Breaking Viral News Time: March 2020

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Las domadoras de leones de Egipto dominan el negocio

By BY DECLAN WALSH from NYT en Español https://ift.tt/2UOz3St

'Vanderpump Rules': Kristen Doute Addresses New Witches of WeHo Drama and Teases Her Book! (Exclusive)

ET video chatted with the 'He's Making You Crazy’ author about her book and the status of her friendship with Stassi and Katie.

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The Best Root Touch Up Products for Extending Salon Color

Discover the easy-to-use, effective root touch up products you can use at home.

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$30 Million in Illegal Drugs Seized From Cross-Border Tunnel in San Diego, U.S. Says

By BY NEIL VIGDOR from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2UyBfhU

Ty Burrell Teases "Modern Family" Series Finale

The ABC actor explains to "Daily Pop" how his Tip Your Servers program will benefit people affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Watch!

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Backstreet Boys Share Take on New Lou Pearlman Doc

How does the group feel to be back on the scene with a hit? Plus, hear their thoughts about "The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story" documentary. Take a look!

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Billie Eilish Is Speechless at 2020 Oscars

The "Bad Guy" singer is lost for words on the 2020 Oscars red carpet. Plus, do Billie & Finneas have a different relationship with music since their Grammys win? Watch.

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Garth Brooks Praises Entertainers After CMA Awards Win

The 2019 Country Music Association Awards' Entertainer of the Year recognizes Kelsea Ballerini, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood & Blake Shelton after his big win. Watch!

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Mexico president ramps up rich vs poor rhetoric in coronavirus fight

As the outlook for Mexico's economy gets gloomier during the coronavirus crisis, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has driven home the message that his government is ready to help the poor to weather the storm - but that the rich can forget it.

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Australian authorities take cluster approach to contain coronavirus

Australian authorities will open a pop-up coronavirus testing clinic next to Sydney's Bondi Beach on Wednesday as health workers try to contain clusters of infections across the country.

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Paris Club creditors agree to cancel $1.4 billion of Somali debt

The Paris Club of creditor nations agreed on Tuesday to restructure Somalia's debt, including immediately canceling $1.4 billion owed by the impoverished Horn of Africa country.

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Missguided Sale: Get Up to 70% Off Everything

The affordable fast fashion brand is having a huge online sale on clothing and accessories.

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Chrissy Teigen Jokes She and John Legend Are 'Def Breaking Up' After Coronavirus Quarantine

Chrissy Teigen joked that she and husband, John Legend, will 'def' be taking some time apart once lockdown is over.

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Big Scary Share Thread Of Aussie Musos Who Have Lost Shows, Link To Their Merch

Big Scary didn’t have any shows in the immediate pipeline, so they haven’t lost any income from tour and festival cancellations due to coronavirus concerns and the subsequent restrictions on large gatherings.

However, many, many other artists around the country (and the world) have taken a huge financial hit as a result of the pandemic, so the band’s Joanna Syme has put together a list of Aussie musos who’ve lost shows and linked to their merch, offering fans a chance to support them in these uncertain times.

Big Scary didn't have any shows in the pipeline so we haven't lost any income from COVID-19, but as you all know a bunch of great bands have. @triplej have launched a bonus #AusMusicTshirtDay for April 17th! Here's a bunch of cool tees from bands that have lost shows… https://t.co/Mp8NgodeqN

— Big Scary (@bigscarymusic) March 31, 2020

As reported yesterday, triple j have announced an extra-special edition of Ausmusic T-Shirt Day for Friday, 17th September – so if you’re in the financial position to send some cash your favourite band’s way, there’s never been a better time to pick yourself up something nice.

Though obviously non-exhaustive, the list from Big Scary contains a slew of Aussie acts who’ve had their shows/tours cancelled, from Thelma Plum to Angie McMahon, Cub Sport to Kira Puru, Hockey Dad to Methyl Ethel, Bec Sandridge to Gretta Ray – who was poised to support Big Scary’s own Ton Iansek on his #1 Dads tour in June.

Courtney Barnett also shared the thread, pointing to merch links for Cable Tibes and Hachiku, both of whom have also had to cancel planned tours.

Check out the full thread over on Twitter here.

The post Big Scary Share Thread Of Aussie Musos Who Have Lost Shows, Link To Their Merch appeared first on Music Feeds.

