COVID-19
UK’s Night Time Industries Association Wants Nightclubs to Reopen—With Masks and Social Distancing
With nightlife across the United Kingdom (and the rest of the world) still at a virtual standstill amid regulations and safety precautions enacted in order to limit the spread of COVID-19, nightclubs and venues are facing a severe fallout with no way to reopen. The Night Time Industries Association is now making a push to get the UK government to allow clubs to operate once again, but if it happens, things certainly won’t go back to the way they were before the pandemic. “Whilst there are some areas of increased risks over other sectors there are many real benefits that such businesses have over other sectors,” said a report from the NTIA. “Particularly, [as] all our venues have security to give 100% cover of matters such as temperature checks, track and t...
44,000 people missing in Nigeria, Ethiopia, other parts of Africa
Getty Images The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has revealed that about 44,000 people are registered as missing across the African continent, with nearly half of them being children. Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Libya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Cameroon make up 82 percent of ICRC’s missing caseload in Africa, the ICRC disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday. “As August 30 marks the International Day of the Disappeared, nearly 44,000 people across Africa are registered as missing with the ICRC at a time when restrictions put in place to curb Covid-19 create new challenges in searching for missing people,” the statement read. According to the ICRC, about 45 percent of the cases were children. “This caseload is a drop in the ocean to the...
Smash Mouth Receive Hate Mail Amid Rise in COVID-19 Cases Linked to Sturgis
In the aftermath of this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, festival headliners Smash Mouth (those words haven’t been written in a decade or two) have shared some of the hate mail they’ve received. The rally took place from August 7th to 16th and Smash Mouth held down the Sunday night slot at the flagship event, the Sturgis Buffalo Chip. During their set before a large, mask-less crowd, lead singer Steve Harwell seemed to mock the pandemic, shouting, “We’re all here together tonight! Fuck that COVID shit!” The message may have resonated for Sturgis attendees, but for others, it left the band with the shape of an ‘L’ on their foreheads. Now, in an Instagram post, the “All-Star” rockers have revealed an angry letter from a fan. It depicts a shattered CD sprinkled over a hand-written note. Only...
Drug Use Is Prevalent During Virtual Raves, According to New Study
As consumer behavior has made the dramatic switch from in-person to virtual entertainment over the past few months, researchers are beginning to learn more about how fans are adapting to the change. Researchers at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the NYU School of Global Public Health studied one particular aspect of the switch, inquiring whether virtual festival attendees have a propensity to use drugs during the event. According to the study’s lead author, Doctor Joseph Palamar, that’s an affirmative. “We explored whether stay-at-home orders changed how people use drugs—and it appears that drug use during virtual gatherings is somewhat prevalent among the party-going population we studied,” Palamar said. Around 40% of those surveyed who atte...
Nigeria records lowest daily virus cases in three months
The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has announced 221 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak in the country. The NCDC made this known on its official twitter handle on Wednesday. Newsmen report that the 221 new cases was the lowest number of cases recorded in the country in about three months. It recalls that on Aug. 4, Nigeria reported 288 COVID-19 new cases and 290 one week later, while another low figure of 252 was recorded on Aug. 25. NCDC said that there were more persons who died of COVID-19 related complications in the country in the last 24 hours with the national death toll rising to 1,010. The NCDC said that the number of recovery crossed the 40,000 mark after 317 more people were treated and discharged from isolation centres across the country. The agenc...
Afreximbank approves $400 million facility to improve agriculture in Africa
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Africa’s foremost multilateral trade finance institution, has approved a $400-million revolving global credit facility agreement for the Export Trading Group (ETG), one of the largest and fastest-growing integrated agricultural conglomerates in Africa. The agreement will enable ETG to keep playing its vital role in the agri-foods supply chain of efficiently connecting African farmers to markets, as well as expanding access to key inputs to boost agricultural productivity in a continent with tremendous but yet unrealized potential. According to Afreximbank’s estimates, Africa spent over $90 billion on food imports in 2019, even though it possesses up to 60 percent of the world’s remaining arable land. Moreover, the Food and Agriculture Organizat...
Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh Was in ICU for COVID-19, Recovery Disturbed by TikTok Party House
Bryce Hall’s “Sway House” crew (photo via Instagram) and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh (photo by Heather Kaplan) Buried in a story about how obnoxious young social media stars can be (surprise!) is a report that Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh apparently had a severe bout with COVID-19. Mothersbaugh’s wife, Anita, revealed the news to The Daily Mail, saying her 70-year-old husband came “close to death” while in the ICU in June. “This virus is no joke, I’ve experienced it first-hand,” she told the tabloid paper. “There was a week where my daughters thought he would die.” All this despite Devo having their own line of energy dome face shields. So why is this coming out now? Because rich youths are inconsiderate, privileged, jagoffs, that’s why. The Daily Mail’s story is ac...
Central bank, bankers’ committee to support airlines, media with special facilities
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee have unanimously agreed to extend special facilities to Nigerian-registered airlines and the media industry in the country to enable them adequately address the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CBN Director Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday. Okorafor said the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, announced this while addressing the Bank Chief Executives at the bi-monthly virtual meeting of the Bankers’ Committee on Tuesday. Emefiele urged the banks to do all within their powers to support airlines in the country, noting that such support was critical to helping the industry recover from the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the ape...
Brazilian president’s son contracts coronavirus
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said Tuesday he has tested positive for the new coronavirus but was asymptomatic. The 39-year-old senator’s office said in a statement he was “feeling fine,” isolating at home and taking the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, which his father has aggressively pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 despite studies finding it is ineffective against the virus. Known for his staunch support of his father, the younger Bolsonaro is under investigation for an alleged embezzlement scheme when he was a state lawmaker for Rio de Janeiro. He is the fourth member of the presidential family to test positive for the virus. Bolsonaro himself, 65, caught it last month, forcing the far-right leader, a fierce critic of lockdown measures agai...
The Biebers Host Illegal, Maskless Birthday Party in Los Angeles
A photo from the Biebers’ maskless birthday party, photo via Instagram/@justinbieber The celebrities are at it again! While many Los Angeles residents are obeying the city’s pandemic orders, Justin Bieber and wife Hailey thumbed their nose at the law and hosted a maskless birthday party for R&B/pop singer Justine Skye last weekend, per the Daily Mail. In addition to the honorary celebrant, the star-studded guest list included Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Jaden Smith, and model Winnow Harlow, who was the only person the paparazzi snapped wearing a face mask. Yikes. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti issued a citywide order on August 7th that bans “all public and private gatherings of any number of people,” except those in the same household or essential operations. At press time, there ...
Ableton Scraps 2021 Loop Summit Due to “Unmanageable Doubt” Casted by COVID-19
Music festivals aren’t the only major events to feel the wrath of COVID-19 amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Venerated German music software company Ableton, the developer of the most ubiquitous digital audio workstation on the planet, has cashed in its chips and cancelled its in-person 2021 Loop Summit, citing fears of COVID-19. “We have taken the difficult decision to cancel the Loop Summit in 2021,” Ableton said in a statement. “It is increasingly clear that we cannot guarantee the level of health and safety that our event demands. In addition to the welfare risk, the ongoing global pandemic has continued to cast unmanageable doubt over all aspects of our event planning. Uncertainty in future travel and event restrictions has made it impo...
Herders in Ebonyi now to carry identity cards – deputy governor
The Ebonyi Government on Tuesday directed that all the herders in the state should henceforth carry identity cards to help in identifying them in the event of any crime. The Deputy Governor, Dr Kelechi Igwe, announced the new directive while briefing newsmen on the outcome of a special security meeting convened by Gov. David Umahi at the Government House, Abakiliki. The meeting had the leadership and members of the state chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) in attendance. Igwe said that the state government was worried over reported cases of killing of MACBAN members, attack on communities by persons suspected to be MACBAN members, destruction of farm crops and other valuables and incessant cases of rape in the state. “The leadership of the various Local Government...
