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fyeah-bangtan7 · 6 years ago

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The Greatest Showmen: An exclusive look inside the world of BTS

Maybe you saw them piled on the klieg-lit couches of Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon, trading light bilingual banter with their starstruck hosts. Maybe it was when they spoke solemnly on mental health and self-love at the United Nations General Assembly last September, or when a wall of dolphin-like screams greeted them as they rolled into February’s Grammy Awards in trim matching tuxedos, their hair tinted various shades of pastel macaron.

Or maybe the cover of this magazine is the first time you’ve truly noticed BTS. (Stranger things have happened in 2019.) But it seems indisputable to say that sometime over the past two years, the septet have taken over the world: two No. 1 albums on the Billboard chart in the span of three months; more than 5 billion streams combined on Apple Music and Spotify; a string of sold-out concert dates from the Staples Center in Los Angeles to London’s famed Wembley Stadium.

That hardly makes them the first boy band to dominate a cultural moment, but the fact that they are all Korean-born and -raised, singing Korean-language songs only occasionally sprinkled with English, feels like something brand-new. And it speaks to an unprecedented kind of global currency — one where pop music moves without barriers or borders, even as geopolitics seem to retreat further behind hard lines and high walls.

On a blindingly bright March day in Seoul five weeks before the release of their upcoming sixth EP, Map of the Soul: Persona, the band is holed up at their record label Big Hit Entertainment, preparing. Buildings like this are where much of the magic of the phenomenon known as K-pop happens, though Big Hit’s headquarters on a quiet side street in the city’s Gangnam district (yes, the same one Psy sang about in his 2012 smash “Gangnam Style”) look a lot like any other tech office: sleek poured-cement corridors and glass-box conference rooms scattered with well-stocked mini-fridges, plush toys, and the occasional beanbag chair. Only a display case stacked with a truly staggering number of sales plaques and statuettes, and a glossy large-scale photo print of BTS at their sold-out concert at New York’s Citi Field last October, give away the business they do here.

Down a long hallway, all seven members lounge in various states of readiness as they gear up to pretape a thank-you video for an iHeartRadio award they won’t be able to accept in person. Jimin, bleached blond and pillow-lipped, is having his hair carefully flat-ironed in a wardrobe room filled with racks of coordinated denim and neon streetwear. Dozens of pairs of pristine Nikes and Converse are piled in a corner; a lone fun-fur jacket the color of strawberry ice cream slumps on a hanger behind him, like a neglected Fraggle.

Jung Kook, the baby of the band at 21, sits obediently in a folding chair in the dance studio, also having his hair tended to; J-Hope strides by in a white dress shirt emblazoned with an over-size silk-screen of Bart Simpson, then grins and disappears. Suga, V, and Jin huddle together on low sofas next door, scrolling through their phones and occasionally singing fragments of American R&B star Khalid’s “My Bad.” Twenty-four-year-old RM, the group’s de facto leader and lone fluent English speaker, is the last to arrive.

They run through their speech for a camera crew and do maybe four or five takes until the director is satisfied. Then they settle in for a conversation in an airy break room upstairs, accompanied by their longtime translator, a large, amiable bald man in a business suit named John. (Unless noted, the answers of all members other than RM come through him.) Several weeks after returning from their first Grammys, they’re still riding high off the experience: presenting the award to H.E.R. for Best R&B Album; chatting with Shawn Mendes in the men’s room — “I was like, ‘Do I need to tell him who I am?’ ” Jimin remembers, “but then he said hello first, which was really nice” — and being seated only a sequin’s throw from Dolly Parton. (“She was right there in front of us!” marvels Jung Kook. “Amazing.”)

As happily dazzled as they still seem to be by other celebrities, seeing BTS in the flesh triggers the same disorienting but not unpleasant sense of unreality. On screen, the band can look disconcertingly pretty; avatars of a sort of poreless, almost postgender beauty who seem to exist inside their own real-life Snapchat filters. In person they’re still ridiculously good-looking, but in a much more relatable, boyish way: bangs mussed, even the occasional chapped lip or small (okay, minuscule) blemish. Take away their Balenciaga high-tops and the discreet double Cs of Chanel jewelry, and they could almost be the cute college guy next to you at the coffee shop or on the train.

Except riding public transportation or casually dropping into a Starbucks stopped being an option for BTS a long time ago. In Seoul, their faces are plastered across makeup kiosks and street signs and the sides of buses — even on massive digital billboards that are bought and paid for by private citizens to acknowledge a beloved member’s birthday, or just because. In cities like São Paulo and Tokyo and Paris, fans camp out days in advance for concerts and public appearances, obsessively trading trivia and rumored sightings. When the band posted their takethis link opens in a new tab on Drake’s #InMyFeelingsChallenge, it became the most liked tweet of 2018; this summer, Mattel will release an official line of BTS dolls.

In the still center of this bizarre fame hurricane, the boys have managed to find a few pockets of normalcy. Jimin wistfully recalls a time in Chicago when they were able to slip out of their hotel rooms undetected “late at night, just to get some fresh air.” But most places, he admits, “that’s really out of the question” unless they split into smaller groups. “I mean, look at us,” RM adds with a laugh, running a hand through his own silver-nickel bangs. “Seven boys with dyed hair! It’s really too much.”

Instead, they focus on the things they can do, like sneaking out to the movies (“Always the latest or earliest show,” says RM, if they want to stay unseen), shopping online (V loves eBay, especially for clothes), going fishing, playing StarCraft at home. Group housing is actually common for K-pop stars, and BTS seem to appreciate the shared stability: “We’ve been living together for a while now, almost eight, nine years,” says Jimin. “So in the beginning we had a lot of arguments and conflicts. But we’ve reached the point where we can communicate wordlessly, basically just by watching each other and reading the expressions.”

Though they’re unfailingly polite and attentive in interviews, there’s a certain amount of contained chaos when they’re all together — a sort of tumbling-puppy cyclone of playful shoves, back slaps, and complicated handshakes — but also a surprising, endearing sweetness to the way they treat one another in quieter moments. When a question is posed to the group, they work hard to make sure each one of them is heard, and if someone is struggling to find a word, they’ll quickly reach out for a reassuring knee pat or side hug.

Even with the language barrier of speaking to an American reporter, though, their individual personalities quickly start to emerge: Asked to name their earliest pop memories, the answers land all over the map. “I loved Pussycat Dolls’ ‘Stickwitu,’ ’’ says J-Hope, the group’s most accomplished dancer, snapping his fingers and cooing the chorus. For RM, who started out in Seoul’s underground rap scene, it’s Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” (“I think that’s, like, a life pick for so many people around the world,” he admits, “but I can’t forget when I first watched 8 Mile and heard the guitars. That was my turning point.”) For Jung Kook, who has released covers of Justin Bieber and Troye Sivan songs, it was Richard Marx’s deathless lite-FM ballad “Now and Forever.”

The soft-spoken Suga cites John Lennon’s “Imagine” as “the first song I fell in love with,” which feels like a fitting gateway to ask where BTS see themselves in the pantheon of musical heartthrobs that the Fab Four essentially invented. “Sometimes it feels really embarrassing when someone calls us a 21st-century Beatles or something like that,” RM concedes. “But if they want to call us a boy band, then we’re a boy band. If they want to call us a boy group, we’re a boy group. If they want to call us K-pop, then we’re cool with K-pop.”

Ah, K-pop. In South Korea, where the genre has become not just a prime cultural commodity but a multibillion-dollar export, the players, known as “idols,” go through rigorous Fame-style schooling in song and dance and media training that often goes on for years before they’re considered ready for the spotlight. And it’s paid off: Business has been booming since the early ’90s, with stars from Girls’ Generation to G-Dragoncrossing over to various markets across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. But while the sound has remained fairly consistent — a canny mix of club-ready beats, hyper-sweetened choruses, and the more urban inflections of Western hip-hop and R&B — it’s never before landed with the lightning-bolt impact of BTS.

Bang Si-Hyuk, the CEO and founder of Big Hit, began putting the band together in 2010, when all the members were in their tweens or teens: RM and Suga were coming up on the local rap scene; Jimin and J-Hope studied dance at performing-arts schools; V, who focused on singing early on, joined officially in 2013. Jin was an aspiring actor recruited off the street for his striking looks; Jung Kook, now the group’s main vocalist, joined while he was still in junior high.

Though fansites tend to lean on their extracurricular differences (Jung Kook is a Virgo who loves pizza! V collects ties and clenches his teeth in his sleep!), each member genuinely does hold a unique space in the group’s process, whether it’s leaning more toward production, lyrics, or the supersize hooks the songs rest on. “With seven members we have seven different tastes, of course,” says RM. “So when it comes to songwriting, it’s like a big competition.” Occasionally, adds J-Hope, “we’ll write a lyric and decide, ‘This sort of reflects me [more], who I am and my own color,’ so we’ll want to keep that for a solo song.”

Because Big Hit doesn’t restrict their right to funnel some ideas into side projects — and because the appetite for more BTS-sourced material online is seemingly unquenchable — members regularly release solo work through EPs, SoundCloud, and mixtapes. But the primary impact still comes through the official album releases, and the particularly weighty subjects those songs take on — a notable departure from the narrow, often strenuously upbeat topics other K-pop artists typically cover.

“I promised the members from the very beginning that BTS’ music must come from their own stories,” says Bang; their subsequent openness about their own struggles with depression, self-doubt, and the pressure to conform took them all the way to the U.N. last fall, where RM addressed the band’s Love Myself campaign and #ENDviolence youth partnership with UNICEF.

“They stand out,” says Japanese-American DJ and producer Steve Aoki, a top-selling global dance artist who has also collaborated with the band on several tracks. “And I’m not just talking about K-pop. They add so much of their personality to the music and into their stories and how they present themselves. And the world has fallen in love with them because they are showing that vulnerable side that everyone wants to see.”

It helps, too, that the group’s more pointed messages are often slipped into the sticky aural peanut butter of anthems like “No More Dream,” “Dope,” and “Am I Wrong.” But they always appreciate the chance, Suga says, to get “a little more raw, a little more open.” RM elaborates: “I think it’s an endless dilemma for every artist, how much we should be frank and honest. But we try to reveal ourselves as much as we can.”

Honesty has its limits, of course, when you’re the biggest band in the world. Asked to describe the new album, due April 12 (at press time, it had already hit over 2.5 million in preorders), members offer up cryptic but enthusiastic koans like “therapeutic” and “refreshing crispness.” To be fair, they can’t say much in part because the new album’s track list isn’t actually finalized yet — late decisions being a luxury of in-house production — though they do agree to play one song, a propulsive rap-heavy banger called “Intro: Persona.” (It was released as a teaser March 27; you can watch the video herethis link opens in a new tab.)

When it comes to more personal questions about the challenges of dating or the goals they might want to pursue post-BTS, they pivot so gracefully to evasive, nonspecific answers, you almost can’t help but be impressed; it’s like watching a diplomat ice-dance. They want you to know that they are incredibly grateful for the devotion of their fans, and so blessed to be exactly where they are; that they really don’t think in terms of five- or 10-year plans. But they turn reflective when the subject of American pop’s holy grail, the Hot 100 singles chart, is raised. They cracked the top 10 last year with “Fake Love” but have yet to reach a higher spot, largely because mainstream radio airplay—a huge component of Hot 100 domination—still eludes them Stateside.

“It will have to be a great song,” Suga acknowledges, “but also there’s a whole strategy that’s associated with getting all the way up. And then there has to be a measure of luck, obviously. So what’s important for us is just to make good music and good performances and have those elements come together.” Does a Spanish-language smash like 2017’s “Despacito” — which spent a record 16 weeks at No. 1 — make them more optimistic about their own odds? “You know, Latin pop has its own Grammys in America, and it’s quite different,” RM says thoughtfully. “I don’t want to compare, but I think it’s even harder as an Asian group. A Hot 100 and a Grammy nomination, these are our goals. But they’re just goals — we don’t want to change our identity or our genuineness to get the number one. Like if we sing suddenly in full English, and change all these other things, then that’s not BTS. We’ll do everything, we’ll try. But if we couldn’t get number one or number five, that’s okay.”

Aoki, for one, has faith they’ll get there. “I think it’s 100 percent possible that a song sung entirely in Korean could crack the top of the Hot 100. I firmly believe that, and I really firmly believe that BTS can be the group that can do that. It’s going to pave the way for a lot of other groups, which they’ve already been doing—and when that happens, we’re all gonna celebrate.”

Back at Big Hit, though, the band has more immediate work to do. RM offers a quick tour of his production room (each member has his own dedicated space on site). The door outside is guarded by a quirky assemblage of figurines by the renowned street artist Kaws, but inside feels, incongruously, like stepping into a tiny, luxurious Sundance lodge that also just happens to have a soundboard: There’s a beautiful coffee table made from a single piece of black walnut; Navajo-style rugs; tasteful art on the walls. RM talks easily about his admiration for producers like Zedd and the Neptunes (“Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were my true idols in 2006, 2007. Pharrell’s voice! It’s so sexy, how he sings”), and plays down his own skills (“As a beatmaker, Suga is way better than me. I don’t even know how to play the piano — I just do the chords like this,” he insists, miming keyboard Muppet hands).

Then it’s back to the dance studio, where they’ve changed into track pants and T-shirts to run through new steps with a choreographer. It starts with a rough triangle formation, and an elaborate hip-swivel-into-pelvic-thrust/crotch-grab combo that actually plays much more innocently than it sounds, mostly because they keep stopping to crack each other up. Soon, though, they drill down — repeating the moves until they seem crisp but easy, almost an afterthought. It feels like time to leave them; the boys wave happily, shouting out a rowdy chorus of goodbyes. Then they turn back to the mirror, and keep dancing.

#bangtan #jimin #jungkook #v #suga #jhope #jin #rm #o:interview #190328

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theyarebangtan · 6 years ago

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http://time.com/collection-post/5414052/bts-next-generation-leaders/

It’s early on a Monday night in September at a lavish top-floor suite of the Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles, and Jimin, one-seventh of BTS, the most popular boy band in the world, is napping upright in front of an illuminated dressing room mirror.

You can’t blame him for being exhausted. Exactly 24 hours earlier, Jimin, 22; Jin, 25; Suga, 25; J-Hope, 24; RM, 24; V, 22; and Jung Kook, 21, were warming up backstage at L.A.’s Staples Center, prepping to perform their fourth and final show of a sold-out stretch at the 20,000-seat arena. Each night is a marathon of sharp dance choreography, music-video interludes and indoor pyrotechnics—all backgrounded, of course, by the roars of screaming fans. “It’s a real honor,” says J-Hope, via a translator. “We’re proud that everything we do is giving off light.”

Like The Beatles and One Direction before them, BTS serves up a mania-inducing mix of heartthrob good looks and ear-worm choruses, alongside dance moves in the vein of New Kids on the Block and *NSYNC. But the band—whose name stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan in Korean and Beyond the Scene in English—is also breaking new ground. Not only is BTS the first Korean act to sell out a U.S. stadium (to say nothing of the records they’ve set across Asia), but they’ve done so without catering to Western audiences. Only one of their members, RM, speaks fluent English, and most of their songs are in Korean—even more proof that music “doesn’t have to be English to be a global phenomenon,” says Steve Aoki, a U.S. DJ who has collaborated with BTS. The group is also preternaturally adept at leveraging social media, both to promote their music and connect with their fans.

But for now, at least, they may need sleep. “I’m still trying to get over my jet lag,” deadpans Suga, one of the group’s three rappers.

***

Since its genesis in the ‘90s, Korean pop—or K-pop—has become synonymous with what studios call “idols”: a cadre of young, polished, perfect-seeming pop stars whose images are often rigorously controlled. (They’re often discouraged from discussing their dating lives, so as to seem available to fans.) But even as K-pop matured to a nearly $5 billion industry with fans around the world, its biggest stars—including Rain, Girls’ Generation and Big Bang—largely failed to gain traction in Western markets. The outlier was Psy, a South Korean rapper whose “Gangnam Style” became a viral hit in 2012, though his comic, outlandish persona was an unlikely (and some critics argue, problematic) herald for the genre.

When BTS arrived in 2013, it was clear they would play by new rules. They were formed by Bang Si-hyuk, a K-pop renegade who left a major label to start his own enterprise. He chose young stars that appeared to have an edge, beginning with RM, who was initially a part of Korea’s underground rap scene. And although BTS has idol elements—the slick aesthetics, the sharp choreography, the fun-loving singles—they also embrace their flaws. Their first release, “No More Dream,” took on the ways Korean kids feel stymied by societal expectations; RM recorded a song with Wale that alludes to the importance of activism; Suga released a mixtape addressing his depression. “We started to tell the stories that people wanted to hear and were ready to hear, stories that other people could not or would not tell,” Suga says. “We said what other people were feeling—like pain, anxieties and worries.” They convey these messages in their music videos, loaded with metaphors and cultural references; in their social media updates; and in the lyrics of their music, which fans translate and analyze on message boards, group chats and podcasts. “That was our goal, to create this empathy that people can relate to,” Suga continues.

