Bruno Mars triumphs at Grammys; Jay-Z is biggest loser

NEW YORK | R&B artist Bruno Mars won the top prize at the Grammy Awards on Sunday in another victory for pop-driven music over rap, now the most popular genre in the United States.

Mars won six Grammys including song of the year for his hit single “That’s What I Like,” and both record and album of the year for “24K Magic.”

His win denied rappers Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z the honor of becoming the first hip-hop artist in 14 years to win the coveted album of the year award.

“These songs were written with nothing but joy, with love, and that’s all I wanted to bring with this album, seeing everybody dancing,” Mars, 32, said.

He also paid tribute to his album of the year rivals — Jay-Z, Lamar, Childish Gambino and Lorde — saying: “Thank you, guys, for blessing the world with your music.”

Lamar, 30, regarded as one of the most innovative rappers of his generation, won five prizes mostly in rap categories for his album “DAMN.” and single “Humble.” Rap became the biggest music genre in the United States in 2017, Nielsen Music reported.

Veteran Jay-Z, whose soul-baring album “4:44” had gone into the show with a leading eight nominations, won nothing and chose not to perform at the three-hour show.

The losses by Lamar and Jay-Z in the top categories marked another year when pop music won over more socially incisive work. Adele beat Beyonce in 2017, and in 2016 Lamar lost album of the year to Taylor Swift.

Lamar opened Sunday’s show at New York’s Madison Square Garden with a medley of his hits, accompanied by dancers in military fatigues and later dressed in red hoodies as they mimicked being shot.

TIME‘S UP AND TRUMP

On the red carpet, dozens of musicians wore or held white roses to support women’s equality and freedom from sexual harassment, a theme echoed on stage in an emotional performance by pop singer Kesha of her single “Praying.”

Actress and singer Janelle Monae said the music business had to address issues of equal pay for women, abuse of power and harassment.

“We come in peace but we mean business. And to those who would dare try to silence us, we offer you two words: Time’s up,” Monae said in a reference to the Time’s Up movement spreading from Hollywood to the music business.

On a night when male artists dominated the winners list, R&B newcomer SZA, the most-nominated woman with five nods, left empty-handed.

Politics surfaced throughout the show.

A pre-taped parody sketch saw Hillary Clinton, John Legend, Cher, Cardi B and Snoop Dogg read excerpts from the critical book “Fire and Fury” about U.S. President Donald Trump’s first year in office, ostensibly as contenders for a future spoken word Grammy prize.

Pop singer Camila Cabello, whose parents are Cuban immigrants, spoke in support of the so-called Dreamers – young immigrants brought to the United States illegally when they were children and whose future in the country is in doubt.

Best new artist winner Alessia Cara, along with Khalid and Logic, sang their song “1-800-273-8255” with a group of suicide survivors in a tribute to rock singers Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, both of whom took their own lives last year.

Logic ended the performance with a freestyle rap supporting the black community, women and immigrants.

source: interaksyon.com

Nokia signs its first official 5G equipment deal with NTT DoCoMo

FRANKFURT, GERMANY — Finland’s Nokia said on Friday it signed its first major deal to supply new 5G wireless radio base stations to Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMo, which boasts nearly half of the country’s mobile subscribers.

The contract marks Nokia’s first sizeable deal for its flagship mobile base station equipment based on official global New Radio (NR) standards for the fifth generation of wireless networks, which were only finalised in December 2017.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal contemplates DoCoMo starting commercial 5G network service by 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympics, Nokia said. Initial installations are expected in greater metropolitan Tokyo with a national roll-out to follow in subsequent years.

Nokia, a major supplier to DoCoMo in both the 3G and 4G network eras, has been working with the Japanese operator since at least 2014 on trials of 5G equipment, which promises far faster data rates, greater capacity and quicker response times.

The 5G antennas and related base stations act as the local connections between users of mobile phones and computing devices with the backbone of any operator’s network.

