Rapper Nicki Minaj will pay singer Tracy Chapman $450,000 (£332,000) to settle a copyright dispute after sampling one of her songs. Chapman sued Minaj in 2018, saying she had used portions of Baby, Can I Hold You Tonight in her song Sorry.

Although the song was never released, a leaked version made its way to radio DJ Funkmaster Flex and went viral online. Chapman accused Minaj of sharing the song with Flex, although both have denied that version of events.

Minaj wrote Sorry with fellow rapper Nas while recording her fourth album Queen in 2018. It was based on a sample of the dancehall track Sorry by Jamaican artist Shelly Thunder. Unbeknownst to Minaj, that song was based on Baby, Can I Hold You Tonight, from Chapman’s Grammy-winning 1988 debut album.

After discovering the connection, Minaj and her record label sought permission to use Chapman’s composition, but the singer-songwriter repeatedly refused. The singer’s lawyer said she has a blanket policy against granting such permission. One of the clearance specialists working for Minaj was also said to have known Chapman was on an unofficial “do not sample” list.

In an earlier judgement, US District Judge Virginia A Phillips ruled that Minaj’s experimentation with Chapman’s song in the studio constituted “fair use”. In doing so, she sided with the rapper’s lawyers, who argued that artists need to be free to sample music while writing and recording, without worrying about being sued once they approach the rights-holder for a licence.

Judge Phillips agreed that “a ruling uprooting these common practices would limit creativity and stifle innovation within the music industry”. She added that there was “no evidence” that Minaj’s song “usurps any potential market for Chapman” and her original song, a searingly personal guitar ballad.

However, the judge set up a trial to explore how Sorry came to be leaked and distributed, and whether that constituted copyright infringement. 

That trial will no longer take place after Chapman accepted Minaj’s offer. The settlement includes Chapman’s costs and legal fees to date, according to documents made public by the California Central District Court.

Rapper and producer Dr Dre, one of hip-hop’s most successful and influential stars, is being treated in hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm. The 55-year-old was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Monday, TMZ reported.

In a post on Instagram, he said: “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team.” He is “resting comfortably“ after the aneurysm, his lawyer told Billboard.

In his post, Dr Dre also wrote: “I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!”

Friends and fellow stars have sent their well wishes after the reports of his ill health emerged. Ice Cube, his former bandmate in trailblazing 1980s hip-hop group NWA, tweeted: “Send your love and prayers to the homie Dr. Dre.”

Snoop Dogg, who was discovered by Dr Dre in the early 1990s, wrote on Instagram: “GET WELL DR DRE WE NEED U CUZ.” Missy Elliott wrote: “Prayers up for Dr. Dre and his family for healing & Strength over his mind & body.” And singer Ciara tweeted: “Praying for you Dr. Dre. Praying for a full recovery.”

With NWA and then as a solo artist, leading producer and record label mogul, Dr Dre shaped west coast rap and was instrumental in the careers of other stars like Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.

An aneurysm is a bulge in a weakened blood vessel where the blood pressure causes a small area to bulge outwards. Most brain aneurysms only cause noticeable symptoms if they burst, leading to bleeding on the brain, which can cause a very serious condition and can be fatal.

Football legend Diego Maradona has been buried in a private ceremony after a day of emotional scenes in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

Only around two dozen relatives and close friends attended the final ceremony on Thursday. But earlier huge crowds turned out to pay their respects, with many weeping, blowing kisses and praying as they filed past his coffin.

Maradona died of a heart attack on Wednesday aged 60. His death triggered mourning around the world but nowhere was it felt more fiercely than in a country that saw him as a national hero.

Maradona’s coffin – draped in Argentina’s national flag and football shirt, bearing his trademark number 10 on the back – was on public display at the presidential palace on Thursday.

By mid-afternoon queues stretched back for more than a kilometre, and police clashed with mourners as they tried to close off the palace in anticipation of the wake scheduled for 16:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

There were reports of tear gas and rubber bullets being used as officers in riot gear struggled to hold back the crowd.

