Some artists don’t just sing—they elevate their craft by seamlessly blending incredible vocal talent with jaw-dropping dance moves, captivating audiences with every performance.
These performers have mastered the art of combining music and movement, creating electrifying shows that leave a lasting impression.
Here are five artists who excel at both, bringing an unmatched energy to the stage:
Chris Brown
Chris Brown is the definition of a powerhouse performer. His ability to combine smooth R&B vocals with high-energy dance moves, including moonwalk-inspired slides and breakdancing, has earned him a reputation as one of the greatest entertainers of his generation. Tracks like “Loyal” and “Yeah 3x” highlight his talent for effortlessly blending song and dance.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé reigns as one of the most well-rounded performers in the world. From the iconic “Single Ladies” routine to her high-energy Super Bowl performances, she delivers a flawless combination of powerful vocals and intricate dance routines.
Her impeccable breath control and stage presence make her a force to be reckoned with, solidifying her place as a global superstar.
Usher
Usher has kept audiences captivated for decades with his smooth voice and signature dance moves. Whether gliding across the stage in “Yeah!” or showcasing sharp choreography in “U Got It Bad,” Usher proves that being an entertainer means creating a complete performance. His mix of powerful vocals and dance continues to set him apart.
Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson paved the way for future stars by blending flawless vocals with complex choreography. From the energizing “Rhythm Nation” routines to the sultry movements in “That’s the Way Love Goes,” Janet’s innovative performances set new standards in the industry.
Her ability to combine singing and dancing effortlessly has made her one of the greatest performers of all time.
Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars brings a unique fusion of old-school funk and modern showmanship. Known for his James Brown-inspired footwork, Bruno’s performances are an exciting mix of smooth spins and powerhouse vocals.
With hits like “Uptown Funk” and “24K Magic,” he has proven that he is a versatile performer who can deliver both vocally and through electrifying dance.
These artists show that the best performances aren’t just about singing—they’re about creating an unforgettable experience by blending vocal mastery with stunning dance moves.
BeatKing, the renowned American rapper and music producer, has passed away at the age of 39.
His manager, Tasha Felder, announced the news on Instagram on August 15, 2024, but did not disclose the cause of death.
Tasha shared a heartfelt tribute: “Today, August 15, 2024, we mourn the loss of BeatKing. For over a decade, he has been a defining force in the club scene.
His influence through his music and collaborations with artists like Ludacris, 2 Chainz, and Juicy J will continue to resonate.
He cherished his music, his daughters, and his fans deeply. His legacy will endure.”
BeatKing was a major figure in Southern hip-hop and a key player in Houston’s vibrant music scene.
He leaves behind his two daughters and his partner, Talameshia.
The AI software needs to be patented and meet certain security standards. It should also be used in at least 30 states and be able to detect different types of guns with a lot of detail.
Only one company meets all the requirements: the company that told Kansas lawmakers about them. That company, ZeroEyes, is a fast-growing business started by military veterans after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
The law that is waiting for the Kansas Governor to decide on. Laura Kelly points out two things. Following many well-known shootings, making schools safer has become a very expensive business worth billions of dollars. In some state capitols, certain companies are convincing lawmakers to make their own business ideas into state laws.
ZeroEyes is the only company allowed to do weapons detection for state programs in Michigan and Utah, and for new laws in Florida and Iowa, and proposed laws in Colorado, Louisiana and Wisconsin.
“We don’t give money to lawmakers to include us in their laws,” explained Sam Alaimo, who is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of ZeroEyes. “If they are doing that, it means I believe they are doing their homework and making sure they are choosing a good technology. ”
ZeroEyes uses smart technology with security cameras to find guns that can be seen, and then sends a warning to a team of former police and military members who are always ready to respond. If ZeroEyes staff confirm it’s a real danger, they will send a warning to the school and local police.
Alaimo said the aim is to “take the gun before it’s fired or before it reaches the door. ”
Not many people doubt the technology. But some people wonder about the way laws are made.
The Kansas bill is very strict and requires a company to sell its product in at least 30 states. Jason Stoddard, who works on school safety and security in Maryland, said it’s the worst thing he’s ever seen in a law.
Stoddard is leading a group called the National Council of School Safety Directors. They want to make rules for school safety officials and stop companies from trying to sell their products to lawmakers.
When states spend a lot of money on certain things for schools, there is not enough money for other important safety things like locks on doors, strong windows, communication systems, and security staff.
Stoddard said that the weapons detection driven by artificial intelligence is really great. “But it’s likely not the main thing that 95 percent of schools in the United States need at the moment. ”
Some states are creating programs to give money to help pay for expensive technology. In Florida, the cost of putting ZeroEyes technology in schools in two counties was about $929,000.
Other companies also use surveillance systems that use artificial intelligence to find guns, not just ZeroEyes. One company, Omnilert, changed its focus from emergency alerts to detecting guns a few years ago. They have monitoring centers that work all the time to quickly check for guns using AI and notify local officials if they find any.
Omnilert does not have a patent for its technology yet. The US Department of Homeland Security has not declared it as a technology that helps to stop terrorism under a law from 2002 that protects companies from being sued. It has been requested for both.
Omnilert is used in many schools, but its products are not available in 30 states, according to Mark Franken, who is the vice president of marketing for Omnilert. However, he mentioned that this should not prevent his company from receiving state grants.
Franken has asked the Kansas governor to remove specific criteria from a law, because he thinks it makes it hard for businesses to compete.
In Iowa, a law was changed to give companies more time to get permission from the government to use their weapons detection software in schools. They now have until July 1, 2025. Democratic state Representative Ross Wilburn said that the designation was meant to encourage companies to create new technology.
“It was not made to help or favor any specific company,” Wilburn said during the House discussion.
In February, the chief strategy officer of ZeroEyes talked about their technology to the House K-12 Education Budget Committee in Kansas. The event showed how their AI can detect guns and there were many real pictures of guns found at schools, parking lots and transit stations. The presentation also mentioned that police arrested around twelve people last year because of ZeroEyes alerts.
Kansas state Representative Adam Thomas, who is a member of the Republican party, first suggested adding ZeroEyes to the funding bill by name. The last version took out the name of the company but still kept the rules that only apply to ZeroEyes.
Kristey Williams, a Republican who is in charge of the House K-12 Budget Committee, strongly supported that rule. During a meeting with senators she said that student safety is important and the state can’t wait for a long bidding process. She also praised the company’s technology as special.
“We didn’t think there was any other choice,” Williams said last month.
The $5 million money given may not be enough for all schools, but Thomas thinks it could increase later if ZeroEyes technology works well.
“I hope it works like we saw and stops gun violence in schools,” Thomas said. “I want it to be in every school. “
Grammy-nominated artist Davido, also known as David Adeleke, recently shared his top three favorite collaborators on the American podcast “Business Untitled.”
His picks include Chris Brown, Kizz Daniel, and Zlatan Ibile, citing their excellent synergy in music.
During the podcast, Davido also revealed staggering earnings from his performances.
He disclosed making $1.3 million from a concert at Madison Square Garden and an additional $600,000 from a single social media post.
Reflecting on his philanthropy, he mentioned donating a substantial sum earned from his fans on his 2021 birthday to charity, showcasing his commitment beyond music.
American musician and fashion icon, Rihanna, 36, recently shared her thoughts on her past fashion choices, expressing some regrets given her role as a mother of two.
In an interview with British Vogue at the Tobacco Dock launch of Fenty X Puma’s new brown creeper shoe, the pop star revealed that certain daring outfits from her “wild past” are now viewed differently through the lens of motherhood.
The singer, who is currently raising two sons, RZA Athelston Mayers and Riot Rose Mayers, with her partner A$AP Rocky, admitted that there are things she “would’ve never worn” as a mom.
She specifically mentioned going topless in public and letting her “panties be out” at red carpet events as choices she now regrets.
Reflecting on her evolution, Rihanna acknowledged, “It’s going to sound hypocritical because I did so much s**t in my life, I had my nipples out, I had my panties out.”
However, she emphasised that as she has grown as a mother and a person, certain fashion decisions from her past no longer align with her values.
“It’s just things that I feel I would never do, or I’m just like ‘oh my god, I really did that? Nips out?’” she confessed, highlighting the shift in perspective that parenthood has brought to her life.
American musician and fashion icon Rihanna, in a recent interview with the BBC, expressed her joy at rediscovering fashionable attire after embracing motherhood with the birth of her two children.
The Grammy-winning singer shared that following the arrival of her second son last year, she had become “too comfortable” wearing pyjamas and sweats.
Speaking at the launch of her latest collaboration with Puma in London, Rihanna emphasised the significance of dressing up, describing it as empowering for women.
“With the first pregnancy, I feel like I was able to wear heels all the way through,” she said.
“But then with the second pregnancy, you have a toddler, a belly, it’s winter, you have a coat, a baby bag. You’re like, heels? Hmm, maybe not. That’s why I got a little bit more creative with my comfortable style.
“And then I got too comfortable after I had my second kid and I just was in robes, PJs, sweats.”
She spoke candidly about the challenges of balancing style with motherhood, mentioning how priorities shift but reclaiming fashion brings about a personal “rediscovery.”
“And now I’m playing again. Now I’m having fun with my clothes.”
The star attended the London launch on Wednesday, days after being spotted at the Coachella festival in California.
Returning to the spotlight and thinking about fashion again has given her “a rediscovery” and the licence “to even allow myself that space mentally to approach my closet and create stuff”, she said.
The artist, who welcomed her sons with rapper A$AP Rocky, recounted her journey from confidently wearing heels throughout her first pregnancy to adapting her style creatively during her second.
After a while when you have kids, you think, this is the dumbest [stuff], the least important. It really is the least important thing.
“But it does something for you as a woman, and as a mum that’s important for us.”
