Thursday, August 5, 2021

Rapper Dababy (cropped).jpg

Following remarks by the rapper DaBaby regarding HIV/AIDS at a Miami, Florida festival, his remix of Dua Lipa’s song Levitating has lost a significant amount of radio audience in the United States of America. Yesterday, Billboard reported that, out of all the radio plays for Levitating, DaBaby’s remix now only makes up 49.5% of the radio plays for the song, a 20.7% decrease from last week.

At a performance at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami, DaBaby told an audience, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cell phone light in the air”, and went on to say, “Fellas, if you ain’t suck a nigga dick in the parking lot, put your cell phone lights in the air.” Lipa responded on her Instagram story by writing that she was “surprised and horrified” by DaBaby’s words, adding that “we need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS”.

Audacy, which is the second-largest radio group in the USA, told Billboard that they had removed the remix of Levitating from their stations “in light of DaBaby’s homophobic statements”. Jeremy Rice, who is the programming and branding director of Long Island-based WBLI in New York, has said that his station shifted to the version of Levitating that solely features Lipa, saying that WBLI management “just think it’s the right thing to do” given what he called DaBaby’s “plain wrong and hurtful” comments.

Fellow rapper T.I. defended DaBaby, arguing that “If you have a Lil Nas X video, and him living his truth, you gone damn sure have people like DaBaby who are going to speak they truth.” Lil Nas X is a gay rapper, who released the music video for his single Industry Baby on July 23, which “depicted him and a crowd of male dancers seemingly performing nude”, with their genitals blurred, according to Snopes.

Although DaBaby initially stood by his comments, on August 2 he apologised “to the LGBTQ+ community” for what he called “my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS”. While saying that he appreciated “the many people who came to me with kindness, who reached out to me privately to offer wisdom, education and resources”, the rapper also wrote that “social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate and learn from your mistakes”.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Canadian Astral Media Inc. will buy out Standard Radio Inc., which runs many radio stations in Canada. Standard Radio Inc. is the largest privately owned multimedia company in Canada.

Montreal based Astral Media Inc. will buy all of the assets from Standard Radio Inc. for about CAN$1.2-billion. Standard Radio Inc.’s 52 radio stations, and Astral’s 29, will be brought together by Astral Media Inc. This will give Astral 81 radio stations in total. This makes Astral the largest radio operator in Canada of FM and AM radio.

“With the acquisition of Standard Radio, Astral Media will not only be acquiring the best performing radio stations in the country, we will at the same time acquire a company with similar values and culture. said Ian Greenberg, President and CEO of Astral Media.

“Over the past four decades the Slaight family has built a remarkable collection of strong radio brands and has contributed meaningfully in shaping the Canadian radio industry as we know it today. We are delighted with the prospect of welcoming Standard Radio’s employees into our team.”

Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio also commented on the deal.

“We are looking forward to becoming a part of the Astral Media family,” said Gary Slaight, President and CEO of Standard Radio. “We are pleased to see our legacy live on with a company such as Astral that has such a strong track record and commitment to its employees and to the Canadian radio and television industries.”

All of Astral’s radio stations are run in Quebec and Atlantic Canada and it also runs various television stations across Canada. Astral also has two french channels that broadcast on Sirius satellite radio Canada.

The company hopes to finalize the deal in or before April.

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Toronto residents will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Toronto Centre (Ward 28). One candidate responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Edward Chin, Paula Fletcher (incumbent), Patrick Kraemer, Suzanne McCormick, Daniel Nicastro, and Michael Zubiak.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

24 years ago Iraq and Syria severed diplomatic relations because Syria accused Iraq of giving support to the Muslim Brotherhood who were causing disorder in Syria. Now, as an outcome of meetings between Walid Moallem the Syrian Foreign Minister, the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, relations will be restored.

Both countries are agreed that the borders between them should be sealed more tightly to prevent the flow of fighters, arms and ammunition to Iraq, Syria saying that Iraq should do more to secure the border than it has been doing lately.

The two countries are agreed that US troops are needed in Iraq at present but that they should leave as soon as they are no longer needed. Syria wants a timetable for the progressive withdrawal of US forces.

The steps needed to establish full diplomatic relations and to open embassies in Baghdad and Damascus are set out in an agreement signed today in Baghdad. Zebari proclaimed “We will hoist the Iraqi flag in Syria and the Syrian flag in Iraq”.

Meanwhile, President Talabani has agreed to meet Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Saturday to discuss security matters.

Although the British Prime Minister has been encouraging more positive relations between Iraq and its neighbors, Syria and Iran, the United States has been critical of both of them. Last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was opposed to including Syria and Iran in talks about security in Iraq. She accused Syria of having aligned itself with “the forces of extremism” and expressed frustration that despite repeated talks with Syria, nothing seems to have influenced their behavior. Regarding Iran, she said she could see nothing in its behavior that suggested it could contribute to stability in the area. She expressed the view that Iraq must take more responsibility for its own security.

