Category: News

As the world watches longstanding tensions between Israel and Palestine escalate into violence once again, it’s good to be reminded that political conflicts are not a reflection of how average human beings feel about one another. Even when violent attacks take place among civilians, even when hate crimes happen, even when some people express their prejudices loudly and passionately, there are plenty of examples of people on opposite sides of those conflicts—people that the world views as enemies—who join hands to say, “This is not who or what we are to one another.”

Case in point: This inspiring show of solidarity between Arab and Jewish medical staff at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel.

The city of Haifa itself has been viewed as a model of peaceful coexistence between people of various faiths and backgrounds, its religiously and ethnically diverse population avoiding most of the violence seen in other large Israeli cities over the years. Living up to that reputation, in recent weeks, Jewish medical staff at Rambam Medical Center have taken extra shifts to give their Muslim coworkers time off for the Eid al-Fitr holiday, and Arab staff have done the same for their Jewish coworkers to give them time off during Shavuot.

On May 12, as violence escalated, Rambam’s medical teams shared photos of Arab and Jewish medical personnel standing arm in arm with signs of peace and coexistence written in Arabic and Hebrew on Facebook.

“Three turbulent days and the escalation in Israel’s security situation has led Rambam Health Care Campus employees to send an important message to the general public – we are together,” the post states. “The medical staff, nursing staff and employees from other sectors across the hospital are united in these difficult days under the umbrella of peace, coexistence, unity, and solidarity, and many of them chose to take part in a campaign showing colleagues and friends from different religions working side by side to provide the best possible healthcare. These individuals were photographed together, carrying signs of peace and seeking to convey this important message.”

The post also included the text of a letter sent to employees from the hospital’s director, Michael Halberthal:

“Dear Rambam Employees,

We are all witnessing the recent events in the country, which are characterized by great tension and violence.

Rambam is a hospital where members of all denominations and religions from all walks of life, work side by side. We are all united around only one goal – to help our patients recover and make their hospitalizations easier.

Each of us holds diverse personal opinions and worldviews, but all of these are irrelevant to our shared mission in the hospital.

I hope and believe that Rambam, as a family with differences, will remain an island of sanity within the uneasy reality around us, standing together as we have done during all of the difficult trials we have experienced in recent years.

Therefore, when we, the employees from all the different sectors, enter the hospital and put on our work clothes, we leave the turbulent world behind us and concentrate on our shared goals.

We have built a special “home” here, one that we nurture as a place of harmony and inclusivity. One of which I am personally proud to be a part. Let us keep it going together.”

The staff took that message to heart and organized a “solidarity rally” with dozens of Arab and Jewish doctors, nurses, and para-medical staff gathering together under the slogan, “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”

“We work side by side in the departments and the operating rooms,” the doctors who organized the rally said. “We are one big family, and this is our message.”

There’s no doubt that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over land rights and political recognition is complicated. When you have a centuries-long quagmire of power, oppression, religious prejudices, historical injustices, and more, violence is a natural—though not inevitable—result. While people around the world may feel compelled to protest or support one side or the other for reasons they feel are totally justified, it’s heartening to see people on the ground, who live and work with one another, rejecting the idea that they are enemies and embracing one another as fellow human beings sharing a common goal.

The vast majority of people simply want to live in peace. Thank you, staff of Rambam Health Care, for reminding the world of that truth so beautifully.

The NBA has gone through this season with minimal attendance. While some teams have permitted fans from the beginning of the campaign and the rest have slowly let people back in over the course of the year, the pandemic has made it so there are pretty strict attendance limits with distancing and masks in stadiums.

With the playoffs around the corner, vaccinations increasing nationwide, and a light at the end of the tunnel due to the pandemic, NBA commissioner Adam Silver sees reason to be optimistic about postseason atmospheres around the league. Specifically, Silver went onto ESPN’s Keyshawn, J-Will and Zubin and said that he has reason to believe that the kind of playoff environments that the league likes to highlight will be close to fully back by the time the Finals roll around.

