Americans pay more for broadband internet service and have fewer choices than consumers in other countries.
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Thursday, October 29, 2020
How to Install Hadoop Single Node Cluster (Pseudonode) on CentOS 7
Hadoop is an open-source framework that is widely used to deal with Bigdata. Most of the Bigdata/Data Analytics projects are being built up on top of the Hadoop Eco-System. It consists of two-layer, one
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Wednesday, October 28, 2020
How to Monitor Ubuntu Performance Using Netdata
Netdata is a free and opensource real-time monitoring and troubleshooting tool for cloud servers, containers, applications, and on-premise IT infrastructure. It provides high granular and real-time system metrics such as CPU performance, RAM &
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Artificial intelligence model detects asymptomatic Covid-19 infections through cellphone-recorded coughs
Asymptomatic people who are infected with Covid-19 exhibit, by definition, no discernible physical symptoms of the disease. They are thus less likely to seek out testing for the virus, and could unknowingly spread the infection to others.
But it seems those who are asymptomatic may not be entirely free of changes wrought by the virus. MIT researchers have now found that people who are asymptomatic may differ from healthy individuals in the way that they cough. These differences are not decipherable to the human ear. But it turns out that they can be picked up by artificial intelligence.
In a paper published recently in the IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology, the team reports on an AI model that distinguishes asymptomatic people from healthy individuals through forced-cough recordings, which people voluntarily submitted through web browsers and devices such as cellphones and laptops.
The researchers trained the model on tens of thousands of samples of coughs, as well as spoken words. When they fed the model new cough recordings, it accurately identified 98.5 percent of coughs from people who were confirmed to have Covid-19, including 100 percent of coughs from asymptomatics — who reported they did not have symptoms but had tested positive for the virus.
The team is working on incorporating the model into a user-friendly app, which if FDA-approved and adopted on a large scale could potentially be a free, convenient, noninvasive prescreening tool to identify people who are likely to be asymptomatic for Covid-19. A user could log in daily, cough into their phone, and instantly get information on whether they might be infected and therefore should confirm with a formal test.
“The effective implementation of this group diagnostic tool could diminish the spread of the pandemic if everyone uses it before going to a classroom, a factory, or a restaurant,” says co-author Brian Subirana, a research scientist in MIT’s Auto-ID Laboratory.
Subirana’s co-authors are Jordi Laguarta and Ferran Hueto, of MIT’s Auto-ID Laboratory.
Vocal sentiments
Prior to the pandemic’s onset, research groups already had been training algorithms on cellphone recordings of coughs to accurately diagnose conditions such as pneumonia and asthma. In similar fashion, the MIT team was developing AI models to analyze forced-cough recordings to see if they could detect signs of Alzheimer’s, a disease associated with not only memory decline but also neuromuscular degradation such as weakened vocal cords.
They first trained a general machine-learning algorithm, or neural network, known as ResNet50, to discriminate sounds associated with different degrees of vocal cord strength. Studies have shown that the quality of the sound “mmmm” can be an indication of how weak or strong a person’s vocal cords are. Subirana trained the neural network on an audiobook dataset with more than 1,000 hours of speech, to pick out the word “them” from other words like “the” and “then.”
The team trained a second neural network to distinguish emotional states evident in speech, because Alzheimer’s patients — and people with neurological decline more generally — have been shown to display certain sentiments such as frustration, or having a flat affect, more frequently than they express happiness or calm. The researchers developed a sentiment speech classifier model by training it on a large dataset of actors intonating emotional states, such as neutral, calm, happy, and sad.
The researchers then trained a third neural network on a database of coughs in order to discern changes in lung and respiratory performance.
Finally, the team combined all three models, and overlaid an algorithm to detect muscular degradation. The algorithm does so by essentially simulating an audio mask, or layer of noise, and distinguishing strong coughs — those that can be heard over the noise — over weaker ones.
With their new AI framework, the team fed in audio recordings, including of Alzheimer’s patients, and found it could identify the Alzheimer’s samples better than existing models. The results showed that, together, vocal cord strength, sentiment, lung and respiratory performance, and muscular degradation were effective biomarkers for diagnosing the disease.
