Jackson's Thriller turns 40 years old
Michael Jackson's Thriller, the best-selling album of all time worldwide, marks its 40th anniversary this November 30, and in celebration of the milestone, an expanded version of the classic record will be released on November 18.
Michael Jackson Thriller 40 will be available as a two-CD set and via digital formats, and will feature the original Thriller album, along with a bonus disc of previously unreleased tracks that Jackson worked on during the 1982 album's sessions.
In addition, Walmart and Target will be releasing exclusive vinyl reissues of the original Thriller album with an alternate 40th anniversary cover. The Target reissue also will come with a commemorative Thriller 40 vinyl slipmat.
Meanwhile, the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab company will release high-quality audiophile versions of Thriller on November 18 as a single-LP vinyl disc and on the hybrid SACD format.
Thriller has sold over 70 million copies worldwide and has been certified 34-times Platinum by the RIAA, making it the second-best-selling album ever in the U.S., after the Eagles' 38-times-Platinum Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 compilation.
Thriller spent an amazing 37 weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, spinning off seven top-10 hits, among them the chart-topping singles "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," and the #2 Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine."
The album also is credited with breaking the color barrier at MTV. In 1982, the channel rarely played clips by Black artists -- until "Billie Jean" came along. And the extended clip for "Thriller," directed by John Landis and filled with state-of-the-art special effects and over-the-top choreography, became the standard by which all music videos were judged.
You can preorder the Thriller reissues now.
Here's the original album's full track list:
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
"Baby Be Mine"
"The Girl Is Mine" (with Paul McCartney)
"Thriller"
"Beat It"
"Billie Jean"
"Human Nature"
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
"The Lady in My Life
ABC
Buffalo shooting: Gunman sought to 'continue his rampage'
A gunman who killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, planned further attacks after the mass shooting on Saturday, police have said.
The suspect, 18, drove more than 320km (200 miles) to carry out what is believed to be a racially-motivated crime.
He planned to keep driving and "shoot more black people," Buffalo's police chief told US media.
A pensioner, a former policeman and a grandmother were among the victims.
Mayor Byron Brown said the suspect arrived in Buffalo intending to take "as many black lives as possible".
A 180-page document seemingly authored by the alleged attacker Payton Gendron has emerged, in which he describes himself as a fascist and a white supremacist.
Questions are being asked about how he was able to carry out the shooting when concerns had already been raised. "I want to know what people knew and when they knew it," New York Governor Kathy Hochul told ABC News.
FBI officials have confirmed that the gunman spent a day and a half in hospital undergoing a mental health evaluation last year after he wrote that he wanted to commit a murder/suicide in a high school project.
No criminal charges resulted from the incident, and Buffalo police chief Joseph Gramaglia told reporters the gunman had only made "generalised threats".
He does not appear to have remained under watch by authorities.
Mr Gramaglia told US media that there was evidence to suggest he wanted to targeted a second store on Saturday if he had not been stopped.
Meanwhile, the gun store owner who sold the semi-automatic used in the attack told several US outlets that no alert came up when he ran the suspect's name through a government background check system.
New York's Attorney General Letitia James said her office would focus on extremist material online.
"This event was committed by a sick, demented individual who was fuelled [by a] daily diet of hate," she said.
The shooting has stunned the local community. One of those attending a vigil on Sunday told Reuters: "It just hurts, why somebody would do that."
Ten died and three others were injured.
Of the 13 people shot, 11 were black. Among those reported killed were a man buying cupcakes for his son's birthday and a woman who had gone shopping after visiting her husband at a nursing home.
Source-BBC
PABA NIGHT LEAGUE RETURNS TO THE TCI
On Sunday, 15th May, there was a huge basketball match between Five Cays Knights and The Flyers.
Defending champs Five Cays Knights started their quest for a third title by defeating the Flyers 61-54 in their first game of the TCIBF League 2022.
Jessy Missick was the high point for the Flyers, sources said, with 25 points, 12rebs, 3 assists, 2 blks. Melvin Elsie added 16 points, Anthony Cash led the way for the Flyers with 16 points, 1blk, and 2 steals while Darado Fulford, and Rico Forbes chipped in with 8 points each.
