BuzzFeed News

A news wire for the social web.

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Here's the massive #SpaceX explosion from Thursday morning. The rocket was performing a test firing when it exploded on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. (at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station)

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Striking Photos Show Standoff Between Native Americans and Police

A proposed oil pipeline is set to begin construction on sacred tribal lands in North Dakota. Members of Native American reservations gathered to try to stop it.

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Werner Herzog on Harambe And Why He Loves Cat Videos

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The “Scary Lucy” statue of Lucille Ball got replaced with a new, not-quite-as-scary statue. The actress would have turned 105 on Saturday.

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Michelle McNamara, comedian Patton Oswalt’s wife of 11 years, passed away suddenly in April. (x)

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The father of a Muslim American soldier, who died in Iraq in 2004, asked Donald Trump if he's ever read the Constitution at the Democratic National Convention last night.

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President Obama rebuked Donald Trump on the third night of the Democratic National Convention

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Where Did Drake’s “Jamaican” Accent Come From?

To understand Drake’s proximity to reggae, and all tings Caribbean, it’s important to acknowledge who shapes the culture of Toronto. But is that enough?

Many cities in North America have a large West Indian population, but there’s something distinctive about how the community manifests itself in Toronto. Black American culture (with roots in the southern US) is still the undisputed default in most of the American cities where large numbers of Caribbean people live, like New York, Atlanta, or Miami. Even in the earlier stages of his career, Drake pointed to his summers spent in Memphis as an explanation for the slight Southern lilt in his rapping and speaking voice, something rappers in Toronto have had to do for years in a bid to gain larger global success. But in Canada, notions of blackness tend to be inherently linked to Afro-Caribbean roots, with 30% of the black population tied to Jamaican ancestry alone (alongside the rest of the West Indies and continental African identities). Jamaican culture has, in many ways, become part of Toronto’s mainstream culture.

Much of the city’s slang is steeped in patois. Words like ting, wasteman, and yute are unequivocally Jamaican but have also become important mainstays in Toronto vernacular. This doesn’t automatically give Drake, or anyone, the green light to make use of another culture at his convenience — particularly a culture that has been historically abused andvilified, even in a space where we have so much influence. The use of patois toes a precarious line between appropriation and appreciation, but in Toronto, culture is currency.

It’s not enough to simply say “Toronto has a lot of West Indians” as a way to rationalize the use of its cultural exports for profit by non-Caribbeans. And it’s still important to consider how the original creators of the works Drake samples or quotes are being erased in the mainstream. Jamaican culture is one of the most imitated on the planet, trailing closely behind American hip-hop in terms of global influence. Take reggae legend Junior Reid, whose single “One Blood” with rapper The Game dominated the charts in 2006. While Reid backed The Game on the promo trail in the United States, The Game was a no show when it came time to take to Jamaica. When mainstream artists borrow from reggae and dancehall without the proper attributionor paid dues, it’s reminiscent of the ways Jamaican labour has been used for centuries with little reward, lining the pockets of entities from corporations toentire empires. That might seem like a stretch for some, but the use of our culture is personal, and delicate, no matter how much “sense” it makes.

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Here's Everything We Know About Marina Joyce, The YouTube Star The Internet Wants To "Save"

There is no evidence that she has been kidnapped or is being coerced into making YouTube videos.

Marina Joyce is a 19-year-old YouTube star from north London who was well-known online for her fashion vlogs. In the last day, the hashtag #SaveMarinaJoyce has been trending all over the world, as social media users have come to the conclusion that she is facing some kind of danger.

Read everything we know about the whole story

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While almost all of the country’s major newspapers led with the news of Clinton’s nomination, many — including the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the Buffalo News, and even the Arkansas Democrat Gazette — chose to feature images of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who gave a lengthy speech last night touting his wife’s accomplishments. (x)

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Donald Trump tweeted that there were no American flags on stage at the DNC but there were actually a bunch. 

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Marvel announced at Comic-Con that the smartest hero in the Marvel Universe is now Lunella Lafayette, a 9-year-old black girl from New York, and star of the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comics.

The series is a reboot of the classic Devil Dinosaur stories, transporting the T. rex to modern-day New York and replacing his caveman friend Moon Boy with Lunella, a super genius and carrier of the Inhuman gene. (x)

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A Flowchart For People Who Get Defensive When Talking About Racism

Dear white people: if you’ve ever felt defensive or hurt when your non-white friends have talked about racism, this flowchart’s for you.

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17 Photos Show What It’s Really Like Behind The Scenes At The RNC

All the interesting moments happen offstage, tbh. Photographer Dina Litovsky takes a look at the scenes happening around the stage

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Bassen told BuzzFeed News she was initially made aware of the fact Zara’s designs were similar to the ones she had created for her store, “when hundreds of fans reached out to me privately to ask if I was working with them or if they were plagiarizing my work.” 

She believes Zara “copied” four of her designs, and she has contacted the retailer regarding the similarities. Bassen has shared the response from Zara’s lawyers with BuzzFeed News. In their reply, they write that there is a “lack of distinctiveness” in her designs, which “makes it very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the [designs] with Tuesday Bassen.” (x)

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This was perhaps not the concert Republican fans were expecting