When the coronavirus pandemic began to unfold, Subirana wondered whether their AI framework for Alzheimer’s might also work for diagnosing Covid-19, as there was growing evidence that infected patients experienced some similar neurological symptoms such as temporary neuromuscular impairment.
“The sounds of talking and coughing are both influenced by the vocal cords and surrounding organs. This means that when you talk, part of your talking is like coughing, and vice versa. It also means that things we easily derive from fluent speech, AI can pick up simply from coughs, including things like the person’s gender, mother tongue, or even emotional state. There’s in fact sentiment embedded in how you cough,” Subirana says. “So we thought, why don’t we try these Alzheimer’s biomarkers [to see if they’re relevant] for Covid.”
“A striking similarity”
In April, the team set out to collect as many recordings of coughs as they could, including those from Covid-19 patients. They established a website where people can record a series of coughs, through a cellphone or other web-enabled device. Participants also fill out a survey of symptoms they are experiencing, whether or not they have Covid-19, and whether they were diagnosed through an official test, by a doctor’s assessment of their symptoms, or if they self-diagnosed. They also can note their gender, geographical location, and native language.
To date, the researchers have collected more than 70,000 recordings, each containing several coughs, amounting to some 200,000 forced-cough audio samples, which Subirana says is “the largest research cough dataset that we know of.” Around 2,500 recordings were submitted by people who were confirmed to have Covid-19, including those who were asymptomatic.
The team used the 2,500 Covid-associated recordings, along with 2,500 more recordings that they randomly selected from the collection to balance the dataset. They used 4,000 of these samples to train the AI model. The remaining 1,000 recordings were then fed into the model to see if it could accurately discern coughs from Covid patients versus healthy individuals.
Surprisingly, as the researchers write in their paper, their efforts have revealed “a striking similarity between Alzheimer’s and Covid discrimination.”
Without much tweaking within the AI framework originally meant for Alzheimer’s, they found it was able to pick up patterns in the four biomarkers — vocal cord strength, sentiment, lung and respiratory performance, and muscular degradation — that are specific to Covid-19. The model identified 98.5 percent of coughs from people confirmed with Covid-19, and of those, it accurately detected all of the asymptomatic coughs.
“We think this shows that the way you produce sound, changes when you have Covid, even if you’re asymptomatic,” Subirana says.
Asymptomatic symptoms
The AI model, Subirana stresses, is not meant to diagnose symptomatic people, as far as whether their symptoms are due to Covid-19 or other conditions like flu or asthma. The tool’s strength lies in its ability to discern asymptomatic coughs from healthy coughs.
The team is working with a company to develop a free pre-screening app based on their AI model. They are also partnerning with several hospitals around the world to collect a larger, more diverse set of cough recordings, which will help to train and strengthen the model’s accuracy.
As they propose in their paper, “Pandemics could be a thing of the past if pre-screening tools are always on in the background and constantly improved.”
Ultimately, they envision that audio AI models like the one they’ve developed may be incorporated into smart speakers and other listening devices so that people can conveniently get an initial assessment of their disease risk, perhaps on a daily basis.
This research was supported, in part, by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.
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Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff won’t be adviser: ‘I’m her partner’
‘She’s got plenty of great people giving her political advice.’
Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff is opening up about hitting the campaign trail with his wife and how he’s preparing to potentially become America’s first-ever Second Gentleman.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, the attorney makes clear that he has no plans to lead Harris’ team of advisers if she becomes vice president.
“I’m her husband, that’s it,” Emhoff said in a recent joint Zoom interview with the California Senator. “She’s got plenty of great people giving her political advice,” he continues. “I’m her partner, I’m her best friend and I’m her husband. And that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to have her back.”
Read More: Kamala Harris encourages Black Americans to vote, support HBCUs at 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards
The couple, both 56, met on a blind date in 2013 and married the next year. Emhoff has two children from his first marriage, son Cole and daughter Ella, who call Harris “Momala.”
“We stay connected all day,” says Emhoff of the days that he and Harris are campaigning separately.
“Hopefully we get to stay together at night,” he says. “And then we really get to catch up and compare notes of what we’re hearing out there in the real world. That helps drive the campaign as we’re really responding to what’s going on out there.”
