Ocean contributed vocals to the album's 'Carousel' Frank Ocean is reportedly taking legal action against Travis Scott over his hit album ‘Astroworld‘. Scott’s third album was released last month and hit Number One in the US charts. In a five-star review, NME said: “This is the sound of a musician who has worked to forge an entire world, an empire, around himself – we can peer in, but from afar, guessing at his motives and life behind the velvet rope.” Ocean contributed to the track ‘Carousel’, on which he delivers the chorus and third verse. His vocals have had Auto-Tune and other effects added to them. But, according to TMZ, the singer was unaware of the effects that would be applied to his voice and he now wants his vocals removed from the track. Sources told the website Ocean’s lawyers sent Scott a cease-and-desist letter demanding he take Ocean off the song. The rapper reportedly has no plans to do as requested. Scott was recently the target of rants from Nicki Minaj, whose ‘Queen’ album he beat to Number One in the US. Appearing on Ellen earlier this month (September 4), Minaj discussed her feelings at losing out on the top spot to the star, saying she had wanted to “punch [Scott] in his fucking face.” “It’s not anger, it’s just what’s right and what’s wrong, and what’s fair,” she said before explaining why she was so annoyed at finishing below Scott. “I’ve had a Number Two album and I never cared,” she said. “It’s just when you have a Number Two album to someone who’s selling shirts, and merch, and passes for a tour that’s not even announced yet, it feels like you’re being tricked. It feels like you’re playing a game and someone is beating you at a game, as opposed to selling music.” Meanwhile, Scott will headline the first Astroworld Festival later this year. The one-day event will take place in his hometown of Houston, Texas on November 17. No other acts have been confirmed for the festival at present.

The Beatles legend has revealed his cheeky new single could have been more explicit Paul McCartney has discussed his new single ‘Fuh You’, revealing it could have been called ‘Shag You’. The Beatles bassist released his latest solo album, ‘Egypt Station‘, last week (September 7). In a four-star review, NME said: “Mostly, ‘Egypt Station’ is a record that’s going to delight McCartney’s fans and – importantly – Beatles fans who might sniff at some of his solo work.” Speaking to NME for this week’s Big Read, McCartney said his grandchildren were big fans of the track and weren’t old enough to notice the song’s innuendo. “To tell you the truth, my grandchildren just love it,” he said. “That’s cos I played it and they’re not going to notice what you’ve noticed and what I’ve noticed, that sort of schoolboy, playing around stuff. “So my grandkids didn’t notice at all, but one of my daughters, who’s a mum, came downstairs when I was playing it in the kitchen and said, ‘Did I just hear what I think I heard?’ And I said: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.‘” He went on to explain that the line was originally a lot more explicit. “Actually, the truth is, we had that line that wasn’t finished, and I was just joking around,” he said. “‘I wanna know how you feel/I want a love that’s proud and real/you make me want to go out and steal/I wanna just…’ and I was kidding around, so I said, ‘I know, ‘I just wanna shag you’! That’s pretty good.’ And everyone said, ‘Nooo’. So I said, ‘I know, well make the line, ‘I just want it for you‘, but it’s going to sound like something else.’ The truth is you did that a lot in The Beatles.” Asked if it was true the band used to hide swear words in their songs, McCartney replied: “Yeah, I remember when we were doing the backing vocals in ‘Hey Jude’, someone says ‘Fuck off’ or something, and you can hear it in the final mix. We didn’t mean to leave it in, but we didn’t ever erase it. And we used to do things like we’d be singing ‘dit dit dit dit dit’ as a backing vocal and we’d change it to ‘tit tit tit tit tit’ for our own amusement. It’s schoolboy stuff. It’s pathetic really! “But it gives you a laugh at that moment, and that’s valuable. You don’t want to sit around being too serious with music. The thing is, in any job to relieve the boredom, if you’re ever likely to feel it, it’s good to have little in-jokes.” Meanwhile, McCartney recently revealed Taylor Swift and Donald Trump both inspired ‘Egypt Station’ in different ways. He cited the pop star and her relationship with her fans as an influence on the track ‘Who Cares’, a song about being bullied. Trump was on the musician’s mind when writing ‘Despite Repeated Warnings’, an impassioned attack on climate change deniers. “People who deny climate change… I just think it’s the most stupid thing ever,” McCartney said.