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Violent Soho On Doing Things Their Own Way: “We Have Never Been On Trend, So We Don’t Have To Try And Move With It”

It’s fair to say that after 16 years of dishing out bangers tastier than those on offer at a Bunnings sausage sizzle, Violent Soho have more than earned the right to consider themselves a big fucking deal. With sold-out headline runs, number one albums, festival headline slots, enormous streaming numbers and a metric tonne of merch sales in the bag, not to mention a number four placing the Hottest 100 of the decade for ‘Covered in Chrome’, they could be forgiven for resting on their laurels as the 90’s revivalism running rampant in our culture retrospectively positions their life’s work perfectly on-trend.

Fortunately, for fans and the band alike, Violent Soho aren’t wired like that. Violent Soho do what Violent Soho want to do when Violent Soho want to do it. They always have. That’s why they started a 90’s grunge band during the peak MySpace/emo era. That’s why they felt comfortable to take a year off of music, at the peak of their popularity, against all rational financial and industry advice. That’s why they felt secure valuing their health, families and friendships ahead of any type of outside expectation of a traditional album cycle and that’s why they are backing up their ARIA #1 album Waco with the most adventurous, unusual and complete Violent Soho album yet, in the form of the ironically titled Everything is A-Ok.

Due to drop on April 3, in the midst of a global pandemic that will make any type of touring cycle significantly postponed, Everything is A-Ok is Violent Soho’s musical think piece, delivered at a moment in time, that by pure happenstance, means their fanatical fan base should have ample time to process it. In the lead up to the record’s release, guitarist James Tidswell got on the blower while in deep self-isolation mode, for an in-depth chat about Everything is A-Ok and the life and times of Violent Soho.

Music Feeds: Violent Soho are going to be bringing some much-needed joy into peoples lives on April 3 with the release of your fifth full-length, Everything is A-Ok, how are you feeling two weeks out from release?

James Tidswell: Not the way I was expecting to, that’s for sure! It’s pretty weird to be doing interviews, to be completely honest, because I don’t really know what to say, given everything that is going on right now.

After being in a band for 16 years, to keep that passion pure and real, we took a lot of time off to look after our own mental health and look after our families, as well as to reconnect with and reinvest in our music community. That break obviously and honestly was pretty detrimental to the old bank accounts, but we don’t view music like that and we don’t ever want to view music like that, so we worked really, really, really hard to create a record that we’re proud of, one that is genuine and real and that would propel us wholeheartedly and enthusiastically into touring and being a full-time band again.

We were all amped up and ready to announce our album tour, which obviously now we’re not able to do, and then we were off to do a quick run around the world in places like Amsterdam, Los Angeles and London, where we’d sold out a 2000 cap room, and then now that’s all been cancelled. To add to that, I got a call from NSW Health to tell me that I’d been in contact with a couple of people who tested positive for Coronavirus, so now I’m talking to you, while I’m in self-isolation! So to answer how I’m feeling, I guess the answer is I really don’t know, I’m feeling a lot of things! I’m still psyched for the album!

MF: That’s wild, man, what a rollercoaster!

JT: I know. For us, a big part of our band is conveying what those songs are, live. We really communicate and connect well with our crowd, and that connection adds something to the songs, it’s a big part of it for us, a huge part of the magic. We were all really looking forward to being able to play these songs live and were really excited to make those connections. Hopefully, we get the chance to still do that at some stage!

MF: A Violent Soho show really would be a mood lifter for a lot of people, right now, so I think you’ll find that your fans are feeling the same way.

JT: The whole world is experiencing this and feeling this, right now, so I don’t want this to come off like a self-pity party or anything, but it is a lot to take in and process.

MF: It’s pretty unique and wild timing for you, as a band, having this all happen now, and finding yourself in self-isolation as you’re doing an album release campaign, must just really hit home how big this whole situation is. You really are getting hit from multiple angles here and it’s having a detrimental impact on not just your life, or your band’s life, but also the livelihood of your crew, of the bands you work with via Domestic La La, the support acts you were taking on tour, your label team, your publicity team, management team and so on, there are so many lives that revolve around Violent Soho and this must be hitting them all where it hurts as well. The fallout from it is huge.

JT: I LOVE that you said the crew and I LOVE that you said the bands on Domestic La La, ‘cos you’re right, I have a lot on my mind and I’m trying to work out exactly what to do here. It’s not just let’s plan for the future, because today’s worries are enough for today at this point. I don’t know that many people would think of the crew, so it’s cool that you picked up on that, we have double the amount of crew as we do in the band, so it impacts them quite heavily, of course, they have to rearrange their lives completely. Of course, that’s true to an extent for the label and management staff too, and the support bands on the tour, who were all planning on launching stuff off of the back of the arrangement. So hopefully we can have them all back on when the world returns to some version of normalcy.

