Month: May 2020

The Bundesliga soccer season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.Thursday’s announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season could restart following a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors.”Everyone has to be clear. We’re playing on probation,” German soccer league managing director Christian Seifert said. “I expect everyone to live up to this responsibility. Our concept is designed to catch infections early.”Seifert said the return of soccer was because of the success the country’s leaders and health officials have had in response to the outbreak.Germany has had a high number of COVID-19 infections — nearly 170,000 by Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University — with about 7,000 deaths, a lower number compared to elsewhere.The country’s relative success in combating the virus has been attributed to early testing, a robust health service and strict lockdown measures that are now being loosened.”That we’re allowed to play again boils down to German politics for managing this crisis, and the health system in Germany,” Seifert said. “If I were to name the number of tests that I was asked about in teleconferences with other professional leagues, with American professional leagues, with clubs from the NFL, the NHL, Major League Baseball and others, and I tell them how many tests are possible in Germany, they generally check, or there’s silence, because it’s just unimaginable in the situation over there.”Only about a third of Germany’s massive testing capacity of almost 1 million a week is being currently used, said Lars Schaade, the deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute.Seifert said the season will restart with the 26th round of games, including the Ruhr derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke on the opening Saturday. That match will test local authorities who hope to keep groups of fans from gathering around the stadium or at bars to watch on television.Pay-TV broadcaster Sky said it will show all games on the first two weekends for free in Germany.Seifert, who was speaking in Frankfurt after a video conference with members from each club, warned that everyone involved will need to maintain strict hygiene measures to ensure another suspension will not be necessary.The Bundesliga was suspended on March 13 with nine rounds remaining. Seifert said the last round is now planned for the weekend of June 27-28. He said the second division will also begin on May 16.”The decision means economic survival for some clubs,” Seifert said.Seifert said there have been 10 positive cases of COVID-19 in the first two waves of tests among the 36 professional clubs, with another two positive cases found in a third wave.It was initially planned that teams would spend two weeks in quarantine before games could resume, but a compromise on shorter training camps in isolation for each team was reached because players have been undergoing regular tests.Seifert said a decision on whether to temporarily allow five substitutions per match depends on FIFA rules. FIFA made the proposal to help players cope with game congestion but it is still subject to approval from the International Football Association Board, soccer’s law-making body.
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Mandopop superstar Jay Chou is bringing a little magic into viewers’ lives with his Netflix show “J-Style Trip.”  
Part travelogue, part magic performance, the show has Chou diving into adventures around the world with his A-lister friends.  
“Magic is actually like music. It is a universal language,” Chou told The Associated Press in Taiwan recently.  
Chou and his friends take their magic tricks everywhere – from Pompidou in Paris to a local food court in Singapore – taking homebound viewers on virtual trips amid pandemic shutdowns.
 
“I wanted to show the warmness and friendliness of people around the world, and how people connect with each other in different ways,” Chou said.  
Each episode features a special guest like Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao, Singaporean singer Wayne Lim Junjie, better known as JJ Lin, and classical pianist Lang Lang.  
Chou’s especially excited about Lang Lang’s upcoming appearance. “Lang Lang, in fact, is a very humorous and really fun person,” Chou said of the classical superstar who has a whopping 15 million followers on his social media.  
He couldn’t resist giving a sneak peek, revealing that Lang Lang will show up in hip-hop attire and fake mustache to surprise people.
 
