The 2020 MTV Video Music Awards were dedicated to the late Chadwick Boseman.
Host Keke Palmer made the announcement at the top of the show.
“We dedicate tonight’s show to a man whose spirit touched so many,” she shared. “He is a true hero, not just on screen, but in everything he did. His impact lives forever.”
The VMAs are also planning to air an “In Memoriam” segment with other dedications throughout the show tonight.
Chadwick sadly passed away on Friday, after years of battling stage IV colon cancer, at the young age of 43.

​Master KG makes history as the first South African artist to hit 100 million views on YouTube with his mega hit 'Jerusalema'.
Master KG’s smash hit “Jerusalema” has garnered 100 million views on YouTube and Mzansi is celebrating the success of the local song that has taken the world by storm.
The track that is produced by the Limpopo-born musician and record producer, featuring local vocalist Nomcebo Zikode, has managed to transcend national borders and has officially become an international hit.

Taking to social media on Thursday, Master KG shared the exciting news, also expressing his gratitude for the immense support, he wrote: “Dreams Are Valid Don’t Sleep On Your Self” We Did It @nomcebozikode Thank You World.”

During the global pandemic, “Jerusalema”, which is accompanied by unique dance moves, the viral #JerusalemaDanceChallenge have seen folks from all walks of life put on their dancing shoes, shaking off the lockdown blues. “Jerusalema” has recently been topping global charts, hitting the number one spot in 10 countries including South Africa, France, Romania, Portugal and Italy. Local stars Bonang Matheba, DJ Fresh, Winnie Mashaba have joined thousands of fans across the country in congratulating the muso on his great milestone.

"Jerusalema” was one of the chart-topping hits in 2019 but did not receive a single nod from the South African Music Awards (SAMAs), which left many enraged.

In spite of the lack of recognition by South Africa’s biggest music industry awards, the song has received an international stamp of approval with fans across the world jamming to the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge.
Master KG says the dance challenge that has caused an international stir started in Angola when a group of friends recorded a video of the dance choreography.

Usain Bolt’s COVID-19 test results have come in and he’s tested positive. As he announced yesterday, the sprinter is self-quarantining.
As news outlets shared the news of his diagnosis, NBC posted an article and mistakenly put Kevin Hart’s photo on their website instead of Usain’s.

​Kevin shared a screenshot of the article on his Instagram saying:
“No comment. I must of gotten really fast & tall overnight....I want to take advantage of this moment & race anybody in the world. We can bet whatever ... I am also no longer doing comedy due to my Olympic training schedule. “P.S this is Disrespectful on so many levels. All you can do is laugh.”
Kevin also revealed that he was diagnosed with the coronavirus back in March. He made the confession during a comedy set! Kevin says he didn't publicize his diagnosis at the time for a specific reason.
“The problem is that I had it around the same time as Tom Hanks. And I couldn’t say anything because he’s more famous than I am.”

World-record sprinter and eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
Jamaican radio station Nationwide News had reported earlier on Monday that Bolt, who holds world records in the 100m and 200m distance, had contracted the virus.
In a video message posted to Instagram, which Bolt appears to have taped himself while lying in bed, he said he saw the report when he woke up and scrolled through social media.
Instead of explicitly confirming it, he said he took a test on Saturday because he had to fly for work, but did not have any symptoms.
“I am going to quarantine myself and wait on the confirmation to see what is the protocol,” said the only sprinter to win the 100m and 200m golds at three consecutive Olympics (2008, 2012 and 2016).
“Just to be safe I quarantined myself and just taking it easy.”

Days earlier, on August 21, Bolt celebrated his 34th birthday with a big bash where many partygoers were mask-free, dancing to the hit “Lockdown” by Jamaican reggae singer Koffee, videos posted on social media showed.
“Best birthday ever,” Bolt wrote on Instagram, posting a photo of himself holding his baby girl Olympia who was born this May.

Daily confirmed cases have risen in the Caribbean island nation of around three million, to more than 50 over the past four days from less than 10 just a few weeks ago.
Jamaica now has had 1,529 confirmed cases, with 622 active cases, 16 deaths from coronavirus.
Officials put the uptick in cases down to the reopening of international borders as well as celebrations over a long weekend in August marking Independence Day and Emancipation Day.

They also put the blame at the feet of people who refuse to wear masks and practice social distancing.
The pick-up has raised concerns over national elections that Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness called for in September, six months ahead of schedule. Holness on Sunday suspended all his own campaigning activities includes motorcades, home visits and rallies and asked other parties to do the same.

Authorities have also delayed the reopening of schools for one month, several communities are under quarantine, and citizens are under a national curfew from 7pm to 5am.
The Commissioner of Police, Major Antony Anderson, has tested positive for the virus, and several government offices and major businesses have shut down as positive cases have emerged.

