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Monday, August 17, 2020

Summarizing Most Popular Text-to-Image Synthesis methods with Python

Comparative Study of Different Adversarial Text to Image Methods

Introduction

Automatic synthesis of realistic images from text has become popular with deep convolutional and recurrent neural network architectures to aid in learning discriminative text feature representations.

Discriminative power and strong generalization properties of attribute representations even though attractive, its a complex process and requires domain-specific knowledge. Over the years the techniques have evolved as auto-adversarial networks in space of machine learning algorithms continue to evolve.

In comparison, natural language offers an easy, general, and flexible plugin that can be used to identify and describing objects across multiple domains by means of visual categories. The best thing is to combine the generality of text descriptions with the discriminative power of attributes.

This blog addresses different text to image synthesis algorithms using GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) that aims to directly map words and characters to image pixels with natural language representation and image synthesis techniques.

The featured algorithms learn a text feature representation that captures the important visual details and then use these features to synthesize a compelling image that a human might mistake for real.

1. Generative Adversarial Text to Image Synthesis

  • This image synthesis mechanism uses deep convolutional and recurrent text encoders to learn a correspondence function with images by conditioning the model conditions on text descriptions instead of class labels.
  • An effective approach that enables text-based image synthesis using a character-level text encoder and class-conditional GAN. The purpose of the GAN is to view (text, image) pairs as joint observations and train the discriminator to judge pairs as real or fake.
  • Equipped with a manifold interpolation regularizer (regularization procedure which encourages interpolated outputs to appear more realistic) for the GAN generator that significantly improves the quality of generated samples.
  • The objective of GAN is to view (text, image) pairs as joint observations and train the discriminator to judge pairs as real or fake.
  • Both the generator network G and the discriminator network D perform has been trained to enable feed-forward learning and inference by conditioning tightly only on textual features.


Source, LICENSE- Apache 2.0

  • Discriminator D, has several layers of stride2 convolution with spatial batch normalization followed by leaky ReLU.
  • The GAN is trained in mini-batches with SGD (Stochastic Gradient Descent).
  • In addition to the real/fake inputs to the discriminator during training, it is also fed with the third type of input consisting of real images with mismatched text, which aids the discriminator to score it as fake.

The below figure illustrates text to image generation samples of different types of birds.


Source — (Open Source Apache 2.0 License)

Library and Usage

git clone https://github.com/zsdonghao/text-to-image.git [TensorFlow 1.0+, TensorLayer 1.4+, NLTK : for tokenizer] python downloads.py [download Oxford-102 flower dataset and caption files(run this first)] python data_loader.py [load data for further processing] python train_txt2im.py [train a text to image model] python utils.py  [helper functions] python models.py [models]

2. Multi-Scale Gradient GAN for Stable Image Synthesis

Multi-Scale Gradient Generative Adversarial Network (MSG-GAN) is responsible for handling instability in gradients passing from the discriminator to the generator that become uninformative, due to a learning imbalance during training. It uses an effective technique that allows the flow of gradients from the discriminator to the generator at multiple scales helping to generate synchronized multi-scale images.

  • The discriminator not only looks at the final output (highest resolution) of the generator but also at the outputs of the intermediate layers as illustrated in the below figure. As a result, the discriminator becomes a function of multiple scale outputs of the generator (by using concatenation operations) and importantly, passes gradients to all the scales simultaneously.


The architecture of MSG-GAN for generating synchronized multi-scale images. Source — (Open Source MIT License)

  • MSG-GAN is robust to changes in the learning rate and has a more consistent increase in image quality when compared to progressive growth (Pro-GAN).
  • MSG-GAN shows the same convergence trait and consistency for all the resolutions and images generated at higher resolution maintain the symmetry of certain features such as the same color for both eyes, or earrings in both ears. Moreover, the training phase allows a better understanding of image properties (e.g., quality and diversity).

Library and Usage

git clone https://github.com/akanimax/BMSG-GAN.git [PyTorch] python train.py --depth=7 \                    --latent_size=512 \                   --images_dir=<path to images> \                   --sample_dir=samples/exp_1 \                   --model_dir=models/exp_1

