These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER | BECOME A SUPPORTER ON PATREON
The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
OIL PLUNGES BELOW ZERO FOR FIRST TIME IN UNPRECEDENTED WIPEOUT
The price on the futures contract for West Texas crude that is due to expire Tuesday fell into negative territory — minus $37.63 a barrel. The reason: with the pandemic bringing the economy to a standstill, there is so much unused oil sloshing around that American energy companies have run out of room to store it. And if there’s no place to put the oil, no one wants a crude contract that is about to come due. Underscoring just how acute the concern is over the lack of immediate storage space, the price on the futures contract due a month later settled at $20.43 per barrel. That gap between the two contracts is by far the biggest ever. Since the start of the year, oil prices have plunged after the compounding impacts of the coronavirus and a breakdown in the original OPEC+ agreement. With no end in sight, and producers around the world continuing to pump, that’s causing a fire-sale among traders who don’t have access to storage.
COMMENTARY: Low gas prices seem like a dream, but with nowhere to go and real people depending on oil to make a living, its quickly tuning into a nightmare. [SOURCE: bloomberg.com]
DEREK JETER FORGOING SALARY INDEFINITELY, OTHER MARLINS EXECS TAKING PAY CUTS
Marlins CEO Derek Jeter is forgoing his salary on an indefinite basis, SportsGrid’s Craig Mish reports (on Twitter). Other high-ranking Marlins executives have also taken pay cuts as the organization continues to evaluate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional cost-cutting measures that the Marlins’ executive and ownership club may take aren’t clear, but the cuts among some of the team’s brass will surely aid in avoiding layoffs and furloughs elsewhere in the organization. The news comes at a time when Major League Baseball is reportedly set to announce that clubs can begin to furlough or cut pay of non-playing personnel (e.g. coaches, scouts, executives). In late March, all 30 teams agreed to pay non-player employees through the end of April. MLB teams have also pledged $1M apiece to help cover lost wages for gameday/park employees during the shutdown. Some teams have taken further steps to help cover those part-time wages.
Commentary: Derek Jeter has always been labled as a great guy asa player, and an even greater guy as a boss. Whether this was his idea or not, this gesture is a good one. We hope it works. [SOURCE: msn.com]
CORONAVIRUS: NICK CORDERO HAD HIS LEG AMPUTATED
Nick Cordero’s wife is keeping positive, saying she’ll dance again with the Broadway star, despite her husband having his leg amputated due to complications of the coronavirus. On Saturday, Amanda Kloots shared with fans that Cordero made it through surgery to have his right leg amputated. Kloots shared a sweet new video to Instagram on Sunday showing the couple dancing at their wedding. She captioned the clip, “Part of our wedding dance that our friends @swaywithmeny choreographed for us. I love dancing with you @nickcordero1 and we WILL dance again!” The same day, Kloots told followers more about her husband’s recovery: “Okay I just heard from the doctor and he’s doing good guys — for Nick, he is doing the best that he possibly can right now, which is a huge hallelujah.”
COMMENTARY: Yes, the famous have their names shared easier than the non-famous. But all the tragedies are equal. Let’s remember that. [SOURCE: usatoday.com]
‘GOOD MORNING AMERICA’ GETS FIRST MEGHAN MARKLE INTERVIEW SINCE MEGXIT
Meghan Markle will talk with Good Morning America on Monday, marking her first television interview since she and Prince Harry split from the royal family. The subject? Elephant, the Disney documentary film that she narrated. Markle and Harry have been seen recently delivering food to Los Angeles shut-ins for the Project Angel Food charity. The couple recently relocated to Los Angeles and reportedly are living in Malibu while searching for a permanent home and establishing their new business endeavors. The ABC morning show is promoting Markle as a special guest for Monday’s show, as a voiceover says she’ll offer “an exclusive first look” at the documentary. Hard-hitting questions on their Megxit decision and President Trump’s recent vow not to provide taxpayer paid security are likely off the table.
