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News began to trickle out about the future of the Pro Evolution Soccer series on Wednesday. Konami’s annual soccer game is slated to go through some gigantic changes for its 2022 edition, most notably with a new game engine believed to be the highly-anticipated Unreal Engine 5, but before then, the series will have its annual release a little later this year, one that will celebrate PES‘ 25th anniversary.

Some more details about that game, titled eFootball PES 2021 Season Update, began to become public on Thursday. This included a trailer for the game that prominently features Barcelona star Lionel Messi — who is slated to appear on the cover of the game — and a digitalized version of his legendary “Goal of the Century” against Getafe in 2007, along with a number of gameplay clips.

In a release, Konami announced that this will be an updated version of last year’s PES release, with updated player ratings and rosters coming as a patch on the day of its release. Beyond that, PES 2021 will include an UEFA Euro 2020 mode to celebrate the continental tournament that was moved to next summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with a new Moment Series that, per a release, will give games the chance to “relive and recreate memorable moments from the careers of current and former football superstars with this new myClub series.”

Perhaps the biggest news for this version of the game is the price. The latest PES game will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam on Sept. 15 starting at $29.99. The game’s Partner Club Edition — which will be available for Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, and Manchester United — will run games $34.99.

With the global pandemic trapping people at home, it probably won’t come as a shock that Netflix experienced substantial viewership for its second quarter. But what is surprising is the two Netflix Originals that racked up impressively high and similar numbers.

According to the latest shareholders report, the military comedy Space Force blasted its way into 40 million households since launching on May 29. In an even shorter timeframe, the new game show Floor is Lava jumped across 37 million living rooms after it erupted onto the streaming service less than a month ago on June 19. Netflix also saw solid performance from several other of its originals, and according to Deadline, the streaming giant took a shot at its growing number of competitors who are attempting to repeat its success and peel off subscribers:

“All of the major entertainment companies like WarnerMedia, Disney and NBCUniversal are pushing their own streaming services and two of the most valuable companies in the world, Apple and Amazon, are growing their investment in premium content,” the Reed Hastings-run company said with the prose equivalent of gritted teeth. “In addition, TikTok’s growth is astounding, showing the fluidity of internet entertainment,” they added one day after NBCU’s Peacock had its national launch, with no Olympics and few originals.

“Instead of worrying about all these competitors, we continue to stick to our strategy of trying to improve our service and content every quarter faster than our peers,” Netflix noted sticking the shiv in. “Our continued strong growth is a testament to this approach and the size of the entertainment market.”

Starring Steve Carrell, Greg Daniels, and Lisa Kudrow, Space Force is a satirical comedy named after President Donald Trump’s real-life attempt to build an actual military force in space. (It’s not going well.) Meanwhile, Floor is Lava is more family-friendly fare that features teams of three contestants as they attempt to recreate the childhood game of jumping across furniture. Only instead of avoiding your mom’s carpet, the floor is a bubbling hot tub of orange water that makes leaping from wet surface to wet surface all the more precarious. The successful game show formula was apparently a hit with Netflix audiences as it almost matched the numbers for Space Force in under a month, and it could overtake the scripted comedy in the weeks ahead.

(Via Deadline)

Australian singer Tash Sultana’s debut record, Flow State, showcased her knack for groove-driven earworms. This year, the singer has ushered in a new era of music with the equally-funky singles “Pretty Lady” and “Greed.” To further display her musical talents, Tash follows up her “Greed” single with a “studio jam” video of the track.

For the black-and-white visual, Sultana took time out from recording her sophomore album to film herself playing “Greed” in her Melbourne studio. The singer jams out with herself by recording each part of the song separately, including the jazz-inflected drums and dual-layered vocal tracks. When edited together, the track flows perfectly while depicting her expertise on a variety of instruments.

