Dexta Daps celebrates success of Davido's record-breaking album
Having featured on African star Davido's history-making album, Timeless, versatile dancehall standout Dexta Daps says he is delighted to have been given the opportunity to lend his vocals to the project and believes its success is a sign of the genre's impact in the global music space.
Having featured on African star Davido's history-making album, Timeless, versatile dancehall standout Dexta Daps says he is delighted to have been given the opportunity to lend his vocals to the project and believes its success is a sign of the genre's impact in the global music space.
Davido's fourth studio album has enjoyed a tremendous response from music lovers across the globe and is currently the highest-charted African album to date with Dexta Daps featuring on the sixth track, a female-friendly, dance-inspiring entry titled BOP.
The 17-track project also made its debut on the Billboard 200 chart at number 37 for two weeks and continues to smash multiple records with Spotify announcing that in addition to Nigeria, the artiste's music is the most streamed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and France.
Timeless also created history on Audiomack, hitting over 12 million streams in its first 24 hours, more than any other album in the platform's history.
"I'm honored to be a part of this record-breaking, history-making project with my brother Davido, the album is really timeless. It's a great look for both cultures, mi love the vibe," Dexta Daps briefly shared with the Jamaica Observer.
"@davido congrats on the number one album brother 100 percent on repeat, DAVIDO AND DEXTA DAPS TRACK 6," he added in a message to the African star through a post on social media platform Instagram.
In Nigeria, Timeless grabbed the all-time record for the biggest debut week by any album on Spotify Nigeria on its first day of release, tallying 4.91 million streams on March 31, beating the previous record debut week total of 4.89 million by Burna Boy 'Love, Damini'.
Timeless has sold over 17,000 units in the United States alone, while in Nigeria, the album is now eligible for platinum certification with over 61,600 units in the first three weeks of its release in the country.
In an interview with HOT 97, Davido highlighted that it was the first time that he did not feature a US artiste on his album and expressed elation that the project was still able to garner support and respect in the US market in spite of this. He also believes it's a clear sign of the genre's increasing global recognition.
BOP features Dexta Daps' silky vocals and suggestive lyrics, wrapped on an uptempo Afrobeat track which is sure to resonate on the party scene as the pair encourages the females to "mix up the rum with the wine" and "Party and enjoy your life".
Source- Jamaica Observer
Addidas admits that Kanye West Yeezy loss is hurting them
Adidas has said the ending of its collaboration with Kanye West is "hurting" the business, with sales in North America hard hit.
The sportswear giant cut its ties with the designer and rapper, known as Ye, late last year after he posted anti-Semitic comments on social media.
West designed trainers under the Yeezy brand and Adidas said the loss of the business cut sales by €400m (£350m) in the first quarter of the year.
Overall, total revenue fell by 1%.
Despite the dip, the figures were better than analysts had been expecting and Adidas said that sales were up 9% when the impact of the Yeezy business was excluded.
Adidas said it was benefiting from the current trend for "terrace" style trainers and was seeing "extraordinary demand" for its Samba, Gazelle, and Campus brands.
Terrace styles are those that were originally popular among football fans in the 1980s when supporters first embraced designer fashion brands such as Fila and Sergio Tacchini.
While Adidas said it had a limited supply of such shoes at the start of the year, it plans to increase production in the coming months.
In its latest results, Adidas said sales in North America had fallen by 20% as the region was particularly affected by the ending of the Yeezy business.
Adidas chief executive Bjorn Gulden said the loss of Yeezy is "of course hurting us".
The company scrapped its tie-up with West in October last year following the rapper's anti-Semitic comments. At the time, the firm said: "Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech."
Adidas said that if it decided not to "repurpose" its remaining unsold Yeezy stock, this would hit its operating profit by €500m this year.
The company still has to decide what to do with the remaining products, and whether it will sell them or scrap them.
Mr Gulden the firm was narrowing its options on the Yeezy stock, and the company was getting "closer and closer" to a decision.