3. T2F-text-to-face-generation-using-deep-learning (StackGAN++ and ProGAN)

  • In the ProGAN architecture, works on the principle of adding new layers that model increasingly fine details as training progresses. Here both the generator and discriminator start by creating images of low resolution and adds images’ in-depth details in subsequent steps. It helps in a more stable and faster training process.
  • StackGAN architecture consists of multiple generators and discriminators in a tree-like structureThe different branches of the tree represent images of varying scales, all belonging to the same scene. StackGAN has been known for yielding different types of approximate distributions. These multiple related distributions include multi-scale image distributions and joint conditional and unconditional image distributions.
  • T2F uses a combined architecture of ProGAN and StackGANProGAN is known for the synthesis of facial images, while StackGAN is known for text encoding, where conditioning augmentation is the principle working methodology. The textual description is encoded into a summary vector using an LSTM network. The summary vector i.e. Embedding as illustrated in the below diagram is passed through the Conditioning Augmentation block (a single linear layer) to obtain the textual part of the latent vector (uses VAE like parameterization technique) for the GAN as input.
  • The second part of the latent vector is random Gaussian noise. The latent vector yielded is then fed to the generator part of the GAN. The embedding thus formed is finally fed to the final layer of the discriminator for conditional distribution matching. The training of the GAN proceeds layer by layer. Every next layer adds spatial resolutions at an increasing level.
  • The fade-in technique is used to introduce any new layer. This step helps to remember and restore previously learned information.


T2F architecture for generating face from textual descriptions, Source, LICENSE-MIT

The below figure illustrates the mechanism of facial image generation from textual captions for each of them.

Library and Usage


Source — https://github.com/akanimax/T2F.git , LICENSE-MIT

git clone https://github.com/akanimax/T2F.gitpip install -r requirements.txtmkdir training_runsmkdir training_runs/generated_samples training_runs/losses training_runs/saved_modelstrain_network.py --config=configs/11.comf

4. Object-driven Text-to-Image Synthesis via Adversarial Training


AttnGAN Source LICENSE — MIT

  • Object-driven Attentive GAN (Obj-GAN) performs fine-grained text-to-image synthesis. Such in-depth granular image synthesis occurs in two steps. At first, a semantic layout (class labels, bounding boxes, shapes of salient objects) is generated and then the generating images are synthesized by a de-convolutional image generator.
  • However semantic layout generation is accomplished with the sentence being served as input to Obj-GAN. This facilitates the Obj-GAN to generate a sequence of objects specified by their bounding boxes (with class labels) and shapes.
  • The box generator is trained as an attentive seq2seq model to generate a sequence of bounding boxes, followed by a shape generator to predict and generate the shape of each object in its bounding box.
  • In the image generation step, the object-driven attentive generator and object-wise discriminator are designed to enable image generation conditioned on the semantic layout generated in the first step. The generator concentrates on synthesizing the image region within a bounding box by focusing on words that are most relevant to the object in that bounding box.
  • Attention-driven context vectors serve as an important tool encode information from the words that are most relevant to that image region. This is accomplished with the help of both patch-wise and object-wise context vectors for defined image regions.
  • Fast R-CNN based object-wise discriminator is also used. It is able to offer rich object-wise discrimination signals. These signals help to determine whether the synthesized object matches the text description and the pre-generated layout.
  • Object-driven attention (paying attention to most relevant words and pre-generated class labels) performs better than traditional grid attention, capable of generates complex scenes in high quality.

The open-source code for Obj-GAN from Microsoft is not available yet.


Source– (License-OpenSource)

5. MirrorGan

  • MirrorGAN is built to emphasize global-local attentive features. It helps in the semantic-preserving text-to-image-to-text framework.
  • MirrorGAN is equipped to learn text-to-image generation by re-description. It is composed of three modules: “a semantic text embedding module (STEM), a global-local collaborative attentive module for cascaded image generation (GLAM), and a semantic text regeneration and alignment module (STREAM)”.
  • STEM generates word-and sentence-level embeddings using recurrent neural network (RNN) to embed the given text description into local word-level features and global sentence-level features.
  • GLAM has a multi-stage cascaded generator. It is designed by stacking three image generation networks sequentially for generating target images from coarse to fine scales. During target image generation, it leverages both local word attention and global sentence. This helps to progressively enhance the diversity and semantic consistency of the generated images.
  • STREAM purposes to regenerate the text description from the generated image. The image semantically aligns with the given text description.
  • Word-level attention model takes in neighboring contextual high related words. This helps to generate an attentive word-context feature. Word embedding and the visual feature is taken as the input in each stage. The word embedding is first converted into an underlying common semantic space of visual features by a perception layer and multiplied with the visual feature to obtain the attention score. Finally, the attentive word-context feature is obtained by calculating the inner product between the attention score and perception layer along with word embedding.
  • MirrorGAN’s two most important components semantic text regeneration and alignment module maintains overall sync between input text and output image. These two modules help to regenerate the text description from the generated image. The output finally semantically aligns with the given text description. In addition, an encoder decoder-based image caption framework is used to generate captions in the architecture. The encoder is a convolutional neural network (CNN) and the decoder is an RNN.
  • MirrorGAN performs better than AttnGAN at all settings by a large margin, demonstrating the superiority of the proposed text-to-image-to-text framework and the global-local collaborative attentive module since MirrorGAN generated high-quality images with semantics consistent with the input text descriptions.

