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Associated Press
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Music Review: The National singer Matt Berninger's 'Get Sunk' can't swim solo. It doesn't need to
Matt Berninger's brooding, droning baritone is difficult to separate from The National. His second solo album, 'Get Sunk,' doesn't diverge much from the alt-rock band he's fronted for more than a quarter-century. And why should it? The National's sad-dad brand exists in the bittersweet spot between Berninger's complex lyrics and a melodic versatility. And 'Get Sunk' sounds more like an extension of the band's catalog than a self-serving experiment for a restless songwriter. It works on both levels — with the album's familiar, upbeat electric guitar-escapes. But when compared to his band's repertoire, 'Get Sunk' runs out of steam. Even with his consistently clever lyrics, a couple of lethargic songs can drag down a 10-track lineup. The record arrives a few years after a struggle with pandemic-driven depression, as he detailed in an interview with David Letterman. Berninger was hit by a bad case of writer's block after his first solo record, 'Serpentine Prison,' came out in 2020. The National's release of two new albums five months apart in 2023, after a four-year hiatus, helped thaw some of Berninger's frozen creativity. His family moved from California to Connecticut that year, too, further aiding his reset; he began reading and painting in the fresh air. On 'Get Sunk,' the third track, 'Bonnet of Pins,' brings a hard edge, evoking the band's 'The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness' record from 2017. 'Get Sunk' producer Sean O'Brien cranks on the guitar. Drummer Sterling Laws does his best impression of The National stalwart Bryan Devendorf. Julia Laws, whose indie rock band Ronboy has been touring with Berninger, sings backup on this smoky, stressful encounter with an ex-lover. 'It's a cup trick shell game, it's a puff of smoke/And it gets me every time, it's a pretty good joke,' Berninger sings. 'I know that you miss me, I know that you miss me/This stuff takes a lifetime.' With the infectious opener 'Inland Ocean' bursting with a reverbed guitar that pulsates throughout the song, 'Get Sunk' gets revved up right away. Even on the downbeat 'Nowhere Special,' Berninger is at his songwriting best ambling through a rant about an on-again, off-again relationship: 'A bat can haul our recording equipment into the woods/I know we shouldn't but I feel like we should.' The closer, 'Times of Difficulty,' is tailor-made for a live-show singalong with the chant 'Get drunk! Get sunk! Forget! Get wet!' that marks Berninger's search for clarity and creativity. Much like The National's 2019 album 'I Am Easy to Find,' which brought in several women to pair vocals with his gravelly baritone, 'Get Sunk' follows suit. Laws sings on eight of the 10 tracks, and Meg Duffy of the band Hand Habits joins Berninger on the sentimental 'Frozen Oranges.' The sleepiness of 'Frozen Oranges' is also the first warning there's just not enough energy to cover a whole album, not quite enough strength for 'Get Sunk' to swim on its own. Berninger will be forever intertwined with The National, a connection there's no need to undo. ___ For more AP reviews of recent music releases, visit:
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UPS confirms building closures, shift cuts in 4 states
This story was originally published on Supply Chain Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Supply Chain Dive newsletter. UPS is closing five facilities in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, plus a sortation shift at an Ohio building, in the coming months as part of its sweeping network overhaul. The following locations will shutter or see operations reduced due to the company's "Network Reconfiguration" initiative, spokesperson Karen Tomaszewski Hill confirmed in an email to Supply Chain Dive: Location Result Closing date Employees impacted 2006 River Road, New Kensington, Pennsylvania Building closure May 10 Unknown 2129 Rockdale Lane, Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Building closure May 16 Unknown 647 Summer St., Boston, Massachusetts Building closure May 23 62 20 N. Star Rd., Holmen, Wisconsin Building closure June 10 42 1821 South 19th St., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Building closure June 20 Unknown 17940 Englewood Dr., Middleburg Heights, Ohio Day sortation shift closure July 1 98 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letters filed for the Wisconsin and Ohio facilities said the bulk of employees impacted at those locations work part time, with bumping rights in effect for workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The union's general president, Sean O'Brien, warned in a statement last week that if any planned job cuts 'attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.' UPS is working to place as many affected employees as possible in other positions, according to Hill. More closures could be revealed in the coming weeks, as UPS is planning to shutter 73 facilities by June's end and cut roughly 20,000 positions this year. The cuts are part of the carrier's efforts to match its U.S. network's capacity with expected volume declines. UPS is reducing the amount of volume it delivers for Amazon, its largest customer, by June 2026. UPS is helping its largest customers adjust their operating plans to mitigate any disruptions from the building closures while encouraging smaller shippers to use alternative drop off points, CEO Carol Tomé said during an earnings call last week. 'While this may be the largest network reconfiguration in our history, we've got experience that gives us confidence that we will be able to complete our plan with very little customer disruption and at the right cost to serve,' Tomé said on the call. Recommended Reading UPS plans 20K job cuts this year as Amazon pullback advances Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Leinster rugby needs to find a fresh approach to break its losing streak
