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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

If you’ve been a social media user over the past year, chances are you’ve seen Andrew Tate popping up on your feed – and you’ve probably seen him in the news recently too. Tate, 36, his brother Tristan and two other associates have been charged in Romania with rape, human trafficking and organised crime after they were detained in December 2022. Earlier this year, the 36-year-old influencer lost his appeal against a judge's earlier decision to extend his arrest from 24 hours to 30 days, so he remains behind bars. For now. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Before his arrest, every other video seemed to feature him on TikTok, making him both one of the most ubiquitous faces on the app and one of the most controversial. But who is Andrew 'Cobra' Tate and why did he suddenly go viral last year? Here’s everything you need to know. Who is Andrew Tate? Andrew Tate/Instagram Tate, 36, is a former professional kickboxer, entrepreneur and content creator, who founded an online course in “modern wealth creation” at his own “Hustlers University”. Speaking about his personal wealth, he previously said in an interview: "I was broke for a long time. I made my first million when I was say 27 and then I had a 100 million by the time I was 31, 32 and then I became a trillionaire quite recently." There are no trillionaires on the planet (according to Forbes, Elon Musk is worth $250 billion) so that might be wishful thinking on Tate’s behalf. However, Essential Sports estimates that his net worth to be around $30 million. He enjoyed a pretty successful kickboxing career, winning world titles in two different weight divisions. He first came to prominence outside of the sporting arena while appearing on the 2016 season of Big Brother in the UK, which ended in controversial circumstances. Tate gained notoriety at the time after he was evicted from the series after a video surfaced online appearing to show him beating a woman with a belt. Speaking at the time, Tate claimed that it was part of role-play to which the woman in the video had consented. He also said he was using a felt belt. In a statement made to his Facebook, he said: ”They cut out all the sound cause she’s LAUGHING in the video. And they cut off the end of the video where she gets the belt and hits me back while we’re both laughing. What bullsh**t. It was 2012 and we were having a laugh.” He later drew criticism following comments surrounding rape which he made following the #MeToo movement. As the Metro reported, he tweeted at the time: “Sexual harassment is disgusting and inexcusable. However, a man looking at you or whistling at you or asking your name isn’t harassment. He added: “Women have been exchanging sex for opportunity for a very long time. Some did this. Weren’t abused. […] If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare some responsibility. His Twitter account was suspended in 2017, and the tweets were later removed from Twitter. But in 2022, Twitter verified the account of the infamous kickboxer, which it had already banned, as the social media company appeared to ignore its own rules. Tate initially declined to comment further than disavowing two other accounts - @iron_mentality and @of_wudan - that appeared to be associated with him contacted by The Independent. However, following the publication of an article on the news site, he said: “I don’t agree with being banned, people get banned from Twitter all the time and make new profiles. I’m not inciting violence, promoting terrorism or harassing anyone. This is censorship of free speech. I’ve never had specific tweets banned or been cautioned.” MORE: Tate thinks you're a 'weak' man if you live with a woman MORE: The most controversial Cobra Tate moments we can actually talk about Why did he suddenly go viral? There isn’t one viral moment or individual clip to pinpoint his rise to viral fame, but rather it seems like part of a larger concerted effort to get his name and face out there. However, one comment which did bring a great deal of attention was his decision to call out Jake Paul for a fight. He claims he previously offered Paul £2.5million to take him on in 2020. "I don't dislike him, I understand him but I want to make something clear, I would still kick the living f*** out of Jake Paul," he told The Fellas podcast. "I'm not some washed-up UFC fighter and I'm not smaller than him, I would beat the living s*** out of him and if he wants to fight I'll fight him any day of the f****ng week. He's very smart with his 'I'm just a YouTuber angle'.” He added: "You're a full-grown man with the best coaches in the world who has dedicated years to learning how to box. The guy's not a jack*** and the fact he puts this spin on it is very smart. "I offered him $3million at the time, I don't think it's about money for him I think it's about credibility and fame. Him fighting me is a massive risk for him, he knows that. I'd love to kick the f*** out of the guy because I love to fight, that's the difference between me and everyone else he's fought," Tate continued. "I'm not some desperate guy at the end of his career who needs the money. I would dedicate my life [to training], treat him like a professional and I would destroy him like I've destroyed all of the professionals I have ever fought." Paul was asked about the possibility of fighting Tate in a press conference recently, and he replied: "I don't know who that is." Have your say in our news democracy. 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Full list of Modern Warfare III Verdansk POIs shown in the Gameplay Reveal Trailer aired at the end of the Warzone Shadow Siege event.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 31, 2023--

Charlie Munger dies at 99, Apple moves to end Goldman Sachs card partnership, Amazon and Nvidia expand AI offerings, and other news to start your day.