MF: I will say, it’s a pretty weird time to be releasing an album called Everything is A-Ok, but I do think it perfectly communicates the concept of what the title and the record is. Everything is NOT A-ok, and that’s very much the essence of the message. There’s this false mindset that is put upon us on TV, movies etc that everything is A-ok when it’s clearly not.

JT: The timing of everything is just so odd. For example When we released ‘A-Ok’ the country was on fucking fire and the lyrics to the song, which we’d written and chosen as a single, a long time before even the first fire, included the words, “hold my hand, don’t leave me here, I’m on fire”, then we put up billboards we set in place a year ago that said: “There’s a baby boomer across the street and it won’t stop staring at me” and they go up at the exact time that the “OK Boomer” thing kicks off, and THEN our album called Everything is A-Ok is due to come out at a time when the whole world has been shut down and put into isolation, because of a virus. So the timing has been VERY weird to say the least.

MF: I think you may find that the correlation between what’s going on in the world and the lyrical message, will help people’s responsiveness to the record. I personally feel that Violent Soho’s lyrics have always had more depth to them than some people may give you credit for, but that’s particularly true on this record and I think it’s going to be very obvious when people hear it in the current cultural context!

JT: That’s very kind of you to say because you’re right, the lyrics definitely have always had a layer of depth to them and even a layer of politicism, we’ve just never really pushed that aspect of the band directly, ‘cos we understand that people want to have a good time, and we want to have a good time with them too. If you scratch away at the surface of the band, there’s definitely depth and there always has been, just this time around it might be a little easier to understand.

MF: Have you given any thought to doing some live-streamed performances, once you’re out of isolation? We’ve seen a few bands doing that of late.

JT: We have, but we’re not really sure it’s for us. We’re not a ‘performance’ band in the sense that some other acts are.

MF: Yeah, it’s more four guys on stage, rock the fuck out and an audience loses its shit, type of setup, right?

JT: Exactly, the crowd is a very big part of our live show. We’re very aware of that. That’s why we don’t really have production, we leave it at a banner, us and the crowd because the crowd is more than enough. So we’re not really sure that we can channel that same energy.

MF: Hopefully we can get the full Violent Soho experience soon then. Let’s talk about Violent Soho in a broader context, because you really have achieved so much in the last 16 years. Case in point, I remember playing a show with you, in Brisbane, about 15 years ago or so, and thinking that it was so fucking cool that you were just ripping some ’90s-influenced bangers when that was as far from being on-trend as possible at the time. Now you ARE the trend that everyone else borrows from and follows. That’s pretty gnarly.

JT: It’s a funny thing man because we weren’t doing it in an ironic or nostalgic way, we just preferred it. I’m so glad you got to see that because a lot of people don’t realize that we’ve been banging away doing this for such a long time before anyone really noticed. That’s what’s important about this record, to us, is that it’s a little more fashionable to do that 90’s nostalgic style and so we’re not necessarily trying to participate in that. We could have had a record out way sooner, that would be more like everything else we’ve done, but with this one, we’ve really tried to push ourselves to do something different, while remaining true to ourselves, and continue to stay in our own world, instead of trying to be in everyone else’s. That’s always been one of the best things about it for us, the fact that we have never been on trend, so we don’t have to try and move with it or keep up with it.

MF: That makes complete sense, honestly, the proof is in the pudding, so to speak, I mean take the Hottest 100 of the decade, in which you placed multiple times, across multiple records, proving that, in an Australian context at the very least, those songs have a timeless quality to them, that really connects with people. That has to feel good. How does it feel to have ‘Covered in Chrome’, come in where it did?

JT: It’s pretty surreal, I mean my daughter listens to like Billie Eilish and Amy Shark, and I don’t live in a world where I think that we are or ever could be that popular, truly. I mean all the people that we surround ourselves with are the same people as when we played together all those years ago, so to an extent, to us at least, we still feel like that band.

We were all sitting at a friends BBQ, listening to it, and we’re just huge fans of most of this music. I think when I heard ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West, which was my personal number two, when I heard that come in, I was honestly just like “oh get fucked, if that is this high, then that’s us toasted”. There were a lot of people saying that ‘Covered in Chrome’ has the potential to be number one and stuff, but in my head, it definitely didn’t. I mean we’re not Flume or Arctic Monkeys, so I had just deleted that thought completely from my mind. Then when I heard my favourite song of the decade ‘King Kunta’ come in, I was in a mindset that “oh well, that was fun to think we’d get in”. Once we hit the likes of Lorde, Flume, it was surreal, I mean we are sitting there with our friends from school and all our kids, and then ‘Covered in Chrome’ hit at #4. It was pretty fucking awesome.