The band included several songs not played live in years in their setlist in Phoenix Nine Inch Nails played 1992’s ‘Broken‘ EP in full last night (September 13) as they kicked off the latest leg of their North American tour. The band began the new run of dates at Phoenix’s Comerica Theatre, where they performed a set featuring a handful of tracks that have been omitted from their live show for years. The Trent Reznor-led group began the concert with all eight tracks from the ‘Broken’ EP, which have all been performed live before but never together. Before last night, ‘Happiness In Slavery’ hadn’t been played in 23 years, while ‘Last’ and ‘Help Me I Am In Hell’ were last aired in 2009 and 2013 respectively. Meanwhile, the EPs covers were also given their first airings in years. The band played ‘Physical (You’re So)’, originally by Adam And The Ants for the first time since 2009 and Pigface’s ‘Suck’ for the first time since 2013. They also gave ‘This Isn’t The Place’, from their own 2017 EP ‘Add Violence‘, its live debut. Nine Inch Nails played: ‘Pinion’ (intro music) ‘Wish’ ‘Last’ ‘Help Me I Am In Hell’ ‘Happiness In Slavery’ ‘Gave Up’ ‘Physical (You’re So)’ ‘Suck’ ‘March Of The Pigs’ ‘The Lovers’ ‘Reptile’ ‘Shit Mirror’ ‘Ahead Of Ourselves’ ‘This Isn’t The Place’ ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’ ‘Survivalism’ ‘Only’ ‘The Hand That Feeds’ ‘Head Like A Hole’ ‘Less Than’ ‘The Day The World Went Away’ ‘Hurt’ The band will continue their tour with a second night at the Comerica Theatre tonight (September 14). They released their ninth studio album, ‘Bad Witch‘, in June. In a five-star review, NME wrote: “A triptych of a record, ‘Bad Witch’ spans all of NIN’s many sides. From clattering industrial sonics to expansive, soaring soundscapes, via free jazz and mutating electronica, it’s the sound of a band bolstering their already formidable palette.” Last month (August 22), it was reported that Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails bandmate Atticus Ross would score Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s. The film, which is set for release in October, follows Steve (Sunny Suljic), a 13-year-old boy in 1990s LA who forms a deep friendship with a group of skaters as he attempts to escape his tumultuous home life and an abusive older brother.

The clip of new music appeared on the rapper's Instagram Story earlier today Kanye West has previewed a clip of new music on his Instagram Story. The rapper only released his latest album ‘Ye‘ back in June but has already returned to the studio to work on various projects, including one with Chance The Rapper. He has also been pictured working with controversial star Tekashi 6ix9ine. Earlier today (September 14), West posted two videos to the social media app. One shows him getting into a white sports car while the other shows him exiting the vehicle and entering a studio space. Both are soundtracked by a clip of new music, which features West singing in falsetto and using effects on his vocals. It is currently unclear whether the music is intended for a new solo release from West or as part of another project. You can watch his Instagram Story above. Last week (September 8), the star suggested a second ‘Watch The Throne’ album would be released “soon”. The first album – a collaboration between West and Jay-Z – was released in 2011 and featured tracks including ‘Otis’ and ‘N****s in Paris’. Posting on Twitter, the rapper wrote: “throne2 coming soon.” It marks an about-turn from West’s 2016 claims that “there will never be a ‘Watch The Throne 2’.” A day before his claims, West released a new song with Lil Pump, titled ‘I Love It’. The track was premiered during the PornHub Awards, at which the rapper served as creative director.

Iconic. Missy Elliott has joined forces with the woman who went viral after her performance of ‘Work It’ was posted on Twitter. Mary Halsey became a viral star last month, after her impromptu BBQ performance received a huge reaction online. After being posted on Twitter, the clip attracted widespread attention before being noticed by Elliot herself , who described Halsey as her “funky white sister”. Yesterday, the pair finally met as Halsey performed on the Ellen show. After beginning the performance by herself, the rapper is seen surprising Halsey as she joins her mid-way through.

"I watched her be burned at the stake. How many people get accused of murdering their husband when they’re left with their daughter?" Melissa Auf Der Maur has spoken out in praise of Courtney Love and the legacy of Hole, ahead of an upcoming tribute concert to her former bandmate. On October 27, a tribute event directed by Auf der Maur and artist Joe Mama-Nitzberg will take place at Basilica Hudson’s biennial Pioneering People fundraiser in Hudson, New York – hosted by Michael Stipe, Chloë Sevigny, the National’s Aaron Dessner, Ryan McGinley, Yelena Yemchuk and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Speaking to Stereogum about the show and the recent 20th anniversary of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’, Auf Der Maur reflected on what her celebrated past meant to her in 2018. “I’ve never been one for reunions and I’ve never jumped at that opportunity when Hole have brought it up or there have been invitations to do so,” she said. “But I had a revelation, really simple. It’s the 20th anniversary of when I left Hole, when we put out our last record. Next year is the 25th anniversary of ‘Live Through This’. We have, until now, not done reunions.” She continued: “Honestly, the event that we’re honouring Courtney with, Pioneering People, we did it once with John Waters, once with Rufus Wainwright. Earlier this year I realised it’s gotta be a woman. So it occurred to me, well, Courtney’s a pioneer. And Courtney deserves a creative bouquet of honouring. “She’s one of the most misunderstood, wild card, strange individuals, and Hole’s legacy is important to me, as far as it being looked at with the respect it deserves and the impact it made. The impact is very real. The #MeToo moments, Courtney was always saying this stuff.” Auf Der Maur went on to defend her former bandmate against the often negative portrayal and wild conspiracy theories about husband Kurt Cobain’s death. “They just wrote her off as a crazy bitch,” she continued. “That’s not OK. In the ’90s, there was much less of an understanding of how complicated people are complicated for a reason and they deserve a lot more compassion. “I watched her be burned at the stake. How many people get accused of murdering their husband when they’re left with their daughter? It’s just unacceptable. I’ve always defended her in terms of any of that negative stuff.” Love recently returned to the stage for Smashing Pumpkins’ 30th anniversary show – joining the likes of Deftones’ Chino Moreno, AFI’s Davey Havok, New Order/Joy Division legend Peter Hook and many more.

