Daddy Yankee has quit music to dedicate his life to Jesus.

The 'Gasolina' rapper - who is often referred to as the King of Reggaeton - confirmed last year he will hang up his microphone after three decades and eight albums following the release of his LP, 'Legendaddy', and his final tour, 'La Meta (The Goal)', which wrapped on Sunday night (03.12.23) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He told fans at the live-streamed event: "Tonight I recognise, and I am not ashamed to tell the whole world, that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him.

"For many years I've tried filling a hole in my life that no one could fill. I tried finding a purpose, on many occasions, it seemed as if I was happy but something was missing for me to feel complete."

In Spanish, he said: "I took note of something the Bible says."

Before reciting: "What good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

In a statement on YouTube last year, the 46-year-old Puerto Rican star - who will now go by his real name Ramon Luis Ayala Rodriguez - said: "This race, which has been a marathon, finally sees the finish line. Now, I am going to enjoy what all of you have given me.

"People say that I made this genre worldwide, but it was you who gave me the key to open the doors to make it the biggest in the world."

Yankee's farewell record, released in March, was an amalgamation of all the styles that have "defined" his career.

The music star has sold more than 30 million records and is best known for his 2004 hit 'Gasolina', which became the first reggaeton song to be nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

Yankee leaves on a high after scoring a global hit with 'Despacito' with Luis Fonsi in 2017.

A remix of the popular track featuring pop megastar Justin Bieber later topped the charts in 10 countries.

During a dazzling career, the reggaeton icon has scored an impressive haul of accolades, including Latin Grammys, Billboard Music Awards, Latin American Music Awards and an MTV Video Music Award.

In addition to seizing thousands of munitions, the IDF struck approximately 250 targets over the previous 24 hours.

The IDF engaged hundreds of Hamas terrorists and terror targets and discovered one of the largest weapons stockpiles ever found in the Gaza Strip over the past twenty-four hours the military said on Monday.

The IDF said that it had found one of the largest weapons stockpiles in the history of its operations in Gaza, an arsenal containing hundreds of missiles, launchers, long-range rockets, anti-tank missiles, UAVs, and explosives.

The massive weapons cache was located near a hospital and a school, the IDF reported.

The terror munitions were discovered by the 50th battalion of the 460th brigade. The IDF said that some of the munitions were detonated on site while others were sent for further investigation.

The IDF stated that all of the ordnance was found in the vicinity of densely populated civilian areas, citing the discovery as "further evidence of the cynical use that the Hamas terrorist organization makes of the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields."

Also, over the last day, the Israel Air Force hit around 250 targets in Gaza, the IDF stated. Troops on the ground worked to locate weapons; Hamas infrastructure, including subterranean structures; and explosive devices.

Additionally, IDF troops directed an IAF strike on two Hamas rocket launchers which had been used to rain rockets down on central Israel on Tuesday.

IDF operates in central Gaza

Israeli troops also directed an airstrike in the Deir al-Balah area in central Gaza. These airstrikes successfully eliminated both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroyed a number of terrorist-controlled infrastructure.

Israeli troops also hit a terror cell conducting its operations next to a school in northern Gaza, the army said.

The IDF then proceeded to target a subterranean structure in the area of the school. In another local school, troops found more weapons and ammunition.

A former U.S. diplomat and ambassador to Bolivia has been charged with working for more than four decades as a secret agent for the Cuban government, according to the Justice Department.

Manuel Rocha, who was arrested Friday in Miami and appeared in federal court on Monday, is accused of "serving as a covert agent" to support the Republic of Cuba's "clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States," a complaint filed in U.S. District Court states.

Investigators say Rocha, 73, provided the U.S. with false and misleading information "to protect his secret mission"; traveled outside the U.S. to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives; and made false statements to obtain travel documents, a complaint filed on Monday alleges.

Investigators claim Rocha did not notify the the U.S. attorney general or the secretary of state that he was working on behalf of Cuba’s General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) – a violation of federal law. They also accuse Rocha of seeking positions within the U.S. government, and eventually using them, to affect foreign policy.

Rocha, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia, faces the following charges: conspiracy to act as agent of a foreign government, acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government and use of a passport obtained by a false statement, according to records filed in federal court.

Rocha's efforts to aid the Cuban government began when he started working for the State Department in 1981, investigators say. Rocha served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and was the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer as of Monday afternoon.

"This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Monday.

“Those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the United States are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

Undercover FBI agent met with Rocha three times

Sometime around November of last year, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation received information that Rocha was a covert agent for the DGI. Two weeks after receiving the tip, an undercover FBI agent messaged Rocha on WhatsApp, saying he was "representing your friends in Havana." Soon the agent scheduled a time to meet the retired diplomat in front of a church in the Brickell neighborhood in Miami.

Rocha, in total, met with the undercover FBI agent three times between November 2022 and June of this year. The conversations, which were in Spanish and then translated to English, were audio and video recorded.

During the meetings, Rocha referred to the United States as "the enemy" and praised Fidel Castro as "the commander," investigators said. He described his work as a Cuban agent as “a grand slam." And details about his clandestine operations were later confirmed by investigators.

For example, in his first conversation with the undercover FBI agent, Rocha mentioned an incident while he "was in charge" as "the knock down of the small planes" and said it as a time of great tension between Cuba and the U.S. government.

The FBI alleges that the incident Rocha was referring to happened in February 1996 when four men died after Cuba shot down two unarmed airplanes operated by members of Brothers to the Rescue, a U.S.-based group opposed to Castro's government, court records say.