It helps, too, that their sound is broadly appealing, fusing hip-hop with EDM and pop production. Recent collaborators include Desiigner and Nicki Minaj, who added a verse to their latest single “Idol,” whose lyrics wink at their place in the K-pop firmament. “You can call me artist, you can call me idol,” they sing. “No matter what you call me, I don’t care… you can’t stop me lovin’ myself.” RM says that mantra—love yourself—is core to BTS’ identity; it’s even incorporated into their most recent album titles. “Life has many unpredictable issues, problems, dilemmas,” says RM. “But I think the most important thing to live well is to be yourself. We’re still trying to be us.”

This combination of traits has resonated with fans, especially on social media, where BTS has amassed millions of devoted followers. They call themselves ARMY, which is both an acronym for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth and a nod to their organized power. In 2017, BTS fans made headlines for lifting the group to the top of Billboard’s Social Artist chart—which incorporates streams, social-media mentions and more—and besting the likes of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Since then, the ARMY has catapulted both of BTS’s latest albums, Love Yourself: Answer and Love Yourself: Tear, to the top of album charts in the U.S., South Korea and Japan. “Even if there is a language barrier, once the music starts, people react pretty much the same wherever we go,” says Suga. “It feels like the music really brings us together.” Adds Jimin: “We give energy to our audience members and listeners, but we also draw energy from them.”

***

Back at the Ritz, a makeup artist wakes Jimin from his nap. Nearby, V sings a bar of music as his bleach-blond hair gets blown out. Jung Kook stretches his neck as a makeup artist applies concealer. RM chats with a manager. Suga slips into loafers. Jin, who goes by the fan-given moniker of “Worldwide Handsome,” lets a wardrobe assistant tie his necktie. J-Hope’s laughter filters through the door.

It’s a rare moment of downtime for the boys. Over the coming weeks, they will perform another 11 sold-out shows, appear on Good Morning America and even help launch a youth empowerment initiative at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, at which RM spoke about self-acceptance: “No matter who you are or where you’re from, your skin color, your gender identity, speak yourself.”

A schedule like this might seem daunting. But for BTS—and their ARMY—it’s an encouraging sign of what’s to come. “I’m just throwing it out there,” Suga says, “but maybe we could perform at the Super Bowl someday.”

#bts #bangtan #bangtan boys #jimin #rm #v #jungkook #j hope #jin #suga #time #article #love yourself tour

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fangirlsdailylife-blog · 7 years ago

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#DiamondEdgeinJakarta , Placed Me on the Edge of Joyful Tears

- Saturday, September 23rd 2017 -

That day is definitely going to be one of the most memorable days in 2017. I finally accomplished one of my life goals, to see Seventeen live.

Truth be told, there was a backstory behind this. Flashback to 2016, during their Asia Pacific Fanmeeting Tour. Well, my country was on the list. But the date was just not so compatible with my schedule because during that time I had to undergo a series of freshmen orientation program. August 20th 2016 was the first day of the orientation program so it was a logical reason to not attend their fanmeeting. Disappointed? Yes. Mad? Most definitely. But I made a promise to myself.

‘If the next year they will hold a world tour, I’m definitely going.’

I could say that I am pretty determined, and lucky, that I could actually prove my words.

And with that, here is the story of my amazing Saturday Night with the boys, and my family, the Rose Quartz and Serenity.

It’s happening! It’s finally happening! My long wait has come to an end. The crowd cheers as the opening VCR is played on the screen. The VCR is so bright and colorful it satisfies my eyes. Shortly after VCR ended...

‘JAKARTA! MAKE SOME NOISE!’

I know that voice. I know it too well. It was no other than Seventeen’s very own Happy Virus, Dokyeom. As he said so, the members are starting to appear one by one. I was in the edge of crying because THEY.ARE.SO.HANDSOME.IN.REAL.LIFE. For real!

And with that, the concert is opened with one of their hit songs... Pretty U.

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Pretty U is one of my favorite songs. It’s just so sweet and light. Along with the cute and romantic meaning of the song, that’s my type of bubbly music. Not forgetting about the boys as well. They look so cute in those colorful suits. Cuteness just went up to a whole new level.

Once the first song was finished, Beautiful is up next.

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Okay. Let me be honest. This is even bubblier(?) than Pretty U. And I swear, I saw Dino and The8 doing the backpack dance when Dokyeom was singing his first line. Everyone was just so sweet. Throwing hearts here and there. Waving to us with a smile painted on their faces. It’s so refreshing to see them do their thing like that. There’s also a snippet of JeongHao moment during the performance. Basically, this performance is fluffy explosion everywhere.

Once Beautiful is over, they move on to the last song of the session, Adore U

Adore U was a good ol’ classic. It just brings out their natural stage appeal. Along with the fun bickers by the members during the performance, it’s another type of stage that lifts up the audience’s mood. The highlight part is definitely Dokyeom’s ‘Baby you are my angel~’. For a moment, the whole audience and Seventeen became one when that line was sung. Overall, the opening sequence is amazing! What a way to start a day, or a concert in this case.

Next... They introduced themselves in Bahasa Indonesia. Indonesia 101, in terms of K-Pop Concerts, the most common way to greet the audience is by saying ‘Apa kabar? Nama saya ...’ which translates as ‘How are you? My name is ...’ . Seventeen did a really good job at that. I would like to point out that Jeonghan, has the cutest voice when he was greeting the audiences in Bahas Indonesia.

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Again, Dokyeom is the one with the most energy in here. Oh, scratch that. Hoshi is probably the one with the most energy during their introduction. Hoshi used his iconic 10:10 introduction. In which the the audience replied as expected! The rest? As an Indonesia, I’m pretty impressed with their introductions. Pronunciation wise, they are pretty good for beginners. If they ever planned for another concert here, I hope they could improve their skill more.

Introduction took quite some time, perhaps 10 minutes or so. Once they finished, the stage continues with ‘Still Lonely’ and Performance Team’s ‘Swimming Fool’. Again, the last song to close the second song session is the hit song, ‘Very Nice’. With that, the first part of the concert was over.

Second part starts with the screen displaying a few photos of Seventeen during their childhood. I gotta say, Joshua, Jun, Vernon, and Mingyu has the best childhood photos. Jeonghan looks really plain back then. Well, now, he’s slaying, at the very least. So I guess that’s quite an upgrade for him. After the VCR ended, we were greeted with Seventeen in uniforms of black and white. Probably a High School Uniform and they are performing Mansae.

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I would like to state that I love how they wrote ‘Jakarta Mansae’ on the blackboard. And Jeonghan sounded so clear when they were performing this song.

Mansae ends. Boom Boom starts.

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You may notice by now that my fancams usually starts with Jeonghan singing. It’s just because I love him so much. :3 Also, Hoshi in sleeveless tops are the death of me.

After Boom Boom ended, the members returned to their respective places to prepare for the next stage. Well, everyone but two, S.Coups and Wonwoo.

They are holding the ‘Going Seventeen’ camera and doing little talk sessions with us. S.Coups is quite known with his sweet talks. Basically S.Coups is just babying us Carats to the point where Wonwoo said ‘If you guys could scream loudly, S.Coups hyung will do aegyo’. Oh yeah we screamed alright. Who doesn’t want to see the leader’s aegyo anyways. Once they finished their talk, it marks as the end for the first quarter as well.

After the talks, S.Coups and Wonwoo introduced the next stage. I was expecting a unit performance. And guess what? Yep. We’re going to watch the units in action. First up for the session, Vocal Team.

Click Here (So apparently tumblr doesn’t allow adding more than 5 videos. What a bummer.)

They performed two songs. We Gonna Make It Shine, the new version, and Don’t Listen Secretly.

I have a question. Do Vocal Team sound like angels or angels sounded like Vocal Team? That’s a conspiracy circle that I will always wonder at.

No, for real. They sounded so clear and so good! I took special attention to my biases since I know that they didn’t have much lines compared to the other three. When I was listening... Wow, my ears has never been this blessed. You know the difference in quality between a live broadcast on a music show and actually hearing them live. Like they’re singing in front of you. Their voices are crystal clear. Dokyeom, this guy, never fails to amaze me with his vocals. Seungkwan, can’t say any other thing about his vocal range as well. Woozi, his sweet soft voice is enough for me to squeal on him. Jeonghan, his part snatched my life. Literally. IT WAS THAT GOOD AND IT SUITED HIS VOICE WELL. Joshua, his voice is soft, but not the Woozi kind of soft. It’s soothing enough to sing you a lullaby. I swear I could got diabetes from watching this unit just because how sweet and tender their voices are.

I would like to talk about their performance of Don’t Listen Secretly. It was the second song, right after We Gonna Make It Shine. The stage went dark for a few moments and then when it lights up again, there’s a small setting in the lower back stage that sort of resembles an old Victorian-styled office room. Dokyeom, Joshua, and Seungkwan were sitting in an old-fashioned chair while the remaining two stayed standing. And when the music plays, it got me off guard. The song was remixed in some sort of angsty horror manner and it clicked me. They were doing the Don’t Listen Secretly stage with a vampire concept. These lonely vampires just want some love. XDD

Vocal Team brought the crowd into one with their vocals. Now it’s time for the next unit to lift up the mood again. The visual, I mean, Hip-Hop Team is up next!

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They performed two songs. 언행일치 and Check In. To be honest, I haven’t laid my ear on the first song. So I got a little confused with the it. I was expecting for either 기대 or Fronting. But oh well, I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the other songs. The once mellow atmosphere that the Vocal Team set was turned into something hot like Show Me The Money.

What can I say about them? They’re called visuals for a reason. Wonwoo, Jeon Wonwoo, especially him. To me, he was the member that looks BEST when I see the live. Like, he has this stage presence that could captivate the whole audience hearts. He’s what I call, the bias wrecker.

Second song, Check In. See, I was actually glad that this song was performed. Because of that one line, that one specific line, that goes ‘Yeah I check in Jakarta City~’. And yes, that part was the most lit one in my case, or rather, in the audiences case. Because they’re singing that line in the very same place. The crowd goes wild when they got to that part. It was lit. I could feel the tension and the burning atmosphere. Feels like I’m watching Unpretty Rap Star or something.

Last unit is up! And the air just got even hotter.

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Performance Team, the multi-talented unit. Rap? Check. Vocals? Check. Dance? They are called for that. They got on stage in full whites and started performing their signature song, OMG, as their first song. What’s interesting is this performance of OMG had a mix of rock music in it. Who knew that EDM would sound so majestic when you add a pinch of Rock into it? Now I’m wishing I had the clean version of this remix...

Following the next song, which is by far my favorite song from the unit, Highlight.

GODDAMN WHY ARE THEY SO HOT? They were literally covered with burning aura, no kidding. Like, Even when I’m not that close to the stage, and their aura just spreads everywhere like wildfire. It was hot in the concert hall thanks to this unit. And boy, they even added a dance break to this performance. The whole hall just felt like an oven. Hip-Hop Team was lit, but Performance Team is on fire at this rate.

Second quarter of the concert passed. Time for the real deal. Because everything hyped always happens at the third quarter. (Wth, this ain’t basketball)

The atmosphere was still hot as ever. Perhaps Performance Team set the temperature a bit too high. Hall was dark, until I saw the screen turning all red and displaying a visualization of flames. Wow shit, it’s gonna get ugly, in a good way. Click Here And as I expected, it’s gonna be lit for the rest of the quarter. The first song is ‘Crazy in Love’, my favorite song from the latest album. With all the red themed visualizations, and Seventeen wearing red, I’m practically a boiling water at this rate. Also, during Mingyu’s ‘Can’t stop it, neukkim, woo!’, I had the urge to dab. Just because I saw Wonwoo doing so during their dance practice. And yea, I dabbed. Click Here Click Here As if the torture wasn’t enough, they continued with another series of unit performances. This time it goes by the order : Vocal, Performance, and Hip-Hop Team. THEY ARE ALL FLAWLESS! And I figured, this quarter is the time where the fully perform their songs from their latest album. Minus Swimming Fool. Performance Team sent Jun and The8 to perform their duet song. Boy, there’s a bit of hot moment during their performance that made the crowd go crazy. (I don’t have the footage of Jun and The8′s performance. Sorry.) Finished with the unit performances. It’s Talk Time again! They did a lot of commentaries about the stage they just did, Indonesian Carats, and they did a little bit of dance battle! Click Here Joshua is just the cutest fluffball. And the leaders tho. Not forgetting to mention the amazing Diva Boo. His dances is literally the most lit one in my opinion. And last but not least, Wonwoo demonstrated Hip-Hop Team’s dance for their ‘If I’ stage. The moment he did that, I saw heaven. :’)) Click Here After they finished the dance battle, the performance continues to again, my personal favorites. Rock and Chuck. Now that the concert has finally come to an end, well, you know what I mean. They expressed their gratitude and the last song soon follows. The song we’ve been waiting for.

Click Here

I would like to point out a few stuffs that I didn’t get to record. Before the actual song was starting, there was a dance part performed by Dokyeom, and maybe, Jeonghan? I couldn’t see clearly because he was facing the opposite side. BUT HEY. THAT WAS THE MOST MAJESTIC THING I’VE EVER WITNESS. Jeonghan is a blessing. ;’))

The song finished. The screen went black. And the crowd?

‘ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE!’

Before the encore stage played, there was a VCR showing each of Seventeen’s members thoughts about Carats. To them, Carats are their energy, friend, air, something they could never live without. To sum up, Carats are their everything. What a sweet bunch of boys.

And the VCR ends... When another voice continues.

‘Slip into the Diamond Life...’

WOW. Just wow. Everyone showed up with their Diamond Edge tee. You know, the pink and blue one. Basically everything is so hyped and there was a lot of fanservice going on.

Click Here Click Here

That was so lit! It really brings back a lot of memories to me knowing that I’ve liked Seventeen back when they were still on Seventeen TV. I kinda teared up a bit despite the song being an upbeat one. Memories will be forever...

And the next song, the very last song, really makes the crowd heals. Yep, it’s Healing. :)

Click Here

There was a fan project going on. And everything went really smoothly. I hope we got the be in the next episode of Going Seventeen. Teehee~

As the song ends, it is finally the time to say goodbye. They bid their messages to us. And I’m surprised that they actually brought up a lot of memories during their tour last year. Mingyu, Jeonghan, Seungkwan, S.Coups, Hoshi, Dokyeom, and Vernon talked about their first ever visit to Indonesia last year. I’m ... Impressed actually. I assume that maybe, Indonesia left a good impression to them. So they were actually pretty glad to visit here again. And I’m glad that they are glad to feel that way.

It’s finally the time to say goodbye. For real. But I clearly remembered Mingyu’s words.

‘If you live your life happily while you’re waiting for us, I’m sure that the next time we meet will come faster.’

I’m taking that as a promise that one day, they will return. And the day of their return, I’ll be there to watch them again.

Looking back to that moment, I’ve never been so blessed in my entire life that I could finally meet them in such a close distance.

As I reflect on Mingyu’s words, I made a new promise to myself...

I will meet them again one day, in a closer distance. Where I can fully immerse myself in their stage presence.

And that closes the story of my amazing night with my boys, Seventeen. And my family, the Rose Quartz and Serenity.