Meanwhile, the singer-songwriter has another surprise in stored for his fans.  
“I haven’t released any albums for a very long time. That’s because I have been spending more time with my family,” said Chou, who got married in 2015 and has two children.  
Chou recently updated his Instagram with a picture of a piano painting by German artist Albert Oehlen.  
“I’ve started producing,” the caption said, with a piano emoji. Chou confirmed that he’s working on new songs. “I know my fans are excited. Seems like everyone’s been waiting for a long time,” Chou said.  
“Many people think my past songs are great and can’t be surpassed,” Chou said. He thinks his songs, albeit similar in some ways, cannot be compared because people project their own “memories” to each track.  
With more than 10 albums, Chou, who describes himself as “workaholic,” is still leveling up.  
“I always feel like only I can outperform myself!” 
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Photographers and models typically go from one photo shoot to another. COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are making their jobs challenging, but just like thousands of people around the world, they are finding a way to work. Iacopo Luzi reports in this piece adapted by Cristina Smit.
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Dancer and choreographer Nicolas Maloufi has not worked since France went into lockdown in mid-March, and his daily yoga sessions in a borrowed Paris apartment are his only form of training.  Although France will begin easing its unprecedented curbs on public life from Monday, with shops re-opening and some pupils returning to primary school, the doors to the country’s cinemas, theaters and concert halls will remain closed.   For Maloufi, 49, who has collaborated with venues including the Philharmonie de Paris and the Etoile du Nord theater, that means his productions are on hold. Nor is it easy to line up any more projects.   “I’m waiting for responses from about 20 bookers who are not available. I don’t dare chase them, it’s almost indecent given how many things they have to handle,” he told Reuters.   Maloufi is among those in France’s creative industry known as “intermittents” — the dancers, singers, comedians and technicians who work from gig to gig and receive state stipends to help cover costs between jobs if they work at least 507 hours per year.  French President Emmanuel Macron, wearing a protective face mask, speaks with schoolchildren during a class at the Pierre Ronsard elementary school, May 5 2020 in Poissy, outside Paris.With the entertainment industry shut down by the virus, President Emmanuel Macron promised to guarantee their stipends, as well as money for filmmakers whose productions have been cancelled, as part of a wider bailout for the arts.   Maloufi said the stipends were a lifeline.  “We live a precarious existence,” he said.  Jean-Marc Dumontet owns several venues across Paris including the Bobino on Rue de la Gaite, a street in the Montparnasse district famous for its theaters. Singers including Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Amy Winehouse all performed there, but now its auditorium and dressing rooms are empty, its family-friendly program of comedy, circus and musical theatre halted.   Macron encouraged artists to think of new, more intimate ways of performing, but Dumontet said it was not clear how that would work in his 900-seater Bobino.  “It’s not easy when you’re at the helm of big ships like we are to imagine smaller formats, for the very simple reason that it wouldn’t be profitable,” he said.   Nonetheless, he welcomed Macron’s announcements. “Today it’s about trying to face down this very difficult time,” he said.  Others were less positive. Jean-Michel Ribes, the respected head of the Rond-Point theatre off the Champs Elysees, said he was irked by the president’s calls for the industry to “reinvent” itself.   Ribes said the 41 shows for his next season, due to start in September, were decided on 18 months in advance. Delaying shows now was a logistical nightmare, he said. 
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Atlanta’s new archbishop will be installed Wednesday in a socially-distant Mass, adapting some Catholic traditions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Inside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, a small number of priests will look on from a choir loft, while a handful of others in attendance will be seated strategically in the church’s main nave, well away from the altar, Deacon Dennis Dorner said.
And instead of hugs, priests will applaud as Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer becomes the new leader of the Catholic Church in Atlanta.
“One of the challenges was just keeping the tradition but figuring out how to do that without having all the people there who are typically there,” said Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Typically, the cathedral would be packed for such an occasion. Guests would include Pope Francis’ representative, the papal nuncio, who would present Hartmayer with the papal bull, a document inscribed in Latin appointing Hartmayer to his post. Rather than traveling to Atlanta, the nuncio will appear by video for that portion of Wednesday’s service.
“We would typically have a full cathedral, a couple of hundred priests,” who would come up to the altar to greet the new archbishop. In the midst of a pandemic, “that’s just not going to happen,” Dorner said.
However, the Mass will be live-streamed for the faithful, and aired on the Catholic cable networks EWTN and The Catholic Television Network starting at 12:30 p.m.
“The end result will still be the same and wonderful,” Dorner said. “While we won’t have a full crowd in the cathedral, we’ll have a lot of people obviously watching the live-stream,” he said.
Pope Francis named Hartmayer, the bishop of Savannah, Georgia, since 2011, to the lead the Atlanta diocese in March.  
As a Conventual Franciscan, Hartmayer, 68, pledged to serve his vows of chastity, poverty and obedience in service to society. The Buffalo, New York, native worked as a guidance counselor, school director and teacher in Catholic schools in Baltimore, New York and Florida.
He replaces Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who took over in Washington, D.C., amid leadership changes in response to the global church’s sex abuse and cover-up scandals.
Hartmayer has held video calls with some of the priests and others he will be working with, and he’s been able to have some one-on-one, personal meetings.
“Fortunately he has a large conference room with a very long table, and they can separate from one another,” Dorner said. 
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