Predators preyed on Concrete Jungle 51-39 to secure their 2nd win in Game 2 of the Sunday night matchup in the TCIBF 2022 League.
Johan Meises led the way for the Predators with 16 points, 1 reb, 2 assists. Jordan Garland chipped in with 11 points and Omardi Morris was the high point man for Concrete Jungle with 15 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist. Levard Missick Jr. added 6 points, 12 rebs, 6 assists and 4 steals.
Pinoy Ballers pinned the Hustlers to a 79-61 exciting matchup in Game 1 of Sunday night. Dylan Morris poured in 14 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block for the Ballers and Travante Garland supported him with 13 pts, 2 rebs, 2 assists, and 4 steals.
Hustlers Twane Hall led the way with 15 pts, 10 rebs, 3 steals and Dwayne Folk chipped in with 13 points, 11 rebs, and 2 assists.
NOVAK DJOKOVIC WINS 1,000TH ATP TOUR MATCH WITH VICTORY IN ITALIAN OPEN SEMIFINAL
Novak Djokovic became just the fifth man in history to reach 1,000 Tour wins as he defeated Norway's Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-3 in the Italian Open semifinals.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl are the only other men to have reached the historic milestone. Djokovic reached his 1,000th win in 1,203 matches, making him the fourth fastest to achieve the feat, according to ATP stats.
The 20-time grand slam winner, who was presented with a cake by tournament organizers to celebrate the occasion, earned his first Tour-level win back in 2004 and has since gone on to become one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
"Thanks to the tournament and the crowd for celebrating the milestone with me," Djokovic said in his on-court interview with the ATP. "Obviously I was seeing Roger and Rafa celebrating those milestones in the last couple of years and I was looking forward to getting to that 1,000 myself.
He said that he is truly blessed and privileged to have that many victories on the Tour. It's been a long time since he played and won his first match on the Tour and hopefully he can keep going and there are many more victories to come, he said.
Djokovic, who is searching for his first title of the season, will be looking to make it 1,001 wins on Sunday as he takes on Greek world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Italian Open final.
TWO PERSONS IN CUSTODY FOR ILLEGAL FIREARM
One male and one female are currently in Police custody after being arrested during the early hours of Sunday 15th May 2022, for Carrying Firearm and Ammunition.
At about 12:57am on Sunday 15th May 2022, while on mobile patrol in the Grace Bay area, a team of RTCIPF Officers conducted a stop and search on a small black vehicle, occupied by a male driver and a female passenger.
Just as the Officers were about to conduct a search on the driver, he pulled what appeared to be firearm from his waist and threw it over the said vehicle. The Officers quickly recovered the firearm and arrested the male driver and female passenger for Carrying Firearm and Ammunition. This remains an active investigation.
Global wheat prices jump after India export ban
The price of wheat has jumped on international markets after India banned the export of the staple cereal.
The benchmark wheat index rose as much as 5.9% in Chicago, the highest it has been in two months.
The export ban comes as a heatwave has hit India's wheat crops, taking domestic prices to a record high.
Wheat prices have soared by around 60% on world markets this year, pushing up the cost of everything from bread to noodles.
India's government said it would still allow exports backed by letters of credit that have already been issued, and to countries that request supplies "to meet their food security needs".
Government officials also said the ban was not permanent and could be revised.
However, the decision has been criticised by agriculture ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) nations meeting in Germany.
"If everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets, that would worsen the crisis," German food and agriculture minister Cem Ozdemir said.
The G7 is an organisation of the world's seven largest so-called "advanced" economies, which dominate global trade and the international financial system. They are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the United States.
Although India is the world's second-biggest wheat producer, it has not previously been a major exporter as most of its crop is sold on domestic markets.
But Ukraine's wheat exports plunged after the Russian invasion. And with droughts and floods threatening crops in other major producers, commodity traders were expecting supplies from India to make up for part of the shortfall.
Before the ban, India had aimed to ship a record 10 million tonnes of wheat this year.
Global food prices hit a fresh record high in March after the Ukraine war caused a "giant leap", according to the United Nations (UN).