Library and Usage

git clone git@github.com:komiya-m/MirrorGAN.git [python 3.6.8, keras 2.2.4, tensor-flow 1.12.0] Dependencies : easydict, pandas, tqdm python main_clevr.py cd MirrorGAN python pretrain_STREAM.py python train.py

6. StoryGAN

  • Story visualization takes as input a multi-sentence paragraph and generates at its output sequence of images, one for each sentence.
  • Story visualization task is a sequential conditional generation problem where it jointly considers the current input sentence with the contextual information.
  • Story GAN gives less focus on the continuity in generated images (frames), but more on the global consistency across dynamic scenes and characters.
  • Relies on the Text2Gist component in the Context Encoder, where the Context Encoder dynamically tracks the story flow in addition to providing the image generator with both local and global conditional information.
  • Two-level discriminator and the recurrent structure on the inputs help to enhance the image quality and ensure consistency across the generated images and the story to be visualized.

The below figure illustrates a StoryGAN architecture. The variables represented in gray solid circles serves as an input story S and individual sentences s1, . . . , sT with random noise 1, . . . , T . The generator network is built using specific customized components –Story Encoder, Context Encoder and Image Generator. There are two discriminators on top that actively serve its primary task to discriminate each image sentence pair and each image-sequence-story pair is real or fake.


The framework of StoryGAN, Source– LICENSE-MIT

The Story GAN architecture is capable of distinguishing real/fake stories with the feature vectors of the images/sentences in the story when they are concatenated. The product of image and text features is embedded to have a compact feature representation that serves as an input to a fully connected layer. The fully connected layer is employed with a sigmoid non-linearity to predict whether it is a fake or real story pair.


Structure of the story discriminator, Source , LICENSE-MIT

Library and Usage

git clone https://github.com/yitong91/StoryGAN.git   [Python 2.7, PyTorch, cv2]python main_clevr.py

7. Keras-text-to-image :

In Keras text to image translation is achieved using GAN and Word2Vec as well as recurrent neural networks.

It uses DCGan(Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network) which has been a breakthrough in GAN research as it introduces major architectural changes to tackle problems like training instability, mode collapse, and internal covariate shift.


Sample DCGAN Architecture to generate 64×64 RGB pixel images from the LSUN dataset, Source, License -MIT

Library and Usage

git clone https://github.com/chen0040/keras-text-to-image.git import os  import sys  import numpy as np from random import shuffle   def train_DCGan_text_image():     seed = 42      np.random.seed(seed)          current_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)     # add the keras_text_to_image module to the system path     sys.path.append(os.path.join(current_dir, '..'))     current_dir = current_dir if current_dir is not '' else '.'      img_dir_path = current_dir + '/data/pokemon/img'     txt_dir_path = current_dir + '/data/pokemon/txt'     model_dir_path = current_dir + '/models'      img_width = 32     img_height = 32     img_channels = 3          from keras_text_to_image.library.dcgan import DCGan     from keras_text_to_image.library.utility.img_cap_loader import load_normalized_img_and_its_text      image_label_pairs = load_normalized_img_and_its_text(img_dir_path, txt_dir_path, img_width=img_width, img_height=img_height)      shuffle(image_label_pairs)      gan = DCGan()     gan.img_width = img_width     gan.img_height = img_height     gan.img_channels = img_channels     gan.random_input_dim = 200     gan.glove_source_dir_path = './very_large_data'      batch_size = 16     epochs = 1000     gan.fit(model_dir_path=model_dir_path, image_label_pairs=image_label_pairs,             snapshot_dir_path=current_dir + '/data/snapshots',             snapshot_interval=100,             batch_size=batch_size,             epochs=epochs) def load_generate_image_DCGaN():     seed = 42     np.random.seed(seed)      current_dir = os.path.dirname(__file__)     sys.path.append(os.path.join(current_dir, '..'))     current_dir = current_dir if current_dir is not '' else '.'          img_dir_path = current_dir + '/data/pokemon/img'     txt_dir_path = current_dir + '/data/pokemon/txt'     model_dir_path = current_dir + '/models'      img_width = 32     img_height = 32          from keras_text_to_image.library.dcgan import DCGan     from keras_text_to_image.library.utility.image_utils import img_from_normalized_img     from keras_text_to_image.library.utility.img_cap_loader import load_normalized_img_and_its_text      image_label_pairs = load_normalized_img_and_its_text(img_dir_path, txt_dir_path, img_width=img_width, img_height=img_height)      shuffle(image_label_pairs)      gan = DCGan()     gan.load_model(model_dir_path)      for i in range(3):         image_label_pair = image_label_pairs[i]         normalized_image = image_label_pair[0]         text = image_label_pair[1]          image = img_from_normalized_img(normalized_image)         image.save(current_dir + '/data/outputs/' + DCGan.model_name + '-generated-' + str(i) + '-0.png')         for j in range(3):             generated_image = gan.generate_image_from_text(text)             generated_image.save(current_dir + '/data/outputs/' + DCGan.model_name + '-generated-' + str(i) + '-' + str(j) + '.png')

Conclusion

Here I have presented some of the popular techniques for generating images from text. You can explore more on some more techniques at https://github.com/topics/text-to-image. Happy Coding!!



