Early Grammy Nominees Revealed
Grammy-winner Alicia Keys revealed the nominees for the top four Grammy Awards categories Monday morning on CBS This Morning. The remaining nominees will be revealed later in the day. Here are the early nominees:
Best New Artist
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly
Meghan Trainor
Record of the Year
Really Love" -- D'Angelo and the Vanguard
"Uptown Funk" Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars
"Thinking Out Loud " -- Ed Sheeran
"Blank Space" -- Taylor Swift
"Can't Feel My Face" -- The Weeknd
Song of the Year
"Alright" -- Kendrick Lamar
"Blank Space" -- Taylor Swift
"Girl Crush" -- Little Big Town
"See You Again" -- Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth
"Thinking Out Loud" -- Ed Sheeran
Album of the Year
Sound & Color -- Alabama Shakes
To Pimp a Butterfly -- Kendrick Lamar
Traveller -- Chris Stapleton
1989 -- Taylor Swift
Beauty Behind the Madness -- The Weeknd
Stay with RTC Entertainment for more on this story.
Paris Shootings, Explosions Leave Several Dead
There have been at least two shootings and three explosions in Paris, leaving several people dead, according to a police source.
The explosions took place near Stade de France, the source said. There were also at least two shootings near a restaurant in central Paris.
The French national soccer team was playing a match against Germany at the time. Explosions could be heard within the stadium.
Several people are believed to have been killed in the attacks.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is closely monitoring the events in Paris, according to a statement. The DHS says there is no specific or credible threat to the United States, but that they "will not hesitate to adjust our security posture, as appropriate, to protect the American people."
Members of U2 Safe in Paris, Status of HBO Live Paris Concert Unknown
U2 are currently in Paris preparing for a planned live HBO concert broadcast Saturday night, but the status of that event is unclear at press time due to the coordinated attacks throughout the French capital that have left dozens dead.
However, a spokesperson for the band has told the always-credible fan site AtU2 that "everyone is fine," meaning the band and the crew. In addition, a cousin of U2 guitarist The Edge has tweeted, "Just got a text from my cuz @U2 #U2 The Edge. All the u2 boys are safe in #Paris."
A U.S.-based rep for the band tells ABC Radio that they are trying to find out the latest on the concert and the band's status.
Wal-Mart shares drop as company predicts lower profits
Shares in the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, have plunged after it cut its profit forecast.
The company said it expected earnings per share to drop by between 6% and 12% in the next financial year.
The announcement sent shares of the company tumbling by 8%, their biggest fall in six years.
Wal-Mart said the lower profit forecast was because it was investing in e-commerce as well as increasing employee wages.
The retailer's spending efforts are in part a reaction to slowing sales, and competition from online retailers like Amazon.
It is also spending more to train and retain employees. In April, the company raised its base salary to $9 (£5.81) per hour and will increase it to $10 next year.
In a statement chief executive Doug McMillon defended the strategy.
"Our investments in our people, our stores, and our digital capabilities and e-commerce business are the right ones," he said.
The company revised down earnings figures for this year as well, predicting growth would be flat, rather than the previously forecast growth of 1%-2%.
Wal-Mart has blamed the fall in part on the strong dollar affecting overseas sales, something that has also affected other US retailers.
Profits for the company dipped over the summer as sales in its UK supermarket chain, Asda, declined.
The retailer also announced it would repurchase $20bn in shares from investors.
Clinton, Sanders Dominate Democratic Debate
Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dominated the Democratic Party's first presidential debate of the 2016 campaign, largely preserving their status as the party's frontrunners, according to some analysts.
Clinton and Sanders, who were joined by three lesser known candidates during the two-hour debate at a Las Vegas casino Tuesday, clashed over issues including gun control, economic policy, and the role of the U.S. military overseas.
But early on in the debate the rivals were able to find unexpected common ground over Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, an issue that has become a persistent distraction for her campaign.
"Let me say something that may not be great politics," Sanders said. "But I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails."
Clinton, who has apologized for the matter, again acknowledged that using private email "wasn't the best choice." But she also attempted to portray the Congressional committee investigating the matter as partisan.
"This committee is basically an arm of the Republican National Committee," said Clinton. "It is a partisan vehicle, as admitted by the House Republican majority leader, Mr. McCarthy, to drive down my poll numbers."
The two frontrunners sparred over gun control, an issue that has again come to the forefront of political discussion following several recent mass shootings.
