INGLEWOOD: Not content with merely taking a victory lap after winning his battle against fellow rap superstar Drake, Kendrick Lamar turned his Juneteenth “Pop Out” concert at the Forum into a cathartic livestreamed celebration of Los Angeles unity.
Lamar curated a three-hour concert featuring a mix of up-and-coming LA rappers and stars including Tyler, The Creator, Steve Lacy and YG. When it was his turn to take the stage, the 37-year-old rapper powered through a set with Black Hippy collaborators Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock, performed his Drake diss songs “Euphoria” and “6:16 in LA,” then was joined on-stage by Dr. Dre.
The two West Coast titans performed “Still D.R.E.” and “California Love” before Dre quieted the roaring crowd by calling for a moment of silence. It was a misdirect. He then delivered the “Sixth Sense” quote that opens Lamar’s chart-topping “Not Like Us”: “I see dead people.”
A crowd of 17,000 that included The Weeknd, LeBron James, Ayo Edebiri and Rick Ross rapped along to every word of the biting-but-jubilant DJ Mustard production, which Lamar restarted twice after the first verse and performed four times in full.
Shuffling, frolicking, dancing and spinning around him as Lamar strode the stage in a red hoodie: NBA stars Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan, Mustard, rapper Roddy Ricch and even a teenage dance troupe led by the krumping innovator Tommy the Clown.
Lamar reveled in the moment: “Y’all ain’t gon’ let nobody disrespect the West Coast. Y’all ain’t gon’ let nobody imitate our legends, huh,” he said, referring to Drake’s use of an AI tool to mimic 2Pac’s voice on one of his diss records.
But Lamar had more on his mind, calling out to specific men and women to join him on-stage for a group photo.
“Let the world see this,” he said. “For all of us to be on this stage together, unity, from East side ... LA, Crips, Bloods, Piru — this ... is special, man. We put this ... together just for ya’ll.
“This ... ain’t got nothing to do with no song at this point, ain’t got nothing to do with no back and forth records, it’s got everything to do with this moment right here. That’s what this ... was about, to bring all of us together.”
After the final song, Lamar exited, saying “I promise you this won’t be the last of us.” The stabbing horns of the “Not Like Us” instrumental kicked in once again and the crowd rapped the lyrics without Lamar as they filed through hallways out to the parking lot.
After Drake battle, Kendrick Lamar turns victory lap concert into LA unity celebration
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After Drake battle, Kendrick Lamar turns victory lap concert into LA unity celebration
- The audience of 17,000 people at the Forum in Inglewood, California included The Weeknd, LeBron James, Ayo Edebiri and Rick Ross
- The 37-year-old rapper curated a three-hour livestreamed concert featuring a mix of up-and-coming LA rappers and stars
Earth will have a temporary ‘mini moon’ for two months
- The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 10 meters
- When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe
WASHINGTON: Earth’s moon will soon have some company — a “mini moon.”
The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 33 feet (10 meters). When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe — but only for about two months.
The space rock — 2024 PT5 — was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.
These short-lived mini moons are likely more common than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was detected in 2020.
“This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they’re very small and very hard to detect,” he said. “Only recently has our survey capability reached the point of spotting them routinely.”
The discovery by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.
This one won’t be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, but it “can be observed with relatively large, research-grade telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.
Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it’s not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as “a chunk of the moon that got blasted out.”
The mini moon will circle the globe for almost 57 days but won’t complete a full orbit. On Nov. 25, it will part ways with the Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It’s expected to pass by again in 2055.
Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now
PARIS: Workers removed the Olympics logo from the Eiffel Tower overnight on Friday, returning the beloved monument to its usual form — but perhaps only temporarily.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to build new Olympic rings and return them to the landmark as a tribute to the hugely successful Olympic Games held in July and August.
The proposition has been criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups and many Parisians.
After initially suggesting the rings should be permanent, Hidalgo has proposed they remain on the city’s best-known symbol until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Workers using a crane removed the 30-ton rings from between the first and second floors of the tower during nightfall on Friday, just under four months after they were put up on June 7.