That came as the conflict cut off supplies from the world's biggest exporter of sunflower oil - Ukraine - which means the costs of alternatives also climbed. The country is also a major producer of cereals such as maize and wheat, which have risen sharply in price too.
The UN said that global food prices eased slightly in April but remain almost 30% higher than the same time last year.
Rising food prices, along with a jump in the cost of energy, have been pushing up inflation around that world.
That has forced major central banks, including the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, to raise interest rates in an attempt to rein in rising prices.
That, in turn, has triggered concerns that the higher cost of borrowing could hit global economic growth, with some high-profile commentators warning of a recession.
On Sunday, Lloyd Blankfein, the senior chairman of Wall Street investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, said there is a "very, very high risk" of recession in the world's biggest economy.
Mr Blankfein's comments on CBS's Face the Nation came on the same day as Goldman Sachs economists cut their US economic growth forecasts for this year and next.
Source-BBC
MUSK PUTS TWITTER PURCHASE ON HOLD
Elon Musk has said his $44bn (£35bn) deal to buy Twitter is on hold after he queried the number of fake or spam accounts on the social media platform.
He said he was waiting for information "supporting [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users".
Mr Musk added later that he was "still committed to [the] acquisition".
However, analysts speculated he could be seeking to renegotiate the price or even walk away from the takeover.
Mr Musk's tweets sent Twitter's share price plunging 10% in morning trade in New York.
Even before his comments, the company's stock had been selling for less than the $54.20 per share Mr Musk has offered, a sign that the markets were not convinced he would complete the buyout.
Dan Ives, a tech analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, said Mr Musk's comments would "send this Twitter circus show into a Friday the 13th horror show".
"Many will view this as Musk using this Twitter filing/spam accounts as a way to get out of this deal in a vastly changing market," he wrote in a note.
"The nature of Musk creating so much uncertainty in a tweet (and not a filing) is very troubling to us... and now sends this whole deal into a circus show with many questions and no concrete answers as to the path of this deal going forward."
Mr Musk has been vocal about "defeating the spam bots", identifying it as a key goal following his planned takeover of the company.
Twitter has long faced accusations of not doing enough to address automated, fake accounts posting content.
In a filing more than two weeks ago, Twitter estimated that fake accounts accounted for fewer than 5% of its daily active users during the first three months of this year. It cautioned that the figures were based on estimates and could be higher.
Those claims were not different from what the firm had shared in previous disclosures.
The number of spam bots on the service is a key statistic, as a higher than expected figure could hurt the ability to grow advertising revenue or paid-for subscriptions, said Susannah Streeter, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
But she said it was not clear how genuine Mr Musk's concerns were.
"There will also be questions raised over whether fake accounts are the real reason behind this delaying tactic, given that promoting free speech rather than focusing on wealth creation appeared to be his primary motivation for the takeover," she said.
"The $44bn price tag is huge, and it may be a strategy to row back on the amount he is prepared to pay to acquire the platform."
Weeks of market turmoil in the US have wiped billions off the value of many companies - including once favoured tech firms.
Tesla, the electric car company where Mr Musk serves as chief executive, has also seen its shares plunge - a hit to Mr Musk, whose status as the world's richest person is bound up in his stake in the company and who had planned to rely on his shares to help finance the Twitter purchase.
Last month, he raised $8.5bn by selling shares. He also planned to use the shares to secure $6.5bn in loans.
After Mr Musk tweeted that the deal was temporarily on hold, Tesla's share price gained more than 5%.
Source-BBC
Boston Celtics knock out defending champion Milwaukee Bucks
Defending champions the Milwaukee Bucks were eliminated from the NBA play-offs after a heavy defeat by the Boston Celtics in their Eastern Conference semi-final decider.
The Celtics won game seven 109-81 at home and will now face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.
Grant Williams hit 27 points, including seven three-pointers, for Boston, while Jayson Tatum added 23.
Giannis Antetokounmpo top scored for the Bucks with 25 points.
The two-time former MVP started strongly as the Bucks led 26-20 after the first quarter, but then cooled off as the Celtics streaked away.
Boston converted 22 of their 55 three-point attempts, while Milwaukee made only four of their 33 efforts from deep.