"She had the best time of her life" A brilliant video has captured the moment that a wheelchair bound Slayer fan was given the chance to experience a mosh pit for the first time. In the clip, the elderly woman is pushed into the mosh pit at a recent Slayer show in Nampa, Idaho. She’s immediately followed by a huge throng of fans who proceed to mosh around her. “I took my mother-in-law to the Slayer farewell tour as she is an old metal head”, a description on the YouTube video states. “She had never in all her years been into a mosh pit. “I feel everyone should experience it at least once, so I took her in her wheelchair and asked a couple of big guys to help me keep her safe and off we went. She had the best time of her life.”

Check out new single 'Silvery Sometimes' Smashing Pumpkins have announced details of their anticipated comeback album ‘Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun’. The first album to feature founding members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin since 2000, the 10th official Pumpkins’ studio album was produced by Rick Rubin and will arrive on November 16 via Napalm Records. Launching the record with comeback single ‘Solara‘, the band have also shared new track ‘Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)’. Check it out below. The tracklist for the album is 1. “Knights of Malta” 2. “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)” 3. “Travels” 4. “Solara” 5. “Alienation” 6. “Marchin’ On” 7. “With Sympathy” 8. “Seek And You Shall Destroy”

"It’s really starting to get some steam." Tom Hardy is reportedly working on his own grime album, after an old mixtape from the star emerged online. The ‘Falling On Your Arse 1999’ mix tape was uploaded online at the beginning of 2018, and saw the actor winning plaudits for tracks including ‘Rented Suit Plastic Shoes’, Now, it’s claimed that he’s taking a foray back into music. According to The Sun, the actor has teamed up with Sam Williams – who previously worked with the likes of Plan B and David Bowie. A source revealed: “Tom has always had a huge passion for rapping ever since he was a young boy. “In the past he’s put song- writing on the backburner but just recently decided to pick things up again after building a friendship with producer Sam Williams. “They’ve been busy working on a selection of songs together for an album and it’s really starting to get some steam. “Tom’s a bit tentative about releasing it for the world but big labels including Warner have already shown an interest in picking it up, so there is real potential for it to hit the charts.” The actor previously worked with producers Warren Riker and Gordon Williams as a teenager. “I started out rapping when I was 14 or 15. I used to be with the guy who managed Leela James and Lauryn Hill, Pras, the Fugees and all that”, he previously claimed. Hardy is yet to comment on the reports.

Warning: SPOILERS for The Predator ahead The Predator continues the evolution of the franchise's titular monsters with a new version, dubbed the Ultimate Predator, which stands at a terrifying 11 feet tall and weighs a whopping 700 pounds. In this movie, we learn that the Predators' practice of picking out the most worthy warriors from each species has an ulterior motive, as the species grows stronger and more lethal by combining their DNA with that of the strongest members of other alien races - humans included. The Predators' habit of taking a "trophy" from their victims (i.e. the head and spine) is actually for the purpose of obtaining DNA from the spinal column. This also serves as an explanation for why the Predators have been coming to Earth with greater frequency. It's revealed that, since humanity is expected to die out within a couple of generations due to climate change, the Predators have been harvesting as much strong human DNA as possible before out species is gone forever. Once all the humans have died out, the Predators plan to move in and claim Earth for their own. There are two Predators featured in The Predator: a rogue Predator who comes to Earth in order to bring humanity a weapon that might help us survive; and the Ultimate Predator, who is hunting the rogue Predator. When Earth's scientists capture and study the rogue Predator, they are disturbed to discover that it has partially human DNA, and call in Dr. Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) to try and figure out, as she puts it, "if someone f***ed an alien." Fortunately, that's not actually how hybrid Predators are made. We get a glimpse of the DNA splicing process when Rory (Jacob Tremblay) puts on the rogue Predator's mask and somehow unlocks what appear to be the alien's memories. We see the rogue Predator on a table with several other Predators operating on it in a way that seemingly causes it great pain (which may be why it came to resent its own kind). We don't see how the Ultimate Predator came to be made, but presumably it underwent a similar operation.