The company is being sued by investors who claim Adidas knew about Kanye West's problematic behavior years before it ended their partnership.
Investors allege Adidas failed to limit financial losses and take precautionary measures to minimize their exposure.
In response, Adidas said it rejected "these unfounded claims", adding that it would take "all necessary measures to vigorously defend ourselves against them".
Despite the drop in overall sales during the first three months of the year, Adidas reported a higher-than-expected operating profit of €60m.
Strong demand for its football, running, and tennis shoes helped footwear revenues grow by 1%.
However, Mr. Gulden - who joined Adidas at the start of this year from rival Puma - warned that 2023 would be "a bumpy year with disappointing numbers".
He also said that Adidas was aiming to make sure that 50% of the products it sells in China are designed specifically for the Chinese market.
China is the world's second-largest sportswear market, but Adidas has been falling behind its rivals there.
In the first three months of the year, its sales in China were down 9.4% from a year earlier.
Source- BBC
Ed Sheeran wins copyright infringement lawsuit involving "Thinking Out Loud"
Ed Sheeran has won a copyright infringement lawsuit involving his Grammy-winning song "Thinking Out Loud" and the Marvin Gaye classic "Let's Get It On."
A Manhattan jury has found the musician did not engage in willful copyright infringement following a trial that saw Sheeran playing and singing in court.
The jury reached its decision after roughly three hours of deliberations.
Sheeran, seated at the defense table in a suit and tie between his lawyers, hugged his attorneys when the verdict was read.
Sheeran had been accused of copying the sheet music for "Let's Get It On" by the family of the song's late co-writer, Ed Townsend.
During opening arguments in Manhattan federal court, renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the plaintiffs, said the case is about "giving credit where credit is due."
The defense, meanwhile, said Sheeran and co-writer Amy Wadge "independently created" the song "Thinking Out Loud."
"Their song was born from an emotional conversation," Sheeran's attorney, Ilene Farkas, said. "It was their original creation."
Sheeran took the stand throughout the trial, at times singing and playing guitar during his testimony.
At one point, he performed a mash-up on guitar of his songs and Marvin Gaye's as he tried to demonstrate how common the four-chord progression was for his hit "Thinking Out Loud."
Source- ABC
White House assembled tech bosses informing them to protect the public from AI
Tech bosses were summoned to the White House on Thursday and told they must protect the public from the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Sundar Pichai of Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and OpenAI's Sam Altmann were told they had a "moral" duty to safeguard society.
The White House made it clear that it may regulate the sector further.
Recently launched AI products like ChatGPT and Bard, have captured the public's imagination.
They offer ordinary users the chance to interact with what is known as "generative AI", which can summarise information from multiple sources within seconds, debug computer code, write presentations, and even poetry, that sounds plausibly as if they might have been human-generated.
Their rollout has sparked renewed debate over the role of AI in society, by offering a tangible illustration of the potential risks and rewards of the new technology.
Technology executives gathered at the White House on Thursday were told it was up to firms to "ensure the safety and security of their products" and were warned that the administration was open to new regulations and legislation to cover artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAi, the firm behind ChatGPT, told reporters that in terms of regulation, executives were "surprisingly on the same page on what needs to happen".
US Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement following the meeting that the new technology could pose a risk to safety, privacy, and civil rights, although it also had the potential to improve lives.
The private sector had "an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their products", she said.
The White House announced a $140m (£111m) investment from the National Science Foundation to launch seven new AI research institutes.
Calls for the dramatic rise in emerging AI to be better regulated have been coming thick and fast, from both politicians and tech leaders.
Earlier this week, the "godfather" of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, quit his job at Google - saying he now regretted his work.
He told the BBC that some of the dangers of AI chatbots were "quite scary".
In March, a letter signed by Elon Musk and Apple founder Steve Wozniak called for a pause to the rollout of the technology.
And on Wednesday, the head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Lina Khan, outlined her views on how and why AI needed to be regulated.
