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Billie Eilish’s Barbie track wins song of the year at Grammys 2024

Billie Eilish’s contribution to the Barbie film soundtrack, What Was I Made For?, has won one of the top prices at the Grammy Awards, song of the year.
The track underscores one of the most emotional moments in the hit movie, as the doll questions her reality.
It also won the Grammy for best song written for visual media at Sunday’s ceremony in Los Angeles.
The other winners included SZA, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, who used her speech to announce a new album.
Swift could make history later if she scoops her fourth best album award. She is currently tied on three wins with Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra.

Pop star Dua Lipa opened the ceremony with an athletic medley of her songs including Dance the Night, which was also up for song of the year.
She was followed on stage in Los Angeles by Tracy Chapman, making a rare appearance to join Luke Combs, who covered her song Fast Car last year.

R&B star SZA is the show’s leading nominee with nine nods. For her performance, the singer staged a recreation of the Crazy 88 fight scene from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill to accompany her song of the same name.
She was joined by a phalanx of sword-wielding female dancers who swiftly dispatched hordes of men in suits – a reference to her song’s comical tale of killing her ex.

The first award of the night went Miley Cyrus, who picked up best pop vocal performance for her song Flowers. It was the star’s first Grammy, a fact she noted in her acceptance speech, telling the story of a boy whose futile attempts to catch a butterfly ended when he stopped swinging around a net and stayed still.
“And right when he did is when the butterfly came and landed right on the tip of his nose. And this song, Flowers, is my butterfly,” she said.

Billed as “music’s biggest night”, the Grammys are the industry’s most prestigious awards.
The line-up for Sunday’s show includes legends like Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and U2, alongside the biggest chart names.

Olivia Rodrigo, Eilish, Burna Boy and Travis Scott are also among the performers, with stars like Swift, Beyoncé and Doja Cat in the audience.
Even Meryl Streep turned up – supporting her son-in-law Mark Ronson, who was nominated for producing the Barbie soundtrack.
Only a handful of the 94 prizes are handed out in the live show, with the rest announced during a four-hour “premiere ceremony” in the afternoon.
That pre-ceremony saw multiple wins for indie-rock trio Boygenius, whose debut album The Record combines 1970s California rock harmonies with lyrics about love and friendship.
Rapper Killer Mike won three awards but was later filmed apparently being taken away in handcuffs backstage.
Kylie Minogue won her second ever Grammy, best pop dance recording, for the viral smash Padam Padam; while Joni Mitchell picked up best folk album for a live album that captured her return to the stage in 2022 after a brain aneurysm.
And South African singer Tyla made history by picking up the first ever award for best African performance.
The 22-year-old, who came fourth in the BBC’s Sound of 2024 won for her viral smash Water, which inspired a TikTok dance craze last summer.
“I still have to remind myself that it’s my song,” she said. “Everywhere I go, it’s playing and people know it. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling.”
(BBC)
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Venue announced for cricket’s Olympics return at LA28

The ICC have welcomed the announcement that the Fairgrounds in Pomona, Southern California, will host cricket at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Excitement around cricket’s Olympic comeback has been building since it was confirmed that the sport would return to the Games.
On 9 April, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed the player quotas and number of participating teams for cricket at the 2028 Olympics.
Both the men’s and women’s T20 competitions will feature six teams each, with a 90-player quota allocated per gender, allowing each nation to field a squad of up to 15 players.
The full tournament schedule will be finalised closer to the start of the Games.
“We welcome the announcement of the venue for cricket at Los Angeles 2028 as it is a significant step towards the preparation for our sport’s return to the Olympics,” ICC Chair Jay Shah said.
“Although cricket is a hugely popular sport, it will be a fantastic opportunity to expand traditional boundaries when it features in the Olympics in the fast-paced, exciting T20 format that should appeal to new audiences.
“On behalf of the ICC, I want to express my gratitude to LA28 and the International Olympic Committee for their support and look forward to collaborating with them and ICC Members in preparing for LA28 and making cricket a huge success there.”
Cricket’s return to the Olympics was confirmed in October 2023, alongside the inclusion of five additional sports for the Los Angeles Games – baseball/softball, flag football, lacrosse (sixes) and squash.
The T20 format has previously featured in multi-sport events, with both men’s and women’s competitions held at the Asian Games in 2010, 2014 and 2023. The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham featured a women’s T20 tournament.
[ICC]
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Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cautions all stakeholders of the Indian Premier League (IPL) of attempts to entice participants

