Coronavirus
Morgan Freeman Films COVID-19 Vaccine PSA: “If You Trust Me, You’ll Get the Vaccine”
Despite well over 500,000 reported deaths from COVID-19 in the United States alone and nearly 3 million worldwide, many people are still reluctant to get vaccinated against the highly infectious and devastating disease. In response, the multi-time voice of God and legendary actor Morgan Freeman, has been brought in for a PSA about the vaccine. Watch it below. “I’m not a doctor, but I trust science. And I’m told that, for some reason, people trust me,” the legendary actor says at the beginning of the video, which was created by arts advocacy group The Creative Coalition and the National Blue Ribbon Task Force to stem COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. He continues, “So here I am to say I trust science and I got the vaccine. If you trust me, you’ll get the vaccine. In math, it’s called the distribu...
Manchester United’s Eric Bailly tests positive for coronavirus after Ivory Coast duty
Getty Images Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirmed Eric Bailly has tested positive for coronavirus after his international duty with Ivory Coast. Bailly missed the Red Devils’ 2-1 comeback win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday as goals from Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood extended their unbeaten run to 10 Premier League matches. Amad Diallo, who made his international debut for the Elephants during their 3-0 defeat of Niger on March 26, is back in Manchester and was an unused substitute at Old Trafford. Solskjaer, in his team’s update, disclosed that Bailly – who was an unused substitute in Ivory Coast’s final Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Ethiopia last Tuesday – is yet to return to England and will not be available for selection for the time...
Easter: With God’s help, Nigeria will triumph over insecurity – NILDS chief
The director-general, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Prof. Abubakar O. Sulaiman, has felicitated Nigerians, particularly of the Christian faith as the world celebrates Easter. The DG urged Nigerians to emulate the virtues and teachings of Jesus Christ, as he assured them of God’s ability to see them through whatever challenges or difficulties they might be experiencing; emphasizing that the insecurity in Nigeria would soon be a thing of the past and Nigeria would surely be victorious. According to a statement by the media office of NILDS on Friday, Prof Sulaiman noted that the crucifixion and resurrection is a strong message to the people and charged them to remain hopeful for a better Nigeria. He further urged the citizenry to strictly observe the publi...
AFCONQ: Super Eagles beat Crocodiles to end campaign unbeaten
Nigeria ended the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with a 3-0 victory over Lesotho at Teslim Balogun Stadium. Victor Osimhen, Oghenekaro Etebo and Paul Onuachu strikes helped the Super Eagles to end the Afcon campaign unbeaten and finished at the top of the Group L table with 14 points. Nigeria headed into the encounter, having already secured their place at the biennial tournament, scheduled for Cameroon. Coach Gernot Rohr made a few changes to the team that started their 1-0 victory over the Republic of Benin at Stade Charles de Gaulle on Friday. The German tactician started Francis Uzoho Etebo and Tyronne Ebuehi who did not feature against the Squirrels in Porto Novo. Iwobi also returned to the starting XI after missing his side’s last outing as he tested positive for Covid-19 befo...
Arsenal star’s mum dies after coronavirus battle
Arsenal star Lucas Torreira’s mum has died after a battle with Covid-19, as reported by Uruguayan daily Ovacion. Viviana Di Pascua, 53, was recently admitted to intensive care after contracting the coronavirus in Uruguay. Torreira, who is currently on loan at Atletico Madrid, was given special permission by the La Liga club to fly home to Frey Bentos to be by her side. But Viviana’s situation worsened and on Tuesday her death was announced. Gunners midfielder Torreira contracted Covid-19 himself back in November 2020 following international duty. Torreira was the national team’s twelfth individual among players and staff to receive a positive result at the time. The 25-year-old was forced to miss two weeks of football, including a La Liga clash with Barcelona. A statement read at the time:...
UN official highlights values of water in fighting coronavirus pandemic
Water has many values that are just not priced, Sasha Koo-Oshima, the Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told Xinhua ahead of the World Water Day on March 29. The official highlighted that with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a large part of the world population still lacks access to handwashing facilities at home. “This is the first line of defence against this virus and the value of water is very evident in this progression. “The first thing we realised is handwashing. Many countries just don’t have clean water to even just wash hands,” she said. The UN on Monday warned that more than two billion people do not have direct access to water, the “blue gold” which is essential in defeating the pandemic. In its World Water Development Re...
