Kanye West got emotional while apologizing for his controversial slavery remarks that turned heads over the summer.

“I don’t know if I properly apologized for how that slave comment made people feel,” West said during an interview with Chicago’s WGCI 107.5 Wednesday. “I want to take this moment right now to say that I’m sorry for hurting, I’m sorry for the one-two effect of the MAGA hat into the slave comment.”

The 41-year-old rapper was embroiled in controversy in May after saying slavery “sounds like a choice” during a puzzling interview with TMZ Live. “You were there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all. It’s like we’re mentally imprisoned,” he insisted at the time. 

In response, TMZ staffer Van Lathan fired back at West, telling him, “Frankly, I’m disappointed, I’m appalled, and brother, I am unbelievably hurt by the fact that you have morphed into something to me, that’s not real.”

Now, the Chicago native says his outburst and downfall was the result of his now-diagnosed bipolar disorder and being surrounded with people who didn’t have his best interest at heart.

“I had people with me at TMZ that could have stopped it. They could have said ‘Yo this is going too far,’” West said. He broke down in tears talking about former collaborator Don C, who West said would have had “my back” and likely shut down the interview if he was there.

West called the incident a learning experience that showed “how much black people count on me and depend on me” and promised he is turning over a new leaf.

“There is a new Kanye West that you are going to see that is going to be better because of this mental health situation, that is going to be better because of this TMZ situation,” he said.

During the wide-ranging interview Wednesday, the “Ye” rapper discussed everything from his love of President Donald Trump to his alleged beef with Drake (which West denied). 

West was also given the chance to answer Jimmy Kimmel’s question on why he thought Trump cared about black people, referring to West’s infamous 2005 comment directed at former President George W. Bush in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

After another lengthy pause (similar to his long delay on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) West offered his long-awaited take. 

“I feel that he cares about the way black people feel about him, and he would like for black people to like him like they did when he was cool in the rap songs,” West said. “(Trump) wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community.”

More: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West light up 2 Chainz’s wedding with neon outfits

Also: Kanye West says he ‘would smash’ wife Kim Kardashian’s sisters in new track ‘XTCY’

 

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Image: Richard James Mendoza/NurPhoto via Getty Images

You’re likely familiar with Twitter’s suggestions on who to follow. Now, the company is asking some users if they want to unfollow people. 

As first pointed out by Slate, the social media platform is testing unfollow suggestions.

“We know that people want a relevant Twitter timeline. One way to do this is by unfollowing people they don’t engage with regularly. We ran an incredibly limited test to surface accounts that people were not engaging with to check if they’d like to unfollow them,” a Twitter spokesperson told the publication.

The feature is reminiscent of Gmail’s unsubscribe suggestions, which prompts you when the algorithm detects you haven’t engaged with a particular sender in awhile.

People who were part of the test posted screenshots on Twitter, although the suggestions weren’t entirely welcome.

Twitter’s prompt tells users they “don’t need to follow everyone to know what’s happening.”

At the moment, Twitter’s explanation to users on why they should unfollow certain accounts seems pretty vague. 

Gmail’s unsubscribe prompts at least make it clear that you haven’t been engaging much with its suggestions, leaving no room for perceived bias in its selections — an argument which Twitter would perhaps like to avoid right now.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, now the Democratic candidate to become Florida’s next governor, said his Republican opponent Rep. Ron DeSantis took “a page directly from the campaign manual” of President Donald Trump with remarks about Gillum that were widely condemned as racist. 

Gillum, an African-American progressive who was endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, won his primary in a startling upset Tuesday night.

The Trump-backed DeSantis, who also won his primary Tuesday, called Gillum an “articulate spokesman” for “far-left views” during an interview Wednesday and warned Florida voters not to “monkey this up” by electing him. 

When asked about DeSantis’ comment during an interview later the same day, Gillum told Fox News host Shepard Smith, “That part wasn’t lost on me.”  ,

“It’s very clear that Mr. De Santis is taking a page directly from the campaign manual of Donald Trump,” he said. “But I think he’s got another coming to him if he thinks that in today’s day and age, Florida voters are going to respond to that level of derision and division.”