Read More: Ice Cube explains why he blew off Zoom call with Kamala Harris: ‘I want to get things done’
Emhoff and Harris have each embarked on virtual tours amid the pandemic.
“When we do have dinner together — it depends, because we’re going to different states a lot— we meet up at night. Sometimes, it’s very late at night and one of us is scarfing down food that the other has prepared,” Harris says. “It has been often the case that one of us is eating at the table while the other is bringing the food and then listening to the day.”
If Emhoff becomes “second gentleman,” he says “justice and access to justice” are issues that he can get behind.
“Right now, I’m just thinking about, let’s get through this election and let’s win this election,” he says. “I really just want to focus on winning this election.”
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Trump says Miles Taylor should be prosecuted, fired for ‘Anonymous’ op-ed
‘It turned out to be a low-level staffer, a sleazebag, who has never worked in the White House.’
Miles Taylor, former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, has identified himself as the “anonymous” writer behind a New York Times op-ed that was highly critical of President Donald Trump.
An earlier report on theGRIO noted that the identity of Anonymous had been hidden until Taylor, an outspoken Trump critic, tweeted Wednesday that he wrote the 2018 op-ed in The New York Times and a subsequent book.
Trump responded by calling Taylor a “low-level staffer” and a “sleazebag” who should be “prosecuted” for penning the op-ed.
“It turned out to be a low-level staffer, a sleazebag, who has never worked in the White House,” Trump said at a rally in Goodyear, Ariz. TheHill reports.
“Anonymous was a nobody, a disgruntled employee who was quickly removed from his job a long time ago for, they tell me, incompetence,” Trump said.
“I have no idea who he is,” he added.
“He worked with the — listen to this — the fake news New York Times, and he is an employee of Google, he works for Google,” Trump continued. “The whole thing was just one more giant hoax from the Washington swamp and a corrupt special interest group. I’ll tell you what. This guy, in my opinion, he should be prosecuted.”
Read More: Trump campaign website hacked to say Americans ‘have no choice’ in election
Taylor previously denied being anonymous in an interview last year with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“There was an op-ed, there was a book, by someone calling themselves ‘Anonymous.’ Are you aware of who that is?,” Cooper asked Taylor, per TheHill.
“I’m not,” Taylor replied. “That was a parlor game that happened in Washington, D.C., of a lot of folks trying to think of who that might be. I’ve got my own thoughts about who that might be —”
“You’re not ‘Anonymous?’ ” said Cooper.
“I wear a mask for two things Anderson: Halloween and pandemics. So no,” Taylor replied.
Taylor left the Trump administration last year and currently works as a contributor for CNN.
“I witnessed Trump’s inability to do his job over the course of two-and-a-half years. Everyone saw it, though most were hesitant to speak up for fear of reprisals,” Taylor wrote Wednesday.
“So when I left the Administration I wrote A Warning, a character study of the current Commander in Chief and a caution to voters that it wasn’t as bad as it looked inside the Trump Administration — it was worse,” he added.
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Sit Back, Relax and Stand Up For Girls!
By Hollie Harper
Although I was 26 when I first got into stand-up, the idea of making people laugh had been brewing inside of me for as far back as I can remember. Growing up, Joan Rivers was my idol, and I would watch her performances every chance I got. While my family never fully understood my obsession, they supported me and even bought me one of her tapes for Christmas when I was 15. I wore that tape down and had every word of her monologues and jokes perfectly memorized, many of which still live with me today.
As I grew up, I spent every spare moment writing jokes. While working as a waitress I’d find myself writing jokes between taking orders and delivering food to my customers. Every situation was an opportunity to write something funny. My older sister was finally the one to push me to admit not only was this my passion, but also my future.
This was scary for so many reasons. While Joan was my idol, she was the exception to the rule, as most comedians were men. Even less was my chance of seeing anyone who looked like me, a woman of color. My choices were to give up before I began or keep fighting and working for my place in the industry that I knew I deserved.
My once in a lifetime chance finally came one night while working as a waitress in a blues bar. The host didn’t show up for the open mic. Knowing this was my ‘do or die’ moment I decided to take my shot and in between taking orders and delivering drinks I manned the stage and this stand-up comedian was born.