When asked if she thought Sanders has been "tough enough on guns," Clinton responded, "No, not at all," noting Sanders' congressional votes against federal background checks for gun purchasers.
Sanders defended his record, saying he supports tougher background checks and better mental health services, and pointing out that he received "D-minus" voting record from the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun rights lobbying group.
The issue of gun control in recent weeks has appeared to emerge as an area of political vulnerability for Sanders, who has otherwise attempted to run to the left of Clinton, in an effort to appeal to the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
Pressed by the moderators on whether his liberal views make him too extreme to win a general election, Sanders responded with his usual rant against growing economic inequality and what he sees as the outsized influence of the wealthy elite.
He also pointed to Scandinavian countries, - specifically, their universal health care and generous worker benefits - as a model for government practices he would like to see.
"I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people," he said.
Clinton replied that while the U.S. sometimes "needs to save capitalism from itself," America is much different from Scandinavia.
"I think what Senator Sanders is saying certainly makes sense in the terms of the inequality that we have. But we are not Denmark.
"I love Denmark. We are the United States of America. And it's our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn't run amok and doesn't cause the kind of inequities we're seeing in our economic system," she said.
Another area of disagreement was Middle East policy. Sanders in particular took aim at Clinton for her Congressional vote to authorize the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, a conflict that he called "the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country."
Sanders said he opposes placing U.S. troops in Syria, where Washington is leading a coalition to fight the Islamic State group.
"We should be putting together a coalition of Arab countries who should be leading the effort. We should be supportive, but I do not support American ground troops in Syria," he said.
"Well nobody does. Nobody does, Senator Sanders," interjected Clinton.
Clinton and Sanders were joined on stage by former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee.
The three candidates, who have struggled to earn even 1 percent in recent polls, competed for equal camera time during the debate.
But they did little to show they are gaining traction against Sanders and Clinton, according to Democratic strategist Craig Varoga, who said the race remains a two-person contest.
"I think [Clinton] needed to go into the debate and maintain her frontrunner status, but also to calm her donors. I think she did both of those things," Varoga told VOA.
"She had a command of the issues. She was calm, she was relaxed, and she was focused. She defended herself well on the positions and by taking the fight to Sanders, she kept this a two-person race for the time being," he said.
Source-VOA
US, Russia Holding Talks to Seal Air Safety Agreement in Syria
U.S. and Russian defense officials are holding more talks Wednesday on safety procedures for their crews flying missions over Syria.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday that the discussions are progressing and that he expects an agreement "in very short order" to help prevent a potential mid-air disaster involving U.S. and Russian aircraft.
"Even as we continue to disagree on Syria policy, we should be able to at least agree on making sure that airman are as safe as possible," Carter said at a news conference in Boston Tuesday. "Russia must act professionally in the skies over Syria and abide by basic safety procedures."
Russia's Defense Ministry issued a statement Tuesday saying it had prepared suggestions and was sending a draft to the Americans.
Carter also said the U.S. mission to bomb Islamic State targets in Syria will not change, but he urged the Russians to give up what he called their "failing strategy," saying it is "wrongheaded and strategically shortsighted."
Meanwhile, U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura is pushing a separate effort to get the U.S. and Russia on the same page in working toward a broad political resolution to the crisis in Syria. He met with officials Tuesday in Moscow and is due to hold talks Wednesday in Washington.
Source-VOA
Reasons why mobile web runs so slow
German tabloid Bild is the latest to announce it will prevent users who have installed the advert-hiding plug-ins from viewing its articles.
It joins dozens of other sites who object to the technology's threat to their income.
Users have flocked to the extensions to speed up page-load times and reduce the toll on their mobile devices' battery life.
Apple's recent move to start supporting ad-blockers on its iPhones and iPads has brought the matter to the fore.
But other tech companies are trying to convince users there is a way to live with ads, by making them less frustrating.
That one that leaves you shouting at your phone or tablet to load a web page you want to see.
Visiting a web page on a phone or tablet can be irritating and not just because the speed of mobile connections can be far below that of the average home network.
Even wi-fi is often slower in a coffee shop or on a train because so many other people are using it.
The experience is made worse by pop-up, rollover and interstitial ads, navigation bars and the like that make a page jump up, down, left and right as different bits load.
We've all tried to stab a link with a finger only to have the page leap down so you accidentally hit the ad that you then have to kill to get at the actual page.