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Meet The Nurse Helping Entrepreneurs Train Nursing Assistants Across the Country

Certified Family Nurse Practitioner Victoria Randle

Victoria Randle is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner and CEO of The Secret Cocktail, founded in 2018. It is a business consulting firm that helps develop certified nursing assistant (CNA) schools in all 50 states.

The Secret Cocktail helps technical schools and individuals prepare a state-approved nurse aid training program that exceeds basic standards. She began her career in healthcare as a CNA working in nursing homes and hospitals. After seven years as a CNA, she decided to further her education and went on to obtain three more degrees.

Randle’s healthcare experience is very diverse as she has worked in Burn ICU, Long Term Acute Care, Urgent Care, Occupational Medicine, and has even managed a 56-bed post-surgical unit, just to name a few.

With her 12 years of experience as a nurse in such diverse backgrounds, her knowledge makes her more than capable to help other entrepreneurial-minded men and women start their own nursing schools and flourish. We had the opportunity to sit down and chat with this powerhouse.

Why were you so adamant about helping others start their own CNA Schools?

Starting my own CNA school was a confusing and frustrating endeavor. I wanted to make the process of CNA school ownership streamlined for those who wish to enter it. I also wanted to help create a fast-track educational option for individuals around the world so they could obtain a skill that will pull them out of poverty.

Tell us about your annual retreat and why other medical school owners would want to attend?

My Mastermind Retreat empowers school owners with basic marketing knowledge so that they can either carry out those duties if they need to or they can hold those they hire accountable. I can show them how to get a school approved all day, but if they do not know how to make people aware that it exists as an educational option, approval doesn’t matter.

You’ve created a mentorship program. Tell us about it.

My CNA School Business Building Mentorship allows me to mentor aspiring owners from afar. It is a hybrid program with a combination of online classes and in-person virtual meetings with me or someone from our team. The goal is to walk clients through the complicated process of CNA school startup to ensure they get it done right the first time.


Dr. Jessica Mosley is a serial entrepreneur who loves teaching fellow CEO women how to show up in their truth & power. As Steward Owner of MizCEO Entrepreneurial Media Brand, Sovereign Care Home Care, Sovereign Care Medical Training Center, and Deborah’s Place for Battered Women, Jessica is busy making moves that impact her community & those connected to her.



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A Radical New Model of the Brain Illuminates Its Wiring

Network neuroscience could revolutionize how we understand the brain—and  change our approach to neurological and psychiatric disorders.

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Direct Action Everywhere Uses VR to Take Viewers Inside Factory Farms

In the first of a two-part Get WIRED podcast series, we look at the radical, virtual-reality-based tactics of animal-rights group Direct Action Everywhere.

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Coronavirus: Fighting fake news in a refugee camp

These young refugees cycle round the camp in South Sudan to provide trusted information on Covid-19.

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UK's first Muslim female referee talks learning English, discrimination and career goals

In an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, the UK's first Muslim female referee discusses learning English, how she handles discrimination and her career goals.

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A Week of Uncontrolled Sobbing at a Chinese Business Seminar

I went to a self-breakthrough workshop in Beijing to decipher the country’s tech culture. I left with a transformed vision of my Chinese American self.

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Netflix on YouTube

The Gift S2 | Date Announcement | Netflix
There are more unrevealed truths beyond everything you know. #TheGift season 2 will be only on Netflix on September 10. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7 About Netflix: Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. The Gift S2 | Date Announcement | Netflix https://youtube.com/Netflix Reckoning with a different world, Atiye races against time to realize her destiny as the mysterious syndicate behind Serdar threatens the future.


View on YouTube

Sunday, August 16, 2020

How to Install and Use Docker on Ubuntu 20.04

Docker is a most popular, open-source platform for developers and system administrators to build, run, and share applications with containers. Containerization (the use of containers to deploy applications) is becoming popular because containers are

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Weekly Digest, August 17

Monday newsletter published by Data Science Central. Previous editions can be found here. The contribution flagged with a + is our selection for the picture of the week. To subscribe, follow this link.  

Announcement

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To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add  mail@newsletter.datasciencecentral.com to your address book or whitelist us. To subscribe, click here. Follow us: Twitter | Facebook.