Becoming a stand-up is a mixed blessing. I love connecting with the audience and making people laugh. There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing people having a good time because of what you’re doing. What I didn’t love was the feeling that stand-up comedy was a ‘Boys Club’. No matter how hard I worked I felt that I would never be part of that club, and after three years, I transitioned to sketch comedy. I spent the next ten years honing my craft and though I loved sketch comedy, my first true love was still stand-up.
I know they say that ‘lightning doesn’t strike twice’ but for me it actually did. At one of my sketch shows, the comedian was a no show and I once again couldn’t waste the opportunity and opened the show. I continued there for many years but still felt hesitant to call myself a stand-up until just five years ago when I got the courage to try out my jokes at an open mic for an important upcoming show and thought “I can do this!”
Two years ago, while discussing names of comics for a show a friend was shooting, he turned to me and said “What about you?” The faith he had in me was what I needed to go back to the platform I loved so dearly.
Seeing more women, especially young women of color in stand-up is extremely important. No girl should ever think that there isn’t a place for her because of her gender, nor do I want to hear the phrase ‘women are just as funny as men’ ever again. It’s 2020, we can do whatever we want no matter our gender, race, sexuality or any other type of identifier, as long as we have the passion, talent and desire. However, many girls today are still being told they are not as funny just because they are girls, and unfortunately believe it.
I found Stand Up! Girls 18 months ago when I was introduced to Bryn Bowen, a board member, at the Black Women in Comedy Festival. I remember attending my first show and tearing up thinking about how I could have used this in 1985. It was not until I was in my late 20’s that I was able to finally see an all-female stand-up show.
Stand Up! Girls is a nonprofit organization, founded by Holly Weiss, whose core mission is to educate, inspire and equip girls from underserved communities with the communication skills necessary to succeed in and lead male-dominated workplaces. Through developing and performing stand-up comedy, the girls gain confidence and learn to ‘own the room’. The hope is that by learning these skills at a young age, young girls will feel empowered to seek out positions of leadership in settings like a courtroom, operating room or boardroom.
It was a no brainer to say yes when I was offered the opportunity to become an instructor. It has been an honor to give these girls a chance to find their voice and mentor them as they hone in on their craft in a nurturing and welcoming environment. It has been an absolute pleasure to watch these girls transform into confident young ladies and our future leaders!
Stand Up! Girls will be hosting a virtual fundraising event on October 29th at 7:30 pm EST. The fundraiser, Sit Back, Relax and Stand Up for Girls, consists of an at-home movie showing of All Joking Aside, followed by a Q&A hosted by award-winning comedian and writer, Judy Gold.
The Q&A panel will include the film’s lead actress Raylene Harewood and director Shannon Harwood, Stand Up! Girls program participants from Cristo Rey H.S. (Brooklyn), Stuyvesant (Manhattan) and Democracy Prep (Harlem) and a group of female comedians including myself!
Topics to be discussed are female empowerment, gender bias, mentoring, and what we can learn from bombing on stage.
Founded in 2018 by successful professional women and people of color, Stand Up! Girls has enrolled 30-50 girls a semester across New York City. Each program consists of 8-12 weeks of instruction and culminates in a performance showcase at a comedy club in NYC, and for now, on Zoom. To learn how to get involved, visit http://standupgirlsnyc.org.
All Joking Aside will be available for rental and sale beginning November 13 on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and other major platforms.
By teaching girls stand-up comedy we teach them to tap into their voice, speak and be HEARD.
Because in the words of Kamala Harris, “Excuse me, I’m still talking.”
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Iyanla Vanzant says upcoming ‘Fix My Life’ season will be her last
The inspirational speaker opened up about the upcoming season of her self-help show on OWN
Iyanla Vanzant announced new details on the upcoming season of Fix My Life including that the long-running series is near the end.
Read More: Iyanla Vanzant on why the Black people don’t want to address our issues: ‘For us, it’s cultural’
“This is my last season. This is my legacy season, I’m out. We out. 2020,” she announced during a virtual press conference. The series is filming its final season. For Iyanla the new season brings new challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This season we deal with the massive breakdowns that have occurred in families and relationships as a result of the pandemic, [and] as a result of the shutdown. We’re dealing with some very compelling issues,” she said.