The new equipment also promises to enable DoCoMo to provide new services for autonomous driving, industrial automation and smarter homes by providing wireless links to millions even billions of wireless sensors. Nokia said it will work with DoCoMo to ensure a smooth transition from existing 4G networks.

source: interaksyon.com

Facebook discovers cost of factory-farming users

NEW YORK — Mark Zuckerberg is discovering the cost of factory-farming Facebook’s users. The $550 billion social network’s success harvesting advertising dollars through mass-appeal content has made it very profitable. The snag is that users are increasingly unhappy. The founder and chief executive’s return to focusing more on their welfare may limit short-run earnings but should improve sustainability.

The Facebook farm has become increasingly unwholesome. The company is at the center of a storm over the promotion of false news stories, some potentially placed with the intention of interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Time spent per user on the core site has been falling, albeit from a high base, according to Pivotal Research. Zuckerberg’s stated goals for 2018 are fixing the site, cleaning up abuse, limiting interference by nation states, and “making sure time spent on Facebook is time well spent.”

Now Facebook is changing its algorithms, according to a post on Thursday, to prioritize news-feed items that users’ friends share and interact with and reduce the amount of third-party non-advertising content.

Multiple studies link time spent on social networks with unhappiness, and watching mass-produced videos and reading clickbait articles on a screen surely don’t help. Facebook hopes higher-quality feeds will work better. “We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,” Zuckerberg wrote.

This along with possible changes like favoring reputable news sources over more sensational ones, as Facebook is considering according to the Wall Street Journal, will probably hurt the company financially over the short run. Time spent on the site by users will probably fall, and that means advertising will grow more slowly.

That helps explain the 4 percent decline in the company’s shares by early afternoon on Friday. It’s worth it over the long term, however, if it keeps users sufficiently content to remain on the Facebook farm.

source: interaksyon.com

YouTube penalizes Logan Paul after suicide video post

LOS ANGELES | YouTube said Wednesday it is removing popular American vlogger Logan Paul from its Google Preferred platform and putting future projects with him on hold, after Paul posted a video on the platform of a suicide victim in Japan.

“In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Paul’s channels from Google Preferred. Additionally, we will not feature Logan in season 4 of ‘Foursome’ and his new Originals are on hold,” Alphabet Inc’s YouTube, said in a statement.

Google Preferred features YouTube’s most popular content in packages for sale to advertisers. Paul, 22, is one of YouTube’s top content creators, regularly drawing millions of views from his mainly youth-orientated audience.

Paul also had projects in the works with YouTube’s premium subscription service, YouTube Red, and appeared on the platform’s web series “Foursome.”

Representatives for Paul did not immediately return requests from Reuters for comment.

Paul apologized in a YouTube video titled “So Sorry” last week for posting the video that showed him and his friends laughing about the body they filmed hanging on a tree in Japan’s “suicide forest.”

Paul said he had made a “huge mistake” and was ashamed of himself, and he deleted the video after it caused a social media backlash.

YouTube in an open letter on Tuesday said it was “upset by the video that was shared last week,” saying that “suicide is not a joke, nor should it ever be a driving force for views.”

The company said Paul’s video violated its guidelines and it was “looking at further consequences.”

Paul has not posted any videos in the past week, saying he was “taking time to reflect.”

Paul’s channel, Logan Paul Vlogs, which has more than 15 million subscribers, is still active on YouTube and advertisers can still choose to advertise on his videos, or they can opt out.

source: interaksyon.com

‘Yeah I’ll beat Oprah’ – Trump

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he could beat Oprah Winfrey in a presidential race, while one of Winfrey’s closest friends said the media mogul and actress was “intrigued” by the possibility of running but was not considering it now.

Speculation about a 2020 White House bid by Winfrey blew up on social media and news outlets after her rousing “new day” speech at the Golden Globes awards show on Sunday night, which touched on female and black empowerment, her roots in poverty and support of those who speak up about sexual abuse and harassment.

