BTS have released the music video for their latest Japanese single ‘Film Out,” the theme song for the Japanese movie Signal, which premiered last week.
‘Film Out’ will be featured in the group’s upcoming Japanese compilation album, ‘BTS, The Best’, which was announced on March 25. The record comprises a total of 23 tracks, including the Grammy-nominated ‘Dynamite’, and is slated for release on June 16.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden delivered a message of hope on Easter Sunday, encouraging more Americans to get vaccinated. In a video posted to Biden’s Twitter account, the president said the White House echoes the sentiments of Pope Francis who described getting vaccinated as a ‘moral obligation’ and stressed the importance of widespread inoculations to resuming traditional Holy Week activities in the future.
Vice President Kamala Harris also issued a video statement declaring there is “always reason for hope” amid the Easter holiday. Harris added she and the first lady were looking forward to resuming the White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll in the future, as it was canceled for the second consecutive Easter this year due to the pandemic.
The U.S. military said Sunday that a once-secret unit within the Guantanamo Bay detention center has been closed and the prisoners moved to another facility on the American base in Cuba. The prisoners at Camp 7 were transferred to a facility adjacent to where the other detainees on the base are held as part of what U.S. Southern Command said in a statement was an effort to “increase operational efficiency and effectiveness.” Officials have previously said about 14 men were held in Camp 7. There are 40 prisoners at Guantanamo.
Camp 7 opened in December 2006 for prisoners previously held in a network of clandestine CIA detention facilities, often referred to as “black sites,” where they were subjected to brutal interrogation techniques. The military ran it under an agreement with CIA, and has long refused to even acknowledge the location of Camp 7 on the base and has never allowed journalists to see the inside of the facility. Among those held at Camp 7 were the five prisoners charged with war crimes for their alleged roles planning and providing logistical support for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Washington Nationals scheduled game against the Atlanta Braves for Monday has been postponed, with a plan for the teams to face each other Tuesday, which would be Washington’s first game of the year as it deals with COVID-19 issues. The Nationals’ season-opening series against the New York Mets was postponed.
There were 11 unavailable players for the Nationals because of four players in isolation due to positive tests and seven players in quarantine. In addition, two staff members were in quarantine. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was unsure if the entire series against the Braves would be played, and also told reporters a “majority” of the unavailable players would have made the 26-man Opening Day roster.
MLB’s health and safety protocols for the 2021 season state that “individuals who test positive will be required to isolate for a minimum of 10 days, receive appropriate care and monitoring from the Club medical staff, and be cleared by the Joint Committee and the individual’s team physician, following a mandatory cardiac evaluation and a determination that the individual no longer presents a risk of infection to others.”
Loretta Lynn has earned her 42nd top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart with Still Woman Enough The album debuted at No. 9 on the ranking dated April 3, with 11,000 equivalent album units (10,000 from album sales). In the chart’s 57-year history, only Willie Nelson (53) and Dolly Parton (46) have notched more top 10s.
The 13-song set was produced by Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Still Woman Enough is a mix of new songs and updated versions of previously recorded tracks, it includes collaborations with Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood on the title track, Margo Price (“One’s on the Way”) and Tanya Tucker (“You Ain’t Woman Enough”).
Miranda Lambert has released a solo acoustic rendition of her latest single “Settling Down,” which originally appeared on the 2019 album Wildcard.
For her solo rendering, Lambert is seated in front of a microphone with her acoustic guitar, stripped of all the instrumental support on the Wildcard recording. You can take a look at the acoustic version of “Settling Down” at the link – here.
The Weeknd will donate $1 million towards relief efforts in Ethiopia, making the announcement in an Instagram post which detailed how he plans to aid those entangled in the conflict between the government in Addis Ababa and the Tigray region.
The Weeknd wrote: “My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction. I will be donating $1 million to provide 2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Programme and encourage those who can to please give as well.”
The cause is personal for The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye: both of his parents are from Ethiopia. The pair immigrated to Toronto, Canada in the ’80s, where the artist was born and raised.
Taylor Swift revealed the tracklist for the new version of Fearless.Fearless (Taylor’s Version) includes the new song “That’s When” featuring Keith Urban, which was originally written during the sessions for Swift’s 2008 album Fearless.
In addition to rerecorded versions of Fearless‘ original 13 songs and its many bonus tracks, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) also includes “vault” tracks “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” “Bye Bye Baby,” “Don’t You” and “We Were Happy,” as well as an Elvira remix of “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).”
Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is out on April 9 and can be pre-ordered here.
The S&P 500 crossed the 4,000-point threshold for the first time on Thursday as the major U.S. indexes reported gains to start the month of April. Markets responded to President Joe Biden unveiling his $2 trillion infrastructure plan on Wednesday, which would include a provision to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% to fund it.
The S&P’s rise from 3,000 to 4,000 took 434 trading days, the shortest gap in 1,000 point milestones in the history of the index. Tech stocks rallied for a second consecutive day as Netflix stock increased 3.4%, Google’s parent company Alphabet gained 3.26%, Amazon climbed 2.16% and Microsoft closed the day up 2.79%.
On Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that state law does not ban Charlottesville from removing Confederate statue. At issue was the Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, which white nationalists rallied to protect in an August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va. One White supremacist plowed his car into the crowd and killed counter-protester Heather Heyer, 32, as well as injuring 19 others.
The City Council had moved to re-designate parks named for Lee and Jackson and remove statues in February 2017. Charlottesville placed black tarp over the statues after the deadly rally in mourning for lives lost, resulting in a lawsuit. Plaintiffs alleged violation of state law against moving or interfering with the statues. However, the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned the circuit court order, which had sided with plaintiffs, and vacated the lower court’s awarded damages and attorneys’ fees. The Virginia Supreme Court found that state law does not ban removal of statues.
