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The vinyls for Tyler, the Creator‘s new album CHROMAKOPIA have already landed in the hands of fans and they’ve discovered a cool easter egg. Not only is there a bonus track entitled “Told Me/Turned Out Fine,” there’s also a version of the ScHoolboy Q and Santigold-assisted “Thought I Was Dead” with Playboi Carti on it. […]
The teenager accused in a stabbing rampage that killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England has been charged with producing the deadly poison ricin and also faces a terror offense for possessing a jihadi training manual, police said Tuesday.
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Axel Rudakubana, 18, who is charged with murdering three girls and stabbing 10 other people on July 29, produced ricin that was found in a search of his home, Merseyside Police said. Police also found a computer file with an al-Qaida training manual titled: “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants.”
Ricin is derived from the castor bean plant and is one of the world’s deadliest toxins. It has no known vaccine or antidote and kills cells by preventing them from making proteins.
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Rudakubana had been charged in August with the stabbings in the community of Southport, which police on Tuesday stressed have not been classed as a “terrorist incident” because the motive is not yet known. Police issued the new charges of producing a poison and possessing a terrorism manual on Tuesday.
The stabbing occurred on the first week of summer vacation as about two dozen young girls danced to music by Swift at Hart Space, a community center that hosted everything from pregnancy workshops to women’s boot camps.
Witnesses described hearing screams and seeing children covered in blood running from the studio that was behind a row of homes on a residential street.
Joel Verite, a window cleaner on his lunch break, told Sky News at the time that he was passing by when he saw a woman covered in blood slumped over a car who screamed: “He’s killing kids over there.”
Verite saw bloody children in the woman’s car and ran in the direction she pointed, entering the studio and being startled to lock eyes with the suspect in a hooded tracksuit holding a knife at the top of the stairs.
“All I saw was a knife and I thought: ‘There are more people in there,’” Verite said. “But I was scared for myself and I wanted to help people. So I came outside and I was screaming because I knew where he was.”
Police have said that the first officers who arrived were shocked to find so many casualties.
Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England.
He also has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were seriously wounded. Leanne Lucas, who led the class, and John Hayes, who worked in a business nearby and ran to help, were credited by police with trying to protect the children.
The stabbings fueled far-right activists to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims after social media falsely identified the suspect — then unnamed — as an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.
Within hours of a community vigil to mourn the Southport victims, an unruly mob attacked a mosque near the dance studio and tossed bricks and beer bottles at law enforcement officers and set fire to a police van.
Rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland that lasted a week. More than 1,200 people were arrested for the disorder and hundreds have been jailed.
Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, police said later. British media reported that he was raised Christian.
He is due to appear by videolink Wednesday in Westminster Magistrates’ Court. His trial on murder charges was provisionally scheduled for January.
Dr. Renu Bindra of the U.K. Health Security Agency said Tuesday that “there was no evidence that any victims, responders or members of the public were exposed to ricin either as part of the incident or afterwards,” and the risk to the public was low. No ricin was found at the site of the stabbing attack.
The United States Chemical Warfare Service began studying ricin as a weapon during World War I. During World War II, Britain developed, but never used, a ricin bomb.
Ricin is estimated to be 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide and can be fatal when inhaled, ingested, injected or swallowed. Two millionths of an ounce — roughly the weight of a grain of salt — is enough to kill an adult.
Several people have gone on trial around the world in recent years charged with attempting to use ricin for murder or terror plots, but examples of its succesful fatal use are rare.
Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov was killed in London in 1978 when a pinhead-sized pellet laced with ricin was injected into his thigh – reportedly by a rigged umbrella.
Fat Joe is sitting down with Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries for an episode of Fat Joe Talks. A trailer was released on Tuesday (Oct. 29), which finds the Terror Squad boss preaching the importance of healthcare to the politician.
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“The health problem in America, like we’ve lost Frankie Beverly, Batman, Fat Man Scoop, Rich Homie Quan, rest in peace,” he said while citing recent musicians that have passed. “Freddie Jackson, the R&B singer, said he got kidney problems. You know, Black and Latino, man, we really got to take care of our health as much as possible.”
Jeffries believes health-related issues stem from urban communities having a lack of access to healthier food options and premium healthcare, which can lead to diseases plaguing the community.