Polls open in Congo as main opposition party boycotts election
Polls have opened in the Republic of Congo’s presidential election that is boycotted by the main opposition party and attacked by critics as tilted toward veteran leader Denis Sassou Nguesso. Voting centres opened at 07:00 (06:00 GMT) and will close at 17:00 (16:00 GMT). More than 2.5 million voters have registered to take part in the election which Nguesso, 77, is widely expected to win against six contenders. The list of contenders is led by economist and 2016 presidential runner-up Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, who was hospitalised on Saturday. Kolelas’ campaign did not say what illness had struck the 60-year-old but a family member told the Associated Press he had been diagnosed with coronavirus. Nguesso, a former paratrooper, first rose to power in 1979 and has since accumulated 36 years...
Lauren Alaina Tests Positive for COVID-19
“I’m so disappointed I won’t be at the show, but it may help cheer me up a bit if you go and send me videos and pictures,” she wrote. “Please go to the show tonight and celebrate my friends Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis, Travis Denning, and Priscilla Block. Thanks to WAMZ and WBUL for being so understanding.” On her Instagram Stories on Saturday, Alaina checked in with fans to give an update about her symptoms. “I am resting up and trying to feel a bit better,” said Alaina. “Some people have it way worse than me, so I just have a little bit of shortness of breath, a really bad headache, no taste or smell, pretty bad congestion and I feel pretty tired. But I overall feel like it’s going to be OK.” You Deserve to Make Money Eve...
Ekiti governor suspends ongoing recruitment of teachers
Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has suspended the ongoing teachers recruitment exercise over economic crisis posed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The governor directed immediate refund of money paid by successful candidates in the recruitment exercise conducted by the State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM). Mr Babatunde Abegunde, Chairman of TESCOM, who made this known in Ado Ekiti on Thursday said the directive was due to the commitment of the governor to the general welfare of the people in the state and the need not to make new entrants into the public service suffer unduly. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that about 100 candidates may have been affected by the directive. Abegunde explained that monies to be refunded covered those paid by the candidates for the p...
Coachella Being Pushed Back to 2022: Report
Once again, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival is being pushed back. Following three separate postponements due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the California festival and its sister event Stagecoach Country are reportedly set to return in April 2022. Like every year prior, Coachella was initially scheduled to go down in spring of 2020, but was optimistically pushed back to October once the coronavirus entered the fray. Those fall dates obviously didn’t happen, so the fest was briefly pushed back again until April of 2021 — and then nixed again earlier this year. There was some speculation floating around that the fest was vying for a make-up date in October of this year, but now it seems like they’re holding out for another full trip around the sun. According to Variety and Rolling S...
Meet the Nonprofits Feeding Thousands of Out-Of-Work Touring Staff
The live events industry breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant providing $15 billion to shuttered venues and independent promoters in December, but Espinoza says it’s “disrespectful” that no legislation passed to support event workers. While venues await their funding, Roadiecare is among several industry-adjacent nonprofits stepping up to feed and employ event workers who are without their usual income for the foreseeable future. Live event crew members were hit particularly hard by the pandemic due to complicated unemployment guidelines in the 2020 CARES Act. The pandemic relief legislation allowed for freelance workers to apply for Pandemic Unemploy...
The Stone Roses’ Ian Brown Claims Spotify Took Down His Anti-Lockdown Song
Former Stone Roses singer Ian Brown has been outspoken about COVID-19 “plandemic” conspiracy theories, which he says had made him a target of Spotify. On Friday, the British musician accused the streaming service of taking down his anti-lockdown anthem, “Little Seed Big Tree”, as an act of censorship. “SPOTiFY stream the streams and censor artists like they have with my last song TOOK IT DOWN just put it down the memory hole!” he wrote on Twitter. “FREE EXPRESSiON AS REVOLUTiON” Consequence of Sound verified “Little Seed Big Tree” is no longer playable on Spotify, but the conspiracy-spewing track remains up on Apple Music, TIDAL, and YouTube. Stream it below to open your third eye. For the uninitiated, the song features lyrics about forced vaccines and microchips. “A forced vaccine, l...