MF: What a wholesome way to experience things, I’m getting the warm fuzzies just listening to you describe it.

JT: Thanks man, that’s so nice for you to say. By no means did we expect it, ya know, but it speaks volumes to me of the people that support us, more than the song itself. That’s what stands out about it to me and that’s what I always say as well, the reason why we are the “little band that could” is because of the support that we get from Australia. When you go to our concerts, everyone is in one of our shirts, in line, waiting to buy another one of our shirts.

We feel more like a footy team, than a band, sometimes. People come to barrack for Violent Soho, more so than just to watch a show. That’s why the live-streaming might not be so much for us, because we’re in this unique position where the crowd is at least 60% of the power of what we do. We don’t just have fans, we have supporters, partners in Violent Soho.

MF: That’s such an awesome way to view things, and I absolutely concur with your read on your fanbase, I think it’s also likely to help with the response to Everything is A-Ok as well, because they’ll wait it out, they’ll continue to support you, save up all their energy for when the moment comes for you to play for them again!

JT: Well, we hope so. I think they will too, they’ve always got our back, and we don’t take that for granted.

MF: I hope so as well because the album is awesome. It takes everything that Violent Soho has done up until this point, and reworks and refines it into a complete album that plays back in a way that records in 2020 typically don’t do anymore. So the extra time to process it will make those shows even more special when they do happen.

JT: Oh dude! The way I’m feeling right now, with what we’re living through, what I’m feeling that is so nice of you to say, that really has blown me away a little bit, thank you for saying that. That’s the whole idea man, all of our other songs and our other records have been served up to you like a happy meal. There’s some nutritional value, sure, but it has always been served up fast, track after track, verse-chorus, verse-chorus etc. With this one, we’ve made it for ourselves and focussed on making it truly a band record. We’d like to think that you can hear the growth of the musicianship and the songwriting, never once did we stop and concern ourselves with writing anything specifically as a single.

For example, the first single, ‘Vacation Forever’, the structure to it is just so bizarre, it makes no sense at all, from the opening noise to the end vocal with a riff over and over, and at five minutes, not a typical single at all. We just wanted to make it clear that we went all-in on ourselves with no compromise, and made a record that we can all be proud of.

MF: I’d say that’s a mission accomplished then. Is this a sign of what fans can expect in the future from Violent Soho?

JT: Definitely. We want it to be obvious that we aren’t participating in the ‘machine’ of the music industry, so to speak. We’ll make a record when we want to, how we want to and put it out how and when we want to. I know that bands say that they do that, but we really wanted to show that we have no anxiety about who we are, that we are relaxed, confident in who we are and we’re excited for the future, on our own terms.

–

‘Everything Is A-OK’ is out this Friday, 3rd April. Pre-order and pre-save here.

The post Violent Soho On Doing Things Their Own Way: “We Have Never Been On Trend, So We Don’t Have To Try And Move With It” appeared first on Music Feeds.

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Livestream Festival ‘Delivered Live’ Happening This Weekend With Alex Lahey, Ali Barter And More

A new online live-streamed festival has been announced in the wake of coronavirus leading to many cancelled tours and festivals. Delivered Live is coming to screens this weekend (Saturday, 4th and Sunday, 5th April) with a lineup that features the likes of Alex Lahey, Ali Barter, Bob Evans, CW Stoneking and more.

Though the show will be streamed over YouTube and Facebook, fans are encouraged to donate by purchasing a virtual ‘ticket’ here via Oztix, with all sales going directly to the artists along with their crews. As the site notes, the artists performing have selected a team normally involved in making their IRL shows happen, and they’ll be directly benefitting from tickets sold.

The lineup also features performances from Even, Henry Wagons and Teeny Tiny Stevies, along with comedy from Andy Saunders and Nelly Thomas, Double Denim and others.

“Delivered Live is designed to not be a charity but to directly support those who bring you live music each and every week at venues across the country,” commented Leigh Treweek of Handshake Agency.

“The gigs we present over the coming weeks will allow the punters to buy virtual tickets to support the live music industry.”

Head over to the Delivered Live website for more details.

The post Livestream Festival ‘Delivered Live’ Happening This Weekend With Alex Lahey, Ali Barter And More appeared first on Music Feeds.

