Championship boxer Paul Bamba has died at 35, his manager Ne-Yo confirmed on Friday, Dec. 27.
In a statement shared to Instagram, the 45-year-old singer and manager, along with Bamba’s family, confirmed the boxer’s death.
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of beloved son, brother, friend and boxing champion Paul Bamba, whose light and love touched countless lives,” the statement began.
The musician, born Benedict Chiajulam Ihesiba Jr., was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital on Dec. 12 after apparently shooting himself in the head. His family shared news of his death on his social media accounts, honoring his legacy and what he provided to the world.
“With heavy hearts, we share the heartbreaking news of the passing of our beloved Ben, known to the world as OG Maco,” reads the statement. “His life was a testament to resilience, creativity, and boundless love. Through his music, passion, and unwavering spirit, he touched so many lives and left a lasting impact.”
Born in College Park, Georgia, Maco recorded music in high school before co-founding his label OGG (Originality Gains Greatness). He burst onto the music scene in 2014 with his mixtape “Live Life,” breaking through with his hit single “U Guessed It.” Its remix featuring 2 Chainz peaked at No. 90 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He subsequently inked a deal with Quality Control Music, the influential label that’s been home to Migos and Cardi B, and signed a major label partnership with Capitol Music Group/Motown the following year. He continued to release EPs and mixtapes throughout his career, though his output slowed before his death.
In 2016, he was in a near-fatal car crash that resulted in skull fractures and a cracked vertebrae. Three years later, Maco shared that he was battling the flesh-eating disease necrotising fasciitis, which subsequently led to depression. “I was improperly treated for a minor rash and ended up with a skin eating disease for the last few months,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “This is the best it’s looked. I hope it gives someone hope. I’ve been going through this alone 90% of the time, without the support of the person I love, without most of my ‘friends,’ without anything but my own strength and God.”
Eminem has given his verdict on whether he would be open to working on an album with his friend and longtime collaborator 50 Cent.
The two rappers’ careers have been closely linked since they found fame in the late Nineties and early Noughties, with Eminem releasing his acclaimed debut album The Slim Shady LP in 1999, and 50 Cent’s debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ being released four years later in 2003, with Eminem as an executive producer.
Eminem initially signed the “In Da Club” musician to his Shady Records label, and the latter contributed four songs to the 8 Mile soundtrack the same year. Eminem appeared on two tracks on Get Rich or Die Tryin’, including “Patiently Waiting” and “Don’t Push Me”
In a new interview, the “Lose Yourself” musician was asked how he’d feel about recording a full album alongside the “21 Questions” rapper, and replied: “That would be great.”
He continued: “I mean, I think that we just got to stop bull****ing and just do it.”
The pair recently worked together on Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg’s album, Missionary, appearing on the song “Gunz N Smoke”.
The duo have previously recorded several songs together, including “Encore”, “Hail Mary”, “Gatman and Robin”, “Crack a Bottle”, “The Re-Up” and “Is This Love (‘09)”. For live shows, the pair have often supported each other, with 50 Cent joining Eminem on several tours, including The Home & Home Tour in 2010, and at Eminem’s co-headlining Super Bowl halftime show in 2019.
They have also collaboratively appeared on other artists’ songs over the years, but never exclusively made an album together.
Six years after making headlines for working at a Trader Joe’s, “The Cosby Show” actor Geoffrey Owens is opening up once more about the reality of being a “middle-class actor.”
During an interview with Atlanta radio station V-103 earlier this month, Owens − who was promoting his new film, “Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza” − said he is still struggling to make a living. “I struggle every day to make my ends meet,” the 63-year-old Owens said. “People have a false impression of what the average, what I call ‘middle-class actor’ makes, and their ability to make a living in the industry.”
The average salary for an actor was about $62,000 in 2023, according to the U.S. Labor of Bureau Statistics, although it’s unclear exactly what Owens makes. This included actors who participate in theatrical performances, in addition to television, radio, video and film productions.
Owens shares the screen in “Mr. Santa: A Christmas Extravaganza” with Tommy Davidson. Directed by Noel Calloway, the family-friendly Christmas movie is about a substitute teacher, known as Mr. Santa, arriving days before a high school’s Christmas show. Rapper Nicki Minaj even gifted $25,000 to Owens, who ended up donating the lump sum to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly the Actors Fund), in honor of Earle Hyman, who played Bill Cosby’s father, Russell Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” according to USA TODAY reporting.