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has issued a caution to all stakeholders of the Indian Premier League (IPL) about attempts to entice participants into potentially corrupt activities. The BCCI has cautioned the owners, players, coaches, support staff, and even commentators that a businessman with dubious credentials is actively seeking to trap individuals involved in the league.
The Anti-Corruption Security Unit (ACSU) seems to believe that a businessman from Hyderabad, with clear links to punters, bookies and past and proven records of involvement in corrupt activities, is trying to befriend participants. The ACSU has urged all IPL stakeholders to report any interactions with the businessman and also disclose any possible connections or engagements with him.
The ACSU is also understood to have urged all parties involved in the league to exercise caution. Teams and individuals have been asked to remain alert and report any relevant approaches. The individual’s modus operandi is said to involve luring unsuspecting targets with expensive gifts, including jewellery.
The individual in question is reportedly attempting to get himself close to the IPL participants by masquerading as a fan. He has allegedly been spotted at the team hotels and in the matches, making efforts to befriend players and staff, and inviting potential targets to private parties. There is also information of him offering gifts not only to team members but also to their families.
One of the methods reportedly employed by him involves approaching family members of franchise owners, players, coaches, support staff, and even commentators. He is said to have been offering to take them to jewellery stores and high-end hotels posing as a fan. There are also indications that he may have attempted to contact relatives living abroad, often through social media platforms.
Previously, the ACSU had told the teams that advancing technology has increased their challenges and urged all involved in the league to be alert. Seeking cooperation from all, the BCCI said it is determined and committed to taking every step in its power to prevent corrupt practices that undermine the integrity of the sport of cricket.
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Paramilitaries declare rival government in Sudan

Sudan’s paramilitaries have declared the formation of a rival government to the country’s armed forces, two years into a war that has become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
The leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, said the group was “building the only realistic future for Sudan”.
The announcement came as London hosted an high-level conference to mark the second anniversary of the conflict, where the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy called for “a pathway to peace”.
Fighting raged on, with the army saying it had bombed RSF positions outside the city of el-Fasher, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the Zamzam refugee camp.
Hemedti said the RSF was building a “state of law” and not a state ruled by individuals.
“We do not seek domination, but unity. We believe that no tribe, region, or religion holds a monopoly over Sudanese identity,” his statement on Telegram read.
He added that his government would provide essential services such as education and healthcare to not only RSF-controlled areas, but the whole country.
More than 400 people have been killed in recent attacks by the RSF, according to the UN, citing “credible sources”.
Two years into the war, both the army and RSF have been accused of war crimes, including genocide and mass sexual violence.
Hemedti has been locked in a power struggle with Sudan’s army chief, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since 15 April 2023, creating a humanitarian crisis that has claimed more than 150,000 lives and displaced more than 12 million people.
The latest fighting in the capital of North Darfur, el-Fasher, has forced tens of thousands of civilians from the Zamzam refugee camp to walk 70km (43 miles) to the town of Tawila, according to medical charity MSF.
Many arrived severely dehydrated and some children are reported to have died of thirst.
Humanitarian agencies have reported famine-like conditions facing more than 700,000 people in temporary camps around el-Fasher, with security threats and roadblocks thwarting the delivery of critical aid.
During an international meeting on Tuesday, the UK promised an extra £120m ($159m) worth of food and medical assistance, urging the world not to turn its back on Sudan.
“Many have given up on Sudan – that is wrong – it’s morally wrong when we see so many civilians beheaded, infants as young as one subjected to sexual violence, more people facing famine than anywhere else in the world… We simply cannot look away,” Lammy said.
The conference also called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, but the African Union has said it will not allow the country to be partitioned by the army and the RSF.
[BBC]
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