Month: June 2020

Back in February, Mission: Impossible 7 became one of the first major blockbuster productions to screech to a halt as the pandemic took root. That it was at the forefront of the shutdown had everything to do with the film’s Italian production locations, and now, Simon Pegg (who portrays Benji Dunn in the Paramount films) is shining light on how the ridiculously successful Tom Cruise franchise will get off the ground (so its star can do wild stunts again). One particular? It’s not happening in Italy, which is still reeling.

Pegg spoke with Variety while detailing “the plan,” which involves relaunching production in the U.K., likely on the Paramount Pictures backlot (and with as much outside action as possible at the beginning). The Shaun Of The Dead star did have some humor about the situation. Fight scenes might happen “five feet apart,” he joked, so we’ll just have to imagine Mr. Cruise kicking at open air instead of throwing down in a bathroom alongside Henry Cavill’s controversial mustache. Also, the plan is to get rolling in September:

“That will begin with the outdoor stuff. That feels fairly doable, and obviously there will be precautions put in place…. People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that they’re safe to do that. I don’t know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether they’ll be able to be tested regularly.”

In an unconfirmed aside, some U.K.-based outlets are reporting that Cruise would like to set up “a COVID-free village” at a Royal Air Force site, but we’ll see if that happens. Obviously and no matter where the filming location happens, one can easily imagine temperature checks, along with testing, rotating crews, and probably a pause in craft services as actors know it.

Pegg’s relaying of the above news arrives as Los Angeles productions start to eye a return to work as well. Michael Bay recently made headlines for wanting to shoot a pandemic thriller in LA, which would supposedly start filming less than a month from now. That seems too optimistic, but that project sounds like a found-footage-type project, so maybe it won’t involve many people on set at a time. Meanwhile, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp recently issued guidelines for the many TV and film productions that take advantage of the state’s tax incentives. We’ll probably hear more soon on how these shows and movies will plot their return voyages to set.

(Via Variety & Daily Mail)

Pablo Schreiber’s Defending Jacob character, Neal Logjudice, took quite a trip over the course of the Apple TV+ limited series. For most of the show, the pit bull of a prosecutor appeared much like a villain, rather than a mere antagonist to Chris Evans’ ex-Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber. With the finale, though, it became clear that Neal was working toward another objective (in flashback form) all along. Barber’s son had been cleared of murder charges, only to be accused of claiming a new victim during a celebratory family vacation. Then yet another terrible tragedy struck, and we saw that Neal was fighting for justice for the formerly accused, young Jacob Barber himself.

Of course, Pablo was no stranger to difficult roles before he landed this character-driven thriller series. He’s also a man of many different styles of acting and facial hair. Many people remember him as George “Pornstache” Mendez from OITNB. He’s also played a “leprechaun” with fabulous sideburns on American Gods, and he shaved it all off for Den Of Thieves. Pablo has also terrified viewers at times, including his portrayal of one of the evilest guys in Law and Order: SVU‘s lengthy history. He’s been somber on The Wire and funny as heck on Weeds. He can do everything, including confronting Chris Evans on Defending Jacob. Pablo was gracious enough to discuss the series finale with us and what it’s like to take on such a variety of roles.

First off, I hope you’re doing okay and staying safe during the time of quarantine.

Yeah, of course! I’m spending time with my kids. I’m actually a pig in sh*t if I can say it so crudely. I’m quite happy to be home. I was working in Hungary for about six months before the pandemic hit, so when we got shut down, I came home, and it feels like a real opportunity to be with the kids and taking care of their education. As harsh as the reality is in so many ways, there are definitely blessings in disguise, and one of them is spending time with your family when you didn’t think you were gonna get to.

A lot of us are switching up grooming habits as well, so I have to ask this question, since you are known for a few facial-hair roles. Are you experimenting with any of your old looks?

I’m fluctuating between just letting myself completely go for short periods of time until I have to do some kind of basic upkeep. I would say that I’m probably close to like a Den of Thieves. I try to shave or buzz my head every few weeks, and when my beard goes crazy, I trim it down. I’ve been tempted to just let it completely go. That was where I wanted to go, but then I just completed a few on-camera interviews, and probably nobody wants to see that.

Do you think anyone wants to see the Pornstache look again?

