#number 11 conclusion postponed to september??

[ugartecoco]

man united more like man can yall work more efficiently??

[disneytva]

Bob Iger Returns To Chairman And Chief Executive Officer Of The Walt Disney Company Due COVID-19 Crisis At Disney

Bob Iger has taken CEO responsibilities back from Bob Chapek at The Walt Disney Company. 

"A crisis of this magnitude and its impact on Disney actively treat and help Bob Chapek. Especially for the company that lasts 15 years."

  The former C.E.O. thought he was riding into the sunset. Now he’s reasserting control and reimagining Disney as a company with fewer employees and more thermometers.

The Walt Disney Company turned franchises like Marvel and “Star Wars” into the biggest media business in the world, and last fall it was putting the finishing touches on the image of a storied character: its chief executive, Bob Iger.

In late September, Mr. Iger, 69, published “The Ride of a Lifetime,” an engaging work of self-hagiography. The handsome executive, who seriously considered running for president this year, spent the next month on the kind of media tour that Disney is known for: he reveled in the successful start of a streaming service that immediately rivaled Netflix, was hailed as “businessperson of the year” by Time and described as “Hollywood’s nicest C.E.O.” in an article in the The Times by Maureen Dowd. Even his friends wondered if the soft-focus Instagram ads produced for his MasterClass on leadership were a bit much.

It all went so well that Mr. Iger decided it was time to do something he had postponed four times since 2013: retire as C.E.O.

In early December, Disney executives say, he told his board that he was ready to leave. Around that time, a handful of people in Wuhan, China, began developing mysterious coughs.

At the end of January, a few days after Disney was forced to close its Shanghai theme park as the coronavirus spread, Mr. Iger and the board stuck with their plan, agreeing that he would step back to become executive chairman and that the low-profile head of the parks and cruise business, Bob Chapek, would take over immediately as chief executive. They finalized the arrangement even as the stock market began to shudder. And on Feb. 25, they shocked Hollywood with the news that Mr. Iger’s 15-year run had ended.

The seemingly abrupt announcement prompted intense speculation about the reasons for Mr. Iger’s exit. “Sex or health?” one media executive who knows him texted another that night. Two weeks later, a different question emerged: Had Mr. Iger, with his deep ties to China and legendary timing, seen the coronavirus about to devastate his global realm? Did he get out just in time?

Mr. Iger, who has always carefully managed his image, told me in an email, there was no more than met the eye.

“No surprises … nothing hidden … nothing different or odd to speculate about ….,” he wrote, ellipses and all.

In fact, people close to Mr. Iger and the company said in interviews that the real question wasn’t whether he saw the crisis coming — but whether his focus on burnishing his own legacy and assuring a smooth succession left him distracted as the threats to the business grew. No big media company is more dependent on its customers’ social and physical proximity than Disney, with its theme parks and cruise lines. Few have been hit harder by the pandemic.

And now, Mr. Iger has effectively returned to running the company. After a few weeks of letting Mr. Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control, BlueJeans video call by BlueJeans video call. (Disney does not use Zoom for its meetings for security reasons.)

The new, nominal chief executive is referred to, almost kindergarten style, as “Bob C,” while Mr. Iger is still just “Bob.” And his title is “executive chairman” — emphasis on the first word.

Mr. Iger is now intensely focused on remaking a company that will emerge, he believes, deeply changed by the crisis. The sketch he has drawn for associates offers a glimpse at the post-pandemic future: It’s a Disney with fewer employees, leading the new and uncertain business of how to gather people safely for entertainment.

“It’s a matter of great good fortune that he didn’t just leave,” said Richard Plepler, the former HBO chief. “This is a moment where people first and foremost are looking to an example of leadership that has proved itself over an extended period of time — and Bob personifies that.”

The story of the Walt Disney Company since Mr. Iger’s predecessor, Michael Eisner, took it over in 1984 is one of astonishing growth that has become the model for the modern, global media business. The company turned its tatty icons like Mickey Mouse into cash cows. Mr. Iger has spent more than 40 years working for companies that are now part of Disney, and has earned his reputation through bold acquisitions. He bought Pixar, then Marvel, then Lucasfilm, for single-digit billions, and quickly created many more billions in value with them. Mr. Iger had the greatest job on earth, ruling not just a company but a “nation-state,” as California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, described Disney recently.

But Disney’s much-imitated model was almost perfectly exposed to the pandemic. The shift from on-screen entertainment into in-person experiences helped Disney become the biggest media company in the world. But those businesses have been impossible to protect from the pandemic. The company’s largest division brought in more than $26 billion in the year ending last June by extending its brands to cruise ships and theme parks. Those are all shuttered now. It has three new cruise ships under construction in Germany, their futures unclear. The jewel in its second largest division, television, is ESPN, which in a sports-less world is now broadcasting athletes playing video games. The third group, studio, had expected to bring in most of its revenue from movie openings in theaters, which are now closed.

There has been a glimmer of good news in the introduction of Disney+. The company’s troubled share price jumped about 7 percent in after-hours trading last Wednesday on the news that the streaming service had attracted 50 million subscribers. But the project is still an investment, years away from generating revenue that could replace a big movie opening in theaters. And the service is desperate for new content — at a time when television and film production has ground to a halt.

This all means the company is losing as much as $30 million or more a day, the media industry analyst Hal Vogel estimated in an interview. The company borrowed $6 billion at the end of March, a sign both of its desperate plight and lenders’ confidence that it could rebound.

In an emergency like this, Mr. Iger said, he had no choice but to abandon his plan to pull back.

“A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” he said in his email.

That realization appears to have hit just after the company’s March 11 annual shareholder gathering in Raleigh, N.C., which served as Mr. Chapek’s debut and was staged as a carefully scripted handoff.

“I’ve watched Bob [Iger] lead this company to amazing new heights, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from that experience. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to work closely with him during this transition,” Mr. Chapek said at the meeting. (A Disney spokeswoman declined to make Mr. Chapek available for an interview.)

The men flew from there to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., to meet executives worried about the effect of social distancing on their business; they announced the park’s closing the next day. Then, they flew back to Los Angeles and on the way, said a person familiar with their conversation, they discussed the depth of the crisis. Mr. Iger made clear that he would remain closely involved.

The next day, March 13, was their last in the office. In early April, Mr. Chapek sent a bleak internal email announcing a wave of furloughs. He pushed immediate cuts and freezes on everything from development budgets to contractors’ pay.

The company employed 223,000 as of last summer, and won’t say how many workers are furloughed, but the numbers are huge. It includes more than 30,000 workers  in the California resort business alone, according to the president of Workers United Local 50 that represents some of those workers, Chris Duarte. Another 43,000 workers in Florida will be furloughed, the company confirmed on Sunday. All the workers will keep their benefits, but their last paychecks come April 19.

The mood at Disney is “dire,” said a person who has done projects with the company. “They’re covering the mirrors and ripping clothes.”

Mr. Iger, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what the company will look like after the crisis. One central challenge is to establish best practices for the company and the industry on how to bring people back to the parks and rides while avoiding the virus’s spread — using measures like taking visitors’ temperatures.

Mr. Iger also sees this as a moment, he has told associates, to look across the business and permanently change how it operates. He’s told them that he anticipates ending expensive old-school television practices like advertising upfronts and producing pilots for programs that may never air. Disney is also likely to reopen with less office space. He’s also told two people that he anticipated the company having fewer employees. (Mr. Iger said in an email on Sunday evening that he had “no recollection of ever having said” that he expected a smaller work force. “Regardless, any decision about staff reductions will be made by my successor and not me,” he added.)

Mr. Iger’s own narrative had been written to a neat conclusion. Now, his legacy will probably be defined in the unexpected sequel of one of the great American companies fighting for its life.

And Disney’s endlessly troublesome question of succession — which had finally, for a couple of weeks, seemed settled — may be open again. One person close to the company said Mr. Iger assured Mr. Chapek that the extraordinary circumstances would be taken into consideration in the board’s evaluation of Mr. Chapek’s performance. But in reality, two hard, unpredictable years will determine if he can hold the job. Two other executives who were passed over for Mr. Chapek — Kevin Mayer and Peter Rice — remain at the company. Nobody knows when Americans will go to the movies again, much less get on cruise ships.

And nobody knows when — or whether — Mr. Iger will have another moment to leave on top.

[bowsetter]

11 Cryptocurrency Initiatives Indian Government Has Taken

The Indian government has engaged in numerous crypto-related initiatives and projects while actively drafting the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Below are 11 crypto-specific initiatives that the government has been involved in.

Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request

Committee to Draft Crypto Law

An interministerial committee under the chairmanship of Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, has been constituted to draft the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Included on the committee are representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

The committee is “considering all aspects related to virtual currencies and crypto assets … including banning/regulating,” according to the Finance Ministry’s summary report released in March of the government’s activities in 2018.

The legal framework for cryptocurrencies in India was expected to be finalized in July last year, but no framework has been announced so far. This has led to speculation about what the recommendations entail, such as the recent media report claiming that the bill entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019” has already been circulated to relevant ministries for discussion. The Indian crypto community has urged the public not jump to conclusions as the media reports only cite anonymous sources on the matter.

Working With FATF and G20

India’s “Department of Revenue has been actively involved in the working papers being developed by the FATF on various issues (such as virtual currency, proliferation financing among) which will act as guidance for the member countries,” the Finance Ministry’s summary report also reveals.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global standard-setting body created to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, told the G20 recently that it is updating policies on crypto regulation which will be presented at the G20 summit in June. India is a G20 country and will be attending the summit and participate in discussions about crypto regulation.

RBI Banking Restriction

In addition to several warnings about the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies, the RBI issued a circular on April 6 last year prohibiting regulated entities from dealing in cryptocurrencies or providing “services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling” cryptocurrencies. Financial institutions had three months to exit crypto-related relationships.

The RBI detailed that “Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer/receipt of money in accounts relating to purchase/sale” of cryptocurrencies.

While the banking restriction has hurt a number of local crypto businesses, some have found a solution to the ban in the exchange-escrowed peer-to-peer crypto trading model. Meanwhile, the Indian crypto community has been actively campaigning to end the ban.

Supreme Court Hearing

Multiple writ petitions have been filed with the Indian justice system to lift the RBI ban. They were scheduled to be heard by the supreme court since September last year but the case has been continually postponed. The next hearing date is July 23. The supreme court has also asked the government to submit a report of the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

Discussions at Blockchain Summit

In February, the Department of Science and Technology, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and the Department of Information Technology gathered at Blockchain Summit India to discuss various crypto-related topics including regulation.

The event’s fintech partner, Cashaa, announced afterward that the policymakers discussed how to speed up crypto regulation. “The regulation is planned to be implemented by end of financial tenure,” Cashaa wrote, noting that ICOs and STOs were also discussed.

Potential Central Bank Digital Currency

Replying to the question asked by Lok Sabha whether the government is considering introducing its own national cryptocurrency “in place of bitcoins,” the Ministry of Finance confirmed on Dec. 28 last year:

The inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, is examining all issues, including the pros and cons of the introduction of an official digital currency in India.

SEBI Crypto Study Tour & Committee

In its 2017-18 annual report, SEBI revealed that it had “organised study tours to Financial Services Agency (FSA) Japan, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) Switzerland to study initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies.”

The regulator constituted the Committee on Financial and Regulatory Technologies on August 3, 2017, “In order to reap the opportunities provided by fintech” and “to deal with relevant risk and challenges,” SEBI detailed. It also noted that new technology, including cryptocurrency, “is affecting financial markets through various channels.” The committee is under the chairmanship of Shri T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education.