The new rings, which the International Olympic Committee is expected to pay for, would be lighter versions and less prominent, according to a deputy Paris mayor, Pierre Rabadan.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, a longtime critic and opponent of Hidalgo, has cast doubt over the idea, saying the Socialist city leader would need to respect procedures protecting historic buildings.
Hidalgo also wants to retain the innovative cauldron placed in front of the Louvre museum as well as statues of illustrious women used during the opening ceremony.
US records suicides at highest levels in 2022 and 2023
- Aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, US suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years
- The overall suicide rate in 2022 and 2023 was 14.2 per 100,000, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show
NEW YORK: US suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation’s history, preliminary data suggests.
A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number that could grow a little as some death investigations are wrapped up and reported.
Just under 49,500 were reported in 2022, according to final data released Thursday. The numbers are close enough that the suicide rate for the two years are the same, CDC officials said.
US suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years, aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So “a leveling off of any increase in suicide is cautiously promising news,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University public health professor who studies suicide.
Indeed, there’s reason for optimism. A 2-year-old national crisis line allows anyone in the US to dial 988 to reach mental health specialists. That and other efforts may be starting to pay off, Keyes said, but it “really remains to be seen.”
Experts caution that suicide — the nation’s 11th leading cause of death in 2022 — is complicated and that attempts can be driven by a range of factors. Contributors include higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services, and the availability of guns. About 55 percent of all suicide deaths in 2022 involved firearms, according to CDC data.
The CDC’s Thursday report said:
• Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–14 and 20–34, and the third leading cause for people ages 15–19.
• Deaths continue to be more common among boys and men than girls and women. The highest suicide rate for any group — by far — was in men ages 75 and older, at about 44 suicides per 100,000 men that age.
• Among women, the highest rate was in those who were middle-aged, about 9 per 100,000. But more dramatic increases have been seen in teens and young women, with the rate for that group doubling in the last two decades.
• The overall suicide rate in 2022 and 2023 was 14.2 per 100,000. It also was that high in 2018. Before then, it hadn’t been that high since 1941.
Viral Korean Olympic shooter scores first acting role as assassin
- The 32-year-old took silver in the women’s 10m air pistol in July and her ultra-calm demeanour turned her into a worldwide online sensation
SEOUL: South Korean pistol shooter Kim Ye-ji, whose skill and nonchalance won the Internet at the Paris Olympics, has landed her first acting role — as an assassin.
The 32-year-old took silver in the women’s 10m air pistol in July and her ultra-calm demeanour, combined with her wire-rimmed shooting glasses and baseball cap, turned her into a worldwide online sensation.
As videos of her shooting went viral, she drew praise from celebrities such as Elon Musk.
“She should be cast in an action movie. No acting required!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X at the time.
Now she will play an assassin in “Crush,” a spinoff short-form series of the global film project “Asia,” a spokesperson for Seoul-based entertainment firm Asia Lab told AFP on Friday.
Kim will star alongside Indian actress and influencer Anushka Sen, the company said in a separate statement, saying it was excited to witness “the potential synergy that will arise from Kim Ye-ji and Anushka Sen’s new transformation into a killer duo.”
Since winning silver, a short clip showing Kim at the Baku World Cup in May has gone viral, spawning fan art, endless memes and multiple edits setting the clip to K-pop.
Kim signed with a South Korean talent agency in August to assist her in managing her extracurricular activities and she has since been featured in a magazine photoshoot for Louis Vuitton.
Empty NYC subway train crashed by two teens who stole it for a joyride
NEW YORK: Police have arrested a teen girl they say took an empty New York City subway train on a brief joyride before they crashed it and fled.
They are looking for a male companion they believe was also pictured on the train.
Surveillance photos released by the New York Police Department on Tuesday show one person dressed all in pink, including a pink shower cap, and another in a blue tank top.
Police arrested the 17-year-old girl Wednesday around noon. They have charged her with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
The pair boarded an unoccupied train parked at the Briarwood subway station in Queens just after midnight on Sept. 12 and somehow got it running, police said in a news release.
They crashed it into another parked train and ran, police said. It was unclear how much damage the prank caused. No injuries were reported.
