Category: News

Shortly after the original Power series came to an end at the beginning of 2020, 50 Cent and the crew officially launched the Power Universe. Nearly, two years later that universe consists of three spin-offs of the original Power series, with plans to keep expanding. The first of the three spin-offs, Power Book II: Ghost, is set to make a return in 2023 for its third season. The series is centered on Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.) and his new life as a college student. Complications from his father James St. Patrick’s death, and a continued life in the drug game, have made Tariq’s life as a student much different than usual.

Season two of Power Book II: Ghost ended in typical dramatic Power fashion. Monet (Mary J. Blige) killed Mecca (Daniel Sunjata) and Zeke (Daniel Bellomy) was accidentally killed by Lorenzo (Berto Colon) who mistook him for Mecca. Brayden testified at Tariq’s trial and said that he was the only one who was dealing drugs out of their dorm room. This led to a judge dismissing the case and freeing Tariq. Lauren was allegedly killed in a car accident, but with the incident being tied to Effie, fans have some questions about the whole ordeal. We’ll see how things progress when Power Book II: Ghost makes its return next spring.

Release Date

Season three of Power Book II: Ghost will premiere on March 17 on STARZ. That’s right, Tariq St. Patrick’s return to the small screen will land on St. Patrick’s Day. The first of ten episodes in season two will be available to watch that day on the STARZ app at 12 AM EST and it will air later on in the day on the STARZ channel at 8 PM EST. The season three premiere will come a little over a year after season two conclude with the deaths of Mecca and Zeke as well as Tariq’s release from prison.

Cast

The cast in season three of Power Book II: Ghost includes the following returning main cast members: Michael Rainey Jr. as Tariq St. Patrick, Gianni Paolo as Brayden Weston, Method Man as Davis MacLean, Mary J. Blige as Monet Stweart Tejada, Shane Johnson as Cooper Saxe, Woody McClain as Lorenzo “Cane” Tejada, LaToya Tonodeo as Diana Tejada, Alix Lapri as Effie Morales, Larenz Tate as Rashad Tate. New names to the main cast include: Moriah Brown as Keke Travis, Monique Curnen as Blanca Rodriguez (who was in the original Power series), David Walton as Lucas Weston, and Keesha Sharp as Harper Bonet.

Plot

Here is the official plot overview for season three of Power Book II: Ghost:

The third season of Power Book II: Ghost kicks off with Tariq St. Patrick determined to get his trust, get back to his family, and get out of the game for good. The emergence of a ruthless new connect interrupts Tariq’s plans to reunite with Tasha and Yaz and puts him, Brayden, and Effie back into business with the Tejadas as they’re challenged to move more weight than ever before.

When Brayden brings Tariq in as an intern at his family’s hedge fund Weston Holdings, the drug business expands beyond Stansfield and the streets onto Wall Street, while Tariq is also shown an alternate, legitimate path to success. Monet Tejada, set ablaze by the death of her son Zeke Cross, is willing to pay a hefty price to avenge her firstborn and keep the rest of her children – and the business – in line as she works closely with Davis MacLean to solve Zeke’s murder and keep the feds off her trail.

Business is booming when a staggering reveal forces Tariq to reckon with a betrayal from those closest to him… and a R.I.C.O. investigation mounting into the entire drug enterprise, pulling Tariq deeper into the business and even closer to the legacy of his father.

Trailer

You can view the official season three teaser trailer for Power Book II: Ghost below:

Season 3 of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ debuts on STARZ on March 17.

Lana Del Rey is more than just an artist — she is an icon and inspiration to many. Taylor Swift once said she was “the most influential artist in pop” for her “vocal stylings, her lyrics, [and] her aesthetics.” That aesthetic includes being a badass woman that people don’t want to mess around with — and she proved that again today.

On Instagram, the “Born To Die” singer posted a picture of herself with a billboard promoting her forthcoming album, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. The caption reads, “There’s only one, and it’s in Tulsa .” In the comments, she added, “It’s. Personal.”

Fans have been pointing out that Tulsa is where her ex lives — so yeah, it is personal!