Cybercrime Unit for Crypto

India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a national cyber forensic lab and the Delhi Police’s cybercrime unit called Cypad to help detect fraud online, including those involving cryptocurrency, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported.

The national cyber forensic lab includes a crypto forensic unit. It is equipped with technology to recover data from damaged hard disks, perform cryptocurrency analysis, and ensure malware forensic data can be retrieved from 33,000 kinds of mobile phone models available on the market.

Working With Canada

Cryptocurrency was a major topic of discussion at the 16th meeting of the Canada-India Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism held in Ottawa on March 26 and 27. India’s delegation was led by Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism from the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Mahaveer Singhvi. The meeting involved senior representatives from both governments, according to a press release by the joint working group.

Among other items on the agenda, “The delegations reviewed efforts underway to address new and emerging challenges posed by virtual currencies,” the announcement reads, adding that “The meetings concluded with agreement on a joint action plan” which includes “joint capacity building and information and technology sharing.”

ICAI Report

A detailed study conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) “on accounting standards and disclosures of cryptocurrency in financial statements of companies” was requested by the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs in January last year, according to ICAI member Debashis Mitra. The institute, a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, went on to launch a course on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for professional accountants in August last year.

RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox

The RBI recently published a draft framework for a fintech regulatory sandbox that welcomes businesses and applications using smart contract blockchain technologies. However, the document also has “An indicative negative list” of products, services, activities, and technology “which may not be accepted for testing.” The list includes cryptocurrency, crypto services, crypto trading, crypto investing, as well as settling in crypto assets. It also includes initial coin offerings and any products or services which have been banned by the government.

It should be noted that India is undergoing an election cycle and many decisions made by the current government administration could be null and void when the next administration takes office.

What do you think of all the crypto-related initiatives by the Indian government? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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[covid19updater]

COVID19 Updates: 08/05/2021

UK:  Vaccines to be required for open travel ‘for evermore’, says Shapps LINK

RUMINT (UK):  I lost a close friend to covid yesterday. He lost his battle after a four week ordeal two weeks in a ventilator. RIP John. Never forgotten.

Maryland:  An epidemiologist from Johns Hopkins walks into a maskless party with 14 fully vaccinated friends… 11 of 14 got breakthrough #COVID19   —so yes, even some epidemiologists had severely underestimated #DeltaVariant. @CDCgov definitely made a grave mistake. LINK

World:  JUST IN - Moderna #COVID19 vaccine: Third "booster" dose will likely be necessary prior to the winter season.

Arkansas:  This AR hospital is so short on nurses in this newest Covid-19 surge, it's offering a $25,000 signing bonus. LINK

US:  MODERNA PRESIDENT BELIEVES THERE WILL A LONG-TERM ENDEMIC MARKET FOR COVID-19 VACCINES

RUMINT (Arkansas):  My friend's husband got covid in September. He was listed as a "recovery". He is now a 52 year old man that has dementia. He worked as an accountant. He can no longer work, and they're about to lose their home. His wife, my friend, now has no feeling in her left hand. My cousin had to go on a ventilator. Thankfully, he pulled through, but he can't remember things and has difficulty remembering simple things. He's 45. Also counted in that 99% recovery.

Arkansas:  West Memphis family mourning 11-year-old who died from COVID complications LINK

Maryland:  No New Mask Mandate Despite Surge In COVID-19 Cases, Gov. Larry Hogan Says – CBS Baltimore LINK

Philippines:  JUST IN: At least 113 health workers from Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital, Ilocos Norte’s biggest public hospital and major COVID-19 treatment center, have been infected with COVID-19, the hospital says in an advisory.

Thailand:  Thailand reports daily record of over 20000 COVID-19 infections LINK

US: Doctor:  Many of us doctors think sending the children back to school during the delta surge is insane. We have no idea what the consequences for their long-term health will be.

US:  NEW: Number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 tops 59,000, highest since February

UK:  BREAKING: Not wearing a face mask on the Tube should be a CRIMINAL offence says Sadiq Khan

RUMINT (US):  A mild case involved struggling for breath, constant fever, agonising chest pain and other horrid symptoms for 6+mos. Now, 16 months later I’m left with dysfunctional breathing, tinnitus, hernia, dysautonomia, waking insomnia and cognitive impairment. 49, previously super fit.

UK:  WELLS FARGO DELAYS OFFICE-RETURN PLANS TO OCT. 4 FROM SEPT. 7

Libya:  #Libya records 1,996 new Covid-19 infections, 28 deaths in 24 hours

Georgia:  Tyler Fairley, 17, high school student, football player, beloved son, Douglasville, GA, died of #COVID19 on August 1, 2021. He was known as a gentle giant. Tyler would have started his senior HS year soon; planned on going to college & continuing his promising football career. LINK

California:  COVID cases surge at highly vaccinated nursing homes - WEHOville LINK

US:  Rolling 7-day average of daily coronavirus cases in the U.S.: 4 weeks ago: 15,219 3 weeks ago: 26,894 2 weeks ago: 41,205 1 week ago: 66,633 Today: 97,522

California:  Los Angeles County reports 3,734 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase since February

Thailand:  Thailand reports 20,920 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase on record, and 160 new deaths

Japan:  Tokyo reports 5,042 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase on record

Louisiana:  Kids and COVID—Dr Mark Kline at Children's Hospital New Orleans: "#DeltaVariant is every infectious disease specialist's worst nightmare. There was a myth—that children were somehow immune—It has become very clear that children are heavily impacted"

Hawaii:  Twenty hospitals from across the state report they’re in desperate need of help. LINK

RUMINT (Arkansas):  I just found out that my great-nephew is in the ICU unit in Little Rock with COVID. He’s a week old. A tiny, innocent little baby who now may never have a chance. I’m holding lawmakers responsible for this. Never dreamed I would see politicians sacrifice children for re-election.

Florida:  As COVID admissions spiral, Memorial Health in South Broward suspends elective surgeries

California:  L.A. will consider requiring vaccine proof at restaurants, gyms, indoor sporting events LINK

World: Lambda Variant:  yes, a few countries and areas reporting more Lambda, including some bits of Spain

Philippines:  Lockdown reimposed in Manila from midnight, to slow spread of Delta variant across capital, adjacent provinces may be pulled into LD, if health facilities are overwhelmed. Thousands arrived to try to sites before curbs come into force for next two weeks;

China:  Large-scale events and exhibitions are being cancelled or postponed in China’s capital, Beijing, as cases of the coronavirus continue to grow in the country. The Beijing government has today stressed events taking place in August should be cancelled, and public places such as parks, cinemas and libraries should now start limiting the number of visitors they have.

World:  Azithromycin in patients with Covid-19; a systematic review and metanalysis Conclusions: These results presented in this review do not support the use of AZM in the management of Covid-19. They also show that any harm caused to the patient who received it is unlikely. Future research on treatment for patients with Covid-19 may need to focus on other drugs. LINK

World: More Data Point to Lambda Variant’s Potential Lethality LINK

US:  Florida and Texas recorded one-third of all US #COVID19 cases in past week, latest figures show. @marthakelner reports from Jacksonville where the number of unvaccinated young people hospitalised with coronavirus is on the rise. 

US:  The United States is working to give additional COVID-19 booster shots to Americans with compromised immune systems as quickly as possible, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday. LINK

US:  Amazon is delaying its return to the office for corporate employees until 2022, adding to the wave of companies adjusting their plans amid a Covid-19 surge LINK

Singapore:  From 16 Aug, Unvaccinated persons to wear a unique visual identifier at all times at worksites (Nazi Germany, anyone?)

Texas:  COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Taylor County, newest deaths include young mother who gave birth in ICU LINK

Spain:  Over 2,000 people who attended three major music festivals without social distancing last July later tested positive for Covid-19 Health authorities have since regretted authorizing the events LINK

Florida:  Official: State refuses to give daily coronavirus data to Seminole County LINK

Texas: Harris County Manager:  NEW: I’ve ordered our COVID19 threat level to be moved to RED due to severe and uncontrolled spread in Harris County. If you’re unvaccinated please stay home. Everyone please continue to wear a mask in public.

US:  BREAKING: Number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 tops 60,000, highest since February

Op/Ed:  As experts have been saying all along, “A #vaccine-only strategy is short-sighted and reckless”. Ventilation, test/trace/isolate and masking are all necessary. So basically, not trying to stubbornly return to “normal” before it’s safe to do so. #COVID19

World:  CVS Health Embraces mRNA Vaccines LINK

South Africa:  To date, 17 members of South Africa’s parliament have died due to #COVID19

US:  Republican lawmaker Ralph Norman, who's suing Pelosi over a $500 fine for not wearing a mask during a floor vote, says he has Covid-19  (via AP) LINK

Florida:  Florida children's hospitals see pediatric COVID-19 cases soar LINK

World:  Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN.O) reported a more than tripling of its quarterly profit on Thursday, buoyed by robust demand for its COVID-19 antibody cocktail. LINK

Italy:  Italy makes COVID-19 health pass mandatory for teachers LINK

September:  NEW: California will now require workers in healthcare settings to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 30th.

UK:  Reduced service on Manchester Metrolink trams due to COVID-19 absences

Canada:  Alberta reports 397 new COVID-19 cases, 1 death LINK

UK:  An estimated 945,000 people experienced self-reported long COVID in the 4 weeks to 4 July (where symptoms persisted more than 4 weeks after the first suspected infection) LINK

Israel:  Doctor: "95% of the severe patients are vaccinated". "85-90% of the hospitalizations are in Fully vaccinated people." "We are opening more and more COVID wards." "The effectiveness of the vaccine is waning/fading out" (Dr. Kobi Haviv, earlier today on Chanel 13 @newsisrael13 )

Massachusetts:  Mass. reports 1,046 new COVID-19 cases, 2 new deaths (http://Boston.com) The state also reported 264 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. 

Alabama:  Alabama’s COVID positivity rate at all-time high. Health leaders want to see it under 5%. The state is currently over four times that rate. Back in June, for one day Alabama’s positivity rate dropped down below 4% to about 3.8%. This week, the state is setting records just about every day. “On the worst day of the pandemic, we were at 22.6%. Yesterday, we exceeded our previous record and Thursday we exceeded yesterday’s record,” said Dr. Don Williamson with the Alabama Hospital Association. Alabama is now standing at 23.6% - an all-time high.

US:  NEW: Number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 tops 61,000, highest since February

Australia:  NSW recorded 291 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

New Jersey:  Gov. Phil Murphy is set to announce that New Jersey students in grades K-12 and staff will be required to wear masks in schools. It's a reversal from a few weeks ago when Murphy said it would take a “deterioration” of COVID-19 data to require masks. LINK

[covid19worldnews]

French Open

“French Championships” redirects here. For other uses, see French Championship (disambiguation).

This article is about the tennis tournament. For the golf tournament, see Open de France. For the badminton tournament, see French Open (badminton).