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Patrick McEnroe Feels 'Extremely Lucky' His COVID-19 Symptoms Are Mild

Ex-tennis player Patrick McEnroe tells TMZ Sports he feels "extremely lucky" that he hasn't been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 ... saying he's grateful his body has been able to fight off the disease. The ESPN commentator, 53,…

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‘Never Thought I Would Need It’: Americans Put Pride Aside to Seek Aid

By BY CARA BUCKLEY from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2Uygm6p

Human Rights Group Says Two U.S. Strikes Killed Somali Civilians

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE AND HELENE COOPER from NYT World https://ift.tt/3dFYDSa

Hellmut Stern, 91, Dies; Violinist Returned to Germany After Fleeing

By BY KATHARINE Q. SEELYE from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/2R0fBku

"Vanderpump Rules": Tom Loses His Junk

The Toms go party shopping and Tom Schwartz rocks unflattering overalls, while Tom Sandoval makes some choice shopping decisions. Watch the homemade "Soup."

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Emma Chamberlain: Fashion's Latest It Girl

There's a new cool girl in town and her name's Emma! The YouTuber-turned-fashion muse is proving why her DGAF attitude is a whole mood! Watch!

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New top story from Time: Inside Trump’s Coronavirus Theatrics on War Powers, Ventilators and GM

On Friday, Mar. 27, President Donald Trump took what appeared to be bold, decisive action in the fight against the new coronavirus. Reaching for wartime powers under the Defense Production Act, Trump ordered the federal government to “use any and all authority” to force auto giant General Motors to produce ventilators, the life-saving medical devices desperately needed by patients and hospitals struggling to survive the fast-spreading COVID-19 respiratory illness. For good measure, Trump tweeted, “General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!!”

But if Trump’s Friday performance conveyed urgency and action, four days later, neither is anywhere in evidence. Despite the tough talk and the invocation of presidential powers, Trump and his team by midday on Tuesday had yet to formally file a single order for a GM-made ventilator. While negotiations were ongoing, they had set no mandatory timeline for delivery of the machines, or even suggested a voluntary one. And they had not informed GM of what prices the federal government will pay for the machines under Trump’s executive order. For its part, GM has continued following the plan to produce ventilators that it had discussed with the White House for weeks prior to Trump’s order, a plan that was already well underway when he issued it, according to documents reviewed by TIME.

The GM episode is just the latest in what has become a common Trump-led scene during the pandemic’s spread. As known U.S. cases skyrocketed from 98 to 177,300 over the last four weeks, Trump has made vocal public shows of action that in several cases have yielded few real results. On Mar. 13, he declared Google was building a website to help people find local coronavirus testing sites. Thus far, it has ended up being little more than a bare-bones, aggregational site with a series of links. That same day, he promised big box retailers—Walgreens, Walmart and CVS—would roll out drive-thru testing sites in their parking lots, a notion that also hasn’t fully materialized.

Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter by clicking on this link, and please send any tips, leads, and stories to virus@time.com.

It’s not unusual for a president to use his position to project optimism and progress at times of crisis. FDR famously declared in 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression, that America demanded “bold, persistent experimentation” and that if a first effort failed to “admit it frankly and try another.” Trump aides claim that his efforts are spurring action and setting a positive tone at the top. But Republican and Democratic critics say Trump’s approach appears to be less focused on solving the life and death problems that COVID-19 are imposing on Americans, than on the political challenges the disease is presenting to him.

The GM case in particular brought together several political vulnerabilities for Trump. First, it was taking place in Michigan, a state he barely won in 2016, where Republicans fared poorly in the 2018 mid-terms and where Trump is currently trailing Joe Biden by 3 or more percentage points in several polls. More broadly, Trump’s order came as he was under repeated criticism for not taking more action to help states in desperate need of assistance. “They were getting a lot of pressure,” says Michigan Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a former Defense Department and CIA official who sponsored bipartisan legislation to require the president to implement the DPA to speed the production and distribution of supplies.

As Trump continues to project action and accomplishment, COVID-19 cases continue to spike and so does the urgency of demand from mayors, governors and leaders around the world for ventilators. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 41,650 people across the globe, including more than 3,500 Americans. The sickest of those infected have severe inflammation in their lungs, which stiffens them, and makes it impossible to breathe without help from a ventilator. Some of these victims need the device for weeks at a time. Hospital staff say they are concerned about shortages of specialized equipment. If the system swells over capacity, doctors and nurses worry they may ultimately have to ration health care and decide who lives and who dies. Trump’s medical advisors said Monday that even if everything goes perfectly the number of deaths in America could hit 240,000.

