These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
RAPPER DABABY ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN MIAMI BEACH SHOOTING
Rapper DaBaby was allegedly involved in a shooting in Miami’s ritzy South Beach, where two people were injured in a street gun battle, according to multiple sources. Miami Beach Police Department spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez confirmed to Local 10 News on Tuesday that “several possible subjects” have been detained, including the rapper after he and his entourage were suspected to be involved in the shooting late Monday. The victims’ identities have not yet been released. A source exclusively told Page Six, “DaBaby and his crew had an issue with people right next to them in the car. DaBaby and his crew were traveling in around six SUVs, and either a car pulled up on them and started something or their doors hit each other and they got in a fight. The shooting allegedly occurred just after 11:30 p.m. near the corner of Ocean Drive and First Street. Multiple people called 911 to report hearing gunshots. Police arrived to find two people who had been shot — one in the leg, the other in the shoulder. They were rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center, Local 10 News reported. DaBaby, whose real name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, recently became the most-streamed rapper on Spotify per month, overtaking Drake, and picked up a major win for Top Rap Song for his Hot 100 topper “Rockstar” with Roddy Ricch at the Billboard Music Awards. He has had numerous past run-ins with the law, mostly for minor offenses like marijuana possession.
[SOURCE: pagesix.com / ENGAGEMENT: 33.49%]
KEN KLIPPENSTEIN BLAMES CANDACE OWENS FOR BEING FIRED AFTER PULLING MEMORIAL DAY PRANK ON MATT GAETZ
Jokes can have serious consequences, as journalist Ken Klippenstein recently discovered. Klippenstein took to Twitter to announce he had been fired from his job, at The Intercept, following a prank he played on Rep Matt Gaetz, Matt Schlapp, and Dinesh D’Souza. But they aren’t to blame for his firing, according to him. He tweeted that Candace Owens was responsible for his dismissal. Klippenstein took the Internet by storm on May 31, after he jokingly sent a photo of Lee Harvey Oswald in his military uniform to Gaetz, Schlapp, and D’Souza, asking them to retweet ‘his grandfather’ on the occasion of Memorial Day. All three did so, before realizing it was a prank and deleted their tweets. Owens though, ended up in a bit of a row with Klippenstein, before she too deleted one of her tweets. Shortly after he pranked Gaetz, Schlapp and D’Souza, Owens replied to that tweet and said, “you are making a mockery of a day that is meant to memorialize men that died so that you and other anti-American leftists can laugh at their sacrifices by photoshopping a murder into their uniforms”. She has since deleted that tweet, but responded to Klippenstein with another, in which she said, “It is not ‘political correctness’ to have a soul and a modicum of decency. Reminder: These men DIED— the majority of them on foreign soil—so that you could be free. You do not photoshop murderers into their uniforms so that you can have a laugh.” Twitter users were quick to point out that the image was not photoshopped, and that Oswald did indeed serve in the United States Marine Corps. The exchange led to Owens being widely trolled for her lack of knowledge. It’s unclear what happened next, but hours after that exchange Klippenstein tweeted, “Tell Candace Owens I hope she’s happy I’ve been let go from my job.”
[SOURCE: meaww.com / ENGAGEMENT: 11.90%]
SUPREME COURT DENIES JOHNSON & JOHNSON BID TO VOID $2 BILLION TALC VERDICT
The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal by Johnson & Johnson to void a $2 billion judgment for women who claimed the company’s talc-based products caused ovarian cancer. The move came in an unsigned order and leaves intact a Missouri state court verdict against the multinational giant. Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh took no part in the consideration of the petition. The hefty verdict was the culmination of numerous U.S. lawsuits brought by women who claimed that Johnson & Johnson products contained asbestos and other carcinogens and that the company ignored the health risks. Johnson & Johnson in May 2020 stopped using talc in its baby powder, but the company disputes that its products caused cancer. The initial verdict was for $4.7 billion, but a Missouri appellate court dropped two women from the suit, leaving 20 plaintiffs, and lowering the award to just over $2 billion. The company appealed to the Supreme Court in March. Alito and Kavanaugh did not explain their reasons for recusing. According to The Associated Press, the rationale may have been driven by Alito’s ownership of between $15,000 to $50,000 in Johnson & Johnson stock, as well as Kavanaugh’s father’s previous role lobbying against labeling talc a carcinogen.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 7.74%]
HEINZ KETCHUP TO BE MADE IN THE UK AGAIN IN POST-BREXIT COUP
Kraft Heinz has said it will bring the manufacturing of ketchup, mayonnaise and salad cream back to the UK over the next four years, in what will be one of the biggest investments in UK manufacturing since Brexit. The company said on Tuesday that it would pump $199m (£140m) into the manufacturing facility. It is the firm’s largest expansion in manufacturing outside of he US in more than two decades. The plan, if approved by the US, will lead to the creation of up to 50 new full-time jobs. It marks the first time Heinz sauces have been made in the UK since 1999 and would see a progression initially from sauces to soups, pasta and baked beans in the future. The Kitt Green plant, northwest of Manchester, already makes 1.3 billion cans of food per year. The move comes amid bumper data from Markit’s PMI for the manufacturing sector in the UK. A surge in activity following the reopening of the economy meant conditions in the manufacturing sector improved at an unprecedented rate in May, as output growth strengthened and new orders rose at the quickest pace in the near three-decade survey history. Looser pandemic restrictions and high levels of pent-up demand meant that the rapid revival in labour market conditions continued, with staffing levels also rising at a record pace.