French Open Tennis Championships

The French Open (French: Internationaux de France de Tennis), also called Roland-Garros (French: [ʁɔlɑ̃ ɡaʁos]), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year.[b] The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the premier clay court tennis championship tournament in the world and the second of the four annual Grand Slam tournaments,[3] the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The French Open is currently the only Grand Slam tournament held on clay, and it is the conclusion of the spring clay court season. Before 1975, the French Open was the lone non-grass major tournament.[4] Between the seven rounds needed for a championship, the slow-playing surface and the best-of-five-set men’s singles matches, the event is widely considered to be the most physically demanding tennis tournament in the world.[5][6]

History

Officially named in French Internationaux de France de Tennis and Roland-Garros (the “French International of Tennis” and “Roland Garros” in English),[7] the tournament is referred to in English as the “French Open” and alternatively as “Roland Garros”, which is the designation used by the tournament itself in all languages.[8] (The stadium and tournament are both hyphenated as Roland-Garros because French spelling rules dictate that in the name of a place or event named after a person, the elements of the name are joined together with a hyphen.[9])

In 1891 the Championnat de France, which is commonly referred to in English as the French Championships, began. They were only open to tennis players who were members of French clubs. The first winner was a Briton—H. Briggs—who was a Paris resident. The first women’s singles tournament, with four entries, was held in 1897. The mixed doubles event was added in 1902 and the women’s doubles in 1907. This “French club members only” tournament was played until 1924, using four different venues during that period:

The Croix-Catelan of the Racing Club de France (in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris), played on clay. 1891, 1892, 1894 (men’s doubles), 1895 (men’s doubles), 1898, 1900, 1901 (men’s doubles), 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1910-1914, 1920-1924 editions.

Tennis Club de Paris (club opened in 1895), at Auteuil, Paris, played on clay. 1893, 1896 and 1897 (men’s singles) edition.

Cercle des Sports de Île Puteaux, in Puteaux, Île-de-France (nex to the Seine river); played on the club’s ten sand grounds laid out on a bed of rubble. 1894 (men’s singles), 1895 (men’s singles), 1897 (women’s singles), 1899, 1901 (men’s and women’s singles), 1903, 1905 and 1907 editions.

For one year, 1909, it was played at the Société Athlétique de la Villa Primrose in Bordeaux, on clay.

In 1925, the French Championships became open to all amateurs internationally and was designated a major championship by the ILTF. It was held at the Stade Français in Saint-Cloud (site of the previous World Hard Court Championships) in 1925 and 1927, on clay courts. In 1926 the Croix-Catelan of the Racing Club de France hosted the event in Paris, site of the previous French club members only tournament, also on clay.

Another clay court tournament, called the World Hard Court Championships, is sometimes considered the true precursor to the modern French Open as it admitted international competitors. This was held at Stade Français in Saint-Cloud, from 1912 to 1914, 1920, 1921 and 1923, with the 1922 event held in Brussels, Belgium. Winners of this tournament included world No. 1s such as Tony Wilding from New Zealand (1913, 1914) and Bill Tilden from the US (1921). In 1924 there was no World Hard Court Championships due to tennis being played at the Paris Olympic Games.

After the Mousquetaires or Philadelphia Four (René Lacoste, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet, and Jacques Brugnon) won the Davis Cup on American soil in 1927, the French decided to defend the cup in 1928 at a new tennis stadium at Porte d’Auteuil. The Stade de France had offered the tennis authorities three hectares of land with the condition that the new stadium must be named after the World War I hero pilot Roland Garros.[10] The new Stade de Roland Garros (later renamed Court Philippe Chatrier in 1988) hosted that Davis Cup challenge. In 1928, the French Internationals were moved there, and the event has been held there ever since.[11]

During World War II, the tournament was held from 1941 through 1945 on the same grounds, but those events are not recognized by the French governing body, the Fédération Française de Tennis.[12] In 1946 and 1947, the French Championships were held after Wimbledon, making it the third Grand Slam event of the year. In 1968, the French Championships became the first Grand Slam tournament to go open, allowing both amateurs and professionals to compete.[11]

Court number 2 at the French Open.

Since 1981, new prizes have been presented: the Prix Orange (for the player demonstrating the best sportsmanship and cooperative attitude with the press), the Prix Citron (for the player with the strongest character and personality) and the Prix Bourgeon (for the tennis player revelation of the year). In another novelty, since 2006 the tournament has begun on a Sunday, featuring 12 singles matches played on the three main courts. Additionally, on the eve of the tournament’s opening, the traditional Benny Berthet exhibition day takes place, where the profits go to different charity associations. In March 2007, it was announced that the event would provide equal prize money for both men and women in all rounds for the first time.[13] In 2010, it was announced that the French Open was considering a move away from Roland Garros as part of a continuing rejuvenation of the tournament.[14] Plans to renovate and expand Roland Garros have put aside any such consideration, and the tournament remains in its long time home.

Expansion in the early 21st century

From 2004 to 2008, plans were developed to build a covered stadium with a roof, as complaints continued over delayed matches.[15][16][17] Various proposals were put forward to expand the facility or to move the French Open to a completely new, 55-court venue outside of Paris city limits. In 2011 the decision was taken to maintain the tournament within its existing venue.[18][19] The expansion project called for a new stadium to be built alongside the historical Auteuil’s greenhouses and expansion of old stadiums and the tournament village.[20] A wide-ranging project to overhaul the venue was presented in 2011, including building a roof over Court Philippe-Chatrier, demolishing and replacing Court No. 1 with a grassy hill for outdoors viewing, and geographical extension of the venue eastward into the Jardin des Serres d’Auteuil.[21]

Legal opposition from environmental defence associations and other stakeholders delayed the works for several years as litigation ensued.[22] In particular, the city council voted in May 2015 against the expansion project, but on 9 June 2015 Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced the signing of the construction permits, with work scheduled to begin in September of that year and conclude in 2019.[23][24] In December 2015, the Administrative Court of Paris once again halted renovation work, but the French Tennis Federation won the right to proceed with the renovation on appeal.[25]

Renovation work finally commenced at the close of the 2018 edition of the tournament. Redeveloped seating and a retractable roof was constructed for Court Philippe-Chatrier and the new 5,000-seat Court Simonne-Mathieu was opened, having been named after France’s second-highest achieving female tennis player, and noted for its innovative use of greenhouse encasing architecture.[26] The renewal of the venue has been generally well-received by the players and the public.[27] The 2020 edition of the tournament, which was the first to be assisted by the roof over Philippe-Chatrier, was postponed to September and was played before limited spectators, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] Floodlights were also installed over each of the courts in the precinct, allowing the tournament to facilitate night matches for the first time.[29]

Surface characteristics

Clay courts slow down the ball and produce a high bounce when compared with grass courts or hard courts. For this reason, clay courts take away some of the advantages of big servers and serve-and-volleyers, which makes it hard for these types of players to dominate on the surface. For example, Pete Sampras, known for his huge serve and who won 14 Grand Slam titles, never won the French Open – his best result was reaching the semi-finals in 1996. Many other notable players have won multiple Grand Slam events but have never won the French Open, including John McEnroe, Frank Sedgman, John Newcombe, Venus Williams, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt, Jimmy Connors, Louise Brough, Virginia Wade or Martina Hingis; McEnroe and Edberg lost their sole French Open finals appearances in five sets.

On the other hand, players whose games are more suited to slower surfaces, such as Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Justine Henin and Chris Evert, have found great success at this tournament. In the Open Era, the only male players who have won both the French Open and Wimbledon, played on faster grass courts, are Rod Laver, Jan Kodeš, Björn Borg, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. Borg’s French Open—Wimbledon double was achieved three times consecutively (1978, 1979, 1980) and regarded by Wimbledon officials as “the most difficult double in tennis”.[30] The feat took 28 years to be repeated and was done 3 times consecutively, twice by Rafael Nadal (2008, 2010) and once by Roger Federer (2009).[31]

Ball boys and ball girls

At the 2010 French Open there were 250 “ramasseurs de balles” which in English translates literally as “gatherers of balls”. They are aged between 12 and 16 years old, and dress in matching shirts and shorts. The 250 ball boys and ball girls are chosen to take part in the French Open by an application and selection process, which in 2010 had approximately 2,500 applicants from across France.[32] Upon selection the ball boys and ball girls participate in preparatory training in the weeks leading up to the French Open to ensure that they are prepared for the day they set foot on the tennis court in front of a global audience.

Prize money and ranking points

Court Philippe Chatrier during the 2013 French Open.

For 2018, the prize money purse was increased to €39,197,000. If a player makes it to the indicated round, they will receive the points and money listed (provided they don’t make it to a further round). Men and women often receive different point values based on the rules of their respective tours. Players receive prize money and points as follows:[33]

Prize Money (2018) Event W F SF QF 4R 3R 2R 1R Singles Points (M/F) 2000 1200 / 1300 720 / 780 360 / 430 180 / 240 90 / 130 45 / 70 10/10 Prize money €2,200,000 €1,120,000 €560,000 €380,000 €222,000 €130,000 €79,000 €40,000 Doubles Points (M/F) 2000 1200 / 1300 720 / 780 360 / 430 180 / 240 90 / 130 0 / 10 – Prize money* €560,000 €280,000 €139,000 €76,000 €41,000 €22,000 €11,000 – Mixed Doubles Points NA NA NA NA NA NA – – Prize money* €120,000 €60,000 €30,000 €17,000 €9,500 €4,750 – –

*per team

Champions

Past champions

Men’s Singles, winner of the Coupe des Mousquetaires[c]

Women’s Singles, winner of the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen[d]

Men’s Doubles, winners of the Coupe Jacques Brugnon

Women’s Doubles, winners of the Coupe Simone Mathieu

Mixed Doubles, winners of the Coupe Marcel Bernard

All champions (Open Era)

The trophies, designed and made by Maison Mellerio dits Meller, are all made of pure silver with finely etched decorations on their side. Each new singles winner gets his or her name written on the base of the trophy. Winners receive custom-made pure silver replicas of the trophies they have won.[34]

Current champions

Rafael Nadal was the winner of the Men’s Singles in 2020.

Iga Świątek was the winner of the Women’s Singles in 2020.

Kevin Krawietz was part of the winning Men’s Doubles team in 2020.

Andreas Mies was part of the winning Men’s Doubles team in 2020.

Tímea Babos was part of the winning Women’s Doubles team in 2020.

Kristina Mladenovic was part of the winning Women’s Doubles team in 2020.

Latisha Chan was part of the winning Mixed Doubles team in 2019. It was her second Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Ivan Dodig was part of the winning Mixed Doubles team in 2019. It was his second Grand Slam mixed doubles title.