The television camera zoomed in. Jack Conan, Leinster 's acting captain, stared at the touchline and then cupped his ears, presumably to indicate that he couldn't hear the instruction. Assistant coach Sean O'Brien, standing near the touchline, seemed to be the messenger; the communication − based on outcome − was to go for broke. Leinster trailed the Northampton Saints 37-34 with four minutes to play in last weekend's Champions Cup semi-final at the Aviva Stadium. The gamble was to stick and take the three points on offer, hoping that fate would subsequently deal you a better hand; or twist, as Leinster did, and go for the corner in the hope of securing a match-winning score. Players taking instruction or direction from the coaching group is not a new phenomenon; the most innovative example was the traffic light system famously employed by the Springboks during their 2023 World Cup-winning campaign, retaining the title they won four years earlier. Leinster's detractors have gleefully tossed disparaging labels in the direction of the province − who are having a four-years-and-counting run without a trophy. It's been seven years since their last European title; the 'three Ps' – population size, purse strings and private schools – are brickbats used against them. READ MORE Without delving into the minutiae of each of those seven European defeats − four finals, two semi-finals and a quarter-final − there were several notable differences in the manner of the losses, from being outplayed and physically squeezed by Saracens (twice) and La Rochelle to frittering away a 17-0 lead at the Aviva Stadium (La Rochelle). Toulouse completely outplayed them for large tranches of the 2024 final, yet Leinster stuck in the game doggedly and came within a coat of paint of winning the game with a drop goal, before succumbing in extra time. If the Irish province had the same group of players and same coaches during that 'dry spell', then some of the jibes might find fertile ground. Leinster changed just three players from the starting team that won the 2018 final against Racing 92 in Bilbao to the run-on side that lost to Saracens 20-10 the following year. James Lowe replaced captain Isa Nacewa on the left wing while Seán O'Brien and Jack Conan took over from Dan Leavy and Jordi Murphy. From the last winning Leinster team in 2018 through to the side that lost to Northampton Saints last weekend, the Irish province has used 53 different players in those specific games. Robbie Henshaw is the only one who was in the run-on team in all eight of those matches: the win over Racing 92 and the seven subsequent losses. Leinster's Robbie Henshaw dejected after the defeat to Northampton Saints. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho There were a cumulative 38 changes made to Leinster match day 23s from 2019 through to this season, at an average of 5.4 per match, the most in 2020 with nine alterations and the fewest in the 2023 defeat to La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium with just two, Jason Jenkins and Charlie Ngatai, from the previous year. So, if there was a substantial shift in playing personnel, what about coaches? During the period under discussion Leo Cullen has recruited some of the brightest minds in the global game with a track record of success as well as promoting several former Ireland internationals to the coaching staff. [ Leinster must learn from humbling lesson and go on to win URC title Opens in new window ] Girvan Dempsey, Felipe Contepomi, Stuart Lancaster, John Fogarty, Hugh Hogan, Emmet Farrell, Denis Leamy, Seán O'Brien, Robin McBryde, Andrew Goodman, Jacques Nienaber and Tyler Bleyendaal have helped to oversee the evolution of the playing style and in several cases continue to do so. The bedding-in period in the coaching turnover for tweaking style and substance wasn't instantaneous but despite that Leinster still contested four Champions Cup finals. Cullen and Leinster couldn't be accused of resting on their laurels when it came to soliciting fresh ideas, bringing in top international talent and easing through some of the best young prospects in the province. Leinster's failure in the URC since 2021 is less easy to fob off. Prioritising Europe is all fine and dandy, but it can't excuse a second-hand mentality when it comes to the league. Good teams win trophies; great ones do so regularly. Connacht's Mack Hansen and Wame Naituvi of Racing during their Challenge Cup quarter-final match at Dexcom Stadium, Galway, on April 12th. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho If it wasn't the same players and coaches that presided over the losing streak, then some of the fault lines lie elsewhere; so too a solution – or, at the very least, a discussion point. Leinster and indeed all Irish teams are fairly prescribed in the way that they set up, players able to assimilate large swathes of detail around shape in attack and defence. They're very system-orientated and when you look at the players that provide an individual creative spark, for both province and Ireland, they invariably come from the southern hemisphere: Jamison Gibson-Park, James Lowe, Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen are current examples. It's no surprise that all four are heading for Australia with the Lions. The elite end of the schools' game – and they do a brilliant job in many respects – borrows heavily from the professional game, resembling mini-academies, from employing former pros in some cases as directors of rugby to creating an environment that subscribes to all the trappings from training, nutrition and video analysis through to matches, where the system is king. That can sometimes stifle individual expression in favour of the team collective. Striking that balance in encouraging players to think for themselves and putting a game framework around that can be challenging. Player homogenisation is not the goal. Young boys and girls should be given the skills sets to thrive irrespective of what level of rugby they go on to play, to be challenged mentally as well as physically, encouraged to play without fear, to colour outside the lines of the playbook or patterns and to understand and embrace opportunity in the knowledge that their team-mates are attuned to a similar thought process. Children playing rugby in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2017. Photograph:That's the environment that nurtures creativity and flair, one that encourages players to have the courage and self-possession to take responsibility, to manage the game on the pitch rather than look to the stands for direction. That freedom of thought and expression can't just be activated at a professional level. Those instincts have to be nurtured from a young age in club and/or school, as they are in France, Fiji and New Zealand to offer a small sample set. This season Leinster players to a man have spoken about how Bleyendaal in his first season as attack coach has encouraged them to play heads-up rugby, something that is increasingly visible in matches. It is the way forward to greater player autonomy in matches. Giving players who have come through a system-based culture that freedom will be like trying to mix oil and water initially. It's worth persisting with it, though, and also recognising that the process is built from the ground up, so an obvious starting point is childhood, when minds are open and receptive. There's far more at stake than questioning last Saturday's endgame politics. It's time to recognise a fresh approach, in not only trying to break a losing streak in Leinster's case, but on a broader scale – to futureproof the sport in Ireland by making it more appealing to the most important constituents: those that play. The system should represent the easel holding in place a canvas for the players.