Chris Evans has taken to social media to confirm that Captain America is returning to his classic look for next year's Avengers 4. The marketing push for Captain Marvel may be only just beginning, but superhero fans remain laser-focused on next year's Avengers sequel. The film will bring an end to the Infinity Stones storyline, and it's expected to be the swan song of a number of key actors. Marvel is currently conducting additional photography in Atlanta, and several important stars have been confirmed as being on set. One of the actors expected to depart is Chris Evans, who has previously described these reshoots as the last time he'll play Captain America. Now, Evans has taken to Twitter to confirm that, dubbing Avengers 4 his "senior year" in the MCU. He also included a photo, revealing that Steve Rogers has changed his look considerably from the longer-haired, bearded appearance he sported in Avengers: Infinity War. In Infinity War, Steve Rogers sported a disheveled, scruffier look; this was because he and his Secret Avengers team had been on the run for the last year. In June, though, promotional art for Avengers 4 leaked that showed Rogers' return to the Captain America identity. The aftermath of the "snap" had clearly brought an end to the superhero Civil War, with Rogers and Stark once again uniting to either undo or avert Thanos's genocidal actions. Fans were initially unsure whether or not this art was genuine, but it was used by Marvel at CineEurope 2018 a few weeks later. Curiously, while the promotional image showed all the other Avengers in costume and wielding trademark weapons, Captain America was still without his shield. The costume depicted has straps for it, but the shield definitely wasn't on his back. Evans's photo shows the smart, clean-cut appearance that's traditionally associated with Captain America, and further confirms that this is the look we can expect him to have in Avengers 4. There's a certain irony in his going back to a classic look for the film; according to the Russo brothers, his two years on the run - and presumably the horrors of the "snap" - have given Steve Rogers something of a "harder edge." It's strange to imagine a traditionally-attired Captain America with that kind of attitude and style, but it should indicate just what the world has gone through in the aftermath of Avengers: Infinity War. Audiences are already being treated to occasional set photos from the reshoots, while a casting call has teased that Spider-Man may head to Wakanda after his (inevitable) resurrection. Hopefully this tweet means viewers can expect more teasers from the film's stars.

Though Italy’s box office for the first eight months of 2018 is down, Italian movies account for a quarter of grosses, up from 17% a year ago, a clear sign of local production vibrancy amid alarming theatrical erosion. Outside the country, Italian cinema is steadily gaining more international traction after the four Oscar nominations (and one win) scored earlier this year by Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” followed by two Cannes competition prizewinners, Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro” and Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” and strong presences at the Venice and Toronto festivals. The drop in Italian moviegoers amounts to a 7% drop so far this year. That follows a dramatic 12% box office plunge in 2017 and is forcing producers and distributors to come up with some innovative strategies. Case in point is Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino’s Silvio Berlusconi-themed “Loro,” which was edited into a longer version divided into two installments, “Loro 1” and “Loro 2,” for the Italian market. Universal released each film within about two weeks of each other pulling a combined roughly $8 million, in line with Sorrentino’s customary take for a single feature film. Universal and Sorrentino’s producer Nicola Giuliano say they are satisfied with their experiment borne in part from Sorrentino’s desire to make a longer, more than three-hour, director’s cut of the pic besides the two-hour and 25 minutes international version that will world premiere in Toronto. To put things in perspective, Garrone’s “Dogman” has grossed $2.9 million in Italian theaters since its May release via 01 Distribution, which is considered a good result. Giuliano’s Indigo Films shingle has fared well with economic crisis comedy “Put Grandma in the Freezer,” a first feature by directorial duo Giancarlo Fontana and Giuseppe Stasi, which pulled $4 million earlier this year, also via 01. “Freezer” is seen as part of an ongoing renewal of Italian comedies, which are becoming more sophisticated, veering away from the tired crassness that had become the norm, especially during the Christmas period. The year’s top Italian grosser to date is smart social comedy “Like a Cat on a Highway,” which became Italy’s top domestic draw during Christmas, pulling more than $11 million via new Italian theatrical distributor Vision Distribution, launched by paybox Sky Italia in tandem with five local production companies. Other top 2018 homegrown draws include Gabriele Muccino’s Italian cinema comeback “There Is No Place Like Home,” a dramedy that revolves around a family gathered to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary on island of Ischia; and Ferzan Ozpetek’s melodramatic thriller “Naples in Veils.” “There is a wide variety of genres instead of just a box office driven by comedies, which used to be the case,” notes box office data analyst Robert Bernocchi. Bernocchi recently underlined in his Cineguru blog that this year’s summer season at the Italian box office is the worst in over a decade due the country’s age-old structural problem, the low number of releases in the June-August period when Italians traditionally hit the beach en masse, though that is changing. Experts say the only way to remove this hurdle is to have more distributors take greater risks, which could initially mean taking a loss, but would build the summer moviegoing habit. So far the only ones who’ve really risen to the challenge are Universal and Warner Bros., which is not enough. A clear example of this, albeit understandable, aversion to risk-taking that is stunting the local industry is the fact that Italian director Stefano Sollima’s high-octane thriller “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” will be going into Italian movie theaters in October, via 01, after playing this summer in most of the rest of the world.