One well-wisher, Rubén Hernández, thought the police had overreacted. “We were calm lining up and suddenly, the police started to fire rubber bullets,” he said, quoted by Reuters news agency. “Crazy, I just want to say goodbye to Diego.”

Authorities were eventually forced to stop public viewing of the coffin to keep the peace.

The motorised funeral cortege drove his body to the Bella Vista cemetery on the outskirts of the city, where he was buried next to the graves of his parents.

New quarantine hobbies have unearthed new passions, some bringing with them a literal silver lining.

This year, backyard archaeologists in the United Kingdom have recorded discoveries of more than 47,000 objects, the British Museum announced this week.

Regular people found the vast majority of the historical artifacts by traversing the countryside with metal detectors, before adding or updating records through the museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The British Museum said the program also saw an uptick in people updating digital records of antiquities while the country was under a full lockdown between March 22 and May 13.

That database contains records of more than 1.5 million objects discovered since 1998 by the general public rather than by professional archaeologists.

The UK’s Treasure Act of 1996 requires that finders report each discovery more than 300 years old to the local coroner in the area in which they found it.

If the local authority defines the object as treasure, then it takes the find to the British Museum to be valued. The government then pays a fair market price to the discoverer.

The law is intended to allow national or local museums to ultimately acquire the historic treasures so that the overall public can benefit.

Mads Mikkelsen is to replace Johnny Depp as rogue wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts series, Warner Bros have announced.

Depp left the franchise earlier this month after losing a libel case over a 2018 newspaper article which called him a “wife beater”.

Mikkelsen, a Danish actor, has previously starred in films including Casino Royale and Doctor Strange. The third instalment of the series is due to be released in summer 2022.

Mikkelsen, 54, also appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and played Hannibal Lecter in the TV series Hannibal.

The announcement came not long after Depp was denied permission to appeal against the High Court’s ruling, which concluded that he assaulted his ex-wife Amber Heard. The actor has also been ordered to make an initial payment to the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers, of almost £630,000 for its legal fees.

Depp made a brief appearance as Grindelwald in 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and reprised his role in 2018’s Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

The films also star Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law and are prequels to the eight Harry Potter films, which were based on the novels by JK Rowling.

If anyone asks chef Marcus Samuelsson what African food tastes like, he has the answer: Have you ever had barbeque? Rice? Coffee?

“All of that food comes from Africa, has its roots in Africa,” says the Ethiopian Swedish writer and restaurateur. “Everyone has had African American dishes, whether they know it or not.”

Samuelsson is chef at the famous Red Rooster restaurant in New York City’s Harlem. He is hoping to educate Americans and help Black chefs in a new book. It is called The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food.

The book has 150 recipes and includes the life stories of 26 Black chefs, writers and activists. The recipes celebrate Africa and the influence of migration and integration. It also examines where modern Black chefs are going next with their food.

“When I look at American food and I look at the Black experience, we’ve done so much, but almost got erased,” said Samuelsson. “There’s never been a better time to tell those stories,” he added.

“Our pasts are so unique and it’s so important to tell,” says Samuelsson. He notes that many cookbooks celebrate European and Asian foods, but few describe Black dishes. Americans know more about cheese products from Italy than the cheese of Ethiopia.

“This is America’s past. So, for me, as much as we learn about Japan, as much as we learn about Italy and Spain and so on, wouldn’t it be great to learn about our own food? This is America’s food,” he says.

People magazine has named actor Michael B. Jordan as its 2020 Sexiest Man Alive.

Jordan is best known for his critically praised performances in the films Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther. The magazine’s choice of Jordan was announced Tuesday night on the American television talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The 33-year-old Jordan told People that the honor is a “cool feeling.” 

“You know, everybody always made that joke, like, ‘Mike, this is the one thing you’re probably not going to get,’” he said. “But it’s a good club to be a part of.”

Females among Jordan’s family were especially pleased about the recognition, as fans of the magazine.

“When my grandmother was alive, it was something that she collected, and then my mom naturally reads it a lot and my aunts as well,” Jordan said. “This is one that they’re definitely going to have a special place for.”