The song itself is a reflection on the corruptive nature of money and how it breeds greed. “This song is about how people change around you when you achieve some sort of success,” Sultana said in a statement. “People you’ve never had anything to do with try and climb into your life somehow, people you’ve known for ages suddenly go silent. People who never paid you for a gig suddenly want to book you. That person from high school that gave you sh*t for playing the guitar suddenly wants on the guest list. It’s a funny little thing all of this and what it does to people.”

Watch Sultana perform “Greed” with herself above.

It’s been four years since Johnny Depp and Amber Heard formally ended their short-lived marriage, and though Heard alleged spousal abuse, no criminal charges were ever filed and the two formally settled their divorce. But for the last week they’ve been in court for a different trial, this one a libel suit Depp filed against the British tabloid The Sun, which had labeled him a “wife-beater” in an April 2018 article. The trial has turned into a circus, with several disturbing and even strange details and accusations emerging about both Depp and Heard — and, as per Deadline, the statement of one of Johnny’s exes to the court is now (at least partially) going public.

That person is Depp’s Edward Scissorhand’s co-star Winona Ryder, to whom he was engaged in the 1990s. In her statement, the actress compared the allegations Heard made against him with her own experiences as his former romantic partner.

“I understand that it is very important that I speak from my own experience, as I obviously was not there during his marriage to Amber,” Ryder wrote, “but, from my experience, which was so wildly different, I was absolutely shocked, confused and upset when I heard the accusations against him.”

She continued:

“The idea that he is an incredibly violent person is the farthest thing from the Johnny I knew and loved. I cannot wrap my head around these accusations. He was never, never violent towards me. He was never, never abusive at all towards me. He has never been violent or abusive towards anybody I have seen.

“I truly and honestly only know him as a really good man — an incredibly loving, extremely caring guy who was so very protective of me and the people that he loves, and I felt so very, very safe with him. I do not want to call anyone a liar but from my experience of Johnny, it is impossible to believe that such horrific allegations are true. I find it extremely upsetting, knowing him as I do.”

Ryder wasn’t the only former Depp paramour to issue a statement about him. Vanessa Paradis, the French singer, model, and actress, who was Depp’s partner from 1998 to 2012, had similar thoughts:

This is nothing like the true Johnny I have known, and from my personal experience of many years, I can say he was never violent or abusive to me. I have seen that these outrageous statements have been really distressing, and also caused damage to his career because unfortunately people have gone on believing these false facts. This is so upsetting as he has helped so many persons in his personal and professional life, with kindness and generosity.”

Among the claims raised by the libel trial include Depp’s claim that Heard once left “a large pile of feces” in their marital bed, which Heard claimed were from her two dogs; that Depp made jokes about microwaving her dogs, and that he dangled one of them out of a moving vehicle’s window; that he once wrapped a shirt around her neck during a fight; and much more besides. This is on top of a recent Rolling Stone profile that alleged he’d somehow spent all of the $650 million he’s made from movies, and that he accusations that he’d spend $30,000 a month on wine “insulting,” but only because, he said, “it was far more.” The trial is set to last three weeks total, and will no doubt have many more hairpin turns.

(Via Deadline)

Hayley Williams has been staying busy in quarantine. Not only did the singer release her debut solo album, Petals For Armor, but Williams has also been sharing a handful of acoustic guitar covers to her Instagram page. The singer’s past covers include a rendition of the Tegan And Sara song “Call It Off” as well as the Coldplay number “Green Eyes.” On Thursday, Williams returned with a cover of Björk’s Vespertine track “Unison.”

The cover caught the attention of many, including Maggie Rogers who commented “this ended me” below the cover. In the caption alongside her cover, Williams said “Unison” is one of her “top 5” favorite sons by the Icelandic singer: “someone asked me to do a @bjork song a while back. to be honest, i was hoping to cover a different song of hers live this year but i guess that will have to wait until some other time… anyway, this one has to be in my top 5 – “Unison”. many apologies for this crudely casual rendition but it sure felt good. gnite neverland!”