The star was praised for rewriting the rules for fashion when she was pregnant, refusing to wear conventional maternity clothes.
“I approached it like everything else I approach in fashion,” she told BBC News. “I just want to do things my way. I just want to always stitch it up and put my own twist on it.
“But I just refused to buy maternity clothes, really and truly. I was like, whatever fits was what’s going to work. And that made me challenge myself to get clever with style.”
Rihanna’s approach to maternity fashion, eschewing traditional choices and opting for outfits that resonated with her style, received praise and acknowledgment for challenging norms. Despite stepping back from music, Rihanna’s influence in the fashion and beauty industries has soared, leading to her self-made billionaire status primarily through her brands Fenty Beauty and Savage x Fenty.
Her recent return to the spotlight has reignited discussions about her impact on fashion and female agency, reaffirming her status as a trailblazer in the industry.
American rapper Meek Mill, known offstage as Robert Rihmeek Williams, has unveiled an ambitious plan to produce his upcoming album on the African continent.
Stressing the artistic direction behind his music, Meek Mill aims to bring his American team along for the journey, promising to deliver a groundbreaking addition to his discography.
While keeping the exact location undisclosed, he revealed a concise two-week timeline for the recording process.
“Ima go to Africa and record my next album. Stay for two weeks, bring my producers, my art, mash up,” confidently declared Meek Mill.
The rapper had previously visited Ghana as part of the “Year of Return” initiative, where he explored tourist sites and immersed himself in Ghanaian culture.
During his visit, Meek Mill recorded a video at the Flagstaff House, promoting Ghana’s cultural arts, which sparked significant media attention and controversy.
It is yet to be known if his preferred destination is Ghana.
See post below:
Ima go to Africa and record my next album! Stay for 2 weeks bring my producers my art and mash up!!!
“We can confirm that a worker from the United States has passed away. ” The place in Jerusalem where a country’s government has its offices. “The US did not do it. ” An ambassador is a person who represents their country in another country. No one thinks there was cheating. “We don’t have any more information to tell,” the spokesperson said.
The embassy spokesperson said an American worker at the U. S embassy has died. The place where ambassadors work in Jerusalem. We don’t have more information to tell you.
They said they don’t think anything bad happened, but they haven’t given any more details yet.
Reporter Dimi Reider from The Lead says that the diplomat was found dead in their apartment.
An American embassy worker in Jerusalem has passed away, the embassy said on Monday.
In 2018, President Trump’s government moved the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, where it was for about 50 years.
In 2017, Trump changed the long-standing US policy by saying that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
The decision made Trump supporters and Israelis happy, but it made Palestinians and some of the Arab world very angry.
The embassy move was a key part of Trump’s plans during his 2016 campaign. The proposal was liked a lot by evangelical Christians, who also supported Trump’s campaign and his choice of Mike Pence as VP.
A person from the embassy said that no one who works there got hurt in the event.
The event occurred at 1:00pm local time (6:00pm GMT) on Sunday.
A squad that handles bombs was called to the area because there was worry about a strange vehicle that might have been linked to the person.
This was later said to be safe because no dangerous materials were found.
DC police said that they are working with the US Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to look into what happened.
Mr Bushnell was very sick and had to go to the hospital.
This has happened before, when someone set themselves on fire outside an Israeli embassy in the US.
In December, someone protested by lighting themselves on fire in front of the Israeli consulate in Georgia.
Around 370 Palestinians have died in the West Bank, as reported by the UN. The UN said most of the people who died were killed by Israeli soldiers, but at least eight were killed by Israeli settlers.
The new rule says that the US government can punish people from other countries who hurt or take things from Palestinians.
The US government is imposing penalties on Israelis for the first time, which is very unusual. This decision comes as Mr. Biden visits Michigan, where many Arab-Americans live and have been unhappy with his support for Israel.
The Arab American Institute, a group that speaks up for Arab Americans, said that since the fighting began, fewer Arab Americans are supporting the Democratic Party. In 2020, 59% supported the party, but now only 17% do.
The executive order explains how the US will act if there are more attacks in the West Bank. It is more serious than the visa restrictions it put on some people last year.
“The situation in the West Bank is really bad. There’s lots of violent attacks from extremist settlers, people being forced to leave their homes and villages, and a lot of property being destroyed. This is a big danger to the peace, safety, and stability of the area,” Mr. Biden wrote in a letter to Congress to explain his decision.
A top government person said that the first set of penalties, which are aimed at four individuals, are for people who have committed violence and scared and forced Palestinian communities to leave their homes.
They said one person started and led a riot that caused the death of a Palestinian civilian in the town of Huwara, while another person attacked people with stones and clubs.
They said that the executive order applies to both Israelis and Palestinians who are involved in violent acts, threats, intimidation, or terrorism. It is not discriminatory.
The US government identified four Israelis who are being punished. Their names are David Chai Chasdai, who is 29 years old; Yinon Levi, who is 31 years old; Einan Tanjil, who is 21 years old; and Shalom Zicherman, who is 32 years old. The Treasury said that three people lived in West Bank settlements and one person lived near the border of the occupied region.
American citizens, who are believed to have a part in the violence, cannot be given these US sanctions.
Matthew Miller from the State Department said that the US thinks the sanctions will affect these four people and wants Israel to do more to punish those responsible for settler violence.
Soon Biden signed the order, Israel showed it was not happy and said that most of the people living in the West Bank follow the law.
The Prime Minister’s office said that Israel punishes anyone who breaks the law, so there is no need for special actions on this issue.
The reply showed that the disagreement between the US and Israel is getting worse.
The two leaders have been friends for a long time, but they have argued recently about whether there should be a separate country for the Palestinians. The US thinks it’s important for there to be a separate country for Palestinians next to Israel, to keep the area stable for a long time.
Mr Netanyahu has said no many times, and the White House has confirmed that the US and Israeli governments have different views.
Those comments made some people stop believing that the conflict could lead to Israeli and Palestinian leaders starting to talk and starting the peace process again.
An American who moved to Ghana with her parents and siblings a decade ago, Yaa Baby, shares her understanding of her parents’ disapproval of her marriage to a Ghanaian.
Despite their refusal to attend the wedding, Yaa Baby, who chose to stay in Ghana for love, acknowledges her parents’ opposition to her relationship with Kofi Awuah, a Ghanaian video director.
“My parents left Ghana after a decade. My siblings left with them but I didn’t. I didn’t go back because of my husband. You can put the blame on love,” she told Deloris Frimpong Manso.
Despite the strong opposition, Yaa Baby decided to wed Kofi Awuah in 2016, and she hasn’t looked back as she enjoys her new life together.
Yaa Baby, real name Chloe, responded that she thought her parents wanted the best for her when asked how it made her feel that they couldn’t attend her wedding.
“They wanted to protect their daughter,” she said on The Delay Show monitored by GhanaWeb. “Now, I’m a mother so I’ve understood some things from their side. It will help me. While I raise my children, as she grows, I’ll know how to handle certain things with her, so, it happens for a reason. I don’t think I wished I changed; it made me who I am.”
Yaa Baby gave a detailed account of how she first got to know Kofi Awuah, saying, “I’ve known him for about 16 years.” Although we weren’t close, I knew him. I was aware of his residence, as well as his parents and siblings.
“It took time before I fell in love with him. Marriage wasn’t part of my initial plans. It just came naturally. We’re not just in a relationship; he’s my best friend. We were friends and one thing led to the other. I believe it was God’s plan.”
Why her parents did not support her decision to marry Kofi Awuah
In the interview that aired on January 22, 2023, Yaa Baby claimed that her parents had rejected her decision to marry Kofi Awuah because of false stories that had been spread by her best friend and church members about the Ghanaian.
Yaa Baby and Kofi are parents to a boy and a girl. She has acted in several TV shows and commercials.
The police say that people nearby stopped a woman from setting Martin Luther King Jr’s home on fire in Atlanta, Georgia.
Authorities said that quick action “saved a valuable piece of American history”.
The person who is being accused is in jail and is being charged with setting fire to a building by allegedly pouring gasoline on it.
Dr King lived in a two-story house for the first 12 years of his life, and now it’s a very important historical place.
The National Park Service bought the inside of the building in 2018. It’s been closed to the public for repairs and updates since last month.
Police went to the historic district on Auburn Avenue when they heard about vandalism happening at around 5:45pm local time on Thursday. This information was shared by the Atlanta police in a news release.
A video was shared with the local WSB-TV news channel that shows a woman wearing all black pouring liquid on the porch and front windows of the house.
When the police got there, the suspect had already been stopped by two filmmakers from Utah and two off-duty police officers from New York who were also visiting the home, according to Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.
One of the movie makers, Zach Kempf, said to the New York Times that at first he thought the woman was watering bushes in front of the house, but then she quickly went up the stairs and pulled on the front screen door.
She didn’t say anything when they asked what she was doing. She poured out the stuff from a big container and threw it into the bushes. Then, she picked up a lighter from the grass. “Mr Kempf, who is 43 years old, said the woman seemed anxious but not hostile. She walked away after he stood in front of her. ”
He called 911 and shouted for help to two New York officers. They chased and caught the suspect, holding her until the local police came.
The woman’s father and three sisters said she has been struggling with mental problems for a long time, Mr. Kempf told the Times.
The person who was accused of a crime was getting a check-up on their mental health before going to the local jail, the police said on Thursday night.
She might get in more trouble with the government for what she did.
The fire department said the home wasn’t damaged and a special team is cleaning up the area.
Fire chief Jerry DeBerry said if the witnesses hadn’t been there to stop her, the house could have been on fire very soon.
“It was mostly about having the right timing and the right people to see what happened. ”
The King Center said that someone tried to start a fire but couldn’t because of brave people helping and the police acting quickly.
“We are praying for the person who is accused of committing this crime,” it added.