Other recent winners of sexiest man alive include singer John Legend, actors Dwayne Johnson and Chris Hemsworth, and soccer star David Beckham.

Jordan’s rise in Hollywood has come through strong performances on television series like The Wire and Friday Night Lights. He made his mark in film as police shooting victim Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station. He also played boxer Adonis Creed in the Rocky series of movies and Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.

Jordan also has been active in the Black Lives Matter movement and has spoken in support of early voting registration in the United States.

“I think there’s a time and a place for everything,” he told People. “We can all take action — big or small — to help create the change we want to see.”

Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson is to take an “extended” break from the pop group for “private medical reasons”, their publicist has said.

It comes after Nelson recently missed the final of the girl group’s BBC One talent show, and their hosting of the MTV European Music Awards.

Little Mix’s latest album entered the UK chart at number two on Friday. All six of the studio albums they have released since forming on The X Factor in 2011 have gone into the top five, and they have had four UK number one singles.

In a statement, the group’s publicist said: “Jesy is having extended time off from Little Mix for private medical reasons. “We will not be issuing any further comment now and ask the media to please respect her privacy at this time.”

Nelson’s bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall were seen without her on the final of Little Mix: The Search on 7 November, and on the MTV EMAs the following night.

Last year, Nelson received widespread praise for discussing her mental health battle on the BBC Three documentary Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out. The documentary, which won a National Television Award, addressed body image and the impact of online bullying.

The United States Army now has its own national museum.

The National Museum of the United States Army opened in Fort Belvoir, Virginia on Wednesday, Veterans Day. The site is about thirty kilometers from the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.

The museum is aimed at telling the story of the country’s oldest military service, which began 245 years ago in 1775.

The large five-level complex contains interactive and historical exhibits. It includes thousands of documents, pictures, artwork and many kinds of army equipment. Weapons, protective wear and service awards are also shown. 

Many exhibits deal with wartime activity. But others center on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian missions around the world, said the new museum’s director Tammy Call. She also noted the exhibit Soldier Stories, saying it speaks of “the individual soldier story.”

Jack Querfeld, an official with the veterans’ organization, American Legion, praised what he saw at the museum. The exhibits of battle, he said, “put a human face on it, instead of just saying we fought here.”

“The National Army Museum will be a place for members of the total Army family to gather and share their stories,” said Ryan D. McCarthy, secretary of the Army.

That means a lot to museum visitor B.J. Lawrence. He leads the Washington, D.C., office of the organization, Veterans of Foreign Wars. He served in the U.S. Army in South Korea in the early 1980s.

Lawrence said he found the exhibits on the Korean War “especially touching,” and called the museum overall “phenomenal.” “It helps to explain and put into perspective why the American people enjoy the freedoms they do today,” he added.

Argentina beat New Zealand for the first time in their history with a 25-15 win in the Rugby Championship.

The match was Argentina’s first Test in 13 months, and their victory ensured the All Blacks suffered a second defeat in a row, after losing to Australia. The Pumas led 16-3 at the break and kept New Zealand at bay to secure a famous and shock win in Sydney.

“It was very tough there at the moment and it was tough for us to come here and prepare ourselves for this tournament. We are really proud of this team and of our country,” said Argentina captain Pablo Matera

Victory was Argentina’s first in 30 Test matches against the All Blacks.

New Zealand, who lost 24-22 to Australia last week in Brisbane, have been beaten in two consecutive Test matches for the first time since August 2011. 

“They probably brought more intensity,” said All Blacks captain Sam Cane. “Their defence was outstanding.”We weren’t good enough, which is extremely disappointing but full credit to them.”

This is one of the most sensational results in recent rugby union history, especially when you consider how Argentina had not played a Test match since the Rugby World Cup 13 months ago.

They were expected to be thrashed by a battle-hardened New Zealand; remember world champions South Africa pulled out of the Rugby Championship citing a lack of match preparation time.

While it is a famous day for the Pumas and a huge result for world rugby, the All Blacks inquest will begin. They have now lost two in a row for the first time since 2011 and look a shadow of the all-conquering side they were under Steve Hansen.