Event Champion Runner-up Score Men’s Singles Rafael Nadal Novak Djokovic 6–0, 6–2, 7–5 Women’s Singles Iga Świątek Sofia Kenin 6–4, 6–1 Men’s Doubles Kevin Krawietz Andreas Mies Mate Pavić Bruno Soares 6–3, 7–5 Women’s Doubles Tímea Babos Kristina Mladenovic Alexa Guarachi Desirae Krawczyk 6–4, 7–5 Mixed Doubles Latisha Chan Ivan Dodig Gabriela Dabrowski Mate Pavić 6–1, 7–6(7–5)

Records

Record Era Player(s) Num. Years Men since 1891 Winner of most men’s singles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 8 1903–1904, 1907–1909, 1912–1914 1925–1967: Henri Cochet 4 1926, 1928, 1930, 1932 Note: Also won World Hard Court Championship in 1922 After 1967: Rafael Nadal 13 2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020 Winner of most consecutive men’s singles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Paul Aymé 4 1897–1900 1925–1967: Frank Parker Jaroslav Drobný Tony Trabert Nicola Pietrangeli 2 1948–1949 1951–1952 1954–1955 1959–1960 After 1967: Rafael Nadal 5 2010–2014 Winner of most men’s doubles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 13 1902–1909, 1911–1914, 1920[35] 1925–1967: Roy Emerson 6 1960, 1962 with Neale Fraser, 1961 with Rod Laver, 1963 with Manuel Santana, 1964 with Ken Fletcher, 1965 with Fred Stolle After 1967: Daniel Nestor Max Mirnyi 4 2007 with Mark Knowles, 2010 with Nenad Zimonjić, 2011, 2012 with Max Mirnyi 2005, 2006 with Jonas Björkman, 2011, 2012 with Daniel Nestor Winner of most consecutive men’s doubles titles Before 1925: (French club members only event) Maurice Germot 10 1906–1914, 1920[35] 1925–1967: Roy Emerson 6 1960–1965 After 1967: Daniel Nestor 3 2010–2012 Winner of most mixed doubles titles – Men Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 7 1904–1906, 1908–1909, 1914 and 1920 with Suzanne Lenglen 1925-today: Ken Fletcher Jean-Claude Barclay 3 1963–1965 with Margaret Court 1968, 1971, 1973 with Françoise Dürr Winner of most titles (total: singles, doubles, mixed) – men Before 1925: (French club members only event) Max Decugis 28 1902–1920 (8 singles, 13 doubles, 7 mixed) 1925-today: Rafael Nadal 13 2005–2008, 2010–2014, 2017–2020 (13 singles) Women since 1897 Winner of most women’s singles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 6 1920–1923, 1925–1926 Note: Also won World Hard Court Championship in 1914, 1921–1923 After 1967: Chris Evert 7 1974–1975, 1979–1980, 1983, 1985–1986 Winner of most consecutive women’s singles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Jeanne Matthey Suzanne Lenglen 4 1909–1912 1920–1923 After 1967: / Monica Seles Justine Henin 3 1990–1992 2005–2007 Winner of most women’s doubles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Simonne Mathieu 6 1933, 1934 with Elizabeth Ryan, 1936–1937, 1938 with Billie Yorke, 1939 with Jadwiga Jędrzejowska After 1967: / Martina Navratilova 7 1975 with Chris Evert, 1982 with Anne Smith, 1984–1985, 1987, 1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári Winner of most consecutive women’s doubles titles Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Françoise Dürr 5 1967–1971 After 1967: / Martina Navratilova

Gigi Fernández

5 1984–1987, 1988 with Pam Shriver, 1986 with Andrea Temesvári

1991 with Jana Novotná, 1992–95 with Natasha Zvereva

Winner of most mixed doubles titles – women Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 7 1914, 1920 with Max Decugis, 1921–1923, 1925, 1926 with Jacques Brugnon After 1967: Françoise Dürr 3 1968, 1971, 1973 with Jean-Claude Barclay Winner of most titles (total: singles, doubles, mixed) – women Till 1967: (incl. French club members only era) Suzanne Lenglen 15 1919–1926 (6 singles, 2 doubles, 7 mixed) After 1967: / Martina Navratilova 11 1974–1988 (2 singles, 7 doubles, 2 mixed) Miscellaneous Youngest winner Men: Michael Chang 17 years and 3 months Women: / Monica Seles 16 years and 6 months Oldest winner Men: André Vacherot 40 years and 9 months Women: Zsuzsa Körmöczy 33 years and 10 months Unseeded Winners Men: Marcel Bernard Mats Wilander Gustavo Kuerten Gastón Gaudio 1946 1982 1997 2004 Women: Margaret Scriven Jeļena Ostapenko Iga Świątek 1933 2017 2020 Match wins (singles) Men: Rafa Nadal 100 2005–2020 (open era) Women: Steffi Graf 84 1983–1999 (open era)

Television coverage

2010 French Open – Court Philippe Chatrier

Broadcast rights to the French Open (as of 2018) are as follows:[36]

France

France Télévisions and Eurosport hold the broadcast rights to the French Open until 2021.

United Kingdom

ITV Sport and Eurosport holds broadcasting rights to show the French Open tennis tournaments until 2021.[37] The bulk of the daily coverage is broadcast on ITV4 although both singles finals plus other weekend matches are shown on ITV. John Inverdale hosts the coverage. Commentators include Nick Mullins, Jonathan Overend, Mark Petchey, Sam Smith, Jim Courier, Fabrice Santoro and Anne Keothavong.

Studio presentation for the French Open on Eurosport is hosted by Barbara Schett sometimes joined by Mats Wilander. Commentators include Simon Reed, Chris Bradnam, Nick Lester, Jason Goodall, Jo Durie, Frew McMillan, Arvind Parmar and Chris Wilkinson.

United States

NBC‘s coverage of the French Open began in 1975.[38] Tennis Channel owns pay television rights to the tournament. Coverage of morning window (U.S. time) matches were sub-licensed to ESPN for broadcast by ESPN2 from 2007 through 2015.[39] In August 2015, ESPN announced that it would discontinue its sub-licensing and drop coverage of the French Open beginning in 2016, with network staff citing that because of the structure of the arrangement, its coverage “did not fit our successful model at the other three Majors”—where ESPN is the exclusive rightsholder.[39] Tennis Channel chose to retain these rights under its new owner Sinclair Broadcast Group, nearly doubling the amount of coverage Tennis Channel will air from Roland Garros.[40][41]

Other than a three-year stint on CBS, NBC has remained the American television network home of the French Open since 1983. Since acquiring rights to the Indianapolis 500 in 2019, NBC’s coverage begins on Memorial Day, the second day of the tournament; the network provides coverage windows on the holiday and the second weekend in the afternoon U.S. time. These windows consist of exclusive tape-delayed matches from earlier in the day, but any ongoing matches at the window’s start are shown live to their conclusion. The later men’s and women’s semifinals are broadcast live on NBC in the Eastern Time Zone and tape-delayed in others, but since 2017 these matches are also simulcast on NBCSN to allow nationwide live coverage. Finals are live nationwide.[42]

Other countries and areas

Europe – Eurosport and the Eurosport Player[43] (co-broadcaster in various countries)

Albania – RTSH[43]

Austria – ORF[43]

Belgium – RTBF[43]

Bulgaria – BNT[43]

Croatia – HRT[43]

Cyprus – CyBC[43]

Czech Republic – Česká Televize[43]

Estonia – Postimees TV[43]

Finland – Yle[43]

Georgia – Silknet[43]

Greece – ERT[43]

Ireland – Eir Sport 1[43]

Montenegro – RTCG[43]

Russia – RTRS[43]

Slovakia – Markíza[43]

Slovenia – RTV Slovenija[43]

Switzerland – SRG SSR[43]

Americas – ESPN[43] (except Brazil & Canada)

Argentina – Televisión Pública Argentina[43]

Brazil – BandSports[43]

Canada – RDS (French) & TSN (English)[43]

Caribbean – ESPN Caribbean[43]

United States – NBCSN and The Tennis Channel

Africa

North Africa and Middle East – beIN Sports[43]

Southern Africa – SuperSport[43]

Asia

China – CCTV[43]

South Korea – JTBC Golf&Sports[43]

Japan – WOWOW & TV Tokyo[43]

Indian Subcontinent – Star Sports Select[43]

Southeast Asia – Fox Sports[43]

Oceania

Australia – Fox Sports and SBS Sport[44]

New Zealand – Sky Sport[43]

Fiji & Pacific Islands – Fox Sports[43]

See also

Lists of champions

List of French Open champions (Open Era, all events)

List of French Open men’s singles champions

List of French Open women’s singles champions

List of French Open men’s doubles champions

List of French Open women’s doubles champions

List of French Open mixed doubles champions

List of French Open singles finalists during the open era, records and statistics

Other Grand Slam tournaments

Australian Open

Wimbledon

US Open

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to French Open.

Official website

(in French) Roland Garros on France2

(in French) Roland Garros on ina.fr : more than 600 hours of audio/visual archives

Photos of Roland Garros

French Open – All winners and runners-up. Reference book

Preceded by Australian Open Grand Slam Tournament May–June Succeeded by Wimbledon

Coordinates: 48°50′49.8″N 2°14′57.3″E / 48.847167°N 2.249250°E / 48.847167; 2.249250

https://www.covid19snews.com/2020/11/12/french-open/

[junker-town]

PGA Championship postponed while PGA Tour cancels 4 more events

Photo by Gary Kellner/PGA of America via Getty Images

There will not be men’s pro golf in the United States for awhile, which went from expected to official with a rapid wave of announcements. Now what comes next?

A fast-moving 90-minute wave of announcements on Tuesday afternoon added to the uncertain 2020 men’s pro golf schedule. Given the evolving measures taken to try to combat the coronavirus pandemic, we did not need a group of press releases to know the next few months in golf were going to look different. While it’s now official, golf’s governing bodies added clarity only to the fact that there will be no golf until at least mid-May.

Let’s get to the nuts and bolts of what we do know now:

1. First came the USGA, announcing at 4 p.m. ET that local qualifying for the U.S. Open and qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open would be canceled. Two other championships, the men’s and women’s Amateur Four-Ball, were cancelled for 2020. The qualifying process for the U.S. Open is one that makes the national championship stand out, and was the impetus for their new slogan, “From many, one.” There will not be as many this year with local stage canceled. That leaves sectional qualifying, the stage full of mostly tour pros and other exempt players, still on the schedule (for now) for early June. The USGA said they are still “holding the dates” for the U.S. Open scheduled for June 18-21 in New York but the likelihood of that major championship happening then and there seems to decrease each day.

2. At 5:12 p.m. ET, James Corrigan of The Telegraph tweeted his report that the Ryder Cup is expecting to move to 2021. With a late September date, this came as the most surprising potential change during an otherwise expected wave of spring cancellations and postponements. Corrigan wrote of the “rapidly contracting” schedule and the desire to not jam the bonanza that is the Ryder Cup into whatever patchwork schedule comes out for the second half of the year. The Ryder Cup is co-managed by the PGA of America and the European Tour, and Corrigan added the bodies are “ready to replicate the decision of 19 years ago” when the match play event was pushed back a year after the 9/11 attacks. The Ryder Cup USA twitter account shortly followed with a tweet saying the report was not accurate.

3. At 5:15 p.m. ET, it was the PGA of America’s turn to postpone the second men’s major of the year, the PGA Championship. This was a formality given the mid-May date in a locale, TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, that’s already been hard hit by coronavirus spread. Rumors have run rampant about a re-location of the PGA Championship. For now, like the Masters, it is postponed until later in the year with Harding Park still the planned venue. PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said he looked “forward to hopefully bringing the 2020 PGA Championship to TPC Harding Park at a date this summer when it is once again safe and responsible to do so.”

4. At 5:30 p.m. ET, it was the PGA Tour’s turn to cancel its upcoming schedule. Last Thursday night at the Players Championship, after playing the first round at TPC Sawgrass, the Tour promptly cancelled the rest of The Players and then the next three events, the Valspar Championship, the WGC Match Play, and the Valero Texas Open. That put us at the Masters, which announced a day later it was postponing the April tournament. Now comes the post-Masters slate on the PGA Tour schedule, four events — The Heritage, Zurich Classic, Wells Fargo Championship, and the Byron Nelson — cancelled. That means the PGA Tour is cancelled through May 10, with the aforementioned PGA Championship for the following week postponed.

Some conclusions from the 90 minute wave of changes to the golf calendar:

With the Tour announcement and the Masters and PGA both postponed, we know there will be no men’s pro golf in the United States until at least May 18. At least.