Facebook Inc. is facing new allegations that it illegally harvests the biometric data of users, this time in a lawsuit that targets the company’s photo-sharing app Instagram.
Last month, the social media company offered to pay $650 million to settle a lawsuit in which it was accused of illegally collecting biometric data through a photo-tagging tool provided to Facebook users.
In the new lawsuit, filed Monday in state court in Redwood City, California, the company is accused of collecting, storing and profiting from the biometric data of more than 100 million Instagram users, without their knowledge or consent.
The practice violates an Illinois privacy law that bars the unauthorized collection of biometric data, according to the lawsuit. Under the law a company can be forced to pay $1,000 per violation -- or $5,000 if it’s found to have acted recklessly or intentionally.
Only at the beginning of this year did Facebook start informing Instagram users that it was collecting the biometric data, according to the suit.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, made after regular business hours.
The suit is Whalen v. Facebook, 20-civ-03346, Superior Court of California (Redwood City).

​Source: Bloomberg

Actor and Comedian Bill Cosby, who’s serving three and a half years in prison, has filed another appeal against his conviction of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman about 15 years ago.
In court documents filed Tuesday with Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, Cosby’s attorneys argue that five women should not have been allowed to present testimony and/or evidence at his trial as witnesses.
They are saying that their “decades-old” allegations, which weren’t a part of the charges, had prejudiced the jury.
Yes, but the man was a serial sexual predator.  It was not just a few women, as Cosby allegedly did the same thing to other women throughout his career.  That’s a very long time.  And besides, their testimony lent credibility to the woman who filed the complaint.
The lawyer additionally argue that it was “fundamentally unfair” that deposition testimony which Cosby gave during a civil case regarding his use of knockout drugs and his sexual misconduct in the 1970’s was heard in court during his trial.
Their argument is that Cosby believed that he had immunity from prosecution when he gave it his deposition.
I can believe I’m Mary, Queen of Scots, but that doesn’t make it so.  He either had immunity, in which case the lawyers would have drawn up the contract that defined the immunity agreement, or he did not.  If he cannot produce the product of the alleged immunity then it doesn’t exist.  A court can’t entertain an argument that Cosby “believed” his testimony was given under immunity.
The 83-year-old actor shattered racial barriers together with his Emmy-winning role on “I Spy” in the 1960’s, after which as a father and doctor on the hit TV series “The Cosby Show” 20 years later.
Cosby fell from grace as accusation of sexual misconduct came out against him, and he was eventually found guilty in 2018 of assaulting Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia mansion.
I personally loved Bill Cosby.  I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and Cosby was a hero to many Philadelphians.  We looked up to him.  It was such a blow to hear what he had been doing for years.  At first, I didn’t believe it, but then learned that not believing it could be true was one of the reasons he got away with it for so long.
His was the first celebrity trial and guilty verdict for sexual assault since the creation of the #MeToo movement.
A judge sentenced Cosby to a minimum of three and a half years in prison for three counts of aggravated indecent assault.
An earlier trial in June 2017 led to a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Though more than 60 women charged that they’d been victims of sexual assault by Cosby, he was tried criminally for only Constand’s assault allegations, because the statute of limitations had expired in the other cases.
Back in December, Cosby lost an appeal when a court ruled that the evidence presented by the prosecution established Cosby’s “unique sexual assault playbook.”
A dozen women filed civil suits against Cosby for similar allegations, seeking compensation for damages.

Source: NBCnews

 President Donald Trump’s executive order banning China’s TikTok could prevent U.S. app stores from offering the popular short-video app and make advertising on the platform illegal, according to a White House document seen by Reuters.

Trump signed an order last week prohibiting transactions with TikTok if its parent ByteDance does not reach a deal to divest it in 45 days. It did not specify the scope of the ban, stating only that the U.S. Department of Commerce would define which transactions would be barred at the end of the 45-day period.
The White House document, sent out to supporters last week, provides insight into the Trump administration’s thinking. It shows the U.S. government is considering disrupting key aspects of TikTok’s operations and funding, amid concerns over the safety of personal data that the app handles.
“Prohibited transactions may include, for example, agreements to make the TikTok app available on app stores ... purchasing advertising on TikTok, and accepting terms of service to download the TikTok app onto a user device,” the document states.
A source familiar with the White House document verified its authenticity. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some technology industry experts said eliminating TikTok’s ability to be offered on Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google owner Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) app stores, which in turn allow it to be downloaded on iPhone and Android smartphones, could cripple the app’s growth.
“That kills TikTok in the U.S,” said James Lewis, a cyber security expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If they want to grow, these rules are a huge obstacle.”
He added, though, that the U.S. government may not be able to prevent Americans from downloading TikTok from foreign websites.
Apple and Alphabet did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Following Trump’s executive order last week, TikTok told advertisers it would continue to honor planned ad campaigns, refund any that it cannot fulfill, and work with major influencers to migrate to other platforms in the event of a ban. Some advertisers told Reuters they were drafting contingency plans and considering other apps for their marketing.