#Seventeen #s.coups #jeonghan #joshua #junhui #hoshi #wonwoo #woozi #the8 #mingyu #dokyeom #seungkwan #vernon #dino #diamond edge in jakarta

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superchicalonelyviking · 8 years ago

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Update 5

(Note: As usual, time has passed between writing this and being able to post it! Today is our 5th day in China, so this post is 5 days old!) Mat here, aboard the ferry to Shanghai! We are feeling sad to have left Japan, the 3 weeks here have flown by! But we have loved it. Here's what we've been up to with our final days here. After leaving the Fuji area, we made our way to Komoro. We arrived at Komoro station where our host Yuu San collected us. He seemed quiet and cautious, but friendly. We drove out of the city and over the hills, into a beautiful area filled mainly with rice fields. Yuu San and his family run a book cafe, which was an incredibly tranquil room filled with art (all created by family friends) and many shelves of somewhat antique looking books. The place had such a nice relaxed feeling. It was helped by the cup of green tea and acoustic guitar Japanese singer/songwriter music that Yuu San played. After meeting Yuu San's wife, Megumi San, we had a tour of the place, noting some interesting musical instruments that we were allowed to play, and also seeing a huge loom that Megumi San creates big textile artworks with. It's a really lovely house. Our room was outside - the home-made building was made from mid and straw, with old Japanese tatami mats used for insulation! It was a nice, comfortable place, and nice to be outside and feel connected to nature. We joined Yuu San and his family for meals. Megumi San's cooking was amazing! We had all sorts of brilliant traditional Japanese food that was totally different to what we could find in the restaurants around Japan. They are big Beatles fans! Yuu San proudly told us about when he sang with Paul McCartney - leaving us in disbelief before adding that it was with tens of thousands of other people, at a Paul McCartney concert! After dinner he got out his guitar, which he let me play - it was so nice to play a guitar again after over a month without playing any music! Yuu San played and sang us his 'welcome song' - a version of John Lennon's 'Imagine', with each verse sung in a different language! They have had their guests from around the world contribute translations to help expand the song. It was really beautiful and quite moving! Megumi San is a textiles artist, and so they have many artist friends. The cafe is a nice, creative space, and they seem very keen to support creativity. One thing they like to do is arrange festivals with music and dancing - the biggest one they held had 700 people show up, just in their garden!! They have one in August, called the International Bon Dance Festival. In the past they've had guests help create adverts for the festival - they showed us some videos of previous adverts, before Yuu San quietly suggested, "Why don't you try to create a Bon Dance advertisement for us?" Challenge accepted! So outside our Tatami house was a big crazy looking wooden building. This was the Doraku Organ- the entire building is a musical instrument. It used to be in a city as an art installation, but heavy snow on the roof meant it couldn't stay, so it was transported to Yuu San's house. We had listened to a song that was written about the organ - at the festivals, they perform this song and everyone does a special dance to it! The organ contains many different ways to create funny sounds - most of which work like a pipe organ. It's really amazing, because you have to go inside this huge wooden sculpture to play it. The sounds are weird, and unlike any other musical instrument in the world! It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen. We decided to make the Organ, and the song, part of our advert. The advert is on YouTube, here: https://youtu.be/Mc7zlM0_YgM Everyone was really happy with the advert, including us - we both really enjoyed coming up with ideas and making the video! It was a fun, weird, creative day. Aside from playing music, we explored the local area a bit. The family have a goat in their garden, who seemed pretty friendly! And we walked through the woods down to a nice lake. One evening we walked down with Yuu San and Megumi San's daughter, Mizuki, to see the family's rice fields, where they had spotted fireflies! Apparently there's only a couple of weeks in the year when you can see fireflies, so we felt very lucky to see them! It's really quite a beautiful site, it feels a bit like seeing fairies! Yuu San also encouraged us to go to the local Onsen (hot spring/public bath). We'd heard trying an Onsen is a good experience, but we're a bit nervous about it, because, well, everyone goes completely naked. No swimsuits allowed. Apparently the Japanese like this, because it is a great equaliser in society! I'd find it awkward enough in England where I understand the culture, but because there's a lot of rules and etiquette in Japan, it's even more scary! Still, we thought we should try it. We decided to walk to the Onsen, which was a nice walk through the rice fields, over some hills and through a tiny village tooked away in a valley. It was a nice walk, and it seemed we had earned our relaxing bath. We arrived at the Onsen, and said goodbye - for obvious reasons, the Onsen is gender separated. (Blue curtain for male, red for female, don't get that wrong!) It's easy enough, you get undressed, go to the washing area and shower off so you're clean, then you're free to enjoy the indoor bath or the outside bath. I spent my time in the outside bath, because, well, you can have an indoor bath anywhere... The water is very hot, and it is believed that the water contains lots of minerals that are good for your skin and for relaxation. The last thing I should mention about Yuu San's is the kittens. Oh my god the kittens. Their 1 year-old cat recently had kittens, one of which still lives with them. They are so damn cute! Then a friend who took another of the kittens home brought him round to see his family, so the 2 kittens spent ages wrestling on the table whilst their Mum watched. She was very protective, and extremely talkative, always meowing for attention. So that was our experience in Komoro! Next up was our final stop in Japan - Kyoto! Our first evening was a trip to the Hoon district, which has a street considered to be one of the most beautiful in all of Asia! From there we walked across to a ramen restaurant in the downtown area. It was Saturday night so the downtown area was rammed with people, it was almost as busy as some of the busiest parts of Tokyo! The next day we walked to a craft museum, which had lots of examples of and demonstrations of traditional Japanese crafts. Then we went to the Philosopher's Walk, a popular walking route near a river where university professors used to like walking for quiet reflection time! On the way we found a pottery shop where you could make your own pottery on a wheel - I convinced Libby to have a go, and she seemed like a natural! We walked through the university where Mizuki used to study- it seemed like a nice university building, but we passed the student halls and couldn't believe how crazy untidy and run down it was! No idea what the students had done to the place! And the building itself looked like some kind of prison camp, all in all the most un-japanese thing we saw on our trip! We then headed to the Yuu San family reccomended Beatles Bar - a beatles themed bar, which played Beatles music videos on a massive projector all evening! The next day we saw the world famous rock garden at Ryoku temple, a temple of zen buddhism. The garden consists of just white gravel, and 15 carefully placed rocks. Its been there about 1200 years and there is much speculation as to why it was built the way it was. It's a very beautiful, meditative space, as is the rest of the gardens that surround it. Then we headed to the Arashiyama district, a residential suburb with the famous bamboo forest, a really magical place with dense tall bamboo trees and fantastic colour, shame you spend most of your time trying to get out of the background of other people's photos! Theres also the famous moon crossing bridge and lots more parks and temples. We then went to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha. Inari shrines are dedicated to prosperity, and this is the grandest one in Japan. The animal spirit of inari shrines is a white fox, so there are fox statues everywhere guarding the shrines. It has 1000s of Inari gates, which help prayers reach the temple, so they line all the paths around the hills, which makes a really interesting spectacle of long bright red tunnels! We walked up to the top of the mountain passing many small shrines and really haunting graveyards, all lit by lanterns as it was early evening , passing through another bamboo forest before reaching the top of the mountain , partly overlooking the city . A lot of effort is made to look after the surrounding environment , particularly as Shintoism sees many aspects of nature as sacred - this gives the surrounding environment a real importance and I wonder how this affects how Japanese shintoists see the world around them. The next day we headed to Nara, a city where deer used to be sacred, so there are hundreds of deer roaming free in the huge park! You can buy crackers to feed them, and they seem used to knowing that humans = free food. Which makes them pretty tame, but big signs warn that they're wild animals which may kick, bite or push you over. Nonsense! Although they did try and eat both mine and Libby's clothes. Anyway, they're insanely cute. I gave most of my biscuits to a cute deer that seemed a bit shy and was hanging out by himself, I think he was grateful!There's also a huge ancient temple with an absolutely humongous golden Buddah inside, its hand is the size of a human being, really breathtaking! The next day we went to Kurama, a beautiful temple atop a mountain out in spectacular hills North of Kyoto. Feeling lazy from several days intense walking, we cheated and took the cable car up. An easy day, we spent a lot of time just relaxing and taking in the wonderful views. Theres lots of statues of a red face with a huge nose, it's a sort of evil spirit. One winter the nose of the biggest statue fell off, so the locals put a giant plaster on it! The train home had awesome comfy seats that faced the windows directly, so you can really enjoy the great scenery. Then for our last day in Japan (!!) we headed to the South Higashiyama area to see this area's very well preserved old architecture. It is also an area famous for having a lot of geisha houses. From there we walked up to Kiyomizudera temple, which was a beautiful old temple with great views of the city. Many of the Japanese visitors wear traditional Kimonos to visit the area, including wooden shoes that make a very satisfying sound but I imagine must be pretty uncomfortable! One last ramen (a really good on too, with a veggie option and everything), one last sake, and that was it, our time in Japan was up! It's hard to sum up 3 weeks in Japan, but in short, it's been a wonderful time. The people here are so nice and welcoming, the cities are amazing, the scenery incredible, the food delicious, the roller coasters massive... It's just a wonderful place and I'm so pleased to have had the chance to come here! This ferry is a ghost town, I think there's about 10 passengers on board! No idea why, but it's very relaxing! Shanghaï here we come!

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automaticpostinfluencer · 5 years ago

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US coronavirus cases top 100,000, California bans evictions for those impacted by COVID-19

The coverage on this live blog has ended — but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific team.

All times below are in Eastern time.

Global cases: More than 591,802

Global deaths: At least 26,996

US cases: At least 101,657

US deaths: At least 1,581

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

7: 26 pm: SF secures 300 hotel rooms for self-quarantine, will open new shelter at convention center

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday announced that the city had secured 300 hotel rooms for the purpose of self-isolating people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The city also will open a new shelter at its Moscone West convention facility. The 300 leased hotel rooms will be used to quarantine seniors, homeless people, first responders and health care workers who have tested positive for the coronavirus or under investigation for the illness and need to be isolated.

The city is also in the process of finalizing leases for an additional 3,000 hotel rooms next week, according to the office of the mayor. The new shelter at the Moscone West convention center will allow the city to house more vulnerable populations who are required to practice social distancing.

The shelter will allow the city to relocate some people from other shelters. Moscone West is typically used to house company conventions, such as the Worldwide Developers Conference where Apple has previously announced many of its iPhone and Mac products. “At a time when we’re encouraging everyone who can to stay home and stay six feet apart when they do go out, it’s important that our shelters and navigation centers also have the space to follow the public health requirements,” Breed said in a statement. —Salvador Rodroguez

7:09 pm: Nike learned a lesson in China: Some want to sweat away their coronavirus stress

Nike has a variety of mobile apps for fitness, including Nike Run Club.

Source: Nike

Nike‘s stores might be temporarily shut due to COVID-19, but the sportswear giant is getting more people to sweat during stressful times. With many gyms like Equinox shut down, people are turning to its apps, and that is helping boost its e-commerce business.

Nike has made the premium version of its Nike Training Club app, which offers virtual workouts like a 43-minute upper body strength routine, or a 23-minute core strength yoga course, free to all U.S. consumers. It made the switch last weekend, when it started promoting a new ad campaign telling people to “Play Inside and Play for the World,” amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

In the U.S., Nike has since seen a more than 100% increase in weekly active users of its NTC app, Heidi O’Neill, the president of Nike’s Consumer and Marketplace division said. And in China, where the virus originated, Nike saw an 80% increase in NTC workouts in the latest quarter. —Lauren Thomas

7:03 pm: Trump says he told Pence not to call governors who aren’t ‘appreciative’ of White House coronavirus efforts

President Donald Trump said Friday that he instructed Vice President Mike Pence not to reach out to governors who aren’t “appreciative” of his administration’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus in their states.

“If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call,” Trump said of those state leaders.

“I think they should be appreciative. Because you know what? When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps of Engineers, they’re not appreciative to FEMA. It’s not right,” Trump told reporters at a daily press briefing at the White House.

The president mentioned Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both Democrats who have been critical of the White House’s actions to combat the deadly pandemic. —Kevin Breuninger, Christina Wilkie

6:56 pm: Fiorina criticizes coronavirus relief bill, says large companies haven’t ‘earned’ help

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina criticized the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday, saying that the bill was too generous to large companies.

“It’s the $500 billion of corporate bailout that I object to. I think it is not taxpayer money well spent, and I don’t think the companies have earned it, and they have vast resources at their disposal through some of the backstops and extraordinary measures that the Federal Reserve has taken,” Fiorina said Friday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” —Jesse Pound

6:51 pm: Airbnb freezes hiring and suspends marketing due to coronavirus

Airbnb will institute a hiring freeze and suspend its marketing as the company adjusts to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its business, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The company’s founders will also be taking on no salary and its executives will take a 50% salary reduction for the next six months. Additionally, employees have been told that it is unlikely that they will get their 2020 bonus. The hiring freeze will impact all roles with the exception of a very small number of critical positions, according to the person, who asked to remain anonymous discussing internal matters.

It’s a dramatic turn of events for Airbnb, which was poised to be the hottest tech IPO (or direct listing) of the year until the COVID-19 crisis struck the U.S. last month. —Sal Rodriguez

6:46 pm: As retailers extend store closures past the two-week mark, tougher decisions need to be made

March 27 was the day that many retailers set roughly two weeks ago as the marker for how long they planned to temporarily keep their shops closed. But as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, nothing is opening back up again.

Not even close.

For some, this might not come as a surprise. Many of these companies likely set the initial end-of-the-month date because they knew they could at least pay workers for two-weeks time, verbally committing to do so, and they had already paid their landlords March rent.

Now, heading into April, we are in uncharted territory. Where the industry goes from here will depend on many factors as the announcements from a number of retailers illustrate. —Lauren Thomas

6:40 pm: Inside the Navy’s hospital ships helping to ease the surge of coronavirus patients

Sailors perform a surgical procedure in an operating room aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort.

Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Danny Ray Nunez Jr. | US Navy

6:20 pm: Gov. Cuomo, the National Guard and FEMA transform the Javits Center into a hospital

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces plans to convert the Jacob Javits Center on Manhattans West Side into a field hospital as Coronavirus cases continue to rise on March 23, 2020 in New York.

Bryan R. Smith | AFP | Getty Images

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that the construction of a temporary hospital at the Jacob K. Javits Center had been completed with the help of FEMA and the National Guard. The New York City convention center, which usually hosts events like New York Comic Con, is now home to 1,000 hospital beds that will be used to handle patient overflow caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The temporary hospital at the Javits Center in Manhattan is just the first of several that will be built in New York. Cuomo plans to have a temporary hospital in each of New York City’s five boroughs as well as in Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties. –Hannah Miller, Adam Jeffery

5:45: US coronavirus cases top 100,000, doubling in three days

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 Friday, doubling in just three days as the pandemic accelerates and the U.S. rolls out broader testing measures.

Data from Johns Hopkins University showed the total number of coronavirus cases as 101,707 and the total number of deaths in the U.S. as 1,544.

The virus emerged in Wuhan, China, in December. It has since spread to more than half a million people in almost every country around the world and continues to pick up speed, the World Health Organization warned earlier this week.

“The pandemic is accelerating,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday at a press briefing from the organization’s Geneva headquarters. “It took 67 days from the first reported case to reach 100,000 cases, 11 days for second 100,000 cases, and just four days for the third 100,000 cases.” –William Feuer

5:30 pm: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper orders residents to stay at home order

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order Friday and closed the state’s nonessential businesses in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The order goes into effect 5:00 pm Monday, but Cooper urged residents to begin staying at home immediately.

“It’s what we have to do to save lives,” he said at a press briefing Friday.

Residents will still be able to leave for essential reasons, including to get food or medicine, according to Cooper. People will also be able to leave their homes for outdoor exercise or to help others.

North Carolina has 763 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has had three deaths from the virus, according to data compiled by the state’s Department of Health and Human Services. –Hannah Miller

5 pm: Trump signs $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill as the US tries to prevent economic devastation

President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Friday, as Washington tries to blunt economic destruction from the pandemic ripping through the United States.

The House earlier passed the stimulus package, believed to be the largest in U.S. history, by voice vote, which simply measures if more lawmakers shout for “aye” or “nay” on whether to support it. The chamber scrambled Friday to block an effort to delay its passage. —Jacob Pramuk

4:30 pm: California suspends eviction orders for those financially impacted by coronavirus

Medical personnel from Riverside (CA) University Health Systems hospitals administer a Coronavirus Test to an individual during drive-through testing in the parking lot of Diamond Stadium.

Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning the enforcement of eviction orders for renters affected by the coronavirus through May 31. The order is effective immediately, providing relief to tenants who have rent due April 1.

Landlords are prohibited from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent and the enforcement of evictions by courts or law enforcement is also banned, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Tenants must declare in writing no more than seven days after their rent’s due date that they cannot pay all or part of their rent because of COVID-19. Reasons for lack of payment could include being sick from the coronavirus, caring for someone who is sick, experiencing a layoff or needing to miss work to care for a child, among other circumstances. Tenants remain obligated to repay full rent in a timely manner and could still face eviction after the enforcement moratorium is lifted. They must provide documentation that verifies their financial status changed because of the virus. –Hannah Miller

4:15 pm: SeaWorld furloughs nearly all of its employees

SeaWorld has temporarily furloughed more than 90% of its employees as of April 1, according to an SEC filing. Furloughed employees will not be paid after March 31 and will be eligible for unemployment subject to local regulations. “The furlough period is uncertain at this time due to the temporary park closures and will be reassessed as business conditions dictate,” the filing said. SeaWorld said earlier this month that it initially planned to close all of its parks until the end of March. —Hannah Miller

4 pm: Trump orders General Motors to make ventilators under Defense Production Act

President Donald Trump has ordered General Motors to make ventilators under the Defense Production Act hours after criticizing the company for not acting quickly enough to produce the supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Korean War-era statute can force certain American companies to produce materials that are in short supply in the face of the growing outbreak.

The order comes hours after GM announced plans to build critical-care ventilators with Ventec Life Systems at one of the automaker’s components plants in Indiana. —Michael Wayland

3:45 pm: Disneyland and Disney World to stay closed

Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort will remain closed until further notice, according to an announcement from the Walt Disney Company. Hourly employees of the parks as well as resort cast members will continue to be paid through April 18, the company said.

Universal Orlando Resort previously extended its closure until April 19. After shutting down on March 16, the theme park originally planned to stay closed until the end of March. —Hannah Miller

3:30: San Francisco’s early restrictions seem to be helping hospitals avoid coronavirus overload — so far

In San Francisco, once feared to be a hotbed for the coronavirus, doctors are not yet seeing the dire overcrowding of hospitals that other areas like New York are are experiencing.

“I was on campus today, and it’s actually quite mellow,” said Dr. Bob Watcher, UC San Francisco’s Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine told CNBC on Thursday. “Because we’re not doing elective procedures that can be pushed back, it’s even quieter than usual.”