Some at GM say it is unfair for the President to make them the bad guys. “It felt like we were getting punched in the gut,” says a long-time GM employee, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “We did everything in our power to transition from building Tahoes to building ventilators without any guarantee of a federal contract.”

In any case, the company’s officials say, they’re not waiting for direction from the federal government or anyone else. GM forged a deal with Seattle-area ventilator manufacturer Ventec Life Systems and already has begun retooling a factory to build thousands of them beginning next month. “We’re not waiting around for anyone to dictate what number of ventilators need to be made,” says Chris Brooks, Ventec’s chief strategy officer. “Our north star has always been to make as many ventilators as possible, as quickly as possible, to arm front-line medical professionals with the tools they need to save lives.”

GM Kokomo Operations to Build Ventec Life Systems Ventilators — AJ Mast for General MotorsWork being done Monday, March 30, 2020 at the General Motors manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana, where GM and Ventec Life Systems are partnering to produce Ventec VOCSN critical care ventilators.

GM’s strategy to build ventilators began as the company was facing its own coronavirus crisis. Like other companies around the country, it was projecting dramatic contraction in demand for its cars as unemployment spiked and spending plummeted nationwide. At the same time, it needed to temporarily close plants to prevent the spread of the virus. On March 17, ten days before Trump’s big announcement, and the day before GM announced it would shutter all of its North American factories due to coronavirus, GM CEO Mary Barra called White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow to discuss converting factory space for ventilator production.

Kudlow and the White House turned to a newly formed organization of business leaders, called StopTheSpread.org, for help. The group is led by the former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault and Rachel Carlson, founder of the online education firm Guild Education, who volunteered to help the Trump Administration in harnessing private industry. In exploratory phone calls with GM, the group discovered what the automaker needed was a medical device-making partner with a reputable product.

StopTheSpread.org matched them up with Ventec, maker of a toaster-sized device known by its acronym, VOCSN (for ventilator, oxygen, cough, suction and nebulizer). On Mar. 18, the two companies held initial phone calls to discuss what could be done. The next day, GM chartered a late-night flight and four engineers, including Phil Kienle, manufacturing chief for North America, flew from Detroit to Seattle for face-to-face talks.

The GM team spent the next three days at Ventec’s headquarters in Bothell, Wash. examining machines that breathe life into immobilized people who can’t do it on their own. They pored over blueprints illustrating where each of the device’s 700 parts come together largely by hand. Images of the parts were handed to a GM purchasing agent see if suppliers could replicate the handiwork. “We sourced literally hundreds of parts and components in just over a week, which is lighting speed, and we will begin production by mid-April,” says Gerald Johnson, GM executive vice president of global manufacturing. “From there, production will scale up to 10,000 or more per month very quickly.”

Next up were workers. GM called 1,000 workers to see if they were willing to come to work for the company on ventilators. Greg Wohlford, chairman of United Auto Workers Local 292, which represents the shuttered GM plant in Kokomo, Ind., told the Kokomo Tribune he was just waiting to hear about the training details. “It’s going to happen, we’re just trying to work out all the details,” he said. “But everybody is thrilled. Everyone is really excited.” New manufacturing space was located in a 2.6 million square foot facility with clean rooms where small electronic components for cars are manufactured. Construction workers began tearing up carpet and knocking down walls to make way for additional workstations. Cameras were installed to document the progress.

All told, it took less than a week for GM to forge a partnership with Ventec, according to internal communications, travel logs and interviews with both companies’ officials. The companies produced a full set of manufacturing plans that leveraged union labor, industrial buying power and a worldwide chain of 700 suppliers. Ultimately, the companies claimed they would be able to produce up to 21,000 ventilators a month, if needed.

On Mar. 23, GM and Ventec presented the Federal Emergency Management Agency with the strategy. The companies provided the administration with an itemized list that laid out how many ventilators could be produced, how quickly and at what cost, depending on the options the federal government selected, according to two officials involved in the contracting process.

And then they waited to hear back.

Four days later, they got their response. First, at 11:16 a.m. on March 27, Trump issued a series of tweets blasting GM and Barra. Then, later, at the White House, he elaborated. “We don’t want prices to be double, triple what they should be,” he told reporters. “So General Motors, we’ll see what happens, but now they’re talking. But they weren’t talking the right way at the beginning, and that was not right to the country.” GM pushed back in a public statement that said the company’s commitment to the Ventec ventilator project “has never wavered” and that “GM is contributing its resources at cost.” Officials insisted nothing had changed in their schedule.