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“We got to deal with the gun violence problem, but when you actually take a step back, there are more people dying from lack of access to healthy food, lack of access to healthcare, and then what that lack of access to a healthy diet then yields, in terms of diabetes, heart disease, respiratory illness, certain forms of cancer, and then without the access to the healthcare to deal with those chronic, debilitating conditions, you’ve got people passing away prematurely,” he stated.
Healthcare price transparency is a pertinent issue for Fat Joe as he’s continued to speak up in support of U.S. citizens while targeting the price gouging pharma companies. He previously pushed to help pass the Healthcare Accountability & Consumer Protection Act in New York.
Ahead of the 2024 election, as a spokesperson for Power to the Patients, Joe teamed up with unions and workers to launch a PSA calling on elected officials to stop the price gouging and “robbing all of us.”
“[I] also want to commend you for you know, your work in the healthcare space. Healthcare Transparency Act, incredibly important to getting us to a much better place,” Jeffries told Joe. “You have people getting access to the affordable and high quality healthcare that they need. I say often when I’m back home talking to folks about a variety of issues, that in urban America and Black and Latino communities, in particular in our communities, more people die from drive throughs than drive bys.”
The full Fat Joe Talks episode will premiere on Starz on Friday at midnight ET. Look for Babyface to appear on next week’s episode for an exclusive sit-down with The Bronx native in Los Angeles.
Watch the clip below.
Soulshine, a benefit concert to aid relief and recovery efforts in Western North Carolina and Florida in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, was announced on Tuesday (Oct. 29).
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The all-star event will take place at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 24 and features Dave Matthews Band, Warren Haynes Band (whose hometown is Asheville), Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, and Goose. The evening also includes very special guests Trey Anastasio, Mavis Staples, Robert Randolph, Joe Russo, Trombone Shorty, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and more to be announced.
An online ticket presale for members of the DMB Warehouse Fan Association will begin on Tuesday, October 29, at 3 p.m. ET at davematthewsband.com/warehouse. Presale tickets for Warren Haynes Band fan club will be available Thursday, October 31, at 10 a.m. ET at warrenhaynes.net/tour. General on sale for tickets begins on Friday, November 1 at 10 a.m. ET.
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“The damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene to my beloved home of Asheville and all of Western North Carolina has truly devastated me,” shares Haynes. “Every year, it is my honor to host the Christmas Jam and give back to the community there, but this year, we need to do things a bit differently. I’m thrilled to partner with my good friends in Dave Matthews Band and so many other musician friends to bring ‘SOULSHINE’ to the iconic Madison Square Garden and help raise money for all those affected by both hurricanes throughout North Carolina and Florida. My heart is with you all and we look forward to creating a really special night!”
Net proceeds will benefit the Soulshine Concert Fund at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, which will benefit Habitat for Humanity’s 2024 Hurricane Recovery fund and will also support a variety of non-profits on the ground in North Carolina and Florida. Visit soulshinemsg.com to learn more or make a donation.
Newrez, a leading mortgage lender and servicer, and subsidiary of Rithm Capital Corp., is supporting Soulshine’s efforts and pledges $500,000 to help the communities it serves recover and rebuild from Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
Souldshine is produced by Dayglo Presents in conjunction with Live Nation.
Michael Hanson
How was school today? The kids at an elementary school in Brooklyn got to tell their parents that they had a substitute teacher — one that really put them to work. BLACKPINK‘s LISA showed up at PS 282 and spent the day teaching a group of students some “Rockstar” moves. LISA’s day teaching is shown […]
Give Joni Mitchell an assist on Hillary Clinton’s new book.
Appearing at the Detroit Opera House on Monday (Oct. 28) to promote Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, the former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State told her interviewer, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, that her eighth book (fifth as the sole author) was inspired by watching Mitchell sing “Both Sides Now” — the hit song that gave Clinton’s book its title — at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in February.
“I saw her and she sang ‘Both Sides Now,’ which is one of my all-time favorite songs,” said Clinton, who suggested the “young people” in the crowd Google it. “It’s about life and love and I listened to her sing it. She’d had a cerebral aneurysm [in 2015] and there she was back on stage singing that incredible anthem about what you think of life, what you think of love at different points of your own journey. I heard that song in my twenties. Obviously I’ve heard it in every decade of my life, and I wanted to take a moment to write some essays about where I see my life now, and particularly about my family, about my friends, about some of these experiences I’ve had, like being First Lady of our country, but also politics, which I care deeply about.”
Clinton added that while some early interviews about the book — whose title was taken from a “Both Sides Now” lyric — were about politics and elections, “I was really thinking more about the people who have been important in my life, the relationships…. It was more a reflection of, ‘OK, I’m this age. At this point in my life, what’s really important?’”