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Mogadishu attack: Somali troops battle gunmen who stormed Elite Hotel

Troops battle suspected al-Shabab militants who stormed the Elite Hotel in the capital, Mogadishu.

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36 hours of violence leaves four dead, 36 shot in New York City

NYC violence continues to surge in a weekend that saw multiple people fatally shot and beaten in various parts of the city

The city of New York was hit by a tsunami of violence over the weekend. Several incidents of shootings and beatings across the boroughs over the course of 36 hours resulted in the death of four people and 36 others were injured.

The New York Daily News reports that starting from just after midnight on Friday, Aug. 14 through to the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 15, there were 23 shootings across the boroughs.

READ MORE: Man arrested after New York teen is stabbed, set on fire

The mayhem started at 12:01 a.m. Friday when a shooting happened behind a home in Queens’ Laurelton neighborhood. Three people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

By 5 a.m., two separate shootings in the Bronx and Queens’ Rockaways section sent two more people to the hospital, respectively.

By the afternoon, a Brooklyn man was fatally shot. DeShawn Reid, 28, was shot dead at 4 p.m. on Friday in front of his apartment in Brooklyn’s Flatbush area.

Dashawn Reid, John Jeff and Deshawn Bush all killed in a violent weekend in New York City (New York Daily News, acquired from social media)

By early Saturday morning, a 30-year-old man died in Harlem Hospital from gunshot wounds he received on W.128th St. This was swiftly followed by the death of an off-duty corrections officer in South Jamaica, Queens.

John Jeff was shot 11 times at 3:05 a.m. near a party after an argument took place while he was looking for a parking spot.

Hours after Jeff was killed, and just two miles away from where Reid was murdered, another Brooklyn resident, Jamel Copeland, was found dead in East Flatbush. Copeland, 30, is believed to have been killed during a domestic dispute.

The final incident came Saturday afternoon when a 40-year-old man was shot in the arm while fleeing a gunman on the 4 train platform at midtown Manhattan’s Grand Central Station.

Peace March Held In Brooklyn To Memorialize 1-Year-Old Davell Gardner Killed During Cookout
Police stand at the scene of a shooting which happened as Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) was holding a peace march in response to a surge in shootings in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn on July 16, 2020, in New York City. The march and shooting were held near the scene in Brooklyn where a one-year-old child, Davell Gardner Jr., was recently shot and killed. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

In addition to the shootings, a Brooklyn native, Deshawn Bush, was beaten to death in Manhattan’s West Village after a confrontation with an unknown assailant early Friday morning. He was killed after leaving a bagel shop on Christopher Street with friends, and the suspect is still at large.

Read More: 18 shot overnight in Cincinnati, at least four dead

Violence in New York has seen an increase in 2020. There were 253 homicides being investigated by police prior to Friday’s first incident in Laurelton. As of August 9, there was a 79% increase in shootings, from 466 to 833.


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Kamala Harris reacts to Trump’s racist birther attacks: ‘They’re going to engage in lies’

EXCLUSIVE: In an interview with theGrio, Sen. Kamala Harris talks about the fight for the White House with Joe Biden, her record on policing, and why she has what it takes to help lead America.

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Senator Kamala Harris‘ entire life changed over a Zoom call last Tuesday. Like many Americans, stuck at home during a pandemic, Harris was socially distancing in her D.C. apartment, when the call came to step into a historic leadership position.

“The vice president contacted me through Zoom, as is the way that we all meet in person these days. That’s when he asked me if I’d join him,” Harris tells theGrio in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Biden would invite his wife Jill Biden into the call, and Harris would invite her husband Doug Emhoff to join as well. After confirming she was up for the challenge, Harris shared the news with the rest of her family. “It was very special,” she says with a smile.

Read More: Kamala Harris has a message for voters who aren’t feeling her and Joe Biden

From that instant, Harris was propelled at rocket-speed into campaign life again, this time with a mission to amplify the Biden-Harris team as the remedy for a torn America. She made a speaking appearance in Delaware, helped the Biden campaign raise $48 million in just 48 hours, and dodged racist and played out birther attacks from President Donald Trump.

“They’re going to engage in lies,” Harris tells theGrio. “They’re going to engage in deception. They’re going to engage in an attempt to distract from the real issues that are impacting the American people. And I expect that they will engage in dirty tactics. And this is going to be a knockdown, drag-out.”

Harris has no qualms about going toe to toe with Vice President Mike Pence or President Trump, who called her his “No. 1 pick for VP.”

Read More: Trump takes aim at Kamala Harris, calls her ‘nasty’ after VP announcement

“I am [ready] and Joe Biden is,” Harris tells theGrio. “What’s at stake right now is that we’ve had over 160,000 people die in the last few months and many of them needlessly … tens of millions of people who have lost their jobs … we’re in the midst of a hunger crisis in our country. The media isn’t covering it so much.”

