Entertainment
US Senate Declines To Fast-Track TikTok Bill
A bill that would force the sale of TikTok from its Chinese owners or see it banned in the United States will move cautiously in the US Senate, key lawmakers said, after it sailed through the House.
The bill’s whirlwind House passage on Wednesday, and its backing from US President Joe Biden, had raised alarm bells that the app, used by 170 million in the United States, could be shut down within months.
But hopes from TikTok’s foes that the Senate could also move quickly were dashed, with key senators saying they would put the proposed law through the usual legislative process, which can take months.
“These fields are evolving and changing so rapidly that you can do a lot of damage by moving too quickly or without the facts,” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told the Washington Post on Friday.
Passing major legislation is especially difficult in an election year, and backers of the bill have bitterly predicted that the House’s proposed law would die in the Senate.
“What we’re likely to see happen in the Senate is people will nickel-and-dime it, a death by a thousand cuts,” Republican Senator Josh Hawley told Axios.
“Nothing that Big Tech doesn’t want moves across the Senate floor,” he said.
Senate leaders who would be in charge of shepherding the proposed law through a complicated amendment process and bringing it to a vote have been noncommittal on the bill.
After the House vote, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who chairs the Commerce Committee, said that she would “try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties.”
Republicans also expressed caution, and on Thursday former president Donald Trump reiterated his opposition to any ban of TikTok, asking his supporters to focus their anger on Facebook-owner Meta instead.
Trump’s position, which was surprisingly ignored by Republicans in Wednesday’s vote, is a reversal from his efforts as president to force TikTok away from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, efforts which were ultimately blocked by the courts.
Some Western governments have voiced concern about TikTok’s soaring popularity, alleging that the app’s ownership makes it subservient to Beijing — and could be used as a conduit to spread propaganda — claims TikTok and Beijing deny.
The White House has said Biden will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
AFP
Entertainment
Davido : I Never Imagined I Will Get This Big
… I feel like every successful person that attains a great level of success can’t explain the feeling.
Grammy nominee and multiple awards winner, David Adeleke aka Davido has explained that he didn’t imagine he was going to become a global star at thr initial stage of his career.
Davido made this known in a recent chat with Apple Music during the promotion of his fifth album entitled ‘5ive.’
“Never imagined it here. Forget it. I’ll be lying to you. Never imagined it. So when things were just happening over time, we were just taking in the strides like, “Damn, this is getting lit.”
We sold out 1,000. We sold out 2,000. Damn, we sold out 30, 40… Yeah, so it’s never really… I feel like every successful person that attains a great level of success can’t explain the feeling. You know what I’m saying?
“I think just generally in life when good things are happening so quick, you don’t realize. I actually remember the first time I was sitting in front of my laptop opening Logic and sitting down like, “Damn, I want to make it. I actually want to be a musician. This is what I want to do.”
“Watching MTV Cribs, watching people go on tour. I was a big YouTuber. I used to watch YouTube a lot. I used to watch vlogs. Tour vlogs, so it’s like Soulja Boy vlogs, just people about just being popular and being a star.
I used to watch all that stuff, so I saw it transition into reality for me. Do you understand?
“From the beginning, from showing my friends the culture, showing my friends like, “Come listen to this Nigerian music.”
And then, actually falling in love with the genre, falling in love with music, knowing that my family’s not going to accept this, but I’ll still do it anyway, not knowing that I’ll be one of the ones to pioneer it.”
Credit: The Nation
Entertainment
Timaya, Kizz Daniel, to Spice Giants of Africa Festival in Kigali
In a statement, Ujiri disclosed that the festival will bring together 320 young athletes from 20 African nations and more than 20,000 spectators for a week of community, culture, basketball, education, and entertainment.
This year’s Giants of Africa Festival will be a celebration of basketball, entertainment, and service to the community.
The week-long festival will be held in Kigali, Rwanda, from July 26 to August 2, with such stars as Kizz Daniel, Uncle Waffles, Timaya, and others lined up to spice the show.
Giants of Africa is a non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering African youth through basketball.
It was founded by Nigeria’s Masai Ujiri, who is the Vice-Chairman and President of the Toronto Raptors Basketball Club of Canada, which plays in the NBA.
In a statement, Ujiri disclosed that the festival will bring together 320 young athletes from 20 African nations and more than 20,000 spectators for a week of community, culture, basketball, education, and entertainment.
” The festival will unite communities, spark potential, and drive transformative change across the continent. Explaining the year’s celebration, Ujiri said in a statement: “Like these kids, I grew up on the continent. As Africans, we know the landscape and what the kids go through.
We know they dream just like we did, and it really inspires me because those kids have so much more talent and intelligence; they have ways to communicate now that we didn’t.
This festival is about showing them that there is a path. We want them to never stop dreaming.”
Entertainment
“Free my guy”, Davido calls for the release of VeryDarkMan
In a tweet, Davido highlighted the positive impact VDM has had on people’s lives, despite the controversies surrounding him
Afrobeats star Davido has expressed solidarity with social media activist VeryDarkMan, who is currently detained.
The arrest reportedly occurred shortly after he visited a branch of a new generation bank to complain about alleged unauthorised transactions from his mother’s account.
In a tweet, Davido highlighted the positive impact VDM has had on people’s lives, despite the controversies surrounding him.
The Grammy nominee noted that the outpouring of support for VDM is encouraging and motivates him to do more for the masses.
“Outside all the noise, it’s good to see that the good one does impact lives, and people appreciate it!
The support I’m seeing for VDM everywhere is encouraging, making one want to do more for the masses.
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