I’m sure lots of people would like to see that, but it’s not something that I wanna see at this point. [Laughs]

You’ve done a lot of anti-procedural (The Wire) and procedural (Law and Order: SVU) roles, so how did you settle upon doing Defending Jacob?

The writing. It was one of the most complete and well-written pieces that I’ve read in my career, really. When I got it, I got all eight episodes intact, and I thought Mark Bomback had done just an incredible, extraordinarily beautiful job of fleshing it out in a way and telling a story that really had to do with the moral complexity of being human, and to me, the way that he pulled back the curtain on the good-versus-bad stereotype to me was very sophisticated and beautiful. And so, the rest was trying to fulfill that vision. When it’s working, it does a really good job of that, and other times, it probably falls short, but I was really drawn to the writing.

I was going to ask how much of the script you saw going in, since we didn’t know why you were deposing Chris Evans’ character until the very end.

Yeah, exactly. I think especially for this role, to get somebody ready, you’d have to show them the ending to make the beginning work. You’re looking at Neal through a very different lens at the beginning than the end, and it really isn’t until the very end that he gets even just a smidge of explaining. Because you follow the Barber family and specifically Andy so closely, Neal’s at different times an annoyance or a complete force for evil. And it’s not until the very end that you realize that he’s really fighting and has fought since the court case. He kinda went a step too far during the court case, but in the New York Supreme Court deposition that you’re witnessing in periodic flashbacks, I think he’s trying to make amends for some of his overstepping of the bounds and really driving for justice for the kid. But you don’t realize that until the end, of course.

Do you check up on social media reactions while a show airs? There were some strong reactions to Neal, though they praised your performance.

Ohhhh well, if I was squeamish about that, I would have left this business a long time ago. I’m used to that. That’s okay, I’ve played various characters that you love to hate, and so my job is to fulfill my job within a story, and Neal felt like an opportunity to play someone who was viewed one way but only really because of perspective and point-of-view. At the end of the day, he’s actually just doing a really good job. He’s being a very successful prosecutor and doing everything that he needs to do to get justice with the information that he has at the time.

So, this show has a super, super cast. Was it an odd experience to pretend to intimidate Captain America?

Oh, Chris was a pleasure to work with. He’s quite clearly done incredible work in this series, the best of work of his career, I think, and that’s saying a lot. He’s done fantastic work across his career. I think his work in this is getting more subtle and more nuanced than a lot of stuff in his past, and it’s palpable, you can feel it. It was great fun to work with him and to create. Also, Cherry Jones is from my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University and also a very classic theater actress. I started my career in the theater, and to get to spar with her was really, truly one of the highlights of my career. I’ll remember those days in the courtroom for a long, long time.

We don’t get too much backstory on Neal, probably intentionally. Did you know more about him?

Of course, you always wanna flesh out your backstory, and we see a little bit of that between characters. We learn that Andy and Neal, well, there was a mentor relationship, which actually goes a long way toward explaining a lot of the behavior and was quite — in terms of Andy being the person who taught Neal all of the things that he eventually uses on him — it’s a bit of a chickens-coming-home-to-roost situation. But besides the things that you see, you always wanna flesh out with history, or you get a non-complete human.

Do you have hopes for where Neal goes in his career?

Well, where I want him to go, and where I think he’s heading, might not be the same thing, but prior to the conclusion, when Patz confesses and kills himself, and the case gets dismissed, it’s a real turning point for Neal. I think prior to that moment, he was very political and wanted very much to be the [Assistant District Attorney]. He viewed himself as the next in line, and I think was doing everything possible to get himself in that position. And the moment when Patz confesses and kills himself, and he is faced with the fact that he went all out, to prosecute a child, who (at that moment) appears to not be guilty, I think it really rocks him to his core, and he questions everything that he was doing. And I think the idea of career politics becomes much less real for him, and we learn [later] that he’s decided to move on and go into private practice. So clearly, in my mind, his actions through the deposition, you realize that he’s been doing that all to get justice, but you see the lengths that he goes to make amends. And then in my mind, the idea of going into private practice for Neal — a guy who already has a loose hold on his own moral compass — the writing’s kinda on the wall. He’s going to become a very high paid [private attorney], and his moral compass is probably not going to be trained to true North at all.

