UK government officials are delivering their daily briefing on the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. They will carry on without Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said today he would continue his isolation after testing positive for COVID-19. ‘Although I’m feeling better,’ Johnson said after seven days of isolation, ‘I still have a temperature and so, in accordance with government advice, I must continue my self-isolation until that symptom itself goes.’
Covid-19
Edinburgh festivals cancelled for 2020
Edinburgh’s August festivals have been scrapped for 2020, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent global cultural shutdown. The festivals – which bring hundreds of thousands of artists, performers and audience members to the city every August – have pulled the plug on this year’s events after weeks of speculation over whether or not they would go ahead.
In a statement on their website, the Edinburgh Fringe Society’s Shona McCarthy said: “Today’s decision that the Fringe will not go ahead as planned was not taken lightly. We have spent the past month listening to a broad cross-section of Fringe participants, as well as to government, healthcare professionals, residents and many more; however, in light of present circumstances it was unavoidable. Public health must and always will come first.”
Artists who have already applied to perform at the Fringe will receive a full refund of their registration fee or the option to roll it over for 2021. Ticket-holders who have purchased tickets for 2020 shows, many of which have been on sale for weeks, will be refunded. [ . . . ]
Source: The Skinny
GasLit Nation: The Trump Crime Cult Has Blood on Their Hands
WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR
We discuss how Trump, a life-long mobster and aspiring autocrat, is trying to shake down individual states and deny medical workers and their patients life-saving equipment. While he is more overtly sadistic to so-called “blue” states, Trump is also endangering residents of so-called “red” states – and that dichotomy is going to get worse as the crisis moves over the next few months from hard-hit big cities like New York to rural areas that no longer have hospitals thanks to GOP defunding.
Derry Girls Orla and Erin have a special message from their “bunker”
Two of the stars of the hit sitcom released a short video in character
Two of the stars of Derry Girls have released a hilarious new lockdown video — playing their characters from the hit sitcom.
Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Louisa Harland, who play Erin and Orla on the show, were able to make the video without breaking social distancing measures because they live in the same household.
The video was set in 1996, with the two characters reporting from an “underground bunker” that they had set up in an airing cupboard following orders to stay indoors from “the authorities” — or their “mammies”, as Orla puts it.
Rather than being a global pandemic that forces them to remain housebound, it is the political situation in Northern Ireland, with rioting occurring in the streets of Derry.
But the results are similar — with the pair forced to look for alternative means of entertainment given their inability to go outside, and Orla particularly fixated on eating Coco Pops.
The short clip contains much of the same humour that has made the sitcom such a huge hit with audiences and critics, with the pair squabbling and making references to the rest of the family, who are apparently upstairs watching Family Fortunes.
The clip went down a storm with fans on social media, with one viewer writing “First time I’ve laughed this week” and another tweeting “Can we get this as the official government message?”
Derry Girls has run for two critically acclaimed series, which are both currently available to stream on All4, while a third has already been commissioned and is expected to air later in 2020.
Source: Derry Girls Orla and Erin have a special message from their “bunker”