In May, the Blue Banisters performer detailed the music she was working on. “It’s more just like: I’m angry. The songs are very conversational,” Del Rey said.

“For the first song, I pressed record and sang, ‘When I look back, tracing fingertips over plastic bags, I think I wish I could extrapolate some small intention or maybe get your attention for a minute or two.’” She continued, “It’s a very wordy album. So there’s no room for color. It’s almost like I’m typing in my mind.”

The DCEU is going through a bit of makeover right now, with two new heads of the Warner Bros. Discovery wing: James Gunn and Peter Safran. The pair’s full plans won’t be unveiled till early next year, but there’s already big plans afoot. Wonder Woman 3 may not happen. Jason Momoa may play a DC superhero who isn’t Aquaman. And Henry Cavill is definitely out as Superman, after almost a decade on the job. It’s a lot to take and it’s already inspired lots of criticism. But if you’re one of those people getting a little too personal with your disdain for Gunn and Safran, well, they’re not going to listen to you.

In a Twitter thread Monday, Gunn addressed some of the more extreme responses to the DCEU renovations. He started by acknowledging that he and Safran knew they’d ruffle some feathers, but that their moves were down with sincerity and respect for the characters and the institution that is the DC Comics line. That being said, he did not appreciate some of the haters, specifically the ones who were “uproarious & unkind.”

No one loves to be harassed or called names – but, to be frank, we’ve been through significantly worse,” Gun wrote before laying it on the line: “Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.

Doubling down, Gunn wrote that the assault from the more frothing critics “means little to us in comparison to our jobs as artists & custodians in helping to create a wide & wonderful future for DC.”

The DCEU has long struggled to find a consistent voice à la its counterpart at Marvel. In one sense, Gunn was already changing its DNA before he took the job as overlord: His confusingly titled sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad took what had been a brooding dour-fest (with tacked-on classic rock hits) and made it both fun and super gory. He also gave them a hit TV show spinoff with Peacemaker. In other words, maybe it’s best to trust him on this one.

You can read Gunn’s full Twitter thread below:

One of the things Peter & I were aware of when we took the job as heads of DC Studios was a certain minority of people online that could be, well, uproarious & unkind, to say the least.

Our choices for the DCU are based upon what we believe is best for the story & best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years. Perhaps these choices are great, perhaps not, but they are made with sincere hearts & integrity & always with the story in mind.

No one loves to be harassed or called names – but, to be frank, we’ve been through significantly worse. Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.

We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig, & we knew we would sometimes have to make difficult & not-so-obvious choices, especially in the wake of the fractious nature of what came before us.

But this means little to us in comparison to our jobs as artists & custodians in helping to create a wide & wonderful future for DC.

(Via Variety)

Living the rest of your life on a cruise ship seems like the dream of the ultra-rich. You wake up every morning and have an all-you-can-eat breakfast. Spend the afternoon hanging out by the pool or touring a fantastic city such as Rome or Dubrovnik.

At night, have a drink in the lounge watching a comedian or a jazz band, then hit the sack and do it all over again the next day. Seems too good to be true for the average person, right? Think again.

Twenty-eight-year-old Austin Wells of San Diego told CNBC that he can make it happen because it’s cheaper than living onshore in Southern California and he gets to see the world. “The thing that most excites me is I don’t have to upend my daily routine, in order to go see the world,” Wells told CNBC.

“I’m going from this model where you want to go somewhere, you pack a bag, you get on a flight, you rent a room, to now my condo, my gym, my doctors and dentists, all of my grocery stores travel the world with me,” he added.

Wells purchased an apartment on the MV Narrative, which is currently being built in Croatia and sets sail in 2025.

The rough math for Wells’ dream makes perfect sense. He purchased a 12-year lease on the ship for $300,000. That comes to about $2,100 a month if he didn’t have to take out a loan. By comparison, most apartments in San Diego cost more than $2,100 per month in rent.

The ship charges an additional $2,100 a month for all-inclusive services, which include food, drinks, alcohol, gym membership, routine healthcare check-ups, onboard entertainment and laundry.