Does a role like this go home with you at night? You’ve played a lot of heavy roles, even more than this one.

Yeah, I would say that this is less impactful than the heavier characters I’ve done in terms of me bringing it home and it affecting my life. Because of some of the heavier themes that I’ve dealt with, I feel like I’m well prepared to leave it at the door.

Do you prefer serious roles or the broad comedy that you sometimes do?

I wouldn’t say that it’s not an either-or situation. I wanna work in as many different colors as energies as I can. It’s really a great gift for me as a storyteller to push myself as many different places and be with people doing many different things. The variety of what I get to do is the biggest part of the attraction. So, comedy or drama for me, it’s “let’s do it all,” and they all have their own perks and interests. It’s a little bit like asking whether you prefer theater, film, or TV. They all have their own amazing strengths and unique qualities, so I’d hate to be forced to choose.

Well, you’re definitely doing it all. You’ve made me laugh and given me nightmares, so thank you for both of those.

Thanks, I appreciate that. I really feel grateful and very happy to get to do what I do. And to know that it has an effect that is wide ranging is probably the best compliment that I can get, so thank you.

The entire ‘Defending Jacob’ limited series is now available on Apple TV+.

Over the past week, protests have ensued across the country to call for an end to police brutality and to mourn the murder of George Floyd. Many cities issued curfews as a way to quell looters and destruction of property, with some cities like Seattle issuing curfews as early as 5:30 pm. But many protesters who showed up to peacefully demonstrate found police were installing barriers that made it difficult for some to navigate home. But protesters in New York found a way to convey their frustrations over police barricades by reciting choice lyrics from Ludacris.

A video captured of a recent New York protest depicts a line of police officers forming a barricade against a compact wall of demonstrators. In order to try to get the police to allow them space, protesters began chanting a line from Ludacris’ 2001 Word Of Mouf track “Move B*tch.” As armed police officers faced the large crowd, protesters began chanting in unison. “Move b*tch / Get out the way / Get out the way, b*tch / Get out the way,” they loudly chanted.

This isn’t the first time protesters used music to support their cause. Over the weekend, reports flooded in that the activist hacker group Anonymous had taken over Chicago police radios and began broadcasting N.W.A.’s track “F*ck Tha Police.” In 2017, “Move” was used as a chant by anti-Trump protesters.

Watch protesters chant Ludacris’ ‘Move B*tch’ above.

Previously on the Best and Worst of Raw: “Crowds” returned to WWE events in time to watch Apollo Crews win the United States Championship, Nia Jax become the number one contender to the Raw Women’s Championship, and a side-splitting golf game between the brand’s top two tag teams.

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One more thing: Hit those share buttons! Spread the word about the column on Facebook, Twitter and whatever else you use. Be sure to leave us a comment in our comment section below as well. I know we always ask this, and that this part is copy and pasted in every week, but we appreciate it every week. We’ve finally started the build for Backlash, featuring Ricky Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage in an Edge vs. Randy Orton Match..

Quick note: You may have noticed we didn’t post anything on Tuesday, as UPROXX participated in black out Tuesday. We appreciate your patience in waiting an extra day to hear what we thought about MVP vs. Drew McIntyre.

And now, the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for June 1, 2020.

Worst: Nia-later

We might as well start off this week’s column with the perfect online conversational storm that is Nia Jax. To recap as succinctly as possible, we tend to like Nia Jax a lot as a person and a personality, but every time she gets put into the spotlight it feels like she (meaning her character) immediately ruins it by saying something embarrassing or doing something that reads more like clumsy violence than purposeful jobber ass-whippings. Admittedly at this point that could be a self-fulfilling Sin Cara prophecy where we’ve started looking too closely for the bad so OF COURSE we’ll find it, so let’s approach this week with understanding and caution.

Up first, here’s Nia “lashing out” at the Kabuki Warriors with one of those promos where she just really, really doesn’t sound like she means what she’s saying. Or that she read what she was supposed to say before she says it. Here she says Kairi Sane and Asuka “aren’t what they say they are,” as being friends, wearing bright colors, and speaking Japanese — the only traits she identifies — are, “all smoke and mirrors.” There’s a heel delusional belief that they’re in the right and being persecuted, and then there’s saying the Japanese friends who wear bright colors aren’t really friends, don’t really speak Japanese, and don’t wear bright colors.