The seventh season, set to debut on OWN on Saturday, Oct. 31 will feature reality star Shay Johnson as Vanzant attempts to help her and her family through longstanding issues. Comedian Luenell is also a guest this season. The award-winning spiritual life coach made efforts to break down and then build up the relationship between the stand-up star and her mother.
Vanzant said that she is honored to share the stories of each individual guest who choose to open up and tell her their truth.
“I salute and honor each and every guest that comes forward to tell their story out loud. Imagine, most people sleep with people they don’t tell the truth to,” Vanzant said, laughing. “These people are coming to me, a stranger in front of a national audience to tell the deepest darkest most intimate issues of their life and they had to have a swab stuck up their nose to be able to do it.”
Season seven kicks off with a 2-hour premiere with Johnson and her family. Vanzant shared a preview of the episode when the reality star is faced with telling a hard truth. Her family joined her on Fix My Life in an attempt to get healing.
The six-time New York Times best-selling author said most guests are excited to undergo her process but often end up learning the problem is different than what they previously believed.
“They often come thinking the problem is one thing when it’s something else. When we begin to explore the real core and root of the problem, they’re rather shocked and horrified, and sometimes resistant and always afraid,” she said. “They know that it’s going to take time. They know that they are responsible for their own healing. They’re not coming to me, to really fix anything. They’re coming to me to get guidance, support, and information.”
Her approach to delicate situations is outlined in her on-screen practices as well as her books. Vanzant shared her process is simply based on her observation of truth and divine doctrine.
“I do the same thing in my on the show that I’ve done in my books, which is telling the truth, based on spiritual principles and universal law and provide people with the skills, the tools, the information. We have very clear intention for Iyanla Fix My Life to entertain, to inspire, [and] to help people recognize what they do and how they do it that keeps them from getting what they want,” she said.
Read More: Will Packer encourages couples to watch new series ‘Put A Ring On It’ together
“The only thing that I do on the show is act out things that I’ve been writing about and teaching for 38 years…Where’s my Nobel Peace Prize?” she laughed.
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Nevada dad accused of throwing newborn baby off balcony during argument
Clarence Martin, Jr. allegedly suffered from “mental issues.”
A two-month old is gone too soon.
A newborn was allegedly thrown from the second-floor balcony by her father on Saturday around 4 a.m. in Las Vegas. Clarence Martin, Jr. was arguing with the infant’s mother, Nicole Poole, when he snatched her away to the balcony of their apartment and didn’t return with her moments later, according to People.
When Poole discovered that her fiancée had not returned with the baby she ran to get her and then called 911. When officers arrived at the scene they discovered the mother performing CPR on the baby who eventually passed away due to blunt force trauma.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the baby’s funeral costs.
The page reads:
“It is with extreme sadness our family is needing to reach out, so we can properly bury our precious 7-week old baby girl London. We were completely blindsided and are still in shock this is even a reality. Our sweet London was horrifically taken from us, and all at once, all our lives have been changed forever.
Our beloved daughter, little sister, granddaughter and niece was born August 26, 2020. Her life was tragically cut short in the early morning of October 24th, 2020.”
According to the Las Vegas Journal-Review, Poole told police Martin suffered from “mental issues” and had not slept in days.
Reports say the argument started between the couple, who had been together four years, when Martin entered the bedroom and began kicking Poole and baby London. Poole took the baby into the living room but Martin followed and that’s when he snatched the baby away and went to the balcony.
Martin fled in Poole’s Mercedes Benz before the police arrived but not before he also allegedly started a fire that killed the family dog.
After crashing the car several times in his escape, police ultimately located Martin on the tarmac of McCarran International airport wearing a TSA security shirt. He is being charged with first-degree arson, torture of an animal and battery on a protected person and open murder.
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Revolt’s new Vote or Die! campaign is not exactly like its predecessor
This is not your mother’s Vote or Die! campaign.