While the nearly 90-minute conversation hit on expected political topics — Clinton’s support of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her disdain for former President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement — she also spoke about her recent work in the arts, including co-producing the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Suffs (which is about the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. that led to the 19th Amendment, which provided women with the right to vote), and her HiddenLight Productions company with daughter Chelsea, whose releases include the Emmy Award-winning documentary In Her Hands and the new doc Zurawski V. Texas about abortion bans in that state. She said Suffs, which is slated to close Jan. 5 on Broadway, has been “absolutely thrilling” and will be heading out on a national tour in the near future.
Clinton also has a Grammy Award in the best spoken word album category, which led Benson to point out that she’s only an Oscar away from being an EGOT. “I don’t know when or if there’s an Academy Award in the future,” Clinton responded, “but I just am so committed to storytelling…. We want to tell stories, we want to be part of the truth-telling part of America… and tell stories about what’s going on in America, in our lives, and particularly women’s lives.”
Clinton did say we should not hold our collective breath for a future Grammy in a musical category.
“I love to sing, but nobody loves to listen,” she confessed, noting that she would sing to Chelsea when she was a baby, with “Moon River” a particular favorite. “This went on for 14, 15, 16 months, something like that. I’d sing to her. Then when she learned to talk…Y’know, people think the trauma of my life is the 2016 election [Clinton won the popular vote but lost to Trump in the Electoral College]. There is that. But (Chelsea) took her little finger and put it on my mouth and said, ‘No sing, mommy.’”
She has, however, continued to sing to her three grandchildren – “When my daughter’s not around.”
Billboard Japan’s Women in Music initiative launched in 2022 to celebrate artists, producers and executives who have made significant contributions to music and inspired other women through their work, in the same spirit as Billboard’s annual Women in Music celebration that has continued since 2007. This interview series featuring female players in the Japanese entertainment industry is one of the highlights of Japan’s WIM project, with the first 30 sessions published as a “Billboard Japan Presents” collection by writer Rio Hirai.
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Ayaka Wada chatted with Hirai for the latest installment of the WIM interview series. The former member of the Hello! Project idol group Angerme currently continues her music career as a solo artist while also actively sharing her thoughts on art and feminism. The 30-year-old elaborated on the discomfort she felt as a member of a popular idol group and on why she is vocal about changing the norms of the industry and society now that she is free to speak her mind.
You began your career as an idol performer when you were 15 years old. How did you end up going down that road?
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I auditioned for Hello! Project when I was in fourth grade and started out as a trainee. After five years of training, I made my debut as a member of S/mileage in 2010. The group later changed its name to Angerme and I also experienced being the leader.
Before you actually made it, did you long to become an idol?
You know what, I never aspired to become an idol. My dad is a doting parent, and he was like, “My child is cute so she’ll be accepted anywhere,” and kept sending in applications without asking me. I was shy around new people and bashful, so I was like, “I can’t stand on stage and sing and dance!” and was thinking of quitting when I entered junior high. But as I was thinking how I didn’t want to get in trouble with my parents, I ended up making my debut, and before I knew it, I’d come to a point where I couldn’t turn back. My environment changed after my debut and I had to interact with more people, so that made me more responsible. I felt that as long as there were people paying to see us, we had to make sure we didn’t mess up.
So you ended up becoming an idol group member without really intending to. Were you able to fit in with the image of “idols” that people around you expected?
Being “idol-like” has a lot in common with the concept of “femininity.” You have to keep your legs closed and not cross them, you have to keep smiling, you’re discouraged from expressing your own opinions and talking about politics or religion is strictly forbidden. It felt like society’s old-fashioned gender roles were still deeply rooted in the industry and being expected to be idol-like, i.e. feminine, made me feel more and more uncomfortable. So I kept thinking that I had to overcome this somehow or I wouldn’t be able to live as myself as I continued my idol career.
Did you ever feel uncomfortable with your femininity outside of your work as an idol?
I used to go to Tokyo from my hometown when I had work, but moved there when I entered university. From then on, it felt like I’d been thrown into society, and I became more and more aware of my gender as a woman. I was attending a women’s university and used to wear whatever I liked without worrying about how men saw me, but was often approached on the street at night when wearing pink or floral clothes and it was scary… I thought, “Maybe this is the wrong way to dress,” and started wearing jeans and T-shirts, and wasn’t approached on the street when I did so. I thought this was connected to the discomfort I felt about femininity. But at the time, I wasn’t able to verbalize that I was being forced to conform to the idea of femininity that people around me had in their minds, and it’s like I’ve always been searching for and researching the true nature of the discomfort I felt in my life and in my idol career.