Listen to Williams cover Björk’s “Unison” above.

Petals For Armor is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include projects from Blu & Exile, Joey Badass, and Kyle. While that’s not a very long list, two of the three projects dropping this week are substantial enough to satisfy any hip-hop fan, while the third is a long-awaited return from Joey, who took something of a hiatus after his well-received — and starkly prescient — All-Amerikkkan Badass project.

Blu & Exile’s project marks a comeback of sorts as well. The duo’s 2007 debut, Below The Heavens, is still a hallmark of backpack rap and helped mark the beginning of the so-called “blog era” that brought about an explosion of talent just before the turn of the decade. Meanwhile, Kyle — who had also taken a step away from the public eye to work on his own comeback project — has been methodically rolling out his own new album with a string of upbeat, encouraging singles that offered fans an escape from the gloom of 2020’s endless parade of mind-numbing bad news.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Blu & Exile — Miles: From An Interlude Called Life

Reuniting eight years after their last collaborative effort, Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them, LA rapper-producer team Blu & Exile recapture their team-weathered chemistry on this new project, which smartly utilizes Exile’s usual arsenal of jazz and soul samples to update listeners on what’s been going on in Blu’s world. Slice of life stories over soul-warming comfort music; it’s a match made “below the heavens.”

Joey Badass — The Light

Joey has spent the last three years since the release of All-Amerikkkan Badass taking time off to expand his creative portfolio — acting, embracing philanthropy, modeling, and participating in group projects with his Beast Coast cohorts. Now, he’s back with a three-song EP set to whet the appetite of fans who have clamored for a followup to his beloved 2017 full-length. While it may not be the meal some where hoping for, this appetizing set is sure to satisfy long-time fans of his uniquely weathered sounding style.

Kyle — See You When I Am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!!

Following up 2018’s Light Of Mine, See You When I Am Famous finds Kyle returning to where it all started, re-embracing the sunny sounds of his early tapes, Beautiful Loser and Smyle. The diverse tracklist includes contributions from the likes of Bryson Tiller, Iann Dior, K Camp, Rico Nasty, and Tyga, and even includes contributions from veterans such as Raphael Saadiq and Too Short.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

A video posted to Twitter by Republican Voters Against Trump has received over 2.6 million views because it shows the exhaustion we’re all feeling with President Trump at this point.

In the video, Jeffrey Farmer of Mendon, Massachusetts, gives a weary explanation of why he’s not voting for Tump a second time. “I can’t take this anymore, this guy, he’s like a Tasmanian devil,” he says. “He frickin’, he just throws bombs everywhere, people can’t even keep up with the stuff that he’s saying now.”

Warning: Explicit language.

Jeffrey wants to send his kids back to school and the economy to be great. But he’s worried because he has autoimmune diseases.

“This guy couldn’t lead frickin’ his way out of a frickin’ wet paper bag,” he said. “I’m voting for Joe Biden.”

Farmer closes the video by telling Trump to “shut the fuck up for once,” and gives him the finger.

Well put, Jeffrey.

The video has been so popular the Republican Voters Against Trump released a second, longer video with Jeffrey’s entire statement.

MUST WATCH – Jeffrey voted for Trump, but now he has some choice words for him…

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Nearly a decade after the average American retires from their careers and choose to live a more leisurely life, Dr. Anthony Fauci was battling a deadly disease outbreak. And he wasn’t just acting as the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (which was his actual job), or sitting at a desk crunching numbers and making models. He was suiting up to treat an a patient with Ebola—a disease with a mortality rate of around 50%—for two hours a day, even though he didn’t have to.

Why did he do it? Because he wanted to show his staff that he wouldn’t ask them to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself. He also told Science, “I do believe that one gets unique insights into disease when you actually physically interact with patients.”

That is what genuine, trusted leadership looks like, and is one of hundreds of examples of why Dr. Fauci has been one of the most well-respected experts in infectious disease in the world for decades.