My favorite part is this exchange between Santana Garrett and Chelsea Green in the crowd after Nia mocks Asuka and Kairi by going full ching chong ching chong and reading their language as, “oy mee mee mee mee Japanese neh neh neh”. In the one second the camera’s on them you can see Santana turn as if to say, “should she be saying that in a promo?” And Chelsea stares forward blankly and purses her lips like, “nope, probably not.”

Oh, and then Nia throws Kairi into the steps face-first and slices her open.

You know you’re doing well when you get a genuine “oh God” reaction from a loose gathering of developmental types who have spent the day getting yelled at over the PA system to be more lively. Buckle bombs just got banned because of Nia not knowing how to do one and hurting Kairi, so what, are whips into the steps next? Do we also ban shoulder breakers, catching moonsaults, and basic punches?

I want to approach this from a thoughtful perspective and not like, infantilize Kairi Sane like she’s some helpless flower who keeps getting hurt by the big mean Nia Jax or whatever. It’s not about that. Wrestling is dangerous. I think the issue is that Nia’s lazy danger has become her defining character trait, presumably because of how well the errant punch on Becky Lynch ended up working out for Becky, so now even when the violence is controlled, we’re fooled into seeing it as lackadaisical and unprofessional. Which is a shame, because if Nia was brutally lighting people up every week and it felt like a conscious decision EVERYONE IN THE RING was making, that could be fun. I can’t sit here as a fan of Stan Hansen, a man who once hit Vader so hard it popped out Vader’s eyeball, and act like I don’t like borderline ghastly wrestling violence from time to time. I think a lot of us just want to feel comfortable knowing everyone’s on the same page and doing things on purpose. Maybe it’s not for us to know. [shrug]

Nia returns later in the night to ruin the champion vs. champion match between Asuka and Charlotte Flair, which at least lets us get out of that match without Flair dunking on Asuka again. Asuka doesn’t seem like the kind of character who’d be that distracted by a sarcastic entrance and get herself counted out in a champion vs. champion match against the only person in WWE who seems to consistently have her number, but she also doesn’t seem like the kind to take one bad clothesline and be knocked out for five minutes, so who knows?

Best, Mostly: “rey mysterio retire bitch” — Seth Rollins

This might come as a shock to you, but the retirement ceremony for Rey Mysterio announced and hosted by Seth Rollins, the man who tried to end Mysterio’s career, didn’t actually involve Mysterio retiring. Crazy, right? It’s almost like Seth Rollins isn’t a reliable narrator.

This leads into a Seth Rollins vs. Aleister Black match, and while the roll-up ending and post-match attack were pretty lackluster, I want to give a shout-out to Raw creative for running a story in a conservative-ass company in the year of our Lord 2020 where Jesus is the villain and The Devil is the hero.

Later in the night, Mysterio brings it live via satellite to say he’s not sure when he’ll be back or if he’s retiring, but he sure wants to punch Bad Faith Jesus in the face about it. Dominick Mysterio, wearing a salmon t-shirt that I really hope is in reference to the greatest false retirement announcement of all time, swears that he’s going to go Hammurabi on Rollins’ ass for Road Warrioring his dad on Raw.

The real question: is Dominick already a Seth Rollins disciple, or does he become one the next time we see him?

This Week On Friday Night Smackdown

In a nice moment of babyface continuity, Kevin Owens helped Apollo Crews get the jump on Los Ingobernables de Central Florida which then led Crews to getting a United States Championship match and winning, so Crews is saying thank you by giving Owens the first title match. That’s how you build a character people can understand and like. Just have them do normal, nice things sometimes.

It’s 2020 and we’re floating on a speck of dust in the WWE Universe, however, so of course the match ends with Angel Garza and Andrade running in for the disqualification. That leads directly into a tag team match (player), which allows both the champion and challenger from the original United States Championship match to win and hold up each others’ arms. It’d be a lot better if they didn’t go to this well so often, as it ran completely dry of water like three years ago and they’ve been hoisting up buckets of damp, rocky dirt ever since. I like that Crews is legit now, though. That guy is too talented to have been stuck in Main Event purgatory for pretty much his entire WWE career. Shout to everyone from Titus Worldwide doing well except for Titus. Maybe the group should’ve been called Crews Worldwide, although that might’ve gotten them sued by Princess.