Produced by LeBron James, Starz's look at youth football in a rough Miami neighborhood is a solidly made complement to the network's tremendous 'America to Me.' For proof that football is America's most beloved sport, you need look no further than unscripted television, where it's hard to find any aspect of the gridiron experience that isn't currently being documented by a camera-wielding team. If you're spending your Fridays on high school football, your Saturdays watching college football and your Sundays with the NFL, that leaves the rest of the week to catch up with the diminutive, pad-wearing juveniles of Friday Night Tykes or Coach Snoop, the up-and-coming pass-throwers of QB1, the junior college desperation of Last Chance U and the messy professional drama of Hard Knocks and All or Nothing. Watch enough of these shows in a short window and it can become a disorienting miasma of obscenity-spewing coaches, parents living out their own thwarted dreams, hotshot quarterbacks, high-kicking cheerleaders and game-saving Hail Marys. Even basketball guys can't resist. Premiering this Sunday (September 16) on Starz, Warriors of Liberty City comes from executive producers LeBron James and Maverick Carter — RIP, Survivor's Remorse — and it could actually get away with disingenuously claiming not to be about football at all. Sure, it's entirely about football, but at its best Warriors of Liberty City has more in common with the urban sociology of its tremendous Starz colleague America to Me, offering an alternating sad and inspiring look at the struggles and aspirations of families for whom the American Dream, and the hope of escaping a bad neighborhood, is best realized through sports. Primarily African American and largely lower income, the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami has a reputation as the birthplace for a disproportionate number of high profile football players including Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, Willis McGahee and Devonta Freeman. Serving as a pipeline and a refuge is the Warriors community sports program co-founded by 2 Live Crew frontman Luther Campbell. The program includes basketball, baseball and soccer, plus cheerleading and volleyball for girls, but its major engine is an escalating ladder of football teams divided by weight class and serving boys between the ages of four and 13. Campbell, who everybody calls Uncle Luther, starts the series with a tour around Liberty City and several NFL veterans share their own experiences and offer chilling "There but for the grace of the Warriors…" speculation on the life crossroads they faced in Liberty City, with football keeping them away from gangs and violence. This beginning approach is the 30 for 30 version of the story, which makes sense since creator-director Evan Rosenfeld and director Andrew Cohn come from a 30 for 30 background. Warriors of Liberty City is a better series for swiftly moving past its "Here are famous people who got out" perspective, yet it's also invariably at the mercy of certain limitations. While one assumes that there are many doors that the name "LeBron James" opens, Warriors of Liberty City doesn't have quite the far-reaching access that Steve James and his team got for the high school at the center of America to Me, nor are any of the interwoven stories perfectly cast. One plotline might have a great coach, but no players or parents worth following. Another might have standout parents without a team arc to speak of. Even a story that looked perfect on paper, going exactly where the filmmakers hoped it would go, can only be as good as the featured characters. I can see, for example, why Chatarius "Tutu" Atwell Jr. was interesting to the filmmakers. A high school senior at local Miami Northwestern and a veteran of the Liberty City youth program, the undersized, thrillingly athletic Tutu is easy to cheer for. The entire community rallies behind Miami Northwestern and Tutu. You sense that Rosenfeld and Cohn would love to do the same. It's just disappointing that Tutu is guarded as a personality and none of the people around him prove to be sufficiently dynamic. When that storyline vanishes for long stretches, you don't miss it. On the other hand, 13-year-old Destiny Martinez is a star, a pre-existing star with a robust Instagram follower count shows that the directors were not ahead of the curve in finding her. Destiny is smart, driven and her cautionary experiences with social media popularity are freshly depicted. She also has a father dedicated to coaching and teaching her, recognizing that she could have a life he had to set aside. The problem is that the directors want to focus on football and although Destiny's dance team is exceptional in its own right, she doesn't feel like she's on the same show as the male characters and the community's very conventional and entrenched gender norms aren't something the directors want to poke at. Destiny's contemporaries on the 155-pound football team are a little interchangeable and their part of the story is dominated by Herbert Ritchie, an excitable first-time coach whose profane motivational rants are foul enough that a series that should be a teachable tool for all ages will come with content warnings. Several of the show's best stories come from the Boom Squad, a team facing startlingly high expectations given that they're mostly nine-year-olds. Accepting that asking a third grader for introspection might be a high bar, the directors keep their attentions mostly on the older figures and, at times, Lavalrick "Dread" Lucas Sr. becomes the series' best character. Prone to getting drunk on the sideline or smoke weed in public, Dread boasts equally of his long rap sheet and his post-prison redemption, determined to be a better father figure for Dread Jr. than he had himself. It's a reasonable goal and yet also a struggle, especially when the impact of Hurricane Irma makes life even harder for a family that already starts the series sleeping six in a tiny project apartment. Some episodes adopt a countdown-to-the-big-game structure that's practically standard for the genre and those rarely have the strongest momentum. Dealing with pint-sized athletes, the editors can't always count on a recognizable child scoring the winning touchdown or making a key defensive play or on games not ending with an ungainly, action-defying 2-0 final score. What the show does more effectively is build hours around themes common to the relationships of what are most frequently fathers and sons. "Football" is series' pre-determined solution for much of what ails the community, but the show is put together so that audiences can recognize that the lessons applicable to football will help the kids in life, even if nobody here wants to allow for the possibility that a career in The League isn't a birthright. Certainly the lack of clear escape alternatives is chilling, accompanied by the frequent background din of sirens and helicopters, all playing over cinematography from Ryan Nethery that resists making poverty look glamorous, even if it sometimes tip-toes around an aesthetic that would have been more at home in a 2 Live Crew music video from the '90s. There's a deeper cultural dig that Warriors of Liberty City could be doing, one on display in America to Me, talking in more depth about economic opportunities, the traps of race-based assumptions, community-police relations, a biased criminal justice system and more. Maybe and hopefully the pairing of this often very good show with that often great show will cause viewers wooed by the football hook of Warriors of Liberty City to also watch its Starz partner, or vice versa.

