(LONDON) — Europe’s scorching drought has revealed the hulks of dozens of German warships that became submerged during World War Two near Serbia’s river port town of Prahovo.
The ships, sunken on Danube River, were part of Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they retreated from advancing Soviet forces, officials said.
The vessels still impact the river today, often hampering river traffic during low water levels, authorities said.
Now, over 20 ships have come to the surface, many of which are still loaded with ammunition and explosives. Officials say the vessels pose a risk to shipping on the Danube.
The vessels have limited the navigable section of the stretch near Prahova to 100 meters, significantly slimmer than the prior 180 meters ships had access to.
Serbian officials have taken to dredging along the river to salvage the usable navigation lanes.
We have deployed almost [our] entire [dredging] capacity… We are struggling to keep out waterways navigable along their full length,” Veljko Kovacevic, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transportation, told Reuters.
The increasing difficulties for shipping boats will impact the country’s vital transportation of coal, which accounts for two thirds of Serbia’s electrical output, officials said.
Further implicating the energy crisis, water flow in Serbia’s hydropower system dropped by half in the past two months, officials told the Balkan Green Energy News.
The country is also already enduring the impacts of the war in Ukraine upon their energy supply.
Officials said the ships vary, with some now showing turrets, command bridges, broken masts and twisted hulls, while even more still remain buried under sand banks.
In March, the Serbian government invited a contracted a private company for the salvage of some of the hulls and removal of ammunition and explosives. The operation cost officials an estimated $30 million, according to the country’s infrastructure ministry.
“The German flotilla has left behind a big ecological disaster that threatens us, people of Prahovo,” Velimir Trajilovic, 74, a pensioner from Prahovo who wrote a book about the German ships, told Reuters.
The exposure of more of the sunken fleet comes after a summer of low water levels and sizzling drought.
The Danube levels near Prahovo are less than half their average for this time of the summer, experts say.
The Hu has premiered the second part of the band’s “Black Thunder” video.
The clip picks up where the first part left off, in the middle of an epic battle. You can watch it streaming now on YouTube.
“The music video is split into two parts and conveys the core values of men through visuals,” says vocalist Gala. “Our producer Dashka chose a unique location in Mongolia to shoot the video, where we had a great time riding the horses in the vast grassland of our countryside. We hope that our pride in our culture shines through, as we aimed to bring viewers joy and a piece of our culture through this video.”
“Black Thunder” appears on The Hu’s upcoming album, Rumble of Thunder, due out September 2. You can catch them on tour alongside Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeth and Fire from the Gods.
Sammy Hagar & The Circle have released a raucous, hard-rocking version of Elvis Costello and the Attractions‘ classic 1978 song “Pump It Up” as the second advance track from their forthcoming studio album, Crazy Times, which is due out September 30.
The song is available now as a digital download and via streaming platforms, while a companion music video has debuted at Hagar’s official YouTube channel.
Explaining how he and his band wound up recording the tune, Hagar notes, “‘Pump It Up’ has been a Circle go-to backstage jam before shows. When we went in the studio with [producer] Dave Cobb, we were jamming it, getting the levels on all the instruments, headphones, mixes, etc. After an hour or so, Cobb said come on in and have a listen. We all looked at each other and said, ‘Wow sounds pretty f***ing good’ and it became our first track we recorded for the album.”
As previously reported, Crazy Times is a 10-song collection that features nine songs either written or co-written by Hagar, plus “Pump It Up.”
The album, which can be preordered now, will be released on CD and via digital formats on September 30, while standard black-vinyl and limited-edition red-vinyl LP versions will follow on October 28.
The album’s title track was previously released as an advance track, along with a companion music video.
Meanwhile, after about a month break from touring, Hagar and the band will return to the road this Sunday with a performance at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield. A new leg of the group’s Crazy Times! Tour with support act George Thorogood and the Destroyers will kick off August 23 in Clarkston, Michigan.