For now, UCSF clinicians are managing a steady trickle of patients entering into the emergency rooms with COVID-19 symptoms. while still bracing for a possible flood. As of Friday, San Francisco has 279 confirmed cases and the city saw its largest increase of COVID-19 diagnoses on Thursday. California now has more than 4,000 known COVID-19 cases. —Christina Farr

3:23 pm: Dow pares some losses, down 400 points

Major stock indexes pared some losses in late trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 400 points, or 1.7%, after falling as much as 1,000 earlier in the session. The S&P 500 slid 1.2% while the Nasdaq Composite traded 1.6% lower. —Fred Imbert

3:06 pm: Walmart, Kroger have already hired thousands of new employees

Thousands of new Walmart and Kroger employees are already restocking shelves, checking out customers and working at distribution centers across the country.

Kroger is the parent company of grocery chains, including Fred Meyer and Harris Teeter. It has hired more than 23,500 employees so far, and it plans to hire an additional 20,000 for its stores, manufacturing plants and distribution centers in the coming weeks, according to a company news release.

Walmart hired 25,000 employees in less than a week, after it announced plans to add a total of 150,000 part-time and full-time workers through the end of May.

The major U.S. grocers have some of the most aggressive plans to staff up as boxes of pasta, canned goods, toilet paper and other essential items continue to fly off shelves during the coronavirus pandemic. They’ve expedited hiring and received numerous applications from people laid off or fuloughed by restaurants, hotels or other hard-hit industries. —Melissa Repko

2:50 pm: Four dead on Carnival cruise ship amid new coronavirus outbreak aboard

Four passengers died aboard Holland America’s “Zaandam” cruise ship and two people on board tested positive for the coronavirus, the company said.

The company, which is owned by parent Carnival Corp., did not say how many passengers and crew were tested, but said 53 passengers and 85 crew members are exhibiting symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. There are more than 1,800 people aboard the ship, the company said, adding that four doctors and four nurses are also onboard.

The company said in a statement that “four older guests have passed away on Zaandam,” but did not specify whether they died of COVID-19. “No one has been off the ship since March 14 in Punta Arenas, Chile.” —Will Feuer

2:40 pm: France reports new spike in deaths

Members of the Charitable Brotherhood of Saint-Eloi de Bethune, each wearing a face mask, carry a coffin towards a grave, at Pierrette cemetery in Bethune, on March 27, 2020, as the country is under lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus.

Denis Charlet | AFP | Getty Images

French health authorities reported 299 new deaths from coronavirus, taking the total to 1,995, as the government has decided to extend by two weeks the national lockdown, now due to end on April 15 at the earliest.

The climb in the number of deaths represents a daily rise of 18%, a less-marked increase from the previous day.

During a press conference, health agency director Jerome Salomon added that the number of cases had risen to 32,964, a rise of 13% in 24 hours. —Reuters

2:11 pm: GM to start producing critical-care ventilators

General Motors and Ventec Life Systems said they have agreed to build critical-care ventilators at one of the automaker’s components plants in Indiana.

GM and Washington-based Ventec said officials are “working around the clock to meet the urgent need for more ventilators,” citing efforts to begin production at the Kokomo plant “already underway.” GM, according to a release, is donating its resources at cost. —Michael Wayland

1:45 pm: Italy tops 9,000 deaths, overtakes China in cases

A view shows some of 35 coffins of deceased people stored in a warehouse in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Lombardy, on March 26, 2020 prior to be transported in another region to be cremated, during the country’s lockdown following the COVID-19 new coronavirus pandemic.

Piero Cruciatti | AFP | Getty Images

Italy recorded 919 new deaths from coronavirus, the highest daily toll anywhere in the world, while the number of confirmed cases eclipsed the total in China where the virus first emerged.

Italy was the first Western country to introduce severe restrictions on movement after uncovering the outbreak five weeks ago. It has tightened them week by week, banning all non-essential activities until at least next Friday.

Only the United States has now recorded more cases, while Italy has suffered almost twice as many deaths as any other nation. —Reuters

1:30 pm: House passes $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (C) and Representatives Kevin McCarthy (L) and Steny Hoyer show the bill to the press after the House passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill, on March 27, 2020, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC

Alex Edelman | AFP | Getty Images

The House passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, sending the unprecedented measure to President Donald Trump’s desk after a scramble to block efforts to delay its passage.

The plan, which includes one-time payments to individuals, strengthened unemployment insurance, additional health-care funding and loans and grants to businesses to deter layoffs, got through the Senate unanimously on Wednesday night. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the bill “as mitigation” of the disease’s destruction, predicting there would be more plans to aid “recovery.” —Jacob Pramuk

1:23 pm: Google is offering $340 million in free ads for small businesses as part of coronavirus help package

Google is offering $340 million in ad credits to small and mid-size businesses with active Google ad accounts as part of an $800 million coronavirus response package, the company announced.

As part of the package, the company is also donating the following:

A $200 million investment fund that will help NGOs and financial institutions provide small businesses with capital

$250 million in advertising grants to help the World Health Organization and government agencies offer information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19

$20 million in Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and researchers

Unspecified financial support to help increase production capacity for life-saving equipment, including face masks and ventilators. —Jennifer Elias

1:11 pm: Coronavirus relief bill gives small businesses more time to cover payroll taxes

Small businesses facing payroll tax payments are likely to get some relief from Congress – the option of deferring payment to Uncle Sam until next year.

In particular, the pending $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill will permit small businesses to defer their share of Social Security payroll taxes in 2020. Payroll taxes are shared by workers and their employers, so that each pays 6.2% toward Social Security and 1.45% toward Medicare.

Sole proprietorships would also qualify. —Darla Mercado

1:04 pm: Cramer sees oil plummeting below $20 per barrel on dual coronavirus-price war crises

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said he thinks the price of oil will fall further because of demand and supply shocks from the dual crises of the coronavirus pandemic and global producer infighting.

Cramer cited oil prices as something high-frequency, computerized stock market traders are watching.

“I think oil takes out $20,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.” With U.S. oil trading around $21.50 per barrel early Friday, prices would have to fall more than 7% to go below $20. It was down more than 4% late Friday morning.

On March 18, the per-barrel price of West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, closed just above $20, in an over 24% single-day plunge that was its third-worst session ever. —Kevin Stankiewicz

12:54 pm: WHO officials enroll first patients from Norway and Spain in ‘historic’ coronavirus drug trial

The first patients in a “historic” trial to test treatments for the coronavirus have been enrolled in Norway and Spain, World Health Organization officials announced.

World health officials are testing four of the most promising drugs to fight COVID-19, including malaria medications chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, an antiviral compound called Remdesivir, a combination of HIV drugs Lopinavir and Ritonavir and a combination of those drugs plus interferon-beta. —Will Feuer

12:48 pm: The Fed’s balance sheet just passed $5 trillion for the first time ever due to rescue bill

Though its efforts to keep markets running and boost the economy are just getting into gear, the Federal Reserve’s asset portfolio has reached levels never seen before.

The central bank’s balance sheet, which consists largely of bonds and other assets it has purchased over the years, ballooned to $5.3 trillion for the week ending Wednesday. That’s well above the $4.52 trillion peak it hit in mid-May 2016 before the Fed started rolling off the bonds it had acquired during and after the financial crisis.

This latest peak has occurred in rapid fashion, the result of expansion begun in small steps earlier this year then accelerated with the growth of the coronavirus crisis. —Jeff Cox

12:43 pm: ‘Throw Massie out’ – Trump rages on Twitter after GOP Rep hints he’ll oppose coronavirus stimulus bill

Rep. Thomas Massie, leaves the House Republicans’ caucus meeting in the Capitol on immigration reforms on Thursday morning, June 7, 2018.

Bill Clark | CQ Roll Call | Getty Images

President Donald Trump lashed out at Rep. Thomas Massie, calling him a “third rate Grandstander” after the Kentucky Republican signaled he would oppose a $2 trillion relief bill intended to soften the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“He just wants the publicity. He can’t stop it, only delay, which is both dangerous & costly,” Trump said of Massie in a series of furious tweets.

Trump said that while Republicans had to “give up some stupid things” through negotiations with Democrats “in order to get the ‘big picture’ done,” the bill was “90% GREAT!”

“WIN BACK HOUSE, but throw Massie out of Republican Party!” Trump added. —Jacob Pramuk, Kevin Breuninger

12:39 pm: Pence says economic fundamentals remain strong despite massive coronavirus impact

Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain robust despite the coronavirus pandemic that has tanked markets and led to unprecedented layoffs of millions of Americans.

“While the stock market has ebbed and flowed, and even this week made dramatic moves, President Trump and our entire economic team believe that all the fundamentals continue to be strong,” Pence said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “And that, as we deal with the coronavirus that this economy will come roaring back once we see our nation through this challenging time.” —Tucker Higgins

12:33 pm: IMF chief Georgieva says the world is in a recession, containment will dictate strength of recovery

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said that the global economy is now in a recession thanks to COVID-19, but that she’s heartened to see world leaders finally realizing that only coordinated effort will be able to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“We have stated that the world is now in recession and that the length and depth of this recession depend on two things: Containing the virus and having an effective, coordinated response to the crisis,” she told CNBC’s Sara Eisen.

“I’m very encouraged by what I see now. I see much clearer understanding [among global leaders] that if we don’t beat it everywhere we won’t be able to get out of it,” she added. —Thomas Franck

12:19 pm: Apple announces COVID-19 website and app in partnership with CDC and the White House

Apple has developed a new website and app that will provide a screening tool for COVID-19 symptoms as well as up-to-date information from trusted sources about the coronavirus outbreak.

The software was developed in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, the White House-led Coronavirus Task Force, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The COVID-19 app is available on Apple’s App Store, and there is also a website that can be accessed from Windows or Android phones and computers. —Kif Leswing

12:12 pm: GOP Rep. Massie pledges to delay vote on massive $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), trailed by reporters, walks to the floor of the House of Representatives in the U.S. Capitol on March 27, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Win McNamee | Getty Images

House members are scrambling back to the Capitol on Friday morning as one member’s opposition to a $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package is set to delay its passage.

With few representatives in Washington this week as the outbreak tears across the country, House leaders hoped to approve the legislation quickly Friday by voice vote — which simply decides whether shouted yeas or nays from members present are louder. But Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he plans to force a typical recorded vote, which could hold up passage for hours as the House needs a quorum of 216 representatives present.

In a series of tweets announcing his plan to request a full vote, Massie argued the unprecedented rescue measure spends too much taxpayer money, criticizing Democrats for pushing for changes this week rather than approving an earlier version of the legislation. —Jacob Pramuk

12:08 pm: Bank of America CEO says struggling customers can defer loan payments online with ‘two-clicks’

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said that retail customers who are struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic can defer loan payments online with a simple two-click process.

“What we’ve told people is we’ll defer payments,” Moynihan told CNBC’s Jim Cramer. “If you have a cash flow interruption because of your employment and you need to defer your payments for 30, 60, 90 days, call us up.”

The second-largest U.S. bank by assets has had 150,000 requests for payment deferrals since the coronavirus crisis began in earnest in the U.S. this month, Moynihan said. To streamline the process, which can tie up call center lines, the bank is ramping up a way to apply for relief online, he said. —Hugh Son

11:59 am: Trump criticizes GM, CEO Mary Barra for wanting ‘top dollar’ for producing ventilators

President Donald Trump criticized General Motors and its CEO Mary Barra for their response to producing needed ventilators amid the coronavirus pandemic and wanting “top dollar” for such work.

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

In the initial tweet, the meaning of “Invoke P” wasn’t immediately clear. But Trump followed up with a second tweet saying he was referring to invoking the Defense Production Act that would force companies to produce such equipment. —Michael Wayland, Lauren Hirsch

11:53 am: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extends school closures as coronavirus cases rise

Paramedics wearing protective equipment carry a stretcher into Elmhurst Hospital Center in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., on Thursday, March 26, 2020.

Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | Getty Images

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended school closures across the state by two weeks to April 15 as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise, he said.

“When you look at the number of cases that’s still increasing, it only makes sense to keep the schools closed,” he said at a press conference.

Cuomo is also calling on hospitals across the state to double their capacity. The state currently has 53,000 hospital beds, but will need 140,000 of them for coronavirus patients over the next three weeks when the outbreak is expected to peak in New York, he said.

“We’re asking hospitals to try to increase capacity 100% … “We’re looking at converting dorms. We’re looking at converting hotels,” he said. —Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

11:47 am: Mnuchin says taxpayers will be ‘compensated’ for airline relief

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the coronavirus economic stimulus bill before Congress is not an airline bailout and that taxpayers will be compensated for relief given to companies hobbled by the global pandemic.

At the same time, Mnuchin said in an interview with Fox Business Network that plane-maker Boeing has not requested government help.

“I’ve been very clear this is not an airline bailout,” Mnuchin said. “And that taxpayers need to be compensated for relief they’re giving to airlines.”

U.S. airlines are preparing to tap the government for up to $25 billion in grants to cover payroll in a sharp travel downturn triggered by the coronavirus, even after the government warned it may take stakes in exchange for bailout funds, people familiar with the matter said. —Reuters

11:39 am: ‘This will not be licked by Easter,’ doctor warns in call for two-week US lockdown

President Donald Trump wants the country to “open up,” but a growing number of health experts want a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Those experts are saying the United States needs to impose a two-week or longer pause of non-essential activity before federal and state governments can even think about economic and social life starting to return to normal.

Far stricter restrictions on businesses and individuals need to be adopted – and not the loosening of restrictions called for by some, including Trump, the experts say.

“This will not be licked by Easter,” said Dr. Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, who is one of the loudest voices calling for a shutdown. —Dan Mangan

11:30 am: America’s department stores can make it as much as 8 months with closed stores, analyst says

A sitting area typically filled with people is virtually empty as a man walks through Herald Square with a protective mask on March 12, 2020 in New York City.

Gary Hershorn | Getty Images

With stores temporarily shut due to the coronavirus pandemic — and a slim-to-zero chance of opening in the near future — America’s department stores are facing a cash crunch.

Department store chains have enough liquidity to make it about five to eight months, with their stores sitting dark, in this coronavirus pandemic, according to an analysis by Cowen & Co. It says that is “better than feared” because the firm does not anticipate the temporary store closures will drag on for that long.

In making these assumptions, Cowen is measuring liquidity as cash plus revolvers, relative to key expenses such as rent, labor and promised dividend payments. Cowen said labor costs are about 10% of annual sales, while rent is about 3%, to give a sense of what some of these expenses look like. —Lauren Thomas

11:18 am: Digital divide of US households without internet

Data from Pew Research Center shows large swaths of the U.S. are trying to cope without a household internet connection while much of the country hunkers down to work and shop from home.

Before coronavirus hit the U.S., about 7% of private-industry workers had access to a flexible workplace benefit, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those jobs tend to pay well, which helps explain why access to telework varies sharply by income, according to the Pew Research Center.

Lack of internet access has also left millions of households cut off from vital services and information during the pandemic. —Melodie Warner, John Schoen

10:27 am: Real ID deadline gets pushed back due to coronavirus

With air travel at a near standstill amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Homeland Security is extending the Real ID enforcement deadline a full year to Oct. 1, 2021.

“The federal, state and local response to the spread of the coronavirus here in the United States necessitates a delay in this deadline,” DHS acting secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement.

States across the country have temporarily closed or restricted access to departments of motor vehicles, which has prevented millions of people from applying for and receiving their new state-issued Real IDs, the statement said.

For now, adults boarding any federally regulated aircraft can continue to use their current driver’s licenses as usual for domestic travel and wait until 2021 to obtain a Real ID-compliant license. —Jessica Dickler

10:21 am: US consumer sentiment falls to lowest level in more than 3 years

Doug Hassebroek shops with a protective mask during the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York, March 25, 2020.

Caitlin Ochs | Reuters

U.S. consumer sentiment fell to a three-year low as the coronavirus outbreak ramps up, according to data from the University of Michigan.

The index of consumer sentiment dropped to 89.1 in March — its lowest level since October 2016 — from 101 in February. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected consumer sentiment to fall to 90.

March’s decline in sentiment was the fourth-largest in nearly 50 years, according to Richard Curtin, chief economist for the Surveys of Consumers. —Fred Imbert

9:35 am: Dow tanks more than 800 points following a massive 3-day bounce

Stocks fell sharply, giving back some of the strong gains experienced in the previous three days to cap off another volatile week on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 800 points at the open, or over 3%. The S&P 500 slid 3.2% while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.9%.

Chevron, Boeing and American Express led the 30-stock Dow lower, sliding more than 5% each. Energy and industrials were the worst-performing sectors in the S&P 500 as they dropped 5.8% and 4.3%, respectively. —Fred Imbert

9:03 am: Billionaire Leon Cooperman: I’m optimistic the stock market has bottomed on coronavirus fears

Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman told CNBC he’s optimistic that the stock market has bottomed on coronavirus fears.

“If I’m right on the virus call, if I’m right and that’s the big ‘if’ … I think the market at the recent low … was close enough to the bottom to be called the bottom,” Cooperman said on “Squawk Box.”

The S&P 500 hit its recent low of 2191.86 on Monday, which was about 35% lower than the index’s last month’s all-time high.