Brazil is ready to launch small commercial rockets from its space base near the equator as soon as it agrees to safeguard U.S. technology that is dominant in the industry, the Brazilian Air Force officer managing the space program said on Friday. Brig. Major Luiz Fernando Aguiar said Brazil wants to get a piece of the $300 billion-a-year space launch business by drawing U.S. companies interested in launching small satellites at a lower cost from the Alcantara base on its north coast. “The microsatellite market is most attractive today and we are interested in the 50 to 500-kilo niche,” Aguiar said at the base’s main launch pad. “We are developing a rocket for microsatellites. For that this tower is totally ready.” Space cooperation between the United States and Brazil took a big step forward when they signed a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) agreement last month during a visit to Brasilia by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis. The accord on sharing real-time tracking data on objects and debris in space is needed to develop a satellite launching business without the risk of collision. Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp in December visited the Alcantara space center, which is especially attractive to smaller firms, such as Tucson, Arizona-based rocket-maker Vector Launch Inc, because its equatorial location cuts fuel costs by a third allowing heavier payloads. But Brazil’s plan to become a new hub in the space industry will depend on concluding a technology safeguard agreement (TSA) with the United States to protect sensitive American space launch and satellite technology, Aguiar said. Without it, no U.S. rocket can blast off from the South American country. A previous attempt at a U.S.-Brazilian space partnership was scuttled in 2003 when the TSA ran into resistance from the leftist government of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and was thwarted by Brazilian lawmakers. Aguiar said that agreement floundered because it allowed the U.S. unverified access to the Alcantara base that was not acceptable on sovereignty grounds. A new Brazilian proposal under consideration by the U.S. government will be more “palatable” to the Brazilian Congress. The TSA is seen by Washington as opening opportunities for greater cooperation in aerospace and defense between the two countries. The market for small satellite launches is expected to grow fast in the next few years and the U.S. space industry is keen to see new launch capacity in the world and a quick resolution to the negotiation of the TSA with Brazil. “Demand for launch services has outstripped supply globally and another launch site is needed. Because of its location, Alcantara offers advantages no other site in the world provides,” an industry source said. Aguiar said the government will set up a company called Alada to market the launch site. He said the Air Force has been in talks with Brazilian aerospace company Embraer SA on how to manage the business going forward. One possibility, Brazilian Air Force officials said, is a joint venture with Embraer’s satellite company Visiona, which is not part of the planned $4.75 billion tie-up between Boeing and Embraer’s commercial aviation arm.

U.S. Southeast power companies said over 722,000 homes and businesses located mostly in North Carolina and South Carolina were without power on Friday after Hurricane Florence hit the coast. Florence crashed into the Carolinas on Friday with 90-mph (144 kph) winds, torrential rains and a powerful storm surge before slowing to a pace that meant it would plague the area with days of flooding. Duke Energy Corp, the biggest utility in the area with over 4 million customers, estimated the storm could cause between 1 million and 3 million outages. Restoring power to all customers could take weeks, it said. Duke said it had more than 20,000 personnel ready to start fixing outages as soon as conditions allowed, including over 8,000 from Duke’s Carolinas utilities, 1,700 from the Midwest, 1,200 from Florida and 9,400 from other utilities.

RUSSIA has begun its biggest war games exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union close to its border with China, mobilising 300,000 troops in a show of force that will include joint exercises with the Chinese army. China and Russia have staged joint drills before but not on such a large scale. The drills, known as Vostok-2018 are taking place at a time of heightened tension between the West and Russia. NATO has said it will monitor the exercise closely, as will the United States which has a strong military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Russia's Ministry of Defence broadcast images on Tuesday of columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and warships on the move, and combat helicopters and fighter aircraft taking off. In one clip, marines from Russia's Northern Fleet and a motorised Arctic brigade were shown disembarking from a large landing ship on a barren shore opposite Alaska. This activity was part of the first stage of the exercise, which runs until September 17, the ministry said. The main aim is to check the military's readiness to move troops large distances, to test how closely infantry and naval forces cooperated, and to perfect command and control procedures. Later stages will involve rehearsals of both defensive and offensive scenarios. Russia also staged a major naval exercise in the eastern Mediterranean this month and its jets resumed bombing the Syrian region of Idlib, the last major enclave of rebels fighting its ally President Bashar al-Assad. The location of the main training range for Vostok-2018 - 5,000 km east of Moscow - means it is likely to be watched closely by Japan, North and South Korea as well as by China and Mongolia, both of whose armies will take part in the manoeuvres later this week. Russia also broadcast footage of some of 24 helicopters and six jets belonging to the Chinese air force landing at Russian air bases for the exercise. Beijing has said 3,200 members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will join in. When asked if he was concerned about a potential military alliance between Russia and China in the future, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said he did not see the two countries aligned in the long-term. "I think that nations act out of their interest. I see little in the long-term that aligns Russia and China," Mattis told reporters in Washington.