It is not clear whether Trump’s order will be implemented. Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) has been leading negotiations to acquire the North America, Australia and New Zealand operations of TikTok under the supervision of the Trump administration. A successful deal would make banning transactions with TikTok moot.
The White House document seen by Reuters is not clear on whether the United States would implement a similar crackdown on WeChat, the social media app owned by China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) that Trump also sought to ban in an executive order on last week.
TikTok, which has said is exploring legal challenges to Trump’s order, has 100 million active users in the United States, and is especially popular with teenagers. It has said U.S. user data is safely stored in the United States and Singapore, and that it would not hand over such information to the Chinese government.

Source: Reuters

Given that he didn’t announce his candidacy until July, Kanye West’s presidential bid has been an uphill battle from the start. But now, his campaign is facing a brand-new hurdle to appear on ballots in November, in the form of suggestions of potential electoral fraud.
The rapper has filed petitions to appear on the presidential ticket in 10 states, but so far has only managed to secure a spot on Oklahoma’s ballot, although he has many petitions pending review. While he managed to meet the filing deadlines for Illinois and New Jersey, the two states are now throwing West’s eligibility into doubt after both announced that the majority of the signatures submitted as part of his petition are invalid.
The latest issue has come in West’s home state, where Chicago’s WTTW reported that he was 1,300 signatures short of the necessary 2,500 needed to appear on the Illinois ballot. A hearing officer determined that only 1,200 signatures submitted were valid after the 46th Ward Democratic committee member, Sean Tenner, was inspired to take a closer look at the rapper’s petition. WTTW reported that the petition submitted by his campaign with the help of GOP officials in Wisconsin is also being challenged.

Last week, NJ.com reported that West’s campaign withdrew his petition hours before a scheduled hearing to determine his application’s validity after an elections lawyer questioned over 700 signatures his team submitted. West submitted 1,327 signatures to the New Jersey Division of Elections ahead of the July 27 deadline. Two days later, Florham Park–based elections attorney Scott Salmon says he found hundreds of suspicious signatures with issues including no last name, no municipality listed, people who were not registered to vote or didn’t live in New Jersey.

Salmon told NJ Advance Media, “I am glad to see the Kanye campaign has realized that their petition was not going to survive here. It was so clearly deficient that it wasn’t even worth defending. I think that’s the main takeaway here. I wish it wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Additionally, a New York Times investigation found there are a number of Republican activists helping West get on the ballot, including Mark Jacoby whose company Let the Voters Decide has been collecting signatures in Ohio, West Virginia, and Arkansas. While working for the California Republican Party in 2008, Jacoby was arrested on voter-fraud charges and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Voter-registration fraud carries a penalty of up to three years in prison, according to CBS News.

West’s team has until August 21 to refute Illinois’s determination regarding the invalid signatures when the findings will be presented to the Illinois State Board of Elections. No official charges of voter-registration fraud have been filed against West or his campaign as of now. 

Source: Vanity Fair

Three men were arrested Tuesday for alleged crimes “relating to their efforts to harass, intimidate, threaten or corruptly influence” accusers in R. Kelly’s Brooklyn Federal Court sex-trafficking case, federal prosecutors said this morning. R. Kelly, full name Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces charges for alleged racketeering and sexual abuse of women and girls, including allegations that he exposed two accusers to herpes without telling them.
One person, Michael Williams, is accused of setting a vehicle on fire in front of an accuser’s residence two months ago. Williams, “together with others, did knowingly and intentionally use intimidation and threaten and attempt to use intimidation … with the intent to influence, delay and prevent the testimony of Jane Doe …,” according to a just-unsealed arrest affidavit.
Just before 3 a.m. on June 11, a black SUV was “set on fire in an apparent arson” in front of the Florida residence where Jane Doe was staying. One of the men in the residence ran outside after hearing an explosion “and saw an individual fleeing from the scene of the fire, whose arm appeared to be lit on fire.”
Investigators found that “an accelerant was present along some or all of the outside perimeter of the residence.” Williams, prosecutors said, “is a family member” of a person identified in court documents as “I-1,” a former R. Kelly publicist.
Richard Arline Jr., a “self-proclaimed longtime friend of Kelly,” was arrested for allegations that he “attempted to illegally influence the cooperation and testimony of an alleged victim in the Kelly case.” The Feds allege that Arline Jr. discussed a plot where one accuser would get money — including a proposed payoff of $500,000 — not to cooperate with prosecutors. In a recorded phone call, Arline Jr. said that he communicated with Kelly while the singer was behind bars, “via a three-way call with another individual.”
Donnell Russell, “a self-described manager, advisor and friend of Kelly,” allegedly threatened to release “sexually explicit photographs of Jane Doe and to publicly reveal her sexual history if she did not withdraw her lawsuit against Kelly,” according to prosecutors.

Kelly, who also faces charges in Chicago federal court, has been jailed since his July 2019 arrest. Kelly’s New York trial, which had been rescheduled from this summer to September because of the coronavirus, will likely be delayed again because of COVID-19-related court slowdowns.

Source: Vulture