The investor, who made his fortune picking individual stocks, said he sees an S&P range of 2,200 to 2,800 this year. —Kevin Stankiewicz

8:50 am: CEO behind Buffett, Bezos health venture says US ‘death toll curve’ worse than China

The CEO behind the joint health-care venture between JPMorgan, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway is calling for a national “shelter-in-place” order as deaths from the coronavirus continue to rise in the U.S.

“Our death toll curve is now worse than when China was at the same stage,” Haven CEO Dr. Atul Gawande told CNBC. “We have 12 states with more than 1,500 cases. China had one province,” said Gawande, also a renowned surgeon, author and speaker.

Gawande said health officials are learning from Washington state, where the death toll there appears to be declining. “Shelter in place, which some states are doing,” he said. “We don’t have the others on board. We really need a national shelter in place.” —Berkeley Lovelace

8:29 am: US infections on the rise

8:13 am: Build-A-Bear Workshop and The Cheesecake Factory announce furloughs

Mall staples Build-A-Bear Workshop and The Cheesecake Factory both announced they are furloughing workers. Build-A-Bear plans to furlough more than 90% of its workforce, and The Cheesecake Factory has furloughed 41,000 hourly restaurant workers, according to regulatory filings.

Furloughed employees for both companies will continue to be eligible for employee benefits, including insurance.

Citing the impact of government regulations and landlord decisions to close properties, Cheesecake Factory is not paying rent for the month of April. —Amelia Lucas

8:04 am: Dow futures point to 800-point drop

U.S. stock futures pointed sharply lower following a strong rally sparked by increasing expectations of a massive fiscal stimulus from Congress while investors shook off grim unemployment data.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures implied an opening drop of about 800 points amid volatile trading. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to more than 2% declines at the open. —Fred Imbert

7:20 am: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tests positive

Screen grab of Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses the nation from 10 Downing Street, London, as he placed the UK on lockdown as the Government seeks to stop the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

PA Video – PA Images

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he has tested positive for COVID-19. “Over the last 24 hours I have developed mild symptoms and tested positive for coronavirus,” he said on Twitter. “I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus.”

“The test was carried out in No 10 by NHS staff and the result of the test was positive,” a spokesman for No. 10 Downing Street said in a statement. “In keeping with the guidance, the Prime Minister is self-isolating in Downing Street. —Will Feuer

7:13 am: New York hospitals will run out of medical supplies in a week, former FDA chief says

7:07 am: UK to pay pensions and pensions of furloughed staff

Britain will announce it intends to cover the costs of employer national insurance and pension contributions for businesses furloughing staff, a statement from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said. —Reuters

7:05 am: Norway predicts 2% economic slowdown this year

Norway’s government now predicts its gross domestic product excluding oil will contract by 2% this year as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, a sharper drop than the 1% contraction it expected last week. The forecast is based on the assumption that the urgent situation in Norway and other countries remains for the coming two months, and that growth thereafter gradually returns to the normal, the government said in a white paper. —Reuters

6:59 am: Spain’s death toll spikes by 769 overnight to 4,858

Two workers transport a coffin at La Almudena cemetery on March 26, 2020 in Madrid, Spain. Spain plans to continue its quarantine measures at least through April 11.

Carlos Alvarez | Getty Images

Spain’s death toll rose overnight by 769 cases to 4,858, the health ministry said, the highest number of fatalities recorded in 24 hours for the country. The total number of those infected rose to 64,059 from 56,188 on Thursday. —Reuters

6:10 pm: Hungary announces two-week lockdown

Hungary has become the latest country to announce a two-week lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said via public radio that while citizens must maintain social distancing, they would be able to go to work, shop and take limited exercise outdoors, starting Saturday. Orban said people can still go outside, but they cannot be in a group. Hungarian police will enforce compliance with the rules and apply fines, if needed. —Silvia Amaro

5:37 pm: Iran’s death toll rises to 2,378

The Iranian health ministry reported a total of 2,378 deaths from the virus and 32,332 confirmed cases, according to Reuters. —Silvia Amaro

5:30 am: Italy’s business morale plunged in March

A worker carries out sanitation operations for the Coronavirus emergency in Piazza dei Miracoli near to the Tower of Pisa in a deserted town on March 17, 2020 in Pisa, Italy.

Laura Lezza | Getty Images

Morale among Italian businesses plunged in March as the outbreak dampened economic activity, Reuters reported.

Data by statistics institute ISTAT showed that its composite business morale index — which captures the manufacturing, retail, construction and services sectors — sank to a reading of 81.7 this month from last month’s 97.8. The March reading was the lowest since June 2013, Reuters reported. —Yen Nee Lee

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Russia reports spike in cases; Hungary imposes national lockdown

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years ago

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Meet Alphonso Davies – the prodigy Bayern Munich imported from the MLS

On 25 July 2018, Bayern Munich announced that they have an agreement with MLS club Vancouver Whitecaps to sign 17-year-old Alphonso Davies for an MLS record $ 13.5 million. Davies is set to join Bayern at the end of the 2018 MLS season but who exactly is he and why did Bayern pay a hefty fee to secure his signature?

Bayern Munich is the fourth richest club in the world and one of the league champions from Europe’s Top 5 leagues. What sets them apart from the rest of the champions in the top 5 leagues is their refusal to splurge. The cost of their record signing is significantly smaller than that of last season’s champions of England, Spain, Italy and France.

In addition, of all the teams that reached the quarter-final of the UEFA Champions League last season, Bayern has the lowest transfer spending in the last two years. Even lower than AS Roma and Sevilla. Now that we have established that Bayern doesn’t splurge nor do they take gambles, there has to be a reason why they spent a significant transfer fee on a rather unproven teenager playing in the MLS.

Three cities. Two days. One dream come true.

Go behind-the-scenes of the moment Alphonso Davies officially joined @FCBayern. #VWFC #HomegrownHero pic.twitter.com/3Ib3odk4Kr

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) July 31, 2018

BACKGROUND

Alphonso Davies was born in a refugee camp in Ghana after his parents fled the civil war in Liberia which displaced more than 450,000 people. Like every refugee, his family also yearned a better life and when Alphonso was five-years-old, his family found asylum in Canada.

“It was hard to live because the only way you survive sometimes is you have to carry guns. We didn’t have any interest in shooting guns. So, we decided to just escape from there. They have a program called resettlement, and they said ‘OK, you have to fill in a form for Canada.’ We went through the interview and everything, and made it, and came over here.” – Alphonso’s father, Debeah, recollects.

Born in Ghana. Raised in Edmonton. Vancouver’s hero. @AlphonsoDavies' journey to @FCBayern. #VWFC #HomegrownHero pic.twitter.com/yzlNshcOwP

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) July 25, 2018

His family worked long hours to make ends meet and he helped in raising his two younger siblings. Even as a child, people noticed him for his footballing abilities that defied his age and he had the opportunity to join The St. Nicholas Soccer Academy. By the age of 14, he was enrolled in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ residency program. When Alphonso joined Whitecaps, he was initially part of its U16 team but within months, he went from U16 to U18 to Whitecaps Football Club to the senior team.

A record breaker and the face of Canadian football

On 15 July 2016, Alphonso signed a first-team contract with Whitecaps and the following day, he made his MLS debut aged 15 years, eight months and 15 days old to become the second youngest player in the league’s history behind Freddy Adu. He also became the first player born in the 2000s to play in an MLS match.

After his debut season in the MLS, he caught the eye of European giants like Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. However, he stayed with Whitecaps and his development in the next two seasons was exponential.

By the end of the 2017 MLS season, Davies played 48 games for Whitecaps and had four goals and assists each to his name. However, in the 2018 season, his numbers improved drastically as he racked up 6 goals and 10 assists in only 32 games. His improved performance didn’t go unnoticed as he as included in the 2018 MLS All-Star squad.

After breaking through with Whitecaps, Alphonso represented Canada’s junior teams but he was only eligible to play for the senior side after he received his Canadian citizenship in June 2017. In the same month, he made his debut for the senior team and in July he made history with his brace against French Guiana to become Canada’s youngest goalscorer, the youngest player to score at a Gold Cup and also the first player born in the 21st century to score at a major international tournament. He also scored against Costa Rica in the very next game to claim the tournament’s Golden Boot.

A week after he received his Canadian citizenship, he delivered a moving speech on behalf of North America’s ‘United bid’ to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the FIFA Congress.

So. Proud. 🇨🇦

Today, our very own @AlphonsoDavies delivered a moving speech to FIFA Congress before Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. were awarded the 2026 FIFA World Cup!!#United2026 #VWFC #OurAllOurHonour pic.twitter.com/GhfOvV6esg

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) June 13, 2018

STYLE OF PLAY

The soon to be 18-year-old is a pacey winger who’s very comfortable with the ball at his feet. His close control, eye for a pass, dribbling skills and the tricks up his sleeve are the perfect attributes for a winger. The notable improvement in his end product this year is an encouraging sign as it shows that he’s working hard on his game.

A lot of promising forwards are forced to develop the defensive side of their game when they play for top European clubs but that shouldn’t be an issue for Alphonso as he doesn’t shy away from his defensive duties.

"That's not potential, that's reality."@AlphonsoDavies vs. Minnesota last night = nothing but class 💯 #VWFC pic.twitter.com/yRbmm5Sg7L

— Vancouver Whitecaps (@WhitecapsFC) July 30, 2018

LA Galaxy striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is usually reserved with his praise of other players but Zlatan, who is refugee himself, only had words of encouragement for the youngster.

“If he’s going to Bayern, then he’s a good player. They don’t choose bad players, especially young ones. At a club like Bayern, he will learn a lot. If they saw something, they saw something big, because they don’t get anyone just like that.”

“I just hope he’s ready when he goes there, because when he arrives he will be lonely and the competition will be big, so he needs to be mentally strong. And when he sees the big players, not show too much respect. You’re going there for a reason because you’re part of the team. Then it’s up to him to do the rest, so I see a bright future!” – Ibrahimovic said after his side’s win over Whitecaps in October.

Alphonso will join the Bayern squad in January 2019 and it will take him a while to adjust to the new surroundings and cope with the demands of European football. However, he has the potential to become a first-team player at Bayern and be their long-term replacement for the ageing Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery.

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Meet Alphonso Davies – the prodigy Bayern Munich imported from the MLS was originally published on 365 Football

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cryptobully-blog · 7 years ago

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Umno seems mighty scared of Dr M's 'ripple'

http://cryptobully.com/umno-seems-mighty-scared-of-dr-ms-ripple/

Umno seems mighty scared of Dr M's 'ripple'

YOURSAY | ‘Wherever Mahathir goes, he’s treated like a film star.’

MB’s oceanographic finding – Dr M will cause a ripple, not ‘Malay tsunami’

AntiRacial: “I am not saying that there will be no effect. There will be a slight impact but not what some people term as a Malay tsunami… that will not happen,” Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan said in a special interview with Bernama.

If there is no impact or only slight impact, why is he so bothered by it that he made this a main topic for discussion?

Cogito Ergo Sum: It won’t be a tsunami. Treated like a rogue by Umno/BN, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be like a rogue wave who will wash away all the old sand bars and barriers, and stem the tide of corruption, bigotry and divisive politics.

The old pirate ships will be tossed aside in the wake of this wave, which sometimes can reach up to 10 storeys in height. That’s when the rats will start jumping ship as tables are overturned.

Anonymous #19098644: Wherever Mahathir goes, he’s treated like a film star, with people rushing to shake his hands, take selfies, and everybody stands up voluntarily to show their respect for him in spite of him holding no official positions.

Only the “raja lawaks” (comedy kings), “kaki bodek” (apple polishers) and Umno “barua” (lackeys) still refuse to acknowledge reality, just like when the world is condemning 1MDB, our cabinet ministers still pretend that is it fake news.

Mukhriz: Dr M foresaw the start of Umno’s rot

Hplooi: To a certain extent, Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir is right. The right-wing faction (previously “ultras” who became “mainstream” post-1969) set about implementing their agenda with four key thrusts.

1. Fine tune the electoral system to ensure dominance. The first targets were urban centres that were prime anti-Umno centres. Kuala Lumpur was carved out of Selangor, thereby neutering the city that played a key role in the 1969 election. Since then, the Election Commission has been brought completely under control.

There were attempts at urban re-engineering, which included creating Malay urban areas in Kuala Lumpur (from the 70s to the 80s).

2. Asserting total dominance on the executive led to Malay “nationalism”. The executive, which used to be multiracial, became monoracial.

3. Make education more favourable to the masses. This included top down (Mara, scholarships, easier university entry, etc) and bottom up (destroy the dominant liberal English stream and replace it with Malay stream).

4. State intervention in the economy – for example, former premier Abdul Razak Hussein’s request to tycoon Robert Kuok to acquire shares in Malaysia International Shipping Corporation (MISC). Transportation and banking were the first wave.

But the framework underpinning the above said was therefore set:

1. The warlord system.

2. Patronage and rent-seeking, for example, former finance minister Daim Zainuddin (a precocious student by one account) went on to become one of the biggest beneficiaries of the rent-seeking economy.

3. Exclusivity and race identification became a badge of political leverage. When Mahathir took over as prime minister, the system had already been set and he maxed out the system to his advantage.

But Dr M was also a “visionary,” in that:

1. He sought to liberalise the system (which was seen by the non-Muslims to be a breath of fresh air, after the oppressive 70s and 80s.

2. He tackled red tape and bureaucratic corruption. Although the Malaysian bureaucracy was corrupt, this was the norm in most of Asia, and Malaysia was then relatively less so. Some of the most ‘creatively corrupt’ civil servants I have dealt with in the 1980s were Chinese (which illustrates the fact that it is the system, not the race).

3. He had a vision for industrialisation using the Japanese Zaibatsu model.

The above framework eventually became contradictions.

The failures of Dr M can be listed as:

1. Despite his vision, he was a poor judge of character. People he picked were incompetent or corrupt. And this cuts across race. Remember Abdullah Ang?

2. The contradictions within the system (warlordism, Malay nationalism becoming more extreme, etc.) became too big for his vision. In time, Umno politicians with any pretensions to importance deemed it their birth right to the gravy train (Cowgate, or the National Feedlot Corporation scandal, is just the tip of the iceberg).

3. The vision of industrialisation by appointing captains of industry (the Japan Zaibatsu model) was a failure. While Japan’s captains performed their national task with competence and patriotic fervour, the same could not be said of our ‘Malaysian captains’.

4. The warlord and patronage system engendered a system where national resources were commandeered at the behest of Umno. By Daim’s time, even Umno interests had become blurred with personal interest.

5. Brainwashing and the empowering the religious right was the direct result of race politics.

Existential Turd: Scandals such as 1MDB today can be traced all the way to Malay protectionism. From there, came Malay privileges and supremacy. Then came Umno privileges and supremacy.

Then when the pie was not big enough to sustain so many cronies, the circle of privileges shrank further to a select few in Umno.

Bersatu splintered from Umno because its members were not satisfied with the way the pie was being distributed. However, they did not oppose Umno based on principle. It was all about the “dedak”.

Shovelnose: Is Mukhriz feeling remorseful after the deceit had been revealed? It’s not too late to turn our eyes back to God and live righteously. Sack the thieves, the greedy and evil ones.

Turn over a new leaf and return the land to the people.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

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quarksnleptons · 7 years ago

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THE TOP 10 NEWSMAKERS OF 2017

As 2017 comes to an end, here's a recap of the headliner person/s or events in the Philippines which marked our minds:

1. MARAWI SIEGE AND DECLARATION OF MARTIAL LAW IN MINDANAO

On May 23, 2017, the ISIS-inspired Maute group and the Abu Sayyaf have laid siege of the Islamic City of Marawi.

The Marawi attack by the Islamic extremists is a reaction to a botched operation to capture Isnilon Hapilon the self-proclaimed emir of the ISIS inspired radical extremists by the AFP and PNP operatives. In short the AFP has initiated the armed hostilities and the Abu Sayyaf and Maute group have just reacted and executed their seemingly pre-planned siege of the Islamic City of Marawi. It resulted to simultaneous but coordinated attacks in the central and commercial areas in Marawi. They have burnt the City jail, occupied the medical center, burnt a college and the St Mary Cathedral. They had robbed all the banks, occupied strategic buildings and blocked highways. They also have held more than two hundred hostages (mostly Christian including a priest) to shield them away from the bombs to make their successful escape. Buildings including the commercial center as well as residential in the central trading center of Marawi have been destroyed and literally flattened to the ground as a result of artillery fires and direct hits of air strikes and surgical bombings done by the AFP in spite of the well-known fact that civilians are still trapped in many of these buildings.

It led to the declaration of Martial Law by President Duterte not only to Marawi but to all 27 provinces and 33 cities in Mindanao. President Rodrigo R. Duterte declared Martial Law in Mindanao through Presidential Decree (PD) 216 which takes effect starting 10pm of the 23rd of May 2017.

The President made the proclamation when he together with his top military and security advisers were starting with his State visit to Moscow. The PD 216 declaration was made a few hours after the botched AFP/PNP operation to serve the warrant of arrest for Jihadist leader Isnilon Hapilon and the early hours of rampage by extremist followers of Marawi City

2. RESORTS WORLD MANILA ATTACK

A lone gunman triggered panic in Pasay City last June 2, 2017, after gunshots were heard and a fire broke out at Resorts World Manila (RWM).