A source told BBC Persian that Faramarz Javidzad, 60, was taken to clinic after he endured stomach dying but was afterward returned to the jail.
Authorities declined to move him from the jail clinic after his blood weight dropped seriously on Friday, they said.
The US said it was mindful of the passing of an person in an Iranian jail.
The news comes a week after Iran discharged five other American-Iranians as portion of a detainee swap.
The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news office cited Tehran province’s jails division as saying on Monday that Mr Javidzad had been confined for two months at Evin on different monetary charges, which he was treated five times for stomach related issues amid that time.
He as of late experienced a stomach operation and was at that point released from healing center “at his possess request”, it included.
The jails office said Mr Javidzad was promptly exchanged to healing center when his condition compounded on Saturday. Specialists and medical caretakers managed CPR, but his life may not be spared, it included.
They said Mr Javidzad was put on a trickle at the prison’s clinic on Friday after his blood weight dropped, indeed in spite of the fact that a judge had given jail specialists authorization to exchange him to healing center.
That night, a nurture at the clinic educated him that they were “languid” and evacuated the trickle, they included.
On Saturday, Mr Javidzad’s condition declined and he passed on whereas anticipating exchange to clinic, the source included.
A representative for the US state office told BBC News: “We are mindful of reports of the passing of an person in an Iranian jail and are looking for extra data.”
“Due to protection contemplations, we have no advance comment at this time.”
BBC Persian detailed that the state office had not assigned Mr Javidzad as “wrongfully kept” by Iran, which implied he was not included in final week’s detainee trade.
It saw Iran free five American-Iranian double nationals, who the US said had been detained on unjustifiable charges for political use.
In return, the US allowed forgiveness to five Iranians detained in US correctional facilites and permitted $6bn (£4.8bn) of solidified Iranian stores held in South Korea to be exchanged to banks in Qatar for helpful buys.
A difficult and complicated mission to rescue an American man from a very deep cave in Turkey ended successfully on Tuesday. The man had fallen very sick and was too weak to get out of the cave by himself.
Mark Dickey, who is skilled and knowledgeable in cave exploration, had joined a group of researchers to explore Morca Cave. While they were there, it was reported that Mark started experiencing bleeding from his stomach and intestines.
The cave is in the Taurus Mountain range in southern Turkey. It goes very deep, reaching 1,276 meters (4,186 feet).
A big rescue operation was started with many experienced cave explorers from different countries and Turkish experts.
Recep Salci from Turkey’s disaster management authority said on Tuesday that Mark Dickey is safe and appears to be fine, as shown in a video of him being carried out of the cave with a smile.
Dickey, who was at a medical tent near the cave, expressed how grateful he felt to be back on the earth’s surface. He thanked the rescue teams and the Turkish government for saving his life without asking any questions.
“I stayed underground for a lot longer than I thought because of a surprise health problem,” he explained.
I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I do know that the Turkish government acted quickly to provide the medical supplies I needed. In my opinion, their fast response saved my life. He said, “I was almost at the edge. ”
Dickey’s mom and dad, Debbie and Andy, were very happy about the successful rescue. They said that knowing their son was safe made them feel really relieved and happy.
“They said it was an event that everyone involved in the big rescue effort worked very hard for. They also said that many people helped a lot, and they thanked the Turkish government. ”
They said that Mark is very strong and we believe in his strength. But we also knew that he urgently needed a lot of support right away.
Dickey got stuck in a cave that has very steep holes, deep pits, and narrow paths. Agnes Berentes, a photographer from Hungary who had been in the cave, shared this information with Reuters.
The temperatures underground were cold and wet. Berentes thought it was about 4 degrees Celsius (39 Fahrenheit).
In addition to other problems, his health was worsened by having a serious bleeding in his stomach. At one time, he was very sick to the point where doctors and rescuers had to give him someone else’s blood while he was deep inside the cave.
The European Cave Rescue Association (ECRA) was notified on September 2 about Dickey’s difficult situation.
This caused a big rescue effort with more than 200 helpers from countries like the US, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine.
ECRA officials said that the rescue efforts were split into seven sections at different depths. The teams worked nonstop and were able to move Dickey to a depth of 180 meters (590 feet) underground. Finally, they successfully brought him out of the cave.
The Turkish Caving Federation said that Dickey was safely taken out at 12:37 am on Tuesday.
A doctor was with Dickey in the cave. The rescue teams got constant updates from them using a communication line.
In the pictures, it shows him lying down and being rescued by workers using special equipment.
Dickey is a person who has been teaching others to rescue people stuck in caves for ten years. He has gone into caves in 20 different states in the U. Sand 10 different countries. He started a non-profit organization called the Caving Academy to help people who explore caves.
He began exploring caves in the 1990s and held positions as a secretary at the European Cave Rescue Association and as the executive director at the Caving Academy.
Correction: We fixed the title of this story to say how much time Dickey was stuck for.
An American man got sick while exploring a very deep cave in Turkey. He said he is feeling okay, while rescuers are working hard to bring him back to the surface.
According to the Turkish Caving Federation, Mark Dickey got sick over the weekend while exploring the Morca Sinkhole in southern Turkey. Doctors think he might have bleeding in his stomach.
Dickey got sick 1,120 meters below the surface and was taken to the camp at 1,040 meters for monitoring. The federation said this on Twitter and mentioned that about 150 rescuers are working on a difficult operation to save him.
In a video posted by Turkey’s communication agency on Wednesday, Dickey said that he was in a dangerous situation but the fast actions of Turkish authorities probably saved his life.
As you can tell, I am awake, wide awake, and speaking. “But I haven’t healed emotionally yet, so I will need a lot of support to leave this place,” he said, expressing gratitude for the caving community.
This is a chance for people in the caving community to demonstrate how well people from different countries can collaborate. I want to see lots of people from different countries coming together. We look after our own people. “And it feels great to have someone taking care of you. ”
The rescue mission, which was first talked about on Monday, might take several days because the cave is deep and narrow, according to Bulent Genc, who leads the federation. Genc told CNN on Thursday that even in perfect conditions, it could take an experienced caver 15 hours to reach the surface.
A difficult rescue mission is happening deep underwater. The European Cave Rescue Association is helping and they said that it is not common to have rescues like this. They need to have experienced rescuers to help with the mission. They found out on Saturday that Dickey has bad stomach pain.
Gretchen Baker, who works with the National Cave Rescue Commission and has known Dickey for a while, has been talking to the rescue team. She is somewhat hopeful that Dickey will be able to come out of the cave safely.
During an interview with CNN’s Isa Soares on Thursday, Baker said that the people at the location are glad to see that Mark’s condition is getting better. It seems that he won’t have to be carried out on a rescue stretcher the entire way.
She said that if he can help more, the rescue will be faster.
Despite Dickey’s getting better, Baker said that even with his help, the rescue operation still has a long way to go.
“She said it will take several days to rescue him from the cave. ”
Rescue teams are quickly trying to help an American man who got sick while stuck in the third-deepest cave in Turkey, according to the Turkish Caving Federation.
Around 150 rescuers are working together to save Mark Dickey, who got stuck while doing research in Morca Valley, according to the Turkish Caving Federation. The plan to save or help people was first told to people on Monday.
The Turkish Caving Federation said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that during an exploration mission in the Morca Sinkhole, which is the 3rd deepest cave in Turkey with a depth of 1,276 meters (4,186 feet), a caver named Mark Dickey from America got sick at a depth of 1,120 meters (3,675 feet). He was taken to a camp located at a depth of 1,040 meters (3,412 feet) for observation.
The federation gave six units of blood to Dickey, who is believed to have bleeding in the stomach or intestines. The report said that he is stable and can walk by himself.
He said he was almost about to die, but the Turkish government acted quickly and saved his life.
You can see that I am awake, aware, and able to talk. “But I still feel emotionally hurt, so I will need a lot of assistance to leave this place,” said Dickey.
Even though they were deep underground, Dickey thought that the situation was a chance for the caving community to show how strong they were.
“I want to see a lot of people from different countries all coming together,” Dickey said. “We look after our own people. ”
Bulent Genc, the leader of the federation, said to CNN on Thursday that it might take many days to rescue people from the cave because it is very deep and narrow. Dickey will need to be moved a little bit in order to be put on a stretcher, Genc said.
Caving rescue workers from different countries have come to Turkey to help with the operation. These include rescuers from Hungary, Italy, Croatia, and the United States.
The Turkish Caving Federation said that the cave has small twisted paths and rappelling spots. They also mentioned that it takes an experienced caver 15 hours to get out of the cave under perfect conditions.
Gretchen Baker, from the National Cave Rescue Commission (NCRC), knows and has worked with Dickey for a long time. She has been talking to the rescue team and is cautiously optimistic that Dickey will come out of the cave safely.
During an interview with CNN’s Isa Soares, Baker mentioned that the people working there are pleased because it seems like Mark is getting better. This means he might not need a rescue litter for the whole journey back.
She said that if he can offer more help, the rescue will be completed faster.
Even though Dickey’s health is getting better, Baker said that the rescue operation still has a long way to go, even with his help.
“She said it will probably take several days to rescue him from the cave. ”
According to the European Cave Rescue Association (ECRA), performing a rescue mission at such a deep location is not common and is very hard. It requires a lot of highly skilled cave rescuers.
The organization got a phone call on Saturday saying that Dickey was having really bad stomach pain.
On Sunday, a group of people from the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, including a doctor, went down into the cave and put up a tent to give important medical treatment, according to the ECRA.
On Monday, a group of 17 people, including a doctor and a paramedic from Bulgaria’s rescue team, arrived at the cave’s base location.
On Wednesday, teams from Italy, Croatia, and Poland were going to the base camp.
A Board of Supervisors meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia, was upended Tuesday after several residents from the area showed up to voice their concerns about their taxpayer dollars being used by local leaders to fund a lavish trip to Ghana.