So, it could cost Wells as little as $4,200 a month to live an all-expenses-paid life. Plus, there’s no need to pay for a car or waste time shopping for groceries or traveling anywhere. It’s all on the ship.

Wells can work from the ship because his job with Meta is fully remote.

“What I’m probably most excited about is going to places that ships can only uniquely go,” he told CNBC, adding that cruise ships can travel to “unique ecological parts of the world or beautiful dive spots that are a few miles off land or caves to dive through and the ship will do a number of overnight stays in those areas.”

Wells isn’t the only person who’s decided to live on a permanent vacation. Upworthy spoke with a couple in their 50s earlier this year who live on cruise ships because it’s cheaper than their mortgage.

Richard Burk and his wife, Angelyn, are living their best life hopping from ship to ship for around $100 a night, depending on the cruise. “Cruise costs vary quite a bit, our goal is to average about $100 per night, for the couple, or less across an entire calendar year,” Richard told Upworthy.

The Burks keep the costs of cruising down through loyalty memberships. “We love to travel and we were searching for a way to continuously travel in our retirement that made financial sense,” Angelyn told 7 News.

People like Wells and the Burks may be outliers in society. They’ve chosen to give up the comforts of home for the comfort of living a life being catered to 24/7. While most of us probably won’t opt to make the big leap and live life out at the sea, their stories are a wonderful reminder that with a little creative thinking, we can create the perfect lives for ourselves whether on land or at sea.

Robert De Niro has played some tough customers in his time as a movie star, but that didn’t stop one person from trying to rob him blind. In the early hours of Monday, police arrested a woman who’d broken into the legendary actor’s Upper East Side Manhattan town house. At the time of her arrest, the burglar was playing with De Niro’s iPad and trying to steal presents from right under his Christmas tree.

The perpetrator, one Shanice Aviles, was already a legend among the NYPD. Classified as a “known burglar,” she has more than 25 arrests to her name, 16 in this year alone for burglary and petty larceny. She added one more to her résumé, thanks in part to officers who had been keeping an eye on her — and who were watching her as she tried to break into two commercial buildings before settling on the townhouse belonging to the star of Raging Bull and Dirty Grandpa.

Officers then followed her to the second floor of De Niro’s town house, catching her red-handed. The actor was upstairs at the time, while his daughter was in a bedroom. Neither had any idea that their home was being burgled.

That afternoon, as she was being led outside the local precinct stationhouse in handcuffs, she pleaded her innocence. “I didn’t murder anybody!” she shouted to reporters. “I didn’t go to Robert De Niro’s house!” She also flashed smiles to the cameras.

Did Aviles have any idea she was trying to swindle Neil McCauley, the deathly serious and accomplished thief from Heat? She may not have, but maybe she’s impressed with herself, in a sense. De Niro will soon be seen as the opposite of a criminal — a former president — in his very first starring role on a TV show.

(The New York Post)

If you watched season one of BMF, 50 Cent’s most recent contribution to the crime-drama TV world in collaboration with creator Randy Huggins, then you have your thoughts on Lamar. Most fans drew a hard line between their support and dislike of Lamar due to his actions and decisions throughout the show. However, setting one’s feelings about Lamar aside, many could agree that Eric Kofi Abrefa, the man behind Lamar, absolutely crushed his role as the sworn enemy of Meech and T. With all of this being said, Lamar hit quite the wall at the end of season one of BMF, and if you had any hope of seeing him in season two, here’s your answer to that.

Will Lamar Be In Season 2 Of ‘BMF?’

Toward the end of season one, Lamar coerced Kato into helping him set up Meech in order to kill him and reclaim power in their Detroit neighborhoods. However, his plan backfires when Lamar learns that Kato is actually trying to set him up during the season one finale. Lamar tries to hold Kato hostage as he approaches Meech and fellow 50 Boyz member B-Mickie with a gun to Kato’s head. This proves to be unsuccessful as Meech fires and successfully hits Lamar. Just in case you thought Lamar may have survived the shooting for a return in season two, he does not appear on the cast list for the upcoming season which leaves Meech as the winner in their battle.