How did you figure out the true nature of the discomfort you were feeling?
I learned about feminism at university. It was a women’s university, so there was a lot of emphasis on women’s education, and there were classes that helped us think about how to build a career that would allow us to become independent. In the French art classes I was taking, I also learned about how artists had been treated according to their gender. The biggest shock I got was when I learned the famous line, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex in a French literature class and realized that this was the reason of my discomfort. After that, I went to the library and read all kinds of books on feminism.
You were a member of Angerme at the time, so you must have been living with a disconnect between that knowledge you were inputting and the required output in your work life.
My feelings and actions were always completely the opposite. While going back and forth between these opposing views, I discovered that idols are social existences rather than individual ones. I tried my best thinking I could change the world of idols too somehow, but it was hard to do by myself. I decided to “graduate” from the group because I thought that I couldn’t realize what I wanted to do while I still belonged to the company.
What did you do to approach those concerns?
While idols are existences that are produced, each person wants to express something different, so I was hoping we’d be treated as individuals, including during our private lives. Being young, innocent and cute was considered important, and growing up wasn’t a good thing. We couldn’t even grow out our bangs. Under those circumstances, I continued to take a grassroots approach like making leaflets saying, “Why can’t I express myself as I am?” and handing it out to the staff. I didn’t get any outward response, but there was a staff member who told me secretly that they “all passed it around and read it.” That was in 2018 and the concepts of “diversity” and “gender” weren’t as well known in (Japanese) society as they are now, so my actions may have seemed abrupt. I’m starting to notice changes now. There are more variations in expressions such as hair and makeup and costumes. Labor standards are also being questioned, and I’ve heard that more and more talent agencies are setting up mental health consultation services.
When you decided to go solo, what kind of message did you want to send out to whom?
People belonging to a younger generation than myself. When I was in a group, all my comments about feminism were cut. “I want to consider how women should be,” was the limit. But I want to think about the issues of idols and feminism, and to create a working environment where everyone can have peace of mind. The thing that surprised me the most about making those kinds of comments after going solo was the support I received from my fans. On social media, there are still people who don’t think well of women who speak out, but I know now that I have lots of allies and feel that as long as I have these people I can continue to speak out.
It must be reassuring to feel the presence of allies around you. There may be people out there who struggle because they can’t find like-minded communities. What do you think should be done in such cases?
It’d be best if you could connect with people in real life, but now, “in-person” isn’t your only option. When I was an idol, I didn’t use the word feminism when talking with the other members and felt lonely sometimes, but it helped to look at posts on social media by people who felt the same way as me. So, even if you can’t connect with people in real life, I hope you find another place where you can belong. Books and art can also become places where your mind can belong, and you’ll feel protected. When you come across someone with different views, express your feelings by saying, “I don’t think so” without getting swept away, and that simple comment can protect your mind. In my case, I release the emotions that have built up in my mind by putting them into words as song lyrics.
How do you think we can eliminate gender imbalances within the entertainment industry as a whole?
I want people who are in the public eye, the staff members, and the fans, regardless of gender, to join this conversation. If we can visualize what everyone is thinking, including men as well as women, then I think changes will take place.
—This interview by Rio Hirai (SOW SWEET PUBLISHING) first appeared on Billboard Japan
Following the death of One Direction’s Liam Payne on Oct. 16, all five of the group’s full-length studio albums re-enter the Billboard 200 chart (dated Nov. 2). It’s the first time that any One Direction titles have ranked on the chart in over two years.
Returning to the ranking are Four (No. 31), Midnight Memories (No. 38), Made in the A.M. (No. 62), Up All Night (No. 88) and Take Me Home (No. 103).
In the tracking week ending Oct. 24, One Direction’s catalog of albums earned 77,000 equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate – up 156% compared to the previous week (30,000 in the week ending Oct. 18).
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Prior to the latest Billboard 200, One Direction last appeared on the list dated July 30, 2022, with Take Me Home, at No. 137.
One Direction charts five sets on the Billboard 200 simultaneously for the first time. The group had logged as many as four albums at the same time over five weeks in 2015-20.