COMMENTARY: You react strongly to news about Meghan Markle. And you we’re not very cheerful in the reaction to this story as posted. Remember, we aggregate and comment, we don’t write the stories. [SOURCE: msn.com]
BLUE IVY’S HAND WASHING PSA WINS THE INTERNET
Step aside, Dr. Fauci! Fans are facetiously calling for Beyonce and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy Carter to start giving daily COVID-19 briefings after the 8-year-old perfectly demonstrated why washing your hands was important. JAY-Z, Blue Ivy Carter posing for the camera: JAY-Z, Blue Ivy Carter and Beyonce attend the 60th Annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Jan. 28, 2018.© Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for NARAS JAY-Z, Blue Ivy Carter and Beyonce attend the 60th Annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Jan. 28, 2018. The PSA video, posted to grandma Tina Knowles-Lawson’s Instagram page, showed Blue using soap, pepper and science to prove her point. In her experiment, Blue showed a container to the overhead camera, noting that it contains a mixture of different soaps. She then pointed to a plate that appears dirty, but it’s actually a plate covered in a typical household condiment and water. Blue proceeds to swirl her finger around the soap container and sticks that finger in the middle of the pepper-water plate. As she does this, the pepper is immediately repelled and moves to the edge of the plate, getting as far from her soapy finger as possible. The experiment is one that’s been taught in schools for years, but fans loved Blue Ivy’s demonstration and straight-forward, non-political message.
Commentary: The sooner we all come to terms that we are all just toys in Blue Ivy Carter’s toybox, the better we will all be for it. [SOURCE: msn.com]
PATRIOTS ‘HOPE’ TO BRING BACK ‘PAT PATRIOT’ THROWBACK JERSEYS IN FUTURE
Sorry, old school Patriots fans. Despite debuting a new look, New England is not bringing back their original red “Pat Patriot” jerseys … yet. The Patriots hinted in a statement Monday that they could bring those jerseys back as alternates if the NFL lifts its one helmet rule. The NFL forbids teams from using different colored helmets in a single season. The league has discussed changing the rule for next season, however. So, in 2020, the Patriots will wear updated primary uniforms, but those red jerseys with white helmets and pants could make a return if the NFL abides in 2021.
COMMENTARY: First they lose Tom Brady. Them, the hopes of the return of a beloved symbol is pulled away like Lucy pulling up a football. Irony? [SOURCE: nesn.com]
PUTIN WARNS RUSSIA’S CORONAVIRUS CRISIS YET TO PEAK AS CASES SURPASS 47,000
President Vladimir Putin said Russia had managed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus but warned the peak of the outbreak still lay ahead after the number of confirmed infections surged past 47,000 nationwide on Monday. Russia reported 4,268 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday, down from more than 6,000 the day before. Forty-four people died overnight, bringing the death toll to 405, Russia’s coronavirus task force said. Russia’s new coronavirus infections have risen quickly in April even as Moscow and an array of Russian regions have imposed lockdown restrictions now already three weeks old. But despite the clampdown, infections have spread from Russia’s worst-hit area in Moscow and penetrated all of its more than 80 regions, Putin said at a televised meeting with officials and health experts on Monday.
COMMENTARY: We never know what to trust when it comes to information coming from Putin, but we know COVID-19 is a bad thing and wreaks havoc despite the preparation you make for it. [SOURCE: news.yahoo.com]
SHAKE SHACK RETURNING $10 MILLION GOVERNMENT LOAN MEANT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Shake Shack, one of several large restaurant chains that got federal loans through the coronavirus stimulus law meant to help small businesses, said Sunday night that it is giving all $10 million back. The New York-based burger company is among more than a dozen companies with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions that are reported to have received money from the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. The loan program set aside $349 billion in the stimulus law called the CARES Act to help small businesses keep their workers on the payroll. Less than two weeks after it started, the program has already run out of money. In a statement Sunday night on LinkedIn, Danny Meyer, Shake Shack’s founder and CEO of its parent company, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Randy Garutti, Shake Shack’s CEO, said the company pursued the loan because the law stipulated that it was open to any restaurant location with no more than 500 employees — which describes Shake Shack’s 189 individual U.S. restaurants.
COMMENTARY: It was legal, but was it right? Many larger companies had an advantage of good lawyers with good connections, and they took advantage of a game no one took the time to explain the rules to. [SOURCE: nbcnews.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
To ‘participate’ in the rankings of the headlines for this newsletter or the podcast, follow the Conversation Project on social media and engage with the posts to give them more ‘votes.’ The Conversation Project can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Connect with us directly by emailing us at theconversationinbox@gmail.com or by simply visiting thisistheconversation.com.