The uproar came after Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall, Vice Chair Koran Saines, and Supervisor Sylvia Glass used more than $60,000 in funds in June to fly to Ghana and sign a sister city agreement with the mayor of Tema, according to Fox 5.
The taxpayer dollars, according to the outlet, were used for “first-class flights, five-star hotel, and nice meals, among other luxurious expenses.”
Additionally, some of the same board members, along with Supervisor Juli Briskman, “spent more than 33,000 tax dollars on a lavish trip to Uruguay,” according to ABC 7.
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall (center), Vice Chair Koran Saines (left) and Supervisor Sylvia Glass used more than $60,000 in funds in June to fly to Ghana and sign a sister city agreement. (Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Getty Images)
“That extravagance is so incredibly a slap in the face and just completely tone-deaf when there are so many people struggling to pay their bills right here in Loudoun County,” one resident said during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting, Fox 5 noted.
“To the six of you who didn’t take these trips, every single one of you should have a pit in your stomach because you failed your constituents,” another resident said. “You failed to check and balance those who take advantage of their position.”
The outrage from residents in the area prompted Saines to propose a travel policy intended to be followed by those who serve on the board.
In a vote of 8 to 1, the proposal passed, allowing county staff to study travel policies from neighboring jurisdictions in an effort to establish reasonable spending protocols for board members to follow in the future. The study will reportedly evaluate how much the neighboring jurisdictions spend on meals and lodging, as well as air and ground transportation both domestically and internationally.
Supervisor Kristen Umstattd was the only ‘no’ vote as she intends to bring forth a proposal of strict rules for the board to follow later this month.
“I think it looks bad from the public’s viewpoint,” Umstattd, a fellow Democrat on the board, told ABC 7.
Supervisor Kristen Umstattd was the only ‘no’ vote on the proposal as she intends to bring forth a proposal of strict rules for the board to follow later this month. (Loudoun County Board of Supervisors)
“The intent behind the item is to address the feedback that we received, to update our travel policies, but to do so in a way that is reflective of our governing structure and the way that we operate,” said Saines, who insisted the outrage over the trip taken by the supervisors and their staff to Ghana was due to “misleading coverage.”
Saines also compared the expenses of the trip to those taken in recent history by Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
“If you’re not happy with us traveling, then hopefully you have the same feelings regarding the governor, which traveled to South Korea, Taiwan, and, while we were in Ghana, went to the Paris Air Show,” Saines said, according to Loudoun Now. “So if our travel was a boondoggle, I’m hoping you would say the same thing about that travel.”
In a statement to Fox 5, Randall denied using taxpayer dollars to fund the trips.
“I don’t travel on county taxpayer revenue and never have,” she said, according to the outlet. “It’s a policy I put in place when I came to office in 2016.”
The funds, the outlet reported, did not come out of Randall’s own pocket, however. They came from the economic development authority transient occupancy tax that is usually paid for by visitors of Loudoun County — not residents.
Chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in Northern Virginia Phyllis Randall speaks during an event to break ground on the Dulles Solar and Storage project at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on Aug. 22, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“There are people who are rebelling in their ignorance while ignoring the truth because they don’t want the answer, they want the issue,” Randall said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Fox News Digital did not receive an immediate response from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors about the situation.
Stefanos Tsitsipas lost his temper and demanded that the fan during his match at the Cincinnati Masters be removed because she was acting like a bee.
The Greek tennis player was preparing to serve against American world No. 40 Ben Shelton when the strange incident occurred during the Masters 1000 match.
Tsitsipas attempted to swat away what he believed to be a bee before returning to his serving routine, but the noises persisted.
The fourth-ranked player in the world stopped again before discovering that a bystander was making the buzzing sound.
Tsitsipas complained to the match referee, “There’s a person imitating a bee behind me.” Right before I serve, there is a buzz. Do you believe that is okay?
The umpire insisted that he would handle the situation, but Tsitsipas took matters into his own hands and went to where he heard the buzzing in the crowd.
As one spectator pointed to a woman in the front row in response to Tsitsipas’ direct question, the 25-year-old turned to the umpire for clarification.
Tsitsipas continued, “It has never happened in my career.” “I am aware that they are backing the [other player],”
‘What’s happened?’ his opponent Shelton questioned. Are they addressing you?
‘No, they’re impersonating a bee, they’re buzzing ‘bzzzzzz’ – it’s the lady over there,’ Tsitsipas retorted. I want her to leave. She must leave.
The spectator attempted to discourage Tsitsipas, but he went on to win the match 7-6 7-6 and advance to the round of 16.
Tsitsipas is getting ready for the US Open, the year’s last big competition, which begins on August 28.
Although he has reached the Grand Slam finals twice, he has never made it past the third round at Flushing Meadows, so he will be hoping for better luck in New York.
Based on recent study, maternal mortality rates in the US have doubled over the past 20 years, with black moms experiencing the greatest rates of death.
According to a research published in JAMA, American Indian and Alaska Native women experienced the most increases.
The study indicated that among all racial and ethnic groupings, maternal death rates were higher in southern states.
Maternal mortality is defined as passing away during pregnancy or up to a year later.
In 1999, there were an estimated 12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births and in 2019 that figure rose to 32.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019, according to the research, which did not study data from the pandemic years.
Unlike other studies, this one examined disparities within states instead of measuring rates at the national level, and it monitored five racial and ethnic groups.
Dr Allison Bryant, one of the study’s authors, said the findings were a call to action “to understand that some of it is about health care and access to health care, but a lot of it is about structural racism”.
She said some current policies and procedures “may keep people from being healthy”.
Black women had the highest median maternal death rate per 100,000 live births, which had tripled in some north-eastern states over 20 years, the research found.
“Often, states in the south are called out as having the worst maternal mortality rates in the nation, whereas California and Massachusetts have the best. But that doesn’t tell the whole story,” Dr Bryant said.
“It’s essential to look at the disparities between populations that exist even in the ‘best’ states.”
While southern states had the highest maternal mortality rates for any demographic, figures showed they were especially high for black women.
The study found Midwest and Great Plains states had the highest death rates for American Indian and Alaskan Native women.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson recently signed a budget bill that includes $4.4m (£3.47m) for a maternal mortality prevention plan.
Maternal mortality rates for black women have long been an issue across the socioeconomic spectrum.
US Olympic champion sprinter Tori Bowie died in May from childbirth complications at the age of 32, her agent said.
Common causes of death within a year of pregnancy include mental health conditions, excessive bleeding, cardiac conditions, pregnancy-related high blood pressure, infections and blood clots, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The JAMA study had some limitations – the researchers did not always have access to the cause of maternal death information and the way maternal deaths are recorded on death certificates changed in the US during the course of this study.
Dr Bryant said that if they were to study the years after 2019, during Covid-19, there would be a “continued increase in the risk of maternal mortality across all populations”.
A gang fight that broke out at a prison in Honduras resulted in the deaths of 41 women by burning, stabbing, or gunfire.
The horrifying violence occurred on Tuesday in the town of Tamara, which is located outside of Tegucigalpa, the capital of the Central American nation.
According to President Xiomara Castro, the street gang known as the “maras” plotted the violence at the Centro Femenino de Adaptacion Social with the “knowledge and acquiescence” of the guards.
According to Sandra Rodriguez Vargas, assistant commissioner for the country’s jail system, the attackers’removed’ them from the prison at 8am and then started killing women and setting fires.
Another woman, who did not want to be named, said her 26-year-old friend Alejandra Martinez had told her ‘that 18 people had threatened them, that they were going to kill them if they didn’t turn over a relative.’
Victims of gang violence are sometimes forced to ‘turn over’ a loved one by revealing their name, address and description so gang-members can later kidnap, rob or kill them.
Gangs generally wield broad control inside Honduras’ institutions, something the government has being trying to crackdown on in recent months.
Tuesday’s bloodbath was likely a response to these efforts, the head of the country’s prison system Julissa Villanueva suspects.
‘We will not back down,’ she said in a televised address, while Ms Castro promised to take ‘drastic measures’.
Honduras and several of its neighbouring countries have histories of deadly prison incidents.
This appears to be the worst at a female detention centre in the region since 2017, when young girls at a Guatemalan institution set fire to mattresses.
They were protesting against rape and other mistreatment but 41 ended up dying from the smoke and flames.
Honduras saw the worst prison disaster in a century in 2012, when 361 inmates died at the Comayagua prison in a fire.
Honduran human rights expert Joaquin Mejia said: ‘The issue is to prevent people from smuggling in drugs, grenades and firearms. Tuesday’s events show that they have not been able to do that.’
Joran van der Sloot, the person accused of extorting the family of an American student who vanished in 2005, entered a not-guilty plea to the allegations.
One of the last people spotted with Natalee Holloway, an American high school graduate who vanished while travelling to Aruba more than 18 years ago, was the Dutch national.
In connection with a conspiracy to steal money from Holloway’s devastated family, Van der Sloot, 35, was charged with wire fraud and extortion at the federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama.
The brief hearing only lasted about three minutes. Van der Sloot was emotionless, and only responded ‘yes, sir’ when the judge asked if he understood the charges against him.
Five years after her disappearance, van der Sloot contacted Holloway’s family and offered to lead them to her body in exchange for $250,000.
An investigator working with the family and the FBI paid van der Sloot an upfront fee of $25,000, and the Dutch citizen revealed that Holloway was buried in the foundation of a house that was under construction at the time of her death.
He also said that she died after falling and hitting her head on a rock.
However, Holloway’s body was never found in the house’s foundation. Van der Sloot later admitted to fabricating parts of the story.
Van der Sloot was extradited from Peru yesterday, where he is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the murder of another woman, Stephany Flores, exactly five year’s after Holloway’s disappearance.