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) arrive to deliver remarks at the Alexis Dupont High School on August 12, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“I’m prepared to fight because this is a fight that is for something, not against something. This is a fight for where we need to be … We need to focus on what can be unburdened by what has been,” Harris continues.

But being unburdened by the past hasn’t always been possible for Sen. Harris in the face of scrutiny over her record as a prosecutor.

“I understand why people are distrustful of a system that historically has been unjust and unfair to them, I get that,” Harris tells theGrio. “That’s why I chose to become a prosecutor. I decided to go up the rough side of the mountain.”

Harris, however, insists she was more progressive than she is given credit for, and touts her recidivism program as a point of pride.

“I’m proud of the work that we were accomplishing, which was about one of the first in the nation reentry initiatives focusing on young men, mostly Black and Latino, who had been arrested for drugs and getting them jobs,” Harris explains.

Harris said her effort was mocked and called the “Hug A Thug Program,” by critics. “They would say to me, ‘What are you doing? You’re supposed to be putting people in jail, not letting them out,'” Harris recalls. “This was long before the beauty and the power of Black Lives Matter.”

The criminal justice reform future Harris wants to build with Biden includes eliminating cash bail, banning chokeholds, and having attorney generals take on pattern and practice investigations.

Kamala Harris thegrio.com
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

“George Floyd would be alive today if that were the case,” Harris tells theGrio. “If you look at my background, I’m probably best equipped to be a leader and a national leader in this administration on what we need to do to reform the system. 

Harris is intentional about naming other priorities for the Black community outside of criminal justice reform, including addressing record-low homeownership rates, supporting Black businesses, and forgiving student loans, which are disproportionately taken out by Black families.

Harris says she wants Black communities to be hyper-aware of attempts to suppress their votes. “You may not fall in love with who you’re voting for,” Harris tells theGrio. “We have to be heard and not let them stop us or prevent us or deter us from exercising our voices and making sure our voice is strong in this election.”

Watch the full conversation with Sen. Harris above and visit theGrio’s YouTube channel for more political updates.

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Tiffany Haddish reveals she couldn’t read until her teen years

The actress, who had a turbulent family life, reveals she was functionally illiterate for much of her youth

Tiffany Haddish’s ascension as one of the most in-demand comedic actors in Hollywood is only eclipsed by her story of overcoming a turbulent childhood. During a recent interview on VLAD TV, the stand-up comic reveals that she had trouble reading as a child.

Read More: Kamala Harris has a message for voters who aren’t feeling her and Joe Biden

Haddish, 40, was featured on the popular YouTube interview show, created by former DJ, Vladislav Lyubovny. However, instead of Vlad, Haddish was interviewed by fellow comedian Luenell.

The Night School actress spoke about her come-up in California, living in foster homes, connecting with her Eritrean roots, and finding her comic voice at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp.

Luenell referenced Haddish’s book, “The Last Black Unicorn,” which was a New York Times Best Seller in 2017. Haddish narrated the audio version of the book, which was nominated for a 2018 Grammy.

READ MORE: Tiffany Haddish says she’s fearful of having children due to racism

It was at this point that Haddish spoke of the irony of getting a Grammy nod for book narration when there was one point she was unable to read at all.

“That was kinda cool to be nominated for a Grammy for reading out loud when I couldn’t read at one point in time in my life when I was in my teens,” Haddish disclosed. She said that a drama teacher helped her learn to read.

Tiffany Haddish reading childhood thegrio.com
Actress Tiffany Haddish helps donate Chromebook computers to students in foster care during a drive-thru giveaway event at Wesson’s district office on July 30, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

When Luenell asked what caused Haddish’s literacy issues, she said much of it was a lack of self-esteem based on the messages she received in childhood.

“Because I thought I was stupid. Everybody would say to me, ‘You’re stupid, you’re stupid, you so stupid.’ At that time in my life, I took things literally,” Haddish said. “So if everybody’s telling me you’re stupid – my stepdad, my mom, grandma, everybody used to say, ‘You so stupid.’ So, I believed I was stupid and I can’t read and I can’t do these things because I’m stupid.”

However, when she was 18 and worked at the Los Angeles airport, a woman Haddish encountered there gave her a different perspective. When she said ‘Girl, you so stupid,’ Haddish says she was ready to fight, until the stranger clarified that she meant stupid as in ‘funny.’

Common Tiffany Haddish thegrio.com
Common and Tiffany Haddish attend Toast To The Arts Presented by Remy Martin on March 2, 2018, in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Remy Martin)

“All these years people been telling me I’m funny, but they didn’t say ‘funny,’ they said ‘you stupid?’ So, I learned a lesson that day.”

Haddish is currently dating rapper Common, as previously reported by theGrio. She says it’s been the best relationship of her life.


