GoneTrending

Less than two years after arriving with After Hours, The Weeknd is just moments away from delivering his sixth album to the world. It’s the latest in increased activity from the singer such a short time after he dropped off his 2020 album. The shortlist of moments from him include winning the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award, continuing work on an upcoming HBO series, collaborating with artists like Kanye West, Doja Cat, and Belly, and winning a number of music awards after events like the Juno and Billboard Music Awards.

Next up for the singer comes a new role with the United Nations. The Weeknd was recently named The United Nations World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador. The position was announced with a statement from the singer himself.

“The U.N. World Food Programme is doing urgent and important work to change and save lives on a daily basis and I feel passionately about addressing world hunger and helping people in need,” he said. “Our partnership is an authentic extension of all our efforts and intentions to help those in need and bring an end to so much suffering.”

The new position with The United Nations comes after a number of donations to humanitarian causes including $1 million to the U.N. World Food Programme’s work in Ethiopia. The Weeknd is of Ethiopian descent as his parents emigrated to Toronto before his birth.

“Whether he is performing or speaking out about global hunger, The Weeknd’s voice is powerful and inspiring, only matched by his dedication to helping people around the globe,” Barron Segar, CEO and President of World Food Program USA, said before adding, “We are honored that he has joined our mission.”

Machine Gun Kelly has found great success since he fully pivoted into the punk-rock lane with his 2020 album, Tickets To My Downfall. The project, which arrived after his rap-rock album, Hotel Diablo, became his first No. 1 album and his first Platinum-selling album. While some, like Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, are not too fond of his position in the rock world, Kelly is content on journeying further into the genre with his upcoming album, Born With Horns.

According to Billboard, during a recent interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist, Kelly revealed what fans can expect on the new project, which features work with Travis Barker.

“It feels more guitar-heavy for sure, lyrically it definitely goes deeper – but I never like to do anything the same,” Kelly said. “Every album is a juxtaposition of the last album. So I went and studied ‘Tickets [To My Downfall]’, and I heard the bright sound that I had, and for this album I just turned the lights off.”

He added, “I’m not scared anymore, there’s nothing holding me back from being my true self – and my true self can’t be silenced, can’t be restrained. It’s a force, it’s like a hurricane. Can’t stop that, it just goes until it feels like stopping, and I don’t feel like stopping anytime soon.”

Kelly shared “Papercuts,” the lead single for Born With Horns, back in August with a Cole Bennett-directed video that featured an appearance from Travis Barker.

The entirety of Kelly’s interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist premieres will air Sunday at 8 AM EST on NBC.

Things looked pretty bad for Oklahoma during the first half of their rivalry game against Texas. Starting quarterback Spencer Rattler did not look like himself, their defense kept getting shredded, and the Longhorns found themselves up by as many as 21 points. But somehow, someway, the Sooners rallied back to win, 54-48, on a last-second rushing touchdown by Kennedy Brooks.

Just before halftime, Oklahoma turned to five-star true freshman quarterback Caleb Williams, who impressed upon getting the nod under center. Williams went 16-for-25 for 212 yards and a pair of scores, providing a shot in the arm that the team desperately needed. The team clawed back, bit by bit, and with 7:25 left in the fourth, Williams found Marvin Mims for a 52-yard score to tie things up at 41.

On the ensuing kickoff, Longhorns return man Xavier Worthy fumbled, with the ball recovered by Oklahoma. One play and 18 yards later, Brooks punched it in for the go-ahead touchdown. Texas eventually punched back. After drives by both teams went nowhere, the Longhorns got the ball and went 60 yards to tie things up, with Worthy getting a measure of redemption by hauling in a touchdown from Casey Thompson.

It was not enough, though. The Sooners got the ball on their own 25 and marched down the field, and with three seconds left, Brooks capped off a 33-yard run to seal it.

Texas played the lateral game on the kickoff but it went nowhere, meaning Oklahoma remains undefeated. With the win, the Sooners have won four games in a row over the Longhorns and six of the last seven.

Arkansas and Ole Miss suffered humbling losses last week. Two of the most entertaining teams in the sport this year, the former could do absolutely nothing against Georgia while the latter got thrown around by Alabama, as both programs are wont to do. The two sides squared off on Saturday hoping to bounce back, and by the time the game came to its conclusion, the Rebels survived in Oxford, 52-51.

The two offenses went back-and-forth all game, with the Hogs gaining 676 yards of total offense and the Rebs accruing 611, with things pretty evenly split on the ground and through the air. The scoring matched the impressive yardage, with Ole Miss up, 21-14 at the break.

In the second half, things went totally off the rails. There were 14 total possessions between the two teams, and only three of them did not end in points. Despite this, Arkansas never led, although they put themselves in position to steal a road win when KJ Jefferson punched one in to tie things up at 45 with 1:22 remaining.

It took exactly two plays for the Rebels to go back on top. Matt Corral let one fly to Braylon Sanders, who went 68 yards and found the end zone to go up, 52-45.