APPLE will live stream its iPhone launch event on Twitter for the first time, as the technology giant prepares to unveil its latest flagship smartphone. The US phone giant will allow people to watch the event live on the social media site, widening its potential viewership by breaking with a long-standing tradition of only allowing viewers to tune in via the company's website. Apple is expected to use the event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on its Cupertino campus to reveal as many as three new versions of the iPhone. A new Apple Watch and revamped iPad Pro could also appear during the show, according to industry analysts. Earlier this year, Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach a one trillion dollar market value. However, the tech giant faces ever-increasing pressure in the smartphone market, with Samsung and Huawei among the notable competitors to have already launched critically acclaimed iPhone rivals this year. Google is also expected to announce a new version of its Pixel smartphone when it holds its own event in October. The new iPhone line-up will reportedly feature a refreshed version of the iPhone X - first introduced last year, alongside a larger-screen device and a cheaper iPhone that will also feature the iPhone X's all-screen front panel and Face ID technology.

PRESIDENT Xi doesn’t want anything to contradict the authority of his Communist Party. So he’s set about purging China of all possible dissenting voices. Be it social or traditional media, trade organisations — or religion — it must subject itself to Party control. In the case of the 11 million ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang province, that produces a multitude of problems. They’re not ethnic Chinese. They speak Turkic. They are mostly Muslim. Put simply, they’re not Chinese enough for Beijing. So it has clamped down hard in an effort to ‘Sinicize’ their entire culture. It wants ‘enhanced’ patriotism towards the Party. Exactly how it has set about doing so has exploded into internationial uproar in recent months. The UN human rights committee warned last month that China has put up to one million Uighurs into “arbitrary detention” or “re-education centres”. Beijing’s response was mixed. On the one hand it denied the claim outright. On the other, it defended such drastic measures as an effort to “salvage” a region on “the verge of massive turmoil”. State media has previously confirmed it has imposed stringent surveillance regimen and relocated hundreds of thousands of the Uighur population. Now, religious liberty and human rights group Bitter Winter has released photographs of what it says is the true nature of Beijing’s ‘training’ camps in Xinjiang. And they feature guard towers, tall concrete walls, and barbed wire. The camp at the centre of the new photographs is pronounced by Beijing to be a ‘vocational training centre’. It’s in Xinjiang’s Akto county. It’s a 6000 sqm slab in a light industrial park. It’s said to have been operational for just over a year. What makes this different from your average vocational training centre, a Bitter Winter blog says, is the permanent presence of armed guards at its gates. The concrete and barbed-wire walls reach some 4m high. And a red roofed watchtower overlooks the internal courtyard. The human rights group claims the facility contains 5000 Chinese citizens within its walls. “Most of these are Muslims of various ethnicities such as Uyghurs, Kyrgyzes, and Tajiks,” the blog reads. “The detainees are taken in for offences such as believing in God, forwarding religious content on messaging apps, expressing discontent with the CCP and so on. While at the camps, they are forced to study Communist Party policies and Mandarin. They are also forced to praise socialism and the Communist Party.” It says all of the dormitories and hallways have CCTV cameras. All security personnel carry electric batons and handheld radios. The military guards are always armed. Bitter Winter says it’s not the only detention facility at the industrial park. It says another, which has not been photographed, holds 7000 Chinese citizens in a 20,000 sqm area. A third is being built in the district, purportedly capable of holding 10,000 detainees.

THE discovery of a Labrador led to the unravelling of a case against a US man jailed for 50 years for molesting his daughter, who claimed he had killed the animal to frighten her into silence. Joshua Horner, 42, a plumber from the western state of Oregon, was convicted in April last year of sexually assaulting a minor by a jury that had failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Horner’s daughter had testified during the trial that her father threatened to harm her animals if she told the police, and that he had shot her dog Lucy in front of her to drive home his point. However the animal was found alive and living with new owners by the Oregon Innocence Project, a non-profit legal organisation that had agreed to review the case on Horner’s behalf. Horner had insisted he did not harm Lucy and that finding the dog would prove he was innocent and that his daughter had lied under oath. Officials from the Innocence Project said the Labrador was tracked down to the town of Gearhart, northwest of Portland, and was identified because of distinctive features. In its motion filed on Monday to dismiss the case, the district attorney’s office noted that Horner’s daughter had refused to talk to investigators about her trial testimony after the dog was found alive. “While I cannot say with certainty that Mr Horner did not sexually abuse the named victim, I can say I am not convinced by a preponderance of the evidence that is now available that he did, and I am certainly not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt,” district attorney John Hummel said in a statement. Horner was freed from prison last month and was awaiting a new trial after an appeals court had overturned his conviction on grounds his defence had not been allowed to introduce evidence unrelated to the dog. “Kelli and I are ready to pick up the pieces of our lives,” Horner said, referring to his wife, as the couple came out of the courthouse following the judge’s decision to dismiss the case.