When asked if he thought the comment was racist, Gillum said that in “the handbook of Donald Trump, they no longer do whistle calls. They’re now using full bullhorns.” 

But Gillum said he wants to “stay focused on the issues that confront everyday people.”

“I’m not going to get down in the gutter with DeSantis and Trump. There’s enough of that going on,” he said. “We’re going to win this race because we’re going to stay high and we’re going to remind Floridians of the true spirit of the American way.”

Gillum’s comments echoed and earlier condemnation of DeSantis’ remarks by Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo who said it was “disgusting” that the Republican candidate “is launching his general election campaign with racist dog whistles.” 

DeSantis insisted he was merely warning Floridians about the folly in embracing Gillum’s “social agenda” and said it is “absurd to think I’m trying to take a jab at anyone for ethnic or racial reasons.”

Andrew Gillum: The secret to a progressive Democrat’s stunning upset win in Florida’s governor’s race

More: Ron DeSantis, GOP nominee, warns Florida not to ‘monkey this up’ by electing Andrew Gillum as governor

 

 

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Clayne Crawford is sharing his side of the story after his very public firing from “Lethal Weapon” made headlines in May.

The 40-year-old actor, who played the loose-canon cop Martin Riggs in the first two seasons of the action drama, told Drinkin’ Bros podcast Tuesday that he “snapped” on the set of the Fox show. 

“Did I make a poor choice? Absolutely,” Crawford said, referring to an incident where he exploded on an assistant director after sounds on the set interrupted a scene being shot. “I shouldn’t have lost it and I felt embarrassed in the moment because I was belligerent, I was so angry.” 

Crawford’s run-in with the assistant director, which he said occurred in October 2017, was captured on film and used to blackmail him, he claims.

“I knew that they had those tapes and they had been blackmailing me with that,” he said. “Anytime I had a problem with (co-star Damon Wayans) …any time I complained, it’s like, ‘This will come out, and it will ruin your career.’”

Variety released audio of an expletive-laced argument between Crawford and Wayans in May, pulling the curtain back on the stars’ contentious relationship behind the scenes.

In the audio and video clips, the two argue over an injury Wayans sustained while filming an episode Crawford directed. (Wayans was hit in the head by shrapnel.)

Crawford now says Wayans, who plays Riggs’ straight-laced partner, Roger Murtaugh, made “life miserable for me on this show,” didn’t participate in table reads and wouldn’t film in a church because he’s a Jehovah’s Witness.

Crawford said he believes Wayans is behind his reputation for bad behavior. 

USA TODAY has reached out to Wayans’ representative for comment.

Crawford was fired from the series after what executives described as repeated instances of “emotional abuse” of cast and crew members, dating back several months, for which the actor was repeatedly reprimanded.

The actor said he learned about his firing from social media and to this day hasn’t received a call from Warner Bros. “I didn’t think they would get rid of me and if they did, I thought they would give me a buzz and just say ‘Hey… you’re not coming back.’”

Warner Bros. declined to comment to USA TODAY in response to Crawford’s interview.

In April, Crawford apologized for the incidents and blamed unsafe working conditions for his outbursts.

Fox replaced Crawford with “American Pie” star Seann William Scott (who will play a new character) and renewed the show for a third season shortly after news broke of the actor’s firing.

The new season will start September 25. 

Upon the announcement, Crawford congratulated his former colleagues on the show’s renewal via Instagram. He added, “To the Fans – Thank you for the overwhelming support and love. Riggs was a dream role and the experience will live with me forever. My heart is full. Good Luck (next) season!!”

Contributing: Gary Levin

 

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Everton continued their unbeaten start to the season with a victory over Rotherham that secures their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

Despite making eight changes from Saturday’s Premier League draw at Bournemouth, the Toffees had too much for their Championship opponents.

Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring with a neat close-range finish.

Two goals from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, either side of Will Vaulks’ header for Rotherham, saw the home side through.