For more information on season two of BMF, you can check out an explainer here.

Season 2 of ‘BMF’ debuts on STARZ on January 6.

Metallica recently announced that their new album, 72 Seasons, will be out next April, at which point they’ll be setting off on a loaded tour that runs through 2024. But this past weekend, the band were on stage in Los Angeles for their annual Helping Hands Concert and Auction fundraising event warming up those riffs. The concert saw St. Vincent’s Annie Clark join Metallica for “Nothing Else Matters” and Clark absolutely destroyed it.

Taking point on lead vocals and lead guitar with James Hetfield, Clark was masterful. She swapped guitar solos with Hetfield as Lars Ulrich pounded away on the drums behind them with Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett flanking them. But it could have gone awry, because Hetfield butchered Clark’s name when he introduced her. “We’re gonna bring a new friend of ours out here,” he said. “Her name is Annie…Vincent.” Uhhhh…ex-squeeze me? Baking powder? Calling Annie Clark Annie Vincent is like when Donald Trump infamously referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook, as “Tim Apple.” But hey, we’ll let it slide. After all, she is a “new friend” and the whole “Annie Clark is St. Vincent” thing can be confusing.

We’ll especially let it slide given how well they played together. Clark is beyond worthy of sharing the stage with Metallica and in fact, appeared on Metallica’s 2021 covers album, The Metallica Blacklist, with her take on “Sad But True.”

Watch St. Vincent and Metallica play “Nothing Else Matters” above and pardon the dude singing along at the end of the video, but this was the real deal.

SZA wrapped up 2022 with one of the year’s highlight albums, the long-anticipated SOS. In a recent interview, SZA revealed she wasn’t sure how the album would be received, saying, “I never thought in a million years that people would like it. My dad’s visiting right now, with my mom. Everybody came down to make sure I didn’t lose my mind if the album went bad once it came out. And now we’re just hanging out, ’cause it didn’t go badly!”

Indeed, people have enjoyed the LP and now the charts are reflecting that: On the new Billboard 200 chart dated December 24, SOS is No. 1, making it SZA’s first chart-topping album of her career. To claim the spot, it overtook Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains, which debuted at No. 1 last week. Previously, 2017’s Ctrl topped out at No. 3 while SZA’s 2014 Z EP peaked at No. 39.

Star power played at least some part in the album’s success: People were really excited about Phoebe Bridgers featuring on “Ghost In The Machine” and the album also features appearances from Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. It was almost busier than that, as SZA wanted to get Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Drake, Finneas, Frank Ocean, Halsey, Harry Styles, Kacey Musgraves, Kendrick Lamar, Olivia Rodrigo, Rosalía, Tyler The Creator, and others on the album, too.

Jeff Nobbs is the co-founder and CEO of Zero Acre Farms. Jeff writes about health, nutrition, and sustainability at jeffnobbs.com and @jeffnobbs.

Today, vegetable oils make up 20% of our daily calories and are the most consumed food in the world, after rice and wheat. Put simply, vegetable oils are everywhere, from nearly all packaged foods like chips, crackers, salad dressings, and coffee creamers to most restaurant meals, whether it’s fast food or Michelin-starred.

Oils extracted from crops like sunflower, soybean, palm, and canola were only widely introduced to our diets in the last century and have experienced a meteoric rise in prevalence. In the United States, the consumption of soybean oil alone has grown 1,000-fold since the early 20th century.

In fact, the single greatest change in the human diet since the onset of widespread chronic illness and obesity is our increased consumption of vegetable oils. While diet-related chronic diseases were once rare, 60% of Americans now have a chronic disease such as diabetes or heart disease.

Vegetable oils, which contain high levels of omega-6 fats, have been linked to a laundry list of health issues, including inflammation, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and more. Meanwhile, vegetable oils are leading drivers of mass deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, water consumption, and other environmental problems.

Currently, the world devotes 20-30% of all agricultural lands (an area the size of India) to vegetable oil crops. To put that in perspective, more land is devoted to vegetable oil crops than to all vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, roots and tubers combined.