“I think it’s very possible that come July, when our Finals will be, you’ll see essentially full buildings,” Silver said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

Shortly after Silver’s appearance, one NBA team decided to welcome fans back at nearly full capacity. The Dallas Mavericks announced that playoff seating will happen at near-full capacity, with about 15,000 fans allowed in starting with the team’s series against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The league and teams have generally followed local guidance on these sorts of things, so hopefully, things keep trending in positive directions and teams are able to safely pack stadiums again sooner rather than later.

Detroit rapper Sada Baby first came to prominence with the fun-loving, goofy dances he did in the video for his breakout viral hit “Bloxk Party,” so it’s only right that he returns to such shenanigans in the video for “Little While,” which has even more potential for hit status — at least, algorithmically, thanks to its guest spots from Big Sean and Hit-Boy.

Much like the video for “Bloxk Party,” the clip for “Little While” revolves around a house party, except that now, the stakes and the budget are much higher, causing the venue to change up proportionally. Now, instead of an Airbnb, Sada’s shooting at massive mansions, complete with valets and check-ins, elaborate decorations, and a noticeable increase in the ratio of women to men, including a cameo from fellow emerging Detroit rap star Kash Doll (who should really get a verse on any potential remixes).

“Little While” is Sada’s second major foray into the techno-style drum programming that his hometown pioneered after “Whole Lotta Choppas,” which famously featured a Nicki Minaj verse on its remix.

Watch Sada Baby’s “Little While” video featuring Big Sean and Hit-Boy above.

Sada Baby is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The ninth movie in the Fast & Saga, accurately titled F9, is largely being framed as a return to the movies in America, but overseas it’s already having a monster showing in another market. The final trailer for the long-delayed Fast and Furious movie was an emotional one, giving fans of the action series plenty to look forward to its June 25 release stateside.

But the movie is already out in China and a handful of other overseas markets, and according to reports, the film is having the biggest release of any film since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those big numbers are even in spite of a late cancelation of a major F9 event in China. According to Variety, the film’s opening was marred by a “threat” to a promotional event in Shanghai on Thursday.

On Friday, “Fast & Furious 9” comfortably raced to the top of the box office chart, scoring RMB231 million ($35.8 million) by 5.30pm local time, and claiming an 88% market share, according to data from ticket sales agency Maoyan. That gave it a running total of RMB292 million ($45.3 million) including sneak previews and midnight screenings.

It’s certainly a good sign for the film’s chances of leading a similar box office resurgence in the United States. With vaccinations continuing and more people feeling comfortable at indoor spaces in public as things progress, it’s looking more like the long wait for F9 will pay off both for moviegoers but for the studios who decided to wait out the worst of the pandemic with the movie still in the can. The trick for the next few weeks will be avoiding spoilers. No one tell us how or why Han is alive. No one! Leave us that small sliver of magic. We’ve waited so long already.

Last week, Florence And The Machine teased their contribution to the movie Cruella, a song called “Call Me Cruella.” Now the full track is out, and it filters the classic “Cruella de Vil” song through the lens of grimy ’70s rock. In addition to the complete track, the full score (which is out today) also features an instrumental version of the song.

Florence Welch previously said of the song, “Some of the first songs I ever learned how to sing were Disney songs. And the villains often got the best numbers. So to help create and perform a song for Cruella is the fulfillment of a long-held childhood dream. I’m so grateful to Nicholas Britell and Disney for allowing me so much creative freedom, and for trusting me with Cruella’s beautiful madness.”

Britell also added, “I am a massive fan of Florence’s, so it was a true joy to collaborate with her on ‘Call Me Cruella.’ With both this song and the Cruella score itself, the goal was to really embrace the raw rock aesthetic of ’60s and ’70s London. We recorded everything using all vintage gear and analog tape at Abbey Road and AIR Studios in London, melding orchestral elements with electric guitars and basses, organs, keyboards, and drums.”

Listen to “Call Me Cruella” above and stream the full Cruella score below.

America is on the threshold of having 50% of adults fully vaccinated from COVID-19. However, the number of daily doses administered is down about 48% from a peak rate of nearly 3.4 million per day in mid-April.

A big reason for this is vaccine hesitancy. Around 30% of Americans are hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which presents a sizable roadblock to reaching herd immunity. Estimates differ, but it’s thought after approximately 85% of the country has had the vaccine, the country will be on track for herd immunity.