The win extends Everton’s League Cup record of having progressed from the second round in every season since 2001-02, when they were beaten on penalties by Crystal Palace.

Added to the two draws and a win from their first three Premier League games, it makes for a very encouraging start to the reign of boss Marco Silva.

Silva will have been pleased with the display of some of his second string, a number of whom pressed their case for inclusion for Saturday’s home league encounter with Huddersfield.

Sandro Ramirez provided a neat low cross for Sigurdsson to score the opener, while Lucas Digne, at left-back, and fellow full debutant Kurt Zouma, at centre-back, were assured.

Calvert-Lewin was the standout, though, rising high in the box to head in Digne’s pinpoint cross and then curling in a superb second from 20 yards just moments after Vaulks had given Rotherham hope with his headed goal.

It was a timely reminder of the young forward’s goalscoring ability with current leading scorer Richarlison suspended at the weekend following his red card at the Vitality Stadium.

Everton boss Marco Silva: “It was important for us to get the result. That was our goal before the match, of course. But the first words I must give to the fans. It was fantastic support from them tonight.

“It’s a Wednesday evening, our first League Cup match and more than 31,000 came to support us. That is fantastic for us.

“They showed me and our players that they are behind us and supporting us, that they believe in our squad.

“For me, that is just as important as the result for us tonight.”

Rotherham boss Paul Warne: “I don’t look at my players as first-team players or reserves, they are much of a muchness.

“I don’t regard making all those changes as weakening the team. It isn’t like I’ve been offensive to the cup, I’ve got another big game Saturday.

“I was intending to throw the kitchen sink at them in the last 20 minutes and, at 2-1, it looked like I was a fantastic tactician.”

Stephen King has written an absolute eff-ton of books, novellas, and short stories in his time, but his most famous is likely The Shining. It’s a dark, sad tale of alcoholism, telepathy, and the danger of topiary sculptures best immortalized in the Stanley Kubrick film that cast Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, the anger-challenged author who attempted to murder his wife and child while under the influence of the haunted Overlook Hotel. 

Since Castle Rock takes place in the same universe as many (and perhaps all) of King’s stories, it was a given that the show would connect somehow to The Shining, but until Episode 8 the only reference was the name and character of Diane “Jackie” Torrance — canonically Jack Torrance’s niece who renamed herself after her uncle to piss off her parent — the town’s resident crime enthusiast who longs for the weird old days when interesting (read: deadly) things happened in her hometown.

In Episode 8, Jackie finally became more than an easter egg when a new hotel opened in town and allowed her to live out her bloodiest dreams for reasons much better than her axe-happy uncle’s were. 

The episode begins with the story of a disgraced professor and his cheating wife moving into deceased warden Dale Lacy’s old house with the intention of turning it into a murder-themed bed & breakfast, capitalizing on Castle Rock’s macabre past to draw in true crime fans. It’s a pretty neat idea, except for the fact that The Kid is roaming around town and dragging the bad old days with him, so inevitably the professor murders their first guests for no reason and his wife helps him hide the bodies. 

Enter Jackie Torrance, whose curiosity about the new hotel’s theme brings her to the bed and breakfast right after the bodies are disposed of. After crimesplaining a few of their historic details to the professor and his wife (in a particularly heavy-handed moment, he remarks that Torrance “really knows her axes”), they shoo her away, but not before acting creepily enough to keep her interested. 

Jackie’s love of a good murder and distrust of the couple comes in clutch in one of the episode’s later sequences, then Henry Deaver breaks into the B&B and is attacked by the knife-wielding couple. Just when it looks like the professor will take him out — whack. It’s Jackie Torrance standing triumphant over the attacker’s body, having killed him with, what else? A felling axe.

Having Jackie save Henry makes Episode 8 a tiny redemptive coda to the story of the Torrance family seen in The Shining. Jack was driven crazy by a hotel and tried to murder his family with an axe; Jackie used an axe to save someone from being murdered by hotel owners. It’s small, but as far as tying back into King’s stories it’s one of the more fun and direct nods to the continuity of his ever-expanding universe.

