Coronavirus
Broadway Shutdown Extended Until at Least Labor Day
The shutdown on Broadway has been extended again — until at least early September. Although an exact date for performances to resume has yet to be determined, Broadway producers are now offering refunds and exchanges for tickets purchased for shows through Sept. 6. “While all Broadway shows would love to resume performances as soon as possible, we need to ensure the health and well-being of everyone who comes to the theater — behind the curtain and in front of it — before shows can return,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, which represents producers. Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows — including 16 that were still scheduled to open — and postponing indefinitely the Tony Award schedule. Producers, citing health and city authori...
Tencent Music Revenue Hit New Highs in Q1 as Coronavirus Spread Through China
The Chinese music streaming company took a hit, but still grew earnings 27.4% year-over-year. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), the Chinese music streaming company with 657 million monthly listeners, took a hit from the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter but was able to grow both music subscribers and revenue. According to the company’s earnings report released Monday, Q1 music revenues leapt 27.4% year over year to $288 million while monthly average users grew 0.5%. Even though the pandemic led people to spend more time with entertainment, TME’s social media revenue rose just 3.3% even though 256 million people, a 13.3% gain, used its social app, WeSing. Still, music is a relatively low earner for TME; social media delivered an average revenue per media revenue per user of $15.65 ...
Seven travellers arrested in Kwara for ‘violating lockdown order’
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Kwara has arrested seven persons for allegedly violating the lockdown order put in place in the state to check the spread of coronavirus. The command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Ayeni Olasunkanmi, made this known in a statement in Ilorin on Tuesday. “In a swift response to a distress call from the public on Sobi FM radio yesterday, our personnel were immediately deployed to the scene at the expressway, Shao junction, Moro Local Government Area of Kwara. “A trailer fully loaded with passengers was held by the community with the view of preventing the spread of coronavirus,” Olasunkanmi said. He said that before the arrival of NSCDC personnel in the community, the trailer driver had escaped with the vehicle while seven out of the pas...
Group task Anambra to provide for, protect orphaned children in care homes
A non-governmental organization, Greater Awka Allies International, GAAI has urged Anambra State government to ensure the protection of children in orphanages as the COVID-19 outbreak persists. The group said children and the elderly are the most vulnerable to the novel Coronavirus, and that children living in orphanages are more vulnerable because they live in a place where they lack parental care. Leader of the group, Hon Chinemerem Oguegbe who stated this during a visit of his group to Model Community Children Orphanage Home charged the government to provide exceptional care for them. Oguegbe said the visit of his group to the orphanage was inspired by the need to show love to the children at a time when other children are kept out of school and securely at home with their parents becau...
Lagos university inaugurates financial sustainability committee
Lagos State University (LASU) has inaugurated a 21-man Financial Sustainability Committee to evolve strategies to create revenue sources and guarantee the financial sustainability of the institution after the coronavirus pandemic. Inaugurating the committee at a virtual meeting on Tuesday in Lagos, LASU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, said the step became imperative in the light of financial challenges that were envisaged in the wake of, and aftermath of the pandemic. “As a management, we do recognise that our institution, like almost every other institution around the world, are already facing and will face serious financial challenges. “A lot will depend on how institutions chose to manage their affairs that is why the management of LASU felt the need to put in place strategi...
Nigeria increases coronavirus testing above 27, 000
The Federal Government on Monday said the country has ramped up testing for the coronavirus to 27,078. Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, disclosed this in Abuja at the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 in the country. Ehanire said this has yielded about 4,399 cases in 35 states with a gender ratio of 30 per cent to 70 per cent of men and women. He said 778 persons have been discharged with 143 deaths. The minister added that personnel in federal hospitals participated in a multi-national teleconference with medical and academic experts in Beijing on the COVID-19 treatment strategy of China. “Our COVID-19 response must become a concerted national collaborative drive to become more effective. “This requires synergies across all tiers of government levels which should be...
Toyota predicts 79.5% drop in profit
Agence France-Presse Toyota on Tuesday said it expected a 79.5 percent drop in its annual operating profit this fiscal year as it suffers “significant” fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The Japanese auto giant declined to give a net profit forecast for the fiscal year to March 2021 but noted that the impact of the crisis on its business was “wide-ranging, significant and serious”. The company now expects an annual operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion), down 79.5 percent from the 2.44 trillion yen logged in the past year to March. Toyota forecast a near-20 percent drop in annual sales to 24 trillion yen, compared with 29.93 trillion yen achieved in the past fiscal year. The company’s net profit for the past year to March came to 2.076 trillion yen, up 10.3 percent on the y...
‘Rise Up New York!’ Telethon: The 10 Best Moments
“We care about our neighbors, and that’s why we want to help.” New York native and acting legend Robert De Niro kicked off Robin Hood and iHeartMedia’s Rise Up New York! telethon on Monday (May 11) with that simple reasoning about why the benefit show was happening. Since the coronavirus began spreading across the nation earlier this year, New York City has been the hardest hit, becoming the epicenter of the pandemic with more than 26,000 deaths to date and too many jobs lost. The telethon, hosted by Tina Fey from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, featured numerous famous faces with New York ties, from musicians to Broadway stars to chefs and beyond. Each offered messages of hope and urged viewers to donate to help the people of New York get back on their feet after the devasta...
Coronavirus: Two football games in Belarus postponed due to coronavirus fears
Two games in the top two tiers of Belarusian football have been postponed due to coronavirus concerns. The Premier League match between FC Minsk and Neman Grodno – scheduled for May 15 – has been called off, as has the second-division meeting between Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and leaders Lokomotiv Gomel. The country’s football federation confirmed it was because of suspected cases of COVID-19 among the Minsk and Lokomotiv players. No new dates have yet been arranged. Belarus is one of the few European nations in which major sporting competitions have continued despite the spread of the virus. Premier League games have been played, often in front of spectators, while the rest of the continent has largely been forced to suspend all football. All grounds are required to have several sanitiser statio...
Akwa Ibom bans cattle, goats transported from other states
In some new measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus, Governor Udom Emmanuel has banned cattle, goats, and rams from being brought into Akwa Ibom from other Nigerian states. Emmanuel also announced the shutting down of all livestock markets in the state throughout the month of May. “Livestock sellers are advised to sell off their stock and proceed to shut down,” the Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government, Emmanuel Ekuwem, said on Monday in a statement issued in Uyo. “Security agencies have been directed to monitor and ensure full compliance. Defaulters will be prosecuted.” Akwa Ibom, like most Nigerian states, has barred people and vehicles from entering the state from other states in order to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus. The security agencies in Akwa Ibom have, how...
Elon Musk Reopens His Tesla Factory Against Local Coronavirus Orders
Elon Musk has resumed production at his Tesla factory in Fremont, California, defying local shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of COVID-19. “I will be on the line with everyone else,” he tweeted today. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.” The Tesla CEO and new father seems hell-bent on making electric cars for people right now, as if those who could afford a Tesla in the first place are unable to wait a few months to purchase one. Apparently his Fremont factory is packed to the gills like a normal work day, reports NPR, because photos of its company parking lot show each spot filled. “California approved, but an unelected county official illegally overrode,” Musk tweeted. “Also, all other auto companies in US are approved to resume. Only Tesla has been singled out. Th...