[SOURCE: yahoo.com / ENGAGEMENT: 6.31%]
RAPPER LIL LOADED DIES AT 20
Lil Loaded, the popular Dallas rapper behind tracks like “6locc 6a6y” and “Gang Unit,” has reportedly died at 20-years-old. Ashkan Mehryari, an attorney for the rapper whose real name is Dashawn Maurice Robertson, confirmed the news to XXL Monday afternoon, “Sadly, the rumors are true and Mr. Robertson did pass away today.” The cause of death was unclear. The news arrives months after Robertson was found guilty of fatally shooting his friend, 18-year-old Khalil Walker, last year. According to reporting by The Dallas Morning News, law enforcement was called to Roberton’s southwest Dallas home on October 25. By the time they arrived, Walker, who’d been shot in the torso with a rifle, had already been taken to a local hospital where he’d later die from his injuries. Robertson was arrested on one murder charge then indicted on a lesser charge, one count of manslaughter, in March. Mehryari held that Robertson and Walker were best friends and that the shooting was an accident. Lil Loaded found viral fame with 2019’s “6locc 6a6y.” The track’s accompanying video has garnered over 28 million YouTube views. His follow-up single, “Gang Unit,” was an even bigger hit with over 39 million YouTube views. In December of 2019, he released his debut project, “6locc 6a6y.” His most recent album, “CRIPTAPE” was released in December 2020.
[SOURCE: yahoo.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.81%]
CHINA REPORTS HUMAN CASE OF H10N3 BIRD FLU
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) on Tuesday confirmed the first known case of a person contracting the H10N3 strain of bird flu. As Reuters reports, the NHC stated that the patient was a man who lived in the city of Zhenjiang in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu. He was hospitalized on April 28 after developing a fever and other symptoms. He was diagnosed a month later with the H10N3 avian influenza virus. It is unclear how he contracted the virus, and no other cases among his close contacts have been reported. The man was stable and ready to be discharged, Reuters reports. According to the NHC, the H10N3 strain is a less severe variant and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is low. Filip Claes, regional laboratory coordinator four the United Nation’s Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases, told Reuters that the H10N3 strain was “not a very common virus.” Claes noted that only around 160 strains of the virus were reported in the 40 years before 2018 and most were reported wild birds in Asia and some areas of North America. There are many strains of bird flu in China, with sporadic infections usually occurring in people who work in the poultry industry, Reuters notes. Since the H7N9 strain that killed about 300 people from 2016 to 2017, there have been no other significant human infections of bird flu.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.29%]
ASIAN WOMAN, 55, KNOCKED OUT IN UNPROVOKED ATTACK IN NYC’S CHINATOWN, POLICE SAY
A man was arrested after video captured him punching a 55-year-old Asian woman in the face in New York City’s Chinatown on Monday, authorities said. Alexander Wright, 48, of Manhattan, was charged with one count of assault as a hate crime, assault and criminal possession of a controlled substance in connection with the “unprovoked” attack, according to officials. The woman was walking down Bayard Street shortly after 6 p.m. ET when a man in the opposite direction randomly punched her in the face, causing her to fall to the ground, according to police and surveillance video that New York state Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou posted on Twitter. The footage showed several people on the street approach the woman, who appears unconscious on the ground, as the man walks away. The woman was taken to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where she was stable, police said. The identity of the victim was not immediately released by authorities. Wright was arrested a block away from the attack and taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychological evaluation. An analysis of hate crime data in late April revealed that the increase in anti-Asian attacks has remained consistent. The research, released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that hate crimes surged 169 percent when comparing the first quarter of 2021 to the same time period in 2020 across 15 major cities. A report from the center in March showed that hate crimes increased by nearly 150 percent in major cities last year.
[SOURCE: news.yahoo.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.12%]
ILLINOIS LAWMAKERS PASS LEGISLATION BANNING THE USE OF DECEPTIVE TACTICS DURING INTERROGATIONS OF JUVENILES
Illinois lawmakers on Sunday passed new legislation banning the use of deceptive tactics while interrogating minors, CNN reports. If signed into law, the bill will prohibit the use of lying as a means of coercing information out of minors. Confessions made under such circumstances would be inadmissible in court. The legislation defines deception as “knowingly providing false information about evidence or leniency.” The state is the first to pass such a bill, which garnered bipartisan support, notes CNN. State Sen. Robert Peters (D), a sponsor of the bill, said that minors are easily influenced by their surroundings while being questioned by law enforcement. Acting out of fear may affect their actions, he argued. “They’re scared and are more likely to say whatever it is they think the officer wants to hear to get themselves out of that situation, regardless of the truth,” Peters said in a statement. He added that law enforcement should not be able to lie to youths in order to push their own narratives. The American Psychological Association echoes Peters, stating that children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to deception during questioning. The bill is now headed to the desk of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) for signature.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.73%]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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