Golf is not like the NBA or MLB in that there is no central body that owns or operates all these events. The four majors are all run by four separate organizations, and then there’s the PGA Tour running almost everything in between, including The Players and FedExCup Playoffs. The Ryder Cup is a jointly-run party on both sides of the Atlantic. The pecking order can be a point of debate, aside from Augusta National, which puts the heaviest thumb on the scale and can worry about the others reacting to whatever they decide. There can be tension between these organizations. But this has been a relatively peaceful era and it would appear all “five families” (PGA Tour, PGA of America, USGA, R&A, Augusta), as they’re called, are working together to figure out how to salvage a schedule over the summer and second half of the year. It’s not exactly heartwarming, but it’s encouraging if you’re a golf fan who would like to see majors scheduled and played later this year pending a containment of the pandemic. Eamon Lynch reported in Golfweek later Tuesday night that these organizations are, in fact, frantically working together on a new schedule.

The PGA Tour is likely taking the biggest hit. They have already canceled eight events, with more potentially coming, and may have to get out of the way for re-scheduled major championships in the back half of the year.

Corrigan also wrote of the Ryder Cup’s desire to also get out of years with the Olympics, which now has golf in the games. Every other Ryder Cup falls in an Olympics year and, per Corrigan, they’d prefer to have a longer runway (and more potential ad dollars) by getting back to the odd numbered years it had been in prior to the 9/11 attacks. This, of course, would then impact the Presidents Cup, the other team match play competition that’s currently played in odd numbered years. That is a PGA Tour run event and it would again be the Tour taking a hit or getting out of the way for a higher priority event.

No one knows anything certain about the future schedule, not even those making the decisions in these organizations. The rumors around a Masters re-scheduling have run the gamut in the week since that postponement announcement. More of the same will be floated for the others now and nothing seems close to final with a global health crisis that’s not operating on set schedule or with an easily predictable path.

[ericpoptone]

Last Sunday, the Super Bowl took place. For the 98.7% of the world’s population who didn’t watch this televised spectacle; it featured billionaire Enos Stanley Kroenke‘s Rams in competition with billionaire Robert Kraft’s Patriots; the musical stylings of the Empress of Soul (Gladys Knight), Proactiv’s Maroon 5, Kardashian rapper Travis Scott, and Big Boi; as well as no doubt hilarious advertisements for products sold by Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, CBS, Mars, Microsoft, and Walt Disney.

Despite the fact that most Americans don’t watch the soporific Super Bowl — an estimated 70% of the country did not tune in for any part of the roughly nine-hour long spectacle during which time the ball was actually in play for only about twelve minutes — Super Bowl Sunday has emerged, in recent years, into what some trade publications appetizingly describe it as the “second largest food consumption event of the year” after Thanksgiving. It all seems a bit Ancient Rome to me — and as someone who loves holidays feasts (especially pagan ones), I decided last December to host a Super Bowl party without any Super Bowl — something I call “Thanksgiving II.”

One of the things I love about Thanksgiving [I] is its pronounced autumnal character (autumn is one of my top four favorite seasons). On Thanksgiving, even people who think that “seasonal eating” means Shamrock Shakes in spring and Pumpkin Spice Lattes in fall get closer to the actual spirit. Apples, baked winter squash, beans and rice, Beaujolais Nouveau, boiled onions, Brussels sprouts, cider, collard greens, cornbread, cranberry sauce, fruit cake, grapes, hickory nut cake, lasagna, mashed potatoes and gravy, parsnip fritters, pecan pie, pickles, potato salad, pumpkin pie, sauerkraut, stuffing, and sweet potatoes all make sense to eat at autumn’s conclusion.

Thanksgiving II — which falls on the first Sunday of February, takes place near the end of winter — about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and toward the end of winter by meteorological reckoning. It occurs, in other words, around the same time as Imbolc, Candlemas (and thus, Groundhog Day), Setsubun, Lunar New Year, and of course, Lupercalia. It also thus marks the beginning of several vegetables’ “spring seasons.” Carrots are back, as is celery, which is handy because both are commonly eaten at Super Bowl Party’s dipped in Blue cheese dressing. Small, sweet, turnips also appear around this time, and I mixed them with potatoes to make a sort of mashed “neeps and tatties.” Having more potatoes than I could handle, I also roasted some with garlic and rosemary from the garden. I also cooked collard greens — now at the peak of their season — which I would’ve mixed with turnip greens but they’d already been removed by the time they made it to the market.

The roots of Thanksgiving II are in an annual American football competition, first held in 1967. It seems, from pictures, that straw boaters were once typically worn for such events — although I’m not sure why and sadly that practice seems to have faded long ago and the favored headgear of today’s jocks — regardless of sport — is the lowly baseball cap, usually unflatteringly worn backward.

Interestingly, whereas the first Thanksgiving was observed by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, the first Super Bowl paired the team of Greenbay, Wisconsin‘s Indian Packing Company with the Chiefs team of Kansas City, Missouri — two teams at least nominally connected to Native America. The annual match used to take place in January but was moved to February in 2002, following a postponement of the season on account of the terror attacks of 11 September, which took place the previous year.

This being my first Thanksgiving II, it was a bit of a learning experience…

I had decided that I would bake the pizzas at 3:30, when the actual football game begins. This was another mistake, because due to the large number of guests and the potluck nature of the buffet, there was also a massive quantity of non-pizza foods including salad, seitan jerky, grapes, pies (pecan and pumpkin), pigs-in-a-blanket, veggie chicken, as well as cheese and crackers. The vegan neighbor brought a jug of kombucha as well as a dish made of broccoli and kinwa. Because of the pre-pizza feast, by kick-off, everyone was too full to eat any more and the pizzas were thus never baked. Next year I will serve the traditional pizzas alongside the sides, pass-arounds, and hors d’oeuvres.

After pizza, the second-most traditional food at Super Bowl parties is the Buffalo wing — a food made of a section of a chicken’s wing which is deep-fried and subsequently coated or dipped in a sauce composed of a vinegar-based cayenne pepper sauce and melted butter. It was invented at Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York by Teressa Bellissimo. Although invented in 1964, I don’t remember ever hearing of them until sometime around the early ’00s, perhaps after the 2003-founding of WingStreet and incidentally, around the time cauliflower wings began to appear on the menus of sports bars I occasionally found myself dragged to. Because wings are apparently so important (and I am vegetarian), I had planned to buy mock chicken at Silom in Thai Town by one guest made cauliflower wings from a questionable recipe (it called for breading). I’m still not entirely clear about “dipping sauces,” although a co-worker endeavored to explain them to me. Is a dipping sauce distinct from a condiment? Do people make their own or buy them? Where those sauces developed on Breaking Bad for Pollos Hermanos (e.g. “Kick-ass Cajun, “Franch,” and “Honey mustard”)? Still not sure, I put out bottles of brown sauce, dumpling sauce, gogigui sauce, hoisin sauce, lechon sauce, salsa picante, and sriracha.

Chips, both potato and corn varieties, are traditional fare for Super Bowl parties — as are their associated dips and sauces such guacamole, pico de gallo, and “queso.” I first experienced “queso” a few years ago and at first, wondered why these Anglx friends of mine kept consistently (and I assumed, pretentiously) referring to cheese by its Spanish name. I soon learned that, in the Tex-Mex vernacular, not only does “queso” not refer to cheese — it doesn’t even refer to a dish made with cheese at all. Instead it refers to a corn chip dip made of “pasteurized processed cheese food product” (e.g. cheese-adjacent Velveeta®) and Ro-Tel® brand canned tomato and chili mix. In other words, it’s a bit like the Thanksgiving II equivalent of Campbell’s® green bean casserole — a corporate creation which despite its corporate origins is nevertheless pretty tasty. I put in a request from my friends who introduced me to the concoction but they instead brought a bag of pita bread.

Pretzels, popcorn, and nuts are also popular — the sort of salty snacks typically associated with dive bars and mass-produced and watery lagers. On this day, Americans consume around 424 million liters of beer and 94% of it is a macrobrew produced by either Anheuser-Busch or MillerCoors. As a wine drinker and this being winter, I was leaning toward full-bodied reds like Bordeaux blends, Cabernet Sauvignons, Malbecs, Syrahs, and Zinfandels. Had I gone white, I’d have chosen an oaked Chardonnay. It was pretty chilly out, in fact, and rain was pouring down. I thus entertained the notion of mulling the wine… but I’m glad that I didn’t. After trying to pace myself with red wine for nine hours, I learned just why people drinking for the long-haul favor lager.

So next year, I’ll bake the pizzas at the beginning, make sure queso is accounted for, buy lots of lager, and maybe start a bit later in the afternoon. Oh, and should you celebrate your own Thanksgiving II, the most important thing is to have fun… well that and to not watch the Super Bowl!

Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking paid writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in generating advertorials, cranking out clickbait, or laboring away in a listicle mill “for exposure.”

Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, CurbedLA, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA?, at Emerson College, and the University of Southern California. Art prints of Brightwell’s maps are available from 1650 Gallery. 

Brightwell is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Ameba, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Mubi, and Twitter.

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  Thanksgiving II; or, a Super Bowl Party for people who hate the Super Bowl Last Sunday, the Super Bowl took place. For the 98.7% of the world's population who didn't watch this televised spectacle; it featured billionaire Enos Stanley Kroenke's Rams in competition with billionaire Robert Kraft's Patriots; the musical stylings of the Empress of Soul (Gladys Knight), Proactiv's Maroon 5, Kardashian rapper Travis Scott, and Big Boi; as well as no doubt hilarious advertisements for products sold by Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, CBS, Mars, Microsoft, and Walt Disney.

[racingtoaredlight]

College Football 2020 Season Week 3 TV Watch Em Ups: Ruthkanda forever

Welcome to the season, MAC and B1G! We’re all excited to see who bows out first now. You may have heard by now that Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday but you probably didn’t know the cause. Well, RTARL can now confidently report that she died doing what she loved: breaking her neck while trying to suck her own dick.

UPDATE! That was actually Antonin Scalia. Ginsburg died in a car crash while street racing. R.I.P. in peace to her.

Well, no matter who dies we must plunge forward with college football. Last week Miami won and some other stuff happened. Enough didn’t happen that winning this year’s version of a body bag game was enough to vault the Canes to #17 this week. 

This week has a full slate of conference games because that’s all there is to the 2020 season. It’s all just COVID and conference games. At least the Pac-12 has attempted to keep things normal for fans by removing itself from the national championship conversation before the middle of September.

Blah blah fbschedules and moreso blah blah vegasinsider as per blah blah blah. #LFG

Saturday, September 19

Matchup                                                    Time (ET)                      TV/Mobile

Liberty at WKU                                          12:00pm                         ESPNU

The Pool Boys are a 14-point road dog and I would load up on the Hilltoppers at that spread. For entertainment purposes.

Navy at Tulane                                           12:00pm                           ABC

Navy was last week’s most pathetic team in the country. Maybe the Middies can rebound against a Tulane team that’s probably pretty antsy about hurricanes right now.

Boston College at Duke                            12:00pm                    RSN/ESPN3

Boston College can do the whole nation a solid by burying Duke right here right now. The line is thinning but the alma mater of Richard Spencer and Stephen Miller is still favored by 5.5 as I write this.

Syracuse at 25 Pitt                                     12:00pm                          ACCN

Syracuse is trash but Pitt being ranked smells like bait.

Austin Peay at 13 Cincinnati                     12:00pm                          ESPN+

Cincinnati at #13 is freaking me out just a bit.

Tulsa at 11 Oklahoma State                      12:00pm                          ESPN

Pound the over (66)!

19 Louisiana at Georgia State                   12:00pm                        ESPN2

So much for feeling good about Miami’s ranking.