Fox News
07-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Teamsters boss praises Trump foreign film tariff, condemns Hollywood's 'un-American addiction to outsourcing'
Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien and Teamsters Motion Picture Division Director Lindsay Dougherty praised President Donald Trump's call to place a 100% tariff on films produced in other countries. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump wrote that the "Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death." He went on to warn, "Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States," and that, "Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated." Trump added that plans to institute a tariff are in the works, and he authorized the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative "to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands." The two representatives of the Teamsters union praised Trump for this in a statement, saying, "For years, Hollywood studios have hollowed out the industry by following Corporate America's crooked playbook of outsourcing good union jobs. Studios chase cheap production costs overseas while gutting the American workforce that built the film and TV industry." NEWSOM PROPOSES TO WORK WITH TRUMP TO 'MAKE AMERICA FILM AGAIN,' FLOATS $7.5B FEDERAL TAX CREDIT "These gigantic corporations line their pockets by recklessly cutting corners, abandoning American crews, and exploiting tax loopholes abroad," the statement added. "While these companies get rich fleeing to other countries and gaming the system, our members have gotten screwed over. The Teamsters Union has been sounding the alarm for years. If studios want to benefit from American box offices, they must invest in American workers. The statement included an explicit statement of praise for Trump himself, declaring, "We thank President Trump for boldly supporting good union jobs when others have turned their heads. This is a strong step toward finally reining in the studios' un-American addiction to outsourcing our members' work." The union clarified that they are willing to praise representatives of any party for embracing such an agenda. "The Teamsters applaud any elected official — Republican, Democrat, Independent — who's willing to fight for American workers," the statement read. "We look forward to continuing to work with the administration to build a trade agenda that benefits our members and workers throughout the American motion picture and TV industry." It concluded, "It's time to create good film jobs here at home by bringing production back to America." WHOOPI GOLDBERG LASHES OUT AT TRUMP'S HOLLYWOOD TARIFFS O'Brien spoke about the union's statement on Fox News' "America Reports" Tuesday, reaffirming his support for Trump's policy. He argued that America has the most creative workforce and actors, but shredded Hollywood leaders for being more focused on "the bottom line of a balance sheet" than creativity. At one point in the interview, Fox News host John Roberts asked the union boss what he thinks about how Democrats are "demonizing" the president. O'Brien suggested that the Democratic Party is reflexively against anything Trump wants. "I think I've said this before, whatever President Trump does, even if it's good for this country, just because his name is Trump, he's not gonna get the support," O'Brien said of the Democratic Party. "We are looking beyond any differences of opinions that we have had with anybody." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "We want to bring manufacturing back to the country. We want to bring jobs, put people to work at, have a career path. Not everybody has the ability to go to a 4-year college. There is an ability to bring manufacturing back, put people to work, have careers and live a middle-class life. I think regardless of whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or an Independent, we should be realists and want to encourage people to develop and manufacture in this country," he concluded. Fox News' Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
Wall Street Journal
06-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
A Lesson in the UPS Layoffs
A UPS delivery truck in Mount Lebanon, Pa., Sept. 21, 2021. Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press Your May 1 editorial 'Sean O'Brien and the UPS Layoffs' rightly notes that rich labor contracts can boomerang on the workers they're supposed to help. My new research with Revana Sharfuddin shows the problem isn't unique to United Parcel Service—it's systemic. Three decades of U.S. and European experience and 147 empirical studies demonstrate that when a union wields monopoly power to extract large, across-the-board wage hikes, employment growth slows, capital and R&D spending fall and the odds of future layoffs increase. Such dynamics account for more than half of the Rust Belt's manufacturing job losses between 1950 and 2000.