Also On This Episode

The Raw tag team division has officially become those old Goofy cartoons where a narrator explains sports to you while Goofy fucks it up. This week, the Street Profits and the Viking Raiders go bowling, and “hilarity” “ensues.” Not a lot of the jokes work for me, but I do like the old lady at the bowling alley realizing her cue’s about to come up and eavesdropping intently so she can nail the Street Profits’ mid-bowling-game entrance taunt. How early did Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins have to get there to set that up? The running joke about Ivar being attractive to any average blue collar woman isn’t particularly funny, but weirdly enough, them all thinking Erik is ugly and having to tell him about it to his face is.

Also, the Vikings didn’t win this game. Ivar surfing down the lane on his belly was clearly a foul, which means the pins don’t count. Ivar, this is not ‘Nam, this is bowling, there are rules. AM I THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THE RULES? MARK IT ZERO.

Billie Kay has pinned one half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions! You’ve got to think this puts them in line for a possible future title opportunity, Byron! What will happen as the IIconics continue to build momentum heading into Backlash? Switching gears now, we want to talk to you about the unique circumstances going on in the world this week.

Finally, Drew McIntyre continues to try to lure out the “real” Bobby Lashley by once again defeating a guy he knows he can defeat 100 out of 100 times, MVP. There’s honestly not much to this story, but I like the undercurrent that MVP and Drew McIntyre are basically accomplishing the same thing. MVP wants to separate Lashley from Lana to get his head in the game and make him a world title contender again. McIntyre wants to separate Lashley from all of the nonsense and enrage him into getting his head in the game and becoming a world title contender again. Honestly if this ended with the reveal that McIntyre and MVP have been working together all along to destroy Lashley’s life by inflating his sense of self-worth while separating him from his wife and humiliating him at the top of the card at Backlash, I’d be pretty into it.

Lord loves a full nelson push, though. Every few years Vince McMahon’s like, “YOU KNOW WHAT WE NEED, QUITE FRANKLY? A GOOD OLD FASHIONED [gravel intensifies] FULL NELSON.” Like you can’t picture him opening his eyes real wide as if to say, “see?” while mimicking a full nelson. I’ve got surprisingly high hopes for this title match.

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

EvilDucky

If KO retaliates by throwing HIS pants into Garza’s face, I promise I will be a WWE lifer and will do my best to only complain… let’s say once a month for the rest of 2020

Taylor Swish

Mocking Asians. Playing the victim. About to inflict unnecessary and reckless harm on an innocent? Nia should run for president.

AJ Dusman

*Kairi Sane gets hurt*
*Charlotte Flair instinctively comes out to slap her*

AshBlue

Lana has actually started to look like she’s being played by a different person.

troi

Call Dominic “The Demo” because he is an 18-34 year old male!

FeltLuke

Given Dominic’s mic skills, I’m starting to think Eddie might not be his real father.

Baron

The twist to this better be Charly charging the ring to protect Angel Garza from Kevin Owens.

JayBone2

Heel Level 1000 for Rollins having chairs available to Theory and Murphy.

The Real Birdman

Only winners get pins off Falcon Arrows

The year is 2080:

America has burned down in anarchy
Robot overlords rule the nation
The Street Profits are facing The Viking Raiders in a shuffleboard contest

Finally, Randy Orton believes he’ll win The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever when he faces Edge in The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever at Backlash. Disagreeing with him is this Lululemon trucker Santa Claus they asked for some reason.

Is it weird to anyone else that Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels look like your grandma and grandpa now?

Anyway, that does it for another episode of The Best and Worst of Quarantine Raw. Thanks as always for reading and supporting us. You can help us out tremendously right now by sharing the column on social media, as well as dropping down into our comments section to let us know what you thought of the show. I will keep trying to watch these and say something constructive about them, and I can’t wait to celebrate society finally coming together and ending the divisiveness to unanimously praise Edge vs. Randy Orton at Backlash.

See you next week!

Run The Jewels have been teasing the release of their fourth full-length LP for months now with a planned release of June 5, but as El-P says in a new post, “Why wait?” RTJ4 has officially arrived two days early, as protests continue to rip through the nation’s cities in response to the police killing George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black men, women, and children without consequence.