On Thursday, van der Sloot transported from a maximum-security prison in the Andes Mountains to a detention center in Lima.
There he was handed off to FBI agents, who flew with him to Birmingham, Alabama.
Holloway’s parents, Dave and Beth Holloway, were both present for the arraignment. Both declined to take questions from reporters.
‘For 18 years, I have lived with the unbearable pain of Natalee’s loss,’ Beth Holloway said in a statement on Thursday. ‘Each day has been filled with unanswered questions and a longing for justice that has eluded us at every turn. But today, I am hopeful that some small semblance of justice may finally be realized.’
An Australian man who admitted punching a gay American down a cliff in 1988 and killing him has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
In Sydney, 52-year-old Scott Phillip White admitted to killing Scott Johnson, who was born in Los Angeles.
In the last year, he admitted to killing the 27-year-old and was given a sentence of more than 12 years in prison.
But he then changed his mind, and an appeal has now resulted in the murder conviction being overturned.
Having already served part of his sentence, White will be eligible for release on parole in 2026.
‘Not much is known of the death beyond a punch on a cliff, a fall from a cliff and decades of pain and grief that followed,’ Justice Robert Beech-Jones said during sentencing on Thursday.
On December 10 1988, White met Mr Johnson at a pub and the pair went for a walk around North Head, which was known at the time to be a popular area among gay people.
White, then 18, punched Mr Johnson during a row, causing naked Mr Johnson to stagger backwards and fall to his death.
Mr Johnson was close to receiving his doctorate from the Australian National University, which he has since been awarded posthumously.
‘Dr Johnson was an American citizen… He had everything to live for,’ the judge said.
‘The offender left him to die.’
White, who has early onset dementia due to alcohol abuse, was described as a ‘street kid’ at the time of the killing.
‘The offender was clearly a damaged albeit physically powerful young man,’ Mr Beech-Jones said.
‘However, he was not broken as he is now.’
The death was originally thought to be a suicide but police in 2012 opened an investigation into what they suspected was a gay hate crime.
In her now-overturned judgment on the murder conviction, Justice Helen Wilson found there was not enough evidence to show the attack was motivated by Mr Johnson’s sexuality.
Mr Beech-Jones said he could not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was a ‘gay hate crime’.
‘Answers to numerous other questions about how he died, why he died and what happened … some of those answers will never be provided,’ he said.
Rapper Pras Michel, well known for being a part of the Fugees, has been found guilty of a felony for allegedly participating in a multimillion dollar political conspiracy.
Born Prakazrel Samuel Michel, the musician was found guilty by a federal jury of “orchestrating an unregistered, back-channel campaign” to persuade the Department of Justice and the then-US President’s administration to drop the 1MDB investigation, which was related to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, and is said to have started around 2017.
It’s been said by US prosecutors that the 50-year-old received more than $100million (£80m) from Malaysian billionaire Jho Low in an attempt to sway American politics.
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio previously testified in the case, taking to the stand earlier this month after being friends with Low for several years. He was not accused of any wrongdoing, and appeared in court as a witness.
Michel faced charges of conspiring with the financier to orchestrate illegal lobbying campaigns to influence the US government when Barack Obama and Donald Trump were in power during their respective tenures in the White House.
In a statement, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A Polite Jr said: ‘As proven at trial, the defendant engaged in an extensive conspiracy to use millions of dollars in foreign funds to engage in illegal back-channel lobbying and make unlawful campaign contributions.
Michel was accompanied by defence lawyer David Kenner as he arrived at federal court for his trial (Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
‘Today’s verdict demonstrates that anyone who engages in unlawful foreign-sponsored efforts to influence American officials, our elections, or the criminal justice system will be brought to justice.’
As outlined by the US Department of Justice, court documents and evidence presented at the trial showed that Michel conspired with several individuals ‘to engage in undisclosed lobbying campaigns’ with the aim of having ‘the 1MDB embezzlement investigation and forfeiture proceedings involving Low and others dropped and to have a Chinese national sent back to China’.
On the witness stand, Michel claimed that a $20m (£16m) sum that Low paid him over the course of nine months in 2012 was to help the financier have a photo with Obama.
The rapper stated that he used some of the money to pay for three friends to attend two political fundraisers during Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign, but denied doing so under Low’s instruction.
The musician alleged that he was never told by his attorney George Higgenbotham – who has pleaded guilty for his role in the scheme – that it was required by law to register as a foreign agent, after failing to do so.
Michel pictured in 1994 with his Fugees bandmates Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean (Picture: Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The Fugees star also claimed that he passed information to the FBI regarding China’s desire to have Chinese billionaire and dissident Guo Wengui extradited, amid concerns that Guo was ‘allegedly a criminal rapist’, stating that he ‘thought it was something the FBI should know’.
‘Mr Michel sought to use his celebrity and access to influence US government officials on behalf of undisclosed foreign interests,’ said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen.
‘This is an affront to the rule of law, and we will use the full range of tools at our disposal to hold accountable those who would covertly aid foreign actors seeking to interfere with our democratic system of government.’
Michel could face up to 20 years in jail for his convictions, which include conspiracy, concealment of material facts, making false entries in record, witness tampering and serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign power. A sentencing date is yet to be set.
Speaking outside the court with his client by his side, Michel’s attorney said: ‘We are extremely disappointed in that result but are very, very confident in the ultimate outcome of this case.
‘If we do move to a sentencing hearing I remain very confident we will certainly appeal this case. This is not over.’
Harry A Lidsky, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Cyber Investigations Office, said that the rapper ‘played a central role in a wide-ranging conspiracy’.
‘The defendant brazenly conspired to help a foreign national launder millions of dollars in illegitimate campaign contributions into the 2012 U.S. presidential election,’ Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division stated.
A shipment of American beer was destroyed by Belgium after it objected to the claim made by the manufacturer that it was “The Champagne of Beers.”
The 2,352 Miller High Life beer cans were destroyed earlier this week by Belgian customs, who claimed they should have been labelled as Champagne.
The move came after a trade association for the Champagne industry complained that the term should be used only on bottles of sparkling wine, made using a traditional method in Champagne, France.
By convention, true Champagne – as in, the French sparkling wine – can only be made using Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes.
The Comité Champagne, a joint trade association for the Champagne industry, requested the destruction of the American beers, arguing that the label “The Champagne of Beers” infringed on the protected designation of “Champagne”.
Miller High Life was launched in 1903 by a Milwaukee-based based firm. According to its website, it began to use the slogan “The Champagne of Bottle Beer” three years later, shortening it to “The Champagne of Beers” in 1969.
The beers were headed for Germany before they were intercepted at the port of Antwerp in February.
On April 17, the cans were destroyed “with the greatest respect for environmental concerns by ensuring that the entire batch, content and container, is recycled in an eco-responsible way,” the Comité Champagne said.
“Each year we carry out thousands of checks on designations of controlled origin,” said Kristian Vanderwaeren, general administrator of the Belgian General Administration for Customs and Excise.
“If a counterfeit is proven, as is the case here, we also consult each other on the decision to destroy these goods and on the way in which we have them destroyed.”
Charles Goemaere, managing director of the Comité Champagne, said the move is the result of successful collaboration between the Belgian customs authorities and the services of the Champagne Committee.
“It confirms the importance that the European Union attaches to designations of origin and rewards the determination of the inhabitants of Champagne to protect their designation,” he said.
After an American was murdered by a drone believed to be from Iran, the US started an airstrike against Syria overnight.
Yesterday, a self-destructing drone struck a maintenance building on a base, killing a US contractor and injuring five American service members.
According to US intelligence analysts, the drone used in the incident near Hasaka at roughly 1:40 p.m. was “of Iranian origin,” the Pentagon reported.
As ties between Washington and Tehran grow more heated, today’s airstrikes on sections of eastern Syria are thought to be retaliatory.
With relations between Washington and Tehran increasingly tense, a new wave of reportedly retaliatory wave of airstrikes pelted parts of eastern Syrian today.
It came after Iran-backed militants used rockets against another base hosting US personnel in Syria’s Conoco gas field this evening.
Syrian opposition activist groups have said the targeted sites were used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC.
US launches airstrikes in Syria after civilians killed in drone strike
The three sites were in Deir Ez-Zor, a province that borders Iraq and is dotted by oil fields.
The activist group Deir Ezzor 24 said the strikes killed four people and wounded a number of others.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war in Syria, put the death toll from US strikes even higher at 11 Iranian-backed fighters.
They included six at an arms depot in the city of Deir el-Zour and five at military posts near Mayadeen and Boukamal.
The head of the observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said three rockets were fired earlier today at the al-Omar oil field in Deir el-Zour that houses US troops.
Whether US warplanes carried out the attacks in Deir Ez-Zor is unclear.
The retaliation was at the direction of US President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
In a statement, Austin said US intelligence determined the drone was of Iranian origin – though he offered no evidence for this.
‘The airstrikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,’ he said.
A US defence official claimed the American strikes were conducted by F-15E fighter jets that struck three areas in the vicinity of Deir el-Zour.
Iran uses proxy forces across the Middle East to counter the US, which has had troops in north-east Syria since 2015.
According to Ukraine’s foreign minister, incidents like the downing of an American drone over the Black Sea will continue until Russia vacates Crimea.
Yesterday, a $32 million American “Reaper” drone collided with a Russian fighter jet, sending the unmanned surveillance plane plunging into the Black Sea.
The action, which marked the first time an American aircraft had been shot down by a Russian fighter since the Cold War’s height, raised concerns that tensions between the two countries may worsen.
Yet despite the ‘deplorable state’ of relations between the two nations, a Kremlin spokesperson today announced that Russia would not rule out ‘constructive dialogue’ with the US.
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Asked if the incident could inflame tensions with Washington, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement that Russian jets didn’t use their weapons or impact the U.S. drone.