There are concerns that AI could rapidly replace peoples' jobs, as well as worries that chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard can be inaccurate and lead to the dissemination of misinformation.
There are also concerns that generative AI could flout copyright law. Voice cloning AI could exacerbate fraud. AI-generated videos can spread fake news.
However, advocates like Bill Gates have hit back against calls for an AI "pause" saying such a move would not "solve the challenges" ahead.
Mr. Gates argues it would be better to focus on how best to use the developments in AI.
And others believe there is a danger of over-regulating - which would give a strategic advantage to tech companies in China.
Source- BBC
Donald Trump mistook rape accuser E Jean Carroll for ex-wife, trial told
Donald Trump appeared to mistake E Jean Carroll for his ex-wife Marla Maples in a deposition played for jurors in Ms. Carroll's civil rape suit against him.
In the video, Mr. Trump was shown a photo of himself speaking to other people at an event. "It's Marla," he says before his lawyer corrects him.
"No, that's Carroll," the lawyer says.
Ms. Carroll, 79, has accused Mr. Trump, 76, of attacking her in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s, an allegation Mr. Trump has denied.
Lawyers for Ms. Carroll have argued that Mr. Trump's confusion over the photo undermines his claim that Ms. Carroll is "not my type", a comment he has repeated since she first came forward with the allegation in 2019.
Mr. Trump has not yet attended the civil trial, now drawing to a close after two weeks of proceedings in Manhattan. Both sides rested their case on Thursday, though Mr Trump's team called no witnesses in his defense.
He had told reporters he might cut his ongoing golf trip to Ireland short to "confront" Ms. Carroll in court.
"I'll be going back early because a woman made a claim that is totally false, it's fake," Mr Trump said.
Mr. Trump's suggestion that he would return to New York comes after his lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the judge Mr. Trump would not testify in court.
Referring to Mr. Trump's comments, the judge said he would give Mr. Trump until Sunday afternoon to decide. After that, the judge said, "That ship has irrevocably sailed".
The nine-member jury was shown the video of a combative deposition between the former president and Roberta Kaplan, one of Ms. Carroll's lawyers, filmed last October.
Mr. Trump continued his emphatic denials of Ms Carroll's accusation, that Mr. Trump maneuvered her into a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan and raped her.
"If it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes," Mr. Trump said in the deposition, suggesting that others at the "very busy store" would have heard an ongoing attack.
Jurors in the nearly two-week trial heard days of graphic testimony. Ms Carroll told jurors she was left "unable to ever have a romantic life again" after the alleged attack.
Her account was supported in court by her friend, Lisa Birnbach, who testified this week to receiving a call from Ms Carroll minutes after she says she was raped.
And two other women - Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff - were called by Ms. Carroll's team and described alleged sexual assaults committed by Mr. Trump - claims he has denied.
A former columnist for Elle magazine, Ms. Carroll was able to bring the civil case against Mr. Trump after New York passed the Adult Survivors Act in 2022.
The act allowed a one-year period for victims to file sexual assault lawsuits in the state over claims that would have normally exceeded statute limitations.
Source- BBC
HT- New York, United States, Donald Trump
Flow TCI announces completion of North Caicos Network Upgrade
Flow TCI has confirmed that the transmission upgrade project to alleviate concerns with mobile network congestion in North and Middle Caicos was successfully completed. Flow’s technical teams continue to monitor the performance of the upgraded network, however, reports from residents have confirmed significant improvement in the service.
Flow TCI Country Manager, Joanne Missick stated: “I must thank our technical operations team for delivering on our promise to the residents in the sister islands and I also extend that thanks to the residents for their cooperation and patience while we worked to deliver a superior network experience. The now move into the next phase which is our Fibre to the Home rollout to transition customers over to our upgraded fibre network.”