As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

In the days leading up to Trump’s comments, governors and lawmakers from the hardest-hit states pleaded with him to use the DPA, a little-known Cold War-era law that enables the president to force businesses to accept and prioritize government contracts during natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other emergencies. Dwindling supplies of respirator masks, gowns, gloves and other basic protective equipment are pushing the nation’s front-line medical workers toward a breaking point.

Politicians from both parties were convinced that using the statute could prevent counterproductive bidding wars that were breaking out across the country, as states competed with each other to acquire the same medical supplies from suppliers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said ventilators on the market now cost more than $50,000, which represents a 150% increase from the $20,000 when his state first tried to purchase them.

Trump has insisted that invoking the DPA was government overreach and that companies were stepping up on their own. But perceptions of a weak federal response to the growing crisis is seen as a political liability to Trump in key election states, including Ohio and Michigan. When on Mar. 26, for example, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, publicly said her state wasn’t getting the medical equipment it needed, Trump responded on Twitter that she was “way in over her head” and that she “doesn’t have a clue.”

The administration says Trump’s Mar. 27 flare-up had nothing to do with politics. By invoking the DPA, the president compelled GM to “to accept, perform, and prioritize contracts or orders for the number of ventilators,” according the executive order. Peter Navarro, Trump’s Trade Adviser and Policy Coordinator for the DPA, told TIME in a statement that the GM action aimed to jumpstart work on ventilators. “Prior to the DPA order being signed, the GM/Ventec venture was sputtering. Since the DPA order was signed, GM has moved into high gear. That’s the poster child of an effective DPA action,” Navarro said.

Navarro also says the President’s declaration was designed to spur competition between different automakers turning to produce ventilators. Ford is working with GE Healthcare to increase GE’s production of its own advanced ventilators, although manufacturing details remain unclear. Ford announced Monday it plans to make as many as 50,000 smaller ventilators, which are licensed by GE, within 100 days at a plant in Ypsilanti, Mich. Now that GM has been pushed publicly by Trump, Navarro suggests, there will be urgency to sprint to the market first. “Now let’s see which venture rolls the first hundred ventilators off their new assembly lines—Ford/GE or GM/Ventec. We expect that within the next 30 days, American lives are at stake, and GM’s lesson from this should be you can’t get to the finish line until you first get to the starting line. Now, a very real race is on.”

Whatever the logic behind Trump’s public statements about GM and his use of emergency powers, the company maintains that Trump’s tough talk resulted in no change from the Mar. 23 plan they presented to his government. Two days after his Mar. 27 statements, on Sunday, Trump was asked at the White House how negotiations GM were going since he invoked DPA two days earlier. Although nothing had changed, he responded that the automaker was now doing a “fantastic job.”

Monday, March 30, 2020

A Bitter Herb From the Lower East Side

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2UsZjmc

An Easter Egg From Beverly Hills

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2Ut4P8s

For Your Quarantine Pizza Cravings

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/33Xc5fR

Tempting Pastas and Sauces From Sicily

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/39yA9XI

A Knife to Add Flash to Your Kitchen

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2JtgGgq

A Haggadah for Seders Near and Far

By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2QWTSd0

Screams as mum-of-three nurse is stabbed to death in street outside home

Victoria Woodhall, 31, from Middlecliffe, near Barnsley, South Yorks, was pronounced dead at the scene. A 40-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder

from Daily Star - Latest News https://ift.tt/2QY9Q6M

Double tragedy as couple die hours apart leaving family grief-stricken

Relatives of Professor Liam Fogarty and wife Mary, who lived in Maynooth, Co Kildare, were unable to hold a full funeral due to coronavirus Covid-19 social distancing restrictions

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NCAA Gives Spring Athletes Extra Year Of Eligibility, Winter Sports S.O.L.

Good news, bad news from the NCAA. Good news -- spring sport athletes who can't compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic will get another year of eligibility. And, the bad news?? The winter sports -- including basketball -- athletes will NOT get an…

Permalink

from TMZ Celebrity News for TMZsports https://ift.tt/2QYAKLP

Brazil's Bolsonaro urges no more coronavirus quarantine, says jobs being lost

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that there can be no more quarantine measures imposed on the country than those already in place to combat coronavirus because jobs are being destroyed and the poor are suffering disproportionately.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2wFhlZF

In scrappy Cambodian casino town, Chinese plan future beyond coronavirus

When casino owner Kang Qiang looks out the window of his 20th floor office in this city on the remote Cambodian coast, he sees construction cranes sitting idle.

from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2xDSZ2d

Why Chrissy Teigen Hasn't Removed Her Breast Implants

The model took to Instagram on Monday and shared a sexy snap showing her walking the runway in a white bra and panties.