But the Hogs would not be deterred. The team got it down to the Ole Miss 9 with six seconds left, and while Jefferson’s first shot at the end zone was incomplete, he connected with Warren Thompson as time expired.

Arkansas decided they’d need to go for two at some point and went for the win. It was all for naught — Ole Miss’ defense got pressure on Jefferson, who threw it out of the back of the end zone.

Ole Miss will head to Tennessee next week hoping to win their second in a row, while Arkansas has a home date with Auburn.

Money doesn’t protect one from everything, not even insults. Just ask Elon Musk. The Tesla honcho (and crypto enthusiast) is one of the richest people on the planet, but even he can suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. He even moved his company to another part of the country partly because someone said something mean about him on the internet

On Friday, a publication called Tasmanian — which seems to be almost exclusively about all things Musk — published a fawning ode to Musk entitled “Tesla Moved its HQ to Texas Following Explicit Offer from California Assemblywoman.” In it, they claimed Musk “selflessly tried to resist the actions of the government” after California prevented him from reopening a factory in Fremont in the early days of the pandemic (which Musk has downplayed). This caught the ire of progressive California assemblywoman Lauren S. Gonzalez, who tweeted, simply, “F*ck Elon Musk.”

Musk apparently saw this, and when Tasmanian — which called Gonzalez’s tweet “unacceptable for a government official and indicates serious problems in the apparatus of the state” — tweeted out the article on Friday, Musk wrote “Exactly,” thereby seeming to confirm that this hunch wasn’t far off.

It’s unclear whether or not Musk — who has a thing for jest, or at least once hosted SNL — was simply joking or embellishing for effect. Perhaps he was on the fence about hightailing it to Texas and then Gonzalez’s tweet nudged him to pick a side. But as Gonzalez recently pointed out, while Tesla headquarters are moving to the Lone Star State, they’re keeping at least one foot in California, possibly because, as she put it, he “makes too much of his money from taxpayer subsidies in CA to pull out.”

In any case, people with unimaginable wealth who don’t want to share it with those in need: They’re just like us!

(Via SF Gate)

Kenneth Walker III is one of the baddest men in college football. The standout running back for Michigan State entered Saturday’s game against Rutgers as one of the best and most dangerous running backs in the country, something that was on display during the third quarter when he ripped off a 94-yard touchdown run.

The Spartan offensive line did an outstanding job opening up a hole for him to run through, and from there, Walker made magic happen. Multiple Scarlet Knight defenders looked silly trying to take him down, and by the time Walker got to midfield, it was obvious no one was going to stop him from scoring.

To celebrate that, Walker waved goodbye to the entire Rutgers defense while on his own 48-yard line. It was an easy stroll from there to put Sparty up, 28-13.

As an added bonus, Walker and standout wide receiver Jalen Nailor celebrated before he even made it to the end zone. The paid dapped one another up while running side-by-side, with Walker sticking out his hand and Nailor showing him love.

Guys tend to wait until they punch it in for six to celebrate, so this is a new one. The Spartans entered this game as one of the surprises of the 2021 college football season, going 5-0 to start the year and climbing to No. 11 in the AP Poll.

The Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors went head-to-head in a preseason game on Friday evening. It featured both LeBron James and Steph Curry in limited minutes, and at one point, James thought it’d be fun to playfully bust the chops of perhaps the greatest individual rival he’s had in his career.

James and Curry, for all their run-ins in the NBA Finals, do have a good relationship with one another, so when Curry missed a free throw during the second quarter, the Lakers’ star decided to get some jokes off at the two-time league MVP’s expense. James did a little chirping, which got Curry laughing ahead of his second free throw. If the goal was to get Curry to miss, it didn’t work, but James did have one wish that did not come true.

“Oh, gimme two!” James exclaimed. “I ain’t never seen it!”

James had nine points in 18 minutes of work while Curry scored 30 points in 26 minutes. The Warriors went on to win, 121-114, but of course, no one is going to sound any alarm bells or print a championship banner over a preseason game. It would have been very weird to see Curry miss back-to-back free throws, though, regardless of when the game is taking place.

In 2020, Kehlani and Russ both took big steps in their careers. Kehlani dropped her second album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, which proved one of the most popular R&B projects of 2021. Russ, on the other hand, sharpened his artistry with Shake The Snow Globe. Now it looks like they may bless their respective fan bases with a collaborative album, which they teased on social media.

Kehlani kicked things off with a video of her and Russ at a party with the caption “a mixtape or ? @russ.” Afterward, a Kehlani fan page reposted the video on their Twitter account with the caption “MAKE IT HAPPEN. @Kehlani x @russdiemon via Kehlani IG Stories.” Russ responded, “Russ x Kehlani project [eye emoji].”