MAINTENANCE WINDOW SCHEDULE
Activity Date Start Time Progress
Phase I: Bottle Creek April 4-5th, 2023 9:00am EST Completed
Phase II: Bottle Creek April 11-15th, 2023 9:00am EST Completed
Phase III: Monitoring & Feedback April 21-23rd, 2023 - Completed
Residents who may experience any further issues should report them to our normal fault reporting numbers.
Our team will continue to alert residents via SMS and social media on any scheduled maintenance and will continue to conduct checks to verify network stabilization.
Flow TCI Facilities Lead, Ronald Gardiner stated: “Though we experienced some delays initially, we have delivered the promised outcome of a better service experience for the twin islands thanks to the additional assistance provided by our technical support teams.”
Grand Turk man charged
A 30-year old Grand Turk man has been charged with Assault of a Police Officer .
The accused – Xavier Denzell King – was also charged with the offence of Dangerous Driving and Resisting Arrest.
Mr. King was arrested on April 23rd around 5.30 pm by officers of the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force along the Long Bay Highway and is expected to appear before a Magistrate on May 02 to answer the charges.
Female Teenager Wounded
The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force officers are actively investigating the wounding of a female teenager that occurred last evening.
At around 9.:47 pm yesterday, (April 26th), Command Centre received a call from the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre stating that a female victim was brought into the facility with a gunshot wound.
Whilst her injuries are serious, they are not life threatening. Based on preliminary inquiries, the 15-year old female, and a friend were driving into Five Cays, Providenciales, in the vicinity of the roundabout, when a vehicle pulled alongside and started shooting at them.
The victim was rushed to hospital and treated. The motive for the attack is still being established, and one hypothesis is that this relates to a road traffic altercation involving both vehicles shortly before the incident. Investigations are continuing by our Serious Crime Team.
The public is being advised to notify the closest police station or to contact Crime Stoppers and give any information relating to this incident or any illegal activity anonymously.
Please note, that Crime Stoppers calls are answered in Miami and in Houston by Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers which is a non-profit and not a police agency. The calls are anonymous and cannot be traced in the United States or the TCI.
Giannis Antetokounmpo left behind a motivational quote after playoff exit
Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo has said "there's no failure in sports" after his team's early exit from the NBA play-offs.
After being NBA champions in 2021, the Bucks were knocked out of last season's Conference semi-finals and then this season's first round, despite being top seed in the Eastern Conference.
After the Bucks' exit, Antetokounmpo was asked if this season was a failure.
"There's good days and bad days," said NBA's two-time Most Valuable Player.
"Some days you're able to be successful, some days you're not. Some days it's your turn, some days it's not your turn.
"That's what sport's about. You don't always win, and this year somebody else is going to win. We'll come back next year and try to be better."
In football some fans and pundits have accused Arsenal of 'choking' during the Premier League title race as they have surrendered their advantage to Manchester City.
However, Antetokounmpo, who is in contention for a third MVP award this season, referenced Michael Jordan, a five-time MVP between 1988 and 1998, when making his point.
"Every year you work towards a goal," said the Greek power forward, 28. "There are always steps to success.
"Michael Jordan played for 15 years, he won six championships, so the other nine years he was a failure?"
Source- BBC
Microsoft furious after Call of Duty deal blocked
Microsoft's president has attacked the UK after it was blocked from buying US gaming firm Activision, saying the EU was a better place to start a business.
The move was "bad for Britain" and marked Microsoft's "darkest day" in its four decades of working in the country, Brad Smith told the BBC.
The regulator hit back saying it had to do what's best for people, "not merging firms with commercial interests".
The UK's move means the multi-billion dollar deal cannot go ahead globally.
Although US and EU regulators have yet to decide on whether to approve the deal, the UK regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said: "Activision is intertwined through different markets - it can't be separated for the UK. So this decision blocks the deal from happening globally."
If it had been approved, the $68.7bn (£55bn) deal would have been the gaming industry's biggest ever takeover, and would have seen Microsoft get hold of massively popular games titles such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft.
Both Microsoft and Activision have said they will appeal against the CMA's decision.
Source- BBC