The SITE Intelligence Group reported that a Filipino operative of the Islamic State (ISIS) was behind the attack, but police said the "isolated" incident was not a terrorist attack. The gunman was later found dead after apparently burning and shooting himself.

He is identified as Jessie Carlos, a former tax specialist at the Department of Finance who was heavily in debt due to casino gambling. He fired gunshots and set ablaze gaming tables at the casino floor of the Resorts World Manila.

The attack left 37 people dead, including Carlos himself and the wife of Pampanga 3rd District Representative Aurelio Gonzales Jr.

3. WAR ON DRUGS AND EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

Extrajudicial killings were rampant ever since Rodrigo Duterte became the president of the Philippines. There were a lot of young victims including Kian Loyd Delos Santos and Carl Angelo Arnaiz.

Both Delos Santos and Arnaiz were killed by Caloocan policemen and were accused of being involved in drugs and fired shots to the police prompting the police to return fire but were innocent. Both their families even deny that they were drug addicts and drug pushers.

Up to now, their families still continue to seek justice for them.

4. MOCHA USON APPOINTED AS PCOO ASEC. AND BOARD MEMBER OF MTRCB

Entertainer-turned-blogger Mocha Uson was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as assistant secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).

She is the lead vocalist of the group Mocha Girls writes Mocha Uson Blog on Facebook and also a staunch supporter of Duterte on social media, was earlier appointed as board member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).

The PCOO is being run by Secretary Martin Andanar. Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, meanwhile, is in charge of the PCOO’s content and messaging, including the final release and distribution of information.

Uson’s term will expire on September 30, 2017.

5. CHR'S P1000 BUDGET FOR 2018

Lawmakers frustrated over the performance of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) gave the agency a P1,000 budget for next year, effectively rendering it useless. One-hundred nineteen lawmakers voted for the token budget, while 32 were against it.

Reps. Raul Del Mar (1st district, Cebu) and Edcel Lagman (1st district, Albay) said giving the CHR a P1,000 budget would mean abolishing it.

CHR Chair Chito Gascon said the commission will keep doing its job despite the budget given by the House.

Aside from the CHR, the House also gave the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) a P1,000-budget for 2018.

The Senate will have its own decision on the fate of the budgets of the CHR, NCIP, and ERC. The Senate will act on the proposed 2018 budget bill as approved by the House of Representatives. Differences will be reconciled in a conference committee. The reconciled version will be returned to the two chambers for ratification.

The administration plans to have President Rodrigo Duterte sign a new budget law before the next fiscal year begins in January.

6. MARLOU ARIZALA AKA XANDER FORD

Marlou Arizala now Xander Ford took social media by storm after he revealed his new look.

Internet personality Marlou Arizala, who goes by the name Xander Ford, appeared before national TV on ABS-CBN's lifestyle show "Rated K" after he went through cosmetic enhancement procedures.

His transformation caused an uproar on social media, as #XanderFord immediately became one of the top trending topics on Twitter.

Arizala was a former member of Internet group Hasht5 before leaving in 2016 to pursue his solo career.

7. THE HAZING CASE OF HORACIO CASTILLO III

Horacio "Atio" Castillo III, a 22-year-old freshman law student at the University of Santo Tomas died after a supposed "welcoming party" of the Aegis Juris Fraternity (AJF) on September 16. As it turned out, what happened that night was a hazing rite and Atio died.

AJF is based at the UST Faculty of Civil Law. Its current dean, Nilo Divina, is an alumnus of the fraternity. Atio brought this up to assuage his parents' apprehensions when he asked permission to join the fraternity. He also assured them that the fraternity does not conduct hazing.

He has been laid to rest, but the fight for justice by his loved ones continues.

8. THE 31ST ASEAN SUMMIT AND RELATED SUMMITS HOSTED IN PH

Leaders from twenty countries from the ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea (ROK), Russia, United States (US), Canada, European Union (EU), and the United Nations Secretary General gathered in a two-day summit in Manila for the 31tst ASEAN Summit and Related Summits last November 13 and 14, 2017. It is the second of the two ASEAN Summits that the Philippines hosted this year.

Under the theme “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World,” ASEAN Leaders discussed the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025 and the way forward and the appointment of the new Secretary-General of ASEAN. They also exchanged views on pressing regional and international issues.

Pres. Duterte is also the chair of the ASEAN’s 40th Anniversary Commemorative Summits with the United States of America, Canada and the European Union; 20th ASEAN Plus Three Commemorative Summit; the 20th ASEAN-China Summit, 19th ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit; 20th ASEAN-Japan Summit; 12th East Asia Summit; 15th ASEAN-India Summit; and the 9th ASEAN-UN Summit.

The ASEAN Leaders signed the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, a landmark document that further seeks to strengthen social protection, access to justice, humane and fair treatment, and access to health services for the migrant workers of Southeast Asia.

At the Closing Ceremony of the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Summits, President Duterte hand over the Chairmanship of ASEAN to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, the incoming Chair of ASEAN for 2018.

9. IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT VS CJ LOURDES SERENO

The House committee on justice reviews the verified impeachment complaint against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

There were two complaints against Chief Justice Sereno. The first complaint, endorsed by at least 25 members of the House of Representatives, was filed by Atty. Larry Gadon on August 30 and the second complaint, filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and the Vanguards of the Philippine Constitution, it was filed on September 4 after 16 lawmakers endorsed it.

Atty. Larry Gadon accused Sereno of failing to be truthful in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). He also questioned her travel expenses and allowances she had supposedly given her staff, as well as SC resolutions that did not go through the en banc.

Sereno was appointed as the country's first female chief justice in 2012, after the impeachment of then Chief Justice Renato Corona.

10. THE DENGVAXIA CONTROVERSY

Dengvaxia, a vaccine aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of school children from dengue may have put their lives at risk. Around 10 percent of over 800,000 students who were immunized with Dengvaxia, but did not have a prior dengue infection, now face contracting a "severe disease," according to the vaccine's manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur.

The World Health Organization has issued a recommendation that Dengvaxia should not be administered to people who have not had dengue before. The WHO said Dengvaxia "prevents disease in the majority of vaccine recipients but it should not be administered to people who have not previously been infected with dengue virus."

Following the announcement, the Department of Health (DOH) halted its nationwide dengue immunization program and has demanded billions in pesos as a refund for the vaccines.

Meanwhile, both Congress and the Justice Department are digging deeper into the controversy, with officials from the current and previous administrations pointing fingers at each other.

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gessvhowarth · 7 years ago

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Things To Do In London This Weekend: 28-29 January 2017

All weekend See a neon recreation of the House of Parliament at Chiswick House. Photo: Londonist BREATHE: A weekend of installations, performances and workshops, Space to Breathe at Somerset House is a creative response to the rising pollution levels in London. Find out what you can do to make the city less congested and more energy efficient. Free, just turn up, until 29 January [noon-6pm] THE LIRTERATI: Follow Millie on her journey to becoming a serious journalist as she goes underground with the Litterati community, in this play at Vaults Festival. £15, book ahead, 25-29 January MAGIC LANTERNS: The Magical Lantern Festival is back at Chiswick House Gardens. Follow the trail through the gardens to see lantern installations themed on the Silk Road and the Chinese Year of the Rooster. You can also enjoy ice skating, food from around the world and funfair rides. £16.50/£10.50, book ahead, until 26 February OPEN PLAN: Open Plan at House of Vans in Waterloo is an immersive exhibition showcasing works by modern artists that use painting and sculpture to explore space and architecture. Free, just turn up, 26 January-12 February EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS: Despite being colourblind and having tunnel vision, William Lethorn has found success in the world of art. Working with oils, acrylics, charcoal — and taking inspiration from religion, history and landmarks — Lethorn's selected works are currently being displayed in Exhibition of Paintings at Artsdepot in North Finchley. Free, just turn up, until 8 February ETHICAL TAXIDERMY: Jazmine Miles-Long challenges the ideas and perceptions of taxidermy with her exhibition, Memorial. A Tribute to Taxidermy, at the Horniman Museum. Miles-Long pays tribute to unknown craftsmen of the past, while also demonstrating that taxidermists not only preserve of animals but are masters of many skills. Free, just turn up, until 1 May Saturday 28 January Keep the little ones entertained at Half Moon Theatre with A Square World. FAMILY TIME: Celebrate Chinese New Year at Museum of London Docklands. Take your children along for storytelling, paper-cutting, dragon dancing and more with this special family festival Free, just turn up, from 11am A SQUARE WORLD: A sweet, touching story looking at the unfairness of being left out in the world, A Square World follows three friends as they redefine the meaning of the square world. The theatre show, aimed at 3-6 year olds, takes place at Half Moon Theatre in Limehouse. £7, book ahead, 11am/2pm CHARACTER ENCOUNTERS: Take the kids to the National Maritime Museum for Character Encounters. Explore the struggles of tea trade between Britain and China, dive into the sea with Neptune or learn about life as a Caribbean woman from Pearl Morris. Free, just turn up, noon-3pm (different time slots) INSIDE THE BOX: Perfect for quick-thinkers and creative minds, Inside the Box Game Jam on Brick Lane is a day dedicated to creating a tabletop game in a short amount of time, with prizes and the chance of having your game published. From £10, book ahead, noon-10pm DOMESTIC THEATRE: A pitch black comedy with an all female cast, The Wives of Others surrounds a group of women, all wives of underground criminals, at a dinner party. Set in 1955, New York City, the job that their husbands are on falls apart, and so does the dinner party. Performed at OSO Arts Centre in Barnes. £12-£15, book ahead, 7pm CLAZZICAL MUSIC: Join British Jazz Award winner Julian Marc Stringle and his Dream Band as they join forces with Sonia Slany’s Solid Strings for an evening of a fusion of classic melodies and Latin rhythms at Chickenshed Theatre in Southgate. £20-£25, book ahead, 8.30pm DJ, DRINKS & DANCE: Fancy an evening of cocktails, dancing and old-school tracks? Let loose with Drink, Shop & Do's DJ, Drinks & Dancing in King's Cross. Free until 10pm, £3 after. Sunday 29 January Take the kids to see The Bear at Artsdepot. CHINESE NEW YEAR: Head on down to Chinatown for the 2017 Chinese New Year Parade. Complete with puppeteers, costumes and music, it's the biggest Chinese New Year parade outside of Asia. Here's everything you need to know. Free, just turn up, from 10am THE BEAR: Keep the little ones entertained with a performance of The Bear at Artsdepot in North Finchley. Follow Tilly on her adventure with a very large polar bear that turns up in her bedroom one night. Aimed at age 3+. £9, book ahead, 11am/2pm RIVER FLEET: Go back in time with this guided tour down the River Fleet. Learn all of the secrets of the Fleet Valley, from the hidden viaducts to the Grecian villas. £12/£9, book ahead, 10.30am-12.30pm IMPACT BOXING: Test your right hook with IMPACT Boxing's workshop at Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. Suitable for all levels, get yourself ready for the week ahead with this crazy fitness workshop. £20, book ahead, 11am-noon ANTI WINTER BLUES: Fight those January blues with a movie at House of Vans. Chosen especially as a part of their Anti Winter Blues season, they will be screening It's Kind of a Funny Story, a movie about a teenage boy who checks himself into a psychiatric ward as he battles depression. Free, just turn up, 2pm/4pm BURNS CELEBRATION: Celebrate Burns Night with an evening of music from the UK's top folk performers at Union Chapel in Islington. Visitors will hear some of poet Robert Burn's work put to music for the first time. £15, book ahead, 7pm RAILWAY COMEDY: Have a laugh with Comedy at the Railway Streatham. Join Ellie Taylor, Nigel NG and other comedians as they take you through their hilarious anecdotes. £6, book ahead, 7.30pm Stage review: A devastating portrayal of benefit cuts Joseph Quinn as Dean Carmody and Erin Doherty as Tamsin Carmody in WISH LIST. Photo: Jonathan Keenan It’s not hard to see why Katherine Soper’s debut play bagged the Bruntwood Prize: tightly structured, surprisingly funny, and incredibly poignant, this is a quietly devastating portrayal of life under Britain’s benefit cuts. The four-strong, first-rate cast in Matthew Xia’s production will leave you feeling battered, but oddly hopeful, in this exposé of the lengths to which some will go to protect the ones they love. Wish List, Royal Court, Sloane Square, Chelsea, SW1W 8AS. From £10, until 11 February ★★★★☆ Savannah Whaley Stage review: Relentless locker room talk to music Gabriel Vick as Chuck & Daisy Maywood as Fran. Photo by Claire Bilyard A bubbling Bacharach soundtrack, inspired production and enthusiastic cast doesn't hide the fact that Promises, Promises at Southwark Playhouse overplays its paper-thin story, for three hours. But leads Gabriel Vick and Daisy Maywood make such a cute couple you might feel inclined to want to take them home. When they come together and sing "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" it is sublime music making.Promises, Promises, Southwark Playhouse, Newington Causeway SE1. £25/£20, until 18 February ★★★☆☆ Paul Ewing Funzing Fun things to do with our friends and sponsor Funzing. A Taster to Theatre Gym - Limited time offer Experience life on stage and see what it takes to be an actor at Theatre Gym. Learn performance skills and network without networking in the class led by trained actress Tal Jakubowiczova. £5 Get tickets Molecular Gastronomy Tapas Dinner Workshop - Clapham Ever fancied yourself as the next Heston Blumenthal? Discover the science meets of molecular gastronomy and help science meet flavour in a vegan tapas dinner workshop. £45 Get tickets Experimental Chocolate Club: Feelgood Flavours Christmas + chocolate = pure bliss, no? Thankfully someone's found a way of combining the two in the form of Experimental Chocolate Club. Spend the afternoon experimenting with some surprising chocolate taste combinations and learning how to taste chocolate properly (it's serious business, you know). Best of all, you'll get some chocolate treats to take home with you. Get tickets

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#London #Weekend #THINGS TO DO IN LONDON THIS WEEKEND #things to do in london #things to do

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subbybaby-blog · 8 years ago

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What's happening for summer 2017