Solving the problem is important because so many of us now get our favourite sites via handheld gadgets.
Amit Singhal, Google's head of search, has said that this summer was the first time it had seen more searches done via mobile than desktops.
Browsing the web on a laptop or desktop can be frustrating when an entire page is left hanging because an ad network somewhere out there in cyberspace is having a bad day.
Then there are the auto-playing video ads.
Or the ones that obscure the page you want to see and make you hunt for the "X" that'll get you back to where you wanted to be in the first place.
And don't forget the links lurking in pages that explode into ads when your mouse pointer just grazes them.
Or the hidden trackers that watch what you do on a page and report it to anyone who buys their data.
A study by the New York Times indicated that more than half of all the data on popular news sites came from sources unrelated to articles.
It's no wonder that millions of people now use ad-blockers to remove these irritants. The exact numbers are disputed, but about 40% of people are believed to now use ad blockers.
Source-BBC
Democrats Set for 1st Debate in 2016 Presidential Race
After watching Republican candidates spar in two rounds of debates, Democrats looking to become the next U.S. president get their turn Tuesday as they take the stage in Las Vegas for their first debate of the 2016 election campaign.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her status as the front-runner in the Democratic race will put her in the center of the debate, both literally and figuratively, as she stands in the middle of the four other candidates taking part.
Recent polls put Clinton ahead with about 40 percent support, while her chief challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, comes in at 25 percent.
In stark contrast to Republican race, the Democrats have spent far less of the campaign talking about each other, leaving Tuesday's debate as an intriguing forum for their policies and records to be compared and contrasted.
The size of the field is another marked difference, with Clinton and Sanders being joined by former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee.
The latter three candidates have struggled to earn even 1 percent in recent polls.
That makes Tuesday night important for them since the Democratic National Committee is only scheduling six debates for its presidential candidates, half the number the Republicans will hold.
The debate might be the best chance for O'Malley, Webb and Chafee to establish themselves before the possible addition of another well-known figure in the race, Vice President Joe Biden, who will not take part in the debate but is still deciding whether to run for president.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday showed 48 percent of Democrats surveyed wanted Biden to join the race.
If he were running, the poll said Clinton would still be the leader, with Sanders running second and Biden in third, with 17 percent support.
Source-VOA
First American Music Awards Nominations Announced on "Good Morning America"
Charlie Puth, along with Joe Jonas and his new band DNCE, were on hand Tuesday on ABC's Good Morning America to announce the first group of nominees in six categories for this year's American Music Awards. The nominees are:
FAVORITE ALBUM -- POP/ROCK
Ed Sheeran, X
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour
Taylor Swift, 1989
FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST-- POP/ROCK
Ariana Grande
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor
FAVORITE MALE ARTIST -- POP/ROCK
Nick Jonas
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY KOHL’S
Fetty Wap
Sam Hunt
Tove Lo
Walk The Moon
The Weeknd
SONG OF THE YEAR
Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth, “See You Again”
Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars, “Uptown Funk!”
Ed Sheeran, “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift, “Blank Space”
The Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face”
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Luke Bryan
Ariana Grande
Maroon 5
Nicki Minaj
One Direction
Ed Sheeran
Sam Smith
Taylor Swift
Meghan Trainor
The Weeknd
Nominees in an additional five categories will be announced exclusively via Snapchat (TheAMAs), with the remainder announced shortly after that.
Winners will be announced when Jennifer Lopez hosts the AMA ceremony, live from the Microsoft Theater Sunday, November 22 at 8:00pm ET on ABC. For more information, check out TheAMAs.com.
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen Expecting Their First Child
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen are preparing to become parents.
The supermodel on Monday announced she's pregnant with their first child. She posted an Instagram photo of herself lying on a couch, with her legs on Legend's lap, and wrote, "John and I are so happy to announce that we are pregnant.
"As many of you know, we've been trying to have a baby for a while now," she continued. "It hasn't been easy, but we kept trying because we can't wait to bring our first child into the world and grow our family. We're so excited that it's finally happening."
Teigen, 29, added that she looks forward to "all the belly touching."
Teigen, who married Legend, 36, in September of 2013, discussed on her talk show FABLife last month that she'd been experiencing fertility struggles. "John and I were having trouble," she said. "We would have had kids five, six years ago if it happened. But my gosh, it's been a process. We've seen fertility doctors."
Source-ABC