Today, the White House welcomed the news of the rapprochement between Syria and Iraq. The spokesman for the US National Security Council saying “We’ve always encouraged Iraq’s neighbors to take a role in supporting and assisting the unity government in Iraq”.

President Bush met the Iraq Study Group, headed by former secretary of state James Baker on Monday. The Democrats in the Group said that, in order to encourage the Iraqi government to face its responsibilities, there should be a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, starting now. The President rejected this suggestion, remarking that this was a military matter and depended upon the situation on the ground.

Recommendations from the bi-partisan study Group are expected to be delivered to the President and Congress sometime in December this year. The group is composed of five Democrats and five Republicans.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Nigerian police arrested former Delta State governor James Ibori Wednesday on charges of abuse of office, corruption, and money laundering.

According to a statement by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibori was picked up at a private residence in the Asokoro District of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja. Ibori was to be arraigned yesterday at the Federal High Court in Kaduna. He is facing a total of 103 charges.

James Ibori had been governor of Delta for the past eight years, until leaving office in May, 2007. Although he earned a modest US$25,000 per year as governor, he had reportedly accumulated more than $35 million in foreign accounts. Ibori’s UK assets have been frozen while the Metropolitan police investigate further. Should the money be deemed the proceeds of crime, it could be transferred back to the Nigerian government.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua was elected in May on a platform of battling corruption in the government. Since taking office, Yar’Adua has overseen the arrest of five other former governors on corruption offences. James Ibori had supported the president in his election bid.

Law enforcement officials and anti-corruption advocates in the UK and Nigeria have complained that the Nigerian attorney-general was interfering and slowing down investigations. The attorney-general, Michael Aondoakaa, has denied the allegations.

In a December, 2007 paper by the global corruption watchdog Transparency International, entitled Report on the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2007, Nigeria was determined to have one of the highest rates of corruption, evaluated as a percentage of citizens reporting they paid a bribe to obtain a service.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Academy Award-winning film director Paul Haggis declared to Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis that he had decided to leave the Church of Scientology after being a member for 35 years. His letter to Davis was posted Saturday on the blog of former high-ranking Scientology official Marty Rathbun. Haggis received Academy Awards for writing and producing the 2004 film Crash, which he also directed.

Rathbun confirmed the authenticity of the letter by Haggis, and The Hollywood Reporter also confirmed it with a friend of the director. At his blog, Rathbun has been critical of Scientology’s current leader David Miscavige. In the June article “Former Scientology executives say leader David Miscavige abused staff”, Wikinews reported on criticism by Rathbun and other high-ranking officials that was published in a series of investigative articles in the St. Petersburg Times. In his letter to Davis, Haggis wrote that he read the series in the St. Petersburg Times, where these former Scientology officials accused David Miscavige of physically abusing Scientologists. He criticized the manner in which the Church of Scientology attempted to smear the former officials after they spoke out against the organization.

Well-known celebrity Scientologists include actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Haggis had not been known to be a vocal public supporter of Scientology prior to his declaration to Davis that he was leaving the organization.

He expressed his disappointment to Davis, son of actress Anne Archer, that the San Diego, California branch of the Church of Scientology supported Proposition 8. Proposition 8 removed the rights of same-sex couples to marry in California. The San Diego Church of Scientology was listed along with other groups on a Proposition 8 supporters website, but it was later removed. Haggis said that Davis initially told him he would do something about the San Diego Church of Scientology’s support for Proposition 8, but in the end Davis did not take action about this. Haggis called the inaction by Davis with regard to the San Diego Church of Scientology’s stance on homosexuality “cowardly”. Scientology views of homosexuality are controversial, and the introductory work to the topic Dianetics by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard describes homosexuality as a form of sexual perversion. Haggis wrote to Davis that he did not wish to stay a member “of an organization where gay-bashing was tolerated”, and called such behavior “indefensible”.

Actress Deborah Rennard, wife of Haggis, was introduced to Scientology by her parents. According to Haggis, the Scientology practice of “disconnection” was imposed on Rennard and her husband, and they were ordered to disconnect from her parents because Rennard’s parents had violated a rule of the organization. Due to having undergone a personal experience with regard to Scientology’s practice of disconnection, Haggis was surprised to hear Davis deny the policy existed in an interview with CNN journalist John Roberts.

He concluded his letter to Davis by noting that his Scientologist friends might disassociate from him due to his words, writing, “…I am fully aware that some of my friends may choose to no longer associate with me, or in some cases work with me. I will always take their calls, as I always took yours. However, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can no longer be a part of this group. Frankly, I had to look no further than your refusal to denounce the church’s anti-gay stance, and the indefensible actions, and inactions, of those who condone this behavior within the organization. I am only ashamed that I waited this many months to act. I hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.”