As a result of all the land dedicated to these oil crops, vegetable oil crops are two of the top three drivers of deforestation. And unfortunately, there is no end in sight. Vegetable oils remain the fastest growing sub-sector of agriculture, and their production is expected to grow 30% over the next four years.

The solution to the massive problem of vegetable oil production and consumption may lie in the ancient culinary art of fermentation. While fermentation has been used for thousands of years to produce foods like cheese, wine, yogurt, and bread, some companies are using fermentation to make healthier oils and fats, with a fraction of the environmental footprint. Cultured Oil from Zero Acre Farms is one such product.

Just as there are microbial communities, like sourdough and wine cultures, which convert sugars into entirely new foods, there are also oil cultures. An oil culture converts sugar into the healthy fats that make up products like Cultured Oil.

While vegetable oils introduced unprecedented levels of omega-6 fats, which have been linked to health issues, companies like Zero Acre Farms are taking cues from what humans evolved to eat.

Thanks to fermentation, companies like Zero Acre Farms can produce environmentally-friendly oils with extremely low amounts of the inflammatory fat omega-6, and high amounts of the healthy fats that humans have eaten for hundreds of thousands of years. Products produced by fermentation, like Cultured Oil, for example, contain higher levels of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats that have always been abundant in our diets and are routinely shown to improve health outcomes in human studies.

The beauty of fermentation is in its ability to displace vegetable oils at scale by delivering products that are better than vegetable oils in every way. That means products that aren’t just healthier or more sustainable but also better for our taste buds, home cooks, chefs, and ultimately our wallets.

The online launch of Cultured Oil, and the use of fermentation as a tool to produce healthier, more sustainable oils and fats, marks an important step towards a healthier world, free from destructive vegetable oils.

Only Tom Cruise can take a death-defying stunt and somehow make it incredibly wholesome.

On Dec 18, Cruise released a video while on the set of “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.” By “on set,” I mean he was thousands of feet above Earth looking down at a beach in South Africa.

The action star used the moment to share some love with fans of another high-octane franchise. And he did it in the most epic, yet charming, way imaginable that, let’s be honest, only Tom Cruise could pull off.

“I didn’t want the year to end without thanking you all for coming out to the theaters, and thank you for supporting Top Gun: Maverick,” he yells at the top of his lungs. He then proceeded to skydive while continuing his “thank-you.”

“Where was I? Oh yeah, thank you!” he quipped. “Thank you for allowing us to entertain you. It truly is the honor of a lifetime.”

He signed off by saying, “Happy holidays … we’ll see you at the movies,” before spinning away through the sky.

“Top Gun: Maverick” grossed a whopping $1.488 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2022, the second film released since the COVID-19 pandemic to gross $1 billion and the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career.

The fact that he chose to acknowledge the audience who helped make that achievement possible endeared him to people even more.

“This was such a heartwarming message! Thank you for caring for and respecting your audience, Tom! That’s why the people love you. Love Top Gun Maverick!” wrote one person.

Another added, “Not going to lie, Tom Cruise paying his respect to the audience who supports him got me tearing up a little. Appreciate those who acknowledge their audience and supporters.”

Others were just amazed at Cruise’s amount of chill during the whole thing.

“l love how he is jumping from a plane and talking to us like its part of his daily routine. Truly a legend,” commented one person.

Seriously, for a dude thousands of feet up in the air, he remains undeniably down to earth throughout the video.

Over the same weekend, Cruise released another video showcasing nearly 10 minutes of wild behind-the-scenes footage of a stunt in the upcoming “Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One.”

In what he calls “the biggest stunt in cinematic history,” Cruise rides a motorcycle off a cliff and then turns it into a BASE jump.

It took years of preparation and training, but as he would tell you—it was all well worth it.

“It all comes down to one thing—the audience,” he says in the clip.

Cruise’s dedication to his craft—and to his fans—makes his movies stand out in a sea of CGI-filled blockbusters. He brings a certain level of magic, intensity, fearlessness and (most of all) love to everything he does. That kind of commitment is impactful whether you’re jumping out of airplanes or simply existing as a mere mortal.