Started through Robert Redford inside 1978, the particular Sundance Film Festival ended up being created to be able to convey more filmmakers with regard to one to Utah. Practically 40 many years later, Sundance hasnt just attracted a whole lot more filmmakers for you to Utah, yet it's likely to end up being the largest impartial film festival inside the particular U.S. and within addition just the Cannes Film Festival inside France can compare inside scale. thousands of actors, directors, producers, screenwriters, and in addition celebrities outcome inside your stop through at scenic Park town each as well as every January in order to watch your premier associated with his or her certain films and in addition gather together as contemporaries. Downtown Mainstreet inside Park area transforms from your quiet artsy getaway to a amount of modern hang-out spot for ten points in your program of the film screenings, concerts, parties, as well as seminars. in case you'll need to consider some slack by way of most relating for you to the movie viewing along with have to stretch your existing legs to find a bit, anyone may be merely minutes coming from striking the world-class slopes which in turn hosted your 2002 Winter Olympics. Discover more. Jam Cruise 15 Miami, Florida January 20-25, 2017 Jam Cruise 15 2017 - Extremely Very Best Events USA Jam Cruise could be considered a one-of-a-kind songs as well as vacation encounter featuring 5 events involving songs aboard a luxurious cruise ship, the particular Norwegian Pearl. At Present throughout its 15th sailing, Jam Cruise is continuing to turn out to be able to develop in so as to a coveted destination additionally a yearly retreat relating to both songs lovers and also artists alike. together Using multiple venues on the ship, around-the-clock onboard music, port stops throughout gorgeous tropical locations, as well as a variety in the coolest fans across the planet, its an straightforward process for you to discover the one thing by which tends to make Jam Cruise consequently distinctive as well as special. each yr can be a brand new adventure! 2017s lineup consists involving the Real Original Meters, Moe, Griz, Galactic, together with Karl Densons Tiny Universe. Jam Cruise can be truly certainly 1 of 1 inside the nearly all unique and also pleasant filled approaches for you to encounter a new audio festival - thus indicator up nowadays for the vacation festival! understand more. Key West Meals & Wine Festival Key West, Florida January 25-29, 2017 Key West food & Wine Festival 2017 - greatest Events USA Is there virtually virtually any significantly much better mix when in comparison using consuming any amount regarding shrimp, sipping a couple of wine, also as relaxing round the heat beach next to become able to obvious blue drinking drinking water - just regarding almost all inside the middle related together with winter? 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Top Events inside February 2017 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Moscow, Idaho February 23-25, 2017 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival - Extremely Greatest Events USA Since the actual actual 1960s, your school regarding Idaho Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival could be on their email list of real largest along with oldest educational jazz festivals within the world. together with more than 400 student performances, a brand name new dozen world-class jazz artists together with nearly one hundred workshops, clinics also as distinctive exhibits, the real Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival honors the particular music, dance and also good track record of jazz songs along with one of its many honored artists, Lionel Hampton. Realize more. Wanderlust Oahu, Hawaii February 23-26 Wanderlust Oahu 2017 - Greatest Events USA Wanderlust is genuinely a week-long transformational retreat that can easily bring together with each and every and each various other world-class teachers, tastemakers, in inclusion to experts all through mindful living within the fun-filled, creative environment. in Wanderlust, the goal can end up being to find your current accurate north. correct north will be not merely a final destination: its a fresh path, any journey, as well as the yearning to always be able for you to discover and connect for the lifes purpose. Pick your own private adventure at this event using selections ranging from multi-level yoga in addition to meditation sessions, mouthwatering organic and also entire foods, heart-pumping music, inspiring lectures together with workshops, and throughout addition boundary-pushing actions which includes bike tours, horseback riding, eco kayaking. Find your own right north with Wanderlust 2017. understand more. Mardi Gras New Orleans, Louisiana February 28, 2017 Mardi Gras 2017 - Greatest Events USA Mardi Gras surely necessitates real king cake for which provides being certainly one of the actual very most distinctive along with steady party events inside the particular United States. Within the wedding which you're straight into partying, revelling, and merely having a care-free outstanding time, Mardi Gras may always be the large event regarding you. Yes, Carnival may be celebrated within many countries as well as cities throughout your current world, nevertheless Mardi Gras all through New Orleans can be actually the only real festival regarding its kind inside the particular US. Celebrate excess fat Tuesday via throwing on a amount regarding beads, dressing up (or down) within costume, too as watching your particular Parade roll upon via your specific famous French Quarter related with New Orleans. This kind of kind of is yet one event which everybody must have in their bucket list. Discover more. Top Events inside March 2017 The Lantern Fest Dallas, Texas March 4th, 2017 Lantern Fest 2017 - Extremely best Events USA By now, you're particular in order to possess discovered with regards to Lantern Festivals occurring all through Southeast Asia, several associated using the largest using location inside Thailand, Taiwan, along with China. Even though may extremely well not truly always be in a new place to spend the actual real cash for stop through at Thailand to always be able to become able to visit your actual Lantern Festival, you can maintain out regarding this in order to often be capable of come for you utilizing the Lantern Festival! every year, the particular Lantern Fest travels via the actual specific Usa for you to cities near anyone to bring for you a manufacturer new truly particular experience. Within each and every event, hundreds along with 1000s involving lanterns obtain lit and inside addition steadily contemplate off for the air. you will not expertise virtually just about any festival quite just just like the Lantern Festival. Discover more. Iditarod Anchorage, Alaska March 4-19, 2017 Iditarod 2017 - Extremely best Events USA Dubbed as The Final excellent Race, Iditarod is actually really a dog sled race that takes location each along with every March throughout Alaska. Your Current race insures 1,049 miles since Alaska was the particular 49th state in the US. Mushers with each other generating use of their particular dogs journey the trail by way of Anchorage in order to often be able to Nome inside the actual cold Alaskan snow, bracing fierce winds and also hefty snow. Nevertheless in the big event a person dont believe standing about inside the snow waiting for any dog sled to give through a person simply by sounds such as the cup relating to tea, anyone usually takes part inside your celebrations occurring about Anchorage and also Nome such because the Awards Banquet and furthermore the actual IditaRider Meet & Greet and also Pizza Lunch. Throughout case you may well be seeking with an event which might truly continually be one-of-a-kind, dont shed out about Iditarod, merely simply because there is actually very little else just like it. Discover more. Hamilton New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago March 10 - December 30, 2017 Hamilton - Extremely Greatest Events USA Hamilton: While the Famous Musical may end up becoming the Broadway play where has had takes place by simply storm. Tickets are already advertising for almost your thousand bucks about reselling sites, nevertheless now, Hamilton goes about tour. As A Result should you havent had the chance to create it out pertaining to you to new York to determine it live, Hamilton goes being coming to end up being able to become able to an urban area within the location starting throughout 2017. The Actual particular musical itself is actually really within regards to grow in order to be in the position for the existence related with American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton made your decision to produce his mark across the new nation as hungry as well as ambitious while he is. George Washington, Eliza Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, along with Aaron Burr most assist to create their own mark inside this astonishing new musical exploration of a political mastermind. Comprehend more. Holi Festival regarding Colors Spanish Fork, Utah March 25 & 26, 2017 Holi Festival regarding Colors 2017 - very best Evnets USA The Holi Festival related together with Colors all through Spanish Fork, Utah may become the largest Holi celebration inside the actual United States Involving America associated with America - with each other along with tens involving a big quantity of attendees showing up to douse one other person within color! Inside India, Holi announces the arrival related using spring as well as the passing relating to winter. The festival breathes an atmosphere concerning social merriment each nook together with corner presents a new colorful sight! every half-hour, everyone else gathers collectively for you to toss their colors up in the air for you to create an enormous cloud involving colour any person can easily observe via miles away. Throughout case a person havent left the actual specific festival covered inside color, anyone havent celebrated right. discover more. Top Events in April 2017 Masters Golfing Tournament Augusta, Georgia April 4-10, 2017 The Masters golfing - greatest Events USA You might never help make oneself an infamous green jacket, however you could feel the tradition associated with this deep rooted tournament throughout its 83rd 12 months within the Augusta National Golfing Club. Sports-lovers put this tournament at the the actual surface with the their particular bucket list, and you must too. Within In Between the particular classic par-3 contest, your current (generally) stunning weather as well as gorgeous course theres pointless to be able to not want this event on your 2017 calendar. Discover more. Coachella Coachella Valley, California April 14-16 & 21-23, 2017 Coachella 2017 - Greatest Events USA When anyone imagine using regards to Coachella, an individual believe concerning the heat California nights, a fresh crazy weekend party, and also listening for the many famous artists and also bands the actual planet has to end up being able to offer. yet some thing you might not contemplate just just as much is the place Coachella is actually not only a new audio festival, nevertheless can additionally become an arts festival. An Individual without doubt acquire seen the actual real iconic images of one's giant caterpillar as well as butterfly which create Coachella artistic and inventive inside a way hardly any kind of other event can easily compare. You can easily find 2 different weekends pertaining to Coachella this year, as a result within the huge event you cannot ensure it is a weekend, you'll become in the new position to become able to increase your certain danger with regard to other. discover more. The Boston Marathon Boston, Massachusetts April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon 2017 - very best Events USA The Boston Marathon will be the actual marathon involving marathons within the particular United States. each Together With every year, 1000s of avid, world-class runners race multiple marathons hoping in order to qualify for your Boston Marathon, nevertheless simply therefore many outcome inside the actual cut. Olympic runners via almost all over the particular planet compete inside your Boston Marathon, completing your own race inside jaw-dropping occasions concerning one regarding the specific worlds fastest courses. If you're certainly not a new runner fighting inside your race, you might be usually in a new position to stand around the facets cheering around the runners simply because they pass by, or even operate in the 5k, Invitational Mile, or perhaps Relay Challenge! Discover more. Tribeca Film Festival New York, New York April 19-30, 2017 Tribeca Film Festival 2017 - Greatest Events USA Need an excuse to end up becoming able to have the rich culture Ny Metropolis purports to end up getting able to offer? Your Real Tribeca Film Festival can become a platform pertaining to be able to creators along with community members to adopt straight into consideration how film, culture, as well as artwork affect the entire world too as area by which we live. This kind of specific event will host 500+ film screenings, 222 filmmakers, and also more than 30 virtual reality tasks to consider part in. Comprehend more. TED 2017 Vancouver, British Columbia April 24-28, 2017 TED 2017 - Greatest Events USA If you have ever positioned oneself all through a limitless loop involving watching TED Talks like us, anyone need to consider planning to their own specific conference this year. Although anyone decide to go to a TED conference you can commit once a week amongst life-changing speakers where you pay attention to new ideas, technologies, music, comedy acts in inclusion to more. These conferences also include art exhibits, dinners, get-togethers in addition to wellness actions just like operating also as yoga. consider weekly concerning oneself along with sign up for this years TED 2017 conference. Realize more. Eeyore's Birthday Party Austin, Texas April 29, 2017 Eeyores Birthday Party 2017 - Greatest Events USA Every yr within the certain length of the past weekend associated along with April, people regarding Austin come together concerning among most likely your particular the majority of special occasions with just about all the entire year for one to celebrate Eeyores birthday. This certain family-friendly festival demands location annually inside Pease District Park as well as features stay acoustic music, all-day drumming circles, video games too as colorful maypoles. Costumes tend to be typically strongly encouraged in the lovable Winnie-the-Pooh characters party! understand more. 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Top Events inside Could 2017 Tulip Time Holland, Michigan May 6-14, 2017 Tulip Event 2017 - very best Events USA As surely simply because sunlight rises every and also each morning, each and every spring a person view the capital of scotland- Holland, Michigan will possibly be an unbelievable sight as 4.5 million tulips burst forth as well as bloom! the actual city, named after the Tulip Richesse with the world, celebrates its Dutch heritage as well as culture using food, music, 1,500 wooden clogs, along by having an extraordinary range of tulips! You'll perception just like you have travelled throughout the pond for you to always be able to outdated period involving time Holland whilst an individual celebrate this event throughout Holland, Michigan. Discover more. Tour associated along with California California May 11-20, 2017 Tour of California 2017 - very Very Best Events USA The Tour concerning California is actually truly a new Tour de France-style cycling highway race in which challenges your particular worlds best expert cycling teams in order to compete alongside a fresh demanding program in which traverses a big collection of miles related using Californias iconic highways, byways along with coastlines every spring. the actual really greatest cycling teams via in regards in order to the entire world bond for you to always be able to definitely compete within the Tour involving California for example Olympic medalists, Tour de France contenders and also world Champions. Whenever youre the cycler, your cycling enthusiast, as well as just an expertise collector, the particular Tour involving California is actually as shut as it are particular for you to get to continually be able to watching the particular particular Tour de France. Discover more. The Preakness Stakes Baltimore, Maryland May 20, 2017 The Preakness Stakes 2017 - Greatest Events USA Held around the third Saturday within May Well each and throughout addition every year, your actual Preakness Stakes could potentially end up being the 2nd jewel with the Triple Crown. Whilst your own Kentucky Derby kicks off your own horse racing excitement - the particular Preakness Stakes may end up being the area the spot exactly where the desires of a Triple Crown champion are generally generally made. This kind of certain deciding race will be held just two brief weeks after the Kentucky Derby together with three weeks ahead relating to the Belmont Stakes. Nevertheless this event is not only regarding the horses - its with regards to acquiring dressed up, putting on your hat, drinking the pair drinks, and fraternizing in the club. An Individual want to produce particular for you to demonstrate up plenty early consequently which you might hold the total encounter out of your Preakness Stakes. Comprehend more. Sasquatch! Audio Festival The Gorge, Washington May 26-28 Sasquatch! songs Festival 2017 - very best Events USA The audio festival season kicks off each year over Memorial Day Weekend collectively together with Sasquatch! Audio Festival coming from The Gorge Ampitheater. All-star lineups play the levels as Sasquatch! Pertaining In Order To three days, and each night attendees return with their tents to always be able to always be capable of camp out with their friends. but if camping is not really the thing, but you nonetheless wish to visit Sasquatch! To Become Able To Continually Be Capable Of call in your favorite artists play, you'll often be able to signal up to your luxurious glamping options. You May always be inside the tent, nevertheless you will possess got your really personal bed, electricity, heat, in supplement to pillows thus you could jam so as in order to songs inside the actual ultimate comfort. Maintain your abilities out pertaining for you to this many a extended time lineup, since it could a person ought to be the particular actual best yet. understand more. Spoleto Festival USA Charleston, South Carolina May 26 - June 11, 2017 Spoleto Festival USA - very best Events USA For 17 times and nights each spring, Spoleto Festival USA fills Charleston, South Carolinas historic theaters, churches, in addition to outdoor spaces together with performances by just renowned artists as well as emerging performers inside opera; theater; dance; as well as chamber, symphonic, choral, also as jazz music. currently approaching its 41st season, Spoleto Festival USA can be internationally thought in order to be Americas premier executing arts festival. Inside your current event that you are interested inside the actual doing arts, this could function as the actual festival relating to you. Realize more. Top Events inside June 2017 North American Sand Soccer Tournament Virginia Beach, Virginia June 9-11, 2017 North American Sand Soccer Tournament If a person just similar to the particular beach, and also enjoy playing soccer, dont forget to become able in order to register to believe about portion within your North American Sand Soccer Tournament. Whilst there can be certainly zero Globe Cup as well as maybe Euro Cup to be able to keep a person glued to your television screen, leave the house thus punching the certain beaches as teams gather for you to try out in order to acquire the particular cup! The NASSC will continually be the worlds largest amateur beach soccer festival - stretching greater than twenty blocks along with a lot more than 9,500 people fighting for that cash prize! 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Food & Wine Classic inside Aspen Aspen, Colorado June 16-18, 2017 Food & Wine Classic within Aspen 2017 - very Very Best Events USA Each year, the particular particular world's nearly all accomplished winemakers, celebrity chefs, as well as culinary experts bond in one breathtaking setting, the particular specific meals & Wine Classic within Aspen. Don't miss your opportunity to glance in the pinnacle of fine taste, mingle together with stars, and also revel in the pleasure-packed weekend at the foot of spectacular Aspen Mountain. Discover more. Top Events inside July 2017 Summerfest Milwaukee, Wisconsin June - July 2017 Summerfest 2017 Welcome for one to Americas largest songs festival: 11 days, 11 stages, over 800 acts, 1,000 performances, as well as nearly 900,000 regarding one's closest friends. 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Northern Nights Songs Festival Piercy, California July 14-16, 2017 Northern Nights audio Festival - Really Very Best Events USA If an individual enjoy camping, swimming, hanging out inside the actual wilderness, together with hearing a couple of sweet tunes, Northern Nights Songs Festival may be the perfect songs festival regarding you. Envision hearing your own preferred band play survive stage whilst anybody chill in your tube inside the river as well as maybe camping with almost all of involving your mates in a few involving Americas nearly all scenic countryside. Northern Nights audio Festival is Americas boutique camping festival. Acquire ready for any weekend connected with camping, floating the certain river, together with partying along making use involving your pals just regarding all night long! understand more. 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Top Events within August 2017 Maine Lobster Festival Rockland, Maine August 2-6, 2017 Maine Lobster Festival - very best Events USA When an individual think about Maine, the actual original things to pop into your thoughts are generally beautiful coastlines, lighthouses, as well as delicious, red lobsters - and also anyone wouldnt often be wrong. Maine can be nationally also as internationally recognized to be their state that can certainly make certain of, otherwise the really greatest lobster within the world. Dating rear pertaining to you to 1947, your Maine Lobster Festival could become a yearly tradition throughout Rockland bringing inside 1000s of friends annually to test and in addition taste the actual real freshest lobster around. therefore once you obtain planning your own personal Maine vacation regarding this summer, help make positive regarding you to plan it across the Maine Lobster Festival. understand more. Iowa State Fair Des Moines, Iowa August 10-20, 2017 Iowa State Fair - greatest Events USA The Iowa State Fair will be certainly one with the certain largest state fairs inside your Usa attracting greater than the million people through many more than the actual planet annually, its a fresh proud salute for the states best in agriculture, industry, entertainment together with achievement. the thought could end up getting the correct heartbeat of the Midwest, unequaled too as unduplicated additionally an event that will become experienced through just all. Comprehend more. Outside Lands San Francisco, California August 11-13, 2017 Outside Lands 2017 - very best Events USA Come collectively also as are living outside collectively with Ranger Dave inside Outside Lands 2017! every August, San Franciscos Golden Gate Park transforms directly into an otherworldly celebration of music, food, wine, beer, art as well as comedy. Your actual lineup regarding 2017 features yet to grow for you to be announced, but significant headliners originating from 2016 included Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Lionel Richie, Lana Del Rey, J.Cole, Sufjan Stevens, likelihood your current Rapper, Beach House, along with more! In the event that you're audio junkie, Outside Lands requirements being on your own current own bucket listing involving songs festivals so as to attend inside 2017. understand more. Best inside Your West Nugget Rib Cook-Off Sparks, Nevada August 30 - September 4, 2017 Best inside the West Nugget Rib Cook-off 2017 - Really Very Best Events USA The Greatest within the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off could be Americas greatest and greatest free-entry barbecue festival! you Will consider component inside countrys very best grilling competition, positioned at the Nugget Casino Resort within Sparks, Nevada. 2 dozen with the worlds leading bbq competitors serve up a great deal the lot a lot much more than 240,000 kilos relating to ribs with regard to countless a big quantity of hungry event-goers concerning Victorian Square. Too Since just like a bonus, admission, parking, shuttles, along with entertainment will nearly always be free! Consequently if youre searching for numerous excellent barbecue this summer, guide a vacation to the finest in Your West Nugget Rib Cook-Off. discover more. Top Events all through September 2017 New York Design Week New York, New York September 7-14, 2017 New York Design Week (NYFW) 2017 - Really Very Best Events USA Twice a new year, the particular actual manner globe turns its knowing of The Particular Large Apple for you to find yourself becoming in a position to start to decide the new collections from your worlds greatest designers. Runway subsequent runway may be filled track of models donning the specific styles that the planet will probably be wearing all through regarding that subsequent 6 months. However, your current runways usually are generally not the simply real area inside which you could be involved in Ny manner Week. Only Concerning Just About All week extended pop-up shops, runway studios, soirees, parties, together with exhibitions fill your metropolis - many regarding which in turn liberated to attend. 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New York metropolis Pizza Run New York, New York September 2017 New York Pizza Run 2017 - Greatest Events USA There are any few pretty inventive 5ks that will consider location every year round the US, yet in which normally could any individual feasible host the actual specific pizza operate besides Ny City? Famous for its large assortment involving pizza parlors, Ny City hosts the Pizza operate every in addition to each September. The Actual particular NYC Pizza operate can be truly a new challenge where contributors aim for you to accomplish a two mile function although stopping to consume three slices associated with pizza together with checkpoints just about all through your course. All Through your meals obsessed metropolis exactly where folks are usually concerning the run, assembling an event that usually pays tribute to be able to some regarding the citys nearly all defining characteristics seemed being a no-brainer. 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An Individual dont wish to miss this likelihood getting the section of background witness your particular greatest drivers inside the entire world race it out on the 3.4 mile track! learn more. Fantasy Fest Key West, Florida October 21-30, 2017 Fantasy Fest 2017 - Greatest Events USA Fantasy Fest could be described as a yearly 10-day party throughout paradise pertaining to grown-ups. started inside 1979 with a little team related along with Essential West locals, your certain party had been created in order to carry guests for the island with what was obviously a typically quite, lovely season. In Which worked. Fantasy Fest features exploded every each twelve months since its inception as well as will most likely be also now the specific wildest extravaganza around! 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Festival involving Lights Riverside, California November 25th - January 7th, 2017 Festival concerning Lights 2017 - Greatest Events USA For 24 a long time the actual Mission Inn Resort & Day spa have got offered the actual real 1000s of lights in addition to multiple events just just like the Switch-On Ceremony, Santa Claus, Horse Carriages in supplement to Entertaining. Within case you will need regarding you to expertise one in the nearly all dazzling holiday spectacle south using the North Pole, this may easily become your spot to be. And, in the actual event you may not necessarily allow it for you to be out to Riverside, California dont worry, they have remain webcams create just for you. Any person might view tend to be living stream of the lights as well as exercise originating from their website linked above! discover more.