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Georgia State Patrol trooper arrested for murder after shooting Black man during traffic stop

A 60-year-old Black man was shot and killed in fatal traffic stop

Jacob Gordon Thompson, a Georgia State Patrol trooper, is in custody facing murder charges for allegedly fatally shooting a Black man during a traffic pursuit. CNN reports that his arrest happened on Friday, Aug. 14.

READ MORE: Georgia Lawmaker loses chairmanship after derogatory John Lewis comments

Thompson, 27, has been charged in the shooting death of Julian Edward Roosevelt Lewis, 60. According to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), Thompson attempted to stop Lewis for a broken taillight. Lewis didn’t stop and a pursuit ensued.

Former Georgia state trooper Jacob Gordon Thompson (Georgia Department of Public Safety)

Using a “precision intervention technique,” Thompson was able to end the brief chase by steering Lewis into a ditch to stop his car. Once stopped, according to the New York Times, Thompson observed Lewis with both hands on the steering wheel but says that he then saw Lewis maneuver the car in his direction. Thompson opened fire, shooting Lewis in the face.

Lewis was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Mr. Lewis was no threat as a 60-year-old man just trying to make it home from a convenience store run,” said the Lewis family attorney, Francys Johnson.

Johnson told the New York Times that Lewis went to the store around 9 p.m. on Aug. 7 to purchase a grape soda for his wife when he was stopped near Sylvania, Georgia.

The family was not notified of his death until 1 a.m. the next morning.

Thompson was fired from the Department of Public Safety and charged with felony murder and aggravated assault. GBI says that he will be booked into the Screven County Jail.

In addition to GBI, the FBI is now also involved, according to Kevin Rowson, an Atlanta public affairs specialist for the FBI.

“The FBI is aware of the Screven County matter and we have been in contact with local and state authorities,” stated Rowson. “The FBI is always prepared to investigate whenever information comes to light of a potential federal violation.”

Johnson issued a statement on Friday, following Thompson’s arrest.

“The unprecedented pace of the investigation is a direct result of years of activism on these issues along with a sea-change in law enforcement leadership at the top of the GBI. This was not business as usual.”

Read More: Florida sheriff who recently endorsed Trump arrested in sex scandal

The Georgia chapter of the NAACP declared a state of emergency in the state “with respect to the never-ending acts of police violence that regularly and consistently put our communities in danger.”

Betty Lewis, Lewis’ widow, is relieved that Thompson was charged.

“I want justice for Julian. He was too good to die as he did,” Mrs. Lewis said in a statement. “This is one step towards justice.”

A candlelight vigil was held for Lewis on Friday at Sylvania City Hall and his homegoing ceremony took place Saturday at Charlestown Methodist Church in Sylvania.


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Netflix Presents: The Science of Superpowers | Project Power
Got a radioactive spider handy? How about a superpower pill? If you said no, then you’re one of the 7.59 billion members of humanity that currently doesn’t shoot flames or have bulletproof skin. But would powers ever be possible? We joined forces with scientists and doctors to explore the distant pathways to each of 4 superpowers in Project Power, whether it’s futuristic technology or borrowed biology. Come see what upgrades you’ll need. SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7 About Netflix: Netflix is the world's leading streaming entertainment service with 193 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. Netflix Presents: The Science of Superpowers | Project Power https://youtube.com/Netflix An ex-soldier, a teen and a cop collide in New Orleans as they hunt for the source behind a dangerous new pill that grants users temporary superpowers.


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18 shot overnight in Cincinnati, at least four dead

Gun violence on the rise over bloody weekend in the Queen City

This weekend, Cincinnati, Ohio becomes the latest city to join a grim list – that of those who are adversely impacted by increasing gun violence in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Read More: Florida sheriff who recently endorsed Trump arrested in sex scandal

As reported by Cincinnati.com, 18 people were shot over a deadly weekend with four believed dead. Although Cincinnati has had its problems with gun violence in the past, the uptick in gun violence may be related to the coronavirus pandemic that took hold in March.

The loss of jobs, the resulting strain on families, and the uncertainty of the future may have placed additional stress on already struggling communities.

A local pastor says more needs to be done to curtail the looming pandemic on both fronts.

“More importantly, call this for what it really is, a public health crisis,” Rev. Ennis Tait, pastor of New Beginnings of the Living God church in Avondale told Cincinatti.com. “Black, white, rich, poor, urban, suburban, preachers, police and politicians. It’s going to take us working together to get to the root cause of this problem in our city.”

The first set of three victims were shot around midnight on Lincoln and Gilbert Aves. The second wave was when four people were shot just an hour later on Chalfonte Ave. in Avondale. Another ten people were shot at McMicken and Lange Streets around the same time, with two known fatalities. Hours later, another shooting at Liberty and Linn Streets resulted in another death.