Along with the announcement that he and Killer Mike released their album early, El-P also shared a statement explaining why. “The world is infested with bullsh*t so here’s something to help you deal with it all,” reads the accompanying statement. “We hope it brings you joy. Stay safe and hopeful out there and thank you for giving 2 friends the chance to be heard and do what they love. With sincere love and gratitude, Jamie and Mike.”

The album clocks in at 10 songs, including the previously released “Yankee and The Brave,” “Ooh La La” with Greg Nice and DJ Premier, and “A Few Words For The Firing Squad.” However, the track that speaks most to the current moment is “Walking In The Snow” on which Killer Mike utters those now inescapable words — written about Eric Garner but applicable to George Floyd and too many others — “I can’t breathe.”

Run The Jewels 4 is out now on Run The Jewels LLC and BMG Records. Get it here.

While the NBA’s return is not imminent — reports indicate things will tip back off on July 31 — the approval of a plan by the league’s Board of Governors appears to be a day away. According to reporting by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Adam Silver will bring forth a plan that the board is expected to approve on Thursday, one which will clear the path to games restarting at the end of next month.

The plan involves 22 teams heading to Orlando, with the 16 teams that were in the playoffs before the league’s COVID-19 shutdown gaining entry along with six squads that were on the outside looking in. Wojnarowski brought word of the six additional squads, which features five teams from the Western Conference.

Portland, New Orleans, and Sacramento all sit 3.5 games back of the 8-seed, currently held by the Memphis Grizzlies. San Antonio, meanwhile, is ever so slightly behind them, as they’re four games back. The gaps for both Phoenix and Washington, meanwhile, are a bit larger — the Wizards are 5.5-games behind Orlando in the east, the Suns are six games back in the West.

The proposal comes on the heels of Blazers star Damian Lillard saying that he would not participate in games if Portland did not have a path to making the playoffs. These teams will eventually participate in a play-in tournament for the 8-seed, and Charania laid out how that will work, writing that “If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot; if the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth.”

Millions of animals have been euthanized and buried in mass graves. Their bodies decaying after a life spent in captivity. It’s a staggering loss of life and resources. And the stark reality of how fragile and ill-prepared our industrialized food system was for handling a pandemic.

On the latest episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, the comedian breaks down how the Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the massive problems within our various supply chains. The episode starts off talking about our medical equipment supply chain as a warm-up for the thrust of the episode — targeting industrial meat supply chains across America.

As with all of these segments on comedy/ news shows, there’s a bit of an information dump, with a joke thrown in at the end of every point to keep you listening. But Minaj seems to understand the bigger issue well and does a good job laying bare how a centralized food supply, dominated by a few national brands has created a system that’s easily broken.

The episode pivots around a clip of famed food journalist Michael Pollan. “The trade-off with efficiency is resilience,” Pollan says. “A highly efficient system is so brittle that when you have a disruption — such as a pandemic — it starts breaking down.”

Minhaj then goes onto illustrate that the way the United States has acted to deal with this brittleness has been to throw the workers under the bus, so to speak. Minhaj explains how it took Trump two months to enact the Defense Production Act to start producing vital PPE for medical professionals across the country, but it only took him two days to enact the DPA to get the meatpacking industry back online. Basically, Trump issuing an executive order to “reopen” the meat industry was seen as vital to the American economy.

You know what’s coming. But, as Minhaj points out by, well, actually reading the executive order Trump signed — there actually wasn’t anything in the document explicitly about reopening plants. What’s damning about this is the montage of every major news network announcing that Trump is “forcing” the meat industry to stay open via executive order when, in reality, his executive order was actually absolving the six main industrial meat companies from any liability if their workers were to get sick and die. Minhaj and his team figured this out by, again, simply reading the executive order.

The kicker to the story? According to Patriot Act digging, of the 25 counties around the United States that have seen the highest spike in COVID-19 cases, half of them are traced directly to reopened meat factories. The cramped conditions, cool, damp air, and lack of basic services have allowed the meat factories to become what one expert called a “petri dish” for the virus. What’s more, Minhaj relays that Smithfield — one of the six parent companies that run big meat in America — used Trump’s executive order to get a case of worker abuse thrown out of court immediately after it was enacted. It just feels like a mess all around.