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It is a given that there are lots of people in need all over the world. It is also a given that those who have more should give more, hence, the great number of charitable organizations and institutions that exist today. Of course, not everyone can afford to donate millions to their favorite foundations and causes and even if they can they don’t always do so altruistically. Money and power tend to corrupt. Some powerful people, however, have shown us that this isn’t always the case. These are 25 people who are known for their charity and they show us that humanity is indeed capable of great good.

#1 Kofi Annan A Ghanaian diplomat, Kofi Atta Annan served as the 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. He became a co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Global AIDS and Health Fund to help and support developing countries care for their people.

#2 Marianne Cope Also known as Saint Marianne of Moloka’i, Marianne Cope was a German-born American and member of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Syracuse, New York. Known for her charitable works and virtuous deeds, she spent many years caring for lepers on the island of Molokaʻi in Hawaiʻi. Despite direct contact with the patients over many years, Cope was not afflicted by the disease.

#3 Pierre Toussaint The Venerable Pierre Toussaint was a former slave from the French colony of Saint-Dominique who was brought by his owners to New York City in 1787. After he gained his freedom in 1807, he adopted the surname Toussaint and became one of the most famous philanthropists of his time. His house in Franklin Street became a shelter for orphans, which he supported in getting an education and learning a trade. He also created a credit bureau and employment agency for destitute travelers; and founded a refuge for homeless immigrants.

#4 Tony Blair Tony Blair is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. While in office he was known for his motivation to do something about global climate change and reduce harmful gas emissions. He also launched several chartable foundations including the Tony Blair Sports Foundation in order to increase childhood participation in sports activities and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to tackle global poverty and conflict.

#5 St. Elizabeth Romanova The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, who was canonized as St. Elizabeth Romanova was a German princess who was renowned in Russia for her beauty and charitable works among the poor. When her husband; Sergei, was murdered by the Socialist Revolutionary Party’s Combat Organization with a dynamite bomb in 1905; she did not only forgive her husband’s murderer but also campaigned for his pardon.

#6 Barbara Streisand The a popular singer has given millions to education, women’s health, the environment, and other civic causes. She is known for raising awareness and donating to numerous charitable organizations by way of the Streisand Foundation.

#7 Dulce Pontes A Brazilian Catholic Francescan sister who founded the ‘The Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce,’ Dulce Pontes was recently named the most admired woman in the history of Brazil. She was known for her works with the poorest populations in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and was beatified with papal approval on May 22, 2011. She became a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize after founding one of the largest and most respected philanthropic organizations in Brazil.

#8 Sir Roger Wilbraham A prominent English lawyer who served as a Solicitor-General for Ireland under Elizabeth I, Roger Wilbraham was also active in charitable works locally. Known for founding numerous almshouses for the poor and distributing financial provisions on a weekly basis he managed to create a very philanthropic reputation for himself.

#9 Margaret Thatcher Popularly known as the ‘Iron Lady,’ Margaret Thatcher was a British politician who became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. Her charitable works were often associated with the Margaret Thatcher Foundation that was not surprisingly devoted to promoting democracy, free trade, and education.

#10 Mia Farrow Mia Farrow is not only famous as an American actress, a former fashion model, and singer; but also for her humanitarian works. She has always been a high-profile advocate for children’s rights in war torn regions of Africa. Sometimes resorting to Ghandi like tactics she once went on a hunger strike to protest the expulsion of aid groups from the Darfur by the Sudanese government.

#11 Paul G. Allen Paul G. Allen, 59, is the co-founder of Microsoft, the largest computer software manufacturer today. For the tenth consecutive year, he has been donating $372.6 million to his chosen charities, which include $295 million to the Paul G. Allen Foundation, $70 million to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and $7.6 million to the Experience Music and the Science Fiction Museum. According to Forbes’ magazine, he is the 3rd biggest donor of 2011 when it comes to giving funds to charitable institutions.

#12 Stella Vine Stella Vine is a British artist who is well known for donating numerous paintings to charity. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be filthy rich in order to give. Whatever talents you have can be just as useful.

#13 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is a very famous Japanese actress, talk show host, and a best-selling author who founded the Totto Foundation, which was named after the protagonist of her book, the Little Girl at the Window. The foundation professionally trains deaf actors so they can implement her vision for bringing theater to the deaf. In recognition of her charitable work she became the first person from Asia to be appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

#14 Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson is an English business magnate who is the founder and chairman of Virgin Group, a conglomerate of over 400 companies. Besides his many accomplishments as a businessman, along with Nelson Mandela he is also known for helping initiate the formation of The Elders, a small, dedicated group of leaders that are working to solve difficult global problems.

#15 Esther Rantzen Esther Louise Rantzen is not only famous as an English journalist and television presenter for the BBC television show ‘That’s Life!’ but also for her charitable causes. She is founder of the child protection charity ChildLine and is currently in the process of creating a helpline for older people, to be called The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness.

#16 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter As president of the United States, Jimmy Carter was deeply committed to social justice and basic human rights. He and his wife Rosalynn left the White House in search of meaningful ways to contribute in these areas. In addition to promoting peace and human rights through the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta, they lead the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity International one week each year.

#17 Yang Yuanqing Yang Yuanqing CEO of Chinese computer corporation Lenovo lived up to his charitable reputation when he decided to use his $3 million bonus check to award 10,000 employees worldwide with bonuses of their own.

#18 Lord Wolfson The chief executive of the retailer NEXT, Lord Wolfson is another CEO who decided to part ways with his bonus check when he gave all £2.4 million to his 19,400 employees with each of them receiving about £124 each.

#19 Margaret A. Cargill An heir to the Cargill corporation fortune, Margaret A. Cargill tops Forbes’ magazine’s list of ‘The Most Generous People in America.’ Cargill Corporation was established by her grandfather in 1865 and has become one of the largest private companies in the nation with diverse interests ranging from agricultural commodities to financial products. When she died in 2006 at the age of 85; she left all of her shares in the Cargill stocks amounting to $6 million dollars to the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation and the Anne Ray Charitable Trust. These foundations support the environment, disaster relief, arts, and other causes.

#20 Aung San Soo Yi A Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma, Aung is probably one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners as she spent nearly the last 20 years of her life under house arrest. Her immense sacrifices for the Burmese people have led her to receive recognition from numerous government around the world.

#21 Danny and Marlo Thomas As a “starving actor,” Thomas had made a vow: If he found success, he would open a shrine dedicated to St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. Thomas never forgot his promise to St. Jude, and after becoming a successful actor in the early 1950s, his wife joined him and began traveling the United States to help raise funds to build his dream – St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a hospital for needy children, where they would be cared for regardless of race, religion or ability to pay – a hospital where no suffering child would be turned away. Today, his daughter Marlo serves as the national outreach director.

#22 Bob Geldof Bob Geldof was first exposed to charity when he performed for Amnesty International in 1981. This opened his eyes to charitable works, so he co-founded Band Aid in 1984 to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Besides organizing Band Aid II in 1989, he also produced Band Aid20 in 2004 and even helped British Prime Minister Tony Blair to organize the Commission for Africa to undertake a year-long study of Africa’s problems.

#23 Bono Bono, the front man for the famous rock band U2, is a wealthy rock star who spends most of his free time having dialogues with world leaders and policy makers on how they can improve the lot of the poorest of the poor in Africa. He is also very active in the Band Aid and Live Aid projects and quite often uses his music spread information on health, hygiene, and other issues. Some of his foundations and charitable companies include the ONE Campaign and a clothing company that trades with poverty-stricken countries.

#24 Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela was a prominent advocate of social and human rights and was actively involved in projects such as Make Poverty History and the ONE Campaign. His selfless efforts in South Africa led him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

#25 Mother Teresa of Calcutta An Albanian born, Indian Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; children’s and family counseling programmes; orphanages; and schools.

Source: List25

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touristguidebuzz · 8 years ago

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Delta CEO Steered Airline To Become Less Combative With Rivals and Allies

Ed Bastian, Delta's chief executive, has seen the airline move passenger revenue per available seat mile into positive territory in 2017. And that's not all the positivity he's brought into the company. CNBC

Skift Take: Delta executives used to be combative in their approach to various players in the industry. But in the airline's first year under chief executive Ed Bastian, it has, in general, been humbler.

— Sean O'Neill

The cruelty of U.S. airlines has lately become a sore point for travelers—use strong-arm tactics on customers today, and an airline risks a swift explosion of online outrage.

Within the industry, however, Delta Air Lines Inc. has spent the past year trying to shake a less-visible reputation as a bruising antagonist that fought with other airlines and bureaucrats alike.

As Delta’s Ed Bastian reaches his first anniversary as chief executive officer this month, aviation experts and former regulators say they see signs that the Atlanta-based airline is stepping away from an in-your-face posture that sometimes rankled competitors and annoyed bureaucrats under former boss Richard Anderson.

The change in attitude can be traced to the personalities of the CEOs. “Richard was a litigator,” said Mo Garfinkle, a longtime aviation consultant who now works with American Airlines Group Inc. on international matters.

Anderson was a Texas prosecutor before resurrecting Delta following its bankruptcy in 2007. “That litigious, strong, ‘I’m right’ approach of Richard is not the same approach that Ed has.”

Take, for example, the time in 2014 when Atlanta business leaders were considering a state tax increase for roads and Anderson goaded them not to be “chicken” about supporting it. Or the February 2015 CNN interview in which Anderson brought up the Sept. 11 terror attacks while discussing U.S. carriers’ long-standing policy disputes with Persian Gulf airlines, which prompted a public apology from Delta.

And there was a parting shot during Anderson’s final days as CEO last May. Delta withdrew future corporate funding for Atlanta’s historic Fox Theatre because the venue hosted a party featuring a performance by Jennifer Lopez at which archrival Qatar Airways celebrated a new route.

Delta proclaimed itself surprised and disappointed by the event. The theater, a local columnist wrote, had been “found in a car trunk, bound and gagged, a single shot to the back of the head.”

The spats ran the gamut—with the government about alliances and landing slots, with lobbyists about whether its interests were being served, even with its own allies in the airline industry.

A once-close relationship with Alaska Air Group began unraveling in 2012 as Delta moved to build a hub in the smaller carrier’s Seattle hometown. The partnership between Delta and Alaska was set to end May 1.

Delta in recent years “viewed every issue as a bet-the-company kind of case, and they fought it tooth and nail,” said Kathryn Thomson, a former general counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation. She senses now, a year into Bastian’s tenure as boss, that Delta may be becoming more like other airlines that tend to “pick and choose which issues are most important to them and fight for them.’’

“Here goes Delta again”

Bastian, 59, a CPA who earlier in his career worked with food companies, has been repairing a strained relationship with fellow SkyTeam alliance member Korean Air Lines. When the U.S. government insisted that Delta give up some flights to Mexico City to win approval for an alliance with Aeromexico, Bastian complied instead of taking the DOT to court, as Anderson did in a 2015 dispute. And when rival United Airlines inflamed the public’s anger against the industry in April by dragging a passenger off a plane, Bastian raised the amount Delta may offer bumped fliers to almost $10,000—about two weeks before United took similar action.

Delta’s willingness to duke it out over every issue “did damage their credibility, because we’d say, ‘Here goes Delta again,’” said Thomson, who now works at a technology company. The agency never let its frustration with the airline influence its decisions, she said. Under Bastian, she said, “I do think that they have taken that to heart.”

Many regulators saw Delta as the “smartest guys on the block” who ran the best airline, said Paul Gretch, a former head of the Transportation Department’s Office of International Aviation. Yet that success exposed some “pretty sharp edges,” he said, that could feel personal for officials working on Delta cases.

According to Delta, which didn’t make Bastian or Anderson available for an interview, its persistence has paid off.

Delta is a tenacious competitor—it is part of our DNA,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Wolf. “As a result, we’ve established Delta as the industry leader among customers, investors, and labor relations.

The carrier’s 18 percent operating-profit margin—earnings before interest and taxes in this case—last year topped those of American, at 13 percent, and United Continental Holdings Inc., at 12 percent.

Its shares, which closed as low as $3.93 in 2009, have risen to about $48, and it enjoys more labor peace than most big rivals.

Under both CEOs, Delta has found itself the odd one out on some significant government and industry decisions. Industry insiders debate whether the airline’s hardball style has contributed to the disappointments.

When Delta couldn’t get the chief lobbying group for U.S. carriers, Airlines for America, to see its way on certain issues, it pulled its membership and $5 million in annual dues. When Anderson retired, Delta lost a seat on the board of the International Air Transport Association, as the selection committee passed over Bastian for a leader from Hawaiian Airlines—with just 6 percent of Delta’s annual revenue. Delta didn’t directly respond to a reporter’s question about its loss of the board seat.

The U.S. Transportation Department granted Delta the right to collaborate with Grupo Aeromexico SAB on routes and fares without violating antitrust rules—but only after initially demanding that the duo give up so many rights to take off and land in Mexico City that Delta considered ditching the deal. Regardless, Delta said, the result was the largest transborder alliance between the U.S. and Mexico.

Early last year, Delta lost a fight to keep the U.S. and Japan from expanding certain flights at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, which is closer to downtown than Delta’s major hub at Narita International. While Delta has since cut several flights from Narita, the company points out that it ended up getting rights to fly two routes to Haneda, while other airlines picked up a single route.

Delta considers both the Aeromexico and Tokyo situations examples of its “significant successes” in Washington, rather than setbacks. “Delta values our longstanding relationships with representatives at all levels of government as we advocate for policies that are in the best interest of our people and the communities where we live and work,” the company said in a statement.

Under Bastian, Delta has been reestablishing links with Korean Air, with which it had a longtime rift and little collaboration. The airlines just agreed to cooperate on routes across the Pacific, in a deal that would give Delta a much needed partner in Asia.

“We’ve had our challenges over the years with Korean,” Bastian told investors in December. “But I’m optimistic in 2017, we’re going to continue to have breakthroughs in that relationship.”

Paula Reynolds observed Bastian’s ascent while she served on the airline’s board for a decade. She’s been struck by his willingness to show humility in the year since he became CEO. She admired his tone in flight-safety videos talking about the honor he feels to be among Delta’s 80,000 workers, as well as his public apologies after Delta canceled thousands of flights following Atlanta storms in April and an IT meltdown last summer. “He’s got a graciousness about him—he’s humble,” said Reynolds, who left the board in 2015.

As for consultant Garfinkle, he credits Delta for giving up some flights to Mexico City in the Aeromexico case rather than taking the DOT to court, as the company did in a 2015 dispute over a Seattle-to-Tokyo route.

“The old Delta would have stiffened their backs and gone to court and fought the DOT,” Garfinkle said. “The new Delta, while it didn’t like the decision, accepted it and moved on, putting the practical over the principle.”

This article was written by Michael Sasso from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

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