Peskov described U.S.-Russia relations as being at their lowest point, but added that ‘Russia has never rejected constructive dialogue, and it’s not rejecting it now.’
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the drone was flying in international airspace and over international waters when the encounter with the Russian fighter took place Tuesday.
He stressed that the drone’s presence over the Black Sea was not an uncommon occurrence.
‘It is also not uncommon for the Russians to try to intercept them,’ Kirby said, adding that such an encounter ‘does increase the risk of miscalculations, misunderstandings.’
Speaking to the BBC, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he did not expect to see any serious diplomatic escalation.
Describing it as a ‘routine incident’, Mr Kuleba said: ‘As long as Russia controls Crimea, these kinds of incidents will be inevitable and the Black Sea will not be a safe place.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said such skirmishes are ‘inevitable’ while Russia remains in Crimea (Picture: Getty)
‘So the only way to prevent such incidents is actually to kick Russia out of Crimea.’
While encounters between Russian and Nato aircraft are not unusual- before the invasion of Ukraine, Nato planes were involved in an annual average of 400 intercepts with their Russian counterparts- the war has heightened the significance and potential hazards of such incidents.
US military officials said the encounter happened on Tuesday morning and lasted for around 30-40 minutes.
Several times before the collision, Russian jets dumped fuel on the drone in a ‘reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner’, before flying underneath the craft and clipping its propeller, causing it to become ‘unflyable.’
The MQ-9 Reaper drone has not yet been recovered from the Black Sea and it is unclear whether it will be.
The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, tweeted on Wednesday that the drone incident was ‘a signal from Putin that he is ready to expand the conflict zone, with drawing other parties in.’
At the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the intercept by the Russian jet was part of a ‘pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace.’
Vladimir Putin’s spokeman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was open to ‘constructive’ dialogue with the US (Picture: Getty)
He said Russia must operate its aircraft in a safe manner.
‘Make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows, he added.’
After being summoned to speak to officials in Washington, Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said Moscow saw the drone incident as ‘a provocation’.
Mr Antonov added that from the Kremlin’s point of view, ‘the unacceptable activity of the US military in the close proximity to our borders is a cause for concern.’
When asked by the BBC if the US and its allies might become more cautious following the incident, Mr Kuleba said: ‘The mood is not to escalate but nor is the mood to lean under the pressure – the physical or rhetorical pressure – of Russia.’
‘If the West wants to demonstrate its weakness, it should certainly demonstrate its cautiousness after an incident like this, but I don’t have a feeling that this is the mood in capitals,’ he replied.
A hostile House of Representatives committee heard testimony fromTikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew as legislators debated outlawing the well-known video-sharing app.
The executive was interrogated by lawmakers from both parties on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on privacy concerns, worries about national security, the company’s ties to China, and the harm the app has done to children and teenagers in the US.
According to committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, “Mr. Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security.” “TikTok has consistently gone down the route of increased control, increased monitoring, and increased manipulation.”
In his response, Chew tried to assure officials and the American public that the app, which is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, is fixing security flaws that allowed international actors to access the data of American users.
TikTok CEO makes his opening statement before Congress
‘We will firewall protect the US data from unwanted foreign access,’ Chew assured the committee.
He also emphasized the company’s ongoing Project Texas, a $1.5billion project with software giant Oracle which aims to move all US user data to facilities within the country.
‘American data is stored on American soil by an American company overseen by American personnel,’ Chew repeated multiple times over the course of the tense hearing.
Since October, all new data collected on American users has been stored in these US servers. However, the CEO did admit that some legacy data was still stored in facilities that could be accessed by ByteDance engineers.
Chew, the former CFO of ByteDance, also tried to downplay TikTok’s connection to the China, and denied connections to the country’s government and ruling Chinese Communist Party.
‘Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,’ Chew said. ‘ByteDance has five board members, and three of them are American.’
Other representatives focused on the content the app has featured. Rep Gus Bilirakis of Florida criticized the algorithm the app uses for its ‘For You’ page, which he says contributed to the death of a 16-year-old who was served up content encouraging him to take his own life.
Chew repeatedly touted the company’s more recent efforts to moderate content being delivered to children, including a new restriction against viewing more than 60 minutes of content for users under age 16.
Congress plays TikTok of targeted gun threat to TikTok CEO during hearing
Another congresswoman, Rep Kat Cammack of Florida, played a video showing violent threats to the days proceedings.
The video showed a rendering of a handgun firing a full clip of ammunition with the caption: ‘me asf at the House Energy and Commerce Committtee on 03/23/2023.’ It also tagged the name of Rep McMorris Rodgers, the chair of the committee.
According to Cammack, the video had been viewable for the next 41 days leading up to the hearing.
‘Your own community guidelines state: “we do not allow people to use our platform to threaten or incite violence,”‘ Cammack said. ‘You expect us to believe that you are capable of maintaining the data security of 150million Americans, when you can’t even protect the people in this room?’
Chew was not given a chance to respond to the video.
This week, the final full moon of the winter will illuminate the sky, providing skywatchers with yet another unique opportunity.
The March moon, known as the “worm moon” by Native American tribes in the 18th century as a reference to various critters emerging from their winter dens to welcome spring, will achieve its highest light around 7:42 a.m. ET on Tuesday, March 7. But, if someone were to glance up at the correct time, they might also see a breathtaking planetary phenomena.
“What is a little more interesting now, and also visible tonight and this week, are the close and prominent positioning of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky right after sunset,” said Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, via email. “The astronomical word for this is ‘conjunction.’ These planets will be setting as the moon is rising, so they are only visible for about an hour at sunset, near the western horizon.”
People who get a little rain on Monday or Tuesday night might also get to spot a moonbow, which is like a solar rainbow but produced by moonlight when it’s refracted through water droplets in the air, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. Moonbows only happen when a full moon is low in the sky, so look for them after sunset when the sky is dark.
The worm moon isn’t your last chance to catch a special space or sky event. Here are the full moons, eclipses and meteor showers to watch out for this year.
Most years have 12 full moons, but 2023 will have 13, with two — which are supermoons — happening in August. Supermoons are brighter and closer to Earth than normal and therefore appear larger in the sky.
Here’s the list of full moons remaining in 2023, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac:
April 6: Pink moon
May 5: Flower moon
June 3: Strawberry moon
July 3: Buck moon
August 1: Sturgeon moon
August 30: Blue moon
September 29: Harvest moon
October 28: Hunter’s moon
November 27: Beaver moon
December 26: Cold moon
There will be two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses in 2023.
A total solar eclipse — when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, blocking the sun — will be visible to people in Australia, Southeast Asia and Antarctica on April 20.
An annular solar eclipse will occur on October 14 and be visible across North, Central and South America. This is when the moon passes between the sun and Earth when the moon is at or near its farthest point from Earth — making the moon appear smaller than the sun and creating a glowing ring around the moon.
When viewing solar eclipses, wear proper eclipse glasses to avoid eye-damaging sunlight.
A penumbral lunar eclipse — when the moon moves through the penumbra, the faint, outer part of Earth’s shadow — will occur on May 5 for those in Africa, Asia and Australia.
On October 28, a partial lunar eclipse will be viewable by people in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, parts of North America and much of South America. That’s when the sun, Earth and moon don’t completely align, so only part of the moon passes into shadow.
There are 11 more meteor showers to catch this year, and they are most visible from late evening until dawn in areas unaffected by light pollution.
Following a weekend of violence, tensions in the area increased as one Israeli-American citizen was killed in the occupied West Bank.
On a roadway between Jericho and the Dead Sea, Elan Ganeles, 27, was shot and killed on Monday night in what Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency agency called a “terror incident.”
According to the MDA, the attack happened on Highway 90, north of the Beit Ha’Arava Junction. The area is often calm and is near one of Israel’s primary Dead Sea travel routes.
His Connecticut-based synagogue, which announced that he would be laid to rest in Israel on Wednesday, gave Ganeles his given name.
His death came after a mob of Israeli settlers went on a rampage Sunday in Huwara, south of Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian, beating others with metal bars, and stoning a Palestinian fire engine after burning several homes.
Those attacks followed the fatal shooting of two Israeli brothers earlier on Sunday in Huwara, days after a massive Israeli military raid into Nablus in search of wanted militants left at least 11 Palestinians dead.
The US State Department said it was “extremely concerned by the events of this weekend and the continuing violence in Israel and the West Bank.”
Spokesman Ned Price on Monday reiterated the US’ condemnation of the killings of Israelis over the weekend and the violence by settlers against Palestinians.
“We appreciate Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and President [Isaac] Herzog’s statements calling for a cessation of vigilante violence. We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks, in addition to compensation for the lost homes and property,” Price said. “These events underscore the fragility of the situation in the West Bank and the urgent need for increased cooperation to prevent further violence.”
An Israel Defense Forces official condemned Sunday’s attacks by Israeli settlers as acts of “revenge” and “terror,” and said the IDF was sending three additional battalions to the area to try to deescalate the situation.
The intended sale is according to the auction calendar of the Central Bank and will take place under the Forex Forward Auctions.
The amount of $220 million, is however lower than that which was sold in the last quarter of 2022 where the Central Bank sold a total of $420 million to BDCs through commercial banks within the period.
Although it remains unclear whether the intended $200 million sale would be sufficient to sustain the FX needs of BDCs in the country, the BoG plans to sell $80 million in January 2023.
This will be followed by an amount of $60 million each sold to BDCs also taking placing take in February 2023 and March 2023 respectively.
The BoG has also extended an invitation for bids due to the prescribed format to purchase the US dollars against the cedi notes separately on each auction date.
This auction of the American ‘greenback’ will also take place from January 12, 2023, to March 29, 2023.