Visit RedRocker.com to check out Hagar’s full schedule.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wayne are taking their love of basketball to the small screen.
The legendary players are joining forces as executive producers on the new documentary The Redeem Team, about the U.S. men’s basketball team that won gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
It follows the team, lead by captain Kobe Bryant and lead scorer Wade, as they became the first U.S. men’s basketball team to win gold at the Olympic Games since 2000. The 2004 team took home bronze after three consecutive years of the U.S. men’s basketball team winning gold.
The 2008 team was named “The Redeem Team,” in reference to the 1992 group that was nicknamed the “Dream Team,” as they were the first gold-winning Olympic team from the U.S. to feature active players from the NBA.
The doc includes interviews with players, including Wade, along with coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“In 2008, I played with heroes of mine, all stars, friends and future teammates. Outside of winning and showing the world that we were still the most dominant, our other big challenge was changing the perception of what everyone thought about the NBA and USA Basketball!” Wade says in a statement. “I’m excited for everyone to get an opportunity to go behind the scenes and see all the work that went into this iconic team — The Redeem Team!”
The documentary is set to be released on Netflix October 7.
(BOSTON) — Online home goods retailer Wayfair is laying off nearly 900 workers worldwide, which amounts to 5% of the company’s workforce, the company said in a memo to employees on Friday. The cuts include about 400 jobs in Boston, where Wayfair is headquartered, the company said.
Wayfair saw business surge during the pandemic, as people stuck at home eschewed brick-and-mortar shopping and increased spending on furniture, home renovations, and other domestic improvements. But the economic environment has turned against the company, as inflation has strained household budgets and limited nonessential purchases.
“We were seeing the tailwinds of the pandemic accelerate the adoption of ecommerce shopping, and I personally pushed hard to hire a strong team to support that growth,” Niraj Shah, the founder and CEO of Wayfair, said in the memo. “This year, that growth has not materialized as we had anticipated.”
Laid-off employees will receive severance based on geography, tenure and level, Wayfair said. The company is offering U.S.-based employees a minimum of 10 weeks pay, as well as continued vesting of existing equity through October, the company added.
Wayfair instituted a hiring freeze in May, signaling that its near-term outlook had changed. In total, the company has 18,000 employees.
In early trading on Friday morning, the company’s stock fell more than 10%.
“We are actively navigating Wayfair towards a level of profitability that will allow us to control our own destiny, while still investing aggressively in the future,” Shah, the CEO of Wayfair, said.
“This macro environment doesn’t change our belief in the size of the opportunity ahead, and we are moving purposefully to seize that opportunity,” he added.
(Note Language) Offset is making his solo return with the Baby Keem-produced track “54321.” He released the song Friday, along with an accompanying music video.
“Fresh to death like I jumped out a casket/Before the COVID-19, we was maskin,” Offset raps on the track, flaunting his wealth. In the visual, he’s seen having the time of his life at an amusement park.
“54321” is Offset’s first solo single and video since releasing 2019’s “Clout” featuring wife Cardi B. He’s preparing for the follow-up to his Father of 4 project, and promises it will be “full of hits” and “smashes.”
“Y’all gonna see how I’m coming. I’m coming crazy in all aspects of rapping,” he said in a recent Instagram post. “I ain’t playing no games. I got sh** for the girls, too. I made sure I touched on some sh** for the girls. …You get that support from the women, it’s gonna go next level.”
Jimmie Allen has long expressed an interest in pursuing acting and now he’s officially making moves in that direction. The singer will co-star in upcoming musical film Be Alright, opposite actor Hayley Orrantia.
Jimmie and Hayley play the lead characters in the musical, which is set in 1960s New York City. According to Variety, production on the film will begin this month at the Warner Bros. lot.
In addition to his acting role, Jimmie has had a hand in several different aspects of the movie, which shares a title with one of the songs on his newly released Tulip Drive album. He also developed the original story line, and will produce and co-direct Be Alright alongside Chris Beyrooty.