During his V-103 interview, Owens said he was recognized in public more often following the Trader Joe’s news than he was while actively playing in “The Cosby Show” during the 1980s and ’90s.
He also unveiled during his interview that he had quit working at Trader Joe’s right after the shopper snapped his photo and before the news broke, because he anticipated the reaction.
“It wasn’t like I quit because I knew I was going to be making a lot of money soon or anything,” Owens said. “I just felt like I wasn’t going to be able to handle that kind of scrutiny, that kind of attack on my privacy basically.”
Canadian investor and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said Thursday that he wants to help broker a deal with President-elect Donald Trump that would create some sort of “economic union” between the US and Canada – declaring that at least half of his countrymen would support such a merger.
O’Leary’s interest in unifying the US and Canada comes after Trump, 78, has repeatedly suggested in recent weeks that Canada should become “our 51st State.”
“Canadians over the holidays – the last two days – have been talking about this,” O’Leary said of Trump’s proposal, during an interview with Fox Business. “They want to hear more.”The Montreal-born businessman acknowledged “there’s obviously a lot of issues” that would arise if Canada attempted to join the US but said Trump’s interest in the matter “could be the beginning of an economic union.”
“Think about the power of combining the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door,” O’Leary continued.
President-elect Donald Trump refused to wish federal death-row inmates granted clemency by President Biden a merry Christmas on Wednesday – telling them to “go to Hell.”
“[T]o the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, raped, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!” he added.
Biden, 82, commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row Monday — a list that includes at least five child killers and several mass murderers.
The lame-duck president issued the reprieve, which reduced the inmates’ sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as part of his effort at “ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” the White House said. Trump, 78, also took aim at China, Canada and “Radical Left Lunatics” in his Christmas Day message, and reupped his support for US control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
“Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal (where we lost 38,000 people in its building 110 years ago), always making certain that the United States puts in Billions of Dollars in “repair” money, but will have absolutely nothing to say about ‘anything,’” the president-elect wrote.
Meek played the younger version of Ansel Elgort’s character in Edgar Wright’s 2017 action film, among other credits.
Hudson Meek, the 16-year-old actor who appeared in “Baby Driver,” died last week after falling from a moving vehicle in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, according to CNN affiliate WVTM.
The teen sustained blunt force trauma in the fall on December 19 and was admitted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, where he died from his injuries on December 21, the Jefferson County Coroner’s office told CNN affiliate WVTM.
“His 16 years on this earth were far too short, but he accomplished so much and significantly impacted everyone he met,” reads a post on his Instagram account.
The teen actor had various acting and voice over credits, most notably playing a younger version of Ansel Elgort’s character Baby in 2017 movie “Baby Driver.”
Meek also voiced the lead in “Bada Namu Stories” –– a children’s show that examines themes relevant to preschoolers, according to IMDb. He also appeared in shows including NBC’s “Found” and The CW’s “Legacies,” as well as the recently released thriller “The School Duel.” Meek’s obituary described the teenager as a “reflective and thoughtful” avid traveler and fan of the outdoors.
“He loved snow-skiing and could easily navigate the hardest trails that no one else in the family would dare attempt,” the obituary read. “One of his favorite places to be at the lake, tubing and wakeboarding.”
The Vestavia Hills Police Department is still investigating the circumstances surrounding Meek’s death, WTVM reported. CNN has reached out to Vestavia Hills police for more information on the incident.
In the waning days of 2024, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his company Meta took on 91 senators, a bipartisan group of representatives, President-elect Donald Trump’s son, Trump ally Elon Musk, and a coalition of parents who thought this would be the year Congress passed legislation to protect kids online.
Zuckerberg and Meta won.
Congress left Washington without passing the Kids Online Safety Act after coming closer than ever to imposing rules on social media to prevent the addiction and mental health harms the sites are widely agreed to cause. Zuckerberg can thank House Speaker Mike Johnson for closing the door on it this Congress. Once reviled by Republicans for kicking Trump off Facebook, the outcome shows how well Zuckerberg and Meta have restored a rapport.
“At the end of the day, we see the influence of these platforms is really powerful and they want to stop this legislation and any other tech legislation by any means necessary,” said Alix Fraser, vice president of technology reform at Issue One, an advocacy group that supports the Kids Online Safety Act.
Meta’s largesse
Perhaps the loudest way that the tech industry has made the case that bills like KOSA violate free speech is by suing states with similar laws.