“Receipts of bids will be made from 9:30 am to 10:30 am on each auction day with the announcement of the auction results made at 3pm on each auction date,” the BoG noted.
Swapping an American jailed for a minor drugs offense in Russia for one of the world’s most notorious arms traffickers known as “The Merchant of Death” might seem like a lopsided deal that could fuel dangerous national security precedents.
But President Joe Biden’s decision to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout goes beyond the exchange’s bottom line. It represented a humane resolution to a painful dilemma that came after tortuous talks with a Russian regime that treats people as geopolitical pawns every day. In that sense, the Biden administration demonstrated the gulf between its moral grounding and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is currently demonstrating his inhumanity on another front, with a fearsome assault on Ukrainian civilians.
But the tragic counterpoint to this diplomatic triumph – Biden’s failure to also secure the release of Paul Whelan, another American incarcerated in a Russian penal colony – underscored the unforgiving moral conundrum he faced. And it prompted top Republicans to charge that he had prioritized a basketball superstar over an ex-marine who benefited from a vocal political pressure campaign on Biden.
There is no getting around the potential implications of the steps that Biden took, which followed earlier prisoner swaps with US adversaries conducted by his administration – including for an American and former US marine detained in Russia, Trevor Reed – and those of former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. There is now a considerable risk that other rogue nations or groups see Washington as open for business and may therefore see Americans abroad as increasingly valuable targets in a vicious cycle of more detentions.
Furthermore, the return of Bout, who has been linked to Russian security services, handed Putin a propaganda coup at a time of rising domestic pressure. It enabled him to demonstrate to intelligence operatives engaged in nefarious activity abroad that they will not be forgotten by the Kremlin. Those intelligence services are critical to the Russian leader’s continued hold on power as his war in Ukraine deteriorates even further. Still, Biden’s strategy also hinted at intriguing diplomatic possibilities, three days after he refused to rule out future talks with Putin, if Ukraine’s agrees, aimed at ending the vicious war. He showed it was possible to deal with Russia, even amid an effective proxy war between the two old Cold War foes in Ukraine amid the worst relations between Moscow and Washington since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Another notable cog in this deal was Saudi Arabia, which helped facilitate the exchange alongside the United Arab Emirates – and also helped secure the release of US citizens captured fighting in Ukraine earlier this year. Whether the kingdom, which has relations with both Moscow and Washington and is seeking to increase its global leadership role, might emerge as a mediator over Ukraine remains to be seen. But its recent smoothing of US-Russia exchanges might put Biden’s decision to travel to the country earlier this year and greet its ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump, in a slightly different light.
Ultimately, it’s impossible for there not to be a sour aftertaste when dealing with an adversary as inhumane as Putin. But it is the job of a president to weigh these competing dynamics within the context of America’s national goals and duty to its citizens.
In cases like these, there is never a right answer.
The most immediate question now facing Biden is how to extract Whelan, whose hopes were raised and then smashed, as he remained in prison and Griner went home, after both Americans were at the center of US-Russia diplomacy.
“This is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly,” a deeply disappointed Whelan told CNN’s State Department producer Jennifer Hansler in an exclusive phone interview. “I would hope that (Biden) and his administration would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.”
The harsh truth for Whelan is that Russia refused every inducement the US could offer to include him in an exchange package, leaving Biden’s capacity to free him in short order in doubt.
Russian officials told the US side that a one-for-two swap was not acceptable but resisted wider options, US officials said.
John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, told CNN that the Kremlin regarded Whelan in a different light than Griner, since he’s facing espionage charges – even though the US says such allegations are a sham. This added dimension to Whelan’s incarceration will fuel speculation that Moscow may leverage him as it seeks a three-way deal with Germany to free a former colonel from its domestic spy agency who was convicted of murder last year. CNN reported in August that Russia had requested Vadim Krasikov be included in a deal for the two Americans.
This adds another layer of complication for Biden as he seeks to get Whelan free, since it involves another government and would require German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to potentially agree to supersede his country’s own legal system. Whether the new German leader has the political capacity to do so is unclear, as is the kind of Russian concession Berlin might require.
A senior administration official said on Thursday evening that there is a recognition in the White House that the US needs to make available “something more, something different” from what they have offered to the Russians so far, CNN reported.
While Biden is being castigated by some political opponents in Washington for doing a bad deal, administration officials insisted that he got the best one on offer.
“I want to be very clear – this was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none,” a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday.
Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, told CNN she thought Putin was never going to hand over Whelan and all along wanted to swap only Griner for Bout.
“It’s happening now because Vladimir Putin wants this to happen now, he needs a win, he needs a victory in Russia because he is having trouble convincing the Russia people that it’s a good idea to be at war with Ukraine,” Farkas said.
She added that there remained some hope for Whelan because the Griner exchange did show that “the Russians will make a deal if they think it’s in their interests.”
Whelan isn’t the only American imprisoned in Russia. The family of US teacher Marc Fogel, who is serving a 14 year sentence at a hard labor camp, has also called for the White House to negotiate his release. Fogel was arrested last year in Moscow after traveling into the country with cannabis that his lawyer said was used for medical purposes.
The fierce political divides that now challenge every US foreign policy decision did not take long to bubble over after Griner was freed – alongside a more vicious reaction on social media as some conservatives questioned her patriotism.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was relieved Griner was free but raised questions about the wisdom of such exchanges and whether they could endanger other Americans.
“I think the challenge this points to is these regimes know this. This is why (President Nicolas) Maduro traded five Citgo executives – who were lured to Venezuela to get arrested – for his nephews who are convicted drug traffickers,” Rubio said.
“That’s why you trade a professional basketball player with CBD oil for the Merchant of Death. These are bad trades,” he said.
Another Republican, Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida described the deal to free Griner in a Twitter post as “shameful” and accused the administration of “giving priority to a celebrity over a veteran.”
In a later interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Waltz said: “This is a tactical victory, I am glad she is coming home. But this is a strategic loss.”
“The reason the Iranian regime, the Taliban, Putin himself, continue to take Americans hostage is we continue to make concessions. When do we start dictating the terms to these regimes?”
Whelan’s family reacted with great dignity in welcoming Griner’s release, despite their devastation that their brother did not come home. Elizabeth Whelan, Paul’s sister, called for political unity over the fate of hostages abroad, saying that hostile foreign countries are trying to use such cases to stir dissent in the US.
Whelan also urged people to understand the human angle of Biden’s dilemma despite the grave geopolitical issues at stake.
“It’s an amazing thing to be able to get Brittney back. It’s a win for us,” she said.
“We tend to always look at what is Russia getting out of this? … We are getting a wrongfully detained American back home. It’s something to celebrate.”
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch has been charged by the Football Association for “improper language and/or behaviour” during his side’s defeat by Brentford on Saturday.
The American was infuriated after Leeds were denied a penalty.
He was sent off after urging referee Robert Jones to use the monitor to review a challenge by Aaron Hickey on Leeds winger Crysencio Summerville.
Marsch has until Friday to provide a response to the FA’s charge.
Marsch, who replaced Marcelo Bielsa as Leeds boss in February, was booked during the Whites’ defeat by Brighton the previous week after angrily slamming the ball down – a yellow card he later said he “deserved”.
The 5-2 win lifted Brentford to seventh in the table, while Leeds slipped to ninth after their second successive Premier League defeat.
The Elland Road club are still seeking their first victory on the road this season.
With no American visitors to show around the D-Day beaches or the Loire Valley’s chateaux, and no work on the immediate horizon, Paris tour guide Linda Zenou frets about how she will pay off a loan and continue to care for her ailing mother in the achingly lean months ahead.
“My situation is going to become completely inextricable,” she said. “We have nothing to live on.”
For growing numbers of businesses and individuals who depend on the global tourism industry, the question is not so much when the coronavirus pandemic will end but how and if they will survive until business picks up. In trying to fend off the virus, countries that put up entry barriers to tourists have done so at a mounting cost to themselves and others.
“It’s now survival of the fittest,” said Johann Krige, CEO of the Kanonkop wine estate in South Africa, where the drying up of wine-tasting tourists threatens dozens of wine farms around the historic town of Stellenbosch, near Cape Town.
“A lot of them are going to go under because they just don’t have sufficient cash flow,” Krige said.
Around the world, travel amid the pandemic is becoming a story of tentative steps forward in some places, but punishing steps back elsewhere, of “yes” to letting back visitors from places faring somewhat better against COVID-19 but not from others where outbreaks are flaring.
The result is an ever-evolving global mishmash of restrictions and quarantines, all of which are providing zero long-term visibility for businesses trying to make payrolls and for everyone in the industry from trinket sellers to luxury hotels.
In Australia, the government of Queensland, home to the Great Barrier Reef, barred visitors from Sydney starting Saturday because of a growing outbreak in the country’s largest city. Queensland tourism official Brett Kapernick predicted that could cost some businesses a 40 percent plunge in revenue.
“With this pandemic, the situation becomes fluid and therefore evolves weekly,” Kapernick said. “A week ago, we didn’t think we’d be facing a border closed to Sydney.”
While the Indonesian resort island of Bali tentatively opened up to domestic visitors on Friday, the beaches of Da Nang in Vietnam were deserted. The city locked down Tuesday to contain a cluster of nearly 100 cases.
Shorn of tourism’s lifeblood, some businesses already look doomed. Many of the luxury hotels in Rome’s historic centre did not reopen in the late spring when Italy started allowing arrivals from elsewhere in the European Union and other select nations. Early in the pandemic, Italians who for years worked as dining room staff, cooks or maids at hotels instead sought farm work, picking fruits and vegetables.
On Portugal’s Algarve coast, individual catastrophes also loom for the staffs of empty hotels, bars and restaurants which are losing hope that tourists will return quickly enough to keep them afloat. In a region almost entirely reliant on tourism, the unemployment rate has already jumped 230 percent.