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'Grey's Anatomy': Kim Raver Teases What's to Come in Final Episodes of Season 16 (Exclusive)

The actress says 'Grey's' abbreviated season will lead to 'some answers and some new questions.'

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from News https://ift.tt/2QVS6Jt

For Fans Of: Cosmo’s Midnight | Introducing: Melbourne’s illstrtd

How do you discover new music? Here at Music Feeds, we’ve been trying to dream up a meaningful way to bring to your attention some of the incredibly talented artists who fill our inboxes with new music every day to the fans who’ll appreciate them most.

Enter ‘For Fans Of’: a new snack-sized series serving as your gateway drug to the freshest new music hitting the airwaves, soundclouds and YouTubes. Engineered to smack your eardrums right in the sweet spot.

Check out today’s ‘For Fans Of’ feature artist below.

Feature Artist: illstrtd

For Fans Of: Cosmo’s Midnight, Flume, Clams Casino, Giraffage, Kaytranada, Anderson .Paak

Hometown: Melbourne

Genre: Dance / Electronic / Hip-Hop / Indie / Roots

The 411:

Following on from his critically praised single ‘Real Love’, Melbourne-based producer illstrtd has returned with his latest cut ‘Say Yes’, featuring Melbourne rapper Charlie Threads and Sydney-based vocalist Cyrus.

Speaking about the production behind ‘Say Yes’, Illstrtd says: “I really was channeling a lot of Anderson .Paak and Kaytranada on the production for this. Just wanted to get that soulful, fun vibe and I think it came out really dope! Cyrus and Charlie Threads both killed it on the vocals too, I can’t wait for people to hear this.”

Live Dates:

We’re sure once this pandemic passes, we’ll get some!

Our Review:

Another bouncy, soul-soaked street singalong from this savvy future beatstar. Those hornline boogies are irresistible! Will have you saying yes to repeat listens.

The post For Fans Of: Cosmo’s Midnight | Introducing: Melbourne’s illstrtd appeared first on Music Feeds.

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The Hu Are Going Live Today For A Performance And Q&A With Jacoby From Papa Roach

Prior to Download Festival Australia’s cancellation this year due to coronavirus, one act a whole bunch of ticketholders were keen to witness live was The Hu.

They’re a Mongolian band that combine elements of Western rock music like heavy guitars and frantic percussion with traditional Mongolian instrumentation like the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and throat singing. They’re epic, and it’s a bummer they weren’t able to bring it to the Download stage this year.

They did, however, manage to play a pair of presumably huge side shows in Adelaide and Brisbane before live music was cancelled indefinitely and we all went into self-isolation, and have been stranded here ever since.

They’re going to be able to return to Mongolia this week, but to pass the time, they’re going to be going live today at midday Sydney time – so like, quite soon – with Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach for a Q&A session and acoustic performance. Shaddix recently teamed up with the band for an updated version of their single ‘Wolf Totem’ which saw the Papa Roach frontman adding his guest vocals into the mix.

It’ll all be going down over at the band’s official Instagram account, so grab your phone and settle in from noon today.

The post The Hu Are Going Live Today For A Performance And Q&A With Jacoby From Papa Roach appeared first on Music Feeds.

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The Internet Has Discovered Doc Antle Of ‘Tiger King’ Was In Britney Spears’ 2001 VMA Performance

Holy shit.

In profoundly 2020 news, the internet has done what it does best, discovering a link between “exotic animal enthusiast” Bhagavan ‘Doc’ Antle and pop star Britney Spears that dates all the way back to Britney’s 2001 VMAs performance.

Antle, who founded The Institute for Great Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S), became a household name after the absolutely bonkers Netflix documentary series Tiger King dropped earlier this month – which, if you haven’t seen yet, makes for primo/deranged self-isolation content.

Prior to all that, however, Doc Antle was an animal trainer who worked on various movie sets such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and was a regular figure on the late night talk show circuit.

And it appears that in 2001, Antle was given a particularly high-profile gig, with eagle-eyed internet detectives finding footage of Antle – and one of his tigers – on stage with Brit during her 2001 VMAs performance of ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’.

pic.twitter.com/ZWVJr1CngY

— (@heidiwood_) March 30, 2020

Though the animal most people probably remember when you bring up Spears’ VMAs performance was the snake she wrapped around her while singing the 2001 hit, you may recall that the whole thing began with Britney inside of a cage in front of a golden tabby tiger – and its handler, Antle.

Fucking wild. Watch the performance below.