Dr. Fauci has served the United States under six presidents, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush for his work on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In his remarks praising Dr. Fauci, Bush pointed out that Fauci still quoted the wisdom he received at the Jesuit high school he attended (where he had won a full scholarship)—”Precision of thought, economy of expression,” then added, “And now you know why he never ran for public office.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci Receives The Presidential Medal Of Freedom

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It was a joke, but that statement basically sums up Dr. Fauci’s career. Meticulous attention to the science. Saying what needs to be said, nothing more and nothing less. And always rising above the partisan political fray. Dr. Fauci has faithfully served under both Republicans and Democrats, earning a reputation on the international stage for his professionalism and expertise.

Anyone trying to discredit the 79-year-old scientist has literally decades of highly respected work to contend with, no matter what kinds of inconsistencies they claim to have gotten from Dr. Fauci. Information during a novel virus outbreak is naturally going to change frequently, as doctors and scientists have to learn about what the virus is and isn’t, what works on it and what doesn’t, how it spreads and how we might limit the spread, in real time. That kind of uncertainty—which is the nature of a novel virus pandemic—opens the door to silly political accusations of “flip flopping” from people who either don’t understand how science works or who want to use people’s ignorance for their own gain. And Dr. Fauci has always been clear that information is evolving and that no one is an expert in this particular virus, because it’s brand new.

No human being is perfect, of course, but there are certain individuals at the top of every field whose work speaks for itself, who maintain a level of integrity that is beyond reproach, and who manage to avoid the pitfalls of politics. People who have worked with Dr. Fauci have shared their experiences with him, and it’s hard to find one from a non-political source that isn’t glowing in its assessment.

The Lincoln Project, a Republican group working to oust Trump from the White House in November, even shared an ad that shows how Dr. Fauci’s reputation has been stellar for decades.

We’ve become so accustomed to attacks on people in politics that it almost seems normal, but there’s nothing normal about attempts to discredit a lifelong public servant and medical expert like Dr. Fauci. Unless you’ve voluntarily donned a hazmat suit to treat a patient with a disease that has a high likelihood of killing you, and unless you have decades of experience in infectious disease research, you’ve got no room to criticize Dr. Fauci or his work. The gentleman is as close to above reproach as they come, and we need his precision of thought and honest truth-telling now more than ever.

Nobody got more attention in the WNBA last year than the Las Vegas Aces, who scored Liz Cambage late in the offseason to add to a brilliant young core that already included three No. 1 overall picks in Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young, as well as sharpshooter Kayla McBride and do-it-all forward Dearica Hamby. The harsh and bizarre realities of the 2020 WNBA season are as present in the Aces as any other squad, as the version of the team that made it to the “Wubble” site at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., is without both Cambage and Plum, likely stripping the Aces of their chances to avenge a semifinal loss.

Muggy Florida clearly isn’t the best place to serve up ice-cold revenge, but that won’t soothe the Aces, who lost a season of cost-control for Wilson and Plum. They will be well worth watching this season anyway, but simply won’t have the firepower without Cambage (COVID-related opt-out) and Plum (ruptured Achilles’ tendon) to reclaim a top spot in the standings.

WUBBLE ROSTER

Lindsay Allen
Alex Bentley
Dearica Hamby
Kayla McBride
Angel McCoughtry
Danielle Robinson
Sugar Rodgers
Carolyn Swords
Avery Warley-Talbert
A’ja Wilson
Jackie Young

KEY PLAYERS TO WATCH

A’ja Wilson: It’s no overstatement to say Wilson is an MVP candidate this year. Entering her third season and without Cambage to adjust to, Wilson could top the 29.2 percent usage rate she put up as a rookie in 2019, and Las Vegas will need her at her best to make a playoff run. In a league that is increasingly transitioning toward stretch bigs like Breanna Stewart and Elena Delle Donne, the 23-year-old Wilson does it her own way, still scoring efficiently from the post and creating her own shots with quickness and craft. Wilson will likely play center this year with Hamby at the 4, creating more space in the halfcourt while also demanding more out of Wilson as a scorer than last year. There might not be a single player in the WNBA this year who will dictate the outcome for her team more than Wilson.

