taken over TikTok, and the U.S. Navy band recently got in on the craze by giving an early Taylor Swift hit a sea-faring transformation. On Monday, the band released a tongue-in-cheek parody of "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," Swift's Grammy-nominated record from 2012's "Red." Theres's even a reference to another Swift song, "I Knew You Were Trouble," off the same album.
John David Washington is opening up about following in the footsteps of his father, Denzel Washington, Hollywood's leading man. The former athlete, 36, told The Wall Street Journal that he always wanted to mirror his two-time Oscar-winning dad's path. "I always wanted to do what he did, always wanted to be an artist," John David said.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of "The Wedding Planner," stars Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey virtually reunited to reminisce about the romantic comedy. Hitting up Instagram Live on Tuesday, the two expressed disbelief over the movie's major milestone, with Lopez, who played Mary Fiore, in complete disbelief they made the film together back in 2001 with director Adam Shankman. Both agreed that "it still feels like yesterday" that they were filming together, which brought them to reflect on the movie's finale -- the big kiss scene.
Tennessee authorities are searching for a 70-year-old man accused of shooting and killing two duck hunters, officials said. The duck hunters, Chance Black, 26, and Zachery Grooms 25, were at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee on Monday morning when the suspect, David Vowell, approached them, District Attorney Tommy Thomas told ABC News. An argument ensued and Vowell allegedly fatally shot both men, Thomas said, citing a witness.
President Joe Biden is set to take a series of actions on climate change on his seventh full day in office, fulfilling campaign promises such as freezing new oil and gas leasing on federal land and kicking off his ambitious agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- making tackling climate change a priority across the federal government. Biden’s actions Wednesday will follow up on several climate-related executive orders he signed in his first few days in office, including rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate, and revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. In addition to Biden’s domestic policy priorities on climate, the order would set climate change as a key consideration for U.S. national security and foreign policy.
While the push to get Americans vaccinated continues across the country, preliminary data has emerged that lab-created monoclonal antibodies could be a treatment for COVID-19. The pharmaceutical company Regeneron said Wednesday its antibody cocktail appears to hold up against the U.K. and South African variants. Researchers at Columbia University and Regeneron scientists each independently confirmed the antibodies' success in neutralizing both variants they tested it against.
President Joe Biden was clear on the campaign trail that he would roll back several actions taken by the Trump administration, many of them having to do with climate and the environment. Throughout his presidency, Trump reversed several American commitments to mitigating climate change that were made during the Obama administration -- most notably pulling out of the Paris Agreement, removing clean water protections and seeking to fast-track environmental reviews of dozens of major energy and infrastructure projects, such as drilling, fuel pipelines and wind farms. After Biden was sworn in as the 46th president on Jan. 20, he was ready with pen in hand to begin signing executive actions -- 33 in less than a week, with nearly two dozen of them aimed specifically at undoing what was on Trump's agenda.
A lobbyist brother of Biden's new White House counselor Steve Ricchetti has reported his best quarter of business since 2009 after picking up several major new clients just before and after the November election. Ricchetti Inc., the lobbying firm Jeff Ricchetti previously shared with this brother Steve, has signed up nearly a dozen new clients, according to lobbying disclosure reports.
The Biden administration is "actively looking" at requiring COVID-19 tests before domestic flights, a senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said on Tuesday. This would be an expansion of the administration's mandatory testing requirement for U.S.-bound travelers that took effect on Tuesday. All travelers flying into the U.S. must now provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, taken no more than three days before their flight, or they will be denied boarding.
FKA twigs is opening up with more allegations of abuse she said she suffered from ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf. Speaking Monday on the "Grounded with Louis Theroux" podcast, the 33-year-old said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks because of her past relationship with the "Transformers" actor. "I felt so controlled and I felt so confused and I felt so low," FKA twigs, born Tahliah Barnett, said, alleging that LaBeouf forced her to live a "contained life."
The Washington Football Team made NFL history Tuesday when they added Jennifer King to their roster as assistant running backs coach. King, who has been a trailblazer on and off the gridiron, is the first Black woman to coach full time in the league. King joined "Good Morning America" on Wednesday and described the moment she got the big news from head coach Ron Rivera, and how she had prepared herself for success leading up to that moment.
The first storm is leaving the Northeast this morning and this is the same storm that brought the deadly EF-3 tornado with winds of 150 mph to northern Alabama. On Tuesday, a 17 vehicle pileup shut down I-25 in Colorado due to the slick roads from that second storm with, locally, some areas in the West already getting 3 feet of snow. On Wednesday, 16 states in the East are under snow and ice alerts for heavy snow and slick roads.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Joe Biden's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, faces her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, vowing to bring back "genuine, old-fashioned, people-to-people diplomacy," according to her prepared remarks obtained by ABC News. Thomas-Greenfield, a career ambassador who retired from the Foreign Service in 2017 as the top U.S. diplomat for Africa and former U.S. envoy to Liberia, will also promise a tougher line on China, according to her prepared testimony, as the Biden administration faces pressure from Republicans to take a hard line against Beijing and its growing global ambition.
Scientists around the world are on the lookout for new COVID-19 variants, which are caused by mutations of the virus when its replication machinery makes an error. Experts say these mutations and the new variants are normal and to be expected. In recent months, so-called variants of concern have been identified in the U.K., South Africa, Brazil and in the U.S. And it's not a coincidence they're appearing in these countries, which have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of COVID-19 cases.
Vaccine recipients typically experience minimal side effects -- the most common being temporary pain and swelling at the injection site, fevers, chills, tiredness, muscle aches and pains and headaches. While these side effects are generally a minor nuisance to most people, some attempt to prevent them by taking common over-the-counter pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (e.g., Motrin, Advil) beforehand. “We do not recommend premedication with ibuprofen or Tylenol before COVID-19 vaccines due to the lack of data on how it impacts the vaccine-induced antibody responses,” Dr. Simone Wildes, an infectious disease specialist at South Shore Medical Center and a member of Massachusetts’ COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group, told ABC News.