From 1995 to 1997, Rocha worked for the U.S. Department of State as an officer for the United States Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy in Havana, Cuba – the official representative of the U.S. government in Cuba.

"The audio and video-recorded conversations summarized above in themselves establish unequivocally that ROCHA, in his own words, has acted for decades as a covert agent of the DGI," the complaint states.

Rocha lied repeatedly to state department agents, complaint says

Also during his initial meeting with the FBI agent, Rocha "admitted" to traveling to Cuba in 2016 and 2017 to meet with DGI handlers in Havana, according to court records. Rocha told the agent that he traveled into Cuba via Panama "as a Dominican." Investigators said they corroborated the information through travel records.

On Friday, Rocha participated in a voluntary interview with agents from the Department of State. During the interview, Rocha "lied repeatedly," denying ever meeting someone with the FBI agent's description, even after being shown a photo of the agent.

After the State Department agents showed Rocha a photo they had of him sitting across from the FBI agent, he said the undercover agent approached him only once. When the interviewers said they had information that there was more than one meeting, Rocha stated "he did not want to comment."

“Like all federal officials, U.S. diplomats swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Acting as an agent for Cuba – a hostile foreign power – is a blatant violation of that oath and betrays the trust of the American people,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a statement Monday.

Oxford Word of the Year 2023

After more than 32,000 votes, and a team of language experts, Oxford’s Word of the Year 2023 is...“rizz.”

2023 marked the era of personal – and professional – PR. And what does it take to command attention? A whole lot of charisma, or the shortened form, ‘rizz’.

Pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness, this term is from the middle part of the word ‘charisma’, which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples include ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and ‘flu’ (influenza).

Did you know?

The word ‘rizz’ can also be used as a verb, often in the phrase ‘rizz up’, which means ‘to attract, seduce, or chat up (a person)’.

The finalists:

Prompt noun

An instruction given to an artificial intelligence program, algorithm, etc., which determines or influences the content it generates.

As AI became more prevalent, so too did the need for human skills to moderate and direct these advances. Harnessing its potential means providing a ‘prompt’ to influence the content generated.

Words relating to AI have been particularly prominent in the corpus data this year, with use of the word ‘prompt’ in contexts that relate to AI increasing hugely this year from very little use in our corpus before 2022.

As AI systems have spread to business, education, creative contexts, and elsewhere, more people have developed the skills needed to use them effectively and, in some cases, becoming specialized as ‘prompt engineers’.

This new meaning is a development of a wider sense: ‘Something said or done to aid the memory; a reminder; spec. a word or phrase spoken to remind an actor, reciter, etc., of a forgotten word or line (cf. prompt v. 1)’. Use of this word reflects the increased prominence of artificial intelligence in society and highlights the interaction of humans with machines.

Did you know?

The word ‘prompt’ came into Middle English based on the Old French prompt or the Latin promptus 'brought to light', also 'prepared, ready'.

Situationship noun

A romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established.

2023 saw us reevaluating how we connect with one another and the words we use to describe our relationships – and how some of those relationships defy convention.

Etymologically, ‘situationship’ is a blend of ‘situation’ and ‘relationship’. Blending is a notable source of new words in English, particularly when words are coined self-consciously to describe a new phenomenon.

A term popularized by social media and modern dating shows, the term seems to have been coined in the late noughties or early 2010s and refers to a romantic or sexual relationship that is not considered to be formal or established, sometimes one that’s outside society’s conventions.

The word captures the uncertainty and lack of formalization that many people feel about their relationships. Its usage has been growing steadily in frequency showing that the term has certainly resonated with people.

Swiftie noun

An enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift.

2023 saw us being influenced more than ever by public figures, whether traditional superstars or those who have become famous on the internet. And it's hard to think of this year without thinking about fandom culture and Taylor Swift, who dominated headlines with her record-breaking tour, movie deal, and billionaire empire.

The term ‘Swiftie’, meaning ‘an enthusiastic fan of the singer Taylor Swift’, seems to date from the late noughties and has been gradually growing in prominence.

The word was more than 10 times more common in September 2023 than a year before in September 2022, with a noticeable uptick in the use of the word likely related to coverage of Swift’s highly successful Eras tour.

Etymologically, the word ‘Swiftie’ is formed from the singer’s name, with the suffix ‘ie’ (or ‘y’), which is often used to form diminutives or pet names, with an implication of affection.

Some words that commonly collocate with Swiftie are ‘fandom’ (Swiftie fandom), ‘die-hard’ (die-hard Swiftie), ‘hardcore’ (hardcore Swiftie), and ‘self-proclaimed’ (self-proclaimed Swiftie).

Did you know?

There are many other examples in English of names for fans of popular musicians, bands, etc. such as: the Beyhive (Beyoncé), Directioners (One Direction), Deadheads (Grateful Dead), and Beatlemania, describing the enthusiasm of fans of the Beatles.


The shortlist:

Beige flag noun

A character trait that indicates that a partner or potential partner is boring or lacks originality; (also) a trait or habit, esp. of a partner or potential partner, viewed as extremely characteristic, but not distinctly good or bad.

De-influencing noun

The practice of discouraging people from buying particular products, or of encouraging people to reduce their consumption of material goods, esp. via social media.

Heat dome noun

A persistent high-pressure weather system over a particular geographic area, which traps a mass of hot air below it.

Parasocial adjective

Designating a relationship characterized by the one-sided, unreciprocated sense of intimacy felt by a viewer, fan, or follower for a well-known or prominent figure (typically a media celebrity), in which the follower or fan comes to feel (falsely) that they know the celebrity as a friend.