USF at 7 Notre Dame                                  2:30pm                     USA Network

As Knute Bader Ginsburg once said: “Go out there and lose one for the good of the world.”

24 Appalachian State at Marshall              3:30pm                          CBS

ANARCHY IN APPALACHIA!

Stephen F. Austin at UTSA                          3:30pm                         ESPN2

There’s only like 15 games this week and I fucking hate this. Why did this game need to be played? Are these two programs really bringing in enough revenue to justify this shit?

Troy at Middle Tennessee                           3:30pm                         ESPN

This is on actual ESPN, not a sequel or iteration. Fuck this stupid season right in the butthole.

14 UCF at Georgia Tech                              3:30pm                          ABC

You can go from unranked to ranked #17 for beating UAB but beating Florida State is worth nothing. Upside down world. If the Wreck can spring an upset on the people’s champs look for a little number next to their name next week. Assuming they play. Not a super safe bet for anybody right now.

The Citadel at 1 Clemson                           4:00pm                          ACCN

Go Citadel. Or something. Can’t wait for this post to be over.

SMU at North Texas                                    6:00pm                         CBSSN

Spencer and MS621 have a huge bet on this game: winner fucks a horse and the loser has to eat the creampie.

Texas State at ULM                                     7:30pm                          ESPNU

This game couldn’t justify it’s own existence in the best of times.

17 Miami (FL) at 18 Louisville                     7:30pm                             ABC

A huge conference game between ranked opponents who got their current rankings by just kind of sitting on obviously inferior opponents last week. D’Eriq King was one of my favorite players in the country two years ago and he looked pretty good last week but actually drawing conclusions from a season opener is stupid. Looohahvuhlle is favored by 2.5 - are bookies still giving 3 points for homefield this year? Are the Hurricanes the very slight neutral site-favorite for this game? The ramifications of this early season tilt are completely irrelevant.

Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss               7:30pm                           ESPN2

I’d like to enjoy this game but I definitely will not.

Wake Forest at NC State                             8:00pm                           ACCN

Cross-Triangle rivals battle for some edible tobacco or some shit like that. Nobody cares.

Abilene Christian at UTEP                           9:00pm                           ESPN3

Winner gets a ranking.

GAMES OF THE WEEK:

Houston at Baylor  Postponed

21 BYU at 22 Army  Postponed

Charlotte at 12 North Carolina  Canceled

Florida Atlantic at Georgia Southern  Postponed 

[educationcareernews]

JEE Main 2020, Sep 2: BE/BTech exam paper analysis and feedback from students Subscribe - https://ift.tt/2BvgxbE Facebook - https://ift.tt/3hRxoWV Twitter - https://twitter.com/EducationCaree6 Pinterest - https://ift.tt/2YpDlCG Tumblr - https://ift.tt/2NmT92U Blog - https://ift.tt/2NhbzC6 #Exam #Recruitment #Result #School #College #Study #NEP #New_Education_Policy #Admission NEW DELHI: The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for BE or BTech (JEE Main Paper I) started today, Wednesday, September 02, 2020. The JEE Main Paper I exam is being conducted in two shifts. The first shift of the exam began at 9.00 am while the second shift will begin from 3.00 pm. The JEE Main exams will continue till September 6. Over 9 lakh candidates have registered for the JEE-Mains exam for admission to engineering courses in IITs, NITs and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs). The exams will be conducted for six days, till September 6, altogether across 660 centres pan India. The exam centres across the country have organised staggered entry and exit for candidates, sanitisers at the gate, distribution of masks following safe social distance. Generally scheduled in April, the conduction of the nation-wide engineering exam has been severely opposed by members of the opposition and several students after it was already postponed two times in the last few months due to the coronavirus and floods that have affected many parts of the country. JEE Main exam paper analysis and feedback from students The students who appeared for the JEE Main Paper I (BE/BTech) exam in the first shift today shared that the paper was moderate difficulty level. The students also said that they did not face any issues at the centres as all safety norms were properly followed. The topics included in the question paper from Class 11 12 were equivalent in weightage. Physics section turned out to be trickiest in comparison to the Chemistry Maths section. Students found the numerical questions of Maths Chemistry easy to solve. 60-70% of questions in Chemistry were directly given from NCERT. The question paper included 100 questions in total. Students reported that they were satisfied with the safety measures taken at the exam centre amid the pandemic. At some centres, social distancing norms were not taken care of after the exam. Check detailed section-wise topic-wise JEE Main Paper-1 Analysis for today’s first shift below. JEE Main 2020 Paper 1 Expert Analysis As per the experts, the overall difficulty level of today’s JEE Main exam was moderate. The experts and students alike shared the same opinion regarding the level of difficulty. Both of them cited Physics as the trickiest section while Maths Chemistry were easier in comparison. The numerical value-based questions of Maths Chemistry were easy to solve while Physics was a bit difficult. JEE Main Paper 1 Analysis 2020: Major Highlights Overall Feedback: Moderate Level of difficulty in Physics: Difficult Level of difficulty in Chemistry: Easy Level of difficulty in Maths: Easy to moderate JEE Main Exam Pattern 2020 As NTA releases the question paper after the conclusion of all slots, Goprep’s experts have based their analysis taking the students’ reaction into consideration. Below is the total number of questions asked in each section along with the good attempts. Section Number of Questions Good Attempts Physics 25 14-16 Chemistry 25 15-17 Mathematics 25 13-14 Overall 75 42-47 JEE Main Paper 1 Section-wise Weightage As stated above, the easiest section was that of Chemistry as students found the questions easy to crack. Here, let us analyse the topic-wise number of questions and their weightage for each section. JEE Main Paper 1 Weightage: Chemistry Section As stated above, most of the questions were directly given from the NCERT book. This section was less time-consuming in comparison to the other section. Sections Number of Questions Physical Chemistry 7-8 Organic Chemistry 10-12 Inorganic Chemistry 7-8 JEE Main Paper 1 Weightage: Physics Section Physics section was the difficult section among all three sections. Students found this section a bit lengthy. Topics Number of Questions Electrostatic Magnetism 5-6 Current Electricity EMI 2-4 Optics Modern Physics 4-5 JEE Main Paper 1 Weightage: Mathematics Section The majority of the questions were from Calculus Algebra. This time, the Mathematics section was...

[supersportsnewsblog]

SHOWS: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA (FILE - DECEMBER 21, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. JUVENTUS TRAINING UNDERWAY 2. CRISTIANO RONALDO TRAINING AMONG TEAM MATES 3. PLAYERS IN CIRCLE PASSING BALL 4. COACH MAURIZIO SARRI (GLASSES) WATCHING ON 5. RONALDO PASSING BALL 6. SARRI 7. GONZALO HIGUAIN (LEFT), DOUGLAS COSTA AND PAULO DYBALA (BACK), WHO TESTED POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS MADRID, SPAIN (FILE - SEPTEMBER 17, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. JUVENTUS DEFENDER DANIELE RUGANI, WHO TESTED POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS (MIDDLE, FACING CAMERA) VALENCIA, SPAIN (FILE - SEPTEMBER 18, 2018) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. MATUIDI AMONG TEAMMATES 10. MATUIDI'S SHOES AND MATUIDI APPIANO GENTILE, ITALY (FILE - DECEMBER 9, 2019) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 11. VARIOUS OF INTER MILAN STRIKER ROMELU LUKAKU ARRIVING ON PITCH 12. VARIOUS OF STRIKER LAUTARO MARTINEZ ARRIVING ON PITCH 13. VARIOUS OF COACH ANTONIO CONTE ARRIVING ON PITCH 14. VARIOUS OF PLAYERS JOGGING NAPLES, ITALY (FILE - MARCH 4, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 15. VARIOUS OF CLEANERS WEARING PROTECTIVE SUITS SANITISING SEATS AT THE SAN PAOLO STADIUM AHEAD OF THE SECOND LEG OF THE COPPA ITALIA SEMI-FINAL BETWEEN NAPOLI AND INTER MILAN, WHICH WAS POSTPONED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS TURIN, ITALY (FILE - MARCH 12, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 16. EXTERIORS OFJUVENTUS' ALLIANZ STADIUM 17. JUVENTUS LOGO ON EXTERIOR OF STADIUM 18. MAN WALKING INTO ENTRANCE AT STADIUM 19. EXTERIOR OF STADIUM 20. SIGN, READING (English): "END OF THE MATCH" ON EXTERIOR OF STADIUM MILAN, ITALY (FILE - MARCH 12, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 21. EXTERIOR OF SAN SIRO STADIUM 22. SIGN, READING: "SAN SIRO MUSEUM & TOUR, SAN SIRO STORE CLOSED" 23. MEMBER OF GROUND STAFF WORKING ON PITCH 24. EXTERIOR OF STADIUM MILAN, ITALY (FILE - MARCH 1, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 25. EXTERIOR OF SAN SIRO STADIUM SEEN FROM GATE 26. EXTERIORS OF SAN SIRO STADIUM 27. VARIOUS OF ELECTRONIC BOARD OUTSIDE STADIUM READING (English and Italian) "AC MILAN - GENOA CFC MATCH MOVED TO MAY THE 13TH 2020" 28. EMPTY PARKING LOTS IN FRONT OF STADIUM 29. SERIE A LOGO OUTSIDE CLOSED OFFICE 30. SERIE A CLOSED OFFICE 31. SERIE A LOGO ON WINDOW OF CLOSED OFFICE STORY: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte gave the go-ahead on Sunday (April 26) for professional sports teams to start training again in May following the novel coronavirus outbreak but did not set a date for soccer's top-flight Serie A championship to resume. Conte, announcing measures to ease the lockdown during a televised address to the country, said individual training could start on May 4, when players would still have to respect social distancing rules, and that team training could begin on May 18. Italy was the first European country to be hit hard by the coronavirus and Serie A has been suspended since March 9. The suspension followed a chaotic fortnight in which the country attempted to carry on with matches behind closed doors. Conte said sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora would work "intensively" with scientists and sports leaders to ensure training was safe. "Then we will try to see if they can continue with the championships that are suspended. We will only reach this conclusion if it can be guaranteed that it is safe. We don't want our athletes to get sick. "I'm passionate for football," he added. "Like many Italians, I initially found it strange that the championship could be interrupted or suspended but I think that even the most ardent fan understands that there wasn't an alternative." The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has already drawn up a medical protocol for training. For the start of training, each club will form a group of players, technical staff, doctors and physiotherapists who will be tested and then isolated in a summer-style training camp. There are also plans to donate five COVID test-kits for each kit used by clubs to avoid the criticism that football is taking away much-needed resources from other areas. There are 12 rounds of matches still to play in Serie A plus a number of outstanding games from previous rounds. Title holders Juventus are one point clear of Lazio at the top. (Production: Stefan Haskins)

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8260652 https://ift.tt/2VZc1st

[itsfinancethings]

March 18, 2020 at 09:58PM

Hollywood was already bracing for a bad box office year before the novel coronavirus hit. Netflix and other streaming services have slowly begun to supplant the moviegoing experience for millions of people. And after studios, specifically Disney, packed their 2019 schedules with epic conclusions to major franchises that drew a broad group of both loyalists and casual fans — Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Toy Story 4 — industry prognosticators expected to see last year’s global box office record followed by a significant drop in ticket sales in 2020.

“This was going to be the worst year in movie theater history before the coronavirus hit,” says Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at LightShed partners. “This is like pouring lighter fluid on the fire.”