Up All Night, Take Me Home (both 2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and Four (2014) all debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 following their first weeks of release. Made in the A.M. (2015) opened and peaked at No. 2.
Meanwhile, One Direction’s “Night Changes,” a No. 31 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 2014, was the act’s most-streamed song in the U.S. Oct. 18-24, up 149% week-over-week to 8.2 million official U.S. streams. It was followed by “Story of My Life” (7.2 million), “What Makes You Beautiful” (4.6 million), “Perfect” (3.5 million) and “Steal My Girl” (3.4 million).
Payne’s biggest solo hit, “Strip That Down” (featuring Quavo), which reached No. 10 on the Hot 100 in 2017, drew 3 million streams, up 97%, Oct. 18-24.
Don Omar is backing Vice President Kamala Harris and has officially endorsed her for presidential candidate.
On Tuesday (Oct. 29), the reggaetón superstar, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, shared a poignant message to his more than 12 million followers on Instagram. “Puerto Rico is my homeland and my identity, and today more than ever, I raise my island’s flag with pride,” the hitmaker wrote.
“Hearing such racist and disdainful words directed at my home and at Latinos is heartbreaking. Trump has shown us, time and again, what the thinks of us, and the thought of him and his administration back in power is deeply concerning. Words have weight, and as a community, we cannot tolerate language that seeks to devalue us. Latinos, both on and off our native lands, deserve respect and fair representation.”
His announcement comes just days after racist comments about Puerto Rico were made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Donald Trump rally in Madison Square Garden where he described it as a “floating island of garbage.” Since, a number of Puerto Rican artists, from Bad Bunny to Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez, have used their platforms to amplify Harris’ plan for Puerto Rico and call out Trump’s racist rhetoric.
Don Omar continues in his message: “With only one week until the election, let’s make sure our voices are heard loud and clear. This is why I’m supporting Kamala Harris. I trust she represents the respect and change our communities need and I believe she can pave a new path forward — one that uplifts, empowers and prioritizes dignity for all. It’s time to turn the page. We are not going back.”
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The U.S. presidential elections will take place Tuesday, Nov. 5, although early voting is underway across multiple states. Considered one of the most consequential elections in recent memory, an estimated 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, up from 32.3 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.
Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but their influence is undeniable and stretches onto the mainland, particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina where hundreds of thousands of people of Puerto Rican descent live, according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau.
See Don Omar’s message in English and Spanish below:
Jennifer Lopez and Maná are set to appear at a Kamala Harris rally and concert in Las Vegas on Thursday (Oct. 31).
The Puerto Rican superstar will speak at the event about the importance of voting and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, while the Mexican band will perform, according to the Harris/Walz campaign.
“These artists and public figures are trusted voices for millions of Americans, who listen to their music, follow them on social media, or otherwise are inspired by them,” a press release states. “The Harris-Walz campaign believes that by using their voices to lay out the stakes of this election, it will further encourage and mobilize people to go vote.”
Part of the “When We Vote We Win” series, the rally aims to mobilize young and nontraditional voters ahead of the last day of early voting in Nevada on Friday (Nov. 1).
Both Lopez and Maná have supported the Democratic candidate or Democratic causes and have been very vocal about the importance of voting on this election.
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Only last Sunday (Oct. 27), the singer and actress amplified Harris’ message about her commitment with Puerto Rico by sharing a video of the VP on her Instagram Stories, after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a racist joke at a Donald Trump rally in New York City, where he called the U.S. commonwealth a “floating island of garbage.”
Meanwhile, Maná has been a strong supporter of Democratic causes over the years, particularly related to immigration reform and other Latino related issues. “The way Trump expresses himself about Mexicans and the Latin community is incredible,” the band’s leader, Fher Olvera, tweeted in Spanish following a 2016 presidential debate. “Like a lot of people have perceived it, he is a racist.” The Mexican band also celebrated President Joe Biden’s 2020 win, writing on Twitter (now X), “Values won over perversity. There’s unity in diversity.”
Las month, the band even pulled its 2016 Nicky Jam collaboration “De Pies a Cabeza” from music streaming platforms following the reggaetón star’s endorsement of Trump. “Maná doesn’t work with racists,” the band wrote in Spanish on Instagram. “For the past 30 years, Maná has supported and defended the rights of Latinos around the world. There is no business or promotion that is worth more than the dignity of our people. That is why today Maná decided to remove its collaboration with Nicky Jam on ‘Pies a Cabeza’ from all digital platforms.”