It was the year 2004 and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs was touring the country in a T-shirt with the words Vote or Die! across the front, encouraging young people to vote in the presidential election. It was the campaign heard around the world. Diddy was conducting interviews on a private jet and celebrities like Mary J. Blige were right beside him encouraging youth to vote. You couldn’t turn the TV on without news pundits bashing or loving the hip-hop-driven campaign or your favorite celebrity donning the shirt, pushing for your vote.
Read More: Kamala Harris encourages Black Americans to vote, support HBCUs at 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards
And it worked. In 2004, 51% of young people between the ages of 18-29 voted in the 2004 presidential election in comparison to the 42.3% that voted in 2000. But this new Vote or Die! campaign feels different, less bling bling, and more down to earth. There are no jets or large gatherings (that could also have something to do with the coronavirus). The shirts are back with a slight facelift and if you check the web, the coverage is there.
This time around Diddy’s media company, Revolt is spearheading the initiative. As of June 1, the company has redirected its focus from “zero social justice content to a 100% social justice content.” They have been conducting town halls and surveys to figure out what makes Gen Z and millennials tick as they push a redesigned voting initiative which will continue after the Presidential election.
“If we are going to truly mobilize this generation we are going to have to shift to a format that works for them,” Detavio Samuels, chief operating officer at Revolt, told theGrio.
He says the company is redesigning itself to fully serve the younger generation by feeding them information in the way they will enjoy it, short in form, and from folks who look like them. They are arming the youngest generations with knowledge and tools to understand that the fight for the next presidential election begins the day after Nov. 3 and that local elections are just as important.
But it wasn’t the election that sparked the change. It wasn’t an outrageous tweet from Donald Trump or an off-handed comment from Joe Biden. It was the brutal death of a Minneapolis man at the hands of a police officer that redirected Revolt as a network and revived one of the most popular campaigns in modern history. His name was George Floyd.
“Ultimately after George Floyd, Revolt made a major pivot to social justice,” says Samuels. “That fundamentally changed the DNA of Revolt to social justice and the flight for Black liberation is now embedded into who we are as a brand.”
He adds that voting is not a silver bullet in the fight for change but a key weapon in the arsenal along with economic empowerment, protesting, and activism.
The brand has done its research. They conducted a study and surveyed a thousand 18-34-year-olds across the country in order to learn how they feel about the election. They found 28% of young people are not voting because neither candidate represents their interests, both of them have sexual assault allegations looming or they are just too exhausted to vote.
“There is this gut to want to bash them [nonvoters] but we have never really as a culture dove into why they don’t vote,” says Lynzie Riebling, VP, insights & strategy at Revolt, who led the study. “Instead of just making assumptions that they are irresponsible or arrogant let’s take a moment and zoom in on some of those things.”
Another find is that 14% of young people cannot vote due to ‘high barriers.’ This group makes up those who cannot vote due to citizenship or who have mental restrictions.
Riebling explains that if you are deemed mentally incapacitated you lose your right to vote. That could include a young person who has slight autism or a learning disorder. “My big goal for the study is to help people have empathy for this generation,” she adds.
This Vote or Die! campaign feels different because it is. Samuels says the 2004 Vote or Die! was about making voting cool, but now it’s easy to say the mission is richer.
“We realize who we put in office at the national or local level has a say on abortion rights, gun control, police brutality, systemic racism and things that actually impact young folks’ survival and once we were clear on the mission and the purpose we knew we had to show up at the election.”
Read More: Ice Cube explains why he blew off Zoom call with Kamala Harris: ‘I want to get things done’
Samuels says despite the strategy upgrade there is one aspect of the campaign that they couldn’t change, the name.
“Vote or Die! has a sense of urgency and a push for survival, and it felt like there is no name that could compete with that.”
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Adele dating British rapper Skepta, sources say
The Grammy-winning star is rumored to be dating the grime rapper and fellow Londoner
Pop star Adele has a new look and a new lease on life. But now sources are claiming the singer may also have a new beau.
Read More: Tamar Braxton says ‘not at any point’ was relationship with David Adefeso abusive
According to People, a source connected to the 32-year-old songstress confirms she has been quietly dating British rapper Skepta, 38, (real name Joseph Junior Adenuga), and that the relationship may be getting serious.