The global box office took its first hit when the Chinese government shut down movie theaters on January 23, dashing the hopes for major international plays like Mulan and Fast and Furious 9 that rely heavily on China’s box office. As COVID-19 spread, other countries followed suit. Two weeks ago, producer Barbara Broccoli made what, in retrospect, was the portentous decision to move the next James Bond film, No Time To Die, from its April release date to November in hopes that the virus will be under control by the holiday season. In the following weeks, as movie theaters in major American cities like New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles have begun to reduce admittance or close outright, studios have begun to scramble.

Most of the major movies set to premiere in the next few months — Mulan, Fast and Furious 9, A Quiet Place 2 and Black Widow, to name a few — have been delayed. Fast 9 pushed its release date an entire year ahead, while other postponed release dates remain unannounced. The city of Austin, Texas, cancelled SXSW, a major blow to independent filmmakers hoping to launch their careers on the festival circuit and to dozens of SXSW employees who were subsequently laid off. Other festivals, like Tribeca, have already followed suit, while the fate of Cannes, scheduled to take place in May, hangs in the balance.

COVID-19 throws movie theaters and studios into crisis mode

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the industry in ways that are visible to us — stars like Tom Hanks and Idris Elba have tested positive for the virus — and in ways that affect the livelihoods of many other people whose names we will never know as filming and production are delayed or suspended industry-wide.

This past weekend, the box office hit a 20-year low, down 60% from a year ago. Movie theaters fared better the weekend after September 11 than they are faring now. The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) has asked the federal government for a bailout to support the 150,000 people who work at and for movie theaters during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Nielsen found a 6% increase in television viewing across America over the weekend and a 13% increase in the use of streaming devices (including streaming sticks and smart TV apps). That firm’s research has found that during times when people are forced to stay in their homes — say, waiting for a hurricane to pass — they increase the amount of content they watch on TV or streaming by as much as 60%. TV-watching has increased in countries that were hit early and hard by coronavirus: South Korea saw a 17% increase in TV viewing, according to Nielsen, and Italy has seen a 12% increase in TV watching in the Lombardy region, the center of the Coronavirus outbreak, according to the Italian Joint Industry Committee, Auditel.

“As more Americans shift to a strategy of social distancing, we might continue to see increases in how they are connecting to all media,” says Peter Katsingris, SVP Audience Insights at Nielsen.

At this point, the future of the movie industry remains uncertain. The marketing machine took time to come to a stop. Servers in Hollywood’s Dolby Theater donned protective gloves to hand out hors d’oeuvres at the the American Mulan premiere just days before its release was delayed indefinitely. And on Saturday, Daniel Craig fulfilled his Saturday Night Live hosting gig even after the James Bond film was pushed back to the fall.

With the ground constantly shifting under everyone’s feet, studios are trying to rapidly calculate how to cut their losses. Greenfield swore in an interview on Monday afternoon that it simply did not make economic sense for big studios to ship films straight to streaming in an effort to recoup some profits. Later that day, Universal broke its theatrical windows and announced that it would soon offer Emma, The Hunt and The Invisible Man to stream for $19.99. These are unprecedented times. And while these aren’t Universal’s biggest franchises, they also aren’t little indies. Studios have struggled for years to lure moviegoers to theaters to see mid-budget movies. If other studios follow suit, this could certainly help cement their place on streaming services, where many have long suspected anything that doesn’t require surround sound and a giant screen for special effects is ultimately headed.

“To the extent that this lasts for months, do people get so in the habit of watching Netflix that they don’t want to go back to movie theaters?” asks Greenfield. “I think that’s a real risk that theater attendance never bounces back to the levels it once was.”

A history of ups, downs and existential uncertainty

This is not the first time the movie theater industry has faced what looked like end times. Historians and healthcare workers have been comparing the spread of COVID-19 to the Spanish Influenza that infected some 500 million people across the world in 1918, including 675,000 Americans. (It was far deadlier than COVID-19, but similar in that it was a respiratory illness that countries across the world struggled to contain.) Karina Longworth — host of You Must Remember This, an excellent podcast on Hollywood history — recently released an episode on how Hollywood responded to that pandemic in hopes of better understanding the state of the industry right now.

Then, as now, cities mandated the closing of movie theaters and other public places. Studios in Hollywood voluntarily shut down film production for three weeks as a result. When the pandemic passed, few movie theaters were able to reopen. The head of Paramount Pictures, Adolph Zukor, began to buy up movie theaters that had closed or were struggling to rebuild their businesses. His flunkies even threatened to build competing movie theaters across the street from picture houses that wouldn’t sell their businesses.

Paramount built a cadre of movie theaters, and other studios followed suit, playing exclusively their own content in each theater. The studios upped their profits by forcing the theaters they owned to show unpopular movies in exchange for the privilege to show more popular films. This lasted until 1948, when the Supreme Court broke up these monopolies and forced the studios to sell their movie theaters — pushing the industry into another depression. It wasn’t until the rise of the blockbuster movie in the 1970s that the industry became viable again.

But the era of studio-owned theaters may see another chapter. Late last year, the Trump administration announced that it wants to terminate those longstanding regulations for movie distribution and make it possible for studios to buy a major theater company. It’s likely that big Hollywood studios — and even streamers like Netflix, which acquired New York’s iconic Paris theater last year for “events” and showed its Oscar contender Marriage Story there — are eager for such a change, and even more so now that studios face an inevitable hit to their profits during social isolation. That would be bad news for smaller companies that consistently produce great, Oscar-worthy fare, like A24 (Moonlight) and Neon (Parasite). Under the proposed rule changes, their films could get increasingly elbowed out of movie theaters and onto streaming services.

Even if audiences do return to the theater after the coronavirus is contained, eager just to get out of the house and be among friends and strangers again, we may see a misleading initial surge in ticket sales. After months of being cooped up, people might show up in droves for the opening weekends of No Time to Die or Black Widow. But after studios run through the films they’ve already wrapped, it’s unclear what they’ll put on the screens.

“There is a pipeline of content in the can that is going to get released, but obviously that isn’t forever,” says Greenfield. Many shows and movies that were set to release this fall or early next year have seen their productions suspended as a social distancing measure. If the virus lingers for long enough, studios and networks will eventually run out of new shows to put on streaming services. “But when you look at Netflix’s and Amazon’s libraries, there’s a near-unlimited amount of content for people to burn through there in the coming months.”

Still, it’s smaller indie films that stand to suffer the most: They might not be able to continue to afford filming after a long suspension. Actors or directors who are committed to film both a superhero movie and a gritty indie in the next year — a typical combination these days — will likely be forced to prioritize and choose between the projects, and given the money at stake with the big studio fare, the indies may be sacrificed.

The answers may lie in how long we stay indoors — and the blow to personal finances

There is, alternatively, a universe in which the audiences don’t return to the movie theaters in droves the day they reopen. The reality is that we are going to stream more in the months to come. Streaming numbers are harder to come by: Netflix, Hulu and Apple all declined to comment for this story and don’t regularly release viewership numbers. But the 13% increase in streaming recorded by Nielsen may be the beginning of a new era: As more cities mandate that theaters and other public spaces close or even enforce lockdowns, those numbers are likely to go up.

Today, Netflix introduced Netflix Party, a Google Chrome extension that allows groups of friends to enjoy movie night together without risking the spread of coronavirus. If people get into the habit of watching movies this way, they may opt to use Netflix Party with friends rather than planning a trip to the movies. Teens are already ahead of the curve on this trend: they hang out together but apart on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. Now, parents may start mirroring their Gen Z children’s behavior.

And it’s possible we will become accustomed to the convenience and lower cost of streaming content. Many workers will have taken an economic hit during the coronavirus outbreak, and spending $100 on tickets, popcorn and soda for the whole family to go to the movies is just less feasible than spending $119 on Amazon Prime for the entire year — with the added bonus of instant deliveries to boot.

Studios are eager to avoid that fate, which is why industry analysts believe that companies like Disney will resist putting their biggest budget films directly onto streaming platforms. “At movie theaters people pay per-head,” says Greenfield. “Trying to replicate that on an in-home basis is very challenging.” And if Mulan, for example, were to land on Disney+ instead of in movie theaters, audiences might come to expect sprawling action flicks at home instead of feeling compelled to watch battle scenes on the big screen.

But that calculus may change the longer we stay indoors. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that the virus will likely reach its peak in that state on May 1. It will take even longer to peak in other states that saw the virus arrive later. Every industry, including Hollywood, is in a state of uncertainty, and nobody knows what comes next — not even the analysts like Katsingris at Nielsen, who are experts at recording and predicting trends but have little precedent to turn to in this moment of confusion. In Katsingris’ words: “It has upended the media industry.”

[coin-river-blog]

The Indian government has engaged in numerous crypto-related initiatives and projects while actively drafting the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Below are 11 crypto-specific initiatives that the government has been involved in.

Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request

Committee to Draft Crypto Law

An interministerial committee under the chairmanship of Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, has been constituted to draft the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. Included on the committee are representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

The committee is “considering all aspects related to virtual currencies and crypto assets … including banning/regulating,” according to the Finance Ministry’s summary report released in March of the government’s activities in 2018.

The legal framework for cryptocurrencies in India was expected to be finalized in July last year, but no framework has been announced so far. This has led to speculation about what the recommendations entail, such as the recent media report claiming that the bill entitled “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019” has already been circulated to relevant ministries for discussion. The Indian crypto community has urged the public not jump to conclusions as the media reports only cite anonymous sources on the matter.

Working With FATF and G20

India’s “Department of Revenue has been actively involved in the working papers being developed by the FATF on various issues (such as virtual currency, proliferation financing among) which will act as guidance for the member countries,” the Finance Ministry’s summary report also reveals.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global standard-setting body created to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, told the G20 recently that it is updating policies on crypto regulation which will be presented at the G20 summit in June. India is a G20 country and will be attending the summit and participate in discussions about crypto regulation.

RBI Banking Restriction

In addition to several warnings about the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies, the RBI issued a circular on April 6 last year prohibiting regulated entities from dealing in cryptocurrencies or providing “services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling” cryptocurrencies. Financial institutions had three months to exit crypto-related relationships.

The RBI detailed that “Such services include maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer/receipt of money in accounts relating to purchase/sale” of cryptocurrencies.

While the banking restriction has hurt a number of local crypto businesses, some have found a solution to the ban in the exchange-escrowed peer-to-peer crypto trading model. Meanwhile, the Indian crypto community has been actively campaigning to end the ban.

Supreme Court Hearing

Multiple writ petitions have been filed with the Indian justice system to lift the RBI ban. They were scheduled to be heard by the supreme court since September last year but the case has been continually postponed. The next hearing date is July 23. The supreme court has also asked the government to submit a report of the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

Discussions at Blockchain Summit

In February, the Department of Science and Technology, the State Government of Uttar Pradesh, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and the Department of Information Technology gathered at Blockchain Summit India to discuss various crypto-related topics including regulation.

The event’s fintech partner, Cashaa, announced afterward that the policymakers discussed how to speed up crypto regulation. “The regulation is planned to be implemented by end of financial tenure,” Cashaa wrote, noting that ICOs and STOs were also discussed.

Potential Central Bank Digital Currency

Replying to the question asked by Lok Sabha whether the government is considering introducing its own national cryptocurrency “in place of bitcoins,” the Ministry of Finance confirmed on Dec. 28 last year:

The inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, is examining all issues, including the pros and cons of the introduction of an official digital currency in India.