All told, this should be a huge wake-up call to move away from industrial meat and towards locally-grown and sustainably raised protein (plant and/or animal-based). Whether or not it will be remains to be seen.

You can watch the whole clip below. The meat factory report starts at the 10:30 mark.

Cardi B forced a Los Angeles news anchor to apologize to her after a segment about her recent comments in support of protests against police brutality across the nation when she took offense to how her words were taken out of context.

KTLA reporter Doug Kolk accused Cardi of using “her massive platform to promote the violence” in a segment about her recent post on Instagram encouraging protestors to vote. In her original post, Cardi says, “It makes me feel like, ‘Finally, yes. Motherf*ckers are gonna hear us now.’ And as much as people is so against it, at this point, I feel like I’m not against it even though it do scare me and I don’t want anybody to get hurt. It’s really frustrating because police brutality been going on even way before I was born, but it’s been more visible ever since social media started getting popping… How many peaceful protests have we seen? How many trending hashtags have we seen?”

After being tagged in a video of the report, Cardi, who does not play that way with news reporters getting too comfortable talking to or about her out of pocket, launched into a tirade after the report, letting Kolk know exactly how she felt. “Why your no-lip, square head-having ass ain’t put the part were I said to vote?” she wondered. “You cottage cheese breath-having b*tch. Why don’t you post how a conservative Christian Trump supporter posted my address and encouraged people to loot my home?”

Kolk replied a few hours later, apologizing for mischaracterizing Cardi’s words and promising to issue a retraction on his next segment.

Watch how the entire episode played out above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike, a known activist, has spoken up many times about police brutality, prison reform, and injustices in America. As the rapper prepares to release another album this week amid protests across the country, Killer Mike sat down with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show to discuss how white people can effectively show their solidarity and become better allies.

Responding to Colbert, Killer Mike said that white Americans shouldn’t stay silent. “No. We don’t need you to stay out of the way,” he said, continuing: “Get your butt down there, and help those organizations in the physical. But, what I need white America to do beyond right now, is understand that right now is always. It isn’t just helping in the now. It is being a part of fixing it always.”

The rapper then offered “homework” for white American to learn about their indoctrinated racism:

“The first thing I want you to do, is go to YouTube and Google Jane Elliot, and spend one hour watching Jane Elliot teach people. Not just speaking. She’s not just speaking, she’s teaching people about the racism that is given to them that they aren’t even aware they have. She asks the question: ‘How many of you all see how Black people are treated in this country? If you’d like to be treated like that, stand up.’ And no one in the crowd stands up. So that immediately tells us that you know how we’re treated, you know how it’s burdensome, you know it’s troublesome and wrong, but you simply don’t do anything because its the ‘well it’s not me’ factor.

But if there’s a riot in the street, you’ve got to understand that it’s time to stand up with the people who are getting beaten up, with the people who are tired of being treated that way. So my homework for all the white Americans, including you, is to spend an hour learning from Jane Elliot on YouTube.”

While Killer Mike spoke to the Black Lives Matter movement on The Late Show, he also offered a succinct summary of Run The Jewels’ upcoming album: “It’s like drinking a cup of coffee and getting punched in the face […] and then smoking a joint and getting a hug afterwards.”

Watch Killer Mike on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert above.

Run The Jewels 4 is due 6/5 via Run The Jewels LLC and BMG Records.

John Boyega is known worldwide for playing Poe in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and he’s using his platform for good. The actor, who’s been telling off racists out on Twitter (“I really f*cking hate racists,” he recently tweeted), delivered an impassioned speech in London’s Hyde Park on Wednesday, telling fellow demonstrators, “I’m speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*ck that.”

“Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process, we don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we’re going to make sure that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones,” Boyega said, according to Metro, his voice amplified by a megaphone:

“Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting.”

Boyega referred to everyone at the protest as a “physical representation of our support” for George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Stephen Lawrence, a British teen who was murdered in a racially-motivated attack in 1993. “I need you to understand how painful this sh*t is,” he continued. “I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing and that isn’t the case anymore, that was never the case anymore.” The 28-year-old actor also marched with the family of Belly Mujinga, a rail worker who died from the coronavirus after being spit on.

Hopefully the worst Star Wars fans are listening and learning.

(Via Metro)