A New Mexico judge dismissed, for now, child neglect charges Wednesday against three defendants arrested at a remote compound in northern New Mexico where 11 children were living in filth and the body of a missing 3-year-old Georgia boy was found, according to media reports.

Judge Emilio Chavez ruled in Taos County that the three defendants could no longer be held because prosecutors missed a 10-day limit for a hearing to establish probable cause for the neglect charges.

Prosecutors, however, could still try to obtain charges by seeking an indictment from a grand jury.

In a separate hearing, the court was expected to deal with new charges against Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the dead boy’s father, and his 35-year-old partner Jany Leveille, who are accused of child abuse resulting in death, KOB-TV reports.

The victim, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, was allegedly abducted by his father from Jonesboro, Georgia in December. 

Warrants for Siraj’s arrest claimed he took his son to perform an exorcism on the child, who was seriously disabled, and was denying him medication.

The sheriff said when they had learned about the possible compound, the FBI conducted surveillance of the area, but had no legal basis to conduct a raid. Abdul-Ghani was never spotted during the surveillance.

Law enforcement offices finally raided the compound Aug. 3 after Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe’s office received a message, thought to have come from someone inside, saying, “We are starving and need food and water.”

“I absolutely knew that we couldn’t wait on another agency to step up and we had to go check this out as soon as possible,” Hogrefe said, according to The Associated Press.

Officers who went into the compound found that two men, three women and 11 children ranging in age from 1 to 15 were living off of potatoes and a box of rice amid a cache of guns, including an AR-15 rifle, according to officials.

Siraj was arrested with another Atlanta man, Lucas Morten, along with Leville, Hurah Wahhaj, 38, and Subhannah Wahhabj, 35.

After the raid, officials also presented several pieces of evidence, including alleged manuals on how to build untraceable weapons. In addition, according to testimony, some of the 11 children were handling ammunition and a least one child was armed, WXIA-TV reported.

In a 2006 federal court filing obtained by the Associated Press, Wahhaj identified himself as “the son of the famous Muslim Imam Siraj Wahhaj.” In the filing, the younger Wahhaj said he was harassed by customs agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport before and after a trip to Morocco, the AP reported.

Contributing The Associated Press

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The Cleveland Browns have announced that they have released linebacker Mychal Kendricks. This move comes just hours after Kendricks admitted to participating in insider trading.

Browns general manager John Dorsey released a statement: “Prior to signing Mychal, we were informed that there was a financial situation that he had been involved with in 2014. We were told Mychal had fully cooperated with investigators as a victim. From what was communicated at that time and based on the numerous questions we asked and further due diligence on our part, including checking with the league office, there was no information discovered that conveyed otherwise.

“Recently, we were provided an update on the matter and the circumstances have changed. We are now dealing with a different set of facts and the additional information we’ve gathered has led us to the decision to release Mychal from our team. Due to the ongoing legal nature of this situation, we will have no further comments.”

Federal authorities announced Wednesday that Kendricks and television writer/producer Damilare Sonoiki have been indicted on insider trading charges.

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U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in a news conference that Kendricks allegedly received non-public information about corporate mergers in 2014 from Sonoiki, who was an employee at Goldman Sachs at the time. Kendricks then used that information to invest in the companies that were about to be acquired, McSwain said, and made approximately $1.2 million in profit. 

Authorities allege that Kendricks then gave Sonoiki, who later left the bank and became a writer for the ABC series Black-ish, a series of kickbacks ranging from cash to tickets to NFL games. Kendricks played for the Philadelphia Eagles at the time.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor and current partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, said in an email that Kendricks is likely facing “between 2-3 years based on the alleged profits gained from the asserted violations.”

Kendricks signed a one-year contract with the Browns in June and had been listed as a backup to Jamie Collins at strongside linebacker. Kendricks spent the previous six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and was a starter in the team’s win in Super Bowl LII.

Contributing: A.J. Perez.

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