Brooklyn Nine-Nine star, Andre Braugher, dead at the age of 61

Published

5 months ago

December 13, 2023

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Andre Braugher, who starred as the uptight, emotionally closed off Captain Raymond Holt in the US comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, has died at the age of 61, his publicist has confirmed.

He appeared alongside Andy Samberg and Terry Crews as New York police officers in the fictional 99th precinct. The show ran for eight seasons from 2013 to 2021 and brought Braugher international fame as a comedy actor.

Crews paid tribute to him on Instagram: “I’m honoured to have known you, laughed with you, worked with you and shared eight glorious years watching your irreplaceable talent.

“This hurts. You left us too soon. You taught me so much. I will be forever grateful for the experience of knowing you. Thank you for your wisdom, your advice, your kindness and your friendship.

“…You showed me what a life well lived looks like.”

It was actually in gritty crime dramas where Braugher first made his name. He won an Emmy in 1998 for his portrayal of Frank Pembleton in Homicide: Life On The Street, and followed that with a second in 2006 for the mini-series Thief, in which he played professional burglar Nick Atwater.

In total he was nominated for an Emmy 11 times, four for Brooklyn Nine-Nine as best supporting actor in a comedy series.

Born in Chicago in 1962, he won a scholarship to Stanford before attending Julliard performing arts conservatory in New York.

His breakout role was in the 1990 film Glory directed by Ed Zwick, alongside Hollywood stars Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington – who won his first Academy Award for his supporting role in the film.

Other notable credits include starring as Benjamin O Davis in Tuskegee Airmen, Dr Ben Gideon in Gideon’s Crossing and Owen in Men Of A Certain Age – all roles which won him Emmy nominations.

Mike Royce, who co-created Men Of A Certain Age, said on X, formerly Twitter: “This is impossible for me to process. He was best actor in the world. An incredible human being. An incomprehensible loss.”

US

GPT-4o: OpenAI to begin rollout of latest version of artificial intelligence chatbot

Published

2 hours ago

May 13, 2024

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GPT-4o: OpenAI to begin rollout of latest version of artificial intelligence chatbot

The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker.

OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions.

It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.

The firm says it “accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs”.

GPT-4o is to be rolled out over the next few weeks amid a battle by tech firms to develop ever-more advanced artificial intelligence tools.

Monday’s announcement showed tasks such as real-time language translation; using its vision capability to solve a maths question on a piece of paper, and to guide a blind person around London.

GPT-4o can respond to audio in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which the company says is similar to human response time.

To try to ease concerns over bias, fairness and misinformation, the Microsoft-backed company says the new version has undergone extensive testing by 70 external experts.

It comes after Google earlier this year had a major PR blunder over images generated by its Gemini AI system.

GPT-4o model will be free, but premium ‘Plus’ users get a greater capacity limit for messages.

Previous versions of the chatbot have caused unease in schools and universities due to some students using it to cheat by producing convincing essays.

When it launched two years ago, ChatGPT was said to be the fastest-ever app to reach 100 million active monthly users.

The announcement also stole a march on Google, which is expected to tomorrow show off its own new AI features at its annual developers’ conference.

US

Worshippers stop teenage boy armed with rifle from entering church full of children in Louisiana

Published

6 hours ago

May 13, 2024

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Worshippers stop teenage boy armed with rifle from entering church full of children in Louisiana

A 16-year-old suspect armed with a rifle has been stopped from entering a church full of children by worshippers during a livestreamed service, say authorities in Louisiana.

The boy tried to get into the St Mary Magdalen Church, in Abbeville, through the back door at around 10.30am on Saturday (4.30pm UK time), according to police.

A livestream of the incident that was seen by Sky News’ partner outlet NBC News showed a man approaching Reverend Nicholas DuPre after 48 minutes to whisper something.

Rev DuPre then stopped the service and asked churchgoers to pray with him, while some people were heard panicking and screaming.

Around 60 children were inside and waiting to take their first Holy Communion when worshippers confronted the armed suspect.

The Louisiana Catholic church said they then took him outside before calling the police.

On the livestream, police officers could seen walking through the church, as boys ran across the altar and the clergy took shelter, NBC News reported.

Someone was heard to say over a loudspeaker: “Guys, just get ahold of your children, go slowly. We did apprehend a child, he is in custody.”

In a statement, Abbeville Police Department said that upon arrival, officers arrested the suspect and then searched the church.

The force added the teenager was charged with terrorising the church and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile.

Witnesses told TV station KADN that he was dressed all in black and armed with the rifle, NBC News reported.

Police chief Mike Hardy thanked the churchgoers who intervened for their “quick response and remaining calm throughout this matter”.

The church also said it now plans to have uniformed law enforcement officers outside of its masses “out of an abundance of caution”.

US

First victim in Jaws has died aged 77

Published

15 hours ago

May 13, 2024

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The swimmer who was the first victim in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws has died.

Susan Backlinie died in her home in California at the age of 77, according to her agent. Her death was first reported by The Daily Jaws website.

The opening scene of Steven Spielberg‘s classic features Ms Backlinie running along the beach and before diving into the water and skinny dipping.

Her character Chrissie Watkins is then suddenly pulled under the water and she screams as she is violently attacked by an unseen great white shark.

Ms Backlinie had been a champion swimmer when cast in the film. She told The Palm Beach Post in 2015 that Spielberg told her: “When your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubblegum.

“I think we did that,” she said.

In the documentary, Jaws: The Inside Story, Spielberg called Ms Backlinie’s sequence “one of the most dangerous” stunts he’s ever directed.

“She was actually being tugged left and right by 10 men on one rope and 10 men on the other back to the shore, and that’s what caused her to move like that.”