And in Oxford, England, tour operator Frederick Laurie is clinging to British “staycationers”, optimistically describing them as “green shoots” in an otherwise bleak year. He concedes that their numbers will never make up for the ruinous plunge in foreign visitors who once thronged the university town before the coronavirus chased them away.
“It’s an extremely difficult time for us,” he says. His decade-old company, Footprints Tours, has seen revenues collapse by 70 percent.
Losses globally are counted in the billions. Percentage drops in visitor numbers are often double-digits. Tourism income in South Africa was down 98 percent in May compared with the same month last year, the Tourism Business Council says, and more than half a million jobs in its sector are at risk.
Governments in countries heavily reliant on tourism are trying to use bailouts to keep businesses afloat. Thailand’s cabinet this week approved projects worth more than $700m for the tourism industry. Bulgaria is offering tax breaks and job subsidies to shore up its tourism sector bracing for huge cuts in its workforce of 290,000. Hotel owners lament that they have more employees than patrons at Bulgaria’s biggest sea resort, Sunny Beach.
The bright spots are few and far between. Among them: Locals who are unable or reluctant to travel are rediscovering attractions where foreign tourists used to jostle for elbow space.
Animals have South Africa’s world-famous wildlife parks largely to themselves because of lockdown rules that barred international tourists and made it illegal for South Africans to travel between provinces for vacations. At the Kruger National Park, lions sleep undisturbed in the roads and roam around empty lodges.
At the Louvre Museum in Paris, it is now possible to calmly contemplate the works. That is a rare treat for Parisians but a nightmare for tour guides, who gathered in protest again this week, dressed in black and wearing masks, to demand more financial help. Among them was Janice Baneux, who was decidedly pessimistic for their future.
“Some people had to sell their homes, returning to their parents and waiting until next year when tourism will probably be back again,” she said. “But this year there is no hope.”
The American reference dictionary Merriam-Webster will change its definition of the word racism at the suggestion of a young black woman, who wanted it to better reflect the oppression of people of colour.
Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, contacted Merriam-Webster, which has published its dictionaries since 1847, to propose updating the term.
“I basically told them that they need to include that there’s systematic oppression upon a group of people,” she told the local CBS affiliate KMOV. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, I don’t like someone.’”
Merriam-Webster’s editorial manager Peter Sokolowski confirmed to AFP that the definition would be modified after Mitchum’s request.
The dictionary currently offers three definitions of racism, and Sokolowski said that the second definition touches on Mitchum’s point — but that “we will make that even more clear in our next release”.
In the current version of the second definition, racism is “a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles,” and “a political or social system founded on racism.”
“This is the kind of continuous revision that is part of the work of keeping the dictionary up to date, based on rigorous criteria and research we employ in order to describe the language as it is actually used,” Sokolowski said.
One of the dictionary’s editors told Mitchum that the definitions of other words “related to racism or have racial connotations” would also be updated, without specifying which ones.
“We apologize for the harm and offence we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner,” the editor wrote, according to a message published by Drake University and retweeted by Mitchum.
The Merriam-Webster site, where the definitions are available for free, had nearly 50 million unique visitors in May, according to the SimilarWeb site.
Merriam-Webster’s Twitter account has also become a viral hit in recent years, with Buzzfeed calling it “the sassiest dictionary on Twitter”.
American Idol’s 18th winner, Just Sam, celebrated alone on Sunday after taking part in the finale under lockdown in Los Angeles.
Samantha Diaz, 21, from Harlem, New York, was told she’d won the public vote by host Ryan Seacrest, who was broadcasting from his garage.
She heard the news while clutching an iPad that was connected to a call with her grandmother, who brought her up.
“Can I thank America now?” asked the singer. “My dreams have come true.”
American Idol has soldiered on through the coronavirus pandemic, with the flashy neon sets and pyrotechnics replaced by gardens, garages and bedrooms.
Just Sam relocated from New York to LA for the live stages of the singing contest. When the show started filming remotely due to the pandemic, she faced a tough choice – either return to Harlem or remain alone in quarantine in LA.
In the end, she chose the latter for her grandmother’s safety.
“I get to stay in California so that my grandmother could be OK and so I don’t risk getting her sick,” she said on the show. “I don’t have much, just my two suitcases that I had packed about two months ago.”
From the subway to stardom
Over the weeks, Just Sam captured viewers’ hearts with her emotional back story, vivacious personality and soul-stirring vocals.
Formerly a subway singer in New York, she broke down in tears while auditioning for the show in Washington DC last year, before stunning the judges with a stirring performance of Andra Day’s Rise Up.
The singer had a tough upbringing. With her mother in jail, she spent time in foster care before being adopted at the age of six by her Liberian grandmother, Elizabeth.
“She made sure we were fed, she made sure we had a roof over our head, she made sure we had clothes on our backs,” she told American Idol.
She took on her stage name at high school after being bullied over her appearance.
“In high school, they didn’t know which category to put me in,” she said in one episode. “I wasn’t a girl, not a boy, but both. And I’m like, ‘Just Sam – it sounds perfect. I think I’m going to use that as my stage name forever.’”
In the final, she faced stiff competition from Arthur Gunn, a Nepalese-American singer whose gritty rock vocals made him one of the favourites to win.
But Sam’s powerful rendition of Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You), by the first ever Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, and an emotional reprise of Day’s Rise Up earned her the public vote.
Rise Up will be released as her first single on Monday.
“My grandmother has been saying that she doesn’t believe that people like us can have their dreams come true,” she said during the show. “This is proof to her!”
The contestants and judges (Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie) were each sent a makeshift rig consisting of three iPhones, a tripod and a ring light to film their segments.
The production team, also in their own homes, advised on camera angles and backdrops, and the resulting footage was edited remotely.
For the finale, contestants were also provided with a confetti cannon, with each of the final five pre-recording one song and performing the other live.
“We put the show together earlier in the week because there are so many factors to it,” Seacrest told People magazine. “It’s technically not possible to do it all live obviously.
“Every once in a while we have to be careful not to step on each other while we’re talking because there’s that delay that we’ve all experienced talking to our families at home on different Zooms and things like that.”
Elsewhere in Sunday’s show, Perry performed her new single Daisies, while Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo delivered a medley of Aretha Franklin hits.
The finale ended with a performance of the 1985 charity anthem We Are The World, led by co-writer Lionel Richie and his fellow judges.
Just Sam also joined the chorus, alongside an all-star group of Idol alumni – including Jordin Sparks, Fantasia, Katharine McPhee, Ruben Studdard and Scotty McCreery – whose faces were virtually projected onto some of America’s most famous landmarks.
Speaking to Billboard, executive producer Trish Kinane, said some of the changes forced upon the team this season would influence next year’s show.
“We’re starting to think about auditions in a serious way now,” Kinane said. “All our big, open calls where you have thousands of people, I guess we’re not going to be able to do that.”
Filming contestants at home could become a more regular feature.
“When we’ve been announcing the results to contestants these past few weeks, they’re at home in a familiar environment with their family and the emotion… has been extraordinary and you don’t get that in the big studio,” she said.
“We’re certainly going to be looking at the emotion that these moments have produced, and how do we capture that again?
“We’ve been forced into it, but I think it’s revealed something rather stripped-back and back to the origins of what Idol was.”
The US has agreed a roughly $25bn (£19.8bn) rescue package for 10 of the country’s biggest airlines as travel plunges due to the coronavirus.
American Airlines, United, Delta and Southwest are among the recipients.
The money is to be used for payroll and will be provided through a combination of low-cost loans and direct grants.
Congress had planned for the aid as part of its roughly $2tn emergency relief bill last month but airlines had been negotiating the deal.
Rescue package Under terms outlined by the US Treasury Department last week, major airlines were expected to repay about 30% of the payroll funds they receive.
Congress had also included conditions when it crafted the emergency aid law, such as prohibitions against involuntary furloughs and bars on reducing worker pay and benefits until the end of September.
The terms also limit share repurchases until the end of September 2021 and executive pay until the end of March 2022.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday said the airline deal would “support American workers and help preserve the strategic importance of the airline industry while allowing for appropriate compensation to the taxpayers”.
“We look forward to working with the airlines to finalise the necessary agreements and disburse funds as quickly as possible.”
Confirmation that the airlines would use the payroll bailout lifted industry shares in after-hours trading, sending American Airlines up more than 8% and United Airlines up more than 7%.
American Airlines boss Doug Parker said his company expects to receive more than $10bn in support, including$5.8bn in payroll funds, of which it expects about $4.1bn is set to be a grant. The firm will also apply for a government loan through a different programme.
“The support our government has entrusted to us carries immense responsibility and an obligation that American Airlines is privileged to undertake,” American chief executive Doug Parker said.
Other companies set to receive aid include Southwest which said it would receive a total of $3.2bn, including $2.3bn in payroll support.
Bailout concerns Global airlines group IATA has forecast more than $300bn in losses related to the coronavirus and warned that some 25 million jobs are at risk.
In the US travel has dropped more than 95%, leading to widespread cancellations, fleet groundings and billions in losses.
However, the industry had faced criticism for spending money in recent years to repurchase shares, instead of investing the money back into the company or it workers.
Politicians have also been worried that bailouts of private firms will lead to controversy as happened during the 2008 financial crisis.
The labour union that represents flight attendants, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International, said it believed Congress had intended airlines to receive all $25bn in payroll support in the form of grants but it nevertheless welcomed news that the industry and the White House had come to terms.
“We are closer than ever to almost a million airline workers knowing they will receive their pay cheque and keep their healthcare and other benefits, at least through September,” the group’s president, Sara Nelson, said. “This is an unprecedented accomplishment – a truly workers-first stimulus.”
At the beginning of April, 250 trades unions and environmental groups signed an open letter opposing unconditional bailouts of airlines.
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