Several attendees at an NFT festival in Hong Kong have been hospitalised after they reported experiencing vision issues, eye-burning sensations and sunburned skin after the event, which was allegedly lit with UV lighting. ApeFest 2023 was held from Friday to Sunday for members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and their guests. To be a member, people must own an NFT within the collection of digital ape artworks. The Bored Ape Yacht Club artworks, created by blockchain company Yuga Labs, gained notoriety for becoming an exclusive online club that includes celebrities who have bought a Bored Ape NFT, such as Madonna, Justin Beiber, Serena Williams and many more, according to Decrypt. The NFTs, which, like cryptocurrency, sit on a blockchain; the person who owns the image has sole intellectual property rights and can choose to sell to another owner. Many crypto and NFT owners and fans went to the event, but some came away from the experience with bizarre symptoms. Attendees took to X (formerly Twitter) to ask other fest-goers if they had similar symptoms. One user wrote: “Anyone else’s eyes burning from last night? Woke up at 3am with extreme pain and ended up in the ER.” To which another person, under the username @CryptoJune777, replied: “I woke up at 04:00 and couldn’t see anymore. Had so much pain and my whole skin is burned. Needed to go to the hospital.” @CryptoJune77 also added that a doctor said that it could have been the UV lighting coming from the stage that burned their skin and damaged their eyes. Many other people replied to the tweets, saying they had experienced the same issue, with some also adding that they had to go to hospital. Another user, Adrian ZduÅ„czyk, said he had to pay $3000HKD ($383USD) for his hospital expenses after he was diagnosed with “photokeratitis over both eyes” due to unprotected exposure to UV radiation. “So many of my friends are still unaware they must seek medical help to make sure they end up with no damage, as well,” the user wrote. “Please go get your eyes checked immediately. We’ve most likely been exposed to experience similar to Mt Everest climbers - snow blindness.” UV radiation can cause photokeratitis, which is essentially like sunburning your eye, which can produce symptoms such as blurriness, tearing, redness and, in rare cases, temporary vision loss or colour changes, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Photokertitis is often associated with snow blindness, as climbers, snowboarders, or skiers can experience it when the sun reflects off ice and snow. After the sunburn allegations started circulating on social media, the Bored Ape Yacht Club issued a statement on X. “Apes, we are aware of the eye-related issues that affected some of the attendees of ApeFest and have been proactively reaching out to individuals since yesterday to try and find the potential root causes,” they said in their post. “Based on our estimates, we believe that much less than 1% of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.” “While nearly everyone has indicated their symptoms have improved, we encourage anybody who feels them to seek medical attention just in case,” the club added. The owner of the Bored Ape Yacht Club project, Yuga Labs, told The Verge that it is aware of the situation and is taking the reports seriously. “We are actively reaching out and in touch with those affected to better understand the root cause,” said a spokesperson for the company. “Based on our estimates, the 15 people we’ve been in direct communication with so far represent less than one per cent of the approximately 2,250 event attendees and staff at our Saturday night event.” The Independent has contacted Yuga Labs for further comment. Read More Guidance set to urge parents not to buy smartphones for primary school children ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant Elon Musk weighs in on the scooped bagel debate Guidance set to urge parents not to buy smartphones for primary school children ChatGPT update allows anyone to make their own personalised AI assistant Elon Musk weighs in on the scooped bagel debate

According to recent leaks, classic Call of Duty maps, Terminal and Scrapyard, will be featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023).

By Greg Bensinger Amazon.com's top lawyer on Tuesday previewed the broad outlines of the company's possible defense against

By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's Ericsson said on Wednesday it has partnered with Deutsche Telekom to offer software tools

TikTok has been fined 345 million euro (£296 million) by Ireland’s data watchdog following an investigation into how the social media platform processed children’s data. The fine was imposed on TikTok Technology Limited (TTL) by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) after the probe into how certain privacy settings and features complied with obligations under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The DPC inquiry examined age verification as part of the registration process and the processing of the personal data of children by the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform between July 31 and December 31 2020. Tiktok said that it “respectfully disagreed” with the level of the fine imposed and stated that it related to features and settings which were in place three years ago. The DPC adopted its final decision regarding its inquiry into TTK on September 1. We respectfully disagree with the decision, particularly the level of the fine imposed TikTok spokesperson The DPC ruling described how child users progressed through the sign-up to the TikTok platform in such a manner that their accounts were set to public by default. It said this meant that videos that were posted to child users’ account were public-by-default and comments were enabled publicly by default. In the Family Pairing feature, the DPC said a child user’s accounts could be “paired” with an unverified non-child. It said that that the non-child user had the power to enable direct messages for child users above the age of 16, thereby making this feature less strict for the child user. As part of the inquiry, the DPC also examined some of TTL’s transparency obligations, including the extent of information provided to child users in relation to default settings. The DPC has issued a reprimand as well as an order requiring TTL to bring its processing into compliance by taking specified action specified within three months and administrative fines totalling 345 million euro. A spokesperson for TikTok said: “We respectfully disagree with the decision, particularly the level of the fine imposed. “The DPC’s criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under 16 accounts to private by default.” It is the latest in a series of fines handed out by the DPC in Ireland to social media giants. Earlier this year, Facebook’s parent company Meta Ireland was fined 390 million for breaches of EU data privacy rules, one of a number of fines the DPC has imposed on the company. In Januar,y WhatsApp was fined more than five million euro over data protection breaches and last year Instagram was fined 405 million euro over the way in which it handled teenagers’ personal data. Earlier this year in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office fined TikTok £12.7 million because it “did not do enough” to make sure underage children were not using its platform and ensure that their data was used correctly. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Stadiums and tourism hotspots to test new 5G networks in £88 million scheme Chatbots ‘able to outperform most humans at creative thinking task’ Information Commissioner urges people to share data to protect at-risk children

We’re still waiting for the PC game industry to widely adopt DirectStorage, Microsoft’s solution for