The upcoming project would not be the first time two have worked together. Last summer, they teamed up on “Take You Back” collaboration and its elegant music video. Until the potential project’s arrival, fans can keep an eye open for Kehlani’s upcoming third album, Blue Water Road as well as additional singles from Russ, who’s dropped a new song on a weekly basis since the beginning of May.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Bill Maher isn’t always — or, arguably, even often — correct, but when he’s right, he’s right. On Friday’s episode of Real Time, the HBO host and commentator returned to a subject he’s been talking about since before virtually everyone else: Donald Trump attempting a coup. He’s been warning he’d do it since around 2018, and lo and behold, that’s what (almost certainly) happened since he lost re-election almost a year ago. But Maher warned, just because his last coup failed doesn’t mean he’s done.

Maher used the ending of the episode to remind viewers about the terrifying memo attorney John Eastman wrote late last year, outlining how former VP Mike Pence could help Trump overturn the election results and remain in power. (And just to think, the reason we still have a functioning democracy may be because of Dan Quayle.) He reminded people that Trump unsuccessfully tried to convince Republican election officials to go along with his dastardly scheme.

“And that’s what he’s been working on fixing ever since,” Maher told the crowd. He says he’s spent his post-presidential life “figuring out how to pull off the coup he couldn’t pull off last time.”

Maher then laid out the “easiest predictions in the world” for the next few years. Trump will, he claims, run for president again, clinch the Republican nomination, and will announce he’s won no matter what happens on Election Night 2024.

“He’s like a shark who’s not gone but has quietly gone out to sea,” he said. “But he’s been eating people this whole time.” By “eating people,” he meant he’s been “methodically purging the Republican party of anyone who voted for his impeachment or doesn’t he agree he’s the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.”

Maher then laid out, year by year, how Trump could replace all quisling Republicans with loyalists, how Republicans could take back the House (if not the Senate, too) in the 2022 midterms, and how Democrats will still treat the 2024 election like business-as-usual. It’s a bracing watch, from someone who was right about this issue before, and he ended with an apropos “I think I scared the s*it out of you.”

Of course, in the same episode, Maher made sure to throw in some trans jokes. But then, he is Bill Maher.

You can watch the segment in the video above.

Fourteen years ago, Ndakasi the mountain gorilla was found clinging to her dead mother in the Congo after bushmeat hunters wiped out her entire family. This week it was announced that she recently passed away in the arms of Virunga National Park ranger André Bauma, the man who rescued her.

Bauma served as Ndakasi’s caretaker since he brought her to the park’s Senkwekwe Center, where she was rehabilitated along with another orphaned gorilla named Ndeke. Unable to be safely returned to the wild, Ndakasi lived her life in Virunga, where mountain gorilla conservation is a priority.

The park shared a touching photo and announcement of Ndakasi’s passing on Facebook. The gorilla had been suffering from a prolonged illness, and her condition had rapidly deteriorated. A photo shows Bauma sitting on a blanket leaning up against the wall with Ndakasi lying next to him, her head on his chest and her toes gripping his boot.

“Ndakasi took her final breath in the loving arms of her caretaker and lifelong friend, André Bauma,” reads the post.

So beautiful.

“It was a privilege to support and care for such a loving creature, especially knowing the trauma Ndakasi suffered at a very young age,” Bauma said. “One could say that she took after her mother, Nyiransekuye, whose name means ‘someone happy to welcome others.’

“It was Ndakasi’s sweet nature and intelligence that helped me to understand the connection between humans and Great Apes and why we should do everything in our power to protect them. I am proud to have called Ndakasi my friend. I loved her like a child and her cheerful personality brought a smile to my face every time I interacted with her.”

André Bauma has said that he cares for the gorillas at Senkwekwe Center as if they were his own children. And in Ndakasi’s case, she quite literally was.

“We shared the same bed, I played with her, I fed her … I can say I am her mother,” he told the BBC in 2014.

Mountain gorillas are endangered, so the protection of every gorilla counts.

Being a park ranger in the Congo is far more dangerous than it is in the U.S., more along the lines of being a soldier at war than a caretaker of a piece of land. Conflict in the region and struggles over resources means the rangers put their lives on the line to protect Virunga National Park and the animals that call it home. From oil companies trying to invade the park to bushmeat hunters with their sights on the gorilla population to rebel militias burning trees to make valuable charcoal, rangers have to constantly fend off threats to keep the area safe. More than 200 rangers have been killed in attacks going back more than a decade, according to the BBC.

In the face of all of that, Bauma calls his work “love.” And that work has paid off. Mountain gorillas have been endangered for decades, but the protection provided by the rangers has enabled the population to swell to more than 1,000—still a startlingly low number, but one that has been steadily increasing.

Vice News created an informative video about the rangers who protect Virunga and the gorillas who call the park home. (There are some potentially disturbing clips of dead gorillas, so viewer discretion is advised.)

The Park Rangers Protecting the Congo’s Gorillas

www.youtube.com

It’s clear that Bauma’s connection to the gorillas he cares for runs deep, and Ndakasi’s passing must be a devastating loss for him.

Rest well, Ndakasi. Be well, André Bauma. Thank you for showing us what a beautiful example humans can set in the fight for endangered species.