But some media commentators also injected skepticism into the surge of excitement among fans of the former talk show star, saying the Democratic Party and the country might well reject the notion of another celebrity political novice following Trump’s 2016 election.

Winfrey, long associated with Democratic politics and fundraising, has not commented publicly on the speculation. Known to millions by her first name, Winfrey, 63, has been a cultural force in the country for decades.


Trump, speaking with reporters during a White House meeting with lawmakers, said in response to a question, “Yeah I’ll beat Oprah. Oprah would be a lot of fun.


“I know her very well … I like Oprah. I don’t think she’s going to run,” said the Republican president, 71.


Winfrey confidante Gayle King said earlier on Tuesday there was no change in Winfrey’s past position — that she is not interested in running for president

“I do think she’s intrigued by the idea, I do think that,” King said on the “CBS This Morning” program. “I also know that after years of watching ‘The Oprah (Winfrey) Show’ you always have the right to change your mind. I don’t think at this point she’s actually considering it.”


However, CNN, citing two of Winfrey’s close friends, reported on Monday that the television and movie producer and actress was actively thinking about a White House bid.


Winfrey has raised millions of dollars for various causes, including shelters for battered women but, like Trump when he launched his White House campaign, she has no prior experience in government. Trump, a businessman and former reality TV star, based part of his appeal on the fact he was truly not a Washington insider.


“NOPRAH! Do we really need another celebrity president?” read the front page of Tuesday’s New York Post. A critique in Slate on Monday was headlined “Oprah? Really?” and bemoaned the “impossibly boring” current crop of major political figures, making people more likely to vote for celebrities like Trump or Winfrey.

Former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who was the public face of some of the Trump administration’s early missteps last year, said on the “Good Morning Britain” show that Winfrey lacked “political infrastructure” and would have a hard time adjusting to the White House.


Winfrey first gained national fame with her TV talk show, which often focused on self-improvement and touched on previously taboo subjects like incest, rape, eating disorders and depression. She used the show’s success to build a media empire encompassing movie production, magazines, cable TV, and satellite radio, becoming one of the world’s richest women.


Winfrey also branched out into acting. She is credited with roles in nearly 30 movie and TV productions, including a role in director Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple” that earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.

source: interaksyon.com

Oprah Winfrey claims lifetime Golden Globe, calls for ‘a new day’

LOS ANGELES | Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman to be awarded a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement on Sunday, delivering an impassioned speech in support of those who have exposed sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.

Actress, movie and television producer, and chief executive of her OWN cable channel, Winfrey, 63, was celebrated as a role model for women and a person who has promoted strong female characters.

Her honor came in a year when the awards show, Hollywood’s first leading up to the Oscars, was dominated by a scandal that has seen the downfall of dozens of powerful men as women break years of silence.

Winfrey, who along with most of the show’s other attendees donned a black gown to show support for victims of sexual misconduct, was the first black woman to receive the annual Cecil B. De Mille award, joining the likes of Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and Sophia Loren.

Winfrey used her speech to praise women who have shared their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, and to declare that “a new day is on the horizon” for girls and women.

“And when that new day finally dawns it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure they become leaders that take us to the time where nobody has to say ‘me too’ again,” Winfrey said, referencing the social media movement raising awareness about sexual harassment.

Winfrey was raised in poverty by a single mother and went on host the top-rated talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for 25 years before ending it in 2011.

“I want to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.”

During her speech, she recalled being inspired as a child by previous Cecil B. DeMille award winner Sidney Poitier, the first black actor to win a best actor Oscar.

“It is not lost on me that at this moment there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given the same award,” Winfrey said.

She produced and acted in the 2014 civil rights movie “Selma,” and 2017’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and was Oscar nominated in 1986 for her role in “The Color Purple” which she later helped finance as a Broadway musical.

Even after ending her daily talk show, her influence on popular culture remains strong.