NetChoice and another trade group, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, of which Meta is also a member, have sued nine states that enacted social media laws, winning several cases where states implemented age verification rules.
Litigation has also so far successfully stopped California from fully implementing a law that would limit how much data social platforms can collect on kids and require impact assessments.
Besides its gift to Trump’s inaugural fund, Meta spent nearly $19 million on federal lobbying in the first nine months of this year. Meta lobbied on many issues and the federal disclosure law does not require it to break out how much it spent on each.
In addition to its own in-house lobbyists, Meta paid $180,000 to lobbying firm S-3 Group in part to work with Bravo, a former director of floor operations for Scalise. NetChoice has also paid the S-3 Group $180,000 this year through September.
In July, shortly after the Senate vote, conservative members of Congress were sent an unattributed memo that called the bill a threat to the “pro-life movement” — a previously unheard of narrative. The memo has since been connected to Bravo, according to The Wall Street Journal.
In addition to lobbying, Meta also donated to members.
Its PAC donations favored Republican candidates and their leadership funds in 2023 and 2024, donating $162,350 across the House and Senate.
In the last two years, Meta’s corporate political action committee also put $5,000 into Scalise-run political fundraising committees. It also donated $2,000 to Johnson in 2023 and another $3,000 in September. Meta made its first contribution to Johnson and Scalise campaign funds in 2020.
The social media titan is investing heavily in Louisiana. The company is about to break ground on a $10 billion data center to house its artificial intelligence infrastructure in Richland Parish at a rural site four hours drive north of New Orleans. The state purchased the land almost two decades ago in an attempt to woo manufacturers.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed off on new tax incentives for data centers earlier this year. A press release from his office said the project is the largest capital investment in the state’s history.
Two spokespeople for Meta declined to share what other sites for the data center were considered, but said the company started talking to partners in Louisiana earlier this year. They said Meta selected the site because it has great access to infrastructure, a reliable grid, a business-friendly climate, and community partners that helped move the project forward.
Meta has data centers in several other states, including Blackburn’s Tennessee.
Speaker Johnson has often expressed sympathy for parents trying to protect their kids from harmful content online. He joined Democrats three years ago in proposing a resolution calling on tech companies to give parents more tools to monitor and protect their kids.
In April, he met with Maurine Molak, a mother whose son ended his life after intense cyberbullying. Johnson told her he was committed to getting the Kids Online Safety Act passed.
According to Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram, should unhappy House Republicans depose House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) that could put in place a delay in certifying Donald Trump as the next president.
According to the journalist, that is the “doomsday scenario” GOP lawmakers need to confront if there is coup led by what one Republican lawmaker called a “mob” in the House.
In an interview on Christmas Eve, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) admitted Johnson’s re-election was nowhere close to a done deal, telling reporters Johnson is a good person, before adding, “We’re dealing the mob here so I’m not sure how tough he is.” That led Pergram to tell the hosts, “So if the House fails to elect a speaker on the first vote, it must vote repeatedly until it elects a speaker.”
“Now in 2023 that process consumed five days,” he continued. “It was the longest speaker election since 1859. President Trump could be a difference maker.”
After sharing a clip of Johnson claiming he has been in constant contact with the president-elect, Pergram pointed out, “But Mr. Trump is said to be frustrated with Johnson. Here is the doomsday scenario: Say the House takes as long as it did two years ago to elect the speaker. That means it cannot certify the Electoral College on Jan 6. That House can’t do anything including swearing in the members until it picks a new speaker.”
Donald Trump complaining about critical coverage says that “we have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt” as though the government will be correcting the press. He has it exactly backward, as it is the free press that corrects and straightens out corrupt government.
Look no further than the reporting of Daily News correspondents Graham Rayman, Rocco Parascandola and Tom Tracy who last month uncovered the NYPD overtime scandal that OT is being directed to a large number of cops at HQs, not police out in the field.
Their work blew open the dirty inside secrets, showing that the No. 1 highest earner among 35,000 uniformed cops was Lt. Special Assignment Quathisha Epps, who just happened to be an aide to Jeff Maddrey, who was chief of the department until a few days ago.
The salacious details ascribed to Maddrey are horrid. And so is the scandal that OT is apparently being funneled, not to crime fighting and hardworking cops freezing their behinds off patrolling the streets and subways, but to paper-pushers like Epps with cushy jobs back at 1 Police Plaza. There are hundreds of OT recipients who need to be carefully reviewed.