Roger Friedman of The Hollywood Reporter described the film director’s decision to leave the Church of Scientology as “a stunning move”. Friedman wrote that “Haggis has taken an enormous step here, and one that should resonate among all celebrity Scientologists.” Tony Ortega of The Village Voice called Haggis’s declaration to Davis “a remarkable letter”, and Gina Serpe of E! Online wrote “True, he was nowhere near the religion’s most famous celebrity practitioner, but he will no doubt now go down as one of its most infamous, thanks to the inevitably viral publication of his resignation letter”. Writing for Movieline, Kyle Buchanan characterized the letter by Haggis as “a candid, confrontational letter to Scientology top brass”, and said “It’s a must-read.” Radar Online observed “In a shock heard-round-the-Scientology world, Paul Haggis has very publicly quit the organization.” Foster Kamer wrote for Gawker that the letter by Haggis was “incredibly damning” to Scientology, and Adam McDowell of National Post called it “a scathing letter about church policy”. Vicki Hyman of The Star-Ledger called Haggis “the most famous name (if not face) to renounce the Church of Scientology”, and Xan Brooks wrote in The Guardian that “the Church of Scientology lost one of its most high-profile members”. According to The Guardian, the Church of Scientology has not yet responded publicly to the statements made by Haggis in his letter to Davis.

Haggis has multiple credits in film, including work as writer-director for Crash, and writer for Million Dollar Baby (directed by Clint Eastwood), Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Letters From Iwo Jima. Both Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Crash (2005) won Academy Awards for Best Picture, making Haggis the first film writer since 1950 to pen movies which won Best Picture Oscars in consecutive years. He is highly-regarded for his work as a humanitarian and for his civil liberties work, and his letter includes a list of awards he has received related to his dedication to civil rights. He is currently working on the film The Next Three Days, which includes actors Liam Neeson, Russell Crowe, and former Scientologist Jason Beghe. Beghe previously went public with his own criticism after leaving the Church of Scientology, and described how members must pay large amounts of money to advance in Scientology levels.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Internet group Anonymous today held further protests critical of the Church of Scientology.

The global protests started in Australia where several hundred protesters gathered at different locations for peaceful protests.

In a global speech, the Internet protest movement said Scientology “betrayed the trust of its members, [had] taken their money, their rights, and at times their very lives.” The protesters welcomed the public interest their protests have led to, and claimed they witnessed “an unprecedented flood of Scientologists [joining] us across the world to testify about these abuses.” The group said it would continue with monthly actions.

In a press statement from its European headquarters, Scientology accused the anonymous protesters of “hate speech and hate crimes”, alleging that security measures were necessary because of death threats and bomb threats. This also makes the Church want to “identify members” of the group it brands as “cyber-terrorists”.

Wikinews had correspondents in a number of protest locations to report on the events.

Anonymous states that the next protest is scheduled to take place on April 18, which happens to be the birthday of Suri, the daughter of Tom and Katie Cruise.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Yesterday in Geneva, Iran and the P5+1 nations — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council; United States, United Kingdom, China, France, and Russia; plus Germany — reached a six-month deal over Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme. Iran is to reduce its nuclear activities in return for a lifting of some economic sanctions.

Iran has agreed to not build any new enrichment facilities, to halt enrichment of uranium past a purity of 5%, to “neutralise” a stockpile of nearly 200kg of enriched uranium of a purity of nearly 20%, to not install new centrifuges, and to disable a number of existing centrifuges. They also have to allow access for inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to a number of sites including Natanz and Fordo, as well as information on the reactor at Arak.

In return, the P5+1 is to provide “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible” relief from economic sanctions including removal of specific trade sanctions on precious metals, including gold; the automotive sector; and oil. The sanctions relief is worth around US$7 billion (about €5 billion).

In Tehran, Iran’s negotiators were welcomed home at the airport by a gathering of supporters holding placards. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians reportedly watched coverage of the negotiations through the Iranian night.

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, told reporters, “[i]n this agreement, the right of [the] Iranian nation to enrich uranium was accepted by world powers”. The United States contests this.

US president Barack Obama welcomed the deal: “For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program, and key parts of the program will be rolled back.” He said the provisions of the deal “cut off Iran’s most likely paths to a bomb”.

British prime minister David Cameron said the deal was an “important first step” and Iran was “further away from getting a nuclear weapon”.

John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, appeared with British foreign minister William Hague at a press conference in London. Kerry told reporters: “Now the really hard part begins, and that is the effort to get the comprehensive agreement, which will require enormous steps in terms of verification, transparency and accountability”.

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, said the deal was a “historic mistake” and said the Iranians had agreed only to “cosmetic concessions” that “can be undone by the Iranians within weeks”. “Israel”, he said, “is not bound to this agreement while Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel. Israel has the right to protect itself in the face of any threat. I wish to reiterate that as the prime minister of Israel — Israel will not allow Iran to develop nuclear military capabilities.” He also said: “Iran is receiving billions of dollars in relief in the sanctions without paying any sort of price. Iran is receiving written approval to violate UN Security Council resolutions”.

Naftali Bennett, the Israeli economic minister, warned of the prospects of a nuclear Iran: “If in another five or six years a nuclear suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid, it will be because of the agreement that was signed this morning”.

A spokesman for President Obama stated: “the United States will remain firm in our commitment to Israel, which has good reason to be skeptical about Iran’s intentions”. Obama phoned Netanyahu on Sunday to try and reassure him.