“One extremely violent night in the city of Cincinnati. Looking at possibly 17 victims, up to four that could be fatal at this time. Why? That’s going to be the question,” Asst. Chief Paul Neudigate told WLTW.

“Not that we have any information that they’re tied together. These all seem to be separate independent incidents but horrific and tragic that we have this much violence and potential for that much loss of life in our city.”

According to WLTW news reports, there have already been 60 homicides so far this year. According to Cincinatti.com, gun violence in the city of 500,000, boasting an almost equal population of Black and white residents, has increased by almost 65% in the last year. The average person killed is a 33-year-old Black male.

“Each of those lives matter and the majority of those who have lost their lives this year, last year and the year before that are African American,” Christopher Smitherman, chair of the city’s law and public safety committee told Cincinatti.com. “It’s unfortunate to say it is at the hands of other African Americans.”

Read More: Florida sheriff who recently endorsed Trump arrested in sex scandal

The increasing gun violence in Cincinnati reflects that of other cities like Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, all who have seen shootings both fatal and otherwise increase over the summer.


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Your inbox holds plenty of sensitive information. Here are some alternatives that put your correspondence under lock and key.

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Zimbabwe rejects Catholic bishops' criticism of corruption and abuse

A government minister accuses the Church leaders of joining groups seeking "to manufacture crises".

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Kamala Harris has a message for voters who aren’t feeling her and Joe Biden

In an interview with theGrio, Sen. Harris explains why showing up to vote is a life or death matter in the age of COVID-19.

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Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has a message for anyone considering sitting out on this year’s presidential election. 

Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman VP nominee for a major political party, has won over voters who see her as a fierce advocate for the marginalized and who will give President Donald Trump a run for his money.

Since the VP announcement last week, the Biden-Harris campaign has brought $50 million in new fundraising.

Even former vocal critics are changing their tune due to Harris’ recent efforts around criminal justice reform.

Read More: Andrew Gillum recalls Kamala Harris’ advice to him during ‘dark’ time in rousing post

But backlash still came from those who see Democratic presidential presumptive nominee Joe Biden’s choice of Harris as a safe pick, or a problematic one because of her former career as a prosecutor, at a time when the nation is reckoning with race and police brutality.

The controversy is not lost on Harris.

“We have to meet people where they are and address their needs,” Sen. Harris told theGrio in an exclusive interview on Saturday, when asked about voters who are uninspired by her and Joe Biden.

“You may not fall in love with who you’re voting for, but if you just look down on a piece of paper at the issues that are impacting you every day, ” Harris continued.

“Whether you’ve got relatives who have been impacted by the COVID virus, you’re unemployed or trying to get that extra check that unemployment, that six hundred dollars. Or you look at who’s going to pay attention to whether the Black community is going to have equal access to a vaccine when it’s created … There is so much on the line in this election.”

Photo by Adam Schultz / Biden for President

The fever pitch online debate over the Harris selection even moved award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay, to post about the stakes of the election, writing:

“There is no debate anymore. There’s no more room for it in my book. We either make this happen or literally more of us perish. ‘Oh but Kamala did this or she didn’t do that.’ I don’t wanna hear anything bad about her,” DuVernay wrote, listing the most egregious actions of the Trump administration. “We need all our energy focussed.”

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Harris understands why messages of “vote because people sacrificed” fall short to some. The daughter of two immigrants who met while protesting civil rights, says there’s more to voting than symbolism.

“It’s not only saying that people we need to vote to honor the ancestors because absolutely that is true,” Harris told theGrio. “We need to vote to honor the life and the legacy of John Lewis. That is absolutely true. But let’s also remember why they don’t want us to vote.”

Harris points out Russian interference in the 2016 election and says there is a targeted campaign to keep Black voters at home this November.

Read More: Kamala Harris shares video of Biden sharing VP news with her during call

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) (R) hugs Mara Peoples, Executive Vice President of the Howard University Student Association, beside Amos Jackson III, Executive President, after announcing her candidacy for President of the United States, at Howard University, her alma mater, on January 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)

Harris says the Black community’s needs include closing the racial wealth gap, promoting Black business and homeownership, and loan forgiveness for Black student graduates of HBCUs.

“We have to be heard and not let them stop us or prevent us or deter us from exercising our voices,” Harris told theGrio.

When asked, Harris says she wants to be held accountable for showing up for the Black community should she win the White House with Biden.

“Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. But you know what? That won’t be a subject of conversation if folks don’t vote,” Harris says.

“Hold the current people accountable and look at what they’ve been doing and then decide. Is that working for you?”

Watch the rest of the interview with Senator Kamala Harris below, where she discusses her prosecutor record and facing off with President Trump.

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