The country singer is no stranger to working behind the scenes on a set: Last year, he served as the executive music producer for Netflix series Titletown High.
(NEW YORK) — Since the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, several states have enacted strict abortion bans.
At least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and an additional four states have bans that have been blocked in court and are undergoing legal challenges.
Despite an ABC News/Washington Post poll finding 79% of Americans support making abortion legal in exceptions of rape, only four states with active bans allow for such exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focusing on sexual and reproductive health.
Proponents of anti-abortion bills have argued that a fetus should not be “punished” because of the crime and be allowed a chance to be born, but they are trying to help women find some recourse after suffering through a horrific act.
But abortion rights advocates and experts told ABC News it’s more complicated than that. They say that while such exceptions do help prevent a pregnant person from living through the trauma of giving birth to their rapist’s baby, they say the exceptions may work in theory but not in reality.
They explained some of the language in these laws make it unclear how a provider is supposed to validate a patient’s accusation of rape, or the providers may be scared to act due to fear they will be prosecuted if they act outside the law.
Additionally, they say women may be too scared to come forward when they’ve been raped, or if they do and are required to report the assault to the police, may experience additional trauma by having to relive the crime.
“It’s not whether there’s simply a law that happens to be on the books,” Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, whose expertise includes health law and reproductive rights, told ABC News. “It’s whether the law is more real than illusory. For so many of the exceptions that are being drafted now, what you have is not entirely meaningless but so difficult to navigate that they essentially become kind of a fool’s gold.”
She added, “One can have rights on paper, but they become very useless and lack meaning until they’re placed in practice.”
Of the states with abortion exceptions for rape, three — Georgia, Idaho and Mississippi — require a police report to be filed before requesting an abortion.
Oklahoma also has an abortion ban, HB 4327, signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt in May with exceptions for rape that requires a police report as well. However, the state has passed multiple contradictory abortion bills in the past year including one a month earlier that Stitt signed, which does not have exemptions for rape or incest.
State Rep. Jim Olsen said the exceptions for rape were added because the bill allowed anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion to be sued for up to $10,000 in damages but lawmakers didn’t want the rapist to be allowed to sue.
However, he believes that generally abortion bans should not include exceptions for rape.
“It is not the baby’s fault the circumstances of their conception, if it was something as horrible as that,” he told ABC News. “The baby has the same right to life that you and I have. And again, it’s not the baby’s fault the circumstances of their conception.”
Olsen continued, “Now, rape is a horrible, horrible, horrible crime and somebody needs to be punished for that. But it shouldn’t be the baby. It should be the rapist who gets punished for it.”
Most sexual assaults are not reported
However, most rapes are not reported to the police. In fact, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, two out of every three sexual assaults go unreported.
Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, said there are several reasons why someone might not report their rape – especially if they’re pregnant – including fear of retribution from the rapist [or the person who raped them], fear people won’t believe them or fear of ostracization from their community.
“When you combine the need to report in order to access an abortion, you’re really putting a barrier in place for someone to get the abortion that they need,” she told ABC News.
Goodwin said having to report the assault can be like a second trauma for a victim of rape.
“There is tremendous trauma that can result from being pregnant when one does not wish to be that is only magnified after one has been raped, becomes pregnant, and due to that rape, and then has to go through the interrogation,” she said. “Because, when a person, when a woman, when a child files a report about being raped, it’s not as if someone presents them with a comfortable environment. Instead, questions are asked, and those questions without the proper training and sensitivity can be quite harsh.”
Experts say abortion providers may be unsure how to proceed in exceptions for rape. Although the laws require a police report to be filed, it’s unclear if anything specific needs to be in the report or if the victim needs to take any other steps.
“It’s not entirely clear what all is required or if providers will be able to meet the letter of the law in providing an abortion under the rape exception,” Nash said. “There’s this concern that if a provider tries to meet the requirements of the exception that, in some way, they will fall short and then the state will prosecute them in some way.”