SEBI Crypto Study Tour & Committee

In its 2017-18 annual report, SEBI revealed that it had “organised study tours to Financial Services Agency (FSA) Japan, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) Switzerland to study initial coin offerings and cryptocurrencies.”

The regulator constituted the Committee on Financial and Regulatory Technologies on August 3, 2017, “In order to reap the opportunities provided by fintech” and “to deal with relevant risk and challenges,” SEBI detailed. It also noted that new technology, including cryptocurrency, “is affecting financial markets through various channels.” The committee is under the chairmanship of Shri T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education.

Cybercrime Unit for Crypto

India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a national cyber forensic lab and the Delhi Police’s cybercrime unit called Cypad to help detect fraud online, including those involving cryptocurrency, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported.

The national cyber forensic lab includes a crypto forensic unit. It is equipped with technology to recover data from damaged hard disks, perform cryptocurrency analysis, and ensure malware forensic data can be retrieved from 33,000 kinds of mobile phone models available on the market.

Working With Canada

Cryptocurrency was a major topic of discussion at the 16th meeting of the Canada-India Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism held in Ottawa on March 26 and 27. India’s delegation was led by Joint Secretary for Counter-Terrorism from the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Mahaveer Singhvi. The meeting involved senior representatives from both governments, according to a press release by the joint working group.

Among other items on the agenda, “The delegations reviewed efforts underway to address new and emerging challenges posed by virtual currencies,” the announcement reads, adding that “The meetings concluded with agreement on a joint action plan” which includes “joint capacity building and information and technology sharing.”

ICAI Report

A detailed study conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) “on accounting standards and disclosures of cryptocurrency in financial statements of companies” was requested by the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs in January last year, according to ICAI member Debashis Mitra. The institute, a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, went on to launch a course on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for professional accountants in August last year.

RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox

The RBI recently published a draft framework for a fintech regulatory sandbox that welcomes businesses and applications using smart contract blockchain technologies. However, the document also has “An indicative negative list” of products, services, activities, and technology “which may not be accepted for testing.” The list includes cryptocurrency, crypto services, crypto trading, crypto investing, as well as settling in crypto assets. It also includes initial coin offerings and any products or services which have been banned by the government.

It should be noted that India is undergoing an election cycle and many decisions made by the current government administration could be null and void when the next administration takes office.

What do you think of all the crypto-related initiatives by the Indian government? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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Hollywood was already bracing for a bad box office year before the novel coronavirus hit. Netflix and other streaming services have slowly begun to supplant the moviegoing experience for millions of people. And after studios, specifically Disney, packed their 2019 schedules with epic conclusions to major franchises that drew a broad group of both loyalists and casual fans — Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Toy Story 4 — industry prognosticators expected to see last year’s global box office record followed by a significant drop in ticket sales in 2020.

“This was going to be the worst year in movie theater history before the coronavirus hit,” says Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at LightShed partners. “This is like pouring lighter fluid on the fire.”

The global box office took its first hit when the Chinese government shut down movie theaters on January 23, dashing the hopes for major international plays like Mulan and Fast and Furious 9 that rely heavily on China’s box office. As COVID-19 spread, other countries followed suit. Two weeks ago, producer Barbara Broccoli made what, in retrospect, was the portentous decision to move the next James Bond film, No Time To Die, from its April release date to November in hopes that the virus will be under control by the holiday season. In the following weeks, as movie theaters in major American cities like New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles have begun to reduce admittance or close outright, studios have begun to scramble.

Most of the major movies set to premiere in the next few months — Mulan, Fast and Furious 9, A Quiet Place 2 and Black Widow, to name a few — have been delayed. Fast 9 pushed its release date an entire year ahead, while other postponed release dates remain unannounced. The city of Austin, Texas, cancelled SXSW, a major blow to independent filmmakers hoping to launch their careers on the festival circuit and to dozens of SXSW employees who were subsequently laid off. Other festivals, like Tribeca, have already followed suit, while the fate of Cannes, scheduled to take place in May, hangs in the balance.

COVID-19 throws movie theaters and studios into crisis mode

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the industry in ways that are visible to us — stars like Tom Hanks and Idris Elba have tested positive for the virus — and in ways that affect the livelihoods of many other people whose names we will never know as filming and production are delayed or suspended industry-wide.

This past weekend, the box office hit a 20-year low, down 60% from a year ago. Movie theaters fared better the weekend after September 11 than they are faring now. The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) has asked the federal government for a bailout to support the 150,000 people who work at and for movie theaters during the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Nielsen found a 6% increase in television viewing across America over the weekend and a 13% increase in the use of streaming devices (including streaming sticks and smart TV apps). That firm’s research has found that during times when people are forced to stay in their homes — say, waiting for a hurricane to pass — they increase the amount of content they watch on TV or streaming by as much as 60%. TV-watching has increased in countries that were hit early and hard by coronavirus: South Korea saw a 17% increase in TV viewing, according to Nielsen, and Italy has seen a 12% increase in TV watching in the Lombardy region, the center of the Coronavirus outbreak, according to the Italian Joint Industry Committee, Auditel.

“As more Americans shift to a strategy of social distancing, we might continue to see increases in how they are connecting to all media,” says Peter Katsingris, SVP Audience Insights at Nielsen.

At this point, the future of the movie industry remains uncertain. The marketing machine took time to come to a stop. Servers in Hollywood’s Dolby Theater donned protective gloves to hand out hors d’oeuvres at the the American Mulan premiere just days before its release was delayed indefinitely. And on Saturday, Daniel Craig fulfilled his Saturday Night Live hosting gig even after the James Bond film was pushed back to the fall.

With the ground constantly shifting under everyone’s feet, studios are trying to rapidly calculate how to cut their losses. Greenfield swore in an interview on Monday afternoon that it simply did not make economic sense for big studios to ship films straight to streaming in an effort to recoup some profits. Later that day, Universal broke its theatrical windows and announced that it would soon offer Emma, The Hunt and The Invisible Man to stream for $19.99. These are unprecedented times. And while these aren’t Universal’s biggest franchises, they also aren’t little indies. Studios have struggled for years to lure moviegoers to theaters to see mid-budget movies. If other studios follow suit, this could certainly help cement their place on streaming services, where many have long suspected anything that doesn’t require surround sound and a giant screen for special effects is ultimately headed.

“To the extent that this lasts for months, do people get so in the habit of watching Netflix that they don’t want to go back to movie theaters?” asks Greenfield. “I think that’s a real risk that theater attendance never bounces back to the levels it once was.”

A history of ups, downs and existential uncertainty

This is not the first time the movie theater industry has faced what looked like end times. Historians and healthcare workers have been comparing the spread of COVID-19 to the Spanish Influenza that infected some 500 million people across the world in 1918, including 675,000 Americans. (It was far deadlier than COVID-19, but similar in that it was a respiratory illness that countries across the world struggled to contain.) Karina Longworth — host of You Must Remember This, an excellent podcast on Hollywood history — recently released an episode on how Hollywood responded to that pandemic in hopes of better understanding the state of the industry right now.

Then, as now, cities mandated the closing of movie theaters and other public places. Studios in Hollywood voluntarily shut down film production for three weeks as a result. When the pandemic passed, few movie theaters were able to reopen. The head of Paramount Pictures, Adolph Zukor, began to buy up movie theaters that had closed or were struggling to rebuild their businesses. His flunkies even threatened to build competing movie theaters across the street from picture houses that wouldn’t sell their businesses.

Paramount built a cadre of movie theaters, and other studios followed suit, playing exclusively their own content in each theater. The studios upped their profits by forcing the theaters they owned to show unpopular movies in exchange for the privilege to show more popular films. This lasted until 1948, when the Supreme Court broke up these monopolies and forced the studios to sell their movie theaters — pushing the industry into another depression. It wasn’t until the rise of the blockbuster movie in the 1970s that the industry became viable again.

But the era of studio-owned theaters may see another chapter. Late last year, the Trump administration announced that it wants to terminate those longstanding regulations for movie distribution and make it possible for studios to buy a major theater company. It’s likely that big Hollywood studios — and even streamers like Netflix, which acquired New York’s iconic Paris theater last year for “events” and showed its Oscar contender Marriage Story there — are eager for such a change, and even more so now that studios face an inevitable hit to their profits during social isolation. That would be bad news for smaller companies that consistently produce great, Oscar-worthy fare, like A24 (Moonlight) and Neon (Parasite). Under the proposed rule changes, their films could get increasingly elbowed out of movie theaters and onto streaming services.

Even if audiences do return to the theater after the coronavirus is contained, eager just to get out of the house and be among friends and strangers again, we may see a misleading initial surge in ticket sales. After months of being cooped up, people might show up in droves for the opening weekends of No Time to Die or Black Widow. But after studios run through the films they’ve already wrapped, it’s unclear what they’ll put on the screens.

“There is a pipeline of content in the can that is going to get released, but obviously that isn’t forever,” says Greenfield. Many shows and movies that were set to release this fall or early next year have seen their productions suspended as a social distancing measure. If the virus lingers for long enough, studios and networks will eventually run out of new shows to put on streaming services. “But when you look at Netflix’s and Amazon’s libraries, there’s a near-unlimited amount of content for people to burn through there in the coming months.”

Still, it’s smaller indie films that stand to suffer the most: They might not be able to continue to afford filming after a long suspension. Actors or directors who are committed to film both a superhero movie and a gritty indie in the next year — a typical combination these days — will likely be forced to prioritize and choose between the projects, and given the money at stake with the big studio fare, the indies may be sacrificed.

The answers may lie in how long we stay indoors — and the blow to personal finances

There is, alternatively, a universe in which the audiences don’t return to the movie theaters in droves the day they reopen. The reality is that we are going to stream more in the months to come. Streaming numbers are harder to come by: Netflix, Hulu and Apple all declined to comment for this story and don’t regularly release viewership numbers. But the 13% increase in streaming recorded by Nielsen may be the beginning of a new era: As more cities mandate that theaters and other public spaces close or even enforce lockdowns, those numbers are likely to go up.

Today, Netflix introduced Netflix Party, a Google Chrome extension that allows groups of friends to enjoy movie night together without risking the spread of coronavirus. If people get into the habit of watching movies this way, they may opt to use Netflix Party with friends rather than planning a trip to the movies. Teens are already ahead of the curve on this trend: they hang out together but apart on social media apps like TikTok and Instagram. Now, parents may start mirroring their Gen Z children’s behavior.

And it’s possible we will become accustomed to the convenience and lower cost of streaming content. Many workers will have taken an economic hit during the coronavirus outbreak, and spending $100 on tickets, popcorn and soda for the whole family to go to the movies is just less feasible than spending $119 on Amazon Prime for the entire year — with the added bonus of instant deliveries to boot.

Studios are eager to avoid that fate, which is why industry analysts believe that companies like Disney will resist putting their biggest budget films directly onto streaming platforms. “At movie theaters people pay per-head,” says Greenfield. “Trying to replicate that on an in-home basis is very challenging.” And if Mulan, for example, were to land on Disney+ instead of in movie theaters, audiences might come to expect sprawling action flicks at home instead of feeling compelled to watch battle scenes on the big screen.

But that calculus may change the longer we stay indoors. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that the virus will likely reach its peak in that state on May 1. It will take even longer to peak in other states that saw the virus arrive later. Every industry, including Hollywood, is in a state of uncertainty, and nobody knows what comes next — not even the analysts like Katsingris at Nielsen, who are experts at recording and predicting trends but have little precedent to turn to in this moment of confusion. In Katsingris’ words: “It has upended the media industry.”