The anonymous informant goes on to explain that “things have been heating up,” for the couple and that “They run in the same circles in London, and she’s having fun.”
“Adele texts me all the time and keeps me in check,” Skepta — who has a 2-year-old daughter, River, from a previous relationship — revealed during a 2016 interview with the Evening Standard. “She speaks to me about how things are going.”
Since then, their connection – forged over not just music but their children, and a shared affinity for their home neighborhood of Tottenham, London – has reportedly blossomed into something more than friendship.
Adele has “been a lot more social and opened up quite a bit,” the source continues of her life in the wake of her divorce from husband Simon Konecki in September 2019 after seven years together.
Last weekend, while hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time Adele, who seems lighter both figuratively and literally, poked fun at her drastic new appearance, saying, “I know I look really, really different since you last saw me.”
“Because of all the COVID restrictions and the travel bans, I had to travel light and could only bring half of me,” she continued. “And this is the half I chose.”
READ MORE: Ice Cube explains why he blew off Zoom call with Kamala Harris: ‘I want to get things done’
Touching on that, the insider said Adele has remained committed to her new diet and fitness regimen which includes Pilates, weight training and other targeted exercises.
“She is still very motivated because she feels great,” the source concluded.
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Florida teen sentenced to 25 years for crimes including fatally shooting K-9 dog
Florida teen Jhamel Malik Paskel will spend the next two decades in jail after being charged as an adult for various crimes including killing a police dog
A Jacksonville, Florida teenager will spend more than two decades in jail after he was tried as an adult for a crime spree that included the death of a police dog.
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According to Jacksonville.com, Jhamel Paskel was 17 in 2018 when he carjacked two women at gunpoint at a gas station, kidnapped them, and made one drive to another location. The OnStar device in the woman’s Chevrolet Cruze helped lead police to their location and Paskel was surrounded once OnStar remotely turned off the car’s engine.
When Paskel tried to flee, Fang, a K-9 dog, belonging to Ofc. Matt Herrera of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was sent after him. Paskel shot and killed the dog. Ultimately, Paskel was captured by another officer’s dog.
Now 19, Paskel ultimately pled guilty in the case and received five years for killing the dog and 20 years for the other five charges. He will have to serve 10 years probation after he’s released. A judge said Paskel may be able to do just five years of probation if terms, including participating in a diversionary program and staying employed, are met.
Though Paskel was only sentenced to five years for killing Fang in 2019, the Florida legislature made it easier to sentence people to longer terms who kill animals who work with law enforcement or first responders, reports News4Jax.com. The crime is now a second-degree felony with a maximum sentence of 15 years, up from five originally.
Though his mother offered testimony that she’d tried to help her son with learning disabilities and a drug problem, his sentence was still 10 years longer than what his defense attorney asked for.
“I would like to offer my apologies and condolences to Officer Herrera for not only the killing of his K-9 partner Fang, but his best friend,” Paskel said in court in a sentencing hearing earlier this month. “I want to apologize to the victims for scaring them that night. And I owe my mother the biggest apology for letting her down.”
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Though Paskel had the option to go to trial as any criminal suspect has the right to do, 94% of state criminal cases are settled by plea bargain, not a jury trial, according to The Atlantic.
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Biden says ‘no excuse for looting, violence’ amid Philadelphia unrest
‘I think to be able to protest is a totally legitimate, totally reasonable.’
After he voted in Delaware on Wednesday, Joe Biden denounced the violence and looting in Philadelphia amid protests over the police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr..
“There is no excuse whatsoever for the looting and the violence. None whatsoever,” Biden said outside of a polling station in Wilmington.
“I think to be able to protest is a totally legitimate, totally reasonable,” he continued.
Wallace Jr. was fatally shot by police officers Monday afternoon after he allegedly approached them armed with a knife.
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theGRIO previously reported, the incident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. when two Philadelphia Police officers responded to a call in West Philadelphia about a man with a weapon. They arrived at the scene and ordered Wallace to drop the knife but say he “advanced towards” them.
Officers then fired “several times,” wounding Wallace, who was driven to a nearby hospital by one of the policemen and then died.
