Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard started dating in early 2012. They were married in Los Angeles in a very private ceremony in February 2015. Heard filed for divorce on May 23, 2016 and, four days later, obtained a restraining order against Depp. She accused Depp of physical abuse, alleging that Depp had been abusive verbally and physically throughout their relationship while under the influence of drugs. However, Depp denied these accusations and said Heard was “attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse.” Images of Heard’s alleged injuries were publicized by the media. The divorce was finalized in January 2017. Depp paid Heard a settlement of $7 million, which she pledged to donate to charity.

In December 2018, Heard wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, titled: “Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” Heard in her article stated: “Two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.” The article, however, didn’t specify Depp’s name.

In February 2019, Depp sued Heard for $50 million over her op-ed in The Washington Post. Even though, Depp’s name was not in the article, his legal team insisted that the article was all about him.

Depp sued News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Sun, over an April 2018 article in which he was called a “wife beater.” The trial began in early July 2020 and lasted for about three weeks. Three months after the trial, Judge Mr. Justice Nicol ruled that the Sun, was correct in reporting that Depp was violent towards his ex-wife. The court of appeal denied Depp’s application to appeal on Justice Nicol’s ruling, saying that the original hearing “was full and fair”.

In October 2020, Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, was disqualified from representing Depp due to him leaking a confidential information. On November 6, Depp announced that he had been asked to resign from his role in the upcoming “Fantastic Beasts” film.

Depp and Heard’s lawsuit began on April 11, 2022 at the Fairfax County Courthouse in Virginia. Opening statements were made on April 12, 2022 by Depp and Heard’s lawyers, Camille Vasquez and J. Benjamin Rottenborn respectively. Heard’s legal team maintained that Depp abused Heard and that the op-ed was not libelous as it did not mention Depp’s name. On the other hand, Depp’s legal team maintained that Heard was the abuser and that Heard’s allegations were untrue. The allegations damaged his reputation and ruined his life.

Jury deliberations started on May 27 and ended on June 1. The verdict is as follows:

– Heard’s 2018 op-ed was false and defamed Depp in three separate statements.

– Depp was awarded $10 million for compensatory damages and $5 million for punitive damages.

– Depp was found liable on one count of defamation.

– Heard was awarded $2 million for compensatory damages.

A delighted Johnny Depp welcomed the verdict, saying “the jury gave me my life back”, while a disappointed Heard described the verdict as a “setback” for women. However, a spokeswoman for Heard plans to appeal, as reported in the New York Times.

Conclusion

The legal struggle between Johnny Depp, the main actor in the movie “The Pirates of the Carribean” and Amber Heard, his ex-wife has ended. After a long time of debate over the issue, Johnny won the case and was awarded a total of $15 million.

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This article provides a clear and concise description of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s $50 million defamation claim, which has been pending in Virginia for the past few weeks.

American rapper, Shawn Corey Carter  popularly known as “Jay Z” or “Hov”, created a new playlist titled “Montecito” on Tidal in a bid to mark the memorial day.

The playlist contained a total of 22 tracks with spots from other rappers like Babyface Ray (A1 Since Day 1, 6 Mile Show, Family > Money ), Kendrick Lamar (Rich Spirit, Savior (interlude) and Silent Hill), Future featuring Drake and Tems (WAIT FOR U), Pusha T (Just So You Remember), Vince Staples featuring Lil Baby (EAST POINT PRAYER), Kodak Black (Purple Stamp and Super Gremlin), Kanye West featuring XXXTENTACION(True love), and many others.

In 2019, Jay Z was announced as hip hop’s first billionaire. He is undeniably one of the most successful rappers in the history of rap. Sometimes in November 2021, he opened an Instagram account that gained over 1.5 million followers within 5 hours. His account became the first Instagram account to be followed by his wife, Beyonce, and it was verified within 24 hours before he eventually deleted the account.

According to Forbes, his current net worth is around $1.3 billion, with his name being at Number 2076 on Forbes’ Billionaire’s list. Jay Z is the founder of a sports bar chain called “40/40 Club” and Roc Nation, a co-founder of the clothing retailer known as “Roca Wear”. He is also a board member of Tidal and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Project Panther Bidco.

News has it that he became a billionaire in the year 1999 as a result of the various businesses he had ventured into. He was also appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the record label “Def Jam Recordings,” and over the years he has been known as a great helper who has contributed to the commercial success of various artists such as Rihanna, Kanye West, and J. Cole.

He has released over ten additional albums, including: The Blueprint in (2001), The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse, which was a double album in (2002) , The Black Album in (2003), American Gangster in (2007), and 4:44 in (2017). He also released some full-length albums where he collaborated with other artists, like Watch the Throne (2011) with Kanye West and Everything Is Love (2018) with his wife, Beyonce.