It’s important for the health of all Americans to try to help the hesitant to understand the facts: vaccines are safe and do a great job at preventing COVID-19 infections.

Who better to try to change people’s minds about the vaccine than one of its developers, Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett?

Dr. Corbett is an immunologist at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and a scientific lead for the Coronavirus Vaccines and Immunopathogenesis team that co-developed a highly effective COVID-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology with Moderna.

Meet Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett ⁦@KizzyPhD⁩ one of the lead scientists in developing the #CovidVaccine https://t.co/6UEtktsAD2

— Karimah 🖖🏾 Boston (@KarimahAsha)
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Last week, Matthew Mallory, an attendee at the “Vaccinating America” town hall at Northern Virginia Community College featuring President Joe Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, admitted he was hesitant about getting the shot.

“How do you know it’s safe and who to trust?” he asked the panel.

“Does it give you confidence that Dr. Fauci, who has been working in this area his entire life was one of the very first people to take the vaccine, the Moderna vaccine?” MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell asked Mallory.

“In a way it does, I just still have hesitancies,” he replied.

So the panel asked Dr. Corbett to step in and help out.

“I get it. I completely understand,” she told Mallory. “I’ve realized that through this moment I sit in a place of privilege where I have information on a day-to-day basis about these vaccines that the general person does not. But the one thing that reassures me constantly is seeing over time, more and more people getting these vaccines. The data are so clear and crisp and that they are effective.”

Dr. Corbett met with Mallory and his mother after the event and they talked for over 10 minutes. However, even after meeting with one of the creators of the vaccine, he still wasn’t convinced.

Mallory and his mother went home and had a heart-to-heart about getting vaccinated and decided to get their first shots yesterday at Walgreens.

Dr. Corbett proudly met the two at the drug store and comforted them while they got their shots.

Dr. Corbett Convinces MSNBC Town Hall Participant To Get Covid Vaccine

www.youtube.com

If we can cut the number of people with vaccine hesitancy by half over the coming months, it gives us a much better chance of reaching herd immunity. If not, the virus will linger in pockets of the country where hesitancy is highest, taking thousands of lives along the way.

A big part of helping people change their minds is understanding there is a lot of misinformation muddying the waters, so it makes sense that some are uncomfortable getting the shot.

Dr. Corbett displayed a great example of how to counter the misinformation by taking the time to listen to Mallory without judgement and to give him the tools necessary to make an informed decision. She’s a great example of how we can reach herd immunity by empowering people instead of shaming them.

If you haven’t started streaming Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. yet, spoiler alert, there’s a scene where the giant, villainous floating head is in the nude, and according to the show’s creators, the visual stunt was the Hulu series’ biggest challenge. With the show having a similar stop-motion visual style to Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken, a team of puppet engineers is required, and apparently, they ran into some obstacles when creators Patton Oswalt (who also voices the titular character) and Jordan Blum wanted to see the weirdly shape Marvel character naked.

In a new interview, Blum explains that it “took a lot of R&D,” but the credit department nailed it. And by it, we mean they figured out what a giant floating face would look like from the chin down. Via Polygon:

“It was the most back and forth we had with design with the puppet department,” Blum told Polygon over Zoom. “Where we were like, ‘[His head has] got to be bigger!’ And they were like ‘The body would never support this.’ We were like ‘That’s the point! The body needs to be smaller, and the head needs to be bigger.’ And they were like, ‘We’re trying!’”

Earlier in the week, Oswalt stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his new series, but the comedian couldn’t help but get sidetracked by the recent talk of UFOs thanks to a recent segment on 60 Minutes. Instead of talking about M.O.D.O.K., Oswalt told an anecdote about his dad seeing two objects flying in the sky while serving as a test pilot for the Marines during the ’60s and ’70s. According to Oswalt’s father, pilots at the time saw all kinds of crazy stuff, but never reported it out of fear of not being allowed to fly anymore. But the real question this begs is: Was any of it weirder than a nude M.O.D.O.K.? Who’s to say?!

Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. is now streaming on Hulu.

(Via Polygon)

Sascha Baron Cohen isn’t done with Borat just yet, and the latest version of the fictional character’s story involves debunking some other fictional stories plaguing modern America. A wave of new footage (and unused footage from Borat 2) is apparently becoming a six-part series that will feature some peeks into said conspiracy theories and experts trying to convince people who believe, say, that Hillary Clinton is deeply involved in Pizzagate, that what they’ve read and heard is not real.