Angel McCoughtry: The main change for the Aces this year is the presence of McCoughtry, whom the Aces swiped from Atlanta this offseason. This will be the first year away from the Dream for the 33-year-old McCoughtry, who missed 2019 with a torn ACL. The notoriously ball-dominant scoring forward may actually have a better pathway to success this season with Cambage and Plum gone, as the Aces can space the floor more and allow her to go to work with the ball in her hands. Last time we saw McCoughtry, in 2018, she shot just 42 percent from the field and 28 percent from deep, with a noticeable downtick in her free-throw rate. Yet the Dream still made a run to the WNBA semifinals, showing she can still succeed within a team concept built entirely around her. If the Aces can cede the offense to her a bit more than expected, and if she and Wilson can co-exist offensively, Las Vegas still boasts the talent for a playoff run, even if their ceiling is now more limited.

EXPECTATIONS

At 21-13, the Aces in 2019 announced their presence as a major force in the WNBA, and put Las Vegas on the map in the franchise’s second season in Sin City. Without Cambage and Plum, expectations are obviously muted, but for a team with a loaded roster full of overlapping young pieces, 2020 could be an opportunity for some to separate themselves. Plum’s contract expires after the season, while Cambage is on a one-year deal for 2020. Even if a championship run is unlikely, coming together to make the playoffs could teach the Aces a lot about themselves.

X-FACTOR

Jackie Young: After Oregon sensation Sabrina Ionescu opted to return to school for the 2019-20 season, the Aces pivoted to Young with the top overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft. That placed high expectations on Young, as did head coach Bill Laimbeer’s decision to start her over Plum all season. Young’s jump shot is a work in progress (.352 effective field goal percentage), but she is strong and mobile on defense and a steady play-maker. Expect Young to play point guard full-time this year without Plum around, and if she can become a more efficient shooter and orchestrate the offense more effectively in year two, maybe the Aces miss less of a beat without Plum than expected.

BIGGEST ON-COURT QUESTION

Can the Aces space the floor better in 2020? Las Vegas shot the fewest threes in the WNBA in 2019, a signal of the challenges of putting Young, Wilson and Cambage on the floor together. The fifth-ranked Las Vegas offense could potentially get a boost from running things entirely through Wilson, with great shooters in McBride and Hamby dotting the floor. Sinking lower than tops in the league on defense but improving the offense could mean the Aces look quite different on the floor but in effect are comparably competitive. All of it will be based on whether Las Vegas can modernize its offense and adjust to new personnel.

Philadelphia-based musician Shamir shared his most recent album Cataclysm back in March but he’s not done releasing new music. The singer followed-up the record’s release with the vibrant single “On My Own,” which he named an “accidental” quarantine anthem. Now, Shamir returns with “I Wonder” which announces yet another record he’s planning on debuting in 2020.

“I Wonder” flexes Shamir’s talent as a songwriter, combining striking instrumentals with his far-reaching vocals and intimate lyrics. “I’ll be the earth with the disease / And you the human inside of me,” he sings.

In a statement, Shamir said he penned the song as a reflection on where the themes of love and climate change intersect. “The song is about the feeling of love taking over your heart, even when you don’t want it to,” Shamir said. “It also alludes to climate change and how humans (‘love’) can be the most toxic thing to the planet (‘the heart’), but also the only thing that can fix it.” Speaking about the album as a whole, the singer explained why he chose the eponymous title: “I felt like it didn’t need a name, cuz it’s the record that’s most me.”

Listen to “I Wonder” above and find the Shamir cover art below.

Shamir is out 10/2 and independently-released without a label. Pre-order it here.