Protesters took to the city streets Monday night to denounce the shooting, resulting in smashed windows at businesses and at least one police vehicle being set on fire. Over 25 officers have been reportedly injured by bricks and other thrown objects. A 50-year-old female officer was hospitalized after being struck by a speeding truck.
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Walter Wallace Sr. has condemned the violence.
“I don’t condone no violence — tearing up the city, looting in the stores and all this chaos,” Wallace Sr. said on Tuesday. “I need everybody to have respect for my family and my son to stop this violence and chaos.”
Biden co-signed his remarks on Wednesday.
“As the victim’s father said, ‘do not do this. You’re not helping, you’re hurting. You’re hurting my son,'” he said.
Wallace, Sr. told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his son was hit at least 10 times by officers’ bullets.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the killing raises “difficult questions that must be answered.”
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New York man arrested for strangling pregnant girlfriend, caught on camera
The body of Vanessa Pierre was found early Friday morning along an expressway in Queens.
A Long Island man has been charged with second-degree murder for allegedly strangling his pregnant girlfriend and dumping her body near an expressway in Queens.
An MTA bus driver discovered the body of Vanessa Pierre, 29, early Friday morning along Horace Harding Expressway in Bayside. She was wearing pajamas and gray sweatpants were wrapped around her neck, PEOPLE reports. Her family said she was six-months pregnant and her unborn baby girl could not be saved.
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Investigators say 29-year-old Goey Charles strangled Pierre and the heinous crime was caught on surveillance video (see Twitter clip above).
A statement from the Queens District Attorney’s Office alleges that the footage shows Charles pulling over on the expressway just before 3 a.m. and attacking Pierre, whom he’d been dating for more than a year.
“Charles exited the driver’s seat of a 2019 white Dodge Challenger, which is registered in the name of the victim, Vanessa Pierre,” the statement reads. “He moved to the backseat where Ms. Pierre could be seen moving on the video footage. And then, soon afterwards, all movement stopped and the victim appeared to lay across the backseat motionless.”
Over an hour later, “the defendant is observed exiting the vehicle and then allegedly dragging the pregnant woman out of the car and dropping her body onto the sidewalk.”
Charles is accused of leaving his girlfriend’s “dying body on the side of the roadway,” and fleeing the scene in his car.
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By the time first responders arrived, Pierre was dead, according to the report.
“This is a heartbreaking case,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “A pregnant woman was allegedly killed by this defendant, the father of her unborn child. Her family is devastated. The defendant is in custody and will answer for his alleged actions.”
If convicted on the charge of second-degree murder, Charles faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Pierre’s family has launched a GoFundMe to cover burial expenses.
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Byron Allen buys two over-the-air broadcasts TV networks from MGM
Allen’s empire continues to grow as he expands his media company’s portfolio of TV offerings
Byron Allen‘s Allen Media Group has purchased two over-the-air broadcast TV networks, This TV and Light TV, in an acquisition from MGM.
The networks broadcast 24 hours a day and are available via over-the-air, cable and online for free nationwide. Both This TV and Light TV program a variety of MGM’s film and television content.
This TV, launched in 2008, offers films and other limited general entertainment content in the form of classic television series, while Light TV, which was founded in 2016, is a free broadcast network featuring family-friendly movies and television series.
Allen, who is also the owner of theGrio, has now expanded his media empire to a total of ten networks, including The Weather Channel, Cars.TV, Comedy.TV, ES.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, MyDestination.TV, Pets.TV and Recipe.TV.
“I am happy to announce that Allen Media Group has achieved another critical milestone by successfully acquiring two over-the-air broadcast television networks This TV and Light TV from MGM,” said Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Entertainment Studios and Allen Media Group.
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“We are going to continue to invest a substantial amount of capital into the programming, marketing, and distribution of these networks. We are strong believers in broadcasting and free-streaming direct-to-consumer platforms.”
Chris Ottinger, MGM’s president of World Wide Television Distribution & Acquisitions said, “Byron Allen is an innovator and has built a tremendous portfolio of networks within his organization. With a reach of over 81 million households, these networks will be great additions to his Allen Media Group.”
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