Amazon announced the Debunking Borat series on Thursday, along with BORAT: VHS Cassette of Material Deemed “Sub-acceptable” By Kazakhstan Ministry of Censorship and Circumcision, which will include the previously unseen footage from the Borat sequel. But a trailer for the Debunking Borat series gave us a look at what that series will entail, and some of it is pretty notable, starting with Hillary Clinton confronting some people from the movie who believed some wild things about her.

Backstory will help. Borat 2, which was filmed amid the coronavirus pandemic, featured, among many other people, two right-wing conspiracy theorists with whom Cohen spent part of lockdown. “The Clintons tortured these kids,” one man from the movie said, parroting a wild accusation that’s commonly believed among QAnon enthusiasts who think the former president and secretary of state are part of a global cabal of cannibals and sex traffickers. In the trailer for Debunking Borat, a clip of that line is played, followed by images that appear to have them watching a video of some sort.

“Hello Jim and Jerry,” Clinton says, right before the trailer ends.

That will certainly be the big draw of series, as hearing people say these conspiracies in the movie was one of the wilder things in Borat 2, non-Rudy Giuliani category, of course. But with all the Borat coming and all the weird things he’s said in character, it’s kind of nice to assume this bit of the Borat universe doesn’t require a layer of irony.

[via The Wrap]

Like Senator Bernie Sanders before him, President Joe Biden wants young people to get lucky.

No seriously. The Biden administration’s latest strategy to get as many Americans vaccinated as possible now includes dating apps like Tinder and Bumble promoting vaccinated matches. On Friday, Biden’s press team sent out a memo detailing their latest rollout plan, explaining how hookup apps including Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Match, OkCupid, BLK, Chispa, Plenty of Fish, and more are working with the White House COVID Team to get younger generations to swipe left on vaccine hesitancy by altering algorithms to favor vaccinated singles and allowing users to add stickers, badges, etc to prove they’ve gotten their shot.

“In support of President Biden’s goal of getting 70 percent of adults at least one shot by July 4, the largest dating apps in America will launch new features to encourage Americans to get vaccinated,” the memo states, via USA Today.

Those new features differ depending on which app you prefer. On Tinder, users can pick from a couple of different badge stickers, have access to premium content that helps them stand out in the scroll, and connect to a “Vaccination Center” filled with relevant resources. Over on OkCupid, vaccinated users get their own matching system with free “Boosts” to their profile. And over on Bumble, influencers are amplifying the need to get jabbed while regular users can get complimentary credits for premium features.

Basically, Biden wants you to know it pays to be vaccinated when it comes to the world of virtual dating. Unfortunately, not even a Pfizer shot can protect you from unwarranted d*ck pics.

(Via USA Today)

When Lil Nas X first rose to stardom with “Old Town Road,” it was rumored that he was so into Nicki Minaj that he used to operate a fan account about her. That turned out to be true, although Nas wasn’t forthcoming with that information for a while because he feared being outed as gay. Now, Nas is both openly gay and openly a Minaj fan, both of which he addresses on his latest song, “Sun Goes Down.” However, the Barbz, as Minaj’s fans are called, want Nas to keep her name out of his mouth and it appears he’s going to do just that.

On the track, Lil Nas X reflects on his past, including his admiration for Nicki Minaj, rapping, “I’d be by the phone / Stanning Nicki mornin’ into dawn / Only place I felt like I belonged / Strangers make you feel so loved, you know?” After the song was released, it seems some Barbz thought Nas was using her name for attention. The backlash was apparently severe enough for Nas to vow to stop talking about Minaj.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote, “to the barbz who feel i’m using nicki’s name for attention, the song i released last night was recorded last year. and it’s about my life which 6 of those years were dedicated to nicki. it’s no fake love. but i understand how it looks so i will no longer mention her.”

After Nas admitted he previously denied being a Barb, Minaj responded, saying that while she was initially hurt by that, she understood, writing on Twitter, “It was a bit of a sting when you denied being a barb, but I understand. Congratulations on building up your confidence to speak your truth.”