His debut album, titled “Reasonable Doubt”, was released in 1996. This album was undoubtedly one of his most successful albums. On the Billboard 200, the album reached number 23 . This album is said to be later on included as number 248 in the “Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

According to Wikipedia, the rapper has won over 80 awards so far in his music career, including 24 Grammy Awards, 6 Billboard Music Awards , 37 American Music Awards, 24 BET Hip Hop Awards, 14 MTV Video Music Awards, 2 BRIT Awards, 7 BET Awards, 2 MTV Europe Music Awards and many other music awards.

He held a concert on November 25, 2013 and tagged it “the retirement party,” where he announced his initial retirement from making new studio albums. He had earlier released his eighth studio album, “The Black Album,” that same year.

Conclusion

The legendary rapper usually shares a playlist of songs he enjoys listening to on Tidal. He recently released a playlist titled “Montecito” on May 30th with a total of 22 tracks in honour of Memorial Day.

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Shawn Corey Carter, also known as “Jay Z” or “Hov,” an American rapper, has released a new Tidal playlist called “Montecito” in honor of Memorial Day.

Billionaire and Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk’s network company, is set to launch in some African countries soon. Elon Reeve Musk, popularly known as “Elon Musk,” announced on Twitter recently that “Starlink,” his satellite internet service, would be launched in African countries soon.

Starlink is a satellite internet service provider that was launched by Elon’s space exploration company known as “Space X.”

Starlink’s operations have been approved for countries like Nigeria and Mozambique, which have been approved for Starlink’s operations. Starlink operates in over 30 countries for legal use, and it also has about 400,000 subscribers around the world.

In 2021, Elon had earlier made preparations for its launch in Africa, especially in Nigeria. In May 2021, the space exploration company “SpaceX” sent some representatives to the organization in charge of regulating Nigeria’s telecommunications, which is the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to discuss the probability of getting a license for Starlink to legally be operated in Nigeria.

According to a report that came from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Starlink received two licenses, which include the International Gateway license and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license, and the company will be trading as “Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Ltd.”

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) confirmed that both licenses will be effective as of May 2022. The International Gateway license has a validity of ten years, while the Internet Service Provider (ISP) license has a validity of five years, after which it has expired by the terms of the contract. It can be renewed again.

As addressed by Starlink on their website, the internet service provider has high speeds and low latency that is as low as 20ms in various locations. It also enables high data rate activities like streaming, video calls, and online gaming that have been impossible with satellite internet.

According to Wilkepedia, Elon Musk is the founder, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Engineer at SpaceX, and Product Architect of Tesla Motors; founder of The Boring Company; and also co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.

Starlink’s first launch was on February 22, 2018 when it launched its first two Starlink test crafts, named “TinTinA” and “TinTinB,” but the first 60 satellites were launched on May 23, 2019.

The European Space Agency estimates that as of January 5, 2022About 12,480 satellites have been launched in all of the history of Starlink, with only 4,900 of those still active.

Elon Musk, by birth, is a citizen of South Africa but currently has Canada’s citizenship since his long stay in Canada from the year 1988 and America’s citizenship as well, since his long stay in America from the year 2002.

According to Forbes, Elon Musk is on Forbes’ list of billionaires for 2022 and also on the Forbes 400 list for 2021, with a total net worth of US $233.7 billion.

Musk is known to be a powerful industrialist with many sources of wealth. He founded PayPal. PayPal was formally known as “X Box”. It is a company that primarily operates on online financial transactions. He is currently making plans to acquire the social media platform “Twitter” for a sum of $45 billion.

Conclusion

As at March 2022, the cost of using Starlink to connect to the internet via Starlink satellite was set at $110 per month, and the one-time hardware fee for Starlink’s receiver dish is also $599. No one knows the actual price at which it would be available to African countries, but it is surely going to be a threat to the telecommunication companies already present in these countries.

Meta Description

Elon Reeve Musk, better known as “Elon Musk,” recently stated on Twitter that “Starlink,” his satellite broadband service, would soon be available in African countries.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that has its short form as ‘BTC’ in the crypto market, communities, and companies. The 22nd of May is designated as “Bitcoinpizzaday.”

A cryptocurrency is a digital currency. It acts as a form of payment that’s not within the control of just one person or group, thereby removing any third-party like banks and other financial institutions’ intervention in the financial transactions.

Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency that opened the way for the development of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Tron, Litecoin etc. It was the first decentralized currency to run on blockchain technology, and the first ever created blockchain was named “Genesis Block.”

Bitcoin was invented by an individual or a group of people known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” in 2008. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes via cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was officially launched on January 3, 2009 when its first blockchain, “Genesis Block,” was released.

Bitcoin’s first transaction happened on May 22, 2010 when a man named ‘Laszlo Hanyecz’

I exchanged a total of 10,000 BTC to buy two boxes of pizza valued at $25 at a local restaurant called “Papa John’s”.

May 22 is celebrated as “Bitcoinpizzaday”, considering the fact that the day in 2010 made Bitcoin an asset to sell, trade, and perform other financial transactions. At the time, one bitcoin token cost $0.0008.

