Arts, Entertainment, Culture

The author has said that fans told him that the coronavirus pandemic feels "like we're living in a Stephen King story" and said his "only response to that is, 'I'm sorry'". Having covered the topic of a global pandemic in his book "The Stand" from 1978 the author added, "that sooner or later, there was going to be a virus that was going to communicate to the public at large".

The actress Honor Blackman, best known for playing the Bond girl 'Pussy Galore', has died at age 94 from causes unrelated to coronavirus. Blackman had an acting career spanning for over eighty years. Famous for her parts in 'The Avengers' and the Bond film 'Goldfinger', she was also known for playing the goddess Hera in 'Jason and the Argonauts' as well as Laura West in the 1990s sitcom 'The Upper Hand'. She appeared in theatrical productions of 'The Sound of Music', 'My Fair Lady' and 'Cabaret'.

After being forced to close the cinema following the spread of the coronavirus, the EVO Entertainment Group decided to repurpose the parking lot into a drive-in cinema. Every evening people can drive up and park in the theater parking lot to enjoy a movie screening for free. The cinema itself sells food from the kitchen and sofar all screenings have been booked out. The CEO of the company, Mitchell Roberts stated that it "is a difficult time for everyone, so we’ve made it our goal to find a way to spread positivity within our community while sharing in the responsibility of social distancing during the crisis".

Announcing a "National Emergency Library" the non-profit organization Internat Archive makes 1.4 million books online for free. The organization stated that the measure was taken in order to provide "a global community of displaced learners" with access to learning materials. The collection mainly contains digitalized books that don't have an ebook version available.

With the last release of an album containing original songs dating back to 2012, Bob Dylan has released a new original song. The work is 17-minutes long and retells the assassination of the American president John F. Kennedy.

The foundation has announced that the money will go to different initiatives and groups in order to "to immediately mobilize a broad response working with on-the-ground partners". The goal is to support food banks, the acceleration of testing, to buy protective equipment and other measurements. The foundation is distributing the money to multiple countries including the United States, Haiti and Malawi.

Albert Uderzo, the illustrator behind the french comic Astérix le Gaulois (Astérix​ and Obelix) has died in his sleep after suffering a heart attack on March, 24th. He passed away at his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. His son-in-law, Bernard de Choisy stated, that Uderzo's death was unrelated to the coronavirus.

According to Reuters, H&M has agreed to supply the EU with protective gear for hospitals with an emphasis on face masks. After an initial offer by H&M the company and EU representatives had agreed on using the companies global network of suppliers, mainly located in China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, to curb the evergrowing demand after protective gear for hospitals. This will in the initial phase come in the form of a donation by the company. Inditex, owner of the brand Zara and a main competitor of H&M, had before made a similiar offer to the country of Spain.