Forbes last year estimated her net worth at $3 billion and placed her third on its list of the America’s richest self-made women.

source: interaksyon.com

Airliners collide at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, passengers safe

TORONTO – Dozens of passengers were evacuated from an aircraft at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Friday, after a plane under tow struck an arriving jet that was waiting to park, sparking a small fire, the airport authority said.

Fire and emergency services responded to the collision between the two planes from Sunwing Airlines and Westjet Airlines, which happened at 6:19 p.m. (2319 GMT), the Greater Toronto Airport Authority said in a statement.

Calgary-based Westjet said it had unconfirmed reports of “minor injuries” in the incident, but that all 168 passengers and six crew members on board its plane were safe and accounted for.

The jet, a Boeing 737-800, had just arrived in Toronto from the resort of Cancun, Mexico, and was waiting to proceed to the gate at the time of the collision, Westjet said

Sunwing, part of the privately held Sunwing Travel Group, said there were no passengers or crew onboard its plane at the time of the collision, and that the aircraft was being towed by ground handler Swissport International Ltd.

A spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, Canada’s transportation regulator, said that a team was headed to the airport to investigate.

source: interaksyon.com

Amid issues of hate speech, foreign meddling in polls, CEO Zuckerberg sets 2018 goal: ‘fix’ Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday his goal for 2018 was to put the business he co-founded on a more solid footing, a break with his longstanding practice of setting a purely personal annual goal.

“The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do,” Zuckerberg, at 33 one of the world’s wealthiest people, wrote in a post on the No. 1 social media network. In past years, his New Year’s resolutions have included learning Mandarin, reading two books a month and traveling to US states he had not yet visited.

This year, his post described Facebook as standing at a crossroads that required his attention. He cited the spread of hate speech on social media, use of Facebook by Russia and other countries to disseminate propaganda and criticism that the platform can be an addictive waste of time.

A new law in Germany requires social networks such as Facebook and Twitter Inc to remove online hate speech or face fines. In the United States, lawmakers have criticized Facebook for failing to prevent Russian operatives from using its platform to meddle in the 2016 US elections.

In addition, ex-Facebook executives have publicly questioned whether using the network leads to unhealthy behaviors.

Zuckerberg said his “personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues.” He added that the pledge “may not seem like a personal challenge on its face,” but that he would learn a lot. He did not say what he would do.

“We won’t prevent all mistakes or abuse,” he wrote, “but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools.”

The issues Zuckerberg mentioned have created public relations and regulatory challenges, but have not made much of a dent on Facebook’s bottom line. The social network reported $16 billion in net income on $36 billion in sales during the 12 months that ended on Sept. 30.

Shares on Thursday traded at $184.94, up 0.1 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

Pope, in year-end message, says 2017 was marred by war and lies

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis in his year-end message said that 2017 had been marred by war, lies and injustice, and he urged people to take responsibility for their actions.

At his last public event of the year, an evening vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff said that humanity had “wasted and wounded” the year “in many ways with works of death, with lies and injustices”.

While war was the most obvious sign of “unrepentant and absurd pride”, many other transgressions had caused “human, social and environmental degradation”.

“We must take responsibility for everything before God, our brothers and our creation,” he said.

While the pope did not mention any specific events from 2017, he had made his voice heard on many of the world’s biggest issues over the course of the year.

In April, Francis condemned the “unacceptable massacre” of innocent civilians in a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

Just a month ago, he visited Myanmar, where more than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya people have been forced from their homes and into neighboring Bangladesh, speaking with authorities in an attempt to mitigate the crisis.

The pope also sought to encourage peace in Colombia during a trip in September and lobbied US President Donald Trump to address climate change issues in May. Amid heightening tensions between North Korea and the West, Francis expressed concern about nuclear arsenals.

At the end of the service, Francis walked across St. Peter’s Square, stopping to shake hands and pose for pictures, as he paid a brief visit to the life-size nativity set up outside.

On Jan. 1, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics will say a Mass to mark the Church’s World Day of Peace.

source: interaksyon.com