She said these exceptions could potentially dissuade providers from performing abortions under the rape exception for fear of potential prosecution or lead to clinics moving their services across state lines where abortion access is freer.
For example, even though North Dakota’s abortion ban, which includes an exception for rape, is currently blocked in court, the state’s sole abortion clinic — the Red River Women’s Clinic located in Fargo — said it will be providing abortions in Minnesota.
“Abortion is still legal in North Dakota, for now,” the clinic wrote on its website. “However, Red River Women’s Clinic has made the commitment to continue to provide abortion care to our region, so we have moved our services across the river to Moorhead, MN.”
In another example of the inevitable, unceasing passage of time, Shazam is officially 20 years old.
The music-identifying platform first launched in 2002 as a U.K. text message service, which allowed users to text a certain number while holding up their phone to a song playing nearby. It’s since become an ubiquitous app that’ll instantly tell you the name of the song you’re hearing, which, according to a Shazam press release, has been done over 70 billion times.
In celebration of its milestone anniversary, Shazam has put together a number of stats, including the most Shazamed song of all time. That would be Tones and I‘s “Dance Monkey,” which has been Shazamed over 41 million times.
Drake is the most Shazamed artist overall, having been Shazamed over 350 million times.
Meanwhile, Gnarls Barkley‘s hit “Crazy” holds the record for most Shazams by text, while the Gotye and Kimbra sensation “Somebody That I Used to Know” was the first song to reach 10 million Shazams.
As for the first song to ever be Shazamed, that was “Jeepster” by T. Rex, which happened using the pre-launch public beta version.
(NAPA VALLEY, CA) — Famed California restaurant Goose & Gander has apologized to South African musician Jonathan Kenneth Butler after an incident over the weekend in which a manager followed the singer-songwriter to his car to inquire about a tip.
Butler accepted the apology, according to the restaurant, citing wisdom from the late anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela in his conversation with the owner.
Butler was in Napa Valley on Sunday to perform two shows at the Charles Krug Winery’s Blue Note jazz club. The singer-songwriter ate at Goose & Gander that same day and said that after the meal he was followed to his car by a manager who pressed him to see if Butler had “taken care” of the wait staff who served him.
In a nearly five minute video posted to TikTok and Instagram, Butler discussed the incident and why he believed he was racially profiled.
“I’m deeply offended. This stuff has to stop. We should all be treated with decency and humanity,” he said alongside the post in the caption.
Butler stated in the video that he had paid the bill and had tipped his server “very well.”
“[The manager] showed so much lack of respect for me and all of us who ate at the restaurant,” he added. “I don’t think he’ll do that to a white person, but he did it to me.”
Goose & Gander published an initial apology on Monday, stating that the incident “should never have happened” and that the manager in question had been placed on leave.
In a follow-up on Wednesday, the restaurant again apologized to Butler in a joint Instagram post with the musician, adding that the two parties had since spoken about the incident.
“Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Butler and [Goose & Gander owner Andy] Florsheim had a heartfelt, 30-minute discussion about the situation and a path forward,” a statement on the restaurant’s official Instagram page read. “Mr. Butler accepted Goose & Gander’s apology.”
“We agree that the incident never should have happened and that an important opportunity exists for the restaurant to learn and improve,” it continued. “Mr. Butler believes in reconciliation and not confrontation and cited Nelson Mandela, ‘Forgiveness liberates the soul, it removes fear. That’s why it’s such a powerful weapon.'”
“Mr. Butler will be back in the Napa Valley before the end of the year, we look forward to continuing our productive discussion in person,” the statement concluded.
According to the restaurant, the manager involved in Sunday’s incident, as well as the rest of Goose & Gander’s staff, will be working with “outside advisors with expertise in workplace sensitivity training” to prevent similar incidents in the future.