Since Bitcoin came onto the market, its price has been gradually increasing. The price of Bitcoin first crossed $1. For the first few years of Bitcoin’s growth, its price was still under $2. 

All of a sudden, in June 2011, the price of Bitcoin increased to $10, then it hit the bull to about 10 times its original value when it shot up to around $31 before it sank back to be within the range of a single-digit around $5.

In 2012, the first company that accepted Bitcoin for payment was “WordPress”. However, the company was using Bitpay to handle their payments. In 2011, Bitpay was founded, and by October 2012, Bitpay had grown to process Bitcoin payments for more than 1,000 traders.

The major spike in Bitcoin’s price happened in 2013 when, in April 2013, the price nearly hit $250. In December 2013, the price rapidly appreciated to over $1,100.

Bitcoin’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM), which is the first Bitcoin ATM in the world, It was set up in Vancouver. In December 2013, various financial institutions in China were disallowed from performing transactions in bitcoin by the People’s Bank of China, and this gave Bitcoin a bad reputation.

In 2014, a good number of popular companies showed their support for Bitcoin by accepting it for transactions on their websites, like Microsoft on the Xbox and Windows stores, and many others.

After closing the year 2016, with Bitcoin’s price being at the $1,000 mark, 2017 became a year in crypto history as bitcoin hit the $20,000 mark for the first time since it’s existence.

Conclusion

At Bitcoin’s first official launch, it was acquired by mining on a personal computer (PC). Bitcoin was not used for any transaction until Laszlo Hanyecz first traded it all for real goods, which were two pizzas in exchange for 10,000 Bitcoins on May 22, 2022, and this opened the way for Bitcoin to have a monetary worth. This is why every May 22 is celebrated as “Bitcoin Pizza Day”.

Meta Description

May 22 is known as ‘Bitcoinpizzaday,’ because it was on this date in 2010 that Bitcoin became a commodity that could be sold, traded, and used in other financial activities. The first bitcoin trade took place in July 2010, and one bitcoin token cost $0.0008 at the time.

African music is now getting more recognition around the world. Musicians in Africa are experiencing a higher wave of honor and respect amongst their peers, and even in the music award industries.

There are various sites for music streaming. The popular ones are Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited and a few more. Let us now consider African musicians that have hit the one billion stream mark.

1. WIZKID

Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly known as Wizkid, is a Nigerian artiste. He is one of the most successful musicians in Nigeria and his success seems to be making ripples around the world as well. He is the first African with over one billion streams on Apple Music. He has also hit over one billion views on Spotify and YouTube as well. His album “Made In Lagos” is one of the artiste’s most recent hits.

2. CKAY

Another Nigerian artiste, Chukwuka Ekweani, popularly known as CKay, has also hit over a billion streams on Spotify. He got these views with a single song, ‘Love Nwantiti”, making it a record breaking stream for any Nigerian artiste’s single song. The song was released in 2019 and it reached the 1 billion mark in 2022.

3. BURNABOY

Burnaboy, also commonly referred to as the African Giant, The third Nigerian on our list is a Grammy award winner. In September 2021, he became the first Nigerian artiste to get a billion streams on YouTube. Some of his most streamed songs are “On the Low,” “Ye,” and the African Giant Album.

4. FALLY IPUPA

Fally Ipupa is a Congolese, a giant in the Congo. He has over a billion streams on YouTube with his most viewed music videos including “Un Coup”, “Dadju’, “Eloko Oyo”, “A Flye” and a few more. He has been nominated and won a lot of international awards, like Grammy Awards, MTV Africa Music Awards, BET Awards, and MTV Europe Music Awards.

5. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ

Diamond Platnumz is a Tanzanian singer. He is the first African with a billion streams on YouTube, which he achieved in 2020. His major hits include “Yope Remix”, “Nana”, “Inama”, “African Beauty”, and “Marry You”. Each of these songs features other top class singers.

6. AYA NAKAMURA

The only female singer on our list is Aya Nakaruma from Mali. She has over a billion streams on YouTube and Spotify. Although she is mostly based in France, her African roots are very much evident in her singing style. ‘Djadja’, ‘girlfriends’, and ‘pookie’ are some of the songs that propelled her. “Djadja” alone has recorded over 800 million views on Youtube and over 320 million streams on Spotify.

7. AKON

Akon is an African icon. With over 90 nominations and more than 30 awards won, Akon can boast of records like MTV and Billboard’s Artiste of the Year awards, amongst many others. He is a Singaporean-American singer who spent the majority of his adolescence and adulthood in the United States.He has over 4 billion streams on Youtube. 

CONCLUSION

Africans are rising, the African music is trending more and more. This article has explored the Africans that have gone over one billion streams in their music career. Which singer is your favorite?

Meta Description

African music is gaining in popularity around the world. African musicians are being treated with more dignity and respect among their peers, as well as in the music award industry.