Gwinnett County commissioners have recently approved launching the county’s first Black-owned pilot school, the Lookup Flight Academy. This initiative, led by Michael Ojo, aims to empower a new generation of aviators with the skills and knowledge needed for careers in aviation.  Ojo’s passion for flying sparked nearly a decade ago, and his vision for the Lookup Flight Academy is about getting more minorities into aviation while helping them build careers as pilots. Addressing Underrepresentation in Aviation The Lookup Flight Academy, set to operate at the Gwinnett County Airport, aim ..read more

50 Cent has launched a new G-Unit Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana. At 956,000 square feet, G-Unit Studios is the second largest Black-owned production studio behind Tyler Perry Studios.  G-Unit Studios Lands IN Shreveport 50’s company, G-Unit Film & Television Inc., launched in 2005, currently houses his most successful television projects, such as STARZ TV series Power, which includes Raising Kanan, Force, Ghost and the series BMF. “I’m excited to announce the expansion of G-Unit Film & Television through the launch of my G-Unit Studios right here in Shreveport #allroadslea ..read more

Artists including Drake, Rihanna, The Weeknd, and Kendrick Lamar are returning to TikTok, as the platform has reached a new agreement with Universal Music Group (UMG). UMG had recently begun pulling its music from TikTok after their old contract expired, and the two companies couldn’t reach an agreement in new negotiations. What Does The New Partnership Mean? The joint agreement aims to mark a new era of collaboration, built on a shared commitment to help UMG’s artists and songwriters achieve their creative and commercial potential. They are also working together ..read more

Ovom Care, a pioneering German startup in the fertility sector, recently closed €4.8 million ($5.1 million) in seed funding to expand its services across Europe, according to Tech Funding News. Led by an all-female founding team, Ovom Care is at the forefront of integrating empathetic reproductive healthcare by using a combination of generative AI and computer vision. This investment round, led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and supported by Ananda Impact Ventures and Merantix, makes the company’s total funding €6.1 million ($6.5 million). The startup is set to ope ..read more

Latinas & Power Corp. has announced the launch and expansion of the Latinas in Leadership Institute (LiLi), an initiative to empower Latina professionals and entrepreneurs across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and beyond.  The six-month virtual leadership and advocacy certificate program is tailored for Latina professionals and community leaders in their early to mid-career stages. Empowering Through Diversity and Inclusion LiLi stands out by integrating participants from diverse sectors, including private, academic, government, and non-profit grassroots organizations.  This approac ..read more

BuuPass, Kenya’s leading provider of digital travel solutions, has acquired QuickBus, increasing its status as the largest intercity transport booking platform in Africa. Expansion and Innovation By integrating QuickBus’s extensive network, which includes over 5,200 intercity routes across Nigeria and South Africa, BuuPass has broadened its service offerings. This expansion brings an additional 5,000 routes to BuuPass’s platform, pushing its monthly active user accounts to 650,000.  The integration also includes onboarding over 100 bus operators and having high-profile online di ..read more

FKA Twigs has been developing an AI-powered version of herself, designed to interact with fans and journalists online. The British singer testified before Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property on Tuesday, calling for regulation to protect artists. AI Twigs: Revolutionizing Artist-Fan Engagement FKA Twigs recently announced the creation of her deepfake, a digital persona aptly named “AI Twigs.”  “In the past year, I have developed my own deepfake version of myself that is not only trained in my personality but also can use my exact tone of voice to speak my languages,”&nbs ..read more

People of color are more likely to work irregular and prolonged hours, contributing to long-term health issues, according to a new study by Wen-Jui Han, a professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. Even among Black professionals and other minorities in office jobs, Han tells Fortune, there’s a pressure to work longer hours to succeed. Long, irregular work hours Han’s study utilized data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which tracked over 7,000 U.S. workers from age 22 to 50. She found that employees, especially people of color, who forgo regular nighttime sleep to ..read more

A high school athletic director in Baltimore has been accused of using AI to impersonate a principal on an audio recording that included racist and  antisemitic comments, authorities said on Thursday. The principal was placed on leave and had police outside his home after he received hate-filled messages and death threats over the fake recoridng. What Happened? Dazhon Darien, a 31-year-old high school athletic director in Maryland, reportedly created the AI audio recording to retaliate against Pikesville High School’s principal Eric Eisworth. Eisworth was investigating Darien over allegat ..read more

Nigeria’s Chowdeck, an on-demand delivery platform, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding to fuel its growth. Chowdeck With households in Nigeria spending nearly 60% of their income on food and the rise of online shopping, Chowdeck aims to make its mark in the space. The platform was founded by Femi Aluko, Olumide Ojo, and Landre Yusuf to offer consumers the option of ordering food and delivering it within an average of 30 minutes. “Ordering food in Nigeria would usually take one or two hours,” Aluko said as he described how his trip to Dubai was one of the ..read more