The Celtics, who have won a joint-record 17 NBA titles along with the Los Angeles Lakers, move on to their fourth conference finals appearance in the last six years, seeking their first title since 2008.
The Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks play their Western Conference semi-finals game seven later on Sunday.
Source-BBC
Kendrick Lamar releases fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers
Kendrick Lamar’s fifth solo album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, is finally here.
The rapper dropped the 18-track follow-up to 2017’s Pulitzer Prize-winning DAMN. on Thursday night, featuring guest appearances from Summer Walker, Ghostface Killah, Kodak Black, Sampha, Baby Keem, and Zola actress Taylour Paige.
The track with Paige, “We Cry Together,” is already setting social media abuzz. The emotionally-charged song features Kendrick and Paige as an arguing couple hurling some pretty intense insults at each other.
On the track “Father Time,” featuring Sampha, Kendrick addresses Drake and Kanye West’s recent reconciliation after years-long beef. “When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused,” he raps. “Guess I’m not as mature as I think, got some healin’ to do.”
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers doesN't include “The Heart Part 5,” the song Kendrick released on Sunday along with a video in which he morphed into OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant and Nipsey Hussle.
Here's the Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers track list:
DISC 1: BIG STEPPERS
"United In Grief"
"N95"
"Worldwide Steppers"
"Die Hard" ft. Blxst & Amanda Reifer
"Father Time" ft. Sampha
"Rich" (Interlude)
"Rich Spirit"
"We Cry Together" ft. Taylour Paige
"Purple Hearts" ft. Summer Walker & Ghostface Killah
DISC 2: MR. MORALE
"Count Me Out"
"Crown"
"Silent Hill" ft. Kodak Black
"Savior" (Interlude)
"Savior" ft. Baby Keem & Sam Dew
"Auntie Diaries"
"Mr. Morale" ft. Tanna Leone
"Mother I Sober" ft. Beth Gibbons of Portishead
"Mirror"
Just after releasing his first new album in five years, Kendrick Lamar has announced a world tour to go along with it.
The Big Steppers Tour will kick off July 19 in Oklahoma City and conclude its U.S. and Canada on September 15 in Los Angeles. Then, the trek heads to Europe for a string of October and November dates, before heading to Australia and New Zealand in December.
Baby Keem will be the supporting act on all dates, with Tanna Leone joining on select dates.
A pre-sale for Cash App Cash Card holders takes place Thursday, May 19 at 10 a.m. through 10 p.m. local time via Ticketmaster. General ticket sales begin Friday, May 20 at 12 p.m. local time on oklama.com.
Kendrick’s new album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, is out now.
Source-ABC
PUBLIC FORECAST FOR TODAY AND TONIGHT,
GENERAL SITUATION: A MOIST, UNSTABLE AIRMASS COUPLED WITH A DEEP LAYERED LOW OVER THE FLORIDA PENINSULA WILL CONTINUE TO TRIGGER UNSETTLED WEATHER ACROSS
THE ISLAND CHAIN THROUGH TONIGHT.
SPECIAL WARNINGS: BOATERS AND RESIDENTS SHOULD REMAIN VIGILANT DUE TO THE THREAT OF POSSIBLE WATERSPOUT AND TORNADIC ACTIVITY. BEACHGOERS SHOULD
EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION DUE TO THE RISK OF RIP CURRENTS AND POSSIBLE ROUGH SURF, MAINLY ALONG EASTERN AND SOUTHERN SHORELINES IN THE CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS, AS WELL AS ATLANTIC BEACHES ELSEWHERE. RESIDENTS LIVING
AND TRAVERSING IN LOW-LYING AND FLOOD-PRONE AREAS SHOULD TAKE SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS DURING HEAVY AND PROLONGED RAINFALL EVENTS.
WEATHER: CLOUDY TO OCCASIONALLY OVERCAST, HUMID AND A BIT BREEZY WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS OVER THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS.
WINDS: SOUTHERLY AT 10 KNOTS OR LESS IN THE NORTHWEST AND CENTRAL BAHAMAS. SOUTHEASTERLY AT 15 KNOTS BUT GUSTY AT TIMES IN THE SOUTHEAST BAHAMAS.
SEAS: 3 TO 5 FEET OVER THE OCEAN.