THE victim of a model’s murder-for-hire plot has described her as one of the “most evil people I’ve ever met”. Tara Lambert, 35, was caught asking an undercover policeman to murder Kellie Cooke into a in 2015. Lambert pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and was sentenced to just five years in prison — something Cooke believes is far too short. Her victim described the model, who was stepmother to her children, as “one of the most evil people I’ve ever met,” during an appearance on Dr Phil in the US. Video shown during the trial showed Lambert in a car with the detective, who she thought was a contract killer, and laughing as she asked him to kill Cooke. “I hate her,” Lambert said of Cooke in the video. The policeman asks: “What do you want done with her?” “Just put her in a chopper, you know like one of those lumberjack chopper things.” When the detective said he didn’t have access to a wood chopper, Lambert replied that she was “joking” and that she was actually thinking of a “home invasion gone wrong.” She told him she wanted Cooke “gone.” ‘I need her away,’ she said. The court heard that Lambert had also given $150 to the undercover policeman and given him Cooke’s photo. Police have said the plot came about over a fight over visitation rights of her two step-children. The two women reportedly fought bitterly over arrangements and Cooke was said to not approve of Lambert’s dress-sense when she was in charge of the kids. Lambert is reportedly married to Brandon Lambert, who is the father of Cooke’s two teenage girls. Asked her thoughts on hearing Lambert’s plan, Cooke told Dr Phil: “Yeah it is hard to wrap my head around.” Lambert was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2016. An appeals court overturned that conviction last year, saying there was an error in the original indictment. She will get credit for time served from the earlier conviction. Lambert was earlier cleared of conspiring to murder Cooke’s husband, Shawn, if he was at home when the hitman came to kill his wife. Kellie Cooke’s victim statement was read out in court by her daughter, 18-year-old Aspen Lambert, earlier this year. “I knew what you were capable of. You lied, manipulated and controlled everything my girls done … You wanted my girls,” Cooke had written to Lambert. “When you figured out I was on to you, you snapped. You tormented my family for a long time with no punishment.”

WASHINGTON declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as Hurricane Florence beared down on the US East Coast, threatening torrential rain and flooding into the US capital’s region. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference on Tuesday the emergency was “effective immediately” and that the measure “ensures that we will have the resources we need to prepare for Florence.” More than a million coastal residents have been ordered to leave their homes ahead of the storm’s projected arrival on Thursday, with emergencies already declared in the states of North and South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. At this stage the hurricane is expected to make landfall at 8pm Thursday EST (10am Friday AEST). The 15-day emergency signed by Mayor Bowser noted that Florence was “forecasted to produce high winds, rainfall and storm surge” with “serious widespread effects in the region.” The last time the US capital declared a state of emergency was in January 2016 when a winter storm dubbed “Snowzilla” blanketed the capital and its region in knee-deep snow. As Hurricane Florence churned toward an eventual Eastern Seaboard landfall, evacuations were imposed for parts of three East Coast states on Tuesday and millions of Americans prepared for what could become one of the most catastrophic hurricanes to hit the region in decades. Hurricane Florence’s size is “staggering,” National Hurricane Centre Director Ken Graham warned. “We could cover several states easily with the cloud cover alone,” Mr Graham said. “This is not just a coastal event.” The centre of the massive storm is forecast to make landfall along a stretch of coastline already saturated by rising seas and then meander through Thursday, Friday and Saturday, inundating several states and triggering life-threatening floods. Seven-day rainfall totals are forecast to reach 25 to 50 centimetres over much of North Carolina and Virginia, and even 75 centimetres in some places. Combined with high tides, the storm surge could swell as high as three metres. “The water could overtake some of these barrier islands and keep on going. With time, the wind pushes the water into every nook and cranny you can think of,” Mr Graham said. “All you have to do is look up at your ceiling, and think about 12 feet [of water]. That, folks, is extremely life-threatening.” US President Donald Trump declared states of emergency for North and South Carolina, facilitating federal help, and cancelled campaign events Thursday and Friday, citing the storm. “Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE!” Mr Trump tweeted, adding: “WE are here for you.” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said his state is “in the bullseye” and urged people to “get ready now.” The very centre of that bullseye may be Camp Lejeune, the sprawling Marine Corps training base, where authorities were opening emergency operation centres, staging equipment and urging families on the base to build survival kits with food and equipment needed to sustain themselves for 72 hours. Mandatory coastal evacuations were in effect for civilians in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, but the military base posted on Facebook that different chains-of-command would decide whether to release non-essential personnel, and some relatives vented fears that they wouldn’t be able to evacuate in time. Florence could hit the Carolinas harder than any hurricane since Hazel smashed 209 kmh winds in 1954. That Category 4 storm destroyed 15,000 buildings and killed 19 people in North Carolina. In the six decades since then, many thousands of people have moved to the coast. Ahead of Florence’s arrival, barrier islands were already seeing dangerous rip currents and seawater flowed over a state highway — the harbinger of a storm surge that could wipe out dunes and submerge entire communities. Watches in effect Tuesday forecast a storm surge of up to 12 feet at high tide from Cape Fear to Cape Lookout in North Carolina. A hurricane watch was in effect for Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Virginia’s southern border, with the first hurricane-force winds arriving late Thursday. For many people, the challenge could be finding a safe refuge: If Florence slows to a crawl, it could bring torrential rains all the way into the Appalachian Mountains and as far away as West Virginia, causing flash floods, mudslides and other dangerous conditions in places that have already experienced lots of rain recently. “This is going to produce heavy rainfall, and it may not move very fast. The threat will be inland, so I’m afraid, based on my experience at FEMA, that the public is probably not as prepared as everybody would like,” said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. US airlines, including American, Southwest, Delta